If I Were A Creator

The markets of Atrahasis was always bustling, especially during the festival of Ninhursag, where the Gods descend for a feast. Men and women alike are crowding the wide street, purchasing incense, idols and ceremonial goods alike. The shops had decorated idols of their gods, the Nazar, with pots of clay before them.

Prayers were engraved upon these pots and fragrant incense was burnt within them, acting as a receiver for specific prayers to the Nazar. They say that the Nazar hear their prayers by smelling the incense and without incense, the prayer is no different than a voice in the crowd for their gods. So, incense will guarantee that their gods are listening to their prayers.

A young girl walked up to the counter of an incense shop. She was wearing a gunny hood that covered her face, but her height told the shop owner her age. A long line of customers were behind her, so she made a short prayer in front of Ishim's idol, the God of Fire and Seasons who enabled man to communicate better with the gods.

It was custom for anyone to make a short prayer before the shop's idol when one visits. It is for bestowing good luck to the shop's owner and the visitor, while also alerting the shop owner. If one does not follow this custom, they would be considered disrespectful to the local beliefs.

The little girl went to the shop's countered and uttered a special greeting, "Nazarim yevaon." It meant 'may the Nazar bless you', a common greeting between believers of this time. He replied in kind, "Nazarim yevaon little girl."

The little girl pointed at a small jar labeled Ziz-nazu on the highest shelf and took out a circular piece of gold. The shop owner nodded and took the whole jar, handing it to the girl before chanting a small prayer of gratitude. The girl left and soon disappeared into the crowd without a trace.

Briskly, she made her way to the temple grounds, where the gods will descend in two hours at midday. Her way was a combination of shortcuts, hidden shafts and following the right current in the crowds.

Soon, she arrived at the vast temple complex bustling with the servants and clergy members preparing for the arrival of the city's three patron gods.

The temple complex was a rectangular stadium with rows of limestone pillars etched with prayers and various pots containing plants. These pots were centered on rows that lined up between the pillars that flanked the procession path to the temple's heart. Statues of other Nazar faced the main path, standing behind the plant pots and possessing one pot each.

These pots were engraved with the same prayer, bless our city and we will welcome you as our lord. Several priests were burning incense into these pots, hoping for more gods to protect this city.

Although the city's three patron gods are among the greatest of the gods, an extra god for the city wouldn't hurt anyone.

The little girl briskly walked down the main procession path, glancing at the many priests who offered incense to the idols of many different Nazar. These priests burnt their most expensive incense inside these pots, hoping for these gods to come and protect the city.

The most crowded idol is the idol of Uzza, the goddess of might, protection and love. Uzza's idol depicts her as a nazar with a tiara and a feminine head and build. Twelve runes are painted on her, three on each of her wings.

The city needs her as a patron because the people knew about other cities, more powerful cities were setting their sights on Atrahasis.

Here in the Fertile South, kingdoms did not exist, this land was instead ruled by city-states. Each city had its own patron god and they serve under the patron god's command in trade of prosperity and protection. Each god has its own advantages and disadvantages.

However, the tribute isn't stopping them from occasionally stationing their armies to harass and intimidate. Not to mention the increasing tribute, which many citizens agree are nothing more than gradual pillaging.

These armies are only brave enough to intimidate and steal because the city lacked a guardian deity.

Guardian deities are Nazar who permanently reside within a chosen city, deterring any hostile incursions due to the great price that comes with doing so. The oracles and priests in all cities remind that a Nazar guardian would be an impossible foe to defeat. As proof of this fact, a legend was passed down from generations to generations about a general who witnessed a Nazar guardian destroy an invading army.

The general inscribed it in clay tablets and his words were as follows, "On the plateaus before our city, I witnessed an army as wide as the horizon. An innumerable legion of men in their leather armor and jagged spears.

The citizens panicked and prayer, offering frantic players with rushed incense burnt in their urns. The people shouted and screamed their prayers to the heavens, hoping that their incense and desperate cries of aid are heard by our guardian, Tammuz. Oddly, the priests are calmly strolling the cities and offering calming speeches to the believers.

From atop the wall, I could not hear what they were praying and I was quite puzzled with this odd behavior. In the sight of a great army such as this, I expected the priests to escape on horseback and declare their allegiance to the invaders. So, I called a nearby into my presence.

I asked, "Brother, why are you so calm?" The priest, a woman judging by her soft voice answered me, "We have received an oracle, Castellan. Lord Tammuz is coming and he will reward our faith in him by laying waste to our enemies."

Then, a horn was blown and the enemy army charges towards the city gate. The soldiers stationed with him were terrified at the sight of this massive army coming to kill them. As for the priestess, I saw her snap her fingers and then, a sight I would never forget.

Our Lord, Tammuz, descended from the skies, blowing a great sandstorm at our enemies. Then, Lord Tammuz screeched and spears of stone rained down from the sky, slaughtering the confused army. As proof of his divinity, Lord Tammuz judged our enemies with one last attack.

To keep the city safe, our Lord chose to remain here, a noble sacrifice indeed to dwell in our lowly abode."

This legend is a popular one among the faithful, a testament to the deityhood of these great hawks of heaven.

The girl increased her pace when she saw that the sun's position is reaching midday. She passed through the groups of priests praying to Uzza and other famous nazar deities in hopes for a guardian. However, the girl merely gave a curious glance before leaving to her own god.

Apparently, the inscription on Uzza's incense pot was different than the others. 'O Uzza, come and guard our city O goddess of guardians. Bless this land with your presence and we shall be forever in your debt.', that was the inscribed text. She was mildly impressed at how the older priests are good at boot l.i.c.k.i.n.g to the Nazar. Don't they know that Nazar can tell if you're lying, especially if you're bringing incense with you?

The little girl chuckled at how they prayed, their false flattery was amusing. When she heard a crescendo in their prayers, she mentally scoffed, 'Self righteous fools.'

She never liked any of them, they almost never practice what they preach and frequently extort money if they lack resources, making false predictions that end in making people give up their money to the priests to stop bad fortunes or any other stupid reasons. Deception and the made up tax doctrine helped if these false predictions failed.

To be honest, the nazar abhor these people, cheating and tricking people for their money in their name, they hate it. The only reason they put up with all this is the people, the innocent people who need gods to care for them.

Gradually, the sound of bribery like prayers and the smell of stolen incense vanished from her senses. She had finally reached the idol of her lord, Athanasius.

Athanasius had many markings on his body, decorative and runic patterns that adorn him. He had fierce eyes but for those who knew him, those eyes are just for show.

The little girl took out the pot of incense she bought and carefully poured its contents into Athanasius' prayer jar. Then, she drops a pinch of a magic powder into the urn that ignites the incense. A fragrant puff of incense arose like a pillar and the eyes of the idol shone brightly as a spectre of Athanasius manifested.

"Hello, Akka." Said the spirit.

The girl, now identified as Akka opened her hood, revealing her appearance.

She had long, dark brown hair and amused bronze eyes. She looked to be nearly twenty but her height said twelve. A loli, a rare specimen in this age.

"Athanasius, can you come?" Asked Akka. The city needed an extra god and as a good member of this city, she will find one.

"I can. I suppose you need me for something?" Said the Nazar. A frown formed on her face and she shouted, "Hey, I'm not like those old farts!" The nazar raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed, "Well, just for this time only. It's not like every time I call you it's always about needing a favor?"

The nazar kept his eyebrow up and said, "Do I have to remind you of your long list of favors?" Akka shook her head and raised an invisible white flag. Formulating an argument, she replied, "But, the city needs a guardian and you're the most likely one to agree, considering our relationship."

Recalling information from the city's information records, the continued, "Uzza's not answering, even if I'm using my full power, and the three patrons here are reluctant to dwell here cause of those disgusting priests. The other cities are increasing in aggression and a full siege on the city might happen if a greedy tyrant was dumb enough to attack without thinking of the effect on the incense trade."

"Incense trade, are you priestess or an official?" Remarked the nazar. "A priestess for now but I'm betrothed to the general, so I'm technically both. Wait, back to topic, can you please dwell here?" Athanasius rubbed his chin, musing in his choices like a sage while Akka simply rolled her eyes at this fake display of wisdom.

Then, the spirit grinned and Akka paled at that sight, knowing the evil behind his grin. Then, the hammer struck, "Deal, but, you will have to be my personal feather scrubber again."

Very annoyed but preferring this than death, she agreed, "Fine. I needed a good reason to escape those stupid sermon sessions anyways." Then, the spirit vanished and Akka had to live with the aftermath of her decision.

She quickly prayed to any listening god, 'I hope he doesn't have more parasites than last time.' She recalled half a decade ago, when she served the nazar in their heavenly abode. Sure it was amazing and majestic, but feather scrubbing kinda ruins that image, especially since Athanasius' feathers are a zoo of all sorts of parasites.

There were maggots, mites, ticks and what were those black things again, leeches. They were a lot bigger than they should be and that made it easy to clean but hard to look at, especially the leeches. Those fat, slimy things seem to target her when she's scrubbing his feathers with that magical pink stone he called soap.

But, she has to make sacrifices, the priests will never change their ways and the city, and by extension herself, will be doomed by invasions. At least, scrubbing won't kill her, it'll make her puke several times though, it's still better than ending up in whatever's out there.

Akka left to the large altar, the heart of the temple complex. A massive platform stood before her, servants carrying massive plates of food while the temple's high priests commanded them. The priestess walked up the flight of stairs to the platform and approached the high priest, Nabu.

"Nabu." The high priest turned back. He was a fifty year old man with balding black hair and brown eyes. He looked at her with contempt, annoyed that he had been disturbed by this upstart.

"What?" Said the high priest. "We have a guardian your eminence." Believing her to be lying, he replied, "Keep your fantasies to yourself woman. You may have once served in the gods' land but it does not earn you the right to deceive me. After all, the gods favor us men more than your kind, even if you can speak to them like us."

A servant rushed up to them and pointed at the sky, "The gods, they are here!" After dismissing him, the high priest glared at her one more time before dismissing her, "Leave, do not disgrace the gods with your immediate presence." Akka left silently, wishing to speak no further than she needs to with that man.

Leaving to the empty monastery, she stayed in her room, preferring to read stolen tablets from the city records than having to listen to the festival's boring sermon by Nabu.