[CHAR] Upon Our Changing Times

[Dinh AaronMk]

Name:
The Town of Sü

Leaders:
Nyutien Bangyi

Location:

(Purple blob with light border)

Population:
1000

Background/History:
The town that'd come to be known as Sü or Su was put down some century ago by a mixed group of individuals disbarred from their homelands now presently ruled by the Hemquan to the west. Soldiers, administrators and loyalists to their former king a failed revolt against the titled Heron Emperor forced the population of the once independent kingdom to flea into the wilderness or be enslaved or killed for their brash recklessness. Of a wider population of refugees, a group of just under five-hundred came to the region and on the banks of a wide, mighty river they laid the foundations for the first town.

Within the year though they realized they had made a poor mistake in laying their first homes. Come spring and early summer, the banks of the great river rose as spring melt and glacial melting from up-river swelled the banks and flooded the the shore, increasing its awesome span from some six miles in spot, to a full ten to fifteen. The water came up to shoulder level and swept away the early huts and cottages and nearly threatened to destroy all their crops. Some fifty were recorded as having died in the first year of flooding and the lean times this error wrought on them forced a full five years of lean harvest and sprawling foraging and hunting missions to feed the growing village.

In that time, they moved up from the banks, laying a second village above the seasonal flood levels and sewing new fields tried to get back to that simple act of living, and not just trying to survive through clenched teeth.

After five years of rugged torture and near annihilation, things became better and the village could grow. After the end of the first five years twenty children were born to the nine dead that year. In time, the population had recovered to the levels at which it had begun and the village's population was further supplemented at times by handfuls of local natives who had been previously banished from their bands and clans and found a new life among the foreign expatriates.

As the village grew into a town it took on an economy, and sent irregular rafts up-river to seek out the communities and settlements that made up the Hemquan's frontier to trade their excess for tools. The villagers began trading locally with natives, offering them rice and grains in exchange for exotic animals they as well sold up-river for metal tools and quipment.

Su grew steadily from there and its people cut down more and more of the forests to plant their crop fields and for pasturage for their cattle.

Sü's first recognized leader was a former soldier simply referred to as Bangyu. The respect he got from the people he led turned him in some ways to a local lord, and when he had his first son, Yueitu he gave him the second name Bang or Bangyi, after himself. Yueitu would take over from his father as village chief, and likewise his son Hyung, and after him Nyutien.

[RisenDead]

Name:
Koshibito Tribe

Leaders:
Chief Chouko

Location:

Location

Population:
900 (Depending on the Weather), Fishing Village

Background/History:
The Koshibito Tribe has always been on the ocean, from the very first moment men came from the West to wiggle their feet in the sand and warm waters of the bay. The first settlers were a Nomadic people from further West who had slowly made their way down through the rain forest along the banks of the river, eventually following one of its outlets to the sea. Here they built a small village, under the guidance of the first Chief Chouko, a matronly woman who provided great guidance despite being blind.

Years would pass and the small village would fluctuate greatly in size on a regular basis as the forest killed some, the ocean others, and more than once the tribe nearly vanished from the face of the earth only to be revived by others from the West. The village would eventually be built on higher ground next to the sea, providing protection from the creatures in the rainforest that had learned that humans make easy prey. Advancements in small boats went beyond virtual rafts to actual large single hulled vessels hollowed from single trees felled in the forest, allowing the tribe to catch greater numbers of fish and other sea life.

The Koshibito have virtually no battle experience against other humans other than the odd in fight amongst its own people. For as long as it has existed, the tribe has been locked in a battle with nature. The rainforest is thick with powerful creatures that can break a single spear wielding tribesman. The most dangerous of these is the man-eating Tiger, six hundred pounds of clawed fury that kills many villagers every year. As a result the great cats are held in some awe by the Tribe and their furs are considered highly valuable, though less than a dozen have ever been collected.

At sea there are just as many enemies. Sharks preyed for many years on the small raft like vessels the Koshibito used, easily upsetting them with coordinated attacks and dragging screaming tribesman to their deaths. Even the bigger sea life, whales, can casually destroy any boat the Koshibito posses, and on more than one occasion people have lost their lives when they came to close to one of the huge beasts. New advancements in tools are slowly allowing the population to hunt the smaller sea going creatures, though the Dolphin is considered sacred to the tribe and serves as their guardian spirit. This as a result of a number of tribesman who had been thought lost to sea appearing on the beach and crediting their survival to the help of the dolphin.

The population currently sits at the highest level it ever has and with more and more children surviving birth and their early years, the Koshibito Tribe finally looks as if it is here to stay.

[ClocktowerEchos]

Name:
Khaha na Ronn (or just Khaha)

Leaders:
Lord Yuetin Arrun

Location:

Claim

Population:
~850 people (Farming Village)

Background/History:
According to the tales of old, the progenitors of Khaha na Ronn were lead east by a woman remembered only as "the Greater". The winds whisper various names with the most common wisps saying that the Greater's name was Ronn or Khaha, but such are mere whispers who cannot agree even amongst themselves. Some even dare think that perhaps she was of Hemquat royality. What is known is that the Greater had brought together many a people who migrated east after their numbers were whittled down. Days passed into months, months passed into years but finally the migration was at its end. The heavens had told the Greater and her followers that once they found a white tree with a black bird in it struck by lighting, they would have found their new home and now they had.

Trees were cut down, dirt was dug and soil was tiled as the people began to settle down. Huntsmen, foragers and fishermen would bring in food as the crops sprouted from the farmlands that grew and grew into the ever distant horizon. Hovels became huts as wood and clay were offered as sacrifice to build the village up. Dialects and slang picked up and formed from the Great Journey had formed a new offshoot language of Hemquat called "Woqitang". And the Greater watched over it all as she began to age and her health started to decline; she might have been a robust, lively young woman when she lead the Great Journey but time and nature had taken her toll on her. Her closest friends and followers knew her life was at its end but the Greater refused to acknowledge it until one day, she disappeared from her home and the village.

A frantic search began as woodsmen and peasants tried to track down their leader but she was no where to be found. It was then that one of her followers claimed that the Heavens had taken her to be their queen after she lead them so well. The Greater was then enshrined as an eternal goddess of life who had become the "Lady of the Heavens", named "Horuei". A leader in life, the Greater was now a pantheon in death.

Under her watchful eye high in the sky, the village continued to grow. It saw bountiful bumper harvests and joyous celebration as well terrible storms and great tragedy. But of all their hardships, one nomadic tribe in particular had caused the people of Khaha na Ronn the most suffering, the Yomkep. At first it was simple skirmishes and threats, then it escalated as women were captured and men were killed. Local hunters would form the first militia soldiers to try and fend off against the Yomkep but they were given little respect from much of the populace and leadership who saw the Yomkep as nothing but a small thorn in the side of their growing community. But even thorns can be deadly.

One night, while all was asleep, the Yomkep came in force. Massed waves of raiders came out of the forests and over the hills, killing and burning everything in sight. What small and meager resistance that the understaffed and under equipped militia could produce was crushed under the tide of marauding reavers. Come dawn, people buried themselves out of the ashes of their homes and set their sights against the Yomkep, flames of revenge in each of their hearts.

As the village rebuilt, an army was raised and given the best that Khaha na Ronn could provide them. Years would pass until the Yomkep would return, but the people would not stand idle during that time. When the Yomkep nomads came back to their homes, the Khahans fought back with a vengeful fury which would send them running off into the distance, being taught a lesson that the Khahans were no longer just push overs.

Since that time, Khaha na Ronn has expanded and flourished, their farmlands producing food for a growing population as they claim more forest lands and more river banks for their own. Over the years, a central citadel was built up as the defacto administration area where the Lord would rule over all with the help of his advisors. Woqitang was written down and given a proper system of writing for the first time and taught to nobles and scholars as well as their sons. Farms became increasingly varied as different types of crops were experimented with and even those not meant as food were planted to make rope and linen.

And from her throne in heaven, surrounded by the many new gods, goddess, deities and heroes, Hourei the Greater, the Queen of Heavens looked down and smiled at her work, proud at what her beloved village and people had become.

[TheSovereignGrave]

Batu Menangis

Batu Menangis

Leaders:
Kuzai Agung anak Suriawati, Chief of Batu Menangis
Sin Chik anak Murni, High Priest of Batu Menangis

Location:


Population:
700

Background/History:
Batu Menangis is a village of the Orang, a people indigenous to the region rather than descended from those migrating from the West. The earliest histories of the Orang are shrouded in myth and legend, but the Orang themselves believe themselves to have been founded by a warrior named Guntur and his 99 companions. They were born in the east but traveled west to carve out a land of their own, fighting and eventually exterminating a race of giants and claiming the mountains for their own. The women these men fathered children with would become the first matriarchs of the 120 clans of the Orang, massive extended families which spread throughout the Orang beyond the barriers of villages and bands. Batu Menangis is relatively new as a village, though the area has had the name for untold generations. The name means 'Weeping Stone' and refers to a great waterfall that pours out of a sheer cliff face near to the village itself.

Before the arrival of the men from the west, the Orang were simple hunter gatherers. They traveled from place to place, following game in an attempt to avoid starvation. Though they did indeed live in the mountains, there were also Orang who lived in the lowland regions. But no longer. For when the men of the west came, they desired land of their own. They claimed the more fertile land of the Orang, forcing them from their traditional hunting grounds and back towards their kin in the mountains. Today there are few, if any, Orang, outside of the great mountains that house them. However, the arrival of the western men was not without its up sides. Not all contact was violent, especially once the Orang were reduced to the mountainous land that the outsiders did not deign worth taking. And the outsiders brought the secrets of technology such as metalworking and agriculture, which the the Orang have begun to adopt.

However, the land in the mountains is not the most fertile and only the hardiest of crops will grow there. As a result there are still many bands of Orang who are hunter-gatherers and even the sedentary Orang must result to hunting and gathering to supplement what they are able to grow in the mountains. Batu Menangis itself was one of the earliest of Orang villages to spring up, thanks to its location alongside a lake and adjoining rivers making it more suited to agriculture than many other regions. It was governed much in the same way as the nomadic bands had been; a high priest dealt with spritual matters while wordly affairs were left to the chief. The high priest was chosen and trained by his predecessor while the chief was chosen by the village matriarchs, usually the eldest woman of each clan with members in the village. The earliest days were harsh on the Orang, as agriculture was a new concept to them and they had yet to learn anything beyond its very basics. Many died, but it was fewer than had been dying of hunger when they had traveled in nomadic bands. But as time went on the village would grow as the population boomed and nomadic bands decided to settle within the village, and other villages would be found among the Orang.

Though relations with outsiders are well enough that peaceful trading and negotiations are possible, there are a great many who are distrustful or outright hateful of the Orang. For the Orang are known to raid and pillage the villages of their neighbours as it is simply part of their way of life, and Batu Menangis is no different. But even worse in the minds of many is the fact that the raids are more than just that; they are also hunts. For among the Orang there is no stigma against the consumption of human flesh, in fact it is an everyday part of life. Unless one dies of disease traditional Orang funerals involve the ritual consumption of the deceased's flesh, and even after that the left over skin and bone are often used as crafting materials, as the Orang put no importance in a person's body once their spirit had fled it.