Nation Creation RP

In Erudim there was a harvest that the farmers were working on collecting and organizing to put into their stockpile for saving for the next few days to guarantee if disaster were to come about that they'd have reserves to turn back to and perhaps have a surplus they could use to negotiate with their neighbor they had been taking an interest in.

Across from them and their river was the village of Yamato they could see was on equal prosperity to them. As for the stockpile, Sehu, the village leader of numbers took count of all the supplies that had been collected that day as it was his job to count every sheep, crop, and resource that was key to their betterment and track its number of stock. In a meeting among them, the council discussed the matter of addressing their neighboring village.

"Surely we must at least meet them. It's best to know their intentions now while we're on equal ground."
"It will keep us safe for now, crossing the river is a challenge individually and to be picked up by warriors is more than guaranteed."
"For now we'll strive for peace with them, and watch closely to be sure things stay that way."

Thahilla, leader of the artisans led three of her artisans over past the river to walk up to the edge of the Yamato village. Once one of the Yamato villagers came up to them they'd explain themselves.
"Hello. I am Thahilla, of the Erudim village. I am the leader of the artisans and we come offering gifts as a sign of peace, we request the chance to visit your village and to meet with your leader." She said.

The group then presented their gifts. Vases, clay pots for cooking and bowls each hand crafted and decorated to look the most striking and beautiful to the eye.

The Land of Yamato, the newly established village on Terra started to gain more influence on nearby villages, some of the nearby villages even converted to the Ryudo religion. Yamato's Merchant also slowly gained fame through the introduction of simple currency in form of Copper coin, of course, some village accepted it, some rejected its usage. The foundation of the city also slowly built, with a foundation of the Shrine could be seen at the center of the village, even though it's still far from completion. The development of the city was generally slow, but still, Yamato was the most advanced and influential village around.

That's until they heard about Erudim, a village that could be seen as an equal to Yamato. They heard about them from traveling merchants before but there was never contact between the two before. Until one day, some people claimed to come and act as the representative of Erudim Village.

Two men welcomed the representative with a bow, it seemed like they already expected their arrival. "Welcome to the village of Yamato, this way please."

As they were walking through the center of the village, they could see the big foundation of the shrine. "We are the apostle of Ryukami, we will bring you to our leader, Ame no Wakahiko"

The meeting place was a wooden structure erected at one of the highest points in the village. The main structure was built from wood and the roof was covered with straw, The wooden wall could be moved to make a huge window and keep the flow of fresh air around the interior.

"Welcome to my village. I'm Ame no Wakahiko, the leader of this village. We are accepting your gift", then Nokuchi gave a signal to one of his aides. They brought out a horse with a pack of grains on its back, also some wooden flutes and harp.

"As a token of gratitude, this is our gift for your village. It's our best harvest and also a thing called wooden flutes and harp. It's a musical instrument, and we will also send one of our bards along to teach you how to play it, and also the horse of course. And we want to introduce you to our currency system, if you are interested please tell us, we will visit your village next. I will send one of my aides to act as an ambassador to your village. Please treat him well." Once Nokuchi finished her speech, one of the men stepped forward, "My name is Michiru, I will act as the ambassador to your village".

"That's all, please enjoy the feast", A group of bard started to play the harp and flutes, producing beautiful music. A group of beautiful girls also came in with foods on a wooden plate. They treat their guest as best as they could.

Erudim attracted the attention of many villagers from the surrounding area who were considered too radical of subversive by their own leaders, for in Erudim everyone was welcome to speak and make their criticisms clear to everyone and draw the attention of those who agreed. Naturally, this drew the attention of merchants who had items to sell that wasn't well regarded in their territory as well as the free thinkers. The centerpiece of the Erudim village that embodied these ideals and attitudes was the plaza, an open space for the villagers and foreigners to stop comfortably at with the beginnings of a statue of their deity, Athenoy being visible in the center.

Thahilla and her artisans were glad to be welcomed by the representatives of the Yamato village, mirroring the bow in return she paid attention to words and reactions. It was the custom of the Erudim to mirror gestures of greeting and other pleasantries, but the group was aware that there were times one had to learn indirectly from the customs of a new people. As it was not everyone's way to stop and teach an individual the lessons considered important to them.

Looking at the foundation of the shrine in the center of the village made Yamato feel familiar to Thahilla for a moment, only to not see a plaza surrounding it made her realize the focus was on the statue. Not the exchange of ideas that was the reason for the construction of their city center. Making their way, Thahilla asked.
"Who is Ryukami?" she understood the man was speaking of their deity, but the group knew there was more to a religion than the name of the deity in the center.

They were glad to hear they would have an audience with their leader and that their gifts were accepted just from remembering the time that had been spent shaping that pottery into a proper work of art. Meeting with the leader of the Yamato village, they were interested by the structure of the building and the animal that was brought forward with cargo on its back. The grain they were familiar with but the instruments they weren't which made them quite fascinated wanting to know how they worked and understand their structure.
"We appreciate the gifts and the chance to learn something new, unique to your culture and that we can appreciate in our culture too." Thahilla said.
Hearing them out more, Thahilla became interested in what Ame had to say.
"Please speak more about this system of currency of yours, this copper and such. Of course we'll treat Michiru well." she answered.

Setting about to appreciate the feast the men and women of the artisans alike seemed to appreciate the girls' beauty, but in being aware they stood out in such a manner they wondered if that beauty was correlated to influencing their placement of them in that role or if there was another influence at play. However, there was also music to enjoy and they had to take the time to listen and learn about Yamato's currency system.

"Ryukami is the god who watched over all of us. He gave us the blessing of water and the blessing of crops. Also our leader, Ame no Wakahiko, is the child of Ryukami", the apostle explained. "If you are interested in our way, of course, you can learn more at our shrine, our main shrine is still under construction, but we do have some smaller shrine around."

"That's great if you and the village under your influence can acknowledge our currency. Because most of the village around here already recognize it. It's a simple system, one of our merchant will teach you about it", so one of the merchants stepped up and explained how the currency works, how the bronze coin became the center of the trade, and also the very basic form of accounting on paper. "If you want to recognize the usage of the coin then we can also start making a trade agreement soon, I'm sure it will benefit both of our villages greatly. Since most of the villages that still refuse our coin are the village that is under your village influence. So I'm sure if you accept it, then all of those villages will accept it too."

"And I think that's all for now, I need to prepare for the ritual soon, so please enjoy your stay, Michiru here will stay with you if you have any other question", and with that Nokuchi left the building, leaving the Erudim's representative with Michiru.

The artisans leaned their heads on their chins thinking about the basis of Ryukami, they could see from their village that they were indeed blessed in their water and the crops though it seemed that their leader being the child of the god was harder to believe as they looked at them and saw nothing that was more than human or distinct from the human likeness. "We will have our own ambassador learn of your ways and teach us them in return," Thahilla assured as they were interested in knowing about their religion with the hopes they would learn their ways with Athenoy. As far as they were concerned, who was to say the deity and their god didn't know each other in some respect. To them, Athenoy was all-knowing and their blessings were presented in their ability to learn, both from their world and each other.

"We could standardize the use of copper, but once we do we'll be looking for a better way to standardize it and distribute it. The people can only hold so much even with our holders to begin with." she said. A promise that would be carried out as the Erudim could articulate would convincing logic and their general influence.

With Michiru with them, Thahilla turned to him. "You will come with us in the morning, and you may stay in our village as long as you want. We will be happy to escort you once you wish to return and we hope our own ambassador will be allowed here. Now, could you tell us more about your following of Ryukami. I know we've been advised to seek out such information at the shrine but we hope we're right to assume you know of its teachings, rituals, and principles." she said to the ambassador.

Michiru bowed down to Thahilla, "Understood. I've prepared to go at any time, even if it's on short notice, so you don't need to worry".

Michiru poured another drink for the guest, "Yes, it might be hard to transport a lot of these coins, but still it was a lot better than barter, we will think more about it for how to improve the system."

"Sure, I will tell you a little bit about our belief. Our focus is on spreading this religion. The main teaching is about sincerity. We are believing that everything has a soul inside it, so we need to cherish everything. We are going to have a ritual soon, would you like to see it? The main ritual can only be seen by the believers, but the festivities are for everyone"

Michiru would show them the way to an area between the shrine and the forest, where a lot of people gathered. "So would you mind to tell a little bit about your village, I want to hear about it too", he asked while they were on the way.

The group listened to what the ambassador had to say about the religion, the basics regarding sincerity, the idea of all having souls. Being invited to see the ritual she nods. "Yes, we'll go ahead and see this ritual of yours." The Artisans joined in watching the ritual, and when asked if she could share information about her village as well she agreed and got to explaining.

"In Erudim, what we value most is knowledge, among our society the more you are able to learn means the more you are able to understand the world, others, and use that strength of mind makes you all the more capable of an individual in leading. We must all work to the benefit of one another, and so we gather at the Plaza to share our knowledge with one another in speeches and lectures. As that is where our knowledge has been concentrated it's where we are constructing our shrine to our deity Athenoy who blesses us with enlightenment of the world around us so that we may learn and discover even more. Leaders in the jobs that allow our society to prosper must know everything about our craft, find out new things about it, and seek to learn things about other matters. We must all strive to be the leader who knows all there is to know at the moment. Our farmers work diligently to raise our crops, but we've been studying a few trees for their bark that can be made to be soft like sheepskin. We are seeing if they can be marked and so we can keep our knowledge by marking it down on something that can be preserved and studied. For now, our pottery is made to be beautiful but also to tell our stories." Thahilla said.