Emesa Hundred/1st Edition/3

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EMESA HUNDRED 3
 


Often that tribute took the form of wild beasts for southern sport; the Beast Fair is an echo of those times.

The slow decline of the Empire accelerated during the 550’s as the provinces along the Thard were ravaged by disease and famine. Emesa remained free of the Red Death and even the Jihad ignited by the impaling of Balsha had little direct impact on the settlement. In 566 traders brought news of the fall of the last Emperor and, a few years later, the founding of the Theocracy of Tekhos. The only difference it made in Emesa was that the name on the documents accompanying their tribute had changed. All that remained of Emesa’s imperial past were the earth parapets on which the legionary palisade sat, and a series of low mounds marking the foundations of various Corani structures.

Theocracy[edit | edit source]

Over the next 20 years Emesa was slowly drawn back into the stream of southern events as refugees brought frightful news of the Theocracy’s excesses. In 583 the arrival of Hugai Lynnaeous brought organisation to the rebellious refugees and their hosts. Scion of a minor Corani clan driven to brigandage by theocratic persecution, Hugai began to shape local discontent into organised resistance.

When, in 588, revolts and uprisings erupted across the Theocracy, Hugai saw his chance. He marched south to take Tormau with Emesan support and their Kuboran allies watching his flanks. He proclaimed himself King; his realm extended a little over 5 leagues from his keep.

During the Interregnum which followed the death of Horahnam of Tekhos, Hugai played a careful political hand. He balanced the need to build a powerbase around Tormau with demands from the Golothan Theocracy for loyalty. Meanwhile he cultivated the Emesans for the favour of their Kuboran friends and relatives. This policy was continued by his son, Henail, who offered the local Kuborans direct trade. He was well placed when the next wave of turmoil arrived.

Kingdom & Hundred[edit | edit source]

In 621 a warrior called Arlun won the leadership of the Obodu Kubora. Over the next eight years he moulded the diverse Kuboran tribes into a potent weapon of his will. That weapon swept south out of Peran in 629, bypassing Emesa, on a broad front along the Hohnam Highway towards Shostim. The first settlements the pitiless Kubora reached were pillaged and burnt so that even today the Highway touches not a single settlement along its length. What was once a heavily settled network of farms and villas is now the Hohnam Blight avoided by all but the well-armed, desperate, or both.

So frightening were the tales carried south ahead of Arlun that successive settlements were abandoned when the Kuborans arrived and many garrisons surrendered simply at the sight of the barbarians. So it was at Shostim which was quickly taken and then held against the combined might of the local petty kingdoms. Clan Lynnaeous was noticeable absent, sitting out the siege at Tormau ‘protecting Shostim’s western flank’.

Henail opened his own gates to Arlun after a symbolic siege of 1 day, immediately swearing allegiance to the barbarian chief. He went on to proclaim his clan’s ‘historic ties to the noble Kuboran people’ and offered his sister’s hand to the new warlord. In return Arlun confirmed the rights and privileges of Clan Lynnaeous. Over the next decade Henail was never far from Arlun’s councils and Tormau prospered. Emesa, taking for granted its subordination to the lords of Tormau did likewise.

Clan Lynnaeous remained close to the ruling house despite Arlun’s death; Henail was uncle to King Obras, after all. Even with that support the young monarch could not maintain the loyalty of the more traditional Kubora who departed north early in his reign. Without them his authority was never widely recognised and he was plagued by a series of revolts and rebellions. Finally even clan Lynnaeous withdrew its support; he was killed near Tormau in 672.

The Lynnaeous were not favoured by Obras’ son, and successor, Nemiran. The new King named Emesa as Hundred Moot for ‘those of our subjects in the far North’, and sponsored the building of a large Moot Hall. There was no mention of the historic claim of Clan Lynnaeous to Emesa in the declaration. Despite numerous petitions the new hundred’s fate remained unclear for decades. Then events overtook it and the Warriors of Mameka marched into the settlement in 690. They claimed title to Emesa and all the surrounding lands, executed existing village elders, and fortified their new fief.

The Warriors took a predictably organised approach to their new lands: Emesa’s Moot Hall was converted to a chapterhouse; the local settlements made more secure; and the village of Bedenes chosen as a more defensible home for the Order. Local peasants slaved for nine years to build the Warrior’s keep, during which the hundred twice came close to famine, as labour was diverted from the harvest. The population of the hundred suffered a great deal and few of the village populations have recovered to what they were before the Warriors came.

CURRENT SITUATION[edit | edit source]

To this day the status of Emesa is unclear; the Heralds of the Sanguine Saltire are unwilling to confirm the claim of the Warriors of Mameka. The weakness of Rethem’s crown, and the influence of the Mamekans, sustaining that unsatisfactory situation.

While the crown names Bedenes as the Hundred Moot, successive Akarata have continued to hold the Moot in Emesa. They prefer not to entertain outsiders at Caer Bedenes. It is to Emesa, therefore, that the Sheriff of Hohnamshire travels twice a year to remind everyone