Cumana

Cumana is a half-orc sanjak in the Tatar Steppe between the Dneiper and Don rivers, north of the Black Sea. The region borders on Moskva, Kiyev, the Ottoman Empire, Zaporozhia and minor states of Transcaucasia. The sanjak covers an area of 98.5 hexes, with a population of 337,782. Mutrakan, the largest city, has a population of 85,218.

History

Arrival of the Cumans

During the 9th and 10th centuries, tribes of pure-blood orcs and half-bloods migrated from the steppes below the Altai mountains, emerging north of the Caspian Sea in the 11th century. The Pechenegs came first, followed by Cumans and Kipchaks. The latter groups raided the Khazars and parts of eastern Rus, before sweeping over the Don River into Kiyevan lands. In 1061, the Cuman chieftain Sokal led his people into the heart of Kiyev, invading and devastating the Dneiper Bank, beginning a seasonal war that would last for 175 years. Raiding continued year after year, until the Kiyevan forces established a protective front in 1107.

The pureblood Kipchaks and half-orc Cumans formed a loose confederation after 1080, ruling over the lower Dneiper eastward to the Volga. They fought wars with the Rus, the Seljuk Turks and Circassians. In 1086, a huge Cuman and Pecheneg force defeated Alexius Comnenus of Byzantium in 1086, ravaging the entire eastern Balkan region, up to the walls Constantinople itself. In 1091, after two years of siege, Alexius bought the Cumans off, turning them against the Pechenegs. By 1126, the Pecheneg hets (chieftains) were broken and many of the people massacred.

Cuman Suzerainty

As Kipchaks interbred with Cuman tribes, the resultant battle-lusting clans exercised their influence from the Black Sea to Novgorod. The sack of Kiyev in 1169 enabled them to raid further afield, into Bessarabia, Ruthenia and even Hungary. For 20 years, Moldavia became a Cuman military camp, enabling attacks into Bulgaria and Wallachia into the 1190s.

However, the Cuman hets grew less cohesive with the 13th century, with large numbers hiring as mercenaries. Kipchak tribes, blending with Dwarves of the Donets valley and humans, grew passive and agrarian, settling the lower Don and Volga valleys.

Mongols

The approach of the haruchai general Temujin following the capture of Bokhara (1219) and Samarkand (1220), a combined force of Cumans and Russians weree destroyed at the battle of the Kalka River in 1223. The Kipchak tribes were obliterated and enslaved, while Cuman populations were scattered, slaughtered or forced to submit as members of Tatar clans. These latter were organized as a slave-army of the Khanate of the Golden Horde under Batu Khan between 1237 and 1240, occupying the lands which are today Cumana.

As the Haruchai Tatars maintained their grip on the Crimean Peninsula, adopting Islam, the Cumans embraced the Russian stand on the Ugra River in 1480. Adopting Eastern Orthodoxy, Ivan the III bequeathed them lands south and west of the Don River; this is the first historical use of "Cumana" to describe a political entity.

Independence

Cumana would remain a client state of Russia until 1491, while still remaining friendly with the latter. The conquest of the Tatar state by the Ottomans would create a hundred years of conflict between Cumana and the Turks, until a settlement was reached in 1610; since that time, a yearly tribute has been paid to the Ottomans. Existing as a buffer state, Cumana survives so long as its friends and enemies hesitate to provoke an all out war between north and south. Both Moskva and the Ottomans have other more dangerous enemies; the maintenance of peace with Cumana offers both a relatively safe border.

Settlements

Name	Population	Year founded	Province
Balakleya	483	1264	Cumana
Barvenshan	450	1470	Cumana
Bogodukhan	640	1394	Cumana
Chuson	598	1411	Cumana
Izyum	973	1261	Cumana
Kaskan	660	1386	Cumana
Kupyan	805	1328	Cumana
Merefa	870	1302	Cumana
Mutrakan	85,218	1241	Cumana
Olshan	808	1327	Cumana
Valki	873	1301	Cumana
Volkhan	1,010	1246	Cumana
Anor	398	1491	Donbass
Arkov	304	1407	Donbass
Kamut	4,330	1336	Donbass
Luka	338	1515	Donbass
Miter	478	1459	Donbass
Neykhon	568	1423	Donbass
Rosk	348	1511	Donbass
Tork	244	1455	Donbass
Vodar	348	1511	Donbass
Balki	1,888	1348	Itossia
Itoskhan	5,832	1342	Itossia
Mikhai	145	1592	Itossia
Vesoi	2,406	1265	Itossia
Sumi	6,452	1246	Sumi