While the War of the Deer entered into its final phase, a different and unrelated struggle arose within Zebrica's jungles.

Zebrica's jungles at that time were home to 5 species of sapient ape^- the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee, the Bonobo, the Bili, and the Agogwe. These five kept to themselves within their jungle home. The Chimpanzee's and Bonobo's worship of the "Allgood" was at best a minor cult at this point, and they had yet to create any large townships, though they were more socially advanced than their Bili and Agogwe cousins.

Instead, it was the Gorillas that had built the first primate "city" in Zebrica, under the leadership of a wise and forward-thinking individual.

Solovar (Sa-tor, "Caring Beast", the name was corrupted and mistranslated in most equine texts into "Salvar", which gave rise to "Solovar") was an albino, a relative rarity in gorilla society. As he grew older, he also demonstrated minor psionic abilities, an even rarer occurrence which allowed him to quickly become both chief and shaman of his tribe.

However, Solovar wished to create a place where all his kind, as well as other apes if they so chose, could come together as one to discuss important matters. With this in mind, he extended the hand of friendship to neighboring tribes, and together they eventually built a hidden, walled city: Tapal-ul-Bolgani (roughly, High Place of the Gorillas^^). Solovar, being the mastermind behind this grand scheme, was crowned as the first king of the city.

However, several months after Solovar's reign began, something unforeseen happened.

Chimpanzees began making coordinated attacks on the city, with a female leader issuing commands, setting fires, and distributing rewards of food for successful gorilla kills to her fellows from well-defended locations at the city outskirts.

Peace was not an option, as every attempted envoy came back wounded. Solovar and his forces ushered out from the city gates, and after many months, succeeded in capturing and imprisoning the leader of the malcontents- an individual with a silver patch on her back.

The result of a Bili chieftain having his way with a Chimpanzee slave, Ufiti (Usha-id, Silver Wind, later translated into a local native word for ghost) lived a somewhat violent early life (her father was one of the crueler individuals among the Bili tribes), but quickly proved herself to be quick-witted. While she could not attain the position of a leader, being both a slave and a female, she did manage to coerce a stronger male into killing her father. The new chieftain allowed her to go free, not only because of her request, but also because he feared she would eventually get another individual to kill him.

Ufiti made her way into a group of chimpanzees, where her relatively greater strength and size allowed her to take control of the tribe. Under her rule, the tribe and its territory grew as neighboring tribes were defeated/assimilated.

When Ufiti heard news of Tapal-ul-Bolgani and its message of peace, she saw an affront to the laws nature had placed, and sought to rectify it. As she told Solovar during her imprisonment:

I saw your society, and so I was destroying your comrades, one by one. One by one. I hate your society still, Tar-Bolgani (White Gorilla), but there is nothing I can do while I’m stuck in this cell. Let me out. I have better things to be doing.

Ufiti was no fool. In her time ruling her tribe, she had found another individual, much like herself, who quickly became her second-in-command.

Mafuka (Mu-sord-ah, "very bad she") was a powerful individual, far more muscular than the typical female Chimpanzee. Some suspect she was a sort of "proto-koolakamba", a precursor to those gorilla-like apes which the ponies of the city of Zinj managed to create through unknown means.

A week after Ufiti's imprisonment, Mafuka came to the gates of Tapal-ul-Bolgani with an armed host, demanding the right of a chief-battle with Solovar.

Solovar and Mafuka met in the city's amphitheater, each sporting a shield and a weapon of their choice. Mafuka carried a club studded with the teeth of a theropod, while Solovar wielded a spear.

The battle was hard fought, and Solovar's shield was shattered after several blows of Mafuka's weapon, but the female ape was losing herself in a berserker frenzy. Solovar, keeping his mind clear, waited for an opening, and struck.

After the victory, Solovar gained the moniker "Ara-Arad", or "Lightning Spear". Ufiti was kept imprisoned for the rest of her life, and her massive tribe split apart into individual tribes once again as various individuals sought to take her place.

Solovar ruled Tapal-ul-Bolgani for the remainder of his life, and his descendants after him did the same, until it was decided that the city should serve as a monument and meeting-place rather than a permanent home.

Nevertheless, gorilla tribes today still gather there once a year to trade stories and discuss important matters, under the eyes of a statue of the city's founder.

^ The sixth sapient Zebrican ape, the Koolakamba, would not fully arise as a distinct entity until some time after the fall of Shetlantis.

^^"Ta-pal" is most often transcribed as the Primate word for "hill", but the literal translation is "high/tall place", as "ta" means high or tall, while "pal" means country, territory, or place.