The Rise of Akkad

The alluvial plain is split between a new Akkadian kingship in the north and a Sumerian kingship in the south. Sargon, once cupbearer of Kish, holds Akkad and the old title of Kish and has gathered a winter levy on the Tigris. Lugalzagesi of Umma, now king at Uruk, has already forced the southern cities into a single claim as King of the Land; Lagash still bears the mark of that war, and Nippur has not made the title eternal. Enlil's temple remains the language of legitimate rule over Sumer and Akkad. City walls, temple stores, and river boats are the measure of power. The Tigris and Euphrates run low in this season, so fords are open and boats outrun marching hosts, but the spring flood will close the southern marshes. East of the Tigris, Elam under Hishepratep watches from Awan and Susa. On the middle Euphrates, Mari taxes the river and treats with Ebla. Ebla's palace in the northwest still writes treaties and levies the Orontes towns. Subartu along the upper Tigris is a land of small river towns, not an empire. Gutian and Lullubi bands hold the Zagros passes. Hurrian courts at Urkesh and in the northern mountains look away from Sumer. West and south of the sown land, Amorite tents hold wells and pasture rather than walls. Grain, walls, and the word of Nippur will decide more than any single battle.

On a winter dawn in 2330, Sargon holds Akkad and Kish and has called the levy, while Lugalzagesi still rules the Sumerian south from Uruk as King of the Land. No Sumerian city has fallen. Elam, Mari, Ebla, the highland peoples, and the Amorite nomads remain independent, and kingship of the land is still unearned.

A fortified city does not change realm while its walls are Intact unless its gates are opened from inside, it is starved out, or the walls are Weakened or Torn down. Proclaiming King of the Land has no lasting hold unless Nippur's temple is not Hostile to the claimant. While Winter rivers are Low, boats move freely on the Tigris and Euphrates and armies ford more easily; when the rivers are In flood, southern marshes close and a host stuck below Nippur risks isolation. Amorite nomad cells are not held like cities: occupying a well or camp does not convert the surrounding range to a kingdom unless the sheikh submits or the tents are broken, and nomad hosts may shift camp without a siege. Sumerian city hosts fight first for their own city and join Lugalzagesi's field army only while that city's Hold is not Restive, or while Lugalzagesi is present in that land. If Akkad takes a Sumerian city, tearing down its walls is the Sargonic custom that makes later revolt harder and reconciliation with temple and people harder.