Culture Name: Gwonsaum - Thomas.berubeg
Mythology:
The world the Gwonsaum inhabit is a living one. The world and the spirit world have existed forever in their current state. The material world is mundane and solid and what humans inhabit. The Spirit world is very different, though it is a reflection of the material one. Physical things, events, strong emotions, and metaphysical concepts spawn spirits, who inhabit the spirit world. Most of these spirits the boundaries of reality unassisted, unless they have help from a shaman. Great and powerful spirits can cross over without a problem, though very rarely do so. Instead, their effects tend to be felt even when they remain in the spirit world. Additionally, Shamans (Sekemns) can throw themselves over into the spirit world, at least mentally. Shekemns exist to build alliances and relationships with spirits, ensuring their people are safe.
The Gwonsaum believe themselves to be patronized as a people by a Great Spirit, or Great Ensha, known as Migwon. Migwon is a great hound, born of the friendship between Gwonsaum and Dog. As such, the dog plays an important part in the symbolism of the Gwonsaum, representing both Strength and Trust. Additionally, Theran and Jenashak, the Ensha of the great rivers, Shul, the Ensha of the sun, and Aymo, one of the greater embodiments of love, are are believed to be spirits friendly to humanity.
The Shape an Ensha may take is defined greatly by what kind of Ensha it is, though power is a limiting factor. A Very minor fire Ensha, for example, can only be a spark or small flame, while a Great Fire Ensha can be anything even vaguely connected to fire. The Truly Powerful Ensha have no restriction on shape.
The Gwonsaum believe that humans and dogs are the only creatures with souls. In death, their souls (and that of dogs) makes a perilous journey through the spirit world, travelling northwards, until finally arriving and joining with the “Mawr Ansa,” the Sea of Souls, an ocean comprised of the souls of the unborn, where they are washed of their sins and memories, and sent back into life as a newborn child or puppy. The Soul, when it enters the Mawr Ansa is burdened by the weight of the sins committed in life, which drags souls of sinners deeper into the depths of sea, thus taking longer to return to the surface to be reborn. All agree, however, that for a soul to make the journey from death to the Mawr Ansa alone is to court complete destruction. As such, Sekemns are meant to petition friendly minor Ensha to protect and accompany the souls of the recent dead in the village or city, and some even sacrifice a loyal dog upon the death of its owner, so that their souls may safely travel together and be reborn together. Dead bodies are buried, usually with a sacrificed (or recently dead) Pirgwon, and a pitcher of water is poured over the grave to remind the soul of the dead where it needs to go.
With regards to the faith of other people, the Gwonsaum simply believe that the “gods” of others are simply great Ensha who have demanded a specific kind of worship from humans. Gwonsaum do not approve of this, as the stories have always said that spirits of that kind are generally not friendly to humans, but know better than to try to actively offend them. A Gwonsaum travelling to lands ruled by gods will generally carry with them a metal spiral, a token of a friendly Ensha, for protection.
Gwonsaum believe that the spiral is a difficult shape for Ensha to understand, and only those invited in are easily able to travel a spiral unhindered.
Society:
All Gwonsaum are led by a balance of secular and spiritual power. Whether greater power in a Gwonsaum City or tribe resides in a King (Known as Krek) or a Megshekem depends entirely on the group, and likely shifts depending on the charisma and strength of the individual.
The Spiritual guardians of the Gwonsaum are the Shekem, who are drawn up from the ranks of the people of the city based on prophetic dreams they or an already ordained Shekem may have at any age between five and fifteen. Traditionally, shekem were trained in an apprenticeship system with an older shekem teaching a younger shekem everything they know (writing, lore, history, medicine, etc), and, theoretically, passing along the relationships that he has with local spirits. This still tends to happen in smaller Gwonsaum villages. However, the advent of larger cities, and especially of writing, has shifted the focus of shekem training from a one-on-one practice to a more academic institutionalized one, though students are still selected through the traditional methods. In cities, Shekem also serve as historians, bureaucrats, and record keepers. Often, in these cases, though Shekem may have Alliances with individual spirits, the city as a whole also has it’s own network of relationships, especially with the spirit of the city.
The Krek is a hereditary position, and is meant to lead the people in all manners secular. Some evidence suggests that this position was originally a “chief-diplomat,” in charge of interacting with other groups of people. However, be that as it may be, the Krek now is ostensibly the one in charge of the military, trade, and development. Beneath the Krek, and there to assist them, are the noble families.
Also powerful, though not nearly as much as the Nobility are the Brewers, who hold a special place in society, as they produce beer and wines (Fruit and honey.) These products are seen by the Gwonsaum as key to nearly all formal social interactions.
Subservient to them are craftsmen, farmers, and artisans, who generally live on the outskirts of cities and come in to sell their products.
Gender roles within Gwonsaum society are segregated at the lowest levels, and completly open at within the higher ranks. A Krek can be a woman, and as Shekems are discovered through spiritual means, there are as many men as women.
Material Culture:
At the heart of any great Gwonsaum city or meanest village is the Enshasal, or Spirit Hall, the place used by a Shekem to commune with spirits. This building is circular with paths in a reversing spiral towards a central chamber, which holds at it’s heart a slightly recessed ritual pit, where a Shekem will attempt to intercede with spirits. Lining the hallways to the ritual chamber are images of the spirits that the Shekems know to inhabit the corresponding area in the spirit world, with images of the greatest Ensha (Usually some combination of Migwon, Jenashak, Theran, Shul, Aymo, and the spirit of the city)
The Enshasal itself is a dome with a hole in the roof at the top of the dome, above the ritual pit.
While small villages will have nothing more for the shekem than the Enshasal, great cities will boast immense walled complexes housing sleeping quarters, classrooms, kitchens, libraries, kennels, etc, around truly massive Enshasal, which always must be in their own open courtyard at heart of the complex.
The Gwonsaum Temple complexes are also inhabited by a breed of dog called Pirgwon. These dogs have been bred by Shekems for generations for small size, friendliness, loyalty, and intelligence, and are allowed to roam freely throughout the temple complex, and sometimes even the city. Pirgwon are easily recognizable by their small size, flattened face, curled tail, and short red and black mottled fur. Pirgwon, when they age, are sacrificed and buried with the dead, so that both the soul of the Pirgwon and that of the human may travel together to the Mawr Ansa.
As with the Shanalash of the south, the spiral is not important only in ritual architecture, but also in secular architecture. The homes of the richest individuals tend to be large complexes of interconnecting spiral hallways, with rooms juxtaposed in unexpected manners. The complexity of these homes decreases with lower economic status, until the poor must make do with a simple circular home, a paltry protection against hostile spirits: And indeed, the poorer people are often sicklier than the rich.
Gwonsaum bath regularly, believing that doing so brings them closer to their original state near the Mawr Ansa. Every affluent house has a bathing room, but poorer Gwonsaum must make do with bathing less often, and usually in the rivers.
The current calendar of the Gwonsaum was directly learned from the Shalanash, as it is much more efficient for agriculture and trade, while the older lunar calendar is now only used for ritual purposes by Shekems. The Gwonsaum know that the seasons are caused by the regular migrations of two spirits so great their impact on the physical world lasts months: Gyerm the Witherer and Hawan of the Sighs, who legend says are lovers constantly looking for each other, but always missing each other and cursed for some ancient transgression to do so for all eternity.
Gwonsaum historically were not hugely keen on wearable jewelry, though obviously with outside influence, modern Gwonsaum do. Traditionally, Gwonsaum adorned themselves with tattoos in intricate interwoven spiral and dot patterns. Shekems tend to wear thin robes and sport shaved heads tattooed with the aforementioned spirals.
Abbreviated History:
Human and dog were born on the shores of the Mawr Ansa ages ago, both creatures of the material world and endowed with the inner light of the spirit world. In those days, death was not an obstacle, as the souls of the death had only to travel from the shores of the lake into the water itself, and back out. Deva, an Ensha of death, watched over the people, warding hostile Ensha away.
But, in the darkness of night, the foul Ensha Sova the Brackish, who had long been jealous of mankind, attacked, and with him came a great wave of dark water which poured into the Mawr Ansa, forever tainting the souls of the dead. Nemor, an Ensha of memory, sacrificed himself for a human friend, melting into the Sea himself, causing the Mawr Ansa to make the dead forget the impurities and giving individuals a choice between good and evil. Sova and Deva engaged in a combat that still occasionally shakes the earth to this day. Humanity was forced to leave the spirit world by the rising water, travelling in a myriad of direction, and becoming all the people of the earth.
The Gwonsaum travelled south, guided out of the spirit world by Migwon. For forty years and forty days, the Gwonsaum roamed, until the Shekem Elel spoke to the Spirits Theran and Jenashak, who both gave the Gwonsaum leave to settle on the shores of their river and taught them irrigation and farming.
And so, over the next thousand years, the Gwonsaum built a number of walled cities, the greatest being the twin cities of Ther and Jen, on their respective rivers. A series of petty kingdoms and Shekem-doms rose and fell, and never were the Gwonsaum truly united.
The spirits gave the Gwonsaum wheat, barley, grapes, olives, pistachios, pomegranates, and a myriad of other foods and spices. Cedars, imported as seedlings from the Chufriel, have also taken root on the shores of the river.
Trade with the Ekkelash was brisk, and even the Tshufriel had much to exchange with the Gwonsaum. The Gwonsaum alphabet, for example is wholly copied from their southern neighbors, as is the agricultural calendar.
History speaks of a great war fought for two hundred years between the League of Jan, reportedly led by a coalition of Shekems and the Theran Empire, subjugated by a krek whose name has been lost to history, that left ten thousand dead (c. 1900 BC) but it is more likely that this was a series of wars fought between different shifting alliances of city states over a long period of time. Earliest written records of the Gwonsaum cities write of alliances changing and broken and Shekems invoking death and destruction on the Kreks of rival cities, and cities launching invasions. The Cause of these wars are unkmown, but the result was a tenuous peace that lasted for a number of centuries with only minor scuffles breaking.
History speaks of a great war fought for two hundred years between the League of Jan, reportedly led by a coalition of Shekems and the Theran Empire, subjugated by a krek whose name has been lost to history, that left ten thousand dead (c. 1900 BC) but it is more likely that this was a series of wars fought between different shifting alliances of city states over a long period of time. Earliest written records of the Gwonsaum cities write of alliances changing and broken and Shekems invoking death and destruction on the Kreks of rival cities, and cities launching invasions. The Cause of these wars are unknown, but the result was a tenuous peace that lasted for a number of centuries with only minor scuffles breaking.
Recorded history for the Gwonsaum presumably begins with the importation of writing from the Shanalash (c.1800) , and everything before that fades into oral myth. It is known that, at some point, portions of Gwonsaum fringe society -- hill tribes (Gwonsaum only in language and system of beliefs,) were invited in as mercenaries and enforcers by the Ekkelash, though exact dating on this period is muddled as is it difficult to differentiate between cultural contamination through trade or through an invasion (As that is what it became.)
The Gwonsaum formed a confederation of free cities known as the Union of Mergis (c. 1592-1500 BCE) in reaction to the aggression of the Ekkelashi Ieresah Empire. Despite the existence of confederation, however, a significant portion of the southern areas of the Gwonsaum were subsumed by the empire, including the cities of Penkdem and Jen. However the Iresah tyrant Urshaihafah was overthrown by an alliance of Ekkelash, Tshufriel, and Gwonsaum, all under the leadership of Queen-Shekem Ashara, whose daughters, legend say, were raped by the tyrant.
Geographic Errata:
The four great Cities: Ther, Jen, Tusendakru, Penkdem
Smaller cities: Mergis, Nervir, Megther, Huius
Northern Mountains: Rawsno
Mediterranean: Megmawr
The Great Rivers: Theran and Jenashak
Location:
Southern Anatolia, Northern fertile crescent.
