Zjaum/Ovt'kaka

The D'zjariae call this conflict "Zjaum," meaning "Disintegration," for the political schisms that this conflict made between native tribes of the region. The T'kakou, later the Ugo-yt Empire, call this conflict "Ovt'kaka," the "War of Movement," because it taught a band of refugees to evolve from impoverished heirs of an advanced yet sedentary nation to hardy nomads wielding the power and technology of a fallen empire.

Something to keep in note is that the D'zjariae didn't have a written language system during this period, and wouldn't until the T'kakou made reforms to develop into the Ugo-yt Empire. Everything written down (the names, events, locations) come through the perspective of the Irewan refugees, later the T'kakou people group. Because Irewom doesn't use fricatives upon which Zjazzle relies, the names and places are poor reflections of their former selves. In fact, some names are borrowed from their modern equivalents.

The Conflict

Prelude

When the Irewan people dispersed after the third volcanic eruption on their island, the most immediate destination was Yatkaugo, directly to their west. When they arrived, the shores there were mostly empty. The D'zjariae tended to live further to the north, slightly to the east. However, certain luxury mineral resources in that specific area encouraged tribes to wander southwards to collect riches. They would collect them, bring them northward, and sell them to traders and passersby for foodstuffs and profit. "Collect" is the proper term rather than "mine." Because the ground was the source of life in their tradition, they would never dig into the ground, which was considered a hurt or slight against it. Rather, they would collect only what was on top of the ground, which thanks to geographic features of Yatkaugo wasn't difficult.

Still a new faction in local geopolitics, the Irewans had no military to enforce their claims to the region. They freely allowed any who wished to collect resources to do so. However, since they lived there permanently, they extracted mineral goods on a constant basis, as opposed to the cyclical basis the D'zjariae tribes maintained. This put stress on mineral prospects and by proxy the main source of D'zjariae income.

Certain D'zjariae tribespeople complained to the leadership of the Irewan refugees that their harvesting rate was unsustainable. The tribespeople demanded that the Irewans seriously dial back their collections from the surface. To the surprise of the D'zjariae, the Irewans ceded all rights of surface collection to the D'zjariae. When the D'zjariae delegates had returned in the next cycle, however, they were shocked to find that the Irewans had begun digging out mining excavations to extract resources that way. The bounty of resources under the soil had given the Irewans enough wealth to sustain their population and grow.

The chieftains of the D'zjariae, dozens in number, gathered together to discuss this latest insult. Some decried the act as heresy and proclaimed that the Irewans must either atone for their crimes of face expulsion. Other chiefs believed that only the D'zjariae came from the ground of Yatkaugo, so it was only sin for the D'zjariae to harm the ground. The latter interpretation would have legally allowed the two cultures to maintain the status quo, despite personal disagreements between the two. One prominent yet boisterous chief by the name of Zhozsaj demanded a vote: to force the Irewans out or to let them stay. The vote was split evenly and could not be destabilized, so the matter was put off for a later date.

After the meeting, Zhozsaj sent a personal ultimatum to the Irewan leadership, demanding that the Irewans cease their mining operations or be driven from the land. The missive was penned in such a way as to imply that all the tribes of the D'zjariae stood behind it. The Irewans, not about to give up their livelihood and greatly concerned about the breakdown of relations, began forging weapons out of the minerals they collected, arming the healthiest of their populace to defend their new home.

Zhozsaj stole a sword from the Irewan establishments and showed it to his peers as proof of Irewan belligerency. Word of his schemes had gotten out, however, so it was a hard sell. Zhozsaj's actions did not convince many, but only one was needed to shift the revote in his favor.

However, the D'zjariae were not a single entity or federation, like the Tuhran tribes for example. Just because the majority voted in favor did not mean that the minority vote would contribute their forces. Quite to the contrary, most of the minority declared that they would withdraw from the conflict entirely, and not assist if their neighbors suffered the full consequences of the actions. Three chieftains (Jazha of Tribe Vozhwaz, Zozozho of Tribe Zhovezja, and Vwezezsi of Tribe Zjewelezj) announced that they would openly defend the Irewans in such a brash action. "So be it," Zhozsaj proclaimed in Zjazzle. The D'zjariae were now committed to war.

Deployment

Out of their leadership, The Irewans selected two "Iirbao," tacticians and/or managers that would control and delegate as necessary to carry out the war. One would delegate the defenses of the settlement, while the other would coordinate the manpower and its equipment. If necessity called for such an action, the latter would also lead an away team for offensive measures.

One of the reasons why the D'zjariae never lived that far south was because of the lack of natural barriers in the area. There were no rivers, mountains, or forests behind which one could set up a defensible line. Realizing this, Iirbao Wemo Eribao developed a network of ditches around the settlement, which would be accompanied by stakes. One of the shapes he tested he called "Opev," meaning "teeth." He would make jagged lines in his defenses so that (in theory) he could pressure forces into certain areas, surrounding them and defeating them as they arrive.

Iirbao Eribao had certain positions and expectations for garrison troops, but the ultimate placement was out of his control. For this command, Iirbao Oomvo Vemba was appointed. Fortunately for his counterpart, Vemba was very amenable. He was friendly with all his compatriots but a good judge of character. Even for such a small militia, Vemba established six tiers of military rank, his own included as the foremost, and divvied them out to each volunteer. Thanks to Irewan logistics, the militia was all sufficiently armed and armored for the engagement.

The Irewans didn't realize that they had D'zjariae allies and so let them out of the planning. Chiefs Jazha and Zozozho encamped their forces outside the fortifications. Irewan records say that they were content with their positions. While the Irewans could certainly be over-exaggerating their allies' gratitude, it could have been that D'zjariae military operations work best on open plains, unimpeded by garrisons. Further, they might not have liked their chances of survival while holed up behind fortifications, and they might have wanted an easy opportunity to flee if the situation became untenable.

Despite leading the largest tribe in Yatkaugo, Chief Vwezezsi took far longer to muster her troops, and then camped too far away from the settlement to help before the battle was already decided. Irewan records state that Iirbao Vemba personally came out to her tent to ask her why she had placed herself at such a distance. She replied with the single word, "Wewezji." It is not certain what the word means. It is possible that she said "vewezsi," meaning "dream" or "apparition." If that was the case, it wouldn't be the first time a descendant of Irewa transcribed a Zjazzle word incorrectly, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Zhozsaj requested a levy of one hundred men from every tribe in his alliance to ensure that he had sufficient strength. While he carried the risk of member tribes leaving at any time for any reason, he would use the larger donations of the more zealous leaders to convince others to contribute their "fair share." However, he forbade the chiefs from joining the fray themselves. Rather, Zhozsaj would mix the tribesmen together when he made formations. This made sure that no single tribe would get the credit or blame, but instead that D'zjariae heritage would be the sole uniting factor.

Vemba evenly distributed his troops evenly across Eribao's lines, according to Eribao's wishes. Zhozsaj reacted accordingly, evenly distributing his first wave over the first wave of defenses. Because the first wave was three or four times the defense in number, he assumed that sheer numbers could overwhelm the inexperienced defenders. However, as insurance, he kept one additional wave in reserve, as well as a tribal guard under his personal control.

The Engagement

The D'zjariae approached the Irewan lines in a brisk walk, charging once they reached a close enough range. It is difficult to tell how long the Records describing the first stage of the battle use "arbvre," which means "a long time." It did not last until sunset, but it must have taken hours at least. Regardless, Zhozsaj's forces were unable to penetrate, and Vemba's forces lacked the experience to capitalize on their opponent's failure. Tribes Vozhwaz and Zhovezja took their forces and harassed the wave's flank and rear, not causing significant damage but also not taking any themselves.

At this point, Zhozsaj gave Eribao's defenses the respect and attention they deserved. Instead of organizing his second wave like the first, she sent the full wave to attack an acute point in the line closer to the sea which he believed showed the most promise of breaking. The word used to describe this second motion was "aimpre," or "short time." The line was punctured almost instantly, and the defenders soon found themselves outflanked.

Vemba collected those refugees who were unable to fight and those who were not immediately unoccupied defending the line. Chiefs Jazha and Zozozho helped break Zhozsaj's lines just wide enough to allow for an escape. Vemba rushed his troops out of the colony, abandoning Iirbao Eribao and one-quarter of the Irewan population to their deaths. The colony was overrun and razed to the ground, presumably by order of Zhozsaj. While the location of the colony is well-documented, no trace of the settlement remains to this day.

Chief Zhozsaj ordered the few forces that were not committed or least affected by the engagement to chase after the survivors. However, Chief Vwezezsi met the survivors and formed a perimeter around them. They were too fresh and too numerous for Zhozsaj's forces to penetrate, so Zhozsaj was forced to call off the attack. They were, however, able to pick off Chiefs Jazha and Zozozho as they fled. They were summarily executed, and their tribal forces were absorbed into the larger offensive group.

In the days of running that followed, Chief Vwezezsi and Tribe Zjewelezj would teach and train the Irewan survivors how to organize society without a permanent home. Iirbao Vemba out of gratitude exchanged certain secrets of Irewan metalworking, through which the warriors of Tribe Zjewelezj would equip themselves with fine swords and axes.

In such a desolate wasteland of Yatkaugo, the tribe could not acquire enough food to support both groups for the journey back to their homeland. The convoy stopped to the west end of Yatkaugo's southern peninsula to collect fish and compensate for the additional burden. This site would later become the Ugo-yt capital city of Rakouriyo, but it was already a well-known fishing spot. Currents would push schools of fish into a small inlet, which could be easily harvested with the right tools. Both parties had ample experience and tradition, and soon the convoy was overly stocked with salted fish. It was here that Vemba learned the Zjewelezj cooking tradition that the refugees would later modify into Weloira.

After the caravan was fully stocked, Zhozsaj's armies approached. With such a short time frame to burn the settlement, reorganize, and give pursuit, the tribesmen were most likely placed on forced march. Vwezezsi offered to place her forces in front of the battered Irewan refugees and their army, and Vemba gratefully agreed. The terrain was particularly flat, with no barriers or features except a very gradual hill to the Irewan's left flank, to its south. It was too late to relocate onto that hill by the time Zhozsaj was spotted, not that it would have made much of a difference.

The two factions of D'zjariae marched towards each other in long, thick lines, Tribe Zjewelezj marching at a noticeably faster pace. When the two lines locked in combat, Vemba took what few soldiers he had in reserves and ascended the hill to the south. He used to incline to pick up speed and momentum as he charged northwards into Zhozsaj's flank. Most likely due to fatigue, the flank broke instantly, causing ripple effects down the line. Zjewelezj forces chased down the routing combatants and cut them down; Zhozsaj and only a select few others escaped the battlefield alive. Zhozsaj's army was shattered, and with it the fragile D'zjariae alliance.

Outcome

There are no records of Zhozsaj from that point forward, Irewan or D'zjariae. Whether he returned to face the consequences of his defeat or fled in shame to other lands is purely speculative.

The Irewan colonists and Tribe Zjewelezj parted ways after their short-lived alliance. Vwezezsi would take her people northward, while Irewa would remain in the south. Using the nomadic practices Vwezezsi taught him Iirbao Vemba took his people on a tour through Yatkaugo to find a new, more defensible home settlement. He relied on the people for feedback, but every potential site was met with uniform ambivalence. He exhausted the entire southern peninsula and demanded action from those underneath him. Certain citizens replied that they did not want the vulnerabilities of static, immobile life. Rather, they would learn from what they regarded as tactical and philosophical mistakes, moving through the land and living off the sea. This did not mean that they would abandon their notion of territory, though. Quite to the contrary, they laid claim to the entire southern peninsula: everything on it, everything underneath it, and everything on the shores beside it.

Vwezezsi would personally return to the newly-formed nomadic tribe the following year and present Iirbao Vemba with a female child, which he would safeguard until her adulthood. This would be the last mention of Chief Vwezezsi on record, though Iirbao Vemba was known to make frequent trips to the north over the course of his lifetime.

Aftermath

Despite the large, aggressive claim the Irewans made, the D'zjariae were in no position to contest that claim. Their adult male population was so greatly damaged that many tribes were forced to merge or at least drastically reorganize. There must have been a lot of finger-pointing in the wake of Zhozsaj's defeat, since several D'zjariae tribes almost immediately went to war with each other. Irewan records never bothered to record the specific wars, but many documents and letters describe "iarvuror," a constant struggle which doesn't keep track of sides and scores.

Amid all this chaos, Tribe Zjewelezj stood alone. The tribe was already a big player in D'zjariae geopolitics, but now it ascended to a hegemony. They did sparingly little with this power, neither making war with others nor manipulating others into war. It stood as a large beast not to be disturbed. It maintained an alliance with the Irewans, later called the T'kakou, though in the absence of war this amounted to little more than trade preferences and free movement through territory. Two centuries later, Tribe Zjewelezj would be the last D'zjariae tribe annexed into the Ugo-yt Empire.

The Irewans were brought to the brink of extinction yet boasted the best long-term gains from the conflict. After the fall of the Irewan Empire, trade in the north had taken a serious toll. Trade was reviving in the south, and the Irewans had just claimed the best land and resources in all of Yatkaugo to capitalize on the changing economy. Their demographics and welfare skyrocketed, even eclipsing Tribe Zjewelezj after a few generations. The separation of their claims to elements on the ground, beneath the ground, and beside the ground would become the basis for property rights and territorial sovereignty later in the Ugo-yt Empire.

Historical Significance

Legacy

Tribe Zjewelezj gifted the Irewan refugees a new identity. They were no longer just the guardians of Irewan culture, but they had a new hybrid nomadic culture to grow and maintain. They called themselves the T'kakou, meaning "people of movement" in a new language that they would also incorporate from the peripheries of their relations. They were forced out of somber stagnation and forced to adapt to a dour environment. This spirit was not shared by the D'zjariae, and that difference between the two cultures would soon bear ugly fruit when the T'kakou made a bid to conquer not only all of Yatkaugo but also the neighboring continent of Retrougo.

Similarly, the Irewans gifted the D'zjariae a new identity. This conflict in the short term broke the peaceful relations between the tribes and showed what a failure unification had been. However, by presenting the D'zjariae peoples with an example of a society that was distinctly not D'zjariae, the Irewans were able to better spotlight the D'zjariae collective culture. This identity was exposed once the tribes lost their sovereignty; identity was the only thing the people had left that was uniquely their own.

Yatkaugo would not have any more permanent settlements on the continent for a century. The city-states of Keyrit, the Wlitowan Authority, and other local factions would abandon the region in spirit. Just as nothing green could grow there, so no civilization could grow there. After all, they thought, farming was the basis of all civilization, so it was natural to assume that the foundation wasn't possible. All that remained there was tribalism and barbarism, a series of wandering, aimless nomadic peoples. They would not attempt to colonize the region themselves as they found it a waste of time and effort; rather, they would divert their colonization efforts elsewhere, to the east and south. They didn't factor that the nomadic lifestyle was, at least for the T'kakou, an active and rationally-made choice, made by underlying geographic and historical reasons. Eventually, the T'kakou's technological traditions would make this negligence cost dearly in the form of the Ugo-yt Empire.

In Literature

Centuries after the conflict, the D'zjariae peoples had a cultural revival under Ugo-yt rule. A forced integration process backfired horribly, and the D'zjariae abandoned their tribal heritage for a national one. To this end, a descendant of one of the tribes named Zjogoj penned "The True Story of the Zjaum." It was originally published in the newly-reformed Zjazzle script, but it gained a broader audience and international recognition when translated and printed into Traveller's Tongue.

Zjogoj claimed that the story he wrote was inspired by from centuries of oral tradition. In truth, he borrowed a great amount of it from the original Irewan sources. There were elements that the D'zjariae tribes couldn't have known, for example, that were included in the story. Nonetheless, the book was advertised as the quintessential version of the conflict as told from the D'zjariae perspective. Unsubstantiated information held up as facts and valid recounting originated from Zjogoj's story and made its way into the mythos of the conflict. The lack of primary sources only helped to muddy the waters.

During the period of tense relations between the Keyrit Daskalarchy and the Ugo-yt Empire, the one factor that could bring their peoples together was their common Irewan heritage. As a result, Rakouriyo and the site of the original colony would be common pilgrimage sites for Keyrit citizens. The otherwise elusive Empire would allow pilgrims to travel for these journeys, and local governments would capitalize on tourism. Most notably, though, the Ugo-yt Empire would allow the Keyrit Daskalarchy to copy all the T'kakou primary sources of the conflict for preservation purposes in Keyrit's own archives. Naturally, these copies would be made available to the public, bringing clarification and insight to a fad topic.

Technological Advancement

It is believed that the Irewans at the peak of their empire were the only civilization to date with knowledge of crucible steel. If this was the case, it was possible that certain weapons forged from crucible steel made it through the diaspora to the colonies. Whether or not the Irewans had the ability to refine iron to this degree, it was doubtful that similar kinds of infrastructure made it to the colonies. This certainly could not have been the case while the Irewans were on the run. That said, the Irewans likely had cruder methods for producing cruder steel, such as blister steel. This would have been incorporated into the "metalworking" abilities shared with Tribe Zjewelezj.

Trees famously don't grow in Yatkaugo. The D'zjariae only knew very crude metalworking techniques in conjunction with the limited metal they harvested. Most D'zjariae weaponry was bronze, but there were also imported weapons made from wood grown in neighboring Retrougo. While technologically hindered, they were able to gather enough metal material to give the soldiers ample armor as needed, a quality the refugees lacked the time and the resources to produce.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Land

Conflict Result

Indisputable (though not Decisive) Irewan/Allied Victory

Location

Yatkaugo: Dead West

Belligerents

Tribe Zjewelezj

Led by

Strength

It is believed that their numbers counted in the multiple hundreds, roughly half a thousand. Chief Vwezezsi didn't keep a full count of her troops. Rather, she called for levies, harangued the larger families which wouldn't provide any troops, and set off with whatever count she had. Similarly, there were no formal ranks or titles in the group save for that of the Chief.

Casualties

Because the Tribe didn't participate in the initial conflict and defended in the second conflict with advantage, it is not certain that Tribe Zjewelezj sustained any losses. However, it would be safe and reasonable to count losses in the dozens.

Objectives

Tribe Zjewelezj aimed to keep the Irewans alive, though not at the cost of their own sovereignty. The objective reasoning behind this goal is unclear, but Tribe Zjewelezj might have wanted Irewa around to keep the balance of power or to use Irewa to tip the balance in the Tribe's favor.

Irewan Contingent

• Irewai, Evipri Perrem amp'bro: Irewa, National Establishment for Good of

Led by

Strength

The numbers of the defense were exactly 794. These were divided into groups of around 270, then around 90, then around 30. Each group, as well as the overarching army had a rank in charge of it (iirbao, omvi, irv, and epav, respectively), and two additional supplementary ranks (ibom and vamar) provided support within the unit.

Casualties

Losses during the first assault were catastrophic; the army was reduced to 317 even including those soldiers who were unable to fight in the previous engagement. The count at the end of the second engagement was 285.

Objectives

The Irewan goal was to survive, hopefully with its territory and population intact. The Irewans had no qualms with wiping out the D'zjariae to protect themselves should it come to that scenario, though there was no active goal of like matter in mind.

D'zjariae Nation

Led by

Strength

With at minimum hundred members of each tribe, multiplied by several dozen tribes, it would be reasonable to assume a force of about four to five thousand.

Casualties

There are no clear numbers for the casualties, as the army was dissolved after the second engagement. Loss was total from a practical perspective, though more rigid estimates suggest one to two thousand casualties after the first engagement, and an additional two thousand after the second.

Objectives

The goal of the D'zjariae Nation would be complete when no Irewans or evidence of Irewan civilization existed on Yatkaugo. Further, the D'zjariae wanted the ground to be kept sacred, with any grievances made against the ground to be reconciled.