Yak Councils in recent history
@Questor
A Yak council is not a regular affair, nor an event to celebrate. These gatherings of shamans, elders, warleaders and more are called when the Yaks stand before a choice that may alter all land they walk occupy or when a threat that challenges all of Yak lives rears it's head.
In the year of 12 ad (after discord) there took place 3 of these within a single year. To punctuate how momentus this was, before the peace council which ruled that no clan may wage war upon another clan during the times of discord, there had not been a council for 54 years.
A council is called by the elder shaman of a tribe blowing their sacred horn utop the precipice at the end of the great valley called "the voice of the mountains" where it's echo rebreaths far and wide over Yakyakistan. The shamans apprentices walk further to the other clans to inform the general topic of the meeting and when it will be held, this usually is as soon as possible due to the nature of the council.
The meeting takes place on "the hill of split rocks" also translated to "the hill of solved issues" for reasons which will become clear later. Upon this hill there may be no food and after the gathering none may leave before the council is over. When the council has gathered a large boulder will be carried up upon the hill, when the boulder is in its place, the council has started.
There are no true rules of how the council shall proceed from this point. The wisest and eldest are trusted to make the swiftest decision possible and come to the best solution. When the solution is reached one of the leaders present splits the boulder with a mighty blow, the solution being irrevocable as a split rock can't be put together again. This is where the saying "the rock is split" originates from.
Here we will focus on the three councils who's issues and their resolutions mostly shaped the early Yak-Griffin relations.
The first council was perhaps the most remarkable. The Yaks tell that the eldest shaman of every clan received the dark omen. Cold, darkness and war was coming and it would be what discord wasn't, an attack from which there was only victory or death.
According to the stories, all shamans simultaneously blew their horns so loudly that not one Yak could not hear it.
This council started at morning and did not even last until noon. Within days the full martial might of every Yak clan would march towards griffonia to find their airborne allies.
The second council happened not long after the warriors came home from the battle of redstone pass and started with two of the Yak patriarchs asking their shamans for their wisdom.
One of the most sacred laws for the Yaks is that once two Yaks fight side by side they are kin. This law (for lack of a better term) is absolute and kin slaying is a crime without equal. This had previously not been a large issue when two Yaks from different clans had become kin. If two clans warred then the two kin would simply not partake or challenge each other in a duel depending on the circumstances. Now however almost every able bodied Yak had fought side by side with each other and beside Griffins.
The shamans saw the wisdom in dealing with this issue as soon as possible and the council was soon called.
This council lasted longer as the oldest and wisest debated and discussed. Many warriors young and old were asked to tell their stories from the battlefield. Tales of valor, death, honor and courage were told at every hour of the day and night.
In the end, two declarations were made. Griffins could be kin and the Yak who fought at redstone pass were kin. This effectively meant that a generation of no clan wars would start. Disputes and questions of honor would be solved with challenges and duels.
It is here where historians in general agree that the culture of the Yak start their change in the decades to come.
The third council occured not a full year after the last one and would be surrounded by the most controversy among the Yak.
With the increase in trade between the Griffin and Yak people there eventually came up clans that did not see reason to live as nomads and instead live as merchant princes, setting up a merchant town where the Griffin caravans came to sell their goods and supply before returning to griffonia. These mechant clans would then trade with the clans in the area. The steady supply of food and everyday items from clans and the Griffin traders meant that there was no need to move from where they were.
The third council was called by the elder shaman of the long-horn clan on behalf of the thick-hair clan. What had happened was an older warrior claimed that the settling and dependence on trade was a betrayal of the Yak way and challenged the younger chief of the clan to a duel for leadership. The warrior had lost but there were those that agreed with him. Their elder-shaman had died at redstone pass and their younger shaman did not have the wisdom to keep the peace so they turned to their ancestor clan's elder shaman who turns out had seen the potential problem with how different the Yak clans now were.
The council was called to help quell the potential unrest and preserve the peace. This council was the most split one of the three as there were two very different sides that wanted very different things. The shamans, after long discussion and pondering managed to find the heart of this unrest. Were the merchant clans still following the Yak way? the young chief of the clan where the problem had started was called forth. When asked if he and his clan still followed the Yak ways he did not reply with words.
He took off all decoration and armor until he was bare. Then, with one mighty blow he split the boulder of the council into so many pieces and with such force that all Yaks gathered at the foot of the hill could hear it and so, the third council was done and the issue settled.
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what is it with this quest? i am getting so damn inspiered to make omakes.
well, probably too assuming to be canon but dammit, if the Dice-Gods are this in love with the Yaks then by Them i will write Them the omake sacrifises they crave!
