Ȟamsan
From Almeopedia
| < ȞAMSAN |
Ȟamsan [xam ˈsan] is a nation on the eastern coast of Arcél. Its residents are largely of Kereminthic stock (though with some Kemic and Mnesean blood); its language Ȟamseniš belongs to the Kereminthic family. The capital is Ninčuz.
Contents |
Early history
The earliest human settlement in the area, along the coast and the Krera and Šišenz rivers, was by Kemic hunter-gatherers (who like the people of Kereminth are of the Melanke race).
Around 300 the outrigger was developed in Kereminth, and Kereminthic people crossed to Arcél by way of Nenth and Ȟaibalai. (The page on Čiȟta offers a snapshot of this era.) These settlers colonized the coast as far north as the Niha peninsula; but around 1000 the Kemic peoples had adopted agriculture and herding, and pushed the Ȟamsanese back south.
Another wave of Kereminthic settlement came around 1800, bringing Kereminthic agricultural techniques.
The Ȟamsanese had little contact with the civilized area till around 2000, when traders from Čwam and Uytai first appeared, by sea. The southerners mostly wanted resupply on their voyages further east; a settlement grew at the mouth of the Krera, Ninčuz, to meet their needs. The major resource the Ȟamsanese could offer in exchange for southern manufactures was lumber.
The despotate
In the 2300s the Gleŋ began to intrude into Ȟamsanese territory, and a unified state was organized. The Ȟamsanese disdained the idea of hereditary monarchy. Their government had a dual structure, a military alliance plus a religious head of state.
- Each clan or community maintained its own defense, and allocated half its troops for the “roving army”, forces available to meet a large external threat or even take the offensive. The leaders of each unit elected the officers of the roving army, their votes weighted by the size of their unit. The commander of the army had complete power over war, but had to retain the confidence of his officers.
- The head of state, the trečai, symbolized the power of God, and most of his duties were religious rituals; but this included judgment, education, and taxation, which gave him substantial temporal power. He was chosen by a ritual process, the meȟnaš, essentially casting lots on regions, then districts, then searching according to criteria receieved in visions. Though the stated goal was to find the man selected by God, the practical result was that the trečai was chosen more or less randomly. (The process considered only men who had fathered children, and avoided both the manifestly insane and clan leaders; there was also a bias against the region of the previous incumbent) The Ȟamsanese maintained that their system had the same advantage as monarchy— avoiding succession disputes— but produced better leaders on average.
Within a few centuries Ȟamsan had become a prosperous state, quickly learning to produce the simpler manufactures, and trading with the Kemic peoples to their northwest as well as their remote relatives in Ȟaibalai. The administration of the trečai, though retaining its religious duties, had developed an impressive bureaucracy. A staff of eunuchs, originally responsible for the trečai’s household, oversaw and sometimes terrorized the bureaucrats; see the story of Bruȟre for an example.
In the 2800s Ȟamsan extended its authority over the western half of Ȟaibalai, disrupting the kingdom of Anthlai in the eastern half. It often intervened in the affairs of the east, and finally conquered it in the 3140s.
Religion
The Ȟamsanese must have brought Kereminthic animism to Arcél, but they soon came into contact with the iliu who were their southern neighbors. The iliu converted them to monotheism; the Ȟamsanese took the ilian talk about aspects of God to mean that all gods were manifestation of the one God, which was sometimes taken as allowing veneration of foreign gods.
The priests were formidable figures, who oversaw both community rituals and morality; their power only increased as the people adopted agriculture and settlements grew denser. When a united state became desirable, it was organized around a central priest, the trečai— the Ȟamsanese congratulated themselves for being ruled by God rather than by hereditary kings. But having diving authority, with the only real limitation on his power being the inability to pass his rule to his sons, the trečai was a near-absolute ruler.
Modern times
- To be completed later...
