Abaddon
Deity
Will anyone be willing to post their BT orders after the update had happened, i have very little experience with BT's and don't really understand what is expected of me. Seeing what others do would really help.
The pre-AFSNES I.
- Thread starter das
- Start date
Sure, I'll probably post mine, but my BT orders are a bit hands off; you can judge how much you want to follow my style after you see the results of the update.
I'd say I 'talk' with my mod, rather that say... sympth who's IT orders are very much Action 1, 2 etc etc.
I'd say I 'talk' with my mod, rather that say... sympth who's IT orders are very much Action 1, 2 etc etc.
OK, das, my incredibly sad "Global Problem" orders have been sented. I guess you have seen them, though, as you just disappeared off the face of the Internet. Time to write questions for my school's quiz bowl team's tournament.
Symphony D.
Deity
Duh, they're "IT" orders. My "BT" orders are more just general goals to strive for with a few thoughts on how to get to them, and are usually about a paragraph long. The one times they were any longer, was in ITNES, at 3 PMs, but only about 1000 Chars were orders, the rest was a story in the form of an intelligence briefing, and in one of Israelite's NESes, at about 5000 Chars, where I had more concrete material to work with since it was a pre-game "BT".
das
Regeneration In Process
BT Update II - Years 1000-500 BC
New World:
While the cultures of the north, despite noticeable progress, remain quite primitive and obscure, the centre of the supercontinent continues to flourish and advance. In the 9th century BC, a great king came to power in Danipaguache; his name was 4-Jaguar, and it would survive in early local records and native folklore alike. This great conqueror asserted his authority over the Olmec lands, built up a powerful and highly-mobile army (as mobile as horseless ancient armies get, anyway), and conquered in all directions; the tribes of the southern coast were subjugated with ease, armies of the Mexico Valley tribes were crushed, the nascent local cities were conquered, and lastly the emerging Mayan protostates such as Lakam Ha were put under heel as well.
This Zapotec Empire is not very tightly-knit, though, and over the course of the late 9th/early 8th centuries BC it crumbled. In the Mexico Valley, Teotihuacan declared independence and rose to become a regional power in its own right. The Olmec city-states rebelled and reclaimed their independence, though remaining divided and marginalised. Lakam Ha [1] and lesser Mayan states have arisen in the south, even as various less successful tribes colonise Yucatan. A rump Danipaguache state had survived, however, and managed to become particularily important as a trading nation, engaging in overland and coastline naval commerce with the Mayans. Both it and the legacies of Zapotec rule allowed the spread of Zapotec culture and technology (in particular, the new writing system and the milpa farming technique) within this part of the civilised world, further speeding up its progress. In the 6th century BC, Danipaguaches focus became even more naval with the rise of coastal settlements and appearance of superior canoes, while the ambitious rulers of Lakam Ha, rich from trade, began to carve out an empire of their own.
The Andes too saw civilisation spread and empires rise and fall, though belatedly and not as much. The 10th and 9th centuries BC saw old cultures decline and then reform or be replaced by new ones; in the central Andes, the first city-states arose and great temples were built, while around the Lake Titicaca Tiahuanaco developed further its semi-dualist sun-based polytheism, constructed new monumental buildings and created a system of preferred rulers in the other subjugated cities. At some point in the 8th century BC, Tiahuanaco commenced wars of conquest, subjugating primitive tribes to the south and the west, eventually marching northwest to conquer a few of the local city-states. The empire was more lasting than the Zapotec one, but it soon lost many of its northern conquests. By the 6th century BC it had decayed and stagnated considerably, and so fell to migratory tribes allied with local rebels. In the west, the coastal empire of Paracas arose, with the capital in the city of the same name. In the east, Tiahuanaco itself was captured and renamed into Cahuachi, which then became the centre for a somewhat diminished eastern empire.
Mediterranean:
Contrary to nay-sayers, Tartessos remained a great power and generally fared well during this period. Although tin trade had somewhat declined, the Tartessians maintained their monopoly on Atlantic commerce, guarding the Horns of Tigranus [2] from all would-be intruders. Furthermore, their own mineral and agricultural wealth and innovation more than compensated any losses to technological advancement. The place of Tartessos as the predominant commercial power in the Mediterranean was for all purposes secured (even Sardinia eventually opened up for trade), and an intellectual flowering also occurred. A great infrastructure system was created, a standardised currency was introduced and the Cult of the Sacred Bull spread northwards into Gaul. A professional and well-organised army had gradually arisen, and the fleet was built up further, though its maintenance became something of a drain on the economy. Lastly, towards the 7th century BC, a new government system arose the Demarchy, wherein the Regus (king) retained only nominal power, while the Sophetora-Magus assembly, and specifically the two Optimes (consuls), took the real political power. Local governors, advised and assisted by provincial assemblies, were also appointed. This administrative reorganisation helped retain cohesion in a time of considerable instability that followed in the late 7th century BC.
Until then, Tartessos expanded aggressively. With force or diplomacy, or both, the Tartessians secured the greater part of Iberia the entire Mediterranean coastline and vast central regions. In the far north, native and Celtic tribes remained defiant and generally ignored, while in the west, the allied kingdom of Lusitania arose. In spite of some minor Iberian rebellions later on, most natives were already strongly Tartessianised and so proved easy to integrate. The conquest of Liguria proved much more troublesome; the natives were fiercely-independent and generally militant, and so refused to tolerate a growing Tartessian presence, fighting a guerrilla war from the hills instead. Tartessians were rarely defeated in battle during the Ligurian Wars, except for one misconceived 9th century BC inlands campaign which allowed a Ligurian coalition to cut off the Tartessian retreat route and then to ambush the Tartessians in their native territory, slaughtering them all, but Ligurian raids proved a major nuisance. By the 7th century BC, also, there arose a semi-unified and more civilised Kingdom of Liguria. At first this meant even more brutal warfare, but in the end, after several Tartessian victories, a peace treaty was worked out, the Tartessians securing their coastal colonies and allowing Ligurians to retain their northern and eastern lands within the kingdom; soon, trade ties arose, although cultural influence was resisted, Liguria developing a semi-monotheist (henotheist, based around a supreme deity named Belenu) religion of its own. The Berbers had also proved troublesome at first; although the city-states and many tribes agreed to submit early on (as Tartessians promised citizenship to the inhabitants of the former and autonomy to the latter), the others used their vast maneuver space to carry out a campaign of hit-and-run attacks when it became clear that the Tartessians had no intention of leaving them alone. But gradually those tribes were pacified; those that rebelled again were pacified for good, all their settlements destroyed and their populations scattered. Lastly, in the Mediterranean itself, Ligurian, Sardinian, Italic and other pirates kept harassing the trade routes, forcing Tartessians to launch expedition after expedition to destroy the pirate fleets and strongholds; those pirate wars would never truly cease, though by the 750 BC the heyday of piracy was over after the Second Sardinian War and Sardinia (which for a brief while was the predominant pirate power of the Mediterranean in its own right) opening up to Tartessian trade in the aftermath of its naval defeat at Tharros.
But naturally it was the most war-torn part of the Mediterranean where the new Tartessian army saw the most difficult fighting Italy. Already it had the attention of Sardinian naval raiders and the warlike Athanoi tribes along the Eridanos [3]; there also continued the old colonial conflicts, as migratory tribes and colonial empires alike gradually pushed the Italic tribes further into the inlands. Already in the 10th century BC there existed two competing regional powers the Parthenian Republic and the Kingdom of Arecomicia, Hellene and Celt vying for the control over the Central Mediterranean. The Rasna civilisation of the north was on the brink of a major transformation, as several prominent city-states arose. And last but not least, the miserable peninsula had the attentions of Tartessos itself, which already established colonies there and now sought to expand them northwards.
From the beginning of the 10th century BC, Parthenians and Arecomicians fought a series of limited wars, ultimately rather inconclusive and largely driven by the boredom of Celtic warriors. It did however deepen the hostilities; and possibly the need to counter Arecome helped bring about a reformation of the Parthenian Republic into the multicentralised Tarantine League. Taras underwent a golden age; arts and sciences, philosophy and architecture all advanced, a great temple complex was constructed and the colonies were much expanded and improved. Preparations for a decisive war with the Celts continued; Libyan and Illyrian mercenaries were hired, alliances with the Italic peoples were signed and contacts were established in Rasna. Colonial wars in North Africa were fought with the Arecomicians - their prized colony of Suesia [4] was briefly captured, but subsequently lost. Meanwhile, atrocities against Greek settlers in the Arecomician territories were conducted. However, the events would only truly come to a head in the 8th century BC, when a new power began to coalesce in central Italy the Rasna city-states, menaced by Sardinian and Athanoi raiders, united around the strongly pro-Tarantine Rasna Kingdom of Rome. That occurred despite the best Tartessian efforts to the counterwise, and forced Tartessos to take a closer part in Italian affairs. Things soon got messy; an early Tartessian move against Rome proved to be miscalculated, as the invading Tartessian Divisios were forced to settle down for a long siege while being harassed by the Romans, and were then attacked by a Roman-Tarantine army from several directions and so had to retreat in some disarray, having grown rather soft after fighting weak barbarian tribes. Enraged by Tarantine support for Rome, the Tartessians then activated their alliance with Arecome and sent forces to support the Arecomicians against the Tarantines judged to be generally a greater threat than Rome, while at the same time easier to attack. The Tarantines put up a good fight; they organised ethnic rebellions in Arecomician territory, waged a vigorous naval campaign and mobilised vast forces to resist the enemy attacks in Italy. Although the Tartessian-Arecomician forces defeated the Tarantine levies and their Samnite allies in a series of hard-fought battles, a Tarantine fleet managed to land a large army complete with African elephants in eastern Arecome itself. The army caused a lot of damage, but eventually the Arecomicians managed to pin it down with siege warfare, while the Tartessian fleet eliminated the Tarantine one in an epic battle at Malta. The lesser Tarantine naval forces were then hunted down by Arecomician and Tartessian ships, while the invading army was starved into surrender. Taras itself was then besieged with vigour. The 8th century BC ended with the fall of both Taras and Rome.
However, the war was not yet over. The Roman government fled north, and rallied the Rasna league; with help from Tarantine forces and Illyrian tribes, the Athanoi were defeated in battle and then granted foederati status. A vast army of Rasna, Athanoi, Illyrians, Samnites and Tarantines, under the skilled leadership of King Tullus, then recaptured Rome and advanced into the Tartessian colony in Italy, winning victory after victory. A large Tartessian army was outmaneuvered and destroyed at Elea in 675 BC. Much of the rest of the century went on in the fashion of the Romans trying to liberate the Tarantine homeland, being repulsed, being counter-attacked by Arecomicians from the south and/or the Tartessians from the sea, beating back the counterattack and so forth. The Italian terrain allowed both sides to hold their ground, but after a while came to prevent any decisive breakthroughs. The Tarantines were mostly scattered over the time, but created two new republics an Illyrian one and a Cyrenean one. The Romans managed to turn the vague coalition dominant in Central Italy into a unified, though still decentralised and multicultural, state, united by the wartime experiences as well as by common militaristic values. Meanwhile, Tartessians were increasingly shaken by their defeats, especially as they encouraged Sardinians to once again prey on their trade routes; fortunately, the Tartessian fleet was able to defend most of them, but it still caused a fair amount of turmoil, inspiring short-lived rebellions. Arecomicians, meanwhile, asserted their hold on southern Italy, enslaved or expelled the conquered Greeks, looted Taras and generally took over the place, even seizing the Tarantine colony in Epirus.
By circa 625 BC, the war died down. Arecomicians were in any case largely content with their gains, and the Tartessians were exhausted, as well as facing a little civil war back at home (between the uppity urban commoners supported by an unduly ambitious Regus and the conservative factions in the Sophetora-Magus); as for the Romans, they too had some consolidation to do. During the 6th century BC, some more turmoil occurred; Arecomicians struggled to consolidate their gains, Tarantine republics attempted to strike back, and Rome underwent a regime change after a corrupt (but rather reasonable, considering that Tartessos has already recouped) king signed a peace treaty with Tartessos, giving back the colony. A republic rather similar to the Demarchy was set up (also influenced in some regards by the Tarantines many of whom now incidentally resided in Rome and the newer Italian colonies, being descendants of veterans of the Tartessian War), but war with Tartessians was not risked, especially as there were new regional rumblings amongst the northern Rasna cities. For now, Western Mediterranean was at peace, though it was doubtless a very temporary one.
Greece saw its share of trouble as well. Fierce Thracian tribes gradually pushed back the Racadonians, while Macedonian and Thessalian tribes raided into Greece. The Tarantine League, back in its heyday, had briefly gained great influence in northwestern Greece, but subsequently was forced to neglect this direction in foreign policy. The Greeks themselves, meanwhile, spent the time gradually colonising northwards, losing their Eastern Mediterranean colonies to local rising empires and, ofcourse, fighting rather senseless and petty wars with each other, as city-states rose and fell. Eretria remained predominant, however; adept diplomacy allowed it to remain afloat as a trading power (and after the weakening of Tartessos and the fall of Israel, it even rose to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean commerce, also becoming influential in Italy), and in Greece itself competition was stomped out in a series of rather more meaningful wars. During the 9th century BC, Athens was razed and later rebuilt as an Eretrian colony; this later led to several coalition wars, but as all the anti-Eritrian coalitions were rather divided and still unable to match Eretrias naval might, the Eretrian Hegemony (rather resemblant of the Avyaktaragan Ascendancies mentioned further below) only grew stronger. Still, the Eretrians had no intention of uniting Greece, and such city-states as Delphi and Peristeria even remained fully independent and fairly strong. Eretrians meanwhile consolidated their gains, most notably Crete and Thessaly captured with the help of renowned Odrysian mercenaries. Meanwhile, a semi-democratic form of government was adapted in Eretria itself.
And lastly, in Anatolia, all was surprisingly quiet. In the 9th century BC the Paphlagonian state had undergone reform; it was divided into small principalities, all obedient to a supreme king who declared himself above the internal squabbles, intermediating them and speeding up the process of assimilation, as the multiethnic mess that was Paphlagonian became more and more culturally coherent. Meanwhile, new lands were conquered; Paphlagonians first subdued the barbaric inlands of western Anatolia, defeating the Phrygian tribes there, and then moved on to fight the Greek city states in the west. The lesser independent city-states were annexed, and the Racadonians expelled from Asia; Miletos, however, was allowed to retain its independence (but not its southern colony) and Eretria its colonies. Thus the Paphlagonians gained access to the Mediterranean Sea, and this trading nation prospered more than even before. Gold mines were also exploited, and the Cult of Hekes, primary Paphlagonian god (of sea and fire), spread throughout Anatolia and even into Greece. The Paphlagonians also assisted their Cimmerian trading partners and allies against the Scythians coming from the east, while setting up new trade outposts in the Black Sea. The neo-Hittite Luwian states continued their squabbling, in the meantime; it was only in the late 6th century BC that one of them specifically, Kizzuwatna, the southeastern kingdom managed to gain the upper hand and form a Luwian empire, though its longevity is in doubt.
Meanwhile, in the barbaric lands of Gaul and Thrace, new civilisations arose in the last three-two centuries, though that title is often disputed and not always without reason. Stimulated by Tartessian trade, the semi-urban Kingdom of Armorica arose, actively trading with both Tartessos and the Britannic tribes. South of it exists one of the most bizarre civilisations in the world, the Caeon a coalition of five tribes brought together by a pentatheistic religion. The most infamous of these tribes is the Luak tribe the aggressive followers of a fire-god, the coalitions army which goes about massacring or enslaving local Celtic and Ligurian tribes. The other tribes follow, building their villages and forts. Under the guidance of a Luak tribe Oracle (supreme leader of this tribal confederacy), they had recently conquered a very vast area indeed and had now come into conflict with Tartessos and Liguria. It is unclear if it will continue growing, be checked or even collapse in upon itself.
And in northern Thrace, the city of Odrysa was founded by one of the native (but, at least according to the legends, not quite Thracian) tribes. Gradually it became a centre of local civilisation, renowned for its military tradition, discipline and metalworking. The latter encouraged and allowed the Odrysians to trade extensively with Paphlagonia and the Greek city-states, including the declining Racadonia; Odrysian mercenaries had gained themselves a great reputation in the Mediterranean, serving in the various petty Greek wars. The increasingly wealthy city soon gained great influence over the nearby Thracian tribes; this was helped by the development and spread of an Odrysian writing system. By 500 BC Odrysa had become the centre of a loose East Thracian tribal confederation, as well as a regional power in its own right.
Fertile Crescent:
As always, the Levantine region and, since more recently, the Red Sea was a grand battlefield of merchants, diplomats and, ofcourse, the huge armies raised by the states within and empires without. Secret deals and open alliances were made and broken, armies marched, and navies maneuvered into position as well. The 10th century BC was comparatively peaceful on the main front (i.e. the Levant) itself; Israel was still living out the last decades of its golden age, as new religious schools arose and the great port cities of Israel boomed. Karung was recovering from past troubles and also turning to the sea somewhat; the same went for Mitanni, the rulers of which worked to increase their influence in Phoenicia and to curb the powers of the nobility. The Nubians, meanwhile, turned decidedly southwards, moving the capital to Meroe and subjugating various tribes south of there. Soon enough they became embroiled in a new series of colonial wars with Israel; although the Nubians initially scored major victories in Africa, conquering the Israelite ally of Dmt along with the Israelite colonies there and going on to humiliate the Israelite navy at the Gate of Tears the Israelites proved able to more than turn the tide. Around 930 BC a great Red Sea fleet was created in the Israelite Red Sea port of Ezion-geber. This fleet outnumbered and outmatched the Nubian one, and practically destroyed it in a series of battles and skirmishes; after that, Israelite forces secured the Nubian colonies in Arabia and invaded Africa, assisting a Judaic rebellion in former Dmt. The Nubians scored occasional victories, but in the end proved unable to more than impede the Israelite progress, as more and more troops were sent to fight Nubia; soon, the cherished Nubian Red Sea ports were in Israelite hands, although the Nubians persistently refused to surrender, launching several counter-attacks.
This war raged on into the mid-9th century BC, when another suddenly began in the Levant. With help from Phoenician merchants who were promised an unprecedented monopoly over trade in Karung lands, the Karung had smuggled soldiers into the bustling Mediterranean ports of Israel while the defenders had let their guard down; that allowed them to launch a stunningly effective sneak attack from within. The Israelites reacted quickly enough, preventing further advances, but key cities were lost, and the defenders were put off their balance; that allowed Karung to begin another, more open overland offensive from the Sinai, although it was hindered by fortifications. As Karung forces broke through and advanced across Judea, Israel also came under attack from ethnic rebels, Aramaean nomads, Phoenician city-states and the Mitanni, as all sought to benefit from this chaos and to take Israels wealthy cities and fertile fields. Desperate, the Israelites began their exodus to Ezion-geber, and beyond. Meanwhile, their troops fought a losing battle on numerous fronts, gradually giving way. Eventually, Jerusalem fell after a fierce struggle, during which the attacking Karung troops and their disorderly Aramaean mercenaries looted and burned the Temple. But all that was only the beginning, as conflicting claims to Israel were pressed. As popular outrage over the Phoenician monopoly rose in Karung and as Phoenicians themselves began to press forward outrageous territorial claims, things became temporarily simplified the Karung, who had already accepted the allegiance of Aramaean tribes (in exchange for letting them settle east of the Jordan and retain some degree of autonomy), had now allied with the Mitanni against the Phoenicians, whose newly-granted rights were then quickly terminated.
The Phoenician War itself still did turn out to be a complex and drawn-out matter, as while the treacherous Karung immediately became hated amongst the Phoenicians, the Mitanni still had fair support amongst them; therefore, for the remainder of the 8th and much of the 7th centuries BC, interchanging alliances further complicated by the occasional overambitious Greeks, Luwians and newly-arrived Aramaeans fought over Phoenicia and indeed much of the Levant. Occasional Hebrew rebellions also occurred, forcing the Karung to enslave all the Jews that failed to escape or die; most of them were used as forced labour back in Karung, and the rest were sold elsewhere. Anyway, by 653 BC the Karung, with their vast armies and less complicated internal affairs, had come out triumphant (though barely so) over an ultimate Mitanni-Phoenician coalition. A brief lull in warfare came, as a treaty allowed the Mitanni to annex the Phoenician city-state of Arvad and the Phoenician-dominated island of Cyprus, but gave the rest of Phoenicia and Israel to Karung. The Karung colonised Israel, assimilating the Aramaeans. A new war between the Mitanni and the Karung came kind of when the exhausted Mitanni Empire collapsed into civil war between its ruler and his feudals later in the century. That civil war proved fatal neighbouring states all moved in to grab pieces of the Mitanni pie, finally destroying that proud nation. The Karung ended up in absolute dominance over the Levant, at least for now.
As for the Israelites, they didnt develop their elaborate exodus plans for nothing; Ezion-geber was probably the last major city to fall, and by then a large portion of Israels civilian population was moved to the larger colonies, especially Saba, to where the royal family moved, later reforming the Knesset and the Sanhedrin, though both were much weaker than before. The war with the Nubians did continue, but eventually the Israelites withdrew from the ruins of the Nubian port cities. The chaos caused the Red Sea trade routes to collapse, and thus encouraged even more disorder; this chaos both allowed and encouraged tribes of Qahtani Arabs to cross the Red Sea to conquer the weakened Nubia, eventually becoming its rulers and intermixing with the natives; the Arabs were largely assimilated themselves, but they did also influence the Nubian culture (then obviously in a crisis), leading to the development of a new monotheistic religion. The Arabs also brought with themselves superior Arabian horses and a cavalry tradition; this allowed the new dynasty to conquer southwards and to fight off a 6th century BC Karung invasion (admittedly provoked by overeager Arab horsemen raiding Karung farmlands). Dmt, however, was lost for good; in its place, a Judaic kingdom of Axum arose, and it was obviously allied with the Israelite exiles, though relations between them and the Nubians improved somewhat as both were bitterer at the Karung than at each other. Obviously, the Nubian colonies were also lost by now.
For now, the states of the region are still largely settling down after the storm, even though it had passed a while ago. Trade is picking up again despite bitterness, and at least the Arabic pirates thrive.
Ur rebounded in the aftermath of Eskanders invasion and other troubles (mostly related to persistent Aramaean incursions), and already in the 10th century BC was once more on the march; using internal troubles in that country, the Sumerians conquered Elam, and so started a war against Javaid, the Eskanderid ruler of Persia. Javaid also attempted to reconquer Elam, occupying its eastern territories but failing to advance further; Urrians and Sogdo-Persians then clashed extensively in northern Mesopotamia and Media. Ultimately neither side managed to advance much, both proving themselves able to parry the others thrusts. In circa 910 BC, the tides had turned, however; Javaids successors proved much less able than he, while in Ur, a great new ruler came to power Uru Adan-ur. Adan-ur managed to expel the Persians from both eastern Elam and Media, stretching the Urrian Empire far to the east and establishing a new, secure, well-defended border. He then went on to modernise Shulgis old code of laws, reorganise the expanded military, improved the infrastructure and irrigation and successfully integrated the new conquests. This inaugurated the Second Urrian Golden Age. During that time, the divinity of the royal bloodline was assured, the religion grew more organised, a system of watchtowers was set up to the east and the Great Desert Wall finally put an end to Aramaean attacks on Mesopotamia. In subsequent periods Ur somewhat stagnated, its ruling bloodline becoming rather inbred and decadent, but nonetheless remained an uncontested great power, expanding considerably pieces of the crumbling Sogdian Persia were picked up, Arran was peacefully integrated (but mostly allowed to retain political and cultural autonomy, at least at first) and the Mitanni heartlands were conquered as that old empire began to collapse, as described above. The Urartians of Caucasus were also eventually subdued, and a prosperous trade outpost was established in Qatar.
New World:
While the cultures of the north, despite noticeable progress, remain quite primitive and obscure, the centre of the supercontinent continues to flourish and advance. In the 9th century BC, a great king came to power in Danipaguache; his name was 4-Jaguar, and it would survive in early local records and native folklore alike. This great conqueror asserted his authority over the Olmec lands, built up a powerful and highly-mobile army (as mobile as horseless ancient armies get, anyway), and conquered in all directions; the tribes of the southern coast were subjugated with ease, armies of the Mexico Valley tribes were crushed, the nascent local cities were conquered, and lastly the emerging Mayan protostates such as Lakam Ha were put under heel as well.
This Zapotec Empire is not very tightly-knit, though, and over the course of the late 9th/early 8th centuries BC it crumbled. In the Mexico Valley, Teotihuacan declared independence and rose to become a regional power in its own right. The Olmec city-states rebelled and reclaimed their independence, though remaining divided and marginalised. Lakam Ha [1] and lesser Mayan states have arisen in the south, even as various less successful tribes colonise Yucatan. A rump Danipaguache state had survived, however, and managed to become particularily important as a trading nation, engaging in overland and coastline naval commerce with the Mayans. Both it and the legacies of Zapotec rule allowed the spread of Zapotec culture and technology (in particular, the new writing system and the milpa farming technique) within this part of the civilised world, further speeding up its progress. In the 6th century BC, Danipaguaches focus became even more naval with the rise of coastal settlements and appearance of superior canoes, while the ambitious rulers of Lakam Ha, rich from trade, began to carve out an empire of their own.
The Andes too saw civilisation spread and empires rise and fall, though belatedly and not as much. The 10th and 9th centuries BC saw old cultures decline and then reform or be replaced by new ones; in the central Andes, the first city-states arose and great temples were built, while around the Lake Titicaca Tiahuanaco developed further its semi-dualist sun-based polytheism, constructed new monumental buildings and created a system of preferred rulers in the other subjugated cities. At some point in the 8th century BC, Tiahuanaco commenced wars of conquest, subjugating primitive tribes to the south and the west, eventually marching northwest to conquer a few of the local city-states. The empire was more lasting than the Zapotec one, but it soon lost many of its northern conquests. By the 6th century BC it had decayed and stagnated considerably, and so fell to migratory tribes allied with local rebels. In the west, the coastal empire of Paracas arose, with the capital in the city of the same name. In the east, Tiahuanaco itself was captured and renamed into Cahuachi, which then became the centre for a somewhat diminished eastern empire.
Mediterranean:
Contrary to nay-sayers, Tartessos remained a great power and generally fared well during this period. Although tin trade had somewhat declined, the Tartessians maintained their monopoly on Atlantic commerce, guarding the Horns of Tigranus [2] from all would-be intruders. Furthermore, their own mineral and agricultural wealth and innovation more than compensated any losses to technological advancement. The place of Tartessos as the predominant commercial power in the Mediterranean was for all purposes secured (even Sardinia eventually opened up for trade), and an intellectual flowering also occurred. A great infrastructure system was created, a standardised currency was introduced and the Cult of the Sacred Bull spread northwards into Gaul. A professional and well-organised army had gradually arisen, and the fleet was built up further, though its maintenance became something of a drain on the economy. Lastly, towards the 7th century BC, a new government system arose the Demarchy, wherein the Regus (king) retained only nominal power, while the Sophetora-Magus assembly, and specifically the two Optimes (consuls), took the real political power. Local governors, advised and assisted by provincial assemblies, were also appointed. This administrative reorganisation helped retain cohesion in a time of considerable instability that followed in the late 7th century BC.
Until then, Tartessos expanded aggressively. With force or diplomacy, or both, the Tartessians secured the greater part of Iberia the entire Mediterranean coastline and vast central regions. In the far north, native and Celtic tribes remained defiant and generally ignored, while in the west, the allied kingdom of Lusitania arose. In spite of some minor Iberian rebellions later on, most natives were already strongly Tartessianised and so proved easy to integrate. The conquest of Liguria proved much more troublesome; the natives were fiercely-independent and generally militant, and so refused to tolerate a growing Tartessian presence, fighting a guerrilla war from the hills instead. Tartessians were rarely defeated in battle during the Ligurian Wars, except for one misconceived 9th century BC inlands campaign which allowed a Ligurian coalition to cut off the Tartessian retreat route and then to ambush the Tartessians in their native territory, slaughtering them all, but Ligurian raids proved a major nuisance. By the 7th century BC, also, there arose a semi-unified and more civilised Kingdom of Liguria. At first this meant even more brutal warfare, but in the end, after several Tartessian victories, a peace treaty was worked out, the Tartessians securing their coastal colonies and allowing Ligurians to retain their northern and eastern lands within the kingdom; soon, trade ties arose, although cultural influence was resisted, Liguria developing a semi-monotheist (henotheist, based around a supreme deity named Belenu) religion of its own. The Berbers had also proved troublesome at first; although the city-states and many tribes agreed to submit early on (as Tartessians promised citizenship to the inhabitants of the former and autonomy to the latter), the others used their vast maneuver space to carry out a campaign of hit-and-run attacks when it became clear that the Tartessians had no intention of leaving them alone. But gradually those tribes were pacified; those that rebelled again were pacified for good, all their settlements destroyed and their populations scattered. Lastly, in the Mediterranean itself, Ligurian, Sardinian, Italic and other pirates kept harassing the trade routes, forcing Tartessians to launch expedition after expedition to destroy the pirate fleets and strongholds; those pirate wars would never truly cease, though by the 750 BC the heyday of piracy was over after the Second Sardinian War and Sardinia (which for a brief while was the predominant pirate power of the Mediterranean in its own right) opening up to Tartessian trade in the aftermath of its naval defeat at Tharros.
But naturally it was the most war-torn part of the Mediterranean where the new Tartessian army saw the most difficult fighting Italy. Already it had the attention of Sardinian naval raiders and the warlike Athanoi tribes along the Eridanos [3]; there also continued the old colonial conflicts, as migratory tribes and colonial empires alike gradually pushed the Italic tribes further into the inlands. Already in the 10th century BC there existed two competing regional powers the Parthenian Republic and the Kingdom of Arecomicia, Hellene and Celt vying for the control over the Central Mediterranean. The Rasna civilisation of the north was on the brink of a major transformation, as several prominent city-states arose. And last but not least, the miserable peninsula had the attentions of Tartessos itself, which already established colonies there and now sought to expand them northwards.
From the beginning of the 10th century BC, Parthenians and Arecomicians fought a series of limited wars, ultimately rather inconclusive and largely driven by the boredom of Celtic warriors. It did however deepen the hostilities; and possibly the need to counter Arecome helped bring about a reformation of the Parthenian Republic into the multicentralised Tarantine League. Taras underwent a golden age; arts and sciences, philosophy and architecture all advanced, a great temple complex was constructed and the colonies were much expanded and improved. Preparations for a decisive war with the Celts continued; Libyan and Illyrian mercenaries were hired, alliances with the Italic peoples were signed and contacts were established in Rasna. Colonial wars in North Africa were fought with the Arecomicians - their prized colony of Suesia [4] was briefly captured, but subsequently lost. Meanwhile, atrocities against Greek settlers in the Arecomician territories were conducted. However, the events would only truly come to a head in the 8th century BC, when a new power began to coalesce in central Italy the Rasna city-states, menaced by Sardinian and Athanoi raiders, united around the strongly pro-Tarantine Rasna Kingdom of Rome. That occurred despite the best Tartessian efforts to the counterwise, and forced Tartessos to take a closer part in Italian affairs. Things soon got messy; an early Tartessian move against Rome proved to be miscalculated, as the invading Tartessian Divisios were forced to settle down for a long siege while being harassed by the Romans, and were then attacked by a Roman-Tarantine army from several directions and so had to retreat in some disarray, having grown rather soft after fighting weak barbarian tribes. Enraged by Tarantine support for Rome, the Tartessians then activated their alliance with Arecome and sent forces to support the Arecomicians against the Tarantines judged to be generally a greater threat than Rome, while at the same time easier to attack. The Tarantines put up a good fight; they organised ethnic rebellions in Arecomician territory, waged a vigorous naval campaign and mobilised vast forces to resist the enemy attacks in Italy. Although the Tartessian-Arecomician forces defeated the Tarantine levies and their Samnite allies in a series of hard-fought battles, a Tarantine fleet managed to land a large army complete with African elephants in eastern Arecome itself. The army caused a lot of damage, but eventually the Arecomicians managed to pin it down with siege warfare, while the Tartessian fleet eliminated the Tarantine one in an epic battle at Malta. The lesser Tarantine naval forces were then hunted down by Arecomician and Tartessian ships, while the invading army was starved into surrender. Taras itself was then besieged with vigour. The 8th century BC ended with the fall of both Taras and Rome.
However, the war was not yet over. The Roman government fled north, and rallied the Rasna league; with help from Tarantine forces and Illyrian tribes, the Athanoi were defeated in battle and then granted foederati status. A vast army of Rasna, Athanoi, Illyrians, Samnites and Tarantines, under the skilled leadership of King Tullus, then recaptured Rome and advanced into the Tartessian colony in Italy, winning victory after victory. A large Tartessian army was outmaneuvered and destroyed at Elea in 675 BC. Much of the rest of the century went on in the fashion of the Romans trying to liberate the Tarantine homeland, being repulsed, being counter-attacked by Arecomicians from the south and/or the Tartessians from the sea, beating back the counterattack and so forth. The Italian terrain allowed both sides to hold their ground, but after a while came to prevent any decisive breakthroughs. The Tarantines were mostly scattered over the time, but created two new republics an Illyrian one and a Cyrenean one. The Romans managed to turn the vague coalition dominant in Central Italy into a unified, though still decentralised and multicultural, state, united by the wartime experiences as well as by common militaristic values. Meanwhile, Tartessians were increasingly shaken by their defeats, especially as they encouraged Sardinians to once again prey on their trade routes; fortunately, the Tartessian fleet was able to defend most of them, but it still caused a fair amount of turmoil, inspiring short-lived rebellions. Arecomicians, meanwhile, asserted their hold on southern Italy, enslaved or expelled the conquered Greeks, looted Taras and generally took over the place, even seizing the Tarantine colony in Epirus.
By circa 625 BC, the war died down. Arecomicians were in any case largely content with their gains, and the Tartessians were exhausted, as well as facing a little civil war back at home (between the uppity urban commoners supported by an unduly ambitious Regus and the conservative factions in the Sophetora-Magus); as for the Romans, they too had some consolidation to do. During the 6th century BC, some more turmoil occurred; Arecomicians struggled to consolidate their gains, Tarantine republics attempted to strike back, and Rome underwent a regime change after a corrupt (but rather reasonable, considering that Tartessos has already recouped) king signed a peace treaty with Tartessos, giving back the colony. A republic rather similar to the Demarchy was set up (also influenced in some regards by the Tarantines many of whom now incidentally resided in Rome and the newer Italian colonies, being descendants of veterans of the Tartessian War), but war with Tartessians was not risked, especially as there were new regional rumblings amongst the northern Rasna cities. For now, Western Mediterranean was at peace, though it was doubtless a very temporary one.
Greece saw its share of trouble as well. Fierce Thracian tribes gradually pushed back the Racadonians, while Macedonian and Thessalian tribes raided into Greece. The Tarantine League, back in its heyday, had briefly gained great influence in northwestern Greece, but subsequently was forced to neglect this direction in foreign policy. The Greeks themselves, meanwhile, spent the time gradually colonising northwards, losing their Eastern Mediterranean colonies to local rising empires and, ofcourse, fighting rather senseless and petty wars with each other, as city-states rose and fell. Eretria remained predominant, however; adept diplomacy allowed it to remain afloat as a trading power (and after the weakening of Tartessos and the fall of Israel, it even rose to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean commerce, also becoming influential in Italy), and in Greece itself competition was stomped out in a series of rather more meaningful wars. During the 9th century BC, Athens was razed and later rebuilt as an Eretrian colony; this later led to several coalition wars, but as all the anti-Eritrian coalitions were rather divided and still unable to match Eretrias naval might, the Eretrian Hegemony (rather resemblant of the Avyaktaragan Ascendancies mentioned further below) only grew stronger. Still, the Eretrians had no intention of uniting Greece, and such city-states as Delphi and Peristeria even remained fully independent and fairly strong. Eretrians meanwhile consolidated their gains, most notably Crete and Thessaly captured with the help of renowned Odrysian mercenaries. Meanwhile, a semi-democratic form of government was adapted in Eretria itself.
And lastly, in Anatolia, all was surprisingly quiet. In the 9th century BC the Paphlagonian state had undergone reform; it was divided into small principalities, all obedient to a supreme king who declared himself above the internal squabbles, intermediating them and speeding up the process of assimilation, as the multiethnic mess that was Paphlagonian became more and more culturally coherent. Meanwhile, new lands were conquered; Paphlagonians first subdued the barbaric inlands of western Anatolia, defeating the Phrygian tribes there, and then moved on to fight the Greek city states in the west. The lesser independent city-states were annexed, and the Racadonians expelled from Asia; Miletos, however, was allowed to retain its independence (but not its southern colony) and Eretria its colonies. Thus the Paphlagonians gained access to the Mediterranean Sea, and this trading nation prospered more than even before. Gold mines were also exploited, and the Cult of Hekes, primary Paphlagonian god (of sea and fire), spread throughout Anatolia and even into Greece. The Paphlagonians also assisted their Cimmerian trading partners and allies against the Scythians coming from the east, while setting up new trade outposts in the Black Sea. The neo-Hittite Luwian states continued their squabbling, in the meantime; it was only in the late 6th century BC that one of them specifically, Kizzuwatna, the southeastern kingdom managed to gain the upper hand and form a Luwian empire, though its longevity is in doubt.
Meanwhile, in the barbaric lands of Gaul and Thrace, new civilisations arose in the last three-two centuries, though that title is often disputed and not always without reason. Stimulated by Tartessian trade, the semi-urban Kingdom of Armorica arose, actively trading with both Tartessos and the Britannic tribes. South of it exists one of the most bizarre civilisations in the world, the Caeon a coalition of five tribes brought together by a pentatheistic religion. The most infamous of these tribes is the Luak tribe the aggressive followers of a fire-god, the coalitions army which goes about massacring or enslaving local Celtic and Ligurian tribes. The other tribes follow, building their villages and forts. Under the guidance of a Luak tribe Oracle (supreme leader of this tribal confederacy), they had recently conquered a very vast area indeed and had now come into conflict with Tartessos and Liguria. It is unclear if it will continue growing, be checked or even collapse in upon itself.
And in northern Thrace, the city of Odrysa was founded by one of the native (but, at least according to the legends, not quite Thracian) tribes. Gradually it became a centre of local civilisation, renowned for its military tradition, discipline and metalworking. The latter encouraged and allowed the Odrysians to trade extensively with Paphlagonia and the Greek city-states, including the declining Racadonia; Odrysian mercenaries had gained themselves a great reputation in the Mediterranean, serving in the various petty Greek wars. The increasingly wealthy city soon gained great influence over the nearby Thracian tribes; this was helped by the development and spread of an Odrysian writing system. By 500 BC Odrysa had become the centre of a loose East Thracian tribal confederation, as well as a regional power in its own right.
Fertile Crescent:
As always, the Levantine region and, since more recently, the Red Sea was a grand battlefield of merchants, diplomats and, ofcourse, the huge armies raised by the states within and empires without. Secret deals and open alliances were made and broken, armies marched, and navies maneuvered into position as well. The 10th century BC was comparatively peaceful on the main front (i.e. the Levant) itself; Israel was still living out the last decades of its golden age, as new religious schools arose and the great port cities of Israel boomed. Karung was recovering from past troubles and also turning to the sea somewhat; the same went for Mitanni, the rulers of which worked to increase their influence in Phoenicia and to curb the powers of the nobility. The Nubians, meanwhile, turned decidedly southwards, moving the capital to Meroe and subjugating various tribes south of there. Soon enough they became embroiled in a new series of colonial wars with Israel; although the Nubians initially scored major victories in Africa, conquering the Israelite ally of Dmt along with the Israelite colonies there and going on to humiliate the Israelite navy at the Gate of Tears the Israelites proved able to more than turn the tide. Around 930 BC a great Red Sea fleet was created in the Israelite Red Sea port of Ezion-geber. This fleet outnumbered and outmatched the Nubian one, and practically destroyed it in a series of battles and skirmishes; after that, Israelite forces secured the Nubian colonies in Arabia and invaded Africa, assisting a Judaic rebellion in former Dmt. The Nubians scored occasional victories, but in the end proved unable to more than impede the Israelite progress, as more and more troops were sent to fight Nubia; soon, the cherished Nubian Red Sea ports were in Israelite hands, although the Nubians persistently refused to surrender, launching several counter-attacks.
This war raged on into the mid-9th century BC, when another suddenly began in the Levant. With help from Phoenician merchants who were promised an unprecedented monopoly over trade in Karung lands, the Karung had smuggled soldiers into the bustling Mediterranean ports of Israel while the defenders had let their guard down; that allowed them to launch a stunningly effective sneak attack from within. The Israelites reacted quickly enough, preventing further advances, but key cities were lost, and the defenders were put off their balance; that allowed Karung to begin another, more open overland offensive from the Sinai, although it was hindered by fortifications. As Karung forces broke through and advanced across Judea, Israel also came under attack from ethnic rebels, Aramaean nomads, Phoenician city-states and the Mitanni, as all sought to benefit from this chaos and to take Israels wealthy cities and fertile fields. Desperate, the Israelites began their exodus to Ezion-geber, and beyond. Meanwhile, their troops fought a losing battle on numerous fronts, gradually giving way. Eventually, Jerusalem fell after a fierce struggle, during which the attacking Karung troops and their disorderly Aramaean mercenaries looted and burned the Temple. But all that was only the beginning, as conflicting claims to Israel were pressed. As popular outrage over the Phoenician monopoly rose in Karung and as Phoenicians themselves began to press forward outrageous territorial claims, things became temporarily simplified the Karung, who had already accepted the allegiance of Aramaean tribes (in exchange for letting them settle east of the Jordan and retain some degree of autonomy), had now allied with the Mitanni against the Phoenicians, whose newly-granted rights were then quickly terminated.
The Phoenician War itself still did turn out to be a complex and drawn-out matter, as while the treacherous Karung immediately became hated amongst the Phoenicians, the Mitanni still had fair support amongst them; therefore, for the remainder of the 8th and much of the 7th centuries BC, interchanging alliances further complicated by the occasional overambitious Greeks, Luwians and newly-arrived Aramaeans fought over Phoenicia and indeed much of the Levant. Occasional Hebrew rebellions also occurred, forcing the Karung to enslave all the Jews that failed to escape or die; most of them were used as forced labour back in Karung, and the rest were sold elsewhere. Anyway, by 653 BC the Karung, with their vast armies and less complicated internal affairs, had come out triumphant (though barely so) over an ultimate Mitanni-Phoenician coalition. A brief lull in warfare came, as a treaty allowed the Mitanni to annex the Phoenician city-state of Arvad and the Phoenician-dominated island of Cyprus, but gave the rest of Phoenicia and Israel to Karung. The Karung colonised Israel, assimilating the Aramaeans. A new war between the Mitanni and the Karung came kind of when the exhausted Mitanni Empire collapsed into civil war between its ruler and his feudals later in the century. That civil war proved fatal neighbouring states all moved in to grab pieces of the Mitanni pie, finally destroying that proud nation. The Karung ended up in absolute dominance over the Levant, at least for now.
As for the Israelites, they didnt develop their elaborate exodus plans for nothing; Ezion-geber was probably the last major city to fall, and by then a large portion of Israels civilian population was moved to the larger colonies, especially Saba, to where the royal family moved, later reforming the Knesset and the Sanhedrin, though both were much weaker than before. The war with the Nubians did continue, but eventually the Israelites withdrew from the ruins of the Nubian port cities. The chaos caused the Red Sea trade routes to collapse, and thus encouraged even more disorder; this chaos both allowed and encouraged tribes of Qahtani Arabs to cross the Red Sea to conquer the weakened Nubia, eventually becoming its rulers and intermixing with the natives; the Arabs were largely assimilated themselves, but they did also influence the Nubian culture (then obviously in a crisis), leading to the development of a new monotheistic religion. The Arabs also brought with themselves superior Arabian horses and a cavalry tradition; this allowed the new dynasty to conquer southwards and to fight off a 6th century BC Karung invasion (admittedly provoked by overeager Arab horsemen raiding Karung farmlands). Dmt, however, was lost for good; in its place, a Judaic kingdom of Axum arose, and it was obviously allied with the Israelite exiles, though relations between them and the Nubians improved somewhat as both were bitterer at the Karung than at each other. Obviously, the Nubian colonies were also lost by now.
For now, the states of the region are still largely settling down after the storm, even though it had passed a while ago. Trade is picking up again despite bitterness, and at least the Arabic pirates thrive.
Ur rebounded in the aftermath of Eskanders invasion and other troubles (mostly related to persistent Aramaean incursions), and already in the 10th century BC was once more on the march; using internal troubles in that country, the Sumerians conquered Elam, and so started a war against Javaid, the Eskanderid ruler of Persia. Javaid also attempted to reconquer Elam, occupying its eastern territories but failing to advance further; Urrians and Sogdo-Persians then clashed extensively in northern Mesopotamia and Media. Ultimately neither side managed to advance much, both proving themselves able to parry the others thrusts. In circa 910 BC, the tides had turned, however; Javaids successors proved much less able than he, while in Ur, a great new ruler came to power Uru Adan-ur. Adan-ur managed to expel the Persians from both eastern Elam and Media, stretching the Urrian Empire far to the east and establishing a new, secure, well-defended border. He then went on to modernise Shulgis old code of laws, reorganise the expanded military, improved the infrastructure and irrigation and successfully integrated the new conquests. This inaugurated the Second Urrian Golden Age. During that time, the divinity of the royal bloodline was assured, the religion grew more organised, a system of watchtowers was set up to the east and the Great Desert Wall finally put an end to Aramaean attacks on Mesopotamia. In subsequent periods Ur somewhat stagnated, its ruling bloodline becoming rather inbred and decadent, but nonetheless remained an uncontested great power, expanding considerably pieces of the crumbling Sogdian Persia were picked up, Arran was peacefully integrated (but mostly allowed to retain political and cultural autonomy, at least at first) and the Mitanni heartlands were conquered as that old empire began to collapse, as described above. The Urartians of Caucasus were also eventually subdued, and a prosperous trade outpost was established in Qatar.
das
Regeneration In Process
Central Asia and India:
As already implied, the Eskanderid Empire was split up in 967 BC after the death of Eskander’s grandson Kurosh; the west became Persia under Javaid and his successors, while the east remained under Samarkand, ruled by the line of Javaid’s brother Bahadur. Persian misfortunes have already been mentioned; Samarkand was obviously better off, though it had its problems. Still, Bahadur I himself defeated most rebels and established a feudal system to help him govern his vast territories, and to provide him with troops for his great campaigns of conquest in the north, the northeast and the southeast. His son, Eskander II, had successfully subjugated most of the Indus River, although the vast fortifications of the southern Avyaktaragan city of Nyayana dissuaded him from attacking it. His own grandson, Bahadur III, was more reckless, and had better siege engines; also, the traditional merchant houses of Samarkand had regained their prominence at the time and too became interested in conquering the extremely wealthy and important trade centre. Therefore in 897 BC an epic siege commenced; thanks to the strong fortifications and naval supplies, it became very drawn out, especially after the first two Eskanderid assaults proved a bloody failure. According to traditional Avyaktaragan accounts, it continued to 879 BC, when a large Avyaktaragan coalition relieved the city and routed the huge Eskanderid army, demonstrating the superiority of Avyaktaragan spearmen formations and tactics and inaugurating an Avyaktaragan Golden Age. As for the Eskanderids, they had a civil war during which they lost control over the Indus to native tribes, as well as Avyaktaragans and Magadhans. The empire briefly disintegrated, but Sogdiana was reunited in 800 BC under a distant relative of the previously bloodline, named Teymour. Teymour proceeded to reconquer the Central Asian territories, subjugating local nobles, but allowing them to retain their privileges and some of their power in exchange for loyal governance of the provinces, though under the watchful eyes of the Etemaadi [5]. Making no further attempts to conquer India, Teymour instead picked up the pieces of the crumbling Persian Empire; he failed to advance into the Fertile Crescent because of the powerful Urrian defense, and so turned to consolidate his empire, and to expand northeastwards. His successors increasingly became puppets of the Etemaadi and the merchant houses once again, and continued to war in the northern steppes as the era of the steppe nomads began and Scythian tribes raided Sogdiana. To the east, a more or less secure trade route was established with the western Chinese states and Khitans, as the nomads in the region were generally more peaceful. Towards 500 BC, the Samarkand Empire was quite rotten, but its principal cities were generally prosperous.
The Avyaktaragans, again as already mentioned, entered a Golden Age after the Siege of Nyayana. Paramatmistic Hinduism received further development, with the development of logic; this also influences the rise of an early complex mathematical system. Also developed was the Lothal compass, and superior, swift Avyaktaragan catamarans, which allowed this civilisation to spread far and wide in the northern Indian Ocean. Trade routes and cultural influence spread, and colonies were established in a region stretching from Arabia to Java. Gradually the bigger and more successful of these colonies attained effective independence. In 744 BC, Bhagktr the Swift, tyrant of the strong city-state of Gutja, combined Aryan cavalry with Avyaktaragan infantry to form an invincible war machine, which he then used to unite all the Avyaktaragan states in India under his reign, as well as to advance northeastwards, conquering the various states there and even defeating a numerically-superior Magadhan army, forcing Magadhans out of their westernmost provinces. Also he campaigned to the east. Bhagktr changed his name to Hataghazansa (“He Whose Enemies Are Annihilated”
, and his capital of Gutja took upon the title of Baddharajya – “Ascendant”. This was the first – and probably the greatest – of the Avyaktaragan Ascendancies, hegemonic city-states dominating leagues of lesser cities in addition to their rural regions. After Hataghazansa’s death his empire largely fell apart, but Gutja retained a position of power for some time to come. Subsequently many of the eastern and northern Avyaktaragan conquests in India were lost altogether to the local empires, but the main urban regions remained free to continue vying for the position of Ascendancy. By 500 BC, there emerged the “Ascendancy of Nyayana” in the west, controlling the Indus Delta, southern Indus valley and most Arabian colonies, the Ascendancy of Somnath dominating Gujarat itself and competing for Arabia and Africa with Nyayana and the land-based Ascendancy of Ahar colonising the Narmada and meddling in Magadhan affairs. Further south were weak, but independent coastal city-states, and assorted colonies on Lanka and in southernmost Deccan. And in the Far East, the former colony of Samkataka has become a trade centre and an Ascendancy in its own right, liberating/conquering the other colonies and assimilating local tribes.
The Magadhans saw their ups and downs in this time, but mostly continued to fare well. For most of the period they warred around the Bay of Bengal, fighting Dravidian and Burmese tribes and proto-states. Steady progress was made; new port cities were established, and new lands were conquered. The process was interrupted by occasional foreign invasions (most notably, that of Bhagktr) and civil wars; still, after the 8th century BC the Magadhans were able to conquer the western Aryans tribes and states for good, although warfare with Ahar proved indecisive. On the domestic front, councils of Brahmins and Kshatriyas were set up to advise the king, a meritocratic system of succession was devised and various public works, such as a system of dikes and canals, were undertaken, allowing for an agricultural boom. Commerce also flowered, though nowhere near as much as amongst the Avyaktaragans. However, by 500 BC the vast empire had already begun to stagnate.
To the south, new states were rising. Several of them were immediately subjugated by Magadha or Ahar, but the southern Aryan-ruled kingdom of Assaka had fought off all invaders and rose to dominate Deccan. Further south, the Avyaktaragan-influenced Kingdom of Sinhal arose, checking Assakan expansion southwards. In the far southern coastal regions there were Avyaktaragan and Israelite colonies.
China:
The region saw its fair share of warfare and intrigue in this time, intermixed though it was with cultural and technological innovation. New religions and philosophies arose – and were adapted as ideologies; small fortified towns that now appeared all over China became pillars of the rising centralised states; and the spread of iron working, combined with population growth, revolutionised warfare as it made bigger armies than any seen before available.
Already in the 970s BC, a war between Xishan and an alliance of Nanshan and Wu was barely avoided thanks to the cunning of the Xishan merchant council, which persuaded the king of Wu to become a (effectively-powerless) Duke of Xishan, effectively detaching Wu from its alliance with Nanshan and placing it in a personal union with Xishan. The Nanshan were obviously unpleased, but more interested in wars with assorted increasingly-militant barbarian tribes. However, the Pi – who had long coveted Xishan’s wealth and disliked its autonomy – were outraged, as this was basically open defiance of Pi dynasty’s authority and violation of previous treaties, according to which the Duke of Xishan was always to be appointed by the Pi Emperor. Therefore, Emperor Tuozi declared war and marched on Tianxian. His vast armies and experienced generals, as well as his own keen military mind, allowed him to force several of the passes of the Taihang Shan, overwhelming the then-rudimentary fortifications. However, defenses on the Xishan Peninsula itself proved tougher to fight through, and the Xishan defenders were able to rally, mobilising the patriotic militias as well as hiring mercenaries. This and the skilled use of naval communications by the great Xishan commander Tsung allowed the Xishan to defend their core regions from all comers, even defeating a few lesser armies, as well as to preserve unity in spite of the peninsula being eventually cut off from the rest of the mainland. While both sides still attempted maneuvers – most notably, a diversionary Xishan invasion of the original Pi realm in the northeast – the war mostly degenerated into very drawn-out siege operations, with little progress made over nearly a decade. Finally, as news of strong barbarian attacks from the northwest reached Tuozi, a peace agreement was worked out; the Wu ducal line was allowed to rule on, but Pi’s supreme sovereignty was acknowledged and several westernmost regions – never all that incorporated into Xishan or wanted by its rulers – were ceded to Pi. Tuozi then went on to handle a major defeat to the Xianyun barbarians, and to advance deep into their territory before dying.
The rest of the 10th century BC continued comparatively peacefully. Nanshan conquered various southern barbaric tribes, with diplomacy or when that failed (and it did often enough) with force. Xishan expanded its old colonies and founded new ones, also spreading its cultural influence. Pi warred on in the north and the west. The Khitans in the far north were gradually decaying.
The 9th century BC was also rather quiet, although there were border wars between Nanshan and Xishan as both expanded southwards, and a pretty serious Jomon rebellion. Lastly, in 821-818 BC a Khitan invasion of Korea was repulsed with Xishan help.
In 783 BC, however, a new cycle of violence in China began, and it would last for quite a while. The beginning was in a popular Mohist uprising in Nanshan (where that ideology already gained widespread following), which soon enough grew into an all-out civil war. The Xishan intervened in it, seeking to settle certain territorial disputes over the Yue lands, which were previously conquered by the Nanshan; likewise, the Pi, once more hungry for conquest, moved their armies south against the Nanshan, who never even pretended to acknowledge the Pi ascendancy. The civil war thus became multi-sided (more so when barbarian uprisings began, and the Xishan decided to deny certain strategic regions to the Pi, whose new Emperor, Yanzi, seemed dangerously megalomaniacal and generally insane). The ruling Nanshan king, Pileguo, was defeated by the Pi and forced to flee southwards, where his loyal nobles defeated the barbarian rebel coalition; the Pi meanwhile captured the city of Nanshan and put a puppet on the throne there, proceeding southwards; the Mohist rebels retreated to western strongholds, and struck out from there in a guerrilla campaign; and the Xishan carefully tried to avoid direct clashes with the Pi; inevitably, however, they occurred, and Emperor Yanzi got angry. In 758, he turned his armies east. By that moment the Xishan had already introduced military reforms; not only did they set up a new system of powerful fortifications (though mostly in the northern lands), but also developed a proud tradition of citizen-soldiers, whose tight formations proved able to withstand the charges of Pi cavalry when fighting in the right terrain. Alas, such terrain was not always available, and the powerful Pi cavalry arm was able to rout a Xishan army near the Lake Pengli. Instead of wasting his time with the southern colonies, Yanzi marched to the northeast, seeking to put an end to the Xishan insolence once and for all.
Meanwhile, Xinuluo, the nephew of the recently-deceased elderly leader of the Mohist rebels in Nanshan, inherited said rebels and led them to a series of victories against both Pileguo and the Pi puppet with his weakened garrison. With most of Nanshan territories – apart from a northeastern slice lost to Pi and an eastern coastal region lost to Xishan – secured in rebel hands, Xinuluo claimed descent from the venerated Chi You and declared himself king of Nanshan. With the power of the old aristocracy broken, he introduced a system of governance based on new principles, combining old meritocratic and centralist thought with various Mohist virtues. A strong centralised and theoretically benevolent monarchy was thus created. New fortifications were set up in the north, mining and agriculture were developed, and southwards campaigns started anew; in spite of native resistance and disease, the faraway southern ocean of legend was reached by 500 BC. As for the wars back in the north, they were largely ignored, except inasmuch they meant that Nanshan’s enemies were fighting each other and that refugees continued to arrive steadily.
By 740 BC, the war had devastated Jiangsu and moved to the Xishan Peninsula once more. Yanzi became fixated on the destruction of Xishan and levied more and more troops, raised more and more taxes to aid him in that noble goal. By then, superior siege engines became available; combined with waves of troops, this allowed Yanzi to gradually overcome enemy fortifications and, in 734 BC, besiege Tianxian itself. The Xishan, for their part, pulled troops and resources from all over their empire, and mobilised all able to bear and use arms in the city. In the end, the strategic advantage granted to Xishan by their naval supremacy proved decisive; the never-ending stream of supplies deprived Yanzi of hopes to starve the city into surrender, and the arrival of Xishan armies on his flanks took the Mad Emperor’s diseased, starved and exhausted – in other words, thoroughly demoralised – troops by surprise. The cavalry didn’t provide much of an advantage in the pitched battle, and the smaller Xishan army managed to rout its enemies. Yanzi died in battle, and the rest of his army was subsequently slaughtered, imprisoned or scattered.
But at this point it became apparent that this war had benefited the Khitans more than anyone else. A new Divine Emperor, Hulagu, arose by this moment and reinvigorated the faltering state, for a brief but glorious while. Around 750 BC he began his great campaigns, and by the time of the Siege of Tianxian he managed to vassalise the Yuxian tribes, conquer the East Xianyun, occupy Pi Proper and most importantly overrun Korea – both the kingdom of and the local undergarrisoned Xishan colonies. Furthermore his forces now advanced south to ravage the Pi Empire’s Huang He core; the new Emperor resisted valorously, and though the damage was done his resistance eventually forced the Khitans to retreat – but not before he himself died, throwing the exhausted empire into wars of succession, in which Xishan couldn’t help but interfere.
Fortunately for the Chinese warring states, Hulagu died soon after, and the Khitans, though retaining their conquests, grew even more weak and decadent than before, the semi-feudal Overseers taking effective power into their hands. It was only in 603 BC that one of those Overseers – a Koreanised Overseer named Yun-Bok – killed the last Divine Emperor with the intent of taking power for himself. And, well, so he did. He also adapted a new state religion, Tengarism, a more developed and organised Dualist version of traditional Khitan beliefs, which had previously gained support from a minor but still considerable portion of the population. The notion of imperial divinity was abolished as blasphemous, the powers of the other Overseers were curtailed by the new (non-divine) Emperor and other administrative reforms were introduced. New gains were properly integrated, fortifications were constructed, Xishan invasions of Korea were repulsed and Tengarism, after an uncertain few initial years, gained widespread popular support, also spreading greatly amongst the other steppe peoples. Westwards and southwestwards expansion continued as local tribes were incorporated, and the Khitan Empire remained a powerful force in 500 BC, despite some local setbacks.
As for northern China, it remained very chaotic. The remainder of the 8th century BC, as well as the first three decades of the 7th century BC, saw gruesome warlord wars in the Pi Empire’s territory, made even worse by barbarian migrations and raids, attacks by ambitious Khitan Overseers and ofcourse Xishan interventions to undermine any attempts to unify the region. As generations changed, the land war grew increasingly unpopular amongst the Xishan; furthermore, the merchants were (reasonably, as it turned out) concerned by the growth of Ducal power it all allowed. Duke Ling, in 676 BC, had indeed managed to stage a coup d’etat after a highly successful campaign that ended in the (temporary, but resounding) defeat of all the anti-Xishan factions along the Huang He, and started a period of nigh-absolute ducal power. It was subsequently called a dark time of oppression, tyranny and, um, darkness, though the Dukes also introduced great public works, built new cities (most notably Guangling, to where Duke Hsien moved the capital in 623 BC) and even encouraged the rise of Sunfucianism [6], a new individualist philosophy with strong emphasis on the importance of commerce. Still, the main legacy of the Dukes remained the continued warfare in Huang He, where, for a brief while at least, a string of harmless puppet states was created. However, constant rebellions still broke out, and large forces had to be committed there. Ironically enough, but perhaps predictably, Sunfucianism became one of the driving forces behind the growing resistance movement that sought to return power to the merchants and to withdraw from western affairs. After Duke Hsien’s death in 604 BC, a counter-revolution occurred and the merchant council reclaimed power, though the capital remained in Guangling, as it already became a great trade centre in its own right. A brief civil war still did follow, but it was indeed quite brief and one-sided, the new Duke being utterly defeated and deposed (after a twenty-year Dukeless period, his son was allowed to retake the ducal throne as a figurehead). The Xishan then withdrew forces and support from the western states, even from the lands lost to Tuozi. Instead, the merchant republic allowed the states along the Huang He to fall into a new cycle of infighting and turned once again to the sea. While all attempts to reconquer Korea were in vain, the Jomon colony expanded considerably, despite native resistance; numerous new islands were grabbed as well, and large cities sprung up there soon enough.
As for the western states, they mostly proved strong enough to repulse the Khitan attacks, but remained divided and unstable. By 500 BC, there were five – from west to east, Hao, Wei, Zheng and Cao, and Chen in the south. Trade between them was on the rise, and new cities were beginning to spring up around the great forts. Their future was ofcourse very uncertain.
OOC:
[1] In our modern day, Lakam Ha is better known as Palenque.
[2] Horns of Tigranus=OTL Pillars of Hercules=OMD (Our Modern Day) Rock of Gibraltar plus Mount Hacho on the other side of the strait.
[3] Eridanos=OTL Po.
[4] Suesia=OTL Carthage.
[5] The Etemaadi (i.e. the Trusted) are basically an early secret police, though mostly keeping an eye on said nobles, at least early on.
[6] Sorry, alex994. You’ll have to live with that.
Hope you people don’t mind certain creative liberties taken with your plans. I think they make things rather more interesting. Also, remember that some of the states that died in this turn might later come back to life, in a way.
As already implied, the Eskanderid Empire was split up in 967 BC after the death of Eskander’s grandson Kurosh; the west became Persia under Javaid and his successors, while the east remained under Samarkand, ruled by the line of Javaid’s brother Bahadur. Persian misfortunes have already been mentioned; Samarkand was obviously better off, though it had its problems. Still, Bahadur I himself defeated most rebels and established a feudal system to help him govern his vast territories, and to provide him with troops for his great campaigns of conquest in the north, the northeast and the southeast. His son, Eskander II, had successfully subjugated most of the Indus River, although the vast fortifications of the southern Avyaktaragan city of Nyayana dissuaded him from attacking it. His own grandson, Bahadur III, was more reckless, and had better siege engines; also, the traditional merchant houses of Samarkand had regained their prominence at the time and too became interested in conquering the extremely wealthy and important trade centre. Therefore in 897 BC an epic siege commenced; thanks to the strong fortifications and naval supplies, it became very drawn out, especially after the first two Eskanderid assaults proved a bloody failure. According to traditional Avyaktaragan accounts, it continued to 879 BC, when a large Avyaktaragan coalition relieved the city and routed the huge Eskanderid army, demonstrating the superiority of Avyaktaragan spearmen formations and tactics and inaugurating an Avyaktaragan Golden Age. As for the Eskanderids, they had a civil war during which they lost control over the Indus to native tribes, as well as Avyaktaragans and Magadhans. The empire briefly disintegrated, but Sogdiana was reunited in 800 BC under a distant relative of the previously bloodline, named Teymour. Teymour proceeded to reconquer the Central Asian territories, subjugating local nobles, but allowing them to retain their privileges and some of their power in exchange for loyal governance of the provinces, though under the watchful eyes of the Etemaadi [5]. Making no further attempts to conquer India, Teymour instead picked up the pieces of the crumbling Persian Empire; he failed to advance into the Fertile Crescent because of the powerful Urrian defense, and so turned to consolidate his empire, and to expand northeastwards. His successors increasingly became puppets of the Etemaadi and the merchant houses once again, and continued to war in the northern steppes as the era of the steppe nomads began and Scythian tribes raided Sogdiana. To the east, a more or less secure trade route was established with the western Chinese states and Khitans, as the nomads in the region were generally more peaceful. Towards 500 BC, the Samarkand Empire was quite rotten, but its principal cities were generally prosperous.
The Avyaktaragans, again as already mentioned, entered a Golden Age after the Siege of Nyayana. Paramatmistic Hinduism received further development, with the development of logic; this also influences the rise of an early complex mathematical system. Also developed was the Lothal compass, and superior, swift Avyaktaragan catamarans, which allowed this civilisation to spread far and wide in the northern Indian Ocean. Trade routes and cultural influence spread, and colonies were established in a region stretching from Arabia to Java. Gradually the bigger and more successful of these colonies attained effective independence. In 744 BC, Bhagktr the Swift, tyrant of the strong city-state of Gutja, combined Aryan cavalry with Avyaktaragan infantry to form an invincible war machine, which he then used to unite all the Avyaktaragan states in India under his reign, as well as to advance northeastwards, conquering the various states there and even defeating a numerically-superior Magadhan army, forcing Magadhans out of their westernmost provinces. Also he campaigned to the east. Bhagktr changed his name to Hataghazansa (“He Whose Enemies Are Annihilated”
, and his capital of Gutja took upon the title of Baddharajya – “Ascendant”. This was the first – and probably the greatest – of the Avyaktaragan Ascendancies, hegemonic city-states dominating leagues of lesser cities in addition to their rural regions. After Hataghazansa’s death his empire largely fell apart, but Gutja retained a position of power for some time to come. Subsequently many of the eastern and northern Avyaktaragan conquests in India were lost altogether to the local empires, but the main urban regions remained free to continue vying for the position of Ascendancy. By 500 BC, there emerged the “Ascendancy of Nyayana” in the west, controlling the Indus Delta, southern Indus valley and most Arabian colonies, the Ascendancy of Somnath dominating Gujarat itself and competing for Arabia and Africa with Nyayana and the land-based Ascendancy of Ahar colonising the Narmada and meddling in Magadhan affairs. Further south were weak, but independent coastal city-states, and assorted colonies on Lanka and in southernmost Deccan. And in the Far East, the former colony of Samkataka has become a trade centre and an Ascendancy in its own right, liberating/conquering the other colonies and assimilating local tribes.The Magadhans saw their ups and downs in this time, but mostly continued to fare well. For most of the period they warred around the Bay of Bengal, fighting Dravidian and Burmese tribes and proto-states. Steady progress was made; new port cities were established, and new lands were conquered. The process was interrupted by occasional foreign invasions (most notably, that of Bhagktr) and civil wars; still, after the 8th century BC the Magadhans were able to conquer the western Aryans tribes and states for good, although warfare with Ahar proved indecisive. On the domestic front, councils of Brahmins and Kshatriyas were set up to advise the king, a meritocratic system of succession was devised and various public works, such as a system of dikes and canals, were undertaken, allowing for an agricultural boom. Commerce also flowered, though nowhere near as much as amongst the Avyaktaragans. However, by 500 BC the vast empire had already begun to stagnate.
To the south, new states were rising. Several of them were immediately subjugated by Magadha or Ahar, but the southern Aryan-ruled kingdom of Assaka had fought off all invaders and rose to dominate Deccan. Further south, the Avyaktaragan-influenced Kingdom of Sinhal arose, checking Assakan expansion southwards. In the far southern coastal regions there were Avyaktaragan and Israelite colonies.
China:
The region saw its fair share of warfare and intrigue in this time, intermixed though it was with cultural and technological innovation. New religions and philosophies arose – and were adapted as ideologies; small fortified towns that now appeared all over China became pillars of the rising centralised states; and the spread of iron working, combined with population growth, revolutionised warfare as it made bigger armies than any seen before available.
Already in the 970s BC, a war between Xishan and an alliance of Nanshan and Wu was barely avoided thanks to the cunning of the Xishan merchant council, which persuaded the king of Wu to become a (effectively-powerless) Duke of Xishan, effectively detaching Wu from its alliance with Nanshan and placing it in a personal union with Xishan. The Nanshan were obviously unpleased, but more interested in wars with assorted increasingly-militant barbarian tribes. However, the Pi – who had long coveted Xishan’s wealth and disliked its autonomy – were outraged, as this was basically open defiance of Pi dynasty’s authority and violation of previous treaties, according to which the Duke of Xishan was always to be appointed by the Pi Emperor. Therefore, Emperor Tuozi declared war and marched on Tianxian. His vast armies and experienced generals, as well as his own keen military mind, allowed him to force several of the passes of the Taihang Shan, overwhelming the then-rudimentary fortifications. However, defenses on the Xishan Peninsula itself proved tougher to fight through, and the Xishan defenders were able to rally, mobilising the patriotic militias as well as hiring mercenaries. This and the skilled use of naval communications by the great Xishan commander Tsung allowed the Xishan to defend their core regions from all comers, even defeating a few lesser armies, as well as to preserve unity in spite of the peninsula being eventually cut off from the rest of the mainland. While both sides still attempted maneuvers – most notably, a diversionary Xishan invasion of the original Pi realm in the northeast – the war mostly degenerated into very drawn-out siege operations, with little progress made over nearly a decade. Finally, as news of strong barbarian attacks from the northwest reached Tuozi, a peace agreement was worked out; the Wu ducal line was allowed to rule on, but Pi’s supreme sovereignty was acknowledged and several westernmost regions – never all that incorporated into Xishan or wanted by its rulers – were ceded to Pi. Tuozi then went on to handle a major defeat to the Xianyun barbarians, and to advance deep into their territory before dying.
The rest of the 10th century BC continued comparatively peacefully. Nanshan conquered various southern barbaric tribes, with diplomacy or when that failed (and it did often enough) with force. Xishan expanded its old colonies and founded new ones, also spreading its cultural influence. Pi warred on in the north and the west. The Khitans in the far north were gradually decaying.
The 9th century BC was also rather quiet, although there were border wars between Nanshan and Xishan as both expanded southwards, and a pretty serious Jomon rebellion. Lastly, in 821-818 BC a Khitan invasion of Korea was repulsed with Xishan help.
In 783 BC, however, a new cycle of violence in China began, and it would last for quite a while. The beginning was in a popular Mohist uprising in Nanshan (where that ideology already gained widespread following), which soon enough grew into an all-out civil war. The Xishan intervened in it, seeking to settle certain territorial disputes over the Yue lands, which were previously conquered by the Nanshan; likewise, the Pi, once more hungry for conquest, moved their armies south against the Nanshan, who never even pretended to acknowledge the Pi ascendancy. The civil war thus became multi-sided (more so when barbarian uprisings began, and the Xishan decided to deny certain strategic regions to the Pi, whose new Emperor, Yanzi, seemed dangerously megalomaniacal and generally insane). The ruling Nanshan king, Pileguo, was defeated by the Pi and forced to flee southwards, where his loyal nobles defeated the barbarian rebel coalition; the Pi meanwhile captured the city of Nanshan and put a puppet on the throne there, proceeding southwards; the Mohist rebels retreated to western strongholds, and struck out from there in a guerrilla campaign; and the Xishan carefully tried to avoid direct clashes with the Pi; inevitably, however, they occurred, and Emperor Yanzi got angry. In 758, he turned his armies east. By that moment the Xishan had already introduced military reforms; not only did they set up a new system of powerful fortifications (though mostly in the northern lands), but also developed a proud tradition of citizen-soldiers, whose tight formations proved able to withstand the charges of Pi cavalry when fighting in the right terrain. Alas, such terrain was not always available, and the powerful Pi cavalry arm was able to rout a Xishan army near the Lake Pengli. Instead of wasting his time with the southern colonies, Yanzi marched to the northeast, seeking to put an end to the Xishan insolence once and for all.
Meanwhile, Xinuluo, the nephew of the recently-deceased elderly leader of the Mohist rebels in Nanshan, inherited said rebels and led them to a series of victories against both Pileguo and the Pi puppet with his weakened garrison. With most of Nanshan territories – apart from a northeastern slice lost to Pi and an eastern coastal region lost to Xishan – secured in rebel hands, Xinuluo claimed descent from the venerated Chi You and declared himself king of Nanshan. With the power of the old aristocracy broken, he introduced a system of governance based on new principles, combining old meritocratic and centralist thought with various Mohist virtues. A strong centralised and theoretically benevolent monarchy was thus created. New fortifications were set up in the north, mining and agriculture were developed, and southwards campaigns started anew; in spite of native resistance and disease, the faraway southern ocean of legend was reached by 500 BC. As for the wars back in the north, they were largely ignored, except inasmuch they meant that Nanshan’s enemies were fighting each other and that refugees continued to arrive steadily.
By 740 BC, the war had devastated Jiangsu and moved to the Xishan Peninsula once more. Yanzi became fixated on the destruction of Xishan and levied more and more troops, raised more and more taxes to aid him in that noble goal. By then, superior siege engines became available; combined with waves of troops, this allowed Yanzi to gradually overcome enemy fortifications and, in 734 BC, besiege Tianxian itself. The Xishan, for their part, pulled troops and resources from all over their empire, and mobilised all able to bear and use arms in the city. In the end, the strategic advantage granted to Xishan by their naval supremacy proved decisive; the never-ending stream of supplies deprived Yanzi of hopes to starve the city into surrender, and the arrival of Xishan armies on his flanks took the Mad Emperor’s diseased, starved and exhausted – in other words, thoroughly demoralised – troops by surprise. The cavalry didn’t provide much of an advantage in the pitched battle, and the smaller Xishan army managed to rout its enemies. Yanzi died in battle, and the rest of his army was subsequently slaughtered, imprisoned or scattered.
But at this point it became apparent that this war had benefited the Khitans more than anyone else. A new Divine Emperor, Hulagu, arose by this moment and reinvigorated the faltering state, for a brief but glorious while. Around 750 BC he began his great campaigns, and by the time of the Siege of Tianxian he managed to vassalise the Yuxian tribes, conquer the East Xianyun, occupy Pi Proper and most importantly overrun Korea – both the kingdom of and the local undergarrisoned Xishan colonies. Furthermore his forces now advanced south to ravage the Pi Empire’s Huang He core; the new Emperor resisted valorously, and though the damage was done his resistance eventually forced the Khitans to retreat – but not before he himself died, throwing the exhausted empire into wars of succession, in which Xishan couldn’t help but interfere.
Fortunately for the Chinese warring states, Hulagu died soon after, and the Khitans, though retaining their conquests, grew even more weak and decadent than before, the semi-feudal Overseers taking effective power into their hands. It was only in 603 BC that one of those Overseers – a Koreanised Overseer named Yun-Bok – killed the last Divine Emperor with the intent of taking power for himself. And, well, so he did. He also adapted a new state religion, Tengarism, a more developed and organised Dualist version of traditional Khitan beliefs, which had previously gained support from a minor but still considerable portion of the population. The notion of imperial divinity was abolished as blasphemous, the powers of the other Overseers were curtailed by the new (non-divine) Emperor and other administrative reforms were introduced. New gains were properly integrated, fortifications were constructed, Xishan invasions of Korea were repulsed and Tengarism, after an uncertain few initial years, gained widespread popular support, also spreading greatly amongst the other steppe peoples. Westwards and southwestwards expansion continued as local tribes were incorporated, and the Khitan Empire remained a powerful force in 500 BC, despite some local setbacks.
As for northern China, it remained very chaotic. The remainder of the 8th century BC, as well as the first three decades of the 7th century BC, saw gruesome warlord wars in the Pi Empire’s territory, made even worse by barbarian migrations and raids, attacks by ambitious Khitan Overseers and ofcourse Xishan interventions to undermine any attempts to unify the region. As generations changed, the land war grew increasingly unpopular amongst the Xishan; furthermore, the merchants were (reasonably, as it turned out) concerned by the growth of Ducal power it all allowed. Duke Ling, in 676 BC, had indeed managed to stage a coup d’etat after a highly successful campaign that ended in the (temporary, but resounding) defeat of all the anti-Xishan factions along the Huang He, and started a period of nigh-absolute ducal power. It was subsequently called a dark time of oppression, tyranny and, um, darkness, though the Dukes also introduced great public works, built new cities (most notably Guangling, to where Duke Hsien moved the capital in 623 BC) and even encouraged the rise of Sunfucianism [6], a new individualist philosophy with strong emphasis on the importance of commerce. Still, the main legacy of the Dukes remained the continued warfare in Huang He, where, for a brief while at least, a string of harmless puppet states was created. However, constant rebellions still broke out, and large forces had to be committed there. Ironically enough, but perhaps predictably, Sunfucianism became one of the driving forces behind the growing resistance movement that sought to return power to the merchants and to withdraw from western affairs. After Duke Hsien’s death in 604 BC, a counter-revolution occurred and the merchant council reclaimed power, though the capital remained in Guangling, as it already became a great trade centre in its own right. A brief civil war still did follow, but it was indeed quite brief and one-sided, the new Duke being utterly defeated and deposed (after a twenty-year Dukeless period, his son was allowed to retake the ducal throne as a figurehead). The Xishan then withdrew forces and support from the western states, even from the lands lost to Tuozi. Instead, the merchant republic allowed the states along the Huang He to fall into a new cycle of infighting and turned once again to the sea. While all attempts to reconquer Korea were in vain, the Jomon colony expanded considerably, despite native resistance; numerous new islands were grabbed as well, and large cities sprung up there soon enough.
As for the western states, they mostly proved strong enough to repulse the Khitan attacks, but remained divided and unstable. By 500 BC, there were five – from west to east, Hao, Wei, Zheng and Cao, and Chen in the south. Trade between them was on the rise, and new cities were beginning to spring up around the great forts. Their future was ofcourse very uncertain.
OOC:
[1] In our modern day, Lakam Ha is better known as Palenque.
[2] Horns of Tigranus=OTL Pillars of Hercules=OMD (Our Modern Day) Rock of Gibraltar plus Mount Hacho on the other side of the strait.
[3] Eridanos=OTL Po.
[4] Suesia=OTL Carthage.
[5] The Etemaadi (i.e. the Trusted) are basically an early secret police, though mostly keeping an eye on said nobles, at least early on.
[6] Sorry, alex994. You’ll have to live with that.
Hope you people don’t mind certain creative liberties taken with your plans. I think they make things rather more interesting.
Also, remember that some of the states that died in this turn might later come back to life, in a way.
das
Regeneration In Process
erez87
Lord of Random
- Joined
- May 16, 2002
- Messages
- 13,500
The Earth rocks beneath you as the Tarant come to new lands.
The Tarant are the people of the earth. They are the largest tribe of the Caeon. They are your usual everyday villagers that go around building towns, farming, making food and goods. They are the main builders for the Caeon as well. While their buildings are crude are not a very nice sight they are the most efficient, for work that is. The Tarant are considerably peaceful but do hate everyone else but the Caeon and side with the Luak at every point.
The Tarand are sturdy people. Everyday work is not something very easy and yet they handle it all. After the Luak burn new lands they rush in to begin assimilation or enslaving the left overs of the population and build up villages and small towns.
The Tarant follow The Earth creation god Tarant. He is considered a mighty beast that lives under the ground, sleeping until the day of reckoning will come and the gods will return to the Caeon to see their progress. Their saying is 'From beneath you it grows, like a tree or a flower. Building itself higher and better. Efficient and perfect. Only the powerful and well built can last forever. Just as the earth will always be here.
The Tarant families are very welcoming to the other gods. Families tend to not have only one religion being rooted in them and usually families quickly split as Luak young men and others leave the family to go settle in other areas. Tarant parents actually encourage each of their children to pick a different patron god. The Yumua are shunned and are allowed but not welcome in Tarant communities. Usually unlike the Tarant the Yumua encourage their children to follow the water and sea bringing more to the differences between the two tribes other than the Yumua being rich and higher workers while the Tarant are usually poor and hardy workers. Yet the lesser oracles of each tribe knows they complete each other. The gods made them so so the Caeon would succeed forever to conquer the world in the end of a never ending war of destruction. And the Tarant shall make sure the world is rebuilt after the fire, storms and floods.
The Tarant are the people of the earth. They are the largest tribe of the Caeon. They are your usual everyday villagers that go around building towns, farming, making food and goods. They are the main builders for the Caeon as well. While their buildings are crude are not a very nice sight they are the most efficient, for work that is. The Tarant are considerably peaceful but do hate everyone else but the Caeon and side with the Luak at every point.
The Tarand are sturdy people. Everyday work is not something very easy and yet they handle it all. After the Luak burn new lands they rush in to begin assimilation or enslaving the left overs of the population and build up villages and small towns.
The Tarant follow The Earth creation god Tarant. He is considered a mighty beast that lives under the ground, sleeping until the day of reckoning will come and the gods will return to the Caeon to see their progress. Their saying is 'From beneath you it grows, like a tree or a flower. Building itself higher and better. Efficient and perfect. Only the powerful and well built can last forever. Just as the earth will always be here.
The Tarant families are very welcoming to the other gods. Families tend to not have only one religion being rooted in them and usually families quickly split as Luak young men and others leave the family to go settle in other areas. Tarant parents actually encourage each of their children to pick a different patron god. The Yumua are shunned and are allowed but not welcome in Tarant communities. Usually unlike the Tarant the Yumua encourage their children to follow the water and sea bringing more to the differences between the two tribes other than the Yumua being rich and higher workers while the Tarant are usually poor and hardy workers. Yet the lesser oracles of each tribe knows they complete each other. The gods made them so so the Caeon would succeed forever to conquer the world in the end of a never ending war of destruction. And the Tarant shall make sure the world is rebuilt after the fire, storms and floods.
JosefStalinator
Я буду снова здесь
OOC: Yay update! Go celts! Stop fighting each other and start fighting the damned germans on our borders.
And I guess I'll be needed in Aracome for at least one more BT... if anyone takes Britain I will rape them with civil war next turn.
And I guess I'll be needed in Aracome for at least one more BT... if anyone takes Britain I will rape them with civil war next turn.
Well, I liked you being liberal with my plans. It would have been so stale otherwise...
But now, I annoy the Tartessians! Mwahahahah! I liked the directino you took, das, and I loved the update. Good, good stuff.
Masked pirates! That's so original...
But now, I annoy the Tartessians! Mwahahahah! I liked the directino you took, das, and I loved the update. Good, good stuff.
Masked pirates! That's so original...
wow; awesome.
And well, that went exactly to plan. (given flexibility in how much I expeceted to lose).
However, my capital is still quite far north! The best city would be the one; north of the city at the river fork (well, joining).
And well, that went exactly to plan. (given flexibility in how much I expeceted to lose).
However, my capital is still quite far north! The best city would be the one; north of the city at the river fork (well, joining).
das
Regeneration In Process
Actually, I think I just forgot to move your capital on the map.
Glad you liked it; I wasn't sure what else a small but violent island nation in the middle of a trade network could do, really.
Well, I liked you being liberal with my plans. It would have been so stale otherwise...
But now, I annoy the Tartessians! Mwahahahah! I liked the directino you took, das, and I loved the update. Good, good stuff.
Masked pirates! That's so original...
Glad you liked it; I wasn't sure what else a small but violent island nation in the middle of a trade network could do, really.
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
OOC: *hails Das* I'm very pleased you find a way to get rid of all that unwanted Western lands I talked about 
Not to mention the infighting between the Dukes and the merchant councils that took place in the BT, I believe you were able to capture the differences between those two forces as they tried to gain the upper hand over the other.
I can't say I like the lost of Korea though Japan seems promising. I swear I think you changed it to Sunfucianism JUST to spite me
Of course, I'll remain silent on the rest of the update, rather not touch off any sensitive egos
Not to mention the infighting between the Dukes and the merchant councils that took place in the BT, I believe you were able to capture the differences between those two forces as they tried to gain the upper hand over the other. I can't say I like the lost of Korea though Japan seems promising. I swear I think you changed it to Sunfucianism JUST to spite me
Of course, I'll remain silent on the rest of the update, rather not touch off any sensitive egos
Toltec
Dragon Tamer
I like it, that nice swathe of watered down lilac looks so good on Anatolia. Now I've gotta decide where to put my all too willing vassal. How about that stretch along the sea of Marmara, I think that was Greek.
das
Regeneration In Process
I swear I think you changed it to Sunfucianism JUST to spite me
Yes, ofcourse.
Mov'd.
Israelite9191
You should be reading
Very nice Das. Obviously, I'm not happy about loosing Eretz, but I'm very pleased with how my exodus plans panned out.
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Excellent update, das. Violent death/rebirth definitely staves off the stagnation.
I'll take the League of Cyrene, or Parthenian Republic of Cyrene, or Parthenian Cyrenaican Republican Tarantine League, whatever you've decided to call it.
I'll take the League of Cyrene, or Parthenian Republic of Cyrene, or Parthenian Cyrenaican Republican Tarantine League, whatever you've decided to call it.
Abaddon
Deity
So how would you suggest i go about getting involved Das?
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