Abieshu
Structure
Legislative body
The country's society and economy are governed by institutions, or “large organizations”. These are the palaces, the royal palace and those of the provincial governors, and the large temples, which have their own civil administration alongside their administration responsible for the management of worship.
Judicial body
The kingdom is divided into provinces at the head of which are governors whose role follows the same contours as that of the King but on a regional scale. Urban and village communities have sorts of “mayors” and representative collegial bodies (assemblies of elders or notables). The royal agents are responsible for collecting taxes (which affect in particular the income from the agricultural lands of the palace, those of artisans, and commercial exchanges or tolls), the organization of corvées owed by subjects, major construction works, the raising of troops, the financing of part of the cult, rendering justice in the first instance, etc. There are also professional judges responsible for passing sentences, even if the exercise of justice is in practice divided between the different royal agents (those located at the local level being in particular responsible for investigating cases), the temple administrators, and ultimately the monarch.
Executive body
The King is supposed to rule the earthly domain on behalf of the gods, following political theology which developed a principle of divine election. This principle is combined with that of dynastic legitimacy, kings succeeding in principle from father to son. The role of the monarch is to direct the administration, the armies, ensure the exercise of justice and social peace, and to undertake the construction and maintenance of temples, canals and walls ensuring the prosperity and security of the country, so many acts which monarchs regularly boast about in their commemorative inscriptions. To govern, kings rely on a central administration made up of high dignitaries, mainly members of the royal family or people linked to it by marriage, who have status of ministers and generals.
Culture
The elites of society are generally close to the King and hold high positions in the central and provincial administration, often from large families linked to the royal family and from major lineages of the provincial elite. These are ministers, governors, high priests or high temple stewards (functions generally devolved to members of the royal family and great provincial families). This elite category can be characterized by the combination of legal freedom with economic and political importance.
The notables, who hold positions in the royal administration and especially in the temples which are often transmitted within the same family with a local base, do business, privately, with large organizations. These are the main sources of income and therefore of social importance and prestige. The urban notability consolidate its identity, each rich family naming itself after a common founding ancestor but some do not belong to this circle and owe their enrichment to their economic activities (some of these people have been described as " entrepreneurs").
The lower strata of the population are characterized by their situation of economic dependence within institutions or in the service of large families, while generally having a situation of legal freedom. They are found in particular among the numerous dependents working in large organizations, or among the urban proletariat hiring out their hands for various types of agricultural or artisanal activities. Some belong to a temple for which they must work and are sometimes seen as a kind of “serfs” or “semi-free”. People in poverty live on the streets; in particular, there are abandoned children who can be taken in by wealthy families who make them servants, or even slaves. Temples can take care of the most deprived, in exchange for work and close supervision.
Free women are expected to become wives. They are rather treated as an object of negotiation and transaction, when it is time to determine the dowry. They remain in an inferior position to their husband, who can repudiate them if they do not give birth, while they risk death in the event of adultery or behavior deemed disrespectful towards him. Wives are especially expected to bear children and devote themselves to the education of children, although they may participate in family affairs by assisting their husband in his profession. This family framework can also be disrupted by the presence of female slaves bought to serve as concubines for the master of the house. Women living outside the traditional family are also monitored, even if they may have more independence. The status of widows depends on the goodwill of their family, their children if they have any and their age, the youngest being generally destined to remarry. The nuns, consecrated to gods, are often girls from good, richly endowed families, who sometimes have the right to marry, but not the right to bear children, although they can adopt. Finally, women are almost absent from intellectual activities, with very few knowing how to read.
Slaves have a separate status, since they do not have their legal freedom, while being economically dependent, since they must work for their master. However, some more privileged slaves are able to conduct business with a certain latitude. Servant workers live in nuclear families and assigned to varied tasks (work in the fields and gardens, herding herds, weaving, food, etc.), scrupulously monitored by administrators. The question of the escape of slaves is recurrent, which highlights the harshness of the living conditions to which these people are subjected.
Technological Level
The profession of doctor is undoubtedly the one which requires the most advanced literate training, even if it does not have the repute of healing specialists in the members of the clergy. This specialist is responsible for studying the symptoms of patients, making and administering medical remedies and surgical operations, for a fee. He mainly practices his profession in an itinerant manner, going to the bedside of patients.
Religion
There is still a part of the population who believe in the Celestian Pantheon but their number is declining as the Church of Light grows stronger. It creates some tensions amongst the different worshippers.
Agriculture & Industry
The country benefit from a very productive irrigated agriculture. The semi-arid climate does not allow sufficient precipitation; the inhabitants therefore developed a complex irrigation system in order to take advantage of the flatness of the relief to have a large agricultural area. This system is supplemented by water storage facilities (reservoirs, dams) which also serve to prevent flooding and drain water from irrigated land. Canals are also used for river transport. Agriculture is mainly dominated by barley and date-palm cultivation.
The country's agriculture can be very productive at the cost of constant development and care, in a difficult environment but which becomes very fertile once well developed, particularly around towns, where the land is better irrigated, and in the palm groves which generally generate more income than cereal fields. A problem posed by irrigation is the salinization of the soil: irrigation water brings mineral salts from the mountains which, after evaporation, remain in the earth and reduce its yields. Although some means have been put in place to deal with this risk, such as soil drainage to remove part of the salts, this phenomenon which began a few centuries ago could have contributed to wasting many lands, playing a role in a possible economic crisis.
The farmers also maintain a few heads of livestock, primarily sheep providing wool and goats providing milk, but also cattle, more expensive, and pigs, donkeys and poultry. Regular access to meat is limited for the majority of the population, reserved for the tables of elites and gods. The largest herds of animals are those of large organizations, which can entrust them to professional herders. The animals will graze on the edge of cultivated areas or on fallow fields. Institutional herds may be sent in summer to cooler regions in the north.
The artisans are mainly millers, cooks, bakers, brewers, sesame oil pressers, potters (ceramics, clay), builders and other construction trades (clay bricks), weavers, repairers and washers (fabrics), blacksmiths, goldsmiths and jewelers.
Trade & Transport
Even though the country has a palace economy, commercial activities on a local or regional scale relate mainly to wholesale trade or barter, primarily the marketing of agricultural products to cities from their rural hinterlands. An entrepreneur is thus involved in the transport and sale in the towns of foodstuffs produced in the surrounding countryside by farmers who do not have the means to sell them themselves. Merchants are organized into guilds headed by a royal agent, the chief merchant, who liaises between them and the administration, and takes care of the settlement of commercial disputes, therefore taking over administrative functions.
Long distance trade is mainly carried out on behalf of large organizations and elites, to obtain raw materials not available in the country, especially quality stones and ore: silver from Pahlevan, tin from Eshtar, copper from Zohreh, iron and alum from Thibran, also dyes from Hirohashi, and wine from Jushur.
Education
The mother ensures the education of her children, sometimes helped by one or more nannies whose services are rented, through contracts providing in particular that they are provided with rations for the breastfeeding period. The most literate people are found in the temples where they received their education and where they collect a large collection of books.
Founding Date
2999589
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Predecessor Organization
Demonym
Abieshan
Government System
Monarchy, Theocratic
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Palace economy
Currency
Bars of copper, silver and gold.
Based on silver standard.
Major Imports
Alum
Copper
Dyes
Iron
Silver
Tin
Wine
Copper
Dyes
Iron
Silver
Tin
Wine
Official State Religion
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Related Species
Comments