Arcél 2200

From Almeopedia

Arcél 1997

Arcél 2370

1 The first nomadic empire
2 Division among the Bé
3 Ups and downs of Hyemsur
4 Characteristic figure

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The first nomadic empire

Tlan’s conquest of the Smë valley was only a warmup; the Sumë had a bigger prize in view— the rich empire of Uytai. In a series of campaigns in the early 2000s, under Tlan’s sons Ga-Tlan and Kataz, they swept through the grassy highlands (the former Krwŋ), occupying the entire north of the empire as well as Siad βo.

For some time it looked like it was all over for Uytai. But Mansye, scion of a distant branch of the imperial family, the Hanthal, took power in 2031 and rallied the heartland. (Kataz had been succeeded a few years before by his son Sünkiz, who was considered weak, but it’s not clear if this was the cause or effect of Mansye’s resistance.)

Mansye wasn’t able to reintregrate peripheral regions which had drifted away during the crisis: Phetai and Siad βo (which had thrown out the Sumë in 2012).

There were subsidiary movements: Uytainese fleeing the chaos pushed into the Itseʔ valley, which they called Tsaʔ, and established a kingdom there (c. 2050). The Sumë largely abandoned the upper Nikrit highlands in order to concentrate on Uytai, and a Kemic people known as the Gleŋ moved in.

There things remained for more than a century. The Sumë didn’t stint in their attempts to push south, but their ability to terrorize lightly defended peasant villages didn’t help them face walled cities or large infantry. They also learned fairly quickly that in order to keep their conquests they would have to govern rather than merely loot. Credit for this realization is traditionally assigned to Phwainur, an Uytainese minister employed by Sünkiz who demonstrated the power of taxation, and to Swarsut, who in 2074 negotiated a truce between the two empires, allowing trade to resume. Uytai was required to pay an annual tribute, but probably made more than it lost through trade.

The increased power of Čwam is evident. By this time there was regular trade with the Bé, and both sides were building ships and developing navigation techniques that allowed crossing large ocean gulfs. Around 2200 the Čwamese had found their way to Neinuoi in the east. This allowed an interchange of food crops; the most significant for Arcél was meigrass, an oat-like grain that proved to be perfect for the deforested hills of northern Uytai.

In 2054 the most important merchant families of Thethlim forced concessions from the pauram (aided by the fact that he was heavily indebted to them). These amounted to autonomy for the city, which was henceforth governed by a ħolso or city council. Worso followed suit twenty years later, and Krantet in Nyandai in the early 2100s.

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Division among the Bé

The armies of the Men’s Empire, stranded in Mɔłɔsɔu, intended to march on Sîpó; but first they needed a territorial base. First they tried to finish the conquest of Mɔłɔsɔu; then they concentrated on Nérsàɔ. This took longer than expected; and when it was done quite a few of the men had no interest in moving on.

Those who did finally invaded Lésàɔ in 2017, only to find that the country had disappeared. The Lé were engaged in a civil war; indeed, the men found themselves in demand as mercenaries.

A bewildering kaleidoscope of queendoms followed. Within a century the situation had stabilized: the Pàn and Nér (Beic ethnic groups) had their own states; the Lɛn delta was governed from Sîpó by a Lé dynasty.

The men’s battalions had disappeared in Belesao proper: they had found it difficult to recruit new members, and the queens now viewed male warriors as unreliable and ineffective. They had done better in Nérsàɔ where they now formed a hereditary aristocracy. Mɔłɔsɔu also retained a tradition of using male swordsmen and pikesmen, though the officers were women.

The Bé believed in various goddesses; these did not have portfolios (“night”, “love”) so much as personality types: for instance, Tɔ̀ was moody and sullen; Ŋisú was cheery and helpful. For antisocial people or moments, one turned to Kâ. In ordinary times Kâ was the patron of gangs or isolated criminals; her priestesses were formidable figures— the least of them might earn a living simply by entering a village and accepting money and gifts to go away. Around 2050 the temple complex of Kâ, deep in the jungle, began a program of outright territorial control, and by the time of the map it controlled the entire Ŋê valley, and had a strong influence (through gangs, spies, and assassins) in the entire Beic sphere.

Hàɔráŋ had expanded to the west and south, partly due to its exploitation of a new resource: the silk of Hònpó, two islands off the coast where the spinnerfly was found. Attempts to introduce the insects to the mainland always failed; production was therefore limited and the cloth an aristocratic luxury. Bé clothing was skimpy anyway; the largest customers were the Nyanese states in the south.

Once it was clear that the threat from the west had abated, Mɔłɔsɔu conquered the remaining Hake, in the 2020s. Again, Hake unfortunate enough to live along the river became serfs. By this time, however, many Hake spoke Mɔłɔ and had made themselves valuable to their mistresses; some held positions of trust, while others had become freemen. In both categories, mores increasingly assimilated to Beic norms, partly by imitation, partly by adaptation to Beic treatment: if the Mɔłɔ mistress habitually addresses the female of a Hake family, it’s hard not to use the power and prestige thus afforded. Serfs and outlying Hake, however, remained male-dominant.

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Ups and downs of Hyemsur

The new Hanthal dynasty in Uytai appealed to patriotism, unity, and the martial virtues; that is, they were strong patrons of the Swolan movement. There was no room for the cultured dissidence of Hyemsur, or indeed for any ideas later than the reign of Twanwey. Hyemsur priests and sages were persecuted, and many left.

They found the greatest receptiveness to their ideas in the remotest nations: Nyandai and Čwam, which were evolving into mercantile nations and welcomed a philosophy that questioned central authority; and Ťrim, which was simply too poor to have developed much of an aristocratic class.

Their greatest success, however, was in the Beic states, where the general chaos made Hyemsur’s message particularly relevant. Many Bé thus pursued hɛ́n ‘inner peace’ and sɔ̀r ‘social harmony’. Bé queens were not as despotic as Uytainese emperors, but Hɛ́nsɔ̀r was taken as an eloquent protest against the militarism and factionalism of the Men’s Empire and its successors.

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