The Epic of Wolgamesh

Crowqueen

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This is my second attempt at a story - I wrote an account of "Juche in Sixty Centuries" a few months ago but since it was just a short account of a short and not-very-complicated game I only wrote one section. Inspired by reading some of the stuff from Sisutil and Axident in particular I thought I'd write my own version of a Civ game, based on the Sumerian Gods mod from BtS. I've done this as Babylon (like Sumeria but organised so I don't run out of cash and have to cheat myself up) and I cheated a bit to start off with like the bad girl I really am but basically I speed up the start a bit to get going early on.

I'm writing the story as I go along so I have three "tablets" done already but in reality it's not very far in (2000 BC or so). In this mod to found religions you have to build wonders rather than learn technologies so at least I'm hoping for a different strategy but this is the way I play normal games so maybe I'll learn something or just go under because I can't adapt or whatever.

There's very little "game-speak" in here because I want to tell a story rather than show off a particularly good game, and anyway as I said I cheat at the start of a game by giving myself a starting package: two Bowmen, two Settlers, two Workers alongside the initial Settler and Warrior.

The original epic of Gilgamesh is written on clay tablets - the Epic of Wolgamesh is written on a handful of paracetamol tablets found in the ruins of Dur-Kurigalzu sometime over the last fifty years. Just before the researcher took them for a blinding headache, he noticed that they were inscribed with ancient writings and therefore began to decode and transcribe the small print he found there. Then he decided to take them anyway because after all that tiny script his head felt as if an elephant had recently sat on it.

Enjoy. I'll try and keep it going over the next week or so - I'm still looking for work so real life doesn't get in the way too much - because I have a feeling that by the end of next month things will have got going again and I know what it is like to be waiting months for the next installment of someone else's story so bearing that in mind I aim to try and get it done before the end of June.

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TABLET I


The Epic of Wolgamesh
A Story On Paracetamol Tablets
Slightly cheated





Spoiler :



He who has laid down has got up again
He who has slain Boudicca has got up again
He who has tamed Enkidu has got up again
He who has built three cities has got up again



There is a road from Akkad to Dur-Kurigalzu without a completion
Because the Lion stole our worker from his duties
An gives and An takes away


Spoiler :






Tundra archer stands awaiting orders from the far end of the world
The silver stars dictate no way home
Yet two nations stand between our lands and his.


Spoiler :




The scribes have been and gone, and left their tablets for all to see
An takes away and An gives
From this we see our destinies clear
That Wolgamesh may now explain more of his deeds and spread this knowledge from afar
That the stars may see his glories from afar
That noble Ramesses and loquacious Pacal admit us from afar
An gives, and An yet gives.
Our bowman has slain another Lion
Such that our slaves may live yet to complete that road
Once to An our shrine is raised.

Spoiler :




Oh mighty King of Thebes
Accept that we come to you and you to us
Make this agreement sound and be blessed by An
An gives, and still An gives.
Enkidu has found us those who would also be blessed as part of our tribe
He who wanders finds us those who would also be blessed as part of our tribe
To bring us completion for that road from which the Lion stole completion
Trek home to bring that road from which the Lion stole completion
To its finish – Brave Enkidu!


Spoiler :




He asks of us that which we gave Ramesses.
He demands of us that which we gave Ramesses.
Perhaps An gives, and perhaps An takes away.
He requests of that which we gave Ramesses – but perhaps not.
 
Spoiler :




An gives and An yet gives – a bear slain and a slave borne home.
On and on we trek across the mighty desert and bare tundra
On and on we build across the grassy hills and cool forests
On and on we gaze across the cold city and the towering spires
An gives and An still gives – rest, good Enkidu and heal your bear-borne wounds.
The stars grant no rest
The stars grant no speed
The stars grant no bears nor lions nor foxes or wolves
The stars praise Wolgamesh of power great!
An gives nought, and An takes nought.
Hyargh!

Spoiler :












O small tribe of ancient warriors
Inanna comes, and Inanna goes
Her wrath is not for taking and not for giving
Her wrath is carried in the sword arm of others
Her wrath is carried in the bowstring of ours
And growing under Nanna's stars and yet not An or Inanna
An takes, and An still takes.
Give us your sword arm of others
Give us your bowstring of ours
Enkidu has slain the panther and bear
Enkidu has protected and protected
An gives, and An yet gives.
The Lion is still there, and yet our slaves know now
The Lion is still there, and yet our Bowman knows now
The road is built, and Enkidu returns late under Nanna's stars
Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back.

Spoiler :




An has spread in our lands
The jackal-god has been called down from the heavens
An gives at last and An yet gives.
In his honour we have built a bastion
In his honour we will build the henge
In his honour we call to us Wolgamesh and Enkidu
Owl and Fox and Jackal to drive off Lion, Panther and Bear
Owl and Fox and Jackal to harness the stars
Owl and Fox and Jackal to convert the heathen
And Enkidu has returned home
And Inanna has returned home
And Utu's stars are returning home
An gives and An gives of his gold and silver too.


(Here ends the first tablet)
 
TABLET II

The second tablet is written in prose rather than verse giving scholars more insight into what on Earth was actually going on once Wolgamesh made contact with other civilisations.

Spoiler :




“We take it that you are from a distant land.”


There was no mistaking the stranger's garb. Friedrich fingered his rod of office as the dusky foreigner plucked nervously at his bowstring. Speaking slowly, Friedrich could get him to understand that weapons should be left at the front door, and wondered why the outlanders could not muster up more peaceful envoys such as His Magnificence sent out into the prairies beyond the gates of Aachen. Meanwhile Kuir, tired and thirsty from his wanderings, could understand the lack of immediate hospitality, but he could not shake off the feeling that leaving his only source of defence at the gates to the official's cabinet would be sheer folly after the hostile journey overland from Egypt. Reluctantly, he handed his weapon to Friedrich, but made sure he kept the small knife he had concealed in his under-tunic lest something go wrong. After all, Wolgamesh had sanctioned only Ramesses' request for open dialogue between the nations; Kuir had negotiated it himself and although a year or more had passed since he had seen Babylon, he felt sure that the mighty Owl had given him reason enough to enter into Charlemagne's confidences and bring home something of note.


“Do you have the full confidence of your King to negotiate a trade agreement?”


“I am sure I do – I negotiated with Egypt; however perhaps we must at this point leave him to consider his options fully. I see you know nothing of the Gods as yet; perhaps our priests have not touched your lands?”


“We know of your adoption of An the Jackal, but his creed is unknown to us.”


Kuir scratched his beard impatiently. “Surely you have read of our agreements with Egypt?”


“Eqyot? We know of no such place.”


Kuir began to unroll the parchment on which he had sketched the map of Ramesses' kingdom, but thought better of letting the palefaces into his secrets. Friedrich noted the moves Kuir made to open the map-case, and made a note to let his own scouts know that the duskies had knowledge of places beyond their ken.

------



Spoiler :




Enkidu stretched and yawned. Somewhere in the warm Dur night a dog yapped; the faithful servant of Wolgamesh, otherwise known as the Fox after his canid-spirit ancestry, had returned home to see in the bright night sky over the city An's mesket finally complete. Like Kuir he had been away; unlike Kuir he had come home bringing new slaves to finish the road to Babylon so long incomplete because of the lion-pests of years before. The pavement began, true, at the edge of Dur-Kurigalzu and stretched miles into the empty plain. But before the great forest at the edge of the mapped part of Babylon began, the stones gave way to mere gravel, and then petered out into dirt tracks meant to keep the slaves on target. Probably they had all gone to ruin now. The Fox walked silently out of the city gate and into the wilderness. No city-dweller he: wild-man, man-fox, fokssss (the hiss of the word had given rise to a nickname he cherished; it made him twice or three times a were-being and it was given to him by the Owl himself)...he still felt better as his keen nose sniffed the pine resin and rising sap in the summer night and his eyes adjusted to the dim forest light.


Then he realised he was still walking on pavement, solid rock flagstones. Even though wolves prowled through the forest, he could see a work party of slaves camped in the bushes. Even though he had been away for a long time, he recognised them as a detachment he had set to work on mines for the bricks and stones that would make up the Bastion of An in Babylon itself. He strode into the camp, using his terrifying fox mask to change from a man to a canid to bolster his authority.


“You've finished your duties to An?”


“A long time ago, Lord-Fox.”


“And how do you survive out here, pray tell?”


As soon as he said this, a familiar face arrived back at the camp with a deer on his back. Garon – Enkidu might have known. The stocky peasant, an archer detailed to scouting and who had participated in the destruction of Gaeltagh with Enkidu not too long before, now appeared to have returned from what Enkidu had hoped was mission impossible – to do the same to Pacal and the Maya. It had obviously failed, because it was a suicide mission. “What did you do – forget your arrows?”


Garon laughed as Enkidu's scorn fell on deaf ears. “No, Wolgamesh decided at the last moment to stay his hand. Where did you find your slaves then? Behind your couch in Dur?” Garon embraced Enkidu, laughed and invited Man-Fox to dine with them. In the distance, another wolf howled, and Enkidu flexed his muscles. The slaves chortled back and the deer was spitted and eaten without another harsh word.

------

Spoiler :




An gives and An takes away. Kuir had killed the lion, only a day out of Aachen. The bloodied hide made a good blanket when cleaned properly in a nearby river, and on his first night underneath it and a perfect summer sky, Kuir felt for the first time more alive – a blessing perhaps that indicated that the Gods, hitherto unrevealed to man except through the priesthood, had now chose to stride into the clearing and personally touch his own life. He had never really thought much of priests until now; their remote Bastion notwithstanding, they had had a pretty iron hand all the way through the two years Kuir had spent learning the way of the scribe as well as the way of the Bowman. Upon waking he found that not only the bites from the lion had healed but that even all the way out in the wilderness-lands he had the ability to meditate among the trees and use their life-force to fortify his own strength for the journey ahead into distant and unknown lands.


It was not until the following morning until he realised Friedrich had taken his map of Egypt from him and that he had left his bow behind in the cabinet antechamber. Picking up the hide and using it to shelter from a sudden storm, he trudged back in the direction of the Holy Roman capital, hoping he could stand the humiliation of having to claim back his own weapon from the perfidious palefaces.

------

Spoiler :






Wolgamesh listened with a bored frown as yet another wandering priest – Boral, he called himself – paid homage to him. Boral had brought Ki to him; they had knowledge from afar that An had blessed Babylon, and Boral hoped earnestly too that Ki would see her temple (or perhaps Her temple, if your Majesty wills it and grants us favour; Ki is our...I mean Your God's Sister, after all!) rise to meet An's...


“I doubt it.”


“If you permit, Owl-lord, perhaps I will find another taker.”


The Owl-Lord thought for a moment. Just that morning, he had entertained an architect who had shown him a plan for a grand wall around his kingdom to perhaps stave off the raids by animals and what was left of the Gael once and for all. Although the road from Dur to Akkad was now finished, thanks to Enkidu and Garon finally making peace with each other and the forest wolves and lions, he was in no hurry to endanger or even just dilute the blessings An had poured out on his warriors by allowing more priests to set up shop in Babylon. From the religious to the secular; a henge was being built which would burst Babylon at the seams, and not just Babylon – Dur, Akkad, cities yet to be built...


“Another taker? Who? Rameses?” The Owl-lord laughed. “They are preoccupied with the wolves. Pacal and Charlemagne are no more advanced.”


“Inanna's priests have found favour in another land,” his wife Andra reminded him. Although she had once been nicknamed the Ravenlady, her hair was white as snow.


“Yes, but which? No-one has yet returned of the emissaries I have sent out across the seas.”


“They are trying to make the boats first,” murmured Andra, about the only one who could jest with Wolgamesh and live to tell the tale. Small coracles plied the coastline, it was true, but only land within sight of the fjords and sandy bays could be reached with them, and since land unbound lay beyond known boundaries, it was probable that for years to come it would not be necessary to venture further than fishing boats could take their crews. Wolgamesh took his cue from the owls – the snowy owls of the tundra, the tawnies of the forest and the white ghost owls of the farmland – and he confidently told anyone that would listen that no owl had yet been found which lived solely on fish. To this now of course, since Kuir had returned home to show his maps and badge of Charlemagne, the court-fools replied that sea-eagles ate fish and ventured out to sea, and that the palefaces of the south were better sailors that us. For this one court-fool had been banished to a remote island and his boat burned; and another had found his way onto Enkidu-fox's dinner table.


At this there was a mighty roar and the palace shuddered. As the ceiling caved in and those in the room ran for cover, there came a voice, feminine yet imposing, from the sky.


MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN.


You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. The priest crowed with delight as a large carving of Wolgamesh's ancient ancestor Enlil knocked him unconscious.When he came to, Wolgamesh stood over him, impressed and now quite compliant.


“I'll think about it, all right? That ability might come in handy when Pacal comes to visit. It might actually make him think twice about invading me.”


“But how come you were not harmed? The palace is devastated...” the priest groaned.


“Immortality is not what it used to be,” Wolgamesh said silkily, “but it comes in handy sometimes.”


(Here ends the second tablet)
 
TABLET III

The evidence is that the writers got bored of writing in prose and went back to verse. The first lines suggest that Coleridge himself had knowledge of the epic or, because he claimed to have "dreamt" them, more likely he had access to the fabled Akashic Records but could not maintain his heightened consciousness enough to fully remember that in fact he had plagiarised the ancient manuscripts. Either way, the lines show such advanced use of metre and rhyme that it may even be that Coleridge manipulated time and space to such a point where he influenced the ancient Babylonian scribes who were left with making sense of the Epic.

Spoiler :




In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A Babylonian attend
And friend to Wolgamesh decree
that Peace will us defend
The stars are out and in and round
The cities grow and we amend
This epic tale of ours
The long and short and ins and outs
That An did long contend.


Our road is done, and Enkidu wanders home to Babylon.
Our barracks is complete and our soldiers wander home to Akkad
Our settler is planned but we cannot wait that long.
An gives, and yet An's time is long.


Spoiler :


Mansa alone of ebon hue
Appeared behind his gate.

Mansa alone of godly favour
Appeared with Inanna beside him.

Mansa, oh tell us what you know and have seen
Appeared with royal favour and appeared with Inanna's stars.

An gives and gives again.
Kuir gives, and gives again.


Spoiler :


Enlil. Bringer of plague and forefather of Wolgamesh and yet also of Enkidu.
Enlil. Bringer of sorrow to men and women, and to Fox and Owl and Jackal and Raven.
Shoot your arrow into the air and bring it down into our false hearts.
Shoot your arrow into the air and bring it down into our true enemies.
Shoot not your arrow and bring it down on our friends.
Do not shoot the arrow which will return against you and do not spread the plague which will return against you.

An lives, and An dies, and An lives again.


Spoiler :


Enkidu is Fox, and Enkidu is born of Fox.
Wolgamesh is Owl, and Wolgamesh is born of Owl.
Andra is Raven, and Andra is born of Raven.
Affid is Pig and Affid is born of Pig.
Thus does An give life to Man born of Animal and Man born of Bird, and shows us that Man is Animal and Man is Bird and Man is destined to be Lord of Animal and Lord of Bird and to keep and raise both Animal and Bird and to be both Animal and Bird and take on form of both Animal and Bird.
An is Jackal, and was born of Jackal, but does not send Jackal upon us unless we lose his favour.


Spoiler :


Mighty Rameses, you are blessed of Enlil and can send plague upon us.
Mighty Rameses, you are blessed indeed of Enlil and can rain down plague upon us.
Enlil is the exhausted breath of Egypt and the exhausted breath of Rameses and the exhausted breath of Thebes.
Enlil breathed upon us and found us wanting; Enlil breathed upon Egypt and created his church; and Enlil breathed upon Thebes and unleashed a plague of arrows on her.


Spoiler :


An has brought upon us favour, and An has brought upon us His presence.
An creates, and has created, and will create.
An lives, and has lived, and will live.
An has come to Dur and An has come to Akkad and An has been founded in Babylon and An will rain down upon Thebes and Mutal and Aachen and Karakorum and even on Timbuktu.
An gives, and An yet gives.


Spoiler :


An bless you and keep you.
An make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
An lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
An lives, and An lets live.


Spoiler :


The Henge is raised to An and to Wolgamesh and to all of us above and beyond the stars and above and beyond the seas, and above and beyond the hills and above and beyond the forests.
The Henge is to us and to An and to Enkidu and to Wolgamesh and to Andra and to Affid and Kuir and Garon.
The Henge is to us and to Jackal and to Fox and to Owl and to Raven and to Pig and Deer and Ox.
The Henge is the envy of Pacal and the envy of Rameses and the envy of Charlemagne and the envy of Kublai Khan and the envy of Mansa Musa and of everyone across the ocean.
The Henge is built of farm and built of mine and built of road and built of pigsty and cow-byre and lion-hide and wolf-pelt.
An builds, and An destroys.


Spoiler :


Enki has been found within.
Enki has been found without.
Enki has been found above
Enki has been found below and around and up and across.
Enkidu who is born also of Enki and also of Fox, just like Wolgamesh is born also of An and also of Owl and...sorry...that doesn't make sense but trust me, it's true...honest...
Enkidu bows and does not falter.
Enkidu understands and does not wander.
Enkidu knows and feels and lives but does not leave our lands for theirs.
But his master lives and his master will live and Enkidu pays homage to them and theirs and their own.

(Here ends the third tablet)
 
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