User:Devink/Sandbox1
This article describe the Kayamucan World during the 14th century both on Civilizational and Geostrategical standpoints.
The Kayamuca Sea was so named after the Kayamuca Empire, which controlled all of its islands and shorelines. The sea link three continents together: Norumbia, Oxidentale, and since the arrival of the Latins during the 11th century: Belisaria.
In 1163, the revolt of the Iroquoian speaking Atiwandaronk on the northern edge of the Kayamuca Empire triggered a series of event that led to the fracturing, weakning, and ultimately downfall of the Empire, although a rump state would survive in Ayeli and Tikal, continuing to claim the imperial title. But the event that really marked the change of times was the Belfrasian Crusade from 1256 to 1261, where the Latin Empire of Ascanium and the Ilok'tab Dynasty opposed one another for the control of Norumbia. The resulting treaty that divided the remnants of the Kayamuca Empire between the two powers served as the basis on which the 14th century Kayamucan World would be built on.
Western Latin World
Between the 11th and 15th centuries, the Latium was divided between two competing crowns, one in Adrianople and the other in Ascanium. However, by the 12th century, Ascanium had become the dominant power between the two. Their slow reconquest of the Latium, the consolidation of their markets into more attractive hubs than those of their rivals, and the reinforcement of their fleet, allowed the Caesars of Ascanium to start enterprises always more dangerous, expensive and lucrative. These were the wars against the Holy Audonian Empire, or their patronage of the mercantile expeditions crossing the Thalassian Ocean to trade with the remnants states of the Kayamuca Empire in Norumbia. But under the rule of Latin Empress Theodora I, the Ascani took it a step further and managed to establish colonies and vassals in Norumbia in the aftermath of the Belfrasian Crusade. This victory boosted their prestige and, after a period of difficulty due to the expenses of the Crusade, allowed the Latins the control over most of the goods transiting in the Northern Thalassian Ocean, adding massively to their wealth.
Expansion of the Latin Empire
But at the start of the 14th century, the Ascani had only implemented themselves seriously in Norumbia a mere 40 years ago. The Caesar had direct representative in the major trade hubs and some other portuary cities. These included the cities of Beikena where the Crusaders had first landed in 1256, or the newly established colony of Thessalona. These urban settlements, with their communities of traders and sailors dependent on commerce with Belisaria, had already been under the influence of missionaries since the 11th century, and had in their majority converted to their new hegemon' religion after the Crusades.
During and after the Crusade, the Latins had confiscated the lands that had belonged to the warlords, tribes, or cities that had opposed them, as well as all of the old Kayamuca Empire "imperial lands" that hadn't been appropriated by other warring factions. These lands were redistributed among the natives allies of the Latins as rewards, but also granted to veterans and officers, re-creating the Feudal system the Caesars of Ascanium oversaw back in their homeland. There was also the hope that, through the duties and obligations owed to their Caesars, these new landowners would help pay off the debts incurred by the Empire in the previous decades.
Allied and Federated kingdoms
Beyond their coastal bastions and portuary powerbases, the effective authority of the Latins quickly diminished. Instead, the Empire relied on Foederati, Client Kings who had been granted recognition of their previous titles as well as well as new lands from the Confiscations performed by the Crusaders in exchange for their convertion to Fabrianism and signature of a military alliance with the Latins.
These new allies proved a vital and necessary intermediary between the Natives and the Belisarians colons. After the Crusade, Foederati would represent the majority of troops the Empire could muster on the other side of the Thalassian Ocean, colonists and settlers being too few to be solely relied upon despite harsher conscription laws for these populations, and the estimated cost of another Crusade remaining too high for it to be viable less than 50 years after the previous grand expedition.
Marriages between newly titled-crusaders and these kings also reinforced their ties with the Latins. The Ascani would also implement a "naturalization-program" for these loyal natives, offering the enviable status of Citizen either as a reward for military and political service, or in exchange of a high fee. Because of its distance from Ascanium, citizenship-grants in Norumbia were dependent on the will of the Imperial Representatives in faction there, and many of them used these grants to build up their network of clients. By the end of the century, these two pillars of the Latin rule in Norumbia had played their role and the division of the landowning aristocracy between "Settlers" and "Client Kings" had mostly disappeared, replaced instead by a multi-faceted but united Oligarchy birthed from their union. Many of the most influential families in modern Belfras can trace their roots back to this metis upper-class of the late 14th and 15th centuries.