Great Java

The island of Great Java (Agung Jawa) is one of the oldest inhabited lands on earth. First being populated by the indigenous Orang Asli Abor (known in English as the Aborigines), who migrated somewhere between 120,000 to 60,000 years ago through Papua. The land was sparsely populated in most places and mostly desert throughout the centre.

First Contact
The Abor lived a relatively unchanged hunter-gatherer lifestyle until about 1715, when the first fishers from Makassar in South Sulawesi began searching in more southerly oceans from their normal routes in search of Sea Cucumber (known as trepang in Indonesian). They're they found themselves in Arafura Sea south of Ambon. Eventually this lead to them setting up camp on the land they found during fishing seasons, naming it Agung Jawa (after Java, the largest island known to them at the time), staying until the season ended and then taking their haul home to sell off the traders. This trade reached all the way to China where it was sold as a delicacy. Eventually once more permanent camps were setup, they found that the land they had landed on was not uninhabited. At first contact between the Abor and the traders was suspicious, but over time the Makassar found it much easier to have peaceful relations with the locals, who had a greater knowledge of the fishing spots as well as other objects that could be traded. Eventually the Makassar brought things to trade with the locals with them and a port city was founded, called Mangkasaranyar (a portmanteau of Javanese word for new and the Bugis word for Makassar). Mangkasaranyar's culture began to diverge from that of Makassar, as a new influx of traders from across the Malay archipelago began flocking to the city in search of new spices and trade with the local community and to gain more power against the Western powers of the Dutch and Portuguese trying to control them, eventually leading to a mixed culture developing in the city. This culture was synthesis of The Abor and Makassar, merging their religions of Islam and animism (which was also heavily present in Sulawesi) to form a new henotheistic religion called Pelangi Cara (Rainbow Way in English) with a head god called Wallah, who rides upon a giant rainbow serpent called Goorialla.

Teka Gedhe
Mangkasaranyar's notoriety spread throughout the archipelago and different groups sought to establish their own city's along Agung Jawa's coast. This lead to a race of different states competing with one another to from these cities, becoming known as the Teka Gedhe (Great Coming in English). The first group to partake in this were the Malays from Malay Peninsula, who had funding from traders from China and Arabia, and whom were seeking to establish a great trade empire using these connections. The settled along the Northwestern coastline, their main city being Bandar Pasir (City of Sand). Their settlers though, unlike the peaceful fisher from Makassar, were not willing to let their city diverge from their culture and began a campaign of terror to ensure the loyalty of the locals, rewarding locals who reported those planning attacks against them with high ranking positions. This also resulted in the conversion of the collaborating locals to orthodox Islam, in contrast to Mangkasaranyar's new religion. The second major state to begin settling was the Sultanate of Tidore and the Sultanate of Ternate (adopting the name Agung Irian meaning Great Papua), which had been merged for this task to provide adequate funding and to help hold out against the expanding Dutch. First the began to win over chieftains and rulers along the Doberai peninsula through trade and technology as well reawrding locals who favoured them heavily with presitge and small armed forces, and down Papua's coast and after three decades had the whole of Papua either under their rule or as a tributary (though much of the inland remained untouched). From there they began down the Torres Islands into the North-eastern peninsula (known as Semenanjung Badhak or Rhinoceros Peninsula in English) of Agung Jawa into the mainland which they found to more fertile than that of both Mangkasaranyar and Bandar Pasir allowing farming to begin. It was this introduction of farming practices and the education of the locals, as well as the similarities between the Papuans and Abors that lead to the rapid expansion of Agung Irian into the most populous and integrated region. They also made no efforts to convert the local population as Islam had become just a small minority and they realised that they might risk losing control if they began conversion. The last major group to settle Agung Jawa was the Moriori of Rēkohu (known in English as Chatham Island). The Moriori were polyneisan settlers of Aotearoa like the more well known Maori, however they were pacifists and non-cannibals and so migrated to east to Rēkohu . They had learned of an imminent attack from the Maori and decide that rather than break the pacifistic law of Nunuku, they would evacuate the island and seek a new place to live (as Polynesian were well accomplished sailors). The decided to go East past Aotearoa as they had heard of a new and large land inhabited by peaceful tribal people like themselves and large cities of different cultures. Heading dew west from Rēkohu they eventually arrived in what the Dutch had dubbed Van Diemens land. There, the Moriori found tribal people living in on this island in isolated groups, covered by almost impenetrable forests. They were welcomed by the locals and began to live along the coast line of this Island that they came to call Rangi Matomato (meaning Green Sky in English). Since the locals had no need for war they were also pacifists and were known as the Palawa, this lead to a great understanding between the two people. However some within the Moriori began to fear a return of Maori in pursuit of them and began to agitate the removal of Nunuku's law of pacifism (albeit only in defense). This lead to a split in the group with the pro-war Moriori heading southward and the pacifists remaining in the north. Eventually the pro-war Moriori began to retrain themselves in the art of war they had retained through oral history and passed this knowledge onto the Palawa and draw them into their community, while the Northern Moriori also began to share knowledge with the Palawa such as fire which they had not yet developed while the Palawa repaid this in teaching them of the hunting techniques and clothing for the harsh winters they were not accustomed to. The northern Moriori founded a city they called Hemimakariri (meaning Cold Cove) and the south founded a settlement called Awa Oka (meaning Pointed River). This marked the end of the Teka Gedhe and the beginning of the age of expansion in Agung Jawa.