Khan Otemis II the Dreadful
Khan Otemis II is remembered today for both his cruel streak and the domestic strife within his family and court. While his father invested much into the education of his only heir, Otemis' mind was tuned to deviousness and cunning. He ruled through tyranny and an iron hand as he schemed to overthrow his Qipchak overlords.
The Qipchak Terteroba dynasty could only call on a few thousand of their own nation clan and in their great crusade west, had unified the different tribes of Cumans, Pechenegs and Oghuz in the central steppes to serve under them. This proved to be a fatal weakness of the Khanate as once expansion was curtailed by the great Kievan Rus armies of the Rurikids, the need for crusading unity diminished. The steppe nomads fell back into their old ways, raiding herds from neighboring settlements or clashing over claims on their newly acquired territories. Only Azov proved immune to these conflicts, too strong to be challenged by any of their new neighbors and united under a ruler with strong legitimacy, ambition and intelligence. Thus, we can look back at the reign of Tarmac and judge it to be a good and wise one.
Immediately upon his ascension, Khan Otemis II set out to prove his right to rule, launching raids against the Georgians and Byzantines, just like his grandfather did and turning back several Norse adventurers who saw opportunities to establish their fiefdoms in the Black Sea region. With this plunder and prestige, he greatly expanded Kozar horde, which now numbered 1,500 horse and over 6,000 levy foot soldiers.
In the Azovian heartlands, he began a slow campaign of pogroms against the Cumans, first forbidding them access to the best grazing land and barring them from the cities of the Black Sea coast before forcing them to serve as levies for his wars. These measures ensured a slow decline in the prosperity and numbers in the Cuman tribes while keeping the fires of his war machine fed.
Before throwing off the yoke of Qipchak tyranny, he saw an opportunity to aggrandize himself, submitting claims of lordship over the lands of Zapozhiria, Ciscaucasia and the Caspian Steppes. Khan Volan II Terteroba, son of the first great Qipchak Khan, believed his vassal was loyal like his Kozar father, recognized these claims and named him Guardian of the Waters, Khan of the Azov, Volga, Don and Dnieper. With his newly acquired vassals, Khan Otemis’s realm was nearly half the realm of the Desht-i-Qipchak.
Sometime in 950, Volan II died under mysterious circumstances and while no immediate suspicion fell on his spymaster, Otemis II, that soon changed with the Azovian Khan’s next moves. He declared independence, having a messenger read it out in the Terteroba court in far away Simek of the Qipchak heartlands:
“My father made peace with the father of the Qipchak, and I have maintained that covenant with the son but I will not obey a boy who has never seen the sea, who knows nothing of the lands in the West and who does not serve the one true god.”
Mosaic found in archaeological site of Simek Palace - showing court life during the short lived Desht-i-Qipchak Khanate.
With that, independence was declared and Khan Arkat Terteroba found himself outmanoeuvred and outnumbered as the Otemis’ armies marched on his holdings in Itil and smashing the few remaining tribes loyal to the Qipchaks.
Newly independent with claims to the Kingdoms of Novgorod, Vladimir and the overlordship of all Kievan Rus through his mother, Otemis II desired to live up to the legend of his grandfather.
The raids into Byzantium continued and he accomplished something not even the first Otemis was able to – reaching Constantinople and sacking the City of the World’s Desire and using its treasures to adorn his palace tent, transforming it into the envy of the steppes. Not since the raids of the 9th century Rus has the Romans had to fear such attacks. These raids increased the animosity between Roman Christians and their subject Jews, leading many to seek out asylum in Tmuratakan and the Crimea. Their urban experiences brought new innovations into the Khanate, with developments in city planning, crop rotation and construction leading to the transformation of the Khanate under the rule of his successor.
Otemis was cunning in all aspects except for one – his wife Khitan. She was headstrong, adventurous and clever, and rumours in court whispered that he never made a major decision before consulting her. While she converted to Kuzarite Judaism upon her marriage, she was never devout and she continued her free-spirited ways making her the talk of Tmuratakan. She never lost her love of riding leathers, drinking and flirtations with members of the court, acting as everything but the ideal Jewish wife. Otemis indulged her and if he ever reprimanded her, it must have been in private.
Thus, it was no surprise when rumors began that she had taken another lover, the Duke of Yedisan, Otemis’ cousin. He made no move to stop the cuckoldry though there were reported confrontations between husband and wife where she declared her innocence and he accepted the life. Repeatedly he had his spies trail his wife and to see if any of his children showed any affection to the Duke but he never took action.
Khitan bore him four sons and two daughters. His sons were named Tarmac, Otemis, and the twins Tukhan and Cathac. Tarmac was born white as snow while his three other sons all had the striking red hair of the Rurikids… and the Duke of Yedisan.
It is said that the cruelty of Otemis grew as long and fiery as the hair of his children. He often had prisoners captured in war tortured or sold into slavery and every city he captured, he sacked with appalling violence. All this was not able to salve his heartache and Otemis became gaunt, refusing to take meals even during feasts with his vassals. His only joys were martial displays in Chowgan tournaments and the crushing of enemy armies.
His campaigns in Mordvinia, Kiev and Hungary were legendary both for his ferocity in battle and his dispassion at the execution of captives but his neighbors desired his friendship and aid, knowing that the support of Otemis’ monaspa heavy cavalry and steppe archers could turn any battle.
Thus, the betrayal was felt most strongly when the Fyodor Rurikid, his brother-in-law through marriage to his sister, called for representatives of Kuzarite, Orthodoxy and Sunni Islam to present their case on the superiority of their faiths. It’s said Otemis went white as his father when he heard that Fyodor had chosen the false Christian trinity over the one true god. He resolved then to break the power of the Rus, starting a war for Kiev, the prosperous trading hub on the Dnieper and capital of Kievan Rus. His alliance with the Rurikids was broken and he pledged he would see their empire burn before Orthodoxy could take root. Unfortunately, domestic strife and a life of battle had taken a toll on him and he would not live to see this goal through to the end.
Khan Otemis finally found his faith in his old age, and as he read the ancient stories of the prophets in the Nevi’im, his piety found expression in zealotry, threatening heretics and heathens in his court with conversion or death and the establishment of the first Judaic holy order, the Zealots of Azov.
His primary successor, his second son Otemis the III, would bear the invisible scars of his father’s many traumas. His eldest son, Tarmac, was made Nasi at the urging of the court, who saw too much of Khan Tarmac in the young man and thus removed from the succession. Some say this was done at the advice of Khatun Khitan who favored her three red-headed sons over the albino Tarmac.
Otemis was on campaign in early 988 AD against another Varangian adventurer when he took ill from cold and rain and passed away days later. His proto-empire, built by his grandfather and father was split between Otemis III, Turkhan and Cathaq.
