Arcél 3400

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Arcél 3314

Arcél 3480

1 3400 - Horses retreating
2 Rise and fall of the patriots
3 Other developments in the south
4 In the north
5 Characteristic figures

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3400 - Horses retreating

To Viceroy Ampaji of Fananak, the conquest of Pheʔ was only a stepping stone. The army commander (aŋgot) Lamastu had proved that he could take a well-defended Uytainese city— good job. He should now proceed to take another, preferably Srethun itself.

Lamastu, meanwhile, had an exhausted army, constantly harried by Uytainese counter-attacks. Advancing on Srethun either by land (or, even worse, by sea) was a fantasy. But this was impossible to communicate to the alešp back in the capital.

When the alešp made his displeasure known, the troops mutinied— Lamastu had carefully prepped them to do so. Ampaji quickly raised an army of loyalists; Lamastu marched on the capital and captured him (3316)— the viceroy’s new army had abandoned him and moved westward.

A series of civil wars went on for twenty years, resulting in a partition of the empire. A military despotate (got) held the center of the country and Nyan; a loyalist state ruled the highlands of the southwest; and a supposedly neutral kingdom took over the Tsihsip valley.

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Rise and fall of the patriots

The hyauphuʔ Nyekhyuʔ of Uytai recaptured Phetai in the 3320s. Twenty years later his son Ħumnet made a push to reoccupy the highlands. By now Uytai was used to both resisting and deploying cavalry; it made good use of its masses of infantry as well as Ȟatiŋga auxiliaries; and it had Verdurian advisers, who lent the Uytainese a dozen cannons. They solidly defeated the Ōkmisan, and busied themselves reoccupying the upper Ħomtso.

The Ōkmisan took the path of least resistance and surged westward (3351-5) under the mšīnebig Binōjinswig. The aŋgot quickly lost two-thirds of his territory, and then even more as the Kleʔmet’ and the Nyanese rebelled.

Siad βo took advantage of the Ōkmisan defeat to recover its northern territories; however, this intensified a long-brewing conflict with Uytai. As the dictatorship of the ħwentai intensified, many Uytainese had fled to Siad βo. The Uytainese demanded their return, or at least that of the goods they had smuggled out; the Siadese refused.

In 3354 the Siadese king Mampao came to an agreement with the Verdurians, transferring their aid to Siad βo. The skirmishes along the Hurtso turned into an outright war. The Siadese posed as liberators, inviting the Uytainese to throw off the Patriot dictatorship.

This didn’t seem to make much difference till the fall of Tsopwan (3358) showed that the Siadese might actually prevail. Rebellions flared up in the tea highlands and Phetai. The Phetainese wanted nothing but to be left alone, but the northerners declared their aim of liberating all of Uytai from Patriots and Siadese alike. They dug up a descendant of Loytai, Kyekhyuʔ, and called themselves the Turnon, the Restoration. The Restoration set up its own Yonram, with the same seats as the pre-Patriot body; those belonging to regions not under Restoration control were filled by exiles (or, later, their descendants).

The Siadese meanwhile pushed west, and in hard-fought battles conquered the coast (3362) and Uykhrai (3365). However, they were unable to take Srethun from the Patriot leader Kwenlyel. And there matters rested; there were two minor wars before the end of the century but no major changes.

Mampao reestablished the Yonram and the local city councils, retaining control of taxation and war. This was more freedom than he allowed his own people.

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Other developments in the south

Nyandai had long traded with the far east, almost without rival; but now it had competition from the Ereláeans. It established a forward base on Jebruk to safeguard its routes.

The Ȟatiŋga occupied the eastern highlands of Uytai, more or less the price paid for their assistance against the Ōkmisan. This allowed Qapalya to expand up the Nikrit river, and Ȟamsan to free itself (by 3365). However, neither Praȟmai nor Ȟaibalai were interested in rejoining Ȟamsan, which had to content itself with retaking the island of Nenth.

Some centuries ago the kingdom of Neinuoi had succeeded in uniting the southern half of the island to which it gave its name, and substantial portions of the north. In the 3360s it expanded west to conquer the chieftainship of Pwač on Ȟaibalai, the only time a Neinuoian state appears in the base map.

In the 3320s the Ȟlum conquered much of the remaining territory of Ťrim. They quickly displaced the Ťrimese landowners and became the new aristocracy of the country. This is a risky strategy if a people wishes to retain its cultural distinctness; by this time their children were more fluent in Ťrimese than in Ȟlum.

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In the north

Hàɔráŋ was clearly in decline, and when its queen died childless, in 3329, its neighbors sensed an opportunity. Both the Lé and the Mau suggested their own monarchs as replacement; but Mauraŋ had the presence of mind to land troops while the queen was still on her deathbed. The Lé protested but were unwilling to go to war. The Hàɔ were, and resisted till 3335.

In the 3380s, Mɔłɔsɔu decided that the new kingdom of Rimasača was worth taking over. They quickly occupied much of the Sunča valley, taking the island of Prɛnpó along the way as a forward base. The supposed barbarians resisted fiercely, and by this time had fought the Mɔłɔ to a standstill.

Kebri stationed diplomats in Pahsau, and a garrison to help keep it independent; they were soon joined by a merchants, bankers, and even winegrowers and other settlers— all operating under extraterritoriality. Queen Nùlâe and the major landowners prospered, and downplayed the increasing complaints of their subjects. When some of these staged an uprising, in 3361, Kebri put it down, and increased its security presence even more.

Nùlâe finally began to object, and in 3376 worked up the nerve to order the Kebreni to restrict their activities to the capital, Pahni. She had not taken the precaution of leaving Pahni herself, nor securing military support; the Kebreni surrounded her palace, massacred her corps of female archers, and announced that she had sadly not survived the assault.

They named a Kebreni governor— they were canny or cynical enough to make it a woman— explaining that they were only governing during the minority of Nùlâe’s daughter Čéhás. When she came of age, however, they simply did nothing. Pahsau was either happy enough to be a Kebreni colony or considered that resistance would be futile.

Around 3350, Ayalampa took over Yusawu.

This is the epoch of Fánao and Ŋar, the greatest thieves and aventurers of the Bé. Fánao was actually a ‘barbarian’ from Ayalampa; Ŋar was Lé. After a tumultous career, both ended up in respectable positions in the western kingdoms (more congenial to them than the rather staid and quiet Belesao). What is most striking in their stories, perhaps, is how marginal the Ereláeans are. This was the last flourishing of a self-contained Beic area, where Ereláean people were, outside Pahsau, transient visitors in a few port towns, and their ideas exotic curiosities.

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