silver 2039
Deity
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- Jul 26, 2003
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gah....wathever....I got wasted last night and I have a gterrible hangover so its not as if icould sendorders annyaway.
The pre-AFSNES I.
- Thread starter das
- Start date
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
OOC: Britain is a prime target for naval raiding groups from the Scandinavia and Northern German region you know
"We come from the land of ice and snow..."
Also: yey chaos, the huge power blocks of ITNES whilst fun in their own way, were a tad wearying.
Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
*waits patiently* (i know das will need some time to write about the epic Thracian conquest of the entire planet 
)
)
das
Regeneration In Process
BT Update IV - Years 200 BC-100 AD[1]
This time period will surely go down in history as the Age of Conquerors, for in these three centuries, all civilised regions saw an unprecedented amount of very gifted and highly ambitious rulers aspiring to build empires of varying durability. Armies were taken further from home than ever before, huge fleets crowded the view of the seas and borders were redrawn more radically than in preceding days.
New World:
Many very important developments had occurred in the Western Hemisphere during this time. Undeniably the most significant of these was the continued Zapotec development of naval technology. As new, stronger, larger and more maneuverable ships were created, the Zapotec traders were able to travel far in the search for new opportunities, and as new trade outposts and ports were constructed, the Zapotecs contacted and influenced numerous new cultures. It was near the end of the 1st century AD that their journeys bore their most important fruit yet – as trading contact was established with the Andean tribes and cities, beginning the process of cultural and technologic exchange between the two civilised regions.
But prior to that, both of the regions saw significant internal developments as well. The Teotihuacani Empire had lingered on during this era, though with dynastic change, internal strife and alternating levels of regional control and political integrity. Infrastructure was further developed, new grandiose temples and palaces were built, and several cultures were integrated; territorial gains were made to the northeast, though attempts to conquer Yucatan ultimately failed despite the 1st century BC Sack of Kaan and all gains were lost to a coalition of Mayan city-states. This coalition then was converted into a somewhat loose Mutalese empire, brought together by diplomacy but further tied by trade and dynastic intermarriage. It decayed gradually, though remaining an important power as of 100 AD; its hegemony model was adapted and improved upon by a former Mutalese “ally”, the southern kingdom of Xukpi [2], as well as by the central city-state of Sakbe [3], both centres of a new cultural flowering as the centre of the Mayan civilisation generally shifts eastwards due to the destructive warfare in the western regions.
Danipaguache had itself entered a second golden age; while remaining a (largely nominal, but still loyal Teotihuacani vassal), the Zapotec kingdom maintained its naval focus and thereby prospered thanks to its control over the burgeoning coastal commerce. As already said, efforts were made to extend the trade network further, and new trade outposts were founded, eventually growing into cities. As also already said, this allowed cultural and technological Zapotec influence over various local tribes, and some of them began to develop their own urban cultures. And in the far south, the Zapotec trader-explorers run into a very advanced, prosperous and huge empire.
While the Cahuachi Empire once more began to decay and disintegrate, a more vigorous culture was on the rise in the north. The coastal city-state of Moche had managed to unify the entire nearby coastline; it might’ve remained as a mere regional state, but in circa 95 BC an inland Chorrera warlord had successfully conquered Moche, giving it a greater military tradition; along with the influence of southern imperial institutions and a new population boom, this resulted in the foundation of the Mochican Empire, which asserted its local control, established superior central control over agriculture, introduced a series of advanced public works and went on a conquering spree, easily subjugating militarily weak central Andean cities. The early wars with Cahuachi were largely indecisive, but a new push begun in circa 20 AD, under Lord-Emperor Huacha; the decrepit southern empire fell to the massed Mochican armies equipped with the superior bronze and obsidian weapons of the famed northern weapon-smiths. The war ended with the last inbred Sun-Emperor being sacrificed to Aiapaec (“the Decapitator”, a creepy principal spider-god of the Moche); the civilised parts of the Andes were now unified. The conquered populaces were largely enslaved and gradually integrated, while settlers from the overpopulated north arrived en masse. The empire was ruthlessly integrated and consolidated, while slave labour was used to construct numerous temple-pyramids. The already-prominent practice of human sacrifice soon entered its zenith. In more conventional news, internal trade was advancing and northwards expansion was under way; so the new contact with the Zapotecs fit right in with the existent tendencies…
Mediterranean and Europe:
Western Europe and the Mediterranean were both a right mess in this age; internal strife and external ambitions of empires new and old were combined with growing barbarian activities and natural disasters, as well as with the greater tendencies of the civilised world as a whole (first the Mediterranean trade network flourished thanks to the Karung contact with the Avyaktaragan trade network, and so greed drove rulers to try and take over the lucrative trade centres; and then it all collapsed, causing great social strife and attempts on the behalf of the great powers to recompense their economic losses with pillaging and conquest), to cause even greater amounts of chaos and destruction than before.
As per tradition, let us begin with Tartessos. The Principate – a glorified military dictatorship turned into a semi-feudal military federation disguised as a centralised empire headed by an ever more detached and corrupt line of Principes – was clearly degenerating and decaying much like the Demarchy that preceded it. Although Haponthios, the founder of the Principate, was successful in his aim of restoring Tartessos as a military and political power and in eliminating all real external threats in the Western Mediterranean, by now his state was on the brink of disintegrating into warlordism, in part precisely because of the absence of a mutual threat but largely just because of the very nature of the existent political system. This was prevented by another terrible shortcoming; the last Princeps, Ouphoureios (r. 107-99 BC), along with his two closest predecessors, was completely uninterested in matters of the court, committing himself to a tastelessly hedonistic and degenerate lifestyle and trusting his advisors with what remained of the treasury. They thoroughly embezzled it, and so rendered the state incapable of providing the soldier pensions. One thing led to another and a charismatic border general by the name of Arganthos managed to make sure that they led in the right direction amongst his troops; hijacking a mutiny aimed against himself, he instead led his troops in a march on Tartessos. Ouphoureios died while marching to confront Arganthos; the crafty general used this opportunity to disperse his low-morale levies and to massacre the court that had accompanied the Princeps on the campaign. Arganthos then entered Tartessos and claimed power, but not as Princeps (as was done several times by less revolutionary generals in the 2nd century BC); instead, he dismissed the Sophetora and took power as Dominos, securing the loyalty of the military by paying the soldiers with the property and money of his political opponents.
The Dominos then went on a reforming spree, out of which was born the new Tartessian state – the Dominate. This Dominate was unabashedly authoritarian, centralised and managed through a new bureaucracy. Tartessos was from now on a symbolic capital only; the true capital was moved to a much less decadent and more cosmopolitan city, Kaelpolis (in northeastern Iberia), which was renamed into Tauretessos, and later, after Arganthos’ death, into Arganthopolis (which over time developed into a true imperial city, glamorous in its own right). The military was reorganised, the Divisios were decreased in size and the forces under frontier generals were generally diminished; instead, a larger internal reserve army under the command of the Dominos was created. The merchant fleet was rebuilt and sent out to partake in the flourishing eastern commerce; also, efforts were made to catch up with the Eastern Mediterranean technologically, as many of the Karung and Paphlagonian advances in ship-building and engineering were adapted. In particular, the irrigation systems in Iberia were improved and new crops were introduced, allowing for a revival of local agriculture. Efforts were made to properly colonise and develop Italy, where rebels were for now defeated; the Athanoi had sworn loyalty to the Dominos just as they had sworn loyalty to the Princeps, and remained true to their oath, helping maintain order. A more threatening rebellion had occurred in northwestern Iberia, where the highly-autonomous local (Lusitanian and Celtiberian) rulers were alarmed by reformist and centralist tendencies of the Dominos; they were assisted (and probably incited in the first place) by old aristocrats and other political opponents fleeing from the Dominos’ justice. This rebellion was actually supported by other conservative discontents in southern Iberia, and so a civil war raged in 96-90 BC. Ultimately, however, the reformed army of the Dominos had come out victorious and the northwestern regions were integrated into the Dominate Proper. The Dominos also crushed several Ligurian and Luak incursions on the northern frontier and put down a major Berber tribal uprising in the early 80s BC.
Before dying, Arganthos had made sure to establish a hereditary monarchy. Alas, his heirs weren’t nearly as able as he was, although they did strive to continue many of his policies. The most promising of the main line Arganthinids, Gorgoris, had come to power in 60 BC. Alas, after modernising the fleet and building up the northern fortifications, he went on a somewhat ill-advised campaign to put an end to Ligurian raids once and for all. The huge Tartessian army forced its way through well-defended mountain passes, slaughtering undisciplined and poorly-equipped Ligurian fanatics in droves and eventually taking the Ligurian capital itself; alas, the Ligurian Priest-King escaped previously and only now brought his real, well-trained and well-armed army into the fray, taking advantage of the Ligurian knowledge of the terrain to recapture the vital mountain passes, trapping the Tartessians in the capital... as the citizenry, resistant to the last, set fire to the city and attacked Tartessian soldiers trying to put it out. The Tartessians restored control over the city’s remains and slaughtered the populace, repulsing all attacks, but they were unable to get either reinforcements or supplies. Still, they refused to surrender even when all their attempts to break out failed; in the end, the Priest-King had to break the Tartessians with human wave attacks, throwing hordes after hordes of fanatics at them and exploiting any weaknesses with his main army. The Tartessians sold their lives very, very dearly, but in the end the army and the Dominos were all massacred. Worse still, Gorgoris had no son and the succession law wasn’t very clear on such matters; not clear enough for the various opportunists that raced to seize power, at any rate. After a brief but chaotic multi-sided civil war, a cadet branch of the Arganthinids took power under Konstanthios II. Alas, he proved to be the first in a line of weak, short-reigned rulers whose courts were plagued by constant intrigues; this court partisanship spilled over into the military and the court, and several more coups and mini-civil wars had occurred in the 40s BC, though after 40 BC things began to stabilise under Konstanthios III, who repulsed an opportunistic Ligurian invasion, led a successful coup d’etat and thoroughly purged the Arganthopolis court.
At which point our narrative must suddenly shift eastwards, as a truly momentous development was about to take place, a one that would come to directly affect all of the Mediterranean. Now, up to the 40s BC the Eastern Mediterranean wasn’t really peaceful, but few truly dramatic changes occurred; the tri-way balance of power between Hellas, Paphlagonia and Karung was retained. Numerous wars were waged, but whenever one power seemed to be getting an advantage over the others, a coalition swiftly arose to bring it down to size. Some Mediterranean islands and coastal cities occasionally changed owners, but not all that much really occurred. Hellas was at any rate more concerned with major internal strife; rebellious city-states, often supported by Paphlagonia, were able to regain many old freedoms and privileges, and the republic was threatened with devolution, the forces keeping it united being very weak at any rate. The same seemed to be occurring in Paphlagonia, as the central monarchic power grew increasingly weak and nominal, and regional princes became largely autonomous. Karung didn’t suffer from such problems, although its ruling dynasty too had grown increasingly detached and uninterested; this, combined with the growing flow of trade and a generally strong military, allowed for a loose Karung hegemony in the 2nd and early 1st centuries BC, after successful naval wars with first Hellas and then Paphlagonia. Around the middle of the latter century, however, several events occurred to forever upset the balance of power in the Mediterranean.
Firstly, as several western Greek cities got too uppity and seceded from the Hellenic Republic to form the very loose Delhi League, a civil war commenced; despite early Hellenic military victories (that weren’t quite enough to really force any of the League cities to surrender), several similar rebellions took place elsewhere in the Greek lands. While the most important regions remained under Hellenopolis’ control, recapturing the rest took more time and resources. Meanwhile, a late 50s BC pandemic of the bubonic plague spread from Mesopotamia across the Fertile Crescent and into the Eastern Mediterranean; while the mountainous terrain limited the damage in Paphlagonia and to a lesser extent in Hellas, Karung, with its huge and well-concentrated populations and developed internal trade, as well as rather unsanitary slavery, suffered by far the most of any nation; the slave power that was behind its engineering projects was decimated, as was the large regular army, and all attempts to stop the plague’s spread resulted only in disrupting internal commerce. The plague petered out soon enough, never reaching Italy, but the damage was done and soon turned out to be worse than originally thought, as the great intercivilisational trade network, reeling from both the plague and the measures taken against it, as well as for the dramatic increase in warfare and piracy alike, began to collapse.
And so, with Hellas in civil war and Karung reeling from the plague, the Paphlagonians were put in a great position to strike. As it happened, the crisis of the plague, which did cause considerable damage along with the collapse of the lucrative eastern trade, proved very useful in the short-term, as it crippled and discredited the regional princes who were now threatened with major uprisings from their discontent populace as the economic situation deteriorated drastically. That coincided with the beginning of the reign of King Lyphatoris, a highly ambitious and capable man interested in world conquest. Lyphatoris was already beginning to reassert his own central power, and this new crisis allowed him to speed it up, dismantling the princedom system in all but in name, setting up a centralised proto-bureaucracy, crushing what little resistance was organised and introducing various measures to help the country recover. Having solidified his power base, Lyphatoris reorganised the military, raising a huge main force and augmenting it with highly-maneuverable cavalry detachments and elite heavy infantry units. He also rebuilt a very vast fleet. Lastly, he solidified his alliances with the Saganu tribes of the Caucasus (see Middle East section) and the growing vassal kingdom of Hessonia (then ruled by King Kratos, who moved the capital to Ranopolis [4], which the grateful citizens renamed into Kratopolis [4]).
And then, on a nice and sunny day in 47 BC, the Oikumenical War (more like a series of wars united by one ruler’s intention to conquer the oikumene) began with a military parade and a public proclamation of intentions to a cheering crowd. The first campaign was the Greek one; as the Hellene Civil War raged on, King Kratos managed to persuade his Paphlagonian liege to intervene and so secure Greece for a loyal ally, destroying a serious threat at the same time. Surprise landings and naval sneak attacks were launched to secure key cities no matter their allegiance in the civil war; far from all of those attacks succeeded, but the Hellenes were unable to truly fight back, and the most important of the attacks, led by King Kratos in person, was a resounding success; Hellenopolis [5] was taken and the Hellene ruling assembly, the Demopolis, was arrested and forced to pledge allegiance to Kratos, King of the Hellenes. Archon Lysandros and Autokrator Gylippus have rallied the Hellene loyalists in the mainland and concluded an emergency alliance agreement with some of the rebel cities; some islands continued to resist as well, under the charismatic leadership of Admiral Timaeus. On the other hand, many loyal and rebel cities alike pledged fealty to Kratos as well in exchange for retaining considerable privileges and political semi-autonomy. The Paphlagonian fleet soon decisively defeated Timaeus after some overambitious raids, and the resistant islands were annexed into Paphlagonia; Paphlagonian armies arrived to assist Kratos’ elite army and the levies from the submitted cities in the conquest of Greece. While Gylippus bumbled his way into a dishonourable death at Platea, Lysandros managed to salvage the situation, rebuild his army, and keep up the resistance in northern Greece until 43 BC, when he and his army were finally destroyed between three huge enemy armies at Larissa. By then, ofcourse, the entirety of Greece was more or less conquered. The balance of power was broken and there was nothing the Karung could do about it.
The second campaign was aimed against Ur (and so is discussed elsewhere). The third campaign was against Karung, which was finally beginning to somewhat stabilise the situation; in a masterful multi-pronged invasion assisted by greedy Aramaean tribes both within and outside of Karung, the entirety of the Levant was wrested away from the dying empire, and the outmaneuvered armies were all massacred. The Nile heartlands were spared after a coup d’etat occurred and the new king of Karung humbly offered his allegiance to Lyphatoris. The fourth campaign saw Cyrene – which had briefly regained independence – brought to heel. And the fifth campaign was aimed against Tartessos; the king’s brother, Ulas, led a huge armada west in 34 BC.
Although the Tartessians succeeded in modernising their navy and had been alarmed by their merchant-spies of the Paphlagonian menace, their defensive preparations proved simply not enough against the vast fleets of Ulas. The Tartessian fleet was destroyed in a series of battles, though the Paphlagonians had major casualties of their own, in part because of Tartessian use of fire catapults. Still, Suesia (later renamed Ulasis) and the former Arecomician cities (poorly defended by their rather behind-the-times Celtic rulers) were conquered; the Sardinians rebelled against Tartessos and signed an alliance with Ulas, resuming their reign of piracy and raiding; and a last-ditch Tartessian effort to destroy Ulas’ trick with a ruse in the Horns of Tigranus had failed miserably due to treachery. In 30 BC, the forts on the Horns of Tigranus were bombarded into submission by catapult ships; later in the same year, Paphlagonians have broken into Tartessos after a drawn-out siege (once again assisted by traitors or spies), and thoroughly plundered the city. Southern Iberia was then thoroughly ravaged and the North African cities also forced to surrender.
However, in this dark hour, Dominos Konstanthios III had truly proved his worth. With the help of a brilliant (though slightly insane) natural scientist, Sakarisker, even more potent naval defenses were organised in Arganthopolis and other remaining coastal cities (fire catapults, burning glasses and huge cranes were employed); several Paphlagonian attacks were thus repulsed, and a new, sturdier fleet was constructed in secret in the northern ports; it was used to harass the Paphlagonians with constant attacks, sacrificing fire ships to wreck havoc on the close enemy formations. Meanwhile, the rebuilt military, augmented with new heavy cavalry units, was rallied and led by Konstanthios III personally to destroy the invaders in the south, though not before the local agriculture was thoroughly devastated and Tartessos was completely razed, completing the general shift of the political and economic centre of the Dominate centre- and northwards. The Paphlagonian army was defeated at Malaka and the fleet, taken by surprise, was bombarded with onagers and fire arrows. Ulas retreated to Africa, brooding and plotting his revenge. He was about ready to launch a final campaign when news arrived of Lyphatoris’ death in 28 BC. Alas, the monarch who had assembled such vast central powers for himself had left neither male descendants nor a clear succession law. Therefore, the sons in law of his daughters, the local generals, the disgruntled princes and the former vassals all made their bids for power. Ulas hurried east to make his own.
The following two decades saw Lyphatoris’ empire collapse amidst civil wars. It is impossible to cover it in any reliable detail, so we will just say that it was the usual mix of confused multi-sided warfare, shifting coalitions, near-wins, barbarian invasions and so forth. Ulas was defeated, and went back west, carving out a kingdom for himself in Arecome; retaining his fleet, he managed to subjugate much of Italy and North Africa, although Mauretania was lost to Tartessians for good. Kratos became an independent ruler in his own right, and proceeded to conquer the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean as well as much of western Anatolia. The rest of Anatolia was carved up between petty kingdoms. The principality of Odrysa too had declared independence, reforging ties with the other Thracian principalities, now once more being pulled together by King Sitalkes of Akurna. The remaining Black Sea city-states were claimed by a half-Sarmatian general, Artorius, who then also gained the allegiance of his northern half-countrymen and built the huge Tauric Empire all over the Pontic Steppe (it shrank back to a much more reasonable size soon after his death). The Middle Eastern conquests were lost to local warlords, barbarian tribes brought along by Lyphatoris and revanchist rulers of Ur and Karung.
This new order of Lyphatorid states wasn’t built to last. As the trade network collapsed utterly in the beginning of the new century and the early, vigorous dynasty-founder generals died out, things changed once again all over the Mediterranean and indeed Europe.
In the northwesternmost corner, the neo-Arecomician state in Britain – which had spent the previous two centuries in internal strife, occasional efforts at exporting civilisation and heroic bouts of conquest aimed largely against the Britannic neighbours – had collapsed altogether, hurt by the loss of the trade (the main source of income) and generally overstretched. Warring between post-Arecomician statelets and Arecomicianified tribal states occupied much of the 1st century AD, but towards its end, the rebounding of commerce, immigration of refugees from Tartessos and the beginning of Germannic colonisation of eastern Britain caused the tribes and states to (re)unite under one of the post-Arecomician warlords, Nunn, who then changed his name to Suessus III. Suessus III oversaw the religious revival of Tigranist Druidism, construction of a new inland capital (Camuloth), creation of a clear hierarchy of tribal chieftains and local princes subordinated to the Dumnorix (World-King) Suessus III and ofcourse warfare against the migratory Germannic tribes, which were eventually pushed back to the eastern coast. A similar loose tribal kingdom, Laigin, arose in southern Hibernia and established trade ties with Tartessos.
The Drang Nach Westen of the Germannic tribes didn’t really hit Britain nearly as much as it hit Gaul. The vacuum of population created by Luak genocidal campaigns had lured the Germannics into Gaul in the 3rd century BC; now, however, they wanted to push further as population grew and glory beckoned. Armoricans, Caeonese and Ligurians alike did their best to try and stem the tide, but victories on the battlefield meant little as long as the fearsome, warlike Germans kept coming forth, lured by the promise of combat, plunder and Valhol. Gradually, ground was lost, but the three civilisations retreated to better defensive positions at which it was possible to hold the Germannic intruders, gradually fighting their first push to a halt. By the 1st century AD, the Germannic tribes in Gaul had clearly evolved, advancing thanks to both combat and trade with the civilisations. During that century, they became mainly divided between two groups; the more careful, conservative majority that settled down in the conquered regions of northwestern Gaul and formed a very loose tribal confederacy under the Frisii, so as to allow internal trade to pick up and the early cities to rise. The seafaring Frisii themselves were particularily “urban”, though that did not make them particularily peaceful; instead, they built a navy and fought constant naval wars with Camulothian and Armorican Celts. The Frisii also were amongst the main Germannic colonisers in Britain, ofcourse. Meanwhile, a small but extremely violent minority spearheaded the second push, forming a highly militant warrior confederation. They called themselves the Teutons (“the People”, unimaginatively enough) and developed an even stronger military tradition, complete with an admittedly-limited concept of discipline. The Teutons fought skirmishes with the Ligurians and ravaged the Armorican lands forcing the Armoricans to retreat to their original peninsula and sulk; but their main enemies were the Caeon, and the Teutons had firmly committed themselves to the task of wiping them out. And as the Caeon had grown weak after centuries of effective peace and declining agriculture, the Teutons succeeded handsomely, massacring the Luak tribe in a series of epic border battles and plunging southwestwards to raze Caeon cities and enslave those who did not resist. By the century’s end the Caeon were thoroughly destroyed and the Teutons washed their boots in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, even launching some initial raids into Tartessian territory, though these were fought off easily enough.
Although the Dominate of Tartessos was saved by Konstanthios III, reclaiming old power and glory proved an impossible goal. Still, the Domines of the 1st century AD generally did their best to avoid sliding too far. As already mentioned, the Teutons were prevented from penetrating the border defenses; a vigorous naval campaign against pirates and Sardinians was waged; and in 20 AD the Ulasids were pushed out of North Africa. While control over Italy was really slipping, Tartessian rule over the Tyrrhenian coastal regions was restored. Alas, however, a new menace was rising in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This time period will surely go down in history as the Age of Conquerors, for in these three centuries, all civilised regions saw an unprecedented amount of very gifted and highly ambitious rulers aspiring to build empires of varying durability. Armies were taken further from home than ever before, huge fleets crowded the view of the seas and borders were redrawn more radically than in preceding days.
New World:
Many very important developments had occurred in the Western Hemisphere during this time. Undeniably the most significant of these was the continued Zapotec development of naval technology. As new, stronger, larger and more maneuverable ships were created, the Zapotec traders were able to travel far in the search for new opportunities, and as new trade outposts and ports were constructed, the Zapotecs contacted and influenced numerous new cultures. It was near the end of the 1st century AD that their journeys bore their most important fruit yet – as trading contact was established with the Andean tribes and cities, beginning the process of cultural and technologic exchange between the two civilised regions.
But prior to that, both of the regions saw significant internal developments as well. The Teotihuacani Empire had lingered on during this era, though with dynastic change, internal strife and alternating levels of regional control and political integrity. Infrastructure was further developed, new grandiose temples and palaces were built, and several cultures were integrated; territorial gains were made to the northeast, though attempts to conquer Yucatan ultimately failed despite the 1st century BC Sack of Kaan and all gains were lost to a coalition of Mayan city-states. This coalition then was converted into a somewhat loose Mutalese empire, brought together by diplomacy but further tied by trade and dynastic intermarriage. It decayed gradually, though remaining an important power as of 100 AD; its hegemony model was adapted and improved upon by a former Mutalese “ally”, the southern kingdom of Xukpi [2], as well as by the central city-state of Sakbe [3], both centres of a new cultural flowering as the centre of the Mayan civilisation generally shifts eastwards due to the destructive warfare in the western regions.
Danipaguache had itself entered a second golden age; while remaining a (largely nominal, but still loyal Teotihuacani vassal), the Zapotec kingdom maintained its naval focus and thereby prospered thanks to its control over the burgeoning coastal commerce. As already said, efforts were made to extend the trade network further, and new trade outposts were founded, eventually growing into cities. As also already said, this allowed cultural and technological Zapotec influence over various local tribes, and some of them began to develop their own urban cultures. And in the far south, the Zapotec trader-explorers run into a very advanced, prosperous and huge empire.
While the Cahuachi Empire once more began to decay and disintegrate, a more vigorous culture was on the rise in the north. The coastal city-state of Moche had managed to unify the entire nearby coastline; it might’ve remained as a mere regional state, but in circa 95 BC an inland Chorrera warlord had successfully conquered Moche, giving it a greater military tradition; along with the influence of southern imperial institutions and a new population boom, this resulted in the foundation of the Mochican Empire, which asserted its local control, established superior central control over agriculture, introduced a series of advanced public works and went on a conquering spree, easily subjugating militarily weak central Andean cities. The early wars with Cahuachi were largely indecisive, but a new push begun in circa 20 AD, under Lord-Emperor Huacha; the decrepit southern empire fell to the massed Mochican armies equipped with the superior bronze and obsidian weapons of the famed northern weapon-smiths. The war ended with the last inbred Sun-Emperor being sacrificed to Aiapaec (“the Decapitator”, a creepy principal spider-god of the Moche); the civilised parts of the Andes were now unified. The conquered populaces were largely enslaved and gradually integrated, while settlers from the overpopulated north arrived en masse. The empire was ruthlessly integrated and consolidated, while slave labour was used to construct numerous temple-pyramids. The already-prominent practice of human sacrifice soon entered its zenith. In more conventional news, internal trade was advancing and northwards expansion was under way; so the new contact with the Zapotecs fit right in with the existent tendencies…
Mediterranean and Europe:
Western Europe and the Mediterranean were both a right mess in this age; internal strife and external ambitions of empires new and old were combined with growing barbarian activities and natural disasters, as well as with the greater tendencies of the civilised world as a whole (first the Mediterranean trade network flourished thanks to the Karung contact with the Avyaktaragan trade network, and so greed drove rulers to try and take over the lucrative trade centres; and then it all collapsed, causing great social strife and attempts on the behalf of the great powers to recompense their economic losses with pillaging and conquest), to cause even greater amounts of chaos and destruction than before.
As per tradition, let us begin with Tartessos. The Principate – a glorified military dictatorship turned into a semi-feudal military federation disguised as a centralised empire headed by an ever more detached and corrupt line of Principes – was clearly degenerating and decaying much like the Demarchy that preceded it. Although Haponthios, the founder of the Principate, was successful in his aim of restoring Tartessos as a military and political power and in eliminating all real external threats in the Western Mediterranean, by now his state was on the brink of disintegrating into warlordism, in part precisely because of the absence of a mutual threat but largely just because of the very nature of the existent political system. This was prevented by another terrible shortcoming; the last Princeps, Ouphoureios (r. 107-99 BC), along with his two closest predecessors, was completely uninterested in matters of the court, committing himself to a tastelessly hedonistic and degenerate lifestyle and trusting his advisors with what remained of the treasury. They thoroughly embezzled it, and so rendered the state incapable of providing the soldier pensions. One thing led to another and a charismatic border general by the name of Arganthos managed to make sure that they led in the right direction amongst his troops; hijacking a mutiny aimed against himself, he instead led his troops in a march on Tartessos. Ouphoureios died while marching to confront Arganthos; the crafty general used this opportunity to disperse his low-morale levies and to massacre the court that had accompanied the Princeps on the campaign. Arganthos then entered Tartessos and claimed power, but not as Princeps (as was done several times by less revolutionary generals in the 2nd century BC); instead, he dismissed the Sophetora and took power as Dominos, securing the loyalty of the military by paying the soldiers with the property and money of his political opponents.
The Dominos then went on a reforming spree, out of which was born the new Tartessian state – the Dominate. This Dominate was unabashedly authoritarian, centralised and managed through a new bureaucracy. Tartessos was from now on a symbolic capital only; the true capital was moved to a much less decadent and more cosmopolitan city, Kaelpolis (in northeastern Iberia), which was renamed into Tauretessos, and later, after Arganthos’ death, into Arganthopolis (which over time developed into a true imperial city, glamorous in its own right). The military was reorganised, the Divisios were decreased in size and the forces under frontier generals were generally diminished; instead, a larger internal reserve army under the command of the Dominos was created. The merchant fleet was rebuilt and sent out to partake in the flourishing eastern commerce; also, efforts were made to catch up with the Eastern Mediterranean technologically, as many of the Karung and Paphlagonian advances in ship-building and engineering were adapted. In particular, the irrigation systems in Iberia were improved and new crops were introduced, allowing for a revival of local agriculture. Efforts were made to properly colonise and develop Italy, where rebels were for now defeated; the Athanoi had sworn loyalty to the Dominos just as they had sworn loyalty to the Princeps, and remained true to their oath, helping maintain order. A more threatening rebellion had occurred in northwestern Iberia, where the highly-autonomous local (Lusitanian and Celtiberian) rulers were alarmed by reformist and centralist tendencies of the Dominos; they were assisted (and probably incited in the first place) by old aristocrats and other political opponents fleeing from the Dominos’ justice. This rebellion was actually supported by other conservative discontents in southern Iberia, and so a civil war raged in 96-90 BC. Ultimately, however, the reformed army of the Dominos had come out victorious and the northwestern regions were integrated into the Dominate Proper. The Dominos also crushed several Ligurian and Luak incursions on the northern frontier and put down a major Berber tribal uprising in the early 80s BC.
Before dying, Arganthos had made sure to establish a hereditary monarchy. Alas, his heirs weren’t nearly as able as he was, although they did strive to continue many of his policies. The most promising of the main line Arganthinids, Gorgoris, had come to power in 60 BC. Alas, after modernising the fleet and building up the northern fortifications, he went on a somewhat ill-advised campaign to put an end to Ligurian raids once and for all. The huge Tartessian army forced its way through well-defended mountain passes, slaughtering undisciplined and poorly-equipped Ligurian fanatics in droves and eventually taking the Ligurian capital itself; alas, the Ligurian Priest-King escaped previously and only now brought his real, well-trained and well-armed army into the fray, taking advantage of the Ligurian knowledge of the terrain to recapture the vital mountain passes, trapping the Tartessians in the capital... as the citizenry, resistant to the last, set fire to the city and attacked Tartessian soldiers trying to put it out. The Tartessians restored control over the city’s remains and slaughtered the populace, repulsing all attacks, but they were unable to get either reinforcements or supplies. Still, they refused to surrender even when all their attempts to break out failed; in the end, the Priest-King had to break the Tartessians with human wave attacks, throwing hordes after hordes of fanatics at them and exploiting any weaknesses with his main army. The Tartessians sold their lives very, very dearly, but in the end the army and the Dominos were all massacred. Worse still, Gorgoris had no son and the succession law wasn’t very clear on such matters; not clear enough for the various opportunists that raced to seize power, at any rate. After a brief but chaotic multi-sided civil war, a cadet branch of the Arganthinids took power under Konstanthios II. Alas, he proved to be the first in a line of weak, short-reigned rulers whose courts were plagued by constant intrigues; this court partisanship spilled over into the military and the court, and several more coups and mini-civil wars had occurred in the 40s BC, though after 40 BC things began to stabilise under Konstanthios III, who repulsed an opportunistic Ligurian invasion, led a successful coup d’etat and thoroughly purged the Arganthopolis court.
At which point our narrative must suddenly shift eastwards, as a truly momentous development was about to take place, a one that would come to directly affect all of the Mediterranean. Now, up to the 40s BC the Eastern Mediterranean wasn’t really peaceful, but few truly dramatic changes occurred; the tri-way balance of power between Hellas, Paphlagonia and Karung was retained. Numerous wars were waged, but whenever one power seemed to be getting an advantage over the others, a coalition swiftly arose to bring it down to size. Some Mediterranean islands and coastal cities occasionally changed owners, but not all that much really occurred. Hellas was at any rate more concerned with major internal strife; rebellious city-states, often supported by Paphlagonia, were able to regain many old freedoms and privileges, and the republic was threatened with devolution, the forces keeping it united being very weak at any rate. The same seemed to be occurring in Paphlagonia, as the central monarchic power grew increasingly weak and nominal, and regional princes became largely autonomous. Karung didn’t suffer from such problems, although its ruling dynasty too had grown increasingly detached and uninterested; this, combined with the growing flow of trade and a generally strong military, allowed for a loose Karung hegemony in the 2nd and early 1st centuries BC, after successful naval wars with first Hellas and then Paphlagonia. Around the middle of the latter century, however, several events occurred to forever upset the balance of power in the Mediterranean.
Firstly, as several western Greek cities got too uppity and seceded from the Hellenic Republic to form the very loose Delhi League, a civil war commenced; despite early Hellenic military victories (that weren’t quite enough to really force any of the League cities to surrender), several similar rebellions took place elsewhere in the Greek lands. While the most important regions remained under Hellenopolis’ control, recapturing the rest took more time and resources. Meanwhile, a late 50s BC pandemic of the bubonic plague spread from Mesopotamia across the Fertile Crescent and into the Eastern Mediterranean; while the mountainous terrain limited the damage in Paphlagonia and to a lesser extent in Hellas, Karung, with its huge and well-concentrated populations and developed internal trade, as well as rather unsanitary slavery, suffered by far the most of any nation; the slave power that was behind its engineering projects was decimated, as was the large regular army, and all attempts to stop the plague’s spread resulted only in disrupting internal commerce. The plague petered out soon enough, never reaching Italy, but the damage was done and soon turned out to be worse than originally thought, as the great intercivilisational trade network, reeling from both the plague and the measures taken against it, as well as for the dramatic increase in warfare and piracy alike, began to collapse.
And so, with Hellas in civil war and Karung reeling from the plague, the Paphlagonians were put in a great position to strike. As it happened, the crisis of the plague, which did cause considerable damage along with the collapse of the lucrative eastern trade, proved very useful in the short-term, as it crippled and discredited the regional princes who were now threatened with major uprisings from their discontent populace as the economic situation deteriorated drastically. That coincided with the beginning of the reign of King Lyphatoris, a highly ambitious and capable man interested in world conquest. Lyphatoris was already beginning to reassert his own central power, and this new crisis allowed him to speed it up, dismantling the princedom system in all but in name, setting up a centralised proto-bureaucracy, crushing what little resistance was organised and introducing various measures to help the country recover. Having solidified his power base, Lyphatoris reorganised the military, raising a huge main force and augmenting it with highly-maneuverable cavalry detachments and elite heavy infantry units. He also rebuilt a very vast fleet. Lastly, he solidified his alliances with the Saganu tribes of the Caucasus (see Middle East section) and the growing vassal kingdom of Hessonia (then ruled by King Kratos, who moved the capital to Ranopolis [4], which the grateful citizens renamed into Kratopolis [4]).
And then, on a nice and sunny day in 47 BC, the Oikumenical War (more like a series of wars united by one ruler’s intention to conquer the oikumene) began with a military parade and a public proclamation of intentions to a cheering crowd. The first campaign was the Greek one; as the Hellene Civil War raged on, King Kratos managed to persuade his Paphlagonian liege to intervene and so secure Greece for a loyal ally, destroying a serious threat at the same time. Surprise landings and naval sneak attacks were launched to secure key cities no matter their allegiance in the civil war; far from all of those attacks succeeded, but the Hellenes were unable to truly fight back, and the most important of the attacks, led by King Kratos in person, was a resounding success; Hellenopolis [5] was taken and the Hellene ruling assembly, the Demopolis, was arrested and forced to pledge allegiance to Kratos, King of the Hellenes. Archon Lysandros and Autokrator Gylippus have rallied the Hellene loyalists in the mainland and concluded an emergency alliance agreement with some of the rebel cities; some islands continued to resist as well, under the charismatic leadership of Admiral Timaeus. On the other hand, many loyal and rebel cities alike pledged fealty to Kratos as well in exchange for retaining considerable privileges and political semi-autonomy. The Paphlagonian fleet soon decisively defeated Timaeus after some overambitious raids, and the resistant islands were annexed into Paphlagonia; Paphlagonian armies arrived to assist Kratos’ elite army and the levies from the submitted cities in the conquest of Greece. While Gylippus bumbled his way into a dishonourable death at Platea, Lysandros managed to salvage the situation, rebuild his army, and keep up the resistance in northern Greece until 43 BC, when he and his army were finally destroyed between three huge enemy armies at Larissa. By then, ofcourse, the entirety of Greece was more or less conquered. The balance of power was broken and there was nothing the Karung could do about it.
The second campaign was aimed against Ur (and so is discussed elsewhere). The third campaign was against Karung, which was finally beginning to somewhat stabilise the situation; in a masterful multi-pronged invasion assisted by greedy Aramaean tribes both within and outside of Karung, the entirety of the Levant was wrested away from the dying empire, and the outmaneuvered armies were all massacred. The Nile heartlands were spared after a coup d’etat occurred and the new king of Karung humbly offered his allegiance to Lyphatoris. The fourth campaign saw Cyrene – which had briefly regained independence – brought to heel. And the fifth campaign was aimed against Tartessos; the king’s brother, Ulas, led a huge armada west in 34 BC.
Although the Tartessians succeeded in modernising their navy and had been alarmed by their merchant-spies of the Paphlagonian menace, their defensive preparations proved simply not enough against the vast fleets of Ulas. The Tartessian fleet was destroyed in a series of battles, though the Paphlagonians had major casualties of their own, in part because of Tartessian use of fire catapults. Still, Suesia (later renamed Ulasis) and the former Arecomician cities (poorly defended by their rather behind-the-times Celtic rulers) were conquered; the Sardinians rebelled against Tartessos and signed an alliance with Ulas, resuming their reign of piracy and raiding; and a last-ditch Tartessian effort to destroy Ulas’ trick with a ruse in the Horns of Tigranus had failed miserably due to treachery. In 30 BC, the forts on the Horns of Tigranus were bombarded into submission by catapult ships; later in the same year, Paphlagonians have broken into Tartessos after a drawn-out siege (once again assisted by traitors or spies), and thoroughly plundered the city. Southern Iberia was then thoroughly ravaged and the North African cities also forced to surrender.
However, in this dark hour, Dominos Konstanthios III had truly proved his worth. With the help of a brilliant (though slightly insane) natural scientist, Sakarisker, even more potent naval defenses were organised in Arganthopolis and other remaining coastal cities (fire catapults, burning glasses and huge cranes were employed); several Paphlagonian attacks were thus repulsed, and a new, sturdier fleet was constructed in secret in the northern ports; it was used to harass the Paphlagonians with constant attacks, sacrificing fire ships to wreck havoc on the close enemy formations. Meanwhile, the rebuilt military, augmented with new heavy cavalry units, was rallied and led by Konstanthios III personally to destroy the invaders in the south, though not before the local agriculture was thoroughly devastated and Tartessos was completely razed, completing the general shift of the political and economic centre of the Dominate centre- and northwards. The Paphlagonian army was defeated at Malaka and the fleet, taken by surprise, was bombarded with onagers and fire arrows. Ulas retreated to Africa, brooding and plotting his revenge. He was about ready to launch a final campaign when news arrived of Lyphatoris’ death in 28 BC. Alas, the monarch who had assembled such vast central powers for himself had left neither male descendants nor a clear succession law. Therefore, the sons in law of his daughters, the local generals, the disgruntled princes and the former vassals all made their bids for power. Ulas hurried east to make his own.
The following two decades saw Lyphatoris’ empire collapse amidst civil wars. It is impossible to cover it in any reliable detail, so we will just say that it was the usual mix of confused multi-sided warfare, shifting coalitions, near-wins, barbarian invasions and so forth. Ulas was defeated, and went back west, carving out a kingdom for himself in Arecome; retaining his fleet, he managed to subjugate much of Italy and North Africa, although Mauretania was lost to Tartessians for good. Kratos became an independent ruler in his own right, and proceeded to conquer the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean as well as much of western Anatolia. The rest of Anatolia was carved up between petty kingdoms. The principality of Odrysa too had declared independence, reforging ties with the other Thracian principalities, now once more being pulled together by King Sitalkes of Akurna. The remaining Black Sea city-states were claimed by a half-Sarmatian general, Artorius, who then also gained the allegiance of his northern half-countrymen and built the huge Tauric Empire all over the Pontic Steppe (it shrank back to a much more reasonable size soon after his death). The Middle Eastern conquests were lost to local warlords, barbarian tribes brought along by Lyphatoris and revanchist rulers of Ur and Karung.
This new order of Lyphatorid states wasn’t built to last. As the trade network collapsed utterly in the beginning of the new century and the early, vigorous dynasty-founder generals died out, things changed once again all over the Mediterranean and indeed Europe.
In the northwesternmost corner, the neo-Arecomician state in Britain – which had spent the previous two centuries in internal strife, occasional efforts at exporting civilisation and heroic bouts of conquest aimed largely against the Britannic neighbours – had collapsed altogether, hurt by the loss of the trade (the main source of income) and generally overstretched. Warring between post-Arecomician statelets and Arecomicianified tribal states occupied much of the 1st century AD, but towards its end, the rebounding of commerce, immigration of refugees from Tartessos and the beginning of Germannic colonisation of eastern Britain caused the tribes and states to (re)unite under one of the post-Arecomician warlords, Nunn, who then changed his name to Suessus III. Suessus III oversaw the religious revival of Tigranist Druidism, construction of a new inland capital (Camuloth), creation of a clear hierarchy of tribal chieftains and local princes subordinated to the Dumnorix (World-King) Suessus III and ofcourse warfare against the migratory Germannic tribes, which were eventually pushed back to the eastern coast. A similar loose tribal kingdom, Laigin, arose in southern Hibernia and established trade ties with Tartessos.
The Drang Nach Westen of the Germannic tribes didn’t really hit Britain nearly as much as it hit Gaul. The vacuum of population created by Luak genocidal campaigns had lured the Germannics into Gaul in the 3rd century BC; now, however, they wanted to push further as population grew and glory beckoned. Armoricans, Caeonese and Ligurians alike did their best to try and stem the tide, but victories on the battlefield meant little as long as the fearsome, warlike Germans kept coming forth, lured by the promise of combat, plunder and Valhol. Gradually, ground was lost, but the three civilisations retreated to better defensive positions at which it was possible to hold the Germannic intruders, gradually fighting their first push to a halt. By the 1st century AD, the Germannic tribes in Gaul had clearly evolved, advancing thanks to both combat and trade with the civilisations. During that century, they became mainly divided between two groups; the more careful, conservative majority that settled down in the conquered regions of northwestern Gaul and formed a very loose tribal confederacy under the Frisii, so as to allow internal trade to pick up and the early cities to rise. The seafaring Frisii themselves were particularily “urban”, though that did not make them particularily peaceful; instead, they built a navy and fought constant naval wars with Camulothian and Armorican Celts. The Frisii also were amongst the main Germannic colonisers in Britain, ofcourse. Meanwhile, a small but extremely violent minority spearheaded the second push, forming a highly militant warrior confederation. They called themselves the Teutons (“the People”, unimaginatively enough) and developed an even stronger military tradition, complete with an admittedly-limited concept of discipline. The Teutons fought skirmishes with the Ligurians and ravaged the Armorican lands forcing the Armoricans to retreat to their original peninsula and sulk; but their main enemies were the Caeon, and the Teutons had firmly committed themselves to the task of wiping them out. And as the Caeon had grown weak after centuries of effective peace and declining agriculture, the Teutons succeeded handsomely, massacring the Luak tribe in a series of epic border battles and plunging southwestwards to raze Caeon cities and enslave those who did not resist. By the century’s end the Caeon were thoroughly destroyed and the Teutons washed their boots in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, even launching some initial raids into Tartessian territory, though these were fought off easily enough.
Although the Dominate of Tartessos was saved by Konstanthios III, reclaiming old power and glory proved an impossible goal. Still, the Domines of the 1st century AD generally did their best to avoid sliding too far. As already mentioned, the Teutons were prevented from penetrating the border defenses; a vigorous naval campaign against pirates and Sardinians was waged; and in 20 AD the Ulasids were pushed out of North Africa. While control over Italy was really slipping, Tartessian rule over the Tyrrhenian coastal regions was restored. Alas, however, a new menace was rising in the Eastern Mediterranean.
das
Regeneration In Process
After the death of King Kratos, the Hessonians were faced with the same problems as the Eretrians before them; the disparate Greek city-states resisted all efforts at centralisation and kept rebelling. So the early 1st century AD saw numerous Hessonian campaigns against rebel cities; but the Hessonians only managed to pacify these temporarily, causing dissent to simmer. This was used by a faction of Hellenist revivalists, led by “Archon” Protagoras. When the Hessonians were caught in a dynastic struggle combined with a rebellion of Ionic cities, Protagoras struck, launching a popular rebellion against both the Hessonians and their regional “collaborators”. His vast spy network eliminated political opponents and agitated the crowds to support him, granting him the title of Avtokrator; effectively this was now analogous to the title of Dominos, especially as Protagoras made no attempt to rebuild the Demopolis and instead worked to secure a hereditary succession system and a proto-bureaucracy, placing his capital in the rebel centre of Delphi. He and his lieutenants organised a large popular army, which under Protagoras’ skilled leadership evolved into an elite professional force after fighting off several attempts at reconquest. The Hessonians were pushed back to the north, and the Ionic cities were then partially persuaded and partially coerced to join the newly-proclaimed Empire of the Hellenes. Their fleet allowed Protagoras to secure the Aegean Sea islands as well; from there, Protagoras moved to capture the other Hessonian-held islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, and to liberate Cyrene from a tyrannical semi-autonomous Ulasid governor. The Paphlagonian king of Lydia, in western Anatolia, was also defeated; his lands were annexed and his treasury seized. While all attempts to finish the Hessonians off failed, Protagoras died happy in 39 AD, having built a great empire.
Surprisingly, his son Poseidonius was not wholly incompetent. He decided to extend the empire west; the rotten Ulasid kingdom was easily conquered, and was then used as a springboard for operations against the Dominate. The result was a drawn-out three-decade war in the Central Mediterranean, for the rebuilt Tartessian fleet was not about to just roll over, and the early invasion of Italy failed miserably due to the strong Tartessian military presence (though a later invasion, with the assistance of a very large and ferocious Thracian force, proved somewhat more successful). However, by 74 AD the Tartessians were sufficiently weakened and exhausted, and the decisive development occurred – the Athanoi switched sides. Hierotyrannos Athanasios, who came to power as a result of a Mataimakhandrist coup d’etat (Mataimakhandros is the Athanoi religion, or rather a concept central to that religion – that of eternal struggle of man against death, in which the tables will be turned by a messiah that Athanasios’ many followers believed him to be), led the Athanoi south and ended up brutally conquering northern Italy. The Ligurians, inspired by this development, had invaded their ancestral homelands, assisted by a lingering fifth column; the decreased Tartessian garrisons were expelled and the colonists were slaughtered wholesale. Berbers had reduced Tartessian control over North Africa to a coastal strip. In the wake of these events, the Dominate had no choice but to recognise the Hellenic conquest of Ulasis, and central and southern Italy. The Tartessians retreated west to try and heal their empire, gradually pushing back the Berbers and once more thrashing the Sardinian fleet and a Teutonic horde. Meanwhile, the Hellenic Empire claimed hegemony over the Mediterranean, taking advantage of Illyria’s collapse to annex its coastal regions. However, by the century’s end the empire had already grown somewhat overstretched, the regionalist tendencies in the Greek cities picking up again, not to mention great dissent and constant rebellions in the war-torn, devastated Italy.
Lastly, Sitalkes’ Thracian kingdom survived and thrived; though not quite as legendarily prosperous as that of Deospor, it was definitely a more cohesive entity, with royal authority enforced via a rising bureaucracy and warrior kept busy with constant national mercenary campaigns, most notably the one in Italy. Great territorial expansion happened, with Odrysa as well as many Dacian and Illyrian inlands integrated. The Hessonians brooded in Kratopolis, but gradually picked things up again, expanding into Anatolia and Thrace. Major defeats suffered at their hands have shaken the Sitalkid realm. The Tauric Empire lingered on in the northern Black Sea, prospering from the combination of steppe and sea trade. A rump Paphlagonian state gradually reformed in northern Anatolia. And beyond that began a whole different empire…
Middle East and Central Asia:
In the Middle East, change was afoot, though like in the Mediterranean much of it was only activated by the bubonic plague and the campaigns of Lyphatoris. Prior to the 6th decade BC, the nations were trying to recover from the horrid wars of the past three centuries. The 2nd century BC was actually quite a golden time; a cultural and religious renaissance was ongoing in Karung, which was hegemonic and prosperous, while Ur too was rebuilding and successfully reconquering Persia. In a glorious 159-152 BC campaign, the Urusi thoroughly thrashed the imperial Sakan army at Gulashkird, establishing a secure new eastern frontier and setting up a system of military settlements there to keep it safe. Maritime trade brought prosperity to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf ports alike. On the fringes of civilisation, diverse going-ons occurred, and the dualistic nature of the effects of the steppe’s nomad awakening on civilisation was aptly demonstrated; while the Kushans allowed the Silk Route, for long in decline, to pick up again early in the 2nd century BC, various violent steppe tribes did not cease their raids against the peripheral civilisations. The Age of Scythians, however, was over, at least in the Middle East; instead, a new warlike race was arising in the Caucasus, which had by now become one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, with Scythians, Sarmatians and even some Paphlagonians, Greeks and Thracians intermixing with the already-diverse native peoples. This intermixing was sped up by a religious revival and the rise of several strong, charismatic leaders; and ultimately, an extremely warlike, rigidly disciplined mongrel horde arose out of the outlaws, nomads and suchlike in this region; they called themselves the Saganu (“the United”, banded together into a military confederation and attacked Urartu and Arran, overrunning the weak kingdoms by the middle of the 1st century BC. The cities were tolerated in exchange for paying vast tributes and generally obeying the Saganu warlords; meanwhile, an alliance was signed with the Paphlagonians and preparations were made to bring war and destruction into Mesopotamia once again.
By the time of the Oikumenical War’s beginning, Sumeria was already weakened by plagues and residual regionalism. The army was spread over a wide area, rebellions were common and the economy was in a state of disarray at best. Things were not yet critical, but the state was weak and a strong push from a foreign state was enough to make it all fall apart. Naturally, such a push came. The elite and massive Paphlagonian army, reinforced by the Saganu, Sarmatian and Scythian hordes, soon enough set out under the personal command of Lyphatoris. The Sumerians resisted stalwartly with all the forces they could gather, but despite bloodying and delaying the invaders considerably, the far superior numbers and advanced doctrine of Paphlagonians proved too much. City after city fell, army after army was destroyed (though some managed to conduct an orderly retreat southwards, to prepare a last stand). At last, in 38 BC, the last army of Urusi of Ur was grinded into nothing at Isin, and the Urusi himself had fallen. City after city surrendered to the Paphlagonians; Ur resisted and was ransacked and razed by the Saganu who were given dominion over southern Mesopotamia, ruling there much like they did back in the Caucasus after making an example of the ancient capital. The extensive irrigation was neglected and damaged, and misery reigned supreme, while Lyphatoris and his main army, along with allied Aramaean tribes, crossed into the Levant. Between this, the rampaging Paphlagonian fleet and the new armies attacking from Anatolia, the remaining Karung armies were all crushed, the Levant was annexed and Karung vassalised, its Arabic holdings breaking free under an ambitious governor. Paphlagonians and their vassals asserted control over the Fertile Crescent, and the megalomaniacal king turned his eyes west, as was already told.
Already under Lyphatoris the Paphlagonian Empire began to disintegrate, its Middle Eastern conquests ruled by allied tribes or autocratic generals that were only nominally loyal to the otherwise-preoccupied king. After his death, however, what little unity existed disappeared, wars for succession began and those less obsessed with the throne still did use the chaos to strengthen their positions. Northern and central Mesopotamia, and northern Levant, fractured into several warlord kingdoms of Paphlagonian military governors, intermixed with local opportunistic nobles. Karung, in the middle of dynastic struggles of its own, tried to reassert control over the southern Levant, fighting with local Karung nobles and the king of Hejaz, Balthail. The latter ended up defeating both of the former and briefly reuniting Karung; however, it was too badly shaken by all of its troubles within the last hundred years and at the end of the millennium, after the death of Balthail’s son and the new crisis of the old trade network, things began to unravel. However, the ultimate death of Karung did not come from within…
Later in the post-Lyphatorian wars, Mesopotamia came under the rule of a Saganu “over-warlord”, Artsak, who had defeated fellow Saganu warlords and Paphlagonian rulers alike. He allowed the Sumerian cities to retain a great deal of independence in exchange for major tributes and nominal submission. Naturally, that incensed the Sumerians greatly, but after the ridiculously easy defeat of an early rebellion Artsak had allowed himself to grow careless, withdrawing to his mountainous northern stronghold. Naturally, that proved to be his undoing.
In 1 AD, the prophet named Ek-Enlil appeared in the holy city of Nippur, which remained relatively powerful and prosperous, but still weakened, impoverished and very, very embittered – both at the collaborationist, corrupt priestdom that apparently usurped civil power in the city and at the Saganu barbarians that enslaved and humiliated the most ancient and glorious city on Earth. He spoke of this misery as punishment for weakness, complacency and blasphemous deification of the Uru; for there was only one true god, Enlil, and the Sumerians are his chosen servants on Earth. He spoke also against corruption and disunity, and in favour of building a new, truly glorious empire to span all the corners of the world. He called for the return to the imperial glory of Akkad, and his words fell on welcome ground; so when the priests tried to arrest him, they were thwarted by a huge rebel mob. They then tried to get Enhelamdug, the Urusi of Nippur, to intervene with his loyal warriors and restore order for them; but Enhelamdug was himself captivated by Ek-Enlil’s words, and so launched a military coup d’etat instead, taking power over Nippur and publicly supporting Ek-Enlil. Upon his advice, he then spread the word all over the other cities, and managed to engineer a new Sumerian coalition as the cities joined him enthusiastically. Forces were joined, a new army was swiftly trained and Aramaean tribes were persuaded to join as well, strengthening the Sumerian cavalry arm. As by then Artsak had already died, his empire proved unable to resist with coordination; Enhelamdug’s forces, motivated by an ever-strengthening faith in their newfound divine cause, defeated warlord after warlord, reconquering the entirety of Mesopotamia by 10 AD. By now fully convinced in Ek-Enlil’s veracity, Enhelamdug set about building the Neo-Akkadian Empire with a capital in Nippur. The sermons of Ek-Enlil were recorded for posterity and used for spiritual and political guidance; the priesthood was thoroughly purged and reordered around the new monotheistic cult of Enlil; a new meritocratic bureaucracy was established; the damaged irrigation was repaired and improved; and the military was prepared for further campaigns.
These were very well-timed. Trade was only beginning to pick up again, but while the Akkadians had the drive of a vigorous new government and an expansionistic religion, Karung was once again decaying, and the Akkadians merely put it out of its misery. Northern Arabia was annexed, and the already-eager Aramaean and Arabic tribes there reinforced the Akkadians with their camelry and assisted them with their guides in exchange for lots of plunder and military privileges. Karung’s Asian holdings fell in a series of quick battles and city assaults; the last king valiantly gathered all the forces he had left in Karung Proper, and led these in a heroic charge against the Akkadian forces; this charge resulted in a horrific massacre of the first wave and a panicked rout of the second. The king and his retainers retreated to the fortified capital city of Shadoq while the rest of Karung fell to the invaders. Shadoq was besieged for years, being a nigh-impregnable fortress, but as it ran out of food it had to surrender; the king committed suicide. The Akkadians reigned supreme in Fertile Crescent. In the following years, under Enhelamdug and his successors, the Akkadians continued to conquer while trade revived just in time to fund further campaigns and colonisation of conquered regions, in addition to the loot from Karung. The great campaigns into Anatolia, the Caucasus, Persia, Central Asia and East Arabia not always reached their full objectives, but the empire expanded in all of these directions, extending the system of military settlements on the new frontiers. A powerful Mediterranean fleet was constructed to ward off Hellene imperialism, and the Saganu were driven further north. Immense road- and canal-building projects also occurred, with major use of enslaved peoples as per the engineering tradition inherited from Karung. For the moment, Akkad seemed unchallengeable, though there were as always many hidden weaknesses that would become direr with time...
While the core civilised region of the Middle East was united by the Neo-Akkadians, the northern barbarian fringes saw the rise of their own empires. Late in the 1st century AD, the Saganu managed to regroup in the northern Caucasus under a new over-warlord, Paluni, who claimed descent for Artsak amongst other famed Saganu heroes. Paluni established a strong, fairly centralised militaristic empire, expanding in all directions and massacring a very strong invading Akkadian army in 96 AD. Meanwhile, the Steppe was alive with movement as always; the Kushans and the Scythians waged incessant wars and the latter lost, being forced out of Central Asia and into India for good, but the former were also strongly wearied. They were finished off in very early 1st century AD by the Wusun, an Iranian people from the east fleeing from the Xiongnu wrath. The Wusun took over the overland trade routes and the nomad-held parts of Central Asia, assimilated the conquered Kushans and created a (very loose, mostly confederal) Wushan Empire, conquering a very vast stretch of the Steppe. Its durability is ofcourse highly dubious.
Indian Ocean:
As the trade network from Karung to South China, under control of the increasingly divergent but still connected branches of the Avyaktaragan civilisation, boomed like never before for most of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, said Avyaktaragan branches entered yet another golden age, while such large territorial states as Nubia and Magadha suffered from rebellion and infighting.
Nubia collapsed into warring states for much of the 2nd century BC, its threat to Nyarnan western colonies apparently eradicated. Nyayana naturally made sure to retain a secure grip over its colonies by making them dependant on Indus agricultural exports, but no effort to expand its authority further south was made as the new rulers of the Ascendancy turned their eyes back to India. The city-states of the Western Bahulatva Coast were therefore let be, and prospered quietly for much of the following time. Major immigration – particularily from Saba – had occurred, local animism mixing with Paramatmanism and Judaism. Very slowly the Western Bahulatva crept south along the coast, with new trade cities arising; the old ones, meanwhile, eventually united under the Ksayarnan Ascendancy. The fortunes of this region later declined somewhat due to general decline in local trade, but later rebounded all the same.
The main action of these days was, ofcourse, occurring in India. While the gargantuan Magadhan Empire began to stumble once again, overstretched and surrounded by enemies, the Avyaktaragan powers of the western coast were in the middle of a renaissance, reinvigorated by new social and scientific developments. In Nyayana, the citizen-soldiers and the rising Vajrasamghata (engineer-farmer) caste, which rose to particular prominence after some grand land-reclamation projects, allowed for further development of authoritarianism. In 163 BC, Nilaloha the Elder came to power after a coup d’etat with the support of the former two combined with the easily-agitated urban masses and political opportunists from the former elite; he founded the Nyarnan Irinate with himself as Irin (autocrat) and made sure to solidify his power, allowing the long-term survival of the Irinate. His reign also saw the beginning of various long-term preparations that would bear fruit at a later date. Meanwhile, the Girnar Ascendancy grew increasingly distinct culturally, thanks to its unique military tradition and a past romanticised by a particularily strong poetic tradition; it also became more and more feudal, and waged never-ending border wars with Magadha. The Eastern, or Old, Bahulatva Coast prospered stably for the most part, protected well by extensive trade ties and powerful fortifications; their merchants reached all the way into the Mediterranean and China during this comparatively halcyon era, and ofcourse it were the cities of the Eastern Bahulatva that were, once more, at the centre of new cultural and scientific developments (as opposed to metallurgy and engineering, fields dominated and greatly advanced by Nyayana). These included the rise of a High Sanskrit intellectual lingua franca between the Avyaktaragan civilisations (increasingly divergent linguistically), and of a much more crude, but likewise widespread Kala trade lingo largely used by merchants; great masterpieces of literature and music; continued development of mathematics and astronomy; and, ofcourse, the great religious flowering as Judaism was increasingly integrated into the Avyaktaragan culture. Yahweh was incorporated into Paramatmanist pantheons as a God of Law; on a less mainstream note, Jewish influence resulted in the rise of henotheistic movements within Paramatmanism, while Judaism too began to return to its henotheistic roots. The religions of the Avyaktaragan world grew ever more diverse, with widely-ranging interpretations of the nature of gods and the universe. Buddhism also found its way into this religious mess, which then proceeded to influence religious developments elsewhere in the world (even Agade Dag, some claim, though the product is hardly recognisable). The Bahulatva city-states in Lanka had coalesced into an Ascendancy under the city of Podhigai; it grew quite prosperous from assorted trade and became an ally of the Kingdom of Sinhal.
While Sinhal continued to prosper, the most important early development in the 2nd century BC was the disintegration of the Sakan Empire amidst feudal strife and military defeats at the hands of the Sumerians and Kushans in Central Asia. It was important because Magadha was unable to exploit this development, being tied down by warfare against Girnar and Sinhal, while Nyarnans on the other hand were in an excellent position to make the very best of this opportunity thanks to the diplomatic inroads made by Nilaloha the Elder amongst the Sakas. It was up to his grandson, Nilaloha the Younger, who eventually took power as Irin in 110 BC, to arrange an invasion of the distracted Magadhan Empire by the warlike, greedy Sakan feudal hordes assisted by the powerful new cavalry army of the Irinate, as well as engineers and siege engines to overcome the Magadhan fortifications. These forces surprised the Magadhans in the Upper Gangetic Plain, which was overwhelmed soon enough; the invaders were bloodied by a delayed Magadhan retaliation that followed, but came out victorious and pressed on, advancing into the Magadhan heartlands and laying waste to these, deliberately annihilating the intricate irrigation and other public works to cause a huge famine, crippling the Magadhan power base. Although the Magadhans fought on valorously, they were now no longer able to sustain such a war effort, while the forces brought in against them were too strong; Sinhal pushed northwards and Girnar pushed eastwards, while the Nyarnans tricked the Sakas into migrating eastwards and then took, after some more cunning diplomacy, took over the remaining principalities in the west. In the end (which came in the late 90s-early 80s BC), Magadha was basically obliterated, and a new order arose in India. Nyayana established itself in the strategically strong positions in northwestern India, concentrating on developing and colonising the conquered lands, which were often quite backwards and depopulated. The Upper Gangetic Plain remained in the hands of warring Saka states, though eventually these had coalesced into a tribal federation of a regional kingdom once again. In Thar and along the Narmada, Girnar emerged as a much expanded territorial empire; east of that, in the mountains of Bundelkhand and other nearby mountainous regions, a Girnar warlord had carved out a strongly centralised, religious warrior state, the Kingdom of Kaitarpur led from the fortress-city of the same name. Sinhal expanded northwards greatly, taking over the Godavari Basin from both Magadha and the crumbled Kingdom of Pratisthana. Lastly, in the easternmost parts of India, Bangha – a loose, Buddhist, sea-oriented successor state to Magadha – had arisen. Naturally, the subcontinent saw a lot of subsequent border wars, and borders were occasionally redrawn, though ofcourse none of these changes could rival the collapse of Magadha.
Surprisingly, his son Poseidonius was not wholly incompetent. He decided to extend the empire west; the rotten Ulasid kingdom was easily conquered, and was then used as a springboard for operations against the Dominate. The result was a drawn-out three-decade war in the Central Mediterranean, for the rebuilt Tartessian fleet was not about to just roll over, and the early invasion of Italy failed miserably due to the strong Tartessian military presence (though a later invasion, with the assistance of a very large and ferocious Thracian force, proved somewhat more successful). However, by 74 AD the Tartessians were sufficiently weakened and exhausted, and the decisive development occurred – the Athanoi switched sides. Hierotyrannos Athanasios, who came to power as a result of a Mataimakhandrist coup d’etat (Mataimakhandros is the Athanoi religion, or rather a concept central to that religion – that of eternal struggle of man against death, in which the tables will be turned by a messiah that Athanasios’ many followers believed him to be), led the Athanoi south and ended up brutally conquering northern Italy. The Ligurians, inspired by this development, had invaded their ancestral homelands, assisted by a lingering fifth column; the decreased Tartessian garrisons were expelled and the colonists were slaughtered wholesale. Berbers had reduced Tartessian control over North Africa to a coastal strip. In the wake of these events, the Dominate had no choice but to recognise the Hellenic conquest of Ulasis, and central and southern Italy. The Tartessians retreated west to try and heal their empire, gradually pushing back the Berbers and once more thrashing the Sardinian fleet and a Teutonic horde. Meanwhile, the Hellenic Empire claimed hegemony over the Mediterranean, taking advantage of Illyria’s collapse to annex its coastal regions. However, by the century’s end the empire had already grown somewhat overstretched, the regionalist tendencies in the Greek cities picking up again, not to mention great dissent and constant rebellions in the war-torn, devastated Italy.
Lastly, Sitalkes’ Thracian kingdom survived and thrived; though not quite as legendarily prosperous as that of Deospor, it was definitely a more cohesive entity, with royal authority enforced via a rising bureaucracy and warrior kept busy with constant national mercenary campaigns, most notably the one in Italy. Great territorial expansion happened, with Odrysa as well as many Dacian and Illyrian inlands integrated. The Hessonians brooded in Kratopolis, but gradually picked things up again, expanding into Anatolia and Thrace. Major defeats suffered at their hands have shaken the Sitalkid realm. The Tauric Empire lingered on in the northern Black Sea, prospering from the combination of steppe and sea trade. A rump Paphlagonian state gradually reformed in northern Anatolia. And beyond that began a whole different empire…
Middle East and Central Asia:
In the Middle East, change was afoot, though like in the Mediterranean much of it was only activated by the bubonic plague and the campaigns of Lyphatoris. Prior to the 6th decade BC, the nations were trying to recover from the horrid wars of the past three centuries. The 2nd century BC was actually quite a golden time; a cultural and religious renaissance was ongoing in Karung, which was hegemonic and prosperous, while Ur too was rebuilding and successfully reconquering Persia. In a glorious 159-152 BC campaign, the Urusi thoroughly thrashed the imperial Sakan army at Gulashkird, establishing a secure new eastern frontier and setting up a system of military settlements there to keep it safe. Maritime trade brought prosperity to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf ports alike. On the fringes of civilisation, diverse going-ons occurred, and the dualistic nature of the effects of the steppe’s nomad awakening on civilisation was aptly demonstrated; while the Kushans allowed the Silk Route, for long in decline, to pick up again early in the 2nd century BC, various violent steppe tribes did not cease their raids against the peripheral civilisations. The Age of Scythians, however, was over, at least in the Middle East; instead, a new warlike race was arising in the Caucasus, which had by now become one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, with Scythians, Sarmatians and even some Paphlagonians, Greeks and Thracians intermixing with the already-diverse native peoples. This intermixing was sped up by a religious revival and the rise of several strong, charismatic leaders; and ultimately, an extremely warlike, rigidly disciplined mongrel horde arose out of the outlaws, nomads and suchlike in this region; they called themselves the Saganu (“the United”
, banded together into a military confederation and attacked Urartu and Arran, overrunning the weak kingdoms by the middle of the 1st century BC. The cities were tolerated in exchange for paying vast tributes and generally obeying the Saganu warlords; meanwhile, an alliance was signed with the Paphlagonians and preparations were made to bring war and destruction into Mesopotamia once again.By the time of the Oikumenical War’s beginning, Sumeria was already weakened by plagues and residual regionalism. The army was spread over a wide area, rebellions were common and the economy was in a state of disarray at best. Things were not yet critical, but the state was weak and a strong push from a foreign state was enough to make it all fall apart. Naturally, such a push came. The elite and massive Paphlagonian army, reinforced by the Saganu, Sarmatian and Scythian hordes, soon enough set out under the personal command of Lyphatoris. The Sumerians resisted stalwartly with all the forces they could gather, but despite bloodying and delaying the invaders considerably, the far superior numbers and advanced doctrine of Paphlagonians proved too much. City after city fell, army after army was destroyed (though some managed to conduct an orderly retreat southwards, to prepare a last stand). At last, in 38 BC, the last army of Urusi of Ur was grinded into nothing at Isin, and the Urusi himself had fallen. City after city surrendered to the Paphlagonians; Ur resisted and was ransacked and razed by the Saganu who were given dominion over southern Mesopotamia, ruling there much like they did back in the Caucasus after making an example of the ancient capital. The extensive irrigation was neglected and damaged, and misery reigned supreme, while Lyphatoris and his main army, along with allied Aramaean tribes, crossed into the Levant. Between this, the rampaging Paphlagonian fleet and the new armies attacking from Anatolia, the remaining Karung armies were all crushed, the Levant was annexed and Karung vassalised, its Arabic holdings breaking free under an ambitious governor. Paphlagonians and their vassals asserted control over the Fertile Crescent, and the megalomaniacal king turned his eyes west, as was already told.
Already under Lyphatoris the Paphlagonian Empire began to disintegrate, its Middle Eastern conquests ruled by allied tribes or autocratic generals that were only nominally loyal to the otherwise-preoccupied king. After his death, however, what little unity existed disappeared, wars for succession began and those less obsessed with the throne still did use the chaos to strengthen their positions. Northern and central Mesopotamia, and northern Levant, fractured into several warlord kingdoms of Paphlagonian military governors, intermixed with local opportunistic nobles. Karung, in the middle of dynastic struggles of its own, tried to reassert control over the southern Levant, fighting with local Karung nobles and the king of Hejaz, Balthail. The latter ended up defeating both of the former and briefly reuniting Karung; however, it was too badly shaken by all of its troubles within the last hundred years and at the end of the millennium, after the death of Balthail’s son and the new crisis of the old trade network, things began to unravel. However, the ultimate death of Karung did not come from within…
Later in the post-Lyphatorian wars, Mesopotamia came under the rule of a Saganu “over-warlord”, Artsak, who had defeated fellow Saganu warlords and Paphlagonian rulers alike. He allowed the Sumerian cities to retain a great deal of independence in exchange for major tributes and nominal submission. Naturally, that incensed the Sumerians greatly, but after the ridiculously easy defeat of an early rebellion Artsak had allowed himself to grow careless, withdrawing to his mountainous northern stronghold. Naturally, that proved to be his undoing.
In 1 AD, the prophet named Ek-Enlil appeared in the holy city of Nippur, which remained relatively powerful and prosperous, but still weakened, impoverished and very, very embittered – both at the collaborationist, corrupt priestdom that apparently usurped civil power in the city and at the Saganu barbarians that enslaved and humiliated the most ancient and glorious city on Earth. He spoke of this misery as punishment for weakness, complacency and blasphemous deification of the Uru; for there was only one true god, Enlil, and the Sumerians are his chosen servants on Earth. He spoke also against corruption and disunity, and in favour of building a new, truly glorious empire to span all the corners of the world. He called for the return to the imperial glory of Akkad, and his words fell on welcome ground; so when the priests tried to arrest him, they were thwarted by a huge rebel mob. They then tried to get Enhelamdug, the Urusi of Nippur, to intervene with his loyal warriors and restore order for them; but Enhelamdug was himself captivated by Ek-Enlil’s words, and so launched a military coup d’etat instead, taking power over Nippur and publicly supporting Ek-Enlil. Upon his advice, he then spread the word all over the other cities, and managed to engineer a new Sumerian coalition as the cities joined him enthusiastically. Forces were joined, a new army was swiftly trained and Aramaean tribes were persuaded to join as well, strengthening the Sumerian cavalry arm. As by then Artsak had already died, his empire proved unable to resist with coordination; Enhelamdug’s forces, motivated by an ever-strengthening faith in their newfound divine cause, defeated warlord after warlord, reconquering the entirety of Mesopotamia by 10 AD. By now fully convinced in Ek-Enlil’s veracity, Enhelamdug set about building the Neo-Akkadian Empire with a capital in Nippur. The sermons of Ek-Enlil were recorded for posterity and used for spiritual and political guidance; the priesthood was thoroughly purged and reordered around the new monotheistic cult of Enlil; a new meritocratic bureaucracy was established; the damaged irrigation was repaired and improved; and the military was prepared for further campaigns.
These were very well-timed. Trade was only beginning to pick up again, but while the Akkadians had the drive of a vigorous new government and an expansionistic religion, Karung was once again decaying, and the Akkadians merely put it out of its misery. Northern Arabia was annexed, and the already-eager Aramaean and Arabic tribes there reinforced the Akkadians with their camelry and assisted them with their guides in exchange for lots of plunder and military privileges. Karung’s Asian holdings fell in a series of quick battles and city assaults; the last king valiantly gathered all the forces he had left in Karung Proper, and led these in a heroic charge against the Akkadian forces; this charge resulted in a horrific massacre of the first wave and a panicked rout of the second. The king and his retainers retreated to the fortified capital city of Shadoq while the rest of Karung fell to the invaders. Shadoq was besieged for years, being a nigh-impregnable fortress, but as it ran out of food it had to surrender; the king committed suicide. The Akkadians reigned supreme in Fertile Crescent. In the following years, under Enhelamdug and his successors, the Akkadians continued to conquer while trade revived just in time to fund further campaigns and colonisation of conquered regions, in addition to the loot from Karung. The great campaigns into Anatolia, the Caucasus, Persia, Central Asia and East Arabia not always reached their full objectives, but the empire expanded in all of these directions, extending the system of military settlements on the new frontiers. A powerful Mediterranean fleet was constructed to ward off Hellene imperialism, and the Saganu were driven further north. Immense road- and canal-building projects also occurred, with major use of enslaved peoples as per the engineering tradition inherited from Karung. For the moment, Akkad seemed unchallengeable, though there were as always many hidden weaknesses that would become direr with time...
While the core civilised region of the Middle East was united by the Neo-Akkadians, the northern barbarian fringes saw the rise of their own empires. Late in the 1st century AD, the Saganu managed to regroup in the northern Caucasus under a new over-warlord, Paluni, who claimed descent for Artsak amongst other famed Saganu heroes. Paluni established a strong, fairly centralised militaristic empire, expanding in all directions and massacring a very strong invading Akkadian army in 96 AD. Meanwhile, the Steppe was alive with movement as always; the Kushans and the Scythians waged incessant wars and the latter lost, being forced out of Central Asia and into India for good, but the former were also strongly wearied. They were finished off in very early 1st century AD by the Wusun, an Iranian people from the east fleeing from the Xiongnu wrath. The Wusun took over the overland trade routes and the nomad-held parts of Central Asia, assimilated the conquered Kushans and created a (very loose, mostly confederal) Wushan Empire, conquering a very vast stretch of the Steppe. Its durability is ofcourse highly dubious.
Indian Ocean:
As the trade network from Karung to South China, under control of the increasingly divergent but still connected branches of the Avyaktaragan civilisation, boomed like never before for most of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, said Avyaktaragan branches entered yet another golden age, while such large territorial states as Nubia and Magadha suffered from rebellion and infighting.
Nubia collapsed into warring states for much of the 2nd century BC, its threat to Nyarnan western colonies apparently eradicated. Nyayana naturally made sure to retain a secure grip over its colonies by making them dependant on Indus agricultural exports, but no effort to expand its authority further south was made as the new rulers of the Ascendancy turned their eyes back to India. The city-states of the Western Bahulatva Coast were therefore let be, and prospered quietly for much of the following time. Major immigration – particularily from Saba – had occurred, local animism mixing with Paramatmanism and Judaism. Very slowly the Western Bahulatva crept south along the coast, with new trade cities arising; the old ones, meanwhile, eventually united under the Ksayarnan Ascendancy. The fortunes of this region later declined somewhat due to general decline in local trade, but later rebounded all the same.
The main action of these days was, ofcourse, occurring in India. While the gargantuan Magadhan Empire began to stumble once again, overstretched and surrounded by enemies, the Avyaktaragan powers of the western coast were in the middle of a renaissance, reinvigorated by new social and scientific developments. In Nyayana, the citizen-soldiers and the rising Vajrasamghata (engineer-farmer) caste, which rose to particular prominence after some grand land-reclamation projects, allowed for further development of authoritarianism. In 163 BC, Nilaloha the Elder came to power after a coup d’etat with the support of the former two combined with the easily-agitated urban masses and political opportunists from the former elite; he founded the Nyarnan Irinate with himself as Irin (autocrat) and made sure to solidify his power, allowing the long-term survival of the Irinate. His reign also saw the beginning of various long-term preparations that would bear fruit at a later date. Meanwhile, the Girnar Ascendancy grew increasingly distinct culturally, thanks to its unique military tradition and a past romanticised by a particularily strong poetic tradition; it also became more and more feudal, and waged never-ending border wars with Magadha. The Eastern, or Old, Bahulatva Coast prospered stably for the most part, protected well by extensive trade ties and powerful fortifications; their merchants reached all the way into the Mediterranean and China during this comparatively halcyon era, and ofcourse it were the cities of the Eastern Bahulatva that were, once more, at the centre of new cultural and scientific developments (as opposed to metallurgy and engineering, fields dominated and greatly advanced by Nyayana). These included the rise of a High Sanskrit intellectual lingua franca between the Avyaktaragan civilisations (increasingly divergent linguistically), and of a much more crude, but likewise widespread Kala trade lingo largely used by merchants; great masterpieces of literature and music; continued development of mathematics and astronomy; and, ofcourse, the great religious flowering as Judaism was increasingly integrated into the Avyaktaragan culture. Yahweh was incorporated into Paramatmanist pantheons as a God of Law; on a less mainstream note, Jewish influence resulted in the rise of henotheistic movements within Paramatmanism, while Judaism too began to return to its henotheistic roots. The religions of the Avyaktaragan world grew ever more diverse, with widely-ranging interpretations of the nature of gods and the universe. Buddhism also found its way into this religious mess, which then proceeded to influence religious developments elsewhere in the world (even Agade Dag, some claim, though the product is hardly recognisable). The Bahulatva city-states in Lanka had coalesced into an Ascendancy under the city of Podhigai; it grew quite prosperous from assorted trade and became an ally of the Kingdom of Sinhal.
While Sinhal continued to prosper, the most important early development in the 2nd century BC was the disintegration of the Sakan Empire amidst feudal strife and military defeats at the hands of the Sumerians and Kushans in Central Asia. It was important because Magadha was unable to exploit this development, being tied down by warfare against Girnar and Sinhal, while Nyarnans on the other hand were in an excellent position to make the very best of this opportunity thanks to the diplomatic inroads made by Nilaloha the Elder amongst the Sakas. It was up to his grandson, Nilaloha the Younger, who eventually took power as Irin in 110 BC, to arrange an invasion of the distracted Magadhan Empire by the warlike, greedy Sakan feudal hordes assisted by the powerful new cavalry army of the Irinate, as well as engineers and siege engines to overcome the Magadhan fortifications. These forces surprised the Magadhans in the Upper Gangetic Plain, which was overwhelmed soon enough; the invaders were bloodied by a delayed Magadhan retaliation that followed, but came out victorious and pressed on, advancing into the Magadhan heartlands and laying waste to these, deliberately annihilating the intricate irrigation and other public works to cause a huge famine, crippling the Magadhan power base. Although the Magadhans fought on valorously, they were now no longer able to sustain such a war effort, while the forces brought in against them were too strong; Sinhal pushed northwards and Girnar pushed eastwards, while the Nyarnans tricked the Sakas into migrating eastwards and then took, after some more cunning diplomacy, took over the remaining principalities in the west. In the end (which came in the late 90s-early 80s BC), Magadha was basically obliterated, and a new order arose in India. Nyayana established itself in the strategically strong positions in northwestern India, concentrating on developing and colonising the conquered lands, which were often quite backwards and depopulated. The Upper Gangetic Plain remained in the hands of warring Saka states, though eventually these had coalesced into a tribal federation of a regional kingdom once again. In Thar and along the Narmada, Girnar emerged as a much expanded territorial empire; east of that, in the mountains of Bundelkhand and other nearby mountainous regions, a Girnar warlord had carved out a strongly centralised, religious warrior state, the Kingdom of Kaitarpur led from the fortress-city of the same name. Sinhal expanded northwards greatly, taking over the Godavari Basin from both Magadha and the crumbled Kingdom of Pratisthana. Lastly, in the easternmost parts of India, Bangha – a loose, Buddhist, sea-oriented successor state to Magadha – had arisen. Naturally, the subcontinent saw a lot of subsequent border wars, and borders were occasionally redrawn, though ofcourse none of these changes could rival the collapse of Magadha.
das
Regeneration In Process
Times changed, ofcourse, and the late 1st century BC (with its bubonic plague that did reach into Nubia and Nyayana, inviting trade-damaging measures) as well as the early 1st century AD (with the collapse of Samkataka and subsequently immense damage to the trade network) had seriously shaken the Avyaktaragan world, although in the long term not all that much changed and trade later picked up again. Sinhal had fallen into decline and stagnation since then, with increasing regional tensions, while Bangha, though thwarted in several attempts at military expansion in Southeast Asia, grew to become a significant commercial power. Nyayana was not inconsiderably weakened by the economic turmoil; it also suffered from comparative neglect of naval affairs during this entire time. Meanwhile, back in the western Indian Ocean, the Nubian state picked up again. Under a new (though still Qahtani) dynasty, the Nubians reunited their core regions and marched to reconquer the south. Numerous Cushite tribes were vassalised and influence in Arabia was reestablished, while a strong fleet of galleys – ill-suited for oceanic action but much better at coastal combat – was readied. In an alarming and unexpected turn of events, the mid-1st century AD saw a fairly successful though rather drawn-out war between Nubia and the Nyarnans. Nubian sneak attacks won them the increasingly-neglected Saba and some of the colonies in the Horn of Africa, but a subsequent Nyarnan counterattack reversed most of the African gains and was only barely stopped in a fierce naval battle in the Gate of Tears itself. The naval defeat had greatly shocked the Nyarnans and encouraged the Girnar – who had by now become Nyarnan enemies – to launch an attack of their own. Long story cut short; in the end the Nyarnans withstood the attacks and even struck back (without much success due to cunning Nubian tactics), but in the end had to concede Saba and one of the African colonies to Nubia, though retaining some trade and navigation privileges in their former colonies and the Gate of Tears. Revanchism simmered; clearly, Nyayana was going to try and get revenge in the future. The navy was rebuilt and modernised, for one thing.
In the Himalayas, a Buddhist Tibetan kingdom arose.
And so we finally get to Samkataka and Southeast Asia. The 2nd century BC saw Samkataka continue to prosper; even though it stagnated politically, it still kept receiving new fresh immigrations, and the economy was definitely booming thanks to the trade with China. Great eastwards colonial and military expansion occurred, as the Malays were forced to flee into the inlands and northlands of Borneo and Sulawesi. While only some nearby coastal regions of those large islands were annexed, the more southerly small islands were captured completely, winning Samkataka many spices to further bolster its trade income. Efforts were made to thwart colonial expansion by competitors; successful naval wars were fought with Magadha, while in southern Atanam a strongly Samkatakified native state, Ayutamradvipa, arose under a dynasty related to the Samkatakan royal house; this state effectively halted further expansion by Chinese powers in the islands. By the 1st century BC, however, things began to deteriorate, in part because of a curious local religious phenomenon – the Annihilation Tendency cults, arising out of constant hardship and warfare in northern Dwipa [6]. Basically, these cults embraced the most destructive gods/aspects/forces in Paramatmanism and went on to terrorise the countryside in accordance with their beliefs. Annihilation Tendency groups, often rallying around local barons, thus took over much of the northern and central Dwipa, taking advantage of the decay of central power which generally neglected these regions (although Annihilation Tendency raids did succeed in provoking retaliation; even then, it was rarely truly effective). Then again, that really does point more to the fact that the real, main problem was simple degeneration of the ruling dynasty, which also began to lose other peripheral regions at this time, such as the Vietnamese colonies that were given to the king of Sresthapura as dowry.
Still, at times competent kings still arose; one of them was Rghadra (r. 96-73 BC). Joining the other powers presently attacking Magadha, the Samkatakans asserted naval supremacy, annexed the more faraway colonies and then sent out the barons and their hordes – hard-pressed by the renewed Samkatakan military pressure and so willing to move elsewhere for more effective destruction and plunder – to wrest Burma away from the Magadhans. In this task the barons succeeded, carving out new fiefdoms for themselves. However, after Rghadra’s death things began to go downhill again; far from all the groups and barons were exterminated or relocated in Dwipa and trade was now beginning to decline, while the war drained the treasury considerably. All subsequent attempts to save and rejuvenate Samkataka had failed, but in the end it collapsed due to natural disasters; to wit, a freakishly powerful tsunami that destroyed the capital, Samkataka itself, in 3 AD. The already ramshackle Ascendancy collapsed altogether; Annihilation Tendency cultists and Malay pirates attacked without fear or hesitation; and the trade network collapsed.
Nonetheless, later in the 1st century AD, a new political order coalesced and finished taking shape by 100 AD. In Burma, an Annihilation Tendency feudal empire (Pralayadesha) arose; it repulsed all Banghan attempts at reconquest and devastated the Khmer lands, destroying the early Khmer kingdom of Sresthapura. However, Pralayadesha was eventually pushed out of the southlands and a new, greater Khmer kingdom – the Kanakan Empire – was built, under strong Bahulatva and Banghan influences. By now it has already grown overstretched, however, with strong regionalist undercurrents. Malays built themselves a kingdom in southern Borneo. Much of Dwipa fell to Annihilation Tendency baronates and Bahulatva colonial powers, but the south, along with Java and many smaller islands, has been united with into the Sunda Ascendancy, with a capital in Madhumatapura. This state was created by a combination of armed force and urban/mercantile support both of which the founder, Dhanakumar, proved himself skilled at both acquiring and using. Though the Samkatakan colonial empire was not rebuilt, the Sundanese were fast enough to reassert their control over the key trade routes as the great maritime trade network was revitalised.
East Asia:
The 2nd century BC saw mainly internal, albeit very violent and intense, conflicts in this region; to a large extent those were the culminative results of previous centuries of sociopolitical tensions, or even continuations of earlier conflicts. The Khitan Empire once more collapsed into a flurry of infighting and rebellion in 192 BC. After 187 BC, the Xishanese had to put down several brutal Korean rebellions. At about the same time, Tianwang died and his empire began to fall apart in a succession war mixed with ethnic revolts. Events in Luoyang were unobvious, but ominous, as conspiracies grew and rebellions occurred in the south. In Xishan itself, urban violence was on the rise, with Neo-Sunfucianist revolutionary ideologies emerging. Even the small kingdom of Chen fell into infighting between Neo-Sunfucianist and Mohist-Legalist factions. As for external attacks, there was a few of those as will; the Xiongpi took advantage of the Khitan civil war to launch a series of attacks, while the Jomonese raided the Xishanese colonies in Dongri extensively with a new fleet of many small and highly-maneuverable ships.
Soon enough, situation escalated further in Xishan; by 150 BC riots were common, the mercantile oligarchy lost many of its remaining supporters and Duke Nai now decided to ally with the rebel mobs to regain power. At first (during 148 BC), this bid succeeded; the popular movements put the oligarchy on the brink of defeat, and Duke Nai then emerged as a “mediator”, winning the confidence of both sides involved, persuading the mobs to go home and the oligarchy to make numerous largely nominal concessions to the people and more real political concessions to himself. Soon, however, things got out of hand as the conservative factions recalled a large army back from Korea – where the last major rebellion for now has been thoroughly defeated – and began preparing a counter-coup. Word got out, and rebellions commenced again; thinking this to be not quite spontaneous, the oligarchs attempted to assassinate the Duke, who however managed to escape and then led the rebels to besiege the Guangling administrative quarters. General Kong Tan, who commanded the recalled northern army, chose to side with the Duke after much deliberation and the few remaining loyalist forces in the Xishan mainland were swept aside by this combination; the merchant oligarchs surrendered and soon started an exodus to the more loyal colonies. The Duke then moved to consolidate his absolute power.
His ploy was understood soon enough, however, and a new series of revolts began in 143 BC. This time, these weren’t quite as unanimous, though; the army was loyal to the Duke, as were many of the citizens, so a brutal civil war began, Kong Tan successfully massacring the revolters in Guangling itself. At this point, the colonies also successfully seceded under conservative emigrants, though Korea soon saw a three-sided civil war of its own between local separatists, colonial separatists and the military settlers likewise loyal to the Duke. These conflicts showed no signs of reaching any quick conclusion as of the 130s BC; even though the Ducal forces reasserted control over the central regions of the mainland, both the north and the south were firmly in rebel hands.
In the meantime, in 134 BC, Emperor Nanhai of Luoyang rose to power; after surviving several conspiracies and failing to introduce much of any reforms in the stagnant court, the headstrong young Emperor came to conclusion that a new court – in a new capital – was needed. So the capital was moved to a southern port city promptly renamed Haijing, a new, reformist court was assembled and the old one basically ignored while the Emperor set about securing the loyalty of the southern cities, introducing somewhat Sunfucianist reforms and constructing a powerful fleet. All that required major expenses, as did the 127 BC naval expedition to secure the Xishanese colonies in Atanam (which was successful; it was simply expensive and didn’t exactly pay for itself, while the fleet was badly damaged by storms). As new taxes had to be levied, elements of the old court had had enough, as had many of the traditionally lightly-taxed northern peasants. A great rebellion split the nation in half, Nanhai’s cousin taking power in the north as the Emperor Zhongxi and swiftly assembling a new huge, though unruly and ill-supplied, army from the rebel peasants and others. This army’s initial march on Haijing was repulsed, but another army used Nanhai’s distraction to capture many of the central/northeastern cities loyal to him, ultimately also penetrating the Zhu Jiang Basin. Only desperate levying and Samkatakan financial support saved Nanhai from total disaster, but he now had to quickly build up a serious army.
Meanwhile, to the north, Tianwang II emerged, rebuilding the Huang He Empire and conquering Chen. He then marched to make things even more interesting in Xishan, breaching the old, declining fortifications and then defeating and slaying Kong Tan in the Battle of Hefei. This helped turn the tables on the Ducal supporters; the rebels hurried to defeat Guangling even as Tianwang II’s barbarians ravaged the countryside. With fresh rebellions within, the rebels succeeded in finally capturing the city in 124 BC. A republic was proclaimed and the Duke was publicly executed amongst with much of his family. The Board of Salvation was then assembled to save the country from both barbarians and reactionaries; an already existent reign of terror in the countryside was intensified to eliminate the latter, and huge armies were raised to fight the former. Tianwang II was defeated at the gates of Guangling, but rebuilt his army, bolstering it with Xiongnu hordes, and overran the old Xishan peninsula, ravaging it thoroughly. Despite the seeming success of the terror policies, as soon as they were discontinued a new rebellion began in the south. The situation was desperate, but fortunately not quite as bad as it initially seemed; eventually, a new generation of generals emerged, foremost amongst them a Vietnamese colonist named Na Kangdi. Na Kangdi finally defeated Tianwang II in 119 BC and reasserted power over the north; then he launched a coup against the Board of Salvation, took for himself the imperial title and renamed his realm “Zhongshan”. Various vast reforms were introduced, embracing both republican and ducal traditions. Control was then reasserted over the surviving colonies (Vietnam and Taiwan), which were granted greater autonomy. Efforts were made to reclaim the lost colonies; the invasion of Dongri, now under Jomonese occupation, was partially successful, though in the end the only tenable gain made was the island of Andong [7]. However, an attempt to reclaim the Atanamese colonies ended in disaster as the native kingdom of Ayutamradvipa allied with South Luoyang (by then that empire has fought itself to a stalemate and so remained divided between a stagnating, isolationist Mohist-Legalist north and a vigorous, mercantile Mohist-Paramatmanist south); in a great naval battle, the Zhongshanese fleet was utterly destroyed and in a subsequent campaign South Luoyang – its second Emperor, Ershichi, eager to conquer something to make up for the loss of his empire’s entire northern half – had quickly subjugated Vietnam. This necessitated a major strategy change.
And so after 112 BC, Na Kangdi rebuilt and strengthened his armies. He knew it now – to truly secure Zhongshan, all of China’s waterways had to be conquered, all other states had to be… not simply destroyed, but fully incorporated and colonised. The Huang He valley warlords were overwhelmed easily enough, and the Xiongnu confederacy that reigned supreme in the northern parts was also defeated, though not yet crushed. North Luoyang was more difficult to defeat, with its powerful fortifications, but the superior new siege engines of the Zhongshanese allowed a costly victory in 101 BC. By then, South Luoyang was ofcourse already prepared for a life-or-death struggle. Its fleet managed to once again crush the Zhongshanese one and carried out some deep raids, strongly damaging the trade routes, while Avyaktaragan mercenaries and a large professional army raised with Samkatakan money had managed to hold the attackers at bay even after they broke through the northern fortifications. The war ended abruptly when Na Kangdi, trying to force a decisive victory at Guilun in 93 BC as his forces finally began to make progress towards Haijing, was slain by Luoyang crossbow bolt. His son and successor, Na Wudi, agreed to withdraw in exchange for a large one-time tribute, from then on focusing on stabilizing his father’s empire.
That task proved quite impossible, with constant ideological and/or regional rebellions, complicated taxation and administration, and increasing overstretch. Worse yet, the Xiongnu continued their raiding, although it also finished off the Khitan Empire and badly damaged the native kingdom of Korea, allowing for its reconquest. The Na Dynasty ruled on, but began to lose popular support even within its core areas.
It was only in the beginning of the 1st century AD that things got real bad, though. Firstly, the maritime trade routes with Samkataka collapsed with said Samkataka. Secondly, as the economy in general took yet another hit and agriculture was already in a bad shade, great peasant rebellions commenced. And third, the long-feared event had happened; a religiously-inspired Xiongnu chieftain, named Aotiao, had united most of the Xiongnu under his leadership. Creating a new imperial religion/ideology for himself, a monotheistic evolution of old Turkic beliefs that would be later dubbed Tengrism, Aotiao then set out to conquer all under heaven or at least all of it that’s worth conquering. The Xiongnu then rushed to assimilate the Xiongpi, overran the former Khitan area, and bumped right into the clearly blasphemous Zhongshanese Empire. And so, as Xiongnu hordes rapidly adapted to Chinese ways of warfare and siegecraft, the already beleaguered Zhongshanese were forced to contend with a huge threat on the northern frontier. This threat was, however, woefully underestimated until it was too late. Korea and the Huang He valley were quickly overran by Xiongnu prongs, but instead of stopping there they pressed on to conquer the war-wrecked old Xishan peninsula and the central Chinese inlands. Cities were razed and populations slaughtered, while the Xiongnu and other Turks loyal to Aotiao’s cause moved in their place. The rump of the Zhongshanese state resisted valorously, counterattacking to the best of its ability, and managed to inflict considerable losses, as well as to repel several invasions of the southeastern coast; but attempts to forge a coalition with South Luoyang (then in another civil war after the collapse of trade) had all failed. In the end, Zhongshan was forced to withdraw to its remaining eastern coastal regions and pay tribute to the Heavenly Xiongnu Empire, although the Na dynasty was allowed to retain power and indeed actually managed to make the best of the situation, persuading rebels that disunity will simply give Xiongnu what remained of the once-great empire as well.
Aotiao lived on for ridiculously long, and made sure to fortify his empire well; as already mentioned, he colonised the conquered areas with Turks, had his literate advisors develop a special, Khitan-inspired Xiongnu alphabet to better preserve culture and avoid assimilation by the Chinese (as happened with the careless Mixu invaders; that, surely, was the cause of their downfall!), established a centralised bureaucracy and enslaved the surviving Chinese minorities in the northern parts of his empire (de-sinifying the central regions proved more difficult, but some progress was made thanks to the refugees that now overpopulated and starved both Luoyang and Zhongshan nearly to death). Therefore his empire survived after his 63 AD death, though shrinking somewhat. It is not quite clear if it could survive for more than a century more, though.
The Chinese powers were forced to exist on the coastal fringes, but that turned out to be not quite as bad as it seemed earlier, for trade began to pick up again, bringing prosperity to those coastal civilisations. While Anyang was lost to the Jomonese once again (who now had an archipelago-spanning semi-matriarchal tribal theocracy, which admittedly was now beginning to become somewhat more advanced due to opening up to trade with Xiongnu and Luoyang), the Zhongshanese managed to rebuild their fleet and reconquer northern Atanam, avenging the past defeats in full in a skilled 85 AD naval battle off the local shores. Luoyang was thus noticeably weakened as a colonial, commercial and naval power, but remained viable, rebuilding its fleet. Still, the renewed peace in the region was definitely a very precarious one.
OOC:
[1] AD=of Agade Dag, i.e. of Akkadian Purity (as the neo-Akkadian religion is called). This NES therefore apparently uses the Sumerian calendar, which is only fair considering Sumerian contributions in this and related fields.
[2] Xukpi=OTL Copan.
[3] Sakbe=OTL El Mirador.
[4] Ranopolis or Kratopolis=OTL Byzantium or Constantinople or Istanbul.
[5] Hellenopolis=OTL Athens.
[6] Dwipa=OTL Sumatra.
[7] Andong=OTL Kyushu.
First of all, apologies about the unexpected delay; these things (relatives) happen, but hopefully won’t happen next time.
Creative liberties with people’s plans duly taken. Thlayli, your orders in particular aren’t exactly appropriate for BT (as usual, you are presuming too much about the situation, and given that the update covers three centuries, well, that sort of renders many of your plans wholly irrelevant), so I hope you don’t mind my interpretation. Ofcourse, there were other people as well whose plans had to be… twisted due to the conditions being radically different from what might have been expected. Also, many of you seem to overestimate longevity of ancient empires. Hope you don’t mind the carnage too much; and as for those of you who lost their states (as well as those who haven’t joined yet), I’d like to remind them that there still are lots and lots of untaken spots in the world. Do your part to spread and diversify civilisation.
Again, not all details were covered, because the update is large and dramatic enough as it is. Also, sorry if the last two sections appear rushed, because, well, they are.
There will probably be two or three more BT updates after this one, and then I’ll get to work on the stats for the NES Proper.
In the Himalayas, a Buddhist Tibetan kingdom arose.
And so we finally get to Samkataka and Southeast Asia. The 2nd century BC saw Samkataka continue to prosper; even though it stagnated politically, it still kept receiving new fresh immigrations, and the economy was definitely booming thanks to the trade with China. Great eastwards colonial and military expansion occurred, as the Malays were forced to flee into the inlands and northlands of Borneo and Sulawesi. While only some nearby coastal regions of those large islands were annexed, the more southerly small islands were captured completely, winning Samkataka many spices to further bolster its trade income. Efforts were made to thwart colonial expansion by competitors; successful naval wars were fought with Magadha, while in southern Atanam a strongly Samkatakified native state, Ayutamradvipa, arose under a dynasty related to the Samkatakan royal house; this state effectively halted further expansion by Chinese powers in the islands. By the 1st century BC, however, things began to deteriorate, in part because of a curious local religious phenomenon – the Annihilation Tendency cults, arising out of constant hardship and warfare in northern Dwipa [6]. Basically, these cults embraced the most destructive gods/aspects/forces in Paramatmanism and went on to terrorise the countryside in accordance with their beliefs. Annihilation Tendency groups, often rallying around local barons, thus took over much of the northern and central Dwipa, taking advantage of the decay of central power which generally neglected these regions (although Annihilation Tendency raids did succeed in provoking retaliation; even then, it was rarely truly effective). Then again, that really does point more to the fact that the real, main problem was simple degeneration of the ruling dynasty, which also began to lose other peripheral regions at this time, such as the Vietnamese colonies that were given to the king of Sresthapura as dowry.
Still, at times competent kings still arose; one of them was Rghadra (r. 96-73 BC). Joining the other powers presently attacking Magadha, the Samkatakans asserted naval supremacy, annexed the more faraway colonies and then sent out the barons and their hordes – hard-pressed by the renewed Samkatakan military pressure and so willing to move elsewhere for more effective destruction and plunder – to wrest Burma away from the Magadhans. In this task the barons succeeded, carving out new fiefdoms for themselves. However, after Rghadra’s death things began to go downhill again; far from all the groups and barons were exterminated or relocated in Dwipa and trade was now beginning to decline, while the war drained the treasury considerably. All subsequent attempts to save and rejuvenate Samkataka had failed, but in the end it collapsed due to natural disasters; to wit, a freakishly powerful tsunami that destroyed the capital, Samkataka itself, in 3 AD. The already ramshackle Ascendancy collapsed altogether; Annihilation Tendency cultists and Malay pirates attacked without fear or hesitation; and the trade network collapsed.
Nonetheless, later in the 1st century AD, a new political order coalesced and finished taking shape by 100 AD. In Burma, an Annihilation Tendency feudal empire (Pralayadesha) arose; it repulsed all Banghan attempts at reconquest and devastated the Khmer lands, destroying the early Khmer kingdom of Sresthapura. However, Pralayadesha was eventually pushed out of the southlands and a new, greater Khmer kingdom – the Kanakan Empire – was built, under strong Bahulatva and Banghan influences. By now it has already grown overstretched, however, with strong regionalist undercurrents. Malays built themselves a kingdom in southern Borneo. Much of Dwipa fell to Annihilation Tendency baronates and Bahulatva colonial powers, but the south, along with Java and many smaller islands, has been united with into the Sunda Ascendancy, with a capital in Madhumatapura. This state was created by a combination of armed force and urban/mercantile support both of which the founder, Dhanakumar, proved himself skilled at both acquiring and using. Though the Samkatakan colonial empire was not rebuilt, the Sundanese were fast enough to reassert their control over the key trade routes as the great maritime trade network was revitalised.
East Asia:
The 2nd century BC saw mainly internal, albeit very violent and intense, conflicts in this region; to a large extent those were the culminative results of previous centuries of sociopolitical tensions, or even continuations of earlier conflicts. The Khitan Empire once more collapsed into a flurry of infighting and rebellion in 192 BC. After 187 BC, the Xishanese had to put down several brutal Korean rebellions. At about the same time, Tianwang died and his empire began to fall apart in a succession war mixed with ethnic revolts. Events in Luoyang were unobvious, but ominous, as conspiracies grew and rebellions occurred in the south. In Xishan itself, urban violence was on the rise, with Neo-Sunfucianist revolutionary ideologies emerging. Even the small kingdom of Chen fell into infighting between Neo-Sunfucianist and Mohist-Legalist factions. As for external attacks, there was a few of those as will; the Xiongpi took advantage of the Khitan civil war to launch a series of attacks, while the Jomonese raided the Xishanese colonies in Dongri extensively with a new fleet of many small and highly-maneuverable ships.
Soon enough, situation escalated further in Xishan; by 150 BC riots were common, the mercantile oligarchy lost many of its remaining supporters and Duke Nai now decided to ally with the rebel mobs to regain power. At first (during 148 BC), this bid succeeded; the popular movements put the oligarchy on the brink of defeat, and Duke Nai then emerged as a “mediator”, winning the confidence of both sides involved, persuading the mobs to go home and the oligarchy to make numerous largely nominal concessions to the people and more real political concessions to himself. Soon, however, things got out of hand as the conservative factions recalled a large army back from Korea – where the last major rebellion for now has been thoroughly defeated – and began preparing a counter-coup. Word got out, and rebellions commenced again; thinking this to be not quite spontaneous, the oligarchs attempted to assassinate the Duke, who however managed to escape and then led the rebels to besiege the Guangling administrative quarters. General Kong Tan, who commanded the recalled northern army, chose to side with the Duke after much deliberation and the few remaining loyalist forces in the Xishan mainland were swept aside by this combination; the merchant oligarchs surrendered and soon started an exodus to the more loyal colonies. The Duke then moved to consolidate his absolute power.
His ploy was understood soon enough, however, and a new series of revolts began in 143 BC. This time, these weren’t quite as unanimous, though; the army was loyal to the Duke, as were many of the citizens, so a brutal civil war began, Kong Tan successfully massacring the revolters in Guangling itself. At this point, the colonies also successfully seceded under conservative emigrants, though Korea soon saw a three-sided civil war of its own between local separatists, colonial separatists and the military settlers likewise loyal to the Duke. These conflicts showed no signs of reaching any quick conclusion as of the 130s BC; even though the Ducal forces reasserted control over the central regions of the mainland, both the north and the south were firmly in rebel hands.
In the meantime, in 134 BC, Emperor Nanhai of Luoyang rose to power; after surviving several conspiracies and failing to introduce much of any reforms in the stagnant court, the headstrong young Emperor came to conclusion that a new court – in a new capital – was needed. So the capital was moved to a southern port city promptly renamed Haijing, a new, reformist court was assembled and the old one basically ignored while the Emperor set about securing the loyalty of the southern cities, introducing somewhat Sunfucianist reforms and constructing a powerful fleet. All that required major expenses, as did the 127 BC naval expedition to secure the Xishanese colonies in Atanam (which was successful; it was simply expensive and didn’t exactly pay for itself, while the fleet was badly damaged by storms). As new taxes had to be levied, elements of the old court had had enough, as had many of the traditionally lightly-taxed northern peasants. A great rebellion split the nation in half, Nanhai’s cousin taking power in the north as the Emperor Zhongxi and swiftly assembling a new huge, though unruly and ill-supplied, army from the rebel peasants and others. This army’s initial march on Haijing was repulsed, but another army used Nanhai’s distraction to capture many of the central/northeastern cities loyal to him, ultimately also penetrating the Zhu Jiang Basin. Only desperate levying and Samkatakan financial support saved Nanhai from total disaster, but he now had to quickly build up a serious army.
Meanwhile, to the north, Tianwang II emerged, rebuilding the Huang He Empire and conquering Chen. He then marched to make things even more interesting in Xishan, breaching the old, declining fortifications and then defeating and slaying Kong Tan in the Battle of Hefei. This helped turn the tables on the Ducal supporters; the rebels hurried to defeat Guangling even as Tianwang II’s barbarians ravaged the countryside. With fresh rebellions within, the rebels succeeded in finally capturing the city in 124 BC. A republic was proclaimed and the Duke was publicly executed amongst with much of his family. The Board of Salvation was then assembled to save the country from both barbarians and reactionaries; an already existent reign of terror in the countryside was intensified to eliminate the latter, and huge armies were raised to fight the former. Tianwang II was defeated at the gates of Guangling, but rebuilt his army, bolstering it with Xiongnu hordes, and overran the old Xishan peninsula, ravaging it thoroughly. Despite the seeming success of the terror policies, as soon as they were discontinued a new rebellion began in the south. The situation was desperate, but fortunately not quite as bad as it initially seemed; eventually, a new generation of generals emerged, foremost amongst them a Vietnamese colonist named Na Kangdi. Na Kangdi finally defeated Tianwang II in 119 BC and reasserted power over the north; then he launched a coup against the Board of Salvation, took for himself the imperial title and renamed his realm “Zhongshan”. Various vast reforms were introduced, embracing both republican and ducal traditions. Control was then reasserted over the surviving colonies (Vietnam and Taiwan), which were granted greater autonomy. Efforts were made to reclaim the lost colonies; the invasion of Dongri, now under Jomonese occupation, was partially successful, though in the end the only tenable gain made was the island of Andong [7]. However, an attempt to reclaim the Atanamese colonies ended in disaster as the native kingdom of Ayutamradvipa allied with South Luoyang (by then that empire has fought itself to a stalemate and so remained divided between a stagnating, isolationist Mohist-Legalist north and a vigorous, mercantile Mohist-Paramatmanist south); in a great naval battle, the Zhongshanese fleet was utterly destroyed and in a subsequent campaign South Luoyang – its second Emperor, Ershichi, eager to conquer something to make up for the loss of his empire’s entire northern half – had quickly subjugated Vietnam. This necessitated a major strategy change.
And so after 112 BC, Na Kangdi rebuilt and strengthened his armies. He knew it now – to truly secure Zhongshan, all of China’s waterways had to be conquered, all other states had to be… not simply destroyed, but fully incorporated and colonised. The Huang He valley warlords were overwhelmed easily enough, and the Xiongnu confederacy that reigned supreme in the northern parts was also defeated, though not yet crushed. North Luoyang was more difficult to defeat, with its powerful fortifications, but the superior new siege engines of the Zhongshanese allowed a costly victory in 101 BC. By then, South Luoyang was ofcourse already prepared for a life-or-death struggle. Its fleet managed to once again crush the Zhongshanese one and carried out some deep raids, strongly damaging the trade routes, while Avyaktaragan mercenaries and a large professional army raised with Samkatakan money had managed to hold the attackers at bay even after they broke through the northern fortifications. The war ended abruptly when Na Kangdi, trying to force a decisive victory at Guilun in 93 BC as his forces finally began to make progress towards Haijing, was slain by Luoyang crossbow bolt. His son and successor, Na Wudi, agreed to withdraw in exchange for a large one-time tribute, from then on focusing on stabilizing his father’s empire.
That task proved quite impossible, with constant ideological and/or regional rebellions, complicated taxation and administration, and increasing overstretch. Worse yet, the Xiongnu continued their raiding, although it also finished off the Khitan Empire and badly damaged the native kingdom of Korea, allowing for its reconquest. The Na Dynasty ruled on, but began to lose popular support even within its core areas.
It was only in the beginning of the 1st century AD that things got real bad, though. Firstly, the maritime trade routes with Samkataka collapsed with said Samkataka. Secondly, as the economy in general took yet another hit and agriculture was already in a bad shade, great peasant rebellions commenced. And third, the long-feared event had happened; a religiously-inspired Xiongnu chieftain, named Aotiao, had united most of the Xiongnu under his leadership. Creating a new imperial religion/ideology for himself, a monotheistic evolution of old Turkic beliefs that would be later dubbed Tengrism, Aotiao then set out to conquer all under heaven or at least all of it that’s worth conquering. The Xiongnu then rushed to assimilate the Xiongpi, overran the former Khitan area, and bumped right into the clearly blasphemous Zhongshanese Empire. And so, as Xiongnu hordes rapidly adapted to Chinese ways of warfare and siegecraft, the already beleaguered Zhongshanese were forced to contend with a huge threat on the northern frontier. This threat was, however, woefully underestimated until it was too late. Korea and the Huang He valley were quickly overran by Xiongnu prongs, but instead of stopping there they pressed on to conquer the war-wrecked old Xishan peninsula and the central Chinese inlands. Cities were razed and populations slaughtered, while the Xiongnu and other Turks loyal to Aotiao’s cause moved in their place. The rump of the Zhongshanese state resisted valorously, counterattacking to the best of its ability, and managed to inflict considerable losses, as well as to repel several invasions of the southeastern coast; but attempts to forge a coalition with South Luoyang (then in another civil war after the collapse of trade) had all failed. In the end, Zhongshan was forced to withdraw to its remaining eastern coastal regions and pay tribute to the Heavenly Xiongnu Empire, although the Na dynasty was allowed to retain power and indeed actually managed to make the best of the situation, persuading rebels that disunity will simply give Xiongnu what remained of the once-great empire as well.
Aotiao lived on for ridiculously long, and made sure to fortify his empire well; as already mentioned, he colonised the conquered areas with Turks, had his literate advisors develop a special, Khitan-inspired Xiongnu alphabet to better preserve culture and avoid assimilation by the Chinese (as happened with the careless Mixu invaders; that, surely, was the cause of their downfall!), established a centralised bureaucracy and enslaved the surviving Chinese minorities in the northern parts of his empire (de-sinifying the central regions proved more difficult, but some progress was made thanks to the refugees that now overpopulated and starved both Luoyang and Zhongshan nearly to death). Therefore his empire survived after his 63 AD death, though shrinking somewhat. It is not quite clear if it could survive for more than a century more, though.
The Chinese powers were forced to exist on the coastal fringes, but that turned out to be not quite as bad as it seemed earlier, for trade began to pick up again, bringing prosperity to those coastal civilisations. While Anyang was lost to the Jomonese once again (who now had an archipelago-spanning semi-matriarchal tribal theocracy, which admittedly was now beginning to become somewhat more advanced due to opening up to trade with Xiongnu and Luoyang), the Zhongshanese managed to rebuild their fleet and reconquer northern Atanam, avenging the past defeats in full in a skilled 85 AD naval battle off the local shores. Luoyang was thus noticeably weakened as a colonial, commercial and naval power, but remained viable, rebuilding its fleet. Still, the renewed peace in the region was definitely a very precarious one.
OOC:
[1] AD=of Agade Dag, i.e. of Akkadian Purity (as the neo-Akkadian religion is called). This NES therefore apparently uses the Sumerian calendar, which is only fair considering Sumerian contributions in this and related fields.
[2] Xukpi=OTL Copan.
[3] Sakbe=OTL El Mirador.
[4] Ranopolis or Kratopolis=OTL Byzantium or Constantinople or Istanbul.
[5] Hellenopolis=OTL Athens.
[6] Dwipa=OTL Sumatra.
[7] Andong=OTL Kyushu.
First of all, apologies about the unexpected delay; these things (relatives) happen, but hopefully won’t happen next time.
Creative liberties with people’s plans duly taken. Thlayli, your orders in particular aren’t exactly appropriate for BT (as usual, you are presuming too much about the situation, and given that the update covers three centuries, well, that sort of renders many of your plans wholly irrelevant), so I hope you don’t mind my interpretation.
Ofcourse, there were other people as well whose plans had to be… twisted due to the conditions being radically different from what might have been expected. Also, many of you seem to overestimate longevity of ancient empires. Hope you don’t mind the carnage too much; and as for those of you who lost their states (as well as those who haven’t joined yet), I’d like to remind them that there still are lots and lots of untaken spots in the world. Do your part to spread and diversify civilisation. Again, not all details were covered, because the update is large and dramatic enough as it is. Also, sorry if the last two sections appear rushed, because, well, they are.
There will probably be two or three more BT updates after this one, and then I’ll get to work on the stats for the NES Proper.
das
Regeneration In Process
Creative liberties indeed. Wonderful das! 
*waits patiently* (i know das will need some time to write about the epic Thracian conquest of the entire planet
How modest of you
The13thRonin
Handsome Rogue
Hell yeah, Hessonia not only still stands, it has expanded!
To the Greeks I send a message of peace and hope, surrender 90% of your conquests on my mainland (Middle East) and I shall put no more of your young soldiers to the sword. We will allow you a coastal base near the bottom of the Middle East and we shall enter into a period of trade and prosperity, you shall not be troubled from the East. What say you?
To the Greeks I send a message of peace and hope, surrender 90% of your conquests on my mainland (Middle East) and I shall put no more of your young soldiers to the sword. We will allow you a coastal base near the bottom of the Middle East and we shall enter into a period of trade and prosperity, you shall not be troubled from the East. What say you?
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
Nice. Sorry for lack of orders lately.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
fantastic.
das
Regeneration In Process
Meaning the second one? Yes, it's over by now.
The13thRonin
Handsome Rogue
When's the next update? I don't know when I can have my orders done by.
das
Regeneration In Process
To be on the safe side, do them as quickly as possible. Aside from that, I'm really not sure. The 25th as deadline would probably work best, for me at least. However, many people might not be able to send orders this early, and the next update is particularily important, so perhaps I'll have to push it all the way to the 31st instead.
Aside from that, I'm really not sure. The 25th as deadline would probably work best, for me at least. However, many people might not be able to send orders this early, and the next update is particularily important, so perhaps I'll have to push it all the way to the 31st instead.
Flavius Aetius
Ruler Of Liguria
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2007
- Messages
- 774
Wonderfull! I finally reconquered Genova, my holy capital...good!
das
Regeneration In Process
Okay, you know what? 25th it is. I'll be leaving for a few days in early August, and I'd like to squeeze in two BT updates before that. And this turn has amptly demonstrated that most of you are lazy sods and no matter how much time is given will only send in orders in the very last moment or later. So let's hurry this up.
The13thRonin
Handsome Rogue
Who's Spain?
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