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Judea occupies to the northernmost reaches of the African realm, stretching out towards the Middle East on the eastern bank of the Aegean sea. It suffers from the same heat as it's fellow African kingdoms but with the added humidity from the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Red and Dead Seas. It also gets significantly colder at night up in its northern city of Damascus, where, despite the land being flat, the altitude is much greater. The weather within the kingdom is generally calm and temperate (despite being almost always on the warm side) and rainfall is occasional and erratic. As such, the goods and trade of the kingdom a flexible and often changing to fit with the season and harvests which, in turn, are dependant on unreliable weather. The Judeans believe in simply being thankful for what is given and worry little that they are unable to plan or store for the unknown future of their crops, trade or economy.
The land on which the cities of Judea are built is mostly flat and dry but more rocky and hard than their neighbours to the south where sand dunes and dusty roads create a more unstable ground. In Judea, the land is unyielding but dependable. Dust and cracked but not treacherous. In Judea, you know that your foot will land on tough earth but are all the more thankful for the certainty of the pain it caused. Rather than trying to build your home on ever-changing sandiness.
The people of Judea believe in simplistic, modesty and honesty. They believe in compassion and kindness above all else and consider the desire for a greater life than you already have to be disrespectful to both God and to those who love and care for you, such as your spouse, children or relatives. To save and hold onto money is to be practical and pragmatic - a worthy and positive trait. To hold too much of it is to be hoarding and covetous, selfish and ungenerous. Ergo, the life of a Judean is one of balance. To protect and secure the lives of yourself those closest but also to ensure that others do not suffer when you can help.
This is not solely an altruistic way of life. Judeans believe in a punishing God as much as a benevolent one. This way of lending to the aid of others is as much about the goodness it creates as it is the fear of punishment that awaits them in the afterlife. Some, act in mercy and generosity because they believe it to be the right thing to do. Others only behave so for self-protective reasons. This is down to individual personalities and the teachings of family.
So too is the piousness and devotion of one's faith. Different Judeans grow up with parents of differing strengths of faith, despite all Judeans being Jewish and theist in Yahweh (Jehova). Some believe more in His goodness, others in his tendency to smite out evil. Some believe the Good Book to be an instruction manual to be followed to the letter, while others consider it a means of metaphor; a guide on how to live a good life. Not on Jew is the same as another in the same way no Judean is the same as another.
In terms of trade, the Judeans are skills scholars and render many services lacking in other kingdoms; paperwork, accounting, learning, tutoring, religious or legal advice, scribe services... The women of the region are skilled seamstresses and work with textiles and fabrics when they are not indisposed with domestic tasks and child-rearing. They will also, often, help their husbands in their trade of choice. Judeans believe that a job well done is the purpose of life. For when a task is completed with care and attention and sweat broken in the efforts of trade and commerce, a man (or woman) aids in the development and growth of their community; the baker does not bake to sell bread and earn coin but to feed the children of the woman who buys said bread.
This compassionate and humble way of life has led to Judea having no army or military. There are public servants - guards with only a knife at their hips and a badge on their chests - that keep the peace within the cities but there is no kingdom large military force. The Judeans prefer to offer sanctuary and sanctity to any opposing force, given that they have no mines or inherent natural resources that might cause someone to wish to conquer them. As such, since the last major Greco/Egyptian conflict ten years ago, The city province of Israel has been under the military command of the Greek Taengeans - a watchful presence who interfere little with the running of the city or its way of life and are only inhabiting there for quick mobilisation should the Egyptians make a move against Greece once more. As they have been within the walls of the city for ten years now, the appearance of the Greeks in this particular sector of Judea is no longer shocking or suspicious and the troops themselves are relatively integrated. However, there is a strong racial distinction between Greeks and Judeans and while there is no outward/obvious hostility shown most of the time, there is no intermingling or connection between the two even after ten years and the Judeans have a distinct dislike for the fact that the Greeks are still occupying their city after so much time has passed.
Judean Canons
The canons of the Judean elder families are listed below. Please note that all untaken characters are open to creator interpretation. So long as an application does not directly contradict the information listed on this page, a creator is welcome to build a canon to their liking and create something wholly their own. Please also note that these characters are only the ones listed as members of the noble, ruling families. We also have wanted characters which can be found in our Character Compendium.
To apply for a Canon Character, simply create an account with their first name as your username (e.g. "gurion" for Gurion of Noah). If the username is listed as unavailable, another member is already creating that character. All Canon Character applications must be completed within two weeks or they will be returned to Open status and the username will become available for claiming again.
Azari Mahnheeg
The Azari Mahnheeg are responsible for the day to day lives and administration of the city province of Israel. It is within this province that their skills as diplomats and politicians are most greatly required. Closest to the military power that is Egypt and host to a Taengean unit of Greek soldiers, the people of Israel are the blockade between war and the rest of Judea. It is up to the Azari family to ensure peace reigns and war is not brought down upon their neighbours. While previous generations have done well in keeping the war at bay and the current leader of the house, Gurion, has been upheld as a great peacemaker, the tragedies in the history of the Azari family have produced a more recent generation of angry men who may be destined to upset the delicate balance within the walls of the bright city, throwing its calm and peaceful future into question.
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Twenty years ago, Egypt was an invading force on the western border of the Judean provinces - mostly specifically on the outer territories of Israel. These battles and skirmishes for land in between the two kingdoms led to many Judean deaths as the kingdom operates no personal or national militant forces. In the ensuing combat, many hospice settlements were set up along the western Israeli border, spearheaded by Gurion's wife Hanna. Upon them being old enough to work, the wives of Gurion's sons assisted in such efforts. When a diseased soldier of Egyptian origin was brought into the medical facility the Azari family was one of many hit by tragedy. Even more so that all three women where, by this point, mothers. Gurion's loss was great but that of his sons was greater. He and Hanna had had an arranged marriage while each of his sons had married for love. Since then, the family have grown infinitely closer, the three single fathers banding together to raise the family's next generation as one. Since this incident, Gurion has made it his mission to ensure the financial strength of Israel through trade and to avoid any further militant encroachment from Egypt. The arrangement he has settled with the Greek Taengean forces, keeps the Egyptians away from the residences in the outer reaches of his province, lines the Israeli city's treasury and benefits the Greeks to ensure fast deployment into Egypt at the first sign of trouble. Gurion is not a weak-willed man but he is also not blind to the benefit the Greek presence offers to the city and spends most of his days defending such political decisions to the Council of Elders and to his civilian people.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Gurion of Noah 63 Years of Age Born in Israel Ben Kingsley
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A man who understands his father's aspirations for a peaceful life but cannot, in his heart, agree with them, Gabriel holds great anger and resentment for the soldiers within Israel. His belief is that any military presence from the Grecian kingdoms is only a draw and temptation for further combat with Egypt which is now set to happen in Israel's backyard. The tragic loss of his wife fuels his hatred for war and his xenophobia against Egyptians; especially as he watches his daughter grow more and more into the image of her mother every day; a living reminder of his loss. A devout father who is often extremely over-protective of his only child, he has a loving but difficult relationship with Karmel who has a mind of her own; a trait that frustrates him to no end but one he cannot chastise as it was inherited very assuredly from the woman he once and still does, love.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Gabriel of Gurion 42 Years of Age Born in Israel Andrew Lincoln
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Anointed with a male given name, Karmel was originally set to be both a boy and the first heir to the Azari family in the current generation. Despite assurances from both physicians and her mother, Karmel was born female to the surprise of all present. Born to a mother of wild spirit and tradition-balking temptations, Karmel was given the name decided prior to her birth nonetheless. The spitting image of her mother and having inherited her father's fiery spirit and her mother's unorthodox tendencies, Karmel is a beautiful woman who's hand is sort by many who are almost immediately disappointed that her personality fails to match her demure exterior. Not one to follow the traditional path of the Judean woman, Karmel causes despair in all of her male relatives that she will never marry.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Karmel of Tirzah 24 Years of Age Born in Israel Saadet Aksoy
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A man of great patience and work ethic Isaac is a calmer man and far more forgiving than his brother. While he holds great sorrow at the tragedy that hit their family sixteen years ago, he is a man for whom time has healed some of his wounds. A man of great wisdom and patience, Isaac focuses his attentions on raising his son but finds connection difficult as Matthias is young and cannot shake his anger and desire for eventual revenge. Instead, Isaac's brother Gabriel fuels his nephew's fire and has a stronger bond than Isaac often does, despite paternal love and devotion. Anxieties have been set to their maximum within the Azari household as an arranged marriage has been proposed for Isaac. In a bid to encourage further peace with their neighbours to the west, Gurion has been delicately approaching the idea of a union between Isaac and Fumisa H'Abaddi - an Egyptian noblewoman!
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Isaac of Gurion 40 Years of Age Born in Israel Tony Goldwyn
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Barely old enough to understand what was happening when half his immediate and extended family where lost to an plague brought to them in the lungs of an Egyptian, Matthias is a young man with issues in commitment, attachment and vulnerability. He doesn't like emotional connection, he shies from personal relationships and he has a serious dislike of being physically touched. Xenophia, distrust and anger are just some of the ways that Matthias covers up his grief and personal hurt.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Matthias of Isaac 20 Years of Age Born in Israel Jonathan Whitesell
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Barak Mahnheeg
A Mahnheeg desperately trying to maintain its power for future generations but struggling due to the entire clan currently being female, the women of the Barak family may not have been born with great political cunning but are rapidly learning their way. Led by the sister-wives Zevah and Yonita, the Baraks each have their own skills in intellect gathering and the seduction of key male officials within the capital of Judah that they use in an effort to keep their position as a Mahnheeg in place. The least stringent in their faith of the six Mahnheegs, the Barak women choose to read the holy scripture in the meaning of - "leave the world a better place than you found it, for the sake of your children". To this end, they use as many means as they can to ensure that they will have a legacy to pass down to their next generation that will - with hope - hold male heirs.
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The first wife to be taken by Josiah, Zevah is a woman of logical thinking. Stoic, calm and thoughtful of all options, she has been a woman often considered to be dull or boring; a sturdy wife to be sure. Upon her marriage, however, Zevah began to grow and change, luxuriating in her position as a married woman; without pressure or expectation for future unions and grew within herself at Josiah's side. When her blooded sister became Josiah's second wife, Zevah found still more independence. Whilst Zevah and Josiah's union had been arranged, the match between he and her sister was one of great lust, allowing Zevah a freedom away from any future child-bearing and focused on the two daughters she had already given her husband. Now, after her husband's death, Zevah is at her most free. Happily engaging in discreet relations with important men of the Judah state and using their besotted attentions to maintain a position of support for her family, Zevah works closely with her sister to ensure the future of the Barak Mahnheeg for future heirs.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Zevah of Josiah 46 Years of Age Born in Judah Neve Campbell
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Wild is not a word used often regarding Judean women but Talora is the exception that proves the rule. A being who loves both men and women for their own qualities and who hates and despises the gender norms of her day and culture, Talora is generally considered to be a strange anomaly that few wish to go near - other than those who share her peculiar tendencies. Many a night sees Talora coming home in the early hours of the morning bearing the scent of often more than one other individual. It has been several weeks since one such morning and still Talora has yet to bleed...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Talora of Zevah 27 Years of Age Born in Judah Kat Dennings
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Softly spoken and desperate to please, Nedevah is a young girl who loves her mother but is closer in temperament now to her aunt. Spending much of her time learning at Yonita's side, Nedevah is beautiful and quaint and is often the subject of much speculation by men. If not for the tempestuous presence of her sister, Nedevah would have likely been married by now but her association with one so wild has stilled the pursuits of many a man. Innocent and unconscious of such attentions, Nedevah goes about her day much the same and while she does not agree with her sister's lifestyle she loves her still the same.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Nedevah of Zevah 25 Years of Age Born in Judah Emmy Rossum
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When her sister was married, it should have been a moment of great joy in the family but the fact that she had married a young politician that Yonita was already hopelessly in love with, tested the bond with her sister for several years. It was not until her feelings were returned by Josiah and he decided to officially make her his second wife that the fracture was repaired and the two sisters have become closer than ever. Heartbroken at the loss of her husband, Yonita dotes on the daughter she begot by him and has thrown herself into learning the ways of business. Once a flirty and capricious young girl, Yonita seems to have now switched places with her once staid sister and is learning the importance of discipline and the power that knowledge can give; even if one is a woman. Becoming more learned in the ways of economy, finance and the businesses of the capitol, Yonita is finding an untapped intelligence that she never knew she had.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Yonita of Josiah 44 Years of Age Born in Judah Hilary Swank
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Maeri is a girl of much internal conflict. Wanting to be selfless like her sister-cousin Nedevah, seeking to be courageous like Talora but ultimately cowardly and a little bit spoiled, Maeri tries hard and fails often. Not one to be able to sit still, she is the scholar who tries to learn and is so impatience she knocks over the inkwell. She is the athlete who trips over her own sandal straps, despite being so sure that she fastened them in place. She is the young wife in training who accidentally turns all of her mother and sister-cousins' gowns pink and knocks over the wash basin. Maeri is a young girl, beautiful in appearance and utterly useless in application who fails to see that the one shining light within her is that fact that, despite all encouragement to the contrary, she keeps on trying.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Maeri of Yonita 21 Years of Age Born in Judah Michelle Trachtenberg
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Haviv Mahnheeg
The city province of Ammun is home to the largest of markets and trades between Judea and other realms to the north and east; particularly Anatolia. With a few arabian-looking faces on the streets and products and goods from all over Asia and Europe being peddled at its markets, the family who lead the settlement have to be tolerant to a certain point. Focusing on the money and trade that can be accomplished from strangers and foreigners and how the taxes of such trades then go towards Judea as a whole and the service of God, the Haviv family see it as their role to continue the flourishing economy within Ammun, regardless of who it is making the deals within it. Unlike in Moab where a favour is worth a thousand gold pieces, the Judeans of Ammun work exclusively in coin and refuse to take payment in anything else. They are skilled crafters and traders and know the worth of an item at immediate glance. All appraisers by nature, it is the Haviv family's responsibility to ensure that no disagreements or fights break out within such a competitive atmosphere and to handle the aftermath of any raids or thefts that happen along its borders or in its streets. The people of Ammun are loud and boisterous and all about their goods and trade which means the Haviv must have strong personalities if they are to lead a people with such firm wills of their own. The family is one of the richest in Judea and enjoy luxuries that others might consider to be slightly materialistic but they are careful to never step too far into false idolism or shallow thinking.
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The first and only son to be produced by Ezra and his first wife Lilith, Elhanan was a boy raised to lead the Haviv family from day one. When his mother contracted the disease of leprosy, she was shipped away to live out the rest of her life where she would never again walk the streets of Ammun nor spread her contagion to her child. Ezra's second wife was wed much later and produced a brother to whom Elhanan was more a father than sibling. Ensuring his brother's marriage to a young woman he had found a love match with and marrying two women himself, Elhanan has ensured the future of the Haviv name through his careful planning, self-sacrificing ways and his almost unemotional objectivity in where to focus his attentions; both with family and the city he runs with a perfectionist eye.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Elhanan of Ezra 64 Years of Age Born in Ammun Mandy Patinkin
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Raised by a man who craves order, authority, hierarchy and structure, Cane is a wild child, emotionally chaotic and enjoys rushes of adrenaline. A practical joker in his youth, a playboy in his teenager years and now a hunter and seducer of animals and women respectively, Cane is the bane of his father's existence. Unable to show up for any appointed meeting or arrangement on time or take his responsibilities with any grain of seriousness, Cane appears to be the epitome of an effervescent wayward soul who has no interest in the seriousness of life. Beneath it all, however, Cane holds a temptation and hope of marriage and family that he would never allow another person to know...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Cane of Elhanan 29 Years of Age Born in Ammun James Franco
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Desperate to be like his elder brother and always the nervous shadow to Cane's adrenaline-seeking energy, Caleb is a softer and more sensitive being with an open mind and romantic heart. Sweet, chatty and, at times, socially anxious, he craves to be like his brother but is actually closer in temperament and relationship to his half sister Amarissa. Often called effeminate or chastised for his lack of manly ambition, Caleb does all he can to appear as a man before his father and brother, refusing to acknowledge his own skills in poetry and music.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Caleb Elhanan 23 Years of Age Born in Ammun Dave Franco
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The second wife to Elhanan, Rishona learnt much from her counterpart Gali before the woman's death. Killed in a revolt and stampede of livestock and patrons at the mighty Ammun Shouk when raiders set loose the animal pens, Gali was a calm and peaceful woman who welcomed a second wife into her family and helped teach the younger Rishona the ways of a wife and mother, despite her mixed heritage that dabbled into the borders of Anatolia. An exceptional beauty in her youth, Rishona was chosen by Elhanan for what he would claim to be logic but which she likes to believe was love and she has been a dutiful wife to him since, putting Gali's lessons into practice as best she can; including loving Gali's sons as her own and attempting to bond with each in their own way.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rishona of Elhanan 43 Years of Age Born in Lands Afar Julie Louise Dreyfuss
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Amarissa loves beauty in all its forms. A young woman that adores music, painting and pottery and appreciates more than masculine strength the beauty of the female form. Amarissa has never been in a relationship with a man and due to personal secrets is likely to never give her heart to one. Instead, she looks towards the inevitable day of her marriage with a feeling of dread and focuses, in the meantime, on the aid and help she can give to the world both in the artistry she can form with her hands and the chores she can complete around the family home.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Amarissa of Rishona 24 Years of Age Born in Ammun Nasanin Boniadi
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More a son than sibling to his brother Elhanan, Rechavia has a temperament similar to that of his nephew Caleb. While not soft-hearted or overtly sensitive, Rechavia is a man that dotes on his daughters and is besotted with his wife and is eager to see further children and grandchildren in the family that he might bestow such adoration onto. Determined to be seen as manly in the eyes of his brother, Rechavia operates as Elhanan's second - Deputy on the Council of Elders - but is always aware in some corner of his mind that he is neither the man nor leader his half-brother is and fears the day when he will take over the mantel he knows he will not be able to lift.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rechavia of Ezra 46 Years of Age Born in Ammun Sacha Baron Cohen
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A woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, Dinorah spotted the adoring eyes of Rechavia from a mile away. Initially attracted to his easy personality and kind temperament it has been some years since Dinorah has held anything but frustrated resignation for her husband's doting and clinging love. His good heart she sees as a weak will and his lacking in confidence proof of his failure in ambition. A woman apathetic towards a marriage in which she had not expected drollness to be its only positive, Dinorah is particularly frustrated with her lack of male offspring, determined that it must be her husband's lack of masculine intent that has provided her with three beautiful but not altogether useful daughters.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Dinorah of Rechavia 46 Years of Age Born in Ammun Laura Prepon
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Blessed with a doting father and a mother not yet concerned for her lack of male children, Bathsheba was raised in an environment of love in which she could do no wrong. Now a beautiful woman filled with arrogance and self-centred intention, Bathsheba has little concern for the feelings of others and thinks only inward. An intelligent woman, she is a forceful control freak and likes her world exactly "so" with herself at its centre. Any attempts others make to open her eyes to the plights of others or the importance of the words of the good book fall on deaf ears or are met with a wrinkled nose and frustration that her day has been interrupted over such nonsense. She likes her little sisters as the dolls and servants she dresses and treats them as and her beauty and confidence have Ahuvah and Rivka hanging on her every word, as only little sisters can.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Bathsheba of Dinorah 28 Years of Age Born in Ammun Liliana Matthaus
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A beautiful young girl in her own right but also the shadow to her gorgeous older sister, Ahuvah is an artistic soul with a love for the theatre. Singing and dancing hold some interest but really her love is in the tragic fictional tales she reads and the angsty theatrical performances made in the city square. A rebel and anarchist at heart, Ahuvah spends much of her time with friends in the city talking bohemian and revolutionary ideas that will likely never amount to anything and smoking opiates. Defiant in her determination to be seen as an adult but naive from her own molly-coddled upbringing, Ahuvah loves her sisters dearly but never allows them to be part of her secret wayward world.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Ahuvah of Dinorah 26 Years of Age Born in Ammun Ksenia Solo
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Naive doesn't begin to scratch the very shallow surface of Rivka's personality. Closed-minded, centrally-focused and, in many ways, incredibly dumb, Rivka loves her pretty little world in which her father is doting king and she is his princess. Oblivious to her mothers frustrations and uncaring that both of her sisters are often considered more attractive than she, Rivka thinks little of the future and nothing of the past, living in the moment where the only considerations are whether she is hungry, sleepy or lacking entertainment. Rivka is shallow to a fault and has zero understanding of the world but that does not mean she doesn't have the potential for depth were she grow outside the closeted pampering of her family.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rivka of Dinorah 20 Years of Age Born in Ammun Dilan Gwyn
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Jaffe Mahnheeg
The Jaffe family have long since failed to leave Damascus for any reasons baring the monthly meet of the Council of Elders. And even then often only the Head or his Deputy will attend - rarely both. A secluded people in the spine of mountains that spear through the Damascus desert plains, the citizens of Damascus like the peace and quiet that their life affords them. Due to their piousness and their faith, many within Damascus are harsh in their judgements of those who follow different paths and are not known for their welcoming presence. Instead, the smallest piece of gossip is reacted to with the greatest of scandalized expressions and the merchants who deliver the goods the city needs to survive every week are treated with suspicion and slanted gazes. The Jaffe family are known for their scholarly and quiet ways and they lead their city province more by example than by a firm hand. They are continuously voted back into their position of leadership through the people's belief that they are the most fair minded because of their wisdom and their faith.
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Tzephaniah is a man of great faith and love for his city province. To him, Damascus is a place of sanctity, sacredness and peace. He believes the city to be the greatest place on earth; the most holy and closest to God. He does not understand why anyone of faith would want to live anywhere else, aside from perhaps Jerusalem. A devout scholar from a young age, Tzephaniah has always had a great love of books and believes in recording the events of the city around him for posterity, spending an hour every evening dedicated to writing down the comings and goings of the people of Damascus. When he was a teenager, Tzephaniah met a woman of such purity and timidity of soul, he felt for sure she must have been a holy woman. Taking her as his wife and producing three sons from the union, Tzephaniah could not have been happier in his life and family. Until the day he discovered his demure and pure wife in bed with another man. Torn between heartbreak and confusion, Tzephaniah heard nothing of his wife's complaints that he paid her no attention or showed her no love; he only heard her determination to leave. She and her lover abandoned the city of Damascus that night and Tzephaniah has ever since had a distrust, uncertainty and small element of fear with regards to the supposedly "fairer" sex.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Tzephaniah of Lazaros 55 Years of Age Born in Damascus Eric Avari
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At an age able to comprehend the events around him at the time; that his mother chose to leave her children and their father by her own selfish will and no abstract act of chance, Amiti is the angriest of his brothers in the abandonment of their maternal figure. Distrusting of women, angry at the gender as a whole for the crimes of one, his skewed perception of the world forces him to see the actions of the female gender in a light that only cements his discriminations. He is especially distrusting of those who appear pious; believing the purer a woman looks the less trustworthy she actually is. Amiti is a man of great intellect and logic, he enjoys the world of literature but more for the ambitious way that he absorbs information and devours knowledge. While he has always loved Damascus for such opportunities, his insatiable appetite for learning has started to become unsatisfied by the same stone walls he has lived in since birth and his mind and heart are starting to wander... Perhaps in Jerusalem, he would find what he seeks...?
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Amiti of Tzephaniah 32 Years of Age Born in Damascus Noah Wyle
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Possibly the least affected by his mother's betrayal on the outside, Thaddeus' scars are a little more internal. Friendly, chatty and constantly eager to explore the city, Thaddeus enjoys meeting and greeting the traders and merchants who enter Damascus on a regular basis and absorbs the stories he is told of the outside world with great enthusiasm. A man of great faith but more spiritual than scholarly, Thaddeus enjoys climbing the mountains surrounding the city and watching the sun rise or set, beholding the glory of God's creation. As for his scars... Thaddeus is pleasant and easy with women and does not tarr them with the same brush like his brother Amiti does. But he has yet to have a serious or long term relationship, as if he keeps his heart behind closed, protective doors.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Thaddeus of Tzephaniah 26 Years of Age Born in Damascus Andy Samberg
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Shiloh is the youngest of the three boys and the only one who harbours secret desires to understand their mother's abandonment. Determined to one day seek her out and ask her why she might leave her children, there is a small frisson of distrust between Shiloh and his father - as if Shiloh knows he must have done something to drive their mother away. More understanding and cautious than his brothers, Shiloh loves books and the peace and quiet of the city but is determined that this will never be his all in life. Instead, he is the brother most enchanted by the idea of travel, of spreading the word of God and in encouraging the people of the world towards a route of understanding and compassion; his mother among them.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Shiloh of Tzephaniah 24 Years of Age Born in Damascus Jesse Eisenberg
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Meier Mahnheeg
Leading the great city of Jerusalem, there is no surprise or doubt that the Meier family is most devout. Believing the power of the great God Almighty - specifically his ability to smite the wicked and bring hell to the damned - the Meier Mahnheeg lead their people (they believe) with the backing of divine provenance. To go against the word of the Mahnheeg is to go against God. Jerusalem is a place of faith and worship but it is a place of little mercy and even less forgiveness. The Meier family are firm in their convictions and ensure that the people follow them too, with a guard of city protectors patrolling the streets to ensure sinless behaviour on the part of their flock.
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Simeon is a devout man with an edge and will of steel. So faithful in his beliefs is he that to siddle even too close to a line even moderately connected with the connotation of "sin" is to prepare for the fate of stoning or execution. To him, God's word is law above all else and be believes entirely in the power of the mighty smiting that can befall those who waiver from the true path. Simeon runs Jerusalem with the fear of the Almighty as his main tool of order but he is also a man for whom the benefits of faith should be considered too and he is careful to ensure that some of the budget for the city is spent on those who aid the poor and downtrodden; so that they might find themselves back on the righteous path. At home, Simeon is as strong-willed as he is in his duties running the city and believes that the Meier family is to be the pinnacle of piousness and appropriate behaviour. As such, he become intolerable and rage-filled if any of his family members step outside of what is considered good and right. Whether it's a meal prepared improperly - showing disrespect for the husband who has worked hard all day - clothing that is not worn appropriately (especially religious items) or a failure to respect the sabbath, Simeon can become most angry, fuelled by his Old Testament faith and determined to smite out any behaviours that are unfit for the Meier Mahnheeg.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Simeon of Nissim 56 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Jason Isaacs
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Selima is a woman of great conviction and inner power but who speaks it very little. Her inner strength allows her to be married to a man such as Simeon and not have her esteem or opinions ground to dust beneath his fearsome faith and belief in gender norms. Instead, she takes the area deemed fit for control by her sex - that of her domestic home - and runs it with all the efficiency and perfectionist attitude that her husband runs his city. Whilst respectful and a little in awe of the strength of conviction within her husband, Selima is also slightly fearful of her spouse and the way he can, very rarely and occasionally fly into a rage. Selima has only been struck once at the hand of her husband - unbeknownst to any of her children - but fears his angry outbursts are becoming more frequent...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Selima of Simeon 47 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Lisa Edelstein
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A dedicated son to his mother and a dutiful one to his father, Abir is everything Simeon could have wished for in a son. A man who works as his Deputy on the Council of Elders but also runs and manages the city protectors - armed men who monitor the streets for crime or sin - Abir is faithful and vigilant. Where he differs from his father is the fact that he is also loving, tolerant and understanding - traits he learnt from his mother. Abir fell helplessly in love with Katriel at first sight - or so he claims - and, despite his faith, was tempted to her bed before marriage vows could take place. When Katriel claimed to be pregnant with his child, Abir arranged their union quickly, determined that his father would never know that he had committed such a sin out of wedlock.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Abir of Simeon 30 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Justin Bartha
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Katriel is a young woman born to a local cloth merchant in Jerusalem. Always unhappy with her lot, she is a kind woman but one who also enjoys the luxuries of life - such as fine clothes, clean bedding and delicious food. Spying the handsome Abir during one of his patrols with the city protectors, Katriel worked upon the man for several months before finally winning him to her side. A claim of pregnancy was all it took to be married into the richest family in Jerusalem and achieve all that she wanted. When Livana was born exactly nine months after their marriage - Katriel simply claimed the child to be late in her arrival. Abir, in love his with his wife and with as much limited knowledge of pregnancy as the next man, entirely believes her. Whilst his sister and mother are far more insightful and keep Katriel under a very close and sometimes distrusting eye.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Katriel of Abir 29 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Mia Kirshner
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Softly spoken, very timid and excruciatingly shy, Livana is not the daughter Katriel would have hoped for. Dressing her up and pushing her in her studies to be better, Livana's mother only serves to make her insecurities and nervousness worse as she is constantly reminded that she is not good enough as she is. Instead, Livana's relationship with her father is much stronger. While Abir is out all day performing his duties, he returns in the evenings to wish his daughter pleasant dreams and it's these few moments every night that are Livana's favourite. Especially when he is home early enough to read her tales of Abraham, Noah and other such figures in their faith.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Livana of Katriel 10 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Onata Aprile
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Davitah is a smart and shrewd woman. Very much taking after her mother, she is strong willed but as the outspokenness of her father. Over the years, she has perfected the skill in keeping her tongue but it is still of great challenge to her when something occurs that she does not agree with and her gender prohibits her from speaking up. Determined to find a husband whom she can either love or control, Davitah sees marriage as a means of power. If she can find a man willing to listen when she speaks, her words can be translated through his mouth and hold sway with those of influence. In this way, she is looking for a man who can either be coerced and controlled, or one who is to be a partner. Having witnesses the obvious manipulation of her brother at the hands of Katriel, Davitah is cautious and distrusting of any hard and fast connections with strong emotions. The heart cannot be trusted. The head is much sturdier.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Davitah of Selima 28 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Lizzy Caplan
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Poraz Mahnheeg
The Poraz family is one of great spirit. Ruling Moab with a hand as gentle as it is firm, the family are known for their wisdom, their understanding and their tolerance of others. Being a city province at the centre of trade for most of Judea, Moab and its ruling Mahnheeg are those with the least frozen identity of their own; fluid and changing as those who do business in their city come and go. The people of the city province of Moab are barterers, hagglers and traders - looking for the next best deal and trustworthy merchants or financiers to do business with. As such, the word and favour of a man is highly valued and sometimes money is not the true purpose of an agreement. The Moab Judeans believe in the sanctity of a promise made and the Poraz family are the epitome of this social grace and understanding.
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Leader of Moab, Moshehh is a man with a strange ability. Without harshness, bluntness or rage, he commands his city with a straight-laced hold of integrity that comes from neither fear nor power. With his simple and compassionate ways, ability to connect with others and to understand the way of the world, Moshehh has been able to balance the trade and business of his city but less that of his sons. A single man with only so much time in his day, his focus has been upon keeping Moab and his position on the Council of Elders secure so that the home and legacy he offers his children will never be at risk. Despite spending most of their childhood days with nurses, nannies, servants and stewards, the children he was always home in time to see before slumber have grown up with an understanding for the importance of their father and his occupation, as well as great love and respect for his work ethic and determination for their future as a family.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Moshehh of Seth 52 Years of Age Born in Moab Stanley Tucci
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Deputy to his father on the Council of Elders, Palti is the exact same as his father in all his ambitions and hopes but the exact opposite in temperament. Easy to anger, difficult to calm and impossible to budge once set on a course of action, Palti is a man that many fear will put at risk his father's connections and agreements simply through his tendency to jump to conclusions and become frustrated with others. A jealous man, he is currently in love with a married woman whom he cannot have and many within his personal household (where such affections are an open secret) believe that this, in part, contributes to his levels of aggression and irritation.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Palti of Moshehh 30 Years of Age Born in Moab Eli Roth
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A man who has great love for his home but a heart that is set elsewhere, Baruch is a sailor to his soul and loves the open water. Determined to see everything the world has to offer and frustrated that his father wishes him to stay in Moab where he's both safe and a second alternative to his brother, should the man fail to marry and produce children, or simply burn out in the politic sphere, Baruch desires nothing more than to hop aboard the nearest vessel and never look back. While he holds great affection for his brothers, his wayward heart cannot be tempered.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Baruch of Moshehh 26 Years of Age Born in Moab Elyes M'Barek
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The carbon copy of his father Moshehh, Davii is calm, collected and a considerate speaker and businessman. Already in charge of a significant portion of Moab's docks and responsible for the overseeing of the trade arrangements and tax payments, Davii has earned the respect and acceptance of the sailors, tradesman and merchants of the city. The diplomat of the family and the natural choice in temperament to take over his father's responsibilities as Mahnheeg, Davii is frustrated that he has two older brothers less suited for the role of leader before his claim. Due to a traumatic childhood experience, Davii has a fear of the open water. He manages his business securely from the docks, refusing to step aboard any of the vessels of his alliances.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Davii of Moshehh 24 Years of Age Born in Moab Toby Kebbell
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The spitting image of the mother who died in his birth, Tobiah is the apple of his father's eye - a reminder of his late wife - but has had a terse relationship with his brother Davii as he has grown. Old enough to love his mother but not old enough to understand her passing and disappearance at Tobiah' advent, Davii isolated Tobiah and refused any brotherly affection for many years, blaming him for the loss of his maternal figure. Besides this estrangement with Davii, Tobiah has grown up told he has both his mother's looks and heart. A romantic in nature and forever in love with one girl or another (but always with every piece of his being and every inch of his heart), Tobiah loves music, dance and the excitement that can be found from life. He enjoys the city festivals and loves to explore the place he calls home, especially when he should be completing his chores in the family Bayith.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Tobiah of Moshehh 24 Years of Age Born in Moab Tom Payne
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Ammun; The White City
Named such for its beautiful, sparkling buildings - constructed from granite and painted purest white - Ammun is a city of travellers and traders. On the eastern border of the kingdom and with strong connections to Asia and the Middle East, Ammun is home to some of the richest merchants and families and widely recognised as the place to go when looking for a particularly exotic or hard to come by item. Landlocked as a province, there is no sea trade or fair so fish is seen as a rare delicacy in Ammun and the richer families have it imported in from Moab. However the hot weather further east means that citrus fruits grow aplenty around the city and dried, sweet treats are popularly sold on street corners along with roasted nuts. The people of Ammun are skill hagglers and know the value of anything and everything. They enjoy money and are careful to make sure the profits they gain in trade are high enough to make them pleased but not so high that they feel they are swindling others and going against the honest and modest Judean way of life.
Damascus; A Place of Judgement
Damascus is on the bordered edge of Assyria and the hottest of the Judean city provinces. Settled in the natural curve of a mountainous region, the western face of the city looks out across miles of flat savannah between the walls of Damascus and the borders of Israel. Such open space is known as the land of judgement - there is nowhere to hide from your sins or yourself. Many in Damascus are uncertain of foreigners - even Judeans from other cities - and are a private people who live recluse lives, interrupted only by the regular camel trains that arrive with goods on their trade journey once every two weeks. The people of Damascus, while private, are not ignorant and they spend great portions of their lives reading and engrossed in scholarly pursuit. There is a large library and university in Damascus that many travel far to visit, with tomes in as many languages as there are tongues to speak them (so they say).
Israel; A Bright Future
Israel is a city province on the coast of the Aegean Sea and as such is one of the coolest and most temperate of the regions in Judea but also one of the most humid. It enjoys excessive trade and a busy economy, trading with both men of the north-western islands in Greece and with the travellers to the east. Israel is one of the largest city provinces and therefore has the largest population which encourages still further commerce and innovation. It is a city of design and progress with machines and inventions being built in the back room of many a creative man's abode. The city is also home to a large number of Greeks. While the division between the two races of man is strong and prejudices rife, there is no violence from the Greek militia's station in the province of Israel for they are not there to conquer nor have they been placed there to keep the Judean's in check. They have no authority and do not rule. They are accepted as "guests of Judea" through the money Taengea pays directly to the Israel leaders and are there solely to be easily mobilised into Egypt should war appear prevalent once more. The Greeks have no assimilated and often wear their armour or traditional clothing which makes them easy to spot on the streets of Israel.
Jerusalem; The Holy City
Built on sacred land, Jerusalem offers one of the largest populations in Judea. With so many wishing to live within the city's holy boundaries, a wall has been constructed within the last forty years, defining the border of the city and province and disallowing the construction of homes outside of it. As such, the city is a place many are desperate to live and yet unable to find a vacant home. Several areas at the very edges of the walls have turned into shantytowns as wooden properties are built in the gaps of the stone ones, offering new residences for the desperate. Jerusalem is incredibly pious and has more temples and sanctuaries than any other area of Judea. It holds festivals and rituals upon every sacred day of the calendar and has an order of the pious whom seek to help the lives of others however they can, living in poverty and offering all they have for the benefit of others. Many are seen walking the streets of Jerusalem, aiding the homeless or the hungry.
Judah; The Capitol
The capital of the kingdom, Judah is the largest city in all of Judea. With no boundaries or walls, the city just keeps growing and is built on one of the few raised pieces of land in the area, making the city appear conical and raised at its centre where a giant cross is affixed atop the highest central spire of the main temple. The city is large and dense in population but it does not have the bustling feel of Israel nor the calm, monastic seclusion of Damascus or Jerusalem. Instead, it operates as a kind of middle ground, a calm and peaceful place that busies itself along in its own time and is the central hub where many major festivals are held for the Judean people.
Moab; The Safe Haven
Build on a small cape protruding in the Dead Sea, Moab is a city of two sections. The centre of the city is stone, built on the land and enclosed in a wall that sits on the very edge of the cape on all sides, with large open archways at regular points in its circumference. These points open onto wooden steps leading down to the rest of the city built in wood and across stilted platforms out into the Dead Sea. Beginning as docks to capitulate on the traders that moved between Judah, Israel and Ammun on the waters, the docklands spread and grew to include merchant huts for selling their own goods to the travellers. Then the homes of the merchants are constructed. Then another walkway for another dock to capitalise on still more trade. And so on it went until nearly three-quarters of the city of Moab is built upon the water - only the highest and richest born of families residing inside the stone walls of The Island.
The Lands of the Faithful
The kingdom of Judea is ruled by no monarch or emperor. Instead, it operates as a single kingdom divided into six key areas; each ruled over by a city under the management of a Mahnheeg family - a democratically elected family that is trusted to oversee the laws and business of each area. The leaders and deputies of each family then form the Council of Elders who meet once a month in the city of Judah to discuss the on-going future of the kingdom in an informal gathering that lasts a full day. As such, there are no other provinces within the Judean kingdom; only the ones listed above and collectively known as the Six Cities - reminiscent of the six points on a Star of David.
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Judea occupies to the northernmost reaches of the African realm, stretching out towards the Middle East on the eastern bank of the Aegean sea. It suffers from the same heat as it's fellow African kingdoms but with the added humidity from the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Red and Dead Seas. It also gets significantly colder at night up in its northern city of Damascus, where, despite the land being flat, the altitude is much greater. The weather within the kingdom is generally calm and temperate (despite being almost always on the warm side) and rainfall is occasional and erratic. As such, the goods and trade of the kingdom a flexible and often changing to fit with the season and harvests which, in turn, are dependant on unreliable weather. The Judeans believe in simply being thankful for what is given and worry little that they are unable to plan or store for the unknown future of their crops, trade or economy.
The land on which the cities of Judea are built is mostly flat and dry but more rocky and hard than their neighbours to the south where sand dunes and dusty roads create a more unstable ground. In Judea, the land is unyielding but dependable. Dust and cracked but not treacherous. In Judea, you know that your foot will land on tough earth but are all the more thankful for the certainty of the pain it caused. Rather than trying to build your home on ever-changing sandiness.
The people of Judea believe in simplistic, modesty and honesty. They believe in compassion and kindness above all else and consider the desire for a greater life than you already have to be disrespectful to both God and to those who love and care for you, such as your spouse, children or relatives. To save and hold onto money is to be practical and pragmatic - a worthy and positive trait. To hold too much of it is to be hoarding and covetous, selfish and ungenerous. Ergo, the life of a Judean is one of balance. To protect and secure the lives of yourself those closest but also to ensure that others do not suffer when you can help.
This is not solely an altruistic way of life. Judeans believe in a punishing God as much as a benevolent one. This way of lending to the aid of others is as much about the goodness it creates as it is the fear of punishment that awaits them in the afterlife. Some, act in mercy and generosity because they believe it to be the right thing to do. Others only behave so for self-protective reasons. This is down to individual personalities and the teachings of family.
So too is the piousness and devotion of one's faith. Different Judeans grow up with parents of differing strengths of faith, despite all Judeans being Jewish and theist in Yahweh (Jehova). Some believe more in His goodness, others in his tendency to smite out evil. Some believe the Good Book to be an instruction manual to be followed to the letter, while others consider it a means of metaphor; a guide on how to live a good life. Not on Jew is the same as another in the same way no Judean is the same as another.
In terms of trade, the Judeans are skills scholars and render many services lacking in other kingdoms; paperwork, accounting, learning, tutoring, religious or legal advice, scribe services... The women of the region are skilled seamstresses and work with textiles and fabrics when they are not indisposed with domestic tasks and child-rearing. They will also, often, help their husbands in their trade of choice. Judeans believe that a job well done is the purpose of life. For when a task is completed with care and attention and sweat broken in the efforts of trade and commerce, a man (or woman) aids in the development and growth of their community; the baker does not bake to sell bread and earn coin but to feed the children of the woman who buys said bread.
This compassionate and humble way of life has led to Judea having no army or military. There are public servants - guards with only a knife at their hips and a badge on their chests - that keep the peace within the cities but there is no kingdom large military force. The Judeans prefer to offer sanctuary and sanctity to any opposing force, given that they have no mines or inherent natural resources that might cause someone to wish to conquer them. As such, since the last major Greco/Egyptian conflict ten years ago, The city province of Israel has been under the military command of the Greek Taengeans - a watchful presence who interfere little with the running of the city or its way of life and are only inhabiting there for quick mobilisation should the Egyptians make a move against Greece once more. As they have been within the walls of the city for ten years now, the appearance of the Greeks in this particular sector of Judea is no longer shocking or suspicious and the troops themselves are relatively integrated. However, there is a strong racial distinction between Greeks and Judeans and while there is no outward/obvious hostility shown most of the time, there is no intermingling or connection between the two even after ten years and the Judeans have a distinct dislike for the fact that the Greeks are still occupying their city after so much time has passed.
Judean Canons
The canons of the Judean elder families are listed below. Please note that all untaken characters are open to creator interpretation. So long as an application does not directly contradict the information listed on this page, a creator is welcome to build a canon to their liking and create something wholly their own. Please also note that these characters are only the ones listed as members of the noble, ruling families. We also have wanted characters which can be found in our Character Compendium.
To apply for a Canon Character, simply create an account with their first name as your username (e.g. "gurion" for Gurion of Noah). If the username is listed as unavailable, another member is already creating that character. All Canon Character applications must be completed within two weeks or they will be returned to Open status and the username will become available for claiming again.
Azari Mahnheeg
The Azari Mahnheeg are responsible for the day to day lives and administration of the city province of Israel. It is within this province that their skills as diplomats and politicians are most greatly required. Closest to the military power that is Egypt and host to a Taengean unit of Greek soldiers, the people of Israel are the blockade between war and the rest of Judea. It is up to the Azari family to ensure peace reigns and war is not brought down upon their neighbours. While previous generations have done well in keeping the war at bay and the current leader of the house, Gurion, has been upheld as a great peacemaker, the tragedies in the history of the Azari family have produced a more recent generation of angry men who may be destined to upset the delicate balance within the walls of the bright city, throwing its calm and peaceful future into question.
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Twenty years ago, Egypt was an invading force on the western border of the Judean provinces - mostly specifically on the outer territories of Israel. These battles and skirmishes for land in between the two kingdoms led to many Judean deaths as the kingdom operates no personal or national militant forces. In the ensuing combat, many hospice settlements were set up along the western Israeli border, spearheaded by Gurion's wife Hanna. Upon them being old enough to work, the wives of Gurion's sons assisted in such efforts. When a diseased soldier of Egyptian origin was brought into the medical facility the Azari family was one of many hit by tragedy. Even more so that all three women where, by this point, mothers. Gurion's loss was great but that of his sons was greater. He and Hanna had had an arranged marriage while each of his sons had married for love. Since then, the family have grown infinitely closer, the three single fathers banding together to raise the family's next generation as one. Since this incident, Gurion has made it his mission to ensure the financial strength of Israel through trade and to avoid any further militant encroachment from Egypt. The arrangement he has settled with the Greek Taengean forces, keeps the Egyptians away from the residences in the outer reaches of his province, lines the Israeli city's treasury and benefits the Greeks to ensure fast deployment into Egypt at the first sign of trouble. Gurion is not a weak-willed man but he is also not blind to the benefit the Greek presence offers to the city and spends most of his days defending such political decisions to the Council of Elders and to his civilian people.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Gurion of Noah 63 Years of Age Born in Israel Ben Kingsley
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A man who understands his father's aspirations for a peaceful life but cannot, in his heart, agree with them, Gabriel holds great anger and resentment for the soldiers within Israel. His belief is that any military presence from the Grecian kingdoms is only a draw and temptation for further combat with Egypt which is now set to happen in Israel's backyard. The tragic loss of his wife fuels his hatred for war and his xenophobia against Egyptians; especially as he watches his daughter grow more and more into the image of her mother every day; a living reminder of his loss. A devout father who is often extremely over-protective of his only child, he has a loving but difficult relationship with Karmel who has a mind of her own; a trait that frustrates him to no end but one he cannot chastise as it was inherited very assuredly from the woman he once and still does, love.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Gabriel of Gurion 42 Years of Age Born in Israel Andrew Lincoln
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Anointed with a male given name, Karmel was originally set to be both a boy and the first heir to the Azari family in the current generation. Despite assurances from both physicians and her mother, Karmel was born female to the surprise of all present. Born to a mother of wild spirit and tradition-balking temptations, Karmel was given the name decided prior to her birth nonetheless. The spitting image of her mother and having inherited her father's fiery spirit and her mother's unorthodox tendencies, Karmel is a beautiful woman who's hand is sort by many who are almost immediately disappointed that her personality fails to match her demure exterior. Not one to follow the traditional path of the Judean woman, Karmel causes despair in all of her male relatives that she will never marry.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Karmel of Tirzah 24 Years of Age Born in Israel Saadet Aksoy
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A man of great patience and work ethic Isaac is a calmer man and far more forgiving than his brother. While he holds great sorrow at the tragedy that hit their family sixteen years ago, he is a man for whom time has healed some of his wounds. A man of great wisdom and patience, Isaac focuses his attentions on raising his son but finds connection difficult as Matthias is young and cannot shake his anger and desire for eventual revenge. Instead, Isaac's brother Gabriel fuels his nephew's fire and has a stronger bond than Isaac often does, despite paternal love and devotion. Anxieties have been set to their maximum within the Azari household as an arranged marriage has been proposed for Isaac. In a bid to encourage further peace with their neighbours to the west, Gurion has been delicately approaching the idea of a union between Isaac and Fumisa H'Abaddi - an Egyptian noblewoman!
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Isaac of Gurion 40 Years of Age Born in Israel Tony Goldwyn
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Barely old enough to understand what was happening when half his immediate and extended family where lost to an plague brought to them in the lungs of an Egyptian, Matthias is a young man with issues in commitment, attachment and vulnerability. He doesn't like emotional connection, he shies from personal relationships and he has a serious dislike of being physically touched. Xenophia, distrust and anger are just some of the ways that Matthias covers up his grief and personal hurt.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Matthias of Isaac 20 Years of Age Born in Israel Jonathan Whitesell
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Barak Mahnheeg
A Mahnheeg desperately trying to maintain its power for future generations but struggling due to the entire clan currently being female, the women of the Barak family may not have been born with great political cunning but are rapidly learning their way. Led by the sister-wives Zevah and Yonita, the Baraks each have their own skills in intellect gathering and the seduction of key male officials within the capital of Judah that they use in an effort to keep their position as a Mahnheeg in place. The least stringent in their faith of the six Mahnheegs, the Barak women choose to read the holy scripture in the meaning of - "leave the world a better place than you found it, for the sake of your children". To this end, they use as many means as they can to ensure that they will have a legacy to pass down to their next generation that will - with hope - hold male heirs.
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The first wife to be taken by Josiah, Zevah is a woman of logical thinking. Stoic, calm and thoughtful of all options, she has been a woman often considered to be dull or boring; a sturdy wife to be sure. Upon her marriage, however, Zevah began to grow and change, luxuriating in her position as a married woman; without pressure or expectation for future unions and grew within herself at Josiah's side. When her blooded sister became Josiah's second wife, Zevah found still more independence. Whilst Zevah and Josiah's union had been arranged, the match between he and her sister was one of great lust, allowing Zevah a freedom away from any future child-bearing and focused on the two daughters she had already given her husband. Now, after her husband's death, Zevah is at her most free. Happily engaging in discreet relations with important men of the Judah state and using their besotted attentions to maintain a position of support for her family, Zevah works closely with her sister to ensure the future of the Barak Mahnheeg for future heirs.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Zevah of Josiah 46 Years of Age Born in Judah Neve Campbell
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Wild is not a word used often regarding Judean women but Talora is the exception that proves the rule. A being who loves both men and women for their own qualities and who hates and despises the gender norms of her day and culture, Talora is generally considered to be a strange anomaly that few wish to go near - other than those who share her peculiar tendencies. Many a night sees Talora coming home in the early hours of the morning bearing the scent of often more than one other individual. It has been several weeks since one such morning and still Talora has yet to bleed...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Talora of Zevah 27 Years of Age Born in Judah Kat Dennings
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Softly spoken and desperate to please, Nedevah is a young girl who loves her mother but is closer in temperament now to her aunt. Spending much of her time learning at Yonita's side, Nedevah is beautiful and quaint and is often the subject of much speculation by men. If not for the tempestuous presence of her sister, Nedevah would have likely been married by now but her association with one so wild has stilled the pursuits of many a man. Innocent and unconscious of such attentions, Nedevah goes about her day much the same and while she does not agree with her sister's lifestyle she loves her still the same.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Nedevah of Zevah 25 Years of Age Born in Judah Emmy Rossum
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When her sister was married, it should have been a moment of great joy in the family but the fact that she had married a young politician that Yonita was already hopelessly in love with, tested the bond with her sister for several years. It was not until her feelings were returned by Josiah and he decided to officially make her his second wife that the fracture was repaired and the two sisters have become closer than ever. Heartbroken at the loss of her husband, Yonita dotes on the daughter she begot by him and has thrown herself into learning the ways of business. Once a flirty and capricious young girl, Yonita seems to have now switched places with her once staid sister and is learning the importance of discipline and the power that knowledge can give; even if one is a woman. Becoming more learned in the ways of economy, finance and the businesses of the capitol, Yonita is finding an untapped intelligence that she never knew she had.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Yonita of Josiah 44 Years of Age Born in Judah Hilary Swank
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Maeri is a girl of much internal conflict. Wanting to be selfless like her sister-cousin Nedevah, seeking to be courageous like Talora but ultimately cowardly and a little bit spoiled, Maeri tries hard and fails often. Not one to be able to sit still, she is the scholar who tries to learn and is so impatience she knocks over the inkwell. She is the athlete who trips over her own sandal straps, despite being so sure that she fastened them in place. She is the young wife in training who accidentally turns all of her mother and sister-cousins' gowns pink and knocks over the wash basin. Maeri is a young girl, beautiful in appearance and utterly useless in application who fails to see that the one shining light within her is that fact that, despite all encouragement to the contrary, she keeps on trying.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Maeri of Yonita 21 Years of Age Born in Judah Michelle Trachtenberg
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Haviv Mahnheeg
The city province of Ammun is home to the largest of markets and trades between Judea and other realms to the north and east; particularly Anatolia. With a few arabian-looking faces on the streets and products and goods from all over Asia and Europe being peddled at its markets, the family who lead the settlement have to be tolerant to a certain point. Focusing on the money and trade that can be accomplished from strangers and foreigners and how the taxes of such trades then go towards Judea as a whole and the service of God, the Haviv family see it as their role to continue the flourishing economy within Ammun, regardless of who it is making the deals within it. Unlike in Moab where a favour is worth a thousand gold pieces, the Judeans of Ammun work exclusively in coin and refuse to take payment in anything else. They are skilled crafters and traders and know the worth of an item at immediate glance. All appraisers by nature, it is the Haviv family's responsibility to ensure that no disagreements or fights break out within such a competitive atmosphere and to handle the aftermath of any raids or thefts that happen along its borders or in its streets. The people of Ammun are loud and boisterous and all about their goods and trade which means the Haviv must have strong personalities if they are to lead a people with such firm wills of their own. The family is one of the richest in Judea and enjoy luxuries that others might consider to be slightly materialistic but they are careful to never step too far into false idolism or shallow thinking.
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The first and only son to be produced by Ezra and his first wife Lilith, Elhanan was a boy raised to lead the Haviv family from day one. When his mother contracted the disease of leprosy, she was shipped away to live out the rest of her life where she would never again walk the streets of Ammun nor spread her contagion to her child. Ezra's second wife was wed much later and produced a brother to whom Elhanan was more a father than sibling. Ensuring his brother's marriage to a young woman he had found a love match with and marrying two women himself, Elhanan has ensured the future of the Haviv name through his careful planning, self-sacrificing ways and his almost unemotional objectivity in where to focus his attentions; both with family and the city he runs with a perfectionist eye.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Elhanan of Ezra 64 Years of Age Born in Ammun Mandy Patinkin
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Raised by a man who craves order, authority, hierarchy and structure, Cane is a wild child, emotionally chaotic and enjoys rushes of adrenaline. A practical joker in his youth, a playboy in his teenager years and now a hunter and seducer of animals and women respectively, Cane is the bane of his father's existence. Unable to show up for any appointed meeting or arrangement on time or take his responsibilities with any grain of seriousness, Cane appears to be the epitome of an effervescent wayward soul who has no interest in the seriousness of life. Beneath it all, however, Cane holds a temptation and hope of marriage and family that he would never allow another person to know...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Cane of Elhanan 29 Years of Age Born in Ammun James Franco
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Desperate to be like his elder brother and always the nervous shadow to Cane's adrenaline-seeking energy, Caleb is a softer and more sensitive being with an open mind and romantic heart. Sweet, chatty and, at times, socially anxious, he craves to be like his brother but is actually closer in temperament and relationship to his half sister Amarissa. Often called effeminate or chastised for his lack of manly ambition, Caleb does all he can to appear as a man before his father and brother, refusing to acknowledge his own skills in poetry and music.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Caleb Elhanan 23 Years of Age Born in Ammun Dave Franco
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The second wife to Elhanan, Rishona learnt much from her counterpart Gali before the woman's death. Killed in a revolt and stampede of livestock and patrons at the mighty Ammun Shouk when raiders set loose the animal pens, Gali was a calm and peaceful woman who welcomed a second wife into her family and helped teach the younger Rishona the ways of a wife and mother, despite her mixed heritage that dabbled into the borders of Anatolia. An exceptional beauty in her youth, Rishona was chosen by Elhanan for what he would claim to be logic but which she likes to believe was love and she has been a dutiful wife to him since, putting Gali's lessons into practice as best she can; including loving Gali's sons as her own and attempting to bond with each in their own way.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rishona of Elhanan 43 Years of Age Born in Lands Afar Julie Louise Dreyfuss
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Amarissa loves beauty in all its forms. A young woman that adores music, painting and pottery and appreciates more than masculine strength the beauty of the female form. Amarissa has never been in a relationship with a man and due to personal secrets is likely to never give her heart to one. Instead, she looks towards the inevitable day of her marriage with a feeling of dread and focuses, in the meantime, on the aid and help she can give to the world both in the artistry she can form with her hands and the chores she can complete around the family home.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Amarissa of Rishona 24 Years of Age Born in Ammun Nasanin Boniadi
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More a son than sibling to his brother Elhanan, Rechavia has a temperament similar to that of his nephew Caleb. While not soft-hearted or overtly sensitive, Rechavia is a man that dotes on his daughters and is besotted with his wife and is eager to see further children and grandchildren in the family that he might bestow such adoration onto. Determined to be seen as manly in the eyes of his brother, Rechavia operates as Elhanan's second - Deputy on the Council of Elders - but is always aware in some corner of his mind that he is neither the man nor leader his half-brother is and fears the day when he will take over the mantel he knows he will not be able to lift.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rechavia of Ezra 46 Years of Age Born in Ammun Sacha Baron Cohen
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A woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, Dinorah spotted the adoring eyes of Rechavia from a mile away. Initially attracted to his easy personality and kind temperament it has been some years since Dinorah has held anything but frustrated resignation for her husband's doting and clinging love. His good heart she sees as a weak will and his lacking in confidence proof of his failure in ambition. A woman apathetic towards a marriage in which she had not expected drollness to be its only positive, Dinorah is particularly frustrated with her lack of male offspring, determined that it must be her husband's lack of masculine intent that has provided her with three beautiful but not altogether useful daughters.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Dinorah of Rechavia 46 Years of Age Born in Ammun Laura Prepon
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Blessed with a doting father and a mother not yet concerned for her lack of male children, Bathsheba was raised in an environment of love in which she could do no wrong. Now a beautiful woman filled with arrogance and self-centred intention, Bathsheba has little concern for the feelings of others and thinks only inward. An intelligent woman, she is a forceful control freak and likes her world exactly "so" with herself at its centre. Any attempts others make to open her eyes to the plights of others or the importance of the words of the good book fall on deaf ears or are met with a wrinkled nose and frustration that her day has been interrupted over such nonsense. She likes her little sisters as the dolls and servants she dresses and treats them as and her beauty and confidence have Ahuvah and Rivka hanging on her every word, as only little sisters can.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Bathsheba of Dinorah 28 Years of Age Born in Ammun Liliana Matthaus
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A beautiful young girl in her own right but also the shadow to her gorgeous older sister, Ahuvah is an artistic soul with a love for the theatre. Singing and dancing hold some interest but really her love is in the tragic fictional tales she reads and the angsty theatrical performances made in the city square. A rebel and anarchist at heart, Ahuvah spends much of her time with friends in the city talking bohemian and revolutionary ideas that will likely never amount to anything and smoking opiates. Defiant in her determination to be seen as an adult but naive from her own molly-coddled upbringing, Ahuvah loves her sisters dearly but never allows them to be part of her secret wayward world.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Ahuvah of Dinorah 26 Years of Age Born in Ammun Ksenia Solo
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Naive doesn't begin to scratch the very shallow surface of Rivka's personality. Closed-minded, centrally-focused and, in many ways, incredibly dumb, Rivka loves her pretty little world in which her father is doting king and she is his princess. Oblivious to her mothers frustrations and uncaring that both of her sisters are often considered more attractive than she, Rivka thinks little of the future and nothing of the past, living in the moment where the only considerations are whether she is hungry, sleepy or lacking entertainment. Rivka is shallow to a fault and has zero understanding of the world but that does not mean she doesn't have the potential for depth were she grow outside the closeted pampering of her family.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rivka of Dinorah 20 Years of Age Born in Ammun Dilan Gwyn
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Jaffe Mahnheeg
The Jaffe family have long since failed to leave Damascus for any reasons baring the monthly meet of the Council of Elders. And even then often only the Head or his Deputy will attend - rarely both. A secluded people in the spine of mountains that spear through the Damascus desert plains, the citizens of Damascus like the peace and quiet that their life affords them. Due to their piousness and their faith, many within Damascus are harsh in their judgements of those who follow different paths and are not known for their welcoming presence. Instead, the smallest piece of gossip is reacted to with the greatest of scandalized expressions and the merchants who deliver the goods the city needs to survive every week are treated with suspicion and slanted gazes. The Jaffe family are known for their scholarly and quiet ways and they lead their city province more by example than by a firm hand. They are continuously voted back into their position of leadership through the people's belief that they are the most fair minded because of their wisdom and their faith.
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Tzephaniah is a man of great faith and love for his city province. To him, Damascus is a place of sanctity, sacredness and peace. He believes the city to be the greatest place on earth; the most holy and closest to God. He does not understand why anyone of faith would want to live anywhere else, aside from perhaps Jerusalem. A devout scholar from a young age, Tzephaniah has always had a great love of books and believes in recording the events of the city around him for posterity, spending an hour every evening dedicated to writing down the comings and goings of the people of Damascus. When he was a teenager, Tzephaniah met a woman of such purity and timidity of soul, he felt for sure she must have been a holy woman. Taking her as his wife and producing three sons from the union, Tzephaniah could not have been happier in his life and family. Until the day he discovered his demure and pure wife in bed with another man. Torn between heartbreak and confusion, Tzephaniah heard nothing of his wife's complaints that he paid her no attention or showed her no love; he only heard her determination to leave. She and her lover abandoned the city of Damascus that night and Tzephaniah has ever since had a distrust, uncertainty and small element of fear with regards to the supposedly "fairer" sex.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Tzephaniah of Lazaros 55 Years of Age Born in Damascus Eric Avari
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At an age able to comprehend the events around him at the time; that his mother chose to leave her children and their father by her own selfish will and no abstract act of chance, Amiti is the angriest of his brothers in the abandonment of their maternal figure. Distrusting of women, angry at the gender as a whole for the crimes of one, his skewed perception of the world forces him to see the actions of the female gender in a light that only cements his discriminations. He is especially distrusting of those who appear pious; believing the purer a woman looks the less trustworthy she actually is. Amiti is a man of great intellect and logic, he enjoys the world of literature but more for the ambitious way that he absorbs information and devours knowledge. While he has always loved Damascus for such opportunities, his insatiable appetite for learning has started to become unsatisfied by the same stone walls he has lived in since birth and his mind and heart are starting to wander... Perhaps in Jerusalem, he would find what he seeks...?
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Amiti of Tzephaniah 32 Years of Age Born in Damascus Noah Wyle
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Possibly the least affected by his mother's betrayal on the outside, Thaddeus' scars are a little more internal. Friendly, chatty and constantly eager to explore the city, Thaddeus enjoys meeting and greeting the traders and merchants who enter Damascus on a regular basis and absorbs the stories he is told of the outside world with great enthusiasm. A man of great faith but more spiritual than scholarly, Thaddeus enjoys climbing the mountains surrounding the city and watching the sun rise or set, beholding the glory of God's creation. As for his scars... Thaddeus is pleasant and easy with women and does not tarr them with the same brush like his brother Amiti does. But he has yet to have a serious or long term relationship, as if he keeps his heart behind closed, protective doors.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Thaddeus of Tzephaniah 26 Years of Age Born in Damascus Andy Samberg
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Shiloh is the youngest of the three boys and the only one who harbours secret desires to understand their mother's abandonment. Determined to one day seek her out and ask her why she might leave her children, there is a small frisson of distrust between Shiloh and his father - as if Shiloh knows he must have done something to drive their mother away. More understanding and cautious than his brothers, Shiloh loves books and the peace and quiet of the city but is determined that this will never be his all in life. Instead, he is the brother most enchanted by the idea of travel, of spreading the word of God and in encouraging the people of the world towards a route of understanding and compassion; his mother among them.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Shiloh of Tzephaniah 24 Years of Age Born in Damascus Jesse Eisenberg
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Meier Mahnheeg
Leading the great city of Jerusalem, there is no surprise or doubt that the Meier family is most devout. Believing the power of the great God Almighty - specifically his ability to smite the wicked and bring hell to the damned - the Meier Mahnheeg lead their people (they believe) with the backing of divine provenance. To go against the word of the Mahnheeg is to go against God. Jerusalem is a place of faith and worship but it is a place of little mercy and even less forgiveness. The Meier family are firm in their convictions and ensure that the people follow them too, with a guard of city protectors patrolling the streets to ensure sinless behaviour on the part of their flock.
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Simeon is a devout man with an edge and will of steel. So faithful in his beliefs is he that to siddle even too close to a line even moderately connected with the connotation of "sin" is to prepare for the fate of stoning or execution. To him, God's word is law above all else and be believes entirely in the power of the mighty smiting that can befall those who waiver from the true path. Simeon runs Jerusalem with the fear of the Almighty as his main tool of order but he is also a man for whom the benefits of faith should be considered too and he is careful to ensure that some of the budget for the city is spent on those who aid the poor and downtrodden; so that they might find themselves back on the righteous path. At home, Simeon is as strong-willed as he is in his duties running the city and believes that the Meier family is to be the pinnacle of piousness and appropriate behaviour. As such, he become intolerable and rage-filled if any of his family members step outside of what is considered good and right. Whether it's a meal prepared improperly - showing disrespect for the husband who has worked hard all day - clothing that is not worn appropriately (especially religious items) or a failure to respect the sabbath, Simeon can become most angry, fuelled by his Old Testament faith and determined to smite out any behaviours that are unfit for the Meier Mahnheeg.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Simeon of Nissim 56 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Jason Isaacs
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Selima is a woman of great conviction and inner power but who speaks it very little. Her inner strength allows her to be married to a man such as Simeon and not have her esteem or opinions ground to dust beneath his fearsome faith and belief in gender norms. Instead, she takes the area deemed fit for control by her sex - that of her domestic home - and runs it with all the efficiency and perfectionist attitude that her husband runs his city. Whilst respectful and a little in awe of the strength of conviction within her husband, Selima is also slightly fearful of her spouse and the way he can, very rarely and occasionally fly into a rage. Selima has only been struck once at the hand of her husband - unbeknownst to any of her children - but fears his angry outbursts are becoming more frequent...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Selima of Simeon 47 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Lisa Edelstein
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A dedicated son to his mother and a dutiful one to his father, Abir is everything Simeon could have wished for in a son. A man who works as his Deputy on the Council of Elders but also runs and manages the city protectors - armed men who monitor the streets for crime or sin - Abir is faithful and vigilant. Where he differs from his father is the fact that he is also loving, tolerant and understanding - traits he learnt from his mother. Abir fell helplessly in love with Katriel at first sight - or so he claims - and, despite his faith, was tempted to her bed before marriage vows could take place. When Katriel claimed to be pregnant with his child, Abir arranged their union quickly, determined that his father would never know that he had committed such a sin out of wedlock.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Abir of Simeon 30 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Justin Bartha
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Katriel is a young woman born to a local cloth merchant in Jerusalem. Always unhappy with her lot, she is a kind woman but one who also enjoys the luxuries of life - such as fine clothes, clean bedding and delicious food. Spying the handsome Abir during one of his patrols with the city protectors, Katriel worked upon the man for several months before finally winning him to her side. A claim of pregnancy was all it took to be married into the richest family in Jerusalem and achieve all that she wanted. When Livana was born exactly nine months after their marriage - Katriel simply claimed the child to be late in her arrival. Abir, in love his with his wife and with as much limited knowledge of pregnancy as the next man, entirely believes her. Whilst his sister and mother are far more insightful and keep Katriel under a very close and sometimes distrusting eye.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Katriel of Abir 29 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Mia Kirshner
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Softly spoken, very timid and excruciatingly shy, Livana is not the daughter Katriel would have hoped for. Dressing her up and pushing her in her studies to be better, Livana's mother only serves to make her insecurities and nervousness worse as she is constantly reminded that she is not good enough as she is. Instead, Livana's relationship with her father is much stronger. While Abir is out all day performing his duties, he returns in the evenings to wish his daughter pleasant dreams and it's these few moments every night that are Livana's favourite. Especially when he is home early enough to read her tales of Abraham, Noah and other such figures in their faith.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Livana of Katriel 10 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Onata Aprile
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Davitah is a smart and shrewd woman. Very much taking after her mother, she is strong willed but as the outspokenness of her father. Over the years, she has perfected the skill in keeping her tongue but it is still of great challenge to her when something occurs that she does not agree with and her gender prohibits her from speaking up. Determined to find a husband whom she can either love or control, Davitah sees marriage as a means of power. If she can find a man willing to listen when she speaks, her words can be translated through his mouth and hold sway with those of influence. In this way, she is looking for a man who can either be coerced and controlled, or one who is to be a partner. Having witnesses the obvious manipulation of her brother at the hands of Katriel, Davitah is cautious and distrusting of any hard and fast connections with strong emotions. The heart cannot be trusted. The head is much sturdier.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Davitah of Selima 28 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Lizzy Caplan
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Poraz Mahnheeg
The Poraz family is one of great spirit. Ruling Moab with a hand as gentle as it is firm, the family are known for their wisdom, their understanding and their tolerance of others. Being a city province at the centre of trade for most of Judea, Moab and its ruling Mahnheeg are those with the least frozen identity of their own; fluid and changing as those who do business in their city come and go. The people of the city province of Moab are barterers, hagglers and traders - looking for the next best deal and trustworthy merchants or financiers to do business with. As such, the word and favour of a man is highly valued and sometimes money is not the true purpose of an agreement. The Moab Judeans believe in the sanctity of a promise made and the Poraz family are the epitome of this social grace and understanding.
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Leader of Moab, Moshehh is a man with a strange ability. Without harshness, bluntness or rage, he commands his city with a straight-laced hold of integrity that comes from neither fear nor power. With his simple and compassionate ways, ability to connect with others and to understand the way of the world, Moshehh has been able to balance the trade and business of his city but less that of his sons. A single man with only so much time in his day, his focus has been upon keeping Moab and his position on the Council of Elders secure so that the home and legacy he offers his children will never be at risk. Despite spending most of their childhood days with nurses, nannies, servants and stewards, the children he was always home in time to see before slumber have grown up with an understanding for the importance of their father and his occupation, as well as great love and respect for his work ethic and determination for their future as a family.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Moshehh of Seth 52 Years of Age Born in Moab Stanley Tucci
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Deputy to his father on the Council of Elders, Palti is the exact same as his father in all his ambitions and hopes but the exact opposite in temperament. Easy to anger, difficult to calm and impossible to budge once set on a course of action, Palti is a man that many fear will put at risk his father's connections and agreements simply through his tendency to jump to conclusions and become frustrated with others. A jealous man, he is currently in love with a married woman whom he cannot have and many within his personal household (where such affections are an open secret) believe that this, in part, contributes to his levels of aggression and irritation.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Palti of Moshehh 30 Years of Age Born in Moab Eli Roth
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A man who has great love for his home but a heart that is set elsewhere, Baruch is a sailor to his soul and loves the open water. Determined to see everything the world has to offer and frustrated that his father wishes him to stay in Moab where he's both safe and a second alternative to his brother, should the man fail to marry and produce children, or simply burn out in the politic sphere, Baruch desires nothing more than to hop aboard the nearest vessel and never look back. While he holds great affection for his brothers, his wayward heart cannot be tempered.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Baruch of Moshehh 26 Years of Age Born in Moab Elyes M'Barek
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The carbon copy of his father Moshehh, Davii is calm, collected and a considerate speaker and businessman. Already in charge of a significant portion of Moab's docks and responsible for the overseeing of the trade arrangements and tax payments, Davii has earned the respect and acceptance of the sailors, tradesman and merchants of the city. The diplomat of the family and the natural choice in temperament to take over his father's responsibilities as Mahnheeg, Davii is frustrated that he has two older brothers less suited for the role of leader before his claim. Due to a traumatic childhood experience, Davii has a fear of the open water. He manages his business securely from the docks, refusing to step aboard any of the vessels of his alliances.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Davii of Moshehh 24 Years of Age Born in Moab Toby Kebbell
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The spitting image of the mother who died in his birth, Tobiah is the apple of his father's eye - a reminder of his late wife - but has had a terse relationship with his brother Davii as he has grown. Old enough to love his mother but not old enough to understand her passing and disappearance at Tobiah' advent, Davii isolated Tobiah and refused any brotherly affection for many years, blaming him for the loss of his maternal figure. Besides this estrangement with Davii, Tobiah has grown up told he has both his mother's looks and heart. A romantic in nature and forever in love with one girl or another (but always with every piece of his being and every inch of his heart), Tobiah loves music, dance and the excitement that can be found from life. He enjoys the city festivals and loves to explore the place he calls home, especially when he should be completing his chores in the family Bayith.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Tobiah of Moshehh 24 Years of Age Born in Moab Tom Payne
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Ammun; The White City
Named such for its beautiful, sparkling buildings - constructed from granite and painted purest white - Ammun is a city of travellers and traders. On the eastern border of the kingdom and with strong connections to Asia and the Middle East, Ammun is home to some of the richest merchants and families and widely recognised as the place to go when looking for a particularly exotic or hard to come by item. Landlocked as a province, there is no sea trade or fair so fish is seen as a rare delicacy in Ammun and the richer families have it imported in from Moab. However the hot weather further east means that citrus fruits grow aplenty around the city and dried, sweet treats are popularly sold on street corners along with roasted nuts. The people of Ammun are skill hagglers and know the value of anything and everything. They enjoy money and are careful to make sure the profits they gain in trade are high enough to make them pleased but not so high that they feel they are swindling others and going against the honest and modest Judean way of life.
Damascus; A Place of Judgement
Damascus is on the bordered edge of Assyria and the hottest of the Judean city provinces. Settled in the natural curve of a mountainous region, the western face of the city looks out across miles of flat savannah between the walls of Damascus and the borders of Israel. Such open space is known as the land of judgement - there is nowhere to hide from your sins or yourself. Many in Damascus are uncertain of foreigners - even Judeans from other cities - and are a private people who live recluse lives, interrupted only by the regular camel trains that arrive with goods on their trade journey once every two weeks. The people of Damascus, while private, are not ignorant and they spend great portions of their lives reading and engrossed in scholarly pursuit. There is a large library and university in Damascus that many travel far to visit, with tomes in as many languages as there are tongues to speak them (so they say).
Israel; A Bright Future
Israel is a city province on the coast of the Aegean Sea and as such is one of the coolest and most temperate of the regions in Judea but also one of the most humid. It enjoys excessive trade and a busy economy, trading with both men of the north-western islands in Greece and with the travellers to the east. Israel is one of the largest city provinces and therefore has the largest population which encourages still further commerce and innovation. It is a city of design and progress with machines and inventions being built in the back room of many a creative man's abode. The city is also home to a large number of Greeks. While the division between the two races of man is strong and prejudices rife, there is no violence from the Greek militia's station in the province of Israel for they are not there to conquer nor have they been placed there to keep the Judean's in check. They have no authority and do not rule. They are accepted as "guests of Judea" through the money Taengea pays directly to the Israel leaders and are there solely to be easily mobilised into Egypt should war appear prevalent once more. The Greeks have no assimilated and often wear their armour or traditional clothing which makes them easy to spot on the streets of Israel.
Jerusalem; The Holy City
Built on sacred land, Jerusalem offers one of the largest populations in Judea. With so many wishing to live within the city's holy boundaries, a wall has been constructed within the last forty years, defining the border of the city and province and disallowing the construction of homes outside of it. As such, the city is a place many are desperate to live and yet unable to find a vacant home. Several areas at the very edges of the walls have turned into shantytowns as wooden properties are built in the gaps of the stone ones, offering new residences for the desperate. Jerusalem is incredibly pious and has more temples and sanctuaries than any other area of Judea. It holds festivals and rituals upon every sacred day of the calendar and has an order of the pious whom seek to help the lives of others however they can, living in poverty and offering all they have for the benefit of others. Many are seen walking the streets of Jerusalem, aiding the homeless or the hungry.
Judah; The Capitol
The capital of the kingdom, Judah is the largest city in all of Judea. With no boundaries or walls, the city just keeps growing and is built on one of the few raised pieces of land in the area, making the city appear conical and raised at its centre where a giant cross is affixed atop the highest central spire of the main temple. The city is large and dense in population but it does not have the bustling feel of Israel nor the calm, monastic seclusion of Damascus or Jerusalem. Instead, it operates as a kind of middle ground, a calm and peaceful place that busies itself along in its own time and is the central hub where many major festivals are held for the Judean people.
Moab; The Safe Haven
Build on a small cape protruding in the Dead Sea, Moab is a city of two sections. The centre of the city is stone, built on the land and enclosed in a wall that sits on the very edge of the cape on all sides, with large open archways at regular points in its circumference. These points open onto wooden steps leading down to the rest of the city built in wood and across stilted platforms out into the Dead Sea. Beginning as docks to capitulate on the traders that moved between Judah, Israel and Ammun on the waters, the docklands spread and grew to include merchant huts for selling their own goods to the travellers. Then the homes of the merchants are constructed. Then another walkway for another dock to capitalise on still more trade. And so on it went until nearly three-quarters of the city of Moab is built upon the water - only the highest and richest born of families residing inside the stone walls of The Island.
The Lands of the Faithful
The kingdom of Judea is ruled by no monarch or emperor. Instead, it operates as a single kingdom divided into six key areas; each ruled over by a city under the management of a Mahnheeg family - a democratically elected family that is trusted to oversee the laws and business of each area. The leaders and deputies of each family then form the Council of Elders who meet once a month in the city of Judah to discuss the on-going future of the kingdom in an informal gathering that lasts a full day. As such, there are no other provinces within the Judean kingdom; only the ones listed above and collectively known as the Six Cities - reminiscent of the six points on a Star of David.
Judea
Judea occupies to the northernmost reaches of the African realm, stretching out towards the Middle East on the eastern bank of the Aegean sea. It suffers from the same heat as it's fellow African kingdoms but with the added humidity from the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Red and Dead Seas. It also gets significantly colder at night up in its northern city of Damascus, where, despite the land being flat, the altitude is much greater. The weather within the kingdom is generally calm and temperate (despite being almost always on the warm side) and rainfall is occasional and erratic. As such, the goods and trade of the kingdom a flexible and often changing to fit with the season and harvests which, in turn, are dependant on unreliable weather. The Judeans believe in simply being thankful for what is given and worry little that they are unable to plan or store for the unknown future of their crops, trade or economy.
The land on which the cities of Judea are built is mostly flat and dry but more rocky and hard than their neighbours to the south where sand dunes and dusty roads create a more unstable ground. In Judea, the land is unyielding but dependable. Dust and cracked but not treacherous. In Judea, you know that your foot will land on tough earth but are all the more thankful for the certainty of the pain it caused. Rather than trying to build your home on ever-changing sandiness.
The people of Judea believe in simplistic, modesty and honesty. They believe in compassion and kindness above all else and consider the desire for a greater life than you already have to be disrespectful to both God and to those who love and care for you, such as your spouse, children or relatives. To save and hold onto money is to be practical and pragmatic - a worthy and positive trait. To hold too much of it is to be hoarding and covetous, selfish and ungenerous. Ergo, the life of a Judean is one of balance. To protect and secure the lives of yourself those closest but also to ensure that others do not suffer when you can help.
This is not solely an altruistic way of life. Judeans believe in a punishing God as much as a benevolent one. This way of lending to the aid of others is as much about the goodness it creates as it is the fear of punishment that awaits them in the afterlife. Some, act in mercy and generosity because they believe it to be the right thing to do. Others only behave so for self-protective reasons. This is down to individual personalities and the teachings of family.
So too is the piousness and devotion of one's faith. Different Judeans grow up with parents of differing strengths of faith, despite all Judeans being Jewish and theist in Yahweh (Jehova). Some believe more in His goodness, others in his tendency to smite out evil. Some believe the Good Book to be an instruction manual to be followed to the letter, while others consider it a means of metaphor; a guide on how to live a good life. Not on Jew is the same as another in the same way no Judean is the same as another.
In terms of trade, the Judeans are skills scholars and render many services lacking in other kingdoms; paperwork, accounting, learning, tutoring, religious or legal advice, scribe services... The women of the region are skilled seamstresses and work with textiles and fabrics when they are not indisposed with domestic tasks and child-rearing. They will also, often, help their husbands in their trade of choice. Judeans believe that a job well done is the purpose of life. For when a task is completed with care and attention and sweat broken in the efforts of trade and commerce, a man (or woman) aids in the development and growth of their community; the baker does not bake to sell bread and earn coin but to feed the children of the woman who buys said bread.
This compassionate and humble way of life has led to Judea having no army or military. There are public servants - guards with only a knife at their hips and a badge on their chests - that keep the peace within the cities but there is no kingdom large military force. The Judeans prefer to offer sanctuary and sanctity to any opposing force, given that they have no mines or inherent natural resources that might cause someone to wish to conquer them. As such, since the last major Greco/Egyptian conflict ten years ago, The city province of Israel has been under the military command of the Greek Taengeans - a watchful presence who interfere little with the running of the city or its way of life and are only inhabiting there for quick mobilisation should the Egyptians make a move against Greece once more. As they have been within the walls of the city for ten years now, the appearance of the Greeks in this particular sector of Judea is no longer shocking or suspicious and the troops themselves are relatively integrated. However, there is a strong racial distinction between Greeks and Judeans and while there is no outward/obvious hostility shown most of the time, there is no intermingling or connection between the two even after ten years and the Judeans have a distinct dislike for the fact that the Greeks are still occupying their city after so much time has passed.
Judean Canons
The canons of the Judean elder families are listed below. Please note that all untaken characters are open to creator interpretation. So long as an application does not directly contradict the information listed on this page, a creator is welcome to build a canon to their liking and create something wholly their own. Please also note that these characters are only the ones listed as members of the noble, ruling families. We also have wanted characters which can be found in our Character Compendium.
To apply for a Canon Character, simply create an account with their first name as your username (e.g. "gurion" for Gurion of Noah). If the username is listed as unavailable, another member is already creating that character. All Canon Character applications must be completed within two weeks or they will be returned to Open status and the username will become available for claiming again.
Azari Mahnheeg
The Azari Mahnheeg are responsible for the day to day lives and administration of the city province of Israel. It is within this province that their skills as diplomats and politicians are most greatly required. Closest to the military power that is Egypt and host to a Taengean unit of Greek soldiers, the people of Israel are the blockade between war and the rest of Judea. It is up to the Azari family to ensure peace reigns and war is not brought down upon their neighbours. While previous generations have done well in keeping the war at bay and the current leader of the house, Gurion, has been upheld as a great peacemaker, the tragedies in the history of the Azari family have produced a more recent generation of angry men who may be destined to upset the delicate balance within the walls of the bright city, throwing its calm and peaceful future into question.
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Twenty years ago, Egypt was an invading force on the western border of the Judean provinces - mostly specifically on the outer territories of Israel. These battles and skirmishes for land in between the two kingdoms led to many Judean deaths as the kingdom operates no personal or national militant forces. In the ensuing combat, many hospice settlements were set up along the western Israeli border, spearheaded by Gurion's wife Hanna. Upon them being old enough to work, the wives of Gurion's sons assisted in such efforts. When a diseased soldier of Egyptian origin was brought into the medical facility the Azari family was one of many hit by tragedy. Even more so that all three women where, by this point, mothers. Gurion's loss was great but that of his sons was greater. He and Hanna had had an arranged marriage while each of his sons had married for love. Since then, the family have grown infinitely closer, the three single fathers banding together to raise the family's next generation as one. Since this incident, Gurion has made it his mission to ensure the financial strength of Israel through trade and to avoid any further militant encroachment from Egypt. The arrangement he has settled with the Greek Taengean forces, keeps the Egyptians away from the residences in the outer reaches of his province, lines the Israeli city's treasury and benefits the Greeks to ensure fast deployment into Egypt at the first sign of trouble. Gurion is not a weak-willed man but he is also not blind to the benefit the Greek presence offers to the city and spends most of his days defending such political decisions to the Council of Elders and to his civilian people.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Gurion of Noah 63 Years of Age Born in Israel Ben Kingsley
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A man who understands his father's aspirations for a peaceful life but cannot, in his heart, agree with them, Gabriel holds great anger and resentment for the soldiers within Israel. His belief is that any military presence from the Grecian kingdoms is only a draw and temptation for further combat with Egypt which is now set to happen in Israel's backyard. The tragic loss of his wife fuels his hatred for war and his xenophobia against Egyptians; especially as he watches his daughter grow more and more into the image of her mother every day; a living reminder of his loss. A devout father who is often extremely over-protective of his only child, he has a loving but difficult relationship with Karmel who has a mind of her own; a trait that frustrates him to no end but one he cannot chastise as it was inherited very assuredly from the woman he once and still does, love.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Gabriel of Gurion 42 Years of Age Born in Israel Andrew Lincoln
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Anointed with a male given name, Karmel was originally set to be both a boy and the first heir to the Azari family in the current generation. Despite assurances from both physicians and her mother, Karmel was born female to the surprise of all present. Born to a mother of wild spirit and tradition-balking temptations, Karmel was given the name decided prior to her birth nonetheless. The spitting image of her mother and having inherited her father's fiery spirit and her mother's unorthodox tendencies, Karmel is a beautiful woman who's hand is sort by many who are almost immediately disappointed that her personality fails to match her demure exterior. Not one to follow the traditional path of the Judean woman, Karmel causes despair in all of her male relatives that she will never marry.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Karmel of Tirzah 24 Years of Age Born in Israel Saadet Aksoy
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A man of great patience and work ethic Isaac is a calmer man and far more forgiving than his brother. While he holds great sorrow at the tragedy that hit their family sixteen years ago, he is a man for whom time has healed some of his wounds. A man of great wisdom and patience, Isaac focuses his attentions on raising his son but finds connection difficult as Matthias is young and cannot shake his anger and desire for eventual revenge. Instead, Isaac's brother Gabriel fuels his nephew's fire and has a stronger bond than Isaac often does, despite paternal love and devotion. Anxieties have been set to their maximum within the Azari household as an arranged marriage has been proposed for Isaac. In a bid to encourage further peace with their neighbours to the west, Gurion has been delicately approaching the idea of a union between Isaac and Fumisa H'Abaddi - an Egyptian noblewoman!
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Isaac of Gurion 40 Years of Age Born in Israel Tony Goldwyn
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Barely old enough to understand what was happening when half his immediate and extended family where lost to an plague brought to them in the lungs of an Egyptian, Matthias is a young man with issues in commitment, attachment and vulnerability. He doesn't like emotional connection, he shies from personal relationships and he has a serious dislike of being physically touched. Xenophia, distrust and anger are just some of the ways that Matthias covers up his grief and personal hurt.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Matthias of Isaac 20 Years of Age Born in Israel Jonathan Whitesell
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Barak Mahnheeg
A Mahnheeg desperately trying to maintain its power for future generations but struggling due to the entire clan currently being female, the women of the Barak family may not have been born with great political cunning but are rapidly learning their way. Led by the sister-wives Zevah and Yonita, the Baraks each have their own skills in intellect gathering and the seduction of key male officials within the capital of Judah that they use in an effort to keep their position as a Mahnheeg in place. The least stringent in their faith of the six Mahnheegs, the Barak women choose to read the holy scripture in the meaning of - "leave the world a better place than you found it, for the sake of your children". To this end, they use as many means as they can to ensure that they will have a legacy to pass down to their next generation that will - with hope - hold male heirs.
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The first wife to be taken by Josiah, Zevah is a woman of logical thinking. Stoic, calm and thoughtful of all options, she has been a woman often considered to be dull or boring; a sturdy wife to be sure. Upon her marriage, however, Zevah began to grow and change, luxuriating in her position as a married woman; without pressure or expectation for future unions and grew within herself at Josiah's side. When her blooded sister became Josiah's second wife, Zevah found still more independence. Whilst Zevah and Josiah's union had been arranged, the match between he and her sister was one of great lust, allowing Zevah a freedom away from any future child-bearing and focused on the two daughters she had already given her husband. Now, after her husband's death, Zevah is at her most free. Happily engaging in discreet relations with important men of the Judah state and using their besotted attentions to maintain a position of support for her family, Zevah works closely with her sister to ensure the future of the Barak Mahnheeg for future heirs.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Zevah of Josiah 46 Years of Age Born in Judah Neve Campbell
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Wild is not a word used often regarding Judean women but Talora is the exception that proves the rule. A being who loves both men and women for their own qualities and who hates and despises the gender norms of her day and culture, Talora is generally considered to be a strange anomaly that few wish to go near - other than those who share her peculiar tendencies. Many a night sees Talora coming home in the early hours of the morning bearing the scent of often more than one other individual. It has been several weeks since one such morning and still Talora has yet to bleed...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Talora of Zevah 27 Years of Age Born in Judah Kat Dennings
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Softly spoken and desperate to please, Nedevah is a young girl who loves her mother but is closer in temperament now to her aunt. Spending much of her time learning at Yonita's side, Nedevah is beautiful and quaint and is often the subject of much speculation by men. If not for the tempestuous presence of her sister, Nedevah would have likely been married by now but her association with one so wild has stilled the pursuits of many a man. Innocent and unconscious of such attentions, Nedevah goes about her day much the same and while she does not agree with her sister's lifestyle she loves her still the same.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Nedevah of Zevah 25 Years of Age Born in Judah Emmy Rossum
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When her sister was married, it should have been a moment of great joy in the family but the fact that she had married a young politician that Yonita was already hopelessly in love with, tested the bond with her sister for several years. It was not until her feelings were returned by Josiah and he decided to officially make her his second wife that the fracture was repaired and the two sisters have become closer than ever. Heartbroken at the loss of her husband, Yonita dotes on the daughter she begot by him and has thrown herself into learning the ways of business. Once a flirty and capricious young girl, Yonita seems to have now switched places with her once staid sister and is learning the importance of discipline and the power that knowledge can give; even if one is a woman. Becoming more learned in the ways of economy, finance and the businesses of the capitol, Yonita is finding an untapped intelligence that she never knew she had.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Yonita of Josiah 44 Years of Age Born in Judah Hilary Swank
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Maeri is a girl of much internal conflict. Wanting to be selfless like her sister-cousin Nedevah, seeking to be courageous like Talora but ultimately cowardly and a little bit spoiled, Maeri tries hard and fails often. Not one to be able to sit still, she is the scholar who tries to learn and is so impatience she knocks over the inkwell. She is the athlete who trips over her own sandal straps, despite being so sure that she fastened them in place. She is the young wife in training who accidentally turns all of her mother and sister-cousins' gowns pink and knocks over the wash basin. Maeri is a young girl, beautiful in appearance and utterly useless in application who fails to see that the one shining light within her is that fact that, despite all encouragement to the contrary, she keeps on trying.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Maeri of Yonita 21 Years of Age Born in Judah Michelle Trachtenberg
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Haviv Mahnheeg
The city province of Ammun is home to the largest of markets and trades between Judea and other realms to the north and east; particularly Anatolia. With a few arabian-looking faces on the streets and products and goods from all over Asia and Europe being peddled at its markets, the family who lead the settlement have to be tolerant to a certain point. Focusing on the money and trade that can be accomplished from strangers and foreigners and how the taxes of such trades then go towards Judea as a whole and the service of God, the Haviv family see it as their role to continue the flourishing economy within Ammun, regardless of who it is making the deals within it. Unlike in Moab where a favour is worth a thousand gold pieces, the Judeans of Ammun work exclusively in coin and refuse to take payment in anything else. They are skilled crafters and traders and know the worth of an item at immediate glance. All appraisers by nature, it is the Haviv family's responsibility to ensure that no disagreements or fights break out within such a competitive atmosphere and to handle the aftermath of any raids or thefts that happen along its borders or in its streets. The people of Ammun are loud and boisterous and all about their goods and trade which means the Haviv must have strong personalities if they are to lead a people with such firm wills of their own. The family is one of the richest in Judea and enjoy luxuries that others might consider to be slightly materialistic but they are careful to never step too far into false idolism or shallow thinking.
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The first and only son to be produced by Ezra and his first wife Lilith, Elhanan was a boy raised to lead the Haviv family from day one. When his mother contracted the disease of leprosy, she was shipped away to live out the rest of her life where she would never again walk the streets of Ammun nor spread her contagion to her child. Ezra's second wife was wed much later and produced a brother to whom Elhanan was more a father than sibling. Ensuring his brother's marriage to a young woman he had found a love match with and marrying two women himself, Elhanan has ensured the future of the Haviv name through his careful planning, self-sacrificing ways and his almost unemotional objectivity in where to focus his attentions; both with family and the city he runs with a perfectionist eye.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Elhanan of Ezra 64 Years of Age Born in Ammun Mandy Patinkin
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Raised by a man who craves order, authority, hierarchy and structure, Cane is a wild child, emotionally chaotic and enjoys rushes of adrenaline. A practical joker in his youth, a playboy in his teenager years and now a hunter and seducer of animals and women respectively, Cane is the bane of his father's existence. Unable to show up for any appointed meeting or arrangement on time or take his responsibilities with any grain of seriousness, Cane appears to be the epitome of an effervescent wayward soul who has no interest in the seriousness of life. Beneath it all, however, Cane holds a temptation and hope of marriage and family that he would never allow another person to know...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Cane of Elhanan 29 Years of Age Born in Ammun James Franco
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Desperate to be like his elder brother and always the nervous shadow to Cane's adrenaline-seeking energy, Caleb is a softer and more sensitive being with an open mind and romantic heart. Sweet, chatty and, at times, socially anxious, he craves to be like his brother but is actually closer in temperament and relationship to his half sister Amarissa. Often called effeminate or chastised for his lack of manly ambition, Caleb does all he can to appear as a man before his father and brother, refusing to acknowledge his own skills in poetry and music.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Caleb Elhanan 23 Years of Age Born in Ammun Dave Franco
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The second wife to Elhanan, Rishona learnt much from her counterpart Gali before the woman's death. Killed in a revolt and stampede of livestock and patrons at the mighty Ammun Shouk when raiders set loose the animal pens, Gali was a calm and peaceful woman who welcomed a second wife into her family and helped teach the younger Rishona the ways of a wife and mother, despite her mixed heritage that dabbled into the borders of Anatolia. An exceptional beauty in her youth, Rishona was chosen by Elhanan for what he would claim to be logic but which she likes to believe was love and she has been a dutiful wife to him since, putting Gali's lessons into practice as best she can; including loving Gali's sons as her own and attempting to bond with each in their own way.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rishona of Elhanan 43 Years of Age Born in Lands Afar Julie Louise Dreyfuss
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Amarissa loves beauty in all its forms. A young woman that adores music, painting and pottery and appreciates more than masculine strength the beauty of the female form. Amarissa has never been in a relationship with a man and due to personal secrets is likely to never give her heart to one. Instead, she looks towards the inevitable day of her marriage with a feeling of dread and focuses, in the meantime, on the aid and help she can give to the world both in the artistry she can form with her hands and the chores she can complete around the family home.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Amarissa of Rishona 24 Years of Age Born in Ammun Nasanin Boniadi
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More a son than sibling to his brother Elhanan, Rechavia has a temperament similar to that of his nephew Caleb. While not soft-hearted or overtly sensitive, Rechavia is a man that dotes on his daughters and is besotted with his wife and is eager to see further children and grandchildren in the family that he might bestow such adoration onto. Determined to be seen as manly in the eyes of his brother, Rechavia operates as Elhanan's second - Deputy on the Council of Elders - but is always aware in some corner of his mind that he is neither the man nor leader his half-brother is and fears the day when he will take over the mantel he knows he will not be able to lift.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rechavia of Ezra 46 Years of Age Born in Ammun Sacha Baron Cohen
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A woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, Dinorah spotted the adoring eyes of Rechavia from a mile away. Initially attracted to his easy personality and kind temperament it has been some years since Dinorah has held anything but frustrated resignation for her husband's doting and clinging love. His good heart she sees as a weak will and his lacking in confidence proof of his failure in ambition. A woman apathetic towards a marriage in which she had not expected drollness to be its only positive, Dinorah is particularly frustrated with her lack of male offspring, determined that it must be her husband's lack of masculine intent that has provided her with three beautiful but not altogether useful daughters.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Dinorah of Rechavia 46 Years of Age Born in Ammun Laura Prepon
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Blessed with a doting father and a mother not yet concerned for her lack of male children, Bathsheba was raised in an environment of love in which she could do no wrong. Now a beautiful woman filled with arrogance and self-centred intention, Bathsheba has little concern for the feelings of others and thinks only inward. An intelligent woman, she is a forceful control freak and likes her world exactly "so" with herself at its centre. Any attempts others make to open her eyes to the plights of others or the importance of the words of the good book fall on deaf ears or are met with a wrinkled nose and frustration that her day has been interrupted over such nonsense. She likes her little sisters as the dolls and servants she dresses and treats them as and her beauty and confidence have Ahuvah and Rivka hanging on her every word, as only little sisters can.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Bathsheba of Dinorah 28 Years of Age Born in Ammun Liliana Matthaus
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A beautiful young girl in her own right but also the shadow to her gorgeous older sister, Ahuvah is an artistic soul with a love for the theatre. Singing and dancing hold some interest but really her love is in the tragic fictional tales she reads and the angsty theatrical performances made in the city square. A rebel and anarchist at heart, Ahuvah spends much of her time with friends in the city talking bohemian and revolutionary ideas that will likely never amount to anything and smoking opiates. Defiant in her determination to be seen as an adult but naive from her own molly-coddled upbringing, Ahuvah loves her sisters dearly but never allows them to be part of her secret wayward world.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Ahuvah of Dinorah 26 Years of Age Born in Ammun Ksenia Solo
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Naive doesn't begin to scratch the very shallow surface of Rivka's personality. Closed-minded, centrally-focused and, in many ways, incredibly dumb, Rivka loves her pretty little world in which her father is doting king and she is his princess. Oblivious to her mothers frustrations and uncaring that both of her sisters are often considered more attractive than she, Rivka thinks little of the future and nothing of the past, living in the moment where the only considerations are whether she is hungry, sleepy or lacking entertainment. Rivka is shallow to a fault and has zero understanding of the world but that does not mean she doesn't have the potential for depth were she grow outside the closeted pampering of her family.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Rivka of Dinorah 20 Years of Age Born in Ammun Dilan Gwyn
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Jaffe Mahnheeg
The Jaffe family have long since failed to leave Damascus for any reasons baring the monthly meet of the Council of Elders. And even then often only the Head or his Deputy will attend - rarely both. A secluded people in the spine of mountains that spear through the Damascus desert plains, the citizens of Damascus like the peace and quiet that their life affords them. Due to their piousness and their faith, many within Damascus are harsh in their judgements of those who follow different paths and are not known for their welcoming presence. Instead, the smallest piece of gossip is reacted to with the greatest of scandalized expressions and the merchants who deliver the goods the city needs to survive every week are treated with suspicion and slanted gazes. The Jaffe family are known for their scholarly and quiet ways and they lead their city province more by example than by a firm hand. They are continuously voted back into their position of leadership through the people's belief that they are the most fair minded because of their wisdom and their faith.
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Tzephaniah is a man of great faith and love for his city province. To him, Damascus is a place of sanctity, sacredness and peace. He believes the city to be the greatest place on earth; the most holy and closest to God. He does not understand why anyone of faith would want to live anywhere else, aside from perhaps Jerusalem. A devout scholar from a young age, Tzephaniah has always had a great love of books and believes in recording the events of the city around him for posterity, spending an hour every evening dedicated to writing down the comings and goings of the people of Damascus. When he was a teenager, Tzephaniah met a woman of such purity and timidity of soul, he felt for sure she must have been a holy woman. Taking her as his wife and producing three sons from the union, Tzephaniah could not have been happier in his life and family. Until the day he discovered his demure and pure wife in bed with another man. Torn between heartbreak and confusion, Tzephaniah heard nothing of his wife's complaints that he paid her no attention or showed her no love; he only heard her determination to leave. She and her lover abandoned the city of Damascus that night and Tzephaniah has ever since had a distrust, uncertainty and small element of fear with regards to the supposedly "fairer" sex.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Tzephaniah of Lazaros 55 Years of Age Born in Damascus Eric Avari
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At an age able to comprehend the events around him at the time; that his mother chose to leave her children and their father by her own selfish will and no abstract act of chance, Amiti is the angriest of his brothers in the abandonment of their maternal figure. Distrusting of women, angry at the gender as a whole for the crimes of one, his skewed perception of the world forces him to see the actions of the female gender in a light that only cements his discriminations. He is especially distrusting of those who appear pious; believing the purer a woman looks the less trustworthy she actually is. Amiti is a man of great intellect and logic, he enjoys the world of literature but more for the ambitious way that he absorbs information and devours knowledge. While he has always loved Damascus for such opportunities, his insatiable appetite for learning has started to become unsatisfied by the same stone walls he has lived in since birth and his mind and heart are starting to wander... Perhaps in Jerusalem, he would find what he seeks...?
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Amiti of Tzephaniah 32 Years of Age Born in Damascus Noah Wyle
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Possibly the least affected by his mother's betrayal on the outside, Thaddeus' scars are a little more internal. Friendly, chatty and constantly eager to explore the city, Thaddeus enjoys meeting and greeting the traders and merchants who enter Damascus on a regular basis and absorbs the stories he is told of the outside world with great enthusiasm. A man of great faith but more spiritual than scholarly, Thaddeus enjoys climbing the mountains surrounding the city and watching the sun rise or set, beholding the glory of God's creation. As for his scars... Thaddeus is pleasant and easy with women and does not tarr them with the same brush like his brother Amiti does. But he has yet to have a serious or long term relationship, as if he keeps his heart behind closed, protective doors.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Thaddeus of Tzephaniah 26 Years of Age Born in Damascus Andy Samberg
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Shiloh is the youngest of the three boys and the only one who harbours secret desires to understand their mother's abandonment. Determined to one day seek her out and ask her why she might leave her children, there is a small frisson of distrust between Shiloh and his father - as if Shiloh knows he must have done something to drive their mother away. More understanding and cautious than his brothers, Shiloh loves books and the peace and quiet of the city but is determined that this will never be his all in life. Instead, he is the brother most enchanted by the idea of travel, of spreading the word of God and in encouraging the people of the world towards a route of understanding and compassion; his mother among them.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Shiloh of Tzephaniah 24 Years of Age Born in Damascus Jesse Eisenberg
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Meier Mahnheeg
Leading the great city of Jerusalem, there is no surprise or doubt that the Meier family is most devout. Believing the power of the great God Almighty - specifically his ability to smite the wicked and bring hell to the damned - the Meier Mahnheeg lead their people (they believe) with the backing of divine provenance. To go against the word of the Mahnheeg is to go against God. Jerusalem is a place of faith and worship but it is a place of little mercy and even less forgiveness. The Meier family are firm in their convictions and ensure that the people follow them too, with a guard of city protectors patrolling the streets to ensure sinless behaviour on the part of their flock.
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Simeon is a devout man with an edge and will of steel. So faithful in his beliefs is he that to siddle even too close to a line even moderately connected with the connotation of "sin" is to prepare for the fate of stoning or execution. To him, God's word is law above all else and be believes entirely in the power of the mighty smiting that can befall those who waiver from the true path. Simeon runs Jerusalem with the fear of the Almighty as his main tool of order but he is also a man for whom the benefits of faith should be considered too and he is careful to ensure that some of the budget for the city is spent on those who aid the poor and downtrodden; so that they might find themselves back on the righteous path. At home, Simeon is as strong-willed as he is in his duties running the city and believes that the Meier family is to be the pinnacle of piousness and appropriate behaviour. As such, he become intolerable and rage-filled if any of his family members step outside of what is considered good and right. Whether it's a meal prepared improperly - showing disrespect for the husband who has worked hard all day - clothing that is not worn appropriately (especially religious items) or a failure to respect the sabbath, Simeon can become most angry, fuelled by his Old Testament faith and determined to smite out any behaviours that are unfit for the Meier Mahnheeg.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Simeon of Nissim 56 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Jason Isaacs
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Selima is a woman of great conviction and inner power but who speaks it very little. Her inner strength allows her to be married to a man such as Simeon and not have her esteem or opinions ground to dust beneath his fearsome faith and belief in gender norms. Instead, she takes the area deemed fit for control by her sex - that of her domestic home - and runs it with all the efficiency and perfectionist attitude that her husband runs his city. Whilst respectful and a little in awe of the strength of conviction within her husband, Selima is also slightly fearful of her spouse and the way he can, very rarely and occasionally fly into a rage. Selima has only been struck once at the hand of her husband - unbeknownst to any of her children - but fears his angry outbursts are becoming more frequent...
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Selima of Simeon 47 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Lisa Edelstein
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A dedicated son to his mother and a dutiful one to his father, Abir is everything Simeon could have wished for in a son. A man who works as his Deputy on the Council of Elders but also runs and manages the city protectors - armed men who monitor the streets for crime or sin - Abir is faithful and vigilant. Where he differs from his father is the fact that he is also loving, tolerant and understanding - traits he learnt from his mother. Abir fell helplessly in love with Katriel at first sight - or so he claims - and, despite his faith, was tempted to her bed before marriage vows could take place. When Katriel claimed to be pregnant with his child, Abir arranged their union quickly, determined that his father would never know that he had committed such a sin out of wedlock.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Abir of Simeon 30 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Justin Bartha
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Katriel is a young woman born to a local cloth merchant in Jerusalem. Always unhappy with her lot, she is a kind woman but one who also enjoys the luxuries of life - such as fine clothes, clean bedding and delicious food. Spying the handsome Abir during one of his patrols with the city protectors, Katriel worked upon the man for several months before finally winning him to her side. A claim of pregnancy was all it took to be married into the richest family in Jerusalem and achieve all that she wanted. When Livana was born exactly nine months after their marriage - Katriel simply claimed the child to be late in her arrival. Abir, in love his with his wife and with as much limited knowledge of pregnancy as the next man, entirely believes her. Whilst his sister and mother are far more insightful and keep Katriel under a very close and sometimes distrusting eye.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Katriel of Abir 29 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Mia Kirshner
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Softly spoken, very timid and excruciatingly shy, Livana is not the daughter Katriel would have hoped for. Dressing her up and pushing her in her studies to be better, Livana's mother only serves to make her insecurities and nervousness worse as she is constantly reminded that she is not good enough as she is. Instead, Livana's relationship with her father is much stronger. While Abir is out all day performing his duties, he returns in the evenings to wish his daughter pleasant dreams and it's these few moments every night that are Livana's favourite. Especially when he is home early enough to read her tales of Abraham, Noah and other such figures in their faith.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Livana of Katriel 10 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Onata Aprile
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Davitah is a smart and shrewd woman. Very much taking after her mother, she is strong willed but as the outspokenness of her father. Over the years, she has perfected the skill in keeping her tongue but it is still of great challenge to her when something occurs that she does not agree with and her gender prohibits her from speaking up. Determined to find a husband whom she can either love or control, Davitah sees marriage as a means of power. If she can find a man willing to listen when she speaks, her words can be translated through his mouth and hold sway with those of influence. In this way, she is looking for a man who can either be coerced and controlled, or one who is to be a partner. Having witnesses the obvious manipulation of her brother at the hands of Katriel, Davitah is cautious and distrusting of any hard and fast connections with strong emotions. The heart cannot be trusted. The head is much sturdier.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Davitah of Selima 28 Years of Age Born in Jerusalem Lizzy Caplan
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Poraz Mahnheeg
The Poraz family is one of great spirit. Ruling Moab with a hand as gentle as it is firm, the family are known for their wisdom, their understanding and their tolerance of others. Being a city province at the centre of trade for most of Judea, Moab and its ruling Mahnheeg are those with the least frozen identity of their own; fluid and changing as those who do business in their city come and go. The people of the city province of Moab are barterers, hagglers and traders - looking for the next best deal and trustworthy merchants or financiers to do business with. As such, the word and favour of a man is highly valued and sometimes money is not the true purpose of an agreement. The Moab Judeans believe in the sanctity of a promise made and the Poraz family are the epitome of this social grace and understanding.
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Leader of Moab, Moshehh is a man with a strange ability. Without harshness, bluntness or rage, he commands his city with a straight-laced hold of integrity that comes from neither fear nor power. With his simple and compassionate ways, ability to connect with others and to understand the way of the world, Moshehh has been able to balance the trade and business of his city but less that of his sons. A single man with only so much time in his day, his focus has been upon keeping Moab and his position on the Council of Elders secure so that the home and legacy he offers his children will never be at risk. Despite spending most of their childhood days with nurses, nannies, servants and stewards, the children he was always home in time to see before slumber have grown up with an understanding for the importance of their father and his occupation, as well as great love and respect for his work ethic and determination for their future as a family.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Moshehh of Seth 52 Years of Age Born in Moab Stanley Tucci
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Deputy to his father on the Council of Elders, Palti is the exact same as his father in all his ambitions and hopes but the exact opposite in temperament. Easy to anger, difficult to calm and impossible to budge once set on a course of action, Palti is a man that many fear will put at risk his father's connections and agreements simply through his tendency to jump to conclusions and become frustrated with others. A jealous man, he is currently in love with a married woman whom he cannot have and many within his personal household (where such affections are an open secret) believe that this, in part, contributes to his levels of aggression and irritation.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Palti of Moshehh 30 Years of Age Born in Moab Eli Roth
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A man who has great love for his home but a heart that is set elsewhere, Baruch is a sailor to his soul and loves the open water. Determined to see everything the world has to offer and frustrated that his father wishes him to stay in Moab where he's both safe and a second alternative to his brother, should the man fail to marry and produce children, or simply burn out in the politic sphere, Baruch desires nothing more than to hop aboard the nearest vessel and never look back. While he holds great affection for his brothers, his wayward heart cannot be tempered.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Baruch of Moshehh 26 Years of Age Born in Moab Elyes M'Barek
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The carbon copy of his father Moshehh, Davii is calm, collected and a considerate speaker and businessman. Already in charge of a significant portion of Moab's docks and responsible for the overseeing of the trade arrangements and tax payments, Davii has earned the respect and acceptance of the sailors, tradesman and merchants of the city. The diplomat of the family and the natural choice in temperament to take over his father's responsibilities as Mahnheeg, Davii is frustrated that he has two older brothers less suited for the role of leader before his claim. Due to a traumatic childhood experience, Davii has a fear of the open water. He manages his business securely from the docks, refusing to step aboard any of the vessels of his alliances.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Davii of Moshehh 24 Years of Age Born in Moab Toby Kebbell
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The spitting image of the mother who died in his birth, Tobiah is the apple of his father's eye - a reminder of his late wife - but has had a terse relationship with his brother Davii as he has grown. Old enough to love his mother but not old enough to understand her passing and disappearance at Tobiah' advent, Davii isolated Tobiah and refused any brotherly affection for many years, blaming him for the loss of his maternal figure. Besides this estrangement with Davii, Tobiah has grown up told he has both his mother's looks and heart. A romantic in nature and forever in love with one girl or another (but always with every piece of his being and every inch of his heart), Tobiah loves music, dance and the excitement that can be found from life. He enjoys the city festivals and loves to explore the place he calls home, especially when he should be completing his chores in the family Bayith.
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[attr="class","cci_info"]Tobiah of Moshehh 24 Years of Age Born in Moab Tom Payne
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Ammun; The White City
Named such for its beautiful, sparkling buildings - constructed from granite and painted purest white - Ammun is a city of travellers and traders. On the eastern border of the kingdom and with strong connections to Asia and the Middle East, Ammun is home to some of the richest merchants and families and widely recognised as the place to go when looking for a particularly exotic or hard to come by item. Landlocked as a province, there is no sea trade or fair so fish is seen as a rare delicacy in Ammun and the richer families have it imported in from Moab. However the hot weather further east means that citrus fruits grow aplenty around the city and dried, sweet treats are popularly sold on street corners along with roasted nuts. The people of Ammun are skill hagglers and know the value of anything and everything. They enjoy money and are careful to make sure the profits they gain in trade are high enough to make them pleased but not so high that they feel they are swindling others and going against the honest and modest Judean way of life.
Damascus; A Place of Judgement
Damascus is on the bordered edge of Assyria and the hottest of the Judean city provinces. Settled in the natural curve of a mountainous region, the western face of the city looks out across miles of flat savannah between the walls of Damascus and the borders of Israel. Such open space is known as the land of judgement - there is nowhere to hide from your sins or yourself. Many in Damascus are uncertain of foreigners - even Judeans from other cities - and are a private people who live recluse lives, interrupted only by the regular camel trains that arrive with goods on their trade journey once every two weeks. The people of Damascus, while private, are not ignorant and they spend great portions of their lives reading and engrossed in scholarly pursuit. There is a large library and university in Damascus that many travel far to visit, with tomes in as many languages as there are tongues to speak them (so they say).
Israel; A Bright Future
Israel is a city province on the coast of the Aegean Sea and as such is one of the coolest and most temperate of the regions in Judea but also one of the most humid. It enjoys excessive trade and a busy economy, trading with both men of the north-western islands in Greece and with the travellers to the east. Israel is one of the largest city provinces and therefore has the largest population which encourages still further commerce and innovation. It is a city of design and progress with machines and inventions being built in the back room of many a creative man's abode. The city is also home to a large number of Greeks. While the division between the two races of man is strong and prejudices rife, there is no violence from the Greek militia's station in the province of Israel for they are not there to conquer nor have they been placed there to keep the Judean's in check. They have no authority and do not rule. They are accepted as "guests of Judea" through the money Taengea pays directly to the Israel leaders and are there solely to be easily mobilised into Egypt should war appear prevalent once more. The Greeks have no assimilated and often wear their armour or traditional clothing which makes them easy to spot on the streets of Israel.
Jerusalem; The Holy City
Built on sacred land, Jerusalem offers one of the largest populations in Judea. With so many wishing to live within the city's holy boundaries, a wall has been constructed within the last forty years, defining the border of the city and province and disallowing the construction of homes outside of it. As such, the city is a place many are desperate to live and yet unable to find a vacant home. Several areas at the very edges of the walls have turned into shantytowns as wooden properties are built in the gaps of the stone ones, offering new residences for the desperate. Jerusalem is incredibly pious and has more temples and sanctuaries than any other area of Judea. It holds festivals and rituals upon every sacred day of the calendar and has an order of the pious whom seek to help the lives of others however they can, living in poverty and offering all they have for the benefit of others. Many are seen walking the streets of Jerusalem, aiding the homeless or the hungry.
Judah; The Capitol
The capital of the kingdom, Judah is the largest city in all of Judea. With no boundaries or walls, the city just keeps growing and is built on one of the few raised pieces of land in the area, making the city appear conical and raised at its centre where a giant cross is affixed atop the highest central spire of the main temple. The city is large and dense in population but it does not have the bustling feel of Israel nor the calm, monastic seclusion of Damascus or Jerusalem. Instead, it operates as a kind of middle ground, a calm and peaceful place that busies itself along in its own time and is the central hub where many major festivals are held for the Judean people.
Moab; The Safe Haven
Build on a small cape protruding in the Dead Sea, Moab is a city of two sections. The centre of the city is stone, built on the land and enclosed in a wall that sits on the very edge of the cape on all sides, with large open archways at regular points in its circumference. These points open onto wooden steps leading down to the rest of the city built in wood and across stilted platforms out into the Dead Sea. Beginning as docks to capitulate on the traders that moved between Judah, Israel and Ammun on the waters, the docklands spread and grew to include merchant huts for selling their own goods to the travellers. Then the homes of the merchants are constructed. Then another walkway for another dock to capitalise on still more trade. And so on it went until nearly three-quarters of the city of Moab is built upon the water - only the highest and richest born of families residing inside the stone walls of The Island.
The Lands of the Faithful
The kingdom of Judea is ruled by no monarch or emperor. Instead, it operates as a single kingdom divided into six key areas; each ruled over by a city under the management of a Mahnheeg family - a democratically elected family that is trusted to oversee the laws and business of each area. The leaders and deputies of each family then form the Council of Elders who meet once a month in the city of Judah to discuss the on-going future of the kingdom in an informal gathering that lasts a full day. As such, there are no other provinces within the Judean kingdom; only the ones listed above and collectively known as the Six Cities - reminiscent of the six points on a Star of David.