Irenos

Irenos is a kingdom located west of the river, and in the Zihoar Pass. It borders the Rodarian Union, Falkeni, Ariac, Ansverrei and Crevant.

## History

### **Proto-Aredaric settlement**

The very first Aredaric peoples entered what is today western Irenos somewhere around 3400 BISA. Expansion east of Zichoara was halted by the ancient Ari peoples, therefore making the region the northernmost Aredaric settlement. The oldest Aredaric ruin from this time are the ruins of Aloudiaiaz, located about 30 km southwest of Sina, estimated to be from around 3300 BISA. At this time settlements were heavily centered around the various tribes. The tribes would be ruled by an *emina*, similar to a chieftain, in which a state ruled by en emina is called at eminate. One of the largest cities of this time was Chatroasimiz, just south of Eikitra, which likely had a population of about 4,400 in its prime in the 2800s BISA, yet would quickly decline following disease outbreak. The period from 3400 to about 2300 BISA is commonly referred to as Eminic Irenos.

### **Rise of city states**

This period is known as Itiparatan Irenos, named after the city of Itiparata, north of Zernada, and lasted to about 1700 BISA. It emerged following the rise of cities, as well as the various Aredaric peoples diverging following their vast expansions. In what is today Irenos, three distinct people groups would start to develop distinct cultures; the Ireni, the Zichoarans, and the Ikzoarans. The aforementioned city of Itiparata was the most important city of this period, with the city reaching about 17,600 people around 2000, subjugating other city states, and excerpting control over large amounts of the surrounding land. The state is considered to be the oldest precursor to the modern state. The Zichoarans and Ikzoarans also had cities, they remained more tribalistic, and retained more of the old ways, and often having a larger quantity of smaller cities compared to the Ireni. During this period there were also a couple smaller Ireni states, yet none were as important as Itiparata. The city would start declining around 1800.

### **The two rival states**

Following the fall of Itiparata, two states would rise following the 1600s BISA following the power vacuum left by Itiparata's fall. The cities of Zilapion and Giriziua would start to excerpt their authority over local towns, farms and villages to little resistance. The Ikzoarans and Zichoarans did not follow in a similar pattern, due to their more tribalistic culture. In the 1500s, the estimated populations of the cities of Zilapion and Giriziua were 16,000 and 14,500 respectively. The only other Ireni city state was Kipitra, with roughly 6,500 people at this time. It is also the oldest still inhabited city in Irenos. The city states tended to be very centralised, cities and towns incorporated into a larger one often sharply declined, with most job opportunities and governance moving to the capital. Zilapion and Giriziua were the two main powers in the region, farms and towns on the border regions were often abandoned due to a tendency to be taxed by both cities. in 1436, Zilapion declared war on Girizua, starting the War of Two Cities. Giriziua won due to their alliance with Kipitra forcing Zilapion to fight a war on two fronts. The war ended with the near total destruction of Zilapion. This event marked the end of the period known as Itiparatan Irenos, and begin Iozaniaian Irenos.

### **The founding of the Iozaniai dynasty**

Following the defeat of Zilapion, Togas Iozaniai, the emina of Giriziua decided to change his title from emina to king. The following period also saw the decline of Siroda and the fall of Kastagra to Ari invasion in 1401 BISA. This caused Kaiapar to grow due to lack of competition. Another state that grew a lot was Tires, which had a lot of its neighbours infighting. Giriziua would also continue to try to further its reach over the following period. In 1381, they adopted a new form of governance, which made it slightly less centralised, and gave its regions slightly more autonomy. The following century remained mostly uneventful until 1187 in which they would annex Kipitra following a royal marriage, and Pranaiat would be partitioned by its neighbours two years later. The rapid growth caused unrest within parts of the kingdom, which halted further expansion eastwards. Instead of expanding, they would start trying to stabilise and assimilate their territories. This ended up massively benefiting Tires which had come into competition with Giriziua. In 1143 Tires would declare war on Etilai, leafing to its fall. In 1119, Gapitaz Iaio Simiónikz, the emina of Kaiapar, also followed in the footsteps of Togas Iozaniai and declared himself king and adopted their governance reform. Tires, despite its size, remained unwilling to change its system. Zichoaran settlements in Giriziua and Kaiapar remained particularly discontent with their overlords due to them abandoning the eminate.

### **The collapse of Giriziua**

In 1032 BISA, king Zirone Iozaniai died, which would mean the throne would go to his eldest son Siagoion Iozaniai, however, he was killed by his younger brother Trimon Iozaniai before he was crowned. Because this had never happened, the ruling on this was never specified, but Trimon got the throne. This was met with much outrage, with many insisting he should be locked up. He lived a very lavish lifestyle during his reign, and did not care for running his kingdom. At the time of his ascension to the throne, the city of Giriziua had about 31,000 people. His reign saw large scale unrest which remained unaddressed, which eventually caused the kingdom to split, which started the city's gradual decline. Kipitra, Oagri and Tilkakip seceded. Tires kept growing the following period, and would start to encroach on its neighbours' lands, especially Tilmua. Tilmua got weakened by this, which caused Epionai and the Ari to do the same. In 972, the city was annexed by Tires with little resistance. This caused Tires to become the new biggest power in the region. This made Oagri and Kaiapar form an alliance, with both of them feeling threatened by Tires, as well as having a royal marriage. The states that broke off from Giriziua remained hostile towards them. Pire, and Oagri got along due to them both seeing Giriziua as a common enemy. Despite the kingdom splitting, Giriziua still remained a decent sized city, and was still a threat to its neighbours. In 918 Tires abandoned the eminate and adopted a monarchy. The following century aso remained fairly uneventful, besides Epionai seeing decent growth. In 798 Tires would see large scale civil unrest following it raising taxes on farms. In 789, Simandi would break away from Pire, but in the following year, Tires fell into a civil war.

### The Zichoaran power vacuum

During the civil war, several states broke off from Tires, while its neighbours took the opportunity to seize land. The cities of Kalgisi, Giaz, Suragos and Tirehion breaking away. Giaz was one of the breakaway states, which nearly destroyed the city of Tires, and took the land the city was located in. The civil war lasted about 6 years. The collapse of Tires left a large power vacuum in the region, and the city had grown to about 22,000 people before the civil war. Oagri had also started to see considerable growth, having about 12,600 people at the same time. Giriziua retook its spot as the largest city after the fall of Tires, having 19,500 people. Second place was Kaiapar, with 18,700 people. In 591 a disease appeared in Kaiapar, which would end up killing about 40% of the population. This led to the state's near total collapse. The following period saw Giriziua stop declining, and start slowly growing again. In 551, Simandi was partitioned by Pire and Oagri following a war. In 517 Oagri and Pire would enter a personal union, following the death of King Ziranion Ekilpiaz of Tire, forming the state of Oagri-Pire.