Absolution 4: Tabula Rasa

A Cultural Study... [Cultural Story?]

I opened my eyes. Again, a day spent in the body of a Saturan. My body went through all the mtoions of being a Saturan - farming, sniffing reeds until I passed out on the bank, and then I awoke to find a piece of gold next to my face.

I was rich! Rich I say! What do I do with it to become rich again? Do I build monuments? What, no, that is silly. Do I scrape muck from the banks to become food to feed my fami- no, still stupid. Oh, that's right, I am rich BECAUSE I have it.

How did that work again?

No matter.

I was rich! What I could do with all of this gold! Why, why I could buy some beer! Some delicious Zulappi beer, even though they won't trade it to us for this rich-making gold. Instead we have to buy it from THEIR northern neighbors, in a land so far away I can't even imagine it. Past the reeds sea in the east, and north along a different Kind of coast.

I could give this to the Sudanese, who will give me clothes and colorful dyes to make my skin shine! I could buy a harem of little girls - or even boys, if I wanted - I have GOLD!

Wait, no, it's just a yellow rock. Back to work!

To: Pharon of Satura

Now there is something we don't shudder to think of! We will trade our wicker for your seasoned hare, or in a few turns, our beer for your hare. What do you say?

From Pharon of Satura
I'm not so inclined to trust you so directly anymore. OOC: Can I cancel the gold trade since they hate it so much? IC: Trade me your wickers for 2EP, and if we receive it, then we will trade you the Hare.

OOC: Huh? Are you directing that to me? My wicker is worth you spending 2 EP?

Edit: IC: To City of Peace

We have done nothing to warrant your disappointment. Perhaps you misdirected this ill-bred taunt?

OOC: Collatoral. I'm expecting you to send it back.

I'm not trying to claim this NPC as my own, I'm trying to make it attractive to newcomers without mod-magicking the stats. Hence the stories. If you have a problem with Haiku then I'm open to that discussion.

To: Zulappi
From: City of Peace

We apologize, we misjudged your actions. We remain your friends.

To Build a Farm

(Construction Story: Land of the Sun)

The laborers tilled the fields and sought out the plants that might be put in them while the Sun scorched it's daily trail overhead.

The overseer smiled and said to his fellow guard, "The Sun blesses us on days like these," for the laborers are cowed by the heat alone and the whips have but one use.

A laborer breaks from the work and bolts towards the river.

The overseer gives chase, "Stop at once! This farm must be completed at once for the good of the people!"

The laborer is gaining ground, "Ha! Your talk of farming and growing plants in an orderly way are but the fantasies of fools! No one understands why plants grow!"

The overseer is starting to pant, his leather armor suddenly tight and stifling, the laborer slides into the Euphrates.

Slowly the overseer catches up with him, shaking his head. He will track this man down, and he will beat this laborer within an inch of his life, but there is no need to rush if it will only make him look sillier than he already does.

Instead he begins to inspect the trail of dust and soil, piled up greenery that the slide left in the runaway's wake, the water from the river begins to fill the shallow ditch.

The wisest men in the land claim that water, perhaps, is one of the things that makes plants grow, but even they are not sure of such things yet. Still, from the collection of shrubs and grass that dominate the riverbank and refuse to venture far from it it seems that there might be something to the theory.

The divot begins to fill with water, and it comes that much closer to the field.

A sly smile dawns on the overseer's face, he waves to his fellow guard, "Bring them over here, and have them bring their tilling-sticks!"

Hey,

Bolin & the Young Fish Girl. (Scientific)

It was the first time Bolin had seen the great works that his father had spent his lifetime to help create. He sat down with a groan on the garden bench facing the huge tablet. Beside him a young woman sat intensely copying the hieroglyphs that were craved in the great tablet. The smell of fish noting her as being from the Fishing Clans. Her clothes a noblewoman.

"All the Wisdom of the Dragon given freely to any who would journey here." Bolin said leaning forward to accept a cup of Black tea from a attendent of the garden. Who quickly moved on to others tourists.

"By your look you are a merchant or tourist." The young woman growled looking sideways at Bolin. His stained traveling robe and dirty riding pants showing him as a traveller. "Either way could you keep silent." She turned back to her work. "I must get everything copied just right."

"You said you were copying the work." Bolin leaned over to look at the young womans copy. "Can you read it?"

"If I tell you will you be silent!" She turned angerly to look the old man in the eyes. Bolin pulled back and nodded.

"Not all of it." A tense look returned to her face. "Its very complicated."

"There are a few catches to understanding it." Bolin winked at her. "First you have to know the symbols and lines to understand it. Any symbol or line could be a word or a sound." He pointed up at the cravings. "Then its position with in the text itself has different meanings." He pointed out a few symbols. "Then you have your custom symbols made by the scholar." He shook his head and smiled.

"I all of that old man." She inked her pen. "Most of this one has custom symbols lost to the dying of the elder scholars." She bent back to her work. "Now be silent!"

"What are you trying to learn from this work?" Bolin stood taking a sip of his drink.

"This tablet deals with the knowledge of agriculture." The young woman looked at him. "I hope to learn it all to help the poor and starving."

Well, if I could can help?" Bolin began to read a very custom part of the carved text. "Fu Shan looked at the whole of the Dragon's Puzzle. Anything and everything is a part of that puzzle. From small to large. And so on that sunny day, a lazy Fu Shan came upon a old man cleaning fish." He turned laughing toward her. "Most of its about Fu Shan being a simple man."

The young woman's eyes grew as large as her smile. "I believe with your help old man." She stood dropping her tablet. "With you being able to read the tablets." She began walking in circles around the garden bench talking. "Yes he was right." She looked at Bolin. "That crafty. Lazy. Fu Shan had it right." She stopped in front of the towering tablet. "Its about being small, simple."



BlmH01

Story list Updated.

-

To Color My Clothes

(Commercial Story: Land of the Sun (Dyes))

As a member of the caravans it was only as of late that my kind were permitted entry into Ur, because the late Mad Kings of the Bado line permitted civil war to brew and fester in their lands until it overtook them. But now that the cards are settled and the dice cast it appears that merchantry is again a celebrated tradition of this land.

And so when I came, with some linens from Syrius which I had obtained, and casks if Zulappi Beer, showing them my Saturan Gold they were quite impressed, it was my custom to notice the habits and apparel of the people and it was because of that I observed that the fabrics in the Land of the Sun were of every color that could be imagined, it was a colorful and splendid land.

I never did obtain the secret, although I observed on many times native girls collecting shells from the banks of the river and the sea, and when I asked them why they said only, "Why, to color my clothes!"

But I shall never understand the secret by which shells can be transformed into colors.

Jocasta frowned as the cooks threw the keg, emptied of beer, into the fire. She knew that the beer made the wood bitter and useless for holding water, and it wasn't that THEY had any beer to put into it.

But wood is almost as precious as Gold, and wasting it like that seems... wrong.

She looked outside to the men the Cooks are going to feed soon; several warriors pushing a polished stone block along the Nule river. It is said that the Shamans made a deal with the Farseer, and that they are going to play a game of pushrock. It seems a bit pushy to her, but she shrugged; Krunner is at least happy that he'll get to show off his stupid muscles.

She walked over to one of the Rocks on the side, it was covered with dried mud. "Hey boys!" she cried to several spectators, "Why aren't you practicing on this one?"

After they finished catcalling (she'd wear more if it wasn't so hot...), they replied, "It's muddy, you can't do it!"

"Grown men, afraid of a little mud!?" she laughed. "You just need to wash it with some water from the nule." She took out a small golden goblet, took a cupful of the Nule's water, and poured it on the stone. However, the mud didn't fall out.

"Damn you by Akten's fire" she grumbled, smacking the mud. The dried clay flacked off into several pieces, including a large one which fell into the river...

and it floated without disintegrating. Jocasta stopped and watched, curious, as it bobbled down the river and out of sight.

Carefully, she pried another chunk of the clay off and dipped it into the water. When it has a layer of liquid she raised it up.

The earth of Aset seems to imprison the Nule water from its river, after it has been dried by the power of Akten. She smiled and drank.

It was delicious.

Damn magical dirt.

To: Satura
From: Land of the Sun

We are interested in exchanging our Dyes for your Hare, are you amenable?

From Satura
To the Land of the Sun

What dye? (Wait, we can trade a resource the turn we make them?)

I don't see why not, if you can find an example where I told someone they couldn't then I will be glad to apologize.

Krunnr waited while the workers hewed at a stone block. The workers have traditionally used stone from the Karpas Quarry for various construction projects, but in the last few patrols or so, the Rangers found a sheltered cliff on the west side of the Nule. When it was prospected by several stone workers, they danced in joy.

"This rock is perfect for anything!" cried Garnam "It's soft enough to carve, hard enough to hit, and tough enough to build!" He lifted a one of the rocks and gleefully polished one edge of it with a horn.

Now, Garnam is sweating despite hiding from the burning flames of Akten under the cliff face. He placed the flint tool back onto the joint and grunted as another worker smached the spike with a stone maul. This repeated as cracks are heard. Suddenly, the entire block separeted from the cliff face and onto the ramp. While Garnam leaned against the wall, two workers strained themselves to pull it ontop of a sled of logs, and slowly pulled the block to the workshop.

Krunnr watched in interest as the workers toiled on the block. The corners were cut off by two workers with a bone-saw. Then, it was pulled to another workshop where the workers were chipping away at the truncated block with small chisels.

Slowly, a spherical shape emerged. Krunnr himself pushed the rough Pushrock to the polishing station, where oil was poured over the stone and rough wickerwork studded with stone was scrapped over the surface.

It emerged, shining in the light of Akten, a magnifigent push rock. Garnam bounded over and smiled, "A beauty, isn't it?" he asked. Krunnr smiled and gave him a bag of gold. "Art cannot just be brought" continued the worker, "Here, a gift for your good work in the North."

Krunnr thanked the foreman and rolled the stone away, while the workers behind him start to hew a block into the shape of a table.

Resting beside the river, he pulled out the package and unwrapped it. Inside, he found a little stone rattler, with small stone balls connected by bits of string to a hollowed bowl.

Carved on the surface: Let it be-Child-One of Krunner-The Great-Ranger-Leader of Men-Happy.

Krunnr sat, then he turned.

Krunnr waited while the Nule river flowed by.

The Hard Won Bounty

(Scientific Story: Celestial Kingdom of Kitanato)

-

In the rocky soils of the island offered little to the people of those lands, but where the plants grew the pious people of Kitanato tended to them, slowly they ordered things into rows.

It was not the way that agriculture developed in other lands, but it worked for the people of Kitanato.

And they plowed the groves until the groves expanded, and they learned to bring water to the fields. Over many years, as secrets were handed down from one generation to the next, the art of Agriculture became part of the tradition of Kitanato.

Storms came and troubled the people, but they stood as one, for in the land of Kitanato all men were brothers.

So, as groves were discovered and cultivated, smaller cities sprang up across the island, where farmers crafted stone tools and traded them with one another. Nippora, to the East, and Talfa to the South the power and influence of the Lords of Kitanato stretched to the ends of the known world.

Legends of rafters from another land were dismissed as ancient fairy tales, for now people live in an age of wisdom and judgement, they became farmers and cast off such silly notions. The world was as it was, an island on an endless sea.

Since news that the fragile relationship between Zulappi and Satura is being rebuilt, trade has boomed in Wasat. It has come that it is increasingly hard for the locals to buy essential goods and services without being run over by the mass of merchants crowding around the market.

Pharon, unlike others, saw this as a problem. If Wasat is too crowded for Saturans to enter, let alone engage in local trade or go to the temple, then it might cease to become the capital of the Saturans and merely an international rest stop. The important thing is that it will cost way too much to buy food from an apathetic countryside instead of having farmers, or grain merchants, hunters, or herders, come of their own free will with their wares.

Pharon the Farseer therefore ordered that all mercantile transactions of more than a handful of gold must also include the funding for a single stone block to be dragged to a construction site on the other side of the river. This usually amounts to a single ring per block, but can easily brought in bulk so that it can fall to a hand for a whole cow.

Of course, most of the local Saturals buy things in nails, let alone pieces. It's mostly the foreign merchants and domestic retailers who engage in massive money transfers who will have to uphold the costs. Grumbling was surprisngly little, and some Saturan merchants even funded extra blocks to build their own store within the design.

The Market of Merchants, one block at a time, slowly rose on the other bank. As more and more merchants crammed themselves into Wasat, the walls grew higher and higher.

The same day Pharon stood proudly before the completed Market town, the first shipment of beer has arrived from the City of Peace. Wickerware and pots of stone and clay were already being sold by agents of far off merchants while cooks busily collected ingrediants for the Drunken Hare Roasts.

It is time for a feast.

A Shaman was invited.


From Pharon the Farseer
To the Land of the Sun

We will like to trade our wonderful specialty stone crafts for your dye, as we have already traded our Hare in exchange for Wickers in such a way as to ENSURE profitability.


The Saturan Monetary System (Cultural)
In the past, it was hard to tell how much some gold was worth. Of course, it was sacred and doubtlessly worth much, but how much?

Pharon thought long and hard. In the time of Gideon, gold is merely the blessings of Akten. Now gold is much more... it is now also the heart of the Saturan economy.

So gold must have a value, right?

Pharon and the Clerics thought long and hard. Finally, Pharon lifted his hand and spoke.

"A golden piece, flat, as thin as my nail and as long as my thumb, is worth 1 Nail.

And a day's hard labor in the fields, and a patrol in the grounds, and a week's chores on the temple shall be worth 1 Nail."

"A golden piece, flat, round about as a circle between my thumb and my forefinger, is worth and weighs as 5 Nails. And it shall be called a Ring.

And each Ring shall worth of a craft of a day's labor, or a patrol in the wilderness, and the value of Daretos hare's meat.

"A golden piece that fits within my palm shall be worth 10 Rings and 50 Nails. And it shall be called a Hand. And let each Hand be worth a day's labor in the Quarries, which shall gather 10 blocks, or for a march through hostile lands, or for the spices, and beer, and work in preparing a single Drunken Hare Roast"

"And let 50 hands, worth 500 Rings, or 2500 Nails, be worth a Cow. And let each cow be worth a year's skilled labor, or 5 Year's hard labor, or as pension of a lifetime of service."

And so it was.

To: Satura
From: Land of the Sun

Agreed

-
OOC:
As for your other question, there are some things that would accomplish that as a consequence, but no.