[And so begins a series of posts I'm writing about the doings and fates of Ershutisharu, homeland of the Hashas people, over the last couple of centuries.]

In the aftermath of the March upon Asru-Kastava, the struggle to recivilize Dao-Lei wore on. This conflict would long remain at a standstill: those locals who would resist Hashas rule were too scattered and disunified to pose a threat to the Hashas’ most important holdings, ensuring the continued operation of Asru-Kastava as a base of Hashas operations, while the unfamiliar terrain and wild forests of the land posed a daunting challenge to any outsiders who would dare to venture within. Further, the Hashas’ efforts to rebuild civilization saw only mixed success even within their holdings. Those few Tao subjects who could count themselves among the social elite in their failed state were quick to publicly convert to Mawerhaadii, hoping to match the fortunes of their cousins who worked as bureaucrats and merchants in Ershutisharu itself, but most were at once open to the message of Am-Ishatu, Bringer of Fire, and yet bound to their old ways and beliefs. The belief system that emerged among the masses could not properly be called Mawerhaadii, nor could it be understood as a variety of Lei with any orthodoxy. Still, though the popular local religion at once taught of the natural order of the world (from the Hashas point of view) and the foreign notion of reincarnation, it was ultimately tolerated by the Hashas administrators as a half-acceptable alternative to an entirely native religion.

As this the Hashas campaign in Dao-Lei ultimately yielded paltry tribute and limited results, not the least this strange new religion, Ershutisharu’s leaders concluded that this campaign, despite their designs, would not bring glory or foster national pride as they first expected. Meanwhile, any major setbacks in the military effort in Dao-Lei, or further losses in the untame lands of Old Onginia, would surely lead Ershutisharu’s subjects to question the competence and worthiness of the Enutshinu and his underlings. The country’s leadership concluded that it would have to bolster national pride and distract from its mixed successes by other means.

Exemplified by the construction of the Great Ziggurat of Artum and Mawerhaadii’s fire temples, monumental projects have long been a means of showcasing the prosperity of the Hashas and those who came before them. Seeking to heighten their glory while also strengthening their subjects’ confidence in their ability to defend the country, Ershutisharu’s leaders saw fit to construct a number of great fortifications throughout their holdings.

[breakdown of new constructions]

One of the first new construction projects took place in Asru-Kastava itself. The local Tao did not know this as the City of Stone without reason: aptly living up to its name, Asru-Kastava proved difficult to assault from more than one direction even in the dusk of the Tao homeland’s glory. Simultaneously taking advantage of the city’s already strategic positioning and the skill of Hashas engineers, the local Hashas leadership ordered their subjects to construct a sizeable fortress connected to the city proper in addition to improving the city’s existing walls. In designing this fortress, the Hashas prepared for the worst eventualities: knowing that the inland city could have all of its supply routes cut off in the event of a successful, large-scale rebellion, they built raised granaries and underground storehouses of sufficient scale--not to mention two different wells--that a full garrison stationed within would be able to sustain itself for over a year on tight rations. Finding the climate ill-suited to mud brick construction, at least without massive supplies of waterproof plaster, the Hashas took the pains necessarily to compose this entire stronghold almost of stone and mortar. Hailing from drier lands, the Hashas were perhaps needlessly cautious in terms of fire-prevention measures, using minimal amounts of wood in the finished project.

Meanwhile, some homeland cities saw the foundation of new fortresses of moderate scale. One of these was erected for the nascent port-city of Naderre, where supplies from maritime merchants would make their first stop toward Enaqaat. As this region was somewhat subject to raids by the alienated Ongin, the mere presence of a sizable stronghold here provided psychological reassurance to the city’s residents. The far western city of Iqaniin saw some renovated fortifications as well, but the bulk of these efforts supported the aforementioned Naderre as well as the northern city of Abnaan, of great religious significance to the Hashas and on the edge of the frontier of occupied Old Onginia. Though the Hashas chiefly relied upon fortresses and strongholds rather than freestanding walls for the defense of their country, a couple of such walls emerged along contested stretches of the border with Old Onginia, arguably more for the sake of making a statement and reassuring the Hashas frontiersmen than for any utilitarian purpose.

The most monumental of these projects emerged in none other than Artum-Dipar, the administrative and religious capital of Ershutisharu. As the days of the old monarchy were not far behind the Hashas, the Enutshinu knew well that his subjects still expected their ruler--who doubled as the head priest of their religion, no less--to furnish concrete evidence of divine favor for his reign. In dire and insecure times, it would not be sufficient to output a good harvest and keep the trade caravans coming in; the Enutshinu decided he would have to overtly showcase his might for all of his world to see. The oldest urban quarters of Artum-Dipar were aptly suited for this: in the most ancient Hashas cities, as time besieged historical buildings and filled them with dirt and dust, it was typical for the Hashas to construct new roads and neighborhoods over the ruins. Over time, this cyclical processes produced a great Tel in each city, an artificial hill or plateau of land raised as younger generations overrode the works of their ancestors going centuries back. Tel Artum, as the collective of the city’s oldest quarters was informally known, was selected as a desirable site for the center of what was intended to be the world’s most massive fortress-city. In the most radical urban planning initiative in Hashas/Ashad history, the Enutshinu decreed that the current districts built atop the Tel would be demolished or commandeered for this project, with the most privileged among the displaced city residents being compensated for their losses and the rest rioting in the streets on more than one occasion. After much toil and occasional bloodshed between lawkeeping forces and those weary of their lawmakers’ decrees, a sprawling fortress-city donning the name of Tel Artum dominated the already grant city’s skyline. Given the scale of this project and the dry local climate, a plurality of the structures within its walls were actually constructed merely of sun-dried and plastered mud bricks; the walls and towers were built with baked bricks and reinforced with stone structures, as was the central citadel that would double as the base of operations for Ershutisharu’s military leadership. Atop this citadel was a stout and sturdy tower from which the Enutshinu could see the entire city proper and a great stretch of the surrounding urban sprawl. Despite the rushed construction of many of its non-defensive features, Tel-Artum was not truly completed until years after the death of the man who commissioned its design. Nonetheless, for the first time in the city’s history, a structure of any kind actually towered over the Great Ziggurat for which it was well-known.

All of this would come at a considerable expense of labor, of course. At first, the available labor was diverted from the ranks of those farmers who would otherwise be conscripted for warfare; fortified locations needed fewer defenders, after all, so this seemed a logical cost-saving measure. As these projects increased in scale and number, however, the country found its reserves of both free farmers and wardu taxed, compelling its leaders to acquire more labor from elsewhere. Counter-raids in Old Onginia increasingly emphasized taking prisoners rather than slaying adversaries to make an example of them, and pirates haunting the northern seas were once again paid bounties to retrieve slaves from the fabled New Onginia, or wherever else they could find vulnerable individuals--the Hashas weren’t choosy regarding who did their hard labor for them.

Map: Ershutisharu, c. 75 EK / 550 BCE

• Dark Yellow = Hashas homelands (Hashas-Ashru)
  
• Light Yellow = imperial holdings
  
• Diagonal Lines = highly contested territory
  
• Orange = Radet-Ashru
  
• Red = Dipolitia
  
• White = no nation, or minimal contact with the Hashas