Tabgach (Levilion)
 Paintaing of a Tabgach horseman in traditional clothings | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2 million (2020) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Shang Fa | |
| Languages | |
| Tabgach, Principean, Huranian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Barukung Macakkanism Minority Perendism |
The Tabgach (拓跋; Tuoba) are a people living in northern Shang Fa and counted among the Tartares, a wide array of non-huranian and non-principean people who share a common nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle. The Tabgach are the most numerous group of Tartares and can themselves be subdivided in a number of clans and lineages. They were also the first recorded non-Huranian group to establish their own state within Huran: the Zhao Dynasty which lasted from the late from the 8th to the 12th century. Their influence on Huran would be longlasting, both artistically and culturally: they lead the way for the mass adoption of Macakkanism throughout northern Huran and, by refusing to restore their predecessors infrastructures (canals, aqueducs, granaries, road network...), they effectively turned most of the Great Plain into pastures, allowing for the preservation of a semi-nomadic way of life which became a stapple of northern Huran until the industrial era.
Nowadays, the Tabgachs live mostly in the western parts of theregion known as Northern Tartary, a vast portion of the Great Plain between the Sky Pillars and the Hou river.
Language
The original language of the Tabgachs is of uncertain classification. It is unclear when exactly the Tabgachs adopted a different language and it is highly probable that the process took centuries during which various dialects of different families competed among the tribes part of the Tabgach Confederation, but their modern speech and is safely counted among the Oghuric languages known by the tribe which is said to have first spoken it: the Buqut.
History
The first state
It's during the first half of the 8th century that the Tabgach' presence in the Great Plain is recorded. After a series of low-intensity warfare with the Gao Dynasty, mainly raids and counter expeditions from each sides, the Confederation submitted to the Hegemon-King. They were granted the fiefdom of Zhao (趙國; Zhàoguó) somewhere it what is known today as Tabgachia. Three decades after their settlement, a civil war within the Gao Hegemony allowed the Tabgach to expand rapidly, growing wealthy through mercenary works for the various factions and claimants of the civil war. When the Gao reunited, they immediately attempted to revert the situation and limit Zhao' influence which led the to the Zhao-Gao War in 781. While the Tabgachs lost all lands they had acquired south of the Bian River, they successfully forced the Gao to abandon the Great Plain. The following year Tabgach Huang, prince of Zhao, proclaimed his own Dynasty and took the title of Hegemon-King for himself.
When the Zhao took over northern Huran, it had been devastated by the preceding 27 years of uninterrupted conflict. The collapse of the Gao meant the crumbling of the infrastructures controlling the flow of the Queen River, as well as of the Royal Granaries supposed to limit the effect of any famin. The intertwined war, raids, diseases, famins, floods, droughts, and emmigration meant that the Zhao had access to a very limited pool of workers and taxable subjects to rely on compared to their predecessors.
Rather than trying to restore the previous dynasty' infrastructure and attract back farmers and workers from southern Huran, the Zhao instead turned most of the Great Plains into pastures, adopting a semi-nomadic model while extracting wealth from the remaining Hua cities on the shores of the Queen River in the form of tributes. The political system of the Zhao as often be called Nomadic Feudalism, or "Nomadic Hegemonism".
Through the influence of the Alawokambeses, Macakkanism spread quickly among the Tabgach, merging its cosmology with their own pantheon until it became the de-facto state religion of Zhao. The spread of Macakkanism, despite greatly enriching the cultural life of the Dynasty, would also prove to be Zhao' demise. A new movement within the religion spread across Huran, reaching the non-Tabgach population. While at first these new sects attrated the Zhao aristocracy, chief among them being the School of Moral Order, they ended up being perceived by the Hegemon-Kings as a threat against their authority and waves of persecution were launched against the movement. This resulted in this "New Law" Macakkanism to take the form of a Huranian proto-nationalism dedicated to overthrowing the Zhao. By 1170, the Militant Orders were parading in the Zhao' capital and the Dynasty was all but dissolved.
Kuang Dynasty
The Compromise at Anshan concluded the era of warfare between the newly established Barukung Kuang Dynasty and the Lankung Tabgach remnants with the submission of the latter to the former. The Tabgachs were allowed to keep their religion and to organise their own Free Collegium with their own religious sites and pastures north of Hou River.
The Tabgach would mostly remain absent from historical records until came the Hegemon-Abbot Anman Lizi granted himself the title of Heavenly King. This led to the First Kuang Civil War, won by the "Anmanites", which officially divorced the Collegia from the government of the kingdom. However, this reinforced central administration and destabilized religion placed into question the legitimacy of the Dynasty. Secret societies meant to restore the "Religious-Hegemony" appeared, and played a key role in a second (1266 - 1273) and third (1294 - 1299) civil wars. While rebels all failed in their objectives, they did weaken the effective powers of the central authorities, allowing for the return of a landlord-based aristocracy.
The Aruvian Free Collegium, the religious fiefdom of the Tabgach, first considered itself unconcerned by those events "internal to the New Law' Grand Collegium". But they ended up supporting the Anmanite faction in their political project, mostly out of fear that the collapse of the Kuang Dynasty would allow other new law Collegia to break the Compromise of Anshan and attack them. Ultimately, they became involved in private wars between Collegia, and then between clans as central authority collapsed and peripherical entities took over. It's one of these entities, the Khitan, who would end up spelling the doom of the dynasty.
Khitay and Tegreg hegemonies
The Tabgach quickly allied with the Khitan when they first arrived in the Great Plain and when they entered in open conflict with the Kuang, the Tabgach did not hesitate to join the newcomers' side against their old masters. Yarud Salad, chieftain of the Khitan, thus did not forget to reward generously the Tabgach in land, pastures, cattles, and revenues from the crown.
The establishment of the new Khitay state led to deep changes in the administration of the Great Plain. While the Aruvian Free Collegium continued to exist as a religious institution it was stripped of all political powers by the new Khitan Hegemon-Kings. Instead, the Tabgach tribes were put under the authority of the Northern Administration, the Khitan' office tasked with managing nomadic affairs.
Under the Khitan, the Tabgach maintained their Lankung beliefs in a majority-Barukung state. This did not prevent them from adhering fully to Khitay with their chieftains and princes reaching high positions within the Northern Administration and the military. But as time passed and the Khitan settled new tribes and people from the Steppes inside their country, launching extensive land reforms to weaken both the Macakkanists Collegia and the landed aristocracy, the unity of the nomadic and semi-nomadic people was replaced by court intrigues and dynastic conflicts within the bureaucracy of the Northern Administration. This culminated in 1540 with the uprising of the recently settled Tegreg people, joined by Tabgach generals and entire tribes. The Tegregs successfully overthrew the Khitan and established their own Dynasty: the Yuan.
Because of their violent takeover, the Yuan never managed to stabilize their rule. Intense court conflicts, mistreatement of their allies, and disregard of their supporters led to Tabgach tribes that have remained neutral and even a majority of those that had originally sided with the Tegreg to abandon them and return to the Khitan to form a new confederation and rise in revolt. But ultimately, a new revolt rose up led by the Huranian Li Sheng, a bureaucrat-turned-warlord who successfully defeated a number of Tegreg armies. Many Tabgach ended up joining Li' revolt and they convinced their clans and their tribes to do so as well once it became clear Li Sheng had become the new hegemon of the Great Plain. A situation made official when he established his own state in 1571: the Lin Dynasty.