North Songun civilization

North Songun civilization

Alternative names	Songunese civilization
Geographical range	Northern coast of the Songun Sea, south of modern Varshan
Period	Medieval Crona
Dates	c. 500 BC – c. 1500 AD
Followed by	Zurgite Varshan

The North Songun civilization was a Cronan civilization established in classic antiquity existing through the Occidental Renaissance, whose primary achievements and existed occurred during the Occidental medieval period. The civilization, the richest and most advanced in Crona of its contemporaries, flourished on the north shore of the Songun Sea, from which it derives its name.

Historians believe the North Songun civilization emerged out of a series of related settlements in and around southeastern Kelekona. Throughout its existence, the civilization was never completely centralized, instead including a wide number of polities and city-states, though at times several large kingdoms and empires did form in this space. The civilization spread both through the establishment of new colonies over time, as well as the subjugation of other indigenous peoples, particularly in Telonaticolan and Titechaxha. "Proto" North Songun civilization reached its traditional extent into those countries by around 500 BC, from which point development of the civilization would occur inward through a series of continuous reform and religious, social, and economic revolutions. The cities of the North Songun were noted for their urban planning, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and techniques of handicraft and metallurgy. Their economies were comparable to Occidental contemporaries, and the wealth of these civilizations allowed for a flourishing of art and literature. The North Songun civilization was the first in Crona to establish a lasting literary tradition, and its written histories provide most major insights to scholars regarding the history of pre-Asterian Crona.

For the latter part of its history, the states of the North Songun existed alongside, and then in opposition to, Varshan. The Anzo-based state emerged in the shadow of the North Songun before eventually overtaking it. Political instability in the North Songun began after major 13th century religious changes, a process which greatly weakened the states of the North Songun. Their wealth and relative weakness exposed them to the Hunts, an annual Varshani raid that began in the 15th century and lasted through the 18th century in some form. The constant military pressure from Varshan, fragile political systems, and weakening economy led to the total collapse of all North Songun states by 1500 AD.

Today, Arcerion, Kelekona, Telonaticolan, Titechaxha, and Malentina occupy the majority of lands traditionally included within the extent of the North Songun civilization, and to a degree the people of the latter four countries are the descendants of the North Songun people.

Etymology

The term "North Songun civilization" is a geographically-oriented one coined by Occidental scholars in the late 19th century. The term encompasses a large number of peoples and cities who shared a related cultural-civilizational foundation, and accordingly the use of a single, non-exonym term has proven problematic. The term Semanau has been proposed, meaning "world" or "whole world" in pre-modern Kelekonan, but the term has several cultural implications not present in the ancient literature. The Varshani term for the region, "zetu'latan", directly translated sometimes as "golden lands", has also been proposed but has been rejected by scholars due to the harmful historic relationship between Varshan and the region as well as the difficulty in getting a direct meaning-for-meaning translation from Hieratic Varshani. Scholars and cultural observers are generally dissatisfied with the "North Songun civilization" terminology, both due to linguistic "clunkiness" as well as its status as an exonym, but accordingly have been unable to agree on consensus replacement terminology.

Extent

The actual extent of the North Songun civilization is traditionally measured by the cities and polities that comprised it, but has also been measured by the cultural footprint which has been traced far beyond its borders; the latter area includes most of Crona. The core area of the North Songun civilization, as the name implies, sat on the northern coast of the Songun Sea; its most populous areas were largely in Kelekona and northwestern Arcerion, but from there it included all of modern Titechaxha, the easternmost parts of Varshan (largely coinciding with the Kiravian occupation zone), southern Telonaticolan, and Malentina. Definitionally, what distinguishes an area as "North Songun" has been determined by the use of their shared urban planning techniques, religious beliefs, and other signifiers agreed upon by scholars; those cultures and peoples within the civilization are not necessarily ethnically related, and scholars are careful to note that the North Songun heritage does not belong strictly to one ethnicity or national group.

Beyond the shared area, the North Songun culture had a very large cultural influence area. Coins from North Songun cities have been found in large quantities as far north as Quetzenkel and as far south as Ceylonia, implying the North Songun had a very large economic footprint and served as a central economic axis facilitating north-south trade. Scholars have found evidence that the indigenous religions of these areas, possibly including Arzalism, were significantly influenced by North Songun religion and philosophy, though in Arzalism's case these claims are extremely controversial.

History

Predecessors

As human civilizations developed in other areas of the world, such as Sarpedon and Audonia, urban settlements based on the advances of the agricultural revolution began to sprout up in central Crona in around 3000 BC. The largest and most impressive of these population centers emerged in what is today eastern Kelekona and northwestern Arcerion, employing that area's plentiful water and rich soil. The rise of urban civilization also led to the advent of warfare between major settlements. By around 1500 BC, the "Proto-North Songun" civilization emerged in the Arco-Kelekonan borderlands. Very little is known about the kind of people that lived in these cities, though it is known that the core urban region consisted of similar cult practices as well as a shared architecture and urban planning style. Historians surmise that these cities likely vanquished nearby rivals and formed some type of league, importing captured prisoners from their rivals and introducing new cultural innovations shared between the cities. This league, hypothetically referred to as the "Kelek league", was responsible for the development of a network of written correspondence, the first in Crona. This form of writing was likely used for trade and diplomatic correspondence, but soon took on a general purpose.

Rotten Century

The religious unrest and resulting social tumult that came about towards the end of the 1200s inaugurated the "Rotten Century", a period encompassing most of the 1300s that inaugurated significant social, economic, and military decline in the North Songun.

The Rotten Century is devoid of many good primary source documents. One of the more important sources for this period is Paul Aster, who visited Maktalin as part of his expedition to Crona towards the end of the 1300s. Though the civilization was devastated by nearly a century of conflict, Aster spoke of the significant wealth and impressive infrastructure achieved by the Maktalini. Aster's recountings are also a critical source document for historians, as he is one of the few outsiders to visit the civilization and write about it during the period it existed; his observations include many different cultural practices and everyday occurrences not recorded by North Songun histories due to how obvious they would have appeared to North Songun audiences.

Huntocracy and End

North Songun civilization was deeply and bitterly divided by the beginning of the 15th century. The religious wars of the preceding century had failed to decisively resolve the split in the Nahibianist religion, and instead had weakened most major powers and despoiled most of the civilization's major cities. The end of the Rotten Century saw the civilization consolidate largely into two major coalitions, referred to historians as the "orthodox alliance" and the "reformist league", though these are historiographical conventions as the alliances are thought to have been implied rather than agreed upon by treaty or governed by organizations. Nevertheless, the mutual destruction and new balance of power had the practical effect of ending the century of armed conflict. These convergent factions were largely focused on defense against the other, and most realms and city-states within the civilization would not or could not answer the call of their co-belligerents against outside aggressors.

The world around the North Songun civilization had changed dramatically during the Rotten Century. Aster's expedition had exposed Crona to the Occident, precipitating major changes throughout the rest of the continent. The arrival of Aster and others brought about dramatic change in neighboring Varshan. The Žuqulid Revolution, beginning in around 1408, changed Varshan's footing to one of war and conquest. In the preceding centuries, it had eclipsed its North Songun neighbors in population, dwarfing the war-wearied North Songun people in terms of military prowess and capability. Accordingly, the once wealthy and still populous North Songun became targets of the Hunt - a seasonal raid by Varshani forces into the lands of the North Songun for slaves and monetary plunder.

Aftermath

By 1500, all states which could have conceivably been defined as North Songunite were destroyed, both by Varshan's annual raiding as well as by other neighbors. By this time, and afterwards, the region faced a sharp decline in population, due to pestilence, famine, death, and many inhabitants being carried off into slavery. The territory remained divided, allowing several neo-Songunite uprisings to occur throughout the 1500s, especially as the successors and neighbors of the region continued to be harassed by Varshani raiders. By 1580, the North Songun corridor had become something of a perpetual warzone, which not only complicated the function of the Hunts but created a problem for Varshan's border security. Accordingly, in 1592, Varshani armies on the Hunt did not return with slaves and plunder, but instead stayed within the former North Songun area for three years, establishing new tributaries with would solidify the area while making no resistance to the ongoing raids. Varshani families, as well as other peoples from the Nysdra Sea region, were imported to establish new ruling dynasties in the occupied territories, which would also include large numbers of displaced persons and slaves from other locations in Crona. The new tributary governments form the original basis for the modern states of Kelekona and Titechaxha. After this reorganization, the ferocity and size of the Hunts declined, but individual nobles and other private parties in Varshan continued to continually raid the North Songun until the 18th century.

Religion

The North Songun civilization and its immediate antecedents shared a common, evolving religious tradition for nearly two millennia. The North Songun religion would come to be more commonly known as Nahibianism, and it emerged out of a milieu of different folk pantheons and shaman traditions in the region, some of which shared a common pre-migration Audonian heritage, to become an organized religion with written faith edicts that dominated central Crona until the beginning of the Hunts in the 15th century. The central historical figure of the religion was the prophet-king Nahibe, who lived in the period around 150 BC. Nahibe was both king and high priest of the city-state of Maktalin. Nahibe introduced several major reforms to the prevalent popular religion of the time, and the subsequent success of Maktalin led to the export of his reforms across Crona until they became considered orthodoxy. Accordingly, North Songun religion can be divided into "pre-Nahibe" and "post-Nahibe" periods, with the latter constituting "Nahibianism".

Nahibe's reforms were traditionally understood to have been a single, comprehensive era of spiritual enlightenment that fundamentally changed the North Songun religion. This view was first articulated in around the 4th century AD and became acknowledged fact. However, recent scholarship suggests that Nahibe's reforms were actually the innovations of several different Prophets over the course of the existence of that institution, and critically, also included some views across the North Songun world that were emergent at the time of the birth of Nahibe. Regardless of the source of the material, the "Nahibian era", beginning with his ascension to the kingship of Maktalin in 129 BC and ending with the death of the last Prophet in 104 AD, represented a genuine religious revolution in Crona that created an organized religion out of a varied faith tradition.

Nahibianism was the predominant religion in central Crona from a few years after the death of Nahibe until the destruction of the North Songun civilization. In its place, various regional strains of Arzalism became predominant with the geopolitical ascendancy of Varshan. Many holdouts were captured during the Hunts and died in slavery in Varshan, with their children educated in the Orthodox Arzalist worldview. Scholars believe that a Nahibianist plurality likely existed in the North Songun area until the late 17th century, having been replaced by more popular folk religions, Arzalism, and newly arriving Christianity. The issue of whether or not Nahibianism ever fully became extinct is extremely contentious, as the religion became popular as an expression of national cultural identity in Kelekona and Titechaxha in the late 19th century. Adherents in those countries state they are continuing the milennia-old religious tradition, while a small majority of Occidental scholars argue they are part of a Romantic religious revival.

Pre-Nahibian

Pre-Nahibian religion in the North Songun civilization coalesced as a shared set of basic beliefs emerging along trade routes in the 8th century BC, though significant regional variation existed everywhere. The most common form of the Pre-Nahibian Pantheon recognized a core set of eight gods, though this figure could increase with local deities depending on location. These were: Chamaix, the god of land and the creator god; Chiramurcane, the god of the sea and the underworld; Maxikulana, wife of Chamaix (sister of Ixpuyarcana) and goddess of plants, agriculture, growing, and generally all things "green" on the earth; Ixpuyarcana, wife of Chiramurcane (sister of Maxikulana) and goddess of aquatic animals generally, including fish as well as amphibians; Chiquetxoana, goddess of death, deserts, and rot (but not of the underworld) and sister of the "two wives"; Kinichzo, god of war and son of Chamaix and Chiquetxoana; Hunautab, god of the night, the moon, generally ascribed to be god of mischeif, trickery, and thievery, and; Chivohuano, god of fire and light. Hunautab and Chivohuano are usually considered the "sky twins" and were viewed as the sons of Chamaix with Maxikulana. The mythology of the pre-Nahibian pantheon typically involved various familial relations and rivalries between the gods, and these relations were used to explain important world events. For example, Chiquetxoana fooling Chamaix and laying with him to create Kinichzo was used to explain the end of "primordial peace" among early created humankind. The gods were generally thought to all be emanations or children of Chamaix in some way. Besides the regional deities, archaeology also suggests as many as four additional gods could have been widespread in early central Crona, but scholars also believe it is possible shared depictions and aspects among otherwise unrelated regional gods may explain this phenomena.

Worship to the eight gods was the primary aim of the Pre-Nahibian religious consensus, with most cities and colonies having temples fo all eight gods plus any regional deities. Each god required a different type of animal sacrifice, and evidence suggests the period just before the Nahibian reform featured an increasingly complex and legalistic approach to sacrifice. Over time, most cities and polities became more closely associated with one of the gods while maintaining worship to all eight, and accordingly North Songun cities increasingly began to have differing sized temples to accommodate their particular devotions. Based on the writings of Nahibe and other archaeological evidence suggesting religious conflict, this "asymmetric worship" was an increasing cause of social anxiety and division in early North Songun civilization.

Pre-Nahibian had a mix of regional legends which formed the basis of what might be called "scripture", plus a very small number of written texts - no more than three or four - shared by everyone. As the North Songun world became more integrated over time, legends from far-flung places like Telonaticolan became known to the people of Kelekona and vice versa, creating what scholars surmise was a sometimes-contradictory body of myth and legend.

This religious tradition stressed the importance of the natural world, and eschewed a spiritual afterlife as commonly understood by most religions. Instead, it posited the existence of a physical underworld below the sea while a physical afterlife beyond the sea. In some early stories from this period, people could occasionally return from the Land Abroad, albeit in a form altered by the gods and with no memory of their journey. Most proto- and early North Songun settlements along the sea are archaeologically characterized by large numbers of human remains placed off-shore. This, combined with surviving narratives, confirms that pre-Nahibians believed that individuals would either sail to the afterlife or sink to the underworld in a physical way. This belief inspired North Songunites to send the condemned abroad on what became known as Heaven Ships, in hopes that these criminals or undesirables would still be guided to the afterlife despite their sins in this life. Historians and medieval North Songun writers generally believed that Nahibe introduced the concept of spiritualism to the North Songun world, but subsequent research indicates a growing rejection of the traditional materialism of pre-Nahibianism was likely in the lead up to Nahibe's reforms.

Religious scholars generally do not agree about how extensive the "pre-Nahibian consensus" was throughout Crona. A minority view expresses that it was functionally as far north and west as Anzo and the future Varshani heartland, citing similarities between Kinichzo, Hunautab, and early aspects of Arzalism's Raid God. A small majority view says pre-Nahibianism only spread about as far as the later full extent of the North Songun civilization.

Nahibianism

Awakened Nahibianism

At the end of the 13th century, a new movement - called the Second Awakening - introduced several new strains of thought into the Nahibian religion. These innovations would be widely adopted but also cause major division among the people of the North Songun, ultimately weakening their civilization by the end of the 14th century.

Achievements

The North Songun civilization was among the most developed and accomplished world civilizations, both compared to Occidental contemporaries and especially compared to Cronan contemporaries both north and south.

Wealth

The North Songun at its peak was one of the wealthiest places on earth. Although he visited towards the end of the economically devestating Rotten Century, Paul Aster still marveled at the very large amount of commerce taking place in Maktalin.

Cultural aftermath

Post-Songun civilization

The term "post-Songun civilization" has been used by some cultural scholars to refer collectively to the culture of middle Crona - especially modern Kelekona, Telonaticolan, and Titechaxha. All three states claim a cultural heritage from the North Songun civilization, but the post-medieval heavy influence of Varshan and the Occident transformed the culture of these peoples to a distinct heritage from their ancestors.