Taltas Sultanate
The Taltas Sultanate, also known as the Sultanate of Khŭlmozhi, was a post-Uthmarid state which ruled over the majority of the Khŭlmozhi region, ruled by Taltas. However, it suffered from its reliance on slave soldiers as well as raids by giants and other Taltas. Additionally, the majority of the Sultanate's lands were ruled over by various tribal organizations who were only just beginning to settle, making it hard to govern efficiently. Ultimately, the Sultanate would fall to invasion by giants.
History
The idea of a "Taltas Sultanate" can be traced back to the year 1332. In that year, the Taltas general Walid iq Abu revolted against the Uthmarids and attempted to establish his own dynasty, with his state surviving for a decade and a half before the rebellion was finally put down. During the Uthmarid period, the Khŭlmozhi region was generally organized into various fiefdoms granted to military officers for their services, and whose controllers were granted license to "farm" (purchase) Taltas slaves to sell into service. These fiefdoms were generally not intended to pass down to the next generation, but they occasionally did because of bureaucratic issues.
Taltas slave-soldiers taken from Khŭlmozhi would serve in the military for an unclear duration, which depended heavily upon the current financial and military situation of the Uthmarids, and when they retired they would be granted land tracts and join the ranks of the non-Al'Salaan elite. The most popular location for land grants was back in their old homeland, where the higher-ranking of the Taltas would be given fiefdoms and therefore allowed to farm their own people. This was seen to create a cyclical effect, which encouraged loyalty, but it also meant that the Khŭlmozhi region was lacking in a large Al'salaan population and henceforth was not always the most loyal.
Following Walid's rebellion, efforts to settle and assimilate the Taltas were upped, and for a time Khŭlmozhi was pacified again, but over time the owners of the fiefs overwhelmingly Taltas once more, thus creating the same issue. However, this time, due to the dire need for slaves by the collapsing Uthmarids, the price of remaining loyal was enough and the Taltas there continued selling slaves until the slave-soldier army was destroyed in 1447.
Following the defeat of their military, the Uthmarid dynasty fled to the island of tbd, before attempting to retreat to Khŭlmozhi and use it as a base. However, they were preempted by the declaration of the Taltas Sultanate. This Sultanate was formed by a gathering of over 20 different fief holders who agreed to form an elective monarchy which would decide their leadership. Upon holding this election (in which the Uthmarid family received 0 votes), the fiefs would send a missive to them stating they had now formed their own state. This was accepted with little fanfare as the Uthmarids totally lacked a military at this point.
Despite the boldness of the fiefs in declaring their own state, things remained precarious. The Taltas Sultanate lacked any military of their own besides personal slave retinues, and the organization of these into a single national army would be difficult. To make matters worse, the giants, which the Uthmarids had pushed to the fringe of Khŭlmozhi, returned in force and raided with impunity due to the lack of defenses. They seized control of key mountain passes, which soon left the Taltas Sultanate fragmented and unstable. Clearly, the Taltas would require military reform to fend off this menace with their lessened resources, but fortunately the fiefs were largely, of course, retired slave generals.
The late 1440s and early 1450s were a chaotic time in the Taltas Sultanate, as the newly elected Sultan Barbas was an elderly and conciliatory man who had mainly been elected to prevent the various fiefs from fighting. His policies, however, largely failed to address the Giantish and Fatimi threat, and he was overthrown shortly before his death by the Sultan Nurisaid in 1453, who installed a new militarist clique for the state. Later on in 1453, plans for the new Taltic army were established, and by 1455 new levy structures were implemented to centralize the army under Nurisaid's control. The Sultanate's military would, by the end of the decade, raise the number of men under the Sultanate's control from under 10,000 to 25,000, as well as increasing their training.
Traditional slave soldiers had primarily been intended to serve as infantry, and their military education largely consisted of spear-based combat, martial arts, and sword trainings- alongside basic tactics for more trusted slaves. These slave troops were, during the Uthmarid period, supplemented by tribal levies which were enticed by loot. Under Barbas, these cavalry forces were replaced by Taltas tribesmen, who were undisciplined and disloyal. Nurisaid's reforms focused on making up for the deficit of effective cavalry forces, and replacing Uthmarid era giant-fighting tactics. Primarily, this involved smaller garrisons of mobile cavalry archer units who could deter and draw giants off from fortified towns. These cavalry archers were able to outpace the giants on their horses, firing from a safe distance before retreating as the giant charged them, ensuring the giants were taken down without risking melee combat. This disciplined use of horse archers was exceptional on the flat plains of outer Khŭlmozhi, but such tactics struggled in the harsh mountainous terrain further inland. Still, the giants were held off for the most part, although contact between the northeast and the rest of the Sultanate remained challenging, and the fiefs in that region enjoyed considerable autonomy, with only the dangerous roads through the Khŭlmozhi desert as lifelines.
The Taltas Sultanate was also able to rout a Fatimi incursion in 1459 SC using horse archer tactics, decimating the Fatimi army. A series of aggressive Sultans would follow this failed invasion with a more active approach to defense, raiding the Northern Fatimi lands as well as providing military support for their rivals. Although this never resulted in permanent gains, the Taltas were able to hamstring the Fatimi threat in this manner and prevent more damaging wars.
The lack of eagerness for southwards expansion by the Taltas can largely be credited to the continual border raids they dealt with by both unincorporated Taltas tribes as well as the constant threat of a Giantish invasion. However, there were some notable southwards conquests by various Sultans.
- In 1484, the Sultan Arslan conquered the Emirate of Ghwor, taking control of the north of Sahal Sahira
- In 1506, the Sultan Asal Bakun seized the whole of the northern plains which was controlled by the Fatimi
- In 1578, the Sultan Adjar II incorporated the northern Al'Salaanic Coastal Sultanates peacefully
- In 1595, the Sultan Madun II conquered the northern Coastal Sultanates
- In 1608, the Sultan Barbay IV seized the Sultanate of Arhubar and installed loyalists in the province.
Although these conquests netted the Sultanate a significant portion of land over time, they were patchwork and there was never a time in which the Sultanate had control over all of these at once.
Before any expansion in the south was ever attempted, the Sultanate would make progress in the north, overcoming some of the remaining tribes in the north and defeating the majority of the remaining Baxstir states in a series of wars between 1460 to 1480. This allowed for a continual band of settlement around the unpopulated desert, which helped with trade, since caravans no longer needed to brave the desert and giant raids to such an extent. Although there remained regions outside of their control, by 1480 the Sultanate had reached its peak in control over Khŭlmozhi. Under the militarily powerful Sultan Arslan, expansion would of course continue, and for a time the Sultanate eclipsed the Fatimi in power. However, after Arslan's death in 1495, the Sultanate would go through strife as his powerful military lieutenants fought for control over the state. This conflict led to the emergence of the first independent Taltas states, with the Emirate of Ghwor becoming the Sultanate of Ghwor under one lieutenant and with Arslan's son eventually taking control of the northwest as the Arslanid Sultanate. Despite being forced to accept the independence of these states, the majority of the Sultanate was taken over by Asal Bakun, who would of course go on to seize the Fatimi north. However, on Bakun's death in 1519, the Sultanate would once more enter succession strife, as both his former rivals attempted to take advantage of the situation. This war led to the loss of the lands to the north to the Arslanids, while the Taltas Sultanate entered a diarchy between Asal Bakun's appointed successor and the Sultan of Ghwor which would last just 3 years before the Ghwori court was destroyed by migratory Taltas.
After the fall of Ghwor, the Sultanate would continue to suffer from giant raids increasing in power, which would shortly eliminate any Taltas control of the mountains and by the 1550s render the inner desert completely impassable. However, during the 1570s, the Adjari dynasty would take over the state and institute a revival. Starting with the eponymous Sultan Adjar II, the Adjari household would continue and for the next century all Sultans would be either descended from Adjar himself or were slaves within the preceding Adjari household and thus took on the Adjari name. Adjar himself was able to incorporate several of the Coastal Sultanates peacefully by taking over their defense from the Fatimi in exchange for tribute. He used these lands to enrich his domain in terms of trade and luxury goods, especially in beginning the involvement of the Taltas in trade with Telgren which brought the Sultanate great wealth.
Even with a strong ruler like Adjar, things were not always smooth, and the latter years of his reign and the early years of his son Madun II's would involve a long war with a confederation of Giants. Adjar himself was killed fighting the leader of the Giants, who also died, leading the a winding down of the war as the giants slowly fractured. Madun's early reign was not smooth either, with the coastal sultanates breaking off and several other rebellions occurring- though they would be reconquered it cost the Taltas valuable men and resources. Even though Madun died an early death, his slave Barbay would come to rule the Sultanate, and Barbay expanded royal power further, defeating the Sultanate of Arhubar and later turning it into a fortress of his family. This caused issues when Barbay himself was overthrown by Madun's son, but the two factions came to an agreement which saw the former coastal Sultanates split between several different fiefdoms to keep the peace. This agreement proved disastrous, however, as it fatally weakened royal power.
With raids increasing and the Coastal Sultanates-turned Fiefdoms unwilling to help out the Sultans, the latter Adjarid Sultans increasingly turned to Telrai loans to keep the state afloat, mortgaging their future as well as leasing ports and swathes of land to the Telrai. When the Adjarid Sultan Asal Bakun III's forces were ambushed and massacred by giants in 1661, the state structure began to finally break down as he had no money to purchase a new army and no loyal subjects to recruit. Asal Bakun III was soon assassinated by his own generals and the Sultanate collapsed, its factions overrun by giants and other Taltas within the decade.
Although powerful Taltas nations would once more emerge by the 1700s, the fall of the Taltas Sultanate definitively ended any hope of the Taltas dominating the region, which had seemed so achievable just 6 decades earlier.
Comments