The New World of the White Huns

[Ahigin]

When talking about a possible development of the entire cluster of Eastern Slavic nations, I'd like to first describe some cultural and historical phenomena that you can take in any desired direction.

1. Veche. That was a popular gathering (usually, typical for cities and towns) that existed in the Kievan Rus', but was particularly well-pronounced in its north (Novgorodian and Pskovian lands). Its function was to validate decisions of higher authorities, and it meant that, depending on the "state of the union," it could be anything from a pure formality to a violent mass brawl. Some historians argue that the popularity of veche in the North can be explained by a deeper integration of Ilmen Slavs with Scandinavian settlers, who also had a long-standing tradition of popular participation in ruling the land. In TTL, I think Gardaveldi also perfectly fit to adopting that tradition due to its semi-Scandinavian roots, while Chernarus and Byalarus would see that tradition much less pronounced. At the same time, the title of the Wheel-Ruler suggests a more centralized nature of the Gardaveldi state (compared to OTL), so Gardaveldi veche may be often conflicting with the authoritarian tendency of the North.

2. Artel. That word means a guild of usually economic nature with cooperative form of ownership. In a sort, it was sort of a seasonal commune regulated through mostly informal agreements and kept together by the authority of its leader, the starosta (lit. "elder"). Artels were especially powerful in the frontier or in urban centers, where they could pull from a larger labor pool of freemen. I think, in TTL artels may become a powerful phenomenon, given the fact that all three major Russian states belong to the larger Buddhist world and will eventually experience some sort of cultural penetration of TTL Indian guild system. However, unlike the Indian guilds, artels are much more socially fluid and less bound by the caste system.

3. Obshchina. Literally meaning "the society," obshchina is simply a peasant commune. It can be argued that low agricultural productivity of the Russian heartland led to cooperative land ownership becoming a mere necessity, since low harvests were common and villagers often had no other way to survive harsh winters without sharing their property and food. Possibly, relative isolation of villages from each other helped to establish that cooperative trend. Anyway, cooperative husbandry was a part of Russian economy regardless of levels of freedom from authorities farmers had.

4. Druzhina. Literally meaning "fellowship," it was a Slavic analog of warbands and retinues. In OTL Rus, with its almost nonexistent bureaucratic tradition, druzhina was the source of knyaz's (the ruler's) power, and ruler's relationship with the druzhina often defined the state apparatus (for example, OTL Svyatoslav Igorevich chose not to baptize simply because his entire druzhina was composed of pagans). By the 11th century, druzhinas stopped being simply cosmopolitan retinues of armed companions and started splitting into two informal parts: the senior druzhina composed of people originally known as knyazhyi muzhi ("knyaz's men") who would later become known as boyars, and the junior druzhina, composed of so called otroks ("youth" or later "boyars' sons", not necessarily literally related to them). Both still functioned as the core of the army (which, of course, wasn't limited to druzhina alone), but the senior druzhina was increasingly acting as a part of state apparatus, representing the knyaz in various tasks. In TTL, I think the notion of political influence druzhinniks ("companions") exercised in Russian states would stay. However, I think Gardaveldi, with their more democratic society, would have their druzhina's political power much less pronounced, while Chernarus and Byalarus Hans (I think I already suggested using the Turkic word "khagan" instead of the Mongol word "khan," by the way) would rely on their horse-riding retainers much more, matching the Turkic trend they must've been influenced by. I envision southern Chernarus druzhina more of a mixed body of heavy steppe cavalrymen and horse archers, while Byalarus khagans would likely have more of a combined arms force that could fight better in the forests and marches of the Baltic and East Europe, but still deliver a cavalry punch in open battles.

5. Uskhuiniks. Ushkui was a name of a medium-size flat-bottom longboat, borrowed by Ilmen Slavs from the Finns (who called it uisk). It was mediocre in open sea travel, but proved to be very effective in riverine travel. In OTL, Ushkuiniks were essentially Russian river pirates who used primarily the Kama and Volga rivers for their raids against Volga Bulgars and later Tartars. Some of them even raided as far south as the Southern Caspian sea (for instance, OTL Mstislav the Bold of Chernigov and his half-Russian half-Alanian druzhina participated in the Arran Civil War in today's Azerbaijan using ushkui and ladya ships for transportation). In TTL, I see several historical possibilities for ushkuiniks. First, the Baltic Sea is just becoming free of Viking raiding, and ushkuiniks may easily create pirate communes (with elements of a trade league) similar to OTL Gotland (in TTL, they could found their base on the Hyuma island (modern Hiiumaa in Estonia)). That would make sense, because the Frankish world is in chaos, and no serious competition from the Norse exists). Secondly, it'd be a shame for them not to use their vessels' extreme adaptation to riverine navigation to raid Bajinak urban centers (if they exist) and maybe even raid as far south as Mazenderan, using the hectic situation in Tayzig Persia. Finally, if you do decide to go on and make the Cheldon colonization of the Urals a thing, I think they'd make sure to raid the Bajinak urban centers (if such exist) by going up the Ob and Irtish rivers.

6. Volkhvs. They were pagan hermits of pre-Christian Rus and were considered to posses incredible wisdom and even sorcery. I think you've already done a good job painting Rusichi Buddhist monks as receivers of the same tradition of forest solitude and radical downshifting. I wonder where you'd like to take that tradition in TTL. I have some wild ideas of Shaolin-style forest communes of bearded monks who study martial arts amid snowy fir-trees.

7. The last idea I'd like to discuss right now is the difference between Byalarus and Chernarus. Right now both seem very similar. I'd suggest emphasizing the more steppe-oriented nature of Chernarus, with more despotic manner of centralized rule, while Byalarus could be a "Slavs trying to play Xasar" type of state, with a mix of European, Ifthal, and Xasar influences.

 

[Practical Lobster]

1. While the Wheel-Ruler is very much a centralized idea, I can see Veche-style assemblies remaining a big part of life in say, the capital, where maybe they'll give a veneer of popular legitimacy to the Kings? There are also many potent nobles and relatively autonomous powers at play among Gardaveldi. I doubt I'll really touch on popular assembly in the Rusichi states, where it doesn't honestly make much sense except as a way to add nuance. The cities of the Rusichi world are very much subject to the central authority as well, having been often conquered rather than incorporated over time. In general law in the south is more bound up with the identity and power of the ruler and his relations with the companions (very Ifthal and also rather Russian it seems), whereas law in the north is common and popular - even if all have substantial autocratic elements.

2./3. The emergent phenomenon of guilds, particularly the communal ones so popular in Russia, is something to consider, particularly as I think about the Rusichi's place in the world down the line. As members of the Asian world they will certainly see the power of the guild system - the question is will they be able to arrange other circumstances in such a way as to exploit it - I think it's certainly possible, and would keep with the general theme of keeping global advancement ticking at a steady pace. I don't want my Rus to fall behind the West, at the very least, and if they utilize the Artel properly, they might even outpace them - which would be fascinating from a story perspective.

4. I was thinking of the druzhina this morning - one idea of mine was to have the Rusichi armies (especially the White Rus) take a page from the Xasar playbook and divide their army between "professional" nobility and "levies" from the community who serve more or less year round in exchange for certain benefits - perhaps an exemption from taxes? The idea needs some fleshing out, but I think that the Xasar here would be seen as far more "progressive" and worthy of emulating than the collapsing Sahu successor states, who will represent a path for expansion down the road. Funny you should mention Khagan becoming Han - that comes from the hypothetical Sahu pronunciation of the word, which is distinctly more Iranian/Bulgar sounding, and comes across as Khan, Han, Hakan, or Khaqan. Thus the Sahu word for Great King is "Khagan" but they pronounce it more like "Ha'an" regardless.

5. Nothing to say but that sounds brilliant.

6. I have some ideas, but anything you want to send me I'll definitely consider.

7. I meant to expand the differences as time went on, but as often happens I got bogged down in the sheer scope and have neglected the development of the Slavic world far too much lately. I think you're on the money with that idea of the Byalarus as a weird hybrid of Slavic and Xasar, while the Chernarus will take on a lot more Sahu and northern/Gardaveldi elements.

 

[Ahigin]

4. I think, this perfectly fits into the Russian specifics. Druzhina would represent your regular standing retinue, while opolchenie is a name for a levy-type force (both of them would be covered by an umbrella term rat', meaning simply "an army"). As military theory develops, a more professional kazyonnoye voysko ("treasury-funded force") could be created, consisting of paid professionals. In Russian military tradition, it'd be divided into regiment- or division-size units called polk.

6. If you choose to make Slavic Buddhist monks martial artists, the oldest known Russian martial art is called buza.

 

[Practical Lobster]

Thanks. I'll definitely keep in touch down the line, if I have further questions.

Posts are in the works, people!

 

[frustrated progressive]

The Slavic slave trade is referring to the massive export of Slavic slaves as undertaken by the Sahu before the rise of the Rusichi Kingdoms.

Frustrated Progressive, you're thinking of "the scorpion's bite" or its revised version "the scorpion's sting."

thanks.

 

[Practical Lobster]

The World of the Flowering Flesh

The exact nature of the plague is lost to time, though most theorize it was a form of the Bubonic Plague, based on descriptions of the disease - but for the unique “blossoming” welts, it became known as the Flowering Flesh, and although other great pandemics came in later centuries, the Flowering Flesh was the first, and also by far the worst.

Carried by fleas, it spread on livestock and trade ships, on the bodies of the sick and those not yet bitten. Due to its long incubation time and a number of secondary routes of infection, even when rudimentary quarantines were attempted, they came too little too late. Dread disease already stalked the halls of those who would shut their doors against it. Grim death, painted in so many forms by so many cultures, was everywhere, was universal.

The nations of the earth would tremble and gnash their teeth at their helplessness. Never since the Egyptian plague had so many died so quickly, and left so few to bury them. No prayer, no tonic, nothing would work in forestalling it. The Pope in Rome sat ringed in fires. The Emperor of Kitai hid himself in holy seclusion. Both would die before the end. The great houses of the Bakhtiyar perished, leaving a new generation to seize power at swordpoint. The Tsaibwe banned all commerce with the outside world, but the High Round’s bondsmen were decimated and it fell to northern raiders.

The Flowering Flesh began in China in 1219, and reached Europe in 1222 – it did not burn out entirely until 1234, when most records of mass death seem to abate. Across the Mediterranean, perhaps half the population died, far more in dense and unsanitary urban regions. The Bakhtiyar ruled middle east suffered by contrast “lightly” – losing only perhaps a third. China, India, and Indonesia, the whole of the “far east” suffered horribly – losing often half or more. The human toll cannot properly be understood. A Tamil goshthi spoke of funeral pyres which were never extinguished, but ran night and day as an endless inferno.

In Europe, the Flowering Flesh was blamed on Solvia, leading to an edict in 1225 banning all commerce with the Americas. Though this was poorly enforced and ultimately repealed, the period of enforced isolationism allowed various African and Scandinavian polities to further their lead in the new world at the expense of mainland Europe.

Luckily, many learned men retreated into monasteries. Knowledge was sequestered and preserved across Asia and Europe. A number of great libraries and temples closed their doors to the horror beyond, knowing that the skill and talent within their walls was worth saving at any cost. Self-sustaining mountain communities survived the great plague by hiding, while many of their more charitable cousins were annihilated in their attempts to care for the great community of the sick.

Snapshots of Ruin

Over a hundred thousand towns in Germany were abandoned over the next decade. Forests reached their leafy tendrils into long cleared land, choking fallow fields. Roads and public services fell into disrepair, and in many places the rule of law was replaced with utter anarchy as bandits preyed on the living and the dead.

When the plague reached Konstantikert, many fled – spreading the plague even further. Attica and the Balkans were not struck more horribly than any other region of the Mediterranean, but one profound impact of the plague was that many priests, attempting to bury the dead and care for the sick, would be afflicted with the plague. The institutions of Sklavenian Christianity were weakened substantially, and the Papacy lost what little influence it had amongst the Sklaveni Church, whose autocephalous Patriarch would blame the plague of the hedonism of Rome.

In India, a swathe of new inheritance laws were published by the Chola Maharaja, regulating how guild assets were to be distributed in the event of every major stockholder’s untimely death. Vast quantities of land returned to state control, while wealth became increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few lucky survivors.

A fire erupted in Pataliputra, ruining the great city that had been the heart of the very concept of Indian Empire since the Gupta era. The holy Ganges was clotted with refugees, a mob of the diseased and dying seeking blessed healing in its waters. The truth was far more devastating, as pilgrims spread the flowering flesh like wildfire.

Trade in China collapsed. The Emperor would take no visitors, and many monasteries in time closed their doors, the number of the sick were so many. The Kitai themselves were largely spared, and viewed it as a sign of their supremacy, not correlating their pastoral or isolated lives as landed gentry with their survival.

In Mesopotamia, Mosil was abandoned. Nasibin, the capital of the Bakhtiyar successor state of Syria, looted the old city and found only a few huddled survivors. Those who fled into the countryside fared little better than the migrants, however.

Haiti was ravaged by plague five years after the brunt of it passed through Eurasia. Forts throughout the interior were devastated, but the natives, who were already ruined, could scare fall lower. The Duke found himself besieged for months and no reinforcements came. Finally, he accepted the inevitable and surrendered to the heathen Taino Cayacoa, who began calling himself Supreme King. The soldiers were forced to yield up their arms, the artisans and priests their knowledge. The Duke was forced to give a massive tribute in king, and accept the loss of several precious stone forts, including his own.

When the next voyage arrived from Africa, a Mauri captain, he was shocked to find Cayacoa sitting in the Duke’s chair, calling himself Supreme King. He was even more shocked to see a fleet of Kapudesan ships arriving three days later, captained by the explorer Hariprasad Abhivas.

Cayacoa’s son, Agueibanya, was fascinated by the westerners. Though they were now few in number, he understood the value of their knowledge. He was the first of his people to learn to read the Frankish language and ride a horse. He also sailed around the Caribbean, treating with Nfansou and the Judges of Nanih, learning all that he could.

Aftermath

Why did some states emerge from the aftermath of the great plague stronger, while others came out far weaker?

One compelling answer is based around an institutional model – the resiliency of a polity’s systems play the biggest role in determining how it handles adversity. In feudal regions, the loss of a whole family might mean dynastic upheaval. In a region where the basic unit of social order was the guild or the company, that was less likely to occur. Indeed, the loss of many members of a guild was often a factor which lead towards increased centralization and consolidation of wealth in the hands of a small but potent investor class.

In countries such as Kitai China, the bureaucracy was a force in its own right. Regardless of who reigned in Kaifeng, there was an organized and disciplined government structure above the old hundred names, and the devastation of the plague was counteracted by direct policies in a very modern and efficient manner. In Japan, when the Flowering Flesh reached its shores, there was similar organized support, including records of major relief efforts at a scale which was for the time unprecedented. The sequestered retired former Emperors also provided a powerful force for dynastic continuity when a succession of child Emperors took ill and died. These aged former monarchs, elevated and hidden from the world at large, did not become ill and refused physical contact with anyone until the plague passed, and simply issued directives to the bureaucracy from on high.

The Pancharajya’s successor states and the Sahputi meanwhile suffered significantly, as did the Frankish Empire. Their elites had not built strong institutions but relied on various feudal models. While these were loose on the subcontinent, and mixed with institutions such as the guilds and the atrophied Pancharajya bureaucracy and goshthi system, Frankish authority was personal at every level. There were no guilds, and the rudimentary banking institutions were every bit as clannish as the ruling nobles – and thus equally vulnerable to annihilation by disease. Into this power vacuum, a large number of radical peasant movements emerged, and the Frankish state struggled to contain them.

In the wake of the disease, there would be also be unprecedented social mobility and a need for labor-saving inventions. The Great Plague substantially weakened the caste system in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, and as the Yaol dynasty’s bureaucracy was exhausted in numbers, and opened up the exams for several years to be far less strict than they once were. One concession to the devastation of the learned and literate class was to lessen the focus on classic Buddhist and Confucian texts and include more practical sections on mathematics and alchemy to the advantage of well-off merchant’s sons.

[The next post will cover the Rusichi and Kitai China in the pre-plague era. There's still a lot to get to before I move chronologically beyond the Great Plague, but I wanted to get this post done first. Hope everyone is understanding.]

 

[Ahigin]

Here comes the break Solvian natives needed to recover from their own plagues and modernize! Also, here comes a driver for precursors of scientific revolution.

I love the idea of Caribbean natives snatching their opportunity to become independent.

 

[FasterThanRaito]

This is great, can't wait to see more.

 

[B_Munro]

Wow. Sounds like this was even more devastating than OTL's Black Death.

 

[Albireo]

I love the name "flowering flesh", it's so viscerally disgusting.

 

[Practical Lobster]

Here comes the break Solvian natives needed to recover from their own plagues and modernize! Also, here comes a driver for precursors of scientific revolution.

I love the idea of Caribbean natives snatching their opportunity to become independent.

Yep, pretty much! As for the Taino experiment, we'll see if it has staying power in the long run... but as long as the Europeans are limited to relatively small ships and are limited in the number of Caribbean ports they can land at, they'll probably do well for themselves.

This is great, can't wait to see more.

Thank you!

Wow. Sounds like this was even more devastating than OTL's Black Death.

It was - and also more global in its reach. Ironically, the greater population of some major world regions turned out to be a disadvantage, and as in OTL large urban areas are great breeding grounds for all sorts of disease.

My version of the Plague of Justinian, which was known as the Egyptian Plague, you'll recall was not as severe. It felt only fair that I up the stakes substantially for round 2. Of course in the long run people will do what they always do - look back at history and struggle to imagine a world where probably over 50% of the world population died between the Ragnarssen exchange and the Flowering flesh. I can even see people arguing in alternate history forums on the far future internet that such apocalyptic conditions are a necessary precondition of modernity, both philosophically, technologically and economically.

I love the name "flowering flesh", it's so viscerally disgusting.

Thank you. I felt that I had to do better than "Black Death" which was a challenge, given how grim and matter of fact that name is.

 

[B_Munro]

It has an almost Lovecraftian air to it.

 

[WotanArgead]

A fire erupted in Pataliputra, ruining the great city that had been the heart of the very concept of Indian Empire since the Gupta era. The holy Ganges was clotted with refugees, a mob of the diseased and dying seeking blessed healing in its waters. The truth was far more devastating, as pilgrims spread the flowering flesh like wildfire.
[The next post will cover the Rusichi and Kitai China in the pre-plague era. There's still a lot to get to before I move chronologically beyond the Great Plague, but I wanted to get this post done first. Hope everyone is understanding.]

Ino-Aryans got all the same. Well, Well, at least, would not be Muslim conquest.
Knowing the history, I can say that Mother Russia will get from this infection. By the way, if you need help with pre-Christian beliefs and folklore of eastern Slavs - please!

 

[Jon the Numbat]

The flowering flesh is indeed quite chilling, especially its worldly scale, a truly global apocalypse.

The emerging Kingdom in Haiti is in an interesting position. I don't know how long they'll last, but they could become a useful filter. Spreading knowledge they found from the Easterners to other areas where their contact was minimal. I guess it depends on how well they can weather the haitus. The Supreme Kings (or Queens) have alot of cultures to draw inspiration from.

I do wonder of the Island Caribs. Their expansion would occur at around this time OTL, but the plagues have likely butterflied these events in any recognizable form.

Did Hariprasad Abhivas and the Kapudesa land on any ports along Western Africa? The Niger delta and Congo mouth particularly? The Lower Niger already has growing kingdoms as you've shown. The kingdom of Kongo won't be born for another century in OTL, but considering the movement of people around the cape going both ways, I wonder if its emergence is accelerated at all.

Lastly, Have you any thoughts on the Andes? They're in the early/middle part of the Late Intermediate Period, a time of regionalism and specialization. If you need any aid with the region, or South America in general, I'd be happy to lend a hand.
Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions, these developments are so interesting, I can't wait to see what happens next!

 

[Practical Lobster]

It has an almost Lovecraftian air to it.

You're right, I think. Of course there's likely languages where it doesn't sound so horrific.

Ino-Aryans got all the same. Well, Well, at least, would not be Muslim conquest.
Knowing the history, I can say that Mother Russia will get from this infection. By the way, if you need help with pre-Christian beliefs and folklore of eastern Slavs - please!

I don't quite follow the first bit, but thank you for your offer.

I can say that the Sahputi are not much like the Muslim invaders of OTL - they have far more in common with the Saka or Eftal.

The flowering flesh is indeed quite chilling, especially its worldly scale, a truly global apocalypse.

The emerging Kingdom in Haiti is in an interesting position. I don't know how long they'll last, but they could become a useful filter. Spreading knowledge they found from the Easterners to other areas where their contact was minimal. I guess it depends on how well they can weather the haitus. The Supreme Kings (or Queens) have alot of cultures to draw inspiration from.

I do wonder of the Island Caribs. Their expansion would occur at around this time OTL, but the plagues have likely butterflied these events in any recognizable form.

Did Hariprasad Abhivas and the Kapudesa land on any ports along Western Africa? The Niger delta and Congo mouth particularly? The Lower Niger already has growing kingdoms as you've shown. The kingdom of Kongo won't be born for another century in OTL, but considering the movement of people around the cape going both ways, I wonder if its emergence is accelerated at all.

Lastly, Have you any thoughts on the Andes? They're in the early/middle part of the Late Intermediate Period, a time of regionalism and specialization. If you need any aid with the region, or South America in general, I'd be happy to lend a hand.
Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions, these developments are so interesting, I can't wait to see what happens next!

The Kapudesa did visit Africa, but that's another post for another time. I have plans there.

I have given a little thought to the Andes yet, but any assistance would be greatly appreciated, as I'm out of my element there. Private message me or we can talk here, if you like.

 

[Jon the Numbat]

I decided to post some information on the Andes here in case anyone might like to use it. I've labeled the cultural groups in bold so they'll be easier to find within the wall of text. The information gathered here is from the Cambridge History of Native peoples of the Americas: South America. Geographically they are listed from north to south.

Around the 1200s CE of OTL much of the Andes are in a renewed process of urbanism and regional development. The Wari and Tiwanaku polities that held so much influence during the Middle Horizon (CE 560-1000) have given way to new societies that have built upon their foundations or reacted to them. The succeeding Late Intermediate Period (OTL 1000-1476) is characterized by regional developments between different cultural groups. Diversity is the highlght of this era, and ancient legacies are remolded into new frameworks.

In coastal Ecuador lie the Manteño, Puna, and Duale polities. The Manteño chiefs were sovereign over diverse ethnic groups, and could organize campaigns against their neighbors. All three were centers of long distance trade in goods of great variety and value. Constructed here were mounds, stone platforms, ceremonial centers, plazas, temples, stele and heraldic wooden posts. Irrigation networks, drained swamps, as well as intensive terracing and raised fields were created for agriculture, where tomatoes, to potatoes and cotton were produced. Trade was wide ranging, from the Amazon, Colombia, Peru, and towards Central America. Waterborne trade was conducted via rafts of balsa wood.

In northern Peru near the Amazonas region lie the Chachapoya culture. These peoples built their homes on the slopes of cloud forests using stone and protecting themselves by ordering the construction of massive fortifications. Their noted for their fierce independence, the great walls of Kuelap representing one of their best known defensive works.

Along the north coast of Peru, the Chimu rise to prominence. The core territory of Chimu consists of the Moche Valley. Only much later did the legendary Chimu kings expand their domains beyond the valley.

In this land water is obtained by runoff from the mountains or from nearby wells. The Chimu thus organized monumental irrigation and hydraulic projects to secure this supply. This was accomplished through a corps of specialists who coordinated laborers through some kind of levy or tribute.

Our knowledge of Chimu's organization is based on accounts recorded to the Spanish by the kingdom's inhabitants, who still had living generations before Inca rule. The Chimu pantheon was headed by the moon goddess "Si," with the sun in second place. The leaders of the Chimu are known as the Great Lord, "Cie Quic." Surrounding them were a group of courtesans known as Pixlla whose prestige likely spared them from manual labor and in some cases tribute payment. Under these groups were the Pareng, the common workers of the country.

Social mobility was likely caste like and limited. Chan Chan, the capital and other cities were divided into four urban units: Citadels, intermediate architecture, ceremonial platforms, and popular living spaces. Citadels housed the Cie Quic and were the most highly ranked of buildings. Intermediate architecture included uniform luxurious walled spaces, housing the Pixlla and other nobles. Ceremonial platforms were utilized by priests, who judging from the smaller scale, represent a shrinking of priestly power. Popular spaces were irregular urban areas that held homes for servants, artisans, and merchants. A greater part of Chan Chan's population lived in villages and hamlets outside the city.

Metallurgy was extensive and large scale smelting took place in specialized workshops. Many of the products were utilitarian objects of bronze, such as wires and tweezers. Thus the Chimu and the Late intermediate period in general represent great strides in mass production of smelted metal objects and tools in the Andes.

Slightly north of Chan Chan in Lambayeque lies the Sican culture, a regional state which outlasted the Wari. Its growth was gradual and associated with one of the greatest irrigation works of the Andes. Constructed by the Sican was a multi-river canal system that turned the whole of the Reque to the La Leche rivers into a single Lambayeque irrigation valley. The Sican culture built immense adobe buildings and pyramids. Adobe buildings were accompanied by marks to register the contribution of labor teams to sacred construction. Exotic goods included turquoise and Lapis lazuli from the south, emeralds and shells from the north, and feathers and birds from the east. Metallurgy was well pronounced. Smelted copper was utilized for all sorts of utensils and adornments including so called "copper cards." These were thin sheets 5-7 centimeters long, tied to packets as grave offerings. A similar custom occured in Ecuador, where they were grouped in multiples of ten. They acted as units in the circulation of copper currency through an expansive trade network. The capital of Sican layed at Batan Grande until it was abandoned in the face of drought for Tucume.

South of Chimu lies Pachacamac, controled by the Ichma polity near Lima. Pachacamac was an important oracle center under the Wari, who elevated the site's importance through a network of roads. Following the end of the Wari, Pachacamac continued its urban structure while abandoning Wari's form of urban organization. Instead the site became the focus of a theocracy. The urban structures of the Ichma were strongly influenced by temples, which populated what is today neighborhoods of Lima.

North of Lima was the Chancay culture of the Chancay and Huara valleys. Urban centers such as Pisquillo Chico are large, with pyramidal platforms, ramps and plazas. Textiles, ceramics and metals were built along workshop regimens stressing mass production. Similarly to Chimu, the Chancay utilized an extensive irrigation network for their agricultural production.

Further south in the Chincha valley lies the aptly named Chincha culture, who reached great heights in urban development in the twelfth century. At least three great cities at Tambo se Mora, Lurinchincha, and Las Huacas combined agriculture and fishing with a vast array of merchants, navigators and travelers. The whole of the arable valley was occupied, with a trade network stretching from Ecuador to the altiplano of Titicaca. Goods were carried by deepwater sailing balsa rafts and llama caravans into the interior. Tombs excavated scales used to weigh metals. Unlike the Chimu, the Chincha's skill layed in widespread exchange rather than manufacturing.

A little further south in the Ica valleys, local chiefdom polities undergo urbanization in a way similar to the Chincha. Settlements were arranged around pyramidal platforms. The lords of the Ica were important consumers of the goods brought around by the Chincha's trade network.

The highlands from Huamachuco to Cusco were populated by Quecha speakers divided into a number of ethnic groups, with varying degrees of organization and settlement density. In the wake of the Wari much of the highlands see the construction of fortifications and walls, with villages relying on camelid herding and dryland agriculture. The groups of the north were known to the Inca as the Wanka, Chinchaycocha, and Tarama. These peoples practiced their subsistence strategies in the Puna grasslands. The Chinchaycocha occupied the puna pastures around lake Junin. The Tamara dwelled in the Tarma basin on Junin's eastern slopes, bordering the Amazonian peoples of the Chanchamayo.

The Wanka (or Huanca) constituted the largest group, whose settlements were associated with productive agriculture. During the 1200s Wanka settlements were concentrated near the edges of valleys. Adobe walls were built atop stone foundations to form circular floor planned buildings. They maintained contact to the rainforest to the east for coca production around the Tulumayo basin. Evidence of political tension hasn't been found at this time, instead occurring later in the 1300s, where population growth, stratification and fortresses characterize Wanka society.

The Quechua and Aru speakers further south between Junin and Titcaca inhabit the former Wari heartland. Here exist villages of circular houses, with conical roofs of straw and wood. Textiles and ceramics were made for local use. The decline of the Wari resulted in the expansion of fortifications and native lordships. It can be said that Wari's urban formations were abandoned but not its warrior culture. It is in this context that Cusco and the Killke culture appear. Towns of differing sizes rise to predominance. The Valley of Cusco was more peaceful than the neighboring Lucre Valley. Towns in the former were unprotected on slopes while the later were built atop hills and nearly all contained defensive systems. The Killke centers had an agrarian based urbanism in contrast to Wari and Chan Chan.

Cusco shared with other theocratic urban centers like Tiwanaku, kinship corporations built of lords and specialized officials. The biggest contrast however, palaces were as important as temples. Thus the system functioned through kings and governors and not priests. The Kingdom of Cusco arose through the organization of very productive rual agriculture and would have been one of many peoples of the Cusco and surrounding valleys.

Southward towards Lake Titicaca and its altiplano lie the Aymara polities. These were inhabited by pastoral peoples who practiced high altitude agriculture. It requires significant effort to maintain the microclimates of various altitudes. The aftermath of Tiwanaku is characterized by a lesser degree of use within the agricultural sector of the Titicaca basin, likely a response to droughts. The economics surrounding lake Titicaca rely on household networks' ability to access the lower altitude, ecologically distinct areas to provide what was absent in the home habitat. The distances between these ecological zones was great, necessitating a system of exchange or direct control of the production of goods. Often times part of the Altiplano population were relocated (often forcefully) to distant enclaves, in particular to the warmer valleys cultivate maize coca and peppers.

Sixteenth century documents mention two great polities existing to the west of Titicaca, the Qulla and the Lupaqa among others. They would've existed before the Inca expansion and likely as states in the 1200s. Both polities had hierarchical structures which were governed by rulers called Mallku, each commanding a province.

Lupaqa is the best known of the many Aymara polities, located further south and east of Qulla. After Tiwanaku's decline, the population increased and settlements grew in number and area, some surpassing 150 hectares. Population centers were built in quite high locations, 4,000+ meters above sea level. The elite were buried in tower tombs. These tombs dominated ritual and worship as opposed to the temples in other regions. Core polities were divided into a higher half and lower half, with the elite in the higher altitudes and commoners in lower lands. Each of the polities would seek to maximize the distribution of low altitude products to their own higher elevation domains. Controlling vast flocks of camelids, up to 50,000 heads, were of utmost importance to the elites. It is likely that these social structures existed on a similar scale in the lesser known Aymara polities.

These social, economic, and religious structures are likely to be placed under considerable stress once waves of disease reach them. The vast array of diverse regional cultures will mean that the reactions to these events will vary considerably.

That was a bit much wasn't it? Sorry for eating half the page. If you have any questions or need some elaboration feel free to ask however you'd like.

 

[Practical Lobster]

[That is awesome, John! I'm sorry I'm just now seeing it, but thank you. You really knocked this out of the park!

I want to apologize for being very busy and not having gotten much done. At this moment I have a wide range of unfinished posts in desperate need of further work. But rest assured they are coming. In the mean time, here's a very short post on Aleppo.

I don’t want to make this timeline political at all, but I really couldn’t help myself but to write this little bit, in honor of Gary Johnson. Whatever your ideology, I hope you find this a decent look into the history of one urban center in the world of the White Huns.]


What is Aleppo?

Ghalav, the Eftal named for Halab, known to the Romans as Beroea, [Aleppo] has been continually occupied by settlement for thousands of years, making it one of the oldest continually inhabited urban centers in the world. Greco-Roman urban planning gave the city, rebuilt by Seleukos Nikator, a distinctly geometric design, which still persists to this day in parts of the old city. Roman rule saw the construction of public forums and churches, particularly, late in the period of Roman rule, the Basilica of the Holy Assumption, which persisted until the Bakhtiyar sack of 1135, after which point the ruins were removed and a temple to Mihir-Manaf was built on the site.

With the rise of the Eftal, Beroea often found itself assailed by raiders, particularly the early Heshanids, whose conquest of the site led to it losing prominence in favor of more southern centers such as Emesa and Dimashakh. However, it did not fare as poorly in the Eftal-Roman wars as did coastal Syria, and unlike Antioch, escaped earthquakes, famine, and looting. By the seventh century, Ghalav was one of many Eftal urban centers scattered across Syria – and an important trade center near the terminus of the Silk Road. In this era, the Eftal citadel was constructed, a square and unostentatious building which would eventually be replaced in the Khardi era by a citadel that was both more luxurious and better defensible, connected to an elaborate system of cisterns.

Under the Khardi, Ghalav prospered. Ruled by an Eftal dynasty of local “satraps”, it played host to a large and cosmopolitan population, and represented a major center of trade. Arab merchants travelled to Ghalav before travelling on to Antioch. Barakh Solamish, the famed Tayzig polymath, was born in Ghalav in the late Khardi era, and his art and historical documents would rightly make him “the Bakhtiyar father of history” – one of the first historians in the Eftal tradition to write with a minimum of bias or excessive glorification of his subjects. His works both summarized and addressed the deficiencies of earlier historians, and for that he was little appreciated in his own time but greatly revered in later centuries.

It was under the Bakhtiyar, however, that Ghalav would truly come into its own, as a counterweight to the power of the Dimashakh Shahdom. The Bakhtiyar council of Ghalav would vastly expand and fortify the city, providing safe havens to Christians, Jews, and other persecuted groups against roving bands of Nowbahar thugs taking advantage of the Susa Anarchy, and Bajinak looters ranging across the Near East. It was the armies of Ghalav who dealt the deathblow to the Bajinak invasion of Syria at the battle of Edessa, and it was the Ghalavite armies who would form the most enduring and successful of the Syrian Bakhtiyar regimes.

 

[Ahigin]

Good little update. I'd love to see such mini-entries for other locations, technologies, and maybe personas of this timeline.

 

[TheInnerMoon]

A nice little update! Speaking of which, I am way late in commenting on this sequel, but rest assured, I am greatly enjoying it. I'll also be sure to continue what I would consider a fertile back-and-forth messaging! One idea I have is that you could, after some updates have passed, 'halt' the timeline and work on colouring in the details of bygone eras, in this or the previous thread. I find that White Hun World has great potential in eras already explored conventionally, and diving into it with some retroactive worldbuilding could be magnificent. Then again, some vagueness makes taking TTL into the future easier, as a lot can be retrofitted around established events. Whatever you do, I'll be sure to read it!

 

[Practical Lobster]

Shifu

Shifu [OTL Hangzhou] sits along the southern terminus of the restored Grand Canal, and in its pre-plague heyday, it was easily the rival of Kaifeng and Guangzhou, two cities which were often called by the poets the “Northern and Southern Jewels” of the Empire.

Between 1191 and 1204, the city was administered by the poet-bureaucrat An Juyi, who spent much of his career immortalizing the city he ruled and loved in song, noting the glass-clear lakes and rolling green hills which surrounded it, and the bustling cacophony of the Indian and Arab merchant quarters, where exotic goods from the west made their way inland. Under the Kitai, thanks in part to An Juyi, Shifu rose to a city of critical importance.

Juyi’s detractors claimed he was in the pocket of the Ayyadevi Guild – a powerful Chola and Vanga backed consortium of merchants. And while Juyi did make use of strong business links with the Chola, he did so to the enrichment of his native country. The Ayyadevi and their fellow guilds were granted special permits to trade within Shifu at reduced tariff rates, funneling and centralizing the patterns of East Asian trade. In return, the guilds were required to include local notables within their number, signing contracts which tied their fortunes directly to Chineses textile manufactories. The first multinational corporations were born out of Shifu’s clever practices – the vast wealth of China was turned towards buying stake in Chola companies, and despite some attempts by the various Indian guilds to regulate these practices, driven by fear of undue outside influence, these new joint-companies prospered.

Juyi also turned his attentions to the practical governance of the city. Using an intricate series of locks and dams, he was able to build a vast artificial harbor for the city, to combat the threat of silting and turn Shifu into a major shipbuilding center as well as a center of trade.

Along with its nearby rival, Jinshanwei, Shifu managed to negotiate the challenges of the great Plague. Despite vast depopulation and the flight of the investor class to rural estates, Juyi’s successors, including the famed polymath Lu Qiji, would restore the city to its former glory. Their policies reflected the novel Daoist theories of poet-philosophers such as Dongpo Jushi, who grew to adulthood among the horrific carnage of the Plague. They saw exoteric Buddhism, particularly as practiced by the Kitai, as an increasingly futile enterprise trying to govern the vast and inscrutable designs of humanity and nature. Governance, for Qiji and his radical contemporaries, was about accepting and working with the designs of the world, rather than attempting to enforce top-down changes from on high. Building projects such as Juyi’s Grand Docks were best left to private investors, rather than state investment – it was the state’s purpose to nurture investment but not to control it.

Naturally, these new philosophies, almost anarchic in their teachings, would be contested at every level by the Court in Kaifeng.


Networks before the Fall

The Sinosphere had many substantial advantages over the rest of the Eurasian continent, and indeed the world, in the twelfth century. The relative stability of nations such as Japan and China, the lack of warlordism and feudal relations all contributed towards economic prosperity and the growth of primitive industry. India and Malaya had an insatiable desire for Chinese finished goods, and traded their own rare commodities for cheap, affordable steel, fine chinaware, and superior silk textiles among many other trading goods.

The whole of the Sinosphere, especially China, had a vast literate population and a system of schooling and university which was unrivaled in its modernity. While some parts of India had many monastery-universities, the caste system limited the privilege of attendance even amongst the Buddhist schools, where it was more of an informal rule. A large literate and educated elite was a huge advantage in a premodern world where subliteracy reigned.

The Chinese traditions of state bureaucracy and strong centralization were also benefits, especially under the laissez-faire Kitai dynasty, which reserved the right to intervene while generally remaining aloof from small-scale practical concerns. In 1200, one would have been forgiven for assuming that China would rule the world. Reunited under the Kitai monarch, it embarked on a massive plan of state investment in the economy unparalleled by any previous ruler. The cycling Prime Ministers of Kitai felt that it was their right and duty to benefit the people and to ease the material concerns of their subjects – and it just so happened that what eased the material concerns of their subjects benefited the wealthy gentry who proved the investor class of Yaol China. They also established a sort of social welfare program, they first of its kind.[1]

Linked into a massive trading system that spanned Eurasia, China was able to leverage ancient technologies in new and profound ways. Perhaps the most notable was the introduction of bituminous coke to the steelmaking process. This change was revolutionary and came at the perfect time to forestall rampant deforestation to create charcoal. The use of hydraulic power to operate bellows, discovered perhaps two centuries earlier, was implemented en masse around this time as well. The earliest blossoming of industry brought great material wealth to those who invested in it.

Foreign merchants first identified the utility of this method several decades after the turn of the century, when a Gurjarati merchant managed to acquire knowledge of Chinese smelting techniques and hire several blacksmiths to return to Bharukaccha with him. From there the techniques spread like wildfire amongst the guilds and reached the Takasashila University in 1233, where monks began experimenting with the movement of superheated air.

The use of firepowder for mining was another revolution of the era. In 1143, the first records of explosive mining are found among a Nepalese guild. The experiment was an utter disaster, leading to the death of several hundred and a landslide, and is primarily recorded in a series of legal arguments brought before the local Raja, but the techniques would be refined – and their utility in siege warfare would not go unnoticed. Fast burning firepowder could be packed into tubes and used to drive metal rods deep into stone… or propel them into an onrushing horde of elephantry.

In 1203, the elephant armies of Surasena were devastated by a barrage of Sahputi “cannons.” Elephants could be trained to not fear the blast and roar of firepowder and even to weather a short barrage of shrapnel at range, but they could not help but panic when some of their number were dropped by solid iron projectiles hurled from metal tubes. The effect was magnified with thinking men, who feared being decapitated at range by an invisible blast of solid steel. These early weapons were not supremely effective – they were, like their predecessors, psychological. But slowly but surely, generals and thinkers were beginning to see further utilities. The polymath Ishwaradeva even considered mounting a large number of these tubes on the deck of a ship, but he was rebuffed. It would be madness to store such large quantities of firepowder aboard a ship, and to lubricate the swiveling joints he proposed would be a chore in the open elements.

Across the Indian subcontinent, finance and industry were reaching new levels. The interconnected world of the twelfth century fostered innovation and allowed rapid communication of ideas. Steelworking technology which once might have existed in relative obscurity was spread within mere decades across Eurasia. The discovery of further coalmines in other parts of the world might have been soon to follow. Inevitable revolutions of steam power and textile factories might have followed.

But the cusp of these great changes, unspeakable disaster struck.

[1] Depends on your perspective, I suppose.


The Great Rus Hans

Where the Khirichan held together a sprawling steppe Empire as a counterweight to the settled regime of the Franks, their immediate successors, the Kundajid, failed manifestly at keeping their state together. By 1110, it was already in a state of utter anarchy. Cities such as Tangrabad and Navitashita refused to pay tribute to nearby Pianjiqand, to say nothing of Apaxauda and the distant seats of far-off satraps who increasingly felt no connection to the Kundajid.

The Khirichan held together an Empire by raiding. Those who did not follow the dharma, those who worshipped one god instead of the many, all these were fair game in their eyes, and from the beginning of their regime to the end they were able to rally large armies in pursuit of plunder. But with the loss of Pannonia to a settled, reformed Xasar Empire, Europe was cut off as a target of raiding. Their only valuable targets were the Rus states, who had grown very organized and capable in recent centuries, and were correligionists besides. Flimsy justifications about false dharma and poor orthopraxy did little to rally the satraps against the “common foe” and when Satraps did raid the Chernarusichi, the Chernarusichi were unafraid to strike back hard.

The Kundajid allowed their satraps great autonomy to avoid rebellion, but this meant that the Chernarus Hans were seen as equals of the Khagan in Pianjiqand. In 1123, Darmaslav the Great changed his title to Velchihan, or Great King, coinciding with an aggressive campaign of expansion against the Gardaveldi and Sahu alike. Four years later, Darmaslav would add “Wheel Ruler” to his list of titles, though he would never wholly defeat the Gardaveldi.

The twelfth century was one of massive expansion for the Rusichi people, coinciding with a new era of royal authority and power. The Bylarusichi of Svayatapolk expanded aggressively against the Polonians, to “protect the community of believers” after the conversion of Poland to Chrsitianity.The Chernarus in particular benefitted from the weakness of their neighbors – to the east were scattered tribal peoples, to the south the chaos of the Kundajid Khagans, and to the north, an increasingly weak Wheel-Ruler.

Rusichi philosophers and wandering saints, the Volkhvs, denounced the heresy of the Darmahujr[1] as improper practice. Odin, they claimed, was a false Bodhisattva and a distraction from true revelation. His magic was not the magic of the Rus, but a bastardized and foreign magic. The Wheel-Ruler at the time, Arnmundr the Golden, however, was a weak man. In the past twenty years, the power of the local Assembly in Mikla Niragard had come to dominate the Wheel-Rulers.[2] The rise of this potent mercantile faction weakened the central authority of the Gardaveldi, and in many of the hinterlands the people actually came to identify more with their “cousins” in Chernarus than the Norse-speaking urban ruling class. This can be seen in how quickly Gardaveldi’s lost territories tended to fall in line with Darmaslav’s edicts and taxes.

The wars between the Rus and Gardaveldi were not, however, a foregone conclusion. The Gardaveldi were able to muster substantial military forces against the Rusichi, and between 1130 and 1140 won several major battles, including a shocking reversal at Toron’s Hold. However, the Rusichi dipped into deep manpower reserves, whereas the Wheel-Rulers generally relied on a small Norse elite and a massed levy of less than enthusiastic soldiers from the community.

The Druxhina, or Companions, of the Hans provided the Chernarus with a strong cavalry arm, equipped in the Turkish style as horse archers or heavily armored lancers depending on their wealth and status. It was these soldiers who fought in raids and expeditionary battles and complemented local community-raised militias. However, besides this elite corps there were few other even semi-professional forces in Chernarus. Some large towns and cities could call upon decently-well equipped forces, but these were few and far between, and generally cities sought to use their economic privileges to avoid having to muster men for war.

The Hans, starting with Darmaslav’s father Vladislav Anuxa, began to invest in the creation of a professional class of soldier drawn from the village communities which made up their realm. They mandated that villages provide a certain proportion of adult males in the martial arts, particularly the “bow and the long pole arm” and in exchange these men would be made exempt from all taxes and rents, but be subject to yearly examinations by state-appointed captains from the Druxhina. These newly exempted soldiers were expected furthermore to train their children to fight as well when they came of age, effectively becoming a secondary martial gentry of less wealth and privilege than true aristocrats, whose privilege was tied into a strict form of hereditary obligation to the state.

Called the “Men of the Assembly”[3] or the “Young Druxhina” these soldiers were crucial in the protracted wars that the Chernarus would wage to expand their state. The Turkish warlords of the Kundajid might win sporadic engagements, but they could never inflict enough losses to prevent their overall demise, and with each victory, more rich and fertile cropland fell under the rule of the Chernarusichi. This in turn led to massive unplanned urban growth. The agricultural bounty of “Sahustan” once sold south to Asia, was now sent north to feed the Rusichi cities. This new urbanization led to the office of mayor becoming increasingly coveted by the Druxhina, and those Companions who were able to secure a mayoral or palatine office quickly became a class of their own above their peers.

[1] The Gardaveldi Norse/Buddhist hybrid religion

[2] More to come on Gardaveldi later. For that matter, much more to come on the two Rusichi states, particularly Bylarus. There's a lot more going on in Eastern Europe.

[3] Though a very different sort of assembly than the Gardaveldi have.


[I rather agree with a lot of what you're saying, Batafour. Also, this world often feels like it's become far too large sometimes. There's too many places and too many changes. It would be nice to go back in time and focus on the small-scale from time to time.]