Axunai
From Almeopedia
Axunai [a ksu ˈna i] was the empire which dominated Xengiman two thousand years ago; it can be considered the ancient counterpart to Xurno. Its language was Axunašin, and its religion was Mešaism.
Etymology: Axuna province (itself named after the goddess Axun, Wede:i Akśim) + augmentative -i, X. Asunai, Ver. Ahuenai.
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Rise
The Eastern invaders who took over the Wede:i culture were unable to maintain a united administration for long; the Ezičimi, as the invaders were called, divided into multiple kingdoms each ruled by a nive. The densest population lived in the Xengi delta, and this was the basis for the kingdom of Axuna, generally the strongest of the Ezičimi states.
In 702 the nive Urizbeliš conquered Jeinizun, the capital of the Jei Union— the Jei being Wede:i who had fled westward to avoid conquest by the Ezičimi. Rather than causing the Jei state to collapse, the loss of the capital spurred a massive counter-reaction: the Jeori prince Toma:un seized power, reconquered Jeinizun, and advanced into the Xengi delta itself. Within a century, however, Jeor had plunged into decline and civil war.
Rather than directly confront the Jeori, Tazipivu, nive of Axuna from 827, posed as their benefactor, taking sides in Jeori civil wars and accepting grants of territory from the victors, including the region of Šuzebri north of Axuna. At the same time he conquered his major rival, Tannaza. By the end of his reign (855) he controlled the Xengi valley up to Neiral, except for the city of Xival, still in Jeori hands.
His son Tima absorbed the Van area, then took Bosan, Rajjay, and Niormen from the squabbling Jeori, leaving Jeor as a tiny principality. More importantly, he reorganized the Axunemi state in order to effectively administer its vast new domains. Most importantly, perhaps, he removed warmaking power from the nobles: the army was now maintained directly by the state, not raised by feudal levies. The nobles were officers, but not aspiring warlords. To mark the rise in status, Tima added the Axunašin augmentative to his name, his title, and his empire; now Timai was nivei of Axunai.
Height
To its end, Axunai was a command economy. Axunemi cities did not have markets, and intercity trade was handled by explicit bureaucratic action, or even by military expeditions. (There was a small cash economy; soldiers, for instance, were paid a salary, which mostly went for beer and other luxuries.) Foreign trade— which largely meant trade with Skourenes— was still allowed, but at prices that were fixed nationwide, mostly in Axunai’s favor... if the Skourenes didn’t like it, they could just sail home; who needed their barbarian goods anyway? The result was a greatly lowered level of trade, leading to a depression in Skouras. The negative consequences in Axunai, however, were hidden by the greater peace and prosperity under a strong, less corrupt imperial government.
The centralizing impulse extended to literature: the imperials liked to take a field, set their best scholars to find and analyze the best information about it, and compile the definitive treatment; further work in the field would be little more than commentaries. One result of this was the Dusočuvax, the unified book of rites for Mešaism, compiled at the orders of the emperor Xuruwaruz; another was the Šeisun uliax or Seven Classics, of which Hundred Flowers of Axunai, the classic of poetry, is best remembered today.
The empire continued to expand under Timai’s successors; in 990-1005 the emperor Čeba conquered the Mnau peninsula. The new acquisition was named ros Čebevi, “Čeba’s land”, later Čeiy. Conquering this cold, remote region proved easier than settling it. Nobles could be given lands there, but they didn’t want to live there. It was more effective to offer peasants free land; this was the beginning of a very different mindset in Čeiy from the metropole.
Timai had made an effort to capture the nearest Skourene cities, Arṭali and Korileŋ, in 885. Kuḷiŋibor used the Axunemi threat as a catalyst to create the Mudric Confederacy, the closest Skouras ever came to a unified government. It was enough to discourage Timai, and for a hundred years the Skourenes were left alone— long enugh for them to conclude that the Kuḷiŋiboriki were crying wolf. The Axunemi however invaded Kuḷiŋibor itself in 1010, adding the province of Mura to Čeiy. In 1190, exploiting a period of Skourene weakness, they conquered the city of Pitrat, in the Namal.
Decline
Xurnese histories usually blame the decline of Axunai on Čejiras, the ambitious commander of the western front. He disciplined the Bucair barbarians, but admired their fighting spirit, and began hiring them for his army. Čejiras loudly denounced the nivei, Šuidibur IV, for the loss of the Namal, among other sins. When Šuidibur moved to dismiss him, Čejiras declared himself nivei, and marched on Weinex (1327). For fifteen years the two fought; Čejiras was able to conquer Niormen, Rajjay, and Bolon, but never even reached the Xengi.
When Čejiras died, the Axunai reoccupied Niormen and Bolon; but the Bucair— led by Čejiras’s battle-hardened mercenaries— had organized their own strong kingdom, Bukanel. Remote areas also drifted into independence: Jeor, Bolon, Mura. In 1380 the southern portion of Čeiy became independent, as Tandau. Strongly influenced by the Skourene model, it had a market economy and a Senate.
Fall
In the 1600s, the Munkhâshi came to Weinex with an unusual proposal: allow the building of a temple to Gelalh, and Munkhâsh would supply an army to defeat the Bucair forever. The emperor Bijereis rejected these uncouth emissaries, and decided to undertake a war against the Bucair himself. The time seemed propitious: the Bucair were divided by a civil war. Bijereis advanced up the Ideis; but the invasion settled the civil war quickly, and the Bucair rallied. The war went nowhere: the Bucair riders would raid Axunemi cities, then melt away into the hills, where Bijereis’s infantry could not outrun them. The increased taxes and levies for the war caused much resentment, enough for the northern half of Čeiy to revolt, forming the republic of Amurineli (1628).
At least the rest of the realm was behind him! Unfortunately, so was the Munkhâshi army; Neirimi, governor of Moun province, had accepted the Munkhâshi offer, in 1635, and used the army to conquer the upper Xengi valley and Van. The Munkhâshi had to recall their army when their own lands were invaded by Ervëa and Attafei, and Neirimi found his new empire collapsing almost as fast as it had been constructed.
Bijereis hoped to absorb the anti-Moun coalition back into his empire; but he died before the final victory, and his son Xuruwaruz II was gifted neither in diplomacy nor war. The governors became kings, and Axunai was reduced to the delta, the lower Xengi, and the Tanel peninsula.
In 1682 Xuruwaruz’s son Murešopivu was assassinated by a general, who didn’t bother to name himself nivei, so discredited had the title become. The empire of Axunai was no more, though for decades Xengiman was oppressed by barons and warlords seeking to reestablish it. Some succeeded in carving out a large realm for themselves, but none had Timai’s genius for administration.
Categories: Axunai | Xengiman | Nations
