Bone War

The Bone War was an internal conflict in the province of Omba, lasting from 727 to 730 I.E. The Bone War takes its name from the purported central point of contention of the conflict, namely access to Ancestors. Over a period of several decades, the noble lineages of the Sharai Peninsula had become increasingly disaffected as the Omban Senate repeatedly overruled their wishes, even though Sharai was the wealthiest and most politically united part of the country. The failure of the Senate to protect the Imperial Ancestors from the Great Flood of 702 or the earthquake of 715 led to endless frustration and requests to move those Ancestors to safer ground, which were all rejected. On three occasions in the 720s, the Senate voted to restrict access to those Ancestors to those living within the city, enraging the rural senators. Ultimately, however, while framed as an issue of access to Ancestors, the Bone War's ultimate origins lay in the weakening economic and military position of Imperial Omba.

In 727, Gudum Ultoghan, head of the most powerful of these lineages, declared the independence of Sharai, recalled the ten Sharaian senators from Omba, and was crowned King of Sharai in the city of Ivos. Allied with Hasmala and Daligash, who contributed support to the east and west, Sharai quickly moved to cut off Omba's access to the sea by coopting the support of the lineages of the Atutul Peninsula to the west. While the city of Omba was a major port, all its access to the sea was only through Sharai, and so it was forced to rely on trade with Khutu for many supplies. Cut off by sea, Omba attempted to call on the other provinces to unite, but without significant success. Khutuan neutrality, in particular, was critical to the success of Sharai in ensuring that Omba could not launch military operations from the east.

By 730, the Omban treasury was heavily depleted and the Sharaian military remained strong, bolstered by armies of bubun imported from Hasmala. In spring of that year, the city of Omba itself was sacked. Shortly thereafter, the Senate was forced to appeal for peace. The end of the war established that the ten Sharaian and three Atutuli seats of the Senate would be abandoned, and Omba would recognize these territories as the new Kingdom of Sharai, with Gudum as king.