The tribe of the Jaqqaras had one principal
concept, one that governed their entire idea of religion, society and politics.
It was a simple notion that, against all odds, had helped them survive wars,
harsh weather and even almost total extinction. The tribe believed that a land
nicknamed by them the Land of Always Sun, laid beyond the horizon and that it
was a perfect place, where everything was just and possible. They had adored
this place for centuries and would honor it at least once a day. It was the
cornerstone of their belief system and many viewed it more important than their
god, who was very similar to all the other gods of all other religions. The
place was the one who got all the temples and all praising and the one people
thought before going to bed.
The Jaqqaras lived in a steep valley, not far
from the ocean where they sailed to catch fish for the community. The thing was
that the Jaqqaras where very territorial, even between themselves. Envy was
always present and no one could give someone else a gift without upsetting
someone in the village. This sounds like a very dire, even dangerous situation,
but it was exactly like that. The tribe was not confrontational but rather
passive, choosing the words before actually hurting someone physically. They
just thought their world was flawed and that there was no point in trying to
fix it because that proved impossible. They rather lived as they could and at
night they would praise the Land of Always Sun, often by prayer but also with
drawings and cultural demonstrations.
People would gather once a week, often on
Sundays, to celebrate what was traditionally called the Forever festival. It
wasn’t a big thing because the Jaqqaras were not many and lacked manual skills
but they would all gather in their main town’s square and would perform
different pieces in honor of the Land of Always Sun. There were dances and
poetry and reading of beautiful literature. The children showed their drawings
and the elderly shared their experiences, often-incredible tales about how when
they were young they thought they had seen the Promised Land. The elderly were
actually very respected as it was thought that when a Jaqqara died, his soul
would travel across the sea to the Land of Always Sun and live free and happy
for the rest of Time.
The Festival was actually the only happy time
or uniting time in the life of the Jaqqara people. Nothing else made them feel
fulfilled as human beings, not even love or any other feeling. If a person from
another part of the world would visit them, they would think that the Jaqqara
were just lazy people who would rather believe in a perfect world than make
their own And there had been some that had tried to change their community for
the better but all those attempts failed because they were seen as
disrespectful towards the Land of Always Sun and that was practically heresy.
Those who believed that perfect world could be
achieved in their actual lifetimes were often expelled from the community,
thrown out of the main valley and every possession linking them to the tribe
would be taken away from them. It hadn’t been unheard of that someone had been
expelled and it was always the worst for their families, because they had to
stay behind with the shame of having someone in their family that did not
believe in the most essential piece of their beliefs. It was always hard for
them at first, both the family and the expelled, but the wounds always healed
fast. The person outside would find what they were looking for and the family
would forget about said person.
It had to be noted that the Jaqqara people
were practical and never complicated themselves with nonsense. They didn’t like
their lives to be disturbed because they preferred to be thinking about how
perfect to World Beyond was. Most of them believed every person had a chance
there. They all had beautiful grand houses and beauty was the norm. In the Land
of Always Sun, everyone always had enough food for the day and they didn’t have
to struggle with fishing or hunting. Food would just be there for the taking.
They would also have money to trade stuff and stuff to trade and every single
thing they could ever want would be just there, waiting for them to grab them.
Beauty was actually a big deal in the tribe
and people who were considered beautiful were the ones who often had more power
than the rest. As in any other tribe, there were chieftains but the Jaqqara
didn’t think their god chose them or anything like that. They actually chose
them in a voting based on their looks. Of course, not everyone had the same
criteria when choosing who was the most beautiful man or woman but they were
always happy with the results and no one had ever contested any of the winners.
They chose a man and a woman that would rule together. They would have to marry
and would have to end any prior marriages to rule the tribe. People viewed this
as an honor and if someone had to separate because of it, they would do it
gladly and without resentment.
Another big belief of the Jaqqara was that
there was no use in doing any big things in the world, meaning that exploring
of their region or of the sea was pointless. They would build houses in the
place they needed and that was it. Some were healers and learned that trade but
there was not other thing people could actually decide to learn or to pursue.
They were all villagers who went fishing in the morning and that took care of
some crops in the afternoon. They had reserves in land to eat when the fish was
bad or to accompany fish when the Festival came, when they would eat more and
make a little less boring.
That was all their life and most of them were
happy about it. But one thing that always happened was suicide. Seeing their
belief system, it came as no surprise that many people just killed themselves
in order to get to the Land of Always Sun faster. They would do it because they
thought it was just stupid to live this silly life if they could be having a
grandiose one with all the food they could have and beauty and all the fun and
happiness in the world. For those who did it, often in the woods or in a boat
in the middle of the water, it made perfect sense and it felt to them that that
was the real meaning of their belief. And the rest of the tribe had nothing to
say about it because, for them, suicide was not something bad at all.
Most agreed that it was a natural means of
control of the population, so they didn’t really say much about it. What they
did say was that people who killed themselves to get to the Land of Always Sun,
were just taking a shortcut and that their god, and this was the only real
function he had, would most likely decide to put them in a special part of the
land where they would be less happy than other. Actually, a full life of living
in this flawed world would give a person all validity to have every single
thing they wanted in the other life. In few words, they had earned it. A person
that committed suicide hadn’t earned it yet so they wouldn’t really get the
same treatment. Nevertheless, it kept happening.
The Jaqqara lived in such a remote region that
hey were never discovered by anyone else and that also meant that no other
person had contaminated their conception of the world. Although some believed
the first people of the tribe had come in canoes from the southern part of the
world, no one knew for sure and that most have been at least a thousand years
ago so it didn’t make any difference to them. They had decided to believe in
that land and many even thought it was all a lie. But it was their lie and it
kept them going, it kept them from destroying everyone else and everything in
their sight. Those beliefs made them feel less alone and less small in a word
that seemed enormous, especially when they were fishing.
They were not pacifists or warmongers. They had
just decided to live together and do what was necessary to survive and just
live like that, with no other worries or problems. They thought it was unnecessary
to complicate things because the best life one could live was one that could be
honored when they died and their god decided what kind of life they would have
in the Land of Always Sun. Because that was their beacon, that was the
lighthouse that lit their lives and made them who they were. The thought of a
place where they could be with whoever they wanted, where they could eat as
much and whatever they wanted and where they could be who they were, was just
to powerful and too beautiful to ignore.
