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<h3>1616 — Ôthdhak zh kmât</h3>
From the <b>ktuvoks’</b> point of view, the last half-millennium had been disastrous. The empire was steadily contracting; mere force was unable to stop the process. A subtler approach was needed: intrigue as well as power.
<p>In the last half of the 1500s, agents, mostly covert, fanned out over the continent, first to learn, then to intercede, with gold and the occasional assassination. Their strategy was always the same: find and strengthen factions; divide societies against each other; make key players indebted to Munkhâsh. So far it was working: they were precipitating Almea’s first continental crisis, and no one was yet aware of it.
<p>In Eretald, Caďinas, having disposed of all its rivals, has been rent by civil war since 1604. The righful emperor, <b><a href="Javascript:parent.al('Erv%C3%ABa');">Ervëa</a></b> (Caďinor <i>Aervileas</i>), now 26 years old, is fighting against his usurping uncle <b>Sevurias</b>. <i> </i>It’s an underdog’s struggle: though Ervëa has the sympathy of the masses, Sevurias controls the sources of power— the nobles, the army, and the pagan patriarchs. Important regions— Seraeor and Araunicoros— remain neutral.
<p>Ervëa was raised in Tevorandos, on the Eärdur; this was the notion of his father, Antaevon, as a gesture of appeasement to the restive province. It was a mixed legacy: because he was not in Ctésifon when his father died, his uncle could take over (1604); but he was in a position to challenge the usurper only because he had the solid support of the Eärdur valley.
<p>Meanwhile Munkhâsh had quietly and brutally conquered Awoilas and the Kešvareni plateau; without crossing swords with a single Caďinorian, it is poised to sweep into Eretald from two points— and as an additional measure has induced the múrtani to be ready to attack from the west.
<p><b>Axunai</b> and <b>Bukanel</b> have spent the last few decades shuffling their border back and forth. The Bucair have been getting the better of the fighting; they now control most of Niormen. Munkhâshi ambassadors are in Weinexi with a modest proposal: a Munkhâshi army will destroy the Bucair forever; in return, all Munkhâsh asks is that a temple of Gelalh be set up in Inex, and that the worship of Gelalh be tolerated. It seems a small price to pay.
<p>The <b>Jippirasti</b> had not succeeded 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 <i><a href="Javascript:parent.al('Tej');">tej</a></i> (administration), and that they should proceed to the conquest of the remainder of the world. The first goal was accomplished when the Jippirasti noble <b><a href="Javascript:parent.al('Kurund');">Kurund</a></b> was named <i>Atej</i> of all the Tžuro. The second was begun with the absorption of Lenan.
<p>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.
<p>Here too the Munkhâshi were busy; their envoys and spies were there to subsidize and deepen the quarrel between Kurund’s nephew Burudusi (who favored the pagans) and Adubum (son of Kurund and a strong Jippirasti).
<p>The appearance of the tiny state of <b>Lian</b> reflects the decline of its neighbors, who were busy with Tžuro raids. It was almost certainly ruled by a Čia-Ša tribe, the ancestors of today’s Tei.
<p>The <b>Skourenes</b> were far from Munkhâsh, but they too faced hard choices. The despot of <a href="Javascript:parent.al('Peligi');">Peligi</a>, Adesdanti, argued that the very visible Tžuro threat required a militarization of the entire Skourene people, under the strict control of Peligi of course. Many agreed— the Mudric Confederacy (which for some time had been a fancy name for the city-state of Teralam) even joined voluntarily (1580), which gave Peligi a staging area and resources for the conquest of Guṭḷeli (1595).
<p>Not a few Skourenes felt that the greater threat, for now, was from Peligi. Their champion was Gurdago, once a far-off colony of Guṭleli, now a rich trading state, with a number of dependencies in the Littoral.
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