Who lives in Azuria?

I have modeled the Unsagga on ancient Sumerians. As we are dealing with very murky prehistory, nobody knows exactly what they looked like, with the exception that we know they probably had black hair - the name basically means “black-headed people” – which also tells us that at the time, there were other ethnicities around, and they looked different. I have described Unsagga as having mostly brown eyes (and some variations) with tapetum lucidum, and skin in a broad spectrum of brown shades. In the strong main sun of the World, some have brownish or red highlights in their otherwise black hair. You’re welcome to define their other traits as it suits you – any visual interpretation is good.

Azuria is a province in the Tiberian Empire, the name an obvious play on Assyria, and the cultural setting plays with the idea of it being conquered by the Romans. In fact, parts of the region were at the very end of the reach of the Roman Empire, and their control over it was short. There are several ethnicities that go into its composition. They would correspond to Middle-eastern and African, with an occasional sprinkle of Mediterranean with ancestries from the original Rome- and Greek-based lands. Being Azurian is more about the language and culture than physical traits, with a mixture of “Mesopotamian” and “Roman” overlaid on top. So, while people use garum and pay in denarii, fashion allows for large, coiffed beards, and the Overlords have the prerogatives of Mesopotamian city-state kings (there will be more later about the local politics, rest assured).

Stolen novel; please report.

In the World, Old Azurian stands for Akkadian, and Tiberian stands for Roman.

While you are probably thinking that a thousand years between Anki’s time and Nua’s time is a lot, in fact, there’s been four thousand years between the Sumerian period and the era when Rome succeeded at several conquests in the region. The whole history of Mesopotamia passed in the meantime (and that’s a very crude simplification). There are several reasons for it, a notable one being that I wanted at least some of Anki’s knowledge to relate to that era, and scholars to remember some fraction of it. The big takeaway is that the World does not directly correspond to ours, and not just because the ancient Unsagga had gene engineering and big robots. I will be probably editing all of this after I finish, but it is and it will remain anachronistic, with a generous heap of ideas from my own imagination.

There are several non-human species that appear in Azuria, modeled on mythologies. Obviously, this is a setting where you won’t have elves or dwarves. You have already met Vedans, who look like the ancient images of Indian gods. They inhabit a faraway country that they share with humans and use their language. There are others to come, including the ones who will have a very important role in the story.