-LXIV-
"Sailors of Dusk"
Amidst the stormiest sea of the northern hemisphere lay many islands and peninsulas battered by fierce winds and rain. These islands lay between the Old World, where humanity evolved, and the New World, a new home for the great diversity of the human race. The guts of the Earth itself birthed many of these islands such as the vast Manjima chain that stretched nearly all the way to the Old World while other islands lay as mere remnants of land reclaimed by the sea. In this once dry land, mankind walked across the waters of the Strait of Ringitania to their new home yet thousands of years later this land existed as a fringe of humanity, home to only the hardiest of peoples or bearing witness to little life at all but seabirds, seals, and walruses.
Tens of thousands of years later, the Ringitsu people returned to this ancestral migration route as traders, prospecters, and fishermen. They sought out wealth in this harsh land and a place to belong in an uncertain world. These great voyagers who prowled the seas explored this land for what they desired and interacted with its natives. They fought them, they traded with them, they ruled over them, and in time, they married them. The Ringitsu of this harsh land so different from the forested lands they called home prospered as a result of this great cultural fusion.
Far Ringitania
The Ringitsu called the land beyond the Anasugi Mountains [1] "Hlinkitaanilei", meaning "distant Ringitania". It was a truly rugged land of forests, tundra, marshes, swift rivers, endless lakes, and countless islands scattered amidst churning seas. They shared the coasts of this land with its existing inhabitants who became known as the Hanashaku people as well as those inland Dena along the great Hentsuren River. The geographical diversity of Far Ringitania and concentrations of Ringitsu settlement neatly divided the land into three segments--Anasugi (on the Anasugi Peninsula and northwest of it around Takugei Bay), Yaigani (on the Yaigani Peninsula), and the islands of the Sea of Ringitania (collectively called Daakaani by the Ringitsu).
Ringitsu penetration into Far Ringitania occurs as early as 1000 with merchants, sailors, and hunters crossing the mountains of the Anasugi Peninsula. They chased after the walrus and its highly valued ivory, an economic activity that drove Ringitsu exploration, trade, and settlement. Secondarily, the Ringitsu came after suitable sites for supplying whaling ships, finding rare species of whales like bowheads and the strange white beluga whale far more common in this region.
They found a land harsher than any they encountered. Fierce storms battered the coast and away from the peninsula, winters colder than any they knew. This land held much different seasons than the Ringitsu knew and animals migrated differently. Most disturbingly, few trees grew compared to the lush forests of the Kechaniyan mountains or especially their homeland. The familiar yellow cedar and Wakashan spruce foliage vanished, replaced by scraggly birches and spruces at best and stunted willows and alders at worse barely capable of supporting the Ringitsu lifestyle be it in their hunting or fishing gear, their ships, or even their houses.
For this reason, the Ringitsu relied on the local people for help. They used local people for hunting walrus and gathering resources for their trading posts, paying them in metal tools, food, and other goods. The locals built the Ringitsu storehouses and actual houses and often sold them skin boats when they were in need. As their stays extended and they permanently settled, Ringitsu traders married local women and often married their daughters to prominent local chiefs--this brought new knowledge of local conditions into the Ringitsu houses who settled in this region.
Historians conventionally lump these associates of the Ringitsu together into the category of "Kh'adassak" (a Ringitsu ethnic slur that became the antiquidated Japanese term "Hanashaku") or "Thulean peoples" (a term based on their shared language family). Yet these peoples--the Unangakh, the Inupiaq, and Yupik--could not be more different. Sharing only a common language, each of the three groups divided into numerous tribes which focused on exploiting the resources of their homelands.
Derogatory descriptions of their poverty by Ringitsu and Yahanen historians as well as early Japanese explorers impacted the interpretation of pre-Ringitsu Thuleans for centuries. Archaeology shows that reindeer herding spread to this area in the 6th century and around the same time, the ancestors of the Inupiaq domesticated the muskox on the Yaigani peninsula. These events led to a cultural revolution and shift to a pastoralist lifestyle which increased the population thanks to the availability of tools.
However, traditional boat-building, fishing, and whaling remained important activities among the Thulean peoples, in particular the Unangakh who did not shift to pastoralism until the late 8th century. under pressure from both the unusually cold climate and neighbouring Dena and Yupiks they spread out from the Anasugi Peninsula across the Manjimas, displacing non-pastoralist "Paleo-Unangakh" in all but the westernmost Hatan Islands [2]. Ringitsu stories note the lack of reindeer or other livestock owned by the people of the Hatan Islands as well as their distinct language from nearby islands, suggesting why the ancestors of the Unangakh proved so successful in the Manjimas.
Neither group practiced the intensive horticulture of the interior Dena nor the true agriculture of the Ringitsu, limiting their population and size of their herds. Their smaller breeds of reindeer and the absolute lack of towey goats, Vinland geese, or other domesticates no doubt contributed to outsiders' perception of poverty among these people, although they greatly respected the muskox of the Inupiaq. Yet above all, the general lack of wood or metal smelting among the Hanashaku caused the Ringitsu and Dena to look on them as poor and cursed. According to a Ringitsu story, Raven tricked the foolish Hanashaku into trading the forests of their land for more whales, not knowing that whales lived everywhere in the oceans.
As the Ringitsu came into this land, they too found their agriculture produced minimal returns. Intensive windbreaks and growing plants facing the sun only produced stunted wokas while many other favoured crops like river turnip failed to grow at all. Bistort and sweetvetch grew well, but these crops took two or even three years to mature. Hardy fields of dark-flowered riceroot became the most favoured crop, especially in the Manjimas, yet this only served as a supplement. The afforestation they practiced mostly failed at well, at best producing many shrubs and small deformed trees. The Ringitsu lifestyle thus needed to merge with the locals in order to succeed.
The Ringitsu devoted a great amount of effort and money to building the earthworks and windbreaks to salvage whatever they could of their traditional agricultural life in this hostile land. Much of this was related to status--the Ringitsu viewed those houses that could not afford a proper potlatch (including gifts of food from the earth) as impoverished, barbarised, and unworthy of dealing with. To the mercentile Ringitsu, this meant a social death for themselves and their associates, necessitating maintenance of Ringitsu traditions. The Ringitsu diet thus included far more plants in it than their Hanashaku neighbours.
The most expensive element of this involved the housing of the nobles which unlike storehouses or slave quarters used imported elements from the homeland. Initially the Ringitsu built traditional above ground longhouses using imported timber at great expense, but by the early 13th century the Ringitsu shifted to covering all but the front of these longhouses with earth and sinking much of it in the ground to make it easier to keep heated. These longhouses still involved much timber in their construction. Typically long beams of timber, elaborated painted with totem writing, stuck out of the house in various locations in addition to the totem poles that stood at the front.
Because of the prestige and wealth of the Ringitsu, these palaces blended with the local ceremonial houses known by the Ringitsu as
qaakiit. Traditionally these houses served as a male-exclusive communal house where men worked, educated younger boys, held sweatbaths, conducted ceremonies, and elected their leadership. The wealth of the Ringitsu merchants invariably ensured they maintained a
qaakiit of their own to properly induct themselves and especially their children into the community. Here begins the changing of the
qaakiit's role.
With the coming of the Ringitsu, the qaakiit invariably attached to the palace of the wealthiest Ringitsu merchant. They functioned as important meeting places between the Ringitsu and the local community, where the Ringitsu conducted business and distributed finished goods. As these Ringitsu possessed more wealth than all but the richest Kh'adassak, they moved into leadership possessions in society. The boys who lived in the qaakiit found themselves attracted to the wealth of their host and often studied under the Ringitsu and married into their families. Through this means the Ringitsu assumed more and more control over local societies.
In the most culturally influenced areas, such as many islands or around the largest trading posts, the population shifted nearly entirely to speaking Ringitsu and considering themselves Ringitsu. At least several houses descended from Hanashaku clans, mostly in the remote parts of the Ringitsu world. Physical anthropologists long noted the appearance of the Ringitsu of Far Ringitania shared more similarities with nearby Yupiks or Unangakh than with the Ringitsu of Kechaniya and especially Old Ringitania. Genetic studies in the modern era confirms that many Ringitsu of the area are thoroughly assimilated Hanashaku, with Ringitsu descent most common in the male line.
Even in areas where Ringitsu presence remained limited like in much of the Hentsuren Delta, Ringitsu trade goods proliferated and enough Ringitsu traders visited villages to leave significant impacts on them. Ringitsu culture spread through local populations and influenced local customs to a great deal, so much that it is common to speak of a Ringitanisation of the Yupiks.
They were not unchallenged. In wealthier villages, traditionalists maintained their own qaakiit and railed against the Ringitsu resulting in murders and arson of Ringitsu homes. Those who failed at driving off the Ringitsu often migrated and formed new villages away from the Ringitsu, often inland. Even where traditionalist qaakiit could not be maintained, the locals learned well what the Ringitsu valued--ivory, a secure harbour to maintain their boats, and later tin--and greatly extorted them for these rights
Internal rivalries and conflicts between Ringitsu city-states carried on even in these remote lands. These Ringitsu raided each other or Hanashaku villages or undermined each other by gaining the allegiance of the Hanashaku. Massacres periodically occurred, where a Ringitsu house and their Hanashaku allies drove out a rival Ringitsu house. Invariably the men were murdered and the women and children ransomed or enslaved. The Hanashaku took the brunt of this as the Ringitsu viewed them as disposable, cheap labour (including fighting) and a captured Hanashaku would find it impossible to be ransomed back to their kin.
One famous example of this is the story of Khutsaayi, legendary founder of Khutsleinaan. Descendant of a Kechaniya house involved in the ivory trade, he held many links to the region of the Anasugi Peninsula. Common stories of him reference driving out evil spirits sent by wicked shamans and the Hanashaku granting him rulership for this deed, but only a few stories reference these shamans as Yupiks being sent by rival Ringitsu houses. The likely event was that in the early 12th century, Khutsaayi, his house, and assorted allies drove out rival Ringitsu from the area and through that claimed it as their own, calling it Khutsleinaan after a great bear.
Khutsaayi's wealth from raiding along with great success in the ivory trade turned Khutsleinaan into a true entrepot for the region. Although the town never had a population of more than 1,000 people, Khutsleinaan was by far the largest settlement in the area and held great influence over the villages for hundreds of miles around. Although Khutsaayi spent most of his life well away from Ringitania, his successors ruled the city until 1165 when they were defeated in the Nengena War against the Dena and the city sacked. Only the advantageous position of Khutsleinaan at the outlet of important portages across the peninsula allowed the city to rebuild.
Oral records indicate few died in the sack of Khutsleinaan for the Ringitsu evacuated the city. The Ringitsu and their assimilated Hanashaku vassals dispersed elsewhere throughout Far Ringitania, marking the true beginning of Ringitsu domination in that region. Many new villages sprang up while new Ringitsu houses emerged, all tracing their lineage back to Khutsleinaan. These villages clustered largely around the many sheltered inlets of Takugei Bay with its great population of whales, walrus, and seals.
The sack of Khutsleinaan and subsequent dispersal accelerated the Ringitanisation of much of the Anasugi Peninsula and much of the nearby coast to the western edge of the Kasshin Mountains. Nearby large islands such as Nunagaku Island likewise saw Ringitsu settlement which spurred a renewed Ringitsu push into the Sea of Ringitania initially for the sake of trade, but later for establishing new villages [3].
The Anasugi Peninsula emerged as a key area of settlement and economics. Although it's mountains held many mineral resources and the seas abounded in whales, seal, and walrus, by the 13th century the area's most vital role was as a trade hub. Merchants from Kechaniya and Hachigei Bay exchanged their wares with the towns and merchants of the Anasugi Peninsula on the Fusanian Sea [4] side and portaged it across the peninsula to the Sea of Ringitania side where they shipped it onwards to Far Ringitania. Too far and too independent from Kechaniya to end up forced to pay tribute, city-states like Iqkaaraakh, Ch'aak' Nuuw, or Taanagaan [5] at the tip of the peninsula made great income conducting this trade.
Much of the coastal lands of Far Ringitania, especially the coasts and islands, were nearly treeless no matter how much the Ringitsu attempted afforestation using methods which proved highly effective in the Anasugi Peninsula. Ringitsu life required wood for practically everything, from fuel, to housing, to shipbuilding and repair, crafting religious items, and thus the Ringitsu of Far Ringitania imported much from these areas. Other required products from trees included food (the powdered bark, added to food [6]), medicine, gum, and resin, all needed for the Ringitsu lifestyle to function. Just as a thirsty traveler in a desert will pay a fortune for water, the Anasugi Ringitsu profited greatly from selling forest products to those in a land that lacked it. They acquired much in whalebone, ivory, slaves, tin, and other resources at exceptionally cheap prices.
Naturally the Anasugi Ringitsu found themselves despised for charging so much for such common goods, and merchants from Anasugi frequently found themselves accused of greed. In times of need, ships from Anasugi found their goods stolen, occasionally accompanied with the murder or enslavement of crews. Other times raiders traveled far simply to illegally harvested stands of timber (in gross violation of Anasugi forestry custom) as a means of punishing the Anasugi Ringitsu. Only the rival of the Anasugi Ringitsu toward each other and the Hentsuren Dena as another source of wood (for those north of the Anasugi Peninsula) prevented them from acting as a cartel and effectively controlling all of Far Ringitania.
Along with this came the first Ringitsu settlement of the Yaigani Peninsula to the north, or Yaayqakhaani ("land of belugas") in Ringitsu. Although the Ringitsu trading networks reached this area by the early 12th century, many new settlers arrived in this once-remote area of Ringitsu trading networks seeking new opportunities. These trading posts dealt in walrus ivory and their speciality, oxwool, a highly valued commodity, and they hosted whaling ships that hunted the prized white beluga. Yet soon they found a new commodity in the form a rare, valuable ore that when mixed with copper produced an incredible metal.
The Ringitsu discovered this ore--cassiterite, the source of tin--in the early 13th century on the Yaigani Peninsula. Realising they no longer needed to trade for tin from the Dena, many Ringitsu houses attempted to settle and establish operations in the Yaigani Peninsula, bringing with them perhaps three thousand people. Many new villages sprang up from this and conflicts resulted against existing Ringitsu and the local Inupiaq. Others settled on islands off the shore of Yaigani, most notably the large island later called Seioka where smaller sources of tin were found.
Historians call this conflict the Tin War, and legend tells it involved warriors from all over the Ringitsu world as well as many from beyond, even as far south as the Imaru Basin. Legends speak of it in supernatural terms, with gods and spirits offering advice to the heroes and villains as they settle disputes with one another through violence or peace. Great destruction occurred at times, and entire islands lost their whole populations through massacre. After the inconclusive siege of Neikh'taka and battle outside the city walls, the two sides make peace with each other out of mutual economic need and divide the land among each other.
Two city-states came to dominate Yaigani--Deilit'aak and Neikh'taka [7]--representing the two main factions in the Tin War. These city-states hegemonised smaller villages both Ringitsu and Inupiaq through access to important resources from elsewhere in Ringitania. Both cities used force to maintain their position as the only way to export valuable tin, ivory, or oxwool to markets in distant Kechaniya. Allied cities after the war, they kept the peace in the region through regular meetings at the city of Nuuqei [8], located on a sheltered bay halfway between the two cities. These meetings attracted great amounts of commerce to the area, so much that the houses that controlled Nuuqei and surrounding villages became important players in the politics of the region.
The Yaigani Peninsula and the associated island of Seioka marked the northern end of Ringitania, yet the Ringitsu sailed ever further north. In the early 13th century, the Great Navigator Lukanuuwu, nephew of Yaakweish and conquerer of the Ushiyainu Islands [9] sailed north through the Strait of Ringitania and according to legend sailed further north than any Ringitsu to that point. In these seas he encountered the same discouragement as later Ringitsu thanks to the harsh weather and even shorter sailing season that limited the amount of whaling that could be done.
Across the Strait of Ringitania lay Diyaanakhaani, or "Land of the Other Side of the Sea." Ringitsu exploration into this area dated to the 12th century, although Ringitsu stories dispute who discovered the land. The Ringitsu viewed Diyaanakhaani as an archipelago to their west which offered similar resources to the Sea of Ringitania. Because of the sheer distance however, Ringitsu penetration of this area only started in the 13th century and was slow for many years. Cape Ginjuu, the easternmost point of mainland Asia, served as the main base for Ringitsu trade and contact with the local Asian Yupik peoples people as well as the Chacchou reindeer herders who arrived for trade from much further west [10].
Ringitsu trade even at this early date introduced the domesticated moose into North Asia. Although very rare in Far Ringitania, in the early 13th century a Yuitsu clan established a breeding population of moose thanks to trade with the Ringitsu. From here, these domesticated animals spread to other Thulean-speaking peoples nearby as well as the Chacchou, who slowly pushed east thanks to their interest in exotic trade goods from across the strait.
The remoteness and harshness of this region blocked greater Ringitsu exploration and settling. As the land lacked in trees and possessed poor soil that made even the barest of horticulture challenging, the Ringitsu settlements needed to import many goods from Kechaniya. Without these goods, the Ringitsu lacked crucial advantages like boatbuilding, their superior tools and weapon, and most importantly, their cultural lure as rich merchants. Further, the Ringitsu found little new in this land, with lands further south providing all the tin, ivory, and oxwool they needed. They thus sat at the end of a "logistical tether" stretching back a great distance to Kechaniya and the Anasugi Peninsula.
Because of these factors, the Ringitsu rarely sailed past Kunyatsu Bay, the northermost area that could be considered culturally Ringitanised. In this region the Ringitsu often traveled to the entrepot of Sisualik, one of the few true cities in Inuit lands with around a thousand permanent residents [11]. Particularly, the Ringitsu arrived during the regional trading fair in the summer which brought thousands more Inuit and Dena to the area, including those from Asia who sometimes brought valuable iron. Relations forged at this trading fair carried Ringitsu influence to the Fuunade Peninsula [12], usually considered the limit of Ringitsu influence and Ringitanisation. Beyond this peninsula, Ringitsu goods become rare and the Ringitsu unknown, particularly beyond Cape Numuku, the northernmost point in all Fusania [13].
Assimilation to Ringitsu culture in these regions accelerated in the mid-13th century due to the arrival of epidemic disease from the south. Despite the isolation, the well-traveled tin route served as a natural conduit for chickenpox, mumps, and whooping cough that killed nearly 10% of the population. Many newcoming Ringitsu already contracted these illnesses elsewhere, while the local Thulean peoples held no immunity. The most deadly killer, influenza spread sporadically, affecting only the mainland where it caused great disruption in the tin trade.
Island Ringitania
At the edge of the Ringitsu world lay Island Ringitania, or Daakaani ("out to sea country"), a country of storm battered islands scattered in the endless fog of the Sea of Ringitania. It was rich in marine life, including seals, walrus, and whales, yet the islands were sparse and treeless thanks to the cool, cloudy summers that remained chilly. The Ringitsu told many tales of the harshness of the land, and often extended its qualities to all Far Ringitania. They viewed those explorers, whalers, hunters, and merchants who traveled and lived in this land as both bold and desperate.
The Ringitsu defined Daakaani as all islands in the arc west of Uminaku Island (including the Hiyatan Islands) as well as the remote Fuunami Islands and Dekinowa [14]. Despite being spread out over the entirety of the Sea of Ringitania, they shared a remarkably common culture thanks to the sort of Ringitsu houses who settled the islands. Most of these Ringitsu came from Kechaniya and served as early explorers into the unknown starting around 1000 AD as Ringitsu penetration into the area of Takugei Bay began. The Daakaani derived largely from the Anasugi Ringitsu and in particular those toward the southwest of the peninsula who developed links with the local Hanashaku people known as the Unangakh.
Without the Unangakh, the Daakaani Ringitsu could not exist. The Unangakh provided them with the skills to thrive in a treeless land and in return, the Ringitsu provided them with ample goods from their forested lands and artisanal industries. Unangakh who became kin with the Daakaani Ringitsu taught them these skills and the Ringitsu favoured these Unangakh with ample trade goods and alliances against their rivals. As elsewhere in Far Ringitania where cultural fusion between the Ringitsu and native Thulean peoples occurred, the resulting culture became known for its hardiness, resilience, and utilitarian focus.
Prized sea mammals from seals to whales to the much-valued walruses congregated around these islands as this area marked a major migration route and breeding zone. With the aid of the Unangakh, the Ringitsu sailed far out into the Sea of Ringitania through island hopping. At times they peacefully traded with the new islands they found, while at other times conflict ensued leading the Ringitsu and their new Unangakh allies into open warfare. By around 1050, the Ringitsu established trading posts on Keiska [15], which remained their furthest settlement for several decades.
Conflicts in the Manjimas often resulted from rival houses of Ringitsu bringing their conflicts to these islands. They often enlisted traditionalist Unangakh who disliked the Ringitsu to defeat their rivals. The Ringitsu held the upper hand in many cases, with superior ships, weapons, and armour, but the Unangakh with their knowledge of the terrain and currents and their own well-organised and fierce warbands occasionally inflicted grave defeats on overconfident Ringitsu. The Ringitsu tendency to seek revenge for fallen kinsmen ensured victorious Unangakh (and their Ringitsu allies) were rarely left alone--in this case, the Ringitsu slaughtered the adult men in a village or even the entire island and enslaved the women and children. The Ringitsu greatly respected the ferocity, discipline, and resilience of Unangakh warriors and many found service far to the east as mercenaries.
Archaeology and genetics can trace these bloody wars thanks to the settlement patterns in the Manjimas. Islands which saw massacres and depopulation ended up very Ringitsu in character as determined by settlement pattern and tools, similar to the unpopulated islands in the middle of the Sea of Ringitania. More peaceful (or even resilient) islands remained more Unangakh, experiencing mainly linguistic assimilation, and a few islands remained almost entirely Unangakh culturally and linguistically.
The Ringitsu repeated a uniform model at nearly every step of the way. A Ringitsu noble and his crew established trading relations, marrying into the families of local elites and built a longhouse which served as the center for Ringitsu activities, especially ship repair. Typically their local (male) in-laws constructed a qaakiit attached to the Ringitsu longhouse where men and boys gathered. The exchange of ideas, education of boys, and relations formed here led to acculturation and eventually assimilation. The Ringitsu more efficiently used the interior of the islands with their pastoralism and garden, giving them a significant advantage over the coast-focused locals. Eventually, the mixed-race descendents of the Ringitsu and Unangakh found themselves as rulers of the island, where they connected with the rest of the Ringitsu world.
The Ringitsu introduced many new animals wherever they traveled, negatively affecting local flora and fauna. They brought reindeer to every island they reached, some populations of which turned feral. Alongside reindeer came other domesticated animals like towey goats, ducks, and Vinland geese and most notoriously lynx, which preyed on local bird life. They introduced a few wild species preferred for their fur like the ermine and the tundra hare, the latter of which greatly hindered Ringitsu attempts at introducing trees to the islands. Voles and lemmings came to the Manjimas as uninvited pests. These introductions caused great changes to the natural environment and the extinction of several species and subspecies of plants and birds between 1100 and 1400.
Around 1120 AD, the Ringitsu from Keiska stumbled upon the uninhabited Iqkaakh Island [16], a small, rocky island rich in sea life and the most remote of the Manjimas. This marked the first Ringitsu discovery of a uninhabited island so far from land and with it came the template the Ringitsu followed on many occasions in the future. The house which owned the ship that discovered the island became the owners and rulers of the island. They often appointed a younger nephew or even a son or son-in-law to collect resources from the island. This noble built a palace on the island claiming their ownership and brought in settlers (including slaves) from both members of their house and Hanashaku they either enserfed or enslaved.
Ringitsu trading posts expanded west from Iqkaakh and reached the Hatan Islands by 1130. They found no islands west of Hatan for many decades, yet still prowled far into the Sea of Ringitania on whaling expeditions. These Ringitsu discovered the Fuunami Islands in 1169. Rich in seals, the ruler of the island, the Great Navigator Yaakweish, as well as his descendants came to play a dominant role in trade and exploration in the Sea of Ringitania. Their central location not too far from the Ringitsu trading network yet far out to sea allowed them to become an important hub and resupply station. Despite the small size of the islands and their separation by around 70 kilometers, each island held nearly a thousand people thanks to this vibrant trade.
Yaakweish's nephew and successor Khiatitkh became among the greatest sailors in the history of the Ringitsu. In his youth, he became the first to spot Dekinowa Island while on a whaling expedition with his uncle. Exiled to the island of Hatan by his cousin Yaakweish II, he sailed far to the west and discovered the uninhabited Hiyatan Islands in 1210, where he established settlements and set himself up as ruler. From the Hiyatan Islands, he continued to conduct whaling expeditions into the west, coming closer and closer to that land known to the Ringitsu as Diyaanakhaani--that is, the Old World.
The Ringitsu of Daakaani practiced many peculiar customs. The distance of these islands typically caused the ruler of these islands to form his own house divided from the owning house, but to prevent disputes with the original house over ownership of crests and other symbols, the new house adopted different symbols. Most distinct among these symbols was their title, where the rulers referred to themselves as either a Great Captain (
kak'takweiy s'aati) or Great Navigator (
yaakw yasatani). Among the Daakaani, these titles lost their honorary significance found elsewhere and became titles held by those who ruled those islands.
The diet of the Daakaani Ringitsu focused on fish and sea mammals, although domesticated animals also served as a common source of meat. The cool summers (moderated by good volcanic soil in the Manjimas and long growing season) limited farming to gardens of bistort, sweetvetch, berries, garnishes like sappitsu and yonetsu, and their staple crop, riceroot, which mostly went toward feeding their livestock. The great increase of wood that Ringitsu trade and afforestation allowed permitted a great increase of drying and preservation of food compared to older times. Combined with the introduction of agriculture and pastoralism, this allowed for a much larger population of the islands. By 1250, around 50,000 people lived in the Manjimas with another 2,000 in the other island groups.
The Daakaani Ringitsu diet remained high in raw and smoked foods thanks to the fuel scarcity. They ate all manner of meats and fish raw, undercooked, or smoked, usually doused in whale or seal oil first. Among the most valued foods consisted of whale skin and blubber boiled in seawood. High in vitamin C and other nutrients, this food served as a vital source of sustenance. They served it in various ways, including wrapped in seaweed or pounded with dried berries. The latter served as a vital component of food brought by sailors on long voyages and ensured they remained free from scurvy. This component of the Daakaani Ringitsu diet spread throughout the Far Northwest where it remained associated with seafarers.
They relied heavily on trade with the Ringitsu of the outside world, to the point that the large population and lifestyle of the Daakaani Ringitsu and the Ringitanised Unangakhs became impossible without it. Misfortune that sank or drove off ships carrying essential cargos of wood, resin, sails, powdered bark, metals, and various dried food sources caused famine as they found themselves unable to repair essential items such as their boats. The long distances ensured they paid a premium for these goods. They typically bartered ivory, furs, and whalebone, but many times the elites were forced to sell their slaves so they might obtain valuable goods and maintain their status as community leaders.
The practices surrounding death found in Daakaani caused great abhorrence among other Ringitsu. For instance, the Daakaani Ringitsu practiced mummification of their dead, making them among the only Fusanian group to do so. A shaman removed the organs, cleaned the body in a stream, doused with a special embalming fluid, dried in a sacred fire (which sent the soul to the afterlife), dressed in ritual garments made from bird feathers, and wrapped it in hides. They suspended the body above the ground at a so-called "death temple", an elaborate structure of stone and earth that surrounded a dry cave where adult male relatives left offerings (women and children were forbidden entry). Mummification and burial was expensive and reserved only for wealthy nobles, who preserved themselves, their wives, and deceased children in these shrines.
Even more notorious was the Unangakh practice of dissecting corpses which carried over into Daakaani Ringitsu culture. Shamans dissected the corpses of dead enemies to both spiritually defile the dead as well as to train as doctors and especially embalmers. They often dissected the corpses of their slaves or even purchased dead slaves from others to increase their stock of bodies. Many unpleasant rumours surrounded this practice, such as men in debt having their bodies dissected after death or even the vivisection of living captives [17].
All of this led to Daakaani shamans and medicine men holding impressive knowledge of the human body. Reputation held them as powerful doctors and both feared and in high demand elsewhere in the Ringitsu world, where they both served the wealthy and mentored those medicine men with inquisitive minds. These healers spread the more pleasant (to Ringitsu society) aspects of their medical knowledge to the mainstream of Ringitsu society. For instance, they employed acupuncture as a cure for various illnesses. They commonly used acupressure techniques to massage the organs into their proper place (thus supposedly healing the body). Their belief in minimising bleeding at all costs (lest the soul pour out of the body) also passed into Ringitsu medical knowledge [18]. By the end of the 13th century, the medical system born in Daakaani and blended with traditional Far Northwest practices became the characteristic sort of medicine practiced throughout the Far Northwest.
It was not their medical system but their isolation that kept the Daakaani Ringitsu safe from the epidemics of the 13th century. Long sea journeys and the fact the diseases broke during cooler weather (when travel between islands was far rarer) ensured the distribution of chickenpox, mumps, whooping cough, and especially influenza remained sporadic. The former three diseases took decades to infect every single island, where like elsewhere in Far Ringitania, they helped increase assimilation to Ringitsu culture. The small populations ensured that only chickenpox (thanks to shingles later in life) ever became endemic in the area.
The worst impact of the epidemics in this region was the disruption of trade and maritime activities which caused famine and warfare in the islands over the very limited resources. As demand for goods plummetted, it became more and more difficult to coax traders to the area to carry vital supplies of wood, naval supplies, metal, and luxury food. Raids and violence ensued as people sought to pay with one good always in demand--slaves, the price of which naturally soared after so many died. Perhaps a quarter of the population in this region died, fled, or were sold in chains to other Ringitsu.
Only the great voyages of Khiatitkh alleviated things in this region. In 1220, the explorer Khiatitkh sailed to the west and came across a new land. It seemed much too large to be an island and many things about it seemed peculiar. Many trees grew in this land and the sun occasionally shined through the clouds, making it a warmer and more pleasant land. A great river stretched as far inland as he could tell. It seemed like a land of endless mountains and held many strange trees, birds, and animals Khiatitkh had never seen [19]. And most strangely of all--it was inhabited by people with familiar yet strange customs.
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Author's notes
This is an older update that picks up where Chapter 58 left off. It covers the most remote parts of the Ringitsu world, the tin miners, walrus hunters, and ivory traders of the frigid Far Ringitania and the whalers and walrus hunters on the harsh and treeless islands of the Sea of Ringitania. These are resilient yet surprisingly fragile cultures reliant on knowledge of those they subdued and constant trade with their homeland.
The next entry will explore Diyaanakhaani in more detail, including both early contacts with the area and Khiatitkh's exploration and early Ringitsu dealings with the Itelmen and Koryaks. After that I will cover more of Kechaniya and Old Ringitania (and maybe to a degree the rest of the Far Northwest) in their response to the epidemics. It might feel a bit out of order, but the Diyaanakhaani events occur chronologically decades before the plagues. After those two updates I will continue with the story of Wyaich'nutl and Wayam for a few more, and then do an overview of North America (with a focus on South Fusania).
[1] - The Anasugi Mountains are the Aleutian Range of the Alaska Peninsula.
[2] - The Hatan Islands are the Near Islands, the westernmost of the Aleutians. OTL this occurred around 1000 AD, when the ancestors of the modern Aleuts spread across the Aleutians (as evidenced by remarkable uniformity of their language) but like other migrations TTL, pastoralism speeds it up. They likely displaced a group who spoke a related language.
[3] - Khutsleinaan is Naknek, AK. The Kasshin Mountains are the Kuskokwim Mountains of Alaska. Nunagaku Island is Nunavak Island
[4] - The Fusanian Sea is the Gulf of Alaska
[5] - Iqkaaraakh is Chignik Lake, AK, Ch'aak' Nuuw is Herendeen Bay, AK and Taanagaan is Adamagan, a former Aleut village at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, roughly across from False Pass, AK
[6] - The inner bark (phloem) of many trees is edible and nutritious and can be added to soups and flour for texture. This was done by many cultures OTL in sub-Arctic regions
[7] - Deilit'aak is near Nome, AK and Neikh'taka is Wales, AK
[8] - Nuuqei is Teller, AK
[9] - The Ushiyainu Islands are the Diomede Islands
[10] - Cape Ginjuu is Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point of the Asian mainland. The Chacchou are the OTL Chukchi who in the early second millennium started pushing east, absorbing various Eskimo-Inuit-speaking peoples who once inhabited most of Chukotka (their remnants are the Sireniki Eskimos and the Siberian Yupik). TTL's Chacchou arrive in this area earlier thanks to the larger trade routes and fine reindeer attracting their interest.
[11] - Touyatsu Bay is Kotzebue Sound. Sisualik is Sheshalik, AK. It was indeed the site of a great trading fair in OTL, although of course more limited in scope
[12] - Fuunade Peninsula is the Lisburne Peninsula in Alaska, a Japonicisation of a Ringitsu word meaning "Toward the North Wind"
[13] - Cape Numuku is Point Barrow in Alaska
[14] - Uminaku Island is Unimak Island, the easternmost of the Aleutians. The Fuunami (Kh'uunaani in Ringitsu) Islands are the Pribilof Islands and Dekinowa is St. Matthew Island.
[15] - Keiska is Kiska Island in the Aleutians
[16] - Iqkaakh Island is Buldir Island in the Aleutians
[17] - This part and the part about the mummies (minus the temples) is straight from OTL Aleut culture who held unique views on death compared to many Amerindian cultures
[18] - Also from OTL Aleut culture, although of course their use of acupuncture and acupressure was much different from common Western or Asian understanding. Like most traditional medicine, it contains a mix of placebos, actively harmful practices, and genuinely beneficial knowledge. In this case, the belief in blood causing the loss of the soul is exceptionally helpful
[19] - This is the central part of Kamchatka at the mouth of the Kamchatka River nearby Ust-Kamchatsk.
