A gift for
@EarthScorpion to be used with his
Taira.
The Taari
Far west from the great and eternal empire of Prasad lies the Sublime Shahdom of Taira. Traditionally, Taira was divided into many realms and religions, one of which was Perswha. Dreaming Perswha, sweltering in heat and mysterious under the moon, many serenades have been sung to her beauty and her history. However, every twelfth of Ascending Fire groups assembles in all of western Prasad to sing sorrowful songs of regret. These are the Taari, refugees that fled from the forces of Zamash when great Perswha was sacked, her temples desecrated, her libraries burned and their own witch-queen slain. Where Zamashi still talk of vanquishing the slaves of the witch-queen and putting the anathema to the sword, Taari weep bitterly; strangers in a land where they are not even known by their own name.
Three hundred years ago, the forces of Zamash conquered Perswha and subjected its inhabitants to harsh laws that illegalized their native rites and faith, seeking to eradicate their beliefs in entirety. A group of Perswhans gathered up as many scriptures and holy books as they could carry, said tear-filled goodbyes to loved ones that would not follow and fled in a great exodus. Their great journey came to an end when they reached the western frontier of the empire Prasad and petitioned the reigning rani-satrap for the right to stay, which he granted on certain conditions: proselytization was disallowed, they were restricted to living in urban "Tairan Quarters" and they would be loyal to the Prasadi throne. The restrictions were harsh, but the alternative was continuing the journey or returning to a home that was no longer home. They accepted and became the Taari jati.
Immediately, the problems were evident: The Taari were unfamiliar with Prasadi castes and initial meetings between the Taari and native jatis could quickly turn violent. Often dubbed moon-worshippers and devil-votaries, Taari temples were often desecrated and the Taari themselves, who had no caste at all were considered little better than the Corporal Caste. Strangers in a strange land, the Taari persevered. First, conversion was no longer considered. Over time, the Taari turned inwards and conversion was transmitted by blood alone. The holy scriptures were adhered to more zealously than ever before; no self-respecting Taari would not be seen without the sword they were all supposed to carry. As time passed, their reputation changed: What had been moon-worshippers to native jatis became master blacksmiths and what had been poor immigrants to the throne became a loyal people of warriors; raja-servants who would suppress any revolt, no matter the cost.
In the modern day, the Taari have a well-established and fierce reputation as servants of the throne. To less loyal jatis, they are devilish moon-worshippers who enforce the will of the rani-satrap without compunction, fear or compassion. Immigrant brutes who bear wickedly curved swords because they are barely better than roadside bandits. To loyal jatis, royal representatives and wealthy merchants, they are an almost mythically loyal people of warriors, in whom combat flows in the blood. Their strange traditions are seen as the quaint affectations of a proud and powerful martial race that would serve Prasad no matter the cost of following the rani-satrap's orders. Neither of these views are particularly accurate, but those are the illusions the Taari have come to labour under.
That Shining Moon
If you were to ask any given Prasadi what he thought of the Taari, his first thought would be "moon-worshipper". It's not hard to see why. Taari temples have no roofs and always contain a pond inside, in which the moon can be reflected. Many Taari prayers contain references to the moon and their most holy rites must be performed under the full moon, but no self-respecting Taari and arguably most Taari that do not respect themselves either, would call themselves moon-worshippers. In fact, the notion is outright blasphemous to many. The core of the Taari teachings were formulated by the prophetess Gawdashtandha and later compiled in
The Authoritative Decree on the Morality of Truth.
During the reign of the witch-queens, new versions were regularly compiled, which contained statements from influential priests, but the version used by the Taari has come to be considered sacred and immutable and has not seen a new compilation in at least two hundred years. An integral part of Taari beliefs is that of the Principle of Joy, an ephemeral and universal principle in all of Creation that the world inherently seeks to turn towards good. In Taari theology, the moon - who is called Mah - is the foremost agent of the Principle of Joy; a trickster-heroine that turns the desire for evil to trick others against itself. In serious tellings of the stories, she is a calculating character who turns evil against itself, step by step; in less serious versions, her antics are often the root of many ribald jokes. It was this reverence for the moon that let the Perswhan witch-queen bind demons to her service, for only in the light of the moon can a demon lord be beckoned to Creation and made to serve.
The Authoritative Decree is the ultimate authority on doctrine, theology, ethics and how Taari are supposed to behave. Any Taari knows this and it is drilled into every child from their very birth. To contradict the scriptures is to contradict the very foundation of their existence. Or so the elders would have you believe, say younger Taari. After the conquest of Perswha, authorities relaxed towards the residents for a few hundred years and culture flourished. As a result of ethnic conflicts, however, a new pogrom began and new waves came to Prasad and to the Taari, where the cultures both melted and came into conflict. Where the older Taari were already establishing their fearsome reputation as warriors, the younger group had already experienced being an oppressed ethnic group once and many had become shrewd businessmen. To the Prasadi, they became merchants and moneylenders but to the Taari, they became something even worse: reformists.
Taari believe that Mah ever so often incarnates into a person to guide the whole community of followers of the Principle of Joy, a transgressive culture-hero much like Mah herself; a witch-queen. To the old Taari, the last witch-queen is dead and gone, the final incarnation of Mah that laid the road for their exodus into Prasad. To them, the final authority on all matters holy is the Authoritative Decree and nothing else. It has effectively become the last and only witch-queen of the Taari. To the reformists, who follow the texts less zealously, the Authoritative Decree is simply a compilation, nothing more. This internal struggle is complicated further by the throne's policy of favouring what they see as a more traditional sect of the Taari, the warriors that have already served them well, rather than the merchants they see as untrustworthy and even occasionally parasitic. Traditionally, this has created an elaborate ethnic hierarchy wherein the "Old Taari" dominate and exclude the "New Taari", which are relegated to building their own temples in the most destitute regions of the Tairan Quarters. A few years ago, however, something changed: a new witch-queen announced herself.
Taira has been gripped by civil war for twenty years, and Perswha has torn itself free from Tairan authority, ruled by a witch-queen who claims to be the daughter of the last and latest incarnate of Mah. She calls Sabah II, the pretender that loosely rules the Tairan throne, an incarnation of evil itself, calling the distant Taari in Prasad to return to what she sees as their ancestral home and help her exterminate every last of their oppressors. The issue has divided the already split jati even further. A quiet call for heroes steadily ripples out from reformist communities; they need one of the Exalted to represent them at the royal court of the rani-satrap. They are tired of staying in Prasad and wish to fight. Taira for Tairans, the slogans go; a pure Perswha once again, a community tired of waiting shouts.
People and Periphery
The Old Taari have a long and complicated relationship with Prasad. They are most common in the western reaches, although there are communities as far as Kamthahar itself. Beyond their reputation as warriors, they also have a reputation as blacksmiths and weaponsmiths, serving to make some of the finest blades in the entire empire, to such a point that both the popular "Tairan dagger" and "Tairan scimitar" are curved blades named not for import from Taira, but from their Taari making. Indeed, one of the current primary contestants for the title of heir to Prasad, Ophris Samvayarga, carries a jade Tairan scimitar he commissioned from a Taari master blacksmith, of which he is exceptionally proud.
The New Taari have a different relationship. Rather than working with metals and bladework, they have taken a valuable but loathed position as businessmen, moneylenders and investors. This has made some of them very rich, but means that those who cannot enrich themselves this way are condemned to an even worse treatment in the slums of the Tairan Quarters. When revolt and riot grip a city in their iron grip, the temples of the Taari are often targeted, but not as fast as the manors of the New Taari are set to the torch and their inhabitants subjected to gruesome punishments. In the former case, the promise of Old Taari warriors is frequently enough to dissuade any would-be arsonists, but the less martially inclined New Taari are rarely so lucky.
However, split as they are, the New and Old Taari are still one jati and the residents of the city of Lokahati still speak with horror of the Great Revolt, where the six New Taari manors were burnt and their inhabitants flayed and hanged above the gates to the quarter, after which the speaker for the Old Taari declared the necessity of blood revenge, and the sword-bearing Taari turned the bloody tide of riot back on the rioters, the massacre continuing for days before the satrapal garrison was strong enough to subdue both parts. When the riots were finally subdued, the city had lost more than half of its population and the Tairan Quarter had been completely emptied, every Taari found dead in the clashes.
Despite the common outside portrayal of the Taari as monolithically honourable warriors and occasionally snickering usurers, who nonetheless both keep to the faith of their ancestors regardless of the situation, the truth is far more muddied. The Taari perceive themselves as constantly under threat from their bloodlines withering on the vine. A child is only Taari if both parents are Taari as well, although rare edge cases of conversion by half-children exist. As a result, the Taari do their best to mark themselves as separate; wearing distinctive colourful embroidered jackets and round felt caps, never shaving their beards or hair, setting their beard in curls and pillars. Orthodox Taari care far more about this, but even more moderate or reform-oriented Taari distinguish themselves this way.
It is common wisdom that the Taari will never leave their faith. The Taari elders will tell you this, any man or woman who knows the Taari will tell you this and even the rani-satrap is sure of it. It's also wrong. Due to the consistent fear of bloodlines withering away, the Taari simply refuse to acknowledge conversions away. Sons or daughters who raise talk of conversion will find themselves pressured as hard as possible away from the topic and can be monitored for weeks, months or even years for any signs. In more than one case, more orthodox young men have performed honour killings on both women and boys who tried to convert, although this practice is heavily frowned upon. However, this refusal to acknowledge conversion has led to a steady and small periphery of self-dubbed Pure Taari, who have come to embrace aspects if not the entirety of the Pure Way, converting away from the traditional ways of the community in favour of the dominant religion. Strife between Taari and Pure Monks are common.
