Benghezakhan

A sultanate in the Skahazadans, situated between the Eunisian Belt to the south and east, Mauretania to the west, and the Pagan Sea to the north, Benghezakhan is ruled from the city of Marqa by Emir Tiadara II Zakarya. The country's flag is a blood-red ship on a field of yellow.

O

## History

### Early History

At the beginning of recorded history, the ancient city of Maracacar, near modern-day Marqa, was the center of the Maracacan Empire, the dominant civilization of the world, ruling much of the coasts of the Pagan Sea before the emergence the Urubuhls in the 7th century. Thanks to the power of Maracacar, the region enjoyed rapid development and a booming economy. The Maracacar were formidable warriors and much of the early developments within ships, warfare, and weaponry are credited to them. They annexedHedjaz from the Cleomaic Kings around 150 years before our time, when the Maracacan Emperor married the Warrior Queen Neudessa, and continued to expand across the sea, conquering large regions in the Vaspukars and Chorene.

However, in the early 7th century, the Urubuhl armies had begun to stir in the east, unified under The Prophetess. In 636, the Urubuhls decisively defeated the Maracacan forces in Hedjaz and established the Emirate of Rahusha. Once firm Urubuhl control had been established of the region, the Rahusha Emir turned towards the foreign lands west of Hedjaz. In 670, an Urubuhl army led by Safar the Sorcerer entered Maracacar by land and established the first Urubuhl town in the region. Safar's army was defeated by an alliance of Amareed forces. In 682, Safar resumed his conquest, beat the Amareed and Maracacan forces and allegedly cast an immensely powerful and destructive magic which tore down the city's walls of Maracacar, dried out the Maracacan river, and caused the waters to rise and swallow the rest of the city. In military triumph, he continued westward, eventually reaching the Levanthian Sea and proclaimed that the Urubuhls had conquered the World.

During the fall of the Rahusha Emirate in the early 8th century and the subsequent slow decline of its successor, the Rifahn Emirate, the emerging local aristocracy of Urubuhl Amareeds was growing increasingly resentful of the distant Emir's interference in local matters. Revolts arose among Amareeds of Syloz Safali and threatened to destabilize Hedjazi power over the region, which the Emir was unable to secure.

### Zomeeri Dynasty

With the establishment of the New Kingdom of Hedjaz began a slow withdrawal of Hedjazi from the west, and they left the region in the hands of a local Amareed tribe, the Zomeeri. For a time, the region flourished. Aqueducts were installed to promote agriculture and commercial trade routes across the Pagan Sea were improved. A prosperous economy led to a refined and luxurious court life and several grand palaces were constructed. Still politics in the region was shaky at best and the Hedjazi rulers continued to demand tribute payments from the Zomeeri. In 984, Emir Zomeeri Mansa challenged the rule of the Hedjazi throne, so the King of Hedjaz encouraged the Syloz Tribe to rebel. Mansa managed to subdue the Sylozi, but after his death in 1015, a lengthy era of civil wars and political confusion broke out and two states eventually emerged. While the Zomeeri continued to rule in the east, the Sylozi gained control of the west.

### The Amareed Emirate

In 1047, the Emir of Benghezakhan, Zomeeri Ziyad, the granddaughter of Zomeeri Mansa, led a conquering party to Albaan in Magnia, containing 7.000 horsemen and 50 war elephants. Crossing the pagan sea, they won decisive victories in 1048 when the King of Metina was defeated in battle and reinforcements of an additional 5.000 men were quickly supplied. By 1054, Ziyad was in control of all of Albaan and her advance into Magnia was only stopped by Prince Louis IV of Corveaux at the Battle of Peshac Bay.

Ziyad's successor, Zomeeri Mummin revolutionized Benghek society with his theological ideas and established a new and a stronger hierarchy with a centralized power, with an inner circle of governors, transcending previous tribal-dominated rulership. He became the champion for the new Amareed Urubuhl movement and maintained a large standing army of religious followers and slaves. Following Mummin's death in 1130, Zomeeri Siman was elected Emir by the Inner Circle, the first Emir to have no blood relation to the Urubuhl people of Hedjaz. She immediately launched attacks on the Sylozi tribe and had successfully annexed Syloz Safali by 1147 to form the Amareed Emirate. Then, she crossed the Pagan Sea and spent many years attempting to stabilize her rule of Albaan, but in her absence, an anarchist movement, which had grown since she rose to power, saw its opportunity to strike and between 1148 and 1162 they seized control of Altaiyia, Mareed, Sfax and Ba-El, all important centers of commerce and trade. They called for the abolition of the Inner Circle, which they believed worked against the will of the Gods by electing its rulers. Forced to return to Benghezakhan to defend herself against the anarchists, Siman left her captains to guard against the encroaching threat of the Cister Cartians north of Albaan. After he loss of Stokengrad in 1085, the Albaani Urubuhls began to lose ground to the church and were decisively defeated at the Battle of Grimmen Field in 1201. By 1212, the Skahazadani had been driven from nearly all of Albaan, except for an Urubuhl Kingdom emerging around the city of Valona.

In 1227, Siman was killed during a wedding feast. Before the Inner Circle could be gathered, her daughter, Morea, was assassinated and her assassin, Akhaman the Foul rose to become the new ruler of the emirate after a brutal coup. Mezaman Nazyr, the head of the branch of the ruling family in Valona, dispatched an army across the Pagan Sea in 1228 to confront the usurper. Meanwhile, in Albaan, the Kingdom of Metina began to expand westward in the absence of Mezaman. Feeling that the Urubuhls had failed to protect them, popular uprisings took place throughout the region. City after city deposed their governors and installed local Magnates in their place. This marked the end of the Skahazadani era in Albaan. The Emirate quickly weakened and dissolved. Benghezakhan lost all its territories in the Skahazadans and was reduced to an internally fractured state.

### Zakarya Dynasty

In 1267, Nymeri Zakarya, claiming descendance from Zomeeri Ziyad, was chosen by a nearly reformed Inner Circle. She began her reign by securing the few Benghek cities that remained outside her control, including the city of Altaiyia. In the late 13th century, Benghezakhan experienced a rising prosperity, mainly due to renewed trade with Magnia and with the threat of the Golden Horde, many talented Urubuhls and Menkhu craftsmen immigrated to Benghezakhan. Education was improved and extensive roadwork began, more closely connecting cities and countryside. Poetry and architecture blossomed. New mines were established in the Eunisian Belt and a better system of regulating the metal value of coinage and the minting of new coins emerged. For a while, Benghezakhan was at the forefront of western Skahazadani culture and commerce.

However, in the mid 14th century, the region went into a rapid economic decline with severe droughts and famine. The countryside became depopulated as agriculture became increasingly unfruitful, which in turn led to further decline in trade, as traders began to prefer Volubis and Syloz Safali. The country shifted from agriculture to manufactures and mining and the overwhelming population of poor people were forcedly moved to form new urban sprawls around the major mines of the country in an attempt to boost the economy. Even so, the country is in sharp economic decline, while corsair activity has begun to take over the coastline.