Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the Levant
Two emperors planned campaigns. One Babylonian army marched upriver; another Arabian army marched downriver. And, though their goals were certainly different, they met each other on a plain southwest of the city of Assur. The Battle of Assur, of 583, is thus recorded; while both forces largely consisted of mercenaries, the Babylonians outnumbered their enemy, and by flanking the Arabs, scored a decisive victory over the invaders. The Arabs were crushed, and driven back, while the Babylonians continued their march up the Tigris, subjugating Nineveh after a somewhat quick siege in mid-584. Following this, and the subsequent capture of the King of Assyria, the entire state collapsed around him. Armenia came next, with the Armenian army ultimately annihilated in a single battle. The Babylonian military leader was a man fittingly named Alexander. He had first gained prominence by preventing the defection of large numbers of Babylonian mercenary corps to the Arabians, but his genius was proven in battle and siege, and he had by 590 gained great notoriety from Ishfania to India for his prowess. Nonetheless, following this, the Babylonian army was exhausted, and the Babylonians set about reconsolidating their regained empire. Whispers through the ecumene speak of a New Babylonian Empire that is to rise to conquer the known world once more, in Alexander’s name. Nonetheless, most of the state’s funding goes to paying its mercenary army, and one wrong move could throw the entire situation into turmoil – again.
(Babylon: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -19 Mercenary Companies, -1 Siege Train)
(Arabia: -5 Cavalry Companies, -29 Mercenary Companies)
(Assyria: -7 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Armenia: -5 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
With the Arabian army largely destroyed at Assur, the Arabian state itself began to unravel – especially after the assassination of the Arabian emperor by a disgruntled mercenary in his forces in 587, after his army had already been shattered. Jersualem remains secure, and the tribal links cushioned the blow and enabled the state to remain somewhat intact through the Arabian peninsula, but to the north, one tribal leader used the opportunity provided by the emperor’s death to seize power in Antioch, raising an army of local Christian Syriacs, and break away to form an independent kingdom, controlling a significant portion of Syria, if one ravaged by pirates. The Arabians still maintain power in Jerusalem.
(Arabia: -1 Cavalry Company, -1 Mercenary Company, -Stability)
(Antakya: -1 Infantry Company, -1 Cavalry Company)
To the south, in the nominal Arabian heartland, despite constant pressure by Bedouins and what Arab forces had stayed behind to fight from the desert, the Aksumites and Yibri were able to not only hold their ground, but extend it. The Aksumites marched north, with the intent of capturing Jerusalem; though the terrain prevented them from doing so, they were nonetheless able to capture much of the Hedjaz. The Yibri, too, went on campaign to the east. With naval support, Salalah fell in 588, and from there the Yibri were able to bring the surrounding landscape and the coast under their nominal control. To the east, Oman quietly took the opportunity to slip away from Arab control, with the rest of the Arabs too caught up elsewhere to care much. Still, Aksum and Yibram are both feeling the great effects of their overextension; at home, their people and aristocrats are calling for an end to the incessant wars abroad. This would play a great role in the Yibri election of 594, when a candidate named Yakob Olwa came to power promising to focus on more internal affairs.
(Arabia: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)
(Aksum: -4 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -3 Mercenary Companies, -Stability)
(Yibram: -3 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
But all was not terrible for the Arabs. Even with themselves cut off, the Galatians, who accepted the Arabian emperor as supreme overlord in 584, remained loyal throughout the period. Wars between Antioch and the Galatians were pervasive, and despite the Antiochans’ nominal numerical strength defeating the first attempted Galatian offensive into the state, the Galatians’ ferocity meant that the Antiochans by the end of the 590s were on the defensive, and the Galatians have in a series of small-scale raids reached the Euphrates, and another offensive may be in the cards.
(Galatia: -2 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies)
(Antakya: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)
West Africa
The Ghana Empire has met perhaps its greatest challenger yet. Its expansion eastwards through the city of Gao, had begun to concern the Hausa in the sorghum-rich lands to the east. One of the most worried was one woman named Magajiya, the queen of Daura, the largest of the Hausa city-states that had mushroomed in the last century. Magajiya saw that the Hausa had to unite, or face Ghanaian subjugation of their own. But she lacked the forces to do so on her own. So in an unprecedented political move, she married a powerful Tuareg chief named Bayajida. Armed with perhaps the largest army West Africa had yet seen, a combined Hausa and Tuareg force, the city’s control expanded at an alarmingly fast rate to the south, and a new state rose: the Daura Empire. Children of Magajiya and Bayajida were placed as hereditary chiefs, alongside allies and tributaries of Daura, binding the Empire together quite effectively. With the gold and labour brought in by conquest, Daura itself has been greatly rebuilt into a fortified capital rivalling the great Sao cities of the east, and other Hausa cities through the rest of the empire have similarly grown. Daura’s best days are certainly ahead of them.
To the east, the Sao Kingdom’s cities saw increasing exposure to Jewish culture imported from Aksum, by travelers and traders. Many of the Sao Jews have started developing their own version of Judaism combining the foreign religion with local beliefs, leading to a combination which some scholars have described as akin to the Yibri Judaism of the south. One king of Pel Ma’ ir was reputedly quite impressed by some of these Jews, and patronized the construction of a synagogue in his city, reputed by Aksumite and Carthaginian travelers to be quite impressive.
East Africa
Azania benefited from the proliferation of Babylonian ideas through the Indian Ocean, thanks to Babylon’s ties with the Aksumites and Yibri, both of whom lay in close proximity to the East African city-states.
(Azanian city-states: +Culture Development)
Yibri settlement of Madagascar, after the country’s previous conquest of the island, continued. Many of the local peoples found themselves integrated into Yibri society, not always for the better – many found themselves forced into virtual slavery on the island’s burgeoning numbers of plantations. Meanwhile, from the regions surrounding Yibram, Judaism started to be spread by trade networks amongst the Bantu peoples of the African interior. Many of these people melded the religion with their own customs, forming a unique sort of hybrid faith – this was only mentioned in passing by travelers and chroniclers from elsewhere, but as of 600, it is known to exist.
Persia and environs
The Uar Empire turned its focus away from Babylon. Wars between the Uar and the neighboring Kushans continued, to little territorial gain on either side. Ultimately, with the ascension of the Emperor Mithrak in 592, a peace was instantly made. The Kushan khagan would accept the protection of Persepolis, in exchange for an annual payment from Persia. Some claimed that this policy was “surrender,” or “tribute in reverse,” but for the people of the border, who had almost seen the invaders from the walls of Nisa, it was worth what, to the Persian treasury, was ultimately a pittance. With the “northern problem” thus taken care of, the Uar Empire turned its attentions inward. One of the first things completed was a “new royal road,” a triangle of sorts, with its three corners placed at Ecbatana, Nisa, and Susa. This helped tie the diverse and far-flung Persian state together, quite effectively.
(Uar Empire: -2 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, +Stability, +Culture Development)
(Kushans: -3 Cavalry Companies, +Stability, +Culture Development)
Neighboring Kandahar remained as it was. At several points after about 584, there were sporadic clashes with a strange enemy from the east, an enemy whose kind had never been seen before in these parts, an enemy whose soldiers began marauding at the edges of Kandahar’s territory, but an enemy not serious on taking much from them, and who disappeared as quickly as they came.
Of course, not all would fare as such against them…
India
Gopala Sundara, perhaps one of the most enlightened rulers who ever lived, passed into the bardo in 581, after almost four decades of rule. His successors were determined to keep his imperial glory alive, and Gopala Sundara II, his grandson, would take over in his stead.
But it was not to be. For India would soon face an alien invader perhaps far more potent than any it had ever faced in its millennia-long history: the Gnamri.
The Gnamri emerged in the peaks and valleys of Tibet, as stewards of a number of pastoral city-states. It was a series of conflicts between them and the Kingdom of Kamarupa in the 570s that led to the introduction of the stirrup and repeating crossbow to Gnamri society, innovations which the Gnamri quickly mastered over the course of their westward migration in the following years. Nontheless, in the following decades, they established a state in the mountains of Kashmir - Lhatsang. And then, like a horde under the command of one ruler whose name was too feared to be spoken, they swept into the great Indus Valley in the early 580s and swiftly carved out the area for themselves, defeating the Sundara armies resoundingly, and taking and sacking as far south as the city of Alexandria-on-the-Indus, which was destroyed and replaced by a new, Gnamri city across the river. In the halls of the eastern cities, they were whispered of in hushed tones as the
Himajana, the snow people, as they seemed to bring winter wherever they came. The Sundaras could do nothing to stop them, as Gopala Sundara II was killed by court intrigue in 585, and the situation devolved into a death spiral from there.
(Lhatsang: -2 Cavalry Companies, +Loot)
(Sundara Empire: -5 Infantry Companies, -4 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)
With control over the Punjab lost to the Himajana, Sundara control over neighboring Sindh was equally untenable. With Sundara rule thus retreating, a local Sundara administrator arose to carve out a realm for himself and his friends, centered around the city of Patala, securing his borders from the Himajana. When this administrator, a man by the name of Harsha Sahasi, died in 597, the kingdom passed to the control of his teenage son. Harsha Sahasi II has dreams of creating a society much like that of the Sundaras, full of plurality and tolerance; and that may start soon, in Patala, if the Himajana don’t get him first.
But it was Karnataka who entered a truly high phase in the late sixth century. The era was also one of great plurality and tolerance, as Buddhists and Christians both were allowed presences in Badami, and temples were built far and wide across southern India.
With the Sundara’s fall, the Chalukya dynasty would become the most powerful in all Hindustan It began with the late 570s subjugation of the remnant Tamil petty states. The Pandya kingdom in the north was the first to fall – it had been swiftly defeated and conquered by the end of 577. The Kannadiga army proceeded south, to the Chera remnant, attempting to take Thanjavur. A lengthy siege ensued, with the Cheras doing everything in their power to hold onto the city, but by 579 Thanjavur was safely in Chalukya hands. By 580, the Chalukya armies had proceeded further south, to swiftly evict the Lankans from mainland Tamilakam. Despite this, at least one Kannada officer was captured by retreated Lankan armies, and has reputedly been convinced by Lankan money to enter Lanka’s service, providing valuable military advice.
The campaigns did not halt there. In 585, the combined forces of the Chalukya dynasty and its Malwan feudatories marched into the kingdom of Vallabhi from land. This proved somewhat more difficult; the armies of Vallabhi had the decisive terrain advantage, and fought hard. Nonteheless, Dvaraka fell in 589 after a year-long siege. The rest of the cities in the region, including Vallabhi itself, would fall within the next several years. However, as the newly conquered land was distant and separated from the Kannadiga heartland, the the Chalukya dynasty was unable to establish its centralized bureaucratic authority over the territory; instead, a local family became a Chalukya feudatory, ruling from the port city of Dvaraka.
Further raids continued into Sundara territory. Though Malwan soldiers at one point attempted to sack Indraprastha, the Sundara armies were able to regroup in time to repulse them. Nonetheless, the Malwan and Kannadiga raids loosened Sundara control over the western lands, even further, and a number of petty rajyas formed in the kingdom, led by Gurjara warrior clans displaced by the invasion of Vallabhi, who set up their armies to rule from fortress-towns in the area, though there is little of value there. In the east, Kalinga launched a campaign into Bengal in 587 to some degree of success, only turning back after the death of their king in 589. In turn, during the 590s, a local warlord from the town of Vesali rose to power and carved out much of the region, including the delta itself, which had rotted away from Sundara control.
(Karnataka: -6 Infantry Companies, -4 Cavalry Companies, +Army Development, +Loot)
(Malwa: -5 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, +Loot)
(Dvaraka: +Loot)
(Kalinga: -2 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, +Loot)
(Vesali: -2 Infantry Companies)
(Gurjara Petty States: -1 Infantry Company)
(Tamil Petty States: -3 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Gokanna: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, +Army Development)
(Vallabhi: -Existence)
(Sundara Empire: -15 Infantry Companies, -12 Cavalry Companies, -1 Siege Train, -Stability)
As the seventh century dawns in the west, the Sundara Empire is now a rotting corpse, a mere shell of what it had once been, only holding through . The Gnamri in Lhatsang grow restless, preparing to pounce on a self-immolating enemy. And, from their city of rock at Badami, the Chalukya dynasty stands undisputedly supreme as overlords in the south. The peace and prosperity and culture flowering of India in the past century may be over – a new era, an era of warfare and bloodshed and invasions, may have begun.
East Asia
The Rouran Khanate in 575 seemed like it would inevitably collapse, under attack from west and east. But that did not come to pass, and the Khanate’s frontiers, somewhat miraculously, remained secure. The administrative reforms under previous Khaans paid off, with the still-meritocratic administration allowing locals from across the land participation in administration. With this, plus a greatly rebuilt military under the Khaan’s service to enforce order where it was necessary, the country stabilized, and, in some areas, in fact prospered. How long this can sustain is unknown, but perhaps a Rouran renaissance may be in the cards.
(Rouran Khanate: +Stability)
For all the fears that the Kamchachans might turn on China next and ravage its lands, none ever came to pass; the Kamchachans stayed in their new homes in the north, and built. They built a new capital, at a site along the cold eastern shores of their land, north of Korea and Japan – travelers from both these lands have visited it, and seen it as an impressive feat for a people they consider so primitive. The capital has allowed the khal to centralize his authority, and provided an inlet for Chinese culture, which continues to proliferate in the southern regions of the khaldom. The khal also attempted to expand his control to the north, with relatively little success.
(Kamchachan Khaldom: +Stability, +Economy Development, +Culture Development)
This gave the Chinese to the south vital time to build a long line of fortifications along their northern border, providing them added security. This, and the subsequent construction of a great Taoist temple on Wudang mountain, were the landmarks of the reign of the Taizong Emperor, a prince named Chang Wu who ascended to the Heavenly Throne in 580 after his predecessor, Qianlong, retired to a life of seclusion in a distant Taoist temple. Jia Xian became Imperial Chancellor in 583, after Xiang Yaoshi’s death via heart attack. The imperial preference for Taoism continued, as an expedition of Taoist scholars was dispatched to the Kingdom of Kamarupa, where an intellectual community of considerable size has grown, and with it, increasing cultural imports and intermingling across the mountains.
(Kamarupa: +Culture Development)
Hirajima seems to have reached an apex in power. The bright kingdom’s naval and trade dominance over the region has effectively pulled neighboring Baekje into Hirajima’s cultural and political sphere of influence, and this sphere has begun to grow as a counterweight in the eastern seas to the great Chinese dominance of the continent. Trade continues to blossom, and colonization and conquest of the north continues with gusto. However, in Baekje, especially in the south, away from the threats looming across militarized Kamchachan frontier, there is consternation amongst some noble factions that the court, and Baekje’s culture in general, has become far too Japanese for their liking, and that Baekje has become a Japanese tributary in all but actuality. Perhaps this is true; but some things cannot be denied.
(Baekje: +Navy Development, -Stability)
(Hirajima: +Navy Development, +Culture Development)
Southeast Asia
By 600, the once-proud kingdom of Kamboja had outright collapsed. It has never really been clear to anyone what happened to cause this; some sources mention that a famine struck the region, coupled with migrations of Mon and other peoples from Dvaravati eastwards into ethnic Khmer territory. In any case, the late sixth century saw a great emptying of Kamboja’s cities. Central authority by the 590s had clearly collapsed, and the region was, according to Indian and Chinese accounts both, under the control of a number of warring, tribal-esque cities and petty states. Dvaravati and Champa had both been able to use this to their advantage, gaining significant chunks of territory inland by the end of the century.
(Kamboja: -2 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
Dvaravati itself, following its incursions into Kambojan territory, would turn against Langkasuka; the king of Dvaravati, as recorded in a few dramas of the time, loudly proclaimed that he could march all the way to Singapura itself, deep in Taruman territory, with an amassed army tens of thousands strong. This would prove one of Dvaravati’s greatest follies. The Mon armies marched deep into the peninsula, where they hoped to meet Langkasuka in battle and crush their army, enabling easy conquest; according to this drama, the exact opposite happened, as the Malays struck back at the Dvaravati camp on one particularly disease-stricken night, forcing the Mon soldiers to retreat in what could best be described as chaos. The king of Dvaravati fled home, his tail between his legs, and his authority and pride in shambles. While it is uncertain if that exact sequence of events came to pass, Dvaravati was regardless dealt a major defeat, and though some territory has been added, the great trade cities of Langkasuka remain out of Dvaravati’s reach, and much of Dvaravati’s army lies rotting in the ground. And, in turn, Langkasuka grew even further in renown.
(Dvaravati: -9 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)
(Langkasuka: -2 Infantry Companies, +Stability, +Army Development)
And, to the northwest, the Pyu city-states solidified into a pair of actual, centralized realms, for perhaps the first time in the region’s history, with the establishment of a unified code of laws in Beikthano in approximately 580, as recorded by Kannada travelers. Very quickly, through the application force of arms, the various cities in the region were subsumed to Beikthano’s interests, and Beikthano’s king, a possibly mythical figure by the name of Venkatesh, had, by approximately 590 become the leader of the entirety of the lower Irrawaddy valley.
(Pyu city-states: -Existence)
(Beikthano: +Culture Development)
(Halin: +Army Development)
Tarumangara continued as always, but records show that by approximately 590
something had started to filter through the countryside. Whatever it was – a deep illness, at the very least – would start with bloody urine, but soon morphed into a severe fever, internal pains, vomiting, and a number of other entirely unpleasant conditions, followed by an excruciating death. Thousands of people started to fall deeply ill, from the lowest backcountry peasants to the highest priestesses, and as corpses piled up, reports of this illness had begun to filter through the country all the way to the capital, and to neighboring countries too – supposedly in 598-599 Tambralinga was stricken. In any case, if not even the priestesses were saved, then who was?
(Tarumangara: -Stability)
Rondan
Northern Rondan is certainly far from the most fertile of lands. But the Nusantaran settlers there have managed to make a living quite successfully in their beautiful new country. And Nusantarans are far from the only change to come to this land. A wave of diseases spread through the Rondanese natives in the latter half of the sixth century. In its wake, it was along the southern coast that one clan of the Gurri people united, partly adopting the Nusantarans’ ways of agriculture and rice-growing through the course of the sixth century, and by the end of it had formed Rondan’s first true native state. Using the esoteric wisdom of Altjira Buddhism as a unifying political force, one clan leader – a Father of Clans – arose to become Rondan’s most powerful figure. A number of tools and weapons of the Nusantaran style have found their way across the continent, to help the Gurri’s fledgling agricultural society; many have been adopted into the Gurri army. Writing was also introduced to the Gurri sometime in this period, through a Brahmi script brought across the continent.
(Gurri: +Army Development, +Economy Development)
Story Bonuses
The Bernician rebels found themselves with a unified cause and with the winds of the British spirit behind them.
With the perceived victories over both the Solar Latins and the Zoroastrian Babylonians, Christian missionaries have been better able to prove their God’s righteousness and might throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.
The Guthlaw has helped tie the burgeoning and unwieldy state of the Guthlid together, even as it rules everything from the northern coast of Gaul to Meduseld itself. In addition, the Guthlid’s merchants have started a mapmaking tradition of their own, easing trade through their lands as merchants now have greater knowledge of what lies ahead on their paths.
Similarly, Carthaginian navigators have created their own mapmaking tradition. Carthaginian portolan charts are some of the most renowned and accurate of their time, showing trade ports on coasts with great detail.
Despite the great odds, the amalgamation that is Dacian Christianity continues its spread, and continues to act as a stabilizing factor.
Arabian contact with the intellectual flow of the Levant and Mesopotamia from its conquests has continued a flow of texts and ideas back through its territories, even in times like these.
From Babylon arose a new Alexander, and he led Babylon’s armies to victory.
The Sung court’s endorsement of Taoism over the other philosophies of state has helped export it to neighboring countries.
OOC
I had to spend a good 15 minutes trying to trim the country descriptions to make the stats fit in 2 posts. With that in mind, do you think starting a wiki or some external database for the backgrounds and lore is a good idea, especially with all of the amazing stuff that has been contributed so far? It will also cut down on a lot of maintenance.
Let me know of the stats errors which are inevitable.
There were a fair number of chaotic rebellions that turn, some of which were started by players. I am perfectly fine with this sort of thing for the record, as long as they make sense in context.
Lokki242: it’s not possible to get volunteer companies, unfortunately
Grandkhan (and Lokki242 I guess): My reasoning for letting Yibram go that far was that they were following trade routes in the Indian Ocean that people were already using and had been using for centuries, just they were going a lot farther than one normally would. Whereas your expedition was going into pretty much uncharted territory.
Immaculate: Thanks for one of my favorite songs ever
Calgori: Did you want the Ustándanárr to be a project, just to clarify?
Map
