Look Upon My Works

[Chehrazad]

Look Upon My Works

You are Air, and you are troubled. The order of the world is no longer as it should. Disorder rules the spirits of the people, families break their agreements, sons and daughters wed those they should not and animals revolt in fear. It is your duty to guide the people, and the other elders advise you that it is no longer sufficient to stay in this home of your ancestors, and your ancestors' ancestors. You do not think it is time to travel although you have heard the arguments against your position. You know well enough, the stories of how your ancestors' ancestors traveled to this place which your people have called their home ever since, and you know even better the dangers that await in the world outside the valley.

Surely, the anger of the river and mountains and land will cease with proper appeasement, as they have done before and will do again. That is simply the way of the world.
You sit in the tent of the elders, upon a slight stool carved of wood and covered with soft wool as fit of a figure of your age. Here, the elders before you discussed the grievances of their families and resolved with discussion and the wisdom of age, what the vigour and vim of youth was unsuited to. Before you has come a young man, he is a hunter and brings with him more of his kind; younger, but hunters all. He wears upon his shoulders, a cloak of wolven pelt, and although he was not permitted to bring it here, he left his fine spear with a tusken tip outside your tent, for it is unbecoming of a hunter to bear weapons in the sight of his elders. The hunter's name is Fire Defeats-Many.

"The bounty of this land is leaving," he begins, before continuing in a voice simultaneously concerned and full of the anger of youth, "we have barely caught half of that which we usually do; the great river is drying and the fish have long since swam upwards, gone from this place. Even the trees and bushes dry to nothingness like the river, and their once-bountiful branches are now like naked skeletons. We starve, and so do our children and wives; the elders must do something, or we shall all come to starve and become pickings for the vultures!"

Around him, the younger hunters give their mumbled assent; their anger and resentment is clear. They are hungry, and the great reserves of youthfulness allow for even greater anger, to the point of foolishness. A hungry hunter would rather curse the mountains at his own hunger, than listen to the guidance of his elders. So it falls upon your shoulders to ensure that cool heads prevail, and that the traditions are not upset by hasty action. To anger the mountains, and river and lands more than you have already done for them to visit this great wrath upon you would only be foolish.

You send the hunters out of the tent, and the eldest of you, who is named Sun begins the deliberation. To break with tradition would be most unseemly of you and the elder council, but it is important that action is taken. Thus, after hours and days of conversation; horse-trading, sometimes literal and sometimes not and deliberation over these most important issues, the council reaches a decision. No one is satisfied completely, but happiness brings complacency, and complacency brings weakness. Your spirits are the better for it, and your sons and daughters will know that you did what you did in the name of the people.

What Does The Elder Council Decide?
This vote will shape the general shape of the quest, and as such, is an important vote that can and will have great impact.

-[ ] Appease - When the ancestors of your ancestors were still among the hunters in their youth, and ran in the steppe with wolven cloaks upon their shoulders, the beasts fled the land for many days, until their own elders performed a great sacrifice and bid the young hunters and women dance in circles around a great bonfire for an entire day. And in the dark of the night, the beasts returned to the valley, as they had before. The river, mountains and land were satisfied. The valley is hard to satisfy, however; sometimes sacrifice and celebration are not enough, you are aware that it may simply result in a more hungry people with even less to do.

-[ ] Trade - When the ancestors of your ancestors were poor of game to hunt, and of low means, they went out beyond the valley, to the highlands beyond it where they would trade their wolven cloaks and return with riches and strange meat with no equivalent on the valley. Thus, the people were preserved in a time of need. Not all people want to trade, however, and if they saw your plight, they might be moved to consider you an easy target of raids, rather than a partner for trade. It is not the first time that the people outside the valley grow cold and indifferent to your plight, after all.

-[ ] Raid - When the ancestors of your ancestors found that the valley had grown sparse and that the hearts of the other peoples beyond, had grown cold and their minds had grown scheming like the wolf, from which the cloak that the hunters wore on their shoulders came, they took their spears and their slings and took from them their game and foreign brides, which they returned to the people and celebrated with. Success is not assured, however, and a failure would slay many hunters that could also have gathered food, as well as make you a target for their own raids.

-[ ] Wander - It is not in your way to travel, but even the ancestors of your ancestors came here from far away. You would have to suffer the many tribulations that they themselves suffered through, but perhaps, beyond the valley and away from the river, mountains and land, another hope for your people lies. If you fail to find any such hope, however, you are no better off than when you started, and must seek and search through hundreds of tribulations until you are all dead or find something.

After days of deliberation, the members of the elder council leaves the tent to tend to their families, and to ensure that the limited food is dispersed amongst those who need it as it should be. Then you gather the people together, and announce the decision reached, well-knowing that your actions you have taken will be told of in the future, to the children of your children, when you have become the ancestors of their ancestors and your names are forgotten or spoken of in reverent tones. Such is the way of the people, so it has always been and so it will always be.

What Sex Are You?
This vote determines how the traditions of who forms the elder council have always been, it is such an important part of shaping your culture, and its legacy will be felt for long.

-[ ] Male - It has always been tradition for the old men of the families to assemble in the tent of the elders, where those who can no longer hunt and fight meet to deliberate upon the future. The hunt is not easy, and many never reach an age like yours, they die from wounds, curse, disease or simply in duel with another hunter like themselves. Those who do survive might end up simply dying of an exhausted body, and sitting in the tent of the elders is thus a just reward for a life well led and lived.

-[ ] Female - It has always been tradition for the old women of the families to assemble in the tent of the elders, where those who have led their families well, now continue to lead the entire people. Childbirth is hard work, and many die in the infancy of their burgeoning families, or exhaust themselves to death over caring for a thankless family. And even if they do survive these many labours, the valley might simply cut a woman's life down with disease. Those who live to sit in the tent of the elders receive their just reward for a life well led and lived.

 

[Chehrazad]

The Kin to Air

Forum

The Forum of the Nation is a central council of of elderly women with experience in childbirth, and the government of their families. The Forum is not institutionalized in nature, and does not prevent men from joining by formalistic legislation, but simply by tradition. The matrons make decisions only when they are brought to them as issues, and otherwise expect individual families and kinship structures to solve it individually.

Legitimacy

The Legitimacy of the Forum is based on the families´ approval and respect for the matrons that govern them, and the hunters that are part of the families, which can come to serve a warrior role in case of raiding. This limited monopoly on force as well as familial respect for the wisdom of the elderly provides the basis of the Legitimacy of the Nation's Forum.

Values

The people value old age and the experience that comes with it, to the point of mythologizing, and deifying it. When an older woman or man is in disagreement with one inferior in age, it is assumed that the older and more experienced part will be correct in their assumption before exceptional evidence towards the contrary, and occasionally even despite that. They also value hunting ability as a great skill, and great hunting ability as a blessing from the ancestors. They despise wolves as the destroyer of all the works and designs of the people, but also admire them greatly for their hunting ability. The Kin to Air have also come to value warrior experience and glorify those who triumph in combat.

Ritual

It is customary that to fasten an agreement between two people, both parties give the other a tool or other item which they consider important, for the duration of the agreement as a form of collateral. Likewise, it is tradition that should such an object be broken by the other part, has the agreement not been followed, the family of the man or woman whose item was broken now possesses grievance with the breaker, and may prosecute him through social exclusion or seek satisfaction through battle, or bring it to the matrons. When a beast is slain, it is customary for hunters to set aside a tiny part to be burnt for the ancestors of the ancestors.

Practices

• After great hunts, the heart is preserved in a clay jar and eaten by the chief hunter during the next solstice over a special bonfire prepared by the matrons, in which one can talk to the ancestors of the ancestors.
• The granddaughter of an honored grandmother, who are both talented in the arts, carries with her a series of cured scrolls, on the inside is cured tan and on the outside the fur of the beast it came from. On these scrolls are inscribed the pictorial images which detail the Great Journey. This daughter carries them everywhere, guided in her art by her grandmother.

Mythology

The seven ancestors of the ancestors came from the great water towards northwest, from which they wandered to the valley and married it, and each had three children with it, which would become the ancestors of the people today. The final child of the ancestors of the ancestors was left alone and had no one to love him, as well as no one to love, so he went to the wolves and ate his own heart and hunted with them. In revenge for his loneliness, the man named Wolven Dream sends the wolves to eat and savage the animals of the people and steal the game from their hunters. The hunters emulate him and their greatest wear a cloak of wolf-skin like he does in order to better be like him, and hunt like the wolves do.

Myths

• Land of Dry Dust and Worms: The underworld is a drab, dreary place where no one lives but the dry dust beneath one's feet, and the worms that wriggle about it. There is no sky, but a claustrophobic cave floor.
• Fleshless Child of Cunning: There is a child like no other that wanders in dusty places where only worms previously tread, speaking to the newly dead with a rapacious appetite for stories and a curious sort of joy.
• Mother, Maiden: When the Ancestors of Ancestors came to the valley, it was recalcitrant and sad. It would not support life and health. The People Before They Were Kin were at a loss until a mother and her maiden daughter were struck by insight and so went round the valley, finding the precious herbs and good waters, soothing the angry spirits with gifts of fine food and drink and making the valley welcoming for all.
• Tale of Fire: The story of the Fire-Warrior, who made war upon the people by the river, with the aid of the people from the Land of the Spirits, is regularly sung by the fireplace, and contains the central ethos of the warrior mythology of the Kin to Air.

Technology

Mavrian Heritage

The ancestors to the ancestors of the people brought with them seven gifts: the subservient fire, the mastery of clay and pottery, language, the knowledge of weaponry, cloth-making and weaving, storytelling and finally knowledge of the plants and animals.

Early Writing

The people have mastered a primitive form of writing, that can express simple concepts through direct representation of those concepts through pictograms. These symbols can also be combined to express more advanced concepts through implications, such as combining "spear" with "fruit" to form "trade", and then combining that with "man" and "woman" to form "marriage".

The Land of the Gods

Government

The nature of the rulership of the vast, southern Land of the Gods is unknown to the Kin to Air.

Forum

The Forum of the Nation is unknown to the Kin to Air.

Legitimacy

The Kin to Air do not know how the Government of the Land of the Gods derives it's Legitimacy.

Values

The Kin to Air do not know extensively of the Values of the Land of the Gods, other than considerable respect for central authority, and piety.

Ritual

The Kin to Air do not know of the Rituals of the far-off Land of the Gods.

Practices

The Kin to Air do not know of any Practices of the Land of the Gods.

Mythology

All the Kin to Air know of the worship of the Land of the Gods, is whispers of their strange and moody gods, who wipe out cities with drought and flood as demonstrations of their power, and for seemingly no other reason.

Myths

The Kin to Air do not know of the Myths of the Land of the Gods.

Technology

Panoply

The people of the Land of the Gods possess elaborate weaponry and armor of copper, as well as sandals that let them walk unscathed on harsh and sharp stones.

Sophisticated Social Organization

The people of the Land of the Gods possess sophisticated social organization, and teach their men to walk in great formations to the constant beat of the drum, instilling discipline and respect for hierarchy and order within them, and allowing them to beat much larger forces, of less discipline.

 

[Chehrazad]

-[X] Wander
-[X] Female

Leaving Home

With final certainty, you and the other matrons bid the hunters gather the people together; you have a grave announcement, and they can sense it in the way you speak. Slowly, the sun rises while the pale sky lights up in the morning glow, and the people gather around the fireplace in a great assembly. Children stare wide-eyed at the elderly council so assembled, some of the younger matrons giving their blessings still to the youngest.

You have been chosen to speak, for when you were younger there were great tales of your ability to speak reason to the strange people outside the valley, and make great trades despite your lack of the impressive wolven cloaks worn by the hunters. Thus, it is right and well-known that you speak now to the people, as you once did to those that are not the people.

"My people, my children, my jewels of this most blessed valley," you solemnly begin as mothers quiet their children and the last bits of gossip die down at the gravity of your voice, "long have we lived in this valley; ever since the days when the ancestors of our ancestors came to this land and settled here, as the river, mountains and land had told them it was to be."

The intent of your declaration is clear, and a quiet murmur slowly picks up, disturbing the deathly silence until the angry shushing of your fellow matrons quiet it down, ending it as quickly as it has begun. Truly, what would this people do without the wisdom of your age to guide it?

"Long have we lived here, but not long can we live here yet, for the river, mountains and land have called an end to our residence here. We have divined their will, and they wish us to move on and seek a new way to live. We have sat in council with the ancestors of our ancestors and asked into the fireplace ´what would you have us do?´ and they have answered ´you are to travel towards the west and then walk northwards and northwards until you can walk no longer; there you shall find your new land, or wander until you do,´ and we have all of us elected to follow this great wisdom."

The people are struck by the gravity of the situation, and protests immediately begin; "where shall we hunt in our new land?", "is this truly the wishes of the ancestors of our ancestors?", "shall we not seek to appease the river, mountains and the land first?", "could we not take what we need from the people outside the valley, or trade with them first?" There are many questions, many protests and many disagreements; the hunters grab for spears and bows.

In the end, it is not the wisdom of the people as a whole that wins out, but your calm words that radiate persuasive wisdom and harmony beyond agreement. You calm the people, and the matrons and elders see to it that there is agreement and harmony as they go about preparing for the trek into the north towards the great water whence the ancestors of your ancestors came from, and then westwards into the unknown.

In the first days of the great journey, and the last days of the life in the valley, the people are impressed greatly with your skill and mastery of the words of your ancestors' ancestors, and even the other old women are struck by your persuasive arguments. They speak of naming you Great Woman, they speak of giving the people as a whole your name for your great actions in the journey's beginning.

Name Air Great Woman And Give The People Her Name?
Some of the options in this vote will shape the people's approach to power and access to power, others are purely cosmetic.
-[ ] Name Air Great Woman, Name The People Air - In times of great change, a Great Woman might be appointed, who is wise and speaks well and can lead the people. For her great skill, the woman who is named Air is thus also named Great Woman, to lead the people until her death. In addition, the people will forever become the Kin to Air, to take on her great wisdom.

-[ ] Name Air Great Woman, Let The People Remain - It is impossible to deny the persuasive ability of the woman named Air's great wisdom and age; it is only fitting to name her Great Woman to benefit from her skills even more. Ancestors come and go, however and so it is for matrons; there is no reason for the people to take her name as well.

-[ ] Do Not Name Air Great Woman, Name The People Air - The speech and deeds and wisdom of the woman named Air are great, but there is no present need for a Great Woman like her at the moment; the great journey has just begun and her role was instrumental in beginning it, not in leading it. Great are her deeds, however, so the people shall take on her name and become the Kin to Air.

-[ ] Do Not Name Air Great Woman, Let The People Remain - The woman named Air has demonstrated well her wisdom, but there is no need for a Great Woman, and it is better that the matrons as a whole handle what the families cannot handle themselves as is tradition, rather than ask her handle it alone. Women like Air are rare, but they have come before and they will come again. There is no reason to name the people for her deeds.

As the great journey proceeds, the matrons lead them well and without great delay, as the people quickly take to scavenging on the way. While food is scarce, as long as they travel along the drying river, they find plenty of remnants, and the hunters quickly adapt to the slight change of circumstance as they hunt while the people as a whole are on the move. By staying forward the rest of the people, they ensure at least some game before the creatures are disturbed by the noisy procession.

However, on one of their hunts, the hunters discover something as of yet unseen. The people come upon a round arrangement of clay bricks and sandstone rock; a place that does not seem to have been inhabited by anyone since before the time of the ancestors of the ancestors. Half-rotten, useless torches stand quietly in the earth around it in silent processions, while tall, rocky pillars rise above you at the height of two or three men. Rounded walls half as tall guide a mysterious inside, from which a weak light flickers in the opening.

The people are greatly shocked by this anomaly in the landscape, and the elders can only agree that it must be an omen of some sort; a mark left by older peoples like the ones outside the valley-home they left. The question is just what to do about it.

What Does The Elder Council Decide?
The results of this decision are secret.
-[ ] Leave It Well Alone - The signs are clear, this is an omen to be left undisturbed; a reminder of a time before the time before. Older than even the time the ancestors came from the great water and married the valley to produce the children that would become the ancestors of the families. To disturb such places can only bring the worst curses upon the people.

-[ ] Send In A Hunter - The vim and vigour of the youthful heart bows not even to the river, valley and the land, and a man of a wolven cloak and impressive beard can scare even the demons of the night that howl in the wind on the sand with his spear. It is only natural that one such man enters the old place.

-[ ] Send In An Elder - The wisdom and power of age tames even the raging fire, and an aging woman in the company of her equals is a frightsome force to even the vigorous hunter on the warpath. It is only right that a woman who is wise to the tricks of the world and the secrets of its kin be the one to enter.

-[ ] Send In The Woman Named Air - The woman named Air has demonstrated that she holds the tongue of the river, the mind of the valley and the resilience of the land, and she is of old wisdom and went to the people beyond the valley to trade their wares in the flower of her youth. It is only just that a woman who calms the people and makes their strange cousins bring them gifts come to enter the place.

AN: In addition to this update, a character sheet for the people will be added tomorrow.

 

[Chehrazad]

-[X] Do Not Name Air Great Woman, Name The People Air
-[X] Send In An Elder

The Kin to Air

Flower wreaths and sacrifices, wolven skin and joyous dance; these are but small parts of the great celebration that takes place as the elders perform their haruspices and their prophecies. They cut up the entrails of birds, mutilate the innards of a caught bull and bid the hunters dance and strike their spears against the stones. They bid the young women sing, and you join in yourselves with a chorus of hoarse and creaky voices. The song is one of kinship found and old enemies reconciled, and at the center stand you, Air, a matron of middling might of no particular renown before your calm words and wise actions calmed down a people enraged. Here you are, carefully mixing your blood with any who ask; once, a matron of a minor family, now the mother of a people.

No longer are you simply "the people", they are - you are - are the Kin to Air; the Kin to you. The celebration lasts for days, as hunters compete and show their skills: who is the fastest runner? Who is the strongest man? Who throws his spear best? Who can kill a beast the fastest? By competing in the festivities, they compete like they would for their families, and show their dedication to their new kinship through friendly sport and competition. They have no winning prizes, but often invent their own - or ask their fairer observers to come up with one - spoils of victory.

As the five days of celebration slowly come to an end, and the victorious hunters tire of showing off their red-dyed wolven cloaks, their laurel wreaths and their prowess, you find that the people as a whole seem more confident. In leaving the valley of your ancestral paradise, you have become something which you were not when you left, and the omens drawn by you and the matrons show a bright future.

How Is The Story Remembered?
This vote will greatly shape the tenor of your mythology as it develops over time and in the future.

[ ] Tricking The Lonely Ancestor Into Giving A Secret Name - The hunters named Valley Trick, River Secret and Mountain Greatness went to the lonely ancestor, clad like wolves with fur of bloody red and tricked him to believe they had returned from a great hunt. They asked of him that he give them a name so that the other wolves would know of them, and he named them to be Kin to Air for their swiftness, but found the wolves to laugh at him before they ran and gave their people the name he had given them.

[ ] Heroes Finding A Name In Distant Lands - When the people left their old home, they were in turn beset by the Great Women named Valley Trick, River Secret and Mountain Greatness, who wished to own the people in soul and body, but the people saw through their tricks and beat their hunters, for their own wore cloaks of wolven red, which intimidated even the mighty hunters of the Great Women. The great hunting hero, who was named Triumphant Air, beat the Great Women and their hunters in turn, and the people became the Kin to Air in recognition of his deeds.

[ ] A People Gifted A Name To Lead Them On Their Journey - When the ancestors saw the plight of the people, as the unfaithful sisters Valley, Mountain and River had spurned their children, they sought to safeguard their children from further betrayal and entreated with the brothers Air and Wind, who never betrayed and had great brotherly love for everyone, and asked them to mix their blood with them. And the two brothers saw that they were great hunters and clever thinkers, and Air mixed his blood with theirs to become their brother, and they became the Kin to Air, for Wind can never be caught and is flighty and indecisive.

[ ] A Name Carried From An Old Home - The ancestors of the ancestors had been carried across the Greatest Water by the boatsman named Wind, who had named them to be like his sister Air in their virtue, and she kissed them all once, before they went to lie with the sisters River, Valley and Mountains who begat their children. Then they were the Kin to Air, for they had kissed with Air and thus became her beloved under the open, starlit sky.

At the end of the celebrations, an elder named Dark Sky goes to enter the strange tent of stone. First, you help her perform the proper rights, as the most victorious hunters give to her a wolven cloak of red, which marks the bearer as a victor, even in the eyes of lonely Wolven Dream. You perform the rites out of sight of the people, in a closed tent where the only light is that of the fire that burns in the center, in which you throw many plants which you know to be loved to smoke by the ancestors of your ancestors, and you hang a pouch of secret herbs around her neck in a fibrous thread. You also use dyes to paint her face and naked arms, and hang another pouch from her walking stick.

As the the Beauteous Ancestor seduces his wife, the sun to rise, and day displaces night, you and three matrons stand together and Dark Sky walks into the construction, striking her walking stick against the stone and singing a hoarse, throaty song to scare away lurking demons. Her walk is reminiscent as steps of a great dance, but she is alone bodily, while the spirits of four matrons who lie around the fire in the tent attend to her in spirit. After a right-wise turn, she is no longer possible to see inside, and the strange construction prevents you from hearing her song.

In absence of her song, you begin the same hoarse and throaty tune, which you know her to be singing still. You and the matrons disperse, surrounding the structure to ensure that no demons will threaten her or you, for they cannot bear to hear a matron sing the song of their ancestors. As time goes on, minute becomes hour, and hour becomes day, and different matrons come and go to replace you, and you occasionally replace the ones to follow her as spirit, seeing a world of claustrophobic corridors, animalistic carvings of foxes, birds, oxen and finally a low fire burning at the heart of a small kiln in a smothering blanket of darkness.

On the night of the third day, she emerges from the construction, striking no longer her walking stick against the earth, but rattling it in the air, indicating that the demons have been chased away, and that she wishes to signal to the spirits her well intent. The people have been sent away, and sleep in a camp not far from here, for the matrons must be alone in such a doing of great import as this. The matrons assemble to greet her, and bid her tell of her experiences in the dark, for even those who had been with her as spirits saw but the faintest impressions.

Then it is that Dark Sky speaks to you, "My sister matrons, I come from the tent of stone, and have journeyed to the land of the animal spirits, and return an emissary of Fox, Bull and Bird, who wish me to say to you that this was once a place of worship, but those who built it now are gone and eaten by the Great River Beasts to the far south. I have learnt through the burning of herbs and asking of the fire that they have seen that we travel far, and wish us not to stay here with them, but to take from within their pillars and carry them with us, to our new home, and away from this place, and that if we do so, they shall give us their blessings when we reach it."

What Does The Elder Council Decide?
The effects of this vote are secret.

[ ] Take None Of Them - These are foreign spirits of another people, and it is well-known that such can be tricksters and hard to understand in intent. In addition, pillars of stone are hard to carry, however small they are, and only hunters would have the strength to carry them, if what Dark Sky speaks of them is true, which would reduce the amount of hunters that could hunt for foods.

[ ] Take One Of Them - Pillars of stone are heavy, but the blessing of a spirit is a powerful thing, and to deny even one would be foolish. However foreign they are, the people are no fools, and should they be malicious, they are sure that the matrons can fight them with the backing of the ancestors and their ancestors.
(Choose one subvote)
-[ ] Take Fox - The trickery and resourcefulness of Fox, will surely be of great aid.
-[ ] Take Bull - The strength and stamina of Bull, will surely help you in your time of need.
-[ ] Take Bird - The speed and aloofness of Bird, will surely align with your desires.

[ ] Take All Of Them - No matter the weight of icons, this triat of spirits is proposing their aid at the cost of carrying them. While they are foreign, the power of them to have such a sanctuary like this, must be very great, and denying them could only be the move of a fool.

 

[BungieONI]

*looks at time* Eh it's been about twenty hours so I feel okay posting again. Plus I want to post and spark some discussion.

The first thing I want to discuss is the lack of actual legislation. Our people, as one could rightly expect, have no true legislative body meant to create or maintain laws. The concept of Law as a secular or religious tool doesn't exist. The word for Law likely doesn't exist in their lexicon yet. In this case our society is small enough and is simple enough that tradition acts in the role of legislation. This is important for understanding the context of the little peeps we are shepherding through the ages.

In a nomadic tribal society like we are playing, tradition is built up pretty similarly to a settled tribe, though it usually comes to completely different results in the end. It is made through the passage of stories and an oral lineage of the words and wisdom of elders passed away as well as those still living. Every time a younger member meets an older member and asks them for advice, or a question, or an older member tells a younger member to do something or tells a story, tradition is built up and layered.

More specifically family tradition is the pinnacle of respected tradition. A tribe like ours will be made of multiple households, who form extended family groupings, and then these extended families come together to form Tribe. Taking the above scenario of a younger member approaching an older member, or vice versa, direct familial relation is treated as of extra importance and that younger members are more likely to listen to what the older member says. This means by the way that making everyone Kin to Air, is actually pretty big as an event and has elevated our narrator's family into a position of prestige because through Air the rest of the Tribe is considered directly related to Air's family. This creates a sense of unity amongst our people and also alters the dynamic through which tradition grows and maintains itself. Now older members of Air's family hold higher levels of respect when they speak at the tribal gatherings and to younger members individually, as well as between elders, because of this familial relation, this Kinship.

Because we did not make Air Great Woman this is not as large of an elevation as it could have been, but it still should exist if this tribe acts like how I understand tribes act when it comes to tradition and family.


Culture and mythology is made in the same way. Much like science and religion and magic are not delineated at all currently and won't be for thousands of years, culture and mythology and tradition are quite heavily intertwined. Culture will grow and change as the mythology does and the traditions will guide the day to day living. All three of these things are important for Tribal identity as a social construct, as we know or can infer. Tying back into the Kin to Air event, a man of our tribe might have a name like Warm Rock, Son of Cold Sky who is Son of Water Reeds, Born of Warm Night who is Born of Bright Sun, Kin to Air.

Such titling might not yet be developed, I'm not sure since @ManusDomine hasn't described our names in that fashion but it is an important part of Tribal culture which I expect to develop shortly. And every member of our tribe would have Kin to Air somewhere in their name. Thus we have essentially created a foundation of familial unity for our people. Internal strife will likely still occur frequently, but that will always be sitting there in the background as a reminder and fact of life.

Now onto a different, but somewhat related topic.

For us as nomads, the pragmatic and practical requirements of our charges lifestyle means that the word of those with experience, so experienced hunters and elders is extremely well regarded, as Manus described in the character sheet. Survival day to day is essentially reliant on their knowledge being effectively passed down to their children. Dumb children or inept children reflect badly on themselves and the elders and their families. The nomadic life is also a sort of compelling force which supports and strengthens the power of the matrons and elder women and those with experience because their wisdom is believed to be necessary for survival and that survival is difficult as nomads(sometimes).

Manus has actually laid it out pretty well in our character sheet and the vote option where we chose it. Also the respect for childbirth it implies, will likely affect our mythology for generations to come, for as long as we hold the Elder Women Council as a Forum.

Anyway, back to the main thing. With our nomadic life, if we continue it, we will likely see herding becoming a very important source of prestige and it will... probably fall to a womanly role while raiding becomes a male role. Depends on how we do things. Our women will also probably become more swole due to that lifestyle and the differences it has compared to more settled societies, like higher meat and protein as well as animal milk and a variety of other things. Constant movement for example.

And I'm pretty sure everyone already knew this when they voted for the Nomad path, but we should expect a general cultural distaste between us and settled tribes due to differing views on what is prestigious. There will likely be things we find prestigious which settled tribes will consider un-prestigious. And our senses of honor will likely be completely different. All tribes will likely share a general approval for familial relation however, unless you get a really weird tribe, and in those really off the wall cases it will likely be something else.


I'll just end of with the thought that our means for judging severe criminals must be entertaining to watch, since it basically involves a room of grandmas staring murder at the offender. And the internal family judgments might be even more entertaining.

 

[Chehrazad]

So, @BungieONI has graced us with a very insightful post, and as part of this update, I shall institute my new policy of rewarding posts that I feel enrich the thread in some way including, but not limited to art, fiction and analysis by threadmarking them under the apocrypha category.

[X] A Name Carried From an Old Home
[X] - Take One of Them
-[X] - Take Fox

Still Air in Chambers Locked

Great work and struggle is had. The Kin to Air drag out the Pillar of the Fox, and already have the greatest hunters returned with bloody fox pelts over their shoulders; there is life in blood, and the Fox is a wily predator. One by one, the fox-pelted hunters show off their game for the canine creature within the pillar. First they come with the prey of the Fox; everything that the kin of the vulpine god hunt on the earth: rabbit, bird and frog, as well as berry and fruit are laid before the exhumed pillar. Then come the hunters to impress it, with a single mighty aurochs and a great, brown bear, as well as three of the hated wolves. The bear is skinned, for the impressive coat of pelt has already gone to the shoulders of the hunter who is named Fire Defeats-Many, for his impressive performance on the hunt.

It is not all celebration, however. You gaze into the deep of the stone tent, for you know that you are becoming old, and you can feel the longing call of Bull and Bird. In your lifetime, you have led many from their home, you have become mother to a people, you have dragged forth a god from the underworld, and you are tired now. You can feel your bones ache, and you know your spirit would be called to the valley, mountains and river soon, had they not cast you from your home.

So you go to the other matrons, and you tell them of your call, that you feel a need to embark on a formal journey, a travel into the dark, dusty underworld within the tent of stone, where Bull and Bird await you, and they understand. First, you sit at the entrance and gaze within, awaiting your journey, and the younger of your assembly go to collect of the plants, those which can help a wayward woman towards her journey to home. They grind them, they mix them with water, they take colourful mushrooms and turn them into powder and they sing the throaty song of the ancestors of the ancestors over the fire. Simultaneously mourning and joyous.

You drink the brew, and you breathe in the powders they cast over the fire, you dance a last dance like you were a young woman and you feel that time has no meaning now, that age has no hold over you now, you have become the ancestors and wily Fox that was dragged out of the underworld beneath is there to lead you on your way with signs of invisible fire. You let it guide you, just as your once-sisters do, and an eternity passes as you step over the threshold to the underworld, and there are none to follow you.

Before you, is the vulpine pillar, burning like fire, spinning like a whirlpool, casting light but lighting nothing. It is your guide, and you ride upon Bull with Bird to sight the way as you journey into a world that is nowhere, that is neverwhere. Here there is only dry dust and worms, here there is only the ancestors, and their ancestors, and now you. Within the underworld, you let your fingers move over dry stone as you fumble in the nowhere, and the low, throaty singing of the matrons fill you within. They catch upon glyphs and signs, not unlike the ones that your Kin draw in the sand and upon the earth, but a manifold of them.

You journey forever, forever until you reach the lands where you are not, and there is only the Greatest Ocean to pass, where your ancestors will show you how to pass.

The Woman Named Air Has Died, How Will You Treat Her Memory?
This vote will influence the Kin to Air's Rituals.
[ ] Sing of Her Deeds - She was a woman of greatness, and has had many children who will consider her an ancestor, and one day an ancestor of their ancestors. Sing of her to never forget her, and sing of her to teach those who will never know her face and voice.

[ ] Paint Her Life - She was a woman of wisdom, and has done many great things that will impact her Kin for many seasons. Paint her life in colours of ochre and red on stone and cavern walls, where she can be remembered and known by all who come by.

[ ] Sacrifice In Her Name - She was a woman of awe and power, and must surely be lonely on her journey into the underworld. Send sacrifices of meat and food into the underworld with her.

You are Fire Defeats-Many, greatest hunter of the Kin to Air. On your broad shoulders hangs the pelt of a fearsome brown bear, slain by yourself; on your head lies a bisected wolf jaw, the pelt covering your neck and upper back and on your right shoulder hangs a ruddy fox pelt. All of these are marks of excellence; among fighters, you are unequalled, among hunters, you are first among equals. The Kin to Air sing of you as the greatest hunter to have ever lived, equal to even the ancestors of the ancestors, and sometimes you even believe it.

The honoured grandmother Air has journeyed into the underworld, and the other matrons are still performing her ceremonies, while you demonstrate your power to the Fox that the honoured grandmothers led from the underworld in the shape of a pillar. While the matrons discuss among themselves what course to take for the Kin next, you worry about what you and the hunters discovered while you were out hunting for the bear that you now wear over your shoulders.
While you hunted for the bear, you found other tracks nearby, resembling those of people. They seem to have walked in a large group, and been here perhaps two weeks or more ago, they seem to also have walked in an organized group, and occasionally their feet had fallen in the same order in entire lines. Their feet seem to be entirely identical too, and have left entirely flat tracks after them. What kind of hunters who would walk like that confuses you, and you eventually go to the matrons with your worries.

The honoured grandmothers are assembled in a single tent, where they discuss the troubles that are brought before them, and yours are no different. Like you once brought the famine of the valley before them, before you left your ancient home, you now bring these news before them.

"I have discovered worrying news; other people have been here, and in great number, which we have not seen before. Their feet are all identical, and they carry a walking stick each, they walk in a strange order, and it is not many days since they were last here. More than this, we know not of them."

What Does the Elder Council Respond With?
This vote will influence the Kin to Air's Values.
[ ] This Is Intriguing News, Search For Them As Friends - As cold as the people outside the valley could be at times, they were often tremendous allies against the raids of enemies, and the ancestors of the ancestors did not come to the valley to fight, but to live. The honoured grandmothers will talk to them.

[ ] This Could Be Dangerous, Do Your Best to Avoid Them - As intriguing as the flat-footed people sound, such vast amounts of people can only mean danger for the Kin to Air. Should they find the Kin, the matter can be dealt with at the time, but it is best not to go courting danger.

[ ] They Might Threaten Us, Prepare A Raiding Party - Such people could easily prove more than just a threat, but an enemy, like the people outside the valley who lived in the mountains and came pouring down to take brides and livestock, before retreating back to the impassable mountain tops, where only they could live.

Bonus Vote: The Course of the People
This vote will influence the Values and Mythology of the Kin to Air.
[ ] Journey - The Kin to Air will journey onwards as the prophecy made in the fire told them to: westwards, northwards and northwards.

[ ] Prophecy - The council of the elders will perform a new prophecy to lead them onwards, calling doubt in the old one.

[ ] Settle - The Kin to Air will settle to live in this place.

 

[Chehrazad]

[X] Sing of Her Deeds
[X] This Is Intriguing News, Search For Them As Friends
X] Journey

The Land of the Gods

The song rises slowly, it is mournful and accompanied by slow, deliberate drumming. The hunters stand in a ring, grabbing the shoulders of each other, moving side to side like the calm river waves of their old home, the greatest among them bearing wolven cloaks and fearsome accoutrements run around them in a circle, bearing masks upon their faces in the shape of terrible beings. They are the demons that the woman named Air will face on her journey into the dark. Inside the circle, the women stamp their feet and sing in synchronized, dulcet tones of her many deeds: reconciler, uniter, leader, hero. They immortalize her journey into the underworld, riding upon the Bull and led by the Bird, for the wise old women who sit within the tent of the elders have told them well of her solemn ride, which they have seen with the eyes of spirits.

You carry upon your back, the pillar of the Fox, the god brought up from the underworld by the actions of Air, around you are four hunters handpicked by you, who slam their spears against each other, to produce fearsome rattling noises when the long strings of bones attached to them with safely secured cords rustle against each other. Like the other hunters, you wear masks carved in the shape of fearsome animals, but unlike them, yours are all in a vulpine shape, to emulate the Fox which you carry. By wearing it's mask, you take part of the cunning and great hunting ability that will help you against the servants of Wolven Dream. In the center of the ceremony, stands one of the old matrons, although which one you are unsure. She bears a many-layered dress with many hanging bones and beautiful ornaments, and upon her face, she wears a mask befitting of a spirit on its journey. In the grand ritual, she is Air and has returned to show her Kin the path towards the underworld.

The slow, grief-stricken ceremonies proceed through the week, marking it as a full month since you last turned your backs upon the place which you once called home, and came to this strange place of stone gods and underworldly gates. At the end of the week, an end comes to the procession which has begun by daybreak and ended as the Beauteous Ancestor can hold the attention of his heavenly wife no more, and night returns, every day. The ceremonial masks are to be taken off, for there is no need for demons anymore, although an exception could be made.

Do Some Not Take Their Masks Off?
This vote can influence the rituals, practices and folklore of the Kin to Air.
[ ] The Hunters Keep Their Masks - The wolf is a dangerous animal, for it is a demon running wild, but no other earthly beast rivals its prowess. By taking on the demonic aspect before the hunt, the hunters become like the wolves and ensure the greatest hunts of all time as long as they fight like the wolven pack, but may find themselves punished if they fail to give honour to Wolven Dream.

[ ] No One Keeps Their Masks - It is unseemly to bear masks and seek to become as spirits beyond the bounds of the rituals. Surely the potters and matrons know well when it is the proper time to become as demons, gods and spirits? To bear them in other situations would be pretense to something greater, and could risk your covenant with all things spiritual.

[ ] You Keep Your Mask - You have gained the favour of Fox, and it is only best to show it in all ways. Pronounce yourself Great Hunter, and bear the mask of Fox to gain great powers over hunting and trickery to rival the cleverest ancestors. Bear the mask with pride and be empowered, but bear it dishonestly and find yourself punished greatly.

As the ceremony ends, there are other things to be taken care of, and you quickly assemble a hunting party with gifts among you. Potters and weavers join you, to carry gifts and weave flower garlands. You set out from camp and follow along the river until you find the original tracks, from which you begin to lead onwards towards their eventual end. The journey goes on for days, as you stop only to tend to the aching legs of your many followers, and to hold camp and plan the trip. The food becomes scarce as the days go on, and you begin hunting and gathering food as normal to forage for the group, as the packed supplies begin to strain.

On the twelfth day of searching, you spot them in the distance; a group of forty, if not more men walking in order, wearing strange wooden blocks affixed with leather on their feet and bearing even stranger rectangles made of wicker in their left hands, while all holding spears in their right. Their hair is shaved in identical styles, and some top their heads with strange, conical caps of some presumed protective purpose, and a few likewise even wear thick shirts of leather coated with metallic splints, seeming nearly invincible behind their armoured panoply. They walk in lockstep to the sound of a drum, which is banged upon relentlessly by one who bears no spear like the others and has hung the strange wicker shield over their arm with a leather strap.

You see them, before they see you, and approach them with hands that are raised in friendly gestures, as you make sure to plant your spears with the head first in the ground where they can see it. You approach them slowly and deliberately, women and young men who have not yet hunted beasts themselves come first, bearing gifts, and one of the foreign men step forward, resplendent in his panoply that would surely make him as almost invincible to your spears, slings and bows. He opens his mouth, and speaks in a hoarse voice, that is tired of shouting.

"Mannu imenzen? Mannu imenzenak lugalzunene? Ammeni nadanu zenee igisumeneshe anna geneo?" he says, in some language which you do not know of, or have heard before. It is rough and guttural, sounding like the tongue of a fierce people, but it sounds most of all like a question of some sort.

"I do not understand what you are saying! Do you speak another tongue?" you respond in your native language, hoping that he will understand you, although you suspect likely not.

After some giving of gifts, and sinking of spears, the heavily bearded man with his proud helmet and splinted armour approaches you, having lowered his weapons, and says to you in a friendly tone, "Imenzen lukurulene!"

He makes motions towards a large nearby stone, upon which he goes to sit, saying to the other men that were with him, something in his strange tongue, and they fetch another, approximately just as large stone and set it in the earth near his own, and you sit on it.

The men with him seat themselves on the earth, and your hunters do the same in a reciprocal gesture, as the gifts are enjoyed and fruit and food are shared around. The foreign people have strange, new food with them, such as dry buns covered in a crust, which they call "bappirene", and offer freely. Through wide, pointing gestures and signs on the earth, made with your spears, the man manages to inform you that he is named Lugalkam, and wishes to learn your name, which you draw the signs on the earth for, and say for him, and he translates it into his own tongue, naming you Izidabduesh with a sandpaper-dry voice.

Time passes, and you slowly learn to communicate rudimentary sentences to each other, and you learn that these are men from a far southern place, which they call the Land of the Gods. The word he uses to describe himself and his fellows has no equivalent in your language, although you come to call them "warriors", or "vultures", for they are a party of those who would be hunters in your tribe, but here fight with shields and spears to kill other men, and not to hunt beasts. The man, Lugalkam, asks if you will send back the gift-givers and potters to the place from which you came, and you will accompany his people in their current expedition, which is a raid against a people who live by the river, and have slighted him in the past, and raided cruelly against his people. He does make clear that he would gladly share the results of the raid with you and yours, if it succeeds.

Will You Aid Lugalkam?
The effects of this vote on the Kin to Air are secret.
[ ] Aid the Raid - You will send back the gift-givers and potters, and follow the raiders as hunters, to aid in their goal, against payment from the results of the raid. This will cement better relations with the people from the southern Land of the Gods.

[ ] Do Not Aid the Raid - You will not aid them, as you do not know them well enough and do not wish risking the lives of the hunters. Participating in the raid cannot be an option, and the payment might not make up for any lives lost.

[ ] Write-In - Provide some other service or response. Subject to QM veto.

NEW PEOPLE LEARNT OF: THE LAND OF THE GODS
​

 

[BungieONI]

The song rises slowly, it is mournful and accompanied by slow, deliberate drumming. The hunters stand in a ring, grabbing the shoulders of each other, moving side to side like the calm river waves of their old home, the greatest among them bearing wolven cloaks and fearsome accoutrements run around them in a circle, bearing masks upon their faces in the shape of terrible beings. They are the demons that the woman named Air will face on her journey into the dark. Inside the circle, the women stamp their feet and sing in synchronized, dulcet tones of her many deeds: reconciler, uniter, leader, hero. They immortalize her journey into the underworld, riding upon the Bull and led by the Bird, for the wise old women who sit within the tent of the elders have told them well of her solemn ride, which they have seen with the eyes of spirits.

You carry upon your back, the pillar of the Fox, the god brought up from the underworld by the actions of Air, around you are four hunters handpicked by you, who slam their spears against each other, to produce fearsome rattling noises when the long strings of bones attached to them with safely secured cords rustle against each other. Like the other hunters, you wear masks carved in the shape of fearsome animals, but unlike them, yours are all in a vulpine shape, to emulate the Fox which you carry. By wearing it's mask, you take part of the cunning and great hunting ability that will help you against the servants of Wolven Dream. In the center of the ceremony, stands one of the old matrons, although which one you are unsure. She bears a many-layered dress with many hanging bones and beautiful ornaments, and upon her face, she wears a mask befitting of a spirit on its journey. In the grand ritual, she is Air and has returned to show her Kin the path towards the underworld.

The slow, grief-stricken ceremonies proceed through the week, marking it as a full month since you last turned your backs upon the place which you once called home, and came to this strange place of stone gods and underworldly gates. At the end of the week, an end comes to the procession which has begun by daybreak and ended as the Beauteous Ancestor can hold the attention of his heavenly wife no more, and night returns, every day. The ceremonial masks are to be taken off, for there is no need for demons anymore, although an exception could be made.

Do Some Not Take Their Masks Off?
This vote can influence the rituals, practices and folklore of the Kin to Air.
[ ] The Hunters Keep Their Masks - The wolf is a dangerous animal, for it is a demon running wild, but no other earthly beast rivals its prowess. By taking on the demonic aspect before the hunt, the hunters become like the wolves and ensure the greatest hunts of all time as long as they fight like the wolven pack, but may find themselves punished if they fail to give honour to Wolven Dream.

[ ] No One Keeps Their Masks - It is unseemly to bear masks and seek to become as spirits beyond the bounds of the rituals. Surely the potters and matrons know well when it is the proper time to become as demons, gods and spirits? To bear them in other situations would be pretense to something greater, and could risk your covenant with all things spiritual.

[ ] You Keep Your Mask - You have gained the favour of Fox, and it is only best to show it in all ways. Pronounce yourself Great Hunter, and bear the mask of Fox to gain great powers over hunting and trickery to rival the cleverest ancestors. Bear the mask with pride and be empowered, but bear it dishonestly and find yourself punished greatly.

Click to shrink...

Hah perfect. Definitely will deify her and I quite like the practice of wearing the mask which represents one who died. I mean, its basically primitive theatre or play acting. Its great. @ManusDomine, how long is a month for the Kin to Air? I would more expect references to a season or part of a season, as "months" are usually a post calendar thing what with not exactly being relevant to tribal life, in particular tribal nomadic life from what I understand.

The Hunters keeping the masks is, as the last bit indicates, a way to respect Wolven Dream so that he does not smite your foolish head. It also encourages more advanced thinking on fighting.

Of particular note in the religious beliefs for the Kin, I would argue two things, which are actually pretty important. The first, is that they have no conception of a true divinity as one might describe a god like Ba'al or Zeus or Mother Earth. Their theological philosophy is simple. They revere beings which they have seen, the Fox, the Bull, the Bird, the River, the Valley and so on, and the ancestors of ancestors are still regarded as having been people. The Kin lack a conception of a thing outside the world which was never of the world even though it created it like gods have a sense of. Take for example the Norse concept of Ymir the giant frost ogre/titan, a being which was never human, forging the world through some divine act like, in his case sweating and sacrificing of himself, and in one other case a part of his body copulating with another part. That's the thing I am describing that the Kin lack, a true conception of what the "divine" could be.

This ties in heavily with the second thing, which is that I would argue that the Kin believe most of the world in some way descends from their ancestors of ancestors, i.e it descends from humans. Note the references to the Sun as a Beauteous Ancestor, and not a primal ball of sapient and holy flame. The sun is regarded as a remnant of whatever ancestor of ancestors came before. It is human in origin. This gives a sense of context I would think for the Kin to approach the world, that of it essentially existing as it does because the very greatest of the greatest elders make it do so. Which makes sense given their cultural norms as they stand.

As to the vote options the first marks the hunters and puts that part of their society on the path to becoming more complex. I doubt what we would conceive of as a priesthood is really in the cards since we are nomadic and that lends it more to the sort of naturalist paths of shaman, medicine man and wise man. Or woman as the case currently is. Because we already revere them this marking will raise them higher as a sort of matter of course. Just how human psychology works. Like accenting for a fine jewel. There's probably more I could say on this matter, but I need to think about it.

Not wearing the masks seems to indicate investing more importance on the matrons and potters from the wording, but honestly? Can't tell. *shrug*

With Fire Defeats-Many wearing the mask that encourages the seed for another Forum type, that of a leading man or other leading individual. My first conclusion is that would likely lead to annoyances down the line as tradition starts getting confused on the matter of who the warriors should listen to. More so than it will naturally anyway. I'm not sure on this however. It will definitely cause a change later down the road at some point since it basically enshrines the position of "Great Hunter" as an official thing in the social frame of the Kin's society, which will likely also serve as an outlet for things I don't understand.

As the ceremony ends, there are other things to be taken care of, and you quickly assemble a hunting party with gifts among you. Potters and weavers join you, to carry gifts and weave flower garlands. You set out from camp and follow along the river until you find the original tracks, from which you begin to lead onwards towards their eventual end. The journey goes on for days, as you stop only to tend to the aching legs of your many followers, and to hold camp and plan the trip. The food becomes scarce as the days go on, and you begin hunting and gathering food as normal to forage for the group, as the packed supplies begin to strain.

On the twelfth day of searching, you spot them in the distance; a group of forty, if not more men walking in order, wearing strange wooden blocks affixed with leather on their feet and bearing even stranger rectangles made of wicker in their left hands, while all holding spears in their right. Their hair is shaved in identical styles, and some top their heads with strange, conical caps of some presumed protective purpose, and a few likewise even wear thick shirts of leather coated with metallic splints, seeming nearly invincible behind their armoured panoply. They walk in lockstep to the sound of a drum, which is banged upon relentlessly by one who bears no spear like the others and has hung the strange wicker shield over their arm with a leather strap.

You see them, before they see you, and approach them with hands that are raised in friendly gestures, as you make sure to plant your spears with the head first in the ground where they can see it. You approach them slowly and deliberately, women and young men who have not yet hunted beasts themselves come first, bearing gifts, and one of the foreign men step forward, resplendent in his panoply that would surely make him as almost invincible to your spears, slings and bows. He opens his mouth, and speaks in a hoarse voice, that is tired of shouting.

"Mannu imenzen? Mannu imenzenak lugalzunene? Ammeni nadanu zenee igisumeneshe anna geneo?" he says, in some language which you do not know of, or have heard before. It is rough and guttural, sounding like the tongue of a fierce people, but it sounds most of all like a question of some sort.

"I do not understand what you are saying! Do you speak another tongue?" you respond in your native language, hoping that he will understand you, although you suspect likely not.

After some giving of gifts, and sinking of spears, the heavily bearded man with his proud helmet and splinted armour approaches you, having lowered his weapons, and says to you in a friendly tone, "Imenzen lukurulene!"

He makes motions towards a large nearby stone, upon which he goes to sit, saying to the other men that were with him, something in his strange tongue, and they fetch another, approximately just as large stone and set it in the earth near his own, and you sit on it.

The men with him seat themselves on the earth, and your hunters do the same in a reciprocal gesture, as the gifts are enjoyed and fruit and food are shared around. The foreign people have strange, new food with them, such as dry buns covered in a crust, which they call "bappirene", and offer freely. Through wide, pointing gestures and signs on the earth, made with your spears, the man manages to inform you that he is named Lugalkam, and wishes to learn your name, which you draw the signs on the earth for, and say for him, and he translates it into his own tongue, naming you Izidabduesh with a sandpaper-dry voice.

Time passes, and you slowly learn to communicate rudimentary sentences to each other, and you learn that these are men from a far southern place, which they call the Land of the Gods. The word he uses to describe himself and his fellows has no equivalent in your language, although you come to call them "warriors", or "vultures", for they are a party of those who would be hunters in your tribe, but here fight with shields and spears to kill other men, and not to hunt beasts. The man, Lugalkam, asks if you will send back the gift-givers and potters to the place from which you came, and you will accompany his people in their current expedition, which is a raid against a people who live by the river, and have slighted him in the past, and raided cruelly against his people. He does make clear that he would gladly share the results of the raid with you and yours, if it succeeds.

Will You Aid Lugalkam?
The effects of this vote on the Kin to Air are secret.
[ ] Aid the Raid - You will send back the gift-givers and potters, and follow the raiders as hunters, to aid in their goal, against payment from the results of the raid. This will cement better relations with the people from the southern Land of the Gods.

[ ] Do Not Aid the Raid - You will not aid them, as you do not know them well enough and do not wish risking the lives of the hunters. Participating in the raid cannot be an option, and the payment might not make up for any lives lost.

[ ] Write-In - Provide some other service or response. Subject to QM veto.

Click to shrink...

First thing that occurs to me, actually has nothing to do with the people, but the food. The situation as described is not something I would call good given how the prepared supplies didn't last all that long based on what it said. Not having lots of stored food says to me we really don't stay here. Not now. I've said this every update we've been in this Region, but that wasn't urgent, not like this is.

Other than that there's what happened in the rest of this section. I'm certainly interested that we managed to get meaning across to these people and they to us in what is essentially a couple hours of discussion. Not exactly what I expected though gesture is at least okay at communicating "I am not going to stab you."

There are several interesting pieces here. The first is that as we interact with them the Kin will likely note the usefulness of sandals and if we go to fight with them that will we note the usefulness of them and their shields. I expect technical innovations just from meeting these people of Lugalkam even if we do nothing else, thought up as we face the hardships of travel. In particular the walk back to the rest of our Kin.

The next thing is Lugalkam's voice. For his voice to be hoarse like it is, their home is at least a day's march to the south. Probably more since I understand it can actually take a few days to get that way, though probably not more than a week. They've certainly impressed our hunters and specifically Fire Defeats-Many with his frequent references to invincibility.

Also, their language is an inflected one, which makes a lot of sense since that's how a lot of ancient languages worked. Specifically note the words "Imenzen" and "Imenzenak". From context I'm guessing that "Mannu Imenzen" is something like "Do you mean to be Friend-Men?" or something like that. A query to those men over there as to if they are Friend-Men. No fucking clue as to their grammar but, meh. "Imenzen lukurulene" is something along the lines of you man over there be welcome.

Then we come to the bappirene, which I'm not sure exactly which variety of road bread it's supposed to be, but it is pretty clearly road food. And it indicates to me that they are likely only semi nomadic, because if they are sharing it freely then they have it in quantity and making such things in quantity for something probably approaching eighty people is not exactly something small and requires quite a bit of grain. If he gave us dried meats or butchered a herd animal I'd call them nomads like the Kin are becoming. It is also interesting that he wants to enlist our aid. He's intelligent, Lugalkam, but I find it interesting his pride/honor/code of society doesn't really seem to object to this. It doesn't seem exactly new to him unless we managed to become really good friends so quickly and the idea struck him out of the blue, and I don't think alcohol was involved in the discussion.

The fact that he gave us a name in his own tongue is not exactly strange, because I can vaguely remember such things happening in history, but I'm not sure what to make of it in this context.

Culturally, if I wrote this as a story it'd go something like this:

The wise and kindly Fire Defeats-Many found a wounded man on the Path.
When Fire Defeats-Many asked the man what ailed him the man said
"Oh! For I am Lugalkam and I have been struck upon the breast by foul River-Men!"
"They have taken from me and mine with foul spirit and arms! Will you help me, Izidabduesh, Kind Man of the Road?"

Fire Defeats-Many considered this man's plight, and was struck by the honor and prideful form Lugalkam carried, shining as if girded in metal.
And so Fire Defeats-Many picked up Lugalkam and gave him his shoulder upon which to rest and he said.
"I would call you friend-man and I hear your plight." Overjoyed at this development, life entered Lugalkam again and he led Fire Defeats-Many against the foul River-Men in many adventures.

Maybe. First thing that springs to mind at least.

E: Oh right votes.

[X] The Hunters Keep Their Masks - The wolf is a dangerous animal, for it is a demon running wild, but no other earthly beast rivals its prowess. By taking on the demonic aspect before the hunt, the hunters become like the wolves and ensure the greatest hunts of all time as long as they fight like the wolven pack, but may find themselves punished if they fail to give honour to Wolven Dream.

[X] Aid the Raid - You will send back the gift-givers and potters, and follow the raiders as hunters, to aid in their goal, against payment from the results of the raid. This will cement better relations with the people from the southern Land of the Gods.

 

[Chehrazad]

[X] The Hunters Keep Their Masks
[X] Aid the Raid

Fire

The masks are fearsome. Demons in the shape of wolves, carved of wood and affixed with pelts and fur and horns, to strike terror in the hearts of men. Air entered the underworld upon a great journey into the lifeless world of dust and worms below, and in return, the demons that live there have come to live in the hunters in times of battle. When the hunters strike the spears against each other, roar with ferocious screams and dance wildly in the intoxicated haze of the battle rage that sometimes takes men, only those who are strongest of will can stand and watch them instead of break and run. In battle, you know they will be like the demons that have taken home in them, they will strike like threefold men, each and everyone.

The men of the Land of the Gods - the black-headed people, as they call themselves - are duly impressed by your ferocity. They say that you resemble the Ithimmoene - demons - of their home, that hunt down the men who walk alone and slay them with knives of black stone, and hunt invisibly on the wind, screaming as they swirl the sand. You tell them that they are merely like wolves, which are the destroyers of all good works, as they serve the Lonely Ancestor, named Wolven Dream who resides out far away where there are no hills or mountains, and there is only tall grass and the baying of wolves. You tell them of the journey of Air into the underworld, and how the demons that live there have come to rest in the hunters to grant them great power.

The sound of their marching feet is almost hypnotic. They march in the same tact, to the same tone, listening to the sound of a well-strung drum, for when to step and when to sing a song in their native language, full of complexities that elude you still. You have decided to follow them, as the backing of another people - especially a great one like this - can hardly be harmful to you, and in return their leader, Lugalkam has already taught you a great many things, such as how his people make leathery sandals from animal hide, by skinning them and tanning them; or how they weave reed and grass into angular shields that protect them from arrows, stones and spears.

He either can not, or will not teach you the secrets of the shiny material on the tip of his spear, and in the strange, sharp implement hanging from his belt, which he names "shuhathachu", translating simply to a "supremely strong and bright weapon". He says that it has magic powers, and lets him strike any one man down with even a single stroke of it, and cut straight through even the hardest shield, and that it was given by the goddess named Ahrazchechal, to the mother of his father's father, who was a priestess. It came from the heavens, fully formed and the man whom she wedded used it to subdue all the peoples that lived by the river, except for the southernmost people, who had strange powers at their command. He says that you will see it for yourself in battle, for drawing on its powers when not needed could offend the goddess Ahrazchechal, who rules the underworld and all the five gates that lead to it.

Trusting him at his word, and thankful for the other secrets he has taught you, you and your hunters go with them, although at significantly more pain to your feet than theirs, towards the offending people who live downstreams. Conversing with him, you learn that these people have raided against him and his for years, and that this time they have breached one of the "aluene", or Great Camps, and made off with many things of value, as well as a priestess, which is very harmful as it risks the anger of the sky god Merthoch that protects that Great Camp from harm.

The sun rises and sinks, and after five of such risings, Lugalkam stops the journey, informing you and his own men that they are merely a day from the offending people. He says that his own men will form a loose block of men that is ten men wide and four men deep, lifting their wicker shields to cover their own bodies and holding their spears in between and above the shields. They will advance as one, but leave plenty of opportunity for each man in the block to achieve his own glory and show his prowess, after which Lugalkam will dole out rewards to the fighters based on the greatest demonstrations of glory.

How Will The Kin to Air Fight?
This vote will influence the Kin's general combat style.
[ ] Advance Like Soldiers - Form lines and enter into a formation, imitating the men of Lugalkam. Although you lack shields, you will advance in orderly formation and use your spears to impale the enemies while stepping forward one step at a time, slowly but surely winning the battle.

[ ] Charge Like Demons - Scream and shout, bay and bellow. Wake the wolven demons that rest in you, and dominate them with the vulpine blessing of Fox. Charge the enemy and take no heed to them, they will scatter and if they don't, your overpowering strength will crush them until their bones can scatter like they should have.

[ ] Harry Like Hunters - Attack from a secure hiding spot and remain in the shadows. Stay in the distance and harry them with your spears and stones, slowly break their will to fight while Lugalkam's men crush them in the melee. Flee when they fight back and pelt them while you run, ensuring the least amount of physical confrontation.

[ ] Pioneer Like Ancestors - Think up a new tactic, like the ancestors of your ancestors did when they came to the valley. There is wisdom to be found in the actions of the elders, and by emulating their acts of daring innovation, you too can exalt yourselves above what is expected. Or break in the process. Write-in option.

Lugalkam wishes to attack by daybreak, for that is when the light is with them and when the people are still asleep and far from their weapons. He says that he only wants to retrieve the stolen goods, and make off with the priestess before it is discovered that she is gone, for if that were to happen, she could be declared "huarthum", which you don't understand, even after several explanations; how could a woman be like a rock or a stick or a hut? It does not make sense to you that a woman could be traded with, but Lugalkam simply laughs and tells you that it is the will of the sun-god named Zemez, who is also the highest judge among the gods, and has deemed it so. You do not question this, and deem Lugalkam wise in the ways of their foreign gods, strange as they are.

You advance towards the home of the people, where Lugalkam has told you they live. It is a little spot downstreams, where a group of people make their living in mud huts structured around a now-extinguished fire. You can see several small, wooden rafts tied with rope to stakes driven into the ground, floating in the river, as well as a large field of symmetrically growing golden plants, which you have not seen before. A few animals can be seen grazing in an enclosure made by stringing together rope between wooden poles, all driven into the ground in a circular formation. No people are awake, as it is still early dawn, and you have taken time to quieten yourself. Here, it is you who shine, for unlike the click-clack sound of the shoes of Lugalkam and his men, your feet are naked and move silently over the earth while the sun creeps shyly up the horizon, seduced by the beauteous ancestor step by step, once again.

When will the Kin attack?
This vote will massively influence the Kin's performance in the upcoming battle.
Calm Preceding Storm - You will strike after Lugalkam and his men make their attack.

Lightning Following Rain - You will strike before Lugalkam and his men make their attack.

Wind Simultaneous to Hail - You will strike while Lugalkam and his men make their attack.

Nota Auctoris: Sorry for all the time it took to get this update out, it's not very long, but it'll manage. I can promise that the next update will be more than enough to make up for it, however.

Click to shrink...

 

[Chehrazad]

And here it finally is. Sorry for the wait, we are resuming a normal updating schedule again.

[X] Harry Like Hunters
[X] Wind Simultaneous to Hail

Raid
The enemy camp is peculiar to you. It lies on a small, riverside hill, consisting of a number of huts, built of mud and sticks. The pseudo-tents seem to be built in a vague circle around a central fireplace, and one of the huts is larger than the others, otherwise showing no particular differentiation between them. A small pier is built of sticks arrayed into something resembling a broad plank, resting on long, thick poles of wood, speared into the riverbed below. Several rafts are tied to the poles, by way of thick rope, likely made to resist the currents and erosive force of the water. Some place down the river, you see a mysterious wooden structure standing in the water.

The drums beat, and the black-headed men of the Land of the Gods have taken to half-running; they are led by fearsome Lugalkam with his long spear in hand. You run in a looser formation in front of them, obscuring them totally, turning what would seem like an organized attack from the front into a disarrayed mob of stone-slingers, spear-throwers and hunters; an illusion, but a convincing one. You, yourself lead the hunters, first among them all in a loose formation, bearing a javelin in your throwing hand, and several more in your other.

As the first, confused heads begin to show themselves outside their huts, they quickly call alarm, in some strange tongue, that sounds neither like that of the black-headed people from the Land of the Gods, or your own. They wield fishing spears, bidents and tridents; instruments of hunting like your own, rather than the dedicated instruments of murder, wielded by the people from the Land of the Gods. They take a formation, not unlike that of your current allies, forming a block consisting of rows and rows of spears, although lacking in the rectangular shields that seems to allow the Godlanders to become like a moving wall.

For a few moments, there is, nothing but for the occasional shout thrown your way, or in return. There is nothing, but raving and hollering, seeking to intimidate the enemy, to break their morale and make them flee, to make them chaff to be cut down, rather than an opposing force. Time has slowed down, and were you not in control of yourself, the demon sealed in the mask might overtake you and make you scream and rage at them, You can see their faces from here, how pupils dilate, and beads of sweat form on foreheads, how knuckles turn white, gripping spears meant for fishing.

The Hunters of the Kin to Air

Excellent Morale

Panoply of spears, slings and stones, completely unarmoured. Protected by demon-masks.

Lead by Fire Defeats-Many, armed with several javelins and a fine tusk-tipped long spear. Protected by the blessings of a demon-mask.

Thirty warriors.

The Black-Headed People of the Land of the Gods

Excellent Morale

Panoply of copper spears, wicker shields, some armour, and near-universal helmets.

Lead by Lugalkam, armoured with splint, bearing a wicker shield, and wielding a copper spear and iron sword. Of divine ancestry.

Forty warriors.

The Fishing Folk

Stressed Morale

Panoply of spears, tridents and bidents, completely unarmoured.

Their leader is unknown to you, but wears a gold-hemmed cape, and wields a bident. You suspect him to be blessed of whatever lives in the river.

Eighty warriors.

Then you throw the first of your three javelins, striking a man through his eye, hollering as he falls, and the rest of the hunters let loose a hailstorm of sharp, blunt and deadly objects; seeking the death of the enemy. The fishing folk break into a light jog towards you, their back rows throwing some of your thrown ammunition at you, seeking to pin you while the front rows connect with you, to decimate your unarmoured ranks. You have hunted great beasts before, however, and quickly disperse to fall behind the Godlanders, before letting loose a second volley of deadly rain upon them, harrying them as you part into two groups, running away from each other, and circling the enemy.

The men of the Land of the Gods, however prove their worth in the melee, as they wield their wicker shields, much like one would any other weapon; disarming and bashing enemies with them. Here, Lugalkam slays a man through the eye with his spear, letting it simply remain lodged within the corpse; there he gets his shield under another's arm, before severing his other arm from the body with his blade. The weapon shines brightly, a deadly glow that blinds all who stare at it, and cuts through bone and flesh with great ease, as it shows its divine nature.

The women that lived in the village, seem to have retreated completely, either huddling inside the houses, or taking rafts to flee with children, or some even joining the battle from afar, pelting you with a hail of objects. While their contribution is slight, their participation troubles you, for you know well that it is a breach of the sacred wisdom of the ancestors of the ancestors to lay hand on a woman with violent intent, lest one risk to be devoured by a wolf and have one's soul spat out at the feet of the Lonely Ancestor.
The Godlanders seem to have no such particular issues, however, eagerly cutting them down as much as they do their male counterparts. You can see that the fishing folk are beginning to break; they cannot maintain their formation against the shield-wall of the Godlanders, while also having to duck and weave against your constant pelting, whereas you can easily evade their own attempts to strike you at range, while simply returning whatever they throw at you, remaining at distance, rather than having to engage.

A scream of triumph, a roar of success. With a mighty heave, Lugalkam separates head from body, on some man in the middle of a shout, who must have been their leader, and you can see the already falling morale of the fishers break and shatter, like clay pottery dashed against the ground. Now comes the next part, the encircling, the looting, the taking; running at the speed which only hunters can, and bolstered by the demons that are with you, for they taste blood, and they have feasted, you encircle the place, cutting off exits and leading those who did not manage to flee into the center of the settlement. Those who managed to flee are pursued by younger hunters, either with the intent to capture, or to slay, for there is not much glory in the slaying of those who flee, but a hunt is a hunt.

Lugalkam goes to search within the buildings, and returns a few moments later, followed by a woman of descent reminiscent of his own, although her eyes are more slanted, and her clothing is of better quality, stained as it is. She wears a lavender gown, covering her left arm and hanging loosely down her body, but leaving her right arm, neck and shoulders free. Her hair is done up with elaborate jewelry, although it has been ruffled significantly. She wears bracelets around her wrists, and sandals on her feet, like the other people of the Land of the Gods. Realizing that this is the first woman from the Land of the Gods that you meet, you introduce yourself with a greeting that Lugalkam has taught you, internally amused greatly with yourself over her shocked look at your knowledge of their tongue.

You converse briefly, learning that she is named Ninthuta, and that she is a priestess of the archer Merthoch, who protects the Great Camp of Pepilun, who was once a Great Man of the city, but ascended to the starlit heavens when he rode against the Abyssal Seawater, with ten stars in his quiver. She is different from the women of the Kin to Air and used to speaking with power and authority, even different than the honoured grandmothers, who speak with authority and wisdom, but not with such expectation of obedience, as she. Even Lugalkam seems to defer to her, when she speaks. She explains to you, that a priestess like her is the property of Merthoch, and not a human being, and that it is tradition for a leader of soldiers, such as Lugalkam, to marry with an envoy of a god, such as her. That is the proper way in which all under heaven is secured, as long as earth is with the intentions of the gods.

You are not quite sure, if you understand this, but you aren't quite sure if you want to understand it either, although the Land of the Gods seems like a very impressive place, where the ancestors of their ancestors still move about and walk, undying. Regardless, the woman's smile at seeing the enemy encircled and huddled together in the centre, reminds you that it is the time for you to claim your bounty now, a bounty that you were promised and have more than shown yourself worthy of.

You Have Successfully Beaten the Fishing Folk, What Do You Claim?
This vote will influence the spoils of the battle, and may influence the Values and Myths. The vote will also influence relations with the Godlanders. You have claim on at two choices. Subvotes do not count against this.

[ ] Life - There are many women, who would surely make good wives for the hunters who have none, and there are children still, who can become Kin to Air too, by partaking of your blood, as you partake of theirs.

[ ] Chains - The men may be taken with you, and set to work for you, making them servants and slaves. Lugalkam has explained to you, how a woman in the Land of the Gods, may become property, so could men and women not become the same to the Kin to Air?

[ ] Land - You will take this place, turning it into a place of the Kin to Air; huts, river, pier and rafts will all become yours, and you will own it as your own. You may use the huts, and all the things within them, for your own.

[ ] Riches - Some of the men and women bear shiny necklaces, gold-hemmed shirts and rings, and you have seen other objects of elegant materials, glitter and shimmer within the huts. You will take these, and make them the property of the Kin to Air, showing your victory.

[ ] Sacrifice - The wolf is the destroyer of all the works of man, but today, you have become wolves and harried and slain many men. Thus, you slay the defeated foe and lay them together, in an isolated place, and send them thusly to the Lonely Ancestor, as thanks for your great victory.

[ ] Write-In - You will do something not mentioned in the other votes, and write an option of your own.