Great Sedic Confederation

The Great Sedic Confederacy, also known as The Five Nations, was a confederation of five Sedic tribes (comprised of the Lledoweg, Cídeach, Trethowek, Traezhenneg, and Cánach ethnic groups) across East Alutra that, during the first and second centuries BCE through the later part of the first century CE, played a major role in the formation of East Alutran political borders. The range of the Sedic confederacy included all of modern day Salia, Gladomyr, Lathadu, Ordrey, and parts of Ecoralia, Edury, Martland, and Gozyaries.

The Sedic people differed from other people groups in the region primarily in being better organized, more consciously defined, and more effective, as well as trade routes such as the Võsalu through the Sedic Confederacy’s territories being the safest on the continent, and inventions unique to the Sedes in the realms of weaponry and metallurgy.

History

Pre-Confederacy

The Sedic people migrated to Eastern Alutra from somewhere in central Alutra (near present day Vojandzeka and Ochsvardia) roughly 300 years before the formation of the Great Sedic Confederacy. The Tretuish (known as Fendish in Ordrey) settled modern day Salia, Ordrey, Lathadu, and Ecoralia, and were closely followed by the migration of the Cánach into Ordrey and Northern Salia. At around 300BCE, the Cídeach people arrived in present-day Lathadu, and quickly settled the east coast and central parts of Salia, driving the ethnically Tretuish Salian Lledoweg to the far south and eastern islands of Salia, as well as clashing with ethnically Cánach people in the north of Salia and the south of Ordrey. The Great Sedic Confederacy was founded shortly after this migration of the Cídeach into the region.

Just before the formative period of the Confederacy, the Five Nations remained concentrated in eastern Alutra, barely holding their own not only in conflicts with the neighboring !GozyarEthnicGroup, and Ventorosan colonists fleeing political turmoil as well as Haksar influence, but also in conflicts with each other, as violence between the Sedic tribes was common all through 300 BCE, especially between the Cídeach and the Cánach.

Formation and early history

The rampant conflict prompted various treaties and alliances to be formed between the feudal territories held by individual Sedic clans, eased along by the family-based Sedic peoples’ common culture, religions, and languages and this ever-growing system of alliances is what eventually culminated in the formation of the Great Sedic Confederation in 244 BCE which was based out of modern-day Noters.

Details of the Confederacy’s founding are somewhat mythologized into the story of the Two Princes, which is included in the Orthopraxic Salian religious canon as part of the Summer Cycle of religious texts, however, it is believed that a close relationship between a Lathadun Cídeach chieftain named !Name1 and a Cánach warlord named !Name2 organized their respective tribes based in !Name1’s native territory and settlement of Noters.

Decline and Dissolution

The Blethic Migrations into modern day Izlegal, Gladomyr, Ecoralia, and Edury put great strain on the Sedic Confederation, especially the tribes in the south (the Traezhenneg) and the north/northwest (Cánach and Trethowek). The northern territory of the Sedic Confederacy in particular was weakened by the assimilation of Blethics, who, although syncretizing or even adopting Ayekism, did not follow clan law or identify with Sedic clan life, diluting the power of the clan structure in the north, and as clan hegemony and alliances formed the backbone of the Sedic Confederacy’s might, the northern Sedic Confederacy began to peacefully dissintigrate, and collapse from within. In addition to this, a massive famine throughout much of the western Sedic Empire caused the forced migration of the Tretuish tribes into Ecoralia and Edury, where they clashed with the Blethics.

Two of the four clan alliances which would eventually form the major duchies of Ordrey declared their secession from the Sedic Confederacy and infighting between these two Duchies and the Sedic Confederacy resulted in more territory lost for the tribes.

Ventorosan settlements prompted by the desire to flee Haksar influence also began to expand into the Southeastern Sedic territory from their foothold along the Abayadi Sea, eventually conquering almost all territory held by the Trethowek in the Serpentines, and by 85BCE the territory held by the Sedic Confederacy was reduced to Lathadu, Salia, and parts of Ordrey, and would remain that way until Íadal mac Conchobhair’s unification of Salia around 100CE.

Political structure

The Confederation was comprised of a vast network of Proto-Feudal Chiefdoms and religious settlements led by a Chiefly Council with delegates from each of the nations elected by within the Sedic ruling class. A particular feature of the Confederation was their staunch opposition to the formation of a singular monarchy, with severe punishments being detailed for any Chief who attempted to consolidate power. As a result, a common feature of the Confederation's politics were periodic purges of notable warrior and religious figures suspected of accumulating too much authority in a given area. Another feature was the strict ban on bloodshed between clans within the Sedic Confederacy, resulting in elaborate and highly ritualized legal system which formed the start of Sedic Clan Law.

Because the Confederacy lacked administrative control, the tribes did not always act in unison, but spectacular successes in warfare compensated for this and were possible because of domestic security.

Religion

While Ayekist chronology presents a genealogy of several millennia, scholars regard Ayekism as a fusion of Ancient Salian orthopraxy with various Sedic cultures and traditions, having diverse roots and no specific founder. This Ayekist synthesis emerged some time around 500-200 BC, during the period of the Sedic Confederacy, when many of its first epics were composed. It thrived afterwards as well, eventually supplanting Canachism, a related faith, on the mainland.