Antarita

Kingdom of Antarita Hilingling Mrang Bhiloba
819 BCE - 615 CE
Capital	Khri Nyi Ma
Common languages	Mrang, Tshale
Religion	Jyoho Satyism
Government	Ecclesiocracy
Lama
• 819 - 781 BCE	Thenba
History
• Established	819 BCE
• Disestablished	615 CE

The Antarita Kingdom (Mrang: Hilingling Mrang Bhiloba meaning "Sun rays pierce the land") was an ancient Rygyalic theocratic state within modern Phula. One of the Big Three of antiquity, Antarita is remembered due to the unusual nature of its existence. Whereas most theocratic states of the area would prove to by collections of villages around Satyist monasteries, Antarita was an active and aggressive empire run by an administration of warrior-monks practicing a variant of the traditional Jyoho faith indigenous to many of Phula's Rygyalic peoples. Under these monks, Antarita was able to hold out against the pressures of surrounding states for nearly 1500 years. For this reason, a strong sense of national identity persists in Mrang and Tshale people to the present day, and they celebrate their rich cultural legacy with pride.

Foundation

Antarita was founded in a period of strife. Hyndic migrants had become known across the mountains and valleys as fierce and relentless raiders, and many small agricultural communities were left exposed to raids, kidnappings, and banditry on part of the Avanidhara. Some refugees began to organize around monasteries, seeking faith and charity in their time of need. The monks, in their practice, offered help to the villagers. Trained in martial arts as a means of physical fitness, concentration, and discipline, the Jyoho monks also acted as a deterrent to banditry. Their defensible mountain fortresses, doubling as temples, formed a formidable line of defense against raids. As more refugees flocked to their protection, the monks began to take an active role and sought out further villages. Although initially peaceful, they began to bring armed soldiers along- forcefully incorporating villages if they would not join the ranks willingly. Within due time, the monks took unto themselves an early type of holy war against the Hyndic invaders, declaring their Jyoho faith to demand the blood of the enemies.

The rise of Lama Thenba

Lama Thenba, first executive leader of Antarita, gained his position through scholarship and excellence. He was known as the most pious man in all the land between Hyndana and Great Song. Despite his militaristic nature, he was said by contemporaries and later writers to have been a compassionate man in line with many Satyist ideals, and furthermore an avid scholar. Taking power in 819 BCE, Thenba's coronation ceremony was said to mark the official birth of Antarita as a proper political entity, and his unified authority over the temples of the land would build a kingdom that lasted over a millennium.

Thenba's early reign is not as well documented as much of the rest of his reign. This was because Antarita at the time lacked a written system. Inspired by the precision with which the Avanidhara kept records, contracts, and knowledge, Thenba formed his own script to be used more compatibly with the Rygyalic languages present in his lands. This script would later become known as the Rygyalic script and used across early all Rygyalic languages with the later spread of Satyist merchants, scholars, and priests.

The first written document from Antarita was a large stone monument outside the main palatial monastery in Khri Nyi Ma. It stands today, polished black stone with golden embedded characters, detailing the tenets of the Mrang monks of the area and, by extension, of Antarita. The tenets were as follows:

1. Protect the weak, who may not protect themselves
2. Protect the temple, most sacred of places
3. Protect the faith, which must be maintained at any cost
4. Protect the people, let not the blood of your friend ever be shed
5. Protect the land, for all life is honored
6. Protect the law, as without it there is no order
7. Protect the harmony, imbalance is the doom of the world
8. Protect the good, and allow righteous seeds to bloom
9. Protect the cause, keep it burning in your heart
10. Prepare to die for these things

The coming years would document hundreds of laws, contracts, and minor events throughout the kingdom. Thenba himself was often quoted in scholarly works, and from these quotes it is seen that he called for violence against "nonbelievers" like the Avanidhara, calling them "pirates" and "barbarians", and openly implementing legal discrimination against them. Lama Thenba is a controversial figure to this day, sparking debate over whether his comments were justified, whether his piety overcame his anger, and many other issues surrounding the complex relationship between Antarita and its surrounding states.

In his later years, Thenba seemed to be mentally disturbed. He claimed in 797 BCE that he had ascended to a higher level obf faith and piety, and that his gracious ancestors had begun to directly contact him. By 792, Thenba began to discuss what he called the "War in Heaven", the invasion of the spirit realm by demons. He complained of dark voices compelling him to impiety, and stated that he heard the screams of his ancestors as they fought against the invasion. The "Decade of Madness" followed this, whereby Thenba began to implement severe measures to uphold his piety and purity, as well as instituting greater levels of sacrifice of material goods to help with the "War in Heaven". In 781, shortly before his death, Thenba secluded himself in meditation for three weeks without food or water. He was found dead five days after beginning, his body mummified in a position of prayer.