History of the Pepetoka

The history of the Pepetoka people is practically synonymous with the history of the Reyang Peninsula, prior to the arrival of the Týrýng people (see also History of the Empire of Týrýng).

Beginnings


The Pepetoka people are generally assumed to be indigenous to the Reyang Peninsula - before the arrival of the Týrýng, all of the peninsula was Pepetoka domain, with the northern part being populated by speakers of the Brufule languages, the southern part being populated by speakers of the Qanďuḱara langauges, and the mountainous inlands being the domain of speakers of the Cat'aq languages. The difference between these three groups was more than just a difference of language: they had different religions, different traditions and different lifestyles.

In the coastal areas populated by Brufule-speakers and Qanďuḱara-speakers, irrigation was practiced, and cash crops coexisted with food crops, city-states were the norm, and they were typically oligarchical republics or plutarchies, with there being a strong culture of peaceful trade. In contrast, the mountains gave rise to a vastly different lifestyle: tribal, populated by a mixture of animal herders and terra-farmers, subsistence agriculture, and a rather warlike culture.


 * In the northern coast, they typically grew rice, okra, chickpeas, figs, poppy, tobacco, tomato, agave, red pepper, citron, mustard and hemp.
 * In the southern coast, the crops at the disposal were - and still are - sugarcane, coca, stevia, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, Ginger, red pepper, black pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove and Turmeric.
 * In the mountainous inlands, they preferred growing maize, potatoes, onions, garlic and radish.

All was well, and the various coastal city-states peacefully traded with each other, as well as with outsiders - such as the Shár - until everything went wrong some time around ~1300 BEKE.

The Great Deluge
In the various Shár city-states, a caste system was built up: as cash crops systematically replaced food crops and food came to be imported, simultaneously, land previously divided among many small landowners was consolidated under magnates, lower-class people were pushed into debt and enslaved, racial outsiders were also brought in as slaves, and as mercenaries. In the North particularly, they hired Týrýng people - who first made their appearance as pirates and raiders - as mercenaries to put down slave revolts. The Týrýng mercenaries settled into the northern cities with their families, causing unrest. Everything went to a boil, when a famine broke out in the northern lands, intensified slave revolts and caused the Týrýng mercenaries to turn on their masters, inviting in their fellow Týrýng to settle the land, as they began ravaging the Northern Reyang Peninsula and massacring the indigenous Pepetoka population, eating them very often.

This event sent a large wave of refugees fleeing to the southwest, and eventually the southeast too. In some areas in the west, these refugees outnumbered and overpowered the indigenous population and took control. In other areas, they formed a very visible minority, being the source of ethnic unrest, causing riots - in much of the Qanďuḱara-speaking South, these Brufule-speaking refugees and their descendants would be enslaved, creating a large slave population that was difficult to keep down, compelling the indigenous southern merchant-lords to invite mercenary warriors from the tribal Cat'aq-speaking mountains.



To say that the very presence of the Týrýng destabilized the rest of the Reyang Peninsula too would be an understatement: after the aforementioned reufgee crisis abated, the tribal mercenaries launched coups, overthrowing the native merchant republics and replacing them first with military dictators, then with hereditary monarchies. Further Týrýng expansion caused a large-scale migration within the mountains as well, with many of the mountain barbarians invading the southern city-states, with the chieftains installing themselves as the new kings of the city-states and giving out land and slaves to their fellow tribesmen.

The Quriya League
The Golden Age of Trade between East and West led to the demand of spices rising to an all-time high, which red to the transformation of the former barbarian warlords into a landowner class of "spice barons", who owned cash crop-producing farmlands worked by slaves. Eventually, these "spice barons" systematically ousted the hereditary monarchs and reinstated oligarchical republics, which was followed by the formation of the Quriya League in the 5th century BEKE, an alliance of city-states that agreed to co-operate with each other to maximize profits and ensure a mutual defense against outsiders.

This defensive pact however eventually turned offensive in the 3rd century BEKE, as a handful of city-states became hegemonies and allowed their represtantives to take dictatorial power within the league, launching a crusade against the mountain barbarians, enslaving many, building colonies, empowering collaborators and installing southern transplant rulers where the natives were uncooperative.



After a half a century of dictatorships, the Quriya League reverted back to being a loose union of city-states, and eventually, the league itself stopped existing in all but name.