Kasadgad

From Almeopedia

Geography

Kasadgad lies on a broad, flat plain, dominated by a wide, slow river, the Aiwa. The primeval land cover was forest, except for grasses in the rich alluvial plain, and wetlands along the extensive littoral. The closest Earthly analogue would be the Gangetic plain of northern India.

The heartland of Kasadgad is the river delta, but settlement also extends along the river and the littoral.

The Aiwa runs west to east. To the east is the sea; to the south is a hot jungle area; to the north are high mountains; to the west is a rugged, dry region. There are other major civilizations farther west and across the sea to the east.

Reasoning: Much of this is closely based on the lexicon. There are basic roots for grass and forest, but not clay; this seems to point to a more temperate location than Mesopotamia. The basic sea life/land life distinction points to the fundamental importance of the sea. And a single word for mountain/hill suggests a flat region where neither term is very important. (This being the case, there being a root for 'snow' reinforces the more temperate location.)

History

Kasadgad has no natural defenses (except the sea), and has thus been invaded and conquered many times. The Ndak are not the earliest inhabitants; those were the Ngauro, who established civilization, including writing, but were divided into squabbling city-states.

The Ndak originally lived along the middle Aiwa; this region is still called Latsomo 'motherland'. They were briefly ruled by the Ngauro, but soon established a kingdom of their own. They fought several wars with the Ngauro and finally conquered them. Over time the Ngauro language was replaced with Ndak Ta, and indeed the perceived center of the Ndak world shifted to the more populous delta.

The Ndak in their turn have been conquered (once by hill tribes from the north, twice by nomads from the west), but their edge in population is now secure; they eventually either revolted, or absorbed their conquerors.

After the Ndak expelled the last of the conquerors, they entered a new period of vigor, which culminated in the conquest of the entire Aiwa plain, the littoral, and much of the rugged mountains to the west. Much of this was the work of one dynasty of emperors; Tsinakan was the third in this line and perhaps the greatest of them all.

The Ndak Ta language as Radius has described it dates to this dynasty. The subsequent history of the empire's successor states I leave to you.

Think of the Ndak empire as a bronze age empire, comparable to Assyria and Babylon. Civilization does not stretch into the dim past; its origins among the Ngauro are a matter of historical memory, no more than 2000 years past. (There is a legendary past before this, however.) As a corollary, the daughter languages do not take us to modern times, but to an iron age, perhaps comparable to Roman times.

Culture

As the sample text indicates, Kasadgad has many gods, with a special emphasis on the sun and moon, and the goddess Ombàsi. 'God' is an open-ended category; kings become gods upon their deaths.

The Ndak themselves are agricultural, dependent on the bounty of the Aiwa and the sea. The people live largely on grains and seafood-- meat is a luxury and full of religious significance. Wild animals are largely extinct in the Aiwa valley, and devoting alluvial land to pasture is a great luxury, so sheep are few, though they may be acquired through trade. Oxen are used for plowing, while cows are valued for providing milk and dung (used for fuel and for building). Horses are not native to the region, though the western nomads have mastered them.

In the delta, houses are normally made of dried mud; upriver, of wood. Fine buildings in both areas are made of wood and stone.

The Ndak are a very stratified society: the kings at the top, priests and nobles below them, then peasants, then a large class of slaves. The economy is centrally directed; all land belongs to the king, though nobles have the right of inheritance; officials direct everything from planting to craft work. There are no markets; trade is a matter of large-scale barter between kings-- under the empire, it is organized by the state.

The nobility is trained for war; they are the core of the Ndak army, though it relies heavily on the military skills of the conquered peoples (e.g., westerners form the cavalry).

Though Ndak mores are brutal by our standards-- the criminal code relies heavily on amputating offending members; conquered cities are sacked and the citizens enslaved; the nobles are polygamous; human sacrifice is common-- the duty of kings is to bring order and prosperity. Outside of wartime, there is little to fear from lawlessness or banditry. Nobles and priests cultivate the arts (music, poetry, sculpture) and the useful sciences (astronomy, herblore, metallurgy, soothsaying).