Alexandria

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  1.   1.  Description
  2.   2.  Culture
    1.   2.1  Caste System
    2.   2.2  Religion
    3.   2.3  Personified Deities
    4.   2.4  Government
  3.   3.  History
  4.   4.  Significant Characters
  5.   5.  More Information

Alexandria Statistics

StatusOPEN ?
Alternate Textاسكندريه
Name OriginArabic
Date of Founding~1995
Primary SpeciesJackal (Egyptian, Golden)
Luperci DominantYes
ReligionSeshat al-Din

Map

Example photo

Classification: Open. Anyone may create characters originating from the area, or have their character stay in the area for some time.

1.  Description

Formerly the second-largest city in Egypt and the largest seaport in the country, Alexandria—al-Iskandariyya or Iskandariyya as it's known in Arabic—is located beside the ocean on the Nile Delta. The days are hot while the nights are cool, as is typical in desert regions such as Egypt. Alexandria is cooler than the rest of inland Egypt as it's situated on the coastline, with frost and even snow during the winter months. Rainfall is also scarce, though more common here along the coastline than anywhere else. In the spring great winds called khamsin blow across the country, reaching high velocities and carrying great quantities of dust and sand from the deserts. They continue intermittently and may continue onward for days, causing illness and death in plants and animals.

2.  Culture

The culture is based loosely on that of Ancient Egypt, regarding customs, religion, beliefs, etc. Though one's lupus form is not looked down upon, generally optime is preferred by much of the population. Jewelry is common for both genders, consisting of earrings, bracelets, anklets, beaded necklaces, and religious amulets. Eye paint is also common, with green malachite made from copper and black kohl made from lead or soot, along with tattoos and general piercings. Though each gender is considered to be equal, family names and royal blood are only carried down through the females to her children. Thus, no matter how many children a prince or a king may have sired, only those mothered by one of esteemed blood would be considered worthy.

As Alexandria is a coastal city, foreigners come and go and aren't an uncommon sight within the area, but they aren't particularly welcome outside of trading spaces. Other religions and languages may experience bias as those of Seshat's faith can be violent and intolerant toward outsiders. Jackals are the dominant species through sheer number and privilege, though there are a variety of subspecies of wolves, dogs, and other canines native to the area.

2.1  Caste System

There are three major tiers and a caste system within Alexandrian society—the upper class, which consists of royalty and holy men and women, the commoners, or middle class, which is most prevalent, and then the servants, which are the lowest of the low and barely above slaves. The upper class are the privileged, with their position gained through bloodlines and not much else. They are the priests and priestesses, speaking for the gods, the scholars, and the philosophers. They are the military elite and the governors, creating rules and laws for the rest of society.

The middle class are the soldiers, the traders, the artisans, the merchants, and all whose position requires skill or some mild authority. The lower class is the unskilled, the unimportant, and the impoverished, that while "free" aren't much above those held as property. Slavery is, of course, alive and well within the city, trading souls as commodities and treating them as nothing more than chattel. Slaves have no rights, are bound property, and do not even hold autonomy over whether they live or die. They aren't even considered alive.

Slaves, like livestock, are often branded, tattooed, pierced, or otherwise marked in a manner that shows them to be property and to be treated as such. Often they are sold into it while children, captured from neighboring areas, or even originate from far distances and are beaten into submission by their captors. While within the city a runaway may be freely captured or murdered, foreigners who don't agree with this system have been heard to aid in their escape.

2.2  Religion

The predominant religion—more realistically, cult—is Seshat al-Din, or the religion of Seshat. It's based on the beliefs and religion of Ancient Egypt. The name comes from the goddess Seshat, who is the horned goddess of the moon, as well as the goddess of wisdom, knowledge, secrets, and writing. She records the allotted time one may spent in the world of the living, as well as their deeds committed within life. Overall, every creature within the cult is incredibly morbid, holding a deeply macabre fascination with death even while alive. Everyone begins preparing early for the afterlife early on—those who can are mummified, or at least granted a proper burial so that they could travel on to the underworld where their soul would be judged by the deeds they'd committed in life. If one was seen as being unworthy by their peers, their body would be burned after death. The body is required to be preserved or one may not attain the afterlife.

Three parts of the soul exist—the ba, which is the individuality or personality of the deceased and lives within the tomb, though can leave at will, the ka, which is the double of the person imprisoned in the heart and is released upon death and must always remain near the body, and the akh, which represents the immortality of the deceased and makes the journey to the underworld to take its place in the afterlife upon judgment. Within one's heart is recorded all of the bad and good deeds they've committed in life. Once they die, their heart is weighed against the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, by Anubis and the results recorded by Seshat. If they pass, they obtain eternal life in the underworld—if not, then their heart is fed to Ammit the bone eater.

As the heart is so important, it isn't uncommon for one to consume the heart of an enemy they'd killed—especially to steal any powers they were believed to possess and to destroy their soul. Arrogance runs thick in their blood, and many follows of Seshat view the outside world as being lesser than them, and something to be destroyed or otherwise conquered. Unfit children, whether crippled, bastards, unintelligent, unattractive, or simply unwanted are cast into fire before their first birthday to destroy them and maintain their polished society.

2.3  Personified Deities

In the upper class each child born of royal blood is said to house the soul of a god, goddess, or other deity. The identity would be scryed through dreams, crystal, water or otherwise by an oracle before or immediately after the child is born. If no god is to be found, then the child is seen as being worthless and aptly destroyed before reaching adulthood. Of course, as there is no official consensus on who is which god, conflict between individuals may result as duplicates may arise, or another may simply contest the choice for another. The lower classes are excluded from this as their blood is not considered pure or worthy enough to house a god.

2.4  Government

The government consists of both a democracy of the upper class, and a pharaoh monarchy that while is the ultimate, exalted leader, this position has realistically diminished into nothing more than a fancy, gilded figurehead as he or she cannot actually put forth anything drastic without the approval and consent of the upper class. The lower classes and the slaves have absolutely no say in politics.

3.  History

After mankind died and the natural order began to return to normal—well, as normal as possible with a raging virus changing any and all canines into mutant beasts—the predator population exploded and jackals began to fill in the niche left behind by humans. As they began to read and write, developing their culture and society, they took after the ancient human beliefs of the area and formed their own religion based on what once was. Seshat al-Din began as a small, modest belief system that steadily grew and pushed out all other religions through sheer force and intolerance. They believed that their way is the only way, the right way, and all else must be destroyed or overtaken. Popularity grew, until Seshat's faith ultimately took over the area in and immediately around Alexandria.

4.  Significant Characters

5.  More Information

Category: Open Territory?