Aharganite Kingdom

Aharganite Kingdom or the Kingdom of Ahargan is a polity in the north of the Hadašhim Subcontinent. The state has been for its whole existence a major power broker of intracontinental dynamics, although it was always considered an outsider, a foreign body entrenched in home soils. This isn't far from the truth as the religion, the leading classes, and the royal family has moved in from the north. Founded in the havoc of the First Aharganite War, part of the wider imperial collapse called the Deluge in 777-778, Ahargan shaped the history of the subcontinent in a more fundamental way as anything else since the landing of Harko I.

Origins
In the northern land of Šalmaram the Madakhsi state surged towards supremacy from the 5th century onwards. Based on their cultural-religional influence they unified the lands around their capital named Shir Madakhs before starting bloody, devastating unifications campaigns into areas even further from the core region. At first, the expansion was a purely political one without sacred aims. Those who subjected themselves to Madakhsi rule were given a degree of autonomy alongside integration to the imperial systems. Only after the sixth century became the spread of Aminad a priority among the Madakhsi leadership after they reformed their closed, restrictive religion into a more open, proselytising one. From that point political and sacral authority was increasingly intermingled in the northern territories, to the point that the Madakhsi claimed authority over every single believer.

Socotca accepted the faith in a collective assembly as a mean to ward off further enchroachment. They were pastoral people drawing their livelyhood from herding a hunting in the rich savannas of Šalmaram, but not a small nation. Two hundred thousand warriors were ready to destroy anyone casting harm upon them. Still, the Madakhsi did not yield and demanded more and more with every single year. Allies started to turn away Socotca legations, trade partners stopped the exchange, tribute dried up as subjugated tribes rebuffed Socotca claims. At the same time the Madakhsi also claimed authority above the same people, alongside offering them protection. An attack upon them would have been a cases belli long sought to bring the entire might of this empire upon the last resisting population.

Iftin Sârkanu, the young Socotca king elected in 770 decided in the early years of his reign for an escape over the Zabirath ridge into Hadašham. Based on assumptions from merchants frequenting the lands of the South he had the Red Tower Pass scouted from 775 onwards. Spies found the defenses in a neglected albeit still forceful stance, enough to stop assaults but few to withstand a well-planned and well-executed attack. The time has come in the spring of 777, when the Madakhsi pressure mounted to a never seen level. War was imminent a scenerio loads of Socotca embassies tried to avert or at least of at least postpone until the flight commences. Iftin personally calculated with a bloody uphill battle costing up to ten thousand lives in a period of roughly a week. Instead, the fight lasted barely three hours with most guardsmen fleeing from the fortress falling dead from Socotca arms while they wanted to save their plunder. The nation passed through the gap in the coming month with a reinforced rearguard coming last. Elite troops occupied the northern defences to stop any possible attack from the Madakhsi what never came.

Foundation of the Kingdom
Goals after the escape were uncertain. Riders explored the lands beyond the mountains, they reported back that it is densely populated, wet, most of it farmland contrary to the nations pastoral traditions. For the summer the Socotca remained in the immediate foothill region largely concentrated while a series of councils tried to decide their next move. Answers came in the form of the viceroyal army of Ahargan. The Court of Ahargan has heard about the invasion and mounted a forceful counteroffensive against the intruders. Near to half-a-million soldiers were gathered to overwhelm the Socotca, but most of them were ragtag frash recruits, mercenaries of dubious quality, official units suffering from decades of neglects, corruption.

High-quality forces were left in their garrison along the Red Šyul to defend the region from frequent raids. Such a move did not influence the outcome of the First Aharganite War as it was over before it begun. The Socotca moved against the arriving enemy, harrassing it with light cavalry for the better part of their march before giving battle near to the Zabiraths in a broad, flat floodplain area. Most of the Hadašhim fough on foot, while the Socotca were mounted. Ahargan had a meagre cavalry, uncomparable both in size and training to the horse traditions of their foes. Apart from that most of their footmen were armed with spears, shields of axes as during the Deluge money intended for equipment was often embezzled by officials. Arbalists and archers were in short supply, most of them were dispersed among the battleline. Concentrated use of mass firepower proved to be instrumental in defeating the swarming tactics of the Socotca horse archers by more capable commanders, but Ahargan lacked the forces, the instruments, the discipline and the command to do so. During the course of a day, the army was annihilated.

Riders staged a hunt for three days against he escaping soldiers killing some four hundred thousand persons, enslaving the rest. Much to the shock of the nobles, Socotca did not respect social status among the vanquished branding and selling everyone they caught among themselves. Important titleholders were even executed when they did reveal their identity as a mean to bar future resistance. Still in the summer Socotca spread out and devastated the northeastern portions of Ahargan, capturing hundreds of thousands of slaves in the process. The defeat at the Zabiraths was so thorough that most subject only caught wind of it when the horsemen arrived and started to plunder their homes.

With the fall the brutality of the invasion decreased, nonetheless because murder, burning and catching escaped slaves was too time-consuming. Instead the army turned to indirect violance to force their will upon the local populace. Most farmers were turned into bondsmen in their villages left in peace until they paid their taxes. Major landholders were expropiated with slaves ironically set free in such cases, while their owners were carried away into servitude. Socotca settled in this intermediate period in the northeast of the land, where suitable pasturages were made from the desolate region. The army induced profound changes in the rural areas, including a complete elite change.

Cities were left in peace as they produced immense wealth and Iftin saw them as a source of future revenue. None of them had Strong defences as they were deemed unnecesseary during the foundation period, offering an easy prey this time. Instead ravaging them, Socotca forces were mandated to offer unconditional surrender with three days to decide. If they obeyed within the timeframe the township was spared with occasional cases of theft and sporadic violence from the occupying forces. Resisters or revolters surrendering before were utterly destroyed with the male population executed over the age of fifteen and the rest enslaved. Ahar-Arath, the capital of the region surrendered on th 18th of Storms, in the mid-autumn. From that time on, the invasion progressively decreased in violence as the Socotca started to treat the conquered lands like their fiefdom. Sporadic resistance remained, but that was dispersed until the next summer. By mid-778 Ahargan was under the complete control of the Sârkanu family. Local administration was left in place before the reoganisation. Noble families and Sârkanu loyalists received significant land grants, while the urban settlements and major fortresses were left under royal control.

A New State Rises
Ahargan immediately signified its interest in the continental affairs. Diplomatic line was established to the Kingdom of Manlisan. that resulted in a significant drop in the raiding activity along the Red Šyul. Emissaries sent elsewhere experienced hostile reception that set the undertone of relations for the coming centuries. The Court of the Freelands tried to start rebellions in the neighbourhood while the Court of the Westerlands was preoccupied with its own ills.

Apart from the northeasternmost portion, Ahargan was protected by heavy-to-pass natural borders. As such, defence wasn't a major concern, but it also limited the scope of possible expansion. Socotca still moved in a fresh, virgin territory that was unaccustomed to their rule. So establishing internal order was of paramount importance. Iftin Sârkanu issued a series of decrees from his capital Garomur, most of them serving the homogenisation and incorporation of the local populace. Disbelievers were barred from public office at all, while non-socotca were relegated in their roles. Practitioners were slapped with an additional tax, religious customs that put the Thousanders to public display like blowing horns to rally practicioners for prayers, or processions were banned but the extra revenue gave a strong incentive to the rulers to remain permissive towards the community.

Ahargan had a strong humanist tradition in the urban communities, as such they were ready to give up their religion for continued social status. Very few administrators were removed from office, instead they were made advisors in name while talented young Socotca took the nominal position instead. Urban property was by and large respected, but the military elite was declassed in an extensive manner, in some regions they were even enslaved. In the coming years many high-ranking local families converted, married their children into the Socotca elite, or let themselves be adopted by a clan which was a legal, known and accepted practice before, although the royal disapproved it. Nonetheless, such adoptees didn't face any official restriction against pureblood Socotca, despite some public uproar in some cases. By these clever policies and immigration from beyond the mountains, the practicioners of Aminad became an urban majority in Ahargan.

Rural changes were more radical, profound and thorough. Noble families were butchered or enslaved on the spot as tehy were deemed useless, contrary to the better-trained urban administration. In the northeast many villages were burnt and their population sold into slavery but most peasants were turned into bondsmen who were extensively taxed. At certain regions entire estates were gifted to followers of the royal family, their inhabitans becoming servants in a position between usual serfs and chattel slaves. As Aminad won more prominence amongst the Socotca, having believer slaves became a despised practice. Rural conversions were slower in pace as the social barriers between free tribesmen and subjugated peasant were enforced in a strict manner. In took over a century until the majority. Thereafter the process caught wind, and by the millenium rural Thousanders were the absolute exception, confined to rugged terrain where central authority was weak.

In military sense the Socotca was always family based, with warriors from lower kinship groups sticked together into an ever-growing force at higher levels. Iftin had the means, authority and legitimation to reform this system. Already in Šalmaram he started to create professional full-time units that muster was extended when Ahargan fell into his hands. Contrary to the administration where lenience was shown to loyal non-socotca families who circumvented barriers in their favour, the military was filled only with tribal members who were brought up as such. For the centuries to come Aharganite Military remained cavalry based, lancers enforcing shock roles while mounted archers doing the rest. At sieges they were used dismounted, with auxillary military engineer elements.

Further History
Ahargan has remained a major power of the Subcontinent ever since. Apart from some ineffective converting missions, the kingdom remained inactive towards the western states. Relations with Kartam were uneasy to strained at historical times, but outright violence only happened after the departure of the emperors in 965.

Classical territory of the foreign policy were the Freelands to the east. During viceroyal times, the Court of the Freelands emerged as a major opponent Ahargan, even invading the young state in 807. This deed poisoned the relation even further leading to periods of extended violence. Contrary to their names for the better of the ninth century the Freelands were used for slave raids that gave rise to a chain of fortresses along the Black Šyul with an extensively fortified march in the north called Damiham (land of the fortresses).

In the Third Aharganite War between 893-898 the Court of the Freelands was broken, victory seemed inevitable until the Court of Hadašham did not come to aid. Fresh reinfocements saved a significant portion of land from Aharganite occupation, denoting a direct border between the two polities not neighbouring each other before.

The Fourth Aharganite War exactly sixty years later was a pinnacle of Aharganite power, as they crushed the Hadašhim resistance and forced them to ceed all territory until the Birith Mountains. Kartam was besieged during the hostilities, although a neutral party in the war that led to serious grievances towards Ahargan.

To date (1058) the Fifth Aharganite War is the last. Razon II Sârkanu declared war against the Hadašhim Empire in 1037, crossed the Biriths at the helm of a huge army and besieged Tir-Našadar after securing some area in the midwestern regions of the seaboard. The siege itself went good, but the king was forced to lift it, after crown prince Nimir, merely 16 at the time mustered his own troops and routed several dispatched contingents. Aharganite garrisons were massacred in the occupied cities, while the ruler had to flee on board his supply ships as he was cut from all terrestrial exits. Nimir then pressed on and with the help of the subjugated population still loyal to Hadašham he liberated almost all of the Freelands in his winter campaign. Damiham held out and the war turned into a mighty back and forth in the western Freelands and Aharganite invasions were unable to reclaim any point of interest while Nimir has beaten every single of them when he gave battle. Furthermore frequent raiding parties crossed even the lower Black Šyul turning the eastern regions of Ahargan into a no mans land devoid of population or agriculture. After five years of localised fight, Dam-Ygar, the largest fortress, key of the defenses in Damiham fell, what spurned a forceful counterattack from Aharganite side. Nearly one million soldiers fell upon the Freelands, countered by a force a quarter of that size, but due to technical advances, skillful command and greater experience on the Hadašhim side they were annihilated in the Battle of the Burning Fields. Ahargan sued for peace with a third of its military aged male population dead, several more disabled for life. In the treaty the orhana kulum intervented on behalf of Ahargan to realise a more even-handed aggrement. Nonetheless, Hadašham beheld the Red Tower Pass alongside all lands on the left-bank of the Black Šyul, but humilating clauses like a yearly tribute were excluded.

Ahargan is in current times eager to take revenge for the humilation suffered a decade and a half ago, but it lacks the means, the allies and the opportunity to counter such a resurgent foe it has never faced in the history before.