Chapter 1: Irrigation and trade

5 men sat on top of the platform, one sitting across from the other four. A monumental task was placed (by himself) on the oldest man who faced the rest of the men. This task was one that has never been done before in the history of the Tupai. Sitting there on the mara in Fanota was the current Shaman of the city, which grew considerably within the last 250 years.

The growth of Fanota started with the larger-than-normal floods of the Karrota. These floods caused more people to move out west, which with the discovery of new irrigation techniques help to combine to make the migration the largest movement of people in all of Tupain history. But this also had several effects on the Tupain heartlands. The flood produced richer soils for the next several years and boosted growth this already overpopulated land. Finally, a thing that helped Fanota grow into a city from a town was these new irrigation techniques. The more people moved out to where these tools were used the more these tools spread to newer locations, and closer to Fanota. (which sits in the middle of all three major territorial blocks of Tupain territory).

What the Shaman of Fanota was doing this day on top of the mara was selecting a Shaman for the city, not a replacement or an apprentice, but another, full Shaman of the city. This will make Fanota the first Tupain settlement to have more than one Shaman. The old Shaman would still have power over the new one and has the final say in decisions but now there is a proto-hierarchy in Fanota.

But this old Shaman's work isn't done for today, in Tupain culture the Shaman chooses who he will train to be the next Shaman (which is normally his son), as one of the patriarchs of the five main families in Fanota. With the migrations out to the frontier being seconds sons the families left in Fanota became these large blocks