Fananak
From Almeopedia
Fananak [fa na ˈnak] is a region in southwestern Arcél, roughly that which is dominated by Tžuro colonists and/or accepting Jippirasti.
Etymology: Tžuro Fananak, ‘New Feináe’; Uṭandal Paranagu, X. Peranagu, Ver. Fananác.
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Geography
It is part of the temperate zone of Arcél, along with Uytai, and comprises three areas:
The river valleys and parts of Togwaš are suitable for rainfall agriculture, while the highlands are devoted to herding and some hunting/gathering. The coastal regions also make use of fish and shellfish.
The term Fananak can be loosely used for this region at any time, but of course before the Tžuro colonization it had no common culture, identity, or name. Nativists sometimes use Itsičiʔli in preference to Fananak, but this properly applies to little more than the Itseʔ valley.
History
Colonization
In the 2800s, the Tžuro state of Jaešim, swollen by refugees from Šura, built the largest ships of its time. In 2961 the captain Araž made the crossing to the Togwaš peninsula.
He reported that it was similar to Feináe and should be settled, and its people brought to know Jippir. It took some time for the project to be organized; finally two ships were sent in 2988. The first winter was disastrous; the two colonies had to be combined into one, Uñuhim, under the highest-ranking surviving officer, Duvali.
Duvali had his hands full over the next quarter century: organizing work, caring for the sick, exploring the Uñuhim valley, finding the right mix of imported and local crops, dealing with the natives, the Žiwdonag. His people were not prepared for the backbreaking labor required to start a new agricultural nation from scratch— many were clerics and military men used to a much easier life, and even the menial laborers had expected that life would be easier, not harder, in the new land.
Nonetheless the colony grew, and more settlements dotted the valley (always against Duvali’s wishes; he thought there was plenty of work to do in Uñuhim). By 2996 a census found 374 persons living in Uñuhim, and five years later “New Feináe” had more than a thousand, in six settlements.
Relations with the Žiwdonag were equivocal. The Žiwdonag had been decimated by disease— pox and venereal disease spread by Tžuro traders— and there was plenty of room for the settlers. The Žiwdonag helped the settlers with local crops and animals, traded furs and gold for their manufactures, offered alliances, listened courteously their endless talk about Jippir. There were those on both sides who preferred to take advantage of the other; and this led to war as early as 3009— technically Tžuro interference in an inter-Žiwdonag quarrel.
Expansion and independence
A Žiwdonag community converted to Jippirasti as early as 3005, and it was followed by many more. This was precisely the goal of the religious sponsors of colonization, but it was also a source of headaches. The converts, of course, mostly did not speak Tžuro. There was enormous suspicion that they hadn’t really converted, or had done so only in order to get gifts or jobs. Restrictions were placed on the converts, most aimed at keeping them from rising above Tžuro.
Responding to many complaints of general anarchy, Jaešim sent a viceroy (alešp) in 3056, Amantej, with a large company of soldiers. He reestablished order, attempted to enforce Jaešimi law, and cracked down on the settlements’ tendency to ignore Uñuhim.
But back home Šura had been liberated, while Feináe itself was invaded by the Sainor; Jaešim entered into a severe decline. By 3100 the only ships arriving to the colony were a few Šureni traders. The colony was on its own, and the alešp was its monarch and chief priest.
By this time the focus of settlement was the large, fertile Tsihsip valley. The city of Čisipim, founded in 3074, within fifty years was much larger than Uñuhim. The Tsihsip became the powerhouse of Fananak, whose expansion was fueled by manufactures from Čisipim and soldiers and horses from its farms.
In its early years the Tsihsip was as much Dnetic as Tžuro; but the strong Tžuro presence and dense population created a rapid assimilation to Tžuro culture, religion, and language. Even today it’s said that the only “pure Tžuro” is spoken in Čisipim, and Jippirasti most resembles the Fanpita norms of Jaešim.
Conquests
The Žiwdonag and other Dnetic peoples were largely pastoral, like Babur, and the Tžuro largely respected them. They felt much differently about the agricultural Itsenic tribes. These did everything wrong: they were pagans, followers of magic, tattooed, polygamous, tolerant of nudity, homosexuality, drunkenness, keeping pets in their houses and shellfish on their table, a veritable sink of istuja (sin).
The confederacy of Fkišnak was taken over in the 3080s, and the much larger Itsičiʔli, which encompassed most of the Itseʔ valley, by 3121. The viceroy Torpač explained, through interpreters, that forced conversion was against their law, and then made it clear that conversion was required if, say, the natives wished to retain their land. Thousands converted, though many shamans killed themselves rather than submit.
The Fananaki rulers now had a population many times their own, theoretically converted to Jippirasti— problem solved! The results, of course, were a mixed society with a religion superficially identical to Jippirasti but incorporating, overtly or not, the elements of Itsenic belief: culture heroes, guiding animal familiars, the spirit world. Language was similarly modified: even the descendents of the Fananaki conquerors spoke a highly creolized Tžuro.
Meanwhile the horse spread to the native cultures, transforming them into mighty nomadic forces much like those of Ereláe’s Barbarian Plain.
The height of Fananak
The viceroy Anastu built a new city, Alešpim, on the site of Mnenyinečiʔ, the former capital of Itsičiʔli, in 3175. Its grandest structure was the Jippirgreja, the House of Jippir; its enormous dome is still the largest single structure in Arcél. The viceroy’s palace was not much smaller and even more richly finished.
The role of a viceroy included speaking for the god, and the viceroy Manmuluz reported that Jippir wished to rule all the peoples of this new continent— the obvious target being the rich Uyseʔic nations. He started with Tloyne, in 3260, and conquered Čwam in 3274-79. Nyandai was tougher; he besieged the capital, Krantet, in 3286, but it was still resisting five years later. Jippir had neglected to tell his viceroy to secure command of the sea; the Nyanese and Čwamese fleets still easily kept Krantet supplied. Fine, there were other souls to harvest.
Manmuluz’s son Ampaji ('the all—conqueror’) raised an enormous army, piously spent a week in expiation, then attacked Phetai, the Tsyeʔ river valley, westernmost portion of Uytai, in 3298. His commander (aŋgot) Lamastu took Tueʔ by surprise, but further progress was mind-bogglingly slow. Ampaji had better weapons and stronger cavalry, but the Uytainese armies were huge and well-trained, were accustomed to siege warfare, and had shorter supply lines. Lamastu expanded his last effort and took Pheʔ in 3314.
Fananak was now the largest empire on the continent, dwarfing Uytai (which was also fighting the Õkmisan at this time) and Belesao. From Alešpim, at least, the viceroy’s interpretation of Jippir’s will was incontrovertible.
Civil war
Ampaji declared himself pleased with the conquest of Pheʔ, and grandly forgave its tardiness. He ordered Lamastu to continue forthwith to the east.
It was impossible to communicate to the viceroy, ensconced in his palace in Alešpim, that no movement was possible— Phetai was still restive, the Uytainese still counter-attacking, the army was in shambles. Ampaji dismissed him; Lamastu’s army remained loyal, and he marched it west to Alešpim— capturing it and Ampaji in 3316.
Ampaji had raised an army, largely from the Togwaš; rather than face Lamastu it returned there, establishing a loyalist regime. Čisipim refused to support either party. For twenty years Fananak was rent by civil war. Uytai recovered Phetai in the 3320s, and in the 3350s the Ōkmisan, also harried by the Uytainese, moved westward in force and occupied most of the Nyan peninsula; this in turn allowed Nyandai to rebel. The military despotate was reduced largely to the Itseʔ valley.
Modern times
In 3420, the Ōkmisan undertook an all-out attack on Alešpim which destroyed the city and ended the despotate. The Itseʔ was in chaos for a decade, till the present states emerged. These are:
- The Ičeki Tej, proclaimed in 3438, its capital Ičekali in the Itseʔ delta. Its self-designation as a tej proclaims that its claimed authority is religious rather than ethnic— legal restrictions on the natives have been eliminated. Nonetheless the elite speak (creolized) Fananaki and call themselves Tžuro. There has been an influx of Jippirasti natives expelled from Wasanmadbi, and a corresponding emigration of pagans. To other Fananaki, the religious practices of the Tej are scandalously corrupted by Itsenic practices and beliefs.
- Wasanmadbi, an Itsenic confederacy; its name, ‘they are recovering the heritage they lost’, proclaims its championship of traditional society, language, and religion.
- The Ōkmisan are still a formidable presence, and still occupy the site of Alešpim. They rule over a number of Jippirasti, though the horsemen themselves profess no interest in Jippir.
- The Togwaš peninsula is held by the kingdom of Fananak (sometimes in Fananaki simply called the Jos, the Kingdom, as opposed to greater Fananak), still ruled from Uñuhim. It has fought a number of wars with Iček, as both have claims to speak for all of Fananak; neither is strong enough to challenge Čisipim. On the whole the kingdom is conservative, lightly settled, and poor. It still has a substantial Žiwdonag population, though mostly accepting Jippirasti.
- Čisipim, ruled from the city of the same name, the richest region of Fananak and nearly free of religious and ethnic conflict. Čisipim has become the greatest trading and manufacturing center of greater Fananak, with easy access to the elcari for metals and minerals, to both north and south, and even to Ereláe.
Languages
Languages from three Adurise linguistic families are spoken in Fananak: Eidnani-Kleʔmet’ in the Kleʔmet’ river valley, Dnetic in the eastern highlands, and Itsenic in the Itseʔ river valley.
Fananaki, the Lenani-Littoral tongue of the Tžuro settlers, is spoken across the region. It predominates in the Tsihsip valley and in the southern half of Togwaš. A creolized variant, quite impossible for the Jaešimi to understand, is the language of the Ičeki Tej— much more convenient than any native dialect.
| Article begun by Adso de Fimnu, largely rewritten by Zompist |
