Kathakai I

Kathakai I, also known as Kathakai the Way-Changer, was the sixth Tash-Teshivan of the Kirdan Empire, ruling from 985 - 1018 CV. He came to power upon the death of his father, Tembekai I. His father had ruled for nearly twenty years, suppressed multiple rebellions, ended civil war, completed the conquest of Eatheus, consolidated imperial power, and reasserted his authority over the vast empire's fractious regional warlords. It was an impressive list of achievements but Kathakai would arguably exceed them.

He founded a grand new imperial capital at Baribur, which has been the seat of the Tash-Teshivan’s court ever since. He orchestrated the rebuilding, enlargement, and re-fortification of strategically important cities like Kmiora (renamed Kathakaion in his honor), Suradis, and Uthmir. These had been major centers of Uremite rule and would now serve as new provincial hubs for the Kirdan imperial administration, which was likewise greatly expanded by Kathakai. Some say he was inspired by the power and efficiency of the imperial bureaucracy of the Phyridian state, the one major enemy that Torkai and his successors had been unable to overcome.

Kathakai's reforms helped further shift the balance of power towards the Tash-Teshivan and away from the regional warlords. In this respect he continued the efforts of his father before him. The large, well-defended cities rebuilt by Kathakai could serve as bases for troops and officials in direct imperial service, who would be able to exercise a new form of authority over the empire’s far-flung lands. This was a method of rule much more effective and durable than a patchwork of headstrong chieftains and their bands of warriors roaming the empire in the old semi-nomadic Suagir fashion, collecting “taxes” in the form of sustained raiding over wide areas, and doing little to govern the Uremites or restore the prosperity of conquered lands.

By the end of Kathakai’s reign, he had attained renown as a great builder and reformer, although many traditional-minded Suagir warriors resented him for putting a stop to their customary inflictions on the Uremites. They also criticized him for seeming to take up the ways of the conquered nations: Sedentary rather than nomadic, rooted in a capital, building up walled cities, concerned with administration and commerce. They said he had abandoned the strong ancestral virtues of the Suagir steppe-dwellers. However, the degree to which Kathakai centralized and augmented imperial power, while reducing the independence of the regional warlords, meant there was little the grumblers could do about it. In many ways, his reign marked the transition of the Kirdan Empire from a violent and loosely-structured "conquest state" ruled by nomadic warriors, to a more settled, orderly, and lasting society which adopted many customs from its subject peoples.

In the same vein, Kathakai also reversed his father’s attempts to stop the cultural Uremification of Kirdan Suagir warriors. While there were many traditionalists who clung to their old ways, there were many others who absorbed various influences from the Uremites they now ruled over. Tembekai I had sought to push back against this trend while still consolidating imperial authority versus the fractious warlords. He believed the Suagir warrior class could (in fact, must) retain their ancestral steppe customs while being brought under more centralized control. He saw no contradiction in this. Kathakai, however, perceived that the trend of cultural Uremification would help, rather than hinder, his plan to build up a strong central imperial state. He reversed his father's decrees banning the Kirdan warrior class from taking Uremite names, wearing clothing in the Uremite style, eating at tables instead of seated cross-legged on the floor, and so forth. Beyond simply reversing the bans, he actively encouraged certain Uremite customs and insisted on them in his new capital at Baribur. Thus, during his long reign, these and many other aspects of "civilized" behavior were taken up in the imperial court and by a large part of the empire's warrior elite. It is for this reason that Kathakai is known as the Way-Changer. Scholars also believe that his successful promotion of Uremite cultural norms among the Kirdan elite helped pave the way for his grandson Marotai II's conversion of the empire to Utara-Vaati.

Kathakai I died in 1018 CV. Despite the sneering predictions of traditionalist Suagirs that would die shamefully in bed, he was killed when he was thrown from his horse during a hunt--an acceptable death for a Suagir warrior, if not as admirable as death in battle. He was succeeded by his eldest son Marotai I.