Axdel: Difference between revisions

In 25,000BCE the Chomlec culture emerged on the North coast of the Axdelian peninsula. Chomlec society flourished for a while, however it soon fractured due to increasing migration across the rest of the peninsula. The Neolithic era began in approximately 8,000BCE after the redevelopment of agriculture and spurred the establishment of the first permanent settlements. Metallurgy was independently developed in the foothills of the Auric Mountains in 4000BCE, with copper, silver and gold metalworking spreading rapidly across the region and driving a period of productivity increases and urbanisation. Bronze working would later be introduced into the region, likely from the far east where the first advanced Auroran civilisations were developing, namely the [[Nelokhvi Empire]], or by proxy through nomads roaming the Staynish region who regularly interacted with them. [[File:Lapytian Fortress.jpg|thumb|251x251px|Partially restored walls of Aeqa, a small Laqytian city abandoned in the 1300's BCE]]

The first advanced civilisation in the region was Laqytia, which was established in approximately 2200 BCE on the upper course of the [[Ueclid River]]. The region there was well suited for agriculture, thanks to its drier summers, relatively meek springtime flooding, and the ease with which the alluvial floodplains could be irrigated. The capital of Laqyta was the largest and most influential city in the region, and established close links with many other towns and cities along the valley. The state had a single spoken language but multiple written systems of communication used in parallel, likely drawn in from across the peninsula. Geological activity and droughts troubled the state for its entire history. At several points the cvilisation was recorded as being close to collapse, but continued to persist thanks to its trade connections. Despite these troubles, Laqytian cities had a rich culture of artistry and oral tradition which persisted throughout their history. Widescale urban planning is also evident alongside competent architectural ability, as seen in the Laqya palace complex in modern day Montza. Whilst no cities were built in the lower Ueclid, trade routes existed along the river with local communities, and several satellite lordships emerged due to the prosperity it brought. During its peak, the states influence had spread across the entire peninsula, as evidenced by Laqytian coinage and artefacts being found all the way to the west cape and even beyond the Zycannes in the east.

By the 15th and 14th centuries BCE, however, Laqytia entered a period of rapid decline. Records from the time indicate that a series of natural disasters occurred in the space of a single year, including a flood which resulted in a diversion of the Ueclid river. A subsequent famine lead to an exodus of people from many of the outlying cities who depended on trade with the agricultural core. Some time after this, the city of Laqyta experienced widespread fire and looting, causing much of the city to be burned to the ground. The cause of this is debated, with the two dominant theories being either civil disturbance due to the population loss in the years prior, or an invasion by nomadic cultures from the West taking advantage of the defensive outlying towns and cities becoming mostly abandoned. Several other cities were burned in similar fashion and Laqytia collapsed, leading to its near entire abandoned. The Laqytian people migrated primarily north down to the lower Ueclid, south past the Teba Mountains and towards the numerous floodplains and the coast, and even beyond the Auric mountains to the site of modern Emberwood Coast, whilst others went south, eventually ending up in the Lyr valley or the southern coast of the peninsula.

With the the end of the 14th century BCE, many small Lordships and chiefdoms had been founded along the length of the Ueclid river as a result of the power vacuum left by the sudden collapse of Laqytia. This era has become known as the first dark age, as texts from the time are infrequent and some remain unreadable due to writing in several undeciphered scripts. Additionally, a significant amount of the written material from the Laqytian period was lost in civil wars which razed remnant cities and towns across its former territory. The political landscape at the time is difficult to reconstruct and many interpretations are controversial, but all evidence suggests it was extremely tumultuous and fraught with war.

[[File:Ueclidian empire peak.png|thumb|300x300px|The approximate size of the Ueclidian Empire at its peak territorial extent]]

In the 12th century BCE, the walled city state of Quen exited a long period of social unrest, and began a highly successful conquest under Kind Eida which saw the entire Upper Ueclid come under his dominion. The Soltic confederacy, a naval coastal state east of the Ueclids mouth, began its own simultaneous campaign to control the lordships of the fertile floodplains in the area. The powers came into conflict in the middle of the century provoked war with Eida's Ueclidian Empire sending warships up the river to raid towns and constrict trade. Taking advantage of their weak land forces, Eida pushed down the valley and sieged their holdings on the river and the coast. However, many areas were able to hold out thanks to supplies brought in by their navy. Eida was succeeded by his son Eida II, who launched a campaign into Soltic territory which eventually succeeded, putting the entire Ueclid valley and the Northern coast under his dominion by the 11th century BCE. The unified Ueclidian empire remained the status quo for approximately a century and a half as the regions dominant power. In this time, a standardised system of writing and booms in trade leading to increased record-keeping signifies the end of the first dark age.

The Ueclid empire did not persist for long, as rebellions were commonplace and growing competition from other regions outside the Ueclid valley threatened their trading hegemony, primarily the Zycannian Mirazii Lordship and the southern Kassyr Chiefdom. The Kormistazic Confederacy was also founded on the southern coast during this time, deriving from the descendants of those who migrated south when Laqytia fell, and was based around the twin city states of Sekan-Aruqa. The Ueclid empire finally fell following the twin revolts of the Soltics in the North and the Teba in the South. The two formed rival empires on their respective halves of the river, The Neo-Soltic Lordship and the Teba empire, and fought for land in the middle regions before coming to a peace agreement in 935 BCE. After this the Soltics expanded along the northern coast whilst the Teba strengthened cross-mountain trade routes with the Kassyr, Kormistazics and the Lyr valley. For the next two centuries the peninsula remained divided between dozens of small, mostly fledgling Lordships and was marred by frequent skirmishes whilst the larger empires benefited from their influence.

In 748 BCE, the Koriba volcano in the eastern Lyr valley experienced its most powerful eruption in recorded history, rating on the upper end of 6 on the volcanic explosivity index. This caused devastating local effects, causing widespread crop failures due to the ash clouds and acid rain. Whilst all civilisations west of the Zycannes were impacted by the eruption, the nearby Teba empire was among those who suffered the most. In an attempt to recover quickly, the empire cut off most of its trade ties with surrounding states, many of which forged alliances with the Neo-Soltic Lordship in order to force the Teba to continue trading. After continuing to refuse, the allied states began raiding Teban settlements, sparking a century long war which ravaged both sides and caused far more damage than the relatively short term effects of the volcano. The Kormistazics, who had many trade links with the Teba, entered a period of infighting and civil wars as various members of trading nobility attempted to seize control of Sekan-Aruqa. As trade with the North would continue to decline over the years the instability in the region would remain, resulting in the confederacies political structure collapsing and beginning a trend of power being consolidated by an increasingly small number of oligarchs. The wars often spilled out into surrounding unincorporated settlements, often leading to subjugation and incorporation under the banner of the outlying cities.

Other civilisations such as the Kassyr and Mirazii, who were also dependant on trade, suffered greatly in the years after the distaster, however without many nearby competitors and natural defences on their side, managed to remain stable past the initial hardships. It was at this time, within the vast Zycannian trade routes in the between these two empires, that a group of prophets known as the four oracles began teaching the Kozam faith to travellers and passers by, many of which chronicles the writings and began founding temples in many major cities. The oracles are known to have travelled to many of these early temples, however many written records of their movements have been lost due to contemporary censorship and later iconoclastic and revisionist periods. One place known to have been visited was the Kormistazic capital of Sekan-Aruqa, where the religion became noticeably popular with the citizenry and several noble families, generally coexisting with the other religions present in the region.

====Formation of the Kormistazic Empire====

Early in their history, the seafaring Kveshi civilisation of South East Aurora began exploring much of the Azure sea and establishing numerous outposts to facilitate trade. One of their furthest western excursions led them to contact the Kormistazics in 723 BCE, where it is written they were received very well and a cultural exchange took place between the two cultures. In order to facilitate further trade with the region, the Kveshi were granted a small, sparsely inhabited region of coastal foothills shadowed by the Okrani mountains. Most of the areas inhabitants were forced to relocate, and were either fled to Kormistazm or retreated further within the valleys of the mountains. The Kveshi then established an outpost on the territory which would later became known as Oceansend and began trading regularly with the cultures on the southern coast of the Axdelian peninsular, primarily silver from Kormistazm and the Lyr Valley. Among the most historically important effects of Kveshi trade was the introduction of iron smelting technology to the region. This combined with the reverse engineering of their advanced naval vessels allowed the Kormistazic confederations economic and military power to balloon rapidly whilst much of the peninsular continued to be stunted by conflict.

Despite relative prosperity within Sekan-Aruqa, the economic booms led the way for the reignition of infighting between the controlling oligarchs, with the majority of the conflict centered around the Jakatei and Renequil dynasties. In the 5th century BCE a plague swept through the south of the peninsular, inciting a civil war which resulted in the Jakatai's expulsion from the capital. The confederacy collapsed into independent states, with many of the inland ones controlled by the Jakatai and the coastal region under the Renequil. The matriarch of the Jakatei, Vireña, used the situation to organise her lands and reform government institutions, as well as increasing popular support by embracing Kozam as the state faith. With the Renequil remaining staunchly pagan, this created a significant amount of tension between the lower and upper classes in Sekan. Whilst Vireña would die before the Jakatai retook Sekan-Aruqa, her eldest son Mariqo continued her efforts, constricting trade with the south in order to exacerbate their economic harship, as well as greatly expanding their influence further inland.

In 537 BCE, the Renequil honour guard revolted, imprisoning their charges and inviting Mariqo to claim Sekan-Aruqa. Facing little resistance, Mariqo retook the capiptal and immediately set about uniting the lands of the confederacy under the Jakatei dynasty, expanding the reforms introduced by his mother to every Kormistazic town and city. He also made a statement out of pardoning the remaining members of the Renequil, granting them governorship over their historic lands. A devout follower of Kozam, he further incorporated the religion into the government and promoted its worship as a unifying tenet of Kormistazic culture. He passed away a year later, his son Kalam Jakatei succeeding him. Like his father Kalam was enamoured by Kozam philosophy and took several years early in his reign to travel to the Zycannes mountain range from where the religion originated in order to seek divine inspiration. Upon his return in 533 BCE, he declared the reform of the Confederate government into an imperial executive supported by a council of Nobles and Kozam elders from every region of Kormistazm, and that he intended to unite the dozens of dividied states west of the Zycannes as equal territories under a single prosperous empire. Kalam then changed his name to Enullus Jakatei Kalamitas, beginning the Kalamitas Dynasty and officially beginning the Kormistazic empire.

[[File:Cava family.png|thumb|Sketch of a cava family wearing colourful robes and loose pantaloons typically worn by the wealthy in the early Kormistazic empire]]

Upon Enullus' ascension to the position of Kormistazic emperor, he began a campaign of Northward expansion, incorporating the regions small Lordships and chiefdoms under his rule. Naval advances brought forth in earlier centuries now allowed faster and easier navigation of the Axdelian peninsular riverways, but the slow burn of conflict had driven many people to banditry, and much of it could not be used without the risk of falling prey to opportunistic pirates. Thus as the Kormistazic empire used these rivers to assert themselves across the southern plains, the loyalty of conquered people was often earned with the vanquishing of river pirates and the opening of free trade. With his children being unwilling to take the throne, Ennullus named his cousin, Ax̂ilo Kariqo Kalamitas, as his successor in 485 BCE. Worried about Kveshi, which had reacted to the new empire by heavily fortifying the city of Oceansend, Kariqo expanded Kormistazic control over the southern coast of the Axdelian peninsula. With Kozam spread widely across the peninsula and the imperial army violently crushing all opposition, there was often little resistance to Kormistazic expansion. As the empires border expanded, so did it's power and thus its ability to expand further, leading to increasingly aggressive acts. The Empires first major military victory would come after the Kassyr Chiefdom declared war on the empire in 458 BCE. This came in response to repeated incursions of Kormistazic soldiers into Kassyri territory and several pleas to cease the actions were ignored. The [[South Teban War|First Kassyri Integral War]] lasted for over five years but resulted in a crushing defeat for The Kassyr, who were forced to cede all of their holdings outside of the Mona river valley to Kormistazm. However, Ax̂ilo was injured during the war and survived only six months before succumbing to an infection, being succeeded by his daughter Ñeya Yala Kalamitas, the first Kormistazic Empress.

By this point, civilisations north of Kormistazm were predominantly weak and stagnant, still recovering from the century long conflict that ravaged them after the environmental fallout of the Koriba eruption. The only exception to this was the Neo-Soltic Lordship, which had recovered and now dominated much of the land north of the Teba mountains, enjoying a position of considerable military and economic influence. The once mighty Teba empire had struggled with a dwindling population and weak leadership for decades. In 447 BCE Teban Emperor Cerules II famously visited the recently incorporated Kassyri city of Chaeqan to meet with Empress Ñeya. Following several weeks in the city, Cerules publicly converted to Kozam and announced that the Teban empire was to enter a pact of friendship and defence with the Kormistazic empire. The reaction from Teban citizens was mixed as many believed Ñeya had seduced Cerules in order to gain influence over him. However amongst the nobility a closer relationship with the powerful Kormistazics was viewed very favourably. Cerules public conversion plus the close bond between the two empires also led to an explosion in Kozam worship during this period, which in the next century would become another justification for the Teban annexation into Kormistazm.

After the rapid pace of unprecedented expansion in the first half of the century, the imperial bureaucracy had been stretched beyond its limits. Thus the sovereigns succeeding Ñeya focused their attention domestically, reforming the empires government structure to better manage its new lands and formalise relationships with its neighbors. The mostly disorganised territory that had been incorporated at this point also required attention to ensure its full integration and quell dissent. Among other things the empires provinces were reorganised and large scale public works were authorised to support the capital city, which had grown significantly to the point Sekan had fully engulfed Aruqa, leading to its name shortening.

With the Teba empire serving as a buffer between the Soltic and Kormistazic empires, the turn of the century saw campaigns of lateral expansion launched to secure riverways and establish coastal provinces. This triggered a war with a coalition of Lyr valley Lordships which resulted in a Kormistazic loss, humiliating the more organised and centralised empire. A second more successful conquest was attempted a decade later, but it was a pyrrhic victory which resulted in massive losses of life. Fearing a revolt would lead to further costly wars of attrition, efforts to interlink the Lyr valley economy into the empire were undertaken via trade and the construction of infrastructure to link the Lyr Valley with the Kormistazic heartlands. A permeant military garrison of volunteer soldiers was also established. These projects were so successful that they were extended to the rest of the empire in the following centuries and were a key factor in its long term success. Increased security along the southern coast and economic prosperity led to the expansion of the Kormistazic navy, which also reduced reduced raiding attacks from Kveshi pirates which had become a nuisance for the growing empire. Without serious resistance, The Kormistazic empire continued to expand its influence over the Lyr valley, using its navigable waterways as arteries through which materials and labour could be rapidly supplied for establishing roads, fortifications and settlements in the interior. Much of this expansion was funded and directed by Kozam affiliated nobles, who saw spiritual and economic benefits to spreading the religion.

==== Golden age of Kormistazm and Decline (1st - 4th century CE) ====

(lots of gold, engineering, mathematics, science, trade, quality of life, you name it. Leadership becomes more focused on vanity projects )

==== Norvian invasions (4th - 7th century CE) ====