Notes

The two civilizations in this story are based on the Harappan (Indus Valley Civilization) and Sumer (a large civilization in Mesopotamia). As usual, many parts of this story are based on truth, and many parts have been changed for a simpler plot.

Both are generally viewed as the first civilizations in history. They traded intensively with each other, though their territories were much farther apart in real life than this story suggests. Such a trade happened with primitive methods, such as clay symbols, because they didn’t speak each other’s language nor share a script. One of the reasons we know of these trades, is because of the many resources we found at Harappan that didn’t appear naturally there but did grow aplenty around Sumer (and vice versa).

No weapons have ever been found among the Harappan ruins, while any other civilization left behind piles of them. This suggests they were entirely peaceful and had no major conflicts.

Other evidence, however, shows that this civilization had more trauma and injury near their demise than other civilizations. This suggests either weaponless violence within their borders, or major conflicts that simply happened at a place or in a way we can’t figure out.

The Indus river is one of the reasons why Harappan could become so big and successful. It reliably flooded twice a year and refreshed their lands. They had an abundance of food and resources, which meant trade was enough to make their civilization flourish. No money, no advanced language, no army.

Around the same time, two other rivers were also important: the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia. In fact, the word Mesopotamia is derived from Greek and means “between two rivers”. But those rivers did whatever they felt like, causing the civilizations around them to constantly fight nature and respond to disasters. It probably played a role in their evolution of war and violence. If you just lost your entire harvest to a flood, there’s not much else to do than go to another city and try to get their food.

The most interesting fact, however, is that we’ve only recently discovered the existence of the Harappan. A huge, prosperous civilization that lasted longer than the Roman empire—but they’re so old, and left so little behind, that they were hard to discover.

They also left behind a script that we can’t decipher. There’s a chance we’ll finally crack the code on the “Indus Script” in twenty years … and it reveals that this entire idea of a “peaceful civilization” is nonsense. Maybe we find many proud stories about all the cities they burned. Or maybe we are right and it’s perfectly possible to have civilization without war and violence.

Lacking a script, we don’t know what they named themselves. Our name comes, as is traditional, from the first city of theirs that we found: Harappa. The alternative name is Indus Valley Civilization, but that’s quite incorrect, as their area was much larger and included other (potentially even more fruitful) rivers.

The script of Sumer—cuneiform or Sanskrit—has been decoded some time ago. Because these people kept fighting and boasting about their amazing warriors, we were able to recognize many names and places and figure out their alphabet that way. The fact that there are countless clay tablets with this exacts script all over Mesopotamia helped. (As I explain below, everyone used the Akkadian dialect … because they were all conquered by them.)

The Akradi

The Akradi are a mix between the Akkadian Empire and the Assyrians that they became later. There were so many small civilizations around here (who either went extinct quickly or are remembered until this day), that I’m forced to combine them to keep stories simple and streamlined.

The Akkadian empire started when one city in Sumer decided to conquer all the others. And when they’d done so, they decided to just keep walking and continue conquering. It’s generally viewed as the first true empire in history, or at least an attempt at it.

It’s important to remember that all of this happened around 6000-2000 AD. Even the Romans, if they’d found proof of these events, would have viewed it as ancient history.

These civilizations are too important to show only once, so their glory days (before this story) and the consequences (Babylon, Assyria) will surely appaer in later stories.

Characters

This is a short overview of the relevant animal species.

Indus:

• Most are wolves. (And large parts are covered in doves.)
• Prebuha’s family are sloths.
• Larsham + Larsh (Regionleaders) are hyenas
• Clayskipper + Welpon (son) are echidna. (To overly generalize, think porcupines.)
• Megitas is a Gosti, who arrived long ago through migration.

Sumiser

• The majority are Gosti or felines.
• But it’s a big mix of everything, for all civilizations keep conquering each other and they’re right on each other’s toes.