Tžuro

From Almeopedia

(Redirected from Tzhuro)

The Tžuro [ˈtʒu ro] are a Lenani-Littoral people of Eastern Ereláe. They were once militaristic nomads and conquered much of Eastern Ereláe, but they have since become restricted to Skouras. Their principal state in the modern day is Šura.

See Tžuro language for their language.

Etymology: Native name of unknown origin, hence Ax. Čurou, X. Čoru; Caď. Corondastes after the Kurundasti Tej, Ver. Corun; Old Skourene Ḍonimi 'northerners'

Contents

[edit]

Social Structure

The Tžuro were divided into clans (fsavau), which were matrilocal (husbands joined their wife’s clan) and matrilineal (inheritance was through the female line), and they worshipped paired male and female gods. They were not matriarchal— men were usually in charge of a clan but the wealth of a lineage (animals, grazing rights, gold, etc.) was managed by its women. This can be seen as an adaptation to the males' long absences on raids: they entrusted their wealth not to wives, whose loyalty might be to their own lineage, but to their sisters. What a man received from war, trade, and hunting (excepting a portion distributed to build relationships with other lineages) he gave not to his children but to his lineage— in effect, to his sister and her children. As a corollary, infidelity, though disapproved of, was not very serious. A man couldn't be certain that his wife's children were his, but it didn't much matter— they belonged to the wife's lineage, and it would take care of them. There could be no doubt, however, that his sister's children were hers, and thus part of his own lineage.

[edit]

Early History

They emerged as a seperate group in the Burilenan and Upper Skouras, around the beginning of the first century Z.E. For centuries they traded peacefully with the cities of Skouras, chiefly through the city of Papliopagimi. In the tenth century, however, the Tžuro of the Burilenan were conquered by the Lenani Enevids and the Turomai. Between 1150 and 1350 the Tžuro freed themselves from these states, and gained new level of intercommunication and collective action from the struggle. Henceforth the Tžuro clans were controlled by a number of princes. Each summer these princes would elect a king and fight together; for the rest of the year the princes took care of their own affairs.

[edit]

Conversion

In the late 1400's the Tžuro were now troubled by a new doctrine, Jippirasti, monotheistic, demanding, and ferocious. Jippirasti means "listening to Jippir"; what the converts heard Jippir saying was to convert their pagan brothers, and after that the wide world, to the path of righteousness. His prophet Babur died in 1510.

Babur's message was suited for the nomadic Tžuro society: it was heavy on unity, lineages, property rights, honor, and sexual propriety. Jippir himself was imperious, jealous of the pagan idols, and loquacious— Babur reported Jippir's long harangues, his poetic delight in the beauty of the plateau and its big sky, and his extravagant promises to Babur and his people.

Tžuro society was organized for warfare: men spent as much as half the year travelling far from their homes, fighting and trading; the rest of the time they lived with their wife's family. Under paganism, the raids were as often as not against rival clans, each of which had its own god; Babur, stressing unity and monotheism, freed the Tžuro for external conquest.

[edit]

Kurundasti Tej

The Jippirasti did not immediatly succeed in converting their pagan brothers; but both sides had come to agreement on two other points: that the Tžuro peoples should be united under one tej (administration), and that they should proceed to conquer the world. The first goal was accomplished when the Jippirasti noble Kurund was named Atej of all the Tžuro.

The second was begun with the absorption of Lenan in the late 1500's. The future lords of the earth now had to decide on their next target. Kurund wanted to start with Munkhâsh, which was the realm of Kulig the opposite and enemy of the One God Jippir; the pagans wanted to start by looting rich Skouras or Axunai.

On the death of Kurund in 1623 his nephew Burudusi was named as Atej. Burudusi was nominally Jippirasti, but he had no desire to fight demons; he wanted to aim for the rich southern states instead. The Tžuro gobbled up portions of Pronel and Mei Ros, as well as the little Tei principality of Lian; then, in 1626, they turned south to Skouras. By 1632 the strongest Skourene states, Papliopagimi and Ṭisuram, had vanished without a trace.

[edit]

Reign of Attafei

In 1644, however, Burudusi was succeeded as Atej by Kurund's son Adubum, who was a devoted Jippirasti. Adubum took the name Attafei, "Almighty", as a manifesto of his ambition, and reversed the immediate strategy of the Tžuro, invading eastern Munkhâsh in force just as Ervëa of Caďinas invaded the west.

Attafei proved a stubborn and determined commander who simply pushed his men forward; if he met resistance he threw men at it; if the obstacle was insurmountable he went around it; if the odds were hopeless he trusted in Jippir. In 1650 he broke through to the sea and by 1667 it was all over. The ktuvoks who were left were placed under military control; those who resisted were killed.

In the light of Attafei's victory 200,000 Tžuro converted to Jippirasti on one day. He divided the conquered lands into estates for his generals, assigning Eynleyni in lots to work them as slaves. Munkhâshi conquered, the next task was the conquest of Skouras. At the age of seventy, he began to make plans for the conquest.

[edit]

Invasion of Skouras

Attafei died (1684) before he could put his plans into action, and his successors Kutaj (d. 1695) and Busiŋgal (d. 1725) would spend their whole reigns on the slow conquest of Skouras. The long centuries of internecine strife had led the Skourenes to perfect the art of fortification; the Tžuro had barely seen cities, much less learned how to besiege and reduce them.

Still, by Busiŋgal's death the conquest could be said to be a complete. Only the southernmost portions of the Littoral were unconquered; these were largely under the control of Gurdago, whose control of the sea the Tžuro were unable to counter.

In the course of the war the Tžuro withdrew from Munkhâsh, except for Tyellakh. The Eynleyni estates were too poor and too distant to be profitable; and the army could be put to better use in Skouras. The lands were handed over to the Carhinnoi, Qaraus who had converted to Jippirasti, and these could be trusted to maintain the empire over the Eynleyni— and the guard over the ktuvoks.

[edit]

Fragmentation

It is one thing to conquer the world; it's another to rule it. The Tžuro of the Kurundasti Tej were a nomadic people ruling over a rich agricultural and trading nation; they found it increasingly difficult to keep the two halves of their Tej together. Skouras could not be ruled from the Lenani steppe; the Tžuro therefore enlarged Engidori and made it their capital, renaming it Jippirim. The Tžuro on the steppe were not pleased by this, nor by policies which favored farmers, traders, and shipbuilders, nor by the religious and racial tolerance needed to run an urban civilization.

The Tej split in 1875; the new Buručandi Tej which occupied the Tžuro homeland represented both a rebellion and a heresy. (The Buručandi allowed the fsavau to have totems, which the orthodox called gods, while the rebels called the Kurundasti materialistic traitors to the faith.)

The ethnic Lenani rebelled against the Buruchandi in 1895, under the pretext of returning to orthodoxy. Tyellakh drifted into independance by 1895, and the Fei did so shortly thereafter. The Naraji were a branch of the Kurundasti line, who in 1920 took the opportunity to carve a tej of their own out of the western Tžuro domains. They were destroyed by Lenani in the 2000's, ending Tžuro control of Pronel and the Upper Xengi.

The Namal and the Buŋkavi Tej of Feináe split from the Kurundasti in the late 2100's. The Lenani Tokruji Tej conquered the Buruchandi Tej between 2271 and 2275 and whittled Kurundasti down to the valley of the Šinour. The Lenani taunted the Kurundasti with claims that they had become so urbane that they had forgotten how to ride. The petty Tžuro tej of the Namal were conquered by Čisra in 2370.

In 2375 the Kurundasti Tej was overthrown by the Anajati Tej. Where the Kurundasti had been orthodox, rigid, and tied to the nomadic past, the Anajati were sophisticated, tolerant, and unashamedly urban. Under the Atej Barutra, they had recovered most of Skouras by 2400. In the mid-2400's the Anajati conquered the Buŋkavi Tej, but they then split into three mutually antagonistic Teje: the Jippirim, Anajati and Šinouri Teje. With the fall of Čisra (2750), Gelihur was formed into a fourth Tžuro Tej, Šurantal.

[edit]

Occupation

In 2790 the Sainor (a Karazi people) conquered Skouras from the Tžuro. The Tžuro were left with only the Namal, under petty teje; Gelihur under Šurantal and Feináe under Jaešim. Those Tžuro under Sainor rule launched one insurrection after another. The Sainor had to resort to terror to put them down: when a town rebelled, they killed half its menfolk and scattered the remainder to other cities.

The free Tžuro captured the city of Ičili, at the mouth of the Šinour, in 2940; the remainder of the Skourene seacoast was liberated a few years later. The rest of the seacoast was liberated by midcentury, and in 2988 Dusila, Ičili, and Šurantal liberated Jippirim. By 3000 the lower Šinour was back in Tžuro hands.

[edit]

Modern Era

At the same time the Tžuro state of Jaešim, in Feináe, was at the height of its power; its ships regularly traded as far as Uytai. As a consequence of this trade, they founded (2988) Fananak (`New Feináe'), a colony on the southern coast of Arcél— anticipating the colonialism of the northern states by several centuries.

In 3162 in Skouras, Helu, king of Dusila, and Janei, queen of Pajimi, married, creating a united kingdom simply called Skouras, or Šura. In 3172 the kingdom conquered Ičili. And in 3179 both ajjosu died, leaving a six-year-old heir, Apač; the mafali (Senate) declared itself collectively to be his guardian. Overnight, the government had become a republic, with a figurehead monarch. The Senate was elected by the important families of the realm— over the centuries the franchise was increasingly extended, till today almost all of the middle class can vote. It elects a Trustee (ažraŋ) who administers the government.

Šura is one of the richest and most progressive states of southern Ereláe, along with Čeiy and Belšai. Its version of Jippirasti is almost unrecognizable to the Lenani, who retain a purer, more zealous faith. It is friendly to the northern powers and open to ideas such as the scientific method— though there is some resentment as well... why do these pagan states have such overwheming power and knowledge? In the 3200s Šura occupied the city-state of Baburali, and in 3370 it absorbed Šurantal.

[edit]

Tžuro States

Author: Furius
Retrieved from "http://www.almeopedia.com/index.php/T%C5%BEuro"