A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

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Solarius
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A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

Post by Solarius »

So I've been working on a fictional continent for a while: Pacifica, a continent in the north Pacific. By far the best developed region, and my primary area of focus is the Southeastern section of Pacifica, a fairly self-contained peninsula which is just a smidge smaller than the Indian subcontinent. It’s located in the subtropics, with the bottom bit edging into the tropics.

I wanted to make a thread on Hayakan, my conlang spoken in this region, but I realized that a lot of the work I've done is sociolinguistic and historical and it will make more sense if I first explain the history of Southeast Pacifica. So this is a thread to do that.

Here’s a modern political map for context.

Image

But more useful for understanding the history of Hayakan is a climate and topographical map. (I'm sorry these are so ugly!)

Image

Red indicates deserts, orange semi-arid areas. Light green is subtropical lowland areas (similar to the Southeast U.S. or Southeast China) and the darker green is subtropical highland areas (like the highlands of Yunnan, or the highlands of Eastern South Africa). Purple is highland areas with a more temperate climate, while gray are the chilliest and highest mountains. Light blue is tropical savannah; medium blue is a tropical monsoon climate, and dark blue is tropical rainforest. My apologies for any climatological errors!

The mountains in the west are the relatively low-lying Facoy Mountains, which are similar topographically to the Appalachians or Urals; they’re ancient and heavily eroded. The nearby hills of Ayarang are topographically related. The eastern mountains are the Cercana Mountains, which are quite new, high, and volcanic, formed by subduction of an offshore plate. Between the two is a large basin, the Harangali Plain, which despite its arid climate has long supported a large population along the Hapola River. Outside of the rivers, the area is sparsely populated north of the Hayaka/West Inkapia boundary, and was historically a haven for pastoralists.

The defining feature of the climate for much of this area is the seasonal monsoon, which blows in from the southwest every summer. Due to the shape of the mountain ranges, the monsoon can travel far inland, inundating areas which are far inland, like West Inkapia. If it fails or is weaker than usual, it’s a big problem. The monsoon heavily affects everything west of the Cercana range, as well as the south coast of Hayaka, which, since it’s already quite wet in climate, is one of the wettest places on Earth.

Historically, agriculture diffused to this region around the 1900s BCE. Demographically, speakers of Hapolan languages – the family including Hayakan – dominated in the lowlands almost everywhere, with the proto-language likely roughly contemporaneous with PIE. The Inkangic family, which is roughly contemporaneous with Hapolan, dominated in modern Semerli, the Cercana Mountains, and the coast to the east of the Cercanas. Language isolates, then as now, were present in the Facoy range of Kimonle and in Ayarang. The region remained largely pre-literate, until writing diffused in from literate cultures to the north; the first culture with writing in this region were the Tharanatha Culture in the deserts of northwestern Kimonle, who are attested first in the 1st century CE.

But before we get into these early writing cultures, we have to talk about Episanism.
Last edited by Solarius on 24 Aug 2024 03:10, edited 1 time in total.
Solarius
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Re: A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

Post by Solarius »

Episanism is the primary religion of Southeast Pacifica. It began in the 300s BCE, in the city of Episana in central Pacifica, far to the northwest of our area of focus. Episana was and is a city on an island in a major river, and so it was a major location for merchant shipping in that era. Although Episana spoke a language isolate, it shared a pantheon with its neighboring cultures, centered around married pairs of gods with similar profiles.

Some important gods and their functions:

Code: Select all

- Ya’atunu and Irela, King and Queen of the gods, identified with agriculture, weaving (via the production of cotton), and history– they are often identified as the grandparents of humanity. Time is often metaphorically depicted as these two riding a shuttle across a loom.
- Penau and Para, the gods of the sky and storms. Para is the goddess of lightning and Penau of thunder; when they fight he follows her, like lightning does thunder.
- Kera and Kelanti, gods of water and the river. Associated with trade. Kelanti is the “protector” of Episana, as the river which flows around the city.
-Tahi and Lentn – the gods of the sun and moon, respectively. Associated with marriage and fertility.
-Suhag, The father of Ya’atanu and the former king of the gods, abdicated after being given the curse of prophecy. God of paradox and ill omens.
Religious practice was centered around the practice of kātemā, commonly translated as adornment. The people of Episana believed that the gods must be pleased through various sacrifices and personal rituals, designed to purify the individual and elevate them. For example, it was common for individuals to sanctify themselves by bathing with buckwheat whiskey (similar to anointing with oil) and hitting their arms with sacred pine needles, or by wearing a set of matching bracelets and anklets, or by shaving one’s head. Often these rituals corresponded to certain times of year or sacred days.

The people of ancient Episana also believed that time was cyclical, divided into sesi, translated as epochs, which each were radically different – before the current epoch, there was an epoch of darkness, one of light, one of snow, one of fire, etc. These tended to be rejected by the gods once they became vile and decadent, with them rebuilding a new order.

Politically, the kings of Episana claimed descent from Ya’atanu and Irela as a form of legitimacy, but this provided them with surprisingly little political power; they were held in check by powerful merchant families who held much of the real control.

Everything changed in 373 BCE, when the neighboring kingdom of Penaulazi (‘land of thunder’) invaded. Penaulazian rule was brutal; they destroyed the trade networks which had enriched the city and killed indiscriminately. The last king disappeared into the mountains.

Twenty years later, the Penau rulers of the city executed 10 men who were considered by the citizens of the city to be brilliant spiritual exemplars: the Episās [1]. Their execution angered the city of Episana and there was a revolt, led by a man who claimed to be the illegitimate grandson of the former king, called Nāyaro-te Han, “teacher of the flowing” or “teacher of life” (In English, he’s commonly called Pm Telta or Teacher Telta, as most of these terms were borrowed from another language, Sewaqli.) The rebels were at first defeated and fled to the countryside, but 4 years later, in 349 BCE, they returned and retook the city.

Pm Telta began to lay out a spiritual philosophy, which would become an important world religion. The state he created in Episana, and the spirituality underpinning it was called Episana-te Yūti, in Sewaqli Br Braɹ, both translating as “the great movement.” It’s known in English as Episanism [2].

Episanism, building on the traditional spiritual base of Episana’s folk religion, is predicated on several central beliefs and practices. (I give the names in Sewaqli, for reasons that will become clear shortly, but with the Episanese in parentheses).
--Human society can be molded into a state of perfect Tn (Pīluv), commonly translated as “harmony” or “justice.” Pm Telta argued that an ideal society was one where each person followed their own place in society but also where each individual had an equal and fair treatment by those in power. Pm Telta believed that when the entire world entered into a state of Tn, called Pngnyi Samppin (Hōlayē-yā Kon), it would be a self-reinforcing utopia, but getting there would require massive work and broad participation. This is the main reason why Episanism is a universalizing religion.
--This struggle for Pngnyi Samppin has higher stakes; in its absence the world drifts towards a zone of violence, disorder, and loneliness called Grmak Sammpin (Sih Kon) (literally “no-world”). The cycles of epochs identified by pre-Episanist religion are interpreted in the light of attempting to avoid Grmak Sammpin, which would bring an end to all possible renewal. Pm Telta claimed that Grmak Sammpin was not far off, giving urgency to the quest for tn.
--There are many obstacles to achieving tn, but perhaps the greatest is the challenge of dualism. Pm Telta claimed that the nature of Tn was oneness, but presented itself to humans as binaries and division. Achieving tn required a kind of fuzzy thinking and monism to unsee this.

Pm Telta taught that working towards tn can be accomplished with three practices, often distilled to a snappy three word rhyming Sewaqli slogan.
--Kangleng (Pāsāp): Achieving Tn on the personal and political level can be aided by any sort of spoken performance, called Kangleng. There’s a robust tradition of religious songs, chants, and meditations designed to bring the practitioner in line with Tn. It’s often believed that these work by appealing to intercessors, known as Kungkng.The Kungkng aren’t gods in the way we’d typically think (although generally they are identified with the Gods which existed before Episanism) but are rather beings which exist on a plane above humanity, closer to the deep harmonic Tn that underpins the universe. However, they absolutely have physical bodies and appearances. They are very numerous in number and types, with notable individuals and also races. Some of the most notable Kungkng, in addition to the gods discussed above, include the 11 Episas, the Silent Ones (an order of winged doglike creatures who dislike humanity but are also working towards Tn) and The Old Man, the kungkng of prophecy and paradox, who is the locus of fascination for Episanist mystics and who is fairly heavily conflated with Suhag. As Episanism has spread, it has tended to assimilate the gods or mystical creatures of new cultures as kungkng.
--Smqleng (Kātemā): Adornment rituals, or Smqleng, remain an important part of religious practice. The traditional Episanist interpretation of these rituals is that these practices bring one into Tn by preventing hypocrisy, or a misalignment between one’s inner and outer self, either by changing the former or through the latter. Most devout individuals practice Adornment rituals, which are wildly varying across cultures, several times a week.
--Peng (Petmā): Achieving Tn both the personal and political level requires the following of a strict moral code or Peng. Most importantly, they must be kind, generous, and hospitable, and treat others with respect and love. But this also includes some moral prohibitions. Episanists are supposed to be monogamous, avoid smoking and excessive drinking, and be modest in dress (including very strong prohibitions on some kinds of body modification; many Episanist countries, including Hayaka, ban tattoos and hair dye, even for tourists). They should practice filial piety, and comply with their social role, being deferential to their superiors and kind to their inferiors. This practice is in service of Png (Ayō), or social harmony, which builds to Tn.

Pm Telta’s state only lasted for three years. In 346 Penaulazi invaded again and killed Pm Telta. The followers of Episanism went undercover, quietly evangelizing in neighboring kingdoms to the east and west. This period resulted in the main cleavage within the religion, which is between Western Episanism, which is practiced in Northwestern Pacifica, and Eastern Episanism, which is practiced in Western Pacifica. These two traditions each emerged in this period, with the former being those who fled to the kingdom of Darni Kash to the west, while the Eastern tradition being those who fled to Sewaqlior in the east.

Western Episanism arose out of these communities in Darni Kash and mountains to the east. They never dominated Darni Kash and remained a weak minority for much longer, though the country of Llapoya, much further to the northwest, would eventually become predominantly Western Episanist. Although they respect the Eastern Episanist thinking, they don’t give it the same reverence and prefer their own ways instead. They have a big emphasis on monasticism and have a top-down religious hierarchy, as a result of generally being a minority without the state backing for much of their early history.

Eastern Episanism is the much larger tradition. This is largely because in 259, King Kamantu converted to Episanism, mounting a successful war against Penaulazi which liberated Episana in 250, and swiftly becoming a significant empire. The transformative impact of this victory resulted in Sewaqlior rapidly becoming a wholly Episanist society. The state heavily patronized religious scholars and institutions, and Sewaqli swiftly emerged as the primary liturgical language. The religion spread from Sewaqlior to basically everywhere eastward; almost everyone in Southeast Pacifica follows some form of Eastern Episanism.

Eastern Episanism has no centralized religious institutions separate from the state, which was and to some extent still is expected to play a role of enforcing and adjudicating religious norms. Laws were determined by religious exchange and debate, and religious debates were often motivated by political rather than theological questions. There are clergy, but often these are either state-appointed teachers and philosophers, who don’t exist in a hierarchy, or they are wandering mystics, often disliked by the state. The state is responsible for maintaining shrines and temples, which are universal across the countryside, but most prayer is done by individuals or families stopping in together. Everyday religious practice is not mediated through priests; individuals teach themselves prayers and form small religious groups which practice and teach each other together, sometimes developing their own rituals and forms of adornment. Occasionally these form larger movements, which are usually accepted by the state unless they mess with a crucial theological issue or undermine the political order. This is the relevant religious and cultural context of Hayaka and Southeastern Pacifica, at least before modernity resulted in some important shifts.

[1]. ep- in Episanese means “go up.” -is is a causative, so epis- means “to raise.” -ā derives an animate patient, so episā means “one who is exalted.” Episana is from epis-hana “place that is raised” which also just means island.
[2] Early English accounts often called it Berbrarism or Berarism, from the Sewaqli.
Last edited by Solarius on 26 Aug 2024 05:05, edited 1 time in total.
Solarius
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Re: A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

Post by Solarius »

The earliest cultures in Southeast Pacifica with writing are the Tharanatha in northeast Kimonle, with others emerging shortly after, largely along the coast to Ayarang. Even at this point, they are Episanists, but clearly fairly recent converts, with odd heterodoxies which would later be ironed out. It seems likely that writing and Episanism came hand in hand. The kingdoms of the 1st millenium CE here are very notable in the historical record: Tharanatha in northern Kimonle, Falanathi in central Kimonle, Naway Nach in southern Kimonle and northern Inorea, and Ayarang in Ayarang. They all became rich as trading entrepots, bringing raw materials from the interior to other markets, like the Odanites to the northwest.

Southern Pacifica was a relatively isolated region. The crops available at the time in that region could work okay in the slightly less tropical climates of Ayarang, Northern Inorea, or southern Kimonle; they were less well suited to southern Inorea and modern Hayaka, which were much hotter, and as a result populations were lower and the region was more marginal. The people who lived along the Hapola estuary called themselves the Peng, after the Sewaqli word png, and were divided into several kingdoms, which often got pushed around by the richer and more populous states to the north. They were literate, but we have very little of their language, partly because they often wrote in Sewaqli or in the language of neighboring powers. On the other side of the Cercanas were the Siutic peoples, who spoke Inkangic languages and who were at this generally not Episanists or literate, with little outside contact.

On the east coast, in Modern day East Inkapia, the region had become increasingly colonized by the Chetanka, a Phoenician-esque culture from just northeast of our focus area. It was a patchwork of Chetanka-nized city-states. This period will be pretty much effaced from history shortly, so no need to spend too much time on it.

East of the Facoy Mountains, in the Harangali Plain, writing and Episanism tended to accompany one another too, but came a little later. The Hayakan people have their origins in the northern part of this region, is what is now Northeast Kimonle, Northern West Inkapia, and Western Semerli. This region is called Unale. Unale was home to several languages as well as Hayakan, including several Inkangic and Hapolan languages; the Unale/Semerli area was and is a kind a Caucasus-esque zone of linguistic and cultural diversity. Writing was believed to have commenced as early as the 400s CE, but the earliest writings which we have a record of are from the 700s; the gap is likely because earliest writing was on wood. This writing, called Ommeuman, developed into a syllabary that I discuss more here. However, the early residents of Unale appeared to have learned their religious knowledge largely through oral tradition. As a result, early writing is pretty boring. The earliest uses of Ommeumman appear to be for rather mundane purposes; they were largely inventories of cattle and horses. The region probably did not have any centralized polity above the village, who were generally subordinate to raiding bands of herders. A traveler from Falanathi or Naway Nach would scoff at Unale, seeing it as nothing more than a useless backwater.

However, Unale soon saw the emergence of a kind of Episanism which would change everything.
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Re: A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

Post by Visions1 »

Really enjoying this series. Keep it up!
At work. Will be back.
Solarius
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Re: A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

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Political life in the agricultural villages of Unale was hard, violent, and rigidly hierarchical. The extremely arid climate meant agriculture was confined to river valleys, and villages tended to small. Villages had something in common with the feudal order of things -- they tended to be run by small oligarchic groups of landowners, with a large class of non-owning laborers who were allowed to farm off the land in exchange for political loyalty to the landowners and corvee labor in maintaining the massive irrigation works necessary to preserve agriculture in arid Unale. The repeated pillaging and coercion of agricultural villages in Unale by pastoralists was a major problem for these communities, and it was common for the villages to hire other pastoralists to protect them. These groups often called themselves Diyaro "protectors" [1]. Unsurprisingly one villages Diyaro might be another village's menace. Relations between landowners and non-landowners often tended to skew harshly towards the former, in part because landowners often called in their Diyaro as hired guns, who were happy for another excuse to pillage.

In the early 1100s, a confederation of 5 small villages on the East Bank of the Hapola, along the modern day Semerli/Kimonle border, began hiring two pastoralist clans, the Eusitaphi and the Koraba, to protect their villages, in keeping with this tradition. The 5 Villages, who are often known collectively by their Hayakan name of Yotor Yase [2] developed a close relationship with these groups, and they began camping primarily on the outside of the villages, interacting socially with the residents of Yotor Yase while maintaining their own lifestyle. This was likely encouraged by the oligarchs of Yotor Yase, because the irrigation works of the area had become increasing salinized in recent years, necessitating massive corvee labor, which caused tremendous unhappiness among the peasants and political agitation.

However, this backfired, as the increased social proximity to Yotor Yase lead to many of the Eusitaphi and Koraba becoming radicalized against the oligarchs and in favor of the peasants -- the pastoralist clans, who were more egalitarian, were repulsed by the abuse of power. As a result, when peasants came to them for aid in fighting the oligarchs in 1185, the Eusitaphi and Koraba weighed in on their side -- defeating and killing all of the oligarchs of Yotor Yase. The new leadership set out a bold doctrine of Episanist theology and governance.

The old regime had erred by trespassing against Png, or social harmony. The Episanist canon teaches that those lower in the social hierarchy ought to respect their betters -- but those authorities must not dishonor and disrespect their juniors. Now, Yotor Yase was to create a new way of doing things, with land held in common ownership, collective action in irrigation maintenance, and a political system, based on ancient Episana, where a king was held in check by a council of wise leaders. Leaders on all level must be checked. [3] The chiefs of the Koraba and Eusitaphi clans would rule, but they would defer and be held to account by the leaders of the peasants. The name of this doctrine was Hayatorkon, universally called by its English translation, Unity Episanism [4]. The shadow of Grmak Samppin lurked close by, and a revolution was necessary to prevent it.

This ignited tremendous enthusiasm among peasants in neighboring villages, and several uprisings began shortly after in nearby villages, with the forces of Yotor Yase and the Eusitaphi and Koraba clans marshaled in allegiance. The ranks of Yotor Yase swelled with new devotees, both peasants and other pastoralists. Before long, all of Unale was filled with political turbulence. Notably, the main political rivals of this newfound rebellion soon became other pastoralists, as the oligarchs were largely paper tigers. These oppositional pastoralists were called Naratoka "dissenters", usually shortened to Narato. In 1199, the armies of Yotor Yase achieved a major victory against the Narato at the Battle of Hotoika Riverbed in modern day NW East Inkapia, which scattered them south and westward. The leaders declared themselves to a new people -- the United People, called gajnka in Sewaqli but in their rendering, the Hayaka.

[1] From an Inkangic language; the specific variety is not known.
[2] "5 villages"
[3] This is actually a fairly old idea in Episanist thought, dating back to the political intrigues of Sewaqlior after the conversion, but it was fairly uncommon in this part of the world until this point.
[4]. This is a theological preference on the part of many Unity Episanist theologians.
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Re: A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

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The Hayaka had consolidated power in Unale, but what was stopping them from going further? Surely Grmak Samppin was still a threat, and Narato were out there in the south and in the Facoy Mountains. They must continue their campaign against injustice and unite the world. So they began a great campaign. Dividing themselves between the Koraba and the Eusitaphi (and the many, many nomadic allies of each), they began marching eastward and southward, respectively.

The Koraba and their allies, impressively, crossed the Cercana range and conquered the Chetankanized city-states, taking over most of Eastern East Inkapia and Eastern Semerli. They even west further to the northeast, attacking western Chetankaland (NW of the map).

In the south, the Eusitaphi went primarily southward, fighting against the Narato and other unfriendly nomads, who they swiftly conflated with the Narato. Eventually, they hit the Peng people of modern day Hayaka, and conquered them easily. The Eusitaphi armies poured into Ayarang and Naway Nach, overthrowing these too in the 1220s, though their hold here was fairly tenuous and was eventually lost by the 1230s.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tremendous size of this realm made it difficult to administer, so in 1229 the realm of the Hayaka was divided between the Koraba and Eusitaphi, with the Koraba getting most of Unale. The Koraba shortly dissolved into various petty feuding states, but the Eusitaphi realm remained united, keeping the name of Hayaka [1]. Hayaka's powerbase soon shifted to modern day Hayaka, as the region was transformed from marginal to major by a force totally unrelated to these political machinations.

At some point in the early to mid 1100s, there was an arrival in southern Hayaka. Although there's no written record of this, it's believed that in this time period Polynesian navigators, possibly concurrent with the settlement of Hawaiʻi or shortly after, landed along the southern coast of modern-day Hayaka. They likely colonized many of the islands, living alongside the Siutic peoples of the region and slowly intermarrying with them. Although there's no longer a distinctive Polynesian cultural presence in this area, there's strong cultural influence on the Siutic peoples of the far south and even some toponyms -- one of the island chains in the area, Afastio, has a variety of names - /hafaiʔi tio/, /hafa stio/, /afaiki kio/ which suggest a likely cognate with Hawaiʻi or Hawaiki, with the second element meaning island.

But most relevantly, this interchange lead to the introduction of Polynesian agricultural goods, well adapted to the tropical climate of the area. This allowed for a population explosion among the Siutic peoples, and these crops began to diffuse northward into the Hayakan realm, around the time of the conquest [2]. As a result, this turned modern-day Hayaka into a very populous area, enriching the new kingdom of Hayaka.

[1] The term Hayaka is a little confusing. In Hayakan, Hayaka means the Hayak people and the country is called Yicisabei Hayaka "Kingdom of the Hayaks" or much less commonly Hayakale "Hayak land." In English, the name is used for the country, and Hayak is backformed from it.
[2] This is fairly fast; it was likely aided by the total upheval in land tenure and political structure.
Solarius
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Re: A short history of Hayaka and Southeast Pacifica

Post by Solarius »

Here's a map of the realm of Hayaka in 1240. Red indicates the formerly Koraba ruled regions, while Orange is the Eusitaphi. Yellow was formerly ruled by the Eusitaphi but lost by this point.

Image

The black dot indicates the location of Yotor Yase, and the black star indicates the location of the new capital, Ikhaudiyaro "Protector's City." (Modern Yikhoudiyaro).
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