Sargon
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Sargon, formally known as the Sargon Empire (الدَّوْلَة الشَرُوكِينـِيَّة), is a Terran country bordering Minos, Siesta, Columbia, and Bolívar that encompasses the southernmost desert of the continent. It is an imperial monarchy ruled by the famous "King of Kings" (Shahanshah) who shares his power with regional Padishahs and Lords Ameer. Although the balances between these regional governments are checked though annual tributes or skirmishes, it results in fracture of the country as the ruling Shahs remain powerless in handling tribal conflicts.
Declaring itself as the "ancestor of all civilizations," Sargon's history is as old as the entire history of the Terran civilizations across the continent. Its history could be traced back to a legendary conquest that unified the desert tribes under the solemn rule of the Aslan house, ushering in the dawn of the Terran civilization. At the zenith of its rule, Sargon was the unquestionable superpower of the Terran heartland that left everlasting cultural legacies across the continent, from the earliest form of the modern Terran monarchical system, agricultural techniques, to the foundation of a common calendar used across Terra. At the dawn of the common era, Sargon initiated a grand conquest onto the southernmost tip of the continent to repeal demonic beings, but the war not only resulted in a pyrrhic victory with large casualties, but also an immediate natural disaster after the war brought drastic climate change upon the country. Without a unified leadership, Sargon forever lost its hegemony and was embroiled into several never-ending tribal conflicts, causing the country to suffer from disunity and backwardness that have lasted until the modern Crystallization Age.
As a classical empire, Sargon governs many tribes with diverse cultures through a satrapy system that pledges loyalty to the "King of Kings." The nation can be divided into two distinct regions: the desert tribes on the west and the jungle tribes on the east. The desert tribes in the Sargonian heartland are closely tied to the Shahs and the Padishahs ruling the regions, whereas the jungle tribes of the east are mainly composed of scattered primitive tribes. Although these jungle tribes maintain some degree of contact with the outside world, they still retain a unique tradition and culture that are totally distinct from the desert clans heartland, causing the region to be under Sargon's jurisdiction nominally while maintaining a certain degree of autonomy and different history from the heartland.
The mainland Sargonian language is similar to Arabic and Persian in our world, but has distinct grammars and accents even though both are mutually intelligible with each other. Other minor tribes speak different tongues from the mainlanders.
History
Founding myth
The founding of Sargon could be traced back to a legend found in an official historical record that was later formally published in 965. According to the legend, 15,000 years ago, there was a group of exhausted warriors that, after using up their resources in traveling across the lush jungle of Acahualla, found themselves stumbled upon the vast grasslands and dunes on the jungle's west. Deeming that they had reached the end of the continent that could protect them from disasters and tribal hostilities, these warriors decided to call up their companions and settle down on the edge of the vast desert where they later uncovered fertile oases and river bays. Although they also realized that the desert was also a hostile region, they had run out the resources to travel across the desert once again, hence they decided to forever settle in the region that established the earliest Sargonian civilization in human history.[1]
Many historians and anthropologists take the Sargonian account as mere legend; nevertheless, they could find some truths regarding the birth of the Sargonian civilization. They speculate that these earliest Sargonian tribes were related to the first Catastrophe in Terran history in which many of these homeless refugees sought shelter in the Sargonian desert. Deeming that they had reached the edge of the Terran continent, these settlements eventually enlarged by absorbing new tribes settling there. As the population grew, a diverse number of different communities was born from their shared experiences and oral traditions, and their descendants established close-knit communities over the course of history.[1]
Aslanian Conquest
The Aslanian Conquest was another trajectory in the history of both Sargon and the Terran civilizations. As the earliest Terrans organized themselves into a loosely-organized confederation of different communities, social hierarchy was eventually inevitable. According to a legend, it all began from a tribe of Felines in Sargon with unique traits who would later become the Aslan house. These first Aslans in history believed they were naturally born with the "divine right of kings" to rule over other races; furthermore, they received the blessings of the leon "Lords of Beasts" that could support their campaigns. Hence, they segregated themselves from other Felines and ushered a series of conquests unto other tribes. Not only the conquest made the Aslans becoming famous, but also it ushered in the era of racial separation in which various races began naming themselves differently in accordance with their body traits or culture.[2]
Under the Aslans' rule, Sargon gradually expanded in territories until they reached the southernmost part of their civilization. These earliest humans quickly encountered various demonic beings that not only could not communicate with humans, but also purposefully attacked their settlements. These tribes desperately sought military protection from the Aslan house. In turn, the Alsans not only set up a border that demarcated their civilization, forming the earliest national border of Sargon, but also they dispatched their best warriors to protect these tribes and initiate campaigns against the demons. This earliest military alliance among the tribes obeying the Aslan house formed Sargon's first political entity, and over the course of history, every tribe unanimously agreed to the Aslans' de facto sovereignty. To further solidify their rule, the Aslan house set up the first city in Terran history, the royal capital of Shar-Agade the "Golden City," and their hereditary lineage became the Sargonian imperial dynasty that gave rise to the nation-state.[3]
War of the Three Lions
The "War of the Three Lions" (الحرب الأسود الثلاثة) broke out in Terran year 20 BCE started by seventeen Lords Ameer with the support of three Aslan Padishshahs. Five years prior to the civil war, the coronation of Lugalszargus as the new Shahanshah brought several questions among the royal officials and the aristocrats. They deemed this ten-year-old prince too unfit to rule the empire and saw him being more of a puppet king installed by the previous Shah. These rebellious noblemen formed a secret coalition and plotted to overthrow the young Shah's rule through the civil war, leading to the seventeen Ameers formally renouncing his legitimacy.[3]
Nevertheless, Lugalszargus quickly adapted to his position and suppressed the rebellion through his brilliant military tactics. Under his leadership, the loyalist faction quickly defeated the rebelling Ameers and Padishahs. To prevent future rebellions, Lugalszargus redistributed the losers' territories and properties and conducted political purges onto opposition parties in the royal court as a punishment. Although the purges onto the losers resulted in countless casualties, it solidified Lugalszargus' rule in the future.[3]
Era of Lugalszargus
After the civil war, the reign of Lugalszargus marked the zenith of Sargon as a superpower in Terran history. He launched several military campaigns that expanded Sargon's territory further north. He also initiated political reforms that vitalized the bureaucracy's governance efficiency across the empire. Not only was Lugalszargus a competent general, but also he was both a sage of philosophy and an ardent science researcher who shared his knowledge to both ordinary Sargonians and foreign nations which accelerated human civilizations. Through his excellency, Lugalszargus managed to unite the Sargonian tribes under one entity that ushered in the golden age of Sargon.[3]
Lugalszargus' greatest legacy during his reign was in fact the implementation of a common calendar used by the Terrans. According to a legend, Lugalszargus launched a daunting expedition into a forbidden ruin during a military campaign in the south, and after facing countless traps inside, he uncovered a mysterious ball-like relic which he claimed to be "a machine that could control time." After further studies, he formally declared the year when he uncovered the relic as the first year of the Terran common era. The calendar of Lugalszargus was so flawless and precise that many Terran nations quickly adopted the system and praised his achievements, earning his title as the "Shah of the Past and Future."[4]
In Terran year 14, the hordes of the Nightzmoran Khaganate reached the Sargonian border. In response to their invasion, the Sargonian army conducted countless skirmishes against the Nightzmoras by dispatching their elite warriors in the deserts and assassins hidden in the jungle. In the meantime, both the Sargonians and the Nightzmoras faced threats from the demonic beings of the south as they slowly corroded Sargon's territory. In response to the new threat, Lugalszargus made a daring decision which many Padishahs opposed – forming a military alliance with the Nightzmora and befriending the infamous Kharanduu Khan to take part in the battle against the demons. In the 15th Terran year, the Sargon-Nightzmoran military alliance marched south towards the jungle to face the demons.[3]
The ferocious battle against the demons in the south was victorious as it forever repealed the demons from invading Sargon again, yet it resulted in subsequent consequences. At the height of the war, a sudden explosion occurred in the battlefield that not only brought severe casualties to both the Sargonian troops and the Kheshigs, but also, both Lugalszargus and Kharanduu Khan vanished amidst the explosion which many deemed that both were unfortunately killed in action. Furthermore, the extreme heat waves born from the explosion turned the once lush jungle of the south into an inhospitable desert which later generations coined the name to the region as the "Foehn Hotlands." The formation of the Hotlands caused many to be displaced from their homelands as the increasing heat drastically altered Sargon's geography.[3][5]
Decline of zenith
With the sudden demise of Lugalszargus and the drastic geographical changes caused by the Foehn Hotlands, the zenith of Sargon quickly declined. Sargon experienced immediate desertification of its territories which in turn displaced many Sargonians and brought the collapse of regional governments due to famine and chaos brought by the disaster. The lack of a legitimate unified leadership revived the royal feud within the Aslan house once again. By the time the new Shahanshah restored order within the palace, many Aslans had left Sargon and sought refuge in other countries. Notably, a certain Aslan offshoot fled to Victoria after the Shah's purge onto a non-lineal aristocratic house, and this offshoot later became the Victorian royal house after the overthrow of the Dracos. The decline of the Sargonian royal house also weakened its vassalage control over border regions, causing many vassals such as the Vouivre Alliance to gain de facto autonomy.[6][7] Inspired by Lugalszargus's last campaign, other Sargonian lords had attempted to explore and reconquer the Foehn Hotlands, but most failed to set their feet beyond the southernmost border. The closest attempt was launched by a Nightzmoran Padishah of Reefsteep a few centuries through his mobile city only to have it struck down by a Catastrophe soon after.[8]
Entering the modern Crystallization Age, the advent of nomadic cities caused Sargon to completely fall behind in geopolitics. Nevertheless the only period when Sargon returned to its lost zenith was its colonization onto Minos. In 915, Shahanshah Pashtu the "White-Maned King," the longest ruling Shah in Sargonian history spanning for sixty-seven years, brought temporary stability onto Sargon by settling both the palace struggle and tribal conflicts. In hope to leave a final legacy, he allowed the border Ameers to launch an invasion onto Minos in 917. But not only the Sargonian troops suffered severe casualties during the invasion, but also Pashtu passed away a week before Minos' surrender.[9] Between 920 and 950, the succeeding Shah Shahsullam and his sister Marah spent much of their resources and manpower to turn Minos into an essential colony through forced assimilation policies onto the Minoans, and Sargon's ironfist rule in Minos brough major shock to other Terran superpowers which consequently influenced their actions during the scrambling of Gaul after the War of the Four Nations.[10] But in 1038, a palace coup broke out once again following the assassination of the residing Shah, the grandson of Shahsullam, and four years later, Minos was freed from colonization under the Twelve Heroes' leadership, forcing the Shah to quickly redraw the troops from the country. [11]
In the recent decades, Sargon has forever lost its power in Terran geopolitics. Territorial and tribal conflicts are still ongoing, and regional governments and warlords led by the Lords Ameers and Padishahs have slowly eroded the Shah's sovereignty over the country due to its old-fashioned, chaotic bureaucratic management. Worst of all, foreign nations take the opportunity to further scramble the old empire. In the name of aiding the local lords, Columbia has been constantly interfering in Sargon's politics through military support of pro-Columbian factions. All these causes Sargon to become a backwater country with underdeveloped regions and a population suffering from poverty, plagues, and famines.
Notable people
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- Eliza
- Lugalszargus
- The Zhayedans
- Padishah Murad: The Padishah of the Ibut region twenty-two years ago. He deployed his mercenary forces to annihilate the "Sand Soldiers" in order to rob the secret weapon blueprint on Elliot's professor.[12]
- Lord Tal'sas☠: A Lord Ameer who, in the Terran year 1093, was hanged by the angry mob following a revolt that overhwelmed the defenses of his palace. Prior to the incident, he invited Arturia for a public performance in his territory. However, affected by her Arts, he would fly into a rage mid-concert and ordered all the attendants to be expulsed. Witnesses claimed having her derranged cello notes playing in the middle of the revolt, all the way until Tal'sas' execution.[13]
- Pashtu the "White-maned Shah" (836-917)☠: The Aslan Shahanshah with the longest reign in Sargonian history, with 67 years. He authorized the Lords Ameer to invade Minos in the Terran year 917, before passing away the same year at the age of 81.
- Shahsullam☠: Pashtu's eldest son, who ascended to the throne following his death. He declared victory over the Minoans.
- Padishah Marah☠: Also known as "the Queen from Across the River", she was Shahsullam's sister who was personally assigned as the Padishah in charge of Minos' affairs. Because of her deep understanding of the Minoan culture, she applied harsh assimilation policies that would subjugate the nation, ordering the destruction of various city-states. She was recalled back to Shar-Agade in 950.
- Shahsullam's grandson☠: The Aslan Shahanshah who, in 1039, was poisoned by his wife. His murder led to a succession dispute between his heirs.
Enemies
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Places
Districts
- Shar-Agade
- Acahualla
- Ibut
- Bayalir: A district in Sargon where the Tulla clan lives; the setting where Operation Originium Dust happened.
- Kerthun Valley: A region in a vast Sargonian rainforest and homeland of the Anura race. Known for it's vast resources and favourable geopolitical position, the lords ameer have long tried to expand their influence over it to no avail, thanks to the opposition of the indigenous people.[14]
Settlements
- Long Spring
- Reefsteep: A major city in the Ibut region where Old Isin once served for. 150 years ago, the city was a nomadic city founded by a Kuranta Padishah who had the blood of the Nightzmoran Kheshigs. Despite its past glory, a Catastrophe destroyed it and it was buried beneath the sand. Since then, the site where it stood is nothing more than a black market town.[8]
- Redhorn: A town in the Ibut Region. Twenty-two years ago, this was the place where the "Sand Soldiers" were annihilated. It was destroyed by a fire set by Elliot during his uprising against the local Lord Ameer.[15][16]
- Minat Hamayi: A city located in eastern Sargon, famous for being the biggest gem distribution center within the country.
References
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