Jaešim
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Jaešim [dʒa ˈʔɛ ʃim] is a city in Feináe, the region east of Skouras, and by extension the tej it controls.
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Skourene days
The city was founded by the ancient Skourenes, as Ḍareşam, around 200. It was actually founded earlier than Komand, but the latter grew faster and throughout ancient times Ḍareşam was ruled by Komand, though it retained some autonomy, in the form of a smapali (senate) of just five members.
In 1370 Komand formed the Eastern League (Dreşakom), in which Ḍareşam was an equal member with Komand, Soridrand, and Ḍarali, and participated in the war which briefly captured Ḍeleli. The league collapsed in the 1500s.
The Jippirasti conquest
Komand barely participated in the penultimate struggles of the Skourenes against the Tžuro... it had never been involved in the Skourenes' frequent wars and it assumed that the Jippirasti Tžuro too would somehow ignore it. They did not; the Kurundasti atej Busiŋgal invaded Feináe in 1697 and quickly occupied Ḍareşam. This became the seat of administration for Feináe, or Fana as the Tžuro called it. When Komand was finally captured in 1722, the traditional roles of the cities were reversed; Jaešim as the Tžuro renamed it now ruled Kuman. Over the next decades the Kurundasti conquered the Fei to the north.
When the Kurundasti started to decline, Fana broke off in 2180 as the Buŋkavi Tej. The early teje all have dynastic names; it was not acceptable to break the unity of the believers merely to pursue local autonomy— a religious justification was needed. The Buŋkavi claimed that the Kurundasti were theologically lax and personally sinful. Somewhat ironically, they presided over a state that was more than half infidel: there were still substantial numbers who worshipped the Skourene gods, and the Fei had never accepted Jippirasti.
The Anajati Tej took over from the Kurundasti in 2375; it was simultaneously less conservative and more vigorous, and recovered a good deal of territory that their predecessors had lost. In the 2460s it conquered most of the Buŋkavi Tej. In the confusion, however, Jaešim was conquered by the state of Lenda; the city was not occupied by the Anajati till 2505. The northern Fei also drifted away into independence during these troubles. (Over the centuries the southern Fei did accept Jippirasti, and many came as well to speak Tžuro.
In the early 2500s, however, the Anajati were abandoned by their own homeland: upper and lower Skouras split off into new states. Jaešim once again found itself the capital, though under the exiled Anajati, who considered themselves players in Jippirasti power politics, and involved Fana more in the affairs of Skouras than it was accustomed to.
The height of Jaešim
The Anajati were overthrown by the native Ajedi dynasty in 2833; no theological pretenses were needed by this time, and the state has been known ever since as Jaešim.
Jaešim had been a backwater, but with the Sainor conquest of Skouras, it was now one of the leading centers of the Tžuro, its population bloated with refugees from the centeral states. It re-occupied the northern Fei coast and took over much of the trade within the littoral.
As the distances were greater, the Jaešimi built larger ships and learned to navigate the open ocean-- not a new technique by any means, but small coast-hugging ships had sufficed for most trade. By the mid 2900s the Jaešimi were trading west as far as Xurno and Gurdago; more spectacularly, it rediscovered the old Skourene sea route to Arcél. In 2988 it founded the colony of Fananak (New Feináe) on the west coast.
As the Sainor were pushed out of Skouras, the Skourene cities recovered their traditional dominance of trade; a more serious problem was that the Sainor departed Skouras for Feináe (3045). For both reasons Jaešim declined, and left Fananak to its own devices. (The Fei rebelled in 3267, creating their own state, Feidal.)
Modern times
Today Jaešim remains the largest city of Feináe, with about 70,000 inhabitants, but politically and economically it remains a backwater. The second largest cities are Kuman and Inčip. Ironically, perhaps, it is now Fananaki ships which come across the ocean from Arcél to trade and re-establish ties with the homeland.
The language of Jaešim is Jaešeni, no longer mutually intelligible with the language of Skouras proper, Šureni. Jaešeni is of course the direct ancestor of Fananaki, spoken in Arcél.
