End of Empires - N3S III

Lord_Iggy said:

A map of Farea, circa 250 by the Seshweay Calendar calendar not predicated on mass murder.

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lord_joakim said:

That makes me happy. I don't expect them to rise to an empire ever again - at least not in this era - but as a culture, I hope they exist. I love the language.

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alex994 said:

OOC: I NEED MORE INFO NORTH King!

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das said:

Okay, I'm hoping to manage orders within... ten hours, give or take. That sound alright?

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North King said:

Name of Culture: Kitiluk

Place of origin: A coastal, forested region, quite cold and wet.

Gods & Goddesses and related beings: The Kitaluk don't believe in true "gods" and "goddesses" in the sense that most nations do. The closest things to divine beings are their heroic, mostly mythical predecessors, who were, it is said, the first to top the waves on wooden vessel. They are still said to prowl the ocean to this day, watching over their people. This is, however, a fairy tale, and very few believe that these ancestors were anything more than just that--ancestors to their people. Their tales are mostly made to inspire.

Any significant past accomplishments: Seaworthy vessels; extremely skilled carving, especially in ivory; good knowledge of fortifications; sophisticated fishing technology.

Current economic base: What is not derived from the sea (fishing), or from the coasts (hunting) is traded for; given their general lack of land area to settle on, they tend to rely heavily on products gotten from the mainland.

Current location: A temperate, heavily forested, rocky coastline, quite wet, though they are eager to make forays just about everywhere. They do not actually hold significant lands in any place: the largest bits they hold are islands. They usually pick a particularly large coastal hill or rock, build a fortress on it, and make a good harbor so that they can use it as a resupply point and anchorage; through these they trade with the mainlanders. Their society is so lacking in conventional land power that most nations ignore them--the rock fortresses are worthless if taken and a pain to take. Their true power lies in their ships: nearly their entire nation is at sea.

Lineage: Essentially ignored by the great part of the populace. Since there are more or less no lands to settle upon, there is no real need for inheritance, and captains of the ships are elected on merit by crews. Most men keep a necklace or bracelet of carved ivory beads that carry single words that their friends carved for them--usually descriptions of their character.

Spoken language: An isolate, unrelated to its neighbors (the Kitaluki migrated from a colder region to the coasts of their present lands, and the relatives of the old language have probably died out). Nothing particularly surprising compared to most other languages.

Written language: Highly distinctive, the Kitaluki do not write in grammatically correct sentences. Instead, their writing consists of a string of words arranged almost in the stream-of-consciousness style, designed to evoke images and thoughts in the reader's mind. It is also one of the few truly three dimensional systems of writing in the world--feeling the "text" is just as important, if not more, than reading it.

Medium for writing: Usually a string of carved ivory beads on a long string. Each ivory bead is carved as a word or expression, and a person "reads" them by feeling each bead in turn on the string. Stone is occasionally used, as is wood, all in the form of beads. This doesn't lend itself to monumental inscription very well, however, and the crude derivations of the carvings projected onto a flat surface are usually curt in message. One would be correct in getting the impression that the Kitaluki detest transferring their writing to a stone's surface.

Class structure: The rulers of the Kitaluki are almost universally elected. Captains are elected by their men, and when the men want to throw out a captain, they vote on that, as well. Captains elect an admiral when command must be centralized. The nation itself rarely has one ruler, but when one must be agreed upon, anyone who can arrive to cast a vote is allowed to, with no man's vote held in higher regard than any other's. Candidates for elections tend to be disregarded unless they win a large majority of the vote--those who win a small majority are usually pressed to hold elections again and again until they can manage a larger share. This staggering level of egalitarianism and decentralization is due mostly to the utter lack of lands to be inherited, and even ships are not passed from father to son.

Ruling class: Since almost all Kitaluki are held in equal regard, there is no universally defined ruling class. Even when they must elect a universal leader, his power is not absolute.

Key values: Advance by merit; honesty; service to society.

OTL mix: None that I'm aware of.

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