#khemut

[mythratica]

an old map i produced for Khemut. a lot of the stylings and ideas here are outdated, but i think it's still quite stylistically effective. i'm especially proud of the little icons, which are meant to represent local deities.

[mythratica]

khemut is in part my attempt to construct a matriarchy from reasonably materialist principles that does not rely on a speculative fiction premise fundamentally altering biology or societal formation, and does not simply invert the division of labour between men and women. it's a fairly interesting project for interrogating my own understanding of the formation of gender relations

[mythratica]

worlds most female animal

[mythratica]

what is the wadju principle I'm losing my mind trying to figure this out. a moral stance on food reviewing??? help

in khemite hekatic practice the original principle is the ahtet, formless and undifferentiated, all-encompassing and unrealised. it has no shape, no colour, no centre and no boundary (or it might be better to say it possesses all forms simultaneously, which is much the same).

because of this, to make use of the ahtet it must first be given definition. this is accomplished through division, the primary act of creation (one may witness such an act by watching newly cut grain be threshed into stalk and seed). while the ahtet may be divided infinitely, the first division is always into the green and red principles, wadju and desha.

desha is hot, dry, energetic, disordered, and protean. it is associated primarily with the desert and the planting season. wadju is cool, wet, stable, and still; it is associated with the river and the flooding season. wadju tames desha and turns it towards productive ends through ordering and directing its energies; this is the growing season. the khemite people also consider these to be the masculine and feminine principles.

khemut is matriarchal- the purpose of men, whose natures are energetic but disorderly is to be directed by women, whose natures are logical, patient and orderly. communion of the red and green principles is the purpose of marriage. the reunification of wadju and desha, true synthesis into the black principle, is called rekati and is the sole province of the empress.

wadju is understood to be primarily cultivated in the womb, while desha is primarily cultivated in the testes, though men and women are known to contain a measure of both red and green in different balances (children are considered to be of formless ahtet-principle until they reach puberty). one may alter the balance of their principles through dedicated spiritual practice, a correct diet, and certain medicines; this is an important component of medicine as imbalanced principles are a primary source of illness. indeed, if one were dedicated enough to this practice, they could entirely alter the balance of their internal principles so that the green principle is predominant in their body where red once was, or vice-versa. one might even use such techniques to alter the physical traits of the body- such is the basis of hekatic internal alchemy, after all.

therefore, to cultivate the wadju principle is to practice internal alchemy to grow one's feminine force. it has nothing to do with the food review app. theres only so many combinations of letters and sounds okay

(there are certain practitioners, most notoriously the priestesses of dust, who will tell you that since the red and green principles are divided from an infinite principle they contain equal infinities and have no innate traits; that the masculine and feminine are contained in equal quantities in both desha and wadju and either could be used to accomplish any end or alter one's self in any way. this is obvious nonsense, contrary to mahat and should be disregarded.)

[mythratica]

Take the womb of a crocodile; dry it for fourty days, pound with a malachite or river slate pestle. Mix the resultant powder with cumin, fennel and and the dung of a pregnant carabao. You may wish to add a strong spirit to mask the flavour. Speak the fifty-first utterance of Mytra as you imbibe; offer appropriate sacrifices afterwards. Ensure you are at cleansed to at least the standard of the outer courtyard!

Instructions for initial cultivation of Wadju principle from the Formulae of Ren Shu Ren, compiled by an anonymous student of hers in the fifth year of the Zahnite empress Komu. The heritage & canonicity of these formulae was fiercely debated even by scholars of the period; even so they found great popularity amongst a burgeoning merchant class seeking access to knowledge once restricted to temple practice.

[mythratica]

i was thinking "it wld be cool if khemut had domesticated oryx" then i found out there were semi-domesticated oryx in ancient egypt which i had no idea about

i think theres a fully domesticated species in khemut though. theyre used like mules

[mythratica]

The Heruwet

The heruwet was a group of villages that formed an interdependent structure of trade, marriage, and mutual support. It can be traced back centuries before Rekhet to clan groupings that predate the formation of imperial power. Indeed, each heruwet has been observed to have distinct rituals & material culture developed over extraordinary periods of time, as evidenced by examples of pottery, clothing and religious items recovered from craters K1, K5 and K7 demonstrating persistent features particular to individual heruwet spanning across multiple historic epochs. The essential function of the heruwet was to overcome the limitations faced by a single village. Essential goods, particularly those scarce to one but plentiful to another were traded freely between heruwet members, as well as high-quality livestock to enable inter-village animal husbandry, typically on market days taking place in one village and attended by others. Marriages were arranged primarily between families of a single heruwet, and newly married men would move to live with the family of their wife, creating familial ties that strengthened the bonds between communities. In times of hardship, grain was shared amongst heruwet villages to ensure collective survival as the less affected supported those facing the worst hardship. In periods where centralised imperial power was weak, the heruwet essentially formed self-governing units that would band together for defence and survival.This is not to suggest that relations between heruwet members were always harmonious, as a court record dated to the fifth year of the Shomu Empress demonstrates:

Record of a dispute between the family of Muti of the village of Het and the family of Sudra of the village of Nanu, in the fifth year of Shomu (Life! Prosperity! Health!), on the ninth day of Rheti. The case was adjudicated by the magistrate of catfish-rank Nenibetu.The headmother of the family of Muti alleged that she had lent five head best-quality red cattle  to the family of Sudra for the purposes of breeding, with the understanding that one-half of the resultant offspring would be returned to the village of Het along with the original five animals. The headmother of the family of Sudra denied these claims, stating instead that the cattle had always belonged to her family, and she possessed records proving this ownership from long before the agreement to share their offspring. She furthermore insisted it be noted that the people of Het are known to be cheats and liars and that its cattle are of inferior quality anyway.The news of these records of ownership was received by the magistrate Nenibetu with some interest, as  the court's taxation surveys contained no record of best-quality red cattle in the herds of the Het or Muti families. As neither headmother was able to account for this discrepancy, all five head of cattle were confiscated as back taxes owed. In this manner was was the matter resolved to the satisfaction of the court and of Mahat.

The scribe of oryx-rank Ah-Horati, who recorded this matter, swears that all transpired as it was written.

Life and all good things to Shomu (may she reign one million years)!

The heruwet was also a crucial structure of religious life, as it was common for each village within one to share a patron deity or deities, typically either a revered ancestor-figure or a god associated with a feature of the local environment such as a river or mountain. Priestesses and healers would move between the villages of a heruwet, and religious ceremonies, particularly festival days, would bring together the villages in shared observance and celebration. Heruwet often shared a single place of entombment and burial, in some cases co-opting much older structures that lay nearby and had otherwise fallen into disuse. 

Under the Zahn administration, the heruwet system was damaged by predominantly aristocratic land ownership, Myrnahn policies of strict tenancy, and the wide-scale use of slavery on estate farms. Cultural and historical bonds remained strong however, and in the wake of abolishment of private slave ownership by the Hemshu Empress and the significant land reforms that followed the heruwet structure began to reassert itself. This was, in fact, a major goal of the early Rekhet administration, which took further steps to strengthen traditional village structures. Prior to Rekhet, the heruwet had been an unmanaged and essentially self-managing structure, defined primarily by relations between family households and informal trade agreements. Important arrangements and decisions affecting the entire heruwet were typically made by a gathering between headmothers of each village's prominent families. In the early years of Rekhet however, the Hemshu Empress made efforts to formalise the heruwet as an administrative subdivision, instituting the mutual obligations of the villages to their sisters as a matter of law. While this was largely successful within those heruwet that lay within the central domains of imperial power, overseen by officials who adjudicated legal matters and exercised administrative power, outlying settlements largely continued in the fashion that they always had. 

Rekhet's  attempts to fold the heruwet system into imperial authority may have been an attempt to undercut the power of the Phaerarchical families. In previous dynasties the heruwet had at times proven problematic for imperial rule, acting as an alternate power structure that naturally tended to favour its own interests over those of the imperial court. While this reduced the burden on central administration it was also commonly exploited by competing internal powers, particularly powerful lineage families. The overthrow of of Zahn was in fact only enabled by the sway these lineages had over the surviving heruwet structures. When the Phaerarchical families were granted their administrative powers by the Hemshu Empress, greater integration into imperial bureaucracy was likely seen as a prudent measure to reduce the likelihood of heruwet siding with their Phaerarchs over the Empress in the event of civil strife. It also created a layer of administration underneath regional Phaerarchical rule, allowing the imperial court to monitor local affairs and counteract the power of the great families. The immense additional strain this created on the imperial administration must have been reckoned as worthwhile by an imperial court all too aware of the danger of leaving the power of the Phaerarchs unchecked.