Carhinnoi
From Almeopedia
| < CARHINNOI |
The Carhinnoi [ka ri ˈno i] are a Qarau people of eastern Ereláe. They converted to Jippirasti during Attafei's war with Munkhâsh, but are now subjects of Dhekhnam. Their region of Dhekhnam is called Carhinnia, and their language Carhinnian.
Etymology: The native name is now Ečənaiba 'faithful ones', but must once have been something like *Qarxaun (in the singular); Tžuro Kahon, Caď. Carḣunno, Ver. Carhinno.
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Origins
The Qaraus are related (though remotely) to the Eynleyni who were the original human people of Munkhâsh; it is therefore likely that they spread eastward from Carhinnia rather than westward from Qaraumia. In either case they were hunter-gatherers and few in number.
The western Qaraus adopted the nomadic lifestyle from the Lenani, around -700, and can now be differentiated from their hunter-gatherer cousins to the east.
On the eastern shore of Ereláe they came in contact with the iliu, and picked up a simple form of monotheism from them; this spread among all the Qaraus, and is one factor in their lack of interest in joining Munkhâsh. The Munkhâshi did however colonize the Minedh river which passes through Carhinnia, and built Minedhil around 550; this allowed them to control the grasslands of the Minedh watershed and their Carhinno inhabitants.
Conversion
The Tžuro atej Attafei invaded Munkhâsh in 1644, beginning with the areas most easily occupied by the nomadic Tžuro: Tyellakh and central Carhinnia. He made a special effort to convert the Carhinnoi, the Tžuro's only monotheistic neighbors; the prophet Babur had explained that monotheists already knew Jippir, only needing some minimal confusions to be cleared up before they could be considered Jippirasti. The Carhinnoi responded with great interest, all the more so because Attafei promised them a full share of the plunder.
Attafei's successors invaded Skouras (1684-1725), and this proved more daunting-- but more profitable-- than the conquest of Munkhâsh. It seemed reasonable, then, to allow the Carhinnoi to rule eastern Munkhâsh, including the ktuvoks in Sarcainor.
The Carhinnoi looted the Eynleyni, but had no interest in learning their ways; they adopted neither agriculture nor city life, and let the Eynleyni largely rule themselves, under Carhinno authority. Religiously, they were zealous Jippirasti, but saw no great use in literacy; they learned Babur's scripture, the Baburkanim, by memory, and had little interest in theological developments elsewhere in the Jippirasti realm.
Empire
They encouraged the colonization of Upper Qaraumia, north of Sarcainor; as this was tropical rain forest neither they nor the Eynleyni could support their traditional lifestyle there. The colonists supported themselves by hunting and fishing, and eventually learned to raise pigs.
They conquered the Lenani plateau around 2050, and by 2100 they had conquered Demóshimor (which the Caďinorians had lost two centuries previously). They enforced a sullen nominal Jippirasti on the Demoshi, prosecuting the worship of the multiple Eynleyni gods. They made it clear that they considered the Demoshi to be servants; as a result the conversion of the Demoshi was only superficial, though it did push them into near-exclusive worship of Gelalh.
The Lenani atej Žigral reconquered Lenan in 2267-70; the Tyellakhi rebelled not long after this, and the Demoshi successfully rebelled in 2375. Both fought intermittently with the Carhinnoi over the next centuries, and slowly expanded their territory; by the time the ktuvoks reasserted control over Demóshimor, forming the new empire of Dhekhnam, the Carhinnoi were reduced to Carhinnia itself.
Under Dhekhnam
In 2835, Dhekhnam sent its armies against the Carhinnoi. The Carhinnoi at first laughed: they could easily outrun the Dhekhnami infantry and defeat the Dhekhnami horse; and what's more, the Dhekhnami seemed to prefer cowardly attacks on horses to honorable attacks on men. They laughed less as the tactic persisted: horses were the wealth and the military backbone of the Carhinnoi; by 2845 they were starving and defeated.
The terms of surrender were, by ktuvok standards, generous: the Carhinnoi were allowed to keep their religion, and they were invited into the Dhekhnami army as its elite cavalry. As such they played a key role in the conquest of Sarnáe. They tend not to be used in Dhekhnami campaigns against the Lenani states.
The Carhinnoi form their own pita or theological division of Jippirasti, known in Tžuro as the Kahon. Naturally they are disdained and distrusted by the other pitau for their acceptance of Dhekhnami rule. They are also criticized for having priests (ənebba) and a clerical hierarchy (both condemned by Babur), and for turning the Tžuro matrilineal system into a patriarchy complete with the persecution of women for adultery, unknown in other pitau. Their oral transmission of the Baburkunim is accurate enough, but they don't speak of Kulig or Attafei, and they consider Dhekhnam their tej.
