Ancient Remel

Ancient Remel was one of the great powers of the ancient world. The city-state grew rich from controlling trade on River Wiyel, fed by fertile riverlands of the Triminot valley. The city's rich culture, complex religion and multiplicity of gods was a significant influence on the later Empire of Dor-en-Sann.

The city-state flourished in the Beryl Epoch from c.3000-1600 BME. The original city declined and was abandoned by 1620 BMEplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigBME

Used to date years Before the Modern Epoch.. The region became a principality of the Empire, who built the modern city of Remel on firmer ground to the west. The ruins of Ancient Remel now form part of the docks of the modern city.

The Triminot is a huge bowl of land surrounded by hills, with the wide valley of the River Wiyel flowing through its centre. The relatively flat terrain causes the river to meander, creating a landscape of lakes and swamps. Although marshy, the region receives irregular rainfall, and was historically subject to annual floods and droughts. The ancient Issid people responded to this by building huge reservoir lakes, stopping the land from flooding excessively in the wet season, whilst supplying the temple city and surrounding farmland with water in the drier months.

Remel became a vast planned metropolis of markets and temple palaces, with squared grids of canals creating markets, plazas and residential and commercial districts. River access was controlled by dams and locks, which not only allowed the water flow to be regulated, but guarded access in and out of the city. The land was swampy and roads often impassable, so all trade and military transport was carried by barge.

The first settlers built villages in the region due to its swampy ground, which afforded protection from attack by land, and its strategic position in the middle of a set of lakes, with channels essential for traffic up or down the River Wiyel.

As a nexus of trade, Remel became a great cultural centre in antiquity, with a merchant empire extending up and down the Great River. Stone for its temples and palaces came from as far as the Siltorn Hills 1000 km away, and its temple architecture influenced Seqal far to the south, both its ally and cultural rival. However it was never militarily vigorous, and by 1630 BME the sprawling city had entered a terminal decline. Its trade routes along the river were cut off by the Ensanni on all sides. With little funds to maintain its waterways, its markets were quiet, its warehouses empty, its population departing. It was eventually conquered by the Ensanni who built a new city on drier rising ground a little to the west. The new city became the centre of the Imperial Kingdom of Garnarrplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigKingdom of Garnarré-Remel

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Kingdom of Garnarré-Remel

The Kingdom of Garnarré-Remel was an Imperial Kingdom, a constituent nation of the Empire of Dor-en-Sann, founded after the conquest of Ancient Remel in 1630 BME.

Empire of Dor-en-Sann

This is in a series of articles about the historic multi-ethnic state, the Empire of Dor-en-Sann, which existed from c.1900 BME, a largely benevolent transition which saw the rebuilding and reconsecration of the old city as a Temple District. Trade routes were reopened, and the region entered a new age of prosperity.

Ancient Remel had a complex polytheistic religion, with numerous temples dedicated not only to different gods, but to different aspects of those deities. Virtually every aspect of life had a god and a temples dedicated to it, including drinking, eating and pleasure, as well as justice, mourning and healing. Temples were not simply a place of prayer but the very place where acts took place, so that the temples of drinking and eating were host to ritual banquets, and the various temples of sexual love were places of intimate love or grand debauches.

The most noted feature of pre-Imperial Remel was the conical-domed temples, shaped like breasts, dedicated to the goddesses, and the phallic towered temples of the gods. Remel was famous for its constant religious ceremonies and festivals, most famously the annual Festival of Renewal, in which phalluses were carried from the God temples to the central temple of the Mother.

Each temple was dedicated to a deity who represented a different aspect of life. For example, there were goddesses for fertility and for childbirth, where pregnant women served as priestesses and gave birth in its sanctum. There was a famed temple of sexual love, where masked priestesses prostituted themselves to men or women as acts of worship, in return for gifts and endowments to the temple. Children born of such unions were particularly blessed, and called “god-children”.

One of the greatest and wealthiest temples was dedicated to marriage, and the “Veiling” of women. Sexuality was fairly open in Remel society, but in marriage, families wanted to ensure that heirs were without doubt the offspring of the husband. So traditionally, in the six months of engagement before marriage, a wife would don a veil and either reside in the temple precincts, or remain closeted at home, only visited by female friends and close male relatives. In the temple, a tradition of chaperoned visits with the husband developed, including rooms separated by a narrow partition through which the lovers may touch and kiss, but not consummate their relationship. This was considered a particularly erotic stage of the couple's relationship, and there were many songs and tales of the sweet pleasure and frustration this brought.

Neither husbands nor wives were expected to be virgins upon their betrothal, but having a child out of wedlock, other than a god-child, was frowned upon.

Three traditional forms of marriage developed in ancient Remel. In the first and most severe form, the wife was permanently veiled. This happened in the highest class families, where matriarchs ruled the house, with close male relatives living in a segregated area with its own street entrance. A second form was most common. The wife was veiled before marriage and while fertile, and unveiled while confirmed to be with child. This encouraged women to have children, because only whilst pregnant were they able to take part in outside life.

A third form developed in the later period. In this, the wife remained veiled whilst fertile, until she produced a suitable male heir (or latterly even a legitimate female). The problem with this for Remel society was that the paternity of subsequent children, conceived when she was not veiled, could not be guaranteed by society. ‘Natural’ children were not permitted to inherit rank or titles, or take high office, and so most husbands demanded at least one two children to be “conceived in the veil” to guarantee succession.

This lack of ‘legitimate’ offspring contributed in part to the degeneration of the Remel state. Women did not want to be confined by the first form of marriage, but eventually not enough suitable heirs were produced to properly run the army and government. It caused a crisis between the dwindling old guard and the lower classes and foreigners, who increasingly demanded a role in government. As the old guard held on, the state’s powerful and influence haemorrhaged away, and it was easily conquered by the Empire.