Tsuki Integrality
| Historical Nation | |
|---|---|
| Tsuki Integrality Tsuki no Teitoku つき の ていとく | |
| Flag | Coat of arms |
|
File:Tsuki CoA.png |
| Motto: | |
| Anthem: | |
| Locator map | |
| File:Tsuki Map.png | |
| Capital city | Uchiwasaboten |
| Largest city | |
| Official language | [[|Tsuki (extinct)]] |
| Other languages | early Bawanesi, early Izto |
| Ethnic group | |
| Religion | |
| Demonym(s) | |
| Government | |
| Government Type | Confederation |
| Shukyo | |
| Reichorui | |
| Legislature | Oji no Hyogikai |
| Establishment | |
| Area | |
| Population | |
| Economy | |
| Economy type | Mercantilist |
| Predecessor Nations | |
| Successor Nations | |
| Aspasia, Bowersland, Schangtienrand, Kakuri community | |
| Other information | |
Tsuki Integrality is the name used for the historical trading league and nation state along the coasts of the Julian Sea between about 6600 and the Julian Event of 7118. Due to the sheer scale of the event and its long lastin aftermath, most evidence of the Tsuki Integrality has been washed away. The historical evidence for the Tsuki Integrality therefore has a combination of indirect written sources, present day references in regional languages and archaeological remains as basis.
At the time the hypothesis of a Tsuki civilisation was formulated in the late 7500's and early 7600's, it started playing an important role in the formation of Sokoku as a nation state.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis of the Tsuki civilisation started when the Kakuri people presented themselves to the Vittmarker federal government in 7575. It was obvious that Kakuri culture was unlike any other native culture in the region, including a language isolate without any clear links to other known languages. In their written sources there were clear references to a disastrous event in the early 72nd century and a statesman named Gacha who started rebuilding a Tsuki culture in isolation. Even the name kakuri refers to that isolation.
Scholars started looking for more evidence of such an event. An interesting source of information was the eye witness accounts from Anarian explorers and settlers of the time. These reported a lack of urban civilisations and settlements around the Julian Sea. Later explorations also noted a significant difference in natural vegetation between low lying areas and more hilly regions. Researchers even found gaps in recorded history in most regional accounts, as well as references to substantial flooding around the same time, followed by a colder period resulting in failed harvests.
In 7599 the Vittmarker scientist Fredrik Strand formulated a first hypothesis about a so-called Julian Event, a natural catastrophe that wiped out all of civilisation around the Julian Sea. His hypothesis pointed out the centrally located Roku volcano as the most likely candidate for source of the disaster. But when looking for archaeological evidence for a catastrophic volcanic event, it turned out that the event should have resulted in tsunami's reaching 100-400 meters in height on all coastlines, which probably could not have caused by a volcanic event.
Theory
The original hypothesis about the Tsuki Integrality is mainly based on Kakuri written sources, talking about a trade empire lasting 1000 cycles (500 years). With the help of later archaeological and historical evidence, it became possible to describe the Tsuki Integrality as a commercial and defensive cooperation under the leadership of the Tsuki people. The confederation was governed through port cities, organising trade between surrounding agricultural regions and those ports, as well as between these ports.
The Tsuki had a rather advanced society with well developed agriculture, mechanized manufacturing, well established trade routes, a thriving culture and a sophisticated written language. The civilization's records were meticulously kept on amate styled paper. Society was largely stratified, with the Tsuki people in charge of manufacturing and trade, thus dominating economic life. Native populations in southern Altaia and the Julian islands were mainly involved in agriculture and raw material extraction.
The name Tsuki seems to refer to the moon Hela, with indirect mentions in Kakuri scriptures talking about a night or dark confederation, indicating some sort of shadow kind of state. The Tsuki Integrality therefore also could be interpreted as a supernational layer above regional, native realms and nations.
Demise of the Integrality
In 7118 or 7119, a meteor strike created huge tsunamis around the Julian Sea, especially around the narrow straits between the archipelago island where waves reached incredible heights of up to 400 meters. This destroyed the coastal cities, which were the lifeline between Tsuki settlements and focal points of trade and culture. On top of that, much of the arable land was inundated with salt water, which destroyed rice beds and salinated soils.
The impact spewed an enormous amount of ash and other aerosols into the stratosphere. The climate impact was swift and severe, resulting in the "nuclear winters'' of 7119-7121. The impact caused a dramatic cooling of global temperatures: crops failed and a widespread famine ensued. The Tsuki, already affected by the loss of their trade ports, were hit hard by the prolonged winters. The society's remaining infrastructure was ill-equipped to deal with the sudden and prolonged environmental challenges, since the vast majority of the ruling and trading classes had died in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
The Tsuki society's sophisticated administrative systems collapsed and the coordinated authority disintegrated. The remaining population faced such dire circumstances that recording history became a secondary concern. They focused on re-establishing fitting conditions for agricultural production in order to sustain themselves.
With the demise of the Tsuki,, the once-vibrant centers of learning and record-keeping that hadn’t been destroyed immediately, were abandoned. The amate records proved vulnerable for decay, so the vast majority of the records were lost due to the ravages of time, weather, and neglect. The surviving inhabitants focused on immediate survival rather than preserving their history. Once local societies were up on their feet again, the Tsuki civilization was a thing of the past.
Tsuki memory
Over time, the climate began to recover from the nuclear winters and new civilizations emerged. The memory of Tsuki faded into distant legend, with oral traditions passing down distorted stories of the vanished civilization. Without a centralized authority or access to the original records, the true story of Tsuki's demise became obscured by myth. This changed when the Kakuri emerged, having stored rather complete scriptures in the central kotan of Toshi-bu. Apart from those, no other significant remnants of Tsuki historical records have ever been found, only a few isolated papers or badly affected quires. The problem with the Kakuri records is that they're only written in an old version of the Kakuri language, probably the Tsuki language, using a lot of simile, standing expressions and other culturally coded constructions. Without understanding Tsuki or Kakuri culture it is difficult to understand these scriptures. But they have played an important role in identifying other Tsuki scriptures, papers and inscriptions that often are formulated much more directly.
There are more indirect references to the Tsuki people, nation and culture found on Radhria and as far away as Kamura. Written records from Kamura have resulted in using the name "Tsuki" for this civilisation and confederation, since there were administrative accounts of trade with an entity under that name from the 70th and 71st centuries. But since the references are few, there is no real evidence of a direct link between the Tsuki and Kamura. The idea that the Tsuki Integrality would have been a part of Kamuran colonial efforts in southern Altaia has been renounced completely. Thereconstructed flag also comes from Kamuran written accounts.
Traditional agriculture in Shaaniaah still is considerably different from the rest of southern Altatia. This is thought to have its roots in the Tsuki Integrality, where the local Izto population has continued with Tsuki farming techniques which are much more similar to those of northern Altaia.
A confusing element in historical research was the use of something resembling the Kakuri or Tsuki writing system in several localities on Shuuen and Radhria. While the languages spoken in the region clearly are so related that most of them were interintelligible, they all use different writing systems. It took until the 7660's until it was generally ackowledged that the use of this writing system was a remnant of Tsuki culture, kept in use by some native populations, but not all. Detailed studies of the languages, as part of the development of Bahasa Sokoku learned that the counting system in some regions were completely different than in others. The languages and dialects using a vigesimal system are thought not to have been part of the Tsuki Integrality, while regions previously part of the integrality use a duodecimal system. Furthermore, many words similar between the Bahaso and Kakuri languages have been identified, especially on themes regarding shipping, trade and building. These are assumed to be Tsuki loanwords into Bahaso.
Archaeological evidence
While finding archaeological evidence for the Julian Event led to breakthrough insights, it has been proven hard to find similar evidence indicating a Tsuki civilisation. Most evidence is indirect, like the appearance of Izto populations on the northwestern shores of Shuuen during the second half of the 72nd century. An event with over 100 m high tsunamis would have destroyed coastal cities totally. Local folklore and mythology in Shaaniaah tells about certain coastal places to be avoided, as they have been cursed by ancient events.
Following these leads, a team of researchers located the remains of a settlement on the coast of the then Hallish colony of Bowersland. The area had been completely overgrown and the remnants only included the foundations of a more peripheral area of a former port town. Later research on the adjacent sea floor learned that the majority of the settlement's remains were under sea level, indicating a land subduction as a result of the event. These findings could not be connected to the Tsuki directly, due to the lack of inscriptions.
In 7625 a group of explorers on Kotonoh island found Kakuri style inscriptions in buildings in coastal settlements. These buildings were from the 7300's, so at first the evidence was denied. But later it turned out that many of the buildings had been using material from ruins located nearby. This provided the first physical evidence of a Kakuri predecessor culture on the coast of the Julian Sea. Now it was clear what to look for, these types of re-used building materials have been identified in more than a dozen locations.
Some findings of shipwrecks have been annotated to the Tsuki Integrality, both on the sea floor as well on land. The remains of a sailing ship of an unknown design at a height of about 120 m above seal level on Ruha island clearly supported the evidence for major tsunamis. Dendrochronology dated the southern Altaian continental wood to the latter half of the 71st century. But even this evidence was largely indirect, until the remnants of a small settlement nearby were dug up, containing squared copper plates with Tsuki or Kakuri inscriptions. These are thought to have functioned as currency within the Integrality.
Legacy
The theories around a Tsuki civilisation or confederation have played a large role in the decolonisation of southern Altaia. Even though the Tsuki could be seen as foreign colonisers as well, the fact that they tended to leave local societies and structures intact was seen as evidence for a strong tradition of self rule and autonomy, opposing Anarian colonial rule. The Vittmarker (later Sokokan) statesperson Chika Mirei added the dimension that it would be historically correct if the Kakuri people, in itself a very small majority in the region, would play a leading role in building up a superregional cooperation along the same lines as the Tsuki Integrality.
Even though there hardly was any physical evidence of a Tsuki civilisation at that point, the mental aspect of such a commercial and defensive confederation of autonomous regions as a historical fact played a huge role in the regional mindset. As such, the concept of Tsuki Integrality can be seen as some sort of blueprint for Sokoku as a virtual successor state. It has become difficult to separate the more desired aspects of the Tsuki Integrality as an inspiring example from the more neutral theories, since Sokokan scholars have been categorising finds in such a way that they fit the wanted hypothesis. This has led to opposition from scientists with a different background, who claim that the hypothesis has become to much steering in research and that there is no room for alternative interpretations.