Hamu

Hamu (Hamu-koku, "State of Hamu", as well known as Jamon. Some other historic names was the Stone Throne or Kyojinoi) is an island nation in east Hieyoks. It lies to the east of the Sea of Airuzu, Bina and Borea, stretching from the Sea of Robgorov in the north to the East Bina Sea in the south.

Hamu it's located in the Airuzu archipelago, a stratovolcanic archipelago of over 7,000 islands. The largest island is Hondo, followed by the smaller Minami, Kita and Hoppo. Other island was Onigashima.

Archaeological research indicates that the Airuzu archipelago was inhabited only decades after it rose out from the Ocean between the 50 to 100 After the Apparition of Humanity. 

Influence from other regions, mainly Imperial Bina, followed by periods of isolation has characterized Hamu's history. 

An inhabitant of Hamu can be called both Hamujin or Airuzujin.

History

Prehistoric Airuzu and the Kori elven period, 35.000 - 3.000 b.a.H

Before the cataclysms that marked the beginning of a new area with the Apparition of Humanity, the geography of the Airuzu archipelago was vert different to it's posterior form.

The Islands, which had been inhabited since the prehistory by beast-peoples and goblinoids since at least the 35.000 (b.a.H, Before the apparition of humanity) , the first rossnes elves hunter-gatherers archeological records would be found around the the 22.000 b.a.H.

The Ice Elves, which would arrive at the isles at the 14.000 b.a.H, who will bring the Neolithic Age to Airuzu, introducing horticulture: this Ice elven culture would be later called by human archeologists as the Kori culture, which began the Kori Period, which came to be the dominating peoples in the main Airuzu isles

The Kori period was rich in tools and jewellery made from bone, stone, shell and antler; pottery figurines and vessels; and lacquerware. Largelly sedentary, it had culltural complexity developed within a primarily hunting-gathering context with limited use of horticulture.

During the Final Kori period (3700 - 3000 b.a.H), a slow shift was taking place in Airuzu: steadily increasing contact with the Boran Peninsula Oni, which led to the establishment of Boran-type settlements around the end of the period. The settlers brought with them new technologies such as wet rice farming and bronze and iron metallurgy, as well as new pottery styles. The settlements of these new arrivals seem to have coexisted with those of the Kori and of beast peoples and goblinoids for around a thousand years.

Kyojinoi, the Throne of the Giants and the Kyojin period, 3.000 b.a.H - 50 a.a.H

After 3000 b.a.H, the climate cooled, and populations seem to have contracted dramatically in Airuzu, with a local population that declined sharply. Scientists suggest that this was possibly caused because of food shortages and other environmental problems, but there is a discussion of the role it played on this the arrival of the Ice Giants to the archipelago.

Before the Apparition of Humanity and the cataclysms that followed radically changed the continent of Hieyoks, it was the Age of the Giants in Hieyoks, where the Hieyoks Ice Giants ruled over most of the continent bearing their name, with the peoples of the lands bending their knees and serving the imposing creatures.

Around the 3000, arrived from Boran -some suppose, either as part of the Boran elven migration, or following Boran refugees- the Ice Giants, who conquered much of the island, creating small chiefdoms around patrilineal clans of Giants, that exerted taxation over the inhabitants of the island. This will be the early Kyojin Period.

The new period of giants ruled began to see the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields. A hierarchical social class structure dates from this period and has its origin in Boran. Techniques in metallurgy based on the use of bronze and iron were also introduced from Boran to Airuzu in this period.

Archaeological evidence supports the idea that during this time, an influx of farmers from the continent to Airuzu overwhelmed and displaced the native hunter-gatherer and horticultors population. There's again discussion if these settlers where eihter escaping from the giants on the continent, was a natural migratory process, or where instead brought by the giants: among these new inhabitants, would be important the Oni.

While the Anqueael-Hieyokers war between Ice Elves and Giants raged in the continent, pushing the Hieyoks giants further north, and seeing Airuzu several Ice elven raids, invasions and revolts of local elven population, that would be finally crushed by the giants, who coalesced into larger kingdoms than the previous chiefdoms to repell the elven incursions.

With the rule of the giants in Airuzu -and the Giants rule disappearing in the closest continental Hieyoks-, the main island will be called the Island of Giants, which had almost a mythical status and was later named by the Hamu as Kyojinshima. The Ice Giants, coming from the north, founded the first civilization in Kyojinshima, adapting dwarven writing systems from the continent.

As the population once more time increased, the society became more stratified and complex. They wove textiles, lived in permanent farming villages, and constructed buildings with wood and stone. They also accumulated wealth through land ownership and the storage of grain. Such factors promoted the development of distinct social classes with the ruling giants on the top, and often sported  tattoos and other bodily markings which indicated differences in social status. Ice Giant chiefs, appear to have sponsored, and politically manipulated, trade in bronze and other prestige objects.

Between the 2,000 and 1,500 b.a.H, during the middle Kyojin Period, Kyojinshima's many kingdoms formed during the wars against the Ice elves gradually came to be unified under a centralized government, nominally controlled by the Giant King -later in Hamu accounts, Kyojinkushu-, that held the Throne of Giants -what later will be called by the Hamu, the Kyojinoi-. While the Throne of Giants was a political concept, the throne itself was a massive stone structure.  

The symbol of the growing power of the Giant Kings were the massive burial mounds they constructed from around 1000 b.a.H onwards, in the late Kyojin Period.  The rulers of the Kyojinoi were a hereditary line of ice giants, that extended their power across Kyojinshima through military conquest, but their preferred method of expansion was to convince local leaders to accept their authority in exchange for positions of influence in the government: This leaded not only to the other peoples of the island to be subservant to the giants rulers, but with the integration of powerful clans of non-giants into the Kyojinoi state.

In the height of their power, these giant leaders sought expansion into the mainland, to take back the former territories of giants, lost to the Ice elves. These wars -ultimately fruitless-, would be a failure that ended weakening both the Anqueael realms of the continent and the giants, the former formidable central power of the Giant Kings will fragment, with the rise of local nobility -either giants or their servants who had been integrated as honorary giants.

The Age of Calamities 50 - 144 a.a.H

The late Kyojin Period will have an abrupt end with the Apparition of Humanity and the Age of Calamities they broght in their wake: it wasn't only the end of a cultural period, but the cataclysms that rocked Airuzu meant that much of Kyojinshima of old will sunk into the waves in short decades, between the 50 to the 120 a.a.H.

The world was essentially upended by this seventy years of global transformation, Airuzu, which for long was around the largest island of Kyojinshima, saw much of the coastal lands devastated and sunk, with the remaining parts of the islands of the giants fragmented and divided into what will become the modern geography of the Airuzu Archipelago.

This apocalypsis brought the end of the Kyojin period and it's civilization. The giants, who ruled the lands based around a divine rule, even with all their might where powerless against the anger of the elements.

People had to escape from the chaos and destruction, seeking for their own survival, escaping into the highest peaks of Kyojinshima -that would later become the new island of Hondo- or to the new islands, if not to the continent, as did the Ice Kingdom himself, who left his devastated lands.

This age of calamities ended only at the 120 a.a.H... but it will take even longer, for civilization to return, and for the survivors to rebuild in what had become a strange, broken ruin of what had been their island.

Any form of centralised power had disappeared, and political fragmentation was almost complete, but for the memory of the better times they had during the times of the Giant Throne.

The Age of Invasions: Oku, Goburin, Dragon Gods, Oni Kings and Humans, 120 - 419 a.a.H

The Age of Calamities had reshaped in the most drastic ways the continent of Hieyoks, as large masses of lands emerged from the ocean, opening up new opportunities for some and tossing others to forced migrations, which will trigger the Age of Invasions.    

The first of these succesive waves of invasions that would endure the Airuzu archipelago were the Oku, High Orcs that came from the northwest, and upon reaching the Airuzu sea became pirates, who raided and settled in the archipelago since the 144 a.a.H.    

Soon after, will come in the wake of the Oku the opportunistic Goburin Goblins, and in the skies appeared a new terror: flying dragons of kinds that had never seen in these lands: intelligent dragons, who claimed themselves to be dragon-gods to be revered and served.    

As once before the giants had ruled them, many of the peoples of Airuzu decided that rather than to fight the goblinoids invaders and the dragons, was better to choose the dragons as their protectors. And while some villages came to be under protection of dragons, other dragons took under their care bands of Oku and Goburins to do their bidings, and there would be wars between the dragons and their unfortunate servants.    

In this political chaos and fragmentation, the Oni will try to unite the former subjects of the gone giants of the Kyojinoi, presenting themselves as the legitimate succesors of the Ice Giants Kings.    

At the 238 a.a.H. -after reclaiming the stone throne from a dragon-, the first Oni king crowned himself -the first Oni King, that later the Hamu will call Akuno Warui or Akuno I.    

The Oni will be able to rally to their banner many of the peoples who had suffered at the hands of the invaders, and made themselves a name as dragon killers. Taking their treasures, they later used these to hire into their service bands of Oku high orcs, that further served to extend their rule: but still, many rejected the Oni claims to the Giant Throne.    

However, before the Oni where able to assert their hegemony on the islands, a new wave of invaders was to come...    

Humans.    

While it is unknown when specifically humans arrived at the Airuzu archipelago -during the late 300 or early 400 a.a.H-, often is given as a foundational date the 419 a.a.H, when a coalition of human tribes that called themselves the Ningen defeated an Oni army lead by the Oni King in the island of Minami: this would be the beginning of the conquest of Minami -the first human island-, from which the humans will use as a springboard to the rest of the Airuzu archipelago.    

Ningen and Yokai Kingdoms, 419 - 1072 a.a.H

With the defeat of the Oni King against the humans in Minami, the Oni Kings lost legitimacy to their claim over the old stone throne of the giants, and while the military defeat in Minami hadn't been a decisive defeat, it scrambled all the pieces of the kingdom that the Oni Kings where trying to build, with their subjects revolting and claiming their own independence.

Once more time fragmented, as the Oni kings fought hard against the rebellions, the doors where open for the continuous arrival of humans into Hondo and the other islands of Airuzu:

the advance of humans in southern Airuzu was further made easier by the spread of outburst of diseases brought by the newcomers -which included for the first time in the isles an epidemic along the elven population, with the Curse of the Doroz-.

The Ningen, first in Minami, but later in the other islands of the Archipelago, will begin to set their own kingdoms and realms, while the other non-humans claimed their own realms -that will be collectively known as the Yokai Kingdoms or Yokaisucho-, while the Oni Kings -divided as well in competing clans- tried to reinstate their hegemony.

Onohanma period, 1072 - 1438 a.a.H

Onohanma was a Oni ogre from the Sekitsui mountains in central Hondo. From unknown lineage, the large ogre claimed to have the blood of the giant kings of old, and thus to be the true heir of the Kyojinoi.

Contesting with the other Oni claimants to the Stone Throne, Onohanma, thanks to his legendary strenght and prowess, defeated all the other Oni leaders of Hondo, uniting under his figure the Oni realms of Hondo. In the 1072, with all the other Oni chieftains of Hondo either his allies or defeated, he took sit in the Kyojinoi, and proclaimed himself the Giant Emperor.

Soon, he will beset himself in the conquest of all of Hondo, to make himself truly the undisputed ruler of Kyojinoi.

First, his Oni defeated and integrated into his armies the clans of the Oku and the Goburin, and with these reinforced armies, they left the Sekitsui mountains, marching to the north, conquering most of the Yokai Kingdoms.

As all of the north had fallen to the clawed hand of Onohanma, the southern kingdoms of Hondo of Ningen and Yokai tried to leave behind their differences, and make a larger alliance to fight Onohanma: but they will be defeated at the 1103 a.a.H in the battle of Hakaiyari.

With the armies of the southern alliance defeated, in the following years Onohanma conquered or accepted the rendition of both kingdoms of Yokai and Men, and by 1120s all of Hondo had been unified under the rule of Onohanma.

Men and Yokai, all were now subjects to the Oni.

But the conquest wasn't complete for Onohanma, for he had set the sights as well on the other isles of Airuzu: he didn't wanted to be the king of Hondo, but of all the broken isles of old Kyojinshima.

But as he was preparing for his invasion of Minami, Onohanma suddenly died at 1127 a.a.H. While his heir tried to immediatly crown himself as emperor of giants, there became court intrigue and power struggles behind the curtains among the Oni generals and leaders, which halted any plan of invasion and gave time to the kingdoms of Minami to prepare for war.

When finally the succesor of Onohanma, Onotsuchi attempted the planned invasion at the 1136 a.a.H, his navy would be destroyed by the fleets of Minami, who had the help of the Oni of Onigashima, that contested the claims to the Kyiojinoi of the Onohanma dynasty..

This failure to conquer Minami will mean a perpetuation of the division of Airuzu, between the Oni kingdom of Onohanma in Hondo, the human kingdoms of Minami and Kita and the yokai realms of Onigashima and Hoppo.

Onotsuchi, who had seen his mountain peoples fail at the ocean, returned his attention to the interior of Hondo, and will built a new capital and seat of power in the Sekitsui mountains: the city of Onikyo, where they built a palace for the Kyojinoi stone throne.

While a relatively stable period, pointed by the wars between the kingoms of the isles and the kingdoms of the isles trying to strike at the Onohanma lands in Hondo, and there was a succesful integration of non-Oni into the Onikyo court, at the end of the period there began to brew tensions in the Kingdom of Onohanma due the natural population growth of the Ningen humans of Hondo, who began to demand more lands and territories for themselves, which was resisted by other non-humans.

With the support of the Ningen of Minami, these tensions will explode into a major Ningen rebellion in southern Hondo.

Iwaisu period. Creation of Hamu 1438 - 1721 a.a.H

At the 1438 a.a.H, the armies of the Ningen coalition of southern Hondo defeated the armies of the Oni king, and conquered, sacked and plundered the capital of of the Onohanma, Onikyo: Among the loot taken, was the Stone throne of the giants, the Kyojinoi.

The high king of the Ningen would take this opportunity to make an ad-hoc ceremony, in which he will sit in the stone throne, and proclaim himself to be the new emperor of Airuzu, as ruler of the Kyojinoi, emperor of giants.

The Ningen king will then go to build a new monumental palace for himself, around the Stone Throne, which will come to be known as Iwaisu -the stone chair-, a new capital that will give the name to this new period that marked the beginning of human hegemony

While the Iwasu claimed hegemony over all of Minami and Hondo, true was that while defeated, the Onohanma Oni Kings retreated to the north, and while some of their yokai subjects rebelled -either joining the Iwaisu or reclaiming their independence-, the Oni of Onohanma remained a dangerous foe to the humans: the same could be told by the Oni of Onigashima, who may have helped the Ningen against the Onohanma, but not for the Iwaisu to take the Stone Throne for themselves.

Having acquired a realm with a large non-human population, the Iwaisu Emperor of Giants tried a policy of integration of the non-humans into Ningen society, with the adoption of human culture by the Yokai.

In the time of the Iwaisu, once more time since the time of the giants, the realms of Airuzu once more time engaged in foreign relations with the rising power in the continent: the Empire of Bi. The Iwaisu monarchs tried seeking a form of legimisation by establishing lonks to the Binese Empire

Shinrin period, 1721 - 1893 a.a.H

The Shinrin period began in the 1721 a.a.H, with the introduction of elven rituals and religious elements to the Imperial court by the marriage into the imperial court of a foreign sylvan elven woman, Misurodoi -pointed ears- which became the favorite of the emperor.

A deeply scandalous situation in it's own, the emperor agreed to the requests of his elven wife to build a new palace -and what will become a defacto capital- in a sacred forest, that would be simply called Shinrin, palace which will serve to name the period.

At the death of the Emperor at 1764, he had choosen as successor one of his half-elf sons, prince Nagaimi, -"long ears"- who while was legally an adult, had inherited from his elven mother slower aging, and was still a child, becoming Misurodoi a regent for a sickly son that had suffered the curse of the Doroz.

As Prince Nagaimi was coming closer to reaching adulthood, the unrest of the nobility with both the regency of Misurodoi and the prospect of having a long lived half elf emperor became unnaceptable, there was an attempted coup, which failed to overthrown Misurodoi and Nagaimi.

Then, Misurodoi did a brutal counter-coup, and the new government of Misurodoi -as Prince Nagaimi had become but a puppet, who hadn't even taken the Kyokinoi, the Stone Throne of the Giants-, that formed a new government that devised and implemented far reaching reforms, which began with land reforms. It nationalized all land in Hamu, to be distributed equally among cultivators -regardless of them being humans or non-humans-, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of taxation. The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court.These radical reforms meet resistance, and with the assessination of Misurodoi -who was entertaining the idea of becoming an empress herself-, a civil war erupted in 1828 between Prince Nagaimi and Prince Nibuimi -human great grandchild of the old human emperor-, as the supporters of Nibuimi -"Round ears"- accused that Nagaimi was really an elven bastard -and not even a half elf, but a full elf who the Misurudoi witch claimed to be half-human to trick the emperor-.

This civil war will end with the complete defeat of Nagaimi and his faction of "long ears", and while Nibuimi will gain power, he wouldn't revoke the reforms, but repurpose them -orienting them as well to be human-centric, to appease his supporters-, consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central government and its subordinate local governments, taking inspiration and basing the new imperial court on the governmental structure of the Empire of Bi in mainland Hieyoks, sending as well envoys and students that were dispatched to Bi.

The art of the Shinrin period embodies the themes of elven art.

From this on, still a work in progres!

XXX period, 1893 - 2012 a.a.H

Change of capital. Rejection of non-human influences

Hamu society during this period was predominately agricultural and centered around village life. Most of the villagers followed a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits.

The new capital was modelled after the Bi Empire and their own capital, and the court and the Hamu upper classes patterned themselves after Bi influences.

Economic and administrative activity increased during the XXX period. Roads linked XXX to provincial capitals, and taxes were collected more efficiently and routinely. Coins were minted, if not widely used. Outside the XXX area, however, there was little commercial activity, and in the provinces the old Shnrin land reform systems declined. By the mid of the period, Manors began to rise as a result of the search for a more manageable form of landholding. Local administration gradually became more self-sufficient, while the breakdown of the old land distribution system and the rise of taxes led to the loss or abandonment of land by many people, and at the same time many public lands increasingly reverted to manors.

Fighting at the imperial court continued.

major spreads of diseases and natural disasters are taken as a signal of wrath of the gods against the rulying families.

Decentralization of authority became the rule despite attempted reforms

XXX period, 2012 - 2403 a.a.H

New capital, Tenkyo, the "Heavenly Capital". The office of regent of the Emperor from times of Misurodoi is reinstated. Rejection of all non-human influences.

the power of the imperial court declined. The court became so self-absorbed with power struggles, and with the artistic pursuits of court nobles, that it neglected the administration of government outside the capital.

The nationalization of land undertaken as part of the Shinrin period reforms decayed as various noble families and religious orders succeeded in securing tax-exempt status for their private manors, and it come to be that more land in Hamu was controlled by manor owners than by the central government. The imperial court was thus deprived of the tax revenue to pay for its national army. In response, the owners of the manors set up their own armies of warriors, with clans and powerful noble families that descended from branches of the imperial family acquiring large armies and manors, that the central government began to use to fight Yokai, supress rebellions and piracy.

Hamu's population stabilized during this period after hundreds of years of decline.

During the early XXX period, the imperialcourt successfully consolidated its control over the Yokai peoples of northern Hondo.

By the mid of the period, in the 2250s, members of powerful XXX clan, who occupied key posts in the regional government, were openly defying the central authority. The court requested the YYY clan to engage the XXX clan, whom they defeated: The court, thus, temporarily reasserted its authority in northern Hamu, but these wars diverted the conquest of the Yokai kingdoms and provinces toward civil wars and power struggles within Hamu itself.

The rivalry of great clans erupted in open wars, until clan ZZZ, with decisive military victory became the de-facto rulers of Hamu as regents.

XXX period, 2403 - 2551 a.a.H

In the 2450s, Hamu entered a period of prosperity. In rural areas, the greater use of iron tools and fertilizer, improved irrigation techniques, and double-cropping increased productivity and rural villages grew. Fewer famines and epidemics allowed cities to grow and commerce to boom. This expanding human population moved further into Yokai lands, who began to feel more and more threatened by human expansion and their marginalisation to the poorer, less productive regions in contrast to human prosperity.

Second War of the Power (2434-2539 a.a.H). Expansion of the Dark Legion to Hieyoks, since the 2470

2500s, Yokai Kingdoms joining the Dark legion.

Invasions of Yokai mobilise armies of the nation.

Succesful in rejecting these invasions, warrior class expected more and were discontent.

Rebellions of warrior class against Regent

XXX period, 2551 - 2675 a.a.H

Political fragmentation, feudal lords, attempts of reunification

Third War of the Power

During the Third War of the Power, was fought in the Airuzu archipelago the Airizu campaign, that will last from the 2659 to the very end of the war, The Cataclysm of 2675 a.a.H.

While for long the Oni Kings had seen their rule recognized in two of the western islands of the Airuzu archipelago, the tensions between humans

and non-humans remained high, and the Oni prepared to war.

As Bin retreated from the Lands of the Dark Legion in Far Hieyoks, an anti-non-human massacre in the imperial capital of Airuzu of Tenkyo at the 2657 a.a.H, which saw among the casualties the Oni ambassador and his family -but some suppose there was an assassination, as the ambassador was against war with humans in Airuzu-, was used as a rallying cry for non-humans to begin their war against the humans.

Initially, the Oni kingdoms after their initial campaigns suffered severe defeats, and only Dark legion support –which began to arrive at the 2660- kept them in the war. The situation in Airuzu reverted only at the 2668, when two invasion navies of the Dark Legion attacked. After seizing the northern islands of Airuzu, they began a campaign in the south, slowly crawling from the 2670 to the 2675, taking one after other cities and castles of humans.

2675 a.a.H The Cataclysm

XXX period, 2675 - 2786 a.a.H

As result of The Cataclysm of 2675 that ended the Third War of the Power, the world -and Hamu- was thrown into disarray.

XXX period, 2786 - 2818 a.a.H

Gradual reunification of Hamu under two warlords, with a strong human dominance, being conquered all non-human remnants of power. Final civil war between the warlords, which will end with the process of reunification

XXX period, 2818 - 3108 a.a.H

Filler about the period

The presence of Hamu settlers in mainland Hieyoks wasn’t something new at all, and have existed since centuries settlements of Hamu in several points, that while the Binese Empire was powerful, where considered vassals of that foreign power.

But with the decay of the Binese empire, due religious strife and foreign aelian powers, the chaotic opportunity was seen as an opportunity to the malcontent members of Jamon:

3108 concessions to foreigners

3121 Kleineng

3128 Hieyoks, Kleineng. Kleineng War.

The state of Kleineng was founded only about a decade before the war, at the 3121 a.a.H, in continentalHieyoks, by members of the traditional feudal and military aristocracy of Hamu, who rejected the concessions given by the Emperor to Aelian powers in regard to the aperture of ports to foreign trade, presence of missionaries and other concessions given to foreigners since the 3108 a.a.H, that where seen as an insult to the honor of Jamon. As well, this feudal, traditional aristocratic and military class rejected the attempts of centralization of the Imperial dynasty at the archipelago, and the modernization in several points of their society that menaced their privileges –such as the modernization of the agrarian world and armed forces of Jamon.

• 3158   Naval Battle of Ju-ko, Imperial Trutsia fleet defeat larger but obsolete Binese fleet, during theTrutsian-Binese war.       

Geography

Cities

• Iwaisu
• Oikido
• Onidzuyo
• Onikyo, the old Oni capital
• Kazemura, the "Wind village"
• Ningenshiro

Islands

• Hondo
• Minami
• Kita
• Hoppo
• Onigashima, the Island of Ogres
• Ryuishi, the Island of Dragons

Mountains

• Sekitsui, the mountain range in central Hondo