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Prehistory of Great Kirav: Difference between revisions
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→Near Prehistory (ca. 7000 BC - 3200 BC)
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==== Age of Blood ==== | ==== Age of Blood ==== | ||
Early agricultural Kiravians became embroiled in a state of endemic warfare, not unlike that which has been documented among other relatively high-density simple farming societies elsewhere. Oral literary sources speak little about the causes of this phenomenon, but comparative studies of tribal societies with high rates of endemic warfare at similar stages of development and with economies similar in scale and mode of production to those which have been reconstructed for early agricultural Kiravia suggest that swine raids and swine theft were major drivers of conflict, was well as the abduction of women and the imperative to exact revenge for such transgressions. | Early agricultural Kiravians became embroiled in a state of endemic warfare, not unlike that which has been documented among other relatively high-density simple farming societies elsewhere. Oral literary sources speak little about the causes of this phenomenon, but comparative studies of tribal societies with high rates of endemic warfare at similar stages of development and with economies similar in scale and mode of production to those which have been reconstructed for early agricultural Kiravia suggest that swine raids and swine theft were major drivers of conflict, was well as the abduction of women and the imperative to exact revenge for such transgressions. Ecological anthropologists theorise that stress on the land from intensive slash-and-burn cultivation and the contraction of tribal ambits due to growing populations and the generational fission of villages was a key driver of conflict. | ||
==== Lawful Commonwealth ==== | ====Éorsa: Island Cradle of Civilisation==== | ||
Initially, the same conditions that prevailed on the Kiravian mainland (constant endemic warfare between small, tribal groups practising shifting cultivation) were also the case on the offshore island known classically as Éorsa and now more commonly called by its Gaelic-derived name, [[Ilánova]]. However, during [period], developments took place on Ilánova that allowed its inhabitants to break the cycle of endemic violence that plagued the mainland and advance to a higher stage of social and technological capability. | |||
===== Lawful Commonwealth ===== | |||
Virtually every macro-region of Great Kirav, along with [[Koskenkorva]], has claimed for itself the distinction of having hosted the geographic nucleus of the [[Lawful Commonwealth]], but among those scholars who accept its historicity, the most commonly held position is that it was located on the island now known as [[Ilánova]]. | Virtually every macro-region of Great Kirav, along with [[Koskenkorva]], has claimed for itself the distinction of having hosted the geographic nucleus of the [[Lawful Commonwealth]], but among those scholars who accept its historicity, the most commonly held position is that it was located on the island now known as [[Ilánova]]. | ||
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Using the traditional narratives as a source, it would appear that the key military advantage ensuring the security of the Lawful Commonwealth was its primitive form of {{wp|collective security}}: Lawful tribes were safe from attack than Lawless tribes because they could rely upon neighbouring Lawful tribes for assistance in a simple threat environment wherein numerical superiority was sufficient to guarantee victory. The deterrent effect of collective security allowed the Lawful tribes to become more populous as they were spared the extremely high death rates from warfare that afflicted the Lawless tribes, providing additional fighting-age men that galvanised the deterrent effect. It follows that the Lawful Commonwealth could only be defeated ''{{wp|Africa|in toto}}'' by an adversary if a countervailing tribal alliance was able to assemble more fighters, which is what the sources say happened. The Great Law chant includes the narrative of the Lawful Commonwealth's demise as an apologetic for its model of governance, essentially saying that its only flaw was that it worked too well, allowing the Lawful tribes to raid and displace the Lawless tribes further and further until the retreating Lawless tribes formed a grand alliance to counterattack and overwhelm the outer villages of the Commonwealth, after which the inner villages, being unprepared for war, fell swiftly. The Commonwealth was dissolved and Emperor Akˣɛ died a glorious and noble death in battle, but, the Chant says the scattered survivors of the Lawful tribes "carried the Law with them to the edges of the Sea," taken to mean both the east Kiravian coast and Suderavia-Levantia. | Using the traditional narratives as a source, it would appear that the key military advantage ensuring the security of the Lawful Commonwealth was its primitive form of {{wp|collective security}}: Lawful tribes were safe from attack than Lawless tribes because they could rely upon neighbouring Lawful tribes for assistance in a simple threat environment wherein numerical superiority was sufficient to guarantee victory. The deterrent effect of collective security allowed the Lawful tribes to become more populous as they were spared the extremely high death rates from warfare that afflicted the Lawless tribes, providing additional fighting-age men that galvanised the deterrent effect. It follows that the Lawful Commonwealth could only be defeated ''{{wp|Africa|in toto}}'' by an adversary if a countervailing tribal alliance was able to assemble more fighters, which is what the sources say happened. The Great Law chant includes the narrative of the Lawful Commonwealth's demise as an apologetic for its model of governance, essentially saying that its only flaw was that it worked too well, allowing the Lawful tribes to raid and displace the Lawless tribes further and further until the retreating Lawless tribes formed a grand alliance to counterattack and overwhelm the outer villages of the Commonwealth, after which the inner villages, being unprepared for war, fell swiftly. The Commonwealth was dissolved and Emperor Akˣɛ died a glorious and noble death in battle, but, the Chant says the scattered survivors of the Lawful tribes "carried the Law with them to the edges of the Sea," taken to mean both the east Kiravian coast and Suderavia-Levantia. | ||
==== Back-Migration to Levantia ==== | ===== Back-Migration to Mainland Kirav ===== | ||
====== Back-Migration to Levantia ====== | |||
The maritime technology introduced to western and southern Kiravia by the Itaho-Atrassic invasion spread around and up the coasts to the eastern seaboard, where it enabled a back-migration of Kiravians to northern [[Levantia]], mainly to what is now western [[Faneria]], [[Covina]], [[Suderavia]], and (controversially) [[Wintergen]]. At least some of these back-migrations must post-date the establishment of the Lawful Commonwealth, because they carried the Four Laws and Four Precepts and the rudiments of the metaëthnic Coscivian identity with them, beginning the history of the [[Mainland Coscivians]]. Back-migration is estimated to have begun around 6750 BC and continued to trickle on thereafter, transferring important agricultural breakthroughs such as and buckwheat cultivation to the mainland, as well as advanced apicultural techniques adapted to Boreal bee species. Many of the back-migrants may have left to flee the constant violence of the Age of Blood. With the arrival of the technologically sophisticated [[Fenni]] in the Vandarch 6000-5000 BC, regular trade was established between Great Kirav and the Mainland, and would later accelerate as the Fenni became well-established in the region and as the Age of Blood wound down in Great Kirav. | The maritime technology introduced to western and southern Kiravia by the Itaho-Atrassic invasion spread around and up the coasts to the eastern seaboard, where it enabled a back-migration of Kiravians to northern [[Levantia]], mainly to what is now western [[Faneria]], [[Covina]], [[Suderavia]], and (controversially) [[Wintergen]]. At least some of these back-migrations must post-date the establishment of the Lawful Commonwealth, because they carried the Four Laws and Four Precepts and the rudiments of the metaëthnic Coscivian identity with them, beginning the history of the [[Mainland Coscivians]]. Back-migration is estimated to have begun around 6750 BC and continued to trickle on thereafter, transferring important agricultural breakthroughs such as and buckwheat cultivation to the mainland, as well as advanced apicultural techniques adapted to Boreal bee species. Many of the back-migrants may have left to flee the constant violence of the Age of Blood. With the arrival of the technologically sophisticated [[Fenni]] in the Vandarch 6000-5000 BC, regular trade was established between Great Kirav and the Mainland, and would later accelerate as the Fenni became well-established in the region and as the Age of Blood wound down in Great Kirav. | ||