A Brief History of Xaîni Civilisation

The earliest proto-Xaîni civilisations left little impact on the planet or the fossil record - a few stone tools, a handful of megalithic graves. At Q!alishar and Anjar, oases in the south-eastern Xendrakkr desert of Xaldash, rock paintings depict Xaîni co-operating in the hunting of gzin and tsebekka, in what was obviously, at that time, a fertile and well-watered land. In Akíma Lian the stone tombs and processional avenues of the Cloud Ancestor People still stand among the rolling hills of Eil, while in the Archipelagoes there are the shattered stone domes of the Desolation of Kaimöven, which have given rise to so many legends. It is said, and this would fit with other evidence, that still earlier remains lie under the thick jungles of KaShr, but the Xaîni, for reasons of their own, have not chosen to investigate this.

Given the antiquity of Xaîni civilisation, and the relatively slow speed at which it has developed, there is good reason to believe that Xaîni prehistory must have been very long, and it is at first sight surprising that the planet is not littered with prehistoric monuments. However, Xaîni are not, in essence, a social species, and find close proximity to others of their kind difficult. Since they are obligate carnivores, who can supply their dietary needs by hunting (and still do so, for preference, to this day) the factors that produced Earth's first cities (the need for a defensible population centre to house the large numbers required for a successful agrarian lifestyle, as well as the need for social interaction of various kinds) are largely absent, and the various Xaîni cultures have tended to rest lightly on the face of their native world.

The first great civilisations known to Xaîni historians arose in the Archipelagoes, at a stage of cultural development roughly comparable to Earth's early Bronze Age (although with some differences: the Archipelagic culture and its descendants knew something of electrochemistry, but never developed the wheel). The reason for the early evolution of civilisation in this region appears to have been a combination of the restricted space available to island dwellers, which forced them to live in greater proximity than normal, and the relative poverty of protein sources other than fish, which forced the indigenous population to co-operate in the production of boats and nets, and in the actual business of fishing. Once boats were available trade in various foodstuffs, woods and metals rapidly developed between the islands, and later with the wider world. Traders and settlers of the Archipelagic cultures brought their knowledge and their wares to Akíma Lian and their red-painted ships sailed along the Akímali coast and over the Urum Naktaa to Xaldash, creating a trade route that reached eventually the nascent city-states of the Tui-Tar.

A protracted struggle for dominance between Tsund and Kaimöven eventually sent the Archipelagic culture into decline, but in Akíma Lian, a new and vigorous culture was developing. The seven wotinat (loosely, clans) of the Akímali forged a loose federation, bound by ritualised gift giving, a common bardic tradition, and the exchange of scholar-hostages between what, for want of a better term, might be called sacred universities. These sacred universities (Taweth Isaaku) were the heart and foundation-stones of the first true cities of Xaîn. The greatest of the latter were Aldaròn, the City of Copper, which lay in the eastern foothills of the Mironi, and higher still, among the ring of mountains that surround Tir Aíos (the highest peak on Xaîn), Keilishan of the Fountains, where the ti'iret or speakers of the clan federation resided.

Meanwhile, on Xaldash, the Tui-Tari city states like Gep!ta and Shigve had begun to form: again, co-operation was driven by the need to obtain or manage scarce resources (in this case, primarily water). Extensive irrigation projects were developed by these cultures, both to supply the inhabitants' own need for water, and, more importantly, to supply grazing land for the wild herbivores on which the population largely fed. It should be noted that while Xaîni civilisations did not domesticate animals in the sense in which we would understand it (with the possible exception of the riding gzin of the Kerioti peoples), they frequently manipulated the environment to increase the numbers of their prey species.

A number of nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures were also thriving in Xaldash. In the north-west, nomads speaking North Xaldashi languages such as I-Kerioti and Morxanin eventually settled semi-permanently in the rolling and fertile grasslands or along the rocky seacoasts, although the tradition of moving between a summer home and a winter one persisted into much later times. These people also discovered a way to break wild gzin calves and use them for riding beasts: much semi-mystical literature about the bond between rider and beast has been written, which implies an almost telepathic union between the two. The truth of the matter, however, is that the the Kerioti peoples discovered a way to manipulate the pheromonal communications of the gzin herd in a way which allowed them to be directed more or less at will, although fine control was always lacking.

And in the Xedrakkr, the great desert heart of Xaldash, nomadic Xaîni tribes were tackling the toughest environment of all. These people, chief among them the Q!ung, managed not only to survive but to build up a rich and extensive oral culture. They were savage warriors and great poets, possessing almost nothing and encouraged to despise material goods, yet at the same time prone to be moved almost to ecstasy by the beauties of the natural world.

Eventually, after a series of particularly harsh summers, the desert nomads turned their eyes eastwards, towards the thriving and well-watered pastures of the Tui-Tari hinterland. A mystic named Xamwar rose to prominence among the Q!ung, and led them into federation with the other desert tribes. It was part of the desert Xaldashi tradition for shamans to go on quests sent to them in dreams. Xamwar's dreams told him that it was the destiny of the desert peoples to take the hunting grounds of the Tui-Tari states for their own. Other dreamers came forward to confirm this, and before long Xamwar was leading an enormous horde of the toughest fighters on the planet eastwards out of the desert.

The eastern states were rapidly dispossessed of their hunting grounds. Since, unlike humans, Xaîni have never fought for ideological reasons the victors showed no interest in destroying the cities or their culture. Inevitably, exposure to the rich material culture of the east had some influence on the desert peoples, (in particular, at this point they began to develop the plastic arts, such as sculpture) but their own cultural taboos on wealth and possessions (that no-one should own more than he or she could carry) remained largely intact, and to some extent came to influence the Tui-Tari culture.

After some years in the east, Xamwar received further dreams, instructing him to guide the people south. Moving along the coast, skirting the south-eastern barrier range, they came down into the fertile plains of the Nulaii. This must have seemed very like paradise to the desert peoples, and they passed almost forty Xaîni years in this pleasant environment, having killed or driven away the largely peaceful tribes who had inhabited the land.

At this time the now aging Xamwar, and his aide and chosen successor, the shaman Waxal, received dreams bidding them to quit the Nulaii and cross the Urum Naktaa to Akíma Lian. This was not a popular decision among the nomads, but such was the personal prestige of Xamwar that he was eventually able to sway their councils into agreement. Led by the shaman-generals, the entire horde quit the Nulaii. A picked invasion force was ferried rapidly across to establish a bridgehead; the remainder of the nomads followed more slowly behind, a process that took several months to be completed because of the limited number of ships at their disposal.

The Akímali responded vigorously to this invasion of their territory, but proved no match for the Xaldashi warriors. In particular, the tremendous speed with which the Xaldashi troops were able to move took the defenders by surprise, and in this the excellent infrastructure of roads which had been constructed by the Akímali proved their own undoing. Before the clan federation had really grasped the size and ferocity of the enemy facing them, the Xaldashi had already penetrated deep into the land and their warriors were at the gates of Aldaròn and Keilishan.

Numerous poems and songs tell of the fury with which the cities were defended but in the end both fell and were razed by the Xaldashi. The current ti'ir was severely wounded in the defence of Keilishan, and her successor, a young and little-known scholar named A'eldor A'elian Xanello, led most of the surviving defenders in a retreat up into the high peaks. The Xaldashi, unaccustomed to the mountains, and suffering from the altitude, did not pursue them with great vigour, a mistake they were later to regret.

The unknown A'elian proved to be an inspiring leader and a tactical genius. He led the embittered Akímali in seventy years of savage guerilla warfare against the invaders, driving them back, metre by metre, into the lowlands, and towards the sea. Xamwar having died some years previously, Waxal was eventually forced to lead the remaining Xaldashi back across the straights to southern Xaldash. A succession of challenges followed, and although the shaman was able to defeat all those who stood against him, his prestige waned and the tribal union, always intrinsically unstable, rapidly split apart. The desert peoples moved north, tribe by tribe, back towards the Nulaii and the Tui-Tar. Seeking answers to the failure of his dreams, Waxal led the Q!ung further still, back into the desert.

The Akímali had regained their own land, but they were collectively in the grip of xrrukh, the beserker rage which frequently motivates Xaîni to astonishing, if savage, feats. They were determined to pursue the Xaldashi and ensure that no further invasions would be forthcoming by destroying them. They assembled, with some Archipelagese assistance, a fleet to transport them across the strait, and embarked for Xaldash, some 30 000 strong. A'elian also sent emissaries to the people of Keriot and Morxa in the north of Xaldash, and to the Tui-Tar in the east, inviting those people to join in war against the desert nomads.

Some two Xaîni years of warfare followed, at first largely successful for the Akímali. However, after their initial successes in the Nulaii and the southern Tui-Tari-Xendra, they became thinly stretched by the sheer size of their successes, and were suffering because of the unfamiliar conditions. At this point, Waxal led the Q!ung back out of the Xendrakkr, and rallying some but not all of the other nomadic tribes to him, prepared for a devastating confrontation with the old enemy.

The battle afterwards known as the Líwes Aranut took place at the edge of the desert, on a rocky plain bordered by low, flat-topped hills. The Akímali were suffering both from the ferocious heat and dryness, and from the haste with which they had moved north to meet Waxal; realising correctly that the conditions would favour the Q!ung, A'elian intended to prevent Waxal from standing on a battlefield of his own choosing, and had hoped to catch the nomads in the hills, which suited his own people's fighting techniques, but he had been unable to reach them before the enemy. As a result, the battle began to go in favour of the Q!ung. As the fighting reached its height, however, a large force of northerners, led by Xawakast of Morxa, descended from the hills mounted on riding gzin and completely routed the desert people. This moment, when the Morxanin under their seagull banners, and the remaining Akímali met on the field of battle, and Xawakast gave A'elian her sword, and received his in exchange, is considered to be the beginning of the Unification of Xaîn.

A'elian was to spend the rest of his life in the construction of the unified political and cultural entity that was the new Xaîn, laying the foundations of what was to evolve into the Common Culture, and the Common Tongue. The latter, xathmel, was a codification of the creole that had perforced evolved between the Akímali and their Xaldashi invaders, and was deliberately chosen, over the objections of many of the Akímali, to mark a new beginning in relations between the various peoples of Xaîn. Although it was to be long after the death of A'elian himself, at the advanced age of 231 sikildar that the last region of Xaîn accepted Unification, the process was accomplished with surprisingly little bloodshed for so aggressive a species. It should be noted, however, that Xaîni have rarely fought for ideological reasons, as humans would define them, and have never had a religious war. The successors of A'elian guided the nascent Common Culture much as the Akímali ti'iret had done their clan federation, by seeking a consensus in debate. All political structures on Xaîn have been loose ones, scarcely governments at all as humans understand the term, and the new entity was no exception. However as the Xaldashi and the Archipelagese peoples entered the Unification, their own concepts of societal structure came to strongly influence the Common Culture, while many of the cultural concepts inherited ultimately from the Q!ung and the other desert peoples came to predominate. Eventually, the last of the nominated successors in the direct line from A'elian died suddenly without nominating a replacement. At this time, not without some minor violence between the factions, a Xaldashi named Xasil Sharn came to 'move to the centre', as the xathmel phrase has it. This, for Xaîni historians, marks the end of the A'elianic Mandate, and the beginning of the Mandate of the Sharn.

Xasil Sharn proved almost as influential in shaping the course of history as A'elian himself. By the time of his death the essential structure of Xaîni society was as it has remained thoughout subsequent ages. At this time the post of shushin or leader acquired its name and definition. The shushin represents the quintessence of what it is to be Xaîni for a given time and place. A shushin does not command armies or make legislation - indeed, there is no word for 'law' in any Xaîni language. The shushin's function is simply to be. If the shushin is well chosen, his or her views and attitudes will be reflected by most Xaîni. Those attitudes are reflected and propagated by the Shulai Daine Tsumina, or Instrument of Secret Correction, a cross between secret police and landscape gardeners, whose function it is to maintain conditions favourable for keld, or dynamic harmony; and by the Shulai Keldine Vaodaplathna, or Instrument of Balanced Use, which regulates the ecologically sound use of resources. Individual regions or ieth are administered by members of the Tsinjan caste according to the local tradition, and the Kenderi Lenner, or Sixth Power of Eight, the council of administrators, meets in its entirety only to affirm the moving to the centre of the new shushin.

There have been three mandates since the mandate of the Sharn ended, namely those of Mai, Xwa, and, most recently, Tsai. Normally the shushin recommends a successor, or an obvious successor exists; in such circumstances, the mandate is considered to continue. Only if there is widespread dispute, or the Kenderi Lenner rejects the old shushin's recommendation, does a new mandate come into being. The mandate has rarely been inherited by blood relatives, although a nominated successor is frequently adopted into the 'azeran of the shushin and an exception to this general rule occurred with the Mai shushin Morad, who was succeeded by his daughter Ifsanxar, and his grandson Morad II. However, the Moradic line were all exceptionally talented in their own right.


The Xaîni and their world

The World Xaîn

The Languages of Xaîn