Ang Mutia nan Katimuran, Book Two

ramones1986 · Jun 27, 2018

FOREWORD

A year and two weeks ago (12th June 2017), I've created a new Philippine-centric timeline in which the PoD was the ancestors of OTL Chams (and possibly Acehnese) went to the eastern part of the Manila Bay region, where they've encountered tribes who speak (a direct variant/descendant) of proto-Philippine language, thus forming the ethnogenesis of the Luuk-speaking people, also known as Tagaluuk; another wave of migration from western Kalimantan, the hypothesized homeland of OTL Chams and Acehnese, went to southeastern Panay, where their intermarriage with another tribe/s who speak (a direct descendant/variant) of proto-Philippine language, thus the ethnogenesis of the Ede-Jarai people of the said region.

The TL was the expansion of the long-running monarch list that I've started March last year ,as well as the quote that I've posted in the "AH Quotes" thread. I now realized that I started to write on the scenario too early, thus I suspended the first version after almost two pages, and I instead concentrated on writing the second version of my current timeline in the Test Thread Forum (aka "Post Your Test Message Here") for almost a year; as of this writing, I'm planning to write the last few parts of the second chapter.

As you'll see in this timeline, it will follow the Tondo-Namayan monarch list that me, @Timaeus and @kasumigenx had written (although I modified kasumi's contributions to fit well to the scenario that I've set up); the only difference that you'll see that instead of Sanskrit names, you'll expect Dravidian names in some characters as this TL is actually the continuation of the scenario that I've wrote last year. If I have the chance, I will re-write the first part as prequel. In addition, I'll add new situations/events that were missed out in the test thread version of this TL.

So, enjoy this journey and we're hoping for the best of luck.

*fingers crossed*

ramones1986 · Jun 27, 2018

MUTIA NAN KATIMURAN
(Pearl of the Orient)

"Indeed, the Philippines before the Spanish colonial era was a mosaic of different nations, culturally influenced by China, India and the Malay Archipelago, also known as Nusantara. However, a single entity has a significant influence and an enough power to control the affairs and destiny of the rest of the archipelago: the Tondo-Namayan Kingdom, founded by the ethno-linguistic group of the same name living in the eastern part of Manila Bay, whose ethnogenesis resulted from intermarriage between seafarers originally came from within the Nusantara (Malay Peninsula and/or Borneo) and Austronesian tribes of the area who spoke a language (almost) identical to Namayan tongue, the direct descendant of what linguists called the "ancestral Philippine language. Their dominance of more than eight hundred years was well-recorded not just in the annals of the Philippinee history, but also in the chronicles of Maritime Southeast Asian history."

- "General History of the Philippines"
Gat Teodoro Agoncillo y Andal

"Claiming their descendance from a marriage between Gat Amaron and Dayang Po Inahan[2], the monarchs of Tondo-Namayan (and their immediate relatives) carried the clan name Haringadlaw and belived they have the divine right to rule the whole Luzon (and later, most of the Philippine islands) as living gods and expected respect and tribute from the local rules outside their direct area of influence, as expected in a typical Southeast Asian mandala state. Beyond this mythmaking, both the archaeologists and historians believed that the Haringadlaw clan, and the rest of the Tondo-Namayan people in general, is a product of intermarriage between Bornean/Malayan immigrants and a group of tribes who speak a direct descendant of proto-Philippine language (or for some, the proto-language itself)."

- "Myths and Facts about the Haringadlaw and Tagean-Talanen Clan"
Xiao Chua

ramones1986 · Jun 27, 2018

The attributed coat of arms of Haringadlaw (later Tagean-Talanen) royal clan

ramones1986 · Jul 5, 2018

BOOK ONE
SUMMARY - PART ONE

More or less than a thousand and a hundred years before the Common Era, a group of seafarers from the western part of Pulau Dayak[1] had sailed up north to find a new land to settle. Eventually, after a very long period, they landed in the eastern part of Namayan Bay[2], where they've encountered tribes who came from far north, speaking dialects of a direct descendant of proto-Philippine language. Because of the fact that both the Malayo-Dayak[3] seafarers and the proto-Tagaluuk (the people who spoke the direct descendant of proto-Philippine language, also called as proto-Luuk) shared the same cultural traditions, intermarriage between the two groups usually followed, thus forming the ethnogenesis of the Luuk people, whose role in the pre-colonial history of the Philippines (and even after the said period) would be determined by their location and interaction with other ethnolinguistic groups. At the same time, another wave of Malayo-Dayak migrants had arrived in the southeastern part of the western Visayan island of Pan-ay, where they've met another group who, quite accidentally, spoke the same language as their kins in the eastern part of the Namayan Bay; in fact, these tribes claimed in their legends that their ancestors sailed from farthest north before reaching what they've considered their homeland. The interaction and subsequent intermarriage between the Malayo-Dayaks and southeast Pan-ay tribes resulted in the ethnogenesis of the Rade people.

Lingling-o

At the time the Malayo-Dayak seafarers had reached the eastern part of the Namayan Bay region and southeastern Pan-ay, jade culture was already flourishing not just in the said regions, but also in most of the Philippine archipelago, as seen in the archealogical discoveries in sites across the southwestern parts of Luzon (with later excavations in other parts of the Luzon like the Tugigaraw Valley provinces[4], Palawan and even in the island of Siargaw in Agusan. Jade was imported from Beiwan[5] and the skill of crafting such metal was brought to the Philippine archipelago approximately a thousand years before the arrival of the seafarers from western Borneo; it was possibly believed that Austronesian migration from Beiwan was link to jade and its craftmaking; in fact, jade and the its craftmaking industry was first established in southern China's Liangzhu culture. Like in the rest of the archipelago, the economy of the eastern Namayan Bay region was relatively diversified and developed for its area: Beside the well-known industry of jade crafting, they also have woodcrafting and handicratft industries that catered to the needs of an already socailly stratified society like the Tagauuk. Like every civilization that existed at this time, agriculture served as the mainstay of the Luuk society; farmers practiced wet-paddy agriculture in the rich inland plains enriched by alluvial waters; sometimes, they also grew vegetables between the harvesting and rice planting seasons . Trading was also practiced at this moment, although the scale was not massive like after the arrival of the Bornean seafarers; it was through the latter's contribution to the Tagaluuk society and economy that interisland trading boomed and expanded to include the islands of Kalamian[6] and Palawan.

By about 1000 BCE, the Jade Culture was joined by the arrival of the Iron Age in the Philippines, known as Tabon-Balay Paniki[7] after the two caves in Palawan and Bulakan respectively, where artifacts were found by archaeologists in abundance. The Tabon-Baniki culture was characterized by the development of metallurgy, as evident in tools such as swords, spearheads and axes. The Tabon-Balay Paniki culture was also characterized through their burial customs: cremating the dead and buried in elaborately decorated jars covered in lids, as exemplified in the Manunggul Burial Jar discovered in Tabon Cave. At this moment, the Iron Age brought improvements in productivity in the economy of the ethno-linguistic groups of the Philippine archipelago, especially in the eastern Manila Bay area: the trading partners of the Luuk people expanded to include Han China and Nanyue[8], a semi-Sinified kingdom north of the Indochinese peninsula, whose inhabitants spoke Austroasiatic languages.

There were also sociopolitical changes brought by the arrival of the Iron Age among the Luuk people; the already socially stratified Luuk soceity was further stratified as some of the most simple villages and hamlets evolved into barangays (or more appropriately, kampong), headed by a datu (either elective or hereditary, more often the latter) and advised by a council of elders and governed by simple code of laws derived from local traditions. Between 850 BCE and 50 CE, waves (and generations) of Luuk clans migrated inland, particularly from the regions of Kawit, Maraungan and Bulakan: Clans from Bulakan established communities in the mountains of Kabuludang Inahan[9], terracing the middle and lower slopes for rice and vegetables, while maintaining contact with their brethrens through trade between mountain communities, as well between them and the coastal Luuk communities. The Dumagats, who were hunters-gatheres and the original inhabitants of the mountains, were forced to flee east as the Luuk people enroached their territory and cleared for cultivation; curiously, some of their babies that were abandoned by Dumagat women were subsequently adopted by Luuk families, most often childless couples. Meanwhile, clans from both Maraungan and Kawit migrated to the mountainous area south of their regions of origin, reaching to the region of Tabuko[11], especially in the western banks of Kagayang Sungay (Sungay River)[12], thus establishing the border between the Luuk (later Tondo-Namayan) and Taong Kumintang, an ethnic group of Visayan origin who settled the southwestern part of Luzon.

Mutticu script

As the Luuk socieities prospered from both inter-island (maritime and inland) and international maritime trade, they received enormous, albeit indirect, cultural influences from both China and India: Chinese cultural influences came through the semi-Sinified kingdom of Minyue (閩越), especially in the period after the royal family fled to Formosa/Beiwan, accompanied by their most loyal military and civilian officials in 111 BCE; in effect, the most basic bureaucratic system of China was not only learned by the Luuk proto-states in the coast of Manila Bay, but also neighboring peoples like the Sambal and Sisuan[12] peoples in the west and, minimally, to the Kumintang people of the south. Nonetheless, direct Chinese cultural influence (through present-day Fujian, particularly the south) would arrived centuries later, as the historians and archaeologists agreed: they argued that the cultural influences the peoples of Manila Bay were actually a mix of Chinese and Austronesia/native Formosan cultures. Meanwhile, Indian cultural influences reached the Philippine Islands through the Malay Archipelago, and the Luuk societies were no exception: Tamils, well-known seafarers of the Indian Ocean, were responsible for the transmission of (southern) Indian culture to Maritime Southeast Asia: religious beliefs, literature, forms of government and especially their way of writing: the Mutticu alphabet[13], considered as the direct ancestor of all the writing systems in the Malay Archipelago (Nusantara), including the system current used by all Philippine languages like Tagaluuk.

The Malay Archipelago, meanwhile, also contributed to the enrichment of Luuk culture and society through migration, especially those who came from central Java: it has been noted that the said area was the two most Indianized Austronesian societies alongside Thiru Lanka[14], whose Maanyan-speaking inhabitants were directly influenced by the Tamils in their north. As the Common Era dawned, the geopolitical reality of eastern Manila Bay region became more complex as different kampungs have forged alliance to the point of merging within each other to the point of evolving into different proto-states: they shared a common form of government; they were hereditary monarchies aided by a council of elders and a basic bureaucratic system, albeit maintaining a basic variant of the Indian-inspired mandala system. In the end, seven coastal states were formed in the eastern area of Manila Bay, all of whom were comparable to city-states of ancient Greece in size and influence. They were the following:

- Bulakan
- Maykawayan
- Tundon
- Namayan
- Kawit
- Maraungan
- Sungay

Kabuludang Inahan

In the mountain settlements, however, it was different story: separated by distance, the settlements maintained their independence, and yet they realized they need to forge alliance to protect their interests, defend themselves from the attacks of the Dumagats and stimulate the regional economy as well as secure trading ties with their counterparts at the coast. Led by Komurugan Gattapang Atipulu, the chieftain of Kampung Atipulu[15], leaders of the mountain communities throughout the Kabuludang Inahan formed Kumpulang Tagabulud (Mountainmen's League) in 150 CE. From their de facto capital in Kampung Atipulu, the alliance forged a common defense system to combat Dumagat attacks by constructing a series of fortifications on the then-border between the Luuk and the hunter-gatherers, considered as the predecessors of the fortifications in the border between the Tugigaraw Valley statelets and Tondo-Namayan Kingdom.

The success of Kumpulang Tagabulud encouraged their lowland counterparts to forged a common between each other and they ultimately invited their upland brethrens to join them. Indeed, thirty years later (180 CE), the eight coastal Luuk kingdoms joined the Kumpulang Tagabulud to form the Kumpulang Bangsaluuk (Bangsaluuk Confederation) in Namayan, the capital of the principality of the same name in the southern bank of Pasigan River; it was here that the first legally-binding document in Philippine history, the Oath of Namayan (Ang Sumpa ng Namayan), was written. The king of the state of Kawit, Datu Dimangan Koravan Tirumata, was chosen as the first leader of the confederation.

NOTES:
[1] OTL: Borneo
[2] OTL: Manila Bay.
[3] Based on the theory/hypothesis that the ancestors of Malay, Chams and Acehnese lived in western Borneo, I've used such term.
[4] OTL: Cagayan Valley provinces.
[5] OTL: Taiwan.
[6] Kalamian in this scenario includes Mindoro.
[7] OTL:Biak-na-Bato.
[8] OTL: Guangdong-Guangxi-Hainan-northern Vietnam.
[9] OTL: Sierra Madre
[10] OTL San Pedro, Biñan, Santa Rosa and Cabuyao in the province of Laguna.
[11] San Cristobal River.
[12] OTL: Kapampangan ethnolinguistic group.
[13] OTL: Grantha alphabet
[14] It's like OTL Sri Lanka, but the inhabitants are OTL ancestors of Malagasy people.
[15] OTL Antipolo City.

ramones1986 · Jul 5, 2018

By the way, can someone suggest a more Dravidianized names for places like Borneo/Kalimatan and Sumatra for TTL as their etymologies were Sanskritic in origin?

ramones1986 · Jul 6, 2018

BOOK ONE
SUMMARY - PART TWO

At first, the member states of the Bangsaluuk Confederation (Kumpulang Banwaluuk) cooperated with each other, particularly in defending their common territory from enemies (e.g. the marauding Dumagat tribes) and trading with neighboring countries within their own region, or even beyond. In fact, the constant (and nearly common) intermarriage among the noblemen of the eight Tagaluuk statelets had trigerred a sense that someday, the whole Banwaluuk would be unified as a nation-state under a unified ruler, who would be selected from among the noble families spread all across the region, most especially the ruling clans of the eight Luuk states. However, behind the façade of cooperation and a sense of unity between the Luuk city-states, treachery and backstabbing were common within the royal courts of the Eight States of the Bangsaluuk Confederation, which was worsened by the time the Javanese from the kingdom of Medang arrived in the eastern portion of Namayan Bay in the middle of the 8th century; the monarchs of Medang, through the emissaries they've sent to the courts of the Luuk stateles, tried to calm the rising tensions between the statelets by giving all of them the status of vassal states, with equal amount tribute that they would give to the Medang royal court. Hawever, this kind of compensation never lessend the increasing, albeit secret, animosity among the rulers (and the rest of the ruling clans) of the statelets that formed the Bangsaluuk Confederation, especially when there were accusations of favoritism began to surface and spread it out beyond the four walls of every Kraton (royal palaces) of the every Luuk-speaking statelet.

Because of the intrigues and feelings of betrayal that were accumulated and eventually leaked out and spread out across the Luuk-speaking region, and despite the futile attempts of the monarchs of Medang through its emissaries, the Bangsaluuk Confederation was dissolved abruptly in 875 CE as the Luuk-speaking region was engaged in a civil war that lasted for nine years: Thousands died, both military and civilians, the daily lives of the society has been distrupted, and so was the old geopolitical realities of Banwaluuk.

As it turned out, the winning faction of the Luuk Civil War was led by the current chieftain of the statelet of Namayan, Gat Ama Pengajaya nan Haringadlaw, whose family origins claimed that they were direct descendants of Gat Amaron and Dayang Po Inahan, they've sucesfully convinced the surviving chieftains of towns and villages that they should retain their independence as self-governing geopolitcal entities while contributing to the recovery of the whole of Bangsaluuk. Not only that, Gat Ama Perajaya established Tundon as his capital, which had already been with Namayan at the midst of the civil war.

A new era had begun right before their own eyes.

ramones1986 · Jul 12, 2018

REMINDER:
The events that were narrated in this timeline are recorded in the Gregorian calendar,
in months that approximately happened originally in the modified version of the Tamil calendar,
which was used in Tiru Lanka and Maritime Southeast Asia in the pre-colonial era.

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

885 CE

March:

Gat Ama Perajaya of the powerful Haringadlaw clan of Namayan was proclaimed king of the newly-unified kingdom of the same name (Kaharian ng Tondo dan Namayan) by the nobles and religious leaders in the sacred city of Atipulu. The Haringadlaw patriarch swore that he would uphold the Oaths and Chronicles of Tondo, an age-old law of traditions and regulations that harked back to the days of Luuk Confederation, the predecessor of the new kingdom. The new monarch have a huge task of maintaining the unity of the country as a whole after decades of disunity and conflict that plagued the last years of the Confederation, the fact that the Tondo-Namayan kingdom was actually a mandala, like its contemporaries in Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia. In keeping with the tradition of appointing a highlander as his chief minister (Pangulu), a tradition that maintained and inherited from the days of the Confederation, Gat Ama Perajaya named Tiruravanam Balaydanaw as his chief minister and quickly announced that Tondo would be the capital of the new kingdom. A few weeks after the establishment of the kingdom, the internal departments of the Tondo-Namayan Royal Palace was established. Most of the personnel who composed the internal departments of the royal palace complex came from different parts of the country, particularly from the royal kitchens of the eight coastal Luuk states and members of Luuk Confederacy years before the unification of the region as a single kingdom. The departments were organized by the members of the Tirumata and Gatatipulu clans, known to be staunch allies of the Haringadlaw clan, especially the female members of the clan; the residing quarters of the members of the internal departments were located within the central part of the Royal Palace complex.

April:

Dancers and musicians from the neighboring Nusantara kingdoms, especially the Javanese from Mataram/Medang, came to the recently-established royal court of Tondo-Namayan to teach their local counterparts the art of court music and dance drama. Encouraged by Dayang Kayumi Tirumata, the head of the royal dance drama department, the Javanese court dancers and musicians taught their local apprentices the skills they learned and practiced back home in Mataram; nonetheless, the local protegees incorporated native elements in order to create a distinct performing art that could be described as "a harmonious marriage of folk and courtly in every dance step and facial expression, accompanied by every rhythm and tune". It included some folk dances such as tinikling and native instruments, particularly the wind instruments. The local apprentices were actually came from the royal courts of the seven coastal Luuk kingdoms at the time of Confederation; despite their skills and tradition, the importation of the Javanese court dancers and musicians from Mataram improved their skills and allowed them to add native expressions to their art in order to created a distinct dance drama and musical tradition. Eventually, the dancers and musicians from the Nusantra would in the Royal Palace (Kraton) complex for a long time. Meanwhile, the newly-formed Tondo-Namayan army began to occupy the fortifications and garrisons across the country as the building up the country's military force continues. Most of the soldiers were recruited from across the Luuk-speaking territory, a significant percentage of whom were already served in the militia of the states of the Luuk Confederation, and leaded by able generals, most of whom were loyal to the Haringadlaw clan and their allies in the Luuk Civil War. Compared to its naval counterpart, the Tondo-Namayan army was easily mobilized and organized because the personnel were already available as the militias were unified and professionalized; the possible expansion of the kingdom could lead to new fortifications and garrisons to be built in the new territories like Sambal Lands and Kumintang, as well as recruiting new personnel.

May:

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony was held on the grounds of the Royal Palace complex in the capital Tondo. The royal rite was considered as the ceremony to mark the beginning of rice planting season; In the ceremony, two sacred oxen were hitched to a wooden plough and they plough a furrow in some ceremonial ground, while rice seed is sown by court priests. After the ploughing, the oxen are offered plates of food, including rice, corn, green beans, sesame, fresh-cut grass, water and rice whisky. Depending on what the oxen eat, court astrologers and priests make a prediction on whether the coming growing season will be bountiful or not. Like in the rest of both Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia, the Royal Ploughing Ceremony was performed in the kingdoms and confederacies within the Philippine archipelago, not just in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan. The ceremony of this year was the first time for the unified kingdom; the royal rite was already performed in the coastal kingdoms and the highland city-states of Luuk Confederation, and those who survived the Luuk Civil War carried on the tradition. Days after the Ploughing Ceremony, homages from the neighboring kingdoms arrived in the Royal Palace (Kraton) complex, particularly from the kingdoms of Sisuan, Sambal and Kumintang; according to the courtiers within the Kraton, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw told the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya that the motives/intentions beyond the homages from the three neighboring kingdoms was their possible absorption to the Kingdom of Tondo-Namayan.

640px-Saya_Chone%27s_%22Royal_Ploughing_Ceremony%22.png

Royal Ploughing Ceremony
(Arakanese painting)

June-July:

The Tondo-Namayan monarch personally assigned a group of scribes and wise men to explore every corner of the country as he planned to codify the existing laws of the Luuk society in general. After accepting the advice of his chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, Gat Ama Perajaya told the group that they should seek the residences of old chieftains in the villages across the Tondo-Namayan/Luuk territory for such laws, as he believed that they kept the abaca scrolls where the laws were written, albeit the monarch reminded the scribes and wise men to give permission to the rural chieftains before copying or borrowing the scrolls. As part of his plan of forging a permanently unified identity for the new kingdom, the Tondo-Namayan monarch wholly understood that unifying and codifying common laws written before and during the era of Confederation could aid him and his fledgling government to establish a permanent presence in the society of the country as a whole. A fortnight after the edict, another group of scribes and court historians were assigned to the cities that once the capitals of the coastal kingdoms (and members of Luuk Confederation) to search and recover scrolled records from their archives as chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw told that a larger archive would be set up within the Royal Palace (Kraton) complex to house the scrolled documents gathered from the smaller archives of the states that composed the Confederation as well as present and future scrolled documents from the kingdom itself. Fortunately for the scribes and court historians, the documents were salvaged from the underground chambers of the former royal palaces across the Luuk-speaking territory from the devastation of Luuk Civil War. For the chief court historian Gat Abal-abal nan Balayaum, the recovered scrolled documents could help the present (and future) monarchs of Tondo-Namayan to help him/her made a right decision. More than a month later, thousands of scrolled records from across the Luuk-speaking territories were brought to the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) in the capital Tondo as chief court historian Gat Abal-abal ng Balayaum formally set up the spacious royal archives within the complex. Beside the records, written copies of the basic laws of all the former kingdoms (and city-states) that composed the Luuk Confederation were also brought to the Kraton, as personally requested by the chief minister of the kingdom Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, who wanted to codify the existing laws that prevailed across the Luuk-speaking heartland of the Kingdom with the help of the court scribes and the king himself, Gat Ama Perajaya. It has been indeed in a long time when the gathering of written scrolled copies of the laws existing in the length and breadth of the Luuk territory were gathered by the palace historians and scribes.

July:

Most of the most powerful merchants in the Tondo-Namayan Kingdom have lend some of the vessels as the kingdom's navy was building up under the personal supervision of the monarch, Gat Ama Perajaya. The Tondo-Namayan monarch personally understood the need of protecting the interests of the new country and defending its maritime borders from potential enemies, both within and outside the Philippine archipelago, so he issued a decree to all sea merchants, powerful and otherwise, to permanently lend a ship to the newly-established navy. The personnel of the new navy would be recruited from the crew of the lend vessels, who were to be trained by admirals recruited from both Mataram and Beiwan/Middag[1], both of whom were Austronesian kingdoms with established navies; curiously, the Mataram admirals used Rade sailors to train the Tondo-Namayan navy personnel.

Karakoa

August:

In the islands of Romblon[2], the Hanunoo[3] tribes were finally unified as a single kingdom under the leadership of Datu Balanak nan Taubuhid after an agreement between the different Hanunoo clans. The Taubuhid clan, therefore, was considered as the most powerful and the most influential of the clans, as they have an extensive network of connections with neighboring peoples like the Visayans, peoples of the Bikol peninsula, Kalamianens and Kumintang, especially through trade, In general, the Hanunoos were culturally influenced by the people surrounding them, albeit they retained most of their culture. Days after the proclamation, the newly-proclaimed Hanunoo monarch of the Land of Romblon expressed his allegiance to the Tondo-Namayan. In the scrolled letter written in Luuk language, Datu Balanak ng Taubuhid formally introduced himself as the "king of the four islands of Romblon, chosen by its most influential clans to rule and guide the people living in the four islands (Empat na Pulu in Luuk language)" before formally offering his allegiance. He further explained in the scrolled letter the importance of the islands and the advantages of being allied with Tondo-Namayan kingdom, especially in the matter of defense from potential enemies. Earlier, the most powerful Hanunoo clans agreed that a Taubuhid would lead Romblon, and Datu Balanak was unanimously chosen as their monarch. The scrolled letter, in summary, was significant from a geopolitical point of view: if the allegiance would indeed confirmed by Gat Ama Perajaya, the presence of Tondo-Namayan in the central part of the Philippine archipelago would became visible, and it could influence its relationship with the Visayan statelets and even the Rade city-states.

September:

In the Kumintang capital Taal, Lakan Halimaw wrote a letter of praise to his friend Gat Ama Perajaya for the latter's acceptance of the homage sent from the domain . In the said latter, which was written in Luuk language, by then the lingua franca of central and Southern Luzon, the Kumintang monarch openly expressed the possibility that the country would expect greater cooperation with its larger neighbor in the north, without hinting to anybody that Kumintang would became an integral part of the Tondo-Namayan kingdom as a suzerain, in line with the mandala system of government prevailing in the region. Before the establishment of the Tondo-Namayan Kingdom, Lakan Halimaw aided Gat Ama Perajaya and his father Gat Ama Murugan of Namayan to consolidate the southern part of the Luuk Confederacy and defeat the rival clan leaders in the last years of the Luuk Civil War; in fact, he facilitated the marriage of Ama Perajaya to Dayang Koyasitai Tirumata, one of the members of the Tirumata clan, previously known as leaders of Luuk Confederacy and became staunch allies of the Haringadlaw clan; the Tirumata would became part of the royal palace complex's inner court circles in the capital Tondo. Meanwhile, the Sisuan monarch sent a message to the emissaries sent by his Tondo-Namayan countepart that he was seriously considering the possibility that the country would became an autonomous part of the new kingdom, something that resembled the possible situation in Kumintang in the southwest. Apu Singsing sent a scrolled letter written in Luuk and (Old) Malay languages explaining his position on the possible inclusion of his domain before the emissaries of Gat Ama Perajaya in the Sisuan capital Bakulud. The following day, the chief minister (Pangulu) of Tondo-Namayan Tiruravanam Balaydanaw received the letter sent by the Sisuan monarch in the capital Tondo and told the messengers that he would talk the message sent by Apu Singsing with Gat Ama Perajaya. Apu Singsing, the current Sisuan monarch and member of the ruling Arayat clan, was realistic enough that he would only support the new kingdom and its ruler despite his support to the vanquished northern clans in the recently-concluded Luuk Civil War.

October:

The Rade city-states of the southeastern Pan-ay island (Pulu nan Pan-ay) began to forge a single alliance to protect their common interests against potential enemies both within and outside the central part of the archipela\ago (Visayas), as well as to encourage and stimulate trade between each other and their immediate neighbors like the Karay-as, Akeanons, Capiznons and Buglasnons. The simply called Kumpulang Taneng Rade (Confederation of Rade Lands) were governed from the city-state of Irong-Irong, the chieftains of the ten principal city-states met every month to discuss the developments that was happening in their own respective polities, discuss their common issues and shares their proposed solutions to such issues. The Rade tribes shared the same ancestry as their northern counterpart, the Tondo-Namayan (also known as Luuk) people: both peoples descended from the intermarriage between Malayic seafarers and proto-Philippine-speaking clans/tribes; in fact, they shared the same language. Despite this, the geopolitical development of Rade city-states was slower when compared to Tondo-Namayan Kingdom, the geopolitical entity of their northern counterparts. Weeks after the pact, it's now been known to the chieftains of Kumpulang Taneng Rade that some of their citizens went "up north" (read: Tondo-Namayan Kingdom) to serve in the emerging navy; already aware of the potential role of the northern kingdom in the affairs of the rest of the states in the Philippine archipelago, the Rade city-states decided to set up their own navy in order to protect their territorial waters from the potential enemies, which could even include the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, as well as assisting trading (and merchant) ships in their journey away and returning from their shores of origin, so the chieftains ordered every merchant with the Rade lands to voluntarily lent their vessels (and accompanying personnel) to them as they'd forming a common navy; the merchant class, for their part, responded quickly to the call, especially the wealthiest and most powerful ones: they lend a vessel to the confederacy. For the land forces, it has already been agreed that the city-states' armies would be unified in times of unexpected emergency.

Irong-Irong Strait
(Selat Irong-Irong)

November:

In the Kumintang capital Taal, Lakan Halimaw ng Tumbaga finally received the scrolled letter written by his personal friend, the Tondo-Namayan king Gat Ama Perajaya ng Haringadlaw, in which it contained the definitive decision regarding the possible absorption of his kingdom to its large (and increasingly more powerful) neighbor in the north. As he read the scrolled letter, he was delighted to know that his personal friend encouragingly wanted him to let Kumintang be an autonomous part of the Tondo-Namayan kingdom. Immediately after reading the scrolled letter, Lakan Halimaw summoned his court writers to made copies of his edict that would inform the people of Kumintang that their country would become part of Tondo-Namayan; at the same time, he also summoned messengers to spread the message across the country. The confirmation of the possible inclusion of Kumintang as an autonomous part of Tondo-Namayan was part of the expansion of the new Tondo-Namayan Kingdom as a typical Maritime Southeast Asian mandala state. Meanwhile in the Sisuan capital Bakulud, King Apu Singsing sent a scrolled letter to the emissaries of his Tondo-Namayan counterpart (Gat Ama Perajaya) in relation to the affair of the Sambal Lands joining together with his kingdom on its possible absorption by its larger eastern neighbor. In the said letter, it was revealed that the Sambal king Apu Manguwang Ulungbulud was actually Apu Singsing's brother-in-law, as the former married the latter's younger sister Dayang Mabulan ng Arayat, the current queen of the Sambal Lands; indeed, the scrolled letter written by the Sisuan monarch confirmed that both his kingdom and that of his brother-in-law (Sambal Lands) would be absorbed into Tondo-Namayan simultaneously as autonomous part of the enlarged kingdom; beside Sisuan and the Sambal Lands, the kingdom of Kumintang in the southwestern part of Luzon would be expected to be absorbed to Tondo-Namayan Kingdom as autonomous regions, typical of a Southeast Asian mandala state.

December:

In the throne room of the Royal Palace (Kraton) if Tondo, Gat Ama Perajaya formally received the emissaries sent by the Hanunoo king of the Four Islands of Romblon as the Tondo-Namayan king received the scrolled letter written by Datu Balanak Taubuhid, in which the latter openly declared his allegiance to the kingdom. In response, the Haringadlaw king told the emissaries from Romblon that he formally accepted the allegiance, and added that he would probably sent emissaries to their native lands in the next few days, accompanied by a scrolled letter that would confirm that the Tondo-Namayan king accepted the allegiance of his Hanunoo counterpart. It has been almost a fortnight since the founding of the unified kingdom of the Four Islands of Romblon when this decision was made in Tondo, the capital of the Luuk-speaking mandala state, who were starting to expanding beyond its core territory. Weeks after, a fleet of karakoas from the Kingdom of Tondo-Namayan arrived on the coast of the Four Islands of Romblon, as promised by its monarch Gat Amahan Perajaya to its Hanunoo counterpart Datu Balanak ng Taubuhid almost a fortnight earlier, in exchange of accepting the latter's suzerainty by the larger, northern kingdom. Led by admiral (Laksaman) Gat Hanuman ng Ubu-ubu, the Tondo-Namayan delegation presented before the court of the the Hanunoo monarch in its palace in the kingdom's capital Inodiongan[4] the scrolled letter written by the Haringadlaw monarch, in which he personally accepted the suzerainty presented by Datu Balanank in his scrolled letter that he sent almost two weeks earlier. The motive behind Datu Balanak's decision of such offer was believed to be mostly geopolitical, especially because of its location in the central part of the (Philippine) archipelago: the Taubuhid monarch of the Four Islands of Romblon simply knew that the Kingdom of Tondo-Namayan would emerge as a powerful kingdom from its base in the eastern part of Namayan Bay[5] and would expand its borders beyond its heartland and it would be an opportunity to offer his suzerainty to the northern neighbor. The visit lasted for three days.

NOTES:
[1] TTL Modern Chinese transliteration of 排灣 (OTL: Paiwan), the dominant group of TTL Taiwan.
[2] As indicated in this scenario, the Romblon Islands has included the OTL province of Marinduque. Also, the inhabitants of ATL Romblon are Mangyans
[3] The predominant tribe/clan of ATL Romblon.
[4] OTL: Odiongan
[5] OTL Manila Bay.

ramones1986 · Jul 12, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

886 CE

January:

The chieftains of the Kalamianen[1] city-states met in the southern city-state of Mangarin to discuss the main issues that commonly concerned the geopolitical entities, which was the emergence of the neighboring kingdoms of Taytay (Palaw-an) and Tondo-Namayan (Luuk), and its possible effects of the island as a whole. For a couple of days, the Kalamianen chieftains were presenting their proposals on how they could cope with the changing geopolitical situation surrounding them. In the end, the chieftains agreed that they would create a confederation between themselves in order to protect themselves from the external geopolitical changes that could affect themselves. Already connected to each other through language, culture and trade, the Kalamianen city-states were nonetheless influenced by their location, especially their neighbors across the seas like the kingdoms of Taytay (Palaw-an) and Kumintang, and the chieftains were concerned of possible disunity if they didn't act as one unified community. Weeks after the said meeting, the Kalamianen cheiftains sent emissaries to the court of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan to acknowledge and paid homage to the northern kingdom.

February:

In their respective palaces in their own capitals (Taal, Bakulud and Ulungapo), the monarchs of Kumintang, Sisuan and Sambal Lands formally received the emissaries sent by Tondo-Namayan monarch Gat Ama Perajaya and accepted the scrolled letters personally written by the Haringadlaw king regarding the possible absorption of their own domain to the larger, Luuk-speaking kingdom. The scrolled letter was actually an invitation to the Royal Palace (Kraton) in the capital Tondo within a fortnight to discuss the possible problems that would encounter upon the absorption of the three kingdoms to its larger neighbor, like the installation of military outposts (garrisons and fortifications) in some of the most strategic areas in their own domains, the absorption of their own armies to the larger Tondo-Namayan military and their share in the profits from both inter-island and international trade with geopolitical entities surrounding the Sea of Indochina[2]. Since the founding of Tondo-Namayan kingdom, its neighboring kingdom openly expressed their desire to join their larger neighbor as self-governing states, maintaining their basic autonomy in exchange of loyal allegiance to the king of Tondo-Namayan. For its part, the Tondo-Namayan kingdom needed secure borders and a more permanent presence in other parts of the (Philippine) archipelago, so they accept the allegiance of smaller states. Weeks later, Accompanied by their personal aides, the monarchs of the domains of Sambal Lands, Sisuan and Kumintang arrived in the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) to talk with their countepart in Tondo-Namayan Gat Ama Perajaya about the possible absorption of their respective kingdoms to the larger neighbor, who were now starting to expand its territory beyond its Luuk-speaking homeland. For a couple of days, the monarchs Apu Singsing ning Arayat (Sisuan), Apu Manguwang nin Ulungbulud (Sambal Lands) and Lakan Halimaw ng Tumbaga (Kumintang) talked with both the king and its chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw about the possible suzerainty of their domains, the possible problems that would accompany it (e.g. the presence of expanding Tondo-Namayan military in the new territories and sharing of trading profits), and the level of autonomy of their domains within the newly-expanded kingdom. For their part, Tondo-Namayan royal court was said to be satisfied with the results of the rulers' meeting with the king.

Main Hall
Kraton of Tondo

March:

Weeks after the celebrations of the New Year, the royal court of Tondo-Namayan was preparing for the Royal Harvesting Ceremony in the grounds of the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) in the capital Tondo. The said ceremony marked the end of the rice season with the harvesting period: The monarch, assisted by his heir to throne, his aides and even the Chief Minister (Pangulu), harvested rice with a sickle said to be sacred as it was made in the temples of Bulud Talim. After they've pounded the rice, the king and his assistants offered bowls of grains before the gods and ancestors, thanking them for the good harvest. Like the Royal Ploughing Ceremony, such ceremony was the first time for the unified kingdom; the royal rite was already performed in the coastal kingdoms and the highland city-states of Luuk Confederation, and those who survived the Luuk Civil War carried on the tradition, and the Royal Harvesting Ceremony was was performed in the kingdoms and confederacies within the (Philippine) archipelago.

April:

The tribes of the Ifugaw[3] lands began to plant and harvest abaca as they've perfected the craft of making products from such plant, both as a source of writing material and as a cloth. As of this moment, the Ifugaw peoples had already mastered the art of writing through the influence from their neighbors in the south, particularly the Ibalois (highland Kaboloan), whose location was an advantage to receive external influences from the lands beyond their eponymous homeland, the central part of Buludang Raya (or Buludang Ifugaw)[4]. The script that the Ifugaw tribes had adapted was Nusantara, of Tamil origin, and already used in the rest of the archipelago; abaca scrolls were already familiar among the Ifugaws by this moment; this time, they've learned to make it on their own.

Abaca plant

May:

Rumors circulated among the courtiers of the Palaw-anen-speaking kingdom of Taytay said that the advisers close to the king Tirukumurugan II told the Kuaybulud monarch that the emissaries sent by the kingdom in the Kalamian city-states that the chieftains of the latter sent their own emissaries to the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan in order to pay homage to the northern kingdom. The courtiers further said that King Tirukumurugan II told his advisers to alert the kingdom's bureaucracy, especially the maritime forces, to "be vigilant", as they perceived the rise of Tondo-Namayan kingdom as a potential threat to its sphere of influence in the Kalamian city-states, especially in the south. Thus, the monarch appointed his nephew Gat Tirukutil as the chief emissary of the island-kingdom to its northern neighbor. Weeks after his arrival in the northern kingdom's capital Tondo, the chief emissary of the Palaw-an-speaking island kingdom of Taytay visited the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) to meet the king of Tondo-Namayan and talk about the state of affairs regarding the Kalamian city-states. In the throne room, Gat Tirukitil Kuaybulud presented himself to the Tondo-Namayan monarch Gat Ama Perajaya; they talked about the situation in the Kalamian city-states, where they served as buffer between Tondo-Namayan and Taytay. It was indeed clear from the conversation between the monarch and the chief Taytay emissary that they want to resolve the issues between the two kingdoms peacefully. Later, in a state dinner attended by the whole Tondo-Namayan royal court, including the chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, the chief emissary of the kingdom of Taytay openly expressed his gratitude to the Haringadlaw monarch and the rest of the royal court for warmly receiving the whole embassy of Taytay, saying that it would lead to good relationship between the two kingdoms.

June:

The Rade city-states of southeast Pan-ay island began to send emissaries to different kingdoms of the region (Philippine archipelago) to represent the interests of the Confederacy before the royal courts of the nations they were sent. Curiously, they never sent a delegation to the royal court of Tondo-Namayan despite the striking similarities in culture and language with the Luuk-speaking kingdom in the north; according to the official chronicles of the Rade Confederacy, the chiefs of the city-states thought that the northern kingdom was "unreachable and untouchable" to establish such formal diplomatic relations, so they've tend to ignore sending a formal delegation to Tondo-Namayan. Instead, the chronicle continued, they concentrated on their neighbors in the central part of the Philippine archipelago, even to the point of sending emissaries to the Kalamian Confederacy, the northernmost geopolitical entity that they've reached so far. In return, the same kingdoms and confederacies sent their emissaries to the capital of confederation in Irong-Irong.

July:

In the Kumintang capital Taal, Lakan Halimaw has been told by a royal palace informant that some of the nobles were planning an uprising against him (and the royal court in general) for the planned absorption of the domain to the larger neighbor, the Kingdom of Tondo-Namayan. The informant explained further to the Kumintang monarch that a group of disgruntled nobles from Tayabas was plotting to overthrow the royal court and possibly used the whole territory for "defense against Tondo-Namayan expansion". Immediately, he called a special meeting of the council of elders and intellectuals, composed of the representatives of the towns and villages across the country, including the loyalists from Tayabas, to confirm such rumors. The council indeed confirmed before the monarch that some nobles were plotting to overthrow the royal court in Taal and create chaos in the whole Kumintang. Weeks after, a group of nobles from Tayabas was arrested on the grounds of plotting against the royal court of Lakan Halimaw and undo the agreement with its northern neighbor Tondo-Namayan. The nobles, led by Gat Tirumalakas Dalanglangit, was immediately sent to exile in the island of Lubang, where some of the soldiers sent from the mainland were thoroughly monitoring the prisoners already living there. For the Kumintang monarch himself, such punishment was relatively lenient compared to more severe punishments that would face such an offender like him: he, in fact, hoped that the nobles would learn their hard lesson from their plot to overthrow the whole Kumintang royal court.

August:

In the Royal Palace (Kraton) in the capital Tondo, the chief minister asked Gat Ama Perajaya about importing Chinese copper coins to the kingdom as the monarch wanted to introduced formal currency in order to stimulate the economy. Tiruravanam Balaydanaw explained to the Haringadlaw monarch that he received a letter from the emissaries of the Tang emperor regarding the possible economic and monetary policy of the new kingdom, in which it was suggested that copper coins would be imported as the skills of making it would be imported from China itself. The Tondo-Namayan king responded that due to the current situation in China, were the Tang emperors were struggling to assert direct imperial power, he would consider some precautions on importing copper coins from the larger neighbor. Instead, he insisted, he would actually import coins and skilled workers from the semi-Sinified Austronesian kingdom of Beiwan (Middag), especially the latter: he always believed that importing skilled Middag/Beiwan coin-makers could actually help the kingdom mint is own coins. Days later, the emissaries of the Beiwanic/Middag king in the capital Tondo, who were already informed of what was happening in the Kraton, wrote a letter to the court back home regarding the proposed fiscal and economical policy of Tondo-Namayan king Gat Ama Perajaya. In the scrolled letter, the emissaries told the Beiwan/Middag royal court that their counterpart in Tondo-Namayan was carefully studying the proposal that they would import copper coins from China, despite the current political situation that plague the empire. In addition, the emissaries wrote a suggestion: send a personal letter from the Beiwanic king, offering the help of the coiners and importing alloys, particularly copper, in order to help establish the coining industry in Tondo-Namayan. The preceding days, the chief minister (Pangulu) of the kingdom Tiruravanam Balaydanaw suggested to the Haringadlaw monarch about importing Chinese copper coins in order to formally introduce formal currencies in the country.

Kai_Yuan_Tong_Bao%2C_early_type%2C_plain.jpg

Copper coin
Tang Dynasty China

September:

In response to the (written) concerns from the vassal domains, especially from Kumintang and Sisuan, about the so-called rebel nobles who were imprisoned for plotting against their respective governments for merely opposing their respective domains' absorption to the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw summoned the emissaries of the three vassal kingdoms in the Kraton to discuss and explain the situation of the so-called "special prisoners" in their respective areas; from the Kumitang emissaries, for example, they explained the island prison of Lubang and how it functioned. At the end of their meeting, the chief minister assured the emissaries that they explanations and suggestions would immediately be received to the king itself. The day after, the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya already learned of the meeting that Pangulu Tiruravanam Balaydanaw held and attended by the emissaries of the three principal vassal domains in the latter's own private quarters. Thus, in his meeting with the chief minister in the throne room of the Kraton, he suggested that such kind of prisoners should be transferred to the sparsely-populated island of Pulilo.

October:

After a fleet led by Admiral (Laksaman) Gat Tirubalalang nan Ubu-ubu (the younger brother of Gat Hanuman) explored the island of Butot[5] in the middle of Namayan Bay, he proposed to King Gat Ama Perajaya and chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw that the tadpole-shaped island (hence the name Butot in Luuk/Namayan language) should be coverted into a permanent fortress that would served to protect the heartland of the kingdom from the potential enemies, both within and outside the region (Philippine archipelago). The Laksaman explained that the small island's location and its size itself could be considered essential for establishing a permanent military presence that could served as the main defense line of the kingdom; he added that while Butot Island could more probably become a naval fortification base, there would still be a presence of its terrestrial counterpart, especially in the planned main fort itself. The meeting was said to be "fruitful": both the Haringadlaw monarch and his chief minister was seriously considering the proposal sent by the admiral. Meanwhile, his elder brother Gat Hanuman nan Ubu-ubu began to write a scrolled letter recounting his journey to the island kingdom of Romblon and his impression of the people living there; the said scrolled letter would be sent to the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) in the capital Tondo.

Pulu nan Butot
(Butot Island)

November:

The chief minister (Pangulu) of Tondo-Namayan was finally informed that the emissaries of the Middag/Beiwan king in the capital Tondo sent a letter to their royal court back home in relation to the possible monetary policy of king Gat Ama Perajaya. Tiruravanam Balaydanaw was told by an informant that the Middag/Beiwan emissaries suggested in their scrolled letter that the semi-Sinicized Austronesian kingdom should sent skilled coin makers and copper alloys to help the country create its own currency. Later in the day, the Middag/Beiwan emissaries confirmed before the chief minister that they indeed sent a letter to their king back home, and explained that the current political situation in China would hamper the planned importation of copper coins, and insisted that importing copper alloys and skilled workers in coining would help Tondo-Namayan establish its own currency in the long term, with the possibility of exporting the newly-found skill to the rest of (Philippine) archipelago. Weeks after, the scrolled letter sent by his emissaries in Tondo finally reached the throne room of the Beiwanic/Middag king Kamachat Inongkuan in the kingdom's palace complex in the capital Middag/Beiwan. The scrolled letter, written in Paiwanic kana, told everything about the planned monetary policy of the Tondo-Namayan monarch Gat Ama Perajaya ng Haringadlaw (and most of its royal court as well, especially its chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw), in which the emissaries suggested that their native country should sent skilled coin makers and copper alloys to its southern neighbor in order to create and stimulate to the coin-making industry in Tondo-Namayan. Upon reading the said letters, the Kamachat summoned all his advisers to his throne room to discuss their definitive decision on sending skilled workers and alloys to Tondo-Namayan. Orginially, the Gat Ama Perajaya wanted to import copper coins from China, despite the current political situation in the country as the emperors in Diang-an, lost direct imperial power.

December:

The chieftains of the most powerful Manide[6] tribal clans gathered together in the town of Mambulao[7] to form a confederation of clans and tribes that would defend their interests against the possible incursion from both expanding Tondo-Namayan kingdom and the Bikol-speaking kingdom of Isarog in its eastern border. According to the spies sent from both kingdoms disguised as wandering merchants, it was believed that the clans wanted to preserve the independence of their lands from eventual annexation or vassalization by neighboring kingdom, most especially the Tondo-Namayan kingdom, whose territory increased since the addition of kingdoms like Kumintang and Sisuan as vassals. However, there were rumors that the Manide clans, who often at feuds with each other to the brink of an armed conflict, suddenly temporarily settled their differences and unite against the two of their perceived enemies, Tondo-Namayan and Isarog; even then, it was believed that the confederation was already shaky.

NOTES:
[1] ATL Kalamian includes OTL Mindoro.
[2] OTL: South China Sea.
[3] The term "Ifugao" in this scenario is applied to the tribes living in the central part of the OTL Cordillera region.
[4] OTL Cordillera Central of Luzon.
[5] OTL Corregidor Island.
[6] In OTL, they were the original settlers of most of Camarines Norte before the Spanish era. In this scenario, their culture survived, especially the language.
[7] OTL: The town of José Panganiban in Camarines Norte.

Azure Cloud · Jul 18, 2018

I kinda like this

(I have to wait for modern day)

ramones1986 · Jul 18, 2018

Azure Cloud said:
I kinda like this

(I have to wait for modern day)

Hey, thanks for dropping by!

Clone · Jul 18, 2018

Why does the tittle not translate online?

ramones1986 · Jul 18, 2018

Clone said:
Why does the tittle not translate online?

Uh, what?

Clone · Jul 18, 2018

ramones1986 said:
Uh, what?

I tried translating the tittle but it won't translate online

ramones1986 · Jul 18, 2018

Clone said:
I tried translating the tittle but it won't translate online

Because the title of this TL itself is in a conlang. Think of its OTL counterpart (Pearl of the Orient)

ramones1986 · Jul 19, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

887 CE

January:

The Manide-Inagta Confederation began to mobilize their soldiers in southern and eastern borders of its territory as they were to preparing to defend themselves from the two larger and more powerful neighbors, the kingdoms of Tondo-Namayan (through its vassal state Kumintang) and Isarog, more than a month after the confederation was formed by the most influential and powerful clans in the town of Mambulao, considered as the center of the Manide-Inagta people. According to the spies from both Tondo-Namayan (most of whom hailed from Kumintang) and Isarog, who regularly disguised as trading merchants, the ruling clans of Manide-Inagta country contributed to form a basic military force that would defend their common interests despite a lot of misgivings between the clan leaders over the leadership and governing the the whole territory cohesively.

February:

In the kingdom of Middag/Beiwan the scrolled letter sent by its chief emissary in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan Tanka Cawatan has finally reached the throne room of the monarch Kamachat Inongkuan within the royal palace complex in the capital of the same name. In the said letter, which was written in the Beiwanic/Middag language using a variant of kana syllabary (both hiragana and katakana) used by the Japanese, the chief emissary Tanka Cawatan told everything about the planned monetary policy of the Tondo-Namayan monarch Gat Ama Perajaya and the rest of his royal court, particularly the chief minister (Panglulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, in which the Middag/Beiwan diplomatic mission suggested that northern (and semi-Sinicized) Austronesian kingdom should send skilled coin makers and necessary raw materials (copper ore) to Tondo-Namayan, as they believed that it would cost less than importing copper coins from China, which at the moment its political situation was increasingly volatile as the emperors in Diang'an (長安) increasingly lost its direct control over the country. Immediately after reading the scrolled letter, the Middag/Beiwan king Kamachat Inongkuan immediately talked to his councilors, especially his chief minister Tankako Ciwaskita, to discuss the said affair and definitely decide if the kingdom would send skilled workers and raw materials to Tondo-Namayan.

Royal Palace of Middag[1]

March:

In the Kumintang capital Taal, Lakan Halimaw finally received the scrolled letter sent the court of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan in relation to the possibility of transferring the so-called rebel nobles from Tayabas led by Gat Tirumalakas Dalanglangit to the sparsely-populated island of Pulilu where they, alongside other special prisoners from the vassal kingdoms of Tondo-Namayan (Sisuan, Nusang Sambal) would be brought as well. In the scrolled letter personally written by the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, the prisoners would be carried by a couple of merchant ships, accompanied by a karakoa from the kingdom's navy from their current location in the island of Lubang to Pulilu[2]; the journey would last for a few days or weeks, the chief minister concluded in his scrolled letter. Meanwhile, in the Sisuan capital Bakulud, its ruler Apu Singsing, after consulting the members of his council, for a few days, wrote a scrolled letter of response to his Tondo-Namayan counterpart Gat Ama Perajaya nan Haringadlaw in relation to the transfer of the so-called special prisoners unto the island of Pulilu. In his letter, the Sisuan monarch expressed his agreement on transferring some of the prisoners to the sparsely-populated island of Pulilu; nonetheless, he clarified that only prisoners whose background have rebellious tendencies in the past and prisoners of war would be classified as "most suitable" for spending the rest of their lives in the island of Pulilu.

April:

After years of increased tensions, war broke out between the island kingdom of Tunang Ete[3] and the alliance of northern Sugbuanon city-states over the control of Pakihan Islands[4], which was situated between the two warring domains. According to the latter-day historical chronicles written by the Tondo-Namayan emissaries in the Ete royal court in the kingdom's capital Baybay. According to the chronicles, which was actually based on the Ete-language court chronicles written decades to centuries earlier before the formal establishment of ties between the two kingdoms, the war lasted for "three and a half weeks", with both sides lost a lot of soldiers. In the end, the chronicles continued, the Ete forces decisively won over their rivals , and the islands were immediately became part of the island kingdom in the east. On the other hand, the long-term effect of the conflict over the sovereignty of Pakihan was the slow but constant decline of the northern Sugbuanon city-states as a minor power in the eastern part of the central Philippine archipelago, also known as the Visayas; according to the Sugbuanon historical chronicles, friction between the northern Sugbuanon city-states began to appear when the chieftains blamed each other of being responsible for their troops in the recently-concluded war with Tunang Ete (Nusang Ete in Luuk language of Tondo-Namayan).

Pakihan Islands
(Pulong Pakihan)

May:

In the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) in the capital Tondo, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw received a couple of scrolled letters from both Kumintang and Sisuan; both letters informed the Kraton from the letters of the respective vassal states Lakan Halimaw and Apu Singsing agreed that some of their prisoners would be transferred to the sparsely-populated island of Pulilu as suggested by the monarch of Tondo-Namayan Gat Ama Perajaya. In the scrolled letters, the monarchs of the vassal domains explicitly stated that the potential prisoners that they would sent to Pulilu were "persons who could potentially endanger their own kingdoms and its internal security, and could derail their kingdoms' cooperation with Tondo-Namayan" and the rulers were constantly assured that the relative isolation of Polilu could prevent them from plotting to destabilize the established order and undo all the accomplishments that their respective domains had achieved since they accepted the lordship of Tondo-Namayan. Immediately, the chief minister informed the king in the latter's personal room, complete with the scrolled letters sent from both Taal and Bakulud. Days after the confirmation, Gat Ama Perajaya summoned the emissaries of the three principal vassal domains (Kumintang, Sisuan and Nusang Sambal), telling their respective monarchs that the royal court of Tondo-Namayan accepted their confirmation.

June-July:

While waiting for scrolled letter of confirmation from the kingdom of Middag/Beiwan in relation to the importation of skilled workers and raw materials needed to formally start the industry of coin making in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw asked the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya on the possible internal divisions of the country. While both agreed that the vassal states would be excluded as they were regarded as self-ruling parts of the country, the chief minister thought of a local government based on what was already existing in the northern (and semi-Sinicized) Austronesian kingdom of Middag/Beiwan, where there were provinces, which served as the primary level of local government. For his part, the monarch thought that while having provinces within the kingdom seemed like a good idea, he thought seriously seriously on the available personnel who could actually do responsibilities such as supervising the villages and towns without losing the autonomy of the latter, collecting taxes and implement policies from the Kraton. For a fortnight, the king and his chief minister, assisted by other councilors, sought to find the best suitable type of local government for the Luuk-speaking heartland of the kingdom. In the end, both Tiruravanam Balaydanaw and Gat Ama Perajaya unanimously agreed that the original domains that formed the Luuk Confederation would be revived as provinces (lalawigan in Luuk language), complete with their own governments and would be given the power to supervise the villages and towns within its territory while maintaining their autonomy, enforce the laws from the Kraton and collect taxes. Thus, within a period, the messengers hired by the royal court, accompanied by the scribes, traveled across the Luuk-speaking heartland about the establishment of provinces based on the old Luuk kingdoms.

August:

Months after the capture of the Ibalon[5] peninsula, the current monarch of the kingdom of Kagsawa[6] held a thanksgiving ceremony in the temple of Magayon, a few miles away from the foot of the volcano of the same name. The monarch. Datu Mabanggi of the ruling Daraga clan, offered flowers, gifts and food to the altar of the supreme god of the kingdom Langiton. Other members of the Kagsawa royal court also attended the thanksgiving ceremony, which was presided by the chief priestess (babaylan) of Magayon temple Sitaratnam nan Daraga, the younger sister of the current monarch. It took more than three years for Kagsawa to took and claim the neighboring peninsula of Ibalon from both rival kingdoms Masbat[7] and Kalbayog[8]: In the course of such conflict, thousands of soldiers lost their lives in countless battles that occurred in the said peninsula; in addition, many families were forced to leave their homes and properties to avoid being a casualty in the then-ongoing conflict. As a result, austerity measures were enforced in the three kingdoms in order to prevent economic collapse. At the time the ceremony was held, constant immigration from Kagsawa and surrounding region of Nusang Ibal was gaining momentum in the Ibalon peninsula. On the other hand, the original inhabitants of the peninsula fled to the kingdom of Masbat itself, especially in the northeast and Tikaw island.

Gunung Magayon
(Magayon Volcano)

September:

More of less than a couple of years after a Tondo-Namayan naval expedition was sent to the island-kingdom of Romblon, which was followed by the arrival of merchants from the northern kingdom, a formal embassy was sent by the Kraton in Tondo to the Hanunoo-speaking archipelago. The embassy, which was appointed by the Tondo-Namayan monarch Gat Ama Perajaya from the list recommended by the chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw and his fellow councilors, the Tondo-Namayan embassy was led by Gat Taulakas nan Ubu-ubu, the youngest among the brothers and a skilled diplomat, with a basic knowledge on maritime affairs and navigation. The chief emissary of Tondo-Namayan presented himself and the rest of the emissary to the court of Datu Balanak, in which the latter immediately accepted. The establishment of the Tondo-Namayan embassy in Romblon was the first among the geopolitical strategies of the Luuk-speaking kingdom to expand its influence beyond its core territory as they started to assert their political power in the region.

October-November:

The scrolled letter from Middag/Beiwan had finally arrived in the Kraton of Tondo, the kingdom's capital. The messenger, who came from the embassy of Middag nearby, immediately handled the letter to the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw in the throne room of the Royal Palace (Kraton), where the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya was also present in such an important occasion. The (scrolled) letter sent (and personally written) by the latter's Middag/Beiwanic counterpart Kamachat Inongkuan has indeed confirmed that the kingdom would send both skilled coin makers and raw materials needed to establish an industry of making coins in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan and help the monarch (and the royal court of Tondo-Namayan in general) to implement his monetary policies, alongside the possibility of exporting both acquired skills and materials to other nations within the region. Thus, both the expert coin makers from Middag and the raw material needed for this new industry had arrived in the port of Namayan, where they were greeted by the representatives of the royal court. Accompanied by the courtiers appointed personally by the Tondo-Namayan king, the skilled workers went to the frontier town of Gatus-na-Kapok in the northernmost part of the kingdom, near the border with the semi-civilized Bugkalot socities; there, a mint was established and through the courtiers who served as interpreters, the Middag/Beiwan coin makers taught the local people of know-how of making coins; soon, the said town became one of the most important towns in the Luuk-speaking heartland of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan.

December:

Merchant ships from Tondo-Namayan had arrived in the port of Nusang Ete capital Baybay as the two kingdoms informally established their relations through trading. Nonetheless, as the Etenon-language royal chronicles of the era, some of the merchants were actually skilled diplomats assigned by the northern kingdom's royal court to conduct official business in the island-kingdom located in the eastern part of the center of the (Philippine) archipelago. The presence of Tondo-Namayan merchant ships in the western coast of Nusang Ete was one of the indications that the northern kingdom was serious in its pursuit of expanding its influence beyond its borders. In addition, the courtiers within the royal palace complex in the Etenon capital (Kraton nan Baybay) has speculated that the kingdom's victory over the northern Sugbuanon city-states in the Pakihan islands was the main reason behind such a near-massive scale; they believed that such event reached the royal palace of Tondo through maritime trading routes that circulated in most of the archipelago.

NOTES:
[1] OTL Taichung.
[2] OTL Polillo Islands.
[3] OTL Leyte and Biliran.
[4] OTL Camotes Islands.
[5] OTL Sorsogon Peninsula.
[6] OTL: Whole Albay and Rinconada region of Camarines Sur.
[7] OTL Masbate.
[8] OTL Samar.

ramones1986 · Jul 20, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

888 CE

January:

After months of wandering throughout the Luuk-speaking heartland of the Tondo-Namayan kingdom, messengers and local scribes returned to the Kraton of Tondo, where they were cordially received by the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya and his chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw. In the throne room within the Middle Court of the royal palace complex, the courtiers (messengers and scribes) told both the king and his principal adviser on the reaction of the common people to the possibility of establishing a provincial government that would serve as intermediary between the royal court and the villages (and towns) across the heartland; they claimed that the common folk reacted positively and approvingly to such proposal. The messengers had added that the local chieftains suggested to them that the semi-bureaucratic system from the former kingdoms that formed the Luuk Confederation could be reinstated as responsible of handling the province (lalawigan), particularly the implementation of laws decreed from the capital, collecting taxes and maintaining order within its territory. Weeks after the courtiers' report to the king, the former bureaucrats from different parts of the heartland went to the Kraton to talk with the monarch about the creation of provinces, whose territories would be based on the old domains of the Confederation, alongside the main responsibilities of soon-to-be provincial governments.

February:

Rumors circulated within the southern Kalamianen city-states that the kingdom of Taytay sent spies masquerading as part of the latter's embassies in such city-states as speculation of forging an alliance with the northern kingdom of Tondo-Namayan intensified, especially in the southern part of the island, which was traditionally part of the sphere of influence of the neighboring southern island kingdom. According to such rumors, the Taytay monarch Tirukumurugan II himself told his advisers and the rest of the royal court in the eponymous capital that he actually feared that the growing influence of the Luuk-speaking monarchy would endanger the clout of influence the Palaw-anen-speaking kingdom in the south of the Kalamian, although the king himself added that the northern Kalamianen city-states wasn't much of a problem for him as he recognized their geopolitical position, being near the borders of Tondo-Namayan through its vassal state Kumintang. The Confederation of Mangarin, as the alliance of Kalamianen-speaking city-states was called, despite their unified stance, was engaged in a tense competition between the kingdoms of Taytay and Tondo-Namayan over the political and economic hegemony of the whole island, especially in the south. More or less than a couple of years earlier, Gat Tirukutil nan Kuaybulud, the chief emissary of Taytay to the northern kingdom, assured to the Tondo-Namayan monarch Gat Ama Perajaya in the Kraton of Tondo that the issue of Kalamianen city-states would be solved by the two kingdoms peacefully and cordially.

March:

In the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) in the capital Tondo, Gat Ama Perajaya assigned the same messengers and scribes that he appointed months earlier to go to every village and town in the whole Luuk-speaking heartland of the kingdom and proclaim the establishment of provinces that would encompassed their territory. With them was copies of the proclamation edicts written by the scribes and wise men of the Kraton under the direct supervision of the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, who drafter the declaration; each of the traveling courtiers was the seal of the kingdom, complete with their own red ink to symbolize the royal authority. As instructed by the Tondo-Namayan king, the local chieftains would write the name of their village/town in the documents and put the royal seal of the center of the scroll to confirm the approval before the proclamation in front of the village/town multitude. As this moment, provincial governments were now starting to set up in the main towns, who where once capitals of the kingdoms that formed the Luuk Confederation.

Royal Seal
(Chola Empire)

April:

Special prisoners from the vassal domains of the Tondo-Namayan kingdom (Nusang Sambal, Sisuan and Kumintang) was relocated by the kingdom's military to the relatively isolated and sparsely populated island of Pulilu, where they would spent the rest of their lives as decreed by the law. In case of the Kumintang prisoners, which was led by the noble Gat Tirumalakas Dalanglangit, they were carried by a couple of merchant ships and escorted by a karakoa from the Tondo-Namayan navy, as promised by the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya in his scrolled letter to his Kumintang counterpart Lakan Halimaw ng Tumbaga, from the island of Lubang. In Pulilu, as expected from the so-called special prisoners, a battalion of troops would station in every corner of the territory and would monitor every movement in order to prevent any suspicious activities from forming despite the assurance from the royal court back in Tondo that the relative isolation of Pulilu would make such plot attempts impossible to realize.

May:

In the southern coasts of the island of Bo-ol[1] seafarers who came from the Southern Seas called the Sama-Bajaw became a permanent part of the said region as a plurality of them benefited from maritime trade they have with neighboring domains, especially the southern Sugbuanon city-states, Nusang Ete and the coastal communities of northern Mindanaw, especially the town of Himologan[2], where the inland Kitanglad tribes interacted with their sea-faring counterparts as they brought some of their products for export to other parts of the region. Already involved in trading with the inhabitants of Bo-ol for generations, the Sama-Bajaw merchants, most of whom were men, began establishing permanent communities across the southern coast as they took local women as their spouses and raised families. Thus, the new communities presented an interesting mix of Bolanon and Sama-Bajaw culture, despite the fact that some Bajaw individuals who settled in south of the island recently abandoned the lifestyle of being sea wanderers upon settlement; in contrary, clans of Sama origins successfully tried other occupations inland.[3]

Vinta boat

June:

Eight months after Admiral (Laksaman) Gat Tirubalalang nan Ubu-ubu presented his proposal to the proposal to the king Gat Ama Perajaya about the possible conversion of the island of Butot as a permanent fortress, the naval commander was summoned to the the Kraton in the capital Tondo, where he received the good news from the chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw: the proposal was indeed accepted by the king himself. In addition, the Pangulu told the naval commander that the Haringadlaw monarch himself thought that the construction of a permanent fortress in the said island was indeed a long-term benefit not just for the defense of the capital and the surrounding area from the potential external threats, but also to guide the merchant ships crossing throughout the Namayan Bay. In fact, the Gat Balaydanaw gave a scrolled document in which the Tondo-Namayan king had accepted his proposal to the Laksaman. Within a few weeks, planning for the construction of the fortress in the Butot island had started.

July:

In the town of Irong-Irong, Gat Sumakwel anak Tirubatu nan Gatusbalay was selected as the paramount leader of the Confederation (Kumpulang Taneng Rade) in the reunion of the chieftains of the Rade city-states in the Kraton (Royal Palace) of the city-state of the same name. The current chieftain of the mountain city-state of Putatan immediately accepted his selection by accepting the anointment of the chief priest (Punung Kiyai) of Irong-irong in the ceremony that followed the selection. The selection of Gat Sumakwel Gatusbalay as the paramount leader of the Rade confederation was significant enough that it was noticed outside its usual area in influence in the Pan-ay island and Buglas-speaking communities; the fact that the ruling Gatusbalay clan of Putatan[4] city-state was open to traders from other parts of the island, Rade and otherwise, and encouraged economic development that converted the said city-state into one of the most important in the whole Pan-ay island.

August:

In order to protect the islands of Pakihan from possible foreign invasion, particularly from the northern Sugbuanon city-states, the king of Nusang Ete Datu Tirukalkin III (of Bayay-Ete dynasty) ordered the construction of a naval station in the islands through a decree, in which a part of the Etenon military, both army and navy, would have a permanent presence in Pakihan. In addition, as the royal decree indicated, the construction and installation of the naval station would give long-time benevolent effect to the Etenon naval vessels from both the islands and the mainland Nusang Ete, fishing and maritime while combating problems beside the possible foreign invasion, most especially piracy. While the decree was written by the Etenon monarch himself, rumors within the inner circle of the Kraton in the royal capital Baybay that the said decision was influenced by the increasingly powerful merchant class, particularly those who came from the northern kingdom of Tondo-Namayan; for the courtiers, the Luuk-speaking merchant community were actually perceived as representatives of the northern kingdom and its influence, direct and otherwise, in the kingdom, as they believed (or feared for some courtiers) that Nusang Ete would become part of the expanding influence of Tondo-Namayan.

September-October:

Beside the courtiers assigned by the Kraton (Royal Palace complex) of Tondo to every corner of the Luuk-speaking heartland of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan kingdom to proclaim the establishment of provinces that would encompassed the territories of every town and villages across the kingdom, another set of courtiers were assigned by the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya in the latter's throne room in order to introduce coins to every family/clan in the whole kingdom, both in the heartland and in the vassal states (Kumintang, Sisuan and Nusang Sambal). The courtiers that the Tondo-Namayan had personally assigned were came from the northern town of Gatus-na-Kapok, whose economy (and prestige) progressed as the result of the establishment of the royal mint. Before their departure, the Haringadlaw monarch told the courtiers that they should know the number of families/clan in a particular village or town through the local chieftains before distributing the coin trees to everyone of them. The coin trees that the royal courtiers had brought were divided into three: gold, silver and copper, after the available raw materials and their perceived value. The coins of the kingdom were indirectly inspired by the Chinese coins through Middag/Beiwan designs, brought by the coin makers on their courtesy visit to the throne room of Kraton of Tondo.

Coin tree

November:

The paramount chief of the Rade Confederation (Kumpulang Taneng Rade) Gat Sumakwel nan Gatusbalay was visited by a group of emissaries representing the unified Kalamianen city-states (Confederation of Mangarin/Kumpulang Mangarin) in the capital of the confederation Irong-irong, where they discussed the possible role of the alliance in resolving the problems that affected the region they shared, particularly the increasing volatility in the Palaw-anen-speaking kingdom of Taytay. For the very first time, the Rade paramount chief and current chieftain of the mountain city-state of Pututan have heard of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan in talks with the chief emissary of the Mangarin Confederacy Gat Pitpit nan Sibokan; at the same moment, the Rade paramount chief became curious about Tondo-Namayan, and the fact that a Tondo-Namayan merchant (Gat Tiruwai nan Balaybatu) served as an interpreter in their meeting. Meanwhile, in the neighboring kingdom of Hantik, Datu Sumakwel III died of old age in the capital Malandog[5]; he was sixty-three years of age when he died. The recently-deceased Hantikan monarch ruled the kingdom for forty-two years, witnessing the changes in both within the kingdom and outside, such as the formation of Rade Confederation and slow rise of Tondo-Namayan kingdom, as well as the increased participation of the Namayan maritime merchants in the regional trade, reaching as far as the vassal state of Kumintang. He was succeed by his daughter Maniwantiwan, named after the wife of the legendary Ati chief Marikudo; thus, she became the very first female chieftain of the kingdom.

December:

The Tondo-Namayan monarch personally allowed the Chief Priest (Punung Kiyai)'s permission to rebuilt the temple complex in the foot of Bulud Talim[6]. Gat Ama Perajaya personally felt that the shrines and buildings in the sacred mountain needed an overhaul to symbolize the emergence of the kingdom as a significant power in the region (Philippine archipelago), so when he received the scrolled letter of his younger brother Gat Apubanui nan Haringadlaw, the Chief Priest of Bulud Talim, of rebuilding the temple complex in stone, he immediately responded that he would provide necessary logistic support for such an ambitious project for such a sacred place like Bulud Talim. The temple complex in the sacred mountain for Luuk speakers served as place of refuge during the Luuk Civil War; it was said that the victims of the war prayed every day to the gods that the conflict would end.

NOTES:
[1] OTL: The island-province of Bohol.
[2] In OTL, Himologan was the old name for the city of Cagayan de Oro.
[3] The ethnogenesis of ATL Bolanon people (OTL Tausug) had already took at this moment.
[4] OTL: Pototan, Iloilo.
[5] Malandog ITTL is larger than its OTL counterpart.
[6] OTL Susong Dalaga mountains

ramones1986 · Jul 26, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

889 CE

January:

From the temple complex in the foot of Bulud Talim, the chief priest (Punung Kiyai) Gat Apubanui nan Haringadlaw scrolled letters from the priests across the kingdom, both from the temples in the provinces of the Luuk-speaking heartland and the vassals, about the concerns regarding the Royal Ploughing and Harvesting ceremonies outside the royal capital Tondo; the scrolled letters shared the same concern that the rice planting and harvesting seasons in the provinces (and vassal states) were different from the pattern followed in the region surrounding the royal capital despite the fact that the whole kingdom of Tondo-Namayan shared the same calendar. The letters from the priests have indeed ended with the same recommendation: Immediately inform the king in the Kraton about the different variations of the rice season (planting and harversting) in the rest of the kingdom and made a decree to modify the ceremonies itself, with more active participation from the Kraton through its courtiers. The chief priest of Bulud Talim, after he read the scrolled letters, wrote and sent a letter of his own to his elder brother Gat Ama Perajaya on the concerns and suggested raised by the temple priests in the rest of Tondo-Namayan.

February-March:

The common people of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, both in the Luuk-speaking heartland and in the vassals, had already received and used their coins in exchanging goods and services with each other, particularly in internal trade. Beside the Chinese-inspired round coins, the people of Tondo-Namayan also used cowrie shell-shaped coins, which like its imported counterpart, has three variants: gold, silver and copper. The new minted coins, in turn, co-existed and used alongside with actual cowrie shells, the old (and still reliable) medium of exchange used by the people of Tondo-Namayan (and the rest of the region as a whole). That's because the Middag/Beiwan coin makers who established the royal mint in the town of Gatus-na-Kapok[1] wholly understood that cowrie shells was still useful as preferred medium of exchange of the common people, so they also created coins inspired by the shape of the cowrie shells.

Cowrie shells

April-May:

In the Kraton of Tondo, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw received the scrolled letter sent by the chief priest (Punung Kiyai) of Bulud Talim Gat Apubanui nan Haringadlaw from the temple messenger on his office. After then, he immediately went to the personal room of the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya to inform on the arrival of the letter; it was confirmed from the Haringadlaw king himself that his younger brother wrote to him about recommending reforms concerning the two most important royal rituals, the Ploughing and Harvesting ceremonies: In the said scrolled letter, the chief priest recommended to his elder brother that the rituals should be adjusted to the pattern of rice planting and harvesting in the regions outside the capital Tondo, both in the provinces of Luuk-speaking heartland and in the vassal states, citing the letters he always received from the temples in such areas. A couple of days later, the Tondo-Namayan monarch wrote a letter of response to his younger brother, saying that he was seriously accepting the recommendations he wrote and he was planning to summon him and other priests from the temples of the regions outside Tondo, particularly from the Luuk-speaking heartland, to the royal palace and discuss such recommendations; he never included the priests from the vassal states because its rulers personally took part in their own variant of the royal rituals. Indeed, within a week and a half, the Punung Kiyai and priests from the heartland went to the Kraton to meet Gat Ama Perajaya and discuss the recommendations on reforming the approximate time of the royal rice rituals in their localities.

June:

The Kingdom of Butuan was formally established in the port city of the same name; a scion of the prominent Bugabus clan, Datu Bantuan, was proclaimed the ruler of the new kingdom in a religious ceremony held within the Kraton of the Butuanon royal capital; alongside the members of the Bugabus clan, guests in such ceremony included clans who were equally powerful and prominent as the Bugabus, priests from the temples across the territory of the new kingdom, prominent maritime traders and military leaders, both in land and in water; by the time the kingdom was formed, the powerful clans already agreed that their military forces, both land and water, would be unified to form a single army and navy that would protect Butuan from potential enemies, particularly its merchant ships. From the city of Butuan, which was the royal capital, the territory of the Kingdom of Butuan encompassed almost whole of the Agusan River Valley, its surrounding mountains, as well as the island of Bo-ol, which was considered as its jewel of the crown; the fact that almost all Butuanons have relatives in the island and the town of Gindulman was proclaimed as the kingdom's secondary capital reinforced such ties between the capital city and the island, which sometimes led to the resentment among the people of the interior, especially the Manobos.

Ivory Seal
Kingdom of Butuan

July:

In the Kumintang capital Taal, Lakan Halimaw wrote a scrolled letter to the chief priest of Bulud Talim Gat Apubanui nan Haringadlaw in relation to the two important rituals performed by every monarch: the Royal Ploughing and Harvesting ceremonies. In the said letter, the Kumintang monarch explained that at least in his kingdom, the rituals were already performed in the approximate start and end of the rice season (planting and harvesting) in Kumintang, which was obviously different from the rice season in other parts of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan as a whole, especially in the region surrounding the royal capital Tondo and the port city of Namayan. The Kumintang monarch's scrolled letter added that the temple priests who always wrote to the Punung Kiyai hailed from the most remote parts of Kumintang, and the Kraton of Taal had already reached them to clarify the exact period of the rice season. Incidentally, his counterparts in Sisuan and Nusang Sambal also wrote same letters to the chief priest of Bulud Talim. Weeks after, Gat Apubanui nan Haringadlaw responded to the rulers of the three vassal states, where he acknowledged his errors and thanked them for reminding him about the royal rice rituals in their domains. In fact, the chief priest added, only the priests of the temples in the Luuk-speaking heartland was invited to the Kraton of Tondo a couple of months earlier.

August:

Rumors circulated within the embassy of the kingdom of Taytay[2] in the royal capital that its chief emissary Gat Tirukitil Kuaybulud was said to be "profoundly disturbed" of what was happening in the royal court of his own country days after he received a scrolled letter from a concerned courtier that several factions within the court, who were said to be "collectively disturbed" of the increasingly strange behavior of the current king Tirukumurugan II, which was worsened by the seeming manipulative behavior of his own advisers, especially in relatively delicate matters like the situation of the southern Kalamianen city-states and Taytay's relationship with the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan on the said matter. It was said that prior to his departure to the north, Gat Tirukutil was already aware that the eldest son Gat Tungkuyanin could inherit the throne of the kingdom in the near future once his father died or his health worsened to the point that he couldn't performed his duties anymore; already a skilled diplomat from the sister branch of the ruler Kuaybulud clan, the chief diplomat of Taytay knew anything within the royal court within the four walls of Taytay's Kraton. In the recent weeks, he was seen going to the Kraton of Tondo to meet the chief minister Gat Tiruravanam Balaydanaw.

September:

The kingdoms of Butuan and Nusang Ete signed a treaty, which included a blood compact between the monarchs of two kingdoms (Datu Bantuan of Butuan and Datu Tirukalkin III of Nusang Ete), which provisions included the free movement of merchant ships in each other's territorial waters and defending each other's territory from potential enemies. The treaty was signed in the Etenon capital Baybay, and the monarchs were accompanied by some of the highest civilian and military officials of both Butuan and Nusang Ete, and curiously, by the leaders of the Luuk-speaking merchant community in the Etenon royal capital, which they hoped that the new kingdom would be fallen to the sphere of influence of the northern kingdom of Tondo-Namayan.

October:

In the kingdom of Hantik, Queen Maniwantiwan issued a royal decree that would consolidate the power of the royal court, especially the monarch herself, in governing the rest of the kingdom by appointing members of the newly-consolidated bureaucracy to every village and town to "advise and assist" the local chieftains (and their councils) in governing the day-to-day affairs of their localities, complementing with their usual tasks of collecting taxes, keeping records and implementing the laws enacted from the royal court in the capital Malandog. The said decree was said to be influenced by the queen's chief minister, Datu Humadapnon kang Palimbukid, a relatively young diplomat and statesman who started his position as chief minister of the kingdom of Hantik in the last couple of years of her father's reign, succeeding the elder statesman Datu Daruman kang Gatosbalayan, who died at the age of sixty-one.

November-December:

The monarch of Taytay Tirukumurugan II, alongside with most of his advisers, was found dead in the former's room in the Kraton of the royal capital of the same name. Their corpses were found by a couple of palace maids, who immediately informed the palace guards despite their shock at what happened. Rumors began to spread not just within the complex, but also in the rest of the royal capital itself; a few days earlier, strangers "speaking the language of the north" (in reference to the Luuk language) visited the residences of the leaders of some of the most powerful factions in the inner circles of the Taytay royal palace. There, as the rumors continued, the plan to assassinate the king and his advisers were planned; the leading hypothesis, the rumors concluded, was the men came from the northern kingdom of Tondo-Namayan and they were sent under the orders of the kingdom's chief emissary in Tondo Gat Tirukitil Kuaybulud. Also noted was absence of the recently-deceased monarch's eldest son Gat Tungkuyanin at the time of the death of his father; nonetheless, he immediately returned to the Kraton in time for the burial arrangements of his father. Now proclaimed (and anointed) as the kingdom of Taytay, the younger Kuaybulud monarch set up what he was always planning for the kingdom: expand its influence to the rest of the island of Palaw-an through diplomacy and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, especially with Tondo-Namayan.

NOTES:
[1] OTL: Doña Remedios Trinidad, a town in the province of Bulacan.
[2] Taytay ITTL is the center of the Palaw-anen politics and culture.

ramones1986 · Jul 27, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

890 CE

January:

A couple of months after the events that marked a significant political change in the kingdom of Taytay, the king of Tondo-Namayan Gat Ama Perajaya wrote a scrolled letter of congratulations to his counterpart Gat Tungkuyanin in the former's private room in the Kraton (Royal Palace complex) of the capital Tondo. In his letter, the Haringadlaw monarch has reiterated that the new king of Taytay would implement policies that would improve the diplomatic relationship between the two kingdoms, especially when it comes to relatively sensitive issues like the affair of the southern Kalamanien city-states (and of the Mangarin Confederacy in general). The day after the Tondo-Namayan monarch wrote the said letter, he personally sent it to the chief emissary of Taytay Gat Tirukitil Kuaybulud when the latter personally paid a private visit to the Kraton. Meanwhile in Taytay itself, the young monarch proclaimed that the kingdom would extend its sphere to practically the whole island of Palaw-an by both using diplomacy and optional military intervention; King Tungkuyanin's decree was said to be influenced by the advice of his chief minister, Gat Chakrananda Sawali, a well-known diplomat and part of the kingdom's bureaucracy. According to the courtiers within the Kraton of Taytay, it was certain that King Tungkuyanin would discuss the issue of the Kalamianen city-states with the chief emissary of Tondo-Namayan Gat Tirubatu nan Ilogbatangan, a skilled diplomat from the the northern kingdom's vassal state of Kumintang.

February:

The Golden Salakot (Binulawang Salakut) was formally established as the symbol of authority of the paramount leader of the Rade Confederation, as confirmed by the edict written by Gat Sumakwel nan Gatusbalay that was enforced to all member city-states of the confederation. According to the said decree, the Binulawang Salakot symbolized the importance of the paramount leader of the confederation in unifying the Rade city-states while maintaining the autonomy of each member states and collective leadership of the confederation, of which the paramount leader was regarded as the head of such leadership. In addition, the decree explicitly stated that only the paramount leader of the confederation would only wear the salakot in very important occasions such as the annual gathering of the chieftains and festivities. The Binulawang Salakut was specifically created for the head of the Rade Confederation after Gat Sumakwel nan Gatusbalay realized that a symbol was needed to symbolize the importance of his current position as the chief representative of all city-states that encompassed the southeastern part of the island of Pan-ay.

Binulawang Salakut
(replica)

March:

According to the court insiders within the Kraton of Tondo, the royal court was preparing a plan to choose between the frontier town of Gatus-na-Kapok and the religious center of Atipulu as the seat of the court of Dayang Katangkuntu Inangpen as she was recently proclaimed by her father Gat Ama Perajaya as the heiress to the throne of Tondo-Namayan. According to the insiders, who constantly in contact in some of the courtiers within the palace complex (albeit clandestinely), the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw thought that Atipulu would be a more logical choice for the Crown Princess as he believed that the local climate and the location of the town itself would help the Haringadlaw heir to prepare herself of her future responsibilities as the next monarch of the kingdom. On the other hand, the chief court historian Gat Abal-abal nan Balayaum argued that the northern frontier town (and mint city) of Gatus-na-Katok should be chosen for the court of the Crown Princess for its strategic location and the economic activity that benefited the northern part of the Luuk-speaking region as a whole. Either way, the Haringadlaw monarch himself was finding a very difficult decision to make for such location to the point of consulting his younger brother the chief priest (Punung Kiyai) of Bulud Talim temples Gat Apubanui nan Haringadlaw for needed divine intervention.

April:

In order to appease the Manobos, who openly resented the preference of the royal court of Butuan to the island of Bo-ol, the monarch Datu Bantuan invited some of the most prominent Manobo clan leaders to his personal room in the Kraton of Butuan to find a long-term solution to the said problem that could tear up the fledgling kingdom permanently if left unchecked. For almost a fortnight, the Bugabus monarch of Butuan listened attentively to the grievances of the prominent Manobo clan leaders, one of which was the excessive focus of the kingdom on the island of Bo-ol instead on attending the needs of the interior of the kingdom. In the end, Datu Bantuan personally expressed his gratitude to the Manobo clan leaders by writing and signing a pact with them, in which the Manobos could allow their products to ship their products to the rest of the kingdom (and eventually, the rest of the region) by using the Agusan River (Kagayang Agusan) and some of its tributaries as part of the kingdom's trading route. In addition, the Manobo clan leadership would have a better say in making and implementing the policies that could benefit the kingdom by allowing them to participate in the royal council of Butuan. Likewise, the signing of the pact included the tradition of blood compact.

Flag of the Kingdom of Butuan

May:

In the Kraton of Taytay, the monarch Gat Tungkuyanin summoned the emissaries of the Mangarin Confederation and the chief emissary of Tondo-Namayan Gat Tirubatu nan Ilogbatangan to talk about the situation of the southern Kalamianen city-states and how to solve the difficulties involving the three countries. Accompanied by his chief minister Gat Chakrananda Sawali, the young Kuaybulud king explained that he was setting up a new diplomatic policy for the Kingdom of Taytay, especially when dealing with neighbors in the region like Tondo-Namayan; he always believed that peaceful coexistence should prevail in southern part of Kalamian island, so he presented the emissaries a treaty that would free the southern Kalamianen city-states from diplomatic pressure from their southern neighbor by allowing them to trade with other nations, especially Tondo-Namayan. The talks lasted for a few days before formally it was formally signed and sealed by the chief minister; when asked by the Kumintang-born chief emissary about the situation of the northern Kalamianen city-states, Gat Tungkuyanin responded that the trading relationship between Taytay and the north of Kalamian was already normal despite what happened in their southern counterpart. A week later, the chief emissary of Tondo-Namayan informed Gat Ama Perajaya through a scrolled letter about the treaty on southern Kalamianen city-states.

June:

Several of the Manide clan leaders were already alarmed after they've been told that some of the gold that they've mined in their territory were already smuggled to the neighboring kingdom of Tondo-Namayan by what they believe were spies working (and being paid of their larger neighbor) to undermine the whole Manide-Inagta Confederacy and succumb them into their sphere of influence. They already sent a series of scrolled letters of protest to Tondo-Namayan king Gat Ama Perjaya on how to deal with this problem, but so far, at least from the point of view of the Manide clan leaders, the Haringadlaw monarch has yet to respond to their protests. For the clan leaders of the Manide-Inagta Confederation, the presence of the royal mint of Tondo-Namayan was the ultimate culprit behind the smuggling of gold in their territory; they even fear that the coin making skills would be brought to other nations within the region, which would led to their fear of more incidents of smuggling. In addition, the Manide-Inagta leaders were fearful that the coins would appear in every corner of their territory.

July:

The marriage between the heirs of the Sibugay/Subanen kingdoms of Dipolog and Sembuangan[1] (Datu Tabunaway nog Guayan and Dayang Belembang nog Mipangi) really paved the way for the political unification of the whole Sibugay[2] peninsula, as such marriage between the eldest children of the two most powerful domains in the peninsula was seen as a geopolitical tactic that would have a profound effect on the position of the peninsula in the region; both Dipolog and Sembuangan have a presence in the inter-regional trading routes used by different kingdom in the part of the region, albeit their preferred trading partners were different: Dipolog traded with the kingdoms and confederacies in the north, while Sembuangan traded with the Samal-Bajaw and the Borneans in the south. Indeed, such ceremony would increase the prominence of the hyptothetically unified Subanen kingdom as merchants from the trading partners of both Dipolog and Sembuangan could now be allowed to trade and exchange goods to the rest of the peninsula. For weeks following the marriage, festivities were held in every corner of both Dipolog and Sembuangan to commemorate and celebrate such an important event.

Sibugay wedding ceremony
(Modern-day)

August:

After more or less than a five months since the talks began on the possible location of the future court of the Crown Princess of Tondo-Namayan kingdom Dayang Katangkuntu Inangpen, which was always accompanied by arguments and counterarguments from almost everyone in the royal court, Gat Ama Perajaya was finally decided that the religious mountain town of Atipulu would be chosen as the definitive location of his eldest daughter's court as she was preparing for her duties of the heir to throne of the country. It has been argued, as presented by the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, which was himself hailed from a prominent highlander clan, the relatively cold climate of Atipulu and the location of the town would enable the crown princess to perform her duties properly and let her future court adjust to a different setting easily, without the constant pressure from the Kraton in the royal capital Tondo. On the other hand, the Haringadlaw monarch continued in his decree, while the town of Gatus-na-Katok was a good proposal presented by the chief court historian Gat Abal-abal nan Balayaum, he personally felt that its location in the northern frontier of the kingdom could possibly endanger the security of his daughter and her court, especially from potential enemies. As Atipulu was chosen for the location of the crown princess (and future heirs to the throne) and her court, a massive construction project was already planned as the builders and architects desired to convert the complex of residences formerly owned by Atipulu's Gatuspusu clan into a royal residential complex.

September-October:

In the kingdom of Taytay in the island of Palaw-an, King Tungkuyanin issued a decree to all members of the bureaucracy who would be sent to the rest of the island, in which they would be accompanied by the royal scribes, that they should bring the green-and-yellow banner of the kingdom with a peacock (Merak) at the center. In the said decree, it was explained that the banner would symbolize the authority of the kingdom to serve as the leader among the Palaw-anen-speaking communities across the whole island, not just in its immediate area. In addition, the decree said that every local chieftain in villages and towns across the island should accept the bureaucrat from the kingdom of Taytay and pay allegiance to its monarch in exchange of allowing the latter to help the former in running his domain, as well as retaining the town/village its autonomy. For a time period that ranged from a week to almost a couple of months after the said decree, the villagers and townsfolk in every corner of northern and central part of Palaw-an saw the so-called "peacock banner" as a symbol of domination of the kingdom of Taytay and its royal authority over them, always accompanied by a team of bureaucrats sent from its Kraton and presenting the scrolled document of agreement to the local chieftains.

Peacock (Merak)
Symbol of the Kingdom of Taytay

November:

The economic rise of the town of Gatus-na-Kapok in the northern part of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan led to the arrival of merchants from different nations in the north to trade with the locals within the area. One of them were the Bugkalots, particularly those lived in the south near the Tondo-Namayan border: their exposure to the coins that were already used in the streets of Gatus-na-Kapok (and in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan in general) led to their introduction in the streets of every Bugkalot village and town. Nonetheless, they kept the cowrie shells they traditionally used as medium of exchange when transacting with each other. Modern-day historians generally agreed that the introduction of a formal monetary system accelerated to geopolitical development of the Bugkalot society in general, not just in the south of their territory.

December:

Talks and rumors circulated within the Royal Palace complex (Kraton) in the capital Tondo said that the chief minister (Pangulu) was currently studying and planning to replicate the Eight Ministries of Beiwan/Middag to the government of the kingdom (Pamarinda). According to such rumors, Tiruravanam Balaydanaw explained before King Gat Ama Perajaya in a private meeting that the additional ministries would aid the former to formulate decisions that would formally approved by the monarch himself; the Haringadlaw monarch, the rumors continued, was said that he would possible consider the proposal made by his chief minister. The existing Eight Ministries of Beiwan/Middag was part of the governmental body of the semi-Sinified Austronesian kingdom, in which include the Council of State headed by the chief minister. Such existing structure of government was indirectly imported from the Chinese Empire through Japan. Later, as courtiers within the complex said, the Tondo-Namayan king summoned the chief emissary of Beiwan/Middag in the country at the personal request of his chief minister Tiruravanam Balaydanaw, who was reportedly wanted to replicate the system of government in the semi-Sinicized Austronesian kingdom. Tanka Cawatan, the head of the embassy of the king of Beiwan/Middag in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan and a fluent speaker of the (Luuk) language, was said to be famous in his native country not just as an excellent diplomat, but also as a scholar who knew everything about the government of his kingdom. Indeed, the personal invitation Tanka Cawatan received from King Gat Ama Perajaya at the request of his chief minister was a mix of honor and intrigue for the chief emissary of Middag/Beiwan, especially for the fact that the chief minister of the kingdom was interested on how the government of his native country was functioning, despite the fact that the Tondo-Namayan society was indirectly influenced by the Tamils of southern India/Meluhha through its neighbors in the south, the Nusantara archipelago.

NOTES:
[1] OTL Zamboanga City.
[2] OTL Zamboanga Peninsula, including Misamis Occidental.

ramones1986 · Aug 4, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

891 CE

January:

While the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw was busy on his plan of adapting the government ministries of the semi-Sinicized Austronesian kingdom of Middag/Beiwan to the governing system of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, Gat Ama Perajaya received a scrolled letter from the fourteen leading (lowland) Kaboloan clan leaders, in which they requested the absorption of their domains to the kingdom in exchange of maintaining their local autonomy. The scrolled letter explicitly insisted that the (lowland) Kaboloan[1] city-states need protection from the Luuk-speaking kingdom as they believed that the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan would represent their best interests to the rest of the archipelago in general, not just in the immediate region (northern part of Luzon). The day after the scrolled letter was received by the Haringadlaw king, he consulted the said matter with the chief minister in the latter's private room within the Kraton (Royal Palace complex) in the royal capital Tondo. In response, Tiruravanam Balaydanaw said that while the scrolled letter was indeed a legitimate request from the lowland Kaboloan clan leaders, he thought that the clan leaders should consult their highland counterparts if they agree on their proposal of joining the kingdom before they even write a scrolled letter of petition.

February:

The chief emissary of the kingdom of Middag/Beiwan Tanka Cawatan wrote a scrolled letter to the royal court of the semi-Sinicized Austronesian kingdom's monarch Kamachat Inongkuan from his quarters in the capital Tondo. In the said letter, the Middag diplomat indicated that the chief minister (Pangulu) of Tondo-Namayan Tiruravanam Balaydanaw was serious on adapting the kingdom's Council of State to the government of Tondo-Namayan, saying that the planned adaptation would help the chief minister on advising the Tondo-Namayan monarch on governing the kingdom, both the Luuk-speaking heartland and the vassal states. The letter concluded by a suggestion written by Tanka Cawatan: sent a team of bureaucrats from the home country to Tondo-Namayan to help and advise Tiruravanam Balaydanaw on his plan to adapt the Council of State to the country. Indirectly derived from the Chinese Empire through Japan, the Council of State of Middag/Beiwan served as an advisory council headed by its chief minister; beside heading the departments/ministries that managing the different affairs of the kingdom (e.g. taxation, treasury and military), they also help the chief minister in advising the king on governing the country as a whole.

Emblem of the Kingdom of Middag/Beiwan

March:

The chief court historian Gat Abal-abal nan Balayaum confirmed that some of the scribes and wise men from the royal library were already sent to the provinces of the Luuk-speaking heartland of the kingdom not just to aid the documentation of the activities of the temenggong (provincial governors) and aid the provincial governments to do tasks such as counting the population of a specific village/town, but also assisting the training the future members of the emerging bureaucracy of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, especially in the provincial level. He added that copies of the laws and codes of the old Luuk kingdoms (and members of the Luuk Confederation) were brought by the scribes and wise men to their assigned provinces, thus setting up branches of the royal library in the provinces of the Luuk-speaking heartland, thus it could aid the temenggongs in understanding the history of the province that they served, as well as to make decisions. The monarch Gat Ama Perajaya, the chief court historian concluded, fully understood that the provinces of the Luuk-speaking heartland was considered as the indirect continuation of the old kingdoms, so he let the scribes to copy the old laws and brought with them to the regions outside the capital Tondo.

April-May:

One of the immediate effects of the political marriage between the heirs of the kingdoms of Dipolog and Sembuangan (Gat Tabunaway nog Guayan and Dayang Belembang nog Mipangi) was the expansion of the trading partners of the two Subanen/Sibugay domains that would eventually lead to the opening of the whole Sibugay peninsula to both southern and central trade routes: the ports of the kingdom of Dipolog began to receive traders from Bornean kingdoms and Sama-Bajaw, while traders from the central part of the archipelago began to appear in Sembuangan. Indeed, the hypothetical geopolitical unification of Sibugay as a single kingdom could elevate its station economically and politically. At the same time, courtiers from the two principal Kratons of the two of the principal geopolitical entities in the Sibugay peninsula, who recently unified through the marriage of their respective heirs, began to move to the other side of the peninsula, thus gradually unifying the two Sibugaynen royal courts.

June:

The southern Kalamianen city-states began to receive merchant ships from the northern kingdom of Tondo-Namayan as the decree written by the monarch of neighboring Taytay kingdom Gat Tungkuyanin became permanently effective; thus, the southern member city-states of the Mangarin Confederation could trade freely with their neighbor, especially with the Luuk-speaking kingdom in the north. Nonetheless, merchant ships from the kingdom of Taytay were still allowed to conduct trade with the southern Kalamianen city-states; In addition, merchant ships from the kingdoms and confederations in the Visayan regions had began to arrive in the same area, as a result of the efforts of the current paramount leader of the Mangarin Confederation Apu Bakoko ta Bukid-dapogan to build a permanent diplomatic corps from the scions of different Kalamianen clans and sending them to different parts of the central region of the archipelago, not just in both Tondo-Namayan and Taytay (and the rest of Palaw-an) using his own resources.

July:

The Crown Princess of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan visited the residential complex once owned by the prominent Gatuspusu clan in the mountain town of Atipulu as the well-known religious pilgrimage center was eventually chosen as the location of her future court while she was preparing for duties and responsibilities as the heiress to the kingdom's throne. Accompanied by a group ladies she personally hired, Dayang Katangkuntu Inangpen inspected and studied every corner of the Putimbatu complex, as the residential complex was called. It was said that the Crown Princess was impressed by the residences in general and thought that the palace complex of Putimbatu was "more than suitable" for her future residence. It was actually revealed that months earlier, the Gatuspusu clan gave one of their residential complex to the royal court when they learned that the town of Atipulu was then considered as the location of the permanent court of the Crown Princess (and future heirs to the throne of Tondo-Namayan).

August:

After more or less than seven months, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw received a scrolled letter from the fourteen principal lowland Kaboloan chieftains, in which they retained their petition of a permanent absorption to the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan as a vassal state. This time, the fourteen lowland chiefs were accompanied by the seven principal highland Kaboloan chiefs in their request that, in their opinion, would benefit the domains in the long term. In fact, the chief minister noticed that the scrolled letter itself was wrapped with a clothing whose pattern represented the highland Kaboloans; when Tiruravanam Balaydanaw presented the letter, as well as the cloth, to Gat Ama Perajaya in the latter's private room within the Kraton of Tondo, the Haringadlaw monarch quickly hypothesized that the cloth was the result of months of convincing by the lowland Kaboloan chieftains to their upland counterparts on the benefits of being a vassal state of Tondo-Namayan, and the details behind such an important scrolled letter was indeed true.

Azalea%2BBaguio%2BEaster%2BWeaving%2BRoom8.jpg

A sample of Ibaloi/Highland Kaboloan pattern

September:

In the kingdom of Hantik, Queen Maniwantiwan received the embassies of both Taytay and Tondo-Namayan in the throne room within the Kraton in the royal capital Malandog as formal diplomatic relations were established between the three kingdoms. According to the personal chronicles of the first chief emissary of Tondo-Namayan Gat Tirubanug (anak Harihanuman) nan Apatutan, the whole embassy of the northern kingdom received noticeable amount of curiosity from the royal court of Hantik, especially the current monarch herself, because of the obvious fact that he and the rest of the embassy were speaking Luuk language, the same tongue that was spoken in the Rade Confederation, the eastern neighbor of the western Visayan nation-state. On the other hand, the Taytay delegation was regarded with relative familiarity to the Hamtikan royal court (and the population of the kingdom in general) because of the already established maritime trade ties between the two kingdoms. Coincidentally, rumors circulated within the Kraton of Malandog said that Queen Maniwantiwan explicitly told both the members of the royal court and bureaucracy that they should hide the existence (and possible influence) of the northern kingdom of Tondo-Namayan to anybody, most especially to the Rade Confederation.

October:

The current paramount leader of the Mangarin Confederation Apu Bakoko ta Bukid-dapogan received a scrolled letter from his nearest counterpart in the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan Gat Tiruravanam Balaydanaw while doing his routine checking of scrolled documents related to the general affairs affecting the confederation in his personal quarters within the Istana of Mangarin[2], the confederate capital, praising the former for convincing every other leader beside the current monarch of the principal Palaw-anen city-state of Taytay Gat Tirukumurugan II (it Kuaybulud), referring to the recent diplomatic missions that the current Kalamaianen confederate leader that resulted to the opening of its ports to merchants from the Visayan islands, not just in the south but also in the north as well. In the said letter, the current chief minister (Pangulu) of the Luuk-speaking kingdom had also indicated that when the current monarch of Tondo-Namayan Gat Ama Perajaya learned of the said development through the vassal state of Kumintang, Gat Tiruravanam said that the current Haringadlaw sovereign was thankful that Apu Bakoko had done a lot of sacrifice to recognize the Mangarin Confederation outside its borders.

November-December:

The use of Tondo-Namayan coinage suddenly spread across the Bugkalot-speaking region as trade between different towns and villages across the territory became more widespread thanks to the relative geography of the Bugkalot country: a flat plain in most of the region with mountain ranges in the northern and eastern regions of the country. As the Bugkalot regional economy expanded and began to trade regularly with their neighbors, especially traders from the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, substantial changes had occurred in the Bugkalot society as well, one of which was the increased social stratification and the abandonment of headhunting as a method of warfare, especially in the northern parts of the region; nonetheless, as Luuk-speaking merchants once observed, such practices occasionally happened in situations like disputes had gone wrong and adultery. In summary, the Tondo-Namayan coinages permanently brought the Bugkalot into the orbit of the Luuk-speaking kingdom in the south.

NOTES:
[1] In OTL, Kaboloan is Pangasinan, particularly in the Agoo River basin. ITTL, the term has extended to include the Ibaloi people of Benguet, who shared the same language as its lowland counterpart.
[2] OTL: San José, Occidental Mindoro

ramones1986 · Aug 9, 2018

Chapter I
Gat Ama Perajaya
(885 - 920)

892 CE

January:

The increasing prestige and influence of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan in the region was noticed and recognized by the Chola Empire as the Tamil empire sent its embassy to the royal court of the Luuk-speaking kingdom. The Chola embassy, led by Madhavan Maalolan Sethurayar, scion of a well-known merchant clan with established links with the maritime Southeast Asia, was received in the throne room within the Kraton of Tondo by the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya. The Chola chief emissary presented a scrolled letter written by his country's sovereign/king Aditya I; in the said letter, which was written in Tamil, the Cholas had formally recognized the influence and power of the Tondo-Namayan in its immediate region that they would formally established direct diplomatic links between the two kingdoms; until then, links between the Cholas and the Luuk-speaking people were always conducted through intermediaries like the kingdoms of the Malay Peninsula and Java, with whom they received significant cultural and political influence from the kingdom in the southeastern tip of the Indian/Meluhhan peninsula. Despite increased, albeit indirect, Chinese influence, the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan and its neighboring states in the archipelago were still considered as the part of Indosphere, and the establishment of the embassy of Chola Empire in the royal capital Tondo seemed to confirm such a fact.

February:

In the northern-central region of the island of Mindanao, the clan leaders of the seven ethnic tribes (Bukidnon, Higaonon, Talaandig, Manobo, Matigsalug, Tigwahanon and Umayamnon) gathered together in an assembly in the town of Lantapan, which was in the heart of the said region, to forge an alliance/confederation that would protect their common interests (and the region in general) from potential enemies, stimulate the economic and cultural exchange of the region and eventually form a common government that could settle differences between the different tribes; inter-clans disputes were the responsibilities of the tribes themselves within their territories. The Kitanglad[1] Confederation, named after the mountain range that was considered sacred to the Bukidnon people, was indeed formed to comply to the common needs of the seven tribes, who spoke mutually intelligible languages (or actually variants/dialects of a single language) and shared common culture and religious beliefs; the clan leaders representing the eighth tribe, the Kinamigin, was absent from the gathering in Lantapan[2]; however, they've promised through a scrolled letter that they would join the confederacy as soon as possible.

Kitanglad Mountains

March:

In the Kraton of the royal capital Tondo, the chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw received a scrolled letter from the chief emissary of the kingdom in the Visayan nation-state of Hantik Gat Tirubanug (anak Harihanuman) nan Apatutan, where the latter talked about the existence of a people living in the southeastern part of the island of Pan-ay called the Rade, whose language was claimed to be similar to that of Tondo-Namayan, the Luuk language. In the said letter, the chief emissary of the northern kingdom claimed that when the members of the Tondo-Namayan embassy spoke to themselves in the Luuk language, both the bureaucratic officials and the courtiers in the Kraton of the Hamtik capital Malandog were first surprised, then became curious about the exact origins both Rade and Luuk peoples; the scrolled letter added that the Queen of Hantik Maniwantiwan told him about the legends of the neighboring Rade people, where they claimed that they were descendants from "the people of the north" who married "a race of seafarers from the south". When the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya read the scrolled letter sent by his chief emissary in Hantik, he shared to his chief minister about the legends in relation to the so-called "lost brothers" who came south from their homelands in the eastern part of Namayan Bay.

April-May:

More or less than a couple of years since the Manide-Inagta Confederation sent a series of scrolled letters protesting the smuggling of gold from their territory for use in the royal mint of Gatus-na-Kapok in the northern part of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan, the Kraton of Tondo finally responded to the protests presented by the Manide-Inagta clan leaders. In a scrolled letter of response written by the monarch of Tondo-Namayan Gat Ama Perajaya, he personally lamented the cases of smuggling involving gold in their territory while at the same time, he assured that the common border between Tondo-Namayan (through its vassal state Kumintang) and Manide-Inagta country would be reinforced by an auxiliary force that would keep its security. In effect, under the direct orders from the Kraton of Tondo, the Kumintang monarch Datu Halimaw immediately sent two auxiliary battalions, accompanied with a senior military force sent from the royal capital Tondo to the Manide-Inagta border in order to reinforce security, which included the prevention of gold smuggling as much as possible. However, rumors circulated within the Manide capital Mambulao that the latest actions of the neighboring kingdom was actually a prelude to the feared invasion of their homeland, to the point of claiming that they saw Tondo-Namayan warships patrolling in the Mambulao Bay.

Mambulao Bay

June:

Four months after the formation of the Kitanglad Confederation, the chieftains of the leading Kinamigin clans arrived in the town of Lantapan, which was now the de facto capital of the confederacy, to confirm their promise of joining the alliance of the so-called Kitanglad tribes. For the rest of the confederation, the Kinamigins from the island where they came from (Kamigin) were the most important affair in their relatively short history because of the fact that they were renowned for their trade with the Visayan countries as well as its fame as exporter of fruits to the rest of the Kitanglad lands. Like the seven other tribes of the confederation, the Kinamigins spoke a variation/dialect of the Kitanglad language and practice a variant of the common religion.

July:

In his personal quarters within the Istana of Mangarin, the current paramount leader of the Mangarin/Kalamian Confederation Apu Bakoko ta Bukid-dapogan received a scrolled letter from an unexpected correspondence: It was the current chieftain of the principal Palaw-anen city-state of Taytay Gat Tirukumurugan II (it Kuaybulud), in which the latter had admitted that he really admired the recent action that was made by the Kalamianen confederate leader in maintaining peace and balance of power in the central part of the archipelago. Written in Luuk language, which was now serve as the lingua franca of much of the archipelago, the current monarch of Taytay had explained that such praise was the result of the scrolled reports that he received from his emissaries who were sent to the Kalamianen confederate capital to observe the latest development from the island-confederation, including its relationship with its immediate northern neighbor, the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan. In addition, Gat Tirumurugan II had revealed that once his eldest son (Gat Tungkuyanin) succeeded him in the throne of Taytay, the monarch sincerely felt that Gat Tungkuyanin should fulfill his lifelong aspiration of uniting the whole island of Palaw-an under the leadership of Taytay, particularly by the Kuaybulud clan, the ruling dynasty of Taytay.

August-September:

For a long time, rumors circulated within the Kraton of Tondo about the potential husband of the Crown Princess Dayang Katangkuntu Inangpen as she already reached the acceptable age of marriage: At this moment, the heiress to the throne of Tondo-Namayan was approaching her twentieth birthday. Regarding this matter, the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya called the help of his sisters Dayang Kayumi and Dayang Pengsita who, with the help of their own courtiers within the Kraton of Tondo, wrote a series of scrolled letter to the leading noble families in the region surrounding the royal capital and the port city of Namayan to find a suitable husband for the Crown Princess. As the weeks passed, the search was extended to include minor nobles in the provinces of the kingdom's heartland and the vassal states like Sambal, Sisuan, Kumintang and even the Kaboloan city-states. Eventually and unexpectedly, an unlikely candidate emerged from a far-flung kingdom, and his name was Gat Tungaw nan Haringadlaw-Daraga, the first-born nephew of the current monarch of Kagsawa Datu Mabanggi: he was the eldest child of Gat Matapang nan Haringadlaw, the cousin of the Gat Ama Perajaya and his siblings, and Dayang Mayamutiaram nan Daraga, the youngest child of the ruling Daraga clan and a noblewoman of her own right. The background of the twenty-two-year-old young Kagsawa noble intrigued the whole royal court, including the Crown Princess herself; in fact, he was accompanied by the whole embassy of Kagsawa when he presented himself in front of the monarch and his daughter in the Kraton of Tondo. After almost a month of courtship, Crown Princess Dayang Kantangkuntu Inangpen and Gat Tangaw nan Haringadlaw-Daraga was permanently betrothed in a ceremony that was described as "lavish" and attended by a multitude of guests. As the Crown Princess' new Kraton was yet to be refurbished, the royal newlyweds stay in the heiress' own quarters within the Royal Palace complex.

Ancient Philippine marriage ceremony
(Symbolic recreation)

October:

The Buglasnon[3] people were now unified under a single nation-state as Datu Kalantiyaw was proclaimed the paramount monarch of the country in a solemn ceremony in the temple complex in the town of Binalbagan[4], which was now the capital of the new kingdom of Buglas. The new monarch, who hailed from the powerful Asugi clan of Bágo in the north of the island, received homages from the priestly class, influential merchants, free noblemen from the rest of the island, and most importantly the chieftains of almost every town and village in the whole Buglas after Datu Kalantiyaw was enthroned and received its own variant of the Golden Salakot (Binulawan nga Salakot in Buglasnon language) as a form of acknowledgment that they had accepted the reign of the Asugi monarch as their overlord of their domains; after all, the Buglas Kingdom was actually a mandala state, like every other pre-colonial Philippine kingdoms influenced by Meluhhan/Tamil culture like the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan. The proclamation of Datu Kalantiyaw as the new monarch of Buglas was the culmination of the struggles and sacrifices the Buglasnon people had to endure for the unification of their homeland.

November:

After more than a year of waiting, chief minister (Pangulu) Tiruravanam Balaydanaw finally received the scrolled letter of response from the kingdom of Middag/Beiwan in relation to the adoption of its Council of State to the government of the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan. In the said letter, it was revealed that the monarch of the northen semi-Sinicized Austronesian kingdom, Kamachat Inongkuan, died from dysentery exactly a month after he received the letter from his chief emissary in Tondo-Namayan Tanka Cawatan; he was succeeded by his eldest son Kamachat Walis; the scrolled letter of response added that the new Middag monarch was said to be enthusiastic when he learned that the Council of State would be adopted to the kingdom of Tondo-Namayan that he appointed a group of bureaucrats to help the chief minister to set up the council and train people from the different backgrounds, particularly intellectuals and merchants, to handle the responsibilities of every ministry that would compose the Council of State. Days later, in a private dinner with the chief minister and the monarch Gat Ama Perajaya in the throne room, Tanka Cawatan confirmed the events that happened back in his homeland, including the appointment of the advisers. However, the chief emissary of Middag/Beiwan said the he received a letter of correspondence personally written by the new Middag/Beiwan monarch Kamachat Walis saying that the letters should be sent to the Kraton of Tondo months after it was first written for a number of reasons.

December:

As the construction of a naval fort and base in the island of Butot was going, there were ongoing plans that the island of Lubang would be converted into an another military base, or at least in the northern tip of the island. According to the Kumintang monarch Lakan Halimaw ng Tumbaga, he received a scrolled letter from Laksaman Tirubalalang nan Ubu-ubu inquiring about the current situation of the island, or at least the northern part of Lubang, since it reduced its function as a prisoner island; the admiral explained the intention behind the proposed construction of a naval base in the island: establish a permanent presence of the Tondo-Namayan military, particularly the navy, in the central part of the archipelago. In addition, the admiral said that the prisoner colony would still remain and suggested that the two institutions could co-exist in the island of Lubang. On the other hand, it was hypothesized that the true motive behind this plan was the expansion of the Tondo-Namayan military to include their counterparts in the vassal states like Kumintang.

NOTES:
[1] Kitanglad in this scenario is composed of OTL provinces of Camiguin, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon; it was named after the principal mountain range of the said region.
[2] Lantapan is indeed situated in the middle of OTL Bukidnon province, hence it it most possible to make it a capital ITTL.
[3] Hiligaynon-speaking people OTL; the only difference is that their ancestors had migrated to Buglas, which is Negros Occidental in OTL.
[4] Although ATL Binalbagan is smaller than its OTL counterpart, its central location would be more logical as the capital of Buglas.