The Zanarid Kazatar (372 AE to 482 AE)

The Arrival of the Twilight Horde

Sack Sunas at start of their take over, and pillage it, torch First Imperial Palace, leaving it a ruin As they retreat east at their collapse, they sack Sunas, and leave it in ruin

Formation and Rise

Expansion and/or Reform

Hegemony and/or Stagnation

Collapse

Authors Notes

* The Zanarid Kazatar: The Zanarids were a nomadic, steppe peoples, living in the plains on the far side of the Sunarian Sea. A martial people, with a proud tradition of horsemanship, their rise, and even invasion came as a surprise and mystery to the Sunarian Empire, which had long written of the west, only as a savage place lacking any semblance of order, or serious threat. Attacking at first in sporadic waves, starting in the 1600 FD, these incursions were little more than probes meant to test the defenses of the Empire, which they found utterly lacking. Western Sunar had never before experienced any form of attack out of the Sunarian Sea, save maybe a few halfhearted raids by desert peoples; but even then, the Western nomads had always been fewer in number, and ferocity than their cousins east of the Sun river. What the Zanarids found, was an undefended border, which they quickly exploited. Striking initially along the coast lands near Old Desa, later attacks struck first as far south as Nascadet, taking cities and towns utterly by surprise and sending much of Lower Sunar into a panic. Early attacks, like these, would in time prove, to be merely the vanguard of the Zanarid's main host, which in 1604 finally arrived. Numbering well over one hundred thousand strong, the horsemen swept out of the desert, and ransacked the Sun Delta virtually unopposed after the Sunarian armies met and were annihilated at the battle of Emamak in 1605 FD. Abandoning the north only a few weeks later, the Drumidian Emperor, Akhraten IV, would flee south first to Phernac, and then later Tome, as a pursuing segment of the Zanarid horde scared him ever further south. Hiding in the far reaches of the south, Akhraten would remain safe in the remote Drumidian territories of the Empire, while in the north millions were slaughtered in a campaign more brutal than any before or after. Gradually pushing ever on wards, the Zanarids shattered any resistance before them, and under the command of their god-like Kazater, sacked the imperial capital at Sunas, in 1609 FD. By 1611, those same horse lords had continued their advance, and washed across Upper Sunar with ease, only in the sparsely populated territory of Drumidia would the advance slow to a crawl. The main reason for this was clearly, that the north offered far more to the invaders. Drumidia, while far more advanced than before its ruler's rise to emperor, was still the weak link in the spectacular wealth of Sunar. Cities in the north simply offered more to the Zanarids, and so, only trivial hosts would make the long ride south into the remote reaches of Drumidia. Instead, the Zanarids, solidified their hold over the north, and the Sun Delta especially, stamping out any form of resistance in the coming years, as their came to replace to old empire, with a new one, devoted primarily, to providing tribute to their ever advancing war machine. * Sunar under the Kazatar: Sunar under the Kazatar was divided and ruled by what were essentially governors. Taxes were enforced by Zanarid garrisons, and brutal repercussions followed any form of disobedience. Early in the Zanarid occupation there were several attempts at rebellion, and in each case the cities responsible were swiftly and ruthlessly obliterated. The most well-known example being that of Old Desa, which after falling to the Zanarids early in their invasion, broke away in revolt in 1612 FD. Viewing this as a grave act of betrayal and dishonor, the wrath of the Kazatar was total. No man, woman or child, was spared, and forever after it would serve as an example to other cities, of what resistance to Zanarid hegemony looked like. Old Desa would never be recolonized, as most of its once fertile farmland was salted and despoiled, its walls brought down, with the rubble scattered along side the corpses of the cities populous all around the surrounding countryside to forever scar the land. Acts such as these proved spectacularly successful, as following Old Desa, few cities dared openly revolt. Instead, most reluctantly adapted to the new system, accepting the new order, in part for its lack of difference from the old. After all, Sunar had been lorded over by foreigners for well over a century at this point, rather than see the arrival of the Zanarids as some gigantic change in the order of the day, it was instead seen as the changing of one foreign ruler, for another. In some circles the change was viewed as an improvement. Long distance trade was widely encouraged in the Kazatar, and with a primarily cavalry based army at its disposal, finally providing security to the border regions became a reality. Able to track down, and catch up with the fast moving desert tribesmen, who frequently doubled as bandits, the Kazatar succeeded where most Drumidian emperors had failed, and in so doing, won over the hearts of many merchants and traders within their borders. For this reason, the century between about 1650 and 1750 would one of the most pleasant times in Sunar's history, as it was said a man could walk from Kamet to Zanzilore without once fearing for his life or his property. * Zanarid Conquests: As things settled in Sunar, and Zanarid power, became the norm, the region quickly turned into a springboard for future conquests of the mighty horse lords; with large war bands pushing north, east and south east, to subjugate all people under the will of their divine Kazar. The first of these new targets, would be Nebtka, which while just as wealthy as Sunar, was nowhere near as organized, or united. Instead, Nebtka, was a mess of free and Sunarian aligned city states and kingdoms, which fell without any significant battles. After this conquest, the aging Kazar returned west across the Sea, and never returned to Sunar, dying only a few years later of unclear causes. In his place the Great Zanarid host, dissolved in a matter of months, as zealous warlords split into separate hosts, hell bent on continuing their conquest of the east, in a competition to best honor their Kazar. One of these campaigns, would see to the fall of the Drumidian Empire, in 1629 FD, when Tome and much of Drumidia would at last be conquered, and Akhraten IV put to death as a threat to the Kazar Pershani, Emensis, and Kamet would also fall in turn, likely making the Zanarid Kazatar the largest geographic empire in history. After these conquests, the war fervor of the Zanarids, would die down somewhat. Weakened by the death of their "Great" Kazar (The one credited with conquering Sunar), the Zanarids, spent nearly a century trying to replace him, working through dozens of successors, one after another. These "Lesser" Kazars as they are often styled, would never make the journey east across the Sunarian Sea, and often rose to power, by murdering, or usurping the throne of their predecessor. Terror would keep the Kazatar together in these times, even with the horse lords fighting among themselves, as the brutality of their invasions forever after stuck with the Sunarian people. Fearing Zanarid reprisal, Sunar, and many of its neighbors, dutifully, if unhappily, followed the governance of the Kazar's governors, and steadily paid fealty and tax to the horse lords, even in their most tumultuous of civil wars, back west across the desert. During these times, tribute, was simply reserved, until a victor asserted himself and sent word east, demanding fealty once again. This century of rule through fear, would come to an end in 1768 FD, when the second "Great" Kazar rose to power in the west. Uniting every horse lord under his banner, he led them as his distant predecessor had over the Sunarian Sea, and despite accepting Sunar and the other eastern territories as his own, sacked dozens of cities on his horde's path, before descending out of Pershani to conquer the last few, free cities along Kamet's coast. The campaign stalled here though, when the Kameti King deployed over one hundred war elephants against the invaders, and routed a vast section of the Kazar's army, who's mounts feared the tusked beasts. Slowed, but still victorious, the Kazar punished his men severely for their cowardice, enslaving tens of thousands of his own men for daring to retreat, and executing over a quarter of his generals and horse lords as an example to the rest. Not quenchedhilf by spilling his own people's blood, the Kazar would also, conduct a blood thirsty culling of Kamet's elephant population, slaughtering them to the point of near extinction, and enraging the Kameti people, who worshiped the beasts as earthly representations of their gods. This act left Kamet in flames, as rioting and revolt erupted across the region, only to be ignored by the Kazar, who demanded his horde continue eastwards. Turning their backs on the burning territory, the Zanarid horde began its conquest of Divong, but met disaster immediately. Warmer, and wetter than any land they had yet seen Divong's jungle, left the Zanarid horde rampant with disease and plague, killing thousands before they had even seen the enemy. The invasion, became even worse though, when it became clear that the mobility Zanarid cavalry needed to fight, could not be found in the dense, thicket of Divong. Unable to maneuver, or even fully speak with the locales, the Zanarid horde was wholly out of its element, and in 1771 FD it would at last, be utterly and completely humiliated. Taken by surprise, the Zanarid host, was surrounded on all sides, by a gigantic army, made up of a coalition of states, led by Na'tal and Divong, which numbered nearly 80'000 men, with over six thousand war elephants among them. Known as the battle of Tong'lung, it is today thought of as one of the largest military disasters in history, and one of its largest battles. Of the nearly 100'000 Zanarids thought to have been present, barely ten thousand escaped, of which most were cut to pieces trying to pass back through Kamet. Surviving the battle, the Kazar, made it all the way back to Merchalk in the far west, two years later, where legend states, he was strangled to death by his own mother, for the shame he brought upon his people. * 1611 FD: The Zanarid Kazatar enters Upper Sunar, subjugating the poorly defended region, and extending their borders well into Drumidian. * 1612 - 1613 FD: The City of Old Desa rises in revolt, within a matter of weeks, their army is overrun, and by the end of the year the war is entirely lost. Its buildings torn down, Old Desa, was left a desiccated ruin at the mouth of the Sun Delta; its former inhabitants, slaughtered, or enslaved, never to return. * 1613 - 1626 FD: The Zanarids continue on in their conquests, easily subduing the fractured cities and kingdoms of Nebtka, and expanding their border ever onward. * 1615 FD: The tropical land of Zanzilore, remains independent of the vast Kazatar, but none the less begins providing tribute, with its numerous city states, fearing an imminent invasion. * Military of Sunar III: Favoring the horse more than Sunar ever had, the Zanarids swept into Sunar out of the west, with lighting speed and took the Empire by storm. Almost entirely mounted, a Zanarid host, was made up primarily of light cavalry, armed in mail and equipped with lances and sabers; and too a lesser extent, horse archers. The key to their success, was a combination of two things, overwhelming numbers, and speed. Together these aspects, left the Zanarid's enemies confused and disorganized as all around them, thousands upon thousands of quick moving enemies swarmed and peppered their lines in attacks meant to harass and enrage them into a chase. From there, the Zanarids would exhaust their enemies, dragging the battle out many miles, before eventually closing in for one final slaughter. This system capitalized on the confusing mismatch of fighting styles and tactics of Sunarian armies, alongside the predictable and glory driven mindset of Drumidian monarchs, shattering the old system for Sunar once and for all. * ca 1620-25 FD: The First Great Kazar dies, of unspecified causes. * ca 1628 - 1690 FD: Numerous Zanarid warlords begin warring deep into Pershani, Emensis and Kamet, gradually expanding their territory into what would be the largest empire in history. * 1629 FD: A handful of horse lords, lead their armies south into Drumidia, finally ending the Drumidian Empire, with the sacking of Tome. * 1703 FD: An attempt is made by the Zanarids to the northeastern shore of Belezine Bay, but nothing much comes of it and after finding very little wealth in the region, and loosing thousands to the Espanian tribes, they return south. * 1704 - 1728 FD: Conflicts back west with an unknown group in the White Waste draw Zanarid attention away from the better known world, most of the great horse lords return to Merchalk, and the period of massive conquest comes to an end. * ca 1730 - 1760 FD: The Zanarid Kazatar undergoes a number of similar civil wars, with most remaining largely isolated in the west. Small pockets of fighting do break out in Sunar and elsewhere in the east, but do not cause much devastation and lead to nothing significant. * 1768 - 1771 FD: The Kazatar, united under a single, universally recognized Kazar for the first time in nearly thirty years, launches an invasion of the east. Leaving through Nebtka, and traveling down into Pershani, the goal is originally to conquer the few remaining coastal cities in Kamet, before moving on to invade the lands of the east. This ends in failure however, when the Zanarid horde is broken and forced the return west by the massive number of war elephants employed by the Na'talese at the Battle of Tong'lung. * 1771 FD: Kamet, outraged over the slaughter of their animal gods, continues to revolt against Zanarids, overpowering the foreign garrison and reforging their once great kingdom into a mighty empire. * 1771 - 1780 FD: Kamet, retakes much of its territory and conquers most of Emesnis and Pershani, justifying these wars as a campaign of liberation. * 1772 - 1777 FD: The Second Great Kazar returns to the west after Tong'Lung, and is killed not long after for his failure. In the wake of his death, a civil war erupts, and sees the death of most of the Zanarid's fighting age men by 1776 FD. * 1776 FD: Several Sunarian cities in Upper Sunar rise up in revolt, including the city of Phernac. After several victories against the Zanarid garrisons and no sign of the Zanarids coming, more cities in the Delta, like Sunas, join the rebellion. At this time, most cities, retain a city state style of governance, not uniting into a restored empire for still many more years. * 1782 - 1783 FD: No sizable response is sent out of the west until 1782, when at last, a small Zanarid horde of about twenty thousand arrives in the Sun Delta. Lured out into the Sunarian Sea by desert nomads though, they are destroyed upon their march back to the Sun river, at the battle of Acsara, by the combined armies of the rebellious cities. * 1783 - 1787 FD: After Acsara, the rebellion spreads outside of Sunar and other occupied territories in the east begin to declare their independence when it is clear, the Zanarids are no longer as great a threat as the growing Empire of Kamet. * 1787 FD: With no sign of the Zanarids making any effort to hold on to their eastern territories, the rule of the Kazar in Sunar comes to an unofficial end. * The Imperial War: (1788 - 1794 FD) * The Imperial War: The Imperial War was a conflict fought in the wake of the Zanarid's withdrawal from their eastern territories. Fought for control over the Sunarian Empire, the war saw the powerful cities (and their allies) of Phernac, Sunas and Tome (The seat of a new Drumidian dynasty) fight for control over the territories of the Sunarian Empire, while out of the east, the new Kameti Empire, began a warpath to try and replace the Zanarids as the dominant power in the region. While they had thrown off the shackles of the Zanarids, the many city states of Sunar, did not get rid of their immediate governors, with most turning into king like figures in their respected cities in the years to come. This acceptance of Zanarid appointed rulers, would be the primary reason that in 1788 FD, The Kameti Empire crossed out of Emenis, and began another of its wars of liberation, upon the fractured cities of Sunar. Sunas in this period, would be one of the few cities to well and truly throw off Zanarid oppression in its entirety, banishing its Zanarid governor almost immediately in favor of a full blooded Sunarian, by the name of Amekh I, as their new emperor. Phernac was too making moves at this time to try and reforge some sort of Sunarian state. Led by a Zanarid general, turned Sunarian King, Jular I, the Phernaci, hoped to reforge the Empire, with Phernac as its capital, rather than Sunas. This goal, gained widespread support from the other cities of Upper Sunar, which had always played second fiddle to the more prosperous, and populated cities of the Sun Delta. The third and far weakest of the factions, Tome, also attempted for a time to build something out of the chaotic power vacuum of the Zanarid retreat, proclaiming a restored Drumidian Empire in 1789, only for that dream to be brought to a sudden and brutal end the following year outside the walls of Tome. Besieged by the armies of Kamet, in the opening weeks of the invasion, Tome put up a year long defense of the city, but ultimately collapsed to the expanding Kameti Empire. This defeat would serve as a warning to the remaining two factions in Phernac and Sunas, of the threat Kamet posed, and see Amekh and Jular combine their forces in 1791 at the battle of Reklips,where they would defeat the Kameti army and halt their advance. Turning on each other not long after, the war would carry on another three years, before in 1794 FD, they came together again to beat back a second Kameti invasion. Crushing the Kameti at the battle of Cambisis,, Amekh and Jular, turned on each other the following day, engaging in the bloodiest battle in Sunarian history, in which Jular would be killed and Amekh proclaimed the new emperor of a once more, united Sunar. * Military of Sunar IV: In the aftermath of the Zanarid withdrawal of the east, Sunar kept several aspects of their former overlord's war machine. Armies would for the next several centuries be cavalry dominated, as Zanarid armor and weapon style continued to be used to tremendous affect. To support this type of war, horse breeding became a major industry on the border lands of Nebtka, and Emensis, where wide open plains led to the birth of several new breeds of war horse. As time passed though, a Sunarian flair would quickly develop on the western style of combat, with camels, and the khopesh, soon replacing the horse and saber, and imported elephants from Kamet, becoming a main stay of the Second Empire's war machine. Infantry, particularly light infantry, would also gradually find a resurgence, before once more re assuming their place as the focal point of Sunarian armies by the Second Dawn.