History of Korteanp

Korteanp comprises a continent located on an Earth-like planet (see main article), so it is set in a different world and it has its own culture, including its own calendar. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Korteanpian calendar does have a zero year, which is traditionally the year when the first unified kingdom was founded: about four and a half millennia ago. When transcribed to the Indo-Arabic number system, the years reversely counted from before the year of foundation (0) are distinguished by a minus sign (-). The initials KC (Korteanpian calendar) are put after the numbers when it is important to avoid confusion with other calendars. Moreover, the multiracial humans from this planet, which are sometimes called xenohumans due to their distinctive origins and biocultural features compared to humans from Earth, begin to appear in Korteanp around 5 million years ago. [The following sections are under construction.]

Prehistory
The prehistory comprises all history preceding complex civilizations (those with central settlements and governments, writing and mastering of bronze tools). The dates are approximate. Actual dates of early events varied from region to region.

The prehistory chronology goes as follows:


 * c. -5,000,000: The first prehistorical xenohumans, the dominating species, appear in Korteanp. They evolved in different way than Earthlings. The environment was much less hostile, and women since the beginning developed more intelligence and a greater sense of leadership, so the clan chiefs at the time were almost always female (alpha females). Dietary practices rarely included meat.
 * c. -3,500,000: The first rudimentary armies, mostly male due to their greater strength, appear. Conflicts are frequently fought with sticks and stones, while females dominate chiefdoms.
 * c. -2,700,000: Most tribes now master fire and gathering. Tools become gradually more complex.
 * c. -800,000: Humans now master tools made with bones and horns and form larger and more complex, sometimes multi-tribal systems. Communities are present all throughout the continent.
 * c. -200,000: Early forms of animism and nature cult develop. While men lead the fights, women still lead the social councils and those early religious systems. Cave art and weaving begins during this period.
 * c. -30,000: Women develop agriculture. Sedentism is now common and permanent settlements begin to form and gradually increase in size.
 * c. -7000: Women now master bronze tools and develop early forms of writing and mathematics. Settlements increase in size and earlier forms of a central state emerge.
 * c. -4600: All technology, including mathematics and writing, begins to spread via trading and sharing between different communities.
 * c. -3000: All civilizations now master bronze tools and agriculture and have a common number system and a common logographic-alphabetic system, the Korteanpian script.

First era
By the negative third millennium, Korteanp is the home to dozens to hundreds of ancient bronze-age agricultural kingdoms. Each nation is aware of the existence of all others, but hardly interact with nations not close to them, due to the difficulty of long trips. The various nations speak many different languages, but all of these languages belong to the Korteanp language family, therefore being occasionally intelligible to foreigners. Each civilization has its own cultural, political and societal system, but they share some universal (or almost universal) features, including:


 * 1) Use of the Kortenpian number system.
 * 2) Knowledge (but not necessarily use) of the Korteanpian script. Some civilizations prefer to develop their own system to keep a national identity.
 * 3) Matriarchy i.e. women being overwhelming majority in the government and societal councils. Male monarchs were quite rare but not inexistent. That's the opposite of what happened on Earth. Among ancient exohumans, men were typically builders and farmers and women landowners.
 * 4) Religious systems with strong bounds to the nature and creation goddesses, with only or mostly women as priestesses and religious leaders.
 * 5) Bats frequently depicted in art and literature.
 * 6) Cuisine varying widely but rarely including meat.

On the other hand, the various civilizations were different and developed their own concepts on all other matters, but notably the following:


 * 1) Religious beliefs and practices (see below).
 * 2) Dietary practices within vegetarianism.
 * 3) Architecture and art.
 * 4) Calendars --- there were multiple calendars varying from region to region.
 * 5) The role of war and armies. While war was uncommon and most nations were friends and trade partners, some were aggressive and attacked others for territorial expansion. Virtually all nations had armies for defense. Those armies were mostly composed of men soldiers lead by women.
 * 6) The citizenship of men. While men were rarely thought of outside the context of female guardianship or marriage (true freedom was a concept restricted to women), visions varied about their rights. Most nations held that men could follow their own way but not forget about their guardian and societal values or become "corrupted" among immoral practices. Some considered men no more than property and did not understand the concept of male freedom. Some few societies in the north viewed men as completely independent individuals, just like women, but this not meant they held equally important posts.
 * 7) Homosexuality. While lesbian marriages were quite common in many societies, others viewed the female-male relationship as sacred and rejected this concept. Male homosexuality was quite uncommon, with most of its registries being in the context of queens' personal harems, fairly common in royal palaces in the central-eastern regions.

Different Korteanpian societies had different religious visions, with the following being notable:
 * 1) The number of sacred entities. Some religions worshipped a single goddess, while other were polytheistic. Alternative views included different power levels among goddesses with one being supreme, and different goddesses being actually manifestations or attributes of a single goddess. Male gods are uncommon, but the societies where their appear are prominent.
 * 2) The relationship between goddesses and women. The religions from the southwest, which lately become dominant, believe that every women was a demigoddess herself and needs to do study and understand the female inner self and do her best to her people in order to ascend as a goddess. Others, however, hold different beliefs, including that women must serve and obey the goddesses who created them as mortals to accomplish the sacred writings, while others viewed that knowledge about spirituality and the sacred was mostly unattainable.
 * 3) The existence of temples and oracles. In some nations they were found in every corner, while in others worship was mostly domestic.

With the advent of calendars, the dates can be known with more certainty. The chronology of the first era goes as follows:


 * -2923: The first oracles (holy places to consult the goddesses) are built.
 * -2594: The idea of progressing through knowledge and debate, the precursors to science, becomes widespread in the central nations. Libraries and debate forums are built everywhere.
 * -2340: A philosophy combining reason and the central religions, called Arbjana, arises in the central country of Of'Yuol. It spreads throughout the conitnent.
 * -2183: Offshore sailing becomes an interesting topic. The first ships are built and launched in attempts to find other continents, but they don't have much success.
 * -1931: Iron mining is created in the north and the first iron tools are developed and traded.
 * -1903: A corn-like substance is discovered in Ahtana and is inserted into agriculture just like the common-place wheat and rice.
 * -1851: The aggressive nation of Negek'pha conquers much of the north.