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Urom: Difference between revisions
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The concept of ''Urom'' derives from the self-understanding of Coscivian civilisation and its origins. According to tradition, primitive agricultural Kirav was a violent and brutish environment characterised by near-constant {{wp|endemic war|endemic warfare}} between small tribal units, and widespread murderous practices such as {{wp|infanticide}} and {{wp|uxoricide}} within tribes due to both ritual demand and resource scarcity. Lifespans were extremely short, with the prelude to the [[Great Law Chant]] reminding Coscivians that "mere beards - not white but rich with ''[[Colour in Coscivian culture|ūmar]]'' were the mark of the elder; fortunate and few were those who survived to full manhood, for the earth was bathed in the young blood of hairless youth." It was only with the rise of the [[Marble_Emperor#Significance|Emperors]], through their imposition of the Four Laws and patronage of the Four Rites, that communities were able to know peace and order. During this nascent stage of Coscivian civilisation, sometimes known as the "lawful commonwealth", the "Empire" was a tribal confederacy rather than a proper state, without an administration or defined territory. The Four Laws and Four Rites spread by voluntary diffusion more so than conquest, and from this emerged a binary identity of Lawful tribes who accepted the Emperor's authority versus {{wp|Lucy Lawless|Lawless}} tribes who did not. | The concept of ''Urom'' derives from the self-understanding of Coscivian civilisation and its origins. According to tradition, primitive agricultural Kirav was a violent and brutish environment characterised by near-constant {{wp|endemic war|endemic warfare}} between small tribal units, and widespread murderous practices such as {{wp|infanticide}} and {{wp|uxoricide}} within tribes due to both ritual demand and resource scarcity. Lifespans were extremely short, with the prelude to the [[Great Law Chant]] reminding Coscivians that "mere beards - not white but rich with ''[[Colour in Coscivian culture|ūmar]]'' were the mark of the elder; fortunate and few were those who survived to full manhood, for the earth was bathed in the young blood of hairless youth." It was only with the rise of the [[Marble_Emperor#Significance|Emperors]], through their imposition of the Four Laws and patronage of the Four Rites, that communities were able to know peace and order. During this nascent stage of Coscivian civilisation, sometimes known as the "lawful commonwealth", the "Empire" was a tribal confederacy rather than a proper state, without an administration or defined territory. The Four Laws and Four Rites spread by voluntary diffusion more so than conquest, and from this emerged a binary identity of Lawful tribes who accepted the Emperor's authority versus {{wp|Lucy Lawless|Lawless}} tribes who did not. | ||
The discovery of {{wp|Bronze Age|ærose metallurgy and other technologies}} that enabled the consolidation of stable political control over wider areas and facilitated the evolution of the Empire into a territorial entity complicated this binary, as the Emperor's authority was no longer limited to those communities that had accepted the Law and Rites voluntarily, and now extended to communities brought under his rule by conquest, bound by the Law but (initially) not admitted to the Rites. This engendered a trifurcate distinction between Subjects of the Emperor (ritually initiated), Subjects of the Land (lawful but uninitiated), and barbarians (lawless). Over time, many Subjects of the Land, either on a corporate or individual basis, undertook the Rites and adopted the emerging Coscivian identity. At several junctures, such as the Great Invitation of Emperor Kompūserv and Emperor Ṉspektadek's Naturalisation of the Land, these initiations occurred ''en masse'' and may have been less-than-voluntary. At any rate, the arc of Imperial Coscivian history was long, but it bent toward the convergence of Subjects of the Land with the Emperor's Subjects, and also toward territorial expansion and the closure of the frontiers, such that by [Milestone] | The discovery of {{wp|Bronze Age|ærose metallurgy and other technologies}} that enabled the consolidation of stable political control over wider areas and facilitated the evolution of the Empire into a territorial entity complicated this binary, as the Emperor's authority was no longer limited to those communities that had accepted the Law and Rites voluntarily, and now extended to communities brought under his rule by conquest, bound by the Law but (initially) not admitted to the Rites. This engendered a trifurcate distinction between Subjects of the Emperor (ritually initiated), Subjects of the Land (lawful but uninitiated), and barbarians (lawless). Over time, many Subjects of the Land, either on a corporate or individual basis, undertook the Rites and adopted the emerging Coscivian identity. At several junctures, such as the Great Invitation of Emperor Kompūserv and Emperor Ṉspektadek's Naturalisation of the Land, these initiations occurred ''en masse'' and may have been less-than-voluntary. At any rate, the arc of Imperial Coscivian history was long, but it bent toward the convergence of Subjects of the Land with the Emperor's Subjects, and also toward territorial expansion and the closure of the frontiers, such that by [Milestone], few redoubts of ungoverned barbarians persisted, and most remaining Subjects of the Land were tribal peoples living on marginal lands, especially inaccessible mountains, dense forests, and malarial swamps. | ||
To Be Continued. | To Be Continued. | ||