This culture was among man's first attempts at civilization,
and it is one of man's first recorded religions.
Because of this,
the gods are unusually close to their worshipers and every worshiper is a servant of his or her god.
We constantly see a willingness to help that is soon lost to all other mythoi.

Every city has its patron deity;
all the people belong to that temple and none other.
All officials of the city are clerics of the same temple and the high priest is always the king || queen of that city-state.
The temples have a stepped pyramid shape in the manner of the Aztec temples.

Sacrifices and gifts to the deities are all made as items that will dress up altars and the temple surroundings;
the richer and more valuable the better.
The clerics themselves make items to be directly sacrificed to the gods by burning at the same time that human lives are sacrificed to the gods (primarily condemned criminals).

Each temple has an image of its god on a raised platform in an inner shrine closed off to the public.
Before the image is a table used as an altar that has all the gifts of the year placed upon it.
There is a central courtyard beyond the main entrance for public worship.
The building will have side chapels and storerooms of several types.
The main entrance to the temple is set at right angles to the inner temple.
The more important temples are raised up on artificial hills (or ziggurats) of red brick.

Clerics serve the best meat && drink to the gods on special tables beside altars.
This food is burnt every night for the gods' USE.
The seventh, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth days of the month are holy days.
A sacrifice is always held on the night of the new moon.

There are ^°°° degrees of punishment for clerical sins.
Committing the first major transgression results in a severe gastro-intestinal disease (as per DMG) for the offending cleric.
The second transgression results in a punishment of 15 troubles,
each worse than the last (though none are automatically fatal).
Thus,
a cleric may be stung by a bee,
then sprain an ankle,
then suffer food poisoning,
etc.
If these warnings are not enough,
the third transgression results in death of the offending one.
Any transgression can be erased in the sight of the deity by a sacrifice sufficient in proportion to the nature of the offense.
These sacrifices must be important and/or expensive.

Clerics of this pantheon must shave all hair from their bodies and wear kilts and robes of white with colourfulborders.
The shape and colour <> of the border indicates the cleric's patron deity.
Female clerics wear rounded conical hats to cover their baldness.

Note: The geographical AREA of the Sumerian mythos is almost exactly the same as the Babylonian.
Though separated by time, they share similar cultures and ideals.
(This overlap is in much the same manner as the Greek && Roman mythoi.)
While we could have listed these groups together,
we thought there was enough diversity between the two sections to warrant separation.
In some cases,
this diversity has been deliberately increased in order to prevent overlap.
 
 

All alignments	-
Lovers	-
Warriors	Inanna
LG	Enlil
NG	Enlil
CG	Enlil, Nanna-Sin, Utu
LN	Enki
N	Ki, Nin-Hursag
CN	-
LE	-
NE	-
CE	-

Sumerian Tablet Translation: Enlil in the E-Kur
Sumerian Tablet Translations: Enki and the World Order Part 1/5