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<h3>6 — Empires in the South</h3>
<h4>Eretald</h4>
That the date is now positive marks the recent occurance of an event devoid of contemporary significance: the founding of <b>Ctesifos</b> by the legendary hero Tanouvas (V. <i>Tanuva</i>). The middle to upper Svetla is mostly held by Caďinorian principalities too small to show on the map.
<p><b>Ažimbea</b> has reconquered the seacoast from Cayenas. The new dynamism of the northern Monkhayu derives from <b>trade</b>. The Monkhayu had developed their river boats into slightly heavier vessels which, hugging the coast, could navigate the Mišicama littoral, bearing minerals from Kebri, timber from Neuor, wheat and olives from Ažimbea, and gold from the alluvial deposits of the great rivers. Trade was organized by rulers, not by individuals; but the wealth and broader outlook it fostered was a step forward; the Caďinorian baronies and Cuzeians estates were still largely self-sufficient.
<p>The Monkhayu have pushed back the Munkhâshi well past the Shkónoro.
<h4>Xengiman</h4>
<p>In the south the chariot has delivered the Xengi once more into <b><a href="Javascript:parent.updir('meshaism.htm#Social');">Ezičimi</a></b> hands, this time on a surer basis. The warlord <b>Čedemu</b> orchestrated the final campaign, over a period of twenty years (-42 to -22). At the time of the map his son Čenkuz is attempting to maintain his hold on his inheritance.
<p>In its first centuries the Ezičimi practiced a sort of theologized racism; the Wede:i were considered to be inferior beings whose only function was to generate wealth and wives for the Ezičimi to plunder.<font size=1><sup></sup></font><font size=1><sup></sup></font>Indeed, the word <i>Wede:i</i> ended up as Xurnáš term for ‘slave’, <i>edi</i>.</sup></font></sup></font> The attitude is similar to that of the Spanish conquerors of Peru, whose disdain for the <i>Indios</i> persists to this day; but the Ezičimi, unlike the Spanish, considered the children of their Wede:i concubines to be full Ezičimi. The natural result was that, within half a milennium, the Wede:i subclass simply disappeared, and everyone considered themselves to be Ezičimi.
<p>Militarily, the Ezičimi followed the Easterner model of bands uniting under a king for purposes of conquest; the chiefs of bands became the lords of estates. In theory they held their estates at the pleasure of the king; but since the chiefs’ power in their little realms was absolute and their historical memory limited, Ezičimi empires tended to dissolve into minor states or patchwords of minor lords.
<p>The refugee nobility of Yenine found new estates along the Ideis, and became known by the Wede:i name of the river, the <b><a href="Javascript:parent.al('Jei');">Jei</a></b>. Early on they established trading relations with the Wede:i peoples of the Čiqay, and became wealthy importing minerals and precious stones from the nearby mountains (most of these ultimately from the elcari in the Diqun Bormai). The outposts of the <b>Taŋgun</b> (‘the men of the Thirty-Six’), the Jei trading union which dominated trade along the river, started as trading entrepôts and developed into fortresses and seats of government.
<h4>The Skourenes</h4>
<p>The continent’s third urban civilization has appeared in the <b>Skourene</b> Littoral. The impetus for urbanization was trade with the Jei, who from about -50 traded manufactured goods in return for gold, wool, hides, and agricultural products. Guarded depots were maintained in the Šinour delta to accumulate goods for the Jei visits, and these became permanent settlements. They traded Jei goods to the Skourenes of the interior, and soon learned to supplement their imports with locally made imitations. By the date of this map the settlements had become towns: <b>Iṭili</b>, <b>Engidori</b>, and <b>Imuṭeli</b>.
<p>We now distinguish the three linguistic groups within Lenani-Littoral: the <b>Lenani</b>, the <b>Tžuro</b>, and the <b>Skourenes</b>. All these peoples had a similar structure at this time: a division into clans (Old Skourene <i>bsopa</i>, Tžuro <i>fsava</i>), each worshipping paired male and female gods. The clan leaders were men, but inheritance was from mother to daughter. Though unusual to us, this system makes sense for matrilocal clans, because it’s the women who stay put. A man is frequently away from home, trading or fighting, and can’t even be sure that his wife’s children are his. But he can be sure that his nieces belong to his clan and are close genetically, so his wealth passes to them.
<h4>Elsewhere</h4>
<p>The <b>elcari</b> and <b>múrtani</b> around Lake Lenan fought a great war in the last century, ending in the complete collapse of the múrtani (c. -40). The múrtani were helped by Munkhâsh, but the ktuvoks could be satisfied with the outcome— the elcari were gone from the Telinsava and the remaining elcari greatly weakened.
<p>A subset of the <b>Mei</b> peoples, influenced by the civilization of the Xengi, have organized their own state, called <b>Néor</b>. (The name means ‘west people’; <i>né</i> is cognate to the <i>de:i </i>in <i>Wede:i </i>‘mighty people’, and to the modern words <i>Mei</i> and <i>Fei</i>.)
<p>By this time <b>chariots</b> have also spread to the other Eastern nomads, and thence to the Somoyi-Meťelyi.
<p>Off the map to the far north, agriculture has developed in the <b>Nanese</b> jungle, based on rice, sugar cane, the trow bean, and yams, supplemented by fishing and hunting. The only domestic animal was the guinea pig (<i>tsou</i>).
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