Name: Ai’dallani, the children of Nizsi

Brief description: Nomads travelling the river in their floating villages

Main deity: Nizsi, the great river
All life that ever was, is, and will be is a gift from Nizsi. During spring, Nizsi spreads to the country, removing the old life and seeding new life in its place. During late autumn and winter, Nizsi is weak, gathering strength for the beginning of the new cycle. Nizsi grants her children with all they need for life – food, water and protection. In exchange, all she asks is that all that came from her is returned back to her when it is no longer needed. For a child of Nizsi when their time comes, returning to her welcoming arms isn’t just a great honor – it is a necessity, the only way to be reborn again.
When Ai’dallani feel that the great river is angry, they pick several people amongst the volunteers, which then sacrifice themselves to Nizsi. During this self-sacrifice the person takes the largest stone they can lift, and jump into the water, holding the stone in their arms. It is considered the greatest honor amongst the tribe.

Side deities:
Lankushna, the crocodile spirit
Lankushna and his mate Ailinia were the first children of Nizsi. All life descends from their connection. Lankushna is the spirit of fighting and protecting. He grants Ai’dallani warriors strength and resilience, but only when they fight nearby the great river’s waters.

Ailinia, the ibis spirit
Ailinia is the spirit of family and continuation. She helps to heal wounds and cure sickness, if one is submerged into Nizsi’s waters. Every newborn child in the tribe must be bathed in the great river right after birth, so that the first thing in his life is receiving Ailinia’s blessing.

Government:
Ai’dallani have two levels of leadership – a ruling couple representing the guardian spirits and the council.
Each spring, at the start of a new lifecycle, the tribe performs a ritual to celebrate. During this ritual one man and one woman are chosen through divination as Lan’Nizsi and Aila’Nizsi – the human representatives of Lankushna and Ailinia spirits. They then live as a couple for the following year, ruling over the spiritual aspects of the tribe.
The council consists of chieftains of the seven poap’ki – the floating villages that shelter most of the tribe’s population. The chieftains are chosen from the most skilled people in the tribe, they can be the bravest warriors, the most successful hunters or fishermen, the most revered seers or healers. The council rules over the material aspects of the tribe.
Ai’dallani are friendly people, even to other tribes with different beliefs. They believe that all life, including the land-people, came from Nizsi. Whether the others believe it or not doesn’t matter – they are just blind to the truth, because they have not been in contact with the mother for generations. Ai’dallani will gladly welcome guests from other cultures, provided the guests will be respectful to their traditions.

Inhabited area and settlements:
The tribe inhabits the great river and the lakes it flows through. The area consists mostly of tropical marshlands, altough on some places the river runs through dense forests or open flatlands. Currently most of the tribe lives in one of the seven large floating villages, the poap’ki, although some decided to live on smaller vessels that accompany the villages on their journey. The villages usually travel in the same general direction, not entirely together, but always nearby. There is dense traffic of smaller boats travelling between poap’ki at all times, transporting goods, news or people from one village to another.
The river's current is weak most of the year, allowing the villages to sail in any direction they want to, using long poles to push the vessels around, and even using sails when the winds are favorable. The river goes through a yearly cycle - with the beginning of spring the river widens and floods the surrounding areas, filled by heavy rains and snows melting in the mountains upstream. Summer and fall are the best seasons for travelling and finding a safe place to anchor for winter. The temperatures don't drop too low, but the rains stop and the becomes narrower and more shallow.

Warriors:
Ai’dallani are rather peaceful people, the only true warriors in their tribe are Kushini – the crocodile warriors. These are the most elite fighters from the tribe, sworn to protect the people and to serve as bodyguards for the Lan’Nizsi and Aila’Nizsi. The crocodile warriors fight with two weapons – long and short with sharp spikes on one side, resembling the jaws of a crocodile. Mauls are usually made of bone or wood, with sharp stones or real animal teeth. If the need arises, hunters and fishermen can be useful in a fight as well.

Story:
At the beginning of time, there was only a barren wasteland, spreading over the world. The land was dry and cracked in many places. And from one of those cracks, a small spring appeared. At first, it was nothing more than a few drops of water, forcing their way through the rocks just as a child forces its way out of its mothers' womb. It was a long and painful birth, but drops became a trickle, the trickle slowly became a stream and the stream turned into a great river Nizsi, the mother of all living things.

Eventually Nizsi spread into the to the wasteland that our world used to be, seeding it with life. Colorful plants of all kinds began to grow and bloom, turning the rocky barrens into fertile lands. Nizshi would come every cycle, sweeping off the old life to give a chance to new one and the world was in perfect balance.

But Niszi felt there was still space for more life in this new world, so she gave birth to the first living creatures - her children Lankushna, the crocodile spirit, and Ailinia, the ibis spirit. They roamed the land, enjoying its beauty. Eventually they joined together and from that connection the ancestors of all living things were born. Suddenly the world was overflowing with life - fish, birds, reptiles, insects, mammals all placed next to each other, learning to coexist. It took Lankushna and Ailinia millenia to bring balance back to the world, to ensure that all the species will survive. It was then when Ailinia revealed her last creation - a human. Since the world was already in perfect balance, Lankushna was hesitant to place humans into it, worrying it might upset that balance. He eventually agreed, but the humans were instructed to preserve the balance, never taking more than they needed from the world, and always return everything to the mother of everything, Nizsi.

Some of the humans desired to explore the world and wandered far away from the river, forgeting about Lankushna's teaching. A large group however decided to stay as close to their mother as possible, at first sailing on feeble boats, which in time were perfected into the shapes of the poap'ki, the floating villages.

Important people:
Kiala – current Aila’Nizsi
Kiala was first elected Aila’Nizsi at the young age of thirteen and now it is her third year in row leading her people. While being young, innocent and perhaps a bit naive, she has strong connection with the spiritual world and great experience with interpreting the will of the spirits.
She and Ruvvi are currently expecting a child. It is considered a great blessing for the tribe when the leading couple conceives a child during their cycle together.

Ruvvi – current Lan’Nizsi
Ruvvi is twenty-six and it is his first cycle as Lan’Nizsi. His election was a surprise – he wasn’t a great warrior or a shaman like his predecessors, but rather a simple fisherman. Despite that, he is quite smart while having a calm mind, not easily provoked to violence. While most leading couples throughout the history were just formal tradition, Ruvvi and Kiala truly love each other and plan to stay together.

Ozei – chieftain of one of the poap’ki
Ozei is a twenty-two-year-old female leader of one of the floating villages. She is friendly and outgoing, but also rather short-tempered – easily angered, easily excited. Despite her flaws, her people love her as a fair and responsible ruler. She is a fearsome fighter, although her duties as a chieftain do not allow her to join the Kushini. She at least gets to train with her mate Vug, who is one of the crocodile warriors. They have three children.

Beasts stalk the night, and their name is the Aishrek. Nomads, warriors, conquerors. They let others plan for winters- to them will go the spoils without toiling.



The Aishrek respect one thing, and one thing only- strength. They claim heritage from muscle and sinew, bone and blood. The Aishrek are predators, and as such they offer their praises to predators. Ritualistic self-harm, be it directly through cuts or indirectly through fasting, the consumption of psychedelic or hallucinatory plants and both the beginning and ending of life play a tremendous role in Aishrek religious beliefs. By offering their exaltation to the predators, predators in turn lend their fervour to the tribe. Aishrek warriors may lean on the strength of a bear, the cunning of a fox or the fury of the sabre-tooth, turning the tide dramatically. Outside of combat, their largely carnivorous diet forces them to move often, although their territory is never deserted for long.



No one person can claim to rule the Aishrek. They are 'democratic,' in that they make consensus-based decisions, with elders or those in skilled positions providing advice, but not strictly speaking holding authority.



Just like animal predators, the range that the Aishrek roam is large. Warnings are placed around their most sacred and commonly-trod paths, but much of what they consider 'their land,' is unmarked. Aishrek settlements are never permanent- They are always moving on to the next game to hunt or the next tribe that has encroached onto what they consider rightfully theirs.



In the world of chaotic tribal warfare, where the tides of battle turn on one mans conviction, the Aishrek are masters of morale. Hardened to combat and inured to pain, they use heavy, brutish weapons and oftentimes cumbersome armour to move, seemingly implacably, towards their foes, hacking and slaughtering until they flee. When the bloodshed has stopped, they take their fill of the bounty their defeated enemies held, take their time to honour the Hunt, and then move on, shedding no tears over those who have returned to the blood.



The Aishrek consider even themselves a tribe of outcasts. Those whose great strength and fortitude raised them above the common members of other tribes, and were rightly feared as superior to their so-called tribesmen. When paranoia or fear forced them out, they banded together, taking the name of the Aishrek and channelling themselves through those who turned life into a hunt- swearing to keep their strength and fortitude forevermore.

Name:

Saamalasailet (collective), Saamala (colloquial collective), Saami (singular).

Brief description:

The Saamala are nomadic people, preferring to stay near coasts, rivers and dense forests for their needs. They revere the natural world.

Main deity:

The Saamala revere all things natural. Whether animal or plant, all aspects of nature are revered as the deity of these people. Hunting is accepted, and encouraged, but disrespect shown during this process is extremely offensive to these people. For example, hunting an animal without using every part of it is considered wasteful and disrespectful, and it is thought among them that this will bring down the wrath of that animal in the future, or that it will not allow itself to be hunted. The forest and the sea are of particular reverence to these people.

Government:

There is no 'government' among the Saamala, but ancestor worship is prevalent, and the wisdom and experience of the elders is respected and often heeded. As such, the elders operate as a de facto leadership in the sense that they are considered to know best, but do not hold 'official' authority.

Inhabited area and settlements:

The Saamala live primarily in boreal forest. Large rivers, some running for thousands of kilometres, are used as the highways of these people. Boreal trees are used to make canoes to traverse these rivers, and flint from coastal areas is used for tools. The trees, rivers and all other aspects of the geography are revered by these people, and very little scarring by humanity can be seen (I.e no mass deforestation, etc.). The Saamala are somewhat nomadic.

They move during certain seasons so that their animals can feed on fresh growth, and so that they can take advantage of seasonal food (I.e rivers are more useful in the spring and summer because they are not frozen). Therefore, these people can be seen on rivers and coastal areas far more frequently during warmer months, and in land during the winter where herds of animals are more likely to be found.

Their settlements are an assortment of huts and shelters made of wooden frames and covered in animal hides sewn together to make a protective covering. Long-term settlements are constructed of wooden frames and covered with thatching made of branches and earth for insulation.

Story:

The Saamala have little in the way of a mythological or divine story regarding their origin. They do not believe they are the sole inheritors of the land, or that a deity gave them possession of the wild, but simply believe they are one part of a large orchestra that makes up the living world, which is what plays a significant part in their shamanistic religion.

By nature of the climate, dangerous wildlife and unforgiving lifestyle, the boreal forests have always been relatively scarcely populated, and as such the Saamala are not a people that number very hugely, but they are a people who respect the nature of the cold climate and understand that co-operation is preferable to conflict, and this mentality lead to the formation of a de facto tribe from an assortment of individual families over time.

The result of their formation means that the Saamala are more of an ethnic group inhabiting the northern boreal forests, rather than a political entity that another tribe or individual could hope to deal with as a whole.

Warriors:

War is not a typical pursuit of the Saamala. Those who prefer fishing are familiar with frog-spears and the like, those who hunt are familiar with bows and spears, and so forth, and so the people are not unskilled with weapons, but very rarely will they take the lives of people. This is only done in defence.

Important people: TBA as story progresses.

Worship:
The Spirit of the Magpie leads the Glittering Collection. The Magpie is said to be the craftiest of all creatures made by the gods. When the birds were challenged to see who could fly highest, The Magpie perched on the back of the Great Eagle, and when the bird was tired, fluttered off of his back, claiming the crown for himself. He preens himself with pride, his collection growing every day. Under the Magpie, the tribe shall not want. Harsh times may come, and some may die, but there will always be just enough food for the next hunt, just enough water to last until the next oasis, and just enough obsidian to finish a spear. The Magpie also leads the tribe to areas where there is plenty, especially in food or his 'shinies.' In exchange, the Magpie requires his insatiable appetite for glittering trinkets satisfied. Blandness cannot be tolerated, and dullness is the mark of an outcast. Furthermore, he himself claims a portion of the best, under his 'right' as king of avians.

Long ago, the Magpie was another lowly bird. He was not as fast as the Peregrine, as powerful as the Eagle, as beautiful as the Macaw, as large as the Condor or as fit as the Albatross. However, he did have an eye for precious items. Scooping them up, the Magpie would jealously protect his glittering horde, until one day, one of the Gods came down, curious as to what the gleam was from Magpie's nest. Astonished at what he had created, the God was also concerned that the Magpie would collect all the precious materials in the world. To prevent this from happening, he scatted the great horde far and wide, however in return, granted the Magpie something to make him truly special- intelligence. He was not as fast as the Peregrine, but he could take a faster route. He was not as powerful as the Eagle, but he could trick the other birds into giving him food. Amusing his collection once more, he draped himself in fine blue robes, to become as beautiful as the Macaw, and could ride on other creatures for far longer than the Albatross could fly. However, he was alone- without another to match his intellect.

This changed when he found humans however, as in them he saw a kindred soul. Humans were not as strong as the Elephant, as ferocious as the Lion, as lithe as the Gazelle, as fast as the Cheetah or as resilient as the Rhino. But Magpie saw cleverness within the humans, and where there was cleverness, there was guile. Together, promised the Magpie, the humans would never want, but they would need to help him in assembling his 'shinies' again.

Alongside the Magpie, two other avian spirits are worshipped. The Mark of the Raven is a small wooden likeness of a bird, the wood blackened and charred. Said to contain the spirit of Magpie's oldest friend, it is affixed to a strip of leather, with numerous jet-black feathers and obsidian and gold pieces. It is a sacred and extraordinary precious trinket, and to lose it would bring disgrace to the entirety of the tribe. Anyone wearing the Mark of the Raven gains a new insight on life. Everything seems clearer and easier to understand, and even the most complicated of puzzles become child's play whilst wearing it. However, the wearer changes in other ways. They become more distant and capricious, their great intellect tempered with a flighty and eccentric nature. Furthermore, it seems to push away the Mark of the Eagle, making wearing the two together impossible.

There is also the second fetish, The Mark of the Eagle. An eye made from amber, it too is attached to a leather necklace, however the necklace is instead marked with white and bronze feathers, as well as bird talons and shards of iron. It too, is a sacred and precious trinket, and its loss would be a great a mark against the tribe as losing the Mark of the Raven would be. Those wearing the Mark of the Eagle are the greatest hunters the tribe has ever been blessed with. They can spot prey from great distances, aim their bows and spears with pinpoint accuracy, and never tire in the pursuit. They also seem unnaturally lucky with finding prey- and they will never search for days, only to come up empty handed. However, those wearing the mark become haughty, arrogant and overbearing, and the wearer cannot stand the wearer of the other Mark.

Leadership:
The Collective are a polygamist Matriarchal society, where woman and men can both have multiple partners. Whilst the men gather the 'shinies' and are the main force behind the nomadic season, it is the woman who clean and polish stones, raise the children to appreciate the Magpie, make amulets and weapons alike, and fish during the autumn months. Woman are also considered more responsible and determined than the men, and sons are expected to listen to mothers over fathers. Decisions are made in the Winged Council- four women who are elected from the tribe upon one's death, lead by a fifth who communes with the Magpie for guidance.

Warriors:
The Collection strives not to fight, instead preferring to trade and showcase their wealth to each other. However, it would be a mistake to underestimate them. They produce high calibre archers and spear-throwers, and their obsidian arrows are prized for their resilience and edge. When forced to fight, they generally prefer hit-and-run methods, attempting to dissuade their foes from launching attacks on their vulnerable settlements rather than sweeping their foes from the battlefield in a glorious fight.

Important Figures:
Mother Pyari: The youngest member of the Council. She acts as a liaison between the council and the members of the tribe, assisted by her reputation as a caring and considerate figure. She spends her time in the permanent camp, caring for children and teaching others in the skills of making jewellery and fetishes.

Speaker Okaya: The current leader of the Council, and bearer of the Mark of the Raven. A thin figure, she secludes herself from all others, spending much of her time in discussion with the Magpie, or with the council, behind closed doors. Most find her eccentric at best, esoteric and impossible to understand at worst.

Huntsman Vyarin: Current bearer of the Mark of the Eagle. A peerless hunter, he spends most of his time away from his fellows, only returning when he has caught his quarry. In times of need, Zayzhe is also leader of The Falcons, a group of other hunters who serve as assassins and marksmen for the defence of the tribe.

The People:
Hailing from the northern lands of the world, the Narthskr are a comparatively sedentary tribe who move between a number of rocky outcrops on the mountain based on the seasons. During the warmer months they descend lower down the slopes, enjoy the bounty of hunting, fishing, and gathering stuffs that can be taken from the forests at the foot of the mountains. When the temperatures drop, however, and lots of resources become scarce, they retreat further into the mountains where they live off the excess they have collected and hide away scraps in case of times of shortness in the highest points that remain permanently frozen - though they live lower than that.

The lifestyle and climate has made the Narthskr a tough and gritty people, used to hardship and unafraid to suffer for their survival. This does leave them less populous than other tribes which enjoy a simpler and easier life, but the question of moving down from the mountains has been rejected flatly any time it comes up. They are a highland people, this is all they have known.

The Faith:
The Narthskr practise a form of ancestor worship, honouring their dead for the loss of each person is felt even more acutely than in other tribes. If the person lived to the benefit of the society, their name and deeds will be remembered in the Laaj Wal. The Laaj Wal is the Narthskr equivalent to a consecrated ground; found on the apparent location of the first Narthskr home, it is a cliff face, oddly smooth and sheer, which has the names and deeds of every past member of the tribe to die having completed services to the tribe. Suffice to say those ejected from the tribe are not remembered there.

The path to this mystical area is dotted with shrines erected by the different clans to the memory of truly remarkable people. Most complete offerings with small crafted object, as the act of creating such a trinket is supposed to channel the energy of the crafter into empowering the ancestors spirit. Another outcome of an existence that allows little time for leisure or play.

The Leader:
The Narthskr exist in perpetual danger, as do all in this age, and so do not waste the young and energetic on matters of tribe direction, instead utilising the wisdom of the old and the frail. The eldest member of each clan acts as the head of their family and, regularly, meets with the other elders to discuss any matters concerning the tribe as a whole. Given the autonomy of most clans in the tribe, however, there has been no need for any extensive mechanism of governance.

The Home:
There are a number of rocky outcrops with enough flat space amongst the mountains and in the highlands near the forests in the north to allow for the tribe to move according to the seasons around a single area. With one permanent residence near the Laaj Wal, which they inhabit in force during the bleakest and coldest winters, leaving the barest makeshift houses for people to live in during the warmer months in case they need the Laaj Wal, their home at all other times is an easily packed away and moved collection of tents. The secrets of farming and husbandry allude the Narthskr - keeping them from the age of bronze - and so their travels down the mountain are more expeditions for resources than any actual attempt to reside there any longer than necessary.

The Conflict:
Given that permanent warriors are nothing but a drain on resources most of the year round, the Narthskr have none. Instead each person is held accountable for their survival and, if a rival tribe comes into conflict, required to serve the interests of the tribe and repel aggressors. The tools of war are their tools of hunting, a flint spear meant for a boar kills a man just as easily.

The Story:
The Narthskr tell their children a story that in the time before people, giants and great natural entities fought for dominance over existence. Each sought to exact their will permanently on the land and, in time, destroy all others. There was no single victor, however, and imstead an uneasy peace was established, creating the world in a changing image where one part of nature struggles with the other and the weather, enviroment, and land changes according to who is winning this conflict. The beings, no longer corporeal, live as spirits in the land now.

It was following this that the first people emerged, having been hiding the previous violence and uncertainty in a different world. They came down from the mountains and dispersed into their tribes to eek out a new existence in the new peace of the world. Acceding to the story tellers the peace cannot last, and the world goes through a cycle of peace and conflict when the spirits fight once again. The last recorded moment of this was the previous age of ice that settled on the land and finally passed.

Persons of Note:
To be expanded.

The People:
If you travel West to the Great Water you must first cross the long rolling plains that bring so much life to the world. The oceans of grass give way to sand dunes and eventually to the rolling swells of the Great Water itself, an obstacle so vast it defies realization. And yet, on those sandy shores and among the never ending cascade of coloured corals and beautiful fish, where the mighty river empties into the Great Deep, a people known as the Muhit can be found.

They arrived several hundred years before, driven from their distant lands by the far more warlike Aishrek. They journeyed across the plains, following the river, until they came to the Great Deep and on those crystal shores they found a home. Alsakhrat, the Mighty Rock, is an otherwise unknown monstrous formation of granite rock that rises above all the surrounding land. Acting as a natural barrier to weather it provided an ideal bay for fishing and for the Muhit to settle.

The weather here is more or less consistent in its warmth and generosity, allowing the Muhit to settle and build what could possibly be the first permanent settlement. They prize fishing, deep diving, and their connection with the water over all else. They are a fiercely protective people, having domesticated wild dogs to serve as guard dogs and even as family pets. While they welcome other tribes for trade they do not share land well with others and have engaged in more than the odd pitched skirmish nomadic peoples, land and sea faring alike.

Men and women are considered equals for most tasks. Women are encouraged to sleep with many partners so that when a child is born, anyone could be the parent, thereby making it the responsibility of the whole tribe to raise the younglings. Some chose to have a single partner for an extended period of time but the Muhit have no concept of marriage.

The Faith:
The Muhit worship all water as the giver of life. They believe that the world was born through the antics of the sea creatures they know as Dualifin, a long log shaped creature of high intelligence and humanlike humour. The bones, particularly the skulls, of the Dualifin, are prized by all members of the tribe and are believed to bring luck when at sea.

The ability to dive deep and harvest the bounty of the ocean is valued greatly and more than a few Muhit can claim a Dualifin as a friend.

The people believe that dualifin bless those who swim with them, providing the ability to swim faster, dive deeper, and even see more clearly underwater.

Leadership:
The Muhit are led by two Chiefs, one male and one female. They share equally in the task of leading the tribe and are selected by virtue of a series of trials designed to test strength, cunning, and resourcefulness. This has led to the leaders often being among the most intelligent and strongest of the tribe.

The Town:
The Muhit live in a series of cave dwellings along the face of Alsakhrat. What began as simply caves to hide in slowly developed with screens for the openings, then more permanent walling methods were used to protect what was inside. The dwellings overlook the main bay where the fishing fleet is drawn up on the beaches every night. No vessels sail after dark for fear of the beasts that lurk in the black water.

Defending the Tribe:
The Muhit have no dedicated warriors. All are of course expected to know how to wield a spear, or trident, for catching fish. Bows are used for larger fish in the shallows and tribal members carry clubs embedded with a black rock found in the deeper caves to defend themselves from wild dogs, or the much larger feline Asada that hunts in groups.

Tales of the Tribe:
The Muhit themselves have no real written language, though they enjoy song and music, which they use to tell their tales. They once lived along the mighty river that cuts the world in two but clashes with the far more savage Aishrek led to many of them fleeing west. As a nomadic people they had lived in tents of fur, leather and wood and domesticated wolves to serve as companions and to help battle the Aishrek. When they went west they took it all with them.

It took the Muhit several generations to migrate west. Their dogs interbred with wild dogs of the plains to the point that little remains of the original wolf they had known in their homeland. They encountered horses and were fascinated by them. Some they captured and found them to be of good eating.

When they at last reached the Great Deep, and Alsakhrat, they found at last a home they could make their own. They absorbed a small tribe already living in the area and quickly began to grow. When the seasons did not change and the winters remained mild, the Chiefs decided they would stay. There was more than enough food and shelter. The Muhit had come to stay.

Named Men and Women:
Ishea

Named Places and Creatures:
Alsakhrat
Home of the Muhit tribe. This massive mountain of stone stands alone along the shores of the Great Deep.
Dualifin
Ocean going creature worshipped and befriended by the Muhit.
Asada
A large plains dwelling feline that lives in small family groups. They are more than a match for even a pair of hunters.
Wahasha
The Wahasha are a domesticated species of dog the Muhit brought with them across the great plains. They have bred with local species of wild dogs and become more streamlined and less shaggy due to the warm climate.