Ju
Boats ply the rivers near Diny, second city of the Juzhen demesne.
Mythology/History
The Kassa, a half broken coliseum over a sprawling maze, came before the people did, built by a Mad King more concerned with preserving immortality than his head. It filled them with purpose; to see, protect, and love it. Everything was accepted except understanding, for love was not the equivalent of understanding. Ancient wandering philosophers who came to the structure looking for a dialectic were ran out of the island.
There were greater truths, but those corrupted. The maze emanated this lesson above all to ardent meditators who found the time to ascend the steps of its modest central ziggurat daily.
The Shoru was one of these meditators, only she came from the West with a following.
In ancient but still more recent past, the Shoru (actually an amalgamation of several different clan heads), led her people through the Days Without (probably several waves of migration, not one giant pilgrimage). She communed with the Encompassment, and It only. It led her to the Kassa.
The Kassa accepted the Shorus people and they become interred with the existing Yangites. The Yangites, themselves an officialization of smatterings of tribes from hither and thither, accepted the Shoru & her Juzhen as in kin with us.
At this point the Shoru indisputably really is one man/woman. Now the Shoru communeS with the All Encompassing Sokol, but also Belaal and Asphet, though this communion comes through more as observations and heavenly readings. How to avoid their wrath, mostly.
The Yangites in their numbers became envious of the Juzhen over the years for this and that dispute, the dominance of the newly created society by the Juzhen, the ascendence of the Shoru over the Kassa and when the First Communion was felled by a small plague in the second city of Diny, a war ensued for control of the island. The Yangites lost and were scattered, but the succeeding Shoru decreed that all were now open to becoming Shoru and forgiven.
Society
There is a small class of literate scribes whose job it is to translate new religious texts, incorporate new "smaller pantheon" deities who the Shoru may accept or reject, decipher the words of the guru, and keep up with the ever shifting sands of Shoru statecraft.
A man or woman of high standing may (it is voluntary, though often coercive in power struggles) become part of the Shorus esteemed and highly secretive Horotoro communion. They undergo a process whereby some of the Shorus essence is transferred to them (with more or less drugging involved depending on the Shoru), and thereby ascend to the highest decision-making body.
This is a recent phenomenon that could change. The nature of the
Shoru is to read the universe and guide his people, so the strategies for doing so have often changed as the world has changed. There was a martial Shoru who appointed all warriors to his circle and made great feats of in battle the key requirement. Shoru's teach, but they also set the political rules. They can completely transform the structure from Shoru to Shoru as their right. The system underneath run by the wealthy (of various stripes) is more rigid in response. It takes a strong and proactive Shoru to take them on. Shoru can be selected by many methods; selection by a retiring guru, election by an ad hoc council, wider popular election, righteous coup, etc.
The
Horotoro have total de jure control of economic, political, and spiritual life in the polity and especially the Juzhen urban community (so this would include any diaspora, though the words of wisdom will surely become distorted even more with distance and certain sects will flourish). There may be dozens of Horotoro members at a time, though the turnover rate is high undoubtedly due to the intense pressure of interacting with the gods. The planes of existence become so melded that the contradictions become too much to bear and the man expires, to live amongst the gods. This whole process needs of course a dedicated group of caretakers, which it has in the form of the Shoru-shin.
This often threw day to day power into the hands of the more
traditional economic elite and their class strictures based on architectural mysticism (centered on the Kassa). In actuality, everyone knew power resided with the symbolic holders of the Kassa, its walls, still walkways. and the cheap seats overlooking the city. Coups and civil wars were quick affairs centered on holding these nodes of theatrical power.
Popular acclamation under the level of the Shoru is encouraged. Even he relies on his close friends to buttress his wisdom. Tally and decide & the 'public denunciation' systems are popular in some settlements, a protean democracy that is still rather easily exploited.
To sum: Ju is a city-state duopoly centered around the Kassa, with a slowly expanding hinterland (especially up the coasts), but more concentrated on controlling the island through shifting clan alliances, marriages, trade routes, etc. The 'Shoru caste', sailor-merchants, scribes, and the landlords of the rice farms are the most influential.
Lineage
Descent is traced through the father's side.
Religion(s)
Split among some as to whether the maze or the Shoru is more important to the faith. Then you got Sokol, Belaal, and Asphet who all look vaguely demonic in their iconography.
On the question of evil, it is found in sheer uncertainty. Uncertainty dictates misunderstanding, hate, sadness, fear, and commerce.
There is an afterlife, undetermined since its conception seems to change with each Shoru.
Wealth accumulation is heavily frowned upon by most Shoru's and their loyal communions throughout the realm, and wealthy merchants, landlords, and mercenaries will often go through public ascetic rites and denunciations (which have actually become a protean democratic forum, of the most rabble-y kind) to save face.
Kinda the opposite of Platonism. Absolute faith and lack of questioning are virtues, necessary to understanding.
So yea, the key planks are:
- three gods
- Sokol being the supreme All-Encompassing of the three; submission and death
- Belaal, fertility and emotions/duplicity; fertility is a bad thing because of how dangerous pregnancy is (intertwined with youthful death), not necessarily because it represents perfidious woman or anything
- Asphet, humanity and suffering
- architectural mysticism for temporal ordering of society
- bound together via the person of the Shoru, who with a chosen council guide the mass of people safely through a terrible world
A "holy land" somewhere near the Nemori, a locus of transmigration and lost teachings, was propagated by a Shoru centuries ago. He was thrown out after reckless expeditions ended in failure. The succeeding Shoru had him dismembered other manner of nasty things happen to him (detailed in one small volume of future Shoru collected teachings), but to this day a small persecuted sect remains that venerates the "Maimed Prophet" over all others and seeks a return to the holy land.
Language(s)
Basically mashup East Asian & African sounding names until something sounds cool. Things that are of or from other things get simplified, instead of adding more syllables.
The more African sounding names come from the first migration from the western lands (near thomas' people), and over the centuries those dialects became severely corrupted.
The Asian-sounding names come from the second wave from the west, closer to the Nemori.
Economic Base
Crops ~ mostly rice, lots of wheat, barely, and millet
Trade in lumber until the island is likely exhausted.
Middlemen in commerce, mercenary infantry and ships. Pilgrimage offerings and light tourism to Kassa.
Country/Person/Place Names
Juzhen - the general waters around the island and also the adjective of Ju
Shoru - the lodestone of the Ju, spiritual and ostensibly political leader
Horotoro -the Shoru's traditional inner circle; their numbers and composition change from Shoru to Shoru.
Yanga - main island
Kassa - main city and also the name of its namesake wonder at the center
Diny - second city
Cities/Polities - Pleas Plines, Wue, Yu, Waji
A bit of a rambling mess, I hate early time periods
. I'll clean this up in the turns to come.