Secote Dominion
The Secote Dominion is a historiographical term referring to the domination of Messenia by a number of Secote ruling dynasties that invaded in the eighth century with the Third Great Invasions. Though Secote rulers and their structures lasted well into the 13th and 14th centuries, the Dominion usually only designates the era and polities preceding the Secote Empire established in the eleventh century, which is in turn succeeded by the 'post-Secote' period as the ruling classes became much more noticeably assimilated.
The Ellish word Secote and its various Messenian cognates derives from the name of the nomadic confederacy whose conquests established the Dominion, the Zhyagedevids (Žěgedevĭskoje).
History
The Third Great Invasions began with the conquest of Pesrard and Prasinia by the Bregovid Kingdom under Yaromir Bregovid and the Zhyagedevid Confederacy under Velibor Zhyagedevid; the Neokos Empire was in no state to resist and was quickly defeated, being dissolved by 712. The sedentary and literate Bregovids moved their domain to the east of the Valderfall mountains, while the nomadic Zhyagedevids were given the Zepnish Highlands to the west (about two-thirds of modern Zeppengeran), a realm that spanned up to the lands of Holy Coseptra. The Bregovids, already devout Sirians and practicing Neokos high culture, simply inherited the late Neokos and Hosamian ruling offices; the Zhyagedevids, establishing the state of Veliboria, merely collected ožidomy from self-governing subjects, set aside some land to sustain their nomadic lifestyles, and left other local political structures intact. As new converts, the Veliborovids were initially welcomed by Coseptra, and the ataron endorsed their assumption of the Neokos imperial title, even accepting their military prowess as protector over Coseptra. However, as the Secotes began to adopt local culture and their interests grew, their relations with the compact hierarchy became frayed, resulting in a great, brutal campaign against Coseptra from 770 to 773 that culminated in the Sack of Coseptra and the destruction of the Third Coseptran Compact. In its place the Veliborovids adopted and promoted esoteric, personalistic forms of Siriash intellectually based on the paradigm of logicomysticism; lamnearies as institutions were aggressively cut down into simple institutions of learning.
In the 760s a second wave of invasions from the steppe mauled the Bregovids, whose co-optation of an ineffective Neokos state, or lack thereof, did them little favour in holding the incursions back. These more distinctly nomadic arrivals carved states out of Pesrard and the Alphios valley, but others among them, most notably the Vulovids, Runovids, and the Dragoslavids, ventured west to settle in the Zepnish Highlands, claiming shared ancestry with Veliborovid Zhyagedevids and acclaiming the latter as Secote Emperor (vladyka). Having begun to settle down and adopt Neokos customs, the court of Rastislav I Veliborovid found them a nuisance and tried to focus their interests elsewhere by employing them to invade the Third Sabāmani Empire. These forces managed to claim Seboca in the name of Veliboria by 791, bringing classical Sabamic civilisation to an end as well. With the Veliborovids at their apparent zenith, the acculturated Arnulf claimed the title of imperator and tried to impose a centralised Sabamic empire, but this was opposed by the newcomer clans which sought to govern lands in their own name. After a disastrous attempt to subjugate the Siur in 805–8 Arnulf was assassinated in 809, and his ephemeral unification of Messenia disintegrated. In the Five Emperors period, separate dynastic states were established, coalescing around nominal hegemonies of titular Sabamic imperators in Cerulea and Verbia; and Neokos krators in the Zepnish Highlands, the Anser plains, the Alphios valley, and the Prasinian littoral. In a few generations these rulers had practically all assimilated, converting to local religions and adopting local literary languages, yet they also oversaw major socio-economic changes such as the consolidation of kunentsyism, the slow decay of the cities, and the rise of a manorial economy.
The main exception to the assimilating trend was the Branimirovid court of the Zepnish Highlands, where High Secote developed into a literary language in service of the new Sirian practices which the still-nomadic rulers promoted. In the 880s wars of expansion brought the Branimirovids to rule over much of the Messenian plains as the so-called Branimirovid Empire. They promoted the use of High Secote in court, as well as some other fashionable cultural revivals, but most importantly, they tried to draw on the shared Zhyagedevid heritage of the ruling dynasties and Sabamic law to create a truly unified empire under a single ruling class. They even built a new capital, Borimirsk, in the Upper Génestre basin, and developed that region into Messenia's new political and economic centre, while pursuing closer relations with the steppe by incorporating their nomadic cousins as vassals. But any commonality which the nobility felt through increased contact did not translate into a support for unity based on tenuously interpreted feudal ideas. From 941 to 988 the empire frayed apart after a succession crisis, but it was bloodily reunified by the Cairan Debovid dynasty, which continued the Branimirovid project, now informed by a resurrection of Cairan political universalism. This was opposed by the Sirian southerners and independence-minded northern kunentsys alike, and coupled with a misguided policy towards the steppe, in the 1030s another wave of nomads under Mistivey swept through Messenia and established the Secote Empire.
Expansion of Veliboria up to its maximum extent c. 800
The nominal lands of the five main imperial titles c. 850
Maximum extent of Branimiria and its vassals c. 920
Society
Migrations
The Dominion saw the settlement in many parts of Messenia of a considerable number of Secotes, who arrived in numerous waves. They were pushed by displacement from their territories by rival clans, and harsher conditions in their homelands due to a Siuvejas event; and pulled by increasing contact with the sedentary empires in the previous centuries, as well as the depopulation of many parts of Messenia due to the strife that preceded their arrival. Nomadic Secotes moved in alongside the Vechrian Princes, dynasties that were basically of Neokos culture but of Secote ancestry or spoke a Secote language, and often it was the latter that was more influential and dominated the Dominion's social system, contributing to the quick and noticeable acculturation of the new rulers as a whole. Most of the Secotes spoke South Secote or West Secote languages.
Kunentsyism
The most notable development of the Dominion period was the rise of kunentsyism as the main political and economic system, imposed based on the Secotes' own practices on the Steppe. The Secotes set themselves up as landed nobles, presiding over a manorial economy based in the countryside. Although they adopted many parts of local culture, they distinctly retained nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles or at least aspects thereof, and continued to structure their elite lives around horseback combat, while handing administration over to native institutions, effectively establishing a military aristocracy. In Messenia, the way all this played out was influenced by the dilapidation of the economic structures associated with the existing empires, namely the closely knit, quasi-corporate houses and orders in the Neokos south, and the great latifundia directed by absentee, city-based principate of the Sabamic north.
In the case of the Sirian-Neokos ordinal system, the houses collectively managed property and resources in what was known as mund, but their identities' close attachment to divergent doctrines and rituals led to increasing strife since the Hallegeants' War of the sixth century; their originally mercantile and maritime-focused pursuits were displaced by endlessly mobilising communal resources for wars and feuds in the Ecomachy, causing a vicious cycle in which the sustenance of the house itself demanded more militarism. By the time that the Zhyagedevids made their way to Palthia, they easily made improvements in political and economic conditions by disarming the orders (ending the age of the zealots) and fostering a 'de-ordinalising' religious policy, ending warlordism and leaving the houses to focus on paying less onerous ožidomy dues. The lamnearies, which as subjects of patronage under the Neokos had become important creditors and investors, were diminished in their economic roles by the Veliborovid persecution. Freely associating merchants dominated commerce instead, producing the ancestors of the ventures that dominate Messenian Sirian economies today. Ordinal bodies, however, remained important at the local and communal level, and as far as the kunentsys were concerned, most officials were either determined by houses, approved from their nominations, or appointed from their associated lamnearies (which remained important sources of administrators). In turn, the kunentsydom of the south was self-sufficient and only enjoyed informal, customary relationships with their emperors; elaborate codes and systems of fealty were simply not needed; the existing phenomenon of selship in elite politics was quickly adapted to the Secote system as the 'solov'.
For the Sabamanians, the Secotes had alienated the urban elites and the closely associated argans, but compared to the Neokos, Sabamani imperial structures were also relatively more intact, and readily available to be repurposed for their own ends. Secotes seized the principate's villas and estates for their own enrichment, and redirected slaves to be employed in the manorial economy emerging from this. The preservation of the administrative system also meant that kunentsy appanages were often simply governorships; along with Secote rulers assuming the imperial title, this created a more clear sense of fealty, a feudal hierarchy of lieges and vassals, articulated through and regulated by the rigorous language of Sabamic law. Secote rulers in Sabamia also made extensive use of resettling their Sirian southerner followers in their conquests as administrators and intermediaries, a system known as the Palthic Regency.