Texhuns

**Texhuns** were a proud people who inhabited the plains, prairies, and ranges of Texhuss. The Texhuns were renowned across Maer'Ka for their boisterous and independent spirit, skilled horsemanship, great fortified cities, and prowess on the battlefield. Originally Horse Nomads occupying the southernmost part of the Great Plains, they later adopted a sedentary lifestyle and developed into a Feudal Kingdom administered by numerous competing Barons under the rule of their High King, the Lonestar. The bravery of the Texhun armies and their heavily armed and armored knightly class, the Rangers, allowed them to halt the expansion of the until-then unbeatable Mexihtec Empire. Their greatest and most famous Lonestar, Gunnar the Great, would then go on to carve out a massive empire from former Mexihtec territories across the southwest. His empire would collapse shortly after his death, as his generals warred with one another to created their own independent western realms, which were in turn conquered by the expanding power of Khago. But regardless of this, the language and to a lesser degree culture of Texhuss remained widespread in the western half of the Khagoan Empire. After the splitting of the Empire into eastern and western halves during the War of the Schism, the Western half of the Empire became known as the Texhun Empire, and its rulers gradually came to adopt the Texhun Language and culture.

## History

Following the end of the Thousand Years Summer the Texhuns lived on the southern plains in tribes of warlike Horse Nomads, moving large herds of cattle and longhorns across the ranges of the country. During the Epoch of Foundations the Texhuns took the example from the emerging civilizations west of their homeland and began to adopt a more sedentary form of civilization, constructing villages and farms along major rivers and trading towns on the fertile Texhun coast. The former horse archers of the nomad tribes transformed into a heavily armed and armored knights known as Rangers, which formed the retinues of powerful Cattle Barons who held dominion over large ranches centered on their large castles.

The Mexihtec Empire rapidly conquered all the lands to the west and south and launched a massive invasion of Texhuss itself, beginning the conflict known a the TexMex War. This prompted the Cattle Barons to cease fighting each other and focus on forming alliances to fight against the foreign threat. When the powerful Baron of Ahbleen, Shurmuhn, managed to defeat the Mexihtec in the Battle of Enchanted Rock the other Barons united under his Banner and declared him the first Lonestar, or High King of Texhuss. Shurmuhn and his army then went on to again defeat the Mexihtec at the Siege of Santohn, retaking the city and Killing their leader, Gran Tlatoani Tizoc, forcing the remaining Mexihtec to retreat back south of the Riyagran River and asserting the Kingdom of Texhuss's newfound independence.

The Kingdom grew more powerful in the decades following the TexMex war, and Shurmuhn's ambitious son, Gunnar wished to emulate his fathers glory. Since their failed invasion, the Mexihtec Empire had been severely weakened and Gunnar took this as an opportunity to take revenge on their arch-enemies. Gunnar led a large expeditionary force west of the Pehkuss River and swiftly conquered Puebloa, Nabeehoa, Ar'Sonia, Nubada, and finally Xalifaunia from the Mexihtec with the powerful cavalry charges of his Rangers. Gunnar declared victory and established the capitol of his new Empire in the city of Quochella in Xalifaunia, transforming the desert town into a great city and abandoning his Texhun title of Lonestar for the Xalifaunian title of Paramount. This bold decision angered his generals, who grew suspicious of their leader and his eagerness to adopt the ways and culture of the Xalifaunian's, a people whom the generally conservative Texhun's viewed as effeminate and strange. His generals then formed a plot to quietly assassinate Gunnar, who was poisoned shortly after.

The short-lived Empire of Gunnar the Great then collapsed into chaos as his generals vied with one another for power. After a series of wars between the ambitious generals the conquests of Gunnar fractured into the three TexMex Kingdoms of Puebloa, Ar'Sonia, and Xalifaunia, each ruled over by a Texhun Dynasty established by one of the Generals. The ruling Texhun elites of the new Kingdoms proved to be very unpopular with their native subjects who greatly outnumbered them, but despite this the TexMex states lasted for several centuries as the Texhun dynasties gradually adopted the ways of the conquered populations. Texhuss itself retained its old borders and fought a series of naval wars with the Kajun City-states whose power was growing across the Mizzip Sea.

After the defeat of the Kajun League by the Khagoans, the greatly expanded Republic used a Texhun attempt to conquer their ally, Raydeaux, as an excuse to invade the declining Kingdom. After a bloody war Texhuss fell under Khagoan dominion, and was incorporated as a new province to the Republic. Over the next centuries Khago transformed from a Republic to an Empire and the TexMex Kingdoms also fell to the conquests of Don Wabbash, effectively ending Texhun domination of the Far West. Texhuss then remained under the imperial rule for several centuries, becoming one of the most prosperous and populous regions of the Empire, and famous Rangers supplying its Auxiliaries with Heavy Cavalry which the Legions lacked.

Later during the war of the Schism Texhuss became the center of the Breakaway western part of the empire, which came to be known as the Texhun Empire.