PREVIEW: SymNES II

[jalapeno_dude]

Thinking of a society that lives along rivers and utilizes early methods of irrigation for farming, in that sense similar to ancient Sumer. Descent will be matrilineal, within clans. When the head of a household/family unit dies, his property will revert to the clan as a whole and be redistributed by the group of clan shamans.

Either origin is fine, though Origin 2, with fewer trees and more desert, seems best.

 

[Thlayli]

So, projected Origin 1'ers, we're looking at something like a Proto-Indo-European linguistic group as the basic 'culture root,' moving in a general vector of migration from whatever our evolutionary starting point was. As a highly simplistic example, from the Great Rift Valley in Africa heading in a vague northeast direction towards Mesopotamia, the Origin point.

I don't think we can (or should) tailor specific languages to our needs yet, but giving the base migratory stream from which our cultures will emerge a name would be good.

 

[Birdjaguar]

So, projected Origin 1'ers, we're looking at something like a Proto-Indo-European linguistic group as the basic 'culture root,' moving in a general vector of migration from whatever our evolutionary starting point was. As a highly simplistic example, from the Great Rift Valley in Africa heading in a vague northeast direction towards Mesopotamia, the Origin point.

I don't think we can (or should) tailor specific languages to our needs yet, but giving the base migratory stream from which our cultures will emerge a name would be good.

I think we are more like the sumerians as the first cities are being built and trade across the region is developing. In 4000 BCE headman chiefdoms were giving way to more organized states, so the first 1000 years should take us from small settled clans or villages to the first cities.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

I would like to claim a spot in Origin 1, perhaps in riverine temperate forest territory, well inland.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I am indifferent as to language group.

 

[Thlayli]

It's developing, but not all cultures will initially accept cereal cultivation and urbanization. We don't know if that's compatible with everyone, though many states will be following that traditional Sumerian pattern.

I propose Proto-Ekahi, from the Sanskrit 'ekah' for one, as the name for our root language group. (If Origin 2 wants to be cool, they can adopt Proto-Dvaui.)

 

[LittleBoots]

Descent will be matrilineal

Although I'm just an observer for the first generation, I do like to see some matrilineal-age going on. Not that I'm a fan of it, but maternity is always much more certain than paternity. That and I've been reading too much Joyce

 

[jalapeno_dude]

Although I'm just an observer for the first generation, I do like to see some matrilineal-age going on. Not that I'm a fan of it, but maternity is always much more certain than paternity. That and I've been reading too much Joyce

That is the advantage, yes.

Also, it was my (probably EDIT: definitely completely uninformed) understanding that most early societies were matrilineal, for just that reason.

 

[Thlayli]

SymNES II: A Portrait of the Civilization as a Young Man

Definitely.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Although I'm just an observer for the first generation, I do like to see some matrilineal-age going on. Not that I'm a fan of it, but maternity is always much more certain than paternity. That and I've been reading too much Joyce

I see my women as the property holders and the men as the leaders so that over time there is a tension between the power of leading and the power of owning.

 

[LittleBoots]

SymNES II: A Portrait of the Civilization as a Young Man

Definitely.

Well, "The NESers" would be too vague a reference... then again, it is Joyce...

Alt-history is a nightmare from which we can never escape.

 

[LittleBoots]

EDIT: Double post

 

[Thlayli]

I'm going to assume that no one has any problems with Proto-Ekahi as a theoretical description for the root linguistic group. Consensus browbeating away!

I'll update this list with the declared initials for each origin, and highlight the person in each we choose to develop writing. I'd rather adapt it from someone else, so we should also determine whether we want to go in a hieroglyphic or pictographic/cuneiform direction. Or something else altogether.

Origin One/Proto-Central-Ekahic
Thlayli
Birdjaguar
Chandrasekhar

Origin Two/Proto-Central-Dvauic
jalapeno_dude
LightFang​

Undeclared: Fuschia, erez, Swissempire, das, North_King

 

[erez87]

So my idea for this NES for a society is a society ruled by powerful women shamans that are the supreme rulers of their tribe/queen-dom. They choose one of their daughters as their next heir. Other then that the society is rather free and people mostly get to do what they want, it is also an elitist society looking at the rest of the world as barbarians that need to be trained to be like them (they are suppose to be highly defensive but at the same time very expansionists). They would not prefer between water and land much but they would be rather urbanized and plan to have large and strong armies made of both men and women, usually whole "army" families" that joined the service and only are allowed to mingle with other army families or outsiders. (Army families would also be those we teach the culture to others).

Anyone found similarities to start next to me?

And personally I see my people as having their own language (which will be influenced but the main outside language but not based on it) if only from the sake of "we are better so we can't use what the barbarians use".

 

[Symphony D.]

Retroactive deletion.

 

[Thlayli]

Erez, it seems like you'd do well in Origin 2, since the climate is a little more arid, making competition for resources (and later on the ability to form hydraulic [water-monopolization I.E. Old Kingdom Egypt] empires) more likely. They seem prone to migration and conflict, so that would be a good fit.

Origin 1 strikes me as a little more sedentary, perhaps more like East Asia in resources and cultural formation.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Will you tell us how close origin 1 & 2 are to one another?

 

[Symphony D.]

Retroactive deletion.

 

[LightFang]

I think I'll try for a pictographic language grouping sort of thing this time, even though I love my alphabet.

Just off the top of my head, I'm picturing a simple barbarian migratory society based on neither the mother nor the father but whoever ended up being dominantly strong. Although it sounds kind of dumb and implausible; that's why I'm here to learn and find out if it's an idea we can salvage.

And I think I'd take Origin 2 to give me some nice grasslands.

 

[Thlayli]

I think I'll try for a pictographic language grouping sort of thing this time, even though I love my alphabet.

Just off the top of my head, I'm picturing a simple barbarian migratory society based on neither the mother nor the father but whoever ended up being dominantly strong. Although it sounds kind of dumb and implausible; that's why I'm here to learn and find out if it's an idea we can salvage.

And I think I'd take Origin 2 to give me some nice grasslands.

Okay. Though if you're barbarian, you'll be adopting that from someone more sedentary as it diffuses outward. I'm not in Origin 2, but jalapeno's initial idea seems to fit well with a civilization developing writing.