Bokuchi culture

Current affairs

It's the 21st Millennium, but for the Bokuchi it's the year 450 of the Second Cycle. Each Cycle (tukvav) lasts 3600 years (the Bokuchi like to count by sixties). It was at the beginning of the First Cycle when the glaciers last retreated from the lands of the Bokuchi's forefathers. About two thousand years later the Bokuchi started moving to these lands, and here they have stayed, in a territory whose center lies near the northeastern coast of the Persian Gulf, at the latitude of Shiraz (in the 20th century). The mountains to the east (the Zagros of our time) are known as Jhao Praki, and at their feet the Bokuchi founded two towns: Wao and Nuotik. In this year 2:450 BR (Bokuchi Reckoning) the city of Wao is the capital of a loosely-bound federation of villages and towns in a land that extends from the mountains south to the coast of the Gulf, and west to east between the mouth of the Gulf (50šE) and the latitude of 20th century Abu Dhabi (54šE). The Bokuchi topographers say that's about 44000 square km.

The settled population is around three hundred thousand. The Bokuchi use a combination of self-enforced, peer-approved abstinence and hormonal contraceptives to keep that figure stable, since the land cannot support a higher population without their already frugal lifestyle being lowered further.


Government

Unbelievably (for us), humanity has progressed to the point where professional politicians and their associated scum are no longer viewed as necessary. Small towns rule themselves by semi-direct democracy, and they sometimes consult the central administration (tugal siuch). The officials at Wao are a group of experts in resource management and social engineering. As in ancient Athens, anyone with the proper credentials might be called to serve in a government post (ayov tugal). No-one lasts more than two years in such a job, except if they're needed for a long-term project. All charges are elected, but not by the same group of citizens. The designation of ministers, delegates and such by one powerful person is almost unheard of. Laws are passed by experts in the field (pirvacit); the people may veto any law provided two thirds of them agree to do so, but in principle the system might be called an enlightened technocracy.


Urbanization

Bokuchi towns are typically just small enough to allow everybody to know everybody else at least from having crossed each other in the street. Population tends to be rather concentrated, since sprawl is understood in one of the Seven Social Flaws (inefficiency). Each town is basically a round area where the residents live near the center, leaving the periphery to be used for big stores, grain silos, and the industries. At the center of each town there's generally a Forum, where you have a market (or market complex) for all the basic necessities, and a discussion square which doubles as a news post. People write on blocks of a special ceramic compound. Messages are written with a pen using an ink that fades away with the sun in around two days, so the News Stones are usually available. When they have absorbed enough ink, they are taken away and used for another purposes (usually road building or benches).