The seed of an Empire By Imperator-Zor Watch

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Five millennia ago in a river valley a few tribes in drips and drabs learned how to raise plants, till the soil and tame some of the more docile beasts. Gradually they settled down, their camps of tents and lean-tos gave way to houses, storage pits and granaries and became villages. These would in time grow into towns with dedicated workshops for tool makers, potters, weavers, brewers and similar with walls to protect them. Eventually these towns into cities with temples, markets, districts, great warehouses manned by scribes, noblemen, priests, artisans, merchants, soldiers, docks for boats and streets lined with bricks with culverts that led waste water down to the river supported by fields supported by complex irrigation. For centuries these kingdoms squabbled with each other, trading and fighting with the barbarians along the boarders of their realm and every generation or so fighting wars to get better trade deals with each other, steal each other's cattle and take a few people as slaves or hostages to be ransomed off. Despite these squabbles things were on the whole were fairly nice.



Then came the flood.



A thousand kilometers away an earthquake caused massive simultaneous avalanches rumbling below the snow line into valleys. What had been a trickle of melt water became a torrent, the main river rose above it's banks and spilled out dozens of kilometers from it's banks. Crops were ruined, adobe buildings melted and disease spread it's aftermath. People viewed this event as the wrath of the gods for their wickedness and blamed themselves and their rivals. When the waters receded, the survivors launched attacks on their enemies to plunder what they could of them to keep themselves fed. Irrigation systems were not maintained or in some cases deliberately destroyed. The next decade would be one of starvation, blood and pain for the valley. So much so that some reckoned that it was the end of the world.



In this case arose a warrior named Jiath. He was a skilled fighter, well respected by his fellows and a capable pragmatic leader. He gathered up his family as well as a smattering of others including three potters, two bronzesmiths and a scribe. In total there was 54 of them on the outset including children. They took what weapons they could scrounge up, some provisions and trading goods and made their way out following the rising sun. Along the way they faced barbarian tribes, predators, harsh weather and starvation. Their numbers would gradually shrink as they lost some of their people. Never the less they pressed on in search of their haven, for what else could they do?



Finally after half a year and a thousand kilometers they found a suitable place to settle in the foothils of a mountain by the sea. The surviving 31 people unpacked their things, fished the rivers, hunted game, felled trees, built new shelters and a simple pallisade and sowed their preciously guarded seed to produce new crops. With their food supply secured their numbers increased. The potters made new pots, the scribe tallied reports on her clay tablet and the Bronzesmiths found copper ore in the hills. Grain, textiles, copper tools and pots were exchanged for the nomadic hunter gatherers and herders which went through the area for hides, meat, livestock and captives from rival tribes, which were put to work in the fields as slaves. A few more slaves in those early years were taken tribe was fool hearty enough to attack the village, only to be fought off by Jiath and the rest of the villagers who could form shield walls, had basic armor and carried bronze weapon. Jiath would die twenty years after arrival, but by that point the Village of Jiathnar (Jiath's Village) was home to 90 people.



Jiathnar would grow. More slaves would be procured either through trade or punitive attacks to man the fields who would produce children who would be set free. Occasionally a hunter gatherer or herder would marry into Jiathnar, becoming a free man or woman in this nascent society. Tribals congregated around Jiathnar to barter, not only with it's people but also with each other as the people of Jiathnar kept a measure of order. After 50 years, Jiathnar had a population of 325 people, after a century that had grown to 1,250. As the village grew into a town, a new society emerged as it's ad-hoc social structure crystallized into something more formal and rigid. At the bottom of society were the slaves, above them were the peasants, descendants of freed slaves and above them was an elite class of artisans, merchants and scribes who served as warriors who organized into squads of ten who elected their squad leaders, with said squad leaders who served for two years as such being eligible to election to the post of dictator by their peers. Jiath was elevated from warrior to leader to the god of war and patron deity of Jaithnar. After two centuries Jaithnar had grown to have 6,000 people in total farming an ever increasing area of land that was increasingly getting into conflict with the tribes that had once been essential trading partners. Eventually a tipping point was pushed over and the forces of Jaithnar formed their centuries and marched out, conquering and enslaving and establishing new settlements as they went. Four centuries after the Great Flood, a new state had arisen: a realm of a dozen cities over two hundred kilometers across. For all of that the Empire of Jaith grew out of a small band of refugees.

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