West Africa
The records mark this as an age of war. Two great empires Ghana and Daura clashing for supremacy over their relative borders. The war that broke out in the 610s occurred over the region surrounding the city of Gao, which Ghana had subjugated many decades earlier. Instability within Ghana boiled over into a revolt. Shortly after this, Daura took the opportunity to invade via the river, and easily defeated the Ghanaians. Within a few short years, Ghana had surrendered, agreeing to cede the region surrounding Gao to the rising Daura Empire and pay a small sum of tribute to conclude the deal.
It is clear what the situation in West Africa is now; Ghana is quickly crumbling, while Daura, now led by the ultra-capable military commander Karbagari, son of Bayajida and his first Tuareg wife Magira, who politically defeated his rival Bawo, son of Bayajida and Magajiya, to ascend to the throne, is quite clearly on a possibly meteoric rise.
(Daura: -3 Infantry Companies, +Army Development)
(Ghana: -6 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -Stability)
To the east, the Sao Kingdom began to fall into disarray. It began in roughly 609, when the king of one Sao city in the east the exact city varies from author to author attempted to expel the Jews from his city, following a particularly nasty cycle of religiously-motivated civic violence. But this was easier said than done. The Jews had set themselves up nicely as merchants, dominating the wealth from the trans-Nubian trade routes. And one Jewish clan used this wealth to raise an army from mercenaries and various other sympathetic factions, and stage a coup. Pel Ma ir, of course, wanted no part to do with this, so they dispatched an army to deal with the situation. Things quickly unraveled. Some cities saw this as an opportunity to counter Pel Ma irs dominance, and threw their weight behind the Jews. An inconclusive series of wars followed. Within a decade, Pel Ma irs authority had crumbled altogether, and the Sao civilization had devolved into a number of city-states. Whether they will ever unify again is uncertain.
(Sao Kingdom: -5 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -Existence)
Middle East
In 602, the bolstered Aksumites launched a campaign to conquer Jerusalem itself, marching up from the Hedjaz. Though at first they progressed, attrition and raids from desert peoples rapidly decimated their numbers and morale. The Arabians quickly assembled an army to defend the city, and at the Battle of Bethlehem in 603, the Aksumites were soundly defeated. With much of their army, the glue holding the increasingly fragile state together, now lost in battle, the great Aksumite empire suffered a partial collapse, amidst several years of civil war. For the Arabians, it was a chance to reclaim their homeland, a chance that was not lost.
(Arabia: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)
(Aksum: -8 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, -4 Mercenary Companies)
It was the Egyptians who also profited. Once, millennia ago, in a lost age, the Egyptian pharaohs had reigned supreme in the Levant, and far to the south in Nubia. And they would again. Under the reign of Megasthenes, who ascended to the throne amidst these events in 604, the Egyptians underwent a period of expansion, driving south, down the Nile, to Nubia. His conquests were quick and efficient; by the dawn of 607, Megasthenes had reached as far south as the city of Soba; perhaps he would have gone further, but he was persuaded by an advisor not to do so. To the Christians of Nubia, Megasthenes framed himself a holy liberator and so the Christians dubbed him Megasthenes Soter. Under his rule, he further consolidated power, extended the nome system to the new territories. With these conquests, Egypt has firmly established itself as the supreme power in Northeast Africa.
(Egypt: -1 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Companies)
(Aksum: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)
The Babylonians launched an invasion of Anatkaya around this same, exact time. But in Antakya, the situation grew more complicated. Into the fray entered the Hellenes who had ostensibly come to support the Galatians, who remained nominal Arabian allies though released from their commitments of suzerainty, and ironically chose not to actually partake in the fighting. Antakya thus became a battleground between the armies of multiple different empires; the armies of the Antakyans themselves were soundly wiped out. With the marriage of the daughter of the King of Pergamon to a Babylonian prince, peace was secured between those two states. Separate peace was also made between Galatia and Babylon. So while the Hellenes swiftly sieged and captured the city of Antioch itself in 605 a city which was integrated into the Confederacy, though it has caused some political troubles due to distance from Athens the Babylonians marched south into Syria.
There they met the army of the Arabians, whose army had hurriedly rushed north to defend against the Babylonians. The subsequent Battle of Damascus, in 606 has gone down in history as one of the great battles of the age. While the Arabian cavalry was fearsome, the Babylonians had the strength in numbers and the fact that theyd gotten their hands on the northern powder. They had developed a means of using it to counter the Arab cavalry, and that proved decisive enough to turn the tide and cause immense casualties to the Arabs, forcing them to flee, shattered. Following that, the Babylonians advanced relatively quickly down, capturing Jerusalem in 607 and resolidifying control over Judea.
(Hellas: -2 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
(Babylon: -4 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Companies, -3 Mercenary Companies, +Army Development)
(Arabia: -4 Infantry Companies, -11 Cavalry Companies, -4 Mercenary Companies)
(Antakya: -6 Infantry Companies, -9 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
With the Quraysh-led army the centerpiece of the Quraysh state and the most significant piece holding it together largely destroyed, and the capital again uprooted, it was not long before the state itself collapsed into a number of warring tribal polities in the Arabian interior even without Babylonian invasion. The Yibri cities on the south coast of Arabia have remained securely in Yibri hands; an local Arab governor was appointed in Salalah to keep the peace there. The short period of Arab unification but the legacy it held cannot be denied. And the Omanis quietly hummed along, using the opportunity to grab Sharjah and Mazun for themselves. The newfound wealth from these captures has spurred something of a cultural golden age in the country. Elsewhere in Arabia, the state of Qataban arose to power in the southwest from the ashes of both the Quraysh and the Aksumites.
(Arabia: -Existence)
(Oman: +Economy Development, Culture Development)
(Yibram: +Stability)
Anatolia remained entirely peaceful and uneventful. So did the neighboring Uar Empire, despite repeated suggestions from court advisors. Life went on, as always. Is that not what all humans want? Peace?
Persia and India
Kandahar quickly became famous throughout the world for one thing the Great Library of Kandahar, as it would come to be called. The king of Kandahar splurged on the construction of this building, a great domed structure staffed by Buddhist scholars and clerics, which would house tens of thousands of books from both the Hellenistic world and India, as well as some from even further afield including works by Confucius and other Chinese philosophers, as well as Nusantaran and Japanese works. The library has grown so popular that a university that has sprung up surrounding it, and the complex has become the absolute center of the Yona Buddhist world, attracting even pilgrims.
(Kandahar: +Economy Development, +Culture Development)
In 604, Himajana hordes stormed over the frontier into the lands of Patala. The invasion was quick and efficient, the Gnamri repeating bows easily and efficiently mowing down any and all armies the defenders tried to fling back at them. In early 606 the city of Patala itself was sacked and burnt to the ground, its rulers brutally executed; a new city has been built on the site by later military colonists. The former Patala lands were quite swiftly incorporated into the Gnamri empire. From there, the Gurjara statelets to the east were quick to fall. Despite their defensive strength, their awkward position and lack of outside support meant that they had little chance to help themselves before the Gnamri subjugated them all.
The Gnamri in 625 have found themselves in charge of a burgeoning empire stretching from Kashmir to the shore of the Erythraean. But the Gnamri have yet to take the wealth of the Gangetic plain in any meaningful fashion, and in the late 610s and early 620s their power was weakened by a cycle of internal succession-related disputes.
(Lhatsang: -3 Infantry Companies, -8 Cavalry Companies, -Stability, +Loot)
(Patala: -8 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Gurjara states: -7 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
In 608, the armies of Karnataka and their Malwan feudatories marched north, into the decaying Sundara Empire. The Sundara armies were still too scattered, distraught, and caught up with internal dynastic disputes to put up much resistance, so the invaders easily solidified their control up to the south bank of Yamuna by the end of 610. The Kannadigas could perhaps have easily gone further; but instead they turned their armies, into Kalinga, joined by another army simultaneously invading the country from the south. With greater numbers and momentum, the Kannada advance could not be easily stopped; but against the might of the Kalingan military tradition, the battle was tough. Still, by 615, all of Kalinga had been subjugated, in quite brutal fashion at that. The Kalingans have not given the Kannadigas the easiest time of consolidating their territories, such that it is visibly hurting the Chalukya state.
(Karnataka: -9 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Stability, +Loot)
(Malwa: -3 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -Stability, +Loot)
(Sundara Empire: -6 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies)
(Kalinga: -12 Infantry Companies, -7 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
At home, Karnataka started constructing, in the late 610s, a grand series of roads across the country, in the vain of their Mauryan predecessors, tying the extremely large countrys major cities together. To the north, the Kannadiga feudatories in Malwa splurged a great deal of money on the construction of numerous temples across their respective countryside. Dvaraka, concerning itself with the amassing horders of the Himajana on its northern border, constructed a line of fortresses. This has had the effect of solidifying the countrys control over its northern frontiers, especially with refugees from Satnad settling in the region.
(Dvaraka: +Stability)
Gokannas prosperity was severely hampered by an outbreak of a most strange and fearsome disease on the island in 623-624, which killed off a quarter of its population and caused a partial emptying of some of its cities. Reportedly, this disease was brought over to Lanka by Nusantaran traders. The same disease has started to crop up in some of the Tamil-speaking areas of southern Karnataka as of late 624.
(Gokanna: -2 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
To the northeast, the states of Kamarupa and Vesali each launched their own incursions into the east of the Sundara Empire, in fact, in the eastern edge of the Empires Magadhi heartland, concurrent with the Kannadiga invasion. The Sundara Empire barely resisted, and little blood was shed, until about 617, when the two countries started attacking each other over their new frontier. The conflicts have been inconclusive thus far.
(Kamarupa: -1 Infantry Company)
(Vesali: -2 Infantry Companies)
Southeast Asia
Tarumangaras decay continued. Internal political and dynastic disputes built up, year after year, and the bureaucracy holding the entire state together began to break down. Temasek was lost to a Langkasukan invasion the details are not clear, as the volume of written records abruptly drops sometime around this period. What is known is that in around 615, one Langkasukan prince his name varies widely depending on whether the source is Indian or Chinese drove his armies south down the peninsula, driving the Tarumangarans out. At Temasek at the southern point, he founded a fortress it would grow into a city the city of Singapura. After this event, northern Sumatera was able to break away as the kingdom of Pasai, and Taruman influence in the Erythraean declined to nothing.
(Tarumangara: -Stability, -3 Infantry Companies)
(Langkasuka: +Army Development, +Economy Development, -2 Infantry Companies)
Mainland Southeast Asia was ravaged by outbreaks of what was termed the Nusantaran disease, but the relative lack of infrastructure in the region actually helped to slow its spread, and most of the region was largely spared from the horrors that would come to China later on.
And it was Champas turn to rise. Under one king whose regnal years are disputed, but whose name was clearly Indravaraman Champa quickly gobbled up the Kambojan petty statelets to her west by the early 610s. Immediately, he led his forces on camapaign against the Mon king of Dvaravati, and won a great victory, utterly crushing the Mon forces, and capturing the upper Mekong and a good deal more land. Following this great victory, Indravaraman had himself declared to the eminent position
rajadhiraja king of kings. Later historians call this golden age the Cham Empire.
(Champa: -1 Infantry Company, +Army Development, +Culture Development)
(Kambojan states: -3 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Dvaravati: -4 Infantry Companies, -4 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)
In Burma, the two Pyu states fought a number of indecisive wars. But they had their own set of troubles, exacerbated by Tai Yai migrations from Southern China. Plague and famine had forced some of the Tai peoples to move south and west. Some came through the lands controlled by Halin, spurring a cycle of rural unrest, though reportedly some Tai have assimilated quite effectively. Still others migrated into the western plateau, where they have adopted to the pastoral ways of the locals in the act of displacing them.
(Beikthano: -2 Infantry Companies)
(Halin: -3 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
Rondan
In the Gurri lands, the chieftains focused on tying the realm together and protecting it from enemies without. A rudimentary line of forts was constructed along the borders, to protect from the marauding clans outside Gurri hegemony. Paths and roads were built to ease transportation. A unified code of laws was placed into effect, solidifying the centrality of the realm. And Buddhist-inspired totems of numerous bodhisattvas were erected, furthering Buddhism as the unifying element of the culture and state.
(Gurri: +Stability, +Culture Development)
East Asia
To the north, in another war, hoping to add to their already great piles of bones, the feared Kamchachans pressed southwards into Baekje in 611. At first, it appeared that the campaign would be successful, and all Korea would fall to the running-dogs of the bone-people city after city fell to the marauding invaders, and the countryside burned. But, even as Baekje bled, the Hirajima Kingdom came to their aid. In 613, a Wa army joined Baekje, and together, they were able to repulse the Kamchachans by 615, smashing their army and even gaining a grasp of some border territories in the next few years. The Kamchachans remain very strong, though notions of their supposed invincibility has been shattered.
(Kamchachans: -2 Infantry Companies, -15 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)
(Baekje: -12 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, +Army Development)
(Hirajima: -3 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies)
From a more cynical perspective, this has established Hirajima, after several decades of relative decadence and stagnation, as a leading node of power in the eastern edge of Asia, able to project its influence throughout the region. The Hirajima Kingdom took a bold step of establishing permanent consulates in various trade cities throughout the East Asian region. A Hirajima renaissance is not out of the question for the mid-seventh century.
(Hirajima: +Army Development, +Culture Development)
Still, the Kamchachans are powerful but their power is changing as they settle in their new homes, and adopt an organized system of writing. This has been an enormous boon to keeping the extremely diverse realm together, and has spurred the development of a primitive Kamchachan literary culture, mostly melding Chinese and Mongolian influences. And even they are far from immune to the influences of Sinic culture, as a syncretism between the Kamchachan religion and imported Taoism creatively dubbed Northern Taoism by scholars has started to grow in popularity.
(Kamchachans: +Economy Development, +Culture Development)
In China itself, a golden age especially in poetry was brought to a dramatic halt, when after 610, a sudden sequence of outbreaks of a deadly and fearsome plague, reportedly brought in from Nusantara. City after city, it struck, killing tens of thousands, and often causing entire villages to be abandoned. Starving peasants more often than not wound up rioting against each other, warlordism became rampant for a brief few years in the countryside, and all China seemed to be in a horrid state of decay. More importantly, it badly weakened the bureaucratic structures that held up the Empire of All Under Heaven. The disease, however, seemed to fizzle out by the time it reached the north; which was by and large spared, as were areas such as the Rouran. Smaller outbreaks were reported in Korean and Japanese cities, but to large part those regions survived it relatively unscathed.
(Great Sung: -10 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
(Baekje: -1 Infantry Company)
(Hirajima: -1 Infantry Company)