First Kituki Khaganate
Kituki Khaganate කිතුකිඉන් ඉඛ් මුජ් (Kitukiin ikh Muj) | |||||||||||
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| 584–609 | |||||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||||
| Religion | Badi | ||||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||||
| Khagan | |||||||||||
• 584 - 609 | Cyrus | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Cyrus declares the Khaganate | 584 | ||||||||||
• Battle of Forazad | 609 | ||||||||||
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The Khaganate of Kituk, also referred to as the First Kituki Khaganate and the Great State of Kituk, was formed by King Cyrus of Kumush in 584 and stretched across all of modern Kituk. Due to the fact that most historians only recognize Cyrus I of Kumush as Khagan, it is also called the Khaganate of Cyrus I.
Backstory
Reign of Kavad of Kumush
Historians consider the reign of King Kavad of Kumush a successful one. He modernized the army and amassed sizeable wealth. His fortune seemed to fade when his wife died birthing his only son. Kavad, who had loved his wife of more than thirty years dearly, isolated himself. Travels and diplomacy were left entirely to his brother Cyrus. Various accounts believe that it was on such a mission that Cyrus visited the Khanate of Keng Maydon and started a romance with the Khatun of Keng Maydon. Kavad ultimately returned in 578 and demoted Cyrus. In 580, it was announced that Kavad's son Khosrow was to marry his childhood friend, Princess Chabi. It was this alliance which had saved Kumush from revolts when one bad harvest followed another between 580 and 582.
Ascension of Cyrus
Cyrus, who historians of the time claim was jealous of his brother, was not overjoyed at the news of his demotion. He left for Keng Maydon to find solace in the arms of his lover, the khatun, whose husband suspiciously died in 580. After the death and funeral of the khan, Cyrus returned to Kumush. Keng Maydon started pillaging its neighbours soon after, which led to chaos at the Kumushi border. Consequently, vital food trade was delayed. It was later said that Cyrus believed the dismay would turn nobles to his side and allow him to seize the throne, but he was mistaken, so he tried differently. Knowing that his brothers routine involved a walk across the market with his son, Cyrus bribed several rhetorically talented locals to stir anger and violence at the King's next visit. It is said the situation escalated when a soldier, believed to be on the paylist of Cyrus, stabbed one of the locals. In the chaos that ensued, the King was murdered and his son lost.
Cyrus declared that King Kavid and Prince Khosrow were dead and took the crown for himself in 582, even though the death of the twelve year old Prince Khosrow was never confirmed. He then allied with the khutan of Keng Maydon to subdue the Khanates of Shebbek and Katta Vodiy. While at that time he had not won any of these wars, nor even declared war on the Kingdom of Biritan, with Keng Maydon on his side he declared himself Khagan of all of Kituk in 584.
The Khaganate
Early reign of Cyrus
Cyrus' early reign was marked by his military success. The weaker Khanates of Shebbek and Katta Vodiy were soon subdued and pledged their loyalty to the Khagan - Shebbek in 584 and Katta Vodiy in 586. Hostilities with the Kingdom of Biritan commenced in 588 and lasted for six years, until the Kingdom surrendered and joined the Khaganate in 594. Since the war had not been decisively lost, Biritan only surrendered under the condition that it would retain a high level of autonomy.
Kituk was plagued by internal division and troubles, however. Hunger, illness and poverty were common across the lands. To win the favour of his inferiors, Cyrus devised several ambitious projects. Many of them were unrealistic to the extent of ridiculous, such as his wish to build a "river" (likely a trench filled with water) across Kituk. Few succeeded, mostly those he was personally very invested in, such as his idea of an "arena" that wandered from town to town, where Kituk's best warriors would battle another for the entertainment of local communities. To fund these projects, Cyrus raised taxes on nobles of Kumush, who he had resented for their reluctance towards him anyways. Unhappy with their taxation, the nobles sought assistance to end the reign of Khagan Cyrus of Kituk.
Kumushi Civil War
One of the nobles tasked with diplomacy on behalf of their coalition was Princess Chabi, who travelled Phula. There she rediscovered the lost Prince Khosrow, who told the story of how a merchant had saved him and brought him to Phula, where he was raised. Happy with his new life, the Prince was initially reluctant to return and sent Chabi away. Why he later returned anyways is unknown. Khosrow himself claimed that, after Princess Chabi left Phula, his late father talked to him in a vision and asked him to retake the throne of Kumush. Prince Khosrow and Princess Chabi jointly returned to Kumush, where they formed a coalition to overthrow Cyrus. Cyrus invited them to a convent on the future of the crown, but it was a ploy to lure them away while he hid in a mountain fortress and awaited reinforcements from Keng Maydon, who the Khan of Keng Maydon sent at the demand of his mother, the lover of Cyrus and former khutan of Keng Maydon.
When the coalition around Prince Khosrow found the Royal Palace empty, they discovered the ploy and officially declared themselves in revolt. While they could not match the numbers of Cyrus' allies, the armies of Kumush were almost completely under control of the coalition and well able to defend much of the land they controlled. Nevertheless, Cyrus controlled the supply routes and actively tried to bleed them out. These efforts failed when the King of Biritan marched his armies to Kumush, where the the armies of the coalition and Biritan defeated Khagan Cyrus at the Battle of Forazad. Cyrus was dethroned and exiled under threat of death and his advisors were executed. The new King Khosrow of Kumush declared sovereignty from the Khaganate, as did the Kingdom of Biritan.
Final years of Cyrus
Cyrus would continue to style himself Khagan and also continued to command some authority. There are several records of Cyrus in the Khanate of Shebbek, where it seems he was hosted by the Khan. Cyrus continued his travels to Keng Maydon, from where he wanted to retake the Kumushi throne. When he returned to Keng Maydon to tell the Khan about the execution of his mother and loss of his armies, however, the Khan had him executed.
Aftermath
Several individuals claimed, independently from another, to be the new Khagan. The Khan of Keng Meydon styled himself Khagan of the Kituki Khaganate until 611, but ultimately surrendered the title when threatened with war by Biritan and Kumush. Two of Cyrus' bastard sons tried to rally the Khans around them, but one was executed and the other reportedly joined a merchant's caravan when his efforts remained unfruitful. Decades later, someone who claimed to be his son (and thus a direct relative of the late Khagan Cyrus) became the Khan of Katta Vodiy, which he probably ruled for twenty-four years.