Hannibal's Wake
- Thread starter leopard9
- Start date
This is amazing! I do hope though that Romans regain their ambitions but merely turn them elsewhere.
I am very happy that west Africa is being pulled into the greater civilizational sphere a few centuries earlier.
This prophet, though, this Meir.... He scares me. I fear for Baal Ha'amon.
I was curious as to how Egyptians encouraged to migrate into foreign areas felt about living in foreign soil when, from what little I know, there was widespread belief that death away from Egypt would exclude one from the after-life.
Could you provide some context about as to how this might have changed under the new dynasty from the past ones?
Other than that, great chapter.
I was curious as to how Egyptians encouraged to migrate into foreign areas felt about living in foreign soil when, from what little I know, there was widespread belief that death away from Egypt would exclude one from the after-life.
Could you provide some context about as to how this might have changed under the new dynasty from the past ones?
Other than that, great chapter.
They're going to live in a foreign land but it's not just villagers going to a new land. The Egyptian government is doing its best to transplant as much as Egypt as possible in their new territory. Priests are also being sponsored in the Levant by the Restored Kingdom to make sure the villagers go through the proper burial rites upon death. In effect, they don't seek to eliminate the native population but they do plan to "Egyptianize" the land, inspired by the partial-Hellenization Egypt went through. And in Ankhmakis' mind, eventually their new territory will become part of "Egypt" given enough time. Egyptian culture has been affected by over a century of exposure to Greek culture so the elite is more amenable to the idea of living and dying outside of Egypt. And Egypt has had colonies in the Levant before so it's not a stretch that they'd establish a colony again.
Donald Reaver
Donor
I would think that some procedure would have been set up in the past. Otherwise you would be sending ambassadors who if they believe they and their families who die outside of Egypt are doomed in the afterlife. Not something that would give any way to trust them to represent you.
Chapter 5: The Path of the Two Gods
The Path of the Two Gods
“May the Father be praised! May the Mother be adored!”
A traditional Aksumite psalm praising the Two Gods of Creation.
40 BCE – 8 CE
“May the Father be praised! May the Mother be adored!”
A traditional Aksumite psalm praising the Two Gods of Creation.
40 BCE – 8 CE
Meir was born to a Jewish family in the town of Nazareth around 40 BCE under the Egyptian rule of the Levant. Egyptian emigrants and Persian merchants along with their gods were an established part of Meir’s world while growing up. As he matured, he learned his father’s trade of carpentry and it seemed he would lead an ordinary life. But in his early 20s, he became close friends with Jahan, a Persian man and devout follower of Zoroastrianism, and the two would often discuss the intricacies of their respective beliefs along with their mutual interest in the Egyptian gods. And during his spare time, he would meditate on these differences.
When he reached 30, he began to preach of a new faith. Two gods were responsible for creating the world, one male and the other female. Together they created everything and through them, everything was sustained. They each had their own domains which they had created and presided over. However they both influenced the other’s domains, much as the moon influences the ocean. The Father was strongly associated with water, stars, and lightning while the Mother was connected with the earth, fire, and the moon. Everything in creation belonged in either the Father or the Mother’s domains, except for the following: humans, knowledge, love, fertility, justice, and life and death. These things belonged to the Two Gods in equal measure. The world was also inhabited by angels and lesser earthly spirits. Each spirit had a purpose in this world but humans were unique in this regard. They had been created by the Gods simply out of a desire to create beings to fully experience the world the Gods had made. Unique to creation, humans were half divine and half earthly creatures, forever torn between these two conflicting natures. When people died, they would have to eventually choose between their two natures: become fully earthly and cease to exist or become fully divine and live forever in Paradise with the Two Gods. Leading people away from Paradise was an adversarial spirit who was once divine but now infernal who was destined to be destroyed by the Father and the Mother in the end times.
Furthermore, belief in them was solely imperative for access to the afterlife, the abode of the two gods and to avoid being swept from existence. He began to travel around the province, preaching his faith and gaining a sizable following. Eventually, he traveled to Egypt after he learned of a conspiracy on his life by the local authorities and in 6 BCE, settled in Avaris with a few of his followers along his closest friend and foremost disciple Jahan. This religion was particularly popular with the common folk and women with its promise of immortality and a female goddess the equal of her male counterpart, with no “weighing of the heart” trial to undergo. Meir later died of a fever in 8 CE, where he asked to see Jahan on his deathbed. There he thanked Jahan for his friendship and constant support and passed on the leadership of the religion to him, blessing him with “May the Father and the Mother guide your path, and do not look so sad, we will see each other again.” And while many hybrid religions faded with their founder, by luck or by providence, this one spread within the Delta and down the Nile in the years following his death. Some of Meir’s acolytes were literate in Late Demotic and Coptic and so were able to transcribe sections of what he wrote down and said, as well as their own thoughts on Meir’s teachings in a book that eventually became known as The Tome. In the few years after Meir’s death, The Two God Path or Meirism, as it came to be called, was regarded by Egyptian nobles as merely another peasant cult, albeit one more popular and organized than others.
Followers of the Two God Path came from all walks of life which proved crucial to spreading their religion. Merchants who followed the Path established temples in Meroe and Aksum and the priests that maintained them started to win a few converts. And in time the Two Gods came to the western sands and savannas of Africa.
This religion is amazing! It's a unique take on the Christianity card by promoting the emancipation of women, rather than slaves, which were the fair of the Roman Empire. Actually, wouldn't that appeal even more to Sub Saharan peoples? As I understand it their women were freer and could take more liberties.
How it spreads to Europe though- I have a feeling that it's going to be funny. I'm just wondering if there's going to be a Scramble for Almania in the future.
How it spreads to Europe though- I have a feeling that it's going to be funny. I'm just wondering if there's going to be a Scramble for Almania in the future.
Chapter 6: Elands and Agriculture
Elands and Agriculture
80 – 900 CE
80 – 900 CE
Between 80-100 CE, a pivotal moment for Sub-Saharan Africa occurred. In this time period, the earliest evidence is found indicating humans and giant elands living in close proximity to each other, though there are a few pieces of artwork that hint at even earlier attempts at taming giant elands. The evidence was found in the tsetse fly belt of West Africa, suggesting that people started taming giant eland because of need for a draft animal and were inspired to do so because of their knowledge of and interaction with camels, horses, and donkeys. Giant eland are relatively docile and non-territorial but at the same time wary of predators. To alleviate their wariness, people probably acclimatized giant elands to human presence by putting out salt licks and slowly approaching them. Curiously, the oldest eland bones found in human habitations are those of weaned juveniles, suggesting that people concentrated their taming efforts on younger, less dangerous elands that would presumably be more malleable in their behavior.
There are several reasons why humans would domesticate giant elands. Giant elands provide large amounts of meat, nutritious milk, and high quality hides, even when fed an inferior diet to what cattle eat. Their milk can also be kept for several weeks whereas cow milk can only be kept for a few days before spoiling. They are remarkably strong animals and can be used to draw carts and plows and be used to aid in construction and clearing the land. Furthermore, they have are exceptionally quick animals and can be used for transportation. Finally, they are immune to the tsetse fly and do not require water in the same quantities cows do. The domestication of eland is thought to have occurred just east of the Niger River and spread to the banks of the western ocean to the tip of the southern cape by 900 CE.
The taming and subsequent spread of the giant eland transformed Africa. Plow agriculture largely replaced hoe agriculture as the eland spread throughout the continent, resulting in larger yields and enabling communities to devote less time to agriculture. Men took an increased role in agriculture as they became responsible for clearing, plowing, and planting the earth as well as herding and breeding the elands. Women became responsible for weeding and harvesting the fields as well as milking the elands and processing the milk and grain. They were also responsible for maintaining small garden plots for familial use. Young men were responsible for such actions as they were by and large the only group capable of the strength needed to control elands. And as the young men gained greater societal power, they leveraged this into earlier access to marriage. Due to this and the onus being placed increasingly on the man to provide for his wife and children, monogamy increased which led to a decreased age gap between husband and wife, though wealthy individuals would often engage in polygyny. With a beast of burden that could pull carts and move through many different environments, from arid desert to humid forest, trade rapidly grew and the merchants who controlled those routes became increasingly wealthy as goods could be transported much more quickly and easily. Archaeologists find that the spread of the giant eland positively correlated with significant increases in community population size and health as determined by the number of burial plots, the height of the people, and the conditions of their bones. Infant mortality also decreased, prompting a significant bias towards lactose tolerance, unusual for a tropical environment.
But giant eland taming was not without its disadvantages. Warfare became increasingly common as communities sought to control the best grazing grounds and eland herds and the later development of a giant eland-based cavalry led to warfare on a scale that had before not been seen in Sub-Saharan Africa. Parasites spread from eland into human populations. Society became more stratified. Before, the age set system had helped to prevent the rise of notable lineages but giant eland converted otherwise useless bushes, shrubs, and grass into movable forms of wealth that could be controlled and inherited. Additionally, unregulated browsing combined with ironworking led to desertification in semi-arid areas and the decline of several civilizations.
Chapter 7: Ansongo Rising
Ansongo Rising
160 CE
160 CE
The chief imperial jali* did his best not to appear anxious as he quickly made his way over to the imperial hall where the king and queen held court. He had received urgent summons in the middle of a writing lesson with his apprentices to appear in the hall as soon as he possible. The king had called an impromptu meeting of most prominent officials in the capital. Sarjo reached the doors to the throne room, took a moment to compose himself, a deep breath, and then entered. The hall was made in the classic Mandinka style with mudbrick columns and arches with intricately woven rugs, both domestic and foreign. Baturu, the king, sat in the middle of the room along with his wife, Oba. The king was a handsome man in the prime of his life and Oba was as radiant as polished copper. But it was the new addition to the throne room that drew Sarjo's attention. The skin of some great shaggy animal with a hyena-like snout and sickle-like claws was draped across the back of the hardwood throne.
The king stood up, instantly quieting the room before he spoke. “Sarjo, how many kingdoms lie among the Niger?"
“Five, my king” Sarjo quickly answered.
“Five kingdoms of our people lie along the Niger River. We share the same language, the same writing, the same gods, and yet we feud endlessly with each other. It is not right for our people to do so, especially when there are so many enemies that surround us. Five… all with populations less than Ansongo?”
“Indeed, over one million souls reside in your domain and half a million more in our client states. Mopti has two hundred thousand, Jenne has four hundred thousand, Ke Macina has one hundred thousand, and Koulikoro contains six hundred thousand.”
Baturu was silent as the jali listed the Mande states with their populations from east to west. It was Oba who spoke next, “Perhaps it is time a mansa united our people. The desert clans demand greater tribute for their part in the protection of the caravans and the nomads raid more frequently. These skirmishes threaten to spiral into a war that will leave us vulnerable and ultimately to our demise. We must stop this infighting, this constant struggle for supremacy.”
While the Berbers were indeed threatening to restrict the desert trade, Sarjo privately suspected that it was competition from the other Mandinka kingdoms that vexed Baturu most of all.
Baturu spoke then, “Mopti and Ke Macina grow bolder with each month, disrupting our trade and attacking our caravans, and enslaving Ansongo’s citizens. Their incursions would seem to be a display of strength but my spies tell a different story. Their croplands turn into dust as their herds grow too large and their demand for iron strips the land bare. Like lions dying from their wounds, lashing out at every passing thing. Left alone they may just as easily atrophy or regain their strength, but this an opportunity that may not come again. With one stroke, we ensure our survival and gain control over the trade with Carthage and the forest chiefdoms. As Sarjo said, we have the men, the grain, and the wealth to vanquish them all.”
It was now that Sarjo fully grasped why the king had called him, to legitimize his ascension from king to mansa and to provide the recorded context of why such a claim had been made. If the campaigns succeeded, he would be lofted as a protective king that had conquered out of humanitarian impulses. If the conquests went less favorably, the king would be able to defend himself against accusations of greed and hubris from the scribes and province-masters, because of what his trusted chief jali had told him of the state of the other Niger River kingdoms.
Dutifully, Sarjo spoke, “And so what is your charge, my king?” The pause before the plunge, thought Sarjo.
With a smile so slight that only those that knew the king would have noticed it, Baturu addressed the whole gathering. “Begin the preparations for war. Soon our people will bow to one mansa alone.”
*jali is the Mandinka word for griot
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Has Meirism already spread this far? If not, I would say this name is awfully anachronistic.
It has not. That was a holdover from an earlier draft. The person's name is Sarjo.
Yeah... Unified West Africa.
Well, at least a unified Niger River valley. A unified West Africa will have to wait, if it ever happens.
Anyone want to guess what kind of animal's skin is on Baturu's throne?
Well, at least a unified Niger River valley. A unified West Africa will have to wait, if it ever happens.
Anyone want to guess what kind of animal's skin is on Baturu's throne?
European wolf?