Askre'nro Bulah
"Uheran'hung, the greatest of divine spirits. May she see and bless us.The banner of the Flying Eagle (Askre) went on the rise under the leadership of Askre'nro Bulah, who quelled and consolidated the disparate tribes into a new domestic solidarity. With a centralized power base in the sacred Uherun Valley, the Flying Eagle Banner was able to expand west under the military command of Bulah's younger half-brother, Askre'she Budam. Bulah left a respected legacy and a budding golden age, which would be ended just two generations later by civil war in the Fall of the Flying Eagle Banner.
Bu'hung, the divinity of brothers-in-arms. May he see and bless us.
Ke'hung, the divinity of travelers and all that is in-between. May he see and bless us.
Ni'hung, the divinity of ambitions and struggle. May she see and bless us.
[...]
Askre'nro Tohmut, our first great 'nro. May his spirit see and bless us.
[...]
Askre'nro Bulah, our last great 'nro. May his spirit see and bless us."Prayer of Divinities and Spirits, as recited by the Flying Eagle revivalist faction
Social
Reign
Bulah succeeded the title of 'nro at 23, a remarkably young age to ascend to the highest leadership of the banner given the succession system. His father's generation should've been in their prime, in their late 30s and 40s, but an epidemic ripped through the plains along the trade routes from east to west, literally decimating the population and acutely affecting the military camps. Quite a few capable generals, among which Bulah's uncles numbered, fell to the disease. Bulah himself seemed to come down with a milder version of the disease and recovered. Followed by a major revolt in the hardest-hit eastern regions that killed his father with an errant arrow turned infected wound, these two events combined cleared his path to the throne.
Domestic Policy
The earliest years of Bulah's reign saw some political instability as he struggled to curb the spread of disease, repress the revolts, and garner recognition from senior leaders. A simplified and distilled summary focusing on the two most impactful strategies will be presented in this section.
To unify the common people, he took advantage of the mythology and religion surrounding the Uherun Valley, which was seen as sacred. Previous rulers had kept a mobile capital rotating between a handle of locations, setting down the government where they were and moving with the seasons in accordance with the cattle herds. Bulah saw the need for a more centralized and fixed capital. As the fates would have it, fragments of a meteorite struck the center of Uherun Valley in the second year of his reign. Bulah declared that it was a celestial sign to establish a permanent capital there. By taking a sacred place as the seat of his power and invoking a sign from the gods, he himself became an implicitly sacred ruler. Resistance weakened, and Bulah's forces quashed those that remained in opposition.
To subjugate the nobles, he implemented a textbook divide and conquer. The dominant noble clan was unquestionably the Shuste, whose ancestral lands were right outside the Uheran Valley, and this monopoly on power had to be broken to guarantee the continuation of the dynasty. Trailing behind in influence was the Yepi clan, which was also based near the valley but further to the west. Bulah took as his first wife a woman from the Yepi clan, despite her being ten years his senior. Yepi Jerun was the most beloved daughter of the Yepi patriarch, and accordingly afforded rare freedoms. As a young woman, she left home with her parents' reluctant blessing to travel the world. A skilled horseback rider and martial artist, she ventured into the lands of the Ingan Empire. The connections, diplomatic skills, and worldly experience she returned with made her a valuable asset and influential figure in her own right. With Jerun's return and her marriage to Bulah, the Yepi were brought closer to an equal footing with the Shuste. As a third party, Bulah's maternal lineage, the Muhta, was originally a minor noble clan of little note, but he granted his maternal cousins government and military positions. It was not strongly opposed by more influential noble clans, as this was common practice and considered an act of filial piety towards one's mother to elevate her family. Thus, a careful balance was struck between three clans, two of which were significantly under Bulah's sway and had a vested interest in his success and continued reign.
Foreign Policy
At the time of Bulah's ascension, the territory of the banner was roughly the eastern half of the Plains of the Pass, centered around the Uheran Valley. In his late 20s and 30s, he turned his focus to unifying the Tokgok tribes of the western half of the Plains who remained independent of the Flying Eagle banner, sending his trusted younger half-brother Askre'she Budam to oversee the military campaign. The epidemic of earlier years had greatly weakened the smaller tribes of the west, including causing the death of a leader who had been key to advocating for a western alliance against the Askre. Within a decade, the west was mostly under the capable management of Budam, and the rule of Bulah, with a few more mopping up operations persisting through the end of Bulah's reign.
The banner's foreign affairs were dominated by its relationship with the Ingan Empire. The Plains of the Pass are, as named, plains protected on the north and south by rugged land and arid deserts, and to the west and east by narrow corridors through the steep plateaus. To the west was more desert, beyond which eventually connected to lands far too distant to care militarily, but directly to the east, through the corridor, were the fertile grounds of the Ingan Empire. For much of history, the Tokgok tribes had raided those fertile lands to the east, but were more of a border irritation akin to piracy than a legitimate external threat. Although the banner never completely stopped raids against the empire, needing the military morale and resources to maintain itself and its prestige, at this time the banner was aware of the empire's waxing power, and strived to build diplomatic relationships, particularly through intermarriage and paying tribute. Yepi'askre Jerun was an important part of these diplomatic exchanges. Of particular note here was Bulah's second marriage, which was to an Ingan princess, whose name in the Tokgok language was Ingan Kerli. Taking a wife of Ingan nobility was prestigious, making such marriages a minority but not uncommon in the upper echelons of Tokgok society, but Ingan royalty was a rarity to come by. To complicate matters, Tokgok marriages often involved one man and one to three wives who technically were of equal status and equally legitimate, while the Ingans had the concept of a single legitimate wife and any other women serving as concubines whose children would not be legitimate heirs. To be granted an Ingan princess as a second wife, then, was a diplomatic feat only made possible by Yepi'askre Jerun's influence, and the recognition of Kerli's children as having precedence over the offspring of any other wives.
Legacy
Bulah died peacefully at 65, ending his 42-year reign. Although there was no singular moment to immortalize him, the unprecedented domestic stability, foreign expansion, and diplomacy with the Ingan Empire left him a place in history as one of the greatest and most capable leaders of the Flying Eagle Banner. Some scholars argue that all he did was make the banner strong enough for the Ingan Empire to covet it as a vassal rather than continue to consider them as a ragtag patchwork of tribes, yet not strong enough to put up sufficient resistance. However, he undoubtedly remains a fondly-remembered national hero for the Tokgok tribes. A mythology has begun to build up around him, including folk tales of anecdotal feats, claims of semi-divinity, and interest in the items and locations associated with him.
Domestic Policy
The earliest years of Bulah's reign saw some political instability as he struggled to curb the spread of disease, repress the revolts, and garner recognition from senior leaders. A simplified and distilled summary focusing on the two most impactful strategies will be presented in this section.
To unify the common people, he took advantage of the mythology and religion surrounding the Uherun Valley, which was seen as sacred. Previous rulers had kept a mobile capital rotating between a handle of locations, setting down the government where they were and moving with the seasons in accordance with the cattle herds. Bulah saw the need for a more centralized and fixed capital. As the fates would have it, fragments of a meteorite struck the center of Uherun Valley in the second year of his reign. Bulah declared that it was a celestial sign to establish a permanent capital there. By taking a sacred place as the seat of his power and invoking a sign from the gods, he himself became an implicitly sacred ruler. Resistance weakened, and Bulah's forces quashed those that remained in opposition.
To subjugate the nobles, he implemented a textbook divide and conquer. The dominant noble clan was unquestionably the Shuste, whose ancestral lands were right outside the Uheran Valley, and this monopoly on power had to be broken to guarantee the continuation of the dynasty. Trailing behind in influence was the Yepi clan, which was also based near the valley but further to the west. Bulah took as his first wife a woman from the Yepi clan, despite her being ten years his senior. Yepi Jerun was the most beloved daughter of the Yepi patriarch, and accordingly afforded rare freedoms. As a young woman, she left home with her parents' reluctant blessing to travel the world. A skilled horseback rider and martial artist, she ventured into the lands of the Ingan Empire. The connections, diplomatic skills, and worldly experience she returned with made her a valuable asset and influential figure in her own right. With Jerun's return and her marriage to Bulah, the Yepi were brought closer to an equal footing with the Shuste. As a third party, Bulah's maternal lineage, the Muhta, was originally a minor noble clan of little note, but he granted his maternal cousins government and military positions. It was not strongly opposed by more influential noble clans, as this was common practice and considered an act of filial piety towards one's mother to elevate her family. Thus, a careful balance was struck between three clans, two of which were significantly under Bulah's sway and had a vested interest in his success and continued reign.
Foreign Policy
At the time of Bulah's ascension, the territory of the banner was roughly the eastern half of the Plains of the Pass, centered around the Uheran Valley. In his late 20s and 30s, he turned his focus to unifying the Tokgok tribes of the western half of the Plains who remained independent of the Flying Eagle banner, sending his trusted younger half-brother Askre'she Budam to oversee the military campaign. The epidemic of earlier years had greatly weakened the smaller tribes of the west, including causing the death of a leader who had been key to advocating for a western alliance against the Askre. Within a decade, the west was mostly under the capable management of Budam, and the rule of Bulah, with a few more mopping up operations persisting through the end of Bulah's reign.
The banner's foreign affairs were dominated by its relationship with the Ingan Empire. The Plains of the Pass are, as named, plains protected on the north and south by rugged land and arid deserts, and to the west and east by narrow corridors through the steep plateaus. To the west was more desert, beyond which eventually connected to lands far too distant to care militarily, but directly to the east, through the corridor, were the fertile grounds of the Ingan Empire. For much of history, the Tokgok tribes had raided those fertile lands to the east, but were more of a border irritation akin to piracy than a legitimate external threat. Although the banner never completely stopped raids against the empire, needing the military morale and resources to maintain itself and its prestige, at this time the banner was aware of the empire's waxing power, and strived to build diplomatic relationships, particularly through intermarriage and paying tribute. Yepi'askre Jerun was an important part of these diplomatic exchanges. Of particular note here was Bulah's second marriage, which was to an Ingan princess, whose name in the Tokgok language was Ingan Kerli. Taking a wife of Ingan nobility was prestigious, making such marriages a minority but not uncommon in the upper echelons of Tokgok society, but Ingan royalty was a rarity to come by. To complicate matters, Tokgok marriages often involved one man and one to three wives who technically were of equal status and equally legitimate, while the Ingans had the concept of a single legitimate wife and any other women serving as concubines whose children would not be legitimate heirs. To be granted an Ingan princess as a second wife, then, was a diplomatic feat only made possible by Yepi'askre Jerun's influence, and the recognition of Kerli's children as having precedence over the offspring of any other wives.
Legacy
Bulah died peacefully at 65, ending his 42-year reign. Although there was no singular moment to immortalize him, the unprecedented domestic stability, foreign expansion, and diplomacy with the Ingan Empire left him a place in history as one of the greatest and most capable leaders of the Flying Eagle Banner. Some scholars argue that all he did was make the banner strong enough for the Ingan Empire to covet it as a vassal rather than continue to consider them as a ragtag patchwork of tribes, yet not strong enough to put up sufficient resistance. However, he undoubtedly remains a fondly-remembered national hero for the Tokgok tribes. A mythology has begun to build up around him, including folk tales of anecdotal feats, claims of semi-divinity, and interest in the items and locations associated with him.Family Ties
Bulah had a younger half-brother, Budam, who led the expansion to the west during Bulah's reign. By Tokgok tradition, barring incompetence, brothers succeed as tribal leader, the Tokgok 'nro, rather than sons. However, upon Bulah's sudden death, Budam exerted his preference for affairs of the military rather than governance, remaining based in the west as a 'she to stabilize the newly annexed tribes, rather than return to the capital and succeed the 'nro title. The title therefore skipped over him and went straight to Bulah's sons.
Bulah had three legitimate wives in total. The first, Yepi'askre Jerun, never had any children. His second wife, Ingan'askre Kerli, was the mother of his eldest son, Keloh, who became Askre'nro Keloh upon Bulah's death. His third wife, a Tokgok noblewoman who had served Jerun, had two more sons, Kedou and Ketapa. Ketapa would later go on to succeed his half-brother Keloh as Askre'nro Ketapa.
Current Location
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Honorary & Occupational Titles
Previously Held Ranks & Titles
Family
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Sex
Male
Aligned Organization
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