The World of the Sutimpotyk

Post Reply New Topic

Inspired by BrandonSP's “The World of Gorrinth” thread, I decided to make a thread about my constructed world/alternate Earth in general. Previously, I had only posted snippets of it in proverbs, a vignette and a parable. This will be more general. So, let me give a bit of information on the Sutimpotyk's world to begin with. And I am sorry for the lack of images, my scanner is not being cooperative.

The Sutimpotyk is set in a highly alternate timeline where, over thousands of years, it went from being an Iron Age great power centered in the Great Rift Valley to unifying humanity to being the starfaring, extremely advanced civilization that has expanded across much of the galaxy it is today.

I based Sutimpotyk civilization on Andean, Subsahelian African and Chinese civilizations. Andean influences can be seen in the legal system, the community as the basic unit of society and the economic system. Subsahelian African influences can be seen in the civilization's music, the cuisine and in the equality of genders. Chinese influences can be seen in the legal system, the atheistic, humanistic nature of Sutimpotyk religion and the music. A mixture of all 3 influences can be found in the writing system, the political system and most other aspects.

Sumamfy, a language I have constructed and am continually adding to, is the only language of the Sutimpotyk and its writing system is a logogrammy written in word blocks, somewhat like a mixture of Igbo Nsibidi, Chinese Characters and how the Inka khipu are thought to be structured.

The political system of the Sutimpotyk is an authoritative meritocracy where no entity has absolute power. Though the government is to serve the people as a whole, it need not represent them. Notably, 4 people, known as the pawnupawnu, serve as a single head of government and head of state.

Sutimpotyk culture is rich but relatively monotonous by Occidental standards, as can be seen in their uniformly similar architecture and homogeneous society. The highest arts in the Sutimpotyk are architecture/sculpture (as in many, if not most, Andean civilizations, notably Tiwanaku and the Inka Empire), the performance arts (as in much of Subsahelian Africa) and literature (inspired by the rich Chinese literary tradition.)

As stated before, the basic unit of Sutimpotyk society is the community, known in Sumamfy as the pellfu. Sumamfy society is perhaps best summed up as being corporatist and authoritative (not liberal but not authoratarian either; somewhere in between.)

The Sutimpotyk economy is centrally and regionally planned, as was the norm in the civilizations of the Andes. Notably, the Sutimpotyk lacks true money but instead has a voucher-like system for the common citizens' medium of exchange and unit of account (large scale transactions are dealt with via command or, in the case of trade with extraterrestrial peoples, barter.) Store of value is provided by vast storehouses, libraries/quantum microholographic data servers for quantum information for services and knowledge distribution, territory for agricultural goods and other raw materials and centers of learning, such as schools, houses of culture and universities, for information generation.

Lastly, the Sutimpotyk has made contact with numerous extraterrestrial peoples, some allied, some tributaries, some neutral and some enemy.

If you want more information on the Sutimpotyk, here is my rapidly expanding Google site's url: http://sites.google.com/site/mbinhgany/home .

I like how you've combined aspects of very different cultures to create one unique civilization. However, I have a hard time stomaching the idea of a monolithic and homogenous civilization extending across whole solar systems. There surely must be regional or planetary variations in your culture just like all major superpowers.

If these people originate from Africa's Rift Valley, do they look East African? Or are they a blend of many different ethnic groups (which would make them more heterogeneous genetically than you describe).

Well, my people are actually not perfectly homogeneous, but rather about as homogeneous as the Han or the Quechua are: Somewhat varied over their realm but with so much uniting them as to be effectively one single, if quite diverse, culture. And I figured that if China could become more or less homogeneous across a continent-sized landmass in Classical Antiquity then a similarly homogeneous culture not exist across much of the galaxy with faster than light travel and communications. Also, the Sutimpo conquest of the the world when it had an industrial revolution and assimilating the people as opposed to subjugating them unified humanity combined with the widespread practice of population transfer make keeping such a culture intact quite easy.

My people, now encompassing most of humankind, never developed the concept of race (as opposed to ethnicity, nation and civilization), and now they look like some mixture of most of humanity due to over a thousand years of intermarriage between peoples from across the globe. However, before they conquered the world, they mostly looked as follows: Reddish-dark skin, somewhat tall bodies, slanted, brown eyes, peppercorn hair, large facial features and with long skulls.

I have information on the Sutimpotyk's language, Sumamfy, on my site now: http://sites.google.com/site/mbinhgany/language . There are also samples, proverbs, on said page.