Category:Stygian



STYGIAN The Serpent of the South Stygia is a decadent, sinister menace, a black land of nameless horror feared by the Hyborian races. Ruled by a dark theocracy devoted to the cult of Set, its small population is notably xenophobic and the people are obsessed with the subjects of death and immortality, building dark tombs for their mysterious mummies. The population of about four million people is notably small for a kingdom of its size, for there is little arable land for the people to live on and there is a constant demand for sacrifices by the cults.

The cults utterly dominate Stygian society; the temples own most of the arable land and the government bureaucracy is filled with priests. As with many religions, this Stygian theocracy is conservative and closed-minded and minimal contact with the outside world is permitted. Thus trade is kept to a bare minimum. Stygia trades silk, ivory, skins, onions, papyrus, slaves and precious stones for grain, cattle and other agricultural products which their arid lands cannot produce or support.

Description
Mysterious Stygia organizes its inscrutable society in a strict class system based largely upon physical racial characteristics. Stygian royalty and nobility are relatively tall people with black hair and fair skin, as were their ancient forebears, the original inhabitants of Stygia.

Below these, the haughty, ruling elite of aristocrats, priests and the powerful middle class are dusky-skinned, hawk nosed men. Interestingly, it is this caste which most non-Stygians consider to be true Stygians. Holding the reins of power in the government and in the temples, the aristocracy leaves the nobles free to hang about the court at Luxur.

The warrior caste are a tall and muscular breed, also hawk-nosed and dusky skinned. The lowest classes of serfs and slaves are of mixed heritage, a hybrid of various foreign and Stygian bloods. Below this are the foreign mercenaries employed to bolster Stygia’s army.

Clothing
Stygians wear little to no clothing. What clothing is worn is thin almost to the point of transparency; the wealthier the Stygian, the more transparent the clothing. Silk is a common material in Stygia, worn even by base laborers. Linen is another material for clothing. Most Stygians remove all the hair on their bodies and wear wigs.

Stygians take pride in their appearance, keeping themselves and their clothing spotlessly clean. Both rich and poor wear jewelry, including rings, necklaces and earrings. Most of the jewelry is made of gold, colorful beads, turquoise and lapis lazuli. Most adult Stygians wear Kohl, a black powder used as make-up, to rim the eyes, paint eyebrows and darken eyelashes especially around the eyes.

The main consideration for the priests, insofar as clothing is concerned, is purity. Priests wash several times per day, removing all body hair to ensure they are pure enough to approach their god. Priests do not wear leather sandals or wool clothing, which Set has deemed to be unclean. However, Sem priests are permitted to wear a leopard skin.

Instead of clothing, many female royals and noblewomen simply choose to paint their bodies with henna. Other than the paint and perhaps some choice jewelry, they go nude or topless.

Most slaves work naked. Servant girls go about their duties wearing only skirts or aprons if needed. Otherwise they perform their duties in the nude. They are expected to maintain hairless bodies so as to not embarrass those for whom they work.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
Stygian laws are restrictive and brutal. Permits are required for many elements of life, including but not limited to changing one’s place of residence. Religious crimes are punished even more severely than secular crimes.

Stygian customs are often perceived strange to foreigners. Stygians in foreign lands never eat in the presence of strangers, for example. These Stygians also refuse to discuss their native country. Perhaps they fear reprisals if they sound critical; perhaps they just do not want to think about the atmosphere and conditions they have left behind.

Stygians believe in cleanliness as a disease preventative. Frequent baths are prescribed by Stygian healers. Their desire for cleanliness goes so far to shaving the entire body of hair to prevent both head lice and pubic lice. Circumcision is performed when children enter adulthood and are considered marriageable.

Religion

 * Set
 * Pantheon of Set

Religion in Stygia is synonymous with the worship of Father Set, who reigns supreme over that darksome land. His pantheon, however, includes several "hideous, half-bestial gods" as subordinates worshiped alongside Set, never instead of. The specific rituals used to worship Set are a guarded mystery but they are known to be gruesome and sinister, comprised of unspeakable rites and human sacrifices in grisly quantities.

Government
Stygia is a theocracy. The government claims its right to rule on behalf of Set, an unwholesome and ancient deity. The king demonstrates or claims to have the support of Set and his pantheon – and claims that any attempts to remove the king would risk the displeasure of all the gods. Almost the entire bureaucracy of Stygia is comprised of priests. The bureaucracy is arranged much like a pyramid, with the wide base of the pyramid built from the common scribes. They function as clerks, record-keepers, tax collectors, supply distributors and accountants. Being a "common" scribe is a respectful title and higher in status than a nonliterate overseer of a farm.

Above the scribes in the scheme of Stygian government are the dignitaries, who are high priests, army officers, town officials and governors. Skilled scribes can often make their way to this tier of government.

Above the dignitaries are the most gifted and influential of the nobles and dignitaries, chosen by the king to serve as his central administrators. Above the central administrators are the two viziers of the king.

Economy and Common Professions
In addition to barter, Stygia does have a form of money. While Stygia does not generally mint coins, they do melt gold, copper and silver coins they receive or steal from other nations down into golden, copper or silver rings of a certain weight. These rings serve as a form of money in Stygia. Nevertheless, there are some coins, minted in Shem for the most part. They are stamped with the image of the king and the god Set. A silver coin is known as a sethi, a copper coin a gurah. A sethi is equivalent to a day’s wage for a laborer.

Trade is not just an economic activity in darksome Stygia. It is also socially significant. The exchange of gifts between unequal parties plays a role in the acknowledgement of social standing, giving honor and displaying generosity.

Common professions:
 * Craftsman
 * Dancer
 * Mason
 * Merchant
 * Peasant
 * Priest/priestess
 * Scribe
 * Slaver
 * Soldier

Sex Roles and Marriage
Women in Stygia are highly respected and treated as equal to men in many ways. Legally, Stygian women can run businesses, own land, inherit property and appear in court. They face the same penalties under law as men do. Women can hold professions and run households. In marriage, women retain their independence and control their own assets; Stygian women are not subordinated to their husbands nor are they treated like property.

Historically, a few women even managed to rule Stygia outright as pharaoh. As the bearers of children, women have a highly regarded role in Stygia. Families are extremely valuable and Stygians treasure their children. Since women bear and raise these treasures, the women are likewise treasured. While land was usually passed down to a family’s sons, the jewelry and furniture usually goes to the daughters. If there are no sons to inherit the land, then it would go to any daughters. The importance of women in Stygia can be seen in the number of female deities in Set’s pantheon.

Love and marriage can be found throughout the world, even in Stygia. Their concept of marriage, however, varies somewhat from the Hyborian norm. There is no religious or legal ceremony such as is found in Aquilonia or Nemedia that formalizes a person’s relationship with another person. Essentially, for two people to marry, they merely had to move in together into a household. Cohabitation and sexual relations constitutes the basic level marriage in Stygia. Usually there is a grand party involved when two people join together but it is a social event, not a religious one. The hateful priests of Set have darker things on their loathsome minds than to go about marrying people, especially commoners.

Slavery
A slave in Stygia is simply a person with reduced rights and dedicated to a certain task. People become slaves when in debt, because of punishment, due to voluntary action, when taken as a prisoner of war or when sent forth as payment of tribute. The period of enslavement is normally limited. Some slaves are personal servants. Other slaves serve estates and are transferred when the estate transfers.

Stygians generally prefer male slaves because they can endure hard labor but the most cherished of all slaves are those who have special or rare skills. Female slaves are problematic because wives do not want them around for their husbands to sleep with. The children of slaves are also slaves, so one can be born into slavery, but they are not separated from their mothers under normal circumstances. The status of children born of master/slave sexual unions is still hotly debated among the Stygians.

Slaves are generally treated well and often live more secure lives than free commoners. They fill a wide range of positions – all the way from laborers to administrators. They perform non-clerical tasks for the temples, serve as watchmen and as soldiers. In many cases, they become like family and often receive inheritances from dead masters. Sometimes the children of slaves are adopted by the master family, effectively freeing the children from slavery. Masters who mistreat their slaves can have their slaves taken away from them. Some Stygians merely want protection and safety in an almost feudal sense and often pay a monthly stipend to a temple or powerful person to take them on as a servant or slave. Such contracts are usually worded thus: "I, (name), am your servant, with my children and my children’s children. You will keep me and mine safe and shall guard me, keeping me sound and protecting me from all demons. In return I will pay you (a sum) of copper monthly until the completion of (number) years."

There are no huge slave markets in Stygian cities such as one finds in Turan or Shem. The trade in slaves is relatively small in Stygia. Virtually all slave transactions are between private parties and are not public auctions. Much of the ‘trade’ in slaves takes the form of gifts.

Influences
Architectural influences: Ancient Egyptian dynasties.

There is not a lot of variety in Stygian homes. The homes of a wealthy man look pretty much like the other homes of wealthy people. The same goes for the homes of the various social classes. The basic style is a main central room with smaller rooms built around the central one to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The central room is also built higher than the surrounding rooms so windows can be built high on the walls to let in light. Houses are built of mud-brick. Kitchens are outdoors in a corner of the courtyard or on the roof. Exterior walls are usually white-washed but some are painted black, especially in Khemi.

The noblemen’s estates are surrounded by a high exterior wall. At the center of the estate is the house, usually a two-story house. Cattle pens and kitchens are on the south and east ends so the prevailing winds in Stygia carry the smells away from the house.

A poor man’s house is almost a beehive of interconnected rooms all based around a central room for each family. Kitchens are either in a corner room or on the roof. Each family has access to the roof where additional sleeping and living quarters can be had. In the crowded conditions of Stygian city life people find room wherever room can be found and a roof is room. Trees and gardens often grow on the roofs. Storage is in cellars or in round grain bins located in intervals among the houses. The walls are often irregular, as are room shapes. If a new child or a permanent guest arrives, a person might just build a wall in an existing room, making two or more smaller rooms.

Officials often do not live in noble estates but they also do not live as poor men. The kitchen is usually on the roof so the smells of cooking do not linger in the home. These houses are usually built against the northern walls of cities in order that the odors, smells and smokes from the poorer quarters do not normally blow toward the officials or the wealthy. These homes are usually one story, with the reception halls built slightly higher to allow for windows and light. Also, since the Stygians like balance in all things, if there is not a door built across from another door, the wall has a door-like niche built into it, painted like a doorway.

The shadowed temples of dark Stygia are made according to prescribed rituals and architectural designs. They are usually huge structures, imposing and powerful, often made of black stone and have a menacing aura. (see the RPG book Serpent of the south for a more elaborate description).

''Tip: Stygian is a great choice if you like to play around with building, from the more simple commoners house to huge temples. Still it is fairly easy to pull off as most of it are rectangular and/or pyramid shaped. For temples, mortuary temples, pyramid and more fancy buildings you can utilize basically every type of building pieces, even black ice walls and foundations for the interior to create nice contrasts that looks really good. Some additional research on architecture from ancient Egypt will provide you with a lot of additional ideas.''

More Information
RPGS:
 * Return to the Road of Kings (Stygia - The Serpent of the South, p 196-213)
 * Faith and Fervor (The Faith of Set, p 80-82)
 * Stygia - Serpent of the South