Ahazs

Ahazs is a fictional Bronze Age maritime culture created for speculative fiction and world-building. The term refers to a loose federation of coastal city-states along the western shore of the fictional continent of Theris.

Ahazs is located along a rugged archipelago with sheltered harbors and river estuaries that facilitate seafaring and trade. The principal city-states are Arain, Khazur, and Duhal, each with a shipyard, a central market, and defensive walls.

Society and economy: Political life centers on a council of elders and merchant captains who coordinate trade, defense, and diplomatic relations among city-states. The economy relies on bronzeworking, timber, resin, beads, and long-distance shipping.

Culture and religion: Ahazs art emphasizes bronze work and carved ship figureheads. Religious practice centers on sea deities and ancestor veneration, with seasonal sea festivals and rites conducted at harbor shrines.

Language: The Ahazs language is fictional and described as part of a broad but invented linguistic family. Inscriptions show a mix of logographic and syllabic signs, with loanwords from neighboring cultures indicating active trade.

History: In the fictional chronology, the Ahazs form as a loose aggregation of clans in the late second millennium BCE. The collective enters a golden age in the early first millennium BCE, expanding trade networks and culture, before gradual decline as maritime routes shift and coastal sediments disrupt harbors.