Awesome! Thanks! And how will we be notified of whether our applications are accepted?

I'll post in here, along with a critique of your app (if applicable), saying what I'd like to see, or if it's more or less all good.

Sooooo...anyone in Cradle West interested in shared history or contact beyond what I've written so far?

Culture Name: Bo-Fang

Mythos: Before time itself was even created there were two being in the universe that created a balance between the negative energy of the universe and the positive energy. These beings created the the world that everyone knows now except that it was completely flat and barren which was perfect for these creatures that waged an endless struggle between good and evil. These two creatures look like massive dragons and they were in an eternal struggle to defeat each other and allow their energy to reign supreme in the universe. In order for this to happen each of the dragons raised up an army of creatures to fight for them with the positive energy giving birth to all creatures of the day and the negative energy giving rise for all creatures of the night and the combination of this negative and positive energy gave birth to the humans who fought on both sides of the conflict.

This war lasted for centuries with neither side gaining any upper hand with and the world became scarred and deformed from its natural flat form. Humans had built massive fortress cities on the surface which serves as bases for the negative and positive with war becoming a constant part of their lives with battles breaking out almost every week always with the dragons now called Ying and Yang leading the charge. These wars could only keep going for so long and the dragons could see this and decided to come to a truce to wipe the planet and start from anew while giving all the creatures of the planet a fresh start so by combining their abilities they destroyed the planet and everything on it.

When their work was done, Ying and Yang recreated all the creatures that and inhabited the planet before and than breathed new life into the humans with both good and evil. After all this was done the embodiment of both positive and negative light agreed to start their war again when the time was right but as for the moment they decided that they would rest and let the creatures of the world set their own paths for now. The two great beings set down on the planet they had created for their long rest and soon the world past them by and the ground around them swallowed them up with all that was remaining of Ying and Yang being their spines which are now known as the mountains.

Basic History: Give me a backstory to your peoples. Give me the transition from their mythos to their tangible, documentable history, give me the names of your culture’s greatest rulers, its grandest cities, its most magnificent victories. [600 words min]
Material Culture: Architecture, dress, culinary culture, art, symbolism, the glorious and delicious flavour that makes every culture unique. [300 words min]
Society: The social organization, class structure, subcultures, power and wealth localisation and disparity, give me all of it. [300 words min]
Geographic Nomenclature: What your culture calls the local geographic errata surrounding them. [100 words min]
Local Influences [Can be edited in regarding accepted or prospective neighbor cultures]: What does your culture call its neighbors? What kind of sociopolitical or linguistic influences do these neighbors have on your cultures. This really paves the way for some sweet collaboration, so pay special attention to this.

Here we go:

THE JALS



Demonym: Jalsavar (singular), Jalsavaran (plural)

Nomenclature: The term "Jals" is a neologism defined as the socio-cultural whole of which the Jalsavaran are a part – the people, the language, the land, the history, and what evolves into the national ethos of the Jalsavaran people. [Author’s Note: one might look to the Jews as a real-world example - the Jewish ethnic group, the Jewish faith, and the Jewish nation are all participants in a more fundamental Jewish identity, which in theory is not diminished by the dissolution or migration of any of its parts.] The complexity of the concept and the lexical simplicity of the word makes it the chief candidate for adoption into the vocabulary of other languages as the one word to describe any of these things; for example, Hellenistic languages might speak of the Ιαλας (Latin alphabet: Ialas) in reference to the Jals nation or language or the Jalsavaran people, although the Jalsavaran might take issue with the simplification.

Mythos: The faith of the Jals is an animistic tradition with no chief authority or common mythology; the spiritual needs of the Jalsavaran are met by the suraban (sing. sura), a class of eremetic wanderers and storytellers who allegedly wield tremendous power over the natural elements. These suraban spend much of their lives in the wilderness, though they stop in villages and settlements to perform various ritual blessings of households and crops, expulsion of unwelcome spirits, and rites of marriage and burial. The arrival of a sura is typically met with great cheer and ceremony throughout the community, such that they mark the passage of time by the regular passage of the suraban through their homesteads. The relationship of these villages with the suraban are intensely personal, and everyone in a village would know their visiting suraban by face and by name. While abroad, whenever a sura is not composing the mysteries revealed to him through meditation, he hunts beasts in the wilderness for food and to protect the villages, crafts ceremonial artifacts for those he meets in his travels, and erects simple graven monuments known as morumadur on sites of exceptional spiritual importance.

The Jals believe in an array of spirits both good and bad, each with its own place and purpose. These spirits are creatures of air and earth, and they do not take human or animal form; instead, they are depicted in art through specific colors, shapes, and symbols. The power of these spirits ranges from impish tricksters to nearly god-like beings, although none receive the worship or adoration of humanity; Jalsavaran do not believe these spirits can be seen or spoken to. Typically, a Jalsavar does not offer prayers of any sort, but rather asks a sura to intercede with the spirit world on his or her behalf. Nevertheless, each village has its own spirits told of in tales, many of which appear across several villages – those that appear most often are typically figures in the Jals creation myths or occasionally the lords of the spirit world. Most villages have their own pantheon of spirits, however, usually with their own responsibilities in the foundation or preservation of the community. These local spirits are usually the only ones to earn any sort of admiration by the Jals; they appear as characters in festival dances and appear as idols or totems in Jalsavaran homes. Most villages have an adversary spirit, too, and in such celebrations this spirit is ritually driven out of the village and exiled into the wilderness.

History: The ancestors of the Jals were a nomadic race of hunter-gatherers from the cold northerly foothills of the Aravan. Subsisting on the wild sheep and other wildlife of this inhospitable land, the Jals developed into a hardy and practical people whose survival necessitated a cultural sense of honor and perseverance. The earliest permanent settlement of the Jals is Taravasa, which stands at the meeting-place of the two great rivers that border the traditional Jals homeland. It is there that the first agricultural community was truly able to take root, and from the waters fed by distant mountain springs and seasonal rainfall was born the Jals civilization.

The mythical account of the village’s foundation concerns a hunter from the north who pursued a white hawk all the way from the mountains to the headwaters of the Samravan. There he slew the hawk in mid-flight with his last arrow, but when he approached the place where the bird had fallen, he found a spirit made manifest. He seized the spirit, and it explained that it was the spirit of the mountain, which had flown with the hawk; by forcing it from its home and pursuing it so far, it said, the hunter had united north with south, and all the lands over which the hawk had flown were now bound to this place. Having spoken with the spirit (thereby becoming the first sura, or so they say), the hunter led his family there, where his homestead quickly flourished. The people of Taravasa claim the hunter as their ancestor, and the name Taravasa itself means “place of the hawk”.

What began as a mere agricultural village changed over the years, and in time it became a small but fortified city. A previously nomadic people born on the frigid slopes of the Aravan, the Jals’ adjustment to an early urban culture was slow, and by the time the Jals established contact with its neighbors, most of the population still lived in the harsh lands to the north. This prevented the early growth of the city’s population and culture, but the transportation of metals and minerals southward and food and handicrafts northward helped establish a system of roads throughout the Jals lands. These roads, at first little more than paths beaten into the earth by countless footfalls, were eventually replaced by sturdy streets of great interlocking stones, and they stretched from the outskirts of Taravasa to the furthest hills of the Jals fatherland.

Nevertheless, Taravasa, the cultural heart of the Jals society, lay at its southernmost edge, and its separation from the majority of the Jalsavaran led to a dissonance in the ideologies of the urban and rural Jalsavaran. In time, serious social divisions, culminating in a tax on the outlying homesteads, brought conflict between the numerous northern folk and the small but developing city in the south. These irregular petty wars persisted until the first major assault on Taravasa by the marauding Charuda, intruders from the southern Samravan. The topography of the valley forced the brigands to approach Taravasa from the river, attacking the city at the meeting point of the two rivers. Using the high ground to their advantage, the Jalsavaran at length repelled the Charuda and, after years of conflict, destroyed them in retaliation.

The destruction of the Charuda was a galvanizing event for the Jalsavaran. It was in the years after the final destruction of their enemy that the social theory of the Jals began to form with the help of Kadammurna, an influential warrior-sura who helped lead the defense of Taravasa and whose heroism became legend and exemplar to the Jals. Just as the cultural identity of the Jals was reinforced, Taravasa become more than just a city: it was the first line of defense against the outside world. The Jals calendar begins with the ceremonial completion of a massive wall surrounding the city, with its foremost bastion jutting out into the junction of the Samravan. Hewn from enormous stones, the wall – known as the Chanmoru– is not only a powerful guard against foreign threats, but a critical symbol to the Jals of their ancestral valor and solidarity.

Material Culture: Jals craftsmanship, especially as practiced by the artisans of Taravasa, is exceptionally good, such that the products of their metalworking and sculpting are a significant export abroad. They are known for crafting bronze weapons and tools of great sharpness and toughness, and exported items are often gilt and jeweled.

At home, however, the weapons of the Jals are kept simple and effective. Some weapons they do not trade, but keep exclusively for their own soldiers. One of these is the sarr, a short sword-like blade at the end of an equally long haft. The elongated haft of the sarr allows a combatant to strike an enemy from a safe distance, while in close range the haft serves as a counterweight, allowing the sarr’s blade to be wielded with great speed. The Jals also employs the jutur, a short-bow with thick, drastically curved limbs that sacrifice accuracy for armor-penetrating power. The sarr is a weapon heavily involved in sura rituals, with every family owning at least one ceremonial sarr to lend to visiting suraban. The jutur is used as much in hunting as in war, as the bow’s power can pierce the hide of most beasts. Jals armor was light, usually leather, and Jals horsemen rarely carried a shield.

The Jals also excel as masons; while the northern homesteads rarely make use of stonework for their homes, the limited availability of trees in the Jals homeland necessitated the early exploration of stonecutting techniques to construct the growing city of Taravasa. Early Jals architecture is characterized by the use of giant interlocking stones without mortar, especially in the construction of the roads and the massive walls that surround the city. The southern wall, the Chanmoru, is the pinnacle of ancient Jals engineering; as much as eight meters thick and five meters high, the Chanmoru consists of the merging point of the east and west wall, which meet in a sharp wedge. The sharp angle of the wall is meant to split approaching forces the way a wave breaks upon a stone (Chanmoru = “wave-breaker”, lit. “wave-stone”) after which they are eliminated by the archers standing atop the wall. A symbol of hope to the Jals, the Chanmoru is meant to last until the end of time.

Jals cuisine was extremely simple before the foundation of Taravasa; without access to the fruits and spices of the Samravan, they ate only meat and a simple flatbread made from the sparse wild grains of the Aravan foothills. This diet was added to significantly by the advent of Taravasa; the humble roast meat and flatbread remained, but they were served with spicy and flavorful sauces and seasonings derived from the spices and fruits of the Samravan. Meals were usually small, and families would wait for the return of all their members before eating quickly.

The Jals’ reliance on horses in its nascent years is honored in the animals’ incorporation into much of the Jalsavaran’s daily lives. While carts for carrying goods are common by the time of the Chanmoru’s completion, the Jals never devised chariots for war. Instead, all but the most gentrified Jalsavaran learned how to ride a horse. Warriors learned how to use both the sarr and the jutur on horseback, as well as a variety of more common weapons such as swords and spears, and they learned how to pack a horse’s saddle for very long marches away from home. The rising importance of Taravasa as the Jals’ main defense has reduced the overall need for their equestrian traditions, but quick patrols of horsemen keeping watch in the lands between the northerly fortifications remain a crucial line of defense.

Society: The Jalsavaran live primarily in small family homesteads, so the cities of the Jals are very few in number. Taravasa is the only city to figure prominently in the geo-social landscape of the Jals homeland, serving both as a defensive bulwark against foreign threats and a symbolic center of the Jals. To the north, instead of cities, the Jals maintains a network of simple fortifications across the banks of the Samra and Minrava. These forts are manned not by a permanent garrison, but by small soldier clans brought together by nearby homesteads. These fortresses are supplied with provisions by the villages they protect, who view the expense simply as the price of safety. Otherwise, however, what the northern homesteads gather they keep for themselves; they trade with Taravasa for equal exchange, and they are extremely wary of any attempt by the city to impose a tax.

The northern homesteads are small but cohesive kinship groups, whose histories are preserved in story for centuries. While solidarity with one another is paramount to the Jals, the northern clans are especially concerned with family bonds; lineages are memorized in extensive detail by family patriarchs, and everything from contracts, debts, marriages, inheritances, to military allegiance is determined by the numerous grudges and reconciliations that mark every inter-family relationship. These families live mostly by hunting, though the domestication of the Aravan’s tamer beasts is slowly replacing the society’s hunting culture. The primary occupation of the northerners is mining, due to the mountains’ plentiful veins of metals, both precious and practical. Stone, too, is quarried from the hills and sent southward in exchange for the superior handicrafts of Taravasa.

The city in the south is a very different scene than the broad, cold lands to the north. While the Jals’ familial focus is kept here also, the various demands of an early urban environment force families to split apart and engage in a wider variety of tasks. The farms along the river’s edge, like the fortresses in the north, do not belong to any one family or community, but are tended by men and women from all echelons of the Taravasa social ladder. The fruits and grains harvested from the countless fields and orchards beyond the Chanmoru are gathered into great storehouses, from which the entire population gets its food. Much of this harvest is sent up north in exchange for the metal and stone necessary to create the town’s superior buildings and tools.

There is no ruling class in Jals society, or for that matter any social classes to speak of. Leadership of the city relies on a basic first-among-equals system meant to address the immediate concerns of the Jals. The needs and demands of the city are brought up in public councils, and whichever individual or kinship group can present an effective solution for that demand is chosen by the population to gain temporary authority over the city’s affairs. Seeking this power is fraught with risk; these leaders, or bandaran (lit. “chosen”), are frequent targets of assassination until they fulfill their promises to the city. Oftentimes, Taravasa can thrive for years without ever choosing a bandar; at other times, bandaran are selected to lead things as inconsequential as city festivals. On rare occasion, a sura is appointed as a bandar – such a person is unofficially referred to as a bandasura, and such a man can usually prolong his grasp on the city well beyond the intended duration.

Everyday life among the Jalsavaran is typically unexciting. Most men and women are engaged in some kind of work; there is no prescribed “weekend”, and holidays besides the arrivals of visiting suraban are few in number. However, young Jalsavaran are known to enjoy hunting on horseback as a recreational activity – both boys and girls are taught to ride a horse, regardless of their overall access to education. Education in general is mostly a home affair, although some basic academies exist for the education of Taravasa’s wealthiest youths. No common writing system exists for the Jals, though song and music are often learned at home. The chief pastime of the Jals, however, is storytelling; when no sura is available to tell a myth, the family’s patriarch usually has a repertoire of tales to share with his family. These stories circulate between families, and one’s ability to tell a good story is held as no less important a trait than honesty or courage.

While the Jals destroyed their southerly rivals, the Charuda, there remain some among the people of Taravasa in whom Charuda blood lives on. Physically speaking, the Jals are paler with curly black hair while the Charuda have darker skin and straight hair, and they are alleged to have more beautiful women – a contributing factor to the continued propagation of their kind in Taravasa. People with known or rumored Charuda ancestry struggle to find full acceptance in the city, and the least favorable work often falls to them, despite no attempt on their part to reassert their Charuda identity.

Geography: The fatherland of the Jals lies between two rivers - the Samra to the north and the Minrava to the south, both of which feed into the greater Samravan southward. While the southerly lands of the Jals are green and arable on account of the rivers' passage through them, the lands approaching the foothills of the central continental plateau (known as the Aravan) are cold and rocky, sustaining only the hardiest flora and fauna. As such, the Jals homeland sees both sun and snow, and both the verdant south and the mineral-rich north provide a means of survival. The uneven distribution of these resources, however, requires trade between the villages to maintain reasonable growth – the small crops of northerly villages are enough to sustain a small community, but the plenty from the south is increasingly a necessity as the homesteads grow and spread.

Influences: Once someone chooses to join me in the Indus Valley Samravan, we can discuss any back-and-forth between our two august peoples.

The Akir

---

Mythos:

---

The mythos of the Akir is relatively clear and concise on the origins of their people and what they believe. Creation began when a great, unknowable entity that was both everything and nothing attempted to make perfection: its failure and subsequent self-destruction shattered its inherent pieces, both everything and nothing, into shards that created all of the known universe in an imperfect image of itself. All that is are made up of these building blocks of creation and that is as far as the Akir care to consider the time before the world.

Details about what happened between the beginning of creation and the arrival of the Akir are slim as there are no written records of those times nor are stories told of much consequence about them. As far as the Akir are concerned their importance to the world did not come into effect until Di’een, the celestial patron deity of their people, directed the Akir’s ancestors from the deserts to the south to the rich river basin they now inhabit. The Akir belief system is an oddity in that they claim only a single god as their own, being Di’een, but do not deny the existence of other deities: they simply know that Di’een is their patron. Di’een himself is personified as a powerful and aggressive male deity who promotes strength within his people. His most common symbol is the moon, the astrological body the Akir most associate with him and see as his watchful gaze.

Although known for their fanaticism towards Di’een there are actually very few rituals that are commenced in worship of their celestial deity. Most notably are animal sacrifices and duels commenced during the night with Di’een’s gaze locked on the events. Beyond that there are very few rituals expected of worshippers as Di’een is believed to be relatively easygoing with his demands: a god as powerful as Di’een, it is believed, has little need for the gifts and praises of mortals. As well as their worship of Di’een a certain level of ancestor idolization comes into play in the Akir mythos. Certain near-mythical figures throughout their history are widely accepted as the original founders of the many family groupings known as Kabals and are idolized for their particular traits associated with them.

A commonly held belief by the Akir is that each man-made object has a spirit all its own, known as Menkir. Generally these spirits are viewed as barely sentient and mostly animalistic but no doubt receive a great deal of respect from their wielders. As said object gets older and has been passed down generations it is believed to keep the knowledge and experience it has gained throughout its existence and a great deal of respect is afforded to wielders of weapons and other such items supposedly wielded by some of the greatest ancestors.

---

Basic History:

---

Based simply on oral records given by the Akir, their history pre-colonization of the Akur river valley (what we know as the upper kingdom of Egypt) is sparse and lacking. It is stated in the possibly apocryphal tales of the Akir that they were born from the sands to the south and made to travel without goal or direction until Di’een guided them to paradise. It was during this early nomadic past that the concept of the Kabal developed, serving as a loose family unit that bonded the groups together behind one powerful founder. Though the reality of the situation is up to debate most Akir claim descent from these initial ancestors.

It wasn’t until the colonization of the Akur river valley that history was recorded frequently through the oral tradition of the Akir and later simplistic writings and art. By this time it is said that the original settlement that would eventually develop into Mulu Alem, the largest settlement in the Akur region, had already been settled. It was at this time that Kabals really came into their own, evolving from simple family groupings into more complex kin groups that had both social and religious importance to Akir peoples. Each of these Kabals, originally “founded” by some legendary individual, carries their name. Currently there are eleven recognized great Kabals, each founded by pre-colonization figures, and numerous lesser Kabals founded both before and after the settlement of the Akur river valley. These eleven recognized great Kabals are Seydonkal, Amankal, Bazinkal, Etefukal, Gedamkal, Hassankal, Kayinkal, Melkukal, Petrokkal, Sirakkal, and Zerekal. With all kabals the suffix -kal is added to the name of it's founder, roughly meaning born of or born from.

Since early settlement the Akir have had differing interactions with their neighbors and newcomers to their lands. Often times this has been seen with nomads from the south and west whom the combative Akir frequently battle with over the resources available to them, fighting to defend their promised paradise with a characteristic tenacity commonly linked to their bloodline. A relatively healthy trade relationship has developed between the Akir settlements and the merchants of the Byrn-Na whom frequently travel up river to the Akur valley to trade their wares from the delta with the Akir. Due in large part to coming from a shared language group the two peoples function relatively amicably, further fueled by a shared dislike of nomads and that way of life.

---

Material Culture:

---

The primary source of food production in Akir society comes from privately owned farmland interspersed along the river, each owned by individual families. Diets are further supplemented by extensive river fishing and to a lesser extent, hunting which is usually viewed as a learning experience and a tool to accrue respect for one’s skill. The staple crops of the Akir are mainly cereals and barley, with cereals serving as the basis of their diet and barley with the intent to be fermented and made into beer. The Akir farms grow other crops to a lesser extent, namely beans, root crops, and salad crops. Although not commonly grown on farms land that contains fruiting plants are generally left alone so that the fruits can be harvested and consumed as a delicacy, especially palm dates.

The standard material for construction is mudbrick, using the unused material left by rising flood waters mixed with grain husks to make relatively sturdy, simple to make building blocks that can be constructed using templates that allow for uniformity in construction materials. Within larger settlements, such as Mulu Alem, it becomes more common to see quarried stone as building materials, especially in dwellings of influential members of Kabals. Although occasionally made of different materials all dwellings follow similar floor plans. The most common design is a square structure with three rooms and an accessible flat-roof used as a living space. If given the time and enough material to work with families will often deign to build walls projecting from the sides of the dwelling in order to create an enclosed area in front of the house for holding supplies and to serve as a living area.

The Akir are known most for three crafts: ceramics, masonry, metallurgy. A focus on pottery has become central to Akir culture with many families taking great pride in their ceramics, often decorated with paints to show stories of family ancestors. In many ways due to their lack of other easily attained building materials masonry has become a very important trade and to be skilled in such works is considered to be quite a boon: one can make many friends and be fed very well by them if their houses were built by you. As such, many private domiciles are surrounded by rows and rows of mudbrick templates drying in the sun. Viewed with almost reverent awe are metallurgists, working with copper to construct tools and weapons and rarely great works of art in the form of jewelry from gold and silver. Jewelry itself is viewed as something to be worn during rituals or when invited to other’s homes for meals, never to be worn when being the host as such ostentation can be seen as disrespectful.

Clothing is often simple, made of linen spun from flax and left the off color beige or occasionally dyed rust red using oxidized iron pigments. Males frequently wear a garment known as a senay, consisting of a meter long length of linen worn as a skirt and shawl, as well as having many ways of folding and wrapping to use it for many purposes. Females wear their own gender specific clothing known as a Seife, a long wrap of linen that can be worn either above or below the breasts and goes down to the knees, accompanied by another length of linen to cover the shoulders and head on particularly hot and sunny days to protect from overexposure.

---

Society:

---

Akir society centers around the concept of familial bonds in the form of Kabals. Similar to clans and tribes of other peoples, the Kabal is an evolution of earlier family groups that claim bloodline connection to some great and near-mythical ancestor. What is unique about Kabals is that true blood relations are not necessary to belong, simply an acceptance of the Kabal as your own and professing allegiance to the ancestors of that Kabal, thus making them your own ancestors. These Kabals require little from their members and are extant to give unity rather than a hierarchy to abide by. As such there are no leaders within a Kabal, instead everyone looking to shamans and regional leaders for hierarchical status. The most important part of a Kabal is the understanding that all members are part of your family and, as such, it is expected of all members of a Kabal to aid their family in times of strife, be it from conflict, famine, or any other issue. Acts of vengeance in the name of a kinsmen’s killing are known as Wagaye, meaning “the price”, and are perfectly legal if not expected in Akir society, with right to enact Wagaye being given by community elders after sufficient evidence can be given.

Outside of village elders and shamans there are very few true leaders within Akir communities. Individuals with a great deal of personal prowess and experience are often looked to by their compatriots, especially when it comes to warfare. Tarik, roughly translating to Warlord, is the title given to those individuals who best represent the uncompromising nature of Di’een during conflict and these men (and occasionally women) are looked to as leaders during such hard times. They are universally skilled at arms and knowledgeable at command and are afforded a great deal of respect for their service. A proven Tarik will be gifted with food and other gifts for their protection in an act of ritual appeasement to have them remain as the protector of a community.

Outside of the Tariks all members of Kabals are expected to be armed and able to defend themselves and their kinsmen in times of trouble. If a boy of thirteen does not receive the traditional kassa (forward curving, single edged blade) it is viewed as a great offence and men who do not carry their kassa on their person are viewed as weak or dishonorable for hiding their weapon from view. The kassa is always held in a specifically crafted leather sheathe known as a yerga which is marked with designs that visually designate the owner's Kabal. These armed citizenry form the core of Akir warfare whom fight to defend their homes, often organized and trained by local Tariks of their Kabal.

Unlike many peoples the Akir lack an established priesthood, instead relying on shamans who either travel between villages or select particular areas to claim as their homes, living as hermits outside of villages. These Shamans are all known as Abdikarim and are seen as the closest to Di’een and are both feared and respected for their knowledge of Menkir. They often receive requests from individual families and even entire communities to lead in ceremonies when it appears Di’een has been displeased and are able to enjoy relatively comfortable lives from the food and gifts they receive for their blessings. They are also frequently asked to advise individuals on particular Menkir, such as when a warrior’s weapon has been damaged or an artisans favorite tool has failed it’s task in some way.

---

Geography:

---

The Akur river valley, where the majority of the Akir are settled, is known for its distinctive flood plain extending out for several miles on either side of the river at its widest points. It is in these green areas that Akir settlements are found, following the river just outside the flood plain so when the annual floods come they can be avoided whilst still being close enough for easy access to the river. Much of the land on the river itself is taken up by farmland owned by individual family groups. Due in large part to the nature of the land they occupy the Akir generally cannot be found too far from the river itself although it is common for settlements to appear on hillsides close to the river in order to give a defensible position to the inhabitants.

---

Local influences

---

Akir culture is affected most by its northern neighbors of Byrn-Na and share many nuances of culture together. Most notably this comes in the form of their languages, both stemming from the same language family giving the Akir and the Byrn the ability to interact and communicate on a far more profound level than cultures with entirely different language. From the Byrn-Na the Akir have learned much, receiving a great deal of knowledge in weaving from their northern neighbors through contact alone. A similar trade of knowledge commenced between the two with Akir metallurgy.

Contact with nomads has been far less cordial as the desert peoples are seen as threats to the paradise shown to the Akir people by their god. Conflict is frequent between the settled Akir and nomadic peoples from the east and south, usually erupting into violence as the death of a single member of a Kabal can lead to the entire kingroup mobilizing itself for violence.

Can I just say that I'm really enjoying reading about these civilization? I'm especially a fan of the Zizhai and the Akir!

I cannot wait to get started, folks.

You best tell me right now my culture is superior.

SUPERIOR.

Hey, thanks Candle. The Jals are very interesting as well! Also, not to be overly judgy, but weren't we supposed to just make a culture? It seems we may have made the mistake of making too much history. I believe it was the intention of Captios to have our civilizations develop. That's just one man's opinion.

I was a little hesitant to fill out too much history for the Jals, but based on the base level of development described by Captios, it seemed unavoidable that one or two significant events might have occurred by Year 0. That being said, I'm waiting for word from Captios - if I need to scale it back, I absolutely will. In any case, I did have the same question on my mind.

To clarify, the rest of that statement was not directed specifically at you, Candle. Simply making an observation after reading all the posts.

I think ill join up, ill let ideas stew for a while though. How many slots in each cradle are still open?

No worries, I understood. :) Nevertheless, you're right - we ought to keep it as primeval as possible, to allow our histories to develop as organically as possible. I kind of hope we can set things back to pre-citybuilding times, but as long as everyone else keeps creating urbanized cultures, Taravasa stands!

Zamiel, by my understanding, slots aren't quite being "taken" yet - these are applications, and when Captios is ready to set things off, he'll choose which ones are up to scratch. That being said, I know LOTS of people are going for Cradle West, so if you go that route, read what everyone else has done and try to do something that breaks the mold a little. ;)

Asking permission from the Cradle East people if my culture would be able to build monasteries spread out over Cradle East maybe even one or two within your borders. They would be completely neutral and peaceful toward all nations.

Candle has things right regarding slots.

And I don't really mind y'all making too much history behind your culture, if there even is such a thing. I believe that, given that y'all will be dictating for the better part your own peoples' futures, there is not too much of a problem with writing a decently in depth history given that once the RP starts, you will be doing the same thing anyways, only with a tiny bit of poking and prodding here and there from me with my huge soup pot of GMship.

It's not that I worry about too much history, Captios, simply the content. A lot of us have had wars and full blown cities in the year 4,000 BC. However, if you're cool with it then all is well! I simply thought we had gone beyond what you had originally asked of us.

So...Nov 12 is approaching. We going to get responses to our applications soon? :)

Correct.

MonkeyBusiness said
Asking permission from the Cradle East people if my culture would be able to build monasteries spread out over Cradle East maybe even one or two within your borders. They would be completely neutral and peaceful toward all nations.

I'm cool with that.

I think Zur's concern is that he, I, and others have developed our histories (and material/social culture) with 4000 BCE in mind: no strong consolidated states, no bronze or iron working, no "true" cities (only proto-cities), and certainly not multiple well-developed cities with monumental architecture. On the other hand, others, like Balena_Rex and DAWNSTAR, seem to have incredibly developed and centralized polities for the era.

However, no one has intervened to clarify which model is the "correct one." Should Zur and I be adding bigass cities and armies and histories of ironshod conquest to our apps? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot by trying to follow the guidelines more strictly?