Ancestral Steppe Culture

The Ancestral Steppe Culture is a prehistoric culture theorized to be the ancestor of the culture groups of the Old Continent steppe, based on cultural and linguistic similarities between these cultures.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Proto-Steppe is the reconstructed language hypothetically spoken by the ancestral steppe people. It is unknown what, if anything, they called their language, but they may have called it T'ēosō (meaning 'language'; compare Seigite rheozo, Feogh tieodhóo, Western ṭäässy).

Foods & Cuisine

As they were nomadic herders, their diet likely consisted primarily of meat and dairy products. Fish also likely would've been a staple, as the culture is believed to have originated somewhere along the Great River. Since farming is incompatible with a nomadic lifestyle, their intake of fruits, vegetables, and grains would have been less stable, dependent on whatever was available in the wild and from other cultures they came into contact with.
The ubiquity of fermented milk drinks and yogurt across the steppe suggests that the ancestral nomads understood fermentation, or that fermentation was discovered before significant cultural divergence and dispersion.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Bodies of the dead were cremated; cremation is widely practiced across steppe cultures, and no burial sites have been identified. Dead bodies were considered impure, and fire a purifying force; cremation thus prevented the spirits of the dead from being contaminated by their corpses and turning into evil spirits.

Common Myths and Legends

Two myths are ubiquitous among the peoples of the steppe.
The first of these myths is the creation myth. According to this legend, at the beginning of time, only spirits and Ēm Selu (the Divine Light, a.k.a. the first god) existed. Ēm Selu wanted to give the spirits a world to inhabit, so it selected a group of spirits to whom it gave a portion of its divine power. One of these spirits, Lōuxēi, became the Earth, while the rest became the natural phenomena (collectively, these spirits were known as ēmiōn or pās'ēmiē, the terrestrial gods). Ēm Selu charged these gods with making the world a place where the spirits could live in joy and peace.
However, a group of spirits who were not chosen by Ēm Selu became jealous, and they conspired to attack Ēm Selu with dark magic and steal its divine power for themselves. These spirits, corrupted by this grave sin, became the first ʔūut'iē (evil spirits). They succeeded in stealing Ēm Selu's power for themselves, but because of their corruption, they became demons rather than gods. Like the ēmiōn, they embodied various phenomena, but the forces they embodied were harmful ones such as death and disease. Ēm Selu, gravely weakened, split apart and became the Sun, Moon, and stars—the l'oubadēmiē, or celestial gods.
The second part of the creation myth details the creation of life. The god Ūlēim, who took the form of the clouds, copulated with Lōuxēi, the Earth, by sending down rain. Lōuxēi gave birth to plants, which spirits entered, forming the first living things. The tale describes them mating several more times, with Lōuxēi birthing a different set of organisms each time. At the end of the creation story—and the start of the founding myth—she gives birth to the first humans. She personally selects which spirits will incarnate as them, as they will have dominion over all other living creatures and will go on to found a great legacy.
There is significant variation in later attested versions of the founding myth, often reflecting the ideas and values of later cultures, so the original myth is not easy to reconstruct. However, there are some common themes: Lōuxēi gave birth to daughters, who grew up to found the original tribes (which may or may not have existed only in legend) which the steppe peoples claim descent from. As they were the only humans, there were no men whom they could marry; they instead married celestial men from the night sky (i.e., stars). Some later versions tell of the human daughters of Lōuxēi ascending to the sky with their husbands at the end of their mortal lives; others tell of the immortal stars returning to the sky out of grief after their mortal wives passed away.

Ideals

Gender Ideals

The ancestral culture was undoubtedly matriarchal. Leadership positions, both political and religious, were female-dominant if not female-exclusive. Motherhood was considered sacred; Lōuxēi, the earth goddess (the mother of all life, also associated with fertility), was highly revered, possibly even more so than the celestial gods, and motherhood is a recurring theme in the myths and legends of descendant cultures, while childless women are usually depicted either negatively (if by choice) or pitiably (if infertile). Femininity was probably embodied by Lōuxēi (whose names in later cultures include Llougei, Loughe, and Uovi), while masculinity may have been embodied by her consort, the rain god Ūlēim (later names include Ulein or Uulim).

Relationship Ideals

Marriage, or a concept resembling marriage, likely developed early on. There is a myth shared across the steppe cultures that details the founding of the first tribes. These tribes were founded by the human daughters of Lōuxēi, who had children with celestial beings. Although there is substantial variation in the founding myth (even the number of Lōuxēi's daughters is not consistent across versions in all surviving versions, the celestials are sent to marry the daughters of Lōuxēi, not just to procreate with them. (On the contrary, while Lōuxēi and Ūlēim are typically depicted as married, many versions of the creation myth do not describe them as such, despite them being the progenitors of all earthly life.)