HISTORY
We Phonecians are the children of El. One day, El wandered from his desert home to he seashore. There he spotted two Nereids. The Nereids were beautiful beyond compare, and thus did El fall hopelessly in love. He took the form of a Bull which could walk on water to approach them. The to Nereids had never seen the stature of a bull and became immediately aroused. The three married, and their offspring were the other gods of Phoenicia and the People.
The desert and the Sear are our blood. Out vitae. But El originally came from an arid steppe to the north - a place of stark features and great waterfalls. But one day there was a great tremor - Luckily El was cavorting with his wives and children on a ship, or else the great wall of water would have drowned them all.
El was able to calm the waters, saving many of his people - but the land was gone. While the Nereids thought this was fine (for they could live under the sea) EL and their offspring could not. So all who remained gathered in their boats and ships and sailed south, around what is now called Anatolia, to this place which was unpopulated.
El founded Byblos, and erected a great monument to the travels of his people. At the same time the people built a great harbor, such that all who would become Phonecians could also be prepared if another wall of water came again from the west.
We have honored this tradition to this day, and now we are the greatest seafaring people in all the world.
THE SCOPE OF PHOENICIA
Phoenicia proper lies along the coast of the Levant. It borders Sumeria to the East along Lake Assad, Hatti to the north, Aegyptus to the south, and wherever they wish to go in Mare Tyrranium. The Council in Byblos has effectively sponsored colonies in Tripolotania (Carthage being the greatest success - almost to the point of becoming a rival to Byblos herself), Southern Italia, Far Iberia, and they have even created a trade outpost among the Celts to the north on their main isle.
Unfortunately the main body of Phoenicia lies directly between Sumeria and Aegyptus, who have warred on occasion. Luckily Sumeria is in a defensive posture, but one never knows when this may change.
ISOLATION AND INTERACTION
Phonecians are much like their Mesopotamian cousins; their society thrives on trade. They are then not isolated in the least, and interact with all cultures around them - particularly Aegyptus, Sumeria, Hati, and Eturia. Their constant contact with Sumeria has caused them to adopt Sumerian cuneiform script as their written alphabet. Phoenician merchants travel the seas in search of the new and sellable.
TECHNOLOGY
Due to trade and interaction with the dominant regional cultures, Phoenicia has the same level of Technology as Sumeria and Aegyptus, except in terms of naval technology. This is where the Phonecians thrive.
THE HUMANITIES
Phonetians as a whole do not honor the arts like the people of Sumeria. They do, however value objects of art as they contain value. As a result they enjoy moving such things to those who desire them. That being said, Phoenicia has a rich oral tradition and history. The Bards of Phoenicia are collective memory and historians of the society. Bards have begun writhing down these vibrant stories of their peoples past as literacy in cuneiform penetrate the elite of Byblos and Carthage.
SUBSISTENCE AND MOBILITY
The Phonecians are an agrarian people, practicing intensive agriculture as well as supplemental hunting gathering of marine life. They are not tightly bound to their land though. The peoples of Phoenicia know they originally come from the north - as told in the stories of Elam - and as a result have had no conjunction against pulling up stakes and relocating to a new area. This explains the astounding success of their colonies in Tripolotania. Carthage, after a mere 100 years, rivals mother Byblos today.
POLITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Phoenicia avoided hereditary rule. Some say it was because their kings drowned in the great calamity to the north. But whatever the reason the most successful trading families nominate members to The Council Of Merchants. This council acts as a legislative and executive body, promoting individual members to the rank of 'Admiral'. The Admiral of Phoenicia persecutes wars at the behest of the Council, and leads armies or Navies against the foe. When the current emergency the Admiral steps down and resumes his position as familial representative.
Admirals who try to retain power not only loose their lives, but also generally spell the downfall of their entire family. This has only happened once, and the family in question is still shunned in exile.
KINSHIP
The patrilinial family unit is the most important body politic within Phoenician society. You perform your duty to family FIRST, then to country. Without family an individual is nothing. A fate worse than death. Your best hope is to become a debt slave. Or try to make it as a mercenary in some other nation, because quite simply no family will let you on their ship, or in their caravan.
ECONOMIC EXCHANGE SYSTEM
The Phoenician economy is essentially free market barter based. Coinage has not been adopted universally. However most trade families will do business in Sumerian coin.
ECONOMY TYPE
By itself Phoenicia produces little but textiles and wine. Phoenician strength lies in acting as facilitators and cargo haulers throughout Mare Tyrranium. The exceptions to this rule are Byblos and Carthage. Both have a strong smelting an armament industry, as well as ship building enterprises. Most other Phoenician cities are simply towns that have grown up around a central market, and a place if defense against nomadic raiders.
RESOURCES
The Levant is predominately resource poor. It mostly provides population and manufacturing. The colonies in Iberia, Tripolotania, Sicily and Italia provide the raw materials for goods manufacture. It must be remembered though that manufacture is not really the forte of Phoenicia. Their expertise is in acquisition and movement of goods elsewhere.
EXPLORATION
Phonecians are explorers, all in the pursuit of new trade. It was they who first passed the Pillars of Hercules to the west, and 'discovered' the lands of Celts and Picts. Phoenician merchants travel further south around Africa, North in Europa, and deeper into the rivers off the Black sea each year. They gain many valuable goods from the northern and southern people and cheap rates, and return them to Sumeria for profits.
TRADE
Whereas Trade is important to a Sumerian, Trade is the reason a Phoenician exists. If there were no trade, the nation would serve no purpose and most likely dissolve into squabbling city stated to be devoured by Hittia, Aegyptus and Sumeria.
MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE
Phoenicia has no permanent military. Instead it has defensive levies to protect the Levant and the various colonies. Each citizen is required to assist in the communal defense of their city or vessel.
Where Phonecians are outstanding soldiers is on ship. As marines and sailors they are second to none. But on land? All they can hope for is making any enemies bleed too much to make conquest worthwhile.
RELIGION
Phoenicia has a pantheon of gods which closely links them with nature and the surrounding elements. There is a definite focus toward revering the sea and all of its bounty.
El
He is known as the Father of the gods, 'the father of mankind', the 'Bull', and 'the creator of creatures'. He is gray haired and bearded and lives at Mt. Lel. He is a heavy drinker and has gotten extremely drunk at his banquets.
El was the first of the Phonecians. He fell in love with the sea and the creatures of the sea, and saved the resulting people from the great disaster to the north.
While El is neither wise nor just like Baal, he is still the father of all, and as such his voice carries great weight - Even at times overriding the wisdom and consul of Baal.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Symbol: A mouth
Domains: Sun, Good, Law
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Athirat (Ashtartian - 'the Lady of the Sea', Elat - 'the goddess')
Athirat was El's first Nereid wife. She is the mother of Baal and Anat. She is revered as goddess of the Sea and all marine life.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Symbol: a dolphin.
Domains: Water, Chaos, Good
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Qadshu
The Goddess of Fertility - one of the Nereids found by El.
Alignment: Neuteral God
Symbol: A naked woman
Domains: Beauty, Insptiration, Healing
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Qodesh-and-Amrur
One of the Nerieds. Goddess of bounty of the Sea. Bringer of great storms and foul weather to those who do not observe her rituals correctly.
Alignment: Chaotic Neuteral
Symbol: A vortex
Domains: Chaos, water, oracle
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Kothar-and-Khasis ('skillful and clever')
He is the god of craftsmen.
Alignment: Neuteral
Symbol: An anvil
Domains: Forge, Knowledge, Strength
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Baal
Ball is the God of wisdom and Justice. He judges the dead, and sends them to their anointed place in the afterlife.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Symbol: A stylized skeleton
Domains: Law, Dead, Protection
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Athtart
She is a consort of Baal, and lesser goddess of war and the chase. Outside of Ugarit, many nude goddess statues have been tenuously identified with her as a goddess of fertility and sex. In Sidon she merited royal priests and priestesses. There she served as a goddess of fertility, love, war and sexual vitality and to that end had sacred prostitutes.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Symbol: A running stag
Domains: Beauty, War, Luck, Good
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Anat (Anath, Rahmay - 'the merciful')
She Baal's sister and the daughter of El. Goddess of war, the hunt, and savagery.
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Symbol: a wolf
Domains: Evil, War, Trickery
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Baalat
The goddess of commerce and Trade. Baalat is probably the most widely revered of Phoenician deities.
Alignment: Lawful Neuteral
Symbol: a coin with the face of Baalat.
Domains: Inspiration, Forge, Luck
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Drogan
The god of the Sea, Sailors and Sea Travel
Alignment: Chaotic Neuteral
Symbol: A ship
Domains: Water, Chaos, Luck
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Shapshu
She is the sun-goddess and is known as the torch of the gods and pale Shapshu. She often acts as messenger or representative on El's behalf. She has some dominion over the shades and ghosts of the nether world
Alignment: Neuteral
Symbol: The sun disk
Domains: Sun, Fire, Protection
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Yarikh
He is the moon god. 'The illuminator of myriads (of stars)', 'lamp of heaven', possibly also the crescent moon and 'lord of the sickle' and thereby the father of the Kotharat.
Alignment: Neuteral
Symbol: a crescent moon
Domains: Night, Air, Truth
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Kotharat 'skillful'
They are a group of goddesses associated with conception and childbirth. They are also associated with the new moon.
Alignment: Neuteral Good
Symbol: A child
Domains: Luck, Strength, Knowledge
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Athtar (Ashtar, 'Athtar, Atra of the sky) 'the terrible'
He is a son of Athirat, a god of the desert and artificial irrigation.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Symbol: A Palm tree
Domains: Water, Sun, Knowledge
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Sheger
He is the god of domesticated animals and herding
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Symbol: a cow
Domains: Animal, Knowledge, Protection
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Mot(-and-Shar) 'Death and Prince/Dissolution/Evil'
'the beloved one'- Mot is the god of sterility, death, and the underworld. In one hand he holds the scepter of bereavement, and in the other the scepter of widowhood. His jaws and throat are described in cosmic proportions and serve as a euphemism for death.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Symbol: A gaping maw filled with teeth.
Domains: Evil, Death, Destruction
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
'The yellow ones of Mot'
Mot's reavers who bring death to those whose time has come.
Alignment: Neuteral Evil
Symbol: a blank face
Domains: Death, Destruction, Truth
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Resheph
'prince Resheph' is the god of pestilence.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Symbol: A hunched man in a cloak.
Domains: Death, Evil, Chaos
Common Prayers:
Observances or Festivals:
Rephaim (Rpum) - 'shades'
These are spirit / shades of the underworld who mete out punishments to the wicked.
MAGIC
Magic among Phoenicians is fairly rare, and is generally considered taboo outside the ranks of the priests. The sole exceptions are those who practice the arts of controlling the waters and divining the future of said waters. Great Canaanite mages are said to be able to predict the future based on the positions of the stars and planets and guide their ship masters out of harms way accordingly. As a result of this, there are almost no innate mages (Sorcerers), and only a few learned mages. Magic is the purview of the Priests, and all other forms (except for those mages who specialize in the element of water) are persecuted.
VARIANT AND PRESTIGE CLASSES
Due to their interest in understanding and controlling the weather, magisters of Byblos have founded the Order of StormWeavers (PoM p.102)
(Missing categories are the same as Phoenicia proper)
HISTORY
The most successful of these colonies was undoubtedly Carthage, said in the Tyrian annals to have been established in 814 B.C.E. by Pygmailion's sister Ellisa. She was named Dido, 'the wandering one', by the Lybian natives and escaped an unwelcome marriage to their king by immolating herself, a story that Virgil also recounts in the Aeneid. Her dramatic death brought about her deification while the colonists continued to practice the Canaanite religion.
THE SCOPE OF CARTHAGE
Carthage lies far to the west of its mother country in a place called Tripolotania. It occupies this northern coast of Africa and Sicily. They have also recently established a colony on Iberia, but it is currently not heavily pursued because of it direct competition with Byblos.
ISOLATION AND INTERACTION
Compared to the mainland Phoenicia, Carthage is relative Isolated physically, with its closest neighbor being the Reserved Eturia. Otherwise it fulfills the same profile as Phoenicia proper.
MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE
Carthage has a large standing professional army to help fend off Hellenese pirates, Mykenaion raiders, Dursa bandits and other unsavory barbarians. As a result, Carthage has adopted some of the military innovations of the Hellenes - the Hoplite infantry for one - while retaining their Sumerian derived special units of Charioteers and War Elephants. Unlike Byblos, the Carthage Council is made up of the local trade families and military leaders. Both work in harmony to protect the colony and expand their borders to provide a buffer against the nomadic savages of the region.
RELIGION
The Carthaginians are notorious for the intensity of their religious beliefs. The chief deity is Baal Hammon, the community's divine lord and protector. Carthaginians sacrifice their captives of war to Baal, such that he may judge them kindly and grant them success in persecuting their enemies.
"The temple of Baal was a magnificent building supported by enormous columns, covered with gold, or formed of a glass-like substance which began to glitter and sparkle in a curious manner as the night came on. Around the temple walls were idols representing the Phoenician gods; prominent among them was the hideous statue of Moloch, with its downward-sloping hands and the fiery furnace at its feet. There also might be seen beautiful Greek statues, trophies of the Sicilian."
MAGIC AND POLITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Unlike the Phoenician state of Byblos, Carthage is renowned for its practitioners of magic. The Council of Mages, the descendents of which continue to rule Tripolotania and Sicily to this day, founded Carthage. To become a member of the Council of Carthage, one must challenge a current member. Otherwise one must entire into a Patrician / Petitioner relationship with one of the Council Members or their subordinates. There are 7 ruling members of the council, and each position is named after the controlling family or faction. These groupings are: The Masema, The Followers of Baal, The Followers of Athtar, The Illuminatus, Family Humnapti, Family Cicerwa and Family Bracchus
VARIANT AND PRESTIGE CLASSES
Carthage is the home of Summoners and Enchanters. As such Carthage is the center of learning for the Summoner (PoM p.33) and Spellbinder (PoM p.30) prestige classes.