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, vanilla, 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. As the Quriya League was gradually disintegrating, the independent Týrýng Empire expanded its dominion to the Brufule-speaking islands in the 2nd century AEKE, vassalizing the local states, causing the Quriya League to renew itself and launch a counteroffensive resulting in the halting of the Týrýng advance. This was followed by yet another migration from the mountains, which led to the creation of petty kingdoms that made the various city-states into their vassals.

As the centuries went by, these city-states gradually became independent again, but completely unbeknownst to them, something far more sinister was lurking in the corners, ready to once again challenge the sovereignty of the Pepetoka people, and make them slaves in their own country.

The Spice Wars
Through the centuries - if not millenia - the Free City of Gabyr and Týrýng Empire became bitter rivals. When the Týrýng came to expand at the Pepetoka's expense, the Gabyrians were there to provide at least some measure of aid to the Pepetoka, financing their armies and giving them naval support. However, the shrewd Gabyrians would not give something for nothing - they expected all their favours to be repaid, and thus, all sorts of treaties were signed that favoured the Gabyrians. These "unequal treaties" were resented by the Pepetoka, and centuries of resentment towards growing Gabyrian influence boiled over in the 8th century AEKE, when a large number of Pepetoka city-states straight-up refused to trade with the Gabyrians, refused to honour their agreements with the Gabyrians, publicly urinated on all the treaties, and displayed open defiance.

The Gabyrians sought to force the Pepetoka to open back up, and enlisted the aid of the Republic of Keldorn during the First Spice War between 711 and 718. The war was a failure - the undead marched on the frog-faced people, spreading plague and committing massacres, but the Pepetoka were uncompromising, and responded with guerrilla warfare and scorched earth policies. Eventually, the Gabyrians gave up and withdrew from the peninsula, but not without leaving a carnage that scarred the Pepetoka's memories for centuries to come.

In 730, the Gabyrians came back, this time enlisting Etrandish infantry support: the Second Spice War started in 730 and ended in 735, and in contrast with the first failure, it was a smashing success for the Gabyrians, who managed to capture several cities, installing pro-Gabyrian puppet governors in most cities, straight-up annexing a few cities, such as Tanqutařa (which gained the nickname "New Copperport", due to the large number of Etrandish migrants, such as Morshu).

The Second Spice War was followed by merely 18 years of peace: resentment towards Gabyrian vassalage and colonization once again boiled over, manifesting in a massive uprising led by the charismatic rebel leader Caca Ngafëťa, which escalated into the Third Spice War (753-756). While the final result of the war was officially a return to the status quo ante bellum, in reality, it further solidified Gabyrian control in several areas, while cultivating the seeds of further anti-Gabyrian resistance in other lands - the suppressed uprising also led to the creation of a pan-Pepetoka national identity, with the urban coastal Pepetoka and the tribal mountain Pepetoka seeing each other as brothers rather than enemies for the first time.

The Fourth Spice War (776-780) started over a certain defiant Pepetoka city refusing to let Gabyrian ships dock - the Gabyrians ostensibly sent a force to help to vacate their fellow Gabyrians from the area, but these "reinforcements" instead ended up launching an amphibious assault on the city, sacking it and enslaving a good deal of its population. The event caused a massive outrage, prompting the Pepetoka to once again launch a massive uprising. After four years of fight, the Treaty of Karakát was signed, which forced the Pepetoka to always allow Gabyrian ships to dock (or pay a fine if they refuse), and to sell spice for an even smaller price than they used to.

Between 800 and 805, the Gabyrians fought yet another spice war - the Fifth Spice War - but this time, the focus of the Spice Wars was shifting increasingly from Gabyr vs Pepetoka, to Gabyr vs Týrýng, with the Pepetoka increasingly taking a backseat. The war once again ended with a return to the status quo ante bellum, but peace would only last for 25 years: one year ago, in 830, the currently ongoing Sixth Spice War broke out.