Difference between revisions of "Jernoah"

Latest revision as of 12:36, 14 July 2014

Jernoah is a foreign land far beyond the west coast of the Amasynian Peninsula, separated from it by a great ocean. Jernoah is bordered by other countries to the north, south, and west, though the details of them are considerably sparse. Its capital of Bridlespear is Jernoah's only prosperous city, from which most of its governmental authority and religious creeds are dispensed. Otherwise, Jernoah is a desert country comprised of small outlying villages, and while most trade is conducted domestically, a countless number of coastal townships allow for occasional overseas expeditions.

(All dates are listed as their Anno Regalis or Anno Inceptum equivalents, though Jernoan history does not adhere to the Trae Kelsan standard.)

History

Jernoah's history is scarred by mediocrity, at least according to its advancements in technology and culture. For the past several hundred years, it has been a cultural hub rich with artistic and literary contributions, but due to its minimal military power, thousands of square miles of barren desert land, and its irregular contact with bordering countries, few marked advancements have contributed to anything but a general stagnation. In his book A Brief and Likely Misleading History of the Jerno and His Jernoah, Myrken scholar and historiographer Crisken de Lanz said:

It is assumed that what we now know as Jernoah was once a Country comprised entirely of Wandering Tribes and Misfits. Over the past Few Centuries, however, they banded together to form Villages, and Cities, and they founded a rather Suitably Savage Religion, and they have saturated the World with such good Poetry and Art that One might think they were not so primitive a race.

Government

Leadership: Stalsi, Stahls, and the Festival

A religious oligarchy rules over all of Jernoah, binding various towns and villages under the edicts presented from the capitol. In Bridlespear, a stalsi (or, translated, Master Regent) presides over a small senate comprised of seven stahls, all representatives appointed on merit of wealth, influence, or religious sanctity, one from each of Jernoah's more notable settlements.

The stalsi and his underling stahls are revered with great respect across Jernoah, often lavished with what little riches can be afforded them. Elected officials are appointed for six-year terms. It is the the conclusion of these terms that makes them most memorable, however. Jerno philosopher and historian Sol Paulis wrote of the event in one of his journals:

Brothers and Sisters of the Nameless are brought in from reputable jerethedrals throughout the Great Country. For one week in Bridlespear every six years, the Festival of the Ascension takes all our attentions away from our minor purposes and labors. We lose ourselves in merriment, drink, and plays meant to honor the previous six years. On the sunset of the final day, it happens: the stahls are dressed in their finest vestments, they are brought before the capitol crowds, and by an ordained Brother or Sister, they sacrifice their lives to the Nameless for the next six years of prosperity. The blood is left to stain the streets. Finally, the stalsi is all that is left, and he too is slaughtered in the eye of the Nameless. We revel in their deaths, write songs of them, and praise them. To choose a life of politics, in Jernoah, is to choose death, but it is a proud death, and we all dream that we too could be regents one day, and die that very same way.

After the Festival, the Brothers and Sisters who made the sacrifices appoint -- by way of prayer and prophetic guidance -- a new stalsi from one of many candidates. Usually, this candidate is of some religious and authoritative position in Bridlespear itself.

With the deaths of the stahls, Jernoah is regularly embroiled with temporary chaos. While more diplomatic townships elect new representatives through complex honor or vote systems, others rely on contests of strength, violence, or even games of wealth to designate a new regent. Only when the new government system is set into place and the chosen stahls are escorted to the senate at Bridlespear is peace often renewed by way of law modification and periods of exemplary capital punishment. Peace, if not restored naturally, is often restored through force.

Law and Order: A Regime of Violence

Except for the periods of post-Festival, pre-senate disorder, Jernoan townships are often seen as remarkably crimeless. This is due, in part, to the relentless dispensing of violent punishment. While individual judiciary systems are in place in some more organized towns, most rely on the strength of hired policing forces -- former Jernoan soldiers -- to quell discord and crime through bloodshed. Thieves, burglars, rapists, followers of anti-religious factions, and murderers are often dragged into the streets and killed. Of this brutality, Sol Paulis writes:

Once, I saw an old man -- who could not keep his trousers fastened around women -- dragged into the streets and bludgeoned into a red puddle merely on the power of accusation. Once, I saw a female thief lose her head to a hungry soldier's blade in the fruit-bazaar, all while a very proud mother with her six children laughed at a dancing clown across the way. These are the fortunate ones. Some villages prefer to stake offenders out beyond the town limits in the sands, where they can rot and bleach in the desert sun over several days' time, or can be picked apart by dune-vultures or -- at the worst -- get devoured by hungry stonebears. In some cities, where this staking tactic is preferred, you can even hear the occasional pop of a dead criminal as the sweltering heat boils the gases inside his stomach before any animals can even get a chance to eat.

Military Power: A Fleeting Concern

The military presence in Jernoah is small and disorganized. There are several factors that lead to the country's minimal reliance on military power: 1) few attempts at usurpation and overthrow from neighboring countries have ever been attempted, most likely due to Jernoah's few attainable resources and the uselessness of its mostly-desert land, and 2) the country's large expanse and its relatively minimal population easily allow for traveling groups to get lost amid the sand and dunes, as miles upon miles could be traversed without seeing some hint of civilization. There is little value in Jernoan land to outside armies, especially those used to claiming more temperate land. In the event of rare, concentrated conflict, Jernosta numbers have been supplemented by the slave population.

A Drawn Map of Jernoah would require a Magic Ink for It to always be accurate -- on a Daily Basis, Tiny Conflicts potentially shift the Borders back and forth between Neighboring Countries as Jernosta border patrols are pushed back (or advance) anywhere between a Few Inches and a Few Feet. This is a Constant Struggle; Armies of Adjacent Countries have become familiar with sending their own Trainees to Jernoan Borders to engage in these almost Playful Conflicts.

Religion

Religion and faith is extremely important to the Jerno, though foreign theologians often criticize Jernoah for being a country, as de Lanz says, "under the Influence of Nebulous Gods that inspire Unpredictable, Ever-Changing Ideals; Jernoah is neither Monotheistic or Polytheistic. The Identity of Their God (or Gods) is so inaccessible, so undefined, it forces any Onlooker to wonder what the Point is. Jernos are married so strongly to Vague Ideas of the Divine that One must wonder if They are truly religious, or just playing like Children at it."

The Nameless: Gods without Faces

One of the driving edicts behind the Pursuit of the Nameless is the understanding that human senses can never achieve allow direct communion with the Nameless. Though many paintings and countless pieces of literature have attempted to describe the traits of the Nameless, there is no ordained form or image, and the religion is greatly founded in assumption or conjecture.

"They came to me as colors," Brother Har'vaak Arhjaad once wrote in his voluminous sermon, On the Matters of our Faith, in 54 AR. "In my dreams they spoke to me and I listened; in my waking they came as twangs of pain or sudden, rushing sensations; I could feel them dictating my motions and decisions through breaths of wind, blasts of sand, needing no words, and I, no special language to understand them."

Followers of the Nameless understand innately that, while they may coax the Nameless into action by prayer, song, or praise, they will never receive direct intervention -- as the pivotal sermon once expressed, "Our natural tools and senses are too base for Them to waste Their time appearing to us. We stare into mirrorglass and see ourselves prostrated. They watch and work from beyond it, moving the world into action around us, dictating our every moment in ways we shall never be great enough to see except through death."

As such, death is a great part of ritual. Occasional sacrifices of animals, willing Jernos, and unwilling ones all bolster large religious events. To devout Jernos, death is not as much a fear as it is a willing release, freedom to finally answer lifelong questions of gods and faith. Yet, to discourage overzealous suicide, edicts are put into place that require years of study in life to prepare the soul for a death worthy of the Nameless.

The Calamities: Tests of the Faithful

In Jernoah's recent past, several large events have shaped the stalwart face of religion. These historic occurrences are seen by newer religious authorities as necessary catastrophes, things brought to Jernoah and her people to challenge their faith in the Nameless. Altogether, observance of these so-called Calamities and the trials they represent give credence to newfound religious solidarity. Excerpts from Sol Paulis's work better explain the impacts the Calamities had on Jernoah.

176 AR - The First Calamity: A Trial of the Soul

It could not have been with more displeasure that we received the Piss-White Prophet. She was young woman with bleached gowns, heralded by a caravan of a thousand followers who claimed she was a messenger of Other Gods. With both honor and skepticism, she and her people came in pilgrimage to Bridlespear. They remained for several months, our Sisters and Brothers vetting her words for their accuracy and truth. She said the gods she followed held the solutions to war, the end to pains, the quelling of lamentation. She challenged the validity of our faith. She questioned our Pursuits. She denied the strength of our belief. She cited her unnatural, metallic hand as proof of her gods’ power.

When we could stand no more of her lies, we killed six-hundred-and-seventy-two of her followers, men and women and children. We made red the Glass Sands with their false blood. We took the Piss-White Prophet into custody and slaughtered her for her transgressions. Because her gods did not crush us, did not destroy us for our violence against her, our knowledge was galvanized: she had been a fabricated prophet, a harbinger of the false.

In three months, she and her insidious followers planted doubt in a great number of our citizens, our Sisters and Brothers, our previously-devoted faithful. Her presence was a trial of the Soul, that we might be reminded to steer it always in the path of the Nameless.

We disposed of those infected by her wretched teachings and prevailed.

To better explain the modern relevance of this story, Professor de Lanz writes "Because of the Role the so-called Piss-White Prophet held in challenging the Strength of the Nameless, Metallic Hands are a Sign of Shame in Jernoan Culture, whether in Art, Literature, or -- for the Occasional Offender -- as a Prosthetic Replacement when even Death is Too Kind a Punishment."

197 AR - The Second Calamity: A Trial of the State

There was a rat'vak -- a slave -- that was thought dull and without reason, whose origin was regrettably unknown. It worked with diligence and took its discipline well. It towered among its low peers and lacked the wits to harm another. It was soon purchased by one of the city's foremost noble houses as a singular curiosity, and there fed and groomed and displayed to further the standing of its master.

It was soon discovered that the creature possessed the most remarkable resilience: that even the greatest hurt would leave no scar, and its skin could reknit itself time and time again; not only this, but partaking of its flesh would grant similar traits to others. Sisters, Brothers, and stahls came to it, to sliver off pieces of its body, to consume them as great delicacies or work them into alchemical preparations of surpassing efficacy. Soldiers and innocents young and old were fed the Growing Rat'vak's pieces so that they might be granted the same wondrous vigour, and the Growing Rat'vak's master enjoyed unprecedented influence among the noble classes. Bold plans were made, imagining the glory and riches that might come to a Jernoah that marched out an army of warriors fortified by Rat'vak brews. The nobles grew arrogant and proud, turning their faces from those Sisters and Brothers who believed Growing Rat'vak defied the will of the Nameless and that the creature should be driven out into the desert to perish.

In time the young daughter of the noble, in whose manor the Growing Rat'vak served, became pregnant. Accusations of dreadful impropriety were whispered in the shadows, scandalous speculations made around the clear affection the girl held for the creature, but no proof ever given. When the daughter gave birth the Horror she brought into the world was unthinkable, impossible to look upon, a wretched, damned, Nameless-forsaken riddle in wretched parody of human form. So insidious was the Rat'vak's touch, so pervasive the use of elixirs derived from its flesh, that an entire generation of infants was lost, those not stillborn left warped beyond description.

The Good Capital condemned the Growing Rat'vak. It was sentenced to death for bringing a vile contagion upon the country. Yet, it escaped, for not even a State can kill what cannot be hurt. It brought catastrophe upon the capital, killing hundreds of Jernos in its rage, tumbling buildings and razing districts with smoke as black as night and fury as destructive as an unending sandstorm. The Growing Rat'vak fled and was never found.

We reconstructed over years, the State strayed persevered despite its near-destroyed capital, and prevailed.

211 AR - The Third Calamity: A Trial of the Body

Very little is known about the details of Jernoah's Third Calamity, given its relatively recent occurrence. Research cobbled together from notations and reports suggests the presence of a murderer, supposedly blessed by the Nameless, cleansing Bridlespear of a number of lesser-desirable citizens. In addition to the inaccurate body count and the covering of several deaths by loyalists of the oligarchy, cloudy controversy surrounds the subsequent death of the killer, with few details to support either truth or falsification of facts.

Geography

Comprising thousands upon thousands of square miles of arid, uninhabitable land, Jernoah is known for its blistering heat and unforgivable, sweltering climate. Its terrain varies from areas fettered with dunes and blowing sand to seemingly endless flatlands cracked open by the sweltering sun. Whole armies have been rumored to perish in the Jernoan sands, not having had proper direction or navigation tools. Days and nights are vastly different, with torrid heat bleaching the land under the sun, and wretched cold strangling it under the moon.

Though Jernos have developed a number of clever ways to reasonably subsist in Jernoah's destructive climate, surrounding countries have expressed little interest in land they believe unfrutiful and barren.

The Glass Sands: An Invaluable Resource

The Glass Sands are one of Jernoah's most notable natural phenomenons. Where specific minerals prevail, sun-molten sand can be discovered on particularly unbearable days, sometimes in tiny patches and in other places stretching on for miles at a time like glistening seas. These same portions of land cool into a hard, cloudy glass at night, and are regularly harvested before sunrise for use in jewelry, glassware, dinnerware, armor, weaponry, architecture, and religious reliquaries. Because of the value of natural glass as both a domestic and an exported good, unsanctioned glass-harvesting is often considered an offense against the State, and convicted offenders are often given any number of grievous punishments.

Dasril's Lip: The End of the World

Jernoah's western border nudges against hundreds of miles of mountains known as Dasril's Lip. These treacherous mountains separate Jernoah from the further side of the continent, where weather is rumored to be more temperate and bearable. Because of their height and their uneven faces, systems of weather differ greatly as they pass across then, often bringing about Jernoah's burning winds and treacherous sandstorms. Of the mountains' cultural impact, Professor de Lanz writes:

Various Branches of the Pursuit often claim that Dasril's Lip is where the Nameless -- in Whatever Form They choose to inhabit -- oversee the Workings of the World. As such, It is not uncommon for Groups of Jernos to travel in Pilgrimage to the Foot of the Mountains to ask for Miracles, Healing, Intervention, Riches, Glory, or Advice.

Economy

The arkhat is the general unit of value in Jernoah. Because of Jernoah's relatively different trading climate, the arkhat is often worthless when compared to denominations in other nations. Arkhats are small bone coins that are not necessarily representative of monetary value. In 25 AR, Stalsi Varkeep O'ordoon established the arkhat system in his nationwide attempt to enliven Jerno trade beyond its own shores. A transcription of his speech states:

The Jerno is not a fellow overly concerned with money. The Jerno's prime commodity is survival. The Nameless have provided us with a bountiful resource: recently, a discovery was made beneath the Capitol of a great and expansive underground oasis. [Cheers erupt in the crowd; mothers envision their children being able to play in water; I fall to my knees and praise Them.] Settle, settle. But we cannot condemn this resource with our greed. If we were to tap into it without consent of the Nameless [a collective sigh ripples across the audience, and I too hang my head at the impending news], then we would use it as though it is inextinguishable. That is not an option. Instead, today,[he held forth for all to see a chiseled coin etched out of the bone of a jah'zoon] we adopt the arkhat. Bartering is no longer the way of the world. Our trade must be conducted in currency. Each of these coins guarantees you a portion of equitable water, a share equal to the coin. When the Nameless decree to our State that the oasis may be opened, the man with more arkhat shall have more water. The coin is the way of the world outside of our fair Jernoah; today, it becomes our way as well.

In 27 AR, days before the Festival, O'ordoon was murdered by revolutionaries who were convinced the oasis did not exist, and that O'ordoon's liberal new idea was a detriment to the Jerno way of life.

In 211 AR, it was discovered that no oasis existed, though many -- especially great landowners and domestic trading businesses -- deny that truth.

Currently, the arkhat is of diminishing value depending upon the beliefs of individual traders and consumers. Some accept the arkhat willingly, while others rely solely on direct bartering to acquire their needs.

Culture

"If ever there was a Culture embroiled in Self-Destruction, it is the Race of Jernos, who at a Glance may appear Reasonable and full of Wit, but have -- throughout History -- prioritized Shame and Humiliation as the Resulting Nature of their Origin. Never was there a Good Jerno who lived; that is why We Study Them, rather than Commiserate with Them."
- Crisken de Lanz, Myrken scholar, historiographer of Jernoah

Jernoan culture is regularly regarded as primitive, if not barbaric. Uncertain country borders have led to a constant flux of war at the country's perimeter. Because of the rapidly declining Jerno population, women between the ages of twelve and twenty are entered into a mandatory birthing lottery by governmental edict, and if chosen, are required to submit themselves to male members of renowned family lines to produce children. Stories are abound in the available literature. Sol Paulis, renowned Jernoan historian, once wrote: "When the Chosen are shuffled off to the Birthing Pens, you can often hear their screams for days at a time as the men make their bedding rounds. The girls are fed exotic fruits that the Nameless have given us, which enhance their fertility and broaden their minds. Only when they are bulging with child are the soon-to-be mothers released to their new families. They are praised and heralded with great reverence. They are gorged to fatness. These young women are the saviors of our dying culture."

Jernos are left unclothed until the age of ten so that their bodies can adjust to the harsh, dry climate of the desert. As such, nakedness is of no insult to the common Jerno. At ten, once they have passed their Odos, a test that certifies their loyalty to both the religion and the government, they are given their first garments and are ritualized as an adult in a mass ceremony (often highly-attended, for the birthing lotteries ensure many children of very similar birthdays).

Regarding the physiology of the Jerno, Sol Paulis wrote that "Jernos are unique for their bodies' peculiar enhancements. Centuries in the sun has caused a magnificent, Nameless-blessed evolution: tarsweat has become a common term for the black, oily sweat always glistening on a Jerno's body. When excreted, a layer of tarsweat can resist the sky's harsh rays and can insulate against the icy, cracking nights of the Glass Sands." Hierarchies in Jernoah embrace the benefits of tarsweat -- those of a greater odor are often seen as strong and unyielding, and even in the circles of the dantiest, most proper women, bodily scents are regarded with pride.

In Jernoah, the average lifespan ranges from between twenty-one years to thirty, ensuring viable adulthood at a very early age. Desert predators such as vile dune-bugs, mythical stonebears, voorbears, and any number of unnamed beasts regularly ensure death as a commonplace occurrence. Again, the Jerno tarsweat is seen as an advantage -- predators are often driven away from Jerno cities and villages by their overwhelming odors, and tarsweat has proved even poisonous to certain creatures. Elder Jernos (referred to as Greatmen or Greatladies) are highly respected for their fortitude, constitution, and wisdom, and their word alone can overthrow any ruling in a Jernoan village council -- if they care enough to attend, and are not being glutted into stupor by incense, hallucinogens, and other bodily pleasures.

The staple of Jernoan cuisine is the jah'zoon, a grazing, deer-like creature whose meat is valued for its abundance at certain times of the year. Jah'zoon hide and bone are major components of craft and necessity. They are regularly herded around towns and cities, for their bony, extendable snouts can find pockets of earthen water. Their urine and sweat is regularly farmed so that it can be boiled and cleansed over fire, and is used as stock for cooking and other essentials.