Nan
From Almeopedia
| < NAN |
Nan is a kingdom located in the tropical rain forest of Ereláe, south of the Zone of Fire and north of the Alfonine Coast. Nanese civilization includes the Little Kingdoms to the south, and the islands of Moreo Ašcai and Lascita, all settled from Nan; a small group of Nanese also crossed the Zone of Fire to create the civilization of the Bekkai.
Nan itself occupies the coast from the Zone of Fire south to the Nyeinyɔm peninsula; settlement is concentrated on the two great rivers, the o-Nyöü in the north and the o-Löüta in the south. The main city is o-Dayevu, though the residence of the o-nɛki or king is at o-Seyino upstream.
Etymology: Nan is Ver. for ‘north’; the native name is o-Kɔi su-mim su-neilem ‘the great country of the people of the littoral’.
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Ecology
Nan is part of the great tropical forest that covers the northern portion of Ereláe. Humans of the Telise stock have lived as hunter/gatherers in the jungle for thousands of years; like other hunter/gatherers they were undoubtedly aware of the mechanism of crop growth and fostered the growth of edible plants, but saw no particular reason to settle down as farmers.
However, the littoral of the northern coast, a region of lakes, marshes, and slow-moving rivers, along with the coast protected by barrier islands, was so rich in fish and shellfish that it encouraged permanent settlement, and this in term encouraged the development of garden agriculture (which relies on clearing a field, planting crops for a few years, and moving on when the fertility of the soil decreases).
The littoral— the neilem, the ‘river-sea’, in Nanese— was thus the laboratory for the development of Ereláe tropical agriculture, which had matured by the first century (i.e. 3500 years ago). The staple crops were rice, sugar cane, the trow bean, and yams. Various fruits, nuts, spices, and leaves were also eaten or used for magic or medicine; biodiversity is high in the rain forest and hundreds of plants and animals were useful in one way or another.
Animal protein was largely provided by hunting or fishing; the only notable domestic animal was the tsou or guinea pig; families usually kept half a dozen or so living in their huts.
Various reeds and leaves were used for matting, baskets, building materials, rope, or shoes. There was no native plant suitable for textiles; but there was also no real need for clothes, though hide was used for carryable bags as well as mocassins. Men wore a penis sheath, made of various materials, which hid the penis while emphasizing its shape; women wore nothing at all, though both sexes decorated the body with mud, paint, feathers, necklaces, beads, and sometimes scarification.
This lifestyle spread through the rain forest, including the Rau jungle, but incompletely; especially in the interior of the continent, many peoples lived as hunter/gatherers.
History
The rice revolution
Almean rice is native to wetlands, and germinates only in shallow water. Areas suitable for rice cultivation abound in the neilem, but not all are necessarily extensive or convenient. Around 1000 the Nanese started to irrigate, building small plots lined with narrow ridges (ȟâ) which were flooded to create rice paddies. This enabled an enormous increase in population density, and also of course permanent settlement (as the paddies retained their fertility even after years of cultivation).
Other crops were grown, still in shifting plots; trow beans indeed became the main source of protein as game grew scarce (though seafood was still important). The irrigation works could be built by individual farmers, but the control of water flow and the safeguarding of land rights required strong communities which developed into city-states.
Small, fast boats (myɔm) were developed early on, used to travel to distant garden plots or for raids on neighboring tribes, and then for trading.
Around 1400 a small group of Nanese crossed the Zone of Fire, perhaps during a latent period of the Zone, and began to colonize the Bekkai. They brought Nanese agricultural techniques, but evidently did not come from the intensive rice-cultivating area, or didn’t find the Bekkai suitable for irrigation.
Contact with the south
Starting in the 1500s, ships began to appear, manned by strange pale-faced people wearing odd wrappings and bearing frighteningly efficient weapons: Caďinorian traders. They considered Nan too far and too primitive to be worth conquering, but they were happy to trade metal goods, linen, cotton and silk, wine and other manufactures for Nanese rice, gold, hides, timber, nuts, fruit, and spices.
The Caďinorians also introduced the chicken and the pig to the Nanese, and both populations looked for foreign crops that could be grown locally— notably oranges, which began to be grown in Eretald, and hemp which could be grown in the hills south of Nan.
The upper classes imitated Caďinorian dress and armor, using imported cloth when it was available and rough substitutes when it was not. There wasn’t enough metal to make breastplates, so these were imitated using bark, canvas, or leather. There were few Caďinorian women to serve as models, so female dress was adopted instead from the wrapped robes of (male) traders. As this was not very practical in the jungle, and soft cloths were expensive luxuries, these evolved into a light cape or cloak, normally left open in the front.
The Nanese kingdom
The Nanese city-states had always been contentious, but trade ratcheted up the level of conflict. It's all very well to have trading partners, but you get the best deals when your partner is laid out at your feet. By about 1800 three kingdoms (unɛya) had emerged, centered on the cities of o-Dayevu (‘the great market’) at the head of the o-Nyöü, Lainyeü (‘strong town’) upstream, and Ɔmsɔ (‘warlord (town)’) at the head of the o-Löüta.
During the decline of Caďinas trade became unreliable, sparking a scramble to find local substitutes for imported goods. This included the beginnings of metallurgy; the Nyeinyɔm or Sacred Hills to the south proved to be a source of tin, used to produce bronze weapons. Securing the region of the hills also spurred the development of larger boats.
It was Ɔmsɔ that established control over the tin mines, and after a sound defeat of o-Dayevu its king proclaimed himself the first o-nɛki of the People of the Neilem, around 2100. Stories differ on whether he actually occupied o-Dayevu or not.
In any case o-Dayevu chafed under its defeat, and its king o-Ȟama organized a suprise attack (c. 2150) which succeeded in burning both the city of Ɔmsɔ (almost entirely constructed of wood) and its fleet. Ɔmsɔ rallied, but o-Ȟama convinced Lainyeü that it was also under threat, and the allies defeated the southerners entirely.
O-Ȟama took his rival’s title, becoming king or emperor of Nan; but this was not enough— it was unacceptable that the first king of Nan was a foreigner who had defeated o-Dayevu. In an oral culture, however, it is not impossible to change history. O-Ȟama spread the story that his line had always been the rightful kings of Nan; the war with Ɔmsɔ was merely the suppression of a rebellion. He executed the elite of Ɔmsɔ to discourage counter-stories, and defeated Lainyeü when it attempted to act like an ally rather than a province.
The fact that we don’t even know the name of the kings of Ɔmsɔ testifies to the success of o-Ȟama’s revisionism; but the people of Ɔmsɔ remembered the true story, and as it happens there is outside confirmation— a curious Caďinorian, one Zulazonnos, visited Nan in 2125 and wrote an account of his travels, clearly describing the supremacy of “Onso” over “Odaȟivu” and its recent history.
Exploration and expansion
The Nanese vigorously expanded their zone of settlement, along the rivers into the jungle, and southward along the coast— the Alfonine Coast, literally the Elephant (âu) Hunting region, as elephants were found here; later gold and other metals became even more of a draw. By 2300 settlement had reached Lae-Atu.
The Alfonine Coast was also useful as a source of slaves. The Nanese periodically attempted to enslave primitives from the interior jungle; but these were regrettably lax workers, prone to waste away rather than apply themselves. Criminals could be enslaved, but not in high qualities. The colonies supplied reliable workers who, as a bonus, spoke Nanese. There was no need for coercion; the towns were happy to sell off their poorest people. (What of the corresponding classes in Nan itself? Often enough they migrated to the Alfonine towns, where life was reputed to be easier; generally it wasn’t, and their children might find themselves back in Nan as slaves.)
Nanese settlement now extended over 1200 km along the coast, and ships became even larger to accommodate trade (as well as central control). The Nanese discovered that just south of the Zone of Fire the ocean is fairly calm and windless, while south of that the winds tend to be westerly; it was thus possible to row east and sail back as far as one wished. This did not seem to be a very fruitful discovery until a very intrepid and well-supplied crew managed the 2700 km crossing to Lascita, around 2400. Further exploration happened upon Moreo Ašcai half a century later.
Both were settled and were considered parts of the o-nɛki’s dominion, though given the distance this was not much more than nominal. The most interesting discovery on Moreo Ašcai was kaȟau, coffee; this was declared a royal monopoly and for some time justified a fairly large garrison on the islands, but this level of control evaporated when it was discovered that coffee grew equally well at home in Nan. The islands were largely left to develop on their own.
Ups and downs
A series of weak o-nɛki led to a decline of Nanese civilization in the 2500s. The root cause may have been ecological; there are legends of abandoned cities and tyeuki matsɔya “walking dead” that suggest some kind of devastating plague. Control over the Alfonine Coast was lost; its major towns became the Little Kingdoms (unɛyamɔi). The line of the kings in o-Dayevu was maintained, but actual power devolved to regional warlords (ɔmsɔ).
Around 2800 Köüdɔi the warlord of Laidöü on the o-Nyöü succeeded in unifying the river valley and conquering o-Dayevu. He did not depose the o-nɛki, which would make him a usurper; but he did move him to the small town of o-Seyino a short distance upstream from o-Dayevu, where he could be easily watched, and kept busy with ceremonial duties. Köüdɔi’s son Âunyɔm consolidated control over Nan and received the tribute of the Little Kingdoms.
The Kebreni challenge
About the same time, ships from Kebri began regularly reaching Nan. The Nanese soon perceived that the tsisim or “Caďinorians” had greatly advanced; their deep-sea ships dwarfed Nan’s vessels, and the outlanders brought such marvels as steel, porcelain, glass, the compass, distilled liquors, and not much later than this, black powder and spun cloth. The Nanese gawked at their fitted jackets and hosiery, so different from Caďinorian dress; and then started buying and imitating them.
Traders in the coastal towns bought and distributed as many foreign goods as they could afford and where possible created local imitations; fortunately, the outlanders paid high prices for such local products as coffee, vanilla and other spices, sugar, and trow bean sauce. A worrisome amount of gold and silver was also traded away.
The o-ɔmsɔ in Laidöü, far upstream, began to seem dangerously out of touch; their only interest in foreign goods was for armor and weapons, and their response to the increasing wealth of the traders was to tax them harder in order to generate revenue to pay for steel weapons.
| Nan | |
| 2150- | |
| Native: | o-Kɔi su-mim su-neilem |
| Verdurian: | Nan |
| Characteristics | |
| Capital: | o-Dayevu |
| Government: | kingdom |
| Ruler’s title | o-nɛki |
| Language: | Nanese |
| Religions: | animism |
In 3165 the tensions finally led to revolution. The merchants of o-Dayevu proclaimed that the o-nɛki o-Seutsɛ was the only rightful ruler of Nan. The o-ɔmsɔ sent his army to subdue the city, but the merchants had hired two shiploads of Kebreni sailors, who helped the locals defeat the warlord’s army. O-Seutsɛ naturally governed more in the interests of the traders than the traditional large landowners.
In 3170 he ordered the development of a writing system: “As the foreigners draw words on paper, so you shall draw words on paper.” His advisers developed a syllabary— two of them in fact, as there were symbols to be used only for sacred and royal words.
The Kebreni were soon joined by merchants from Verduria, Érenat, and Flora; however, they had no great tolerance for competition. By the 3200s they had established effective political control over Moreo Ašcai (their major source of coffee), and declared the ports of the Little Kingdoms off-limits to their rivals. This was one of the precipitating factors for the Kebreni-Verdurian wars of 3266-3284.
The result was that Verdurian and other ships could not be kept out; but the Kebreni continued to press for control over the local rulers. The Little Kingdoms, Lascita, and Moreo Ašcai are now effectively Kebreni protectorates. Nan itself was perfectly aware of the threat of Kebreni domination, and saw that its best protection was close relations with Verduria.
Culture
Economic structure
If there was a culture test for Nan, one entry would be “You are a rice farmer.” The vast majority of the population cultivate small plots of rice along the rivers. A given family will also tend a garden plot away from the river to grow trow beans and yam, sometimes a very long trek away; the family will also likely raise guinea pigs and chickens. Sugar cane, hemp, and coffee are grown by specialists.
About a third of the peasants are freeholders (matyɛi) who own their own land, even if the plots are tiny; the rest are effectively serfs (maloma) who owe a crippling fraction of their produce to the landowner. Landowners (pɔki) range from farming families with a single serf family to warlords with extensive estates and thousands of serfs. (Matyɛi and pɔki both own land, but are distinct classes; the difference in Nanese is whether they have serfs or not.)
The rice fields are optimized for irrigation and have no room for houses; the family is likely to live in a village, again perhaps a long walk from their fields. Larger towns support specialized trades from craftsmen to merchants to soldiers. The word for ‘merchant’ is mamyɔm, literally ‘boat-man’; the typical merchant is not a person with a shop but one with a boat, who follows a set route, buying and selling at each stop. Similary, a market (dayevu) is prototypically a gathering of boats.
Slaves (ȟata) have a curiously ambivalent status. They're considered the lowest class, without rights— even serfs have some rights (e.g. you can’t murder them or take all their produce). On the other hand they normally work as servants or laborers in cities or in landowners’ houses— so they’re likely to more presentable and civilized than the grimy servants or even freeholders. They’re often given great authority in a household— but only after castration, so they can be trusted with the womenfolk and have no heirs to divide their interests.
Sex roles
Nanese society is male-dominant by our standards, but for the lower classes the overwhelming reality is hard work, not sexism. Women are subject to their fathers and then their husbands; but they're also considered to have sharp tongues, and their authority over their children is absolute. Among the lower classes, both sexes marry whoever their parents find for them and are expected to be monogamous.
For most people, economic resources— freeholds, serfs, estates, boats— cannot be divided and thus go to the oldest son. (If there are only daughters, the oldest is the full heir, and retains her property upon marriage.) Families have enough children to cover the large mortality rates, but that still leaves a lot of younger sons; they may help out their brothers, become traders or servants, migrate to the cities, settle new areas, marry an heiress, or— failing all that— drift into serfdom.
In older times landowners were allowed multiple wives; as this produced multiple heirs it was only suitable for areas of new settlement. Landowners may take concubines, however, and indeed are expected to take several as an indicator of status.
Nanese society doesn’t make a big deal of virginity, but it does disapprove of adultery, as it disrupts social harmony. If anything the male is considered more culpable, but not out of respect for women— quite the opposite; women are barely considered moral agents. Rather, the male is considered to have gravely offended the woman's husband or father.
In primeval society, tribes were divided into thirds (mâ); among other rules, individuals could only marry someone from a different mâ. This rule is still observed, though the mâ have no other social meaning.
Clothing
Nanese clothing forms a complex code indicating region, sex, age, and class.
Freeholders and serfs wear simple skirts, usually of homemade hemp cloth. Women wear necklaces in addition, often extended into a wide decorated band; they also wear a sort of harness that allows carrying a baby on the back. Long hair is considered manly; women and children wear their hair short.
Slaves are allowed no clothes at all; indeed the word ȟata means ‘naked one’. As a corollary, all the other classes punctiliously avoid any sort of nakedness outside the home.
Landowners in the interior still wear outfits modelled on Caďinorian dress of two milennia ago. Men wear a chest covering and stiff skirt made of leather or canvas; women wear wrapped skirts and capes of the softest material they can afford (hemp, linen, cotton, or silk). Children, however, wear the simple skirts of the lower classes.
In the coastal cities it's fashionable to dress in approximations of the clothes of Eretald: shirts and trousers for the men, fitted dresses (or blouses plus skirts) for the women. The truly dedicated even wear jackets, quite an encumbrance in the tropical heat. Imported clothes are valued most highly, but there are local imitations. Visitors from Eretald are generally amused by the fashion faux pas: women with fancy skirts going topless in the heat; men wearing imported women's blouses; inappropriate headgear such as sailors’ caps or academic süpî; mixtures of flaidish, Verdurian, and Kebreni items.
Government
The most important function of government is still the recording of land rights. This is done at the village level, by officials known as troiki ‘rememberers’; they are able to reconstitute the entire village’s plots from memory after a flood or fire; they also serve as historians, remembering local legends, genealogies, and laws. Marriages must be cleared with the troiki to make sure mâ rules are followed.
The central government has several functions:
- Defense. It maintains a small army, and has the right to levy districts for troops; but as there are no serious nearby threats, the military is not a very important part of Nanese life.
- Justice— mainly the enforcement of property rights and adjudicating disputes between landowners. There is a traditional wariness of provincial administrations, which could become dissident power sources; so this function is served by roving judges.
- The maintenance of royal rice storehouses for famine assistance.
- Royal rituals (see Religion below).
- Certain royal monopolies; e.g. silver mining; in theory only the king may buy steel weapons from foreign traders, though this is widely flouted.
- Foreign relations; this mainly used to involve accepting tribute from the Little Kingdoms and keeping a tight watch on foreign traders; it’s now more of a foreign ministry. The foreign traders have extraterritorial rights, but only in certain enclaves in the cities; the government still works to keep them out of the interior.
The larger cities have councils of burghers who regulate trade, keep crime in check, and enforce local laws. However, they cannot elect their own leader, but must provide the king a list of candidates from which he picks one.
Language
The language of Nan is Nanese, which belongs to the Western family, and is thus related to the languages of the Bekkai and the Rau jungle. Each of the larger cities has its own distinctive pronunciation. There is social pressure to speak according to local norms if one migrates; but no real pressure for (say) outsiders to speak the dialect of o-Dayevu.
Nanese is no longer mutually intelligible with the languages of the Little Kingdoms, Moreo Ašcai, or Lascita.
As the writing system dates back only to 3170, there isn’t much consciousness of the historical development of the language. Writing is still mostly seen as a convenience for recordkeeping— the domain of bureaucrats and accountants. Merchants are generally literate; landowners see no need to be. The syllabary is readily adaptable to printing, however, and newspapers have been started in the cities, a venue for news, poems, and short stories.
Religion
Nanese religion is generally described as animist. Animals, trees, and mountains have souls (makoi); human souls are freed from the body at death; there are also spirits unconnected to any physical object, especially the moâi, responsible for diseases or curses. There are no gods per se, though there are stories of a pair of creators.
Shamans (emki) are intercessors between the human and spirit worlds; the basis for this role is their ability to leave their body and become pure makoi during trance states (umkoi). A shaman in umkoi can travel the world, communicate with other spirits, and cure those afflicted with moâi.
Emki are purely local and have never been associated with government. A completely separate set of ceremonies is associated with the o-nɛki; the king is essentially viewed as a divinity who must correctly perform rituals to assure the fertility of the land and people, model correct behavior, and guard against plagues and disasters. The person of the king is also subject to elaborate protocol— e.g. there are prescribed postures for each class in the presence of the king; only he is allowed to wear feathered hats or the color orange; no one may view him naked (his wives are blindfolded during sex); he may not ride in a rowboat, only a sailboat; there is even a personal pronoun which only the king may use (usɔ). These rules were even more extensive in the period of the warlords of Laidöü— with the purpose, of course, of keeping him out of actual politics.
| Article begun by Adso de Fimnu, largely rewritten by Zompist |
