Acronis: Difference between revisions

The period of time between the development of written Tavari and the unification of the Kingdom of Tavaris in 1304 is known as the Classical Tavari period. During this time, there was never any one overarching Tavari polity, with each clan essentially sovereign over its own territory—though, in practice, one or even several tribes may have been tribute-paying subjects of another. The practice of tributaries was more common in the west than in the east, while eastern chiefs often favored direct invasion and annexation of rivals' territory, believed to be due in part to the relative sparse population and more rugged areas hindering ease of administration encouraging would-be conquerors to delegate such tasks to chiefs who reported to them rather than spend their own time, money, and people doing so. In the crystal coast region in particular, a tradition arose of "matriarchs"—a politically powerful woman commanding the loyalty of several local chiefs, sometimes (though not always) without a chiefdom holding of her own. These matriarchs were called a "moderating influence" and credited themselves with encouraging peace, contrasting themselves with eastern chiefs who, they said, were constantly waging war with one another. The historical record, however, shows no significant difference in the amount of armed conflict between Tavari clans in the east and west. In reality, these women were invariably the shrinemasters of major shrines, of which there were several in the rapidly urbanizing area that controlled vast swaths of land that were suddenly highly prized as possible settlement locations. Why it came to be that the shrines around the crystal coast were headed by matriarchal dynasties remains unclear and is an area of active study and scholarship in Tavari academia.

 

 

However, despite religious and cultural differences, the western Tavari clans were still much more similar to the eastern clans than they were different, evidenced most plainly by the facts that they spoke the same language and continuously identified themselves as "Tavari." Tavari land tenure and inheritance laws were in place almost identically across the entire Tavari-speaking area by the end of the 10th century, hallmarked by the division of society into family-based clans that, collectively, were considered to own the land on which its members worked, and that the sovereign power of the family was invested in a single head that was, ultimately, answerable to the entire clan under a system of ancient, often unwritten, code of traditional rights. Inheritance was always to the eldest surviving child, and all across the Tavari lines in almost every case, siblings of the deceased are expressly forbidden from inheriting—even in the lack of any children, it is the eldest child among the children of the deceased's siblings, never the sibling themselves. The Tavari are the only ethnic group among orcs in northwest Gondwana to feature this strict prohibition of sibling inheritance. By the 12th century, all Tavari-speaking areas were using coins made out of the alloy known as ''našdat'' (composed of silver, gold, and nickel), and all shared common observances such as festivals on the equinoxes featuring almost identical liturgy. By the time of the Tavari Unification Wars, beginning around 1150, there were dozens of western chiefs who were perfectly content to submit to the rule of the Chiefs of Nuvo before a single battle was fought.