History of Amarisar

Amarisar, for all its economic sophistication and technological expertise in the days of its founding, was ruled by a political institution rather unique for her time period. The Azhi people made use of a system known at the time as weighted lots, wherein citizens voted for representatives in a manner commensurate with their contributions to the financial state of their polis. The representatives of the Praternum of the local bell-tower were responsible for assigning weights to each man's ballot, based on the Ardents' records of yearly contributions, taxes, and land holdings. A poor citizen might only receive one vote, while a rich merchant might receive ten; in this way the ancient Amari gave all men a voice in governance, but those who were most invested in a city's success more of a voice. From those lots then was chosen by the Voice of the Flame a single ballot, upon which would be inscribed the name of the man who would be elected to the position- for the everyday man this would be the deciding factor in their appointment of a Firstman, but the political power flowed upwards, with Firstmen selecting Tolsars, Tolsars selecting Luminarchs, and Luminarchs in time of need selecting a Rajsar. This system was in place for most of the history of Amarisar, but was preceded by a period of warlordism and monarchical despots.

The Interregnum [400 B.F.B. - ~320 B.F.B.]
Following the death of the last Zhoongen Priest-King at the hands of barbarians from the Aric lands beyond the southern reaches of the Middle Sea, the cities of the Late Zho fell one after another, some to the Plague of Haramiv, others simply to the dissolution of the trading links and mutual security they had relied upon to exist. This period is known historically as the Interregnum, but at the time annals point to the fleeing Zhoongen people as naming it the Weeping. Historical estimates point to likely twenty to forty percent of the population of the Zho cities perishing of famine or warfare, and the rest being scattered both east in to what would become the Svathi subcontinent, west into the region of the Twin Rivers, and even north into the trackless reaches of steppe beyond Kuth. Some small remnants of the Zho people still inhabited the ruins of their devastated cities through most of the Interregnum, but the Zhoongen civilization had essentially disappeared by 350 B.F.B.

The Rise of the Polis, 320 B.F.B. - 140 B.F.B.
As the memories of the devastation of old Zhoongen dissipated, and population levels in the surrounding countryside began to recover, the first tradesmen settled at Mara, at the confluence of tin trade routes from the east and copper trade from the interior of Svath. Along the line of the Azh, traders and artisans began to form small villages at fortuitous regions of canal that had largely survived the Interregnum, and repairs to began to be done on the infrastructure that had not completely fallen into disrepair. In this era the forging of bronze began anew in Larna, and the few barbarians that had settled in the fertile Vale were slowly being pushed back generation by generation. In 140 B.F.B. the Tolsar of Mara, Ahriman the Just, crowned himself Luminarch, lord above other lords, following the conquest seventeen lesser city-states. Three other lords of the current Majpolises quickly followed in his stead, and the time of the Majpolis began.

The Age of Strife, 140 B.F.B. - 80 B.F.B
During the age of the Majpolises, trade with the west seems to have increased dramatically; bronze effigies of the ancestors graven in the dappled arsenic bronze patterns of the rising cities of the Ahrimanic period have been found as far west as the western edge of the Middle Sea. However, a large amount of burnt cities and outlying village tells bespeak a period of conflict. With increasing political sophistication scholars of the period lamented the loss of ties to the land, and the growing power of the lords of larger cities. Urbanization appears to have picked up pace in the three generations of the age of strife, spurring the drastic increase in the size of the four major cities that ruled many others, possibly also driven by warfare devastating some of the lesser polises in the power struggles for fealty that are attested to in the era. Disruptions in the trade networks of tin from the east by agents of Mara and Larna led to the adoption of ironworking techniques in the western polises, knowledge which would be seen in many cast iron vessels traded west into the Twin Rivers. Iron ore appeared to have been heavily traded from the nearby High Iral even before this era, but largely as a decorative item; only in the Age of Strife was steel produced in large quantities in the wind-forges of Vernus, leaving her the second most powerful Majpolis after Mara who remained superior by dint of population and land fertility.

The Outlooking Era, 80 B.F.B. -
After sixty years of internal strife, despite the years of frequent war, populations continued to grow in the polises, and fertile land in the nearest valleys began to be highly used. This led to many minor migrations out from the vale of the Azh River over the following decades, many by legions of Oathband second sons seeking out new lands to cultivate. Large scale domestication and cattle yards are first found in the archaeological record in this period too, east of the Thar Desert into the heartland of Svath itself. This also marks the end of several petty Svathi kingdoms both west and east, apparently either conquered or eroded into insignificance by the nearby polises and migrations.