PREVIEW: SymNES II

That scale of political authority does not yet exist to any meaningful degree at this point in time.

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Yes I know that, but that is my aim so I will look to start somewhere where I will be allowed to go to that direction. Thought more likely I'll end up being the Amazons since I am known for my warmonger attitude.

I see that origin 1 has female power societies so it actually strikes me as better. But I dunno...

Holy sweet Jesus in heaven, the day has finally arrived. My lord and master Symphony, you have my total and utter interest and attention.

1024 x 768.

Oh dear lord, did I actually manage to miss my chance to get in early? I beg you Symphy, do not penalize me for my inability to attend to each of the constantly updating/appearing threads! I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of this NES for bloody months, since first word of its virtual paradigm shift in NESing first reached my ears! You can't let me miss out.

Retroactive deletion.

Ah, thank you Symph. Cradle 1 needs more company anyway.

Well, considering everyone else is doing it, here is what I envision my culture beginning...

Small village groups, led by a single religious/military/political figure with absolute power. When children come of age, they are designated a life-long working position by this leader; this is at roughly 12, and the decision is made more "fair" through a series of apprenticeships, that begin at speech, through which they learn necessary information from the various people of the village. Those who show interest and aptitude at farming are more likely to be assigned to a farming position.

When assigned a position, they would work at this one task their entire lives, perfecting it to whatever degree they are capable of and teaching the young, unassigned children their expertise over the knowledge and skills essential to their life, such as assisting in harvest.

The people strive for balance in everything they do, something preached by their leader. This especially applies to food and other material possessions, which they do not attempt to hoard, as they believe wealth and poverty reduce their ability to assist the tribe. When an individual amasses a great amount of food or other possession, he or she holds a feast, inviting the entire village and using up all of the food in the process.

Lastly, expansion to another village only occurs when the leader of a village assigns a child to the position of leadership. The child is then banished from the village with proper supplies, expected to go and find another village and leader to be apprenticed under; when found, he then assists this other leader in his duties until seen fit to become a leader. Then, one of two things happens: either the master dies and the apprentice controls the entirety of the old village, or the older leader takes a full 2/3 of the people and provision to start a new village. This exchange of leadership both helps to ensure the success of the new village and to prevent stagnation of older villages. Beyond these two methods, no travel between villages occurs, and no over-arching hierarchy or group of these leaders exists.

Descent is patrilineal, and the ownership of all goods is questionable, as the leader of the village decide to whom all possessions go to when someone dies; this helps to ensure that farmers get the best farming tools, potters get a proper potters wheel, etc.

Well, that would be the condensed version of what I have been working on over the last few days. Origin doesn't really matter to me at this point; I am more worried about how my society develops than where it develops.

I really would've liked to have more information; it is much easier to craft a (primitive) society when you know its environment, though I suppose I could work with what you gave us for now.

I think we are more like the sumerians as the first cities are being built and trade across the region is developing.

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Is not a very good example as Sumerians qualify as one culture and we need to develop our own cultural groups.

So is Origin One proto-Indo-European or pre-Indo-European West Asian? I think that the latter is better given the time analogues.

It's developing, but not all cultures will initially accept cereal cultivation and urbanization. We don't know if that's compatible with everyone, though many states will be following that traditional Sumerian pattern.

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Don't please don't. Sumeria was, in many ways, an anomaly rather than the norm, albeit not as abnormal as Egypt. And again, we need different cultural groups here.

As an added comment, as much linguistic and ethnic homogenity as suggested seems a bit unlikely at this stage. There probably should be some isolates, at least. Probably more than one family, too.

Retroactive deletion.

Yet at the same time, not to be so implausibly different that there's no reason for you to be located adjacent to one another either.

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I suppose that the specific degree of this will also depend on the degree of geographic homogenity, which is what I am trying to understand here. I assume that the terrain under "mostly composed of" is typical of the central regions, while the "scattered" terrain is typical of some of the peripheral regions. But I'd also like to know if there are any mountain ranges or highlands of note. Or might we at least specify such terrain much as we would specify alluvial or coastal terrains?

Retroactive deletion.

Yes! Should we identify our proto peoples with a name before then, or will you just assign us something for now?

I assume that being "diligent little robots" involves making up our damn minds already and posting submissions? Eh, I guess it couldn't hurt anyway. On it.

Birdjaguar, I think the Society Name stat is exactly for that purpose.

Origin Location: 1
Societal Name: Tonga
Language Family: TBD
Descent Rights: Patrilineal
Inheritance Rights: Matrilineal
Climate Distribution: Coastal estuary with nearby access to woodlands and grasslands

Origin Location: Origin 2
Societal Name: Pegi Rente
Language Family: Proto-Anosic
Descent Rights: Matrilineal
Inheritance Rights: Patrilineal
Climate Distribution: Hilly temperate savannah/grasslands, with some nearby rivers

If any other information is required/allowed, it is a tightly-knit clan society that primarily engages in animal husbandry and some minor farming on the side.

Origin Location: 2
Societal Name: Samas
Language Family: Proto-Anosic
Descent Rights: Matrilineal
Inheritance Rights: Matrilineal
Climate Distribution: Rich land, Inland, rivers and a lot of fresh water. Good basis for rich food production that would lead to more city-based society.

My nation description will be up in less than an hour.

On Ekahi: Technically since a later era is simply imposing the term, I could equally say "They made it up, or named it after some prestigious anthropologist," and it would be fine.

So, we could make up a different word, since we don't have any data to base the linguistics on, yet. It would probably be easier if you just have us use a standard term, like Proto-Indo-European. But Proto-Anosic works for Origin 2.

@das: I don't plan on a Sumerian-style sedentary society. So no worries there.

Retroactive deletion.

Fair enough. In that case, I nominate Proto-Ialian.

Origin Location: 1
Societal Name: Tsai
Language Family: TBD (Proto-Ialian)
Descent Rights: Communal, Age Based
Inheritance Rights: Communal, Age Based
Climate Distribution: Temperate and exclusively coastal, typically concentrated in mixed forests, aversion to arid land.


Undeclared: Fuschia, Swissempire, North_King

Origin Location: One
Societal Name: Alarcheans
Language Family: TBD
Descent Rights: Communal, Merit-Based
Inheritance Rights: Communal, Merit-Based
Climate Distribution: Temperate grassland or forest; water, besides river, is to be avoided

I am going out of my way to avoid (and if necessary due to player attempts, actively destroy) the one-nation-through-time syndrome that tends to plague other NESes. Odds are really quite good your creations will die like flies. The ones of this ancient period will mostly be important because of what they did, not who they were. So you may spend time fleshing out their psychology and M.O., but fluff beyond that is sort of apocryphal.

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When I am interested in something, I spend lots of time working on it. Even if such specificity is unnecessary, I rather like coming up with it.

As for language family, considering that no one else seems considerably interested in it, I would be interesting in developing an alphabet. The development of languages is a hobby of mine, so I am sure I can develop one in fairly short order that could be considered passable, as well as the base language for the language family.

I think that, for the languages, we might do well to come up with certain base words for each family. Mostly for the really common stuff: I, you, he/she/it, the, and, various forms of to be, the first few numbers, sheep, cow, horse, that sort of thing.

Not to detract from Fuschia, but I think that these should be decided by the threadgoers.

While I said that I wouldn't have much input for this portion, I really have to speak up: Thlayli, choose one . Let the people of Cradle two decide their own terms, and stick to your own. And yes, this is mainly because I believe I'll be popping up in 2 later on.