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<h3>458 — The Munkhâshi invasion</h3>
For over a hundred years the failure of the Cuzeians to secure the Taucrēte Pass seemed to have no evil consequences. Then, in 440, the <b>Munkhâshi</b> poured through the gap, and within fifteen years had occupied half of Eretald.<font size=1><sup></sup></font><font size=1><sup></sup></font>The Munkhâshi did not occupy the Kara desert; for graphic simplicity deserts are not shown in empires than span across them. This will also apply to the Lenani desert. </sup></font></sup></font>
<p>Their advance was facilitated by two military innovations: the newfound ability to ride a <b>horse</b> in battle, offering superior mobility over the chariot; and use of <b>iron</b> weapons— a trick the Cuzeians too had learned, but never shared with their Caďinorian wards.
<p>The Demon Realm found that there was no question of making the Caďinorians and Monkhayu compliant slaves. These were not mesolithic primitives, impressed by the bounty of wheat; they could only be put down by merciless repression. Brutality and terror, then, were the order of the day. Between 440 and 500 over 5 million Monkhayu and Caďinorians were sacrificed on the battlefield, or on the altars of the Munkhâshi gods.
<p>The Ctésifoni sometimes like to goad the Verdurians, because Ctésifos (which would overthrow its Scadrorion overlord in 462) was never occupied by the Munkhâshi (although they did sack it), while the site of Verduria was. The <b>Cuzeians</b> put them both to shame: almost all of the Central tribes were conquered, but no Cuzeian, High or Low, ever bowed the knee to Munkhâsh.
<p>It was in fact Cuzei which halted the Munkhâshi advance, breaking the three-year <b>siege of Eleisa</b> in 458, and pushing the Munkhâshi back past the Svetla.
<p>The ilii sent a legion of two thousand to the assistance of Cuzei— a gesture which they have repeated for no other state. (Ervëa received the help, but not the command, of two hundred ilii in 1644.) This amount of ilii is not insignificant, not least because the ilii possessed advanced projectile weapons, as well as explosives based on black powder. The size of the human armies is more difficult to estimate, but reasonable estimates would be 200,000 for the Munkhâshi forces, 100,000 for the Cuzeian, and about the same number, but nowhere near as well-organized, for the Caďinorians.
<p>The Monkhayu of Davrio, Newor, and Leziunea, and the Caďinorians of Aránicer, owe their independence to their own valor, but also to their marginality; the Munkhâshi effort was focussed on Cuzei.
<p>The Munkhâshi invasion is taken as the start of Cuzei’s <b>Silver Age</b>. The war required a strong central ruling hand and standing armies, big and not very welcome changes in Cuzeian eyes. Religion became more public and normative; at the same time the prophets were more denunciatory. Some took the rise of Munkhâsh as a sign that Iáinos was displeased; others, that Amnāi (the chief of the demons) was struggling with Eīledan— in any case, a time to be serious, pious, and patriotic. The excessive riches of some trading Houses was also deplored, as offenses against Cuzeian unity, and as being “built on nothing”— merely moving goods around.
<p>The Cuzeian expansion to Lake Bérunor is the result of a forward policy toward the Somoyi-Meťelyi, whose pesky raids were a distraction from the eastern war.
<h4>In the south</h4>
The <b>Jei Union</b> extended its control over the interior in a series of campaigns between 390 and 420. They have also established a trading base on the Lux river in Luduyn (mostly for trading for furs with the Mgunikpe), and taken the Ezičimi city of Tannevi, capital of Tanneli. These far-flung operations were made possible by their invention of the ocean-going trireme.
<p>The <b>Ezičimi</b>, meanwhile, managed to conquer the upper Xengi, splitting the remaining eastern Wede:i states, and pushing the Čia-Ša eastward, where they destroyed the kingdom of Lenan and established the kingdom of Javan.
<p>Ran and Axuna also cleaned up some of the minor Ezičimi states.
<p>The map of <b>Skouras</b> is not at all easy to decipher at this scale— see the <i><a href="Javascript:parent.updir('skouras.swf');">Historical Atlas of Skouras</a></i>— but developments since the last map are simple enough. In 337 the city of Ṭisuram rebelled against Miligenḍi; it then provoked a war against Iṭili and took over most of its territory (though not its colonies on the Gelihur peninsula).
<p>In 403 Imuṭeli made an alliance with its former rival Guṭleli, and declared war on Ṭisuram, which responded by allying itself with Miligenḍi. The war was disastrous for the former two cities, which found much of their territory taken over by their enemies (418).
<p>The city of Pafliopagimi is a relatively recent colony of Gasibur, but, enriched by its near-monopoly of trade with the Tžuro, it has grown larger than its parent city, and now dominates it.
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