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<h3>3059 — Verduria’s golden age</h3>
<h4>In Eretald</h4>
Under Caleon’s son <a href="Javascript:parent.al('%C5%BDevuran');">Ževuran</a>, <b>Verduria</b> achieved its early apogee, absorbing Célenor, Peleu, Isiza, Vimínia, Sereor, and parts of Ismahi. Ževuran also promulgated the Great Code (3021)— a milestone in the movement back to a rule of law rather than of men— and presided over a renaissance of science and culture.
<p>Ževuran lived to the age of 91, so that his son <a href="Javascript:parent.al('Estdorot');">Estdorot</a> was already an old man of seventy when he ascended to the throne, in 3043. However, when the Dhekhnami advanced to the very edge of Eretald, Estdorot himself led his forces into battle against them, driving them back across the Shkónoro and reconstituting the kingdom of <b>Sarnáe</b> (3045-8). Were it not for his great age, he said, he would conquer all of Dhekhnam. On the other hand, it proved beyond his powers to reconcile the northern and southern barons of Sarnáe; disgusted by their squabbling, he withdrew his armies from Dhekhnam.
<h4>Eleďát</h4>
The doctrines of the <b>Elenicoi</b> had by this time spread throughout Eretald and Sarnáe, finding a special attraction in the Eärdur valley, where an Arašei presence had remained since Cuzeian times. Many Arašei indeed hailed the appearance of the Elenicoi as a confirmation of ancient prophecies, and evidence of the present action of Eleď (Cuz. <i>Eīledan</i>). After some tension— there were those on both sides who suspected a diabolic trap— the Elenicoi accepted the identification, and at the Council of Avéla (2987) the two religions merged, under the name of <b><a href="Javascript:parent.al('%C5%BDevuran');">Eleďát</a></b>.
<p>Theologians spent some time working out a common creed and canon: the (Cuzeian) <i>Book of Eleď</i>, the (Elenico) <i>Book of Iesu</i>, and the <i>Book of Mihel</i> (recounting the arrival and ministry of the Elenicoi). In practical terms, the merger affected only areas where both sects were active, such as Verduria and the Svetla valley— the patriarchates of Verduria and Dobray. The Eärdur patriarchates (Ilad and Nëron Pavel) were almost entirely Arašei, and the remaining two (Kebropol and Avéla) were Elenico. Along the Eärdur Cuêzi was preserved as a liturgical language, but elsewhere Old Verdurian. The Patriarch of Avéla was the titular head of the united church, but in practice his only power was that of admonition, except to some extent in Kebri and Sarnáe.
<p>The Kebreni were definitively expelled from <b>Érenat</b> in 3021 (and even from Gaḣta and Meḣta, the main islands between the two countries). Érenat was the first parliamentary republic in the Caďinorian sphere; its ruling Directorate, originally a league of important men formed to coordinate resistance to Kebri, had expanded during the two-century conflict into a permanent central government. It was also the first state to disestablish paganism as the state religion (2925), the first to elect a full-fledged national legislature (the Este Kal, inaugurated 2944), and the first to eliminate the legal status of the nobility (3045). (Erenat didn’t have a large aristocracy to start with. The traditional families had already lost their lands to the Kebreni centuries earlier; and as territory was reclaimed from Kebri no new titles were created.)
<h4>Revaudo</h4>
The first phase of the Xurnese civil war ended in 3017, with the <b>Revaudo</b> conquest of Curau. However, the victors were too busy working out the political implications of Revaudo and revolution to press home their advantage. Bozan and the western half of Xurno remained loyal to the institution if not to the person of the Nyei— the revolutionaries had executed the old Nyei, and the westerners and Bozangri had each picked a new one from the surviving royal family.
<p>The successful revolutionaries were an uncomfortable alliance of reformist clerics, urban intellectuals, and ambitious nobles. Their bickering soon turned to armed confrontation; it took a loyalist invasion (defeated 3026) to restore their unity.
<p>The conceptual framework of the new system is provided by the intellectuals; indeed, it would not be going too far to call the Xurnese system the <b><a href="Javascript:parent.updir('endajue.htm#state');">rule of the artist</a></b>.
<p>Rulers are chosen from and by the class of intellectuals (<i>wem</i>): artists, clerics, and bureaucrats. A prerequisite for the exercise of power is demonstrated mastery over any of the artistic disciplines (poetry, opera, music, painting, sculpture, weaving, dance, gymnastics). This is in accordance with Endajué teaching, whose highest metaphor for the cosmos has always been the Dance (whose rule is the Great Principle), and which sees in artistic inspiration a true spark of the divine.
<p>It should be emphasized that the Xurnese conceive of the artist as a disciplined and religious person, not as the antisocial substance abuser of our own culture. The Xurnese artist is expected as a youth to adhere slavishly to convention, and in old age to create daring and original works. The artistic disciplines, and thus the avenues of power, are open to both men and women.
<p>To achieve certification as an artist require study as well as skill, and relatively few can afford the needed years of schooling; the system is thus not a perfect meritocracy. However, it affords much higher social mobility than the <i>ancien régime; </i>now not only nobles but intellectuals, merchants, clerics, and the occasional highly talented poor man can aspire to join the ruling class. (In form, this consists of eight <b>Salons</b> (<i>xamunari</i>), one for each discipline; each Salon elects 99 members to the <b>Academy</b> (<i>Bicikes</i>), the supreme Revaudo legislature. This in turn elects the Council of the Academy, which oversees the government, and appoints ministers from among the Academicians.)
<p>The system applies in its pure form only along the Xengi and in Tanel, where the revolution occurred, and which are heavily urbanized; in Rajjay and Gotanel hereditary nobles still rule, and local leaders tend to be Revaudo <i>dzuséy</i>.
<p>The revolution also sanctified the use of the modern language, in the place of Axunašin, and moved the capital from Curau to Inex.
<h4>Elsewhere</h4>
In 3042 Bṏle, the king of <b><a href="Javascript:parent.al('Cuoli');">Cuoli</a></b>, inherited the princedom of Evan, on the south shore of Lake Van. The temptation to unite this realm with his own, in the face of Xurnese division, proved irresistible. It took ten years and his own death in battle, but the Cuolese Empire is now well established.
<p>When the Xurnese kingdom of Čiqay collapsed, the Ša took the opportunity to found their first kingdom, Ludiro.
<p>The <b>Disainor</b>, as a last resort to maintain their rule, adopted Jippirasti (by 3010). This availed them little with the Tžuro, who pushed them almost out of Skouras— though their place in the western mountains was taken by the Sevisre (themselves hard pressed by Cuoli). It seemed prudent to the Disainor, then, as well as pleasing to Jippir, to invade the land of the Fei (3045).
<p>For centuries Tžuro and <b>Uṭandal</b> have played tug-of-war over the Namal, a mountainous land whose only resource is the fish from its many lakes. Likewise, Luṭay and the League were fighting a diplomatic war over Muranal. The Uṭandal conquest of the Namal, completed 3028, seems to have persuaded Muranal of the greater dynamism of their northern neighbors; they joined the League five years later, precipitating a short war with Luṭay.
<p>On the <b>Lenani</b> steppe, the Ejiji <i>tej</i> was overthrown by the Bendasti, believers in a mystical and ecstatic form of Jippirasti. However, the new dynasts were unable to win the allegiance of the eastern chieftains, who have reverted to tribal chaos.
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