History of Thervala
Arrival in Northern Dolong Wetlands and the Reign of Habass
In the 4th century BCE Buddhist princes that were expelled by the Zoroastrian Emperor of the Arunid Empire Aadesh. These landless princess followed historical Arunid trade routes until they came upon the Ther people in the far north of Audonia. Upon discovering the indigenous and underdeveloped Ther people, the Arunid princes thought it was their religious duty to enlighten the Ther. They introduced written language to the Ther people and divided the land into realms that would be distributed among the princes. Historically, these entites existed more as monarchal city states that coexisted peacefully with one another. Arunidisation saw the introduction of Wet Rice Agriculture, The Sanskrit writing system, and advancements in administrative and legal thought. By and large, the Arunids brought modern civilization to the Dolong wetlands.
As the Vishrani princes started to die, the initial realms that were created and distributed equally started to be inherited by the eldest prince of the Vishran dynasty, Habass. Habass eventually outlived all of his brothers and inherited all of the realms. This happened solely because he had chosen to enter into a monogomous relationship wheras the other Vishran princes were notoriously polygamists. Habass was the only one who could definitively inherit titles because the other princes never selected wives that could rule as regents or give heirs.
Habass named the new and united kingdom "Arunthala". Habass ruled benevolently over Thervala and allegedly lived to be 120 years old. The historicity of this claim is dubious at best as most records from the time were lost during the Myanga Revolts. Much of the history of Habass and his reign is heavily mythologized in Ther folklore and culture. In Ther folk tradition, Habass was a hero who slew the native Ther fish god and released the Ther people from its rule.
After the death of Habass, the crown was inehrited by his son, Chandravarman I.
Chandravarman I
Contemporary scholars believe that Chandravarman ruled over Arunthala from between 330 and 300 BC to around 250 BC.
The reign of Chandravarman saw an expansion of administrative and legal code within Arunthala. His first major action as king was to create an extensive tax code to fund projects all across the kingdom. This tax code was considered to be incredibly ahead of its time, with varying laws for taxation of individuals based on factors such as number of family members in a household, occupation, and social status. As a devout Buddhist, these things were important to Chandravarman when it came to tax. For an average family, the annual tax was two sacks of rice. Farmers were taxed a wagon's worth of rice.
Chandravarman also created one of the world's first instances of social security. Half of all rice tax in Arunthala was held onto by the kingdom to be distributed to poor people, Buddhist monks, and the sick. This was known as the Rice Hoard. Arunthala also saw the development and expansion of the city of Wat Vishran as well as the start of projects such as the Heavenly Temple of Divine Providence, the roads and tollways of Arunthala, and most notably, The Golden Barge.
Chandravarman was responsible for the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Dahmong nomads in what is now known as Oyashima. Chandravarman personally oversaw the hiring of some one thousand Dahmong nomads to act as a standing military to protect the Arunthal kingdom. This early military was able to train the Ther people in horse archery as well as swordsmanship. Nationalist Ther scholars hypothesize that it was not the Myanga that trained the Ther in Elephant cavalry, but the nomad mercenaries, due to their competence and experience with mounted combat.
Chandravarman left Arunthala to his only son, Chandraputra.
Chandraputra
Chandraputra is much more well documented figure, thanks to the growing education of Arunthala. He ruled from 250 BC to 230 BC. Despite his religious upbringing, Chandravarman was known to be greatly affectionate towards Chandraputra. He showered his son in gifts of exotic animals, women, wine, and food. Chandraputra's father died when he was approximately sixteen or seventeen years old. Having no experience in nation building to the degree of his forefathers, Chandraputra oversaw a hedonistic, brutal rule. Records regarding punitive action show that Chandraputra was more than willing to maim or even kill minor offenders. Contemporary scholars suggest that this could even be influenced by how he was feeling at any given time.
He doubled taxation on the native Ther people and would allegedly take a finger per year taxes weren't met. If a subject was behind on taxes for five years accumulatively, they would lose a hand. Chandraputra also oversaw the introduction of a debtor's prison so that debts in private matters could forcibly be handled. Chandraputra also oversaw the great selling of the Rice Hoard, which amassed the kingdom a large fortune once it was depleted. Many bog bodies date back to this time, it is hypothesized that poor, rural Thers made human and animal sacrifices for better crop yields. This is due to the high levels of taxation and no alleviation from the king.
Such mismanagement of the country lead to dissatisfaction of even the most loyal Arunid nobility. While most benefited from his decisions to increase the personal wealth of the court, they knew that the Ther people had now been martially educated. The king's Council of Advisors personally met with him and tried fruitlessly to challenge his style of ruling through reminding him of his father, meetings with court monks, and taking him to the rural provinces of Arunthala. Still, Chandraputra would not yield.
The council of advisors could not foresee a long lasting future of the kingdom with Chandraputra's reign. He had no heir and allegedly amassed a harem of 99 mistresses. In winter of 230 BC, the council invited Chandraputra to a cruise on the river Thak'Tee (then known as Sarayu) and stabbed him to death. They then fed him to the river crocodiles. After deposing the king, the council met and decided to elect a monarch from the ward of the court monk, Sumedha. This decision was made due to the council wanting to mitigate the chances of having another corrupt monarch and saw it fit that someone raised with discipline in the Buddhist faith would never be so corrupt.
Sumedha selected a young boy who he claimed had "The mark of heaven" upon him named Jinaputra. Sumedha claimed that it Jinaputra's destiny to be the king of Arunthala. Jinaputra was still much too young at this time to become the king of Arunthala, so the council of advisors drafted a law that would make them a council of regents if ever a monarch was unfit to rule.
First Council of Regents
The first council of regents in Ther history were tasked with a difficult challenge in repairing the great mess that Chandraputra made. Many of Chandraputra's mistresses had gotten pregnant and given birth to what they perceived to be as pretenders to the throne of Arunthala. Most notably, the eldest illegitimate child of Chandraputra and a Ther woman known as Lalana, Thammarat. Thammarat was able to muster a small army of followers that laid siege to Wat Vishran. He claimed to be the true heir to the throne of Arunthala and that due to his mixed Arunid-Ther ancestry, he would be the key to unifying the two groups. Most of his followers saw him as a messiah figure who would deliver the common Ther people to the elevated social status of the Arunids.
In 245 BC, Thammarat laid siege to the Royal Palace in Wat Vishran. Although normally such a situation would be dealt with swiftly, the council of regents feared retribution from the Ther people for squashing such a rebellion. So the siege lasted an entire fourteen days as the council met and decided on what to do. It was finally decided that Thammarat could not be reasoned with. The council then ordered the Royal Army to storm out of the castle and face Thammarat's forces.
The underequipped and undertrained army that Thammarat had mustered crumbled quickly from the career soldiers of the Royal Army. The fighting only lasted an hour and a half. Thammarat was apprehended and put to trial under the council of regents. There, he was convicted of murder for not only the deaths and injuries sustained by the Royal Army, but also the deaths of his own men. He was sentenced to be burned alive until grievously injured, kept alive until he was stable again, and banished from Arunthala.
After Thammarat's Rebellion, the council of regents sought to restore the rice hoard to its former size. In doing so, long term stability and safety from famine would be ensured. The only option that the council could foresee this coming to fruition, however, was to quadruple the taxes temporarily. They did not enact the same levels of punishment as Chandraputra on people who could not afford to pay their taxes. Those who could not afford to do so were simply instructed to pay the highest amount that they possibly could and that the rest of the debt would be forgiven. This was a largely honor based system, and lead to the council discussing a potential auditing system to ensure that their magnanimity was not being taken advantage of.
Janiputra the Great
Janiputra ascended to the throne in the year 240 BC. The kingdom was on the verge of a total rebellion due to the tax legislation and the perceived subpar performance of the council of regents. During Janiputra's time as a ward of the council, he was tutored personally by the kingdom's top minds on topics such as Theology, Mathematics, History, and Military strategy. He knew that as king he would either have to make concessions to the Ther people or oppress them. He chose the latter, and began sweeping reforms of the military. Every third Ther man between the ages of fifteen and forty was drafted into the royal army. These drafted soldiers would be entitled to land rights and a small amount of wealth if they survived to the end of their tenure.
Janiputra then overhauled the legal code of Arunthala. Despite his predecessor's cruelty, Janiputra saw use in discipline of the public. Growing up in the religious manner that he did, Janiputra saw discipline and harmony as key to not only a healthy life, but a healthy society. Much of his legal reform was his attempts to make Arunthala a perfect Buddhist society. Likewise, Janiputra's legal code viewed inflicted punishment as karmic. His default sentencing by and large was to have the action done upon the offender. He banned the consumption of all animals and animal products, extending this to seafood as well. Even the harming of animals was punishable if one was caught. Janiputra's legal system was so successful that it was maintained as the de facto code of law in Arunthala well into the time of the Myanga.
Due to his shrewd diplomacy and large retinue of court merchants, Janiputra amassed a large amount of wealth within Arunthala. A majority of this wealth was used to fund infrastructure projects all over the kingdom. Most notably, a system of roads that connected Wat Vishran to major towns around the area as well as roads to connect regions to one another. There was also a great land reclamation movement under Janiputra so that the monarchy would have long term insurance that they'd be able to fulfill its promises of land to draftees. Some of this wealth was also distributed to Ther people who were willing to migrate from their villages to the far reaches of the kingdom, such as the northern islands and Langsari. Formal diplomatic relations with the ancient Kingdom of Metzetta were started during this time. Surviving records show that this was one of Arunthala's more lucrative trading partners, due to Arunthala's access to Arunid and Huoxian trade goods.
War of the Steppes
Arunthala's population started to boom due to the high quality of life, food security, and standard of living provided by the kingdom. Janiputra had also grown the army to an approximate size of fifty-thousand men. His vision for a great Buddhist society gave him the ambition to expand Arunthala. He did not believe in betraying the established diplomatic trust with the nomadic Dahmod kingdoms of the east and believed that crossing an army over the Sarayu would be logistically impossible. He came to the conclusion that the only reliable route of expansion for the kingdom was to the south.
While no formal diplomatic contact was made as of yet, trade with the region revealed that the people living there were step nomads, much like the Dahmod. As the Dahmod did not live under a unified kingdom, Janiputra correctly assumed that the southern nomads also had no such form of cohesion. As such, he personally oversaw a campaign into the foothils of dolong.
Although Janiputra was correct in his assumptions about the southern nomads, who were referred to by both the Ther and the Arunid nobility as "Khon Dong" (Wild People), he did not foresee that the military action would take as long as it did. The Arunthala army was vast and very well disciplined, one of the strongest armies on the continent at the time. However, it was inexperienced in actual combat and had no idea how to properly react to the hit and run tactics of the Khon Dong. Although his generals speculated that a more offensive strategy would prove to be successful, Janiputra had no desire to raze the smaller villages of the Khon Dong. He saw such a thing as immoral. Instead, Janiputra devised tactics to deal with the more unconventional style of warfare. His troops who were normally used to using long, curved swords, were fitted with spears instead. He then ordered them into square formations, protecting the flanks from cavalry attacks on the sides. He dubbed this formation "Deadly Turtle". On the battlefifeld, there would be four or five deadly turtles at a time. These would be deployed with spaces in between each other so that archers could fire upon the enemy. When the Khon Dong would move in to attack the archers, they would retreat into the gaps between the deadly turtles, who would then raise their spears and close the ranks.
This strategy proved to be incredibly effective against the Khon Dong. Janiputra brought all ten tribes of the Khon Dong to heel in the year 230 BC. It was a campaign that lasted four years, mainly due to administrating and securing the region. This great expansion of Arunthala saw a massive migration of Ther people into the new southern territories, which the Kingdom had now dubbed Langsari. The addition of Langsari into the kingdom of Arunthala lifted a great strain off of the Ther people as the tax burden now included the Khon Dong.
Assimilation of the Khon Dong
The Khon Dong historically had a hard time assimilating into the Arunthala due to their strict Buddhist practices. Despite Janiputra's strict adherence to Buddhism, he relented to the plight of the Khon Dong, as he could not bring himself to force Buddhism onto unbelievers. Within the southern provinces of Langsari, Buddhist law was lifted and a more secular approach was taken. Ther Buddhists who migrated to Langsari still maintained their vegetarian diets, but the Khon Dong were allowed to continue eating Lamb and Beef, as per their culture.
In a program to try and assimilate the Khon Dong further into Arunthala, Janiputra devised a system where Khon Dong families within Langsari were selected at random to be rehomed in the Arunthal mainland. These Khon Dong immigrants entered Arunthal society typically as lower class citizens. This is becauase they operated almost completely outside of the contemporary Buddhist law and culture at the time. Khon Dong people were predominately tanners, butchers, and morticians as these jobs were considered dirty to both Ther and Arunid Buddhists. Despite their lower social standing, there was an element of respect towards the Khon Dong, as they filled societal roles that would normally ostracize Ther people from their own community.
Janiputra also pushed for Khon Dong bilingualism. He sent a plethora of the Arunthal court's polymaths to Langsari to extensively study the Khon Dong language. What they had found, however, was that the Khon Dong did not speak a single language, but a family of dialects that were mutually intelligible. This proved to be a great challenge for the assimilation project, as well as state building and administration in the region. At the behest of the court intellectuals, Janiputra allowed them to begin working on the standardization of the Khon Dong language. What ended up being created was known as Dongkham.
Dongkham was created by applying Ther grammar and vocabulary to the most popularly spoken dialect of Dongese. The Khon Dong had no writing system, so Ther Sanskrit was applied to Dongkham. Dongkham became largely popular throughout Langsari due to the ease at which both Khon Dong and Ther speakers could learn it. This is largely in part due to it having a writing system, so it was much easier to teach than a strictly verbal language.
Langsari
As more Ther settlers came to Langsari and soldiers were rewarded with plots of land from their tenure ending, the steppes started to be used for widespread terracae farming. This development lead to plentiful harvests and an overabundance in the Rice Hoard. Access to Langsari also allowed for the establishment of merchant outposts closer to Huoxian states, which lead to a plethora of new goods such as peppers, silk, and tea.
While Langsari was considered to be a net boon to the Kingdom of Arunthala, the acquisition of the territories started to show problems with the administration of the country that were not before seen. Throughout Arunthala's history, it was under a direct monarchal rule save for the first council of regents. The king had to personally oversee a majority of the gubernatorial responsibilities for every region in Arunthala. Janiputra grew tired of his near endless meetings with his subjects from all over the kingdom and divided the Kingdom into smaller provinces that could be more easily goverened. These were known as "Changwat". He then assigned court officials from each of these Changwats to personally oversee their administration. Langsari's changwats were overseen by four of Janiputra's diplomats, as he had no one to properly represent them.
Family, Personal Life, and Death
Despite Janiputra's strict adherence to Buddhist principles, he had never wanted to fully devote himself to the path. He wanted Arunthala to survive and thrive even after his death, and this could not be done without heirs. So Janiputra made a wife of his royal concubine, Anandarwee. Together, they had four sons. Jirayuwat, Kittiphop, Songkiat, and Rattanakosin. Janiputra willed each of his children a section of Arunthala to rule over, anticipating that their love for one another would ensure fair and honest cooperation over the ruling of the country.
In his free time, Janiputra was very fond of war games. He was known to gather his generals on a weekly, sometimes Biweekly basis and play wargames late into the night. He believed that this would keep his generals sharp and creative. Some members of the court believe that this was more for fun than for simulation to Janiputra. A famous diary entry from his wife, Anandarwee says "I love him more than myself. But sometimes, he is more child than man. He likes to play games late into the night with his generals. If he loses, his mood sours, and he becomes reclusive for days on end."
In the year 220 BC, Janiputra was having dinner with his sons and most trusted generals. He was planning an invasion into Huoxia to further expand Arunthala into an Empire. After this dinner, Janiputra fell deathly ill. Allegedly, he complained of great stomach pain and a doctor was sent for by his eldest son. By the time the doctor had arrived at the royal palace, Janiputra had already died in the arms of his son. Due to the very sudden nature of his death it was suspected at the time that he was poisoned. Contemporary scholars point to one of his sons being guilty if he were to have been poisoned. The family believed that it was one of the generals at the dinner and had them all executed as a result of Janiputra's death. Other contemporary scholars believe that Janiputra may have suffered from Stomach Cancer. Some sources say that later in life, Janiputra went on a very strict fasting regimen to alleviate what he claimed to be 'Spiritual Pains'.
War of the Princes
After the death of Janiputra, the realm was divided into three. Siwillai was left to Jirayuwat, the eldest. Janiputra anticipated Jirayuwat to lead his brothers and help maintain stability in the realm after he passed. Kittiphop was left with Langsari, due to his tendency for anger he was left the land that had the least amount of potential for militarization. Songkiat was left with Thaviphet, which originally did not include all of the Ther islands, but due to Rattanakosin being too young to govern, Songkiat maintained rule over them in Rattanakosin's stead.
Almost immediately after inheriting rule over the land that was inherited to him, Jirayuwat mobilized the army for a second invasion into the steppes. He did not trust his brother to govern Lingsara and also sought out the lucrative trade from the region so that he could continue to develop cities in Siwillai. Jirayuwat started the invasion of Langsari in 215 BC and was met with hard resistance in the steppes.
Kittiphop, as it turns out, had grown to be a wise and fair king of Langsari. Although his anger never fully went away, he had learned to cope with it through meditation. Foreseeing potential action against him from either one or both of his brothers, Kittiphop spent a considerable amount of his trade income on the building of fortifications all over the steppes. These include a vast number of fortresses and a networl of tunnels.
When Jirayuwat's armies came into the steppes, they had an incredibly hard time making any territorial gains whatsoever. The war that Jirayuwat had declared on his brother had become a financial quagmire for the kingdom in as little as a few months into the campaign. Kittiphop sent a messenger to their brother, Songkiat, requesting help defending against Jirayuwat's invasion. In response, Songkiat set up a naval blockade along the coasts of Siwilai.