Ghazko Culture

The Ghzako Culture, sometimes referred to as Old Paravantir, was a bronze age civilization that flourished on the banks of the Ghazko river on the Paravantene peninsula in western Asania. The territory of the Ghazko extended and shrank throughout history, with the core of their culture stretching from the eastern half of the Paravantene peninsula, down the banks of the Ghazko river to the western banks of the peninsula. Beyond their homeland, the Ghazkans extended their holdings throughout the Paravantene Sea, as well as to the southern coast of Avanor.

The Ghazkans were a people who spoke a series of related languages, called the Ghazkan languages, who emerged on the Paravantene peninsula around the 4000s BCE. The term Ghazkan, the name for their ancient culture, is derived from the word "Ghaznes", the ancient Paravantene word for the Ghazko river. Despite this name being used by modern historians and scholars, it would not be widely recognized by the Ghazkans of the time as signifying a cohesive cultural group or nation state, as many of the culture's inhabitants viewed themselves distinctly as citizens or inhabitants of their specific city state, and not apart of a wider Ghazkan culture.

The Ghazkans came to prominence in the 3100s BCE when the city of Yaznes toppled the oligarchy of Gheskai, and began a series of mercantile militaristic expansion across the greater Paravantene peninsula. Throughout the following ten centuries, the other cities of the peninsula would begin to do the same - establishing colonies across the lands of the Paravantene Sea. They were renowned among contemporaries as skilled traders and mariners, becoming the dominant commercial power for much of classical antiquity in the Summer Sea. Their expansive maritime network of ports and cities lasted for well over a millennium, helping to facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, knowledge, and inventions throughout the summer sea to areas such as the Khudar, southern Avanor, and, perhaps most importantly, Aidia. After its zenith in the 2200s BCE, corruption in the administration of the cities, internal fighting, and several series of droughts caused their culture to enter a state of decline - culminating in 812 BCE, when the First Kainist Empire sacked the peninsula.

The Ghazkans were organized into city-states, of which the most notable were Yaznes, Gheskai, Zoraq, and Khisca. Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Ghazkans viewed themselves as a single nationality. The Ghazkans established colonial outposts and trading ports across the Paravantene and Summer Seas, with Aesica, a later Ghazkan trading outpost, becoming a major civilization in its own right beginning in the 900s BCE. Ghazkan society and cultural life were centred on mercantilism, wealth, and commerce. While nominally being republics, cities often restricted citizenship in their cities to the land owning nobility; while holding office in the councils of their cities often required financial contributions to the state that were unaffordable to the lower classes of society.

The Ghaznaks are often regarded as the earliest civilization in the world, though knowledge about them has largely been lost through the years. It is clear that their cultural innovations paved the way for many of the future innovations in military tactics, maritime technology, and political structures of Avanoran civilization. Work is still ongoing in the modern era to learn more about their culture, with the sites of the ancient Yaznes and Khisca ruins providing key insight into this ancient civilization.

Government and Law
The Ghazkan city-states were fiercely independent in both domestic and foreign affairs. Formal alliances between city states did occur often, though it was just as common for these alliances and pacts to fall apart due to internal squabbles, and led to conflict between the member cities. The relative power and influence of city-states varied over time. Khisca was the earliest city historians have discovered which attempted to exercise power over the peninsula through military means, though other important cities of the civilization would be Yaznes, Zesiiq, and Khisca.

Some research has shown that, at least in its earlier history, Ghazkan society was perhaps monarchical. There have, in recent years, been records recovered which indicate that there were leaders named "Oghir", a term which historians and linguists have determined means something akin to "great leader" and was often used to describe monarchs, especially in later Paravantene history. Despite this, "Oghir" has also been used as a title to describe venerated politicians during the republican era, leading some linguists and scholars to argue that "Oghir" was referring to great leaders and great statesmen of the prehistorical era.

The city states of the Ghazkans often were governed under aristocratic councils, referred to as Yizahan. These councils were often reserved for families of land owning citizens, who often had to contribute a large sum of money to the city to be eligible for office. According to custom, this money would often be used for public works, temples, and military payments, though this was also used as a way to prevent families lower in wealth from gaining seats in the Yizahan. The councils governed with absolute power over civic, commercial, and religious affairs; though while generals were in theory responsible to the Yizah, they often acted independently while deployed.

Economy
The economy of the Ghazko Culture relied on its overseas trade routes to enrich the wealthy merchant classes, while peasants of the nation lived in relative poverty, usually in cramped multi-person dwellings.