Angst

Introduction

The entries in these chronicles deal with the Province of Chaldea, originally comprising the Arabian Peninsula. The Known World has the Arabian Peninsula as its southernmost limit. These Chronicles trace the growth of Chaldea into an independent realm in the years between 105 and the early 120s.

I took over the running of Chaldea in 1983, the campaign year of 105. Mustasha, then aged 24, ruled a recently united province, having taken over from his father, Suren, who first united the East and west desert horse nomads in 102. In the years following, Mustasha incorporated and settled the lands and towns of the south bank of the Lower Euphrates - Sheba, Kuwait, Tehran and Sirjan - radically transforming Chaldean society. Tehran gave Chaldea a port and trade outlet into the Eastern Ocean, and although these acquisitions were modest in relation to the desert population of the province they have had a disproportionate influence on Chaldea's development.

The early entries in the Chronicles are taken in part from old back copies of the News of the Known World and in part from my notes based on other sources, notably records translated and transcribed in winter 106/7 on the social, political and economic and military organisation of Chaldean society. Later entries deal with more recent campaigns and other events.

Maps are provided courtesy of the GM, Zeus.

Jim

Map of the Eastern part of New Persia, including the northern areas of Chaldea

Angst

Recent history

Early origins

The definitive record of the Known World is The News of The Known World that was first produced in the year 101 as The Quarterly Review of World Affairs. In that issue is the first mention of the province that later became known as Chaldea: As far as I have been able to determine from the archives, Chaldea was then divided into the East and West Black Arabs inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula, an area without any permanent settlements, but centred on The Great Oasis. Land ownership was then an unfamiliar and foreign idea, social life being ordered through Grazing Rights.

In some records the areas in which these people lived is referred to as Eblas and Weblas. In recent history - and particularly in the annual provincial financial records - it is more commonly referred to as Rising Desert and Setting Desert, the change in nomenclature reflecting the unification of the earlier eastern and western Provinces into a single Chaldean Province.

The Black Arabs were – and still predominantly are - a nomadic horse people living in great poverty and simplicity, surviving by trade, by raiding neighbouring lands, and by hiring out their horse-skirmishers in mercenary companies to wealthy warlords in the rich north and sometimes also to Stephanus the Golden, ruler of Sassanidia. The Pontic Empire – the largest of the three Persian empires (the other two being New Persia and Sassanidia) was a regular user of these mercenary companies. Recruiting mercenaries was a feature of these early times. In an early report in the The News of the Known World it was recorded that in the winter 102/3 Pontic agents were actively recruiting in Chaldea. No doubt they had been doing so long before this.

Trade has always been important, especially with the rich north – timber from the Lebanon, grain from Mesopotamia, heavy horses, armour and other manufactured products from further north still - and Africa where the Nile Valley provided grain, ivory, slaves and gold. Chaldea has always suffered a chronic shortage of grain which it bought with its local products: herbs and spices, slik (a kind of silk obtained from a desert grub), horses, ponies, camels, and later also pearls from the fishing villages along the Eastern Ocean.

One of the first mentions of Chaldea in The News of the Known World (that is, to the outside world) is found in Pontic records around 104, though it had been clearly extant long before this. The most famous mercenary leader ever produced by Chaldea was Seljux, a younger son of the ruling house of Qabal Failak. Seljux was killed under unclear circumstances (possibly assassinated) in 113 aged 50. At the height of his fame he led an independent force of some 10,000 horse-skirmishers (though they were often operating in different companies spread over the entire known world from the North Sea to the Black Sea, hired out to different potentates).

Much later, when Mustasha could afford to create a standing 3-division army of horse-skirmishers, the largest division was made up of Seljux' mercenaries and named after him. The other division was named the Pontic Division as previously they had been mercenaries serving the Pontic Empire on a semi-permanent basis (the third division was the Guard Division).

The unification of the East and West Black Arabs: The Chaldean Concord
was the great task of the dominant Qabal, that of Hamid, and a triumph of Suren’s diplomacy. At the time of Sheikh Sadiq that precedes this era his son Suren ruled Weblas and in 101 Suren’s son Mustasha, who had hitherto been Suren's Crown Prince, was granted the rule of Eblas.

As mentioned in the above quote, the Sheikhs of Qabal Hamid had been loyal satraps of the Empire of New Persia, that already then was ruled by Angustus, owing him fealty and paying tax to the Imperial treasury.

In Aufield 102 Eblas and Weblas were united under New Persian protection as the Principality of Chaldea and ruled by Suren. In an arrangement known as The Chaldean Concord. Mustasha took over as ruler in 103. Internally, the unification of 102 involved a highly complex deal between the major Qabals - even if the driving force behind the process may well have been external. The key was the rivalry between two powerful Qabals – Failak and Na’im – each unwilling to give the other precedence. Qabal Hamidwas well-placed to emerge as the compromise solution and Suren skillfully exploited this to get himself accepted. His extensive alliances with both Failak and Na’im, plus the smaller Qabals of Manasir and Qatir proved decisive.

This deal was highly complex and hinged upon the conquest of the South Bank Euphrates which Chaldeans if united could achieve under New Persian suzerainity - ruled then as know by the Emperor Angustus. Its main component was a series of marriage-alliances and land-deals to ensure that all qabals benefitted, and not just tribes bordering on the lands in question. Had the conquest of south bank lower Euphrates failed, the province of Chaldea would almost certainly have collapsed into civil war. The main beneficiaries were the Failak, Hamid, Na’im and Manasir, involving desert pasture swaps principally from Hamid to Na’im. Failak also lost their common border with Manasir. The deal also included a series of marriages. The simultaneous marriages of Abraham to a Failak and of Alzena (Mustasha’s cousin) to a Na’im were the main ones. The deal also included a provision that the Sheikhs of Failak and Na’im retain their honorary Al-Khalifah titles of the provincial rulers of Eblas and Weblas, respectively.

Angst

Incorporation of South Bank Lower Euphrates

In winter 103 and into the autumn of 104 Mustasha conquered the south bank lower Euphrates and the first towns to come under his rule. He did so by leading the levies on wide-ranging raids, first against the rural areas, later against the towns. One by one these areas were subdued and conquered, then incorporated into Chaldea.

[UQuotes from early issues of The News of the Known World


The balance of power in the immediate aftermath of the conquest of South Bank Euphrates
Throughout 105 all energies were taken up sharing and settling the new lands between the river and desert. They were more extensive than originally planned for, so some last-minute alterations were made to the land transfers at a meeting of all the Sheikhs at the Great Oasis in the winter of 105. The Failak succeeded in strengthening their position and emerging especially favoured. This, plus the recent development of pearl-diving, is likely to result in a relative increase in Failak power.

A natural consequence of this has been to push the Hamid and Na’im sheikhs closer together, to maintain the Hamid “balancing act”: hence Mustasha’s interest in extending Chaldean influence west into Nubia, which would benefit the Na’im especially.

Mustasha’s interest in South Bank must also be understood in this light. At the Qabal Sheikh councils where the land carve-ups were settled, Suren, on Mustasha’s advice, pressed Sheikh Shakhbut several times on whether he intended to settle the Tehran and Kuwait ruins, and he did so in a tone to imply Failak betrayal of nomadic values. Shakhbut eventually fell into the trap and denied any such intention. Mustasha’s subsequent appointment of two of his cousins as Governors to rebuild the towns – directly responsible to him – has therefore greatly enhanced Hamid influence on South Bank at the expense of the Failak. The incorporation of Sirjan into the Chaldean Provincial tax system has exactly the same effect. To a lesser extent, all Mustasha’s dealings with the Syrian cities on South Bank have similar implications.

Shakhbut was naturally furious with Mustasha’s “takeover” of the two deserted towns, but was not in a position to object as he publicly renounced his interest in them – and by Eblas land rights the Failak cannot prevent settlement.

Angst

Marriage Alliances

Under Suren the elder, marriage alliances were negotiated with the other qabals of Chaldea as the cornerstone to the unification of Chaldea. There is no extant record of any major marriage alliances with other ruling families, though one may surmise that there must have been one with Angustus' ruling family of the New Persian Empire, to whom Suren swore allegiance, Chaldea and the occupied lands of South Bank Euphrates becoming its most southerly satrapy.

Pontus
The first major marriage alliance successfully negotiated by Mustasha was with Pontus, his eldest sister Vashti (b.94) marrying the Prince of the Royal House of Pontus, Antigonus Gonades, who held lands around the Dardanelles.

This also incidentally gave the Hamid line a marriage alliance with the Galatian ruling family of Macalix, as Macalix married Ate, the daughter of the Emperor of Pontus.

Both these marriage alliances were to cause severe problems during the Slavonian campaign of 121. This is dealt with in a separate thread.

Attila the Hun
The conquest of New Persia by the norseman Olaf The Hairy in 115 was accomplished with the support of Vikings and Huns. In a Zeus-inspired initiative Mustasha and Attila entered into a double-marriage alliance that was intended eventually to lead to the emergence of a united realm of Chaldea and the Hunnish-held lands east of the Tigris. The marriages took place but the political basis underlying them disappeared, after the re-establishment of the New Persian Empire by Angustus after the death of Olaf the Hairy.

The Nubian Dynasty
Mustasha Junior, younger brother of Mustasha's heir, Suren, was given the rule of Nubia, it being too remote from Chaldea to be held from the Great Oasis. How this kingdom ended under Mustasha Senior's rule is related separately. Suffice it to say here that Mustasha Senior united the squabbling twin sons of Nubia's deceased ruler by managing to get Mustasha Jr. established in a series of complex marriage alliances.