Jennicho, the City of the Moon · 1:48am Jun 1st, 2016
Jennicho was an ancient city, founded in 4000 BTM, around 10 thousand years before the Liberation of Luna. It was originally built by the Yaelim Gazelles, who called it Yaelim-salem, and before its inhabitants had extensive agriculture and pottery, though both had been developed elsewhere, starting about 3000 years earlier, by some other Ungulatic races.
Jennicho's foundation was thus roughly contemporaneus with the coming to the Earth of Epona Amaterasu the Sun Mare, an earlier Incarnation of Fusion, and her friendly foe, The Twister, an earlier Incarnation of Dissonance. This was the start of the Age of Creation, and the rise of Ponykind to be a great race.
The Sun Mare stopped at Jennicho and spoke with their City Mothers, and what she told them of her Sister, the Moon Mare, induced them to found there a great cult of the Moon Mare, which became a destination for pilgrims and traders. The city grew, and by 3600 BTM extensive agriculture and pottery became common there.
It was the Onager traders who named the city "Jennicho," which is the name it is better-known to history. Indeed, "Yaelim-salem" is an earlier Onager name for the city; by the time of Honey Tongue and Noble Rose the true name of the city has become secret and known only to the City Mothers, so secret that it is long-forgotten by the Age of Wonders.
Around 3400 BTM, a period of civil disorder between the original Gazelle families and the growing families of Onager immigrants ended in a new and peaceful civic constitution, and both races united their efforts in defense of the city against the hill-raiders and the desert-habiru. They raised high walls topped by higher towers, which is why Jennicho is also known as the "City of Walls" and the "City of Towers" by the time of Honey Tongue, the Twister and the Sun Mare.
These defenses are secure against the primitive siege technology of their Bronze Age world, and include criss-crossing bars and wires to defend against aerial attack. The walls have repelled many an assault in the over six centuries since their construction by the time of Honey Tongue; they bid fair to repel many more to come.
It is prophesied that the city will not fall save by the Horns of God. Since direct-divine assault by a horned deity seems improbable, Jennicho thus has the reputation of impregnability, of being a strong and secure haven for commerce and wisdom: it is by far the dominant city in the Land of Milk and Honey.
Jennicho is ruled by the High Priestess of the Moon, who heads the Sacred Council of Mothers of the City, the upper legislative house. The priestly caste is composed of Gazelles, but over the last centuries, more and more Onagers have swelled the population of the town. By Honey Tongue's time, many of the leading families of traders and warriors are Onagers, and they hunger for more influence. They want the Sacred Council to acknowledge their own priestly families. The Onager citizens are ruled by a Patriarch and a Council of Clans, which has some recognition by but a lower status than the Sacred Council of Mothers of the City.
The Gazelles resist, and resent, the Onager demands both because they see themselves as higher and nobler beings than the Onagers, and because they are well aware tha tthey stand in danger of losing cntrol of their own city should they yield their ositions. This is a common problem in the old Gazelle towns, for Gazelles do not reroduce as rapidly as do Onagers in the conditions of urban living. The Gazelles pioneered many towns, which are being absorbed by Onagers as the Gazelles dwindle as a race. More and more, they try to hold onto their status by learning and keeping as secrets vital ancient lore.
Because of the Sun Mare's ancient visit to Jennicho, the Sacred Council of Mothers, and especially the High Priestess of the Moon, know much of her lore. This is why Honey Tongue and Noble Rose visit that town on the first journey of their quest.
Interesting. All the more so if Gravity never incarnated at this time. I don't see many fantasy religions with absent yet extant gods.
Something else.
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As I said, the Ponies have inherited a world covered in layers of fallen and forgotten civilizations, and many races which today only survive in little corners of their Earth once enjoyed their eras of dominance.
A lot like our world, really, but more magical.
Parallel to the Canaanite city of Jericho, of course, but the Gazelle name also draws comparison to Salem/Jerusalem
ETA: Huh. Yaelim-salem is Hebrew for Security of Ibexes(Ibices?) Why would the Gazelles name their holy city after an unrelated Ruminant species?
ETA2: Scratch that, why are the Gazelles named after the Ibices?
Ya know the walls may only fall to the Horn of Gods... but the city within could easily fall to infighting leaving them intact. After all may civilizations may with stand outside threats only to rot within...
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Remember the role of Rahab in the actual story of the Fall of Jericho, and consider what probably really went down barring Divine Intervention ...
According to my chronology, Jennicho falls within half a century or so of Honey Tongue's visit. Not her fault by any means, but the infighting gets worse.