|
So, with all the talk about ArcaniCon up a few boards above this one, it got me thinking about the location which was decided two years ago where this next ArcaniCon will likely deal with: The Auxunites. When the various players cast their votes as to where the Emerald Society wished to dig, the votes were effectively split between the Vault of Larissa’s Lament (the site of last ArcaniCon) and an ancient Auxunite fortress in what is now Almeric. Assuming plans hold up, it is that location which will be where the Heroes of next ArcaniCon will delve.
First, a bit of history. The Auxunite Empire was founded by a man named Auxun, a Yhing Hir raider (said to be of the Vanomir tribe) some 730 years before the founding of the Coyrani Empire. Auxun originally made a name for himself by preying upon the villages of—at the time—the northeastern provinces of the Khitani Empire in what is now the Unsealed Lands. Auxun was a formidable warrior, rider, tactician, and strategist renowned for not taking as tribute from the villages and people of the lands he targeted any more than he truly needed. This angered his lieutenants and fellow warriors, who wished to rape and pillage all they desired to enrich themselves and to cause the villagers to cower in fear at their approach, but Auxun deemed it was more important for the villagers to know that he could have taken everything they had, and didn’t. He would go on to say that if Auxun took everything they had, they would fight against him next season, but if he only took a portion of what they had, they would not fight and simply buy him off to avoid the risk of dying. If one fights this year, two may fight next year, and so on and so forth until they ALL fight, possibly destroying Auxun’s rather modest host.
Unfortunately, Auxun’s success (modest as it appeared) meant that his hoard grew over the years into the largest and most powerful hoard on the northern steppes of what is now the Unsealed Lands. This success meant that his hoard was so large that he had to either demand greater tribute from the people in his raiding territory or split up his hoard into smaller groups, each one would require a larger area to ‘hunt.’ Instead of taking the obvious paths, Auxun took the seemingly foolhardy plan of actually making his raids at a very predictable schedule, allowing the villagers to send his routes to Khitan. The Empire finally sent soldiers to deal with him, leading Auxun to start doing a strategy of basically winning hearts and minds.
What Auxun would do is go into a village, demand his usual (or lesser) tribute, and then pass a message about how he treats them better than the Khitani. He took over Kuchon (the biggest town in the area), and begun using that as his base, fortifying it against attack. As the Khitani attempted to root him out, they would travel throughout his former tribute territory, forcibly taking whatever supplies their army needed to sustain their march in this rather harsh area, leaving nothing for the locals (as armies are wont to do). As such, the locals begun to side more with AUXUN over their own Khitani masters, as Auxun never stripped them to the bone the way the Khitani army did. When the Khitani finally learned he had taken Kuchon, they moved to attack the city only to find it defended by their own people (who they had left to starve to support their own army). Despite outnumbering the combined Auxunite forces and his new villager allies, the Khitani army was defeated, and Kuchon became the new centre of Auxun’s new realm (carved out of the furthest territories of the Khitani Empire).
Auxun’s successors (according to Legacy of Damnation)--or the Undying Auxun himself (according to A1HP10 Desecration)--were just as cunning as Auxun, and continued to expand his empire for 300 years. At its height, the Auxunite Empire covered almost all of what is now the Unsealed Lands (excluding, at least in part, what is now the Haina Empire), the Hinterlands, as well as parts of Canceri and Milandir. It was by far the most powerful nation in the north of the continent during that period. Over time, the position of Auxun’s successors was supplanted by a group of four Priest-Kings who deified Auxun, raising his name to the same level as the Pantheon of Man. During this time the Auxunites continued to raid, proved to be cunning (even treacherous) diplomats, and erected massive fortresses and temples to the Gods, to Auxun, and to themselves.
All of this came to an end some 350 years after Auxun took Kuchon, however. It is not known what caused the calamity, with some reports saying it was the Sleeping Emperor of Khitan waking from his slumber and whispering a single word (“Enough!”), but through some means the city of Kuchon and an area around it the size of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) was turned into a burning crater upon the steppes. This crater—now known as the Sea of Tears—forms the central ‘lake’ of the Unsealed Lands, and the area around it became known as the Blasted Plane (now known mostly as the Fiendish Expanse). The remnants of Auxun’s empire spread out, becoming the Yhing Hir and Riders of Himmatah that we know today, still raiding and migrating as Auxun’s people did long ago, but without the central force to lead them to their former glory.
Almost all of the above information is gleaned from Legacy of Damnation, PCI’s very informative (if significantly out of date following the Crusade) sourcebook on the (then) Sealed Lands. While there has been additional information provided in some adventures (notably several set in Milandir), no other source goes into as much detail as this book. As such, there really is a lack of further information about this massively powerful nation which managed to put even the mighty Khitani Empire on its heels. However, like many things in the Arcanis universe, we can glean some ideas about what their culture and society was like—and likely how it evolved—using real-world analogs.
First of all, the Auxunite Empire is as much inspired by the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan and his immediate successors such as Ogedai, Mongke, and Kublai. In our real world, the Mongols were one of several groups of steppe nomads who inhabited the massive arid plains of grass which make up central Asia. Over the centuries, these groups have made a name for themselves across history by raiding neighbouring regions (such as China, Russia, Persia, and India). Every so often, large hoards of these nomads would leave their steppes and turn conqueror of these ‘weaker’ countries, leading to groups such as Attila’s Huns and the Ottoman Turks to carve out massive empires out of the more sedentary groups in Europe and Asia. As powerful as these groups were, all of them paled before the power—and ruthlessness—of a single Mongol named Temujin (Genghis Khan).
Genghis was a very powerful warlord who eliminated all the other Khans of the Mongols until the entire nation of what is now Mongolia was part of his Hoard. With this new powerbase, Genghis managed to use fearsome—and utterly ruthless—tactics to conquer all of China. While the Chinese were used to dealing with Mongol raids, they absolutely could not stand up to thousands of Mongol horse archers all at once. The Chinese (like most of the Mongol’s conquests) were used to what we would consider ‘normal’ warfare, with massive armies of primarily foot soldiers attacking cities and supply trains. The Mongols were different in that they had no cities, and their supplies were that which could follow their horses into battle. As such, the high mobility of the Mongol horses and their use of mounted archery made short work of any normal army in open terrain. During their invasion of China, the Mongols learned siege craft from the Chinese—the best in the world at that time—which allowed them to take their cities as well. When a city was taken, the population was decimated (as in, lots of people killed, if not 1 in 10 specifically), and the Mongols moved on. If the conquered areas continued to provide appropriate tribute to the Mongols, they would be allowed to remain under Mongol governorship. If not, the city was destroyed and its entire population was put to the sword as an example to the others. These conquests continued throughout Asia, into the Middle East, through Russia, and into Europe as far as what is now Austria. At its height, the empire of Genghis and his successors controlled a full one quarter of the entire human population at the time.
Though the motivations are different, we can see a lot in common between the Auxunites (and the Yhing Hir) and the Mongols and Turks and Huns of the central Asian steppes. Both groups inhabited a similar environment, though the northern steppes of Onara are both much smaller and further north than the ones of our world. Both groups live and die by their horses, which are the source of their power, their mobility, and life itself. Finally, both groups are known to be raiders of neighbouring areas (the Auxunites against Khitan, and the Yhing Hir against Milandir and other Hinterlands groups), moving in and taking what they want before moving on, never settling down in any one place or for any length of time. This last point is a little less pointed on Onara with the Yhing Hir, as we know that the Yhing Hir (and eventually Auxun’s raiders) have set up communities such as Mil Takara and Sicaris, but these appear to be more exceptions to the rules than rules in themselves.
There are, however, a few marked differences between the Mongols (and Turks and Huns) and the Yhing Hir groups and those of Auxun and the Riders. For one, we know that unlike Genghis Auxun was much more. . . well, peaceful in his expansion. He used calculated kindness to win supporters in his initial territories in Khitan, and once he had his power based there he proceeded to expand through conquest. Genghis and his children, however, always made primary use of shock tactics and unbridled terror. They did not concern themselves with ‘earning the love’ of their subjects, caring only about obedience. They would send diplomats into a town and say “If you surrender, we will spare your people,” and then proceed to kill everyone in the town anyway and take what they wanted. If your city tried to fight back, you suffered more. This sort of thing may have happened elsewhere during Auxunite conquests (such as the area of Milandir, Canceri, and the Hinterlands), or even later during the reign of the Priest-Kings, but during the initial formation of his empire this did not seem to be the case.
Additionally, we know that the Auxunites (at least later in their empire) were known to make massive fortifications and temples out of stone, dwarfing anything on the landscape around them. This was something that the Mongol Empire did NOT do. After all, the Mongols made a name for themselves by the power of their horses and their mobility. Once you coop yourself up in a fortification, you eliminate every advantage that style of warfare gives you. However, like in our world the Auxunites may have changed their tactics to suit the views of their conquered populations rather than their own traditional ways of life. In the case of every culture that has left the central Asian steppes in our world, as soon as they conquer a nation that is not on the steppes, the nomads lose much of their famed martial prowess. This happened with the Attila’s Huns (eventually forming the nation of Hungary) and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire (and its predecessors in Turkey) when the Mongols came calling, for they had adapted to their NEW lifestyle and forgot the hard lessons and hard life of the unforgiving steppes. Genghis’ Mongols were able to escape this fate—for a time, anyway—by constantly sending their riders back to Mongolia and the steppes to ‘refresh’ their skills, but eventually after decades of conquest, the Mongol governors and conquerors soon begun to split Genghis’ empire into regional states and become more like the original inhabitants as well.
In fact, the only mentions of Auxunite Fortresses we have—with one exception—are found in the area around what is now Milandir and the Hinterlands. During Milandir’s return from the ashes of the purges of the Sword of the Heavens some one thousand years prior to Auxun’s rise to power, they established a society of interlocking oaths in the style of what we now know as feudalism. In this system, it gives rise to individuals of power (nobles) who command large groups of armed individuals who offer protection to others for some form of tax or tribute (or service). As such, in the years leading up to the foundation of the Milandesian League (which formed shortly after the fall of the Auxunite Empire), it stands to reason that the various nobles would raise castles and fortifications around towns to defend themselves against rivals and invaders from lands such as Canceri similar to how the Europeans of our own world raised their own castles. Perhaps it was after the Auxunites conquered this area that they chose to raise their own castles (albeit, larger and more grandiose ones) similar to Milandesian style, absorbing that element of culture into their own nation through conquest? The only non-Milandesian/Almerian/Hinterlands example I can think of for an Auxunite ‘Fortress’ is the Temple of Beltine and Neroth found in what is now the northern reaches of the Haina Empire, but aside from the descriptions given it was possibly from an entirely different architectural lineage from the ‘eastern’ fortifications.
Speaking of the Auxunite Temple from Desecration (Crusade! HP10), we do not have a lot of information on the actual religion of the Auxunites that I have come across in my various explorations of Arcanis lore. It is a fairly safe assumption that they did worship at least a form of the Pantheon of Man (it is stated as such in Legacy of Damnation, and highly suggested in Desecration, though this may not be entirely correct in reality), but the information that we got in Desecration suggests that it was different than any form of Pantheon worship that we presently know of. For one, we know that they only really venerated four ‘Gods’, though they did allow shrines to a number of lesser gods. For two, we know that one of these Gods was an amalgam of Beltine and Neroth (described as the Lord of Death and the Grey Lady). For three, the Auxunites raised massive temples to these four Gods around their empire, though we have only seen evidence of the one found in that adventure. For four, we know that the Auxunite priests held much magical power, being able to forge magical items such as the Bell which figured so prominently in that adventure.
Using some backtracking of other nations, we can possibly get an indication of what (or whom) the other three Gods of the Auxunite were. Assuming that these Gods (at least to an extent) followed a similar style to the amalgam of Neroth and Beltine, this could explain some of the foibles found in the Pantheon of the Hainese in modern times. Though some of this is explained in Desecration, the main details of the Hainese Pantheon are found in the works of David Bradtmueller, Sean Esterline, and Matt Flinn. In this document and in the afore mentioned adventure it is stated that Hurrian and Nier are worshipped as a single deity of war instead as separate Gods in their own right. Owing to the militaristic nature of the Auxunites, it stands to reason that this amalgam of Hurrian and Nier would be a reasonable choice as one of their four “Gods.” Similarly, we know that the Hainese do NOT worship Anshar, similar to the little bit of information we know about the Khitani Kalundrul (the work of the Sleeping Emperor of Khitan, by the way, rather than the known worship of the First Imperium). As such, it is likely that Anshar is not one of these four gods, though Her worship by the slaves of the Lordship of Iron (the main Infernal nation of the Unsealed Lands) suggests that She could have been one of the ‘minor gods’ worshipped at shrines.
As for the others, we have almost no data to work off. We know that the Hainese (as opposed to the Khitani) really only ‘worship’ the Gods they deem most important for a militaristic society (ie: Illiir, Hurrian, Nier, Neroth, and Althares) while other Gods (such as Saluwe’ and Beltine) are effectively demoted in the eyes of the government of that nation. The other Gods (Cadic, Yarris, Larissa, and Sarish) occupy a kind of ‘grey area’ owing to their useful roles in Hainese society, but not necessarily as prominent as the first five. The reasons given for the ascension of these five (worshipped as four) Gods is that the Haina Empire was founded by the remains of the Khitani army sent to fight the Infernals during the Time of Terror who were then trapped behind the God’s Wall, and as the ruling class came from the army officers the only real worship in the area was of martial gods. However, it is possible that the lingering influence of the Auxunites also affected their choices of major Gods, which means that the other two deities could be some combination of Illiir and Althares, possible with other members of the pantheon (Illiir with Saluwe’?). This is, of course, supposition on my part. It is possible that all of the ‘oddness’ of Hainese religion comes entirely from the Khitani, but it is a possibility that cannot be discounted.
The final bit about the Auxunites that I wish to talk about comes from another Crusade! arc story, specifically Wolves in the Fold (A1HP12). In this adventure, you (once again) come across an Auxunite fortress in the Hinterlands which has been. . . repurposed by a group of Khur Gi. While I will not spoil the adventure itself, at the conclusion of the adventure the (surviving) Heroes have a chance to gain an Exceptional Quality weapon from the armouries of the fortress. While many of these weapons make sense for a society based on horse-bound raiders similar to the Mongols in our own world, many others listed as options make absolutely no sense for a group such as Auxun’s original raiders. For example, if you are fighting from horseback, you would want weapons such as scimitars, horsebows, maces, lances, and spears. However, in the armoury of the fortress, there were weapons such as flamberges and greatswords, bastard swords, bearded axes, tridents, and scythes. While this is good for the Heroes involved, there is a major disconnect between what we have been told about the history of the Auxunites and the tactics such weapons would suggest. Almost without fail, these weapons are used by heavy infantry soldiers with both feet firmly on the ground as they are not conducive to controlling a moving horse while being used. It is entirely possible that this expanded list was provided less for ‘authenticity’ for the Auxunites themselves and more simply to give the Heroes involved a wider range of pretty loot (ie: something for everyone!), but I’m not a fan of this theory. That implies that Henry (or others in PCI) are willing to sacrifice story for superficial game benefits, and that does not seem like their style.
One possible explaination for this is that the weapons themselves were simply loot taken as tribute (or as trophies) from the Milandesians, Cancerese, and other peoples that they would have attacked and conquered during their reign in that region. This makes sense, as each weapon found was of Exceptional Quality, which in the world of Arcanis would be almost unknown outside the possession of High Nobles and great heroes. After all, if you have an army of thousands are you going to give ALL of them a massively valuable blade of legend? The other major explanation for their presence is that they WERE actually made by and for the Auxunites of the fortress, and that their presence on the list indicates a shift in the war-fighting focus of the Empire during its history. After all, horse archers and lancers are good for TAKING territory, but they are not the best at HOLDING territory. Unless you use a reign of terror like the Mongols did to keep your occupied population in line, the duty of everyday patrols falls to the humble foot soldier rather than the cavalry. Additionally, this attitude could be similar to how the nations such as the Mughal Empire in our world (one of the splinter nations of Genghis’ own empire) changed dramatically from the Mongol conquerors who forged it. Over time, the rulers of the empire begun forgetting its ‘hard’ roots as steppe nomads and took on the mannerisms and culture of the Indian, Persian, and Muslim peoples they conquered (or who moved in afterwards). The same could be true, as stated previously, with the Auxunites in their campaigns against the Milandesians and other peoples of the Known Lands.
Anyway, I have rambled long enough. I hope this has been an acceptable ‘primer’ on one of the most influential, yet still most mysterious, of influences on the current face of the world of Arcanis!
_________________
Cody Bergman
Legends of Arcanis Campaign Staff
Initial Author Contact/Adventure Vetting
Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Divine Holy Judge of Nier
Ruma val'Vasik, Martial Crusader and Master of the Spear
Jorma Osterman, Arcane Coryani Battlemage
|
). While that would easily explain how he lasted so long over a week of personal combat, I am pretty sure Supes lacks grey/clear eyes. Still my personal response to hearing the First Emperor's name was to think of John William's overture.