Early History



~9500 Years After the development of Agriculture

The city of Zaghāj is a city on the west coast of Eastern Originalia. The city of 7000 relies heavily on the nearby river for irrigation. Wheat, sorghum, olives, and grapes are staple crops, but the city relies equally on the hunting of Wild Goats and Zebra, primarily using flint-tipped spears or bidents. Domestication of horses, dogs, mouflons, guinea pigs, and aurochs has occurred, providing valuable transportation and food. Zaghāj has developed a particular type of small, circular housing, implying a relatively small average family size. The main city is built in an almost circular shape itself, with the outermost houses and buildings much closer together than others, and more heavily reinforced with sandstone. The sandstone is mined from the surrounding region and slabs of it are stacked on top of each other to build specialised buildings, such as the "guard houses", communal granaries, and cemeteries-- wider and deeper-floored buildings where the dead are buried. Pottery is usually plain or decorated in bands of solid colours, representing various aspects of the environment.

Some of the hunter-gatherer bands of the eastern part of the north-central steppes exist in familial groups of 10-20, each band following their own herd of elephants. They don't follow the great beasts to hunt them, but they seem to exist in an almost symbiotic relationship with them. The elephants provide the humans with protection from hyenas and sabre-toothed cats, as well as leading them to plentiful food sources, while the humans ensure no member of the herd is taken by the aforementioned predators who have become more bold in this cold period, using their stone axes and slings to fend off would-be predators. As a result of their lifestyle, these "Elephant men" are primarily vegetarian, but have been known to hunt and eat raven, mouflon, and sometimes the animals they kill protecting their herd.

The Œkhii Culture is the name of the relatively large urban culture located on the east coast of Central Originalia. Located in a fairly fertile region, the Œkhii rely on agriculture and the domestication of the aurochs, wild ass, and mouflon. Houses are built out of carved sandstone bricks and primarily Holm Oak logs. Most houses contain a hearth or roasting area for cooking. The buildings of Œkhii, the central settlement of the culture (there are many smaller settlements of the Œkhii culture built further north along the river and south into the desert), are often insulated with various skins and furs, and it is to this city that the outer settlers immigrate during the winter, staying with family members and living off of built-up stores of food until the next spring. In the middle of the winter, the city can have a population of up to 10,000. Pottery has been developed and large jugs are used to store food and water, as well as for ornamentation. The dead are highly respected, and often a small jar is made in which the dead person's hands are stored, which is buried with the body in one of several burial mound sites outside the central city. Rudimentary smelting of copper ore has been developed and is currently used to make plates worn as armour for those living in the outer city.