Cultural description inbound. I've chosen to use placeholder names for the areas around the mediterranean - I really don't think that custom civilizations would use the same area names such as Egypt when Egypt actually doesn't exist.
The placeholder names will be written in {brackets like these}.
~
The Raka
Assume all these things as goals of my culture. I have no aspirations to expand in size, but that mostly depends on settlers' will that are beyond my control. I am in a little hurry, so forgive me if things are ugly or not very thought through.
Placement:
Carthage
General:
The Raka people is a culture of seafaring traders and assorted nomads/peoples from {Numidia}. The foundation of their capital, Ekdhan, happened as nomads and merchants founded a place to trade with the outside world. The culture is very spiritual in their cultural dependancy and regular use of music in different aspects of their society.
Economy:
(I'm honestly not very sure of what the Carthagese lived by other than trade, and I couldn't find it where I looked it up, but knowing that the Roman salting of the soil did huge damage to the city I'm sure they depended somewhat on farmland.) I'm sure they depend a lot on fishing, however, especially since the Raka is a seafaring and coastal culture. One thing they excel in, however, is trading; their effecient inventions in using clay tablets to draw symbols of wares that are to be ordered from overseas eases trade and allows for development of writing or even an alphabet. The original ideas of using clay tablets origined in {Egypt}, but was quickly picked up by the merchants and then adopted through a official symbol system, designed by the priests and approved by the monarch.
Religion:
Heavily influenced by the ancient Tyravian culture, the Raka believe in a divine family of three - a Father Sea, mentioned in several tales and in the Raka mythology often appearing as a sea serpent; a Mother Earth, which is heavily influenced by the local cultures as a pagan earthmother, showing herself as many other forms. Their daughter, Sdhedleva, however, differs much from the innocent child-god mythos with the Tyravians. The tales of Sdhedleva begins as she walks out of her mother as an adult, beautiful woman; and as with the Tyravian worship of her as the source of all things artistic and creative, so think the Raka of her. However, Sdhedleva is the main deity of the Raka. Her influence is heavy on Raka spirituality and music, which dominates much of the Raka cultural identity. The spiritual sphere of the Raka religion is very influenced by the local mythos of the peoples the merchants settled with at the beginning of Ekdhan's history.
Culture:
Music is very important to the Raka. There is music in most aspects of their society; most initiation rites are passed through some melody as in our civilization, but also there are plenty of sailor songs for the merchant ships, songs for the war march, and most of the cities' marketplaces have a designated area to musical players. An approved structure of music is the "dhavlävda", which follows the structure of intro-chorus-chorus-bridge-chorus. The dhavlävda is utilized heavily in marine affairs; there are plenty of sailing songs in this structure and compositions using the structure. There are a few renowned composers as well. The Raka also uses the forementioned clay tablets to write musical symbols with - a system that is very inaccurate, but highly developed for its time, resembling primitive notes. There are also musical centers in clay with the walls covered in those "musical runes", where anyone can educate themselves in harp or horn play, depending on their available money, of course. The idea of culture embraces their creative goddess, Sdhedleva, who gifted songs and fire to mankind.
Military:
The military has a heavy use of light cavalry due to the close cooperation with the local {Numidians}. There are always musicians in the army, usually within the infantry units, playing and singing.
Society:
The state is compromised by a monarch with heavy influence of a merchant council. Ekdhan was originally founded by merchants trading with the local {Numidians}, where the two cultures evolved the region to a trading post, then to a city. There is very close cooperation between the {Numidians} and the Raka. Regularly, a peasant or simple fisherman doesn't have close contact to the musical society, but there are public mass plays at market squares once each month.
