A Horn of Bronze--The Shaping of Fusania and Beyond
- Thread starter Arkenfolm
- Start date
The skill of the Island Ringitsu doctors is fascinating- I wonder if they'll end up in demand in Japan? The hybrid Ringitsu-Inuit culture forming around the baring strait is quite fascinating. I'd like to ask what sources you read for detailed information about the region, because the OTL information in the footnotes is very interesting.
And so, we have our first sustained contact between the old and new worlds. It's limited to just Chukotka for now, but it has begun! I wonder how quickly reindeer will spread across Siberia.
And so, we have our first sustained contact between the old and new worlds. It's limited to just Chukotka for now, but it has begun! I wonder how quickly reindeer will spread across Siberia.
I love it. I'm sure the Ringitsu are finally glad to find a place where trees grow, and which aren't controlled by "compatriots" charging extortionate prices.
I'm really fascinated by the model of Ringitsu expansion and I hope it gets some time to play out in the lands north of the Amur. The introduction of moose is interesting, maybe the Chukchi and others have special tools for fishing or reindeer pastoralism. There could also be a selection process between Northeast Asian and Fusanian trees, deciding which is better and all. Above all I hope that Fusanian influence can make it as far as Yakutia before Japanese activities start disrupting all this.
The fuel scarcity is understandable but maybe soon the Tlingit could find a peat or tar field? Could digging in tin mines lead in some way to the uncovering of such fuel sources?
EDIT: I guess the remaining mystery of the TL is what compels the Japanese to go after the Fusanians, considering they didn't even involve themselves much in Ainu affairs until a few centuries after Gaiyuchul is set to pen his works. Japan-based pirates are either concerned with raiding other parts of Japan or lands to the south/west. The Ringitsu don't appear as outwardly wealthy as the Mesoamericans might, they might even be considered eccentric for their tendency to pay so much for common timber or provisions like rice, and at best they have tin or Wayamese crafts to offer in return. The Japanese haven't even really gotten into whaling yet, so warhawks there couldn't portray the Fusanians as natural competition who need to be driven from the seas.
I guess it's possible the Fusanian conquest takes place as something like the Satsuma conquest of Ryukyu, essentially the initiative of a local clan. Even then, what would convince that clan (going by geography, either a Kanto clan that's doing quite well for itself already, or a far-north clan without as many resources or population) that Fusania is worth it? Maybe the Fusanians appear less as an opportunity and more as a security threat-- Japan's north is less prosperous than its south, but it may also be more poorly policed. Maybe the Sengoku period ends differently where instead of Hideyoshi leading a coalition of western daimyo in a war across the western sea, the unifier is based in the east and is more receptive to those ideas which the north has but which it can't realize by itself.
I do hope that, say, one Fusanian voyage is able to make it from Kamchatka to Japan to the Bonins to Hawaii to southern California.
I'm really fascinated by the model of Ringitsu expansion and I hope it gets some time to play out in the lands north of the Amur. The introduction of moose is interesting, maybe the Chukchi and others have special tools for fishing or reindeer pastoralism. There could also be a selection process between Northeast Asian and Fusanian trees, deciding which is better and all. Above all I hope that Fusanian influence can make it as far as Yakutia before Japanese activities start disrupting all this.
The fuel scarcity is understandable but maybe soon the Tlingit could find a peat or tar field? Could digging in tin mines lead in some way to the uncovering of such fuel sources?
EDIT: I guess the remaining mystery of the TL is what compels the Japanese to go after the Fusanians, considering they didn't even involve themselves much in Ainu affairs until a few centuries after Gaiyuchul is set to pen his works. Japan-based pirates are either concerned with raiding other parts of Japan or lands to the south/west. The Ringitsu don't appear as outwardly wealthy as the Mesoamericans might, they might even be considered eccentric for their tendency to pay so much for common timber or provisions like rice, and at best they have tin or Wayamese crafts to offer in return. The Japanese haven't even really gotten into whaling yet, so warhawks there couldn't portray the Fusanians as natural competition who need to be driven from the seas.
I guess it's possible the Fusanian conquest takes place as something like the Satsuma conquest of Ryukyu, essentially the initiative of a local clan. Even then, what would convince that clan (going by geography, either a Kanto clan that's doing quite well for itself already, or a far-north clan without as many resources or population) that Fusania is worth it? Maybe the Fusanians appear less as an opportunity and more as a security threat-- Japan's north is less prosperous than its south, but it may also be more poorly policed. Maybe the Sengoku period ends differently where instead of Hideyoshi leading a coalition of western daimyo in a war across the western sea, the unifier is based in the east and is more receptive to those ideas which the north has but which it can't realize by itself.
I do hope that, say, one Fusanian voyage is able to make it from Kamchatka to Japan to the Bonins to Hawaii to southern California.
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Oh, those doctors definitely would not be popular in Japan, ever. Dissection of human corpses was extremely taboo and banned by traditional Japanese law codes (Ritsuryo) since 701 AD. They would be avoided and feared as the worst of barbarian shamans in the sort of revulsion that Caesar gave to the druids or the Spanish gave to Aztec priests (although that's not implying their fate is to be massacred).
My source for most of this was the Smithsonian's Handbook of North American Indians (Arctic), which covers various groups of Inuit, Yupiks, and Aleuts. Like the other volumes, it's very well done and good at compiling sources and also good at pointing to additional sources which I also used. I've used whatever I could find from that series quite a bit for this TL. The only issue is that in a few areas (mostly archaeology) it's a little dated as most of the volumes were from the 80s.
Well, technically the contact has always been sustained by various Inuit and Yupik people trading back and forth across the Strait. One of these Thule culture groups has been particularly aggressive in expanding into Siberia. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to deal with TTL Chukotka, but outside of the contact with the coast I think I'll probably deal with it in a future update regarding the Inuit and Yupiks.
New World reindeer will intermix with the native reindeer breeds, which were domesticated independently about the same time as the New World TTL (this happened OTL as well BTW in Siberia). New World domesticated reindeer are as a whole larger than Siberian breeds because a larger subspecies was domesticated, there are more people breeding them, and they are used for practically everything, so the smaller, stockier Siberian reindeer would only fill a very specific niche while there are many breeds that would interest Siberian herders. I would say they'd spread rather fast, but aren't necessarily a game changer since they'd be used for the same uses the Siberians valued it.
Basically the people of TTL's Alaska is Siberia on steroids, but it's so far away that there's not much opportunity for expansion. Think of the challenge of the Greenlandic Norse trying to expand into the decently populated St. Lawrence Basin--although they could have quite an effect in many ways, they're still very far from home, the natives are on their home ground, and the natives are roughly equal technologically (while your Great Captain in the Manjimas might own a set of bronze weapons and armour, very few of his followers are that lucky). I think natural selection of trees would be challenging when it's a struggle to make it grow beyond a stunted shrub. By the looks of it, the harsher coastal zones of Kamchatka (which is not sheltered from the North Pacific) mostly have birches while the interior has the Ezo spruce which the Ringitsu would recognise as close to the Sitka spruce (albeit probably not a tree that would grow in the Aleutians).
Peat would be feasible and I'm fairly certain exists in that area, although it is difficult to dry because of the constantly damp, sunless climate. Tar is more associated with oil which seems fairly sporadic in the Bering Sea area. OTL the fuel used was usually seal, walrus, or whale oil, and same ITTL. Tin mining is mostly alluvial and associated with gold and doesn't appear to be in the same areas as the coal seams (and the Seward Peninsula/Yaigani is closer to the treeline).
Now coal would be sporadically used in some areas and for some purposes (like in Europe and other places, chunks of coal wash up on beaches in parts of Alaska), but the existing system of forestry along with whale oil and peat probably supplies most of the fuel needs in all but the most remote tundras. The Alaska Peninsula does have significant coal reserves that are good quality so I could see some coal mining and export going on there even though it's probably not common. It seems like a lot of effort compared to cutting and drying peat, cutting down trees, or especially killing sea mammals and gets you pretty much the same thing anyway. There's also the cultural aspect to consider given how hearths and stoves would be constructed and the smoke that would fill the longhouses--burning coal produces more unpleasant, sooty smoke, therefore making it less desirable.
They wouldn't go as far as Japan to import wood (it's easier to cut the wood they need--legally or not--in Kamchatka or the Alaska Peninsula). And importing a strange food is more difficult than using the traditional sorts of food imports. They could offer their own or imported crafts in gold and silver or expensive bronze alloys, ivory, or muskox pelts (purchased from the Inuit). Of course, they don't have a lot of this to begin with, especially not those in the Manjimas/Aleutians since they're fairly poor and backwards by the standards of the Ringitsu.
These goods will get them further with the Ainu and Itelmen (the former supplied the latter with the metals they desired, at least around the 16th century or so), especially since the Ainu would have many of the goods they desire, especially rare Japanese goods like iron. Given the distance, there's not much incentive to actually reach the Japanese. OTL, trade with the Itelmen combined with increasing Japanese demand for sea otter pelts was apparently high enough that the Ainu settled the southernmost parts of Kamchatka, so even at an early date the addition of another player does add a lot of interesting factors to this region.
As for hints of why the Japanese turn up in the New World, that will be explained sooner or later.
Not yet, they're still several hundred kilometers south of the incipient Ringitsu trading posts.
Map 9-The Far Northwest in 1230 AD
Below is a map of the Far Northwest and adjacent areas in the year 1230 AD, shortly before the arrival of several epidemics from the south. This map is a cultural map intended to display the various cultures in the region as well as a few trading centers. The cultures are colour-coded to match the broader cultural group--shades of green are the coastal Far Northwest peoples such as the Tsusha and the Ringitsu and their offshoots, shades of red and brown are Dena peoples, shades of blue are Inuit and Yupik ("Thulean-speaking") peoples, and dark grey are the Chacchou who don't really fit under any of these. A lot of these areas are ethnically mixed--for instance, the Inuit, Yupik, and Unangakh are the majority in pretty much all of the area past the Alaska Peninsula but they hold very little power and their elites are usually rather assimilated to Ringitsu culture (or otherwise effectively vassals of a powerful Ringitsu house).
Correct. Compare Map 9 above to Map 8, in the bottom corner of this map (sadly this was the easiest map I could find which had the area and terrain features I wanted, but the projection isn't my favorite) you'll see the same cities and terrain features (mostly, I come up with new ideas and tweak small details often) as you will at the top corner of my maps of Wayam/North Fusania.
So, contact with the Itelmen/Kamchadal and Ainu (who have their own ships and blue-water whaling traditions, IIRC) already...
It roughly means "where the sun rests" in a Dhegihan Siouan language (I forget which one I used, IIRC Osage), a reference to spiritual customs about the city and its priests. Of course, we have no idea what its people called it OTL and assigning it a Dhegihan Siouan name is admittedly arbitrary.
Fortunately for those who use horse cavalry, no one in Fusania rides reindeer or moose into war (although they are used for logistics). Riding the animals is rather rare, and more akin to being strapped to the beast as someone leads it on foot.
I would suspect the answer is yes, however, being that they are large and strange animals, but the problem would be that they're also rather skitterish and aren't the sort to take the noise and violence of battle well (except for drunken moose, who are more akin to very small war elephants, but nobody yet uses them like that).
Probably this weekend or early next week, I wanted to finish and post the map first and needed to go over some of the literature on this region.
The 13th century is about when modern Ainu culture started emerging so there's some interesting butterflies to consider TTL. I don't think the Ainu will show up for a while however.
Would this be the first time the People of Funusia see people that don't look well Asian.
What do you mean? In terms of appearance, the peoples of Kamchatka look very similar to Northwest Coast Amerindians (and to a lesser degree, the Inuit). It's essentially the distinction between a Berber and a Greek and the different looks aren't as important as the different cultures and languages. The most distinct-looking people the Fusanians know of would be the more northerly Inuit with their quite distinct physique and facial features and who aren't commonly encountered.
Do we know about the spiritual customs and priests of the city?
Chapter 65-The Green Land on the Other Side
-LXV-
"The Green Land on the Other Side"
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Sheiyiiq'aani [1], summer 1220
"The Green Land on the Other Side"
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Sheiyiiq'aani [1], summer 1220
Even at sunset this land remains green, Khiatitkh thought, marveling at the trees just beyond the shoreline where he spent most of his day. How did the Ringitsu never know of a country like this, a country so far out to sea yet teeming in resources and life! Khiatitkh knew from the tall mountains in the distance and the wide river not far from here that this was no small island either, but a vast and large one no doubt the size of Kechaniya or perhaps larger. He found the Hiyatani Islands an incredible place with their strange birds and the massive, stupid khaawtaayi swimming offshore, yet they clearly were just the doorstep of an incredible place. All he could think of was how green this place was, not the drab grey-green of Hiyatani or Hatan but a green that felt vibrant with life.
Khiatitkh watched that strange eagle he saw not long before he discovered the Hiyatani Islands soar overhead, looking for prey. This land seemed familiar yet foreign to him, yet overall a pleasant place. The sparse clouds made the sun's heat feel so warm, moderated by the pleasant gusts of wind from the sea. He never felt weather as warm--or sunny--as this back on the islands, especially not Hatan. With fine weather like this, the crops they grew would no doubt grow large and numerous.
His scouting party of eight men returned, the leader carrying a huge grey hare over his shoulders [2]. Truly a large hare, even in Anasugi or Kechaniya they don't grow that large. The scout laughed at Khiatitkh's face puzzled by the size of the hare.
"I saw it and simply needed to kill it, I think we could use a little meat. It seems like a normal hare to me and the men, even if it's so much larger. You should see what else we killed!" A man stepped forward, handing the deep brown and black pelt of a small animal to the chief scout who in turn handed it to Khiatitkh. He gingerly ran his hand over the animal, noticing how incredibly soft it was. The nobles back home will certainly pay much for these.
"Looks like a marten, but it feels much softer and the colours on that pelt seem impressive," Khiatitkh commented. He thought of the many odd bird calls he heard or the many little details in the plants and wildlife of the area, wondering how much else lay hidden in this land he came upon.
"Good work," Khiatitkh commended. "What do you make of the land?"
"It is a fine land, and there are many stands of trees just like the ones around here," the scout said. "Going inland and ascending a hill, I can see even higher trees. We will never want for fuel or timber again on Hiyatani."
"Nor Hatan, nor any other islands in the sea. We have us a fine source of wood."
"Now, as fine of land as it is, we will need to trade much for it," the scout cautioned, "for this land is inhabited." He held up an broken arrow with shining black obsidian head coated with the dried blood of one of Khiatitkh's subordinates. The victim stood aside the head scout, his face a little pale yet otherwise in good health. Khiatitkh's heart beat faster and he suddenly became wary of his surroundings. They know their land, and they no doubt followed the scouts back here. He looked at the grove of trees behind the beach, now not so much a source of wealth as an ambush site.
"Did you encounter a village?" Khiatitkh asked. The scout nodded.
"A quite large village indeed, with strange houses that stood on stilts alongside more usual longhouses. The people seem poor and backwards, but not as poor as the Hanashaku."
"Poor?" Khiatitkh found himself taken aback by that. "How can they be poor when this land is so rich?" He gazed around at the green scenery surrounding him, trying to discern any hidden spirits.
"Just a few hours in the forest, and I believe the spirits of this land can be as helpful as the spirits of our homeland," the chief scout replied. "The law of this world works the same everywhere. Perhaps they are just lazy or stupid, or we stumbled upon a backwater village of an otherwise better-off people."
"A village of lazy or stupid people is a village that dies out," Khiatitkh cautioned. "The true reason for their poverty must be something far stranger than mere foolishness." He disliked generalisations like that, having been forced to defend the honour of his house and their people numerous times in Kechaniya and other places further east.
Once again he felt an ominous breeze coming from the forest, the spirits warning him of danger. They are here now. He instinctly clutched the bronze axe on his back and shouted at his men to get down. Just inches from his feet lay an obsidian-tipped arrow in the mud of the tideflats. His men immediately grabbed their own spears and bows and started scanning the forest, looking for the enemy.
"Don't shoot!" Khiatitkh shouted. "We need their cooperation. Give them back the marten pelt and the hare!" Two of his scouts dropped their weapons, grabbed the slain animals, and slowly walked toward the forest. An arrow pierced one of the scouts between the eyes, striking him dead, and the other scout simply threw the pelt toward the grove of trees and fled backwards toward the rest of the group. Khiatitkh grit his teeth. A slain man added to the challenges, since his kin would demand restitution, almost certainly a slave, adding an annoying cost to this venture.
Three warriors stepped forward from the grove of trees, brandishing their bows menacingly. They wore thick furs and rather fine boots, yet otherwise wore no armour or helmets. The man in the center screamed something in an unintelligible language that seemed perfectly understandable from the hostile body language of the warriors around him. One man ran out and snatched the marten pelt, while the dead hare went totally ignored.
Khiatitkh stepped forward as well, weapon at his side, his eyes glaring at the leader of the opposing warriors. I must ensure this goes peacefully. He'd never been in a situation like this, having always found someone to translate, but it seemed none among them, not even the Hanashaku, understood a word of it of the man's speech. He pointed at the dead man, gesturing at the warriors in front of him. He held out his shining bronze knife by the blade in a manner that made the setting sun glint off of it.
The enemy warrior calmed down, seemingly interested at the blade Khiatitkh held, but immediately he went back to his hostile gestures, pointing at the ocean and clearly telling them to leave. Khiatitkh pointed at the distant horizon, then gestured toward his ship and the beach, and then held out his knife, trying to tell the hostile local where they came from and their reason for being here. The three enemy warriors looked at each other, wondering what the gesture meant and taking clear notice of the large ship the Ringitsu sailed in on. Yet they continued to wildly point toward the sea, clearly wishing for the Ringitsu to leave. Khiatitkh reluctantly obliged, pointing at the dead man, then his boat, then the horizon.
"It will do no good to stay here," Khiatitkh muttered. "Let us collect our dead and visit someplace else in this land."
"What for?" the chief scout asked. "We'll likely find yet more hostile locals."
"I had an idea," Khiatitkh replied, still staring down the enemy. "We'll sail a few days from here, attack a village, and capture one of their girls or boys, preferably the latter. It will be repayment to the family of the deceased, but this slave will teach us their language. When we understand more, we'll return to this place, where that great river reaches the sea."
As his crew carried out his orders under the watchful eye of both Khiatitkh and the enemy warriors, Khiatitkh slowly approached the enemy, showing them his bronze knife before placing it on the beach. As he retreated back to the ship and prepared to depart this land, he noticed the warriors retrieving the knife, seemingly very impressed by it. It's an expensive knife, and won't be easy to replace. But I have no doubt the profit from this land will allow me to obtain many more just like it.
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The Ringitsu termed the land across from the Sea of Ringitania "Diyaanakhaani", or "Land of the Other Side". Later generations of Europeans and Asians knew this place as the far northeast extremity of Asia and even attached a significance to the separation of Diyaanakhaani from the Yaigani Peninsula across the Ringitanian Straits. Yet to the Ringitsu, this journey held little importance as they believed Diyaanakhaani a simply more distant version of the treeless and frigid Yaigani, offering the same resources (walrus ivory, muskox pelts, and a bit of tin), and inhabited by the same "barbaric" Hanashaku. As a result, their exploration of it remained limited for many decades.
Oral history usually attributes the discovery to Tlakwaaqis, a Great Navigator and ruler in the Yaigani Peninsula. In the earliest part of the 13th century, he sailed there, traded with the local Hanashaku, and left. However, the Ringitsu ignored his exploits in favour the explorer Khiatitkh. Sometime around 1205, he sailed to Cape Ginjuu, the easternmost portion of Diyaanakhaani, and conducted similar trade with the locals. Reportedly he found it a disappointing land and returned to his home in the western Manjimas shortly after. Neither Tlakwaaqis nor Khiatitkh became the one to truly open Ringitsu trade in that part of the world, as a descendent of Khutsaayi named Khutsyeis settled in this remote area around 1210 as a refugee from the Anasugi Peninsula, founding the village of Aanilunaa.
Khiatitkh remains among the most famous indigenous American explorer, for he kept on sailing west on whaling voyages perhaps in hopes of finding new land. After discovering the Hiyatani Islands around 1210, he paused for several years before pushing onwards. In 1220, he became the first from the Americas to contact the Old World when he once again sailed west to Diyaanakhaani, yet this time a far different part, the part that one day would be called the Hidaka Peninsula. Seeing forests, mountains, and even locals who herded reindeer, he was convinced he landed in another place and discovered from a dream it's name must be Sheiyiiq'aani, meaning "the land where trees line the shore" [3].
Two groups lived in Sheiyiiq'aani during the 13th century--the Tanban and the Tangitsu (in modern times called Koraku) [4]. Both lived there for centuries, with the Tanban in particular an ancient group. The Tangitsu and those to the north and west of them lived as reindeer herders (the Reindeer Tangitsu) and seal hunters (the Sea Tangitsu), similar to the Dena and Yupiks, while the Tanban gathered in the forests, fished in the rivers, and hunted seal much as the ancestors of the Ringitsu did before the Fusanian Agricultural Revolution of the 4th century AD. Perhaps only around 30,000 people lived in all Sheiyiiq'aani in the year 1200 owing to the differences in lifestyle as well as the many high mountains and volcanic environs of the peninsula.
Khiatitkh made five voyages to Sheiyiiq'aani in the 1220s, trading with the local Tanban people who lived around the great Kikai River [5]. After initial missteps, he forged good relations with these Tanban and even married the daughter of one of their wealthy men. The Ringitsu obtained land rights to salmon fisheries and timber harvesting through their trade. Khiatitkh's house likely paid to "rent" the use of this area using their extensive trading links, which would have included reindeer, metal goods, and ivory.
With land rights secured, the Ringitsu set up a trading post which became the second Ringitsu village in Asia after Aanilunaa [6] far to the north. This trading post became called the village of Kiqhaiqh'akaan (or Keqhaaraqaan in the Hiyatani Ringitsu language [7]), located on a hill very near the mouth of the Kikai River. At this trading post conducted business with the Tanban of the Kikai River, selling them domesticated reindeer and ducks which the Tanban found fascinating. They traded much in the way of metal goods from utilitarian tools to rare copper plates. Only the relative poverty of the Daakaani Ringitsu prevented them from trading even more with the Tanban.
The Ringitsu found the Tanban poor, backwards, and impoverished. Unlike the Ringitsu, the Tanban practiced no agriculture and lived entirely off fishing, hunting, and gathering wild plants. The Ringitsu recognised several of these, such as the Tanban's staple food riceroot, as being wild forms of their own staple crops. Further, the Tanban owned no domesticated animals besides a few stunted reindeer obtained in trade from the Tangitsu herdsmen to the north. They owned few metal goods and dressed in much poorer fashion. The Ringitsu found this exceedingly strange considering the bountiful land inhabited by the Tanban. To them, a Tanban village seemed almost akin to an extremely poor, rural, and backwards Ringitsu village ruled by alleged noblemen who in every way lived like peasants.
The Tanban likewise found the Ringitsu a strange group. To the Tanban, Ringitsu agriculture seemed miraculous as a Ringitsu shaman simply needed to perform rituals on the earth or a patch of water, dig ditches, erect earthen walls, and hang cloths and skins to catch the wind, and at that point the Ringitsu might command all sorts of large berries, riceroot, or other plants to grow. Their tame livestock impressed them just as much, as the animals seemed unafraid of humans and readily respondant to their commands, unlike the smaller and more skittish reindeer employed by the herding tribes to their north. Naturally, the Ringitsu exported much of their surplus to the Tanban.
The Ringitsu seemed very wealthy from the Tanban perspective, judging by how many Ringitsu wore metal jewelry or carried copper knives and axes, and the Ringitsu eagerly traded these with the Tanban. The Ringitsu impressed the Tanban with the size of their ships with their finely-crafted sail, and their clothing seemed finely made. Yet despite their incredible livestock, agriculture, and tools, the Ringitsu seemed most interested in something as common as wood. Despite the wealth of the river valleys, the Ringitsu barely sought after the rights to fish in the streams or harvest berries or dig roots as their sole compulsion seemed to be harvesting timber.
The Tanban believed timber an essential component of Ringitsu spirituality, the use of which produced their strong livestock and command of plant growth. No doubt Ringitsu agricultural practices like their slash and burn agriculture, planting of trees near fields as windbreaks, and use of charcoal in their fertiliser encouraged this belief. Their wooden amulets and impressive wooden architecture such as their house posts the Ringitsu carvers could "read" provided further proof of this. For their apparent reliance on trees and wood, the Tanban called the Ringitsu "Uudmen", meaning "people of wood" [8].
Sheiyiiq'ani offered much to the Ringitsu of the harsh and treeless land of Daakaani. In addition to the whales offshore and the many walruses and seals living around the land, Sheiyiiq'aani possessed a great quantity of wood, always a highly demanded good in the treeless parts of Daakaani. The groves of birch trees growing in the sheltered river valley offered firewood while in the interior of the peninsula (sheltered from the harsh North Pacific) grew true forests of trees including birch, larches (which the Ringitsu recognised as good for shipbuilding), and the tall Ezo spruce. The Ringitsu recognised the as exceedingly similar to the Wakashan spruce of distant Kechaniya and Old Ringitania, a tree of crucial value to their culture.
The Ringitsu also discovered pelts of sable in Sheiyiiq'aani. They recognised it immediately as a sort of marten, which the Ringitsu believed produced the finest of fur, yet the rich, dark colours and unusually soft textures of this fur-bearing mustelid ensured sable pelts became even more highly valued. These unusual pelts fetched a high price in both Daakaani and elsewhere in Ringitsu lands at trading fairs and served as one of Sheiyiiq'aani's other exports to the remainder of Ringitsu country.
The third and final trade good Sheiyiiq'aani offered the Ringitsu--iron--came not from the people of the land, but from places far more distant. Like many regions on the northern side of the Chishima Sea [9], a constant trickle of iron found its way from the south and west through long-distance trade. The Tanban and Tangitsu obtained their iron from the Ainu who in turn obtained it from the Mishihase people who lived along the northern coast of the island of Hokkaido, the southern coast of Karafuto, and the Chishima Islands.
The peoples of Sheiyiiq'aani owned few iron goods and highly valued what they did own. Often large iron axes or spears served as symbols of rulership among chiefly families. As a result, the Ringitsu found it costly to purchase iron from them, a problem made all the worse by the decline of the Mishihase in the 13th century thanks to warfare against the Ainu, epidemic, and irregular weather patterns [10]. However, the Sheiyiiq'aani people did not produce their metal and the Ringitsu learned that offering an equal or greater amount of fine gold or silver--cheaper metals than iron in Fusania--easily procured the favoured iron goods.
The early Ringitsu exploration hugged the coast nearby the Kikai River, as well as explored inland with the held of Ringitsu guides. They discovered the land held nearly everything they needed and seemed to differ little the further south they went, while to the north lay only a more sparse country. Further up the Kikai River in sheltered valleys, the Ringitsu discovered even thicker forests and a great density of Tanban villages. The Ringitsu thus saw little need to continue sailing the stormy coasts of Sheiyiiq'aani when everything they needed lay within their grasp.
Khiatitkh however continued to wonder about the connection between Sheiyiiq'aani and Diyaanakhaani. In 1230, Khiatitkh organised an expedition northwards along the coast to reach the Ringitsu settlement at Aanilunaa. He encountered many unknown groups of Tanban as well as the Tangitsu (in modern times called Koraku), a distantly related people known for their nomadic reindeer herding. These people Khiatitkh believed a peculiar hybrid of the Dena and the Hanashaku (as the Tangitsu used skin boats). He traded at many coasts and established relations with many new places.
However, Khiatitkh's fifth voyage ended in disaster. The Ringitsu historian Kiitkuush describes the scene of the events in his On the Eastern Lands:
"A great storm came upon Khiatitkh and devastated his ship and for this he stopped at a shore of the Tangitsu so he might repair his vessel. He offered unto the Tangitsu fine goods so he might harvest the plants and trees to repair his boat. From here arises tragedy and from here derives the reason we know them as Tangitsu, for in the tongue of the Diyaanakhaani people it means 'enemy.'
The cruel Tangitsu demanded more goods even after their payment to which Khiatitkh refused. The Tangitsu ambushed Khiatitkh's party and Khiatitkh slew five warriors before falling to five arrow wounds. His nephew, that valiant warrior Aankaanchi, led his Hanashaku vassals in a fierce charge and drove the enemy from the field. That night the men of Hiyatani did burn the village of the Tangitsu and steal a large boat in which they brought back the body of that great prince and navigator Khiatitkh."
Slain by the Tangitsu, his nephew Aankaanchi secured his body, ceased and brought it back to his homeland. To his death, Khiatitkh remained convinced Sheiyiiq'aani and Diyaanakhaani were two separate lands, a minority view not held by many of his followers such as Aankaanchi. Aankaanchi never again attempted this voyage, and the honour of proving the unity of Sheiyiiq'aani and Diyaanakhaani belonged to a different sailor whose name ended up among many forgotten by history.
Conflict broke out after Khiatitkh's death, especially under his nephew Aankaanchi who obtained the rights to the land in Sheiyiiq'aani. He started claiming the places in the land co-occupied by Ringitsu and Tanban as property of his clan and demanded from the Tanban who wished to use them, effectively making them his vassals. Naturally, the local Tanban understood well what the Ringitsu had done and rebelled against them sometime in the 1230s, laying siege to Kiqhaiqh'akaan. Outnumbered several times over, defeat seemed certain.
However, miraculous luck came to Aankaanchi. The Tangitsu focused more on burning nearby forests in an effort to deny them to the Ringitsu rather than more productive activities in a siege, allowing the Ringitsu opportunities to sneak past them and forage. Further, an epidemic of mumps broke out among the besieging Tanban yet spared the Ringitsu, a great spiritual sign among both parties in the conflict. Aankaanchi sortied out with a night attack and with the skill of his Hanashaku warriors butchered the Tanban warriors before they could present a unified force and captured their leaders. The Ringitsu forced the Tanban to make restitution, which included the transfer of many women, slaves, and recognition of property rights, and transfer of even more places.
Enough survivors of the rebellion fled to Tanban villages upstream where they warned of the danger the outsiders posed. While Ringitsu trade goods proved compelling enough for trade relations to continue, each side remained wary of each other for generations to come. The Tanban viewed the Ringitsu as greedy, rapacious merchants while the Ringitsu viewed the Tanban as ignorant peasants barely better than barbarians. As a result of this local tension, Ringitsu-occupied territory at Kiqhaiqh'akaan failed to expand much past the coast out of fear of provoking tensions. This coastal region became known to the Ringitsu as Qeiniyaa [11].
As a result, Kiqhaiqh'akaan ended up less of a trading post and more of a true Ringitsu town. They supplemented the sparse local trees with birches and hardy spruce from the Anasugi Peninsula and used the place as a lumber camp, although the best trees came from the interior. Ironically, the local forest proved less productive than the Ringitsu wished thanks to the multitude of reindeer and especially moose brought to the area to establish a herd which stunted the growth of the trees with their browsing.
Relations with the Tangitsu proved less productive. The impetuous Aankaanchi rallied a great raid on the Koryaks in revenge for their murder of Khiatitkh. Several hundred warriors from all across Daakaani responded to the call. Unfortunately, they found themselves blown off course by storms. Instead of attacking the village where Khiatitkh perished, the great raiding party instead attacked a village on the large island they called later called Gunananuuw [12], an island opposite the shore.
These Tangitsu owned few reindeer and mostly lived off the sea. Weaker in numbers and caught totally blindsided by the attack, Aankaanchi's forces destroyed a large village on the island with little opposition. He slaughtered the men and enslaved the women and children. Expecting more livestock, his allies found the plunder disappointing and continued ravaging the island for days before constant ambushes from survivors wore them down.
Ever an enterpreneur, Aankaanchi realised that Gunananuuw now proved ripe for establishing a settlement. Promising much in land, making slaves of the remaining people of the island, and taking revenge for the fallen, Aankaanchi and his Daakaani Ringitsu allies spent much of the 1230s and 1240s subduing the island and its residents. Only periodically did Aankaanchi return to his lands back in the Hiyatani Islands (despite reputedly wishing to stay there forever hunting the massive sea mammal called khaawtaayi) or south to Kiqhaiqh'akaan.
In the end, Aankaanchi's aggressive desire for more land brought about his downfall. He fell into great debt from his military operations on Gunananuuw, debt that resulted in mutinies quelled only by parcelling out the lands to many soldiers under his command. He was forced to sell the rights on other parts of his land, including selling the entirety of his house's rights in Kiqhaiqh'akaan. Worse still, the Tangitsu forged trading relations with Aankaanchi's rivals such as the House of Yaakweish in the Fuunami Islands, who made a great fortune selling the Tangitsu fine copper, bronze, and obsidian weapons and armour. He returned to the Hiyatani Islands and lived out the remainder of his days with little to personally show for his vast efforts.
Gunananuuw never became the fine base for trading operations Aankaanchi envisioned. Trees grew more sparsely in Tangitsu lands, leaving little to trade for, and the island of Gunananuuw itself nearly totally lacked trees. Trade with the Tangitsu never really developed either. The dominant trading activity for nearly two centuries consisted of the Ringitsu trading their superior reindeer or occasionally even moose to the Sea Tangitsu in exchange for ivory, slaves, iron, and sable pelts, only the latter of which could not be found elsewhere. The Sea Tangitsu in turn exchanged these with the Reindeer Tangitsu and gained much wealth as middlemen.
The first period of Ringitsu expansion in Asia ended around 1250. The reason for it seems less Aankaanchi's fall and more practical. At this point, the Daakaani Ringitsu already controlled the land they needed to conduct valuable trade with their homeland and repair ships traveling the coast. They needed little else besides wood and bases, with everything else being a luxury. Warfare proved counterproductive toward their integral goals in this land.
Demographics explain this sudden halt as well. Ravaged by plagues, famine, and warfare, the land of Daakaani and to a lesser degree all of Ringitania suffered a population collapse. Much land and opportunity remained available throughout the Ringitsu world, defeating the appeal of a distant country whose only purpose seemed to be procuring wood for the Manjimas and a few token rare trade goods.
Further, the Tanban and Tangitsu grew wise to the ways of the Ringitsu. They put the reindeer and moose they obtained in trade to good use in both war and peace (particularly in the case of the reindeer-herding Tangitsu). They obtained much in the way of bronze and copper tools and weapons and copied the canoes and skin boats of the Ringitsu, blunting the Ringitsu advantage in those fields. Starting with the sedentary river and sea villages, the Tanban and Tangitsu began to supplement their diet with Ringitsu horticulture and agriculture using superior Ringitsu cultivars of their staples such as riceroot and berries. Intermarriage with the Ringitsu furthered this spread. Populations rebounded and expanded, and a new era dawned in Sheiyiiq'aani and Diyaanakhaani.
Breaking the wood monopoly of Anasugi likely held little effect in the greater Ringitsu world. Wood still remained relatively scarce and for many islands in the Manjimas and elsewhere, forestry products still remained a vital import the merchants of Anasugi eagerly supplied. Anasugi still supplied much in the way of goods to the Manjimas. Likewise, the initial contact with Sheiyiiq'aani left little impact on the greater Ringitsu world for the Daakhaani Ringitsu remained an impoverished and backwards people. The greatest impact on the Ringitsu world in this era remained the plagues from the south, the famine that followed, and the shattered psyche of a society that gave rise to many social movements and prophets, including Kh'eiqaatish and his Shakunist faith, perhaps the most lasting and distinct faith to emerge from the Far Northwest.
Author's notes
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Here the Ringitsu have contacted cultures much more closely linked to the trade networks in the Sea of Okhotsk which in this era linked to East Asia, the Amur, and the steppes and more distantly to the Bering Sea and the Inuit and Yupiks in Alaska. However, for a variety of reasons, at this point their main interest is cutting wood for their settlements in the mostly treeless Aleutians and other sorts of trade are much more rare. IIRC this area was somewhat poorer than in the 16th century onward, so something like East Asian silk or truly fine East Asian goods would be more rare, although not impossible to stumble across. Such goods would've gone through more hands in these days, since in the 13th century the Okhotsk culture still dominated this part of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Ainu had yet to replace them. Essentially, the Ringitsu are to Kamchatka what a settlement of seafaring Inuit would be to Iceland in this time, in that they're still on the fringe of the trading networks and interaction spheres of North Asia.---
We'll return in a few decades to see what becomes of Ringitsu interaction in Kamchatka (I'll alternate between Sheiyiiq'aani when discussing it from the Ringitsu perspective and Hidaka when discussing it in a general perspective), and probably at that point introduce the Ainu and Mishihase (ancestors of the Nivkh and Okhotsk culture people). Next entry will also be a Ringitania entry dealing with the birth of a certain enduring religious movement.
[1] - Kiqhaiqh'akaan is Ust-Kamchatsk, Kamchatka Krai
[2] - This is the mountain hare, on average a much larger species of hare than the snowshoe hare native to North America which the Ringitsu would be most familiar with
[3] - Sheiyiiq'aani is the Kamchatka Peninsula. It's Japanese name TTL, Hidaka, is a form of the word "Hitakami" referring to a barbarian country north of Japan (OTL it eventually became a region of Hokkaido)
[4] - The Tanban are the Itelmen, their name derived from their endonym and TTL used in a way similar to OTL's use of "Kamchadal". The Tangitsu are the Koryaks, their name derived from a common regional exonym (tannget, tanngen, tanngetan) meaning "enemy" which the Koryaks and Chukchi called each other. The local Ringitsu borrowed one form of this (taankit) which specifically applied to the Koryaks which became Japanese Tangitsu. Like many OTL peoples whose common names mean "enemy", the Tangitsu prefer "Koraku" which is the same origin as OTL's "Koryak"--a nearby language's term for them meaning "rich in reindeer".
[5] - The Kikai River is the Kamchatka River, derived from a Ringitsu transliteration of its native name simply meaning "great river"
[6] - Aanilunaa is Uelen, Chukotka
[7] - Hiyatani Ringitsu is one of several Western Ringitsu languages, which like all Western Ringitsu languages features heavy influence from Alutiiq, Yupik, and Aleut. It is native to the Hiyatani [Commander] Islands and Ringitsu settlements in Kamchatka. We'll delve more into the Ringitanian languages in another post.
[8] - The similarity to English words "wood men" (and Germanic cognates) is totally coincidental, as this actually is the (Eastern) Itelmen translation which has cognates in Koryak and Chukchi
[9] - The Chishima Sea/Sea of Chishima is the Sea of Okhotsk, named TTL for the Chishima (Kuril) Islands.
[10] - The Mishihase were an ancient people of northern Japan usually identified with the Okhotsk culture and the ancestors of the Nivkh. The Nivkh did indeed once live in Northern Hokkaido and the Kurils until the aforementioned conflicts and climate conditions resulted in their decline, assimilation, and expulsion by the Ainu. More on this conflict in a later update.
[11] - Qeiniyaa is roughly the northeastern quarter of Ust-Kamchatsky raion in Kamchatka Krai
[12] - Gunananuuw is Karaginsky Island of Kamchatka Krai, a rough transcription of the name of a Koryak village that gave rise to the name "Karaginsky". In Ringitsu the native name was reinterpreted as "Island of the Gunana [Dena]" thanks to false cognates
