History of Kuzikstan (WIP)

The arrival of humans & dawn of civilization : 7000 BC - 3000 BC

The first humans to settle their foot on Shanting arrived from Wasari most likely in 7000-6500 BC. Back then, due to an unknown cause, a massive amount of people made their way to Shanting by a landbridge. Some documents say that maybe even 20% of all people living in Wasari moved to this uninhabited area. There are a couple of reasons why this immigration wave happened. One of the biggest reasons was that the bad conditions in Wasari made animals to migrate more southward which was followed by the hunter-gatherers. There also weren't any people, so it was easier to settle in anywhere you wanted and live in peace. The incident that happened in Wasari (most likely a great natural disaster in southern Wasari), was the biggest factor on why so many people moved to Shanting in only a few hundred years.

It's believed that people found agriculture in Hurona, Sazistan, and Kuzia region in 4500 BC. These early forms of agriculture were found in the regions with most people, as people had to live in tighter spaces. As farming crops gave people another big source of food in Kuzikstan, people stood more firmly on fishing in Sazistan. Due to easily arable land in the Strachan area, people gave up almost completely on hunting way easier, and the first known civilization was known to be formed. It's nowadays called "Strachan farming culture". The center of this culture was most likely Suntor ridge located about 200kms of Trovia in the suburbs of a little village of Suntorien. This civilization was not yet that advanced, as they did not have proper legislation, army, or government. However, the Strachan farming culture was known as the trade hub of the Hurona, as people went and met up in this particular place and traded food for ritual items such as crystal stones that were sometimes found from the beaches, and for tools & clothes.

In the first 500 years, people lived pretty peacefully, but as more and more people arrived, and the hunter groups have already found their territory, the groups began to grow anger with each other as they began having disputed on who had the right to own and eat a dead deer found on other's territory. People became more territorial, which caused them to strictly guard their territory, which pretty much ended the hunter-gatherer culture as people stood on their spot.

As time went by, very known traders decided to stay in this growing town with lots of farms already and spent their life trading their self-made stuff. As the trading became even more common, the traders often forgot what they had traded for let's say squirrel skin. One trader decided to carve his trades on a stone plate with pieces of chalk, and began remembering the "prices" he has traded his stuff for. In only a few years, many fellow traders like him noticed how useful this technique was, and began writing down their trades and began forming prices. The skill of writing was known to originate in this civilization in 4100 BC. As the prices of stuff began more common in the following centuries, people began using similar stuff in trading, of which one included these crystal stones. These colorful stones began a common tool in trading and were the earliest form of currency in Shanting. The handicrafters crafted vases and sell them for farmers to store their wheat. The writing knowledge and currency started spreading even further south as some traders made long-lasting travels across Hurona. The landbridge between the 3 islands was already gone, so the technology did not reach Sazistan, Quziq, and Kuzikstan as fast as it spread in Hurona.

Fish became very expensive, as it was so hard to get from the beach. Many traders were desperate in becoming more "wealthy" and tried to make innovations in getting more fish. The small pieces of wood tied together soon transformed into canoes and fishing boats, which made fishing way easier. These vessels were made in the Sotra civilization on the southern coast of Strachan. The best fishers became soon the wealthiest people in these fishing towns and noticed how much they can manipulate other people according to their will. Many people wanted to be friends with them, as they could therefore get an easy source of food and tools. Those who didn't obey the fishers were at the first cut out of the trading and soon banished from the villages. There were 7-12 fishing villages forming this civilization, but it was very unstable. The greatest fishers who became the leaders of their towns began competing against each other in an attempt to get most people in their village and therefore become a bigger trading center. At first, it was mostly getting on others', more fishy waters without permission, but soon someone decided to take their arms and friends and march to the neighboring village with a goal to make an end to stealing fish from their waters. Rumors began quickly spreading that one of the towns was burnt to ashes, and all the other leaders prepared themselves and began forming an early military. Struvan-town was easily the most prosperous with the most people and had the biggest army. They had no difficulties in destroying several villages, tribes, and towns that did not obey them, and soon the rest of the settlements living nearby them had no choice but to either join them or flee.

Struvan-civilization grew way faster than the Strachan farming culture from which the civilization originated. However, many of the dearest friends of the leader of Struvan-civilization became jealous and attempted a rebellion, which destroyed almost everything that was accomplished in the civilization: The whole town with almost 3,000 people was burnt to ashes. Many of the people escaped the brutal combat, took all the boats, and began sailing overseas towards the southeast. Some of these escapists ended up in Sazistan and found terrified hunter-gatherers on the shores of the undiscovered island. These people decided to settle upon the island and teach the inhabitants fishing and farming culture, which was once again brought back to life. However, it took thousands of years for another greater civilization to form on this island.

Pre-Golden Empire era : 3000 BC - 1500 BC

The Strovein civilization was a kind of continuation of Struvan-civilization. The leadership was formed alongside small armed forces. It wasn't really an army, it was just trustworthy friends of the leader with weapons. They really had no armor yet, as all that was lost in the collapse of Struvan-civilization. The low number of crystal stones in Sazistan made trading quite problematic which greatly slowed the process of technology for centuries. The Strovein civilization was the first civilization in Shanting to start a significant mining industry. The mines were mostly inland, and lots of bronze, gold, and iron was excavated and crafted into tools.

The Golden Empire era : 1500 BC - 200 BC

Aquna was born in 1629 BC in a small tribal village near the central town of Strovein. At a very young age, Aquna was very talented in socializing and fighting, which quickly gave him more and more power, eventually making him fight for the leadership of Strovein. Thanks to Aquna's charisma he managed to get lots of followers, but lost the battle against Strovein's leadership and decided to flee to the south of the Sazistan island with his followers. They built another civilization, which immediately began thriving and growing even faster than weakened Strovein. Aquna soon formed an army of 200 armed followers and marched back to the north to finish Strovein. Many of the inhabitants of Strovein already had left and fled back to Hurona, but the leader and his small army were still around, which was utterly destroyed by Aquna. Aquna's forces found a mountain with a massive amount of gold on their way home, and with that gold, the faith of gold was formed from the stories and happenings that are told to have happened for Aquna. He together with his people built massive golden temples for the god of the gold and built a large, walled empty town full of empty homes made of gold. The temples were 3-tier-pyramids made of gold, with a temple on top of the pyramid. The top-tier also had two 10-meters tall quartz towers. In total, the pyramid alongside the quartz towers and the temple on top, these structures were almost 40 meters tall. The empty golden buildings surrounding these structures were called "cities of gold". They were reserved for the souls of the dead people, where they could live in eternal peace until the god of gold would descend back to the Northern Utopia.

The golden city with the temple was the absolute center of the Sattan Kuten, the biggest city in the Golden Empire, where the leadership of the nation lived. Most of the buildings were built of clay which was an easy material to build and was found from the shorelines. The port of Sattan Kuten was believed to be made of both marble and quartz, and the port worked as the main trading center of the city, as well as the whole golden Empire. The Golden Empire was the first advanced civilization in All of Shanting, and was the first one to have its own, organized army, economy & legislation. They were led by the Aquna and his descendants, who all seemed to share very similar skills together.

In 1222 BC, Aquna II's two sons, Ekene and Azon, had to take their father's place as a ruler of the Golden Empire. However, the brothers did not want to give up on their spot on the throne, and their fight ended up in Azon leaving the Golden Empire and fleeing to the Strovein-civilization, which was now located in the south part of Hurona, on the shores of the strait of Hurona. The people of Strovein accepted Azon and his fellow soldiers with a warm welcome, and the leader of Strovein himself crowned Azon as the new leader. As his first command, he ordered every managed 16-30 to either join the army or produce weapons and armor for the soldier. Azon was sure that if they won't attack first with a big army, the Golden Empire with Ekene as their leader would sooner or later come and utterly destroy everything that's left of Strovein. Azon with his 500-man army began ravaging the nearby, smaller civilizations and taking half of every town's population with him. All the women were forced to give birth to strong soldiers, that would defend their ruler. Every captured man became a slave and was forced to build the Azon wall, the 12 meters tall and 2 meters thick defensive wall made of Lapis lazuli, which primary meaning was to defend the inner city of Srutia, the capital city of Strovein. As the building of the wall was finished in 1198 BC, Azon ordered half of the slaves to carve his biography to the shining blue walls in form of pictures. When the carvings were done a year later, half of the slaves were offered to either join their army or continue as a slave. The remaining slaves, which amount was still nearly 5 thousand, were ordered to build barracks, training fields, massive palaces, et cetera.

Despite in only a few years gaining an army of almost 1,000 men, he was aware that his soldiers would still be no match against Ekene's. He traveled all across Hurona to Strachan and burnt the whole civilization to the ground, taking over 1,000 more captives and training half of them into soldiers. He continued building his kingdom until his death in 1172 BC at the age of 71. Her wife Selviana gave birth to his only son, Izon, in 1195 BC. Azon taught Izon to purely hate the Golden Empire since he was born, which made Izon continue building the Stroveinian army. Ekene was still alive, even though he was way older than people would normally live in this era. However, he was still completely fit for leading his empire and ordered his people to build as many boats as humanly possible. He mobilized almost 20,000 soldiers, trained and armed them, and as the boats were ready in 1170 BC He led his troops to cross the Strait of Hurona and started the greatest war in Shanting. Ekene sent one of his commanders to the capital city of Strovein, but he was instantly executed by the Izon's order. After 10 hours of waiting, Ekene was sure that his friend won't come back and initiated the attack on Strovein. Izon's 5,000 well-trained soldiers had no chances against Ekene's Golden army, and in a single day, the whole city was in total chaos. The Azon wall fell in a few hours, and the only things that were left standing in the city were 2 blue observing towers, that were standing on the wall. Everything else was utterly destroyed. Ekene took captive almost 10,000 Stroveinians that lived in the city but executed every single member of the army, including Izon himself.

Ekene died seven months after the military expedition. It's told that he spent his last months in the Golden pyramid of Sattan Kuten, carving his biography on the golden pillars of the temple. Ekene's last order to his commanders was to build a new city to the old Strovein area for him. He wanted the name of this new city to be Dakén. The city of Dakén was finally built in 980 BC, and the first settlers were the slaves that were once taken from the Srutia. The two blue towers were still standing, and the center of the city was formed around them. Ekene III, the grandson of Ekene, visited the city in 971 BC and granted Dakén the "Secondary-capital" status, meaning that if Sattan Kuten would ever fall, Dakén would be the next capital city. Therefore, a new golden pyramid was built near the center of the city. Dakén became an important trade hub and center of culture in all of Hurona. Before them, the last impactful trade hub was in Strachan, which was destroyed by the Stroveinians. People all around Hurona traveled very long distances just to see this magnificent city.

In 580 BC, the Golden Empire landed first time on the shores of Kuzikstan. They landed in the small bay southwest of the modern-day Aernaeb. They made a couple of settlements where they could trade and share the technology with the natives, but it never grew into a bigger thing. Kuzikstan island was only a minor trading zone for the Golden Empire, as they weren't as interested in the area yet. However, all the technology they shared with the natives gave a massive technological boost for the Aernaebi people, who continued spreading the innovations southward. The Aernaebi people brought Tulnma to Sazistan in 480 BC. Tulnma was an early version of modern Aernaebi whiskey, which was made of rye. The popularity of Tulnma began spreading rapidly all across the Golden Empire and the lands of Hurona. It was mostly used as a religious drink, consumed every time a person had entered the City of Gold. It was also used as a medicine in small amounts.

As technology was advancing at a rapid speed, some people began researching science way more in-depth. In 520 BC, the first known formal school was opened in Dakén by Asun, one of the most known astronomists, physicists, and mathematics known in the Golden Empire. He was the first one to notice that Northern Utopia is a planet orbiting around the sun, and named a lot of planets that before were unknown. In less than a decade, Dakén became the capital of sciences and research, as more and more philosophists began appearing from the Asun's school. As the philosophists continued their research, they soon began noticing quite a lot of false things taught in the Faith of Gold, that was simply not possible according to science. This large group of people was called "The group of enlightened". One of the leaders of the enlightened was Okunt, one of the star students in Asun's school. In 513 BC, Okunt walked to the Golden temple of Dakén in order to state the people about the false statements and fictionality of the faith they have been believing for thousands of years.

Many citizens of Dakén took Okunt surprisingly seriously and believed him, as there were many other people who had been to Asun's lessons. The word about the happenings in Dakén spread quickly to Sattan Kuten, where the leader Ozuna I got informed about the situation by the commanders of the Golden Army. Ozuna was absolutely enraged about the situation, as thousands of people are questioning the reality of the founder of the Golden Empire and his stories. Because the blood of Aquna's family was flowing in Ozuna, he saw no other way but to declare the dissidents as revolters, and therefore he banned science. The people of Dakén did not give up and began to arm themselves in the name of science. Okunt became aware of the current situation and stated that the Golden Empire simply can't work if it's split in half. Therefore Okunt alongside almost all of Dakén decided to stand up and break away from the Golden Empire, declaring themselves as "the Huron Kingdom", the word Huron came from the name of the Okunt's father, who made him go to the Asun's school and study sciences.

In 505 BC, Ozuna declared the Great Golden Horde to begin. The Great Gorden Horde was a definition for a holy army, which the main goal was to return the world in chaos back to the hands of the God of Gold. Ozuna formed a massive army of almost 50,000 Golden soldiers, who were ordered to cross the Strait of Hurona. Even with the massive ship capacity Golden Empire had, it took years before the last soldiers of the Golden Horde arrived in Hurona. The Huron Kingdom had absolutely no chances against the greatest army ever seen in ancient Shanting. In less than a year, Dakén was brutally taken under control of the Golden Empire again. About 55% of the people of Huron fled up north, but they were being followed by the Golden Horde, which attempted to take over all of the worlds - literally.

"The Golden Horde was sent by the God of Gold and his herald Aquna, alongside with his eternal bloodline, with an absolute order to take the control of the world back from the unholy chaos that has been wandering around after the last descent of the God of Gold." This was the final order from Ozuna to the Golden Horde before the attack.

As the Golden Empire began expanding extraordinary fast, and the innovations made thanks to science, were abolished, lots of instability began growing everywhere inside the borders of the great empire. For example, the sewer systems and new farming tools were banned, as they were seen to be born as the result of science, and therefore were unholy. 5-10 years later, Ozuna ordered every single female to have at least 5 children before the age of 40, which according to him was an absolute order from the God of Gold. This caused a massive famine all over the Golden Empire in 470 BC, as agriculture wasn't so efficient and couldn't produce enough food for people anymore. In 444 BC, an earthquake followed by mega-tsunami seems to have struck in the western shores of Sazistan island, where most of the agriculture in Sazistanwas based in. Many historians believe that almost 25% of the people died in the tsunami alone, and millions of others died in the following year after the massive famine became stronger due to all the farmlands that were lost. At this point, the Golden Horde had made it to the northern parts of the Dark Heart but was finally ordered to stop their movement, which was done mostly because of the lack of supplies. The Golden Horde still had over 30,000 soldiers, but they were seriously struggling with food supplies.

As the famine did not seem to end any time soon, the citizens became tired of Ozuna's false promises, and he was murdered in the Golden Temple of Sattan Kuten in 465 BC. Ozuna's 20-year-old son, Veqel, became the ruler as he was the only son of Ozuna. After the murder of his father, Veqel ordered the most trustworthy Golden soldiers to protect the Golden City of all time, and bringing any weapons inside the Golden City were banned. However, Veqel seemed to be way more liberal than his father. He dismissed the Golden Horde after noticing the cons being way greater than pros in such a thing. Dakén was rebuilt quickly, and Veqel ordered the dismissed troops to work in the farms. Science was once again legalized.

"The Golden Empire is the Apex Predator of the world. There are no enemies. There is no one to threaten us. If there is no threat to us, there is no need for a big army. The situation will be changed when our apex predator status is in danger.", Veqel stated to his soldier questioning Veqel's surprising actions. His full speech was written on a quartz plate that was buried with him in a Golden Tomb, that was found in 2002. Every leader's whole life was written on the sides of their golden coffin, which is a reason some of these leaders are known very well.

Veqel was the first leader of the Golden Empire since Ekene's times to ever leave the Sazistan island, as he gathered an exploration army to look for the southern island (Kuzikstan) in 440 BC. Veqel was estimated to land on the shores of Aernaeb and ordered his exploration army to instantly build a trade hub in order to maintain better trading relations with locals. Veqel spent 2 years in Aernaeb, studying the terrain and the culture. After noticing the extremely arable land of Aernaeb, he gave the new settlers freedom to claim as much land as they wanted for farming purposes. After arriving back to Sattan Kuten and telling the news, thousands of people decided to move to the southern island with the hope to become wealthy by starting their own farming industry. These people were called "Airnabs", meaning the "New Farmer". Upon arriving on the southern island and claiming their land, the Airnabs offered the locals to work in their lands, offering food and maybe even money in exchange. The locals living in Aernaeb weren't hunter-gatherers anymore when Veqel arrived there. They were aware of the wonders of the Golden Empire, meaning that it was way easier than expected to cooperate with them.

The wheat was produced in the Aernaeb area so much, that there was more than enough to feed everyone living there. Almost 60% of the wheat produced there was eventually sold back to Golden Empire, and the Airnabs became wealthy. Some of the wealthier Airnabs offered higher amounts of money and food for the workers and gained more interest from locals to work for them rather than other Airnabs. In the ancient Aernaebi language, these people were called Ärnäbe, later on, transformed into Aernaeb, from which the name of the modern state of Aernaeb comes from.

The amount of wheat transported from the colonies in Aernaeb helped greatly in ending the great famine in Golden Empire. The early form of advertising and sponsoring also became a thing: As most of the land in the colonies were already claimed, some people who wanted to become Airnab decided to make an agreement with an Airnab, in which they get a small amount of money if they advertise & praise the Airnab's products. This was on a very small scale, though, and never became a big thing.

The strait of Veqel is the small naval area between the Kuzikstan island and Sazistan. This place had a very busy naval traffic back then, as the so-called "wheat ships" (ships mainly meant for transferring wheat) were moving in both directions. Back in 405 BC, when the Airnab's wealthiness was booming, there could have been even 1,000 wheat ships alone in the Strait of Veqel at the same time. The North Aernaeb Island, a 50 square kilometers big island lying between the 2 islands, became a significant trading hub with massive docks comparable to the ones in Sattan Kuten and Dakén.

This period, which started from the death of Ozuna, is often called the Second Great era, or the Last Great era. During this period, the Golden Empire was in the best shape since the Ekene era. The trading network was bigger than ever, with furthest travelers & traders coming all the way from Kuzia and Jazkovn. The Ancient Kuzian civilization became drastically growing around these times, and their leader Svezen had a destination to create a kingdom far greater than the Golden Empire. However, they became a greater power way later, hundreds of years after the Golden Empire collapsed. They had their own, centralized leadership, legislation, economy, and armed forces, but they didn't have great enough access to the technology of the Golden Empire. Veqel and his son Ivazi (the next leader of Golden Empire after the death of Veqel in 398 BC) did note the fast growth of these kingdoms on the island, but they were confident that they would never become any larger threat than other civilizations.

Ivazi, just like his father, was a reformist and wanted to make the Golden Empire into a functional utopia. He gave even more freedoms to slaves, granting citizenship for the workers of the airnabs. Ivazi was not really interested in economics or the army. He was focusing more on the citizens and their welfare and health. The medication saw a huge technological boost during Ivazi's era, and the average lifespan grew by 20% just during Ivazi's era. Everything went okay in Golden Empire until Ivazi's death in 270 BC. Ivazi's last wishes were to transfer the rule to his 5 sons who would rule the Golden Empire together. These men were Vorel, Aqein, Vizun, Ozan, and Lazat. The system was very confusing, as nothing like this was ever seen before in Shanting. People began doubting the effectiveness of the system.

Post-Golden Empire era / Early Sazian times : 200 BC - 42 BC

This new system had many other frauds, that caused the system to be very inefficient. Despite being the sons of Ivazi, the leaders had little knowledge of how to rule A large empire. The brothers also had lots of arguments with each other, which in extreme cases turned to straight-out brawls. around 212-209 BC, these leaders were eventually dethroned by their sons, and things went out of hand really quickly. In order to make sure no one fights against each other, everyone was given an area from the Golden Empire for them to lead independently. This which caused the Golden Empire to break up into several pieces. In 204 BC, Foziva, the leader of the Colonies in Kuzikstan island, decided to break up from the Golden Empire due to instability within the quickly crumbling empire. Other leaders didn't even seem to notice this, as they were busy fighting each other on the Sazistan island. Foziva began building the kingdom of Ärnäbisvanimi, trying to bring back the kingdom similar to Veqel's Golden Empir.

After losing it's important trade destination, Ärnäbisvanimi had to look down south for trade partners. The Kuzian civilization, Qyzlirian tribes and the nomadic Jazenojans became the main trade partners for Ärnäbisvanimi, who shared their technology across the island. Kuzian civilization saw a huge boost in their technology after the Yurqusaqur-route was established between the two kingdoms. While Kuzians concentrated on defending their lands and improving agriculture, Jazenojans were fully focused on the armanent of their soldiers. Most of the Jazenojans got Ärnäbisvanimi technology by ravaging the tribes deep in the Quinerian lands. They were aware of Kuzia, and left them alone for now, because they knew Kuzia was yet far more powerful. It did not take long time until Kuzians began building their own inventions based on Ärnäbisvanimi tools. Quinerian tribes were yet not united under one, strong leadership, and they did not have their own army. However, the local tribes did have quite well equipped soldiers, and many tribes were at constant war between each other. The Quinerian settlements were only a mile or two away from each other, and they had quite low population compared to the cities of the biggest civilizations. The biggest settlements were surrounded by a wooden wall and had few thousand people while smallest ones had only couple dozen people.

After Ärnäbisvanimi left the Golden Empire, It was finally decided by Lesvita I, the leader of the capital area, and Sattan Kuten, that the Golden Empire will be cut into several "sazamas", translating into "Districts" in order for every leader to mind their own business. It was quite clear that the Golden Empire pretty much ceased to exist after the districts were put in place. However, the leaders were harshly thinking that they were leading the real Golden Empire. The districts were the Dakén District in Hurona, Hyrdy District, Lesthyrdy District, and Golden District, which covered the oldest parts of the Golden Empire, including Sattan Kuten. Despite being the most organized of all districts, the Golden District had a relatively small army, meanwhile, Dakén District was a technological & military powerhouse.

The Golden Empire saw its final days in 198 BC when Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy Districts attempted to take over all of the Golden Empire once again and attacked together Sattan Kuten. The body and brutal war lasted for 2 years, and approximately 8 million people lost their lives. Neither side wanted to give up, and the commanders from both sides threw up everything they had to the war, including civilians. The so-called "Last War" ended in 196 BC after the very last armed personnel of Golden District were destroyed in the ruined Sattan Kuten. 98% of the infrastructure in Sattan Kuten and nearby cities was destroyed apart from some temples and the Golden City surrounding the Sattan Kuten temple.

The Golden Empire was no more. The remaining survivors in Golden District attempted to regroup again and managed to rebuild a settlement down south. The settlement was called "Sazeja", translated into "New(eja) Hope(Saz)". The sheer willpower of the survivors helped in rebuilding a new kingdom before Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy could revive their army, come back and take over the Sazistan island. Both Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy began hating each other, as they both had exactly the same goals, and both of them thought they were more important. Huriva's Empire, formerly the Dakén District, began spreading north with their large military power in order to reform the lands that were handed over to them. There was no bigger, organized civilization on their way, which made conquering the southern half of Hurona very easy. However, getting through the forests of Dark Heart took dozens of years from Huriva's Empire to pass through.

In 170 BC, Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy went to war against each other and had to leave the rapidly growing power of Sazeja alone. Each kingdom used very similar equipment until 160 BC, which made the identifying enemy very hard, and friendly kill was very common. Sazeja was the first one along with Hyrdy to change the colors of their soldier differently from the golden and red colors. Sazejans adapted green and gold-colored cloths, while Hyrdyans decided to paint their cloth and armor in pure black color, with meaning to cause further panic in the opposing side: It was believed in Saqunism that color black brings nothing but death around , which caused many armies to flee due to fear of certain death. This did not apply to Kutenist Sazejans. Hyrdyan soldiers had a big advantage on night fights, though. It was very hard to identify the true amount of the soldiers or the spies under the night sky. That's why they were called "Soqe Skorpio" by the enemies, meaning "Black Scorpion". Scorpions attacks are very sudden, and they can hide very well, which perfectly fitted the description of the Hyrdyan soldier. Many Hyrdyan soldiers also kept the Scorpion symbol, which was widely used by the Golden Army back in the Golden Empire times.

In 157 BC, Hurivans began building a new, massive city to the east. They named it "Vilia", later on, transformed into Wyla. The current capital city Dakén was originally located in a strategically very disadvantageous place, and it was quite hard to defend. Therefore the current leader of Huriva's Empire, Huriva II, decided to build a new city from scratch to the east, where the capital could be easier to defend. The area in which the new city was built was surrounded by 2 large rivers, which made defending it way easier than Dakén. The very first building that was built there was the "Home of the Dynasty", or "Vilia Dynasty Temple". The Vilia Dynasty temple, built by tens of thousands of local slaves, soon became one of the most magnificent ancient buildings ever built in Shanting.

The Dynasty temples were built in every major city in the Huriva's Kingdom. They were the symbol of the absolute power of the reigning dynasty. The Vilia Dynasty temple worked as a home for all of the Huriva family, but it also worked as the military headquarters. In other major cities, the Dynasty temples were much smaller in scale, and they often were occupied by the local generals leading their army groups from there. Each Dynasty temple had living quarters for the dynasty members to live in, in case of the members visit other cities. In 108 BC, Vilia became the largest city in all of Shanting with almost 2 million inhabitants, surpassing Dakén with only 200,000 in the end of the century. Most of the citizens of Dakén moved from the city to Vilia. Only half a million of the inhabitants of Vilia were citizens: Almost 1,5 million people were slaves, who continued building massive palaces and spas for the upper-class citizens to enjoy their life in.

There were 5 social classes in Huriva: The top class was the "Huriva-zas", or Huriva Class, in which only the reigning dynasty members were able to get in. They had all the absolute power of the kingdom, and everyone else had to obey them. The 2nd Highest class was "Veli-zas", or the "Highest Class". They mostly consisted of military generals, diplomats, and the wealthiest citizens. They had regional power, meaning that they had lots of freedom to do anything in their home region/city, but their power did not extend past the borders, and they had to obey the Royal class. The 3rd highest class was called as "Zeveta-zas", Merchant Class. They consisted of wealthy merchants, who owned at least a single medium-sized business. They were the lowest class that could own a palace. The 4th highest, or 2nd lowest class was "Toti-zas", the Worker Class. This consisted of every citizen that was not owning a big business. Many of them did own small businesses or were well-paid workers of the merchants. They often lived in the basic clay houses on the edges of the cities. The lowest class was "Fovoto-zas", the Slave class. These people were either working for very low wages, or didn't get money at all from their job, or they were prisoners of war working for the kingdom. Selling Fovoto-zas people was legal, and many merchants did huge business selling them. About 55% of the population of Huriva were slaves. Everyone who moved in Huriva from other kingdoms had to start as a slave, except if the person moving was from a very high-class family.

In Hyrdy and Sazeja, the slaves were given an offer to join the army and serve for the kingdom. Hyrdyans gave their rookie soldiers harsh and vigorous training for 2 years before they could serve as full-time soldiers. This was done in order to make sure the soldiers will become disciplined and won't cause any problems in wars. In Sazeja, the slaves either straight up joined the army or worked for 2 years in slavery and then were forced to join the army. In order to keep the army as mobile as possible, over 40-year-old soldiers were put in "Siniti", the early form of reserve forces, who would return to normal civil life unless the kingdom is under a great threat. Both Hyrdyan and Sazejan soldiers used fancy plumes in their helmets, like many other kingdoms in order to identify the enemies and friendlies, and also to identify the higher-ranks. Sazejans used a green plume and Hyrdy used a red plume system. Plain color with no stripes was a basic footsoldier. A soldier with several different-colored stripes was a Soqura(Hyrdy) or Viqele(Sazeja), the leader of a group of 5 soldiers. A soldier with half of the plume covered in another color was a higher officer. Cape has been always a sign of power and bravery in Shanting, and Hyrdyan & Sazejan soldiers weren't the only ones. Hyrdyans used the cape mostly for just symbolic purposes, while Sazejans also used their green capes as a type of camouflage.

In 49 BC, Hyrdy successfully conquered Lesthyrdy and integrated all the lands that once were part of the former kingdom. About 4 million Lesthyrdyans were turned into either slaves or thrown in the boot camps for several years. Many of them, however, escaped the kingdom and hopped on Sazeja's side. There were clear signs that both Hyrdy and Sazeja were planning a war against each other. Both had the same goals to unite the island under a single ruler and build a new empire on the ruins of the Golden Empire. Both kingdoms went to war against each other in 45 BC. The army strength of Hyrdy was estimated at around 20,000 and 50,000, while Sazeja probably had somewhere between 30,000-45,000 men. The war continued for numerous years until in 43 BC, Sazeja won the decisive fight in Sacrez, 75kms from Hyrdy to the southeast. About 5,000 Sazejan men managed to encircle almost 10,000 Hyrdyan soldiers in Sacrez Valley. The battle lasted for almost 10 days, resulting in the remaining Hyrdyan soldiers surrendering. About 4,000 Hyrdyans and 700+ Sazejans died in this battle alone, and it was a huge step back for the morale of Hyrdyan soldiers. The war lasted for another year and resulted in Sazejan victory after the death of Hyrdyan king Relzen.

Sazenojan/Early Kuzian era : 42 BC - 100 AD

Sazeja united the island of Sazistan once again under one ruler, and the kingdom was renamed Sazenoja. The leader of Sazenoja, Sveqial claimed to be the sole owner of Ärnäbisvanimi lands, because he himself was coming from a wealthy Ärnäb family before moving to Sazenoja. He sent the claim order for the leader of Ärnäbisvanimi, who then again sent a letter back to Sazenoja. Ärnäbisvanimi was ready to give the original lands to Sazenoja, as long as they are allowed to keep the rest of Ärnäbisvanimi. Ärnäbisvanimi did not have a large army unlike Sazenoja, and therefore it would have been waste of time to fight for it. Sveqial accepted the request, and the original colony lands of the Golden Empire were united with Sazenoja in 29 BC.

Despite Sveqial claims, Ärnäbisvanimi and Sazeja had very close relations after the ceding of former Golden Empire territory, mostly due to improved trade. Both kingdoms began sharing their technology deeper than anyone else, but the inventions slowly began spreading all across Kuzikstan island. Sveqial was aware of Kuzia and Jazkovn, and how big of a threat they could be in the future. Therefore he began focusing more on the military. The Golden Empire-era armory proved to still work with a little tuning.

The unit armory was greatly increased: shoulders were covered with extended steel plates with a golden covering in order for the armor set to match with the cuirass. The extended forearm guards gave more cover for the soldiers in close combat. Ekene-helmet style, used in both Golden Empire and Hyrdy, once again became widespread equipment when the more modern versions came out with more soft padding inside the helmet and more protection to the face. The commanders began wearing their plumes in different ways in order to look more dominant, fancier, and recognizable alongside the soldiers. Most of the time fashion was put before the compatibility, which greatly affected the Sazejan helmet version: It looked very fancy, but especially commanders became easy targets and the soldiers had difficulties seeing their surroundings. This caused many of the soldiers to put their helmets on right before getting into contact with an enemy, so they could observe as much as they can before the fight. Luckily the helmet was way easier to wear than the Hyrdyan & Golden Empire version. Another downside of the new equipment was that it was heavier, but it wasn't a big deal: The soldiers were trained to get stronger and able to wear the armor with only a few mobility problems.

In 48 BC, Sazenoja made an agreement with the Hurivan kingdom that the once so great city of Dakén and it's surroundings would be ceded to Sazenoja. The only thing Hurivans wanted was that the area would be completely demilitaried: No soldiers are allowed to land their foot in Dakén area.

Sazenoja had good trade relations with Huriva & Ärnäbisvanimi, but due to the fear of accidental technology sharing, they cut the trade relations completely with Kuzia but instead kept trade going for Jazenojans, considering them as a smaller threat. There were 2 types of Jazenojans. the traders were those who traveled far distances to trade goods and share information alongside people. Then here were the nomads. They mostly ravaged every single village on their sight and reinhabited them with Jazenojans with the purpose of reproducing more nomads to continue the brutal, nomadic lifestyle. The only villages & settlements Jazenojans did not ravage were the Sazenojan villages and later on Kuzian villages. Quinerian tribes were under the biggest danger, as they were yet so small and had little to no warriors to defend them. Some Quinerian tribes began building their villages on the slopes of steep bedrock hills. These villages became far easier to defend, and sooner or later the Jazenojans began ignoring these types of towns and left them alone.

The historians are still not sure how Kuzians managed to proceed so fast in technology. Even though the leaders of ancient Kuzia fully focused on getting at least the same level of tech as Sazenoja had, They still managed to almost surpass the technology of Sazenoja in 50 AD. Ancient Kuzia also had an interesting faith, in which the reigning dynasty members were praised as upper gods. When a male dynasty member reached the age of 15, they were to either continue their life as a god or return to humanity and become a normal civilian. Many of the dynasty members chose the path of god, and they had to hide their faces from anyone but their families for the rest of their life. Only in the worst execute scenario, the royal member was to show their face to the criminal sentenced to death. Qrevanian Dog was an ancient dog breed found on the eastern shores of Kuzikstan island. In the ancient Kuzian faith, it was believed that their dogs were the souls of the dead leaders, who spent 10 years of their afterlife inspecting the behavior of the people. Therefore every dynasty member had to wear a heavy, well-covered mask resembling the face of Qrevanian dog. During a war or in ceremonies, the leader had to paint their whole body black with charcoal in order to strengthen their godlikeness & power. The names of the leaders were never, ever announced in public, and they all were just called "The upper gods"

Kuzia especially in the Sazenojan era was constantly sending spies and copying the equipment and architecture of Sazeja & Ärnäbisvanimi. They wanted to get the newest inventions and tune them just better. They copied & tuned the armory of Sazenoja & the agricultural inventions of Ärnäbisvanimi in order to produce them locally. This was quite easy for Kuzians, as they sent hundreds of spies at once who dressed as civilians and therefore didn't raise much suspicion. Kuzia was more aware of what was going on in Sazenoja than Sazenoja knew what was going on in Kuzia. Kuzians attempted to spot the faults in Sazenojan way of doing their things and tried to do the same but erase all these problems. They noticed the lack of border patrol & almost no cavalry in Sazenoja. Therefore the leader of Kuzia in 78 AD decided to form a cavalry regiment & a patrol regiment to their army. Kuzians knew the ability of well-trained horses in the battle better than many other civilizations. They were once the targets of Jazenojans, who mostly traveled and attacked using horses. The horses were extremely fast compared to humans and charging with hundreds of them while riders wielding a spear or shield would be devastating to an army that has never even used cavalry. Horses were used, but not in the military (everywhere else but Jazenoja). At first, chariots were used, but they were nowhere near as effective as the cavalry itself. Therefore chariots were soon thrown out of the military use with a single exception: The leader of Kuzia always traveled to the battlegrounds with a chariot.

Kuzians began building singular watchtowers everywhere in their region in order to prevent some Jazenojan nomads from ravaging singular settlements. They were built close enough that a massive bonfire could be seen from other nearby towers. The bonfire was built on top of the watchtower and was always lit when a threat had been spotted. When a nearby tower saw the bonfire, the guards in the tower had to lit another bonfire, and so on until the message reaches the closest barracks. Each tower had its own simple name, which made it easier for the army to locate the whereabouts of danger. This type of messaging proved to work efficiently, as it only took less than a day (in some cases even less than an hour) for an army to respond to danger. The towers nearby cities were built of stone, while the towers further away near borders were often wooden towers with a stone roof to prevent the whole tower from getting set on fire. If a barrack was under attack, or a larger mass of enemies was rolling over, the guards made green fire by using borax in making the fire. This flame color signaled the neighboring towers of an instant and big danger, in which multiple Kozlatas were needed. In the worst attacks, the main army had to be called.

Borax was a rare salt that was mostly found from the Jazenojan traders, who excavated this salt from dry lakes back in the Jazkovnian deserts. Therefore many towers only had little borax, and it was definitely not thrown when it really wasn't necessary. Any guard that would have falsely alarmed others by throwing borax was often executed by the leader of Kuzia for wasting rare materials.

In order for the army to respond better to enemies, hundreds of independent units (Kozlata) were formed, that all took care of their own region. Every Kozlata's main base was the barracks, which were at first built of wood but when getting closer to 100 AD, these barracks were built of stone and began to look like a real fortress. The barracks itself was built around the main headquarters of the Kozlata. The leader of a Kozlat was called Kozlatire, and they were wearing some kind of plume type as the Sazenojan commanders. A single Kozlata was consisting of Kozlata and his advisers, and 100-300 soldiers. Many Kozlatas also began having their own cavalry units, which were about the size of 50-100 cavalrymen.

In 55 AD, a Nearby civilization called Poqrania saw its own technological revolution. They already had a stable agriculture industry & organized leadership. Unlike Kuzians who copied Sazenojan technologies, Poqranians built their own equipment based on both Kuzian & Sazenojan inventions. Poqrania was owning the largest iron mines in Shanting. They began producing steel in masses for armory and weapons, and their production grew twice as fast as Kuzia & Sazenoja together. Poqranians were familiar with stone, and their capital city, Poq, was mostly built of stone. Alongside Kuzian, Hurivan & Sazenojan capital cities, Poq was one of the biggest cities in Shanting, with an estimated population of 250,000, and one of the few cities that was never attacked by the Jazenojans. The city was a crucial port & trade hub that controlled the trade of south Kuzikstan. The greatest sights in Poq were the "Poqmas Reqpal", Poq's Royal Palace. This massive domed building was surrounded by its own wall and had 3 extraordinary long watchtowers.

This palace complex owned solely by the reigning Poqranisan family was one of the "Great wonders of Shanting". Other 5 Great wonders were the Royal palace of Kuzia, Vilia Dynasty temple, Mausoleum of Ekene, Azon-wall Watchtower, and the city of Dáken. Monumental buildings were seen as the sign of power, and many civilizations, including Huriva, Ärnäbisvanimi, Kuzia, Sazenoja & Poqranistan, spent lots of resources on building these signs of power. Kuzian Royal palace was most likely the biggest of them all, with a size comparable to the Vilia Dynasty temple. The biggest building in the complex was the main palace itself, which was very similar to an actual castle. Since its construction in 30-100 AD, all the leaders of Kuzia have been residing there for the rest of their lives all the way until 1853 AD. These buildings made people across Shanting interested in traveling, and early forms of traveling for leisure were slowly forming. Traveling across the Shanting was very risky, as Jazenojan nomads could attack at any time. Therefore travelers either moved in massive, protected convoys or hired either Poqranian or Trinian mercenaries.

Trinian civilization was dependent on the slave trade from which they got 90% of their wealth. Originally the founders of the Trinian civilization weren't the Trinians, but Jazenojan traders who decided to stay in the tropical wonderland down south. These trade lords subdued the native Trinians under their rule and began trading them as mercenaries and workers across the Shanting. This slave trade made the Jolzen, the most important slave city of Trinia, into a massive trade hub and opened the trade routes across the South of Kuzikstan. The trade routes were connected with Sazenojan, Hurivan, Kuzian, Ärnäbi, and Poqranian cities. Without the slave trade, Trinia would have been absolutely nothing but hundreds of small tribes destined to get eventually be ravaged by Jazenojans.

The architecture across Shanting varied a lot. While Poqranian architecture (stone as the main part) became widespread in the following centuries. Many civilizations had their own style of architecture. Kuzians used concrete as the main tool to build their constructions. Sazejans still used limestone & unbaked bricks as the main material for construction. Usage of marble was widespread in Huriva, and it was in use in the greatest constructions in both Kuzia and Sazenoja. the most important building material in Ärnäbisvanimi was wood. 90% of all buildings were made of mostly wood, as it was ver easy to access and cheap compared to other materials. Jazenojans had only a few permanent cities, most of them consisting of hundreds of clay huts. Temporary villages often lasted only a month or two, mostly used as the main base for the Jazenojan nomads to rest before ravaging another nearby village. Most of the buildings were just tents made of cattle skin. Jazenojans were the biggest threat to the villages in Quiners plateau & in Kjarlemad, while Jazenojans themselves didn't have any real threat: They were the apex predator of the civilizations surrounding them. Because they had no other direct threat, they did not have any defense systems around, which later on turned out to be the main reason why they eventually collapsed.

Hurivans, Sazenojans, and eventually Kuzians & Poqranians paved their roads with cobblestone in order to make the roads more pleasant for both animals & humans to move on. The largest cobblestone road systems were found in Huriva, Sazenoja & Kuzia. Hurivan Empire grew into a massive empire after their full successful conquest of all of Hurona. Hurivans wanted to connect all the major cities together and built the "Huron-Trade-route". Sazejans used the same cobblestone roads that were still remaining from the Golden Empire times. Kuzians built their cobblestone road network in order for their armies to travel faster & more direct way to their destinations than before. Poqranians didn't bother to build large road networks but rather concentrated on building excellent roads in the biggest cities. In Ärnäbisvanimi, the corduroy road network was in widespread use.
Kuzians initiated a large-scale conquering program in 80 AD, taking over dozens of villages & tribes from the northern shoreline, and made border contact with the Poqrania down south. Many of the tribes did not want to put up a fight against the overwhelming Kuzian Kozlatae. Doing so could result in either half of the villagers being turned into slaves or forcefully turned into soldiers or executed. However, there were 7 tribes, who from the sky formed a V-shape, who decided to stand against the conquerors. They were called the "V-talat", or "V-alliance" in English. These tribes were of Yurqumanian origin, which was a belligerent, large ethnic group on the eastern coastline north of modern-day Kuzia. They pillaged and ravaged the nearby tribes, which also boosted the other tribesmen's will to join Kuzia in seek of safety.

Kuzians used a "Viz el Teleai", or "Join or die"-mechanism. The Kozlatire of a Kuzian Kozlata called the leader of the target village outside the gates of their home while the rest of the Kozlata prepare to encircle the whole tribe. If the tribe leader isn't willing to join despite Kozlatire's attempts to negotiate, he will order the Kozlata to attack from all directions at once and destroy any kind of resistance. The V-talat villages noticed this tactic and unlike other villages hiding their soldiers inside their walls, the V-talat villages ordered their armies outside in order for them to attack the encircling forces from behind.

The Kozlata LXXXIX (89th) was the first Kozlata to make a contact with a V-talat town in 82 AD. The town name was unknown, but the first attack made by the Kozlata faced a failure as the Yurqumanian forces attacked from behind, which caused chaos at first in the Kozlata. Before losing even more soldiers, the Kozlatire ordered a temporary retreat in order to regroup. A cavalry regiment was called upon and made the Yurqumanian soldiers flee inside their home walls. On the following day, the Kozlatire sent dozens of spies to investigate the terrain & location of enemy soldiers. As the spies noticed that a surprise attack was nowhere to be seen, they hurried back to the barracks and gave all the information they had. As the sun went back down, the Kozlata was given an order to attack the town without any warning in order to make sure that the enemies wouldn't have time to plan another surprise attack. At first, ballistae were used to shoot massive arrows covered in tar that was set in flames. The ballistae arrows hit the wooden walls and in a matter of minutes, the town was in flames, and the people who fled the town were met by Kuzian iron blades. Almost all of the town burnt in ashes and every villager living there was either killed or enslaved.

The V-talat had a decent army and used guerilla tactics, but their soldiers were still nothing compared to thousands of well-trained, disciplined elite soldiers of Kuzian Kozlatae. The last V-talat settlement was destroyed in 88 AD, which marked the total Kuzian hegemony in the area. Kuzia began immediately reconstructing the new villages in order to make life better for the people. Many small towns did lose their marketplaces, however, as the Kuzians wanted that the trade had to be concentrated in big cities, and small towns are working as a home for the workers that work in nearby forestry, mines, or farms for instance. In order to make it easier for people to move around, newly paved paths were built to connect the villages with the cities. an early form of mass-transport became a thing, as some people decided to make a business out of carrying people from town to town for money. Carriages became bigger as the transporters wanted more people to fit in their carriages at once and therefore gain even more money.

Kuzians took note of the effectiveness of the ballistae in encircling especially the wooden fortresses, and it became an important weapon in penetrating through the walls and lighting everything on fire when covered in tar. However, they definitely weren't the easiest to carry around, so they were mostly used by the biggest Kozlatae against the biggest fortresses & towns. Trebuchets were also invented with the hope to launch bigger rocks at the enemy forces. New professions began forming in the Kozlatae as these new weapons of war required lots of soldiers for proper usage: The largest trebuchets needed nearly 200 men in order for them to work properly. The most massive ones were called "Latza-Qol te", "Destroyer of everything". These counterweight trebuchets could launch even a 100kg stone nearly 200 meters away, causing lots of destruction to anything the stone would face. However, Latza-Qol te was rarely seen, and even back then it was an urban legend. The only record of usage of such a big trebuchet was from the Poqranian battle reports from 199 AD, describing a 'Tall, the frightening structure of wood throwing massive "structures" of stone smashing everything, even a human into pieces upon impact, from so far away even the arrows shot by human force can't reach it.' It's likely that the Latza-Qol te was mostly used as a way to scare the enemies under attack to surrender before their towns would be destroyed by such a beast. Ballistae shooting arrows & smaller trebuchets were in wide use, however, as they were way easier to carry around and it was easier to carry ammunition for them.

JAZENOJAN ERA : 100 AD - 1000 AD

In 111 AD, Jazenoja was united by Jumiza Gunma. For the first time in history, the nomadic Jazenojans had a single leader that had to be obeyed by everyone. However, there were hundreds of rogue Jazenojan tribes, who weren't interested in being ruled by a single leader they didn't even know, and therefore fled north. Jazenoja under Jumiza grew drastically after dozens of successful raids & conquest campaigns led by him. During the raids, many locals were straight-up executed, and females were enslaved & forced to marry the conquerors. Jumiza was a physically strong and brave king, who often was the first one to make a contact with the enemy. Many rumors were spread across Shanting about a strong nomad king who could kill hundreds of enemies without getting a single wound. The weapon of choice of the king wasn't fully known. It's been speculated that the king would use a poleaxe of some sort for ceremonial purposes, but switched to a Kreze, a scimitar-lookalike sword during the battle. Some legends say that the king tucked his battleaxe on the ground and switched to Kreze before charging towards the enemy followed by his soldiers. To show even further his strength, Jumiza's poleaxe blades were told to be made of gold, making it so heavy even many of his soldiers couldn't carry it around. The Jumiza's poleaxe was found from his grave in 1989, and it most likely was covered in gold, as there was found the little source of gold in the blades. However, the rest of the blades were just normal iron, meaning that Juzima most likely used the poleaxe just to show him being stronger than he actually was.

Juzima's own soldiers used regular lances, while commanders used are just like the king. The soldiers used hardened leather in their armor, while the commanders & the king also had some iron armor under the leather. Jazenojans never really wrote anything up, which has made researching their history accurately very hard, and most of the information regarding them is coming mostly from legends and stories that have survived from that age. For example, it's told that the Jazenojan soldiers use face masks in order to frighten the enemy forces before making a contact with them. However, the truth behind this isn't known, as there ain't enough war masks found from battlefields of that age that would possibly signify a wide usage of them in battlefields. It's also not known how many casualties, if any, were taken by Jazenojans.

Before the unification of Jazenojans, the raids made by the nomads were often smaller in scale and some bigger tribes & kingdoms actually managed to defend themselves from them. However, the Jazenojan united army was many times larger than the rogue nomads and the soldiers' skill drastically increased due to the appearance of the systematic training system. Bigger kingdoms like Trinia down south became the first targets and had a rough time holding the Jazenojans out of their borders. Trinian forces barely managed to keep the raider groups of Jazenoja out of their border, but unfortunately for them, it was all just the beginning.

Jumiza died in a duel against another strong Jazenojan warrior, who challenged the king to a duel in 134 AD. The warrior's name was Tezin, who after defeating Jumiza in the duel, became the king. Tezin was annoyed by Jumiza's style to attack a single enemy with one massive overwhelming army. Therefore he formed multiple units led by the most trustworthy & skilled warriors he had met during the battles. He formed 12 large units that were sent across Shanting to ravage & conquer.

One of these units was led by Kozuin, the little brother of Tezin. His unit traveled mostly by sailing the seas, ravaging the towns & villages on the shoreline across Shanting & North Meridian sea. Tezin's exploration missions eventually led him to land on the shores of Quziq, more specifically on the Grigotza. At first, they traded with the locals, but after noticing their primal lifestyle, Tezin's forces ravaged many of the tribes located in Grigotza, capturing almost 50% of all men and bringing them back to Jazenoja as slaves or soldiers. Tezin's unit also made the first attack on a great civilization in Ärnäbisvanimi after ravaging the city of Kenim (Qualres).

Tezin wasn't as gruesome to the enemies as Jumiza, and he & his unit leaders often offered a duel between the commander of the unit & the enemy leader. If the duel was accepted, the two leaders fought against each other without any assistance until either one gave up or died. If the enemy won the duel, their settlement was left alone for a long while. If the Jazenojan commander won the battle, the enemies had to peacefully surrender & fall under Jazenojan command. If the enemies declined the offer for a duel, the enemy forces were destroyed & the settlements pillaged. The Jazenojan style of dueling began spreading across Shanting after wandering ravelers began telling rumors of magnificent duels by Jazenojans. Dueling became an essential part of warfare in many tribes & kingdoms, and it slowly began turning barbaric & brutal warfare into art. In 300 AD, the warfare was not seen as a horrific bloodbath, but a great, wanted, & exalted way of showing the person's skills in disagreements.

The year 322 AD is often called the "Great Kuzian revolution in Art of Warfare". Kuzians was excited about the art of dueling and took it to next level: While showing great skills in dueling, Kuzians wanted it to really resemble art. Unique & magnificent-looking weapons were crafted for the best duelists, and the style of armor went almost absurdly out of the practicality. People wanted to look magnificent to the crowd in order to gain fame. The first celebrities were born, as the words of several great duelists began appearing across Shanting. Dueling in the areas north of Kjarlemad became leisure for the civilian population and a good hobby for the army commanders. When the word of 2 great duelists facing each other somewhere began spreading, maybe even thousands of people across the continent came to see the duels, which lasted from half an hour to just a few seconds. The early form of sponsoring appeared for the first time, when some rich burghers began supporting their favorite duelists, who in exchange praised the burgher and his products. The most professional & hardcore duelists had 2 duels in a single week, while most "amateur" duelists (regular soldiers) had maybe a single duel in a month.

The first known celebrity duelist that gained widespread fame was Levu (221 AD - 249 AD), a retired Aernaebi commander, who was a farmer-hunter before his dueling career. Levu was known for being the first duelist to effectively use a bow during the duels, which gave him a great advantage when the opponent was further away. If the opponent managed to dodge his shots, Levu had several knives to protect himself. On rare occasions, Levu might have even used his sword, but most likely he used it for artistic purposes only. According to the very few dueling results & duelist information and paintings that has survived until this age, Levu used a black mask to hide his identity & a hood and cape, both being dark green. He might have used a golden-governed chest plate & knee and forearm guards, but otherwise, he was most likely lightly armored. Levu was one of the first duelists to become self-dependent on dueling, as he won most of the duels he had in his life with just one exception which led to his death in 249 AD.

Dueling was an important part of the royal & noble life. The art of dueling was soon romanticized in Trinia, Kjarlemad & jazenojan regions too, where it originated as a basic act of diplomacy & war. The greatest duelists were often hired as the commanders of the armies and gained the name "Kevela", an Aernaebi name meaning "Godlike". They often were given free land, a fortress, and their own army & town to be ruled over. The Kevala-system was practiced in Poqranistan, Kuzia, Saz & Ärnäbisvanimi.

In 183 AD, a large tribe in Quiners province called Zamese grew so powerful that they made an attempt to take over all the towns around them and make them under their control. The operation was successful, and in 189 AD, the Qynere was officially marked as one of the great kingdoms of Shanting, as their trade hub Zameszky, meaning "The river of Zamese". Zameszky has always been quite a big town, but when nearing 200 AD, it saw rapid growth and the infrastructure became comparable to other great kingdoms. The name Zamese was shortened to Zames in order to make it easier & faster to pronounce for other inhabitants. Eventually, the Zameszky fortress became so strong that it withstood almost all the nomad attacks.

Around the same time in 192 AD, the green bonfires were spreading across the hundreds of watchtowers down south near the Poqranistan-Kuzian border region. The Kozlatae CXLI, CXLV, LIII & LXIX were the first ones to respond to the danger, while LXVIII was hurrying to the capital city to inform the leader. The Kozlatae sent to inspect the danger got into full contact with the Poqranian army, which marked the start of the Poqranian War. Before the war started, the original royal family of Kuzia had died, which marked the end of the tradition of the royal members hiding behind the masks. The new royal family, which was most likely had ties to the modern Bjuzka-family, was way more secular and wasn't believing in the same religion as the former royal family. Poqranians were thinking that this shocking event would cause the Kuzia to go under a civil war, and would be a great opportunity for Poqranistan to take over their rivals. However, the civil war never happened and the new leader announced to his people that they may believe whatever they want, as long as they don't turn against him.

The war escalated quickly across the Western shores of Kuzikstan, and many tribes started seeking safety, either by uniting with either Poqranistan or Kuzia or forming their own coalitions. The war lasted for almost 30 years until in 222 AD, the two kingdoms signed a truce. The truce was signed after the battle of Vezl Plains in Poqranistan, which was the bloodiest battle of the war, having nearly 20,000 casualties in a matter of a day. In general, the war was chaotic and barbaric, which, made the two leaders call out for other kingdoms to sign a treaty of ending the barbaric style of warfare. The leaders of Saz, Ärnäbisvanimi, Zames, Trinia, Kuzia, Poqranistan and even Jazenoja in the end arrived to Kuzia to discuss about the treaty. This was the first official meeting where multiple leaders discuss together about topics in history of Shanting.

One of the biggest changes in this treaty was the "Civilized War" pact, which marked the beginning of a phenomena that can't be found anywhere else in Northern Utopia: Show battles, nowadays known as Staged Warfare. Unlike in normal way, each side must inform the enemy about their main position before the battle begins.

Both sides had one "Sodaliqipu"-barrier. Sodaliqipu, or the war flags were large, often 10 meters wide flags. There was 3 colors of Sodaliqipu, which are Red, White and Black. All the flags were put on 20-50 meters tall flagpoles, that were often tucked on the ground before the battle starts. It was considered very rude and immoral to not raise a Sodaliqipu before the battle starts, and the losing side was always the first one to lower the flag. The battle lasted so long until one side lowered the flag. Blank red Sodaliqipu was the most common sight in the battlefields. It meant that the battle is fought in a basic matter, and any unarmed soldier is to be let alive. Any prisoners of war were spared in the battles with red Sodaliqipu. White Sodaliqipu often was a bit more uncommon, but still quite a normal sight. The side which is already winning the war was often using this flag. The blank white sodaliqipu was basically an offer for the other side to surrender before any lives are lost. If the other side accepted and decide to surrender, they will lower their Sodaliqipu to half-mast. If they decline the offer, they had to replace their flag with a blank white one, meaning that the battle will be fought anyway. Black Sodaliqipu was quite a rare sight, and something no one never wanted to see. Jazenojan armies were known of large usage of blank black Sodaliqipu, but no one else really used it. The black Sodaliqipu was a sign of "No Mercy given". Basically the user of black Sodaliqipu announces that they will not hesitate to kill unarmed soldiers and prisoners of war in the battle. The other side often reacted by replacing their current flag with a black one, promising the exact same thing. Another, way riskier way was to lower the current sodaliqipu to half-mast which meant surrendering. This was very risky, because the wavers of black Sodaliqipu could possibly attack anyway. This kind of act was very rare if excluded the reign of Jazenojan Fezeil-Dynasty that showed their merciless way of leading from 288 to 400.

The staged wars were fought on a site the defending side have decided to fight at. Going past the borders of the said battleground was strictly prohibited and immoral, as there was a danger of civilians getting killed. Thousands upon thousands of civilians arrived to watch these shows every time they were held. If some kingdom wanted to expand their borders to another kingdom, they the provoker had right to challenge the defender, who then again has right to to bring as many soldiers and choose any battleground they want to fight at. Because all the destruction happened in strictly planned way, the war wasn't seen as a barbaric nor violent anymore, but an entertaining, daily show for the civilians.

In 688 AD, the "Krels Aqryzte" was formed which was the first-ever academy with multiple schools across Kuzia. The Krels Aqryzte main school located in modern-day Kuzisktania was the largest of them all, and it became the home of innovation and culture. When Krolqa-Dynasty that led Kuzia since 200 AD died out in 833, the new Uqsroz Dynasty took over and made an attempt to further expand the education to lower classes. While under Krolqa rule, only high-class inviduals were allowed to the Krels Aqryzte, Uqsroz IV opened even more sub-schools across Kuzia and allowed the middle-class to get educated in 912. Education became so important that it was a requirement for every high-class person over 18 years to join Krels Aqryzte.