Divinity of Latter Bāblus

The Divinity of Latter Bāblus is held to being in 1339, after the city of Bāblus revolted against the Uthmarid Empire of the Holy Successor, which had conquered the region just twenty years prior. This dark period was predicted by the oracles of Bāblus, who had, during the reign of the preceding Divinity of Edil, predicated the Edili reliance on slave Djinn would also be their downfall. When this event occured, Bāblus' oracles gained prominence once more, and the message of a restored Divinity of Bāblus was spread. These priests would propel the young desendent of the Divine Emperors of Former Bāblus to the forefront as a figurehead for the rebellion, proclaiming him the Bārūbēlu, or lord of priests, though he was more of a puppet of the priests than their lord.

This revolution quickly picked up steam as most Ursumar peasants believed that by aiding in this struggle they were directly aiding their gods in a divine war of the heavens. Soon, most other major cities joined the rebellion, their rulers making a pragmatic choice to gain land and prestige for themselves. The small town of Maris, which had become independent (and rich) after the fall of Edil thanks to its distance from the other cities, would also join in the fight. Of the major cities, only a few did not join in the rebellion- Enkūn remained occupied by a strong Uthmarid garrison, Edil was destroyed and now the capital of the Genie-ruled Jānnid Sultanate, which also held Ez and Annišāḫūtu. However, with the Uthmarids expelled from the Ursumar heartlands, Bāblus was able to turn on the Jānnids and defeat them in a short campaign in 1344, netting them Ez and Annišāḫūtu as well as lands to the south. Although the rebels now held almost all of the land that Edil had possessed before their fall, the growth in power of the cities themselves during the rebellion (as each raised their own armies equal to or even larger than Bāblus*) prevented a centralized bureacracy from being established. The weakness of Bāblus would even allow the land they held directly to lapse and fall under effective dominance of Ez and Annišāḫūtu once those cities recovered from their genie occupations.

Still, despite political weakness, Bāblus remained a militarily powerful nation when all its subject Iššin cooperated. This was demonstrated in 1389, when an Uthmarid army attempting to reassert control over the Ursumar after wintering in Enkūn was dealt a heavy defeat. This army attempted to retreat to Enkūn, while the rest of the Uthmarid hold over the upper river dissolved into rebellion, but were stymied when a brilliant move by the Iššin of Ashēryku saw his loyalists reach the city first. This move would net Ashēryku control of Enkūn throughout the Divinity of Bāblus, ensuring it was one of the most powerful Iššin and probably being the deciding factor in their eventual victory over the others. As for the Uthmarid army, it was chased out of the Ursumar lands by the other Iššin, then faced a rebellion in the hills and was eventually ambushed and destroyed entirely in the desert, still retreating.

The weakness of Bāblus would lead to the continuing growth of the power of Iššin like Annišāḫūtu, Maris, Ashēryku, and Ez, all of which were eventually able to factionalize the state to an extreme state. These nations expanded their borders at the expense of the Divine Emperors and other Iššin, as well as expanding their personal domains beyond the borders of Bāblus. To the east, the cities of Urgūn and Maris expanded into the mountains of the Blay'uran, while Ez dominated the southern interior and Annišāḫūtu the inner sea. The continuing inability of the Bāblis Divine Emperors to deal with this situation eventualy led to Ashēryku gaining so much powerful that its ruler Samised was able to simply walk into Bāblus itself (after conquering the small Iššin of Awššumi) and force the Divine Emperor to "retire", thus ending the Divinity of Bāblus.

*or in the case of Maris, were independent already and had a much more powerful army than the rebel cities individually