Tirfatsevid Empire
Tirfatsevid Empire Τιρφαζεϝϊσκοιε Ϝλαδηчιστφο Tirfacevĭskoje vladyčĭstvo | |||||||||||
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| 1292–1495 | |||||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||||
 Synoptic map of 15th-century Tirfatsia: North South Princedom of Anabbah c. 1430 | |||||||||||
| Capital | Vokhotsk Axopol Inetsograd (northern) | ||||||||||
| Religion | Siriash Vaestism (south, after 1482) | ||||||||||
| Emperor | |||||||||||
• 1292–1323 | Tirfats | ||||||||||
• 1331–1362 | Ostromir | ||||||||||
• 1480–1493 | Yaroslav (northern) | ||||||||||
• 1474–1495 | Mstislav III (southern) | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Coronation of Tirfats | 1292 | ||||||||||
| 1495 | |||||||||||
| 25 Dominy 1701 | |||||||||||
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| History of Terophan | |
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 This article is part of a series | |
| Antiquity | |
| Old Axiovy · Chotar | |
| Post-Chotarian era 1047–1333 | |
| Secote Empire 1047–1120 | |
| Commandery of Axiov 1047–1333 | |
| Heghta Kingdom 1052–1510 | |
| Tirfatsevid Empire 1333–1490 | |
| Great Neritsia 1490–1701 | |
| Hierarchy of Axiov 1490–1701 | |
| Pan-Zaavic League 1502–1617 | |
| Terophatic Empire 1701–present | |
| Restoration Terophan 1701–1785 | |
| Radiance Terophan 1785–1911 | |
| Second Restoration 1911–1959 | |
| Contemporary Terophan 1959–present | |
| Topics | |
| List of Emperors | |
- This article is about the historical Secote realm established by Tirfats. For the modern empire, see Terophan.
The Tirfatsevid Empire (High Secote: Τιρφαζεϝϊσκοιε Ϝλαδηчιστφο, ⰕⰉⰓⰗⰀⰜⰅⰂⰠⰔⰍⰑⰋⰅ ⰂⰎⰀⰄⰟⰉⰝⰠⰔⰕⰂⰑ, Tirfacevĭskoje vladyčĭstvo, commonly in modern usage ⰔⰕⰀⰓⰑⰋⰅ ⰕⰉⰓⰗⰀⰜⰍⰑ, Staroje Tirfacko, 'Old Terophan') was a state in eastern Joriscia established by the Secotised general Tirfats. At its height under Tirfats' rule the empire united most of the Secote tribes and states in the south-western Great Steppe and conquered a broad swathe of territory around the southern edges of the steppe, crossing into eastern Anabbah, central Azophin and northern coastal Terophan. After the death of Tirfats, the short-lived confederacy of tribes on the steppe collapsed, but Tirfatsevid rule under his grandson Ostromir continued in Outer Joriscia following his conquest of the Commanderies of Axiov and Tormetia. On Ostromir's death in 1362, his sons Mstislav and Dragodar became co-emperors. This proved a fractious but surprisingly long-lasting constitutional arrangement which survived until the empire's destruction at the hands of Nerits in the 1490s.
Structurally the Tirfatsevid state was a typical post-nomadic entity dominated by a small elite made up of the Secotic High Nobility and centred on the coastal cities. The cities served as the centre of a mostly sedentarised government controlled by the conquerors, surrounded by an extensive agricultural hinterland. Early on in its history, outside the high-intensity cultivation zones along the coast, the Empire's authority operated indirectly through tributary relationships with various autonomous Secote factions in the north and minor Old Axiovy warlords in the south. The Tirfatsevid High Nobility were typically city-dwelling absentee landlords with control over huge agricultural estates (often coextensive with strany governorships) who formed the land-owning military aristocracy, often only loosely subordinate to the emperors of north and south. The borders between the two co-emperors' territories were frequently contested, a process exacerbated by the nobility's fluid loyalties. Except during times of unusual imperial strength, the emperors' freedom of action was tightly restricted by the High Nobility, despite the imposition of many measures based on centralised Chotarian government. As long as their only local contenders were other, usually smaller, states along a similar model, the empire was still sustainable; when the Vesnite state model emerged, however, the Tirfatsevids were unable to field armies capable of matching those they faced up against.
Like the other post-Secote states in Outer Joriscia before them, the Tirfatsevids inherited an area still suffering from the devastation of the late 11th century, in particular massive destruction of urban life. They continued the policy of resettlement of Rasheem in the coastal cities adopted by their predecessors, accelerating the Rashimicisation of a region traditionally populated by the Old Axiovy. Although they were notionally Sirian themselves, the population under their rule was religiously diverse, and the state generally adopted a position of disinterested tolerance of multiple sects. From the mid-15th century a steadily growing Vesnite community came into existence, loosely organised under the Banner of the Greater West, a process which was accelerated by good relations between the Tirfatsevids and the Prysostaia. Alongside orthodox groups, many more heterodox sects found a home in Tirfatsia.
During the Great Imperial Restoration of 1701, Spytihnev Rozoevsky claimed Tirfatsevid descent to legitimise his rule in the south of the disintegrating realm of Great Neritsia; the state he founded, contemporary Terophan, refers to itself as the Tirfatsevid Empire.
History
Origins
The empire was established in 1292 when Tirfats, as a top general of the Commandery of Vokhotsk, overthrew its rulers and established his court in the city. Once in power, he turned the state's attention to a long-time rival, the Suliradovid Commandery in Maskovia (modern eastern Settecia), and through his strategic genius had destroyed this kingdom by 1295. Over the next decade, Tirfats subjugated much of the steppe, and assigned a relative Dikats to viceroyalty over the former Suliradovid lands, with which an invasion of the Neo-Messenian Empire was staged beginning in 1313. By the 1320s Tirfats himself invaded the Rashimic Principalities of Anabbah, expecting a easy victory against the Princes who were presumed to be weakened by the War of the Houses a decade earlier. However, he died in 1323 while the campaign turned into a stalemate, and as was typical of Secote politics the fragile hold he united the steppe under collapsed, with the hosts of Maskovia and many distant lands soon claiming effective independence under the Pact of Elmuaqab. The conquest of Anabbah would be completed by Dragoslav, who then invaded the Commandery of Tormetia. From 1331, as the Anabbines also revolted and broke away, Ostromir the Great decided to push south into the Commandery of Axiov, which he conquered by 1334. The Tirfatsevid court settled at Axopol to consolidate their territories.
Two courts
Government of the highly urbanised territories over which the Tirfatsevid Empire now ruled proved difficult for the imperial court, and in the years before his death Ostromir decided to divide the responsibilities of the crown between his two eldest sons, Dragodar and Mstislav. While Mstislav would assume his father's position at Axopol, a second capital was designated to the north at Inetsograd, and here Dragodar was invested as Emperor in the North. Facing the Anabbine principalities to the northwest and the steppes to the north, the northern court would bear primary responsibility for the empire's defence, managing the Pièche regiments inherited from the Tormetians. The emperor at Axopol, meanwhile, would manage the internal affairs of the cities, settling the immigrating Rasheem and overseeing the prosperous trade with the Lacreans and Argotes, and with the Thawari over the sea.
Over the course of Mstislav's long reign, this arrangement worked remarkably well, and a succession of junior emperors in the north served as willing partners in the realm's governance. His death in 1411, however, was followed soon afterwards by the beginning of the Pacification of Anabbah. The northern emperor, Dragodar II Lamefoot, sought to bring his military power to bear in extending his rule to the Rashimic Principalities in Anabbah. The wars concluded favourably with the investiture of the first Prince of Anabbah in 1419 as a Tirfatsevid vassal, and in one stroke the balance of power within the empire shifted dramatically to the north. Inetsograd now saw an influx of tribute from the new vassal princedom to the west, much of which was turned to the purpose of plying the northern magnates, and the Pièche regiments at their disposal were now substantially enlarged and placed under experienced commanders. Following the death of Miroslav II in the south in 1436, then, the northern emperor Miroslav I declared the reunification of the two courts, and marched on Axopol, defeating a substantial coalition of southern nobles in the Cistormetian War. The surviving immediate family of Miroslav II were taken as hostages to Inetsograd, where they would remain until the courts divided once more.
Rule from the north
Significant social changes took place under the two unitary emperors, Miroslav and Izyaslav II. The rise of Vaestism now began to have profound effects within the empire; Vaestic Scholars became the effective administrators of many of the recently settled Rasheem towns, and soon extended their reach into the great cities of the empire. The missionary Pērkons took office as the first Standard-Bearer of the Greater West in 1448, and from Reonir he imposed his authority upon many of the Vesnite Scholars in the empire, establishing a parallel and largely autonomous Vesnite administrative structure. He would be succeeded by the Rasheem charismatic Movar in 1456. The emperors at Inetsograd took no great notice of these changes, and at first a policy of religious anarchy prevailed in the empire as the court turned a blind eye both to the incursion of Vaestism and to those Sirian nobles who decided to undertake campaigns of persecution.
Renewed division
After the death of the childless Izyaslav II in 1452, a dispute broke out over the succession that saw the division between two courts reassert itself. Miroslav III quickly seized power in the north, but lacked the support of the southern nobility. In the absence of the last southern emperor's immediate successors, who remained at Inetsograd, two claimants emerged to the throne at Axopol: Izyaslav, a more peripheral scion of the southern family, and Mstislav, a grandson of the great northern emperor Dragodar Lamefoot. Under the period of unitary rule, Mstislav had amassed considerable holdings in the south. In the event, war was averted as Mstislav pledged fealty to Izyaslav in return for substantial grants of crown land and his own appointment as the emperor's chief adviser. The arrangement prevailed for only eight months before Izyaslav's untimely death and the inevitable succession of Mstislav.
The return to a divided crown did not see a revival of the division of responsibilities that prevailed before 1436. The two emperors now began to act largely independently of each other, though each continued to claim nominally the privileges of seniority when they were due. The High Nobility became increasingly restive, particularly to the south; Mstislav's succession at Axopol had seen the retrocession of the new emperor's extensive personal landholdings to the crown, and the power and reach of the court were now expanding at a discomfiting rate. Furthermore, recognising the advantages of an independent administrative apparatus in its disputes with the Nobles, the southern court under Mstislav II and especially Ostromir II now sought ever closer arrangements with the Vesnites. After the death of Movar in 1472, Ostromir imposed a new Standard-Bearer of the Greater West, and cooperated with the Universal Prophet Viswald II in suppressing the equilibrian heresy. Ostromir's Vaestophile policy triggered consternation among some of the Sirian voivodes, one of whom would murder the emperor in 1474, but by then it had developed its own momentum, and the trend continued under Ostromir's successor Mstislav III.
Though the northern emperors attempted to reassert their preeminence in the empire, their efforts were stymied by the renewal of hostilities in Anabbah in 1457. The restless man who had succeeded to the princedom of Anabbah, Avron, had adopted an imperial title and renounced the suzerainty of the Tirfatsevids, establishing the Anabbine Empire. A succession of emperors at Inetsograd were now forced to defend against Anabbine incursions from the west in the so-called Avronic Wars, not only losing access to Anabbah itself but ceding a broad swathe of land to the invaders in the Rashimic Littoral. A final few campaigns by Avron saw the loss of cities increasingly further inland, up to Tormopol in 1480, and the Anabbines were only barely prevented from marching on Inetsograd the following year. The retreat from the west was halted only in 1482 under Yaroslav the Black, who defeated and killed Avron at the pivotal Battle of the Tarmau Hills, and gained the return of a substantial number of commanderies to the northwest and along the Isartian coast. Much of the territory in the interior, however, was lost for good.
Fall
The two final emperors, Yaroslav in the north and Mstislav III at Axopol, both faced considerable challenges from the religious and social conflicts growing within the empire. The southern policy of cooperation with Vaestism was followed only belatedly in the north, and reached its height under Yaroslav. The last northern emperor claimed a wide remit for himself to intervene in Vesnite affairs, and lavished the leading Scholars with imperial sponsorship. His relationship with the Vesnites ultimately remained ambivalent, however: his fostering of heresies, his tribute raids to the Vesnite east, and his open promotion of schism from the Prysostaia so as to bring the Vaestic hierarchy under closer imperial control, all provoked anger and resentment among the empire's Vesnites. Mstislav, for his part, maintained a better relationship with the Vesnites, but faced greater difficulty with the High Nobility. He proved unable to reconcile what were now two great pillars of the empire, and his inconstant attempts to support both groups alienated them each. Nonetheless, in the 1480s the empire remained, overall, a prosperous and stable realm, particularly compared to the turbulence of the Wars of Heresy that now raged in the east.
In 1490, the Wars of Heresy drew to a close with the triumph of Nerits and his appointment as the first Emperor of the Vesnites. Nerits's invasion of the Tirfatsevid Empire began soon after, and the empire buckled rapidly under an assault whose scale was unprecedented in its two-hundred-year history. The Tirfatsevid forces were no match for Nerits's large and tightly disciplined army of Vesnites, and the realm's defence was rendered more difficult by large-scale defections among the Vesnites. whom the emperors had increasingly entrusted with the empire's administration. By 1493, Nerits had expelled Yaroslav from Inetsograd with the aid of traitors among the city's Vesnites, and the northern emperor vanished en route to the south as he belatedly sought his co-emperor's aid. Mstislav succeeded in holding Nerits at the Tormaytah until 1495, when he overran the remaining southern half of the empire and laid siege to Axopol. On 15 Ediface 1495, Axopol fell to the Neritsovid forces, and Mstislav was executed the next day, ending the existence of the Tirfatsevid Empire.
Government
For the first half-century of its existence, the Tirfatsevid Empire was a typical large Secote polity with a mobile imperial court, a class of nomadic military leaders who extracted tribute from the settled populations dispersed over the empire's expansive territories, and an intermixture of kunentsy nobles ruling relatively urbanised commanderies. It differed from other Secote states primarily in its scale, heterogeneity, and Tirfats's revival of the imperial title. The sedentarisation of the imperial administration began under Tirfats himself with the inheritance of a semi-permanent court at Vokhotsk from his predecessors, but the flight southeast that continued for a decade after Tirfats's death meant that a settled government emerged only after the empire's thorough fragmentation, with the conquest of the Commandery of Axiov under Ostromir the Great in the far south.
The realm that then emerged as Tirfatsia was initially made up of a grid of commanderies ruled by the high-ranking Secote military elite, whom Ostromir settled primarily along the Axiovy coast and the great rivers, and around a dozen smaller autonomous Secote groups and Axiovy warlords, representing in the latter case the old ruling class of the Commandery of Axiov, in the interior. Most of the Axiovy would become commanderies as they Secotised under the rule of Ostromir and his southern successor Mstislav the Superb; Miroslav I would subsequently oversee the integration of the remainder. Competition among the Secote nobility, for their part, was fierce, and already by Ostromir's death in 1362 the chief nobles had narrowed to a small number of magnates residing in the empire's major cities, most of whom now bore the title of voivode. These would remain the elite of the empire until its end, never failing to challenge ambitious emperors, and forming the Great Houses by which aristocratic politics were conducted. Nevertheless, the empire also inherited more centralised and autocratic post-Chotarian institutions in equal measure, with the emperor holding at least nominal control over the Commandery, a corps through which a standing Pièche army maintained independent of the magnates was officered at his pleasure. Miroslav I established strict term limits and rotations of military commanders, although by the late empire these were no longer upheld, and indefinite commissions were often secured by noble affiliation.
From 1362 to 1436, and again from 1452 until the end of the empire, Tirfatsia was divided between two imperial courts at Inetsograd in the north and Axopol in the south, an arrangement established by Ostromir the Great shortly before his death in view of the difficulties the still semi-nomadic elite faced in administering their urbanised realm. Originally this division pertained primarily to the different responsibilities of the two emperors: the northern emperor was responsible for the empire's defence and its relations with its subject tributaries, while the southern would administer its economy and interior affairs. This arrangement prevailed until the Pacification of Anabbah in 1419, which triggered a substantial inflow of wealth to the northern court that equipped the northern emperor Miroslav I to suppress the southern court in the Cistormetian War. The united courts of Miroslav and his successor Izyaslav II marked the height of the Tirfatsky emperors' power, allowing them to consolidate the empire's administrative structure while maintaining their grip upon the principal southern Joriscian trade routes as well as the flow of tribute from Anabbah. After the renewal of the empire's division in 1452 due to the fragmentation of the Tirfatsevid dynasty, the two courts became essentially territorial in nature, and increasingly autonomous of each other. The northern court lost its access to Anabbah with the rise of the Anabbine Empire under Avron, and was left to fend for itself against Avron's incursions in the Avronic Wars.
Over the course of the empire's existence, increasing numbers of Rasheem had immigrated from the northwest, and they were settled formally in new towns along the coast and, increasingly, further inland by successive Tirfatsky Emperors beginning with Mstislav the Superb. These towns were broadly autonomous, and with the advent of Vaestism their administrations became tied to the Scholarly hierarchy, establishing an extensive administrative network that operated in parallel with the Tirfatsevid courts and their feudatories. This network was formalised by the institution of the position of Standard-Bearer of the Greater West at its head. Recognising the opportunity that cooption of this parallel system of urban government presented in their disputes with the Secote nobles, southern Tirfatsky Emperors beginning with Mstislav II moved to cooperate increasingly closely with the Vesnites, a policy belatedly followed in the north by the final northern emperor Yaroslav the Black. In 1472, the Standard-Bearer became an appointee of the southern emperor. The Tirfatsevids did not ultimately succeed in reconciling the Vesnite hierarchy with the traditional Secote administration either in the north or the south, and Nerits met considerable success in rallying Vesnite opposition to their rule during his invasion.
List of Tirfatsky Emperors
- Tirfats (1292–1323)
- Dragoslav (1323–1331)
- Ostromir I "the Great" (1331–1362)
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Northern emperors
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Southern emperors
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