Hahgiahk

The Hahgiahk was the first large-scale autonomous Hahgi government. It grew to power during the course of the Thaerseimai, with local Imperial power severely weakened by Sundemar's rise; and, at its height, governed all of the Kanik peninsula, excluding the gnomish cities of Lak Fip and Nek Tharad. While it only lasted for a decade, its legacy remains in the blossoming of a united Hahgi identity, and the Hahgi mayorship in Kannera, as well as a similar mayoral campaign in Lucria.
In 393 IF, growing anger among the Hahgi population at the Lucrenian government culminated in the first outright rebellion in Haven, coordinated by Qaniva Linaren, the Dagger, a Volodarin who had moved to the peninsula only recently but quickly grown attached to the local rebel movement. After her success in dealing with the largest Redcloak garrison on the peninsula, similar rebellions raged across the land of Kanik. The rebellion in Kannera, then the largest town in the region, was conducted with comparative ease, the local garrison having mostly been evacuated across the Marin Gulf to Thrane, in an attempt by Exarch Di Mari to consolidate his heartlands.
A number of individuals had been placed in positions of power during the course of the Kanneran rebellion, though none of these was better respected than the aged sage, Akawid Falsdij, who had been preaching the ideals of rebellion since long before Abahk Stuz. Akawid was the first to propose a centralised Hahgi government as the means of keeping the Kanik peninsula free of Imperial soldiers, and the first to begin the process of drawing up a constitution and system of government administrated by representatives from the various Hahgi tribes, towns and villages: from the lowland ghoblins and hobghoblins to the mountain orkhs and the bugbirh of the forest. In pursuit of his vision, the Kanneran rebellion began to send out envoys to the surrounding villages and towns with Akawid's plan, and begin the process of unification on the Kanik peninsula. Another important aspect of the Kanneran success was their maintaining of deals already in place with the gnomes of Lak Fip, who had traded with the denizens of Kannera for centuries, since before the Goblin Crusades.
Akawid's representative government was popular and, fearing attacks from Empire loyalists, many local towns agreed to join him. The Hahgiahk was born. Over the course of that first year, the population of Kannera bloomed. The region entered into a golden age of heroes, and the first Hahgi college was founded in Kannera, by Bakid Jaf, a member of The Nullifiers. Several issues remained to be dealt with however. The Lucrenian government refused to accept the loss of its territories and attempted many invasive landings in the area of Haven, having consolidated their holdings on the Thranish peninsula and established an alliance with the government in Volodaria. This convinced many more Hahgi towns to join the Hahgiahk, and allowed the Kanneran government to maintain control over the majority of the Kanik peninsula. The Hahgiahk's military was put to near constant use and only with the aid of heroes such as Captain Debad Sliz was the republic kept safe. Yet, in the north, The Mines of Minera remained a symbol of the governments weakness. This issue was the most hotly debated during the government's formative years - the Minters hold over the town was a thorn in the side of the republic's ideals and the gold mine could provide an immeasurable advantage in securing deals with foreign powers in future years, yet its healthy garrison and defensive position demanded an overwhelming force which the republic simply did not possess. In 395 IF, the issue was resolved thanks to the heroic exploits of the aforementioned Sliz and the Nullifiers in the The Freeing of Minera, considered by many to be the greatest victory of Abahk Stuz.
Two years later, in 397 IF, Akawid Falsdij fell ill with a wasting sickness. In spite of the best efforts of many Hahgi doctors and healers, he succumbed to the illness just a few months later. This was to signal the beginning of the end for the Hahgiahk.
Certain issues had begun to rise in the minds of many Hahgi towsmen. The Lucrenian government had halted its attempts at invasion, turning instead to more subtle methods of restoring control, and as a result many fringe settlements began to dispute the need for the Kanneran government. Without an external threat to unite against, older territorial disputes were renewed and feuds were reborn. Arguments about the Hahgiahk's system of government also became more common, the greatest detractors among the ghoblins and hobghoblins of the lowlands, who felt that the republic should be represented by its heroes, such as Sliz and Qaniva, rather than local chieftains. Disagreements on who exactly was eligible to serve in the Hahgi parliament were contentious, and without Akawid or another strong leader to mediate, grew ever more so. The Hahgiahk government was paralysed by infighting and bureaucracy took a powerful hold.
This presented a powerful opportunity to the Lucrenians; who, in 399 IF are rumoured to have began the funding of assassination attempts aimed at leaders among the Hahgi. The Nullifiers and Sliz' band played a key role in protecting members deemed important, yet many attempts were successful, especially against fringe members like the bugbear chieftains of the eastern Bukwit and the orcish leaders from The Broken Spires. The government's inability to deal with these attacks, and its clear bias towards lowland leaders, culminated in many of these fringe groups declaring independence from the state.
Over the following two years, the number of representatives in the Hahgiahk parliament would shrink from 246 to a mere 54 as more and more groups declared independence. Further problems arose as the orkhs in and around the Broken Spires returned to their old feuding ways, conducting infrequent raids on the hobghoblin lowlanders who remained in the Hahgiahk, which the reduced Hahgiahk military was slow to respond to. In 401 IF this culminated in the foundation of a separate government based in the town of Haven, who swore to protect the lowland villages from the orkhish raiders. The remnants of the Hahgiahk government made one final attempt to coordinate an army, this time to forcibly return the Haven government to the fold, but few volunteered to fight against fellow Kanikmen. This final display of weakness is considered the nail in the coffin for the Kanneran government.
In 402 IF news arrived of the success of the Vengeance Campaign in the north of the continent, and the alliances forged between the reborn Empire of Nara Tok, the nations of Cyrin and the Halfling Crews. The Kanneran and Haven governments were determined to hold out against further invasion and an alliance of necessity was brokered between the two for exactly such a purpose. In the winter of 402 IF, however, the gnomes of Lak Fip betrayed previously drawn up treaties and allowed an army commanded by General Vraidan Ffandor, a friend of Emperor Aivo from the Vengeance Campaign, to land in the western shores of the Bukwit Forest, along the Drak Ib. They marched quickly through the Bukwit and into Kannera in a surprise invasion. In the early months of 403 IF the city was taken and the Kanneran government forced to accept imperial re-occupation. The Haven government took only a little longer to fall, only Sliz in Minera holding out for any amount of time beyond that, before at last abandoning the town eleven months later in 404 IF, after the sacrifice of Dubah Gaz. The Hahgi republic had fallen and the Imperial yoke returned to the lands of Kanik.
Five years after its fall, all that remains of the Hahgiahk is its legacy. The vision of a united Hahgi people was born from the Hahgiahk, and remains increasingly popular in Kanik; while the Empire's weakness after Thaerseimai has undeniably allowed greater Hahgi autonomy than before the Hahgiahk's rise. For example, Hahgi political campaigners like Gart Monjin and Lijrin Ghain have become more common: the former now the mayor of Kannera and the first elected Hahgi official in the Empire; the latter attempting a similar campaign in the Thranish city of Lucria. The college of Kannera remains in place and free of Circle influence, training up the next generation of Hahgi scholars, and some of the heroes of the Hahgiahk remain active, not least Qaniva and Sliz who formed the legendary Black Eagles and continue to defy both the Minters and the Redcloaks from their base in the Broken Spires.