Samorites

Samorites is a colloquial term describing the different people who inhabited the southern Chenakasy river valley, also known as Samor. They are most well known as one of the earliest agricultural and urban civilizations in the world, with many of their sites (such as the city of Vei) displaying an early form of an urban society. The samorites were also notable for being home to the earliest forms of writing, with the Samorites writting on baked clay tablets, causing a lot of them to survive in to the modern day.

## History

**Proto-Samorite period**

The Samorites were originally composed of various different tribes which eventually assimilated in to a wider Samorite culture. The origin of these tribes are extremely obscure, with the only real evidence of their existence being various archeological findings such as pots and stone figures found in various excavation sites and the foundation of a few buildings at the bottom layer of various settlements. The little that can be determined however is that the tribes most likely arrived from the east, and belong to the wider Proto Ynto-Eilethian people, as the later Samorite language that appeared on writing seems to be closely related to other early Fruntonac languages. The tribes started to create the first settlements along the Chenakasy river and its tributaries, although by this point most settlements were only semi permanent, as the various tribes still relied on hunter gathering rather than permanent agriculture due to the flooding of the river, which, although enriching the soil, caused any settlements to be swept away. This can be seen by various excavations finding small, abandoned sites buried beneath some of the bigger cities.

**Vei period**

   Although the advancement of permanent agricultural settlements would be slow, it was still advancing, as various settlements started to gradually become more and permanent. The progress was happening, although slowly, but the situation would quickly change after the invention of dykes and floodwalls. The dykes and floodwalls would allow the flooding of the Chenakasy to be controlled, and thus preventing the disastrous floods which kept the settlements from ever truly expanding. At this time period, various settlements would start to prosper, but none grew stronger than the settlement of Vei. Archeological evidence show that the settlement saw rapid expansion, with the settlement expanding its city walls several times. The city became the centre of trade in the region, with many small markets dotting the streets of Vei. There is even evidence that the Veiians practiced a form of proto-Mass production, as various bowls and vases found in Vei in mass and in several surrounding sites show that the bowls and vases were in a standardised size and of rather lacking quality and detail compared to more high end pottery items. Around the later Vei period, a giant stone building, likely being some form of either temple of palace, was built in a small, fortified part of the town called the *Fugelt* (market square), with the building often being credited as one of the first architectural marvels in history, with archeologists determining that the building was around 4 storeys at its tallest point.

**Yute period**

During the exponential growth of Vei, it quickly became the most powerful Samorite settlement, although it wasn't the only settlement affected by the increase in Urbanisation. Several other settlements, such as: "Barisi, Yute, Dion, Fonti & Vaurisi" also started to grow greatly in size, rivalring Vei. Prior to this, it's believed that the Samorites were little more than various settled tribes spread out over their territory, but as the cities grew, so did the ways of rule as well. As the settlements grew and became cities, the tribes became more and more centralised, with the various satellite settlements and farms around the cities now paying direct lip service to the main settlements. As the Moldevian historian Bysel Einot puts it: "The tribes went from being territories with settlements to settlements with territories". A sort of centralised bureaucratic of priests and high kings started to pop up over the centuries, as the cities went from still rather small settlements with around 1000-2000 inhabitants during the late Vei period to sprawling settlements with the population in the tens of thousands during the mid to late Yute period.

It was around the early to mid Yute period in which a script, called the taraform (derived from the Samorite word Tarat, meaning curve), started to be used, with the earliest texts being discovered on clay tablets. The script was originally used to record trade transactions and bureaucratic documents, and so many of the earliest discovered tablets were about the various bureaucratic duties and annoyances of the Samorite bureaucracy. Most cities had a social hierarchy with the *Gei* (Chief/Lord) at the top, the *En* (High priest/priestess) bellow, the *Nugal* (A broad term for different state officials, such as governors, priests & scribes), the *Fur* (burghers and merchants) in the middle, the farmers bellow and the slaves at the bottom. What has to be kept in mind however is that these changes in the society of the Samorites didn't change overnight, or even within a generation or so. The process of evolving from a settled, but still tribalistic grouping of farming settlements to a more centralised, bureaucratic collection of city states happened over the course of centuries, with the Yute period proving itself as a sort of transitional stage between the late Vei period and the later periods of holy *Gei* controlling vast swaths of land.

**Gargat period**

Following the vast and intricate sweep of bureaucratic reforms over Samor, the different cities occupying the lands started to become more powerful and powerful. Cities traded with not only each other, but also with various civilizations in their surroundings on a much greater scale than before. In the city of Vaurisi, a vast hoard of jewelry was found containing gemstones from as far away as the Bara mountains in Ynto. As a result of the expanded trade and more effiecent bureaucracy, the various city states started to expand their area of influence over the territory surrounding the Chenakasy river valley and set up various trading colonies in far flung lands, with one of the most notable examples being the Karnatan trading post of Gaurisi, which is the modern day city of Caris.

The city of Gargat, located in southern Samor, started asserting its dominance over its surrounding states. The first city state to fall to the aggression of Gargat was Lypkû, and several states would subsequently fall under the expansion of Gargat. Gargat would see the most expansion during the reign of *Beut-Kabadûn,* who conquered city states during his 11 year reign. Following the widescale conquest and establishment of the Gargat Empire, the Samor Lordship was transferred to Gargat and the region fell into relative peace.

The domination of Gargat would only last about 80 years, as following the death of the last chief, *Kish-Badarema,* the empire was left without an heir, and the northern Samorite states rebelled against Gargat. The rebellion only lasted 1 year, and by the end of it, several of the conquered states gained independence from Gargat. Seeing as the empire had little chance of recovery following the independence of the northern states and possible usurpers and pretenders rising up, a group of 150 politicians and noblemen assembled at the capital of Gargat, and officially dissolved the Empire of Gargat into several smaller states to avoid any further turmoil, and once again the region fell into relative peace.

Around the latter parts of the Gargat period, despite growing prosperity of the region, the cities scattered around the valley remained little more than petty city states following the dissolution of king *Ara-Fei'*s Gargat empire. This led to one, principal empire to conquer Samor: The Bersuan Empire. Originally nothing more than a small city state on the periphery of the Samorite world during the reign of *Ara-Fei,* the state aggressively expanded and only around 60 years following the dissolution of the Gargat empire, Bersua became the predominant power in the region. As a response to the perceived threat that the Samorites felt, the *Sûma-Symach* (Samorite league) was established by the various Samorite city-states in order to deter Besua from invading.

The defensive league did initially help, although following the ascension of king *Bercisilaus* to the Bersuan throne following the death of his father *Arytheleiea,* things would quickly change. *Bercisilaus* was a highly expansionist leader, and he sought to conquer Samor and bring it under the heel of the Bersuans. *Bercisilaus* invaded Samor only 4 years into his kingship, and although he faced heavy resistance from the Samorites, *Bercisilaus* showed himself as a more than competent general, and during the 3.5 year conquest of Samor, *Bercisilaus* didn't loose a single battle. The final major, deciding battle of the war was at the battle of Ife-Aramagû, in which the Samorites suffered an embarassing defeat at the hands of *Bercisilaus'*s army. The battle saw a coalition of different Samorite fighting forces, totalling around about 60,000, confront a force of 20,000 led by *Bercisilaus* near the town of Ife-Aramagû as he and his army was marching towards Barisi to capture it. The battle only lasted about 5 hours, and by the end of it, most of the Samorite army was obliterated, with the number of casualties usually hovering somewhere between 45-50,000 soldiers, while the Bersuan army lost no more than 2000 soldiers, even according to the most extreme of estimates.

Following the battle, the region of Samor was effectively conquered with no resistance left (except for a few bands of holdouts in the countryside), and the Samorite civilization would effectively come to an end after about 2100 years.

## Religion

The Samorites believed in a polytheistic pantheon of gods, with each city possessing its own patron deity. The Samorite pantheon, despite sharing the same major gods, did have regional differences in different cities and regions regarding the role and name of some gods with many cities having their own minor gods, such as the Barisian god of floods and wheat *Galicios*.

The Samorites often associated different types of plants, and fruits with different gods and omens, with the most famous example being the *Greivon* fruit, which was associated with rich harvests and good fortune. The Samorites were also fond of amulets, as they believed that different amulets could help invoke the help of any desired god.