Kantamia

**Kantamia**

***Contents:***

* Geography
* History
* language
* religion
* Architecture
* The Kassar

***Geography:***

Kantamia is located on the continent of Cygetauria, around the Ussu river, between the Huya gulf and the steppe that forms the transition between the meditteranean climate of Kantamia and the Nuwaru (novaruk) desert. The area is very hilly (increasing the more you go inland), located between the Iqūnku (north) and Maysar (south) mountain ranges. It's neighbors are Noscura to the west, Iseres to the southwest, and the Iskan federation to the north.

Long ago, the western coast of hyperborea (north of Faeyrēf) was inhabited by a culture of which much is unknown. In Kantamian legend, their ancient ancestors are referred to as the Thu. The Thu would've been closely related to the ancestors of the Norsumerians, but it's unknown how. According to legend, the Thu were the last creatures created by Yuntacun as bodies for spirits. Yuntacun hadn't been happy enough with his previous attempts which yielded all other creatures on the planet. Yuntacun's work station was located in a cave in the mountains next to the coast, so after being created they inhabited the region around it.

Yuntacun's attempt before the Thu consisted of the dwarves. They weren't pleased with these new Thu people around, and scared them off by inconveniencing them any way they had. As the threat had come from inland, the Thu were forced to flee through the sea. Yuntacun helped the Thu on their trip, as he was proud of his creation and didn't want the Thu to go extinct.

The Thu had to deal with many things on their trip, and many myths and legends exist about all these challenges. The gist of it all is that they had to fight off great seamonsters to arrive at what would later be called Monterras Island. There they were chased off by giants. They continued their journey through the islands of current Purine, arriving at Laeth. This island was already inhabited by elves, and the Thu preferred to not have as many neighbours (especially dangerous ones as the proud and prone to war elves). So they travelled on, finding the moldsvascans. These are mushroom people, and the Thu had not forgotten Yuntacun. So, they didn't find them worthy to be neighbours off, and travelled back to Laeth for provisions for the next trip. They then travelled north, fighting off sea creatures until they found a new region. This region was inhabited by Iskans. They were very suspicious of the Thu, leading to confrontations. Since confrontations don't work well with magic, the Thu were forced to travel along the coast to the south. There they found a fertile area, which became their home, and later Kantamia. They're said to have founded a settlement at the exact spot they first landed, at Thuqa.

*After 0 AS:*

At the start of the Bronze Age, around 0AS (after start) writing is introduced to the Kantamians from the peoples of the desert in Iseres and Noscura. Invention of irrigation allowed the Kantamians to expand further into the hills and grasslands in-between the rivers.

Sawanca's Luwar, Arya, was not pleased with his power and decided to conquer more big cities. Starting with Lat’ici, Arya went up the Ussu river and conquered the biggest cities there, securing his control.

The invention of irrigation not only allowed kantamians to settle further away from rivers, it also allowed for more agriculture. As it happened, qhirla (a crop similar to wheat) is in abundance in that region. Kantamians started cultivating it to be optional for the production of bread. When a famous merchant, Yattu, brought Noscuran spices to Kantamia, The Kantamians created a dish that quickly became famous, q'ir. It consists of a special thin type of bread, baked with t’anda (one of the spices) in it, giving it a sweet taste, paired with some shredded meat (type depends on what is caught that day), marinated in a spicy sauce.

Yattu became extremely rich of the trade route he created. He used his money to slowly gain power, eventually making him more popular than the original Luwar of Lūyci. With support of the citizens, he managed to pull off a successful coup.

Arya, nicknamed the conqueror, continued his expansion. Sometimes with violence, but most times he bribed the local Luwars by promising them more wealth and other benefits. By now his control stretched from Pihassu in the maysar mountains (Mons Maiseres) far south, to Lūyci at the edge of the Novaruk desert in the west, and the Huyan plains in the north. After he died of old age, his daughter Ik'a took over the throne. She inherited her father's expansionism, and in the 8th year of her rule, she managed to conquer the base of the southern peninsula. She had an amazing royal palace built near Lat'ici, making the former palace the seat of the government.

In 193 a swarm of aggressive predatory birds called Tirunka invaded most of the world, including Kantamia. This caused a lot of chaos, which the Minsanan cities used to become practically independent again. Ik'a sent her army to Pihassu to prepare there for a second invasion of Minsanan lands, to reconquer them. About a month after this, Ik'a was killed by a Tirunka. She didn't have an heir, so a war for the throne ensued. The Luwar of Pihassu won this, being able to use Ik'a's army while not being as affected by the birds as other areas. Back in the Ussu valley, a second animal invasion took place. The symbolic Noscuran animals the Kantamians called Kuwukka moved out of their original habitat, chasing the birds for food. The Kantamians in turn used this invasion to get rid of most of the birds and for food. This period had created a shift Kantamia. The historic core was located in the central Ussu valley, but had now shifted southeast to Uytalla. Western Kantamia, historically rich off of trade became smaller and fell behind other Kantamian regions. This caused it to desertify more because humans had taken care of nature there for a long time. Huya had it the worst of all regions, decreasing greatly in population. Kuwukka gained an importance in Kantamian culture, becoming a staple food and a common sight in Kantamia. The size of the Noscuran minority grew greatly, especially to the west.

I'll be updating this as the game proceeds.

***Language:***

The Kantamians speak Kandam (Kantamian), a conservative language of the Iwur-Kantamian language family.

Phonology and syntax:

After nasals, stops except uvular ones get allophonic voicing

vowels
 open

Kandam uses a writing system related to the other Cygetaurian clay writing systems from places like Iseres, Noscura and Edrye.

***Religion:***

Lhakantirism is a belief based on the idea that every sapient being consists of a body and a soul. After the body dies, if there is access,

Creation myth

First, there was only darkness, in which the spirits floated around aimlessly. After eons of nothingness, one smart spirit decided he wanted to change this meaningless existence. To be able to change it, though, he had to become more powerful. Thankfully, spirits are able to freely grant others (part of) their power. So, the smart spirit, called Yuntacun, went around asking spirits for half of their power. This dillemma (after all, they thought, Yuntacun would be able to use this newly found power to enslave the weakened spirits) caused a split in the spirits. On one hand, there were the spirits who trusted Yuntacun, and on the other there were the ones who didn’t. The doubtful spirits elected a leader, Panrunu, to grant their power to be able to compete with Yuntacun.

Eventually, Yuntacun lost his patience and started egging Panrunu on to grant him her power. Panrunu didn’t, and after a while a conflict started. After a while, this conflict got so bad that the powerful spirits and their armies had a battle. Due to their power being equal, this went on for centuries.

They hadn’t paid attention to the twin spirits, though. These were two spirits who were the only ones who didn’t want to join either side. They shouted at the others to bargain, but they weren’t heard over the sound of the battle. Eventually they decided to merge and thus double their size and sound. This time, they were heard, and the great spirits realised the battle was never going to end and so, decided to follow the twins’ advice.

After much bargaining, the truth slowly became more apparent that an agreement would not be found. Both sides founded their own world, with animals, plants and societies made of humans that the spirits could inhabit so they could feel, taste, hear, and smell it. This was a time of peace and prosperity on Yuntacun’s world (Pulhunu). This was a stark contrast with Panrunu’s world (Campaysur) though. The distrusting nature of Panrunu’s followers created many conflicts. Yuntacun, noticing this, started devising a plan to integrate Campaysur and its inhabitants into Pulhunu. He restarted the war. A world is a lot of ground to cover, though, so he decided it would be best if he destroyed Campaysur from Pulhunu itself. He ordered his subjects to fire flaming arrows and other projectiles onto Campaysur.

Campaysur caught fire, and this fire turned its inhabitants into demons called Lhewum. Some spirits managed to leave the world, and migrate to Polhuno. Penruno, big as she is, was no longer able to fly away and still she is there, on campaysur (the sun), ever burning in the fire.

The story of Lhakantir

Lhakantir was born as a simple human from a small town in rural Kandam. Her spirit was holy. The spirit spent her youth in solitude, figuring out how the world worked. She discovered that there was an underworld, a region secret to even Yontecon. In this underworld resides the god of gods, the one that created spirits. After this discovery, Lhakantir’s research got to a standstill. She decided to leave her body, to be able to travel to the underworld. Initially, the great god (called Heta) did not want her there. She found it rude that Lhakantir had to guts to travel to her and demand to know her secrets. Lhakantir was not discouraged, and waited there. After 200 days and nights, Heta realised this was an opportunity. She granted her her knowledge. Lhakantir traveled back to the human world, where she dedicated her life to spreading this knowledge and teaching people to worship the gods.

This didn’t go unnoticed, and to thank her, Heta turned her into the moon, in stead of a star after she died, as a reminder to everyone who she was.