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===Founding===
===Founding===
Following the collapse of the Bayarid Empire in 1147 CE, the area of what is now Uluujol fragmented into numerous competing states. In the west, the [[Karda|Shahdom of Karda]] and [[Buminid Khanate]] fought for control of the area between the [[Chuyan Sea]] and the [[Periclean Sea]], while weathering depredations of the [[Osorid Khanate]] to the north. To the south and east of the Chuyan Sea, the [[Xhorasem|Shahdom of Xhorasem]] and the [[Altunid Khanate]] (sometimes referred to as the Ozhekhanate]] battled for supremacy, as well as facing invaders from the south and east. To the east, the headwaters of the Great Chu River saw conflict and conquest between the southeastern [[Tali|Kingdom of Tali]], the [[Lo|Lo State]], and, in the northeast, the Bayarid rump state of [[Aspanaken|Ikdemid Khanate]]. Smaller petty states also appeared in the wake of the Bayarid collapse, although these had mostly been conquered or reduced to protectorate status by the dawn of the 13th century.
The Jade Road Khaganate was largely the result of the conquests and consolidation of various post-Bayarid realms under the aegis of the central [[Blue Horde (Ajax)|Blue Horde]]. Its primary opposition were the other post-Bayarid states, including the western [[Qavarjeri#History#Red Horde|Red Horde]], the northern [[White Khanate|White Horde]], the [[Lo|Lo State]], and, importantly, the [[Nanjut people|Nanjut Federation]]. While many of these others fell to conquest, the last of these would join the Blue Horde in a dynastic union, with the prince Niri wedding the Nanjut princess Shui in 1395 to seal the Treaty of Eternal Friendship. Niri, the heir to [[Ozgur II Khan]], and Shui, sole surviving child of [[Mutengge IV Khan|Mutengge IV of Nanjutia]], effectively merged the two dynasties, with their new combined realm ultimately to be ruled by their eldest son, [[Ozkan I of Uluujol|Ozkan I Khagan]]


The first major consolidation occurred in 1227 when a Lo army successfully captured the city of Tali, and then, a year and a half later in 1229, [[Viangsavan]] fell. In 1235, the de-facto city state of [[Lavangnoa]] fell to the Lo invaders, who would rule Tali & Lo as one realm for the next fifty years. Meanwhile, to the west, the Buminids swept west to the Periclean, conquering the whole of Karda by 1263, only to lose several of their eastern provinces, including the capital of [[Samakent]] to Altunid forces.
===Early Empire===
 
Efforts to centralize the governance of the Khaganate and improve trade routes were energetically pursued by Ozkan and his immediate successors,
In 1289, the old Lo capital of Lojing fell to Ikdemid invaders, who rolled south through the mountains and into Tali and the Eastern Chu Basin. By 1295 Lo-ruled Tali had fallen, and Lavangnoa had surrendered to Ikdemid forces. Cuyen II of the Ikdemids proclaimed himself "Emperor of Tali, Lo, and Aspanaken".
 
In 1311, a the long war between the Buminids and Altunids ended with the [[Firuzabad|fall of Firuzabad]], with the Altunids dispatching the remainder of the Buminid leadership and subsuming their clan. A year later, Timur II Khan would be killed in battle against a Xhorasemian invasion of the Altunid Khanate. After an unfavorable peace had been concluded, Timur's son, Arslan Khan, would mend the Khanate's armies before invading Xhorasem in retaliation in 1317. The Xhorasemian armies fell quickly, and the capital of the same name was captured the following year. However, it would be another decade before Arslan's forces were able to sufficiently pacify Pathestan or Irmestan to consider the conquest of Xhorasem complete.
 
With most of what is now Uluujol squarely in the hands of the Altunids and Ikdemids by 1330 CE, the two states quickly found reasons to feud over the divided Chu River Valley. A series of three wars (1338 - 1341, 1346 - 1348, and 1350 - 1354) saw minor territorial changes, but neither side able to gain the upper hand.
 
The two states would be forced into cooperation when the Osorid Khanate, long focused elsewhere, erupted into the Chu Valley, invading both states as they fought in 1354. A peace was hastily concluded between the Altunids and Ikdemids, who turned their attention to repelling the fierce invaders. Although they were successful in repelling the [[The Osorid Invasions|First Osorid Invasion]] (1354 - 1356), others would follow in 1360, 1367, 1372, and 1380. Counter-invasions helped slow the invasions, but a violent equilibrium had set in by the 1390's, with the Osorids intermittently raiding either the Altunids or Ikdemids, who themselves alternated cooperation and conflict.
 
In 1395, a meeting between the Altunid [[Ozgur II of Ozhe|Ozgur II Khan]] and the Ikdemid [[Mutengge IV Khan]] in the city of [[Dashken]] bore fruit; a treaty of eternal friendship and alliance was signed, sealed by the marriage of Ozgur's son, Niri, to Mutengge's daughter Shui. As Shui was Mutengge's only surviving issue (his two sons, Fiyanggu and Cuyen had both perished fighting the Osorids), when the Chanyu died in 1416, Shui succeeded him. Also part of this alliance was a resolution to finally dispose of the Osorids; in 1397, a joint Altunid-Ikdemid army rode north, and over a series of 3 years, annihilated the Osorid Khanate, incorporating it into the new joint realm that Niri and Shui ruled jointly beginning in 1404. When they died (Niri in 1428, Shui in 1432), their eldest son, [[Ozkan I of Uluujol|Ozkan]] was crowned Khan of Khans of what had become known as the Jade Road Khanate.


==Territorial Extent==
==Territorial Extent==

Revision as of 19:18, 1 July 2023

Land of the Great Road
Uluujoldunjeri
1432–1739
Banner of the Khaganate of the Great Road
Flag
StatusDefunct
CapitalOzhe
Common languagesOzhi
GovernmentAbsolute Elective Monarchy
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Marriage of Niri of Ozhe & Shui of Lo
1395
• Coronation of Ozkan I
1432
• Fall of Ozhe
1739
Preceded by
Blue Khanate
White Khanate
Nanjut Federation

Uluujoldunjeri (from Ozhchuyan, literally "Land of the Great Road"), commonly referred to as simply Uluujol (uː-luː-ʒɒl), sometimes rendered as Yuzol or called the Great Road Khaganate or Jade Road Khaganate, was a land empire located in central Ochran. Situated along major east-west overland trade routes between Belisaria & the Periclean Basin and Eastern Ochran, the realm was a primary political hegemon in Central Ochran, and a successor realm of the Bayarid Empire. In the present, the lands occupied by the Khaganate include the nations of Untsangasar, Shimlar-Pashmir, and [other nations].

Unlike its Bayarid predecessor, Uluujol was created through a mix of conquest and dynastic unifications, with the final and most major one being the marital union of the Chuyan Khanate in the west and the state of Lo in the east, in which the two eventual heirs of the Khanates, Niri of Ozhe and Shui of Lo wedded. The couple ruled the combined realm together, and when they passed on both thrones were united in the person of their son, Ozkan. Ozkan's descendents would rule the realm for the next three hundred years, until the War of the Banners would effectively destroy the Ozkanid powerbase and would leave the state a shell of its former self, finally destroyed for good by the burgeoning Zilung Empire, the resurgent White Horde, a nascent Qavar Khanate, and independence movements in Shimlar-Pashmir.

The Khaganate was central to Ochranic history and politics during the approximately three hundred years of its existance, due to its central position and influence over the overland trade to eastern Ochran.

History

Founding

The Jade Road Khaganate was largely the result of the conquests and consolidation of various post-Bayarid realms under the aegis of the central Blue Horde. Its primary opposition were the other post-Bayarid states, including the western Red Horde, the northern White Horde, the Lo State, and, importantly, the Nanjut Federation. While many of these others fell to conquest, the last of these would join the Blue Horde in a dynastic union, with the prince Niri wedding the Nanjut princess Shui in 1395 to seal the Treaty of Eternal Friendship. Niri, the heir to Ozgur II Khan, and Shui, sole surviving child of Mutengge IV of Nanjutia, effectively merged the two dynasties, with their new combined realm ultimately to be ruled by their eldest son, Ozkan I Khagan

Early Empire

Efforts to centralize the governance of the Khaganate and improve trade routes were energetically pursued by Ozkan and his immediate successors,

Territorial Extent

Politics

Uluujol was an absolute monarchy, in which the Khagan was elected upon the death of the previous Khagan from among the eligible members of the imperial house by their kin. The members of the imperial house, along with high officials, and representatives of a number of other prominent houses, both Chuyan and elevated from among the Khaganate's subject peoples, formed the Imperial Shuukh (Imperial Court), in which all power was vested as an extension of the Khagan's will.

Selection of the Khagan

At the death or abdication of a Khagan, a new Khagan must be chosen. The Khagan is elected by the Imperial Clan from among the previous Khagan's descendants: to be eligible, a person must be either child of the Khagan (and, if an Ekinji Bala, adopted into the dynasty formally) or an immediate blood relative (generally a sibling or the legitimate child thereof).

The new Khagan is voted on by all members of the dynasty with three degrees of separation or less with the most-recent Khagan: this means, functionally, the Khagan's spouse (if they are alive), their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents (if they are alive), their great-aunts and great-uncles, their aunts and uncles, first-cousins (aunt's and uncles' children), their siblings, their nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and the Khagan's own children, grandchildren and, potentially, great-grandchildren. It should be noted that this number does include members of the Ekinji Bala.

In most cases, the previous Khagan designates their desired successor. If a Khagan does so, that designated successor will mount the throne unless three-quarters of the Imperial Clan's members vote to block them from the throne.

Should the designated successor be blocked (or if one is not named), the next-eldest son (or, if no sons survive, eldest daughter) of the previous Khagan is considered heir-apparent, and will mount the throne unless two-thirds of the dynasty vote to block them from the throne.

Should neither the designated successor nor the eldest heir (or next-eldest, if the designee was the eldest child) be permitted to the throne, each of the Khagan's descendents will be voted on in succession order: their spousal children in order of birth for males, then in order of birth for females. Should none of them receive a simple majority of votes to ascend the throne, the designee will be voted on again, this time requiring only a simple majority of votes to ascend the throne. If there is no designee, or they fail again, the eldest (or next-eldest)(preferably-male) heir is voted on with the same criteria.

Should the designee and the Khagan's children all fail to garner enough votes, the Khagan's siblings, nephews, and nieces follow. The eldest brother will be voted on first, then their sons, then daughters, and then the next eldest brother (or, if there isn't one, the eldest sister), and then their children in the same process. In the event that none of the previous Khagan's siblings, nephews, or nieces is able to mount the throne, then either the designee (if there is one), or eldest surviving spousal offspring will mount the throne anyway.

In practice, the throne rarely passes to anyone other than the previous Khagan's children, and it is very unlikely for anyone but a designee or eldest legitimate heir to take the throne, due to the initial votes requiring high thresholds to prevent, rather than confirm, their ascent.

Ekinji Bala

Main article: Ekinji Bala

The Ekinji Bala are children of the Khagan born to anyone other than their spouse. In almost all cases, members of the Ekinji Bala (literally "secondary children") are born to one of the Khagan's concubines. They exist in a legal gray area: they are not full members of the Imperial dynasty, despite bearing the Khagan's clan name. As such, they cannot inherit the throne under normal circumstances.

Ekinji Bala are generally well-educated and raised as part of the Imperial clan, groomed either to be married off to pursue dynastic alliances, or for placement as high-ranking officials. In the event of either a failure to produce a legitimate heir who survives to adulthood, or in the event of an Ekinji Bala distinguishing themselves to a significant extent, a Khagan can elevate them into the Imperial Clan. When this occurs, they are considered on equal footing to a child produced by the Khagan with their spouse, although for line of succession purposes they are considered to be younger than any of the children fathered by the Khagan with their actual spouse.

The status of Ekinji Bala is hereditary within one generation: the children of a child of the Khagan are also considered to be Ekinji Bala. However, if they are not elevated into the Imperial Dynasty proper, or fail to marry back into it, their children will simply belong to the second-generation spouse's clan.

In dynastic politics, Ekinji Bala are considered important to the election of a new Khagan (at the death or abdication of the previous one): although non-elevated Ekinji Bala cannot take the throne themselves, they do vote on the ascent of the next Khagan, meaning that placating or alienating them can make ascension easier or more difficult for a would-be heir apparent.


Because Ekinji Bala are often fast-tracked to high-ranking positions in government and civil service, there have been several noteworthy members of the class in the Khaganate's history. Noteworthy current members include Governor Baraz Yu of Osh Province, Governor Darya Fahadi of Samarqand Province, Minister of Health Azar Yu, actress Lan Yu, and Xi'an Mayor Aysen Yu.

Foreign Relations

Main article: Foreign Relations of Uluujol


Economy

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