Itayana

Itayana
Flag of the Solar Temple of Yanbango
Largest city	Asima
Spoken languages	Kaayana
Ethnic groups (2020)	89% Amayana 11% others
Demonym(s)	Amayana
Establishment
• First unification of Karana	c.100 BC
• Yanbango Capitulation	1375
• Second unification of Karana	1548
• Dissolution of the Second Realm	1875
• Teno-Amayana War	1946-1947
• Unifying Revival	1950-present
Date format	dd:mm:yyy:cc
Driving side	right

Itayana is a region and a former polity situated in southern Scipia, bordering Charnea to the north, M'biruna to the east and one of the Nine Cousins of Sante Reze to the west. Geographically, the area is centred around fertile basin of the Karana river and the lower basin of the Imo river, while the eastern part consists of the Makgato Plateau, the source of Karana. Its most populous ethnic group is Amayana people, spread across the area, with other groups including Zarma and Imbesu people.

Earliest traces of human activity in the area basins have been dated 30,000 BC and the first civilizations emerged circa 2000 BC. The first notion of a distinct Itayana culture appeared around 100 CE when Karana and Imo basins were unified by what was later named the First Realm; its territory would eventually expand to encompass the entire southern Scipia and Agala by 800 CE. After internal instability caused by the first rise of the Solar Cult, the First Realm entered a period of decline, ending abruptly with invasion of 1370-1375 by Ninvite nomadic tribes led by Ihemod, causing devastation in the Makgato Plateau and subjugating the rest of the area. After 150 years of being a tributary of the Ihemodian empire, priesthood of the Solar Temple of Yanbango reasserted control over both basins, establishing the Second Realm in 1548. Further campaigns expanded the Realm significantly, but infighting within the priesthood reverted much of the outlying gains. The rest of the Second Realm collapsed by 1875 after a series of wars; much of the Imo Basin was lost, while the rest split on independent governorate cliques with population decimated by several pandemics.

1946 invasion of Itayana by Charnea started process of the Unifying Revival, facilitated further by participation of the Itayana expeditionary corps in the Ninvite War. However, the process proceeded in different paces in the Makgato Plateau and the lower Karana basin. Governorates of the Plateau consolidated into the Amayana Makgato Federation by 1989, while the lower Karana and Imo polities consolidated under the Yanbango Temple into the Itayana Solar Autocracy in 1996. The Central Karana War of 2010 indicated the last attempt of the AMF to reunify the region by force, stopped by the Temple's armies, and Makgato failure and the subsequent status quo ante bellum put the Revival on halt.

Etymology

The name Itayana is an exonym derived from the Kaayana word Itayana, with the stem -yana- meaning "one" and the prefix ita- indicating action in progress. The word was first used as a nomen in 1632 in the traveling notes of XXX XXX in an evident mistake that was replicated in further works. It is generally not used within the area to denote any state or national affiliation, but instead as the name of the religious philosophy of the Yanbango Temple, usually translated directly as "Acting Oneness". In contrast to the exonym, the ethnic group name, Amayana, derived from the same stem with the prefix ama- (people, multiple), is a generally accepted name of the people inhabiting the region; similarly, Kaayana, derived from the stems -kaa- (corporeal soul) and -yana- (one), is the official name of the language spoken in the area.

History

Main articles: First Unifying Realm, Tenerian conquest of Karana, Wars of the Solar Realm, Unifying Revival, and Central Karana War

Geography

Main articles: Karana Basin and Makgato plateau