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<h3>1342 — Axunai’s Age of Decline</h3>
The Bucair, for all their half-embrace of Axunemi culture, frequently raided and pillaged Axunai. <b>Čejiras</b>, military governor of Čiqay, decided to teach them a lesson. His punitive raids (1320-22) did give the Bucair some respect for Axunašin arms; but Čejiras himself learned to admire the fierceness and riding skills of his opponents. He soon started hiring them for his army.
<p>Čejiras made no secret of his view that his liege, the <i>niveï</i> Šuidibur IV, was a perfect illustration of the Axunašin expression, <i>Tizo nive, gumeo dowogu</i>— “By his throne, an emperor; as a man, nothing.” The <i>niveï</i>, for instance, had lost Axunai's Skourene province in a time of general Skourene decline. Still, Šuidibur could clearly see the threat posed by Čejiras and his barbarian army; he ordered the general’s retirement (1327).
<p>It was a little too late for that. Čejiras immediately declared himself <i>niveï</i>, and marched on Weinexi. Šuidibur quickly hired his own barbarians (Sainor and Mei), who halted the general at Sudau. Over the next decade and a half Čejiras made many attempts to reach the Xengi, and was pushed back each time. He did consolidate his rule over Niormen and Rajjay, and in the last year of his life (1342) conquered Bolon.
<p>Amid the confusion of the civil war, a few forgotten provinces (Jeor, Mura) became independent.
<p><b>Caďinas</b> and Awoilas are continuing their drive to the east, which has now reached the Shkónoro. The pace is leisurely enough to leave plenty of time for the Caďinorians to absorb the minor Central states: Tel Neuor (1217), Arosd (1219), Seraeor (1260), Beion and the Catafán (1331). Araunicoros was foolish enough to protest this last land grab and intervene on the side of the Beionese; for this it had to be punished with the loss of some of its territory along the Meuna.
<p>The first kingdom of the Somoyi-Meťelyi, <b>Metauro</b>, has appeared round Lake Bérunor. Its ruling dynasty and its peasantry were Somoyi, but its merchants, priests, craftsmen, and soldiers were mostly Cuzeian; it served as a haven for Cuzeians fleeing Caďinorian repression, and benefitted from their skills and powers of organization. (<i>Metauro</i> is the Cuêzi name of the lake.)
<p>Most of the <b>Skourene</b> confederacies have exhausted themselves with war, leaving the country a potpourri of tiny states, sometimes members of leagues that existed only on paper. Only Iṭili was really prospering; under the <i>aderoş </i>Romindor it conquered Axunai’s Skourene territory, and it abandoned the pretense of a League— it was now a frank empire.
<p>To the north, the <b>Tžuro</b> have finished expelling the Lenani from their plateau. During each summer’s campaign the princes elected a king and fought together; for the rest of the year the princes took care of their own affairs. The tactics and organizational skills thus learned would soon have a broader application.
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