Architecture

Art

Beer, Wine and Spirits

Of interest to historians, the earliest written evidence of beer comes from humanity (much to the chagrin of envious dwarves). The ancient recipe, called geshtin, was unleavened barley wafers, malted barley and date juice. This is still drunk today on ceremonial occassions. Kash,a thick and porridgy beer, is another early recipe still consumed by common laborers and often brewed in their homes. Families of commoners have their own recipes that may date back centuries and represent a considerable source of pride. From this thick almost chunky beer comes our custom of drinking beer with reed or metal straws. Our goddess of beer-making, Ninkasi (literally "you who fill my mouth so full") is much revered by all walks of life.

Let the heart of the fermenting vat be our heart!

What makes your heart feel wonderful,

Makes also our heart feel wonderful.

Our liver is happy, our heart is joyful.

You poured a libation over the brick of destiny,

You placed the foundations in peace and prosperity,

May Ninkasi live together with you!

Let her pour for you beer and wine,

Let the pouring of the sweet liquor resound pleasantly for you!

In the reed buckets there is sweet beer,

I will make cupbearers, boys, and brewers stand by,

While I turn around in the abundance of beer,

While I feel wonderful, I feel wonderful,

Drinking beer, in a blissful mood,

Drinking liquor, feeling exhilarated,

With joy in the heart and a happy liver-

While my heart full of joy,

And my happy liver I am covered with a garment fit for a queen!

Castes and Class

Fashion and Dress

Food

Historically, the diet of the west was largely based on barley. The staple drink was beer and the staple bread called "khubuz" is small flat cakes of barley panfried. Khubuz is still eaten by the peasantry, though the more sophisticated turn their noses up at it. Beer too, has fallen in the grace as the social elite and those who can afford it, prefer wines and liquors. Breads made of millet, wheat, and rye were gaining popularity until cheap rice made available by the Yin Sloth subjugations became a common staple. The other breads are still available at bakeries. The various grains are also made into a myriad of pastries by mixing them with sweet oils, honey, milk, dates and other fruits.

The most common vegetable is certain to be the onion, closely followed by lentils, beans and peas. The majority of the populace, who cannot afford meat, has these as their only source of protein. Cucumbers, cabbage, and lettuce are also common.

Fruits are plentiful because of the climate, with dates being most common in the cities because of the ease of preservation. Date sugar is commonly used to sweeten pastries and drinks. A potent and sweet wine is also made from dates. Sugarcane, a recent innovation in the Yin Sloth colonies, is gaining a rapid popularity and rum is becoming popular amongst seafolk. Other fruits are the apple, pomegranate, fig, quince, medlar, and apricot. The grape has been harvested and cultivated for only a little more than 1000 years and so is a relatively recent addition to the western palate.

Milk is widely available from sheep, goats, and cattle but due to climate is generally used as butter, yoghurt, and cheese. Butter is often clarified for cooking and made into "ghee". Fresh yoghurt (available from omnipresent street vendors) is sweetened with a variety of fruit and sugars, or spiced with a variety of spices. There are too many varieties of cheeses to contemplate, but notable ones are the sharp hard aged goat cheeses of the Northern hills, the stinky but tasty cheeses aged in the sewers of Ashur's Old Quarter, and the soft stringy cheese of Northgate valued for the flavor of the orange mold it collects.

The primary meat is of course fish, shellfish, and other seafood. Mutton and goat meat is also fairly common, though the poor cannot generally afford it. (It is a mark of wealth to eat meat once per day) Cattle are rare and thus so too is beef. Water buffalo, oxen, and horse-flesh are slaughtered for their meat when they are too old for labor. Easterners who ask for pork are generally given one of these meats without explanation and a barely concealed shudder of distaste. Pork and dog are both considered unclean.

Gilbul

A strong tasting beverage made from boiling the charrred roots of an imported herb in water for seemingly exceedingly long periods of time. (At least 4 hrs) The drink is popular due to its happy side effect of leaving the imbiber with an uncommon state of wakefulness. In order to cover the strong taste it is generally supplemented with large quantities of rice or fruit sugars and many individuals consider the creation and the sweetening of this drink to be an artform. Strangely, the name "Gilbul" is derived from an archaic usage of the Godname Gerra, in his aspect of the Fires of Consciousness or the spark of life.

Good and Evil

In the West the concepts of good and evil do not equate with our modern ones. Good is to do the will of the gods. Good is to act honorably in difficult times. Good is to follow the dictates of social superiors. Good is to fufill the role in life given to you by the gods. Good and evil are not based on a personal value system. Personal judgement matters not at all, it is the dictates of society that prevail. There is however a belief in Sin.

The will of the gods was total, and believing that their gods had great powers and control the world, the explanation for misfortune became that they were the result of human deeds that displeased the gods. The gods would then allow sickness, disaster or punishment by demons.

To explain the misfortunes and suffering of infants, sin is inborn. People are reborn like Dumuzi of the grain. Therefore, when one suffers it is best not to curse the gods but to glorify them, to appeal to them, and to wait patiently for their deliverance.

Hill Folk of Lugalzaggesi

"Those of our shamans who have true visions of the future tell us that in the years beyond our own, some of the People who Dwell in Felt Tents shall fall prey to the tempations of city men, and live in houses, and tend the herds no more. I would weep, but these seers also tell us that many of our people will not succumb, but will instead continue to live in yurts, and tend the herds, for at least another 600 winters, and I rejoice. "

Men and Women

Early in our history, the status of women was poor. It being a primitive time this was perhaps to be expected. Physically stronger than women, men could rule by brute force, and in it was in primitive societies where the warriors made the decisions. Examples of this type of society are still evident in the monstrous sub-human races.

In one form this domination was sanctioned and collectivized into law. In primitive human society it had become accepted that females were under the control of males. If a husband died, the widow came under the control of her former husband's father or brother, or if she had a grown son she fell under his control. A married woman in ancient times had no recourse or protection under the law. A woman's only power, if she had any, was the influence of her personality within her family. Today this can still be seen in evidence within the Enkenkurial Courts of Uruk, who by ancient code must allow their husbands to speak for them in the courts.

This primitive outlook was altered by the civilizing effects of the elves migrating here after the collapse of the Old Kingdom. In elven society men and women are equal. Ancient human rulers were eager to gain these valuable allies and changed the laws to accomodate them. Interesting that Uruk to this day maintains no large central settlement of elves.

At this time law and society has come to regard men and women as equal. A division of labor based on strength of limb still exists, particularily in low class agriculture or other laboring communities. However, it is recognized by educated individuals that no limits should be placed upon women as was done in uncivilized times.

Proverbs

To an individual who is whining:

Can one conceive without intercourse,

Can one get fat without eating?

 

About a social misfit:

You are put in water, the water becomes foul;

You are put in a garden, and the fruit begins to rot.

 

About money and wealth:

We are doomed to die, so let us spend

We shall live a long while yet so let us save.

 

About the poor:

The poor man is better dead than alive.

If he has bread he has no salt,

If he has salt he has no bread.

If he has meat he has no lamb,

If he has a lamb, he has no meat.

 

About wealth:

He who multiplies possessions , multiplies worry.

 

Everyone takes to the well-dressed man.

 

The valet always wears dirty clothes.

 

The poor man borrows and worries.

 

Who has not supported a wife or child,

His nose has not bourne a leash.

 

A restless woman in the house, adds ache to pain.

 

A joyful heart: The bride

A sorrowful heart: The groom

 

Friendship lasts a day, kinship endures forever.

 

He did not yet catch the fox,

yet he is making soup of it already.

 

Upon my escaping from the wild ox, the lion confronted me.

 

Who builds like a lord, lives like a slave,

Who builds like a slave, lives like a lord.

 

The state weak in armaments,

The enemy will not be driven from the gates.

 

About war:

You go and take the enemy's land,

The enemy comes and takes your land.

 

You can have a lord, you can have a king,

But the man to fear is the servant with his ear.

 

Borrowed from Samuel Noah Kramer, "History Begins at Sumer", Anchor Books, 1959.

Seasons

In the West it is believed that crops grow because of Dumuzi having sex with Inanna. The hot and dry months of summer when their meadows and fields turned brown, as the time of death of Dumuzi. When their fields bloomed again the rains, they believe that Dumuzi is born again. This is marked as the beginning of their year, which is celebrated at their temples with much rejoicing.

Slavery

In the Time Before the Rule of Law, the ancient peoples made slaves of other humans they had captured in their wars with other city states. They justified their slavery as would others: that their gods had given them victory over an inferior people. Today, slavery is still justified by that same concept. When the gods gave Gamesh the Tablets of Destiny and charged him to rule all of humankind, those humans who resist the rightful overlordship of the God-King face slavery for themselves and their descedants as punsihment. Also thus it is important to realize why slavery is a justified punishment for certain crimes, like treason. (Note: Slavery is not based on racism. In a world with elves and dwarves and orcs etc. differences in skin color of humans is of little consequence. Westerners are happy to enslave anyone who is not a citizen!)

Sex and Marriage

Sex is not allowed outside of marriage or certain religious circumstance. In the Dominion of Man it is considered immoral to do otherwise. However, in the larger cities decadence and easily available contraception (a cheap and plentiful alchemical elixer for women taken once each month) has made licentiousness the rule.

One such religious curcumstance is practised amongst devout worshippers of Inanna. The cult houses were full of women who were considered holy prostitutes dedicated to the goddess Inanna with a sacred duty. Innana was said not to listen to a man's pleas unless the man visited an temple, wherein he would consort with a sacred prostitute. This is a great source of income for the temples which are among the wealthiest in the land.There are laws passed making it a serious offense to speak badly of the holy prostitutes.

All devout worshippers of Inanna are required at least once in their lifetime to go to the Temple of Inanna, usually upon their wedding night. She is to sit in the temple until a stranger comes and throws a piece of silver in her lap. Once she has sex with the stranger she may return home. Refusing the first stranger is not done. Unfortunately, some of the less attractive women remain in the temple for years, waiting for a stranger to throw them a silver coin.

Men and women pray to Ininn for virility, fertility, and sexual power.

Spices

In the West, people appreciate spices. Here is a lsit of spices commonly used:

Allspice
Anise Seed
   Annato Seed
Asafoetida
Basil Leaf
Bay Leaf
Caraway Seed
Cardamom Pods,wh green
Cardamom Pods, black
Cayenne
Celery Seed
Cinnamon
Cloves
Coriander Seed
Chervil
Chile Peppers 
Cumin Seed
Dill Weed
Fennel Seed
Fenugreek
Garlic, garlic, and yet more garlic
Ginger
Horseradish
Lemongrass
Mace 
Marjoram Leaf
Nutmeg
Paprika
Peppercorns, Black
Peppercorns, Green
Peppercorns, Tellicherry
Peppercorns, White
Poppy Seed
Saffron
Sage
Salt
Seseme Seed
Tarragon
Thyme Leaf
Turmeric
Vanilla Beans

 

Time

World

The agricultural plains of the Western peninsula whereupon many of the cities are built are low lying. Indeed much of the farmland is millenia old reclaimed wetlands. Thus the people rarely had any trouble sinking wells. Early farmers could dig into the earth and within a few feet find water and so they believed that the earth was a great disk floating on the sea. They called the Great Primordial Sea "Nammu", and they believed that Nammu was without a beginning in time.

 .... ....................