Avramistan

Avramistan: a setting for Storming the Wizard's Tower

This setting was inspired by Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road and other writings about the Jewish kingdom of the Khazars. And my interest in Central Asian food. And my affection for the music of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road project and a CD of Afghan Rubab music that I really like. And the fact that scimitars are cool. And the concept of Jewish Tartars swinging scimitars and riding fierce ponies under the banner of the menorah and fighting weird monsters is cool. So take the juvenile historical fiction of Geoffrey Trease out of its Anglo/Celtic setting and move it to Central Asia and you will have the feel of this setting.

The basic concept: a Turkic people who have converted to Judaism within the lifetime of the player characters' grandparents. The kingdom is only gradually moving towards a "state" structure, but is a prosperous and strong region, sandwiched between the great Christian and Muslim empires to the south, the fierce Kiev Rus to the north, Magyars and Bulgars to the west and wilder Tartar hordes to the East.

Map 1

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa253/epweissengruber/avramistan1st.jpg

Paragraph 1: What Is It Like?

Bayati Altanjin ("Rich in Gold") is a prosperous town in the centre of the land of Avramistan. It has much in common with the huge expanse of territory covered by the Tartars: a broad expanse of plain covered with grasses, with the flatness broken by hilly uplands and the occasional mountain in whose valleys the Nomads find shelter. It has a large walled-in bazaar, making it the centre of commerce for the region. It is protected by the hordes of the Bek, the military ruler of the land, who is in service to the Khagan, or spiritual king, a descendant of King David himself, and grandson of the Khan who took the name Avram on his conversion to Judaism. It is a comfortable, prosperous town, one valued by Khagan and Bek, nomad and farmer, alike.

Map 2

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa253/epweissengruber/bayantialtanjin.jpg

Paragraph 2: Backbone of the Town

The backbone of the town is trade. The local farming community links the kingdom's religious, military and mercantile power with the local semi- and fully nomadic groups. Semi-nomads provide sheep and goats, nomads horses, and local farmers grain, melons, apples, walnuts and almonds, flax, and cotton. These are converted into coin in the bazaar, or excanged for exotic goods from the Spice Road, salt fish and other sea products, or learning at the synagogue.

• The Bazaar

Here you can find a cornucopia of exotic fruits and spices, meat, fine sweetmeats and fresh almonds and walnuts, vendors selling herb fritters and kabobs. It is not uncommon to see Pushto Gypsies, Industani money changers, Helenic or Han traders from the west or the east selling their wares. Amid the teeming energy you can hear lute music or see puppet shows. But at sundown on Friday the bazaar is deserted -- all are expected to be readying themselves for evening devotions and the Sabbath.

Paragraph 3: The Town's Neighbours

The town faces no immediate threat against itself in particular but it is liable to the same sudden threats to which all of the towns of the plain are subject: raiders. the Rus ply the great rivers in their longships and sometimes make depredations inland. The Magyars and Eastern Tartars will send hordes into Avramistan and towns like Bayantai are the target. The fort is regularly visited by the hordes of the Bek but is little more than a resting stop for the mounted couriers that keep the kingdom together. Local Khan Natan-ben-Edrene has only a small horsetroop to keep order for the Bek. Spring and summer see increased tension between Nomads and Farmers which breaks into violence. Disreputable characters make their way down from the Spice Road. Two ancient places of power predate the Covenant and are avoided by those who follow the Law and the Prophets: an open-air burial ground of the Eastern Tartars ("Khan's Grave") and "The Mounds," huge burial sites of a people who predate the coming of the Tartars to this region.

• Farmers and Nomads (lifted from Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines)

"The farmers say they are the oldest people in the land. They plant wheat, flax, and melons. They have long, resigned faces and exhaust themselves in tending irrigation ditches. They keep fighting partridges and do not know how to look after horses.

In the valleys above the villages, nomads make camp. Their yurts have domed white roofs, and the sides are painted with lozenges, scrolls, and cheques in every colour. Horses graze in cornflower meadows, near a willow-guarded stream. Fat tailed sheep graze too. The women card their wool in the noonday sun.

This is the time of year when farmers and nomads, after a season of acrimony, are suddenly the best of friends. The harvest is in. The nomads buy grain for winter. The villagers buy cheese and hides and meat. They welcome the sheep onto their fields: to break up the stubble and manure it for planting."

• The Nomad's Contempt For the Sedentary

I do not have a mill with willow trees

I have a horse and a whip

I will kill you and go

(Yomut Turkoman)

Paragraph 4: How Does the Town's Society Work?

The town is under the protection of Khan Natan-ben-Edrene and all subject clans pay tribute to him. The bazaar is under his sponsorship and all who break its peace will be treated as if they had defamed his own yurt. Local farmers have village or clan hetmen but they are, essentially, subject to all members of the Khan's horde: their lands may be used as horse pasturage and their stores used to supply his warriors -- but the Khan is wise enough not to incommode his prosperous farmers in any way. The Khan allows the hetmen (and women) of the Farmers and the Nomads to sort out any disagreements between them. This is a tribal society: consensus, compromise, and coalition are the way. But blood feuds between families still break out. The fort is maintained at the Bek's expense and the synagoge at the Khagan's. The local Khan passes some of his tribute to both monarchs but the tax burden is light. The Khan is a Jew as are most of the region's inhabitants. But remnants of the fire worship of the Aryans, the ethics of the Han, the ancient Tartar worship of Earth and Sky, persist covertly, and in some places overtly. Missionaries of the Crescent and the Cross are sometimes seen, as the Khagan wishes reciprocal tolerance to be shown to the Israelites in the Caliphate and the Hellenic Empire. The synagogue is home to several scholar/teachers who are trying to build the populace's understanding of the Law, their ability to read the Scrolls, and to bring proper rabbinical jurisprudence into the lives of the Tartars.

• Rituals of Hospitality

- Only after a guest has drunk tea to you begin inquiries into who he is or what his business may be. "Take may bread and salt and tell me the whole truth," is the local saying.

- "Be attentive and receptive to guests. A true man expresses his dignity not only in combat, but in how he treats his fellow humans. You can be dying from fatigue but never let it show to a guest. always be modest about yourself and curious about your guest" (Khazak saying).