Polizeih Sect
The Poeleizih sect originated in southeastern Laescelh, where it grew power as a reactionary movement to the rising poverty of the area. The sect had existed previously however, it had been largely marginalized, especially outside of southeastern Laescelh.
Early History
Little is known concerning its earliest history, other than it was central to the worship of Poelesc, the traditional representative of settlements and human culture in the Faranih pantheon. It is assumed to have originated in the southwestern Laescelh before its importation to the southeast, as there is compelling evidence of Harih dominance.
Southwestern Laescelh Prior to the Poeleizih
Prior to and during the earlier years of the dominance of the Poeleizih in the Southwest, a distinct social structure, contrary to any other portion of Laescelh, existed. In the southwest, there were few large settlements, and the population lived almost exclusively in rural areas. The main area of Laescelh was also highly rural, but instead of the smaller isolated farmers, a village system, with many specialist artisans, had developed, largely because there was adequate soil fertility and rainfall to support it, unlike the less favorable southwest. The southeast, on the other hand, was situated at a significantly higher altitude, although not above the snow line, and therefore recieved an even higher rainfall, leading to disastrous social consequences. The higher rainfall resulted in the adoption of a simplistic class system, which quickly eroded into serfdom for the less fortunate. Although the southeast had the most agricutlural wealth, its people were among the poorest in Laescelh as the elites profited heavily from the stratified system.
The lack of racial or religious distinctions between the classes maintained the illusions the elite sought to propogate: that there was a natual division of labor between the classes and that there was no inequity.
The Middle Class
While the southwest was comprized of essentially only a lower class, the main core of Laescelh housed a prosperous middle class of successful farmers, various artisans, and merchants. For the most part, the socio-economic classes were fluid and movement between them was common, if not expected.
Conversely, the southwest was trapped in a highly entrenched series of classes, although an emerging middle class of merchants did alter the order significantly. It is beleived that this middle class adopted the Poeleizih faith from its contacts with the southeastern Poeleizih, whose land they frequently travelled across, while transporting goods to and from the further east Mescinefh and Etimri, and Laescelh.
It is estimated that by 6500 AC the Poeleizih had become synonymous with the southeast merchant class.
The Lower Class
Conversion of the lower class of peasant farmers progressed much more slowly, as (particularly closer to central Laescelh) they clung to their Harih roots more firmly. Conversions were made, nonetheless, and the lower class was heavily converted in the southernmost locales of the region, where only the elite remained Harih. They conserved their religion, as it became increasingly associated with wealth, because the Poeleizih cult became synonymous with poverty or the middle class.
Famines and Revolution
Although converted in faith, the lower classes remained loyal to their Harih lords, mainly because of the ubiquitous message from the elite of their work on behalf of the peasants. The Middle Class, however, harbored more tensions against the elite, particularly as trade and the economy declined during the 6600's, which are remembered in Laescelh as the "lean years." The slowdown of the trade routes is largely blamed on drought in Laescelh and through out Lhined. Additionally, this period seems to coincide with the peak of overpopulation in Laescelh. While poverty did increase across the region, it swallowed the southeast. In the other regions, their drier springs permitted a later bean harvest, which in turn led to the widespread adoption of more complex crop rotation systems, which increased the populations ceiling. The higher elevation of the southeast led only to a colder and wetter winter, which did not aid the bean harvests and thus led to widespread famine.
The Middle Class largely mobilized the lower classes to revolt, forming the Council of Poelesc, which proclaimed the elite were "foreign Harih, who steal our crops" (in the Proclamation of Keref, 6632). Armed revolt quickly resulted, spurring the flight of Harih of all classes from most of the southeast. A large section of the southeast, mainly in its east, remained stable, although precarious. The Middle Class denounced this region and justified its strict controls over the peasantry as security codes required to prevent an invasion from the neighboring regions. After the establishment of the Council of Poelesc as the ruling body of the region, it and several hundred religous leaders called sessions in 6640 to determine Poeleizih doctrine.
Doctrines
Because, for the most part, the legends involving the Faranih pantheon have been orally passed down, the restrictions on preachers were aimed more at the version and its content than a specific written form. Several varieties of Hakin myths, in which Poelesc rapes his wife, were heavily censored out of existance in the southeast.
For the most part, however, the various legends were not changed, and interpretations, as long as they did not contradict the laws passed by the pseudo-religious Council of Poelesc, which "Poelesc selected to rule", were freely permitted for the time being.
Becoming a Seperate Culture
Tensions between the various non-Poeleizih states of Laescelh and the Poeleizih heightened through out the later 6600's. Militarization and rigid internal control along certain parameters became dominant policies in the devestated society.
Each of the council's proclamations contained atleast one allusion to foreign aggression or internal betrayal. In the more populous regions, the number of convicted and executed traitors (tried by local magistrating bodies that often competed for convictions) exceeded the number of women dead from child birth (which routinely hovered around one of every five women). Questioning policy was an attack on policy. Fear was the morter of the society.
With the Defense Proclamation of 6680, the Council of Poelesc essentially drafted one out of every two men into the military, which was used to seize trading caravans in the northeastern prairies. (Initially the non-Poeleizih protested, as this drastically cut Hidiviz importation, but as local Hidiviz production became established protest faded). This high draft rate differed greatly from the rest of Laescelh, where warriors never exceeded a fifth of the population. Interestingly enough, one fourth of all female Poeleizih were also drafted, but this unprecedented movement towards sexual equality was in fact detrimental to women's causes.
The Army, Women, Viels, and Sex
The usage of women in the army was an unpopular policy, but a highly profitable one as it prevented the Council from requiring all males to enlist, and thereby clogging soceity. Nonetheless, female soldiers were held to much stricter standards, in an army of very high standards. Out of fear that they would become pregnant, and thereby a burden and a useless soldier, female soldiers were not allowed to take part in heterosexual sex of any kind, as anal sex was seen as highly taboo by the Faranih, and vaginal and other forms of sex were viewed as destined to end in pregnancy.
While homosexual sexual activity was initially supported as a form of increasing group unity, it eventually was viewed as a negative, along with all sex, in fact. Troops denied sexual activity were more aggressive and useful to the Poeleizih, leading to an army-wide ban on all sexual behavior. As underground sexual behavior, and pregnancies began to emerge, a desperate Council forced all females to wear as much coverings as possible, the beginning of a larger societal and religious policy.
In civilian life, the wearing of a hair shawl or other coverings became associated with female army members, who had returned to their husbands intact. As it became a popular symbol of both purity (of a virginal sort) and patriotism, civilian women increasingly adopted coverings, only for it to become unacceptable for women to not wear coverings by 6700.
Prostitution or Second Marriage?
In 6732, the Council of Poelesc passed, in secret, a series of proclamations which stripped women of the right to bear arms or take part in conflict. Over the past few decades, the heavily used army had seen various near rebellions from small groups of sexually frustrated soldiers, and hoping to use the current system to correct this difficulty, they changed the female soldiers into state-sponsored whores. Various military compounds were "reformed" so as to house the state's prostitutes seperately, so that they could be used on fatigued or victorious units as either a stimulant or a reward.
After a third of the Poeleizih forces were eradicated from venerial diseases during the early 6700's, the Council modified their position and assigned enlisted men two (or in rare cases three) different "wives" who were located in different compounds, allowing the system to permit the soldiers to be given sex at various stations but maintaining a rigid barrier to prevent epidemics. The male soldiers' numbers were reduced to fit this, while the state's former prostitutes were dramatically increased. It is believed that a complex system of using women for multiple men was implemented to maintain peace in a male-dominated army, but there is much uncertainty into the sexual paradigm.
This system eventually evolved into a fully developed system of polygyny reserved for the elite and soldiers, as a class benefit and a reward for serving in the military. But this system was more than influential in allowing the establishment of pivotal settlements between Malaba and their base in Laescelh.
It has been theorized that the higher mortality rates for males, who filled the ranks of the army, might have balanced the unequal marriage ratio, but this has yet to be explicitly proven.
Into Malaba
As the population of Laescelh climbed up to a precarious threshold once more during the early 6800's, an unspoken agreement between the various sects and states in Laescelh was reached. The plot was to drive the hostile and trade-detrimental Poeleizih out of Laescelh and use the land as overflow for the excess population. On cue, raids along the borders exploded exponentially and miltant hostility resumed with full force around southeast Laescelh. After the massacre of 6807, in which an entire Poeleizih border town was burnt to the ground by murderous Harih, the Council of Poelesc denounced Laescelh as "heathen" and called for a "pilgrimage with arms to Malaba" which was carried out judiciously.
The prarie bases worked as detention centers, or rather stops along the pilgrimage as the civilian population flooded out from southeast Laescelh. The army quickly conquered the region of Malaba called Dhikapa and slaughtered some 30% percent of its inhabitants directly, while atleast 40% of the original population succumbed to a sudden epidemic, which may or may not have been a venerial disease introduced by the Poeleizih.
After installing itself in southwestern Malaba, the Poeleizih quickly adopted an even further theocratic government as many members of the Council of Poelesc lavishly paid off the assitant clerics to maintain order while their treasuries grew off the slave labor of the Malaba survivors and the poor Poeleizih, who lived little better.
Post-Conquest
After conquest the Poeleizih quickly grew into a productive empire, which attempted an invasion of Laescelh. This indirectly caused the developement of the Harapah, which later embroiled the Poeleizih in a second large war campaign, which led to the conquest of various unaligned city-states including the infamous Hejaz. A bloody guerrilla war ensued and the Poeleizih were cast out.
Collapse
After being removed from Laescelh, internal problems consumed the Poeleizih as deforestation crippled their agricultural yeilds and led to widespread erosion. In 7320, the Malaba who had remained peripheral to their conquered region occupied the failed nation and then proceeded to slaughter the Poeleizih. The Harapah eradicated the straggling Poeleizih settlements as they spread out onto the eastern plain.
Common Themes
The defining theme of Poeleizih culture is fear. Fear of being outcast from the soceity has maintained loyalty within it from more than five centuries. Fear of other nations conquering them while Poelesc laughed at them, because they were not worth saving, paralyzed their early history, and led to a militant society. Fear of pregnancy led to the coverings. Fear of labelling as unsupportive and lascivous led to civilian use of coverings. Fear was the operating mechanism of their culture, and led to widespread manipulation from the Upper Class.
The fanaticism and the devotion of the culture, however, was easily accepted by the Harapah and used against them, during the campaign for the extermination of the Poeleizih. Their own fear was their downfall.
