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United Cities: Difference between revisions
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Secure for a time against his most dangerous external foe, now Emperor Tengu would spend the next decade attempting to centralize power and have a greater power over the cities and local taxation. Feeling they had exchanged an autocrat far away for one at home, the elites of [[Heng]] and many cities began to resent Tengu's rule and withold funds from his tax collectors. In the winter of 915, a mob of peasants paid for by Heng's nobles attacked Tengu and his attendants on the streets. While Tengu's outnumbered guards attempted to hack their way out of the mob, a farmer with an axe hewed the emperor's peg leg below the knee causing him to stumble to the ground where he was stabbed to death. After merely 19 years in power, the childless emperor and his dynasty were overthrown as suddenly as they had risen. New Magisters drawn from the old nobility rose in every major city, agreeing to maintain their ties as a loose defensive union that would collectively come to be known as the United Cities. | Secure for a time against his most dangerous external foe, now Emperor Tengu would spend the next decade attempting to centralize power and have a greater power over the cities and local taxation. Feeling they had exchanged an autocrat far away for one at home, the elites of [[Heng]] and many cities began to resent Tengu's rule and withold funds from his tax collectors. In the winter of 915, a mob of peasants paid for by Heng's nobles attacked Tengu and his attendants on the streets. While Tengu's outnumbered guards attempted to hack their way out of the mob, a farmer with an axe hewed the emperor's peg leg below the knee causing him to stumble to the ground where he was stabbed to death. After merely 19 years in power, the childless emperor and his dynasty were overthrown as suddenly as they had risen. New Magisters drawn from the old nobility rose in every major city, agreeing to maintain their ties as a loose defensive union that would collectively come to be known as the United Cities. | ||
Following the fall of the Chen dynasty and the rise of the Zhong, the United Cities signed a treaty of alliance with the Degei confederation under Darukh Khan. The United Cities provided funding to the tune of two hundred tons of silver plus ten thousand men from the Iron Legion under Warmaster Shin for Darukh Khan's invasion of Zhong territory. The war would extend itself for ten years and initially went well for the alliance. Darukh Khan's poisoning in 927 CE by a group of rival chiefs after battlefield reversals would lead the United Cities to pull off their support entirely and make separate peace arrangements. However the peace reached was shaky at best and recriminations broke into renewed conflict in 940 when the Zhong invaded ostensibly to free Zhong citizens captured and sold into slavery in the United Cities. The military fiasco that was the intervetion in favor of Darukh Khan left a lasting negative impact on the political stability of the United Cities. The military losses weakened several cities and led to an increase in brigandage. During the 930's and 940's, the Council of Magisters deposed several Grand Magisters for various reasons. The unity of the alliance was seriously compromised when armed hostilities broke out between Sho Battai and Brink. | Following the fall of the Chen dynasty and the rise of the Zhong, the United Cities signed a treaty of alliance with the Degei confederation under Darukh Khan. The United Cities provided funding to the tune of two hundred tons of silver plus ten thousand men from the Iron Legion under Warmaster Shin for Darukh Khan's invasion of Zhong territory. The war would extend itself for ten years and initially went well for the alliance. Darukh Khan's poisoning in 927 CE by a group of rival chiefs after battlefield reversals would lead the United Cities to pull off their support entirely and make separate peace arrangements. However the peace reached was shaky at best and recriminations broke into renewed conflict in 940 when the Zhong invaded ostensibly to free Zhong citizens captured and sold into slavery in the United Cities. The military fiasco that was the intervetion in favor of Darukh Khan left a lasting negative impact on the political stability of the United Cities. The military losses weakened several cities and led to an increase in brigandage. During the 930's and 940's, the Council of Magisters deposed several Grand Magisters for various reasons. The unity of the alliance was seriously compromised when armed hostilities broke out between Sho Battai and Brink. The general weakening of the pact of solidarity between the component members of the United Cities marks the beginning of the so called Middle Period. | ||
=== Middle Period (1001-1120) === | === Middle Period (1001-1120) === | ||
The defeat of Darukh Khan's attempt to conquer [[Daxia]] left the United Cities in a perilous position. Despite having withdrawn their support before war's end, the Zhong dynasty had no intention of letting the magisters off the hook for their participation and bankrolling of the war. Emperor Gong did was not able to punish the United Cities as he died in 926, his son and successor Mong began planning what would be the first of the Zhong-United Cities wars in revenge. While circumstances in [[Daxia]] aligned towards war, the cities of Brink and Sho Battai engaged in vicious skirmishes over control of the main slave trade route to the northwest. The fighting was not quelled until the Grand Magister Benerro himself marched the Iron Legion north and threatened to intervene if the two cities did not begin to negotiate. | |||
=== Decline and Dissolution (1121-1215)=== | === Decline and Dissolution (1121-1215)=== | ||
== Geography == | == Geography == | ||