11th of June, 2022
[Monument]
Ziggurats of Atamok

Monument by HungryClone: A Caltrop Core game about the grand construction and slow decay of a kingdom's dynasty and pyramids alike.

Atamok #

My land:

4 1: An asteroid

My name:

Wherefore Ⅻ

My ancestors' pyramids:

1 4 2 2

My name is Wherefore Ⅻ. I am the Sexton-Prinxe of Atamok—ruler of this ziggurat-studded asteroid kingdom. Few nations recognise our right to independence, and even fewer even care that we exist at all.

If I am the ruler, then why am I only a prinxe and not of the higher ranks? Simple: In Atamok, we only crown the dead. They live in splendour within the ziggurats and we live in relative poverty upon them. When I die, I and my favoured servants will be entombed. Were any of my servants to die before then, they would be ground into paste to fertilise the fields of the agri-cones that encrust the ziggurat tiers.

Well, every ziggurat but the eldest.

The Ziggurats of Atamok #

The eldest ziggurat #

The monarch entombed:

Therefore Ⅰ

The state of the ziggurat:

1

I suspect this one is haunted, because of the murmurs and whispers all who stray near it hear. My astrologer says it is just the effect of a numbers-station built on Atamok in one of the old, cold wars. My cryptologist claims it is just a nest of tidal antlions (and that the first-crowned ruler of Atamok and all their servants have probably been long-devoured). My gardener tells me, in hushed tones, that the motion of the nearby stars has created a ladder up from the sun to the eldest ziggurat, which does admittedly sit on the sunward side of Atamok, and that the sunward side is probably long-infested with the sun's little jesters by now. Lastly, the ghost of my wife, she who appears only in imperfect mirrors, tells me that is not haunted and that I am dishonouring my ancestors and my people both by letting this ziggurat fall into ruin like almost every sexton-prinxe before me.

I do not trust my astrologer because they once tried to poison me. I do not trust my cryptologist because they often eat fermented dates that affect their judgement. I do not trust my gardener because they have odd numbers of fingers. I do not trust the ghost of my wife because I have never had a wife.

The ziggurat remains un-maintained, cracked, ruined.

As for the un-entombed generations…

2: Wherefore Ⅱ and Wherefore Ⅲ

Two prinxes were born, grew up, grew old, and died overseeing the construction of the next ziggurat. They were ground into paste. I have tasted the ripe figs of the trees their bodies allegedly fertilised; they were so-so.

At long last, the second ziggurat was finished.

The greatest ziggurat #

The monarch entombed:

Therefore Ⅱ

The state of the ziggurat:

4

The capitol of our kingdom, sometimes called Anamok. The greatest ziggurat by far, and the most utilitarian in its construction. In fact, the second monarch ordered that the pyramid be finished early by forgoing the ostentatious decorations of the eldest one and keeping the structure more functional, more useful for those who would live than those who had ceased to live. The only decoration they allowed was a statue of one of the sun's little jesters, to remind everyone that the universe is a bright and terrible joke—incidentally, if one counts this statue as part of the ziggurat, the second ziggurat is ever-so-slightly taller than the first.

They were also the first to identify that the eldest ziggurat was haunted. Certainly, a perspicacious ruler. They were the greatest we have ever had.

As for the un-entombed generations…

2: Wherefore Ⅴ and Wherefore Ⅵ

Wherefore Ⅴ was ripped in two by angry ghosts in the ante-throne room. Wherefore Ⅵ, three weeks after their ascent to the ante-throne, bent and twisted into a perfectly-smooth flesh tetrahedron, which then ruled for a further three decades and died having sired four children.

Evidently my ancestors did not take the hauntings as seriously as they should have at first. Only later generations put the proper defenses and offerings in place.

The third ziggurat was completed within the living memory of those who had been children when the second was finished.

The lowest ziggurat #

The monarch entombed:

Therefore Ⅲ

The state of the ziggurat:

2

Some call this the fool's ziggurat, not because it was built on an active shield cryo-volcano (hence the name “lowest”, because the tiers were built directly on top of the volcano's very gentle slope as a means to avoid spending the kingdom's wealth), but because the people who live on it seem perpetually doomed to endlessly-failing financial schemes. There is always something new they want the people to buy, the latest of which my servants tell me is “luxury coldness” from the ultra-cold methane gas that seeps through the cracks of the ziggurat.

I have instructed my servants to rebuff all requests for financial aid the lowest ziggurat's autonomous council make to the treasury. I want nothing to do with their disastrous plans.

The third monarch of Atamok tried to be frugal. Only the sun knows how they would respond to seeing their favoured people's low state today. I mean that quite literally: the people of the lowest ziggurat later exhumed Therefore Ⅲ and their servants and ejected them into the void. They did so because the nearly-flat tiers of the ziggurat left them so little structure to work with on the pyramid, that they were pressured to go within it for residential and industrial space. Assuming their launch calculations were correct, the sarcophagi would have fallen into the sun.

I do not blame them for their actions. This was one of the few un-foolish decisions these people ever made. I would have done the same, were I in their position.

As for the un-entombed generations…

1: Wherefore Ⅷ

Only one sexton-prinxe lived and died between the construction of the third and fourth ziggurats. They were a prime heresiarch looking to declare holy war, overthrown by their own children after they tried to relitigate the treaties signed at the end of the old, cold war.

The living ziggurat #

The monarch entombed:

Therefore Ⅳ

The state of the ziggurat:

2

This ziggurat was once beautiful, and is now an eyesore. The living ziggurat was formed when the fourth monarch of Atamok, in infirm old age, having squandered much of the wealth they inherited made contact with the sun's little jesters and begged for their help in constructing a ziggurat to outdo even Anamok. They responded by transforming the dilettante sexton-prinxe into a towering, perfectly-smooth and beautifully-proportional tetrahedron of flesh—almost, but not quite the height of the greatest ziggurat.

Settlers later moved in and found the conditions quite agreeable, particularly the easy availability of creature meat—typically a luxury only cannibals and royalty may enjoy, and the royalty only on special occasions (I do not know what occasions cannibals consider to be special).

The priesthood quickly declared the meat to be of non-cannibalistic, extra-species origin, applicable retroactively.

Unfortunately, decades of meat mining have reduced the structural integrity of the living ziggurat and so, for safety reasons, I have trapped further settlement attempts in the bureaucratic labyrinths. The flesh is a renewable resource only if it can be given time to regrow.

As for the un-entombed generations…

2: Wherefore Ⅹ and Wherefore Ⅺ

Therefore Ⅳ's certainly-unwitting sacrifice spared the treasury the expense of another ziggurat for several generations, and the judicious stewardship of my ancestors of the second and first degrees did undo the damage done.

That brings us to the construction of the next ziggurat.

The Present Day #

How is the economy?:

4: Bountiful

Is there a war?:

2: No

Does sickness trouble my land?:

3: No

Was anyone in my family assassinated?:

4: No

All is well on Atamok. The circumstances could be better, but could easily be far, far worse. Other lands' warships that pass us in the night, heading to and fro between distant polities and overstretched empires, know nothing of the wealth we have on “little” Atamok. Let them sail in the sight of the sun's little jesters. Let them drop anchors on foreign planets and blast mountains and oceans to atoms in the name of rulers they will never see, homes they will barely know. We here on Atamok have our home and live upon our rulers and their glories—and follies.

The latest ziggurat is nearing completion, and I am fortunate enough to be the one who will be interred. My astrologer, my cryptologist, my gardener, all the rest—they will all attend my coronation as Therefore Ⅴ. I believe some of them are already making preparations to flee.

I can only hope the Atamok of the future will look kindly on me.

Post-play #

Kinda went off on a weird direction with this one.

Also, this isn't what the rules of the game focus on (in fact it's kinda the opposite). I wrote up the kingdom's history, when the rules are more about the life of each new ruler (the last section I wrote about “The Present Day” is one cycle of that). Mechanically-speaking, almost everything I wrote came from the roll for the kingdom's land (asteroid), the rolls for the pyramids' states, and the rolls for the number of generations between each pyramid. It worked out fine, but it's something to be aware of if you go download the rules.