Summary: Ok, when we left off, Ida had become king of Bernicia and we had the beginnings of regional cultural groups. These groups were the result of a whole host of influences including everything from geographical features, to political decisions, to things as simple as wealth and a sense of cool. But the point is that we have gone from an island that saw itself as essentially Roman, to post-Roman (or sub-Roman, depending on which terminology you choose to use) where the system had broken down and (while you had communities moving to hillforts) you still had a continuation of the local culture... then we went to the early migration period where you had a blend of different cultural groupings all over the eastern part of the island, and now finally we’re getting to the point where those disparate pockets were starting to take the shape of larger communities with cultures that were distinct and separate from the sub-Roman culture as well as the cultures of the Germanic tribes where the settlers would have come from. And within that melting pot, we’ve seen the rise of the West Saxons, with Cerdic and his son, Cynric, engaging in sporadic outbursts of violence. We have seen a massive year and a half long dust cloud from unknown origins, maybe volcanic or maybe the result of an impact from space, followed by a cold spell that lasted for about a decade. And to make matters worse, it was followed by the spread of a plague, that was probably the bubonic plague. And of course, those events occurred right around the time of the end of the so-called Gildasian peace.
