The History of Empire's Server Names
Now that I have a little downtime, I figured I'd look up where the names for the Game's servers come from. I figured they weren't just some random amalgamation of letters, and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. You may be interested to know they are all Ancient Babylonian/Sumerian names or places:
Nergal is an ancient Sumero-Babylonian deity and the god of the netherworld, where he rules with his consort Ereshkigal. He is an evil god who brings war, pestilence, fever and devastation. He is sometimes regarded as representing the sinister aspect of the sun god Shamash. He is the subject of an Akkadian poem which describes his translation from heaven to the underworld. The foremost center of his cult was the city Kuthu. His attributes are the club and the sickle.
Aruru: A goddess of creation in Babylonian mythology. She created Enkidu from clay in the image of Anu.
Irkalla: In Babylonian mythology, Irkalla (also Ir-Kalla, Irkalia) is the underworld from which there is no return. It is also called Arali, Kigal, Gizal, and the lower world. Irkalla is ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and her consort, the death god Nergal.
Burrows: Hard to nail this one down. I've found info on a Burrows Cave in Illinois that supposedly held Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian relics, but it turned out to be a Hoax.
Mareth is a little harder to track down. I believe it is a Location, and it still exists today. But I think it resides where Ancient Babylonia used to be.
Mammetum: In Mesopotamian mythology Mamitu was the goat-headed goddess of destiny, who decreed the fate of the new-borns. She was also worshipped as goddess of the oath, later a goddess of fate and a judge in the underworld, where she lives with the Anunnaku. She is occasionally regarded as a consort of Nergal. In some passages, she is also known as a demon of irrevocable curses. Mamitu is supposedly related to the Babylonian god Anu. Other spellings: Mammitu, Mammetum, Mammetu.
Ninhursag: In Sumerian mythology, Ninhursag or Ninkharsag was the earth and mother goddess, one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She is principally a fertility goddess. Temple hymn sources identify her as the 'true and great lady of heaven' and kings of Sumer were 'nourished by Ninhursag's milk'. She is typically depicted wearing a horned head-dress and tiered skirt, often with bow cases at her shoulders, and not infrequently carries a mace or baton surmounted by an omega motif or a derivation, sometimes accompanied by a lion cub on a leash. She is the tutelary deity to several Sumerian leaders.
Ningal: The beloved daughter of Ningikuga, the Goddess of Reeds, and Enki, the God of Magic, Crafts and Wisdom. To fully understand Ningikuga as a Great Goddess, it is necessary to go back in time to the Southernmost part of Mesopotamia, where people started first gathering in settlements and to build the first huts for housing and temples for the gods also made of reeds. It was in a place called Eridu, the first identified settlement in South Mesopotamia and city dedicated to Enki, where "kingship descended from the heavens to the land". Ningikuga is therefore a very old Goddess, who tell us of the beginnings of organised life, once reeds were used to build houses, temples, furniture, sailing rafts, as well as fences to prevent flooding the neighbouring areas. Her relationship with Enki dates therefore from the very beginning of urbanised life in Sumer. Their daughter, Ningal, is said to be young and pretty, as well as to possess the gift to unveil the language of the Unknown revealed in images, age-old legends, poetry and most of all, in dreams. Thus, in her we have another timeless archetype of wholeness: She is the goddess of Dream Interpretation, of insight and divination, therefore somewhat reserved, living with her mother in the fertile marshlands of South Mesopotamia. And it is Ningal who first falls in love with Nanna, as the young lord progressed upon the night skies.
Nisaha – Scribe of the gods, patroness of writing and accounting, goddess of grain and reeds. (Credit goes to Tsagoth and "The woman who put together the list". Thank you!)
Nanna: Nanna, or Sin, was the god of the moon in Mesopotamian mythology. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, and became identified with Semitic Sin. The two chief seats of Nanna's/Sin's worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north.
Utu: Utu is the Sun god in Sumerian mythology, the son of the moon god Nanna and the goddess Ningal. His brother and sisters are Ishkur and the twins Inanna and Ereshkigal.
Utu is the god of the sun, justice, application of law, and the dispensation of the fates of the dead. He is usually depicted as wearing a horned helmet and carrying a saw-edged weapon not unlike a pruning saw. It is thought that every day, Utu emerges from a mountain in the east, symbolizing dawn, and travels either via chariot or boat across the Earth, returning to a hole in a mountain in the west, symbolizing sunset. Every night, Utu descends into the underworld to decide the fate of the dead. He is also depicted as carrying a mace, and standing with one foot on a mountain.
Apsu: Apsū is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enūma Elish, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. In this story, he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, who was a creature of salt water.
Atargatis: Atargatis, in Aramaic ‘Atar‘atah, was a Syrian deity, "great goddess of northern Syria", "the great mistress of the North Syrian lands", and as Dea Syria, "Goddess of Syria", occasionally rendered in one word Deasura. Primarily she was a goddess of fertility, but, as the baalat ("mistress") of her city and people, she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modern Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, Syria. She is often now popularly described as the mermaid-goddess, from her fish-bodied appearance at Ashkelon and in Diodorus Siculus.
