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Yajawil of Kehkal Yajawil Kehkal | |
|---|---|
| Motto: Family and Honor | |
| Anthem: In the land of the Lady | |
| Capital and | Tiak |
| Official languages | Mutli Ket'an Etaan |
| Ethnic groups (2016) | Kehach |
| Demonym(s) | Kehach |
| Government | Absolute monarchy |
• K'eh Yajaw | Chel Tz'on Sip |
| Legislature | Tz'onch'ob |
| K'axpop | |
| K'axch'ob | |
| Province of the Mutul | |
| Population | |
• 2018 estimate | 800,000 |
• 2016 census | 790,911,850 |
The Yajawil of Kehkal is a landlocked province of the Mutul located art the heart of the Xuman Peninsula. It's the third largest province of the geographic region, and the second least populated. It's surrounded by the Yajawil of Mekuzb'e to the north, Nohixil to the east, Lakam Tun to the south, Yokok'ab to the south-west, Chakan to the west, and Kanayin to the north-west. It's capital and largest settlement is Tiak.
Kehkal location and remoteness isolate it from the main axis of communication of the Divine Kingdom, making it one of the poorer Yajawil nationwide.
Etymology
Kehach is the name by which the local populations identified themselves to others since the days of the Second Ytza Kingdom. It is derivated from the word Keh, meaning "Deer", and the suffix -ach which is generally used to denote abundance. When all Kehach towns and territories were gathered into a single Yajawil during the 19th century, this new territory was given a name relating to its people, but in Mutli: Kehkal, "Land of deers".
Geography
Kehkal consisted of a region of low hills with wide valleys that form swamplands during the rainy season, the region is also characterised by a number of small lakes, such as Lake Mokutun, Lake t'etek and Chann'ab. It lays at the border between the western coast (represented by the Yajawils of Chakan and Kanayin) and the K'ah Basin that occupy two-thirds of the Yajawil of Nohixil.
History
It is generally understood that the Kehach and the Ytze share a common ancestry. During the Paol'lunyu and Chaan Dynasties, the Kehach were located outside of the Mutul proper, being part instead of the Ytze Kingdom that laid on the Divine Kingdom's northern border. The lands of modern Kehkal were then part of the "Western Principality" of the Ytze First Kingdom, one of its four "sub-kingdom". The Western Principality represented a large sway of lands which, at the height of the Ytze expansion, went from their capital of K'ah to the east, to the shores of the Makrian Ocean to the west after the integration of what is today the modern Yajawil of Kanayin.
In AD 78, the Chaan Mutul defeated the Ytze, destroyed their capital in a Star War and forced its ancient inhabitants to flee northward. The part of the Western Principality located in the K'ah Basin was affected by this defeat and integrated to the Mutul just like the other core regions of the now-defunct Kingdom. It's less populated fringes, with their hills and swamps, would remain unconquerred by the Divine Kingdom but devolved into a collection of opposing tribes and small city-states. The Ytze rule over the coastal territories would not last much longer as in AD 80, as the Yok'ot'an population of the area revolted and founded the state of Tamaktun.
Between AD 80 and AD 110, the city-states in modern days southrn Kehkal would also be conquered by the state of Lakam Tun affiliated with the Mutul. Beyond the urban population of the state, most of its inhabitants were semi-nomads hunter-farmers, the majority of whom moved north to settle the barely inhabited forests and swamps now that the Ytze threat had been removed. Despite the formation of a short-lived league to stop this colonization, the last remnants of the Western Principality only encompassed the seasonal swamps and forests of northern Kehkal. It's during that time that the city of Tiak first appear as a leading power among the remaining settlements of the area.
In AD 250, the Mutul crumbled into anarchy and civil war. A situation that would last for the next 54 years until the K'uy Dynasty conquered most of the old Chaan territories. Both Tiak, its vassals, and its southern K'ol rival of Lakam Tun were spared by this conquest. Shortly after however, in AD 370, the Xib Dynasty of the Second Ytze Kingdom, re-conquered most of the old core region of their ethnies and rebuilt the old capital of K'ah. However, the Xib Dynasty had allied itself with the K'ol speaking principalities and tribes of the region to facilitate their conquest and presenting themselves as "liberators". As a result even after they raised Tiak and its dependencies to the rank of Province under the name of Yaxunkal, the Ytze K'uhul Ajaw refused to support any attempt they would make against Lakam Tun or to restore the old Western Principality. When, at the demand of Lakam Tun, the Ytze even moved militarily against their vassals to protect Lakam Tun, Yaxunkal revolted against the new Ytze Kingdom and seceded. Despite their superior military and victories on the battlefield, the Ka Ytze proved incapable of actually occupying the region because of logistical difficulties aggravated by the asymetric warfare practiced by the rebels which, for the first time, were called "Kehach".
In AD 440, the Kehach are mentioned among the auxilliaries and local allies of Kukulkan, the K'uy general who would conquer the Ka Ytze Kingdom and then the entire Xuman Peninsula. For their support, the Kehach were granted most of the old Western Principality to rule as the Yajawil of Yaxunkal, turning the tide of their centuries old rivalry with the K'ol. Despite this growth in size and status, the Kehach territories would remain at the periphery of the Mutul's trade routes and axis of circulation, greatly slowing its development and reducing its importance in kingdom-wide politics.
During the Cousins War, Yaxunkal would be in the unfortunate position to serve as a buffer state between the Xuman and K'ol Mutals. When the K'iche conquered the region, Yaxunkal lost its status of Yajawil only to be divided into a number of Kuchkabalob and grants entrusted to K'iche administrators. Their main problem was to reign in the conflicts between the Kehach and the K'ol as their opposition had only grown during the Cousins War has each ethnies ended up supporting opposing sides in their almost entirety.
In 1318, the capital was transferred from K'umarkaj to K'alak Muul. In the process, the Xuman Yajawil was separated into a number of new Provinces. Yaxunkal was merged with the other Kuchkabals of the K'ah Basin to form a Yajawil of the same name. To face the growing demand for foodstuff from urban settlements all around the K'iche Divine Kingdom, K'ah administrators ordered and financed landscaping projects all around modern Kehkal to exploit the local seasonal swamps and forests. A century later, these regions were net exporters of foodstuff, rare wood, and pelts. Large-scale chocolate exploitations even appeared during this period of economic growth, led by temples and other religious institutions who invested heavily into the area. By the 17th century, chocolate would be the main source of revenues for the Yajawil as an export to the Mutulese Ochran and the Vespanian Circuit.
Yaxunkal would remain part of the K'ah Yajawil for the next five centuries, but because of its remoteness and isolation it retained a distinct culture from the rest of the Province. With the exception of a few settlements like Tiak, urban agglomerations remained a rarity in the region which kept an essentially rural character. The regional aristocracy would continue to rule from hilltop-fortresses dominating large sway of seasonal swamps and forests exploited for their ressources. Villages were also built on top of these low elevations that kept them away from the more swampy grounds. These were used instead to create farmlands, the infrastructure required being financed by either cooperative of farmers, local noble lineages, or religious institutions. With time, the importance of the warrior-noble, and their wealth, decreased greatly and their castles fell into disrepair and ruin. In their stead, its the White Path temples and sanctuaries who grew until becoming the proeminent forces in local politics and economy, something the Halak Winik of Tiak had to compose with despite their control over the local marketplaces.