Midian

The Midians are a Midorites ethnic group, and the most prominent of all of the Midian subgroups ethnically. They lives in the subtropical to tropical land commonly identified as Midia, located southwest of Siui and the Kur-Anzu mountains. Their homeland is known for the Midian Gulf and its coast which unites and define their homeland.

The Midians were one of the first civilization in the world of Drase to have written, recorded language and founded numerous powerful city-states, some of which still stand to this day.

General Information

• Primary Faith: Midian Native Religion (See below)
• Language: Midian
• Locations: Midian States (Ninurmah Empire, Larsaki League, Urud-Anbar & Eki-Lum)
• Minority: Surrounding their places / Tilai Khanate
• Clades: Midian
• Inheritance Law: Female preference primogeniture, matrilineal family names as norm.
• Slavery: The Midians might've independently invented slavery and practice it widely across all of their city-states
• Name Generation: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/sumerian-names.php

Cultural Traits

• Magocratic Hierarchy: Midians are generally ruled by mage-priests, with magical power being the primary determinator of social status. Midians practice a caste system: consisting of three classes:
  • The Mage-Priests (Enkallu): The mage priests are considered the most prestigious class and are responsible for providing civilian-oriented magic, including administrating healing to everyone else, and takes care of religious matters.
  • The Warrior-Mage (Zagarim): The warrior-mage classes trains in magic meant for war and serve as the actual ruling classes over most states.
  • Commoners (Dumu): Includes everyone else, who are allowed to practice some magic but in reality, is restricted by status or economic circumstances.
  • The Midian caste system is somewhat flexible and statuses are hereditary but can also be conferred by adoption or simply recognition as a peer - though reality means that recent newcomers to the two upper castes are generally not treated as prestigious as those whose lineage can be traced to legendary lineage. Different city states and subcultures differs on how rigidly they adhere to the caste system. In recent years, the caste system has generally loosened due to constant warfare between the city-states and the disruptive effects of gunpowder.
• Temple-Centric Life: Life revolves around temple-palace that serve as centers of governance. Midians also build grand monuments in cities as their law.
• Rule of Law: Midians have codified laws since ancient time and adhere to a civil law traditions, proclaimed and codified by mighty sorcerer kings that all commoners must follow. It is seen as idealistic for kings to follow the laws as commoners, but the upper castes and the king especially have a different set of laws than the commoners.
• High Literacy & Urbanization: The Midians have a higher than usual literacy and urbanization rates.
• Opulence: Midians prizes opulence, grandeur and display of wealth across all social classes.
• Renown Bards: Midian cultures are renown bards and singers with a wide variety of both sacred music and common folk music.
• Fiercely Polytheistic: The Midians practice their own native polytheistic religion, but are exceptionally fiercely defensive of it and quick to shun anyone who stray from its path, molded by centuries of religious conflict against the dogmatic Kozartists from the northeast. Your average Midian will tolerate if not understand other polytheistic religion - but has a special hatred in their hearts for exclusive religions that doesn't resemble theirs in mode of thinking - such as Kozartist.
• Family & Clanship: The Midians generally organize around large matrilineal clans with extended family being very important to their social fabric.
• Bureaucratic Governments: The Midians are used to the ideas of sprawling bureaucratic government that is in control of important things such as irrigation and public works.

Religion

The Midian religion belongs to a polytheistic traditions as is common with many religions.

Rituals

Animal sacrifices are very common but human sacrifices are strictly forbidden.

Cuisine

Although the Midians are far away from the Drase equivalence of the Indian continent, their cuisine does resembles Southern Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine the most, with flatbread and steamed bread being prominent, and the primary grains being sorghum, millet and breadfruit flour, supplemented by copious amount of rice. Lentils and chickpeas are the primary source of plant protein and are often grown in rotation with grains. Smoked and dried fishes are also common as a source of animal protein, alongside tropical fruits and nuts.

The most prominent animal meat in Midian cuisine are lamb and poultry. Tea are consumed commonly as the primary stimulant drink with coffee being a rare import, and Midians also enjoy a wide variety of alcohol ranging from rice wine to sorghum based distilled alcohol. The Midians are known for distilled alcohol, heavily flavored with spices imported or grown in the southern reaches of their territory.

Military

The Midian's military reflects their society's structure, and their Clades' relative physical weakness and abundance in numbers. Their military tends to be funded from a central treasury and consists of a large standing army supplemented by urban militias. Combined arms infantry make up the bulk of their armies, and consists of soldiers equipped with shield, supplemented by those equipped with crossbows and long polearms to protect them from cavalry - with the proportion of and ranged weapons polearms increasing upon contact with the Kirig to the north and Tazraran to the east.

The warrior elites of the various city-states are considered the decisive arms of any Midian armies, and are generally mounted on a breed of pony known as the Sipparan Ponies, originating from the province of Sipparan in the Ninurmah Empire - mobility, and sitting above your fellow lesser men is considered an important status symbol for elites, after all.

The Sipparan ponies are small ponies even by humanoid standards, but can bear a disproportionately high amount of weight, and are endurant - but unlike Kirigic ponies they are generally not used to subsisting exclusively on forage, and are used to grain provided by the army on the march, though their size means that they can subsist on forage if needed. Sipparan ponies are relatively slow, but faster than a foot Midian on the charge and eat proportionally less.

In a fight against bigger, stronger Clades, the Midian warrior-elites generally has an advantage in terms of their sheer numbers, as magical prowess does not scale very well to size - meaning that for the same amount of farmland 2.5 times as much warrior elite can be supported, leading to their potrayal in enemy literature as reckless, magical warriors who does not care about their own life - which are blatantly false as Midian warrior elites are just as casualties averse as everyone else. However, the warrior or mage-elites of various city-states have different stance on fighting - some fight directly, whereas other channel their magical power to maintain vast, powerful and obedient armies of summons or even undead to supplement their army, only showing up on the battlefield as commander and puppeteer.

The sheer political dominance of the Midian warrior elites means they are slow to adapt to gunpowder, even though Midian civilization are extremely advanced, with few exceptions. Matchlocks are most prevalent in the industrial city-state of Urud-Anbar and Eki-Lum, who are in close contact with Kirigs and need it to stay competitive - and also has the least entrenched warrior elites (With Eki-Lum's being particularly devastated). Cannons for siege and naval usage however, are used liberally as in elsewhere in the world due to their obvious utilities in warfare.