Great Steppe

Location of the Great Steppe in Coius

Mountains about the south of the steppe

Grass on the steppe

The Great Steppe, also called the Coian Steppe, Great Coian Steppe, High Plains or just the Steppes, is a complex geophysical, biogeographical and cultural area that stretches across much of the inland of the southern half of Coius. It is environmentally characterised by relatively flat topography and a wide variety of grasslands and shrublands. From west to east, it extends from the Amardian coast of the Mazdan Sea to the banks of the Batarak River in Cavunia; between them, the steppe covers large portions of the territory of Ajahadya, Kituk, Phula, Zorasan and Kumuso.

The Great Steppe has great historical significance with regards to trade and the exchange of religion, language, literature, science, technology and other thoughts and ideas. Its topography, nomadic peoples and horse culture encouraged great mobility across a large area of Coius otherwise largely bounded by sedentary agricultural societies in areas such as Southeast Coius, Xiaodong and Satria. The region has a great history of people movements; the Duljunese, Kituki, Kunak, Oroqic, Yanogu and other peoples are native inhabitant ethnic groups.

Name

The Great Steppe has many native names in many languages, owing to its geographical extent and linguistic and cultural variety. Many of these names come from the recognition of the Great Steppe as the largest grassland on the continent, and an area topographically elevated as a plateau in the centre of that continent; its Estmerish name is a recognition of this.

In geology, the region has some correlation to the orogenic belt referred to as the South Coian Montane Complex. However, this is an academic term, not a common one, and it stretches further south than conventional definitions of the Great Steppe.

Geography

Sea buckthorn, a species of berry bush harvested for food, native to the Great Steppe

A river watering vegetation on the steppe

The Great Steppe is both a geophysical and biological region. It is largely a plateau—of high elevation but fairly smooth in its relief—with tall mountains to its south and also some to its west, but tapering off in the other directions towards the sea or inland lakes. Glacial melt and heavy fog waters parts of the steppe, with relatively consistent and socioeconomically important rivers, though with typically low flow. Moraine material is often present. It varies between more arid and more humid biomes, but is overall characterised by grassland; in many more elevated or northerly areas it tends to be long grass, in others short grass, and scrubland in the far south; in general it is an area of low primary productivity, which combined with few large plants to bind the surface substrate, results in thin and conventionally agriculturally unproductive soils. Its cool scrublands are particularly hosts to notable biodiversity. In this way, it is a typical steppe. Related animal species live through much of this range, ranging from eagles to wild horses.

History

The history of the Great Steppe is characterised by its sparseness of population and openness to horse-based travel. Mostly incapable of sustaining intensive agriculture mainly due to its low rainfall, its population was largely nomads of various descriptions (in particular transhumants). This societal structure tended to produce polities of limited population and power even when they were quite extensive, often having limited interest in empire. Nonetheless, not infrequently, whether for cultural, military or economic reasons, areas of the steppe were associated with much larger imperial states. Whether native or hailing from neighbouring more agricultural and sedentary regions, these empires had to adapt to the transience and sparseness of the steppe, often controlling them only at great cost or exercising only limited actual control.

Because of its ease of traversal by horse, and its proximity to agricultural civilisations, however, the Great Steppe was a region that saw considerable trade through and with it, and the influence of religions, languages, science and more besides. This was the case right up until the coming of gunpowder empires, which defeated the power of local mounted tactics in the early modern era. Euclean colonialism broke old links and bonds, first taking over the coasts of the Coian continent, but ultimately bringing the Great Steppe under direct control by the 20th century. While many continued to practice traditional lifestyles, the steppe became a backwater as trade moved to the coasts towards Euclea, and advances in agricultural technology reduced distinctive non-agricultural traditions. On decolonisation, conventional nation-states took over, with the region today being of a lower socioeconomic development than the world average.

Oghuz Confederacy

The Oghuz Confederacy was a union of several Oroqic tribes that controlled Qizsho, Mirghazab, and Togot from the 6th to 4th century BCE. This was the first kelekoltoi and occupies a semi-legendary status within steppe society. Records describing the Oghuz are mostly from their neighbors, especially the burgeoning Phuli Empire, which would eventually absorb the Oghuz society. The Old Oroqic word translated as "confederacy" is kelekoltoi and means literally "to speak by the lake". This refers to meeting places that many tribes would share around winter pastures, which were often lakes. The kelekoltoi was almost never a formal government and confederacy, in the context of the steppes, almost always means a social order based on mutual recognition and shared resources. This contrasts with the khagan, which is a particular ruler of a particular people, although Khagans and kelekoltoi often coexisted.

Depiction of an Oghuz camp under construction

Oghuz communities were characterised by a diarchy with a leader for both the men and the women of the tribe. The male leader was responsible for the organisation of the tribe when moving, had authority over the herds, and control of trades with other tribes. The female leader was responsible for the construction and maintenance of shelters and was also responsible advocating for women during their marriage negotiations. Both were typically older, experienced members of the tribe and were each responsible for selecting the other's successor upon their death. When both died at the same time, the tribe was considered dead and new tribe had to be formed.

The diarchy was the basis of the confederacy--the mutual recognition of other tribes--because the women could organise the construction of the great lakeside camps even when the male leaders were engaged in bitter rivalries over water access and grazing rights.

Phuli Empire

The First Phuli Empire dominated the Great Steppe from the 4th century BCE until shortly before its collapse several centuries later. Often regarded as the first civilisation to bring permanent settlements to the area, the theocratic government established several Satyist monasteries to act as administrative offices and constabularies in a disparate, tribal, and highly fractured region. The monks within these monasteries collected tribute from local tribes, offered protection over trade routes and neutral gathering points for trade and negotiations, and provided security for the construction of permanent settlements.

The Phuli period is regarded as a period of significant economic growth, as monastic towns would grow into trade offices by which the empire could conduct and participate in pan-coian trade. The Great Steppe was a vital trade lane, offering clear, flat path directly to Phula proper, with mountains, deserts, and forests disturbing continental traffic in neighboring areas. The permanent settlements also facilitated the spread of Phuli specialty goods, such as prayer items, books, silk, tea, opium, and early forms of waterproofed clothing and material. There may have also been an exchange of livestock such as yaks, but particularly the war and work horses of the Avanidhara native to the Phuli north.

Satyist material culture blossomed in the Great Steppe during the rule of the First Phuli Empire, and a process of mutual interchange between local tribes and Phuli society lasted throughout the imperial period. Examples of shared material culture include prayer beads, ritual items such as daggers, golden statues, and war masks. The iconic war mask commonly associated with Steppe cultures and also present within Phula is believed to have been invented by Satyist warriors as a means of displaying shame and avoiding humanising features being readily seen during battle, in accordance with Adripathi Adhikari's Rebuke of the Kshatriya.

Uluuchig Confederacy

The Uluuchigs were the most prominent steppe society from the turn of the millennium until the 6th century CE. Their principal rivals were the Sangama of Satria.

Unlike the preceding Oghuz society, the Uluuchig population had expanded to the point that land management had become a serious challenge. In the Oghuz community, the seasonal migration could be as short as eighty miles. By the early years of the first century, however, the radius of pasture land around the lakeside winter camps could not sustain everyone. Moreover, because of the tribal arrangement in which extended families lived together for the whole year, the very young and very old could only travel a limited distance. The solution to this issue was called balkalgaz which means "to become solitary". Balkalgaz was the practice of the young and middle aged adults taking a small part of the tribe's herds with a small group of close friends and traveling a much further distance than the weaker members of the tribe. They spent the summer months away from their tribe and then reunite with them in the autumn. Young men especially demonstrated their strength and earned prestige for traveling as far as possible and waiting the longest to return.

Child rearing was the business of unmarried women and the elderly, who taught them the basis of husbandry. Male children came of age officially when they accompanied their parents on Balkalgaz. Another milestone of adulthood was going off away from one's parents, typically with a group of close friends. Female children came of age upon their marriage, at which point they joined their husbands on Balkalgaz. Having a child while out away from the tribe was considered bad luck, in no small part because of the relatively hard lifestyle. If a woman became pregnant, she had the option to stay with the tribe during the summer.

Kituki Khaganate

Main article: First Kituki Khaganate

The Kituki Khaganate was a short-lived, highly centralised state that emerged during the decline of the Uluuchigs.

Korshid Confederacy

The Korshids emerged in the 12th century during the decline of the Sangama Dynasty in Satria and maintained control of the steppes until the start of the 16th century. They were rivals with the Zorsani Gorsanid Empire and the Norzin Empire in Tava.

Togoti Khaganate

The Togoti Khaganate rose in the 15th century as one of the Post-Sangma States and greatly expanded in the 16th century, coming to control much of the western half of the Great Steppe. The Togoti Khaganate would fight several inconclusive skirmishes against the rising Aguda Empire as it attempted to assert control over the eastern part of the steppe. It would ultimately decline in the 17th century following a series of wars against the Rajadom of Zubad as it sought to conquer the Bashurat Valley. It has been called a gunpowder empire.

Aguda Empire

The Aguda Empire, based in Dezevau, exerted control over the steppes during the early modern era.

Colonialism

During the colonial period, the steppes were largely considered a waste since they were amenable to industrial agriculture and its inhabitants often caused trouble crossing newly drawn borders.

Pardals

The Pardals were a brief, but potent political force on the steppes in the 1940s.

Red Surge

Much of the developing world, in which the Great Steppe is included, took a turn towards socialism in the mid 20th century, after decolonisation; this trend was linked to the Association of Emerging Socialist Economies. It had various impacts on the Great Steppe.

Society

Religion

A small Badist stone shrine

Notable religions practiced in the region include Badi, Irfan and Satyism. Historically, in the core areas of the steppe, Badist temples were relatively stable centres of trade, culture and learning, and played an important role as mediators between warring groups, stopping places for traders, arbiters of mores and customs, keepers of history and literature, and during and after colonisation and decolonisation, the seeds of urban settlements. Sects dedicated to earth and air were particularly prominent on the steppe.

Culture

The Great Steppe's culture is influenced from many directions, but also characterised by their own unique lifestyles which are often dictated by the natural geography.

Nomadism

One of the most enduring qualities of steppe society is transhumance, or the movement between summer and winter pasturing sites for herds. It is a common misconception that all people on the steppes practice this kind of nomadism, but it has been an integral element of every steppe empire, and it continues to be practiced by some groups to this day.