Iṭili
From Almeopedia
| IṬILI • |
| Author: Furius |
| Iṭili | |
| -50 - 1717 | |
| Native: | Iṭili |
| Verdurian: | Ičili |
| Characteristics | |
| Capital: | Iṭili |
| Government: | senatorial (usampas) |
| Ruler’s title | asemop |
| Language: | Old Skourene |
| Religions: | Skourene paganism |
Iṭili (modern Ičili) was one of the chief cities of Ancient Skouras. It’s located on the west bank of the Šinour delta, within 30 km of the other delta cities, Engidori and Imuṭeli. In common perception, the Iṭiliki were adventurous and romantic, prone to fads and scams. If you liked them, they seemed sophisticated; if not, pretentious and impractical. They were particularly gifted in literature and cuisine. The streets were said to be dirty and unprepossessing, though the houses could be sumptuous inside. If you wanted to have an adventure or an assignation, Iṭili was the city for you.
Contents |
Early Years
Like the two other delta cities, Iṭili developed as a trading entrepôt when the Jei started trading with Skouras, from around -50 Z.E. Storage depots turned into settlements, then permanent towns; at first they simply accumulated raw materials to trade to the Jei for manufactures, but they soon learned to craft some of the imported goods themselves, and traded them to Skourenes in the interior.
The city was ruled by a senate (smapali), itself composed of the leaders of the major families; this body elected one of its own members as asemop (president).
As the Littoral was explored, the cities founded colonies; Iṭili settled the southern Gelihur peninsula, and founded the cities of Teralam and Kolatimand.
The Classical Wars
In the 260's Guṭḷeli and Iṭili were trying to colonize Ḍarroḍ, a rocky island of few resources but strategically placed. Guṭḷeli put a large army ashore and simply killed or drove off its rivals’ settlers (269). A fierce war ensued, in which Iṭili devoted its efforts to an attack on Meŋeland, north of Guṭḷeli; while Guṭḷeli tried to conquer Teralam to its south. Neither attack came to anything, though the Iṭiliki, by catapulting burning brands into Meŋeland, managed to burn down most of the city. The two sides, exhausted, signed a treaty in 274.
In 349 Umini, asemop of Ṭisuram died, and as a mark of respect his wife Nossururrikum was named to replace him. Ṭisuram was deep in debt to Iṭili, and with no colonies nor much of a hinterland, it was likely to remain so. Nossururrikum came up with an unexpected solution: in 352 she sent the Ṭisuramand army down the Dussil river valley, attacking Iṭili’s colony of Nibureli.
The Iṭiliki decided to address the problem at the root and attack Ṭisuram. This was a mistake, as Nossururrikum was already negotiating with Nibureli; she could now insinuate that Iṭili was unwilling to come to its colony’s defense. Nibureli duly switched sides, and the two cities sent their armies to meet Iṭili’s.
Fighting went back and forth for nearly two years, but in the end it was Iṭili that sued for peace. Ṭisuram took over most of Iṭili’s hinterland, as well as its claim to Pitrat; it had no interest in Iṭili’s colonies in Gelihur.
In 465, Iṭili joined a war against Miligenḍi, led by the Engidorid asemop Minnukitum, with Ṭisuram Gasibur and Guṭḷeli. Gasibur invaded Milligendi from the north; Iṭili and Engidori undertook to block the river; Guṭḷeli attacked Nemiṭali, and all the allies except Gasibur sent armies against Meŋeland. All the attacks succeeded. The allies then wasted a season on a fruitless attack on Miligenḍi, then fell to blaming each other for their failure. Iṭili ended up leaving the alliance; when this allowed a squadron of Miligenḍik longboats to escape into the Skourene Sea and land an army near Meŋeland, Minnukitum was so angry that he declared war against Iṭili and occupied the Iṭilik colony of Teralam. When a treaty was finally signed, in 469, Guṭḷeli made him give it back.
Decline of Iṭili
A plague (the ḍaukiurli), struck the delta starting in 530 and spread north along the Šinour, killing up to a quarter of the population. It had much less effect in the colder and less populated Littoral. The colonies of the littoral thus increased in importance, and, as a result, in 534 Iṭili's colony Kolatimand, on the tip of the Gelihur peninsula, demanded and received the right to have a senate of its own; from this point it can be considered to be de facto independent.
In 694, Iṭili lost Teralam to the expanding Guṭḷeli. By 772 Guṭḷeli had reached a point were it felt confident enough to beseige Iṭili itself, which was forced to surrender after a year-long land and sea blockade. Iṭili's fall awakened the other Skourene cities to the Guṭḷeli threat, inspiring Papliopagimi, Engidori, and Meŋeland to declare war on Guṭḷeli. When they were victorious, in 786, Iṭili was taken by Endigori.
In 795, with the support of Eŋŋuḷoşum, dictator of Meŋeland, Iṭili rebelled against Engidori, and after the agreed month Eŋŋuḷoşum sent an army to support it, while Guṭḷeli attacked Ageşoram. Engidori sent an army southward into Meŋeland. Eŋŋuḷoşum had anticipated this, and prepared ambushes all along the south road, the Gerredtar. He sprang his trap and destroyed the Engidorid army. Engidori had no choice but to sue for peace and Iṭili became a protectorate of Meŋeland.
In the 860s the Iṭiliki mooted the idea that there was really no need for a Meŋelandik protectorate any more. Meŋeland responded by sending a garrison to the city and taking over the harbor. They retained their Senate, but they were effectively now a province of Meŋeland.
In 930, the Mudric Confederacy, under Kuḷiŋibor, declared war on Guṭḷeli, the largest and richest Skourene city at this time, and it brought Miligenḍi into the war. The allies put up a good fight— their highest moment was sacking and burning Meŋeland— but the Confederacy was too much for them, and they were defeated in 938.
After the war Kuḷiŋibor, worried about the centrifugal tendencies of the older Skourene states, created a new political structure to counter them: the Skourene League (Dreşa Skourand). into which Iṭili, as well as Imuṭeli, Ṭisuram, Miligenḍi, Meŋeland, Guṭḷeli, and Ageşoram were incorporated. When Kuḷiŋibor lost control of the Mudric Confederacy in 975, this Skourene League drifted into independence.
Iṭili, Imuṭeli, Meŋeland, and Miligenḍi tried to keep it going as a confederacy, and even strengthened it by inviting Engidori to join (980). Engidori managed to gain control over the treasury, and declared that its entire army would be under the league’s command. (The other cities held back some of their forces for local defense.) This sounded generous while, of course, giving effective control of the league’s army to Engidori. The official name of the League was not changed; but historians call this period the Engidorid League to emphasize its new character.
Iṭilik League
Engidori enjoyed control over northern Skouras for over a century, but in 1108 Ḍolbunodu, asemop of Engidori and aderoş (commander) of its League, invaded Papliopagimi and was completly defeated. When news of this reached Ageşoram, it was emboldened to revolt, and this led Iṭili to join in. There were Engidorid garrisons in both cities, which made short work of the ragtag militias the rebels could cobble together. In Iṭili, the Engidorid commander Innleş punished the rebellious Senate with a campaign of terror, executing every fourth senator, including the asemop, Gidagdor. Gidagdor’s daughter Şugoulut, infuriated, rallied the city, raised and trained a new militia in secret, and finally led it against the garrison in a successful surprise attack. She personally killed Innleş, with her father’s sword held in her father’s gloves. She then helped Ageşoram defeat its own occupiers.
This was only half the battle; she returned to Iṭili just in time to face Ḍolbunodu, who had arrived with the main Engidorid army. He besieged both cities, and was beaten back only with the aid of Papliopagimi, and the army from Pitrat, which had marched through the entire Namal to rescue their compatriots. The war dragged on till 1121, at which point Engidori still controlled Imuṭeli, but it lost most of its hinterland to Papliopagimi.
The newly independant Iṭili found itself in control of Nibureli, Ṭisuraku, and Ageşoram, which it organised into the Iṭilik League, which retained the legal mechanisms of the Skourene League, though Şugoulut promised never to abuse them as Engidori had.
In 1242, during the peak of an ecological collapse in the Šinour valley, Ageşoram split off from Iṭili. When balance began to be recovered, the aderoş Niḷḍunsa reconquered Ageşoram (1315). Niḷḍunsa died the next year, and his son Romindor was named to replace him. He had every right to sit back and enjoy his good fortune quietly, but he was determined to use the momentum of the victory to reconquer the Namal from Axunai.
Romindor personally led the League’s armies into battle, and was able to conquer Nemiṭali in 1317, and (with the aid of a rebellion) Pitrat the next year. More importantly, with the aid of Peligi, he was able to beat back the inevitable Axunemi counterattack (1319-21).
The Axunai were defeated, and would subsequently become embroiled in civil war, and begin to decline. Between 1437 and 1439 Iṭili conquered Ṭisuram
In 1475 the Engidori succeeded in capturing Imuṭeli, left a garrison, and headed home. Along the way they were ambushed by an army from Iṭili, which cut them to pieces. Without an army, Engidori soon had to surrender to the besieging Iṭiliki; the Imuṭeliki surrendered without a fight. For the first time, one of the delta cities had conquered the other two.
The Tžuro Invasion
It was clearly, however, a time for stronger Skourene states. In the 1600s the threat was from the north, from the Tžuro who had recently embraced the prophet Babur and his call to spread Jippirasti, the worship of Jippir, to the whole world, by force if necessary. In the 1620s the Tžuro conquered Papliopagimi. Some Tžuro, mostly the pagans, wanted to go on to conquer the rich Skourene cities; others wanted to fight Munkhâsh. The Jippirasti won the argument, which gave the Skourenes a brief reprieve. The cities of Papliopagimi were reconquered, largely by Gurdago.
Munkhâsh was defeated, however, and the Tžuro returned to Skouras. They poured into the country, first occupying the rural hinterlands and bypassing the cities. These could be supplied from unconquered territories further south, but not indefinitely. The Tžuro concentrated first on Gurdago’s rival Peligi, finally defeating it in 1714. They then turned their attention to the delta.
Iṭili was captured in 1717. For its history under the Tžuro, see Ičili.
Etymology: Old Skourene 'of the sea’, Uṭandal Čili, Tžuro Ičili, Ver. Ičili.
Categories: Cities | Skouras | Ṭrota
