Before soldiers deploy on any operation, they will undergo 'Indoctrination' in which they will learn the background of the operation and what they need to know to successfully complete their mission objectives. A huge part of the indoc is to understand how the local people think and what their beliefs are- this is to foster cooperation.

I wanted to find a way to expand on what I imagined to be Ishval's history and culture without completely overwhelming my fic "Mirage". Therefore, I settled on this. If you haven't read "Mirage", Kimblee survived Promised Day and has been roped into the Restoration Act. Scar and Miles definitely weren't pleased, but they'd had time to get over it. In my headcanon, Kimblee actually knows a lot about Ishval. I don't feel like he would be the kind of person to go into a situation without knowing everything there was to know about it; before he deployed to Ishval, he must have done his own bit of research.

Miles was also promoted to LCol.

This fic will have multiple chapters expanding on the history, culture, some language elements, and other aspects of Ishvalan society. Meant to be read in conjunction with "Mirage" to give depth to the amazing land of Ishval, its people, and explain some of the inherent challenges of the operation.

Below is an Amestrian Military transcription of the first lesson in OP ISHVALAN RESTORATION indoc.

PROTECTED B.

A Brief History of Ishval and the Ishvalan Religion.
TRANSCRIPT
OP. ISHVAL RESTOR INDOC.
SECTION 1 SQUAD 1.

April 5, 1926

Participants/Students:
Privates QTY 41
Corporals QTY 19
Sergeants QTY 8
Warrant Officers QTY 2
Second Lieutenants QTY 4
Lieutenants QTY 4
Captains QTY 2
Major QTY 1

Total: 81

Instructors:
Connor Miles, LCol.
Zolf Kimblee, civ.
Scar, civ.

Start transcript.
Time: 1408

LCol. Miles :
Listen up, troops.

Welcome to your indoctrination package for Operation Ishvalan Restoration. In two weeks' time, we will all be deploying to Ishval as part of the Ishvalan Restoration Act.

As you know, I am Lieutenant Colonel Miles. I will be your commanding officer for the duration of this operation.

This is Scar, your Ishvalan public relations officer. Don't look so confused- he's not a commissioned officer. He's a civilian, but he'll be working on the Amestrian-Ishvalan relations while we're there. I expect you all to show him the same respect you would show me. If he's teaching, I will tolerate no fucking around. If you see him in the halls, I expect you to check your arms as if he were an officer.

This is the Crimson Alchemist, Zolf J. Kimblee. Some of you may remember him as the Mad Bomber.

Kimblee:
My bombing days are over.

LCol Miles:
Fortunately, he is no longer an officer. I do, however, expect you to check your arms and come to attention if you see him. Colonel Mustang has personally ordered him to be a part of this operation, and we all owe it to him to put aside our past beliefs and accomplish our goals. I won't hear a word about Kimblee's background. Anyone who has a problem can take it up with the Colonel.

Is that all understood? Mass nodding of heads?

Good.

The purpose of this indoctrination package is to familiarize you all with the history, culture, social norms, and language of the Ishvalan peoples. This package will be administered in four sections and further divided into squads for ease of learning.

The first section will consist of history. Squad one will taught by Kimblee regarding ancient history leading up to the Treaty of Kanda in in 1725. This will be the longest lecture, so pay attention. Squad two will be taught by myself on pre-modern history leading up to the outbreak of the Ishvalan civil war in 1901. Squad three will be led by the two of us on modern events from the start of the civil war in 1901 to the end of the extermination in 1910. Some of this material will be completely new to you. Make sure to take notes and write down your questions so you can ask us later.

The remaining sections will consist of education on cultural practices and language. These two sections will be led by Scar. Finally, myself and Kimblee will cover any environmental dangers you may face.

Any questions so far? If you need to take ten for a bathroom or a smoke break, do it now. There will be no more breaks until the end of this lecture.

Kimblee:
Welcome back.

As you can tell, troops, I'm not Ishvalan. I am, however, a bit of a historian. I travelled to Ishval prior to the civil war, and have done extensive studies into its pre-war history. Therefore, I will be leading this lecture. The materials I am about to teach you in this specific lecture have been compiled by myself, LCol Miles, and Scar using mostly the works of early Ishvalan historians. My aim is to deliver to you all a brief history of Ishval, and a starter to the formation of the Ishvalan religion.

You, why are you moving around? Eyes front.

Participant:
Lieutenant Colonel, pardon me- I'm part Ishvalan from my mother's side, and I find it extremely insulting that this man is teaching the history of Ishval.

LCol Miles:
Sergeant, I understand your frustration. As you know, the Crimson Lotus was granted the opportunity to participate in the restoration. These indoc lessons are part of his annual evaluation for cooperation. You may be just as surprised as I was to find out that he has a fairly extensive knowledge base. Please sit down.

Scar:
I would teach this myself, but according to Amestrian regulation it is not permissible for one person to teach more than half the program.

Kimblee:
Listen, sergeant. I don't want to be here anymore than you do, so let's not make it any harder than it has to be. Sit up straight and pay attention.

A formal class on the tenants of the Ishvalan religion will be led by Scar on a different date. Refer to the maps you'll find on your desks, and do not raise questions about the nature of the Ishvalan religion during this class.

For thousands of years, the people of the desert called themselves by many names. The tribal roots of the land could be traced to the 1200s, some even earlier. The enormous stretch of desert land was peppered with small villages, and the landscape was ever changing as the tents of nomadic tribesmen could appear and disappear at will. At first, the wealthiest tribes consisted of raiders; barbaric men wielding iron scimitars and women raining arrows down on their opponents from atop sleek horses. Raids were conducted on rival tribes and on the merchants travelling on the Iron Road between the dominant eastern powers of the time- Xerxes and Xing. Eventually, the raiding tribes grew tired of warring and realized that trading was far more lucrative.

Several small kingdoms were formed throughout the land at this time, but all served as tribute states to Xerxes. The eastern kingdoms were settled on fertile farmland, and supplied food and animal resources. The northern kingdoms boasted rich mines full of iron, silver, gold, and precious stones. The southern kingdoms facilitated trade and manufactured goods from textiles and metals. In return, Xerxes grew into a cultural and intellectual hub- an oasis of multiple faiths, languages, races, and gods.

I want to take a second now and make sure you understand this. It's important for you guys to understand at this point that the Ishvalan religion has not been formed.

Scar:
This is considered the pre-Ishvalan time, or the Age of Ignorance as most present day Ishvalans call it.

Kimblee:
The people who would eventually be collectively called 'Ishvalans' were at this time followers of multiple faiths. Most were polytheistic and believed in the presence of various deities that regulated their daily lives. The concept of 'the One Creator' would not come until much later, and from the most unlikely source.

The reason why we decided to teach you this is that it sets the foundations for you to understand why cultural differences and conflicts exist between the Ishvalan provinces.

Yes?

Participant:
What was Amestris like during this time?

Kimblee:
…If you are curious about what Amestris was like at this time, go read an Amestrian history book. This is Ishvalan Restoration Indoc, not your grade school Amestrian history class. Don't interrupt me again.

LCol. Miles :
Very simply, troop, the area that is now Amestris was in the middle of a bit of a dark age. The actual state of Amestris wasn't formed until later.

Kimblee:
Are we clear? Moving on.

In the year of 1510, the people of Xerxes mysteriously perished.

Some said it was an epidemic, and others blamed evil spirits. Some claimed that the Xerxians, so immensely intelligent and advanced, were invited up to heaven by the gods.

None of us know what happened. Not for sure, anyway. But let's not dwell on this. Moving on.

Participant:
I heard a rumor that-

Kimblee:
I'll have no more talk of Xerxes. This lecture is about Ishval.

All you need to know is that the dissolution of the Kingdom of Xerxes produced a power vacuum the likes of which the eastern world had never before seen. The desert tributary states, without central control, rallied to conquest.

Of all the rogue kingdoms, it was the kingdom of Essa in the north that produced the most skilled military general. King Armuun of Essa was born and raised on the jagged steppes of the Gunjan mountain range, and he was said to be fierce as a snow leopard. Using the rich natural resources of his homeland, Armuun raised a well-equipped and masterfully trained army using conscripts from the many tribes under his rule. Atop a horse with a mane of fire, Armuun the Conquerer was said to have set the world aflame with his glory. He won one victory after another, superior organization and strategy easily winning over disorganized chaos and incompetent leadership. Kingdom after kingdom fell to Armuun's army, and many surrendered.

Even today, Armuun is an extremely important figure to most Ishvalans. He was known as the king who first united the land, and the first ruler who believed in the Creator God Ishvala. But at this time, know that he was still polytheistic like the rest of his peoples. We are teaching you this because I guarantee you that you will hear phrases and idioms from Ishvalans that involve events from this period. We want you to understand what the Ishvalans mean when they say that someone has 'the spirit of Essa' or if they describe something as having a 'Maedean' quality.

By 1520, after only a ten year conquest, Armuun was crowned King of the tribal kingdoms that swore allegiance as his tributary states. Believing Xerxes to be cursed, King Armuun moved his capital not to his hometown but to the wealthy and affluent central state of Kanda. Equidistant from the northern states where he kept his garrisons and the south-eastern states that produced his food and animals, the Kandan tribesmen were literate and capable of supporting his administration. While Xerxes had been small, Armuun was faced with the challenge of unifying and establishing central command over a vast geographical and political landscape.

He named his kingdom Maedea. Armuun instated the tribesmen of Essa as his generals, the tribesmen of Kanda as his administrators, and appointed regional governors out of local chieftains. Under this unlikely form of tribal tributary government that would have failed anywhere else but in the desert, Maedea vaulted into an unexpected golden age. Coins were minted for the first time, allowing a state controlled economy to replace the trade-and-barter system of the ancient tribes. A temple was built in Kanda in reverence to the many gods and goddesses of the Maedean peoples, and it served as a meeting place for peaceful tribal arbitration, rituals, and other spiritual celebrations. Xing was not pleased with Maedea's fast expansion, but the loss of trade from Xerxes had wreaked havoc on Xing's economy over the last decade, and so they welcomed trade with the new kingdom.

In the year 1531, a fisherman from the eastern farming state of Daliha, on the edge of the Ysran canal that carried precious cargo between Xing and Maedea, fell into the canal while fishing. Some of you look confused; why am I telling you a silly story of some unimportant fisherman?

The fisherman's name was Hakum, and in present times he is known as Ishvala's first prophet.

When his fellow tribesmen finally fished him from the canal, they thought he'd died. Miraculously, Hakum came back to life and revealed a bewildering tale of his experience in heaven. He claimed that a deity by the name of Ishvala had spoken to him, instructing him to pass on a series of teachings. According to these early revelations, Ishvala claimed that he was to be worshipped as the one and only God.

I won't go into the nature of these first revelations. There simply isn't enough time, and only a priest of Ishvala could explain these revelations in a way other Ishvalans would consider traditionally accurate.

At the time, this proclamation was startling but not completely unbelievable. After all, the tribes had gone from choosing and following their own chieftains over centuries to submitting under the rule of a single monarchic King. As their political structure streamlined, the thought of worshipping one god began to make sense to many. Ishvala, whose name derived from the root 'isva', to create, was named the Creator of the Universe who ruled over land, sea, and sky. Hakum's first followers were referred to as 'the first men', harij-kurh.

There are historians and some present day Dalihans who erroneously took this to mean that Hakum's tribal ancestry could be traced back to the first man and woman created by Ishvala. Again, this is an erroneous belief. Most Gunjan and Kandan Ishvalans oppose this notion.

Scar:
Kimblee is right- that belief is wrong, but if you come across Ishvalans, especially Dalihans, on your operations who swear by it… please don't correct them. They won't take it very well from an outsider. Wars were later fought over this, and those who believe in this theory are extremely sensitive to any challenge. Tread very carefully.

LCol. Miles :
You'll learn more about the cultural differences between the different Ishvalan peoples in the next section. Go on, Kimblee.

Kimblee:
There were some Dalihans that opposed Hakum's revelations, and rejected the idea of a single all-powerful creator god. These peoples, who defended their beliefs in local deities, were supported by powerful tribal leaders who profited from the local spiritual observations and ceremonies that Hakum rejected.

A small riot occurred in the state of Daliha in 1537, and this conflict disrupted agricultural production so much that the Kandan administration was forced to investigate. Hakum was summoned to King Armuun's court, and Hakum's revelations impressed the king so much that he gave the fisherman a place in his court and Ishvala a place in the temple of gods. However, Armuun refused to acknowledge this new deity as the one and only universal God, as doing so would turn nearly all of his subjects against him.

Around the 1540s, a rival kingdom along the southern borders of Maedea began to make incursions into Maedean territory. A war broke out following the assassination of an ambassador, and Armuun's Gunjan generals turned bitter against each other. Maedea lost numerous frontier skirmishes, and several assassination plots were made on Armuun's life. Meanwhile, tribal states were too proud to rally together at the time of need. In the midst of the chaos, Hakum the fisherman was said to have received another prophecy with instructions regarding how Armuun was to win the war. With the blessing of Ishvala, the king and his chosen generals rode into battle and utterly decimated the enemy forces. The king was said to have been mortally wounded, and as he lay on his deathbed Hakum came to the king's side and prayed over him.

Ishvalan tradition holds that Ishvala's voice came to Armuun and cleansed him of his wounds and transgressions, but who really knows? All history remembers is that Armuun miraculously recovered and was henceforth a steadfast convert and follower of the Ishvalan faith. Ishvala was named the official patron god of Maedea, though worship of local deities carried on.

Troops, you will recall from your childhood history lessons that Amestris was founded in 1550 as a tiny rogue kingdom. What you probably didn't know was that Maedea at the time occupied a geographical area almost sixty times bigger than what Amestris began with. Incredible, isn't it?

Hakum's followers from Daliha began to join him in Kanda, and he went on funded journeys across the land to spread the word of Ishvala. By the time Armuun the Conquerer died in 1561, Hakum had developed a fairly large following consisting of members of various tribes.

Scar:
This was really important. Such an arrangement was never before seen in eastern tribal history. Since the beginning, tribes followed their own local deities and loyalties were tied by blood. When tribesmen and women made the difficult choice to relinquish their gods for Ishvala, they were effectively disowned from their tribes. Hakum's followers, whom he called 'Ishvalans', formed a tribe held together neither by blood nor common ancestry but by faith.

Kimblee:
Armuun's death left his fourteen year old son in power, and a civil war inevitably ensued. Records are not very clear on what exactly happened during this time of conflict. The Ishvalans, living in Kanda and held together by a martyr-like zeal to follow Hakum to the death, boasted a potent mix of Gunjan warriors, Kandan traders, Dalihan craftsmen, and literate administrators. They easily outwitted, out-performed, and outdid rival tribes that were crippled by lack of access to centralized resources and reliable leadership.

By 1965, the Ishvalans had eked out a close victory in the civil war and quickly instated themselves as administrators in Kanda. Those who previously held positions converted to Hakum's religion and became Ishvalan in order to keep their posts. Hakum refused to be crowned King, claiming that there was no king on earth but Ishvala. There is evidence that he was a charismatic figure, though he had none of the ruling experience that King Armuun did before him. In truth, tribal states never unified after the civil war, and never again was the desert under any comparable sort of centralized domestic rule as we saw under Armuun of Essa.

To consolidate their power and to solidify Ishvala's place as the One Creator, Hakum's followers sacked the temple of gods and destroyed every idol, statue, and artefact dedicated to local deities- "false gods", the Ishvalans called them. They dedicated the temple as a prayer room to Ishvala. This period was later called 'The Red Genocide' by those pagans who refused to convert to Hakum's religion, though Ishvalans today claimed that not a drop of pagan blood was shed. Whether or not the blood was literal or metaphorical, it is generally agreed that the year 1565 was a landmark year in which almost the entire population of the Kandan capital state was converted.

Yes?

Participant:
Were they forced to convert?

Scar:
Technically, we don't know for sure. Most likely, people realized that it was easier to go about the lives they already had if they converted to the religion of the ruling group. The Ishvalan religion at this point had very few tenants and did not assert as much control over people's lives as it would later on.

Kimblee:
Two years later, Hakum fell ill and died. His most ardent followers had begun compiling written accounts of his revelations, and they called this collection 'Ishvaram'. Meant to act as a holy book of spiritual instruction, this book alone occupied what used to be the temple of the gods. Still many Ishvalans believe that the first book of the Ishvaram was written by Hakum himself, but historical evidence suggests that Hakum was illiterate. In any case, records of producing and trading paper only appeared in 1569- two years after Hakum's death.

LCol. Miles :
Again, if any Ishvalans assert otherwise, don't fucking correct them. We've decided to give you the most objective information, which is why we've separated the tradition from the history. We want you to know that some Ishvalans hold these beliefs very dearly. Regardless of whether or not these beliefs are true, our goal is for them to cooperate with us. The last thing we want is for them to argue with us on ideological grounds. Go on.

Kimblee:
During this time, the desert kingdom continued to be called Maedea. However, the weakening borders observed during Armuun's time only exacerbated themselves after Hakum's death. The unified kingdom began to split; the tribal states north of Kanda, which included Gunja, began self-governing. In time, the southern tribal states also began to take over their own affairs, leaving Kanda caught in the middle. Very quickly, competition over resources caused relations to go sour between the northern and southern clans. They distinctly disliked the Ishvalans, but no tribe was strong enough on their own to directly challenge the Kandan defences. The cultural differences were so steep that these clan groups would never be able to unify without being conquered by a third party. The Ishvalans, content with ruling the cultural and trading hub that was Kanda, continued to spread the teachings of the Ishvaram and participated in trade, but made no efforts to re-conquer the semi-hostile tribes that surrounded them.

By 1570, the disunion and tensions between the tribes had fallen back to what elders remembered from the post-Xerxes civil war. The northern clans tried and failed to produce another conqueror, and it was out of this frustration that the second prophet Irikesh emerged out of the same mountains that bore King Armuun. While at this point Daliha had become mostly Ishvalan and Kanda was essentially an Ishvalan state run by Hakum's followers, the northern clans remained insistent in keeping with their own traditions. Irikesh, however, claimed that the only way to peace and prosperity was not to conquer by war, but by common faith.

Hakum's revelations detailed the nature of Ishvala and how He was to be worshipped. Irikesh's revelations in the 1570s described how Ishvala wished for His religion to spread to all peoples of the desert and beyond. Most laypeople and women were tired of the constant warring and raiding, and wanted nothing more than the peace they'd tasted once under Armuun's rule. Irikesh began to preach in earnest, assuring his people that their gods would not be forgotten but would simply live on within Ishvala. Hearing this, the peoples of the northern clans reluctantly chose to surrender their local gods and set aside their tribal differences.

Within only a few years, the northern clans had managed to come together under the political rule of their own chieftans, but adhering to the spiritual rule of Irikesh. Irikesh's revelations were later added to the Ishvaram, though there is some suggestion that not all Kandan Ishvalans believed him to be a true prophet. After all, Irikesh was a northern barbarian- what did he know of Ishvala's peace? Little did they know that Ishvala's third set of revelations would come from an even more unlikely source.

Anyway, during this time Kanda had begun to lose control of what states they governed. Amestris, which was once a tiny rogue kingdom, had made significant military advances over the years and had become a genuine concern to the Ishvalans. The Gunjan mountain range separated Amestris from the desert, but traders and smugglers had begun to find paths along the mountain. The northern clans were threatened by the people of present day Drachma, who began to occupy their northern lands. Meanwhile, a southwestern country by the name of Aerugo had begun to make incursions into the territory of southern clans, which were rich and fertile. With the northern clans unified under Irikesh but unwilling to send aid to the south, and the southern clans bitter over their betrayal, it was during this time that most historians claim that Maedea as an empire collapsed.

While Kanda remained afloat as a point of trade and discourse, their resources were dwindling. The northern clans had rallied to defend their own tribal borders, and the southern clans were forced to fight the Aerugans with minimal military training. Former generals in Kanda were powerless to take control of the situation, and instead dedicated themselves to lending whatever aid they could to the warring frontiers.

It is unclear whether or not at this point the peoples of the desert felt any real sort of unity or loyalty to the other clans that surrounded them. The legendary Amestrian traveler Albert Tanger braved the Gunjan mountains in 1663 to bring back a map of the desert. In his travel writings, he wrote that literacy rates were low, and his other observations indicated to future historians that people in those outlying regions were not even aware that their villages were part of a poorly formed tribal state, and that the tribal state was once part of an empire. Tanger made no reference to Kanda, which suggested that most laypeople weren't even aware of what Kanda was.

The people spoke of Ishvala so much that Albert Tanger named the entire stretch of desert that they occupied 'Ishval'. This was in reality a great disservice to the tribal kingdoms that considered themselves separate from other kingdoms. Nonetheless, Amestrians immediately adopted this terms upon Tanger's return. Accordingly, Amestrians assumed that all Ishvalans were the same and held the same exotic spiritual beliefs.

The truth was, since few people outside of Kanda were able to make reference to the Ishvaram, interpretations of Ishvala's law were passed by oral tradition and began to deviate. Scar?

Scar:
In the northern clans, Ishvala's law was interpreted harshly as a call to battle, to resist- against the brutal cold, against the barren land, against foreign oppression. In the southern clans, Ishvala's law was interpreted humbly as a call to poverty, to relinquish earthly pleasures and to endure the bloodshed and pain inflicted upon them by those that invaded their lands as the price to enter into Ishvala's endless green summer fields. The real message within the Ishvaram was somewhere between these two extremes, and it continues to be a point of contention today.

Kimblee:
Small skirmishes and wars littered the timeline from 1600 to 1700. Tribal areas were sometimes easily conquered by foreign forces, but were often times very difficult to occupy and hold. By the start of 1700, the desert was a mess of tribal states, tribute states towards other kingdoms such as Aeruguo and Drachma. Kanda was a desirable point of trade, but geographically too difficult and not cost effective to capture and occupy.

In 1712, over a hundred years since the second prophet Irikesh's death, a woman from the northern tribe of Dasht emerged with Ishvala's third set of revelations. Since she was a woman, few took her claims seriously at first, but Ishvalan tradition tells that Jarizia had Ishvala by her side as she walked.

What?

Participant:
What does that mean, sir?

Kimblee:
First off, don't call me sir. I work for a living. I mean that tradition states that she could perform miracles. Take of that what you will. Some Ishvalans scorned Jarizia, calling her a witch- the people of Dasht were historically known to be highly superstitious and were reputed to participate in sorcery.

LCol. Miles :
They probably practiced some form of alchemy.

Scar:
Yes.

Kimblee:
Anyway, I don't want you to think of Jarizia as just a prophetess. She is a significant historical figure- maybe the most important female figure in Ishvalan history. Under her counsel, the Dasht people repelled their Drachman invaders and regained their lost land.

Jarizia's revelations consisted of social laws and ethical guidance, and under her teachings a sort of peace was achieved in the north. In 1720, Jarizia herself was said to have led an expedition of her northern warriors to the southeastern lands of Daliha and its surrounding tribal states, which were in war against Aeruguo. In a deciding battle in 1721, Jarizia's forces, with Kanda's assistance, succeeded in defeating the Aerugans and establishing a peace treaty. The Ishvalans call this treaty 'Jarizia's Pact', and views towards this agreement are still mixed to this day. Some Dalihans felt that they should never have agreed to the treaty, especially as the treaty allowed Aeruguo to supply the Gunjans with a near endless supply of arms during the Ishvalan civil war, prolonging what they saw to be inevitable suffering. Most Dalihans, bent on revenge, felt that they should have overpowered Aeruguo entirely instead of settling on a treaty, and believed that Amestris wouldn't have dared to attempt their annex in 1880 had they done so.

Following these events, it became clear to all that the desert peoples needed to work together in order to achieve any sort of lasting peace. In 1725, the Treaty of Kanda was signed by the chieftans of the northern and southern tribes. The treaty governed that Kanda would become the administrative center of the desert tribes, though no king or Kandan chieftan would attempt to centrally govern or control the independent clan states. The northern and southern chiefs would meet at Ishvala's temple once a year to discuss the state of their affairs and to communicate mutually beneficial decisions. In addition, the northern tribes agreed to provide armed protection to the southern tribes in exchange for food and animal resources.

The Treaty of Kanda was a significant historical event because it formally outlined the self-governance of the northern and southern clans. The people of the desert now began referring to themselves as Ishvalans instead of the name of their tribe. Geographically, the land was still split between clan territories, but Ishvala's religion joined the people by tradition and allowed some essence of unity that lasted into the 1800s. By this time, an official trading route had been established between Amestris, Kanda, and Xing. The prophetess Jarizia's additions to the Ishvaram improved social welfare for all Ishvalans and immensely amended the rights of women. Together, the Ishvalan lands were too difficult to conquer by foreign forces, and Ishval enjoyed many decades of peace.

This concludes my lecture on the pre-modern history of Ishval from the 1500s to the 1800s. Any questions?

Participant:
If the people didn't call themselves Ishvalan before the Treaty of Kanda, what did they call themselves?

Scar:
They would call themselves by the land they were from. For example, a tribesman from Dasht would refer to himself as 'Dashari'. After the treaty, that tribesman would have referred to himself as an Ishvalan from Dasht.

Participant:
I don't understand. How did Jarizia's pact end up affecting the Ishval Civil War?

LCol. Miles :
The pact outlined that the tribal states, including Kanda, would offer a certain amount of resources to Aeruguo every year in return for peace at the borders. Ishval as a whole, at the time, was not strong enough to repel an Aerugan conquest.

Kimblee:
That's what the Kandans and northern tribes thought. Jarizia and the northern fighters were not keen on waging another long war against Aeruguo. Remember that the southern tribes had been fighting against the Aerugans for many years now, and were thirsty for vengeance. Instead, they were forced to make peace and forgive, and this notion shaped the Dalihan interpretation of Ishvala's law.

LCol. Miles :
When the civil war began, the Aerugans, realizing that the civil war was a great chance to weaken Amestris' southern borders, began supplying arms to the Ishvalans under the guise of helping defend it, referencing to Jarizia's Pact. In reality, Aeruguo was using Ishvalans as fodder against Amestris. The Dalihans were very upset with this, and resented the Gunjans for partaking in this obvious manipulation. The Gunjans, having had no long history of bitterness against the Aerugans, saw no harm in taking their weapons and ammunitions to war against the Amestrians.

Participant:
I was born in Aeruguo, but I came to Amestris as a child. Should I hide this?

LCol. Miles :
Yes.

Kimblee:
Any other questions? Our time is up. If anyone has more inquiries, don't hesitate to approach us in the mess or on your own time after hours.

LCol. Miles :
See you all tomorrow. To your duties, dismissed.

End Transcript.

Time: 1610

PROTECTED B.

Any questions can be forwarded to Miles, Kimblee, and Scar in a review and they will be more than happy to answer.

I took a lot of inspiration from early Islamic history regarding the development of Ishval and the rise of the Ishvalan religion. Just like Afghanistan is my inspiration for modern Ishval, the Arabian peninsula is my muse for its ancient history.

The next chapter of "Mirage" is coming very soon.
I had a lot of fun writing the history of Ishval- the next lesson will be taught by Miles.
If you actually managed to read all of this (bravo!) let me know what you think! If you read Mirage, please let me know if this helped you understand my Ishval more.