Salan Aatan

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Aatan Province (#71)
Origin of Province name: Aatan means "Land of Aat" in Zekresh. "Aat" means "Mountain Goat" in the language of the Aat Elden (Mountain Goat People).
Provincial Capital: Renifar
Estimated Population: 150,000
Population at last census: (no census taken)
Year annexed to Empire: 10 Cledman V (45 years ago)

Ulor (governor): Wanderjar (appointed 25/7/40 Cledman VI)
Political Alignment of Ulor: Neutral
Ethnic background of Ulor: Aat Elden
Ulor's primary advisor: Jezefar
Ethnic background of advisor: Aat Elden

Popular Support for Empire: very low

Economic Development: The main economic activity in the province is hunting, followed by sheep herding and subsistence farming. The economy is almost completely undeveloped.

Imperial Military Garrison: 3 phalanxes of infantry
Governor's Guards: 50
Civilian officials and their servants: 108

Estimated Average Annual Tax per Person: 2 baylo

Govt Finances: The provincial government is current on tax collections and remittances to Zekran as well as payments of its debts, but its budget is small. Taxes are lower than in the rest of the Empire. Previous governors suspended the normal tax on farms to encourage agriculture.

Land and Climate:
Aatan Province is a vast amount of land between the Blue Mountains in the West and the White River (and the North River) in the East. It is heavily forested with good rainfall, and one of the coldest climates in the Empire. The population is relatively sparse.

Description:
The province is one of the most recently annexed provinces in the Zekresh Empire. It is also one of the least civilized provinces.

Ethnic Groups:
Aat Elden people make up about four fifths of the population of the province with more in nearby provinces and a few North of the Imperial border and over the mountains to the West. The second largest ethnic group in the province are the Trond or "Giant" tribe who have at times been enemies of the Aat Elden and are the majority in neighboring Helmarie Province. They are called this because they are typically very tall. There is virtually no ethnic Zekresh population in the province. Only a few soldiers and administrators. Even the Ulor (governor) is Aat Elden. This is because the Aat Elden keep to themselves and are notoriously uncooperative with outside authorities. They are virtually ungovernable by anyone but one of their own people. Previous governors of Aatan have also been Aat Elden in recent years.

About one tenth of the population is neither Aat Elden nor Trond. A few are of mixed ancestry, some are members of small local ethnic groups, but most of them are Foerfen, or Baaniferians. A few are people from more distant parts of the Empire, mostly from nearby provinces and Verronese who have come as merchants. A smaller number are people from outside the Empire who are not from any of these ethnic groups. Most of the people in this province who immigrated from outside the Empire are Tronds. This is alarming to the majority Aat Elden population.

Recent actions by the provincial government:
No recent actions.

Apparent consequences of provincial government policies:
No recent actions.

Situations which may or may not have resulted from government policies:
There is open hostility and occasional violence between the two main ethnic groups in the province: the Aat Elden and the Trond tribes.

Trond tribesmen live on both sides of the Imperial frontier and move back and forth across it as if it didn't exist. So do the Aat Elden, especially in the Blue Mountains. Many Trond chieftains are openly hostile to the Empire and their entire tribes refuse to pay any taxes and will attack any Imperial officials or Zekresh people who come to their territory. Separatists openly plot secession from the Empire and the establishment of an independent Trond kingdom and war against the Glant Ogra tribes. Secessionist plans have been delayed because the Tronds can't agree on who should be their king. There are conspiracy theories that even high Imperial officials in neighboring Helmarie Province support secession and nearly all such officials, civilian and military, are Tronds.

Among the Aat Elden, separatism is a fact of life, not just a conspiracy. There are many areas in the Blue Mountains where Aat Elden clans completely ignore Imperial authority. The most notorious of these is the headwaters of the White River on the Northern frontier. The Aat Elden people there consider themselves independent and no Imperial officials dare to go there. Since the annexation of Aatan province, rebellions and defiance by Aat Elden people in the mountains has been endemic. The White River headwaters has been conquered and abandoned to the natives and reconquered seven times. Imperial officials who understand the problem do not think it is possible to maintain Imperial authority there permanently and do not wish to lose any troops imposing it temporarily. It is difficult enough holding the other two large mountain valleys in the province despite chronic rebellions.

Aat Elden means "Mountain Goat People" in the Aatan language. The Aat people are called the Mountain Goat People because they seem as much at home in the mountains as mountain goats. This has saved the Aat Elden from extinction on at least two occasions, an ancient invasion by the Foerfen and a not so ancient invasion by the Trond tribes. Invading armies find that the Aat Elden retreat to the mountains where they are essentially unbeatable. The Aat people for the most part detest the Zekresh and their empire, but they are more loyal than might be expected because they fear the Trond tribes in the North and the Foerfen in the South who are usually allies of each other and sometimes enemies of the Aat Elden. The empire has kept these hostile tribes peaceful.

There are many traders coming in and out of the province, mostly Verronese. High taxes are levied on goods brought into the province and furs and wool exported from the province because this indirectly taxes the local people who buy the products and sell the furs and wool even if they refuse to pay any direct taxes. Smuggling by Verronese merchants and Foerfen tribesmen from the South is common to avoid these taxes.

Products from the Empire are often taken North and West, out of the Empire, by Aat Elden and Tronds for resale in the wildlands to their kinsmen there. This trade is supposed to be taxed, but isn't because of lack of cooperation by the Aat Elden and the Tronds and lack of control of the Northern frontier and the Western mountain passes by the Empire despite the presence of three phalanxes of Imperial troops normally stationed in the province.


History:
According to legends of the Aat Elden, these lands have belonged to them since the beginning of time. According to the legends of the Red Hand tribes far to the East, the Eastern portion of these lands once belonged to their kinsmen, the Yellow Hand tribes and that the rest of it belonged to the White Hand tribes, also their kinsmen. This same legend says that in ancient times, an alliance called the tribes of the five hands fought and lost a war against a horde of animals from the north including snakes, bears, moose and wolves. This alliance included the tribes of the Red Hand, the Yellow Hand, the White Hand, the Black Hand and the Green Hand. It is said that the tribes of the Black Hand and the White Hand went to live in the mountains of the West while the tribes of the Green Hand fled South and the few survivors of the tribes of the Yellow Hand were scattered. Some of the Yellow Hand survivors are said to have come to live with the Red Hand tribes. To this day, a few members of the Red Hand tribes live in the province, especially in the Southeast. Further in that direction lies Glantogran Province in which the Red Hand tribes are the majority of the population. Glantogran province is also named after the Red Hand tribes. In the language of the Red Hand tribes, "glant ogra" means "red hand". There is an ancient enmity between the Red Hand tribe and the Foerfen people, modern day descendants of the ancient Wolf People of legend. The Trond tribes are related to the Foerfen and there is a more recent animosity between the Red Hand tribes and the Trond tribes. This animosity led to several wars before the Zekresh even came to this region. In recent times the Aat Elden and the Red Hand tribes have tolerated each other or at times have even been allies.

In the last century of the Larinyva Dynasty of Zekresh Emperors, over two hundred years ago, Zekresh armies began to advance up the North River as far as the lands of the Foerfen people. Trond tribesmen came down from the North to join the Foerfen and attacked the Zekresh Imperial Army. This was not forgotten by the Zekresh, nor forgiven. After the conquest of the Foerfen lands led to the creation of Foerfen Province, there was a pause in the advance of Imperial forces for about 200 years due to the end of the Larinyva Dynasty and other priorities for the empire. During this time, intermittent warfare continued between Tronds and their enemies, the Red Hand tribes. The Red Hand tribes were sometimes aided by the Mountain Goat People (Aat Elden) of the Blue Mountains in the West. Eventually, the Empire was ready to march North again and in the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Cledman V, a general named Falimuk was placed in command of an army of conquest and sent up the North River to bring the Trond people and the other tribes there under the dominion of the Empire. Falimuk readily enlisted the assistance of the Red Hand tribes and the Mountain Goat People (Aat Elden) for a war against the Trond. While the Mountain Goat People attacked from the West, Falimuk's Imperial soldiers marched with Red Hand tribesmen from the South and met the main force of Trond tribesmen in battle beside the great North River. The battle was called the Battle of Riverside and in that battle, Imperial forces and their allies were victorious and crushed the Trond horde.

Falimuk advanced far to the North, but bad weather, continuing Trond resistance and the vast extent of Trond lands prevented him from annexing all the Trond lands. Today, some Trond tribes live North of the Imperial frontier. Helmarie province consists of only the portion of the Trond lands that Falimuk conquered and it is still one of the largest provinces in the Empire in land area. With the Tronds conquered, the Red Hand tribes had no hope of remaining outside the Empire and willingly submitted to Imperial rule on the condition that they not be part of the same province as the Trond people. The Mountain Goat People refused to agree to be annexed and Falimuk invaded their lands and annexed them easily the following year except for some holdouts in the mountains who continued to resist for decades to come.

The first three Imperial governors (Uloro) of Aatan province met with a profound lack of cooperation by the Aat Elden people and continuing armed resistance from the Tronds. The fourth Ulor, Jelifar, was an Aat Elden clan leader and was able to bring some semblance of Imperial rule to most of the province. The next two Uloro since Jelifar were, Danifar and Olajar, both Aat Elden. Olajar is known for encouraging sheep farming. Then came the disastrous rule of the Zekresh Uloro Kalimuk, Ponyva and Klemt. Ulor Klemt managed to survive the longest by interfering only a little with the local people, but it was clear he despised them. He was replaced with Ulor Emufar, an Aat Elden Ulor who was extremely popular, but was unable to continue to carry out his duties. He was replaced by Ulor Wanderjar, also an Aat Elden.