Quote:
Originally Posted by Brett
Somewhere in the north-eastern part of the Bronze Age there is a broad and fertile plain. It is at least as big as Mesopotamia or Hungary, and although there are snow-capped mountains on one side, a dusty plateau on another, highlands cloaked in cedar on a third, and somewhere, far off, a vast complex delta of marshes, lagoons, and meandering river-courses, it is large enough, and foreign lands are distant enough that the inhabitants vaguely image the world as a giant bowl with mountains around the rim and a fertile plain in the bottom. The climate is mild and sunny; though there is a season of rains it is well worth drawing water from the many rivers of the land and using it to irrigate. This new scheme of planting crops has been working out terribly well for a few generations, and beer is a total hoot. We have specialist craftsmen now, and scribes, doctors, and priests.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
Julian Jaynes's The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, which I don't propose as a serious scientific model, but which is wonderfully productive of sfnal ideas, perhaps as much so as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
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Stop stealing my setting idea! :-)
Okay, fine.
Logala is the god of knowledge. He delights in curiosity, debate and (oddly) architecture. The temple in his city, Gala-Bana ("Shining Roof"), is the most ornate in the land, with a burnished copper frieze above the monumental entrance, and a mighty store of scrolls and tablets within.
His city is not blessed with the most fertile fields or any particular resources, but his people are the pre-eminent traders and merchants of the land, and acquire by trade what they cannot produce themselves. They are often accompanied by priests eagerly recording the customs and sayings of the cities they visit. Some consider them mere gadflies, always questioning and debating, while others believe them to be spies and conspirators. Most just consider Galabanans to be
those people who talk too much.
Galabanans who emigrate are perhaps the only people who don't particularly care about their social stigma in their new city.
Those who receive Logala's Gift are blessed with Literacy (Accented) [3], Area Knowledge (the land) [2], and Cultural Adaptability (the greater land only, -50%) [5]. Priests all have Language Talent [10] and Public Speaking [4] and occasionally get Talent (architecture, art (sculpture & metalwork), engineering, masonry, carpentry) [5], but are doomed to be eternally Curious [-5].
ETA: Dammit, Brett, our posts crossed in the mail.