Namal

From Almeopedia

The Namal [na ˈmal] is a region and a nation of the Skourene littoral, on the east coast of the Mnau peninsula. To the southwest is Barmund; to the northeast is Skouras proper]]; to the west is the Ediri range, and to the east the Šurantal, the Skourene Sea.

What land isn't hilly is mostly swampy, and it's all cold; with little arable land, it has been historically important chiefly as a battleground between opposing powers. Its chief resource is the fish of its many lakes and its coastline. Its main cities, none of which exceed 50,000 inhabitants and all of which lie on the coast, are (south to north, with names in Uṭandal, Šureni, and Old Skourene):

• Ninṭai / Nimičali / Nemiṭali
• Agešur / Ajišur / Ageşoram, capital of the modern state of the Namal
• Čisuragu / Čirak / Ṭisuraku
• Muldap / Mutab

Etymology: Old Skourene Namal 'the swamp', literally 'the waters'; cf. nam 'water'; Uṭandal Namal, Tžuro Namau, Ṭeôši Nämäl.

Early history

The Namal was originally settled by the Mei, and indeed it was the first region in the littoral to support agriculture, though it was soon overshadowed in this by the much more fertile Šinour valley. It was occupied by the ancient Skourenes by the year 20, and for the entire classical era served as the appendage of one empire or another; only in brief and exceptional periods were any of its cities independant.

In 1134 Nemiṭali was conquered by Axunai, and for a century the southern Namal was a staging ground for Axunemi attempts to conquer Skouras. The strategy looked better on paper than it ever worked in practice: it was a poor area which was neither readily reachable from Axunai nor offering easy accesss to the rich Skourene cities. Iṭili pushed the Axunemi out in 1317-21, no great loss pragmatically, but a great loss of face which helped produce the rebellion of Čejiras.

The invading Tžuro conquered most of the Namal by 1700, and occupied its main cities by 1725, all under the atej Busiŋgal. The Namal separated from the Kurundasti Tej in the early 2200s, accepting the spiritual authority of the Tej but running its own affairs, with its capital at Ajišur.

Fight for the Namal

The Littoral peoples-- the descendants of the ancient Skourenes, now known as the Uṭandal-- always dreamed of recapturing Skouras from the Tžuro, and the Namal was an obvious stepping stone. The Čisran Empire conquered the Namal in 2370, and from there fought the Tžuro, actually invading Skouras and conquering Dusilim in 2601. When it became clear that the inhabitants of Skouras were now solidly Jippirasti and thought of themselves as Tžuro, the reconquista petered out. The Xurnese conquered Čisra in 2750; for a time this left the Namal as an independent Uṭandal republic.

The conquest of Skouras by the Sainor however sent a stream of Tžuro refugees southward into the Namal (and eastward into Jaešim, overwhelming the Uṭandal; indeed, for the first time the Namal became its own tej, based in the city of Mutab. However, the Tžuro were focussed on the reconquest of Skouras, while the Uṭandal League sought to expand northward; the result was a slow movement of the border northward through the Namal. In 3028 the Uṭandal conquered Mutab, leaving only a stub of the Namal in Tžuro hands.

The modern republic

The Uṭandal League collapsed in 3154, leaving the Namal independent again (but under ethnic Uṭandal rule). Once the Tžuro had reconquered Skouras, however, they were determined to recapture Mutab, which they accomplished in 3351.

The current government is a republic, based in Ajišur. The population is about 75% Uṭandal and 25% Tžuro linguistically, though about 35% Jippirasti; there are of course many more who identify as Tžuro and Jippirasti in the north, especially in Mutab.