Kayamuca Empire

Kayamuca Empire
632–1314
Flag
Greatest extand of the Kayamuca Empire
Capital	Gadu
Government	Divine, Absolute Monarchy
Yevdinehi
• 632 - 6??	Kayamuca the Great
• 847 - 870	Aswam II
• 870 - 882	Tulsua the Weak
• 882 - 924	Asuye the Wise
History
• Established	632
• Siege of Gadu	1314
Preceded by Succeeded by Some Norumbian Kingdoms Some Oxidentaleses kingdoms Ayeli Caripe Belfras Mutul

The Kayamuca Empire was one of the largest and most developed empires in Oxidentalese and Norumbrian History. It was headed by a Yevdinehi and large territorial holdings in today Belfras, Tikal, Ayeli, Orun Redisus, and Mutul, and was the dominant power of the Kayamuca Sea around which their empire was centered.

From the 7th to the 9th century, the Kayamuca incorporated large portions of both Norumbria and Oxidentale either through conquests or peaceful assimilation. At its largest, during the 10th century, the Empire held eastern and southern Belfras, with a dense tributary network going deeper in the continent. In Oxidentale, it had control over all of what is now Caripe, the eastern regions of Mutul after assimilating the Chibchas,Lencas and Mixe kingdoms, plus defeating the last independents Mutals on the East Coast of the Xuman Peninsula. After the 11th century, the Empire would start a period of decline culminating into the Siege of Gadu by the Runakuna.

The Empire lingua franca was Tsalagi Wutagawi. Many form of local worship existed and co-habited inside the Empire, even if an Imperial Cult existed and the recognition of the divine nature of the Yevdinehi was mandated by the Kayamuca State.

History

Reconstruction of an early Wataslia village

The Kayamuca living in Ayeli spoke an Iroquoian language often considered to be part of the Southern Branch and distantly related to modern day Tsalagi Wutagawi spoken in Ayeli. They may have migrated from Belfras during the 1rst or 2nd Century CE, but there's no historical records from that period and the exact road they would've taken is unknown.

By the 5th century, the Kayamuca had formed an important state known as Wataslia in eastern Ayeli. Their culture was characterized by an heavily central state that had complete control over exchanges between settlements, and intense record keeping despite the lack of writing through the use of a rope-and-knots system. the Kayamuca heavily millitarized, conquered or vassalized neighbors one after the other, until that in 632 CE Kayamuca the Great united what is modern day Ayeli and the islands chain linking it to Orun Redisus. It's after him that both his people and his Empire were named, replacing the previous name of Wastagli and Wastalia.

In the 7th century CE, Kayamuca's successors conquered modern day Orun Redisus, but expanded quickly from their bases into both Mutul and some part of modern day Sante Reze. They also established colonies in Norumbia in what is today Belfras. The 8th century was characterized by an acceleration of their conquests, especialy in Norumbia, characterized with the mass deportation and the forced re-settlement of the defeated nations. In Oxidentale, they vassalized the [[wp|Lencas people|Lencas kingdoms}}, expanding their territory to the Mutul's borders. In the following Lencas Wars, the Kayamuca asserted their dominance over all of today eastern Mutul by afflicting a series of crushing defeats to the Chankuy Dynasty, forcing them to abandon all plans of subjugating the Lencas. It would be the start of a long series of conficts between the Chankuy and the Kayamuca Empire.

Kayamuca fortifications in Norumbia

The Empire reached its maximal expansion in 817 CE, when it took the region of Chaktemaal from the Chankuy Dynasty, establishing colonies in the Xuman Peninsula and putting a definitive end to the Mutul's maritime pretentions. What followed was a period of peace and prosperity for the Empire, lasting until the death of the Yevdinehi Answam II in 870 during a campaign against the Runakuna tribes in today Northern Sante Reze. His death sparkled a succession crisis among his brothers and nephews, completed with revolts and unrests in most of the peripheric regions, that lasted until 916 CE and the rule of Yevdinehi Asuye the Wise, who crushed both courtly factions opposed to him, quelled the various rebellions, and defeated both the Mutul and the Runakuna, thus securing the entirety of the Empire once more.

The period going from 916 to 1170 CE is considered to be the height of the Empire. This almost three century long period of prosperity, with few external and internal threats to the Kayamuca, was marked with the construction of many monuments, roads linking all the settlements of the Provinces, a density in maritime exchanges that wouldn't be seen again until centuries later during the Latin Empire.

An Atiwandaronk leader receive two inferior chieftains

The turning point for the Empire is generally considered to be the revolt of the Iroquoian speaking Atiwandaronk. The Atiwandaronk was the name given to a collection of independent iroquoian tribes who lived at the northern periphery of the Empire and nominaly paid tribute to the Kayamucas colonies. In 1163, a number of said tribes refused to pay the tribute, united in a confederation, and then started a long war against the Kayamuca Empire and its vassals. In 1171, the Atiwandaronk took, and possibly destroyed, the capital colony of Karumitma, the northenmost Norumbian province of the Empire. Many vassals understood the event as a sign of changing time and rebelled against the Kayamucas, and the uprisings quickly spread from the north to the south. While not all these rebellions were successfuls, the Empire became dependent on a number of powerful Warlords to keep the borders in check, and the authority of the Yevdinehi was greatly diminished.

The Empire was also threatened by the re-emergence of an old rival : during all of the 11th century, the Mutul had broke down in a collection of warring states in a period known as the Cousins War. This war was officialy ended when in 1099, K'ukumatz, Ajpop of the K'iche, was crowned K'uhul Ajaw, following a successful series of military campaigns that re-united the Mutul. In 1203, Jasaw Chan K'awiil III launched a vast campaign against the Kayamuca colonies in the Xuman Peninsula and the Yevdinehi had to give up large quantities of ressources to obtain a truce. Between 1205 and 1211, the same Jasaw Chan K'awiil III once again humiliated the Empire by damming the Lakamja River, preventing the Kayamuca from sending reinforcements to their Lencas vassals who were all conquerred one after the others. After the conquest of the Lakamja River valley and associated territories, the Mutul was now directly threatening what was considered to be the "core" provinces of the Empire.

A Latin representation of Yevdinehi Aman

In 1216, Yevdinehi Tudehi died without a heir. Aiming to restore the Empire to its former glory, the court elected Aman, the younger brother of Tudehi, as the new Emperor. Aman had served as a general both against the Mutuleses and the Runakuna and was popular in the Oxidentaleses possessions of the Empire, where the Imperial system remained active. Aman tried to restore the Imperial Authority over Norumbia, which led to a massive insurrection of all the warlords and nominal vassals who had carved up their own petty kingdoms and where unwilling to give up their gains. Despite some successful campaigns, the Kayamuca were unable to re-establish a permanent foothold on the continent and wasted both manpowers and ressources for almost no significant gains. Yevdinehi Aman died during one of these campaigns, and his successors abandoned his projects, concentrating their efforts on preserving their territories in Oxidentale. They nonetheless kept loosing ground to the Mutuleses who launched campaigns after campaigns against them.

Past any possible recovery despite some reform attempts by Yevdinehi Wesana betwenn 1261 and 1280, the Kayamuca definitively fell when a confederation of Runakuna tribes launched a massive onslaught against the Empire. In 1313, the Runakuna reached Gadu, the Imperial capital, and after a year long siege, destroyed it in the early months of 1314. This event, and the resulting execution of most of the Imperial family, is generally used by the historians to mark the end of the Kayamuca Empire.

Society

Languages

The lingua franca of the Empire was Tsalagi Wutagawi, an Iroquoian language, spoken in all the core provinces and the colonies. Historians are divided on the question of wether the first Wutagawi speakers arrived on Ayeli from the south of modern days Belfras, or if they immediately branched off from the Northern Iroquoian speakers, reached the island, and its only through later colonisation of Belfras that Southern Iroquoian languages started to be spoken there.

Tsalagi Wutagawi was an oral language only and it seems no record of it was kept. There is no literary work or poetry left of it either. Instead, all the records, all the census, and all the informations necessary for the correct gestion of such a vast empire were kept by using a Rope-and-knots system, but also through the patterns of pieces of cloths and textiles. This method of recording is commonly nicknamed the "Code of Shapes and Colors.

Code of Shapes and Colors

An example of a Kayamucan Tunic

The main form of communication and record-keeping in the empire. It was an uniformized code, used all thourough the empire by trained scribes, even if most subjects of the Kayamuca had some form of limited understanding of this code. It was recorded mainly through a Rope-and-knots system, but also on pieces of textiles and clothings. These codified symbols, generally geometric shapes of various colors and patterns, allowed to carry information without the need for a written, uniform language, uniting the multiethnic and diverse populations of the Empire.

Clothings

Kayamuca subjects were not free to wear the clothes they wished. Clothing was used by the Authorities as a form of identity card, telling of its wearer's rank, work, ethnicity, and geographic origins. A famous example was the black and white checkerboard reserved to soldiers in service. Commoners would receive only two pieces of clothing, a casual and ceremonial one, to be replaced only once they had been completely worn out. They also couldn't be altered without the permission of the government.

Clothes was divided into three classes. The first class was for household use and either made from wool in the Norumbian Provinces or hemp in Oxidentale. Finer clothes were either woven by males keepers of fine cloth from wool or cotton collected as tributes, or by Akla, female sacred virgins associated with a temple. The latter was for imperial and religious uses only and had thread counts of 300 or more per inch, unsurpassed anywhere in the world, until the Industrial Revolution.

Metalwork

The Kayamucas made objects of gold, silver, copper, bronze and tumbaga. The best metal workers were generally transfered from other Provinces of the Empire to either Ayeli or Gadu. Some of the common bronze and copper pieces included sharp sticks for digging, club-heads, knives with curved blades, axes, chisels, needles and pins. Gold and silver were common themes throughout the palaces of the Yevdinehi and all of the temples of the empire where Headdresses, crowns, knives, cups, and a lot of ceremonial clothing were all inlaid with gold or silver.

The Kamayucan art was distinctively geometrical, and their metalworking was no exception. They would put diamonds, squares, checkers, triangles, circles and dots on almost all of their work. Even when animals, insects, or plants were represented, they were very block-like.

The wearing of jewellery was not uniform throughout the empire. Oxidentaleses populations for example, especially their artisans, continued to wear earrings long after their integration. Meanwhile in Norumbia, only local leaders wore them.

Food and Agriculture

Staples included vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish. Due to this lack of large game, especially on the archipelago, the Kustakunians became very skilled fishermen. One technique was to hook a remora to a line secured to a canoe and wait for the fish to attach itself to a larger fish or even a sea turtle. Once this happened, men would jump into the water and bring in their assisted catch. Another method was to take shredded stems and roots of poisonous senna shrubs and throw them into nearby streams or rivers. Upon eating the bait, the fish were stunned just long enough to allow the fishermen to gather them in. This poison did not affect the edibility of the fish.

But the Kayamuca were still predominantly agricultural. Fields for important root crops, such as the staple yuca, were prepared by heaping up mounds of soil improving soil drainage and fertility as well as delaying erosion. Meanwhile, maize was raised in simple clearings created by slash and burn technique or, in the more mountaineous islands and provinces, using terraces. Generally, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yuca, alongside other roots, were among the most important crops.

It's not until the Kayamuca would start conquering continental lands that they would start to turn corn into flour and then bread. Before that, it was cooked and eaten off the cob. Corn bread becomes moldy faster than cassava bread in the high humidity of the Kayamuca Sea. Corn also was used to make an alcoholic beverage known as chicha. Squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and pineapples. Tobacco, calabashes (West Indian pumpkins), and cotton were also grown. Other fruits and vegetables were collected from the wild and later from man-made forests.

Several species of seaweed were part of the Kayamuca diet and could be eaten fresh or dried. Some freshwater algae and blue algae of the genus Nostoc were eaten raw or processed for storage or boiled in sugar to make a dessert.

Economy

The Empire had a thriving economy and trade network, with a coinage originally based on sea shells, though cocoa beans, silver, and gold would all see use. Every region was tasked with acquiring the Empire a large amount of resources as tribute, the contents depending on what was supposed to be produced in that region.

Government

Organization

The Kayamuca Empire was a federalist system consisting of a central government and eighteen provinces, plus two "federal district" : the island of Ayeli and the city of Gadu. Each of the provinces was ruled by an Ugawiyuhi. Then, the Provinces were divided into Hurin division, until the smallest division which was the Ayllu, the local community, led by a Malku.

Administration

The Yevdinehi was the supreme judge and lawgiver, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and sole designator of official nominees appointed to the top posts in central and local administration. The Chief Priest was second to the Yevdinehi and was often his brother or cousin. By the end of the Empire, he also acted as a Field Marshal. Local religious traditions continued, with important figures such as the Oracle of Kayaka gaining official recognition from the central government.

Under the Yevdinehi was the Privy Council, made of the most powerful men in the kingdoms and friends of the Emperor. Then there was the Council of the Realm, which acted as the legislative body of the Empire, made of fourty-four members : two for each Provinces and Federal Districts.

While provincial bureaucracy and government varied greatly, the basic organization was decimal. Taxpayers – male heads of household of a certain age range – were organized into corvée labor units (often doubling as military units) that formed the state's muscle as part of public service. The smallest corvée units, the Decuria and the Quinquadecuria, are headed by non-hereditary leaders. Meanwhile, Centuria and units of larger size were headed by hereditary leaders, directly taken from the local aristocracies. The largest corvée units of the Empire was made of a thousand Decuria, or 10,000 men in total.

Army

Not technologically superior than the people they conquered, the Kayamuca shined through their logistic and engineering performances. Every able bodied male of fighting age had to take part in war in some capacity at least once and to prepare for warfare again when needed. A Corvée unit was thus also a military unit.

Beyond this levy-based military, the Kayamuca maintained a large navy that also serve to transport economic goods, tributes, and taxes during peace time. At first, they used large Balsa, ships made out of reeds, for the transport of both goods and men, alongside various canoe and rafts. These canoes and rafts then evolved to create various types of boats of the catamaran family and then Trimaran. These permanent fleet were vital for the Empire and most of the budget was spent on maintaining and building more ships and recruiting more permanent sailors.

Once Kayamuca troops had landed, they could rely on a large network of roads and causaways coursing through the various Provinces which allowed for quick movements. A Kayamuca soldier moved without his equipment or any provision, instead relying on storehouses built at regular intervals near the road for their food supply when moving and equipment once they reached their destination. Rather than rely on homestaying, troops slept in administrative shelters also built at regular distance from one another. This meant that Kayamuca soldiers could cover vast distance without worrying about supplies or material. Maintaining this road, storehouse, and shelter network was the main concern of the Provinces and Imperial Inspectors principal task was to check all warehouses were correctly supplied.

The main weaponry of Kayamucan soldiers included hardwood spears launched using throwers, arrows, javelins, slings, bolas, clubs and maces. Maces-heads could be made out of copper or bronze. Armor included wood, leather, and/or wool helmets, sometime lined with copper or bronze, shields made out of wood and hides, and cotton tunics with small wooden pads. Ceremonial elements used to distinguish units or commanders included metallic breastplates and feathers.

Arts and technology

Monumental architecture

A Kayamuca colony in Norumbia

A characteristic of the Kayamuca Empire was the use of large stoneblocks cut in such a way than they would fit together so well that a knife could not be fitted through them. They managed to do so by repeatedly lowering a rock onto another and carving away any sections on the lower rock where the dust was compressed. This technique was developed on Ayeli during the 2nd and 3rd century CE before the Kayamuca exported it to the rest of the Empire. But with time, this kind of construction became limited to a few monuments, temples, and administrative buildings of extreme importance.

In Norumbia, they adopted from the pre-Kayamuca Mont Builders populations the practice of building raised platforms and platform mounds. Almost all Kayamucan colonies in Norumbia showed the use of these earthwork as support for traditional Kayamucan stonework. They were then later exporter to Ayeli and then the rest of the Empire. The Kayamucas thus became excellent at shaping their environment, from artificial mounds with monumental constructions, raised causaways, terraces, platform farming, raised plazas, and so on.