[GS] [Story] 1001 Arabian Nights

[Aussie_Lurker]

.....For time immemorial, the Arabian Tribes-people fished, hunted & gathered along the banks of the Nile River, moving from the plains to the forests-& back again-as required by necessity, & creating makeshift shelters whenever the elements became too extreme. This latter task was aided by the wonderfully durable granite & sandstone that was so abundant, between the marshes & the river valley. Indeed, so much did the Arabian tribes revere the stone they used-for shelter, tools & weapons-that they began to assign it almost quasi-religious properties......a gift of some unknowable God or Gods.

As the centuries passed, several of the tribes learned how they could reliably grow fruits & grains most of the year round. The tribe most behind this revelation became a focal point around which all the other disparate tribes gathered. With so many families in one place, it has decided to create a place of permanent habitation. They appointed one man-by the name of Hufn Sadiq-to guide them in those earliest days.

....and so the Village of Cairo was born, upon the banks of the Nile!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Meeting the neighbours.....

Once the initial housing was completed, the best & bravest hunters from each tribe were brought together to form a Warrior Band-tasked with determining what lay beyond the Stone-fields of Cairo.

Initially what they found were a number of tribal groups that had clearly not initially joined the tribes who went on to create Cairo. When they heard about this new settlement, each tribal group was more than happy to move their, with each group offering a "gift" to the Arabian people as a thank-you for the invitation. Some provided valuable training to the Warrior band



Some took the Village Elders on quasi-religious Vision Quests, giving them insights into Societal Organisation that they'd previously never considered before!






Others brought knowledge of advanced military techniques to pass on to the village sages.

There was one particularly large tribal group, living towards the frozen north of the Continent-near the river of Wadi Hanifa, who brought more than 2 dozen full families to bolster the population of Cairo.



One tribe even offered the services of some of their numbers as scouts to help explore the continent more quickly. An offer the people of Cairo did not refuse.

Tribal groups were not the only peoples that the explorers of the Continent of Arctica discovered in their journeys. Some were also organised into well structured villages, under their own village elders. One such group, the Nazca, were a deeply spiritual people who offered up amazing stories about deities who came down from the sky to visit their ancestors in the long forgotten past, & how they now created vast pictographs to try & lure these deities back to Earth!



Another group, calling themselves Moroccans, lived in a village they called Fez, nestled between the Barrada & Wadi al-Rummah Rivers. This group were a scholarly village led by an odd group of "Philosopher Priests", but it was a group the Arabian People still hoped to cultivate further ties with in the future!



Interestingly enough, the warrior band encountered a tribal group not far from Fez-on the banks of the Jordan River. Indeed, the two groups shared a great deal in common, & so must not have been long separated from each other. When discovered, this tribal village happily offered up some of their own numbers to act as envoys-on behalf of Arabia-within the village of Fez.



Next in their journeys, the Warrior Band stumbled across a village run by a group of very wealthy merchants-an opulent settlement by the name of Antioch.



Not surprisingly tales of these various villages, & the many different ways in which they were run, got back to the people of Cairo-& sparked a number of new ideas in the minds of the Sages & Village Elders about how best to run their growing Settlement!

.



All was going well for the rapidly growing Settlement of Cairo......however, they were about to meet the most unusual, if not downright alien, settlement they had met so far......

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Strangers from across the seas.....

The Arabian Warrior Band approached the Southern coasts with trepidation. On the shore was constructed a village whose architecture didn't match any that the Arabian people had encountered on this Continent before. Wooden huts-some raised on stilts, with lots of small canoes darting in & out of the natural channel. Many of the men wandering the paths between the huts had tanned skin, & faces covered with strange looking tattoos. As the Warriors approached the village, a small group of these alien looking people came out to meet them......then stopped & began doing a terrifying looking dance in front of the warriors.

The Arabian Warriors put down their weapons & held up their hands-to show they meant the villagers no harm, & the villagers escorted them to the largest & most impressive hut in the village....to meet their leader.



It took several weeks for the Warriors to explain to this man-Kupe-who they were & where they came from. In return, via lots of hand gestures & pictures drawn on the floor of the hut, Kupe explained how his own people had left one of the Southern Islands, & sailed here to Arctica to settle a new home.

Then, with introductions & background out of the way, Kupe's people offered to go to Cairo to establish a permanent presence there, & took a number of gifts along with them



Not wishing to offend this new Civilization on their shores, Hufn Sadiq even managed to stomach the grubs that were offered to him. He hoped that Kupe would eventually declare an official state of friendship between their two peoples. Sadly, however, it just seemed not to be!

 

[kaltorak]

omg a picture lets play instead of a video one, awesome!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

omg a picture lets play instead of a video one, awesome!

Seriously, I write far better than a speak, so a video Lets Play was never on the cards. Anyway, this way allows me to package the game-play in a more "narrative" way.

 

[Ozbenno]

Pictures make it easier to get into the story, rather than videos I find.

 

[cholsy]

I love this type of AAR, flavored with imagination.
Looking forward to the next chapter !!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I love this type of AAR, flavored with imagination.
Looking forward to the next chapter !!

Next chapter will hopefully be tomorrow sometime .

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

The Cult of Aule Part 1....

As previously mentioned, the Arabian people had always attributed mystical powers to the vast tracts of stone that surrounded their ancient hunting grounds. Such was the ubiquity & utility of stone, they believed that it could have only been created by a supernatural being.



These spiritual beliefs were only further deepened by their ongoing contact with the nearby Nazca Settlement, then deepened further still when they encountered a massive archway in the Western Desert-a door seemingly connecting the desert to the lake beyond. The Arabians believed that such a thing could only have been created artificially!





Over time, the people of Cairo started to come up with several unofficial pantheons-with only two things in common between them......a Supreme Being who presided over the things beneath the Earth, & their crafting, & his consort who was believed to preside over all the living things that existed above the ground. As the craftspeople became better at shaping the stone into tools, weapons & housing materials, the more the Arabian people believed these craftspeople to be blessed by this Supreme Being



Over time, the loose Coalition of families, living in the settlement of Cairo, finally came together officially under a Shamanic Tribal Structure, ruled by Abd-Al Qadir-a direct descendant of Hufn Sadiq-& his small council of Priests. The priests annointed Abd is semi-Divine & a conduit between the Arabian People & their disparate Pantheons.



Over time, Abd began to consolidate the various pantheons into one official, tribal sanctioned Pantheon-with Aule & his consort, Yavanna (known to some as Artemis), at its head. Moreover, to signify the importance of Aule in their new pantheon, all ceremonies were to be conducted within specially built stone circles, scattered around the growing settlement!





As the worship of Aule & the other Gods & Goddesses became more popular within Cairo, however, Abd-Al Qadir decided that a far, far grander Stone Circle was needed to truly honour the name of Aule.....

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

The Cult of Aule Part 2....

The grand Circle envisioned by Abd-Al Qadir took several decades before it neared its completion, & the Chief was already in his twilight years by the time the last stone was put in place.....but it was finally done!



What Abd-Al Qadir didn't realise was that a revered Holy Man from across the sea was visiting the Settlement of Cairo for the last decade or so, trying to better understand the Arabic Pantheon, & the worship of Aule in particular. When he saw the completed Henge, he finally understood the reverence of Aule, & declared to the Arabian people that Aule alone should be the focus of their devotion. It was this declaration, more than any, that led to the birth of The Cult of Aule!





The key tenet of the religion was to emulate their Deity, Aule, by engaging in as much physical labour as possible, especially the crafting of objects & buildings from various materials hewn from the Earth. This tenet also formed the basis of certain government policies, such as the establishment of a state funded Workforce!



It wasn't long before the Cult of Aule had spread to Arabia's nearest neighbor-Nazca-leading them to acknowledge Arabia as their Suzerain!



With the growing power of this new religion, the latest leader-Chieftess Uzza-concluded that it was time to form a new, more inclusive government structure. So she decided to allow the people to elect members of the burgeoning Priesthood to represent them in her government, as both advisers & policy makers.

One of their first pieces of advice was that, with the intense happiness & prosperity of the rapidly growing Arabian Nation, it was important to tap into the strong faith of the people to urge them to help build the vital infrastructure that they were still lacking & to be willing to leave Cairo in search of fertile new lands to settle!



This policy certainly worked, with a large band of families heading north to settle the banks of the Tigris river!





To be continued.....