Kiotza and Quikuza

The great expanse of the Western Sunekan plains sweeps over the horizon, an empty sea of yellowed green interrupted by the occasional tree, boulder, bison, or wild horse. To those who travel these plains, it is not rare to accidentally stumble upon the ashen foundations of a ruined settlement or a great mound of a mass grave, consumed by the grassy plains and forgotten by history. These grim surprises add to the tension that permeates the land, the silent anxiety that can boil into cold fear when an unknown group is spotted on the horizon. This is a warzone in the last days of its war. The grand battles were won and lost a century ago, but the simmering low-level violence remains. For both Kiotza and Quikuza are occupied territories in the midst of a cultural genocide: the land is divided between occupying Sunekans who aim to wipe out every last vestige of Kiota or Quiku culture, and the last remaining nomad bands that struggle against them. 
The Sunekans are winning, and have been for a century now. They have transformed wide sections of plain into agricultural land, have built great fortresses, road networks, and towns to settle the plains for themselves, and have built hundreds of miles of fences and walls to disrupt the wide open free range prairie. Sunekan warbands hunt Kiotans and Quiku (nomads and non-nomads alike), sometimes seeking to illegally profit by selling the captured plainsfolk into industrial servitude. But many Quiku and Kiota fight on anyways, against these terrible odds: they break fences, pick off lone Sunekan travelers, and burn undefended villages whenever possible. Those hopelessly indoctrinated into the Suneka, they kill; those who they can integrate into their own culture, they adopt to replenish their numbers. Both sides often mistake outsiders for their enemies, making the land dangerous for foreigners. 
All of the marked republics on the maps are the Sunekan republics that carve up the land: 18 "Kiotzan" republics and 10 "Quikuzan" republics. Despite carrying the names of the original plains cultures, both regions are thoroughly Sunekan. 

Kiotza versus Quikuza

As for the difference between Kiotza and Quikuza, the two regions have different climate, culture, and politics, though their struggles are largely shared.
Kiotza is hillier and less arid, with more trade routes and natural resources. The old Kiotan culture was also less explicitly militaristic and horse-based: a number of Kiotans lived either sedentary lives or migrated through the hills on foot, and Kiotan merchant bands arguably set the model for the Sunekan merchant communes. The Kiotans did still raid and invade on occasion, though they've always kept to their grey area on the edge of the Suneka. The persecution of the Kiota has, unsurprisingly, been rather patchy, as many groups were able to effortlessly shift into border-Suneka populations. While persecution of Kiota groups was intense in the early 1800s, much of the focus shifted to Quiku populations over time - and many Kiotan communities were able to claim the mantle of "proper Sunekans" in the early 1900s. The current persecution is actually quite recent: the outbreak of the Nemekan Heresy in 1989 in the reigning republic of Etska led to a massive reorganization of Etska that was broadened into Kiotza in 1990 - and has provoked a lot of resistance from the local Kiota. As part of this new Sunekan reorganization program, Kiotza is mostly divided up into small republics better able to micromanage their citizens. Despite this recent chaos and violence, Kiotza's trade routes remain relatively safe (especially compared to Quikuza).
Quikuza, meanwhile, is flat, arid, and plain: the most prototypical steppe/prairie imaginable. It has long produced some of the best horse-riders in the greater Suneka, and some of the toughest warriors of the continent. The land, while somewhat fertile, has required massive irrigations projects to make into suitable farmland. Quiku culture, meanwhile, is one of hunting, riding, bartering, and raiding. The Quiku have long been some of the Suneka's greatest mercenaries and banes - the Quiku have fiercely resisted conversion, and responded to aggressive evangelism and invasion in the mid 1700s by invading the Sunekan heartlands in grand fashion. The Quiku were the main target of the 1800s and 1900s extermination and quasi-enslavement campaigns, and while their population has dwindled immensely over the last two centuries, they remain a persistent thorn in the occupying republic's side. To better suppress large Quiku warbands and construct their enormous irrigation systems, the republics of Quikuza are large, strict, and miliaristic - perhaps one of the worst places to be resettled to as a Sunekan. In recent decades, Kiotans fleeing the reorganization of 1990 have found a new life raiding unprotected holds in Quikuza - the republics there being large and clumsy enough for their peripheries to be easy prey for small raiding bands. This renewed chaos has also attracted bandits, making Quikuza an even worse place to live than before.

Geography

Quikuza and Kiotza are both parts of the greater Western Sunekan Plains, a stretch of (mostly) flat grasslands between the Tuweskan fringe and the Sunekan heartlands. Quikuza is the Southern part of this, and is roughly 250 by 270 miles across. Quikuza is flat, arid, and open grasslands and is generally considered to be the heart of plains culture. Kiotza is the Northern part of the Sunekan plains, and is 432 miles North-South and 120 miles West-East. Kiotza is less arid and less flat - forests and hills contain massive grass valleys and plains, which link together in narrow passages. 

Traditional historical definitions of Kiotza and Quikuza have been much larger and more fluid, but aggressive conquest and settlement by the surrounding Sunekan powers have steadily contained and chipped away at these broader borders. Attempts to categorize and differentiate between plains cultures has also shrunken greater Quikuza to its current size: once, the cultural lines between Quiku, North Tuzek, Kiota, and Utima were all fairly blurry, but the need for borders and cultural obedience to the Suneka has cut the plains into many smaller pieces.
To the South of modern Quikuza is the largely unsettled Kuasum mountains: a range of tall, extremely arid mountains

History

In the earliest records, little difference is made between Kiota, Quiku, and their neighboring plains cultures. The first major break was between themselves and their sedentary cousins in Northern Tuzek, who settled along the rivers and lakes of the Western heartlands. The Quiku and the people of Tuzek slowly gravitated towards each other, as trade partners, allies, and enemies- and as the Quiku bred their superior warhorses and become more entangled with Tuzek, they became a separate culture from the Kiota, who were closer to Akatlan, Gwalan, Tuweska, and Etska. 

Early Quiku History

All throughout the late Divine Era, the Quiku worked to breed larger, stronger horses. The region simply lacked the available metal and wood necessary for widespread charioteering, especially compared to Kiota or Tuzek. At the dawn of the modern era, the emergence of the warhorse, large enough to be ridden by itself, revolutionized Quiku life. Everything revolved around horses - all of society became mobile. Bison hunting, trading, and migration all became substantially easier, and the population exploded. The rising Quiku soon chafed against their neighbors in Tuzek, who they were able to outmaneuver and defeat with ease. 
From 100 to 690, the Quiku raided and invaded Northern Tuzek in search of metals and surplus food. These wars, along with the harsh climate and physical lifestyle, helped shape the Quiku into expert warriors, scouts, and hunters. In 690, the republic of Tuzek and the border-Quiku finally came to an arrangement that would help everyone: through a series of border-forts, the republic created trade connections with some of the largest and most militaristic of the Quiku clans. These clans agreed to prevent future raids on Tuzek in exchange for lucrative trade deals, and trade routes soon blossomed across the prairie. The Quiku still fought one another (and the rising Utiman khanate to the West) and contracted out as mercenaries, but their days of raiding the heartlands were over. The population again grew as the region stabilized and had improved access to Sunekan foodstocks. Those Quiku who wished to raid in the old ways were encouraged to set out as mercenaries or adventurers - for example, when the charismatic mercenary by the name of Guzetzin tried to organize a raid of Tuzek in 859, he was pressured by the Quiku confederate elders into riding North, towards the Kiota, instead. 
In the 1000s, Tuzek's economy began to collapse. Climatic disturbances, plague, famine, and war had all left Tuzek unable to supply the Quiku confederations with much-desired food and iron. To keep relations good, the Quiku and Tuzekans agreed to a deal: Tuzek would make food and cash payments during bad years, and the Quiku would maintain Tuzek's Western border and supply them with cheap mercenaries. The bad years kept coming, though, and in 1064 the Tlakra of Tuzek refused to pay tribute, or even pay for mercenaries. The Quiku, infuriated, returned to raiding. When that failed, one of the ambitious groups - the Izten - rode out to Tuzek to take their capital itself as payment. The Itzen did not conquer Tuzek, but were offered great lands and powers of rent collection if they re-secured the border. The Itzen took that deal, and ignited a war with the other nomads for total control of the Tuzek borderlands.

From 1064 to 1200, the Itzen fought to both assert control over the borderlands and to maintain their titles in Tuzek. Ultimately, they lost their titles in South Tuzek but were able to bring much of North Tuzek and the borderlands under their control while nominally loyal to the Tlakra. From 1200 to 1450, the Itzen ruled comfortably in their marches - until Tuzek itself collapsed in 1458. One of the Itzen's capet tribes rose to secure the capital and united the Itzen in reuniting Tuzek - and so a Quiku (albeit a very Sunekanized Quiku) was crowned Khan of Tuzek in 1461. This Khan was replaced with a semi-Quiku Kiotan monarch in 1522 due to politics, but plainsfolk still ruled comfortably.

Late Quiku History

Things began to go wrong in 1600. A wave of Sunekan revivalism swept the heartlands, particularly Tuzek. For too long, they said, Sunekan lands have been ruled by foreign monarchs - now was the time to rise up and cast out the foreigners and usurpers! Like in Akatlan, a revolution rose in Tuzek in 1601. Before a civil war could break out, the Khan of Tuzek was deposed by a priestly coup, and a new theocratic order began. The Quiku march-lords were stripped of their lands and thrown back to the steppe. Some of them were re-granted their titles by the new government; others retreated to the plains, furious and armed with an intimate knowledge of Tuzek's defenses. The steppe wars were on again.
The new regime took a new approach to the nomadic problem: evangelism. The Sacred Assembly of the Suneka funded this new approach through the great holy orders, which set out to bring harmony to the steppes. At first, this was a peaceful mission - but as the missionaries and priests grew more controlling over nomadic societies, they began to be killed or exiled by Quiku leaders. Sunekan soldiers followed, to punish these bands for their crimes or to reinstate the priests as authority figures. Converted tribes were encouraged to attack and raid unconverted ones; youths were encouraged to abandon their tribes to join the Guardians of Hokzin; new ideas of tribal property were enforced on the previously free-for-all steppe herds. 
These problems grew worse and worse over the 1600s, until the Quiku finally lashed back with a torrent of violence in 1755. A powerful and charismatic druid-general by the name of Eltizen the Avenger rose in the Northwestern Quiku, and he set about rallying the tribes for a mass slaughter of Sunekan missionaries and converts. Eltizen was able to find poilitical allies in the Utima and the Kiota as well, and soon marched with a grand coalition of plainsfolk to scour the West. From 1760 to 1800, Elitzen led this nomadic grand army across the Sunekan heartlands, until he was finally slain in the Eastern heartlands at the end of 1800.

The empire did not hold together after Elitzel's death, and the Sunekan rallied together to drive the Quiku from their lands. While the original intent of the invasion had been to prevent the Sunekans from being able to continue their aggressive evangelism, 1800 only marked a new phase in Sunekan opposition to Quiku culture. Only now the focus was complete eradication rather than genocide by erosion.
From 1800 to 1869, the Sunekan focused all of its efforts on destroying the plainsfolk. The damage done during this period was immense, particularly for the Quiku. So many clans and communities were taken for "redistribution" or killed during the 1800s, that even the arrival of the Empire of Calazen in 1870 was not enough to allow for a rebound. The Sunekans occupied the plains; lost the plains in the 1870s; and then reoccupied the plains in the 1920s. It has been a desperate fight for survival ever since. 

Kiotan History

Kiotan history is a difficult thing to define, as the Kiotans themselves are difficult to define. The introduction of warhorses did not completely overturn old Kiotan culture in the 100s as it had for the Quiku, and instead many groups tried to use both horse nomadism and agriculture for their advantage. During the time of the first Sunekan Empire, the Kiota were actually quite close with the Sunekan Ghost Emperor: they worked together to build roads and trade outposts in the North to connect the heartlands to Etska and Tuweska in the 500s, and settled into an alliance that carried over to the Imperial Successor states. 
A brief Kiotan attempt at their own version of the Suneka arose in the late 600s: the Clan Republic of Kiota, which operated as a quasi-Sunekan state until it collapsed into civil war in the mid 800s. The clan republic was incredibly decentralized and left behind very little lasting state infrastructure, but it did constitute a very real attempt to join the Sunekan collective. Following its collapse, a number of tribes followed a Quiku named Guzetzin in invading the neighboring land of Tuweska - a stirring success that inspired many militaristic copycats from 900 to 1500. These copycats would go on to raid and conquer parts of Akatlan and Etska, though they struggled to hold onto power wherever they seized it. 
After the fall of the Kiotan conquering regimes in Etska and Akatlan one after the other in 1600 and 1605, the Kiota settled into their old role as peaceful plainsfolk traders - perfect for flying under the radar of the violently zealous revolutionary Suneka. For a time, the Kiotans successfully existed like this - but missionary efforts did not spare them entirely, and tensions rose in the 1700s. 
Following the ride of the Quiku, the Kiotans were easy prey for Sunekans seeking vengeance: they lacked the wide open plains to dissapear into, as well as the experience with defensive wars of attrition. As raiding by Sunekan vengeance campaigns increased, the Kiotans turned Westward for help: to the republics of Etska, who they invited into their lands to protect them. Following the invasion by Calazen in 1870, Kiotza was almost entirely seen as the rightful property of the united Republic of Etska (though Etska's ruling family after 1888 was themselves Kiotan, so this suited them just fine). Trouble truly began again in 1989, when the republic of Etska was forcibly shattered into minor republics to combat heresy - and exposing Kiotans to violent "reorganization" once again.

Alternative Name(s)

Greater Quikuza

Type

Region

Location under

Suneka (place)