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The Byrn-Na Settlements (Byrn People)

Mythos:
The Byrn people are a confederation of kin groups, so origin myths tend to vary. Their common thread begins with the goddess Apademi of seasons, water, agriculture, and protection: She is said to have brought the clans of Byrn-Na to the Awud Delta for mutual aid, safety, and the development of a settled society. It is notable that none of the clans trace their origins to hunters or pastoralists, only semi-sedentary gatherers and slash-and-burn agriculturalists. They have a firmer attachment to location than many other societies, which allows them to transcend kin divisions at the expense of nomads, whom they tend to view as uncivilized leeches. This is especially so because there are no universal gods in the Byrn pantheon: Every god is local, ranging from a village's patron to Apademi herself, who is rooted in the Awud Delta. Thus, nomads are abusers of the gods' hospitality, going from home to home taking from the land but giving back nothing. The Byrn, in contrast, build villages and plant crops to form Byrn-Na, that which is (properly) of the Byrn.

The decentralized nature of Byrn religion means that worship practices vary by village. There is no formal priestly caste to speak of, though every village tends to have a priest or shaman respected by both residents and outsiders. However, there are two common sacred rituals that unite the confederation. The first is the collection of a portion of dead stalks and chaff on specialized bowl-like altars atop hills, where they are burned in honor of Apademi. These sacred hill fires represent both a cleansing of the land she has graciously leased to her people, as well as an offering reminiscent of many clans' slash-and-burn roots. The second ritual is the cordoning off of certain sections of land into "sacred groves," where wild berries and nuts are left to grow with little human intervention. This serves as a reminder that the land ultimately belongs to Apademi; cultivating all the fertile ground might deceive the Byrn into thinking themselves ultimate masters of Awud. As a form of tribute to Apademi, the dead are buried in sacred groves so they can fertilize her land.

Recently, a new concept has crept into Byrn popular theology. Saints, mystics thought to have a special connection with the divine, have joined and occasionally even usurped patron gods. Those who live gather throngs of devotees, while those who are dead have shrines built in their honor.

Basic History:
What drew the many people to the Awud Delta was most likely the village originally known as Byrn, an unusually large settlement in the area with sturdy palisades that offered protection to semi-sedentary peoples from hostile nomads known to steal their harvests. It became a virtual town of refugees as more and more clans settled around it, but the newcomers were welcome because the region was so fertile that additional cultivators provided more than they took. By the year 4600, "Byrn" was no longer the name of the settlement, but rather a new confederate people. Two-hundred years later, agriculture advanced to the point where primitive granaries appeared. The original village, which became known as Byrnis, had well outgrown its palisades, and the growing population was beginning to spread out into satellite villages. By this point, all of the former "newcomer" clans had adopted the worship of Apademi, and in turn they had brought to Byrnis the practices of hill fires and sacred groves.

Within the next few-hundred years, the Byrn people experienced a demographic and geographic explosion; now they were displacing nomads, and not the other way around. Naturally, this entailed fierce warfare, and this hardened the disdain for nomads prevalent in Byrn-Na. They developed a particular warrior practice of burning the enemy dead in hill fires rather than sacred groves, treating them like dead stalks to be cleansed. The war was long and difficult, and nomad counter-attacks could be devastating. It was during this time that Byrnis transformed its palisade into a proper wooden wall and added a second wooden wall to encompass its growth since 4500.

In the last century, villages have begun to sprout further from Byrnis than ever before, particularly in the North. With the beginnings of trade with the Vargnis and Bypine, the Byrn have even founded ports along the northern coast. In the wake of this expansion, Byrnis has developed a caste of nobles including both notable townsfolk and village representatives.

Material Culture:
Byrn food production is done exclusively by farmers and sedentary gatherers. Small game hunting is accepted as a supplement to nutrition, but big game hunting is looked down upon as unclean. Only desperation is a valid excuse for temporarily adopting the ways of the nomads. Taking it on as a way of life is anathema.

The primary crops of Byrn-Na are sorghum, wheat, yams, and millet. In addition to this, common foods are berries, nuts, wild fruit, birds, and river fish. Recently, cattle have made their way into Byrn-Na agriculture via trade with their Northeastern neighbors, and sea fishing has become a common source of nutrition on the northern coast. Because the Byrn class structure is less stratified than most and relatively decentralized, it is not uncommon to see the full panoply of Byrn-Na foods in the meal of a peasant family. Whenever feasible, meals are eaten outside among fellow villagers or neighbors. Utensils are used for cooking, but rarely for eating, and food is served from collective pots onto individual plates or bowls (usually wooden).

Most Byrn-Na buildings are made of mud-brick, but Byrnis' walls and high-ground location allow the selective use of timber and stone. Now that Byrn civilization has spread far enough, certain villages can devote themselves to quarrying, bringing stone into Byrnis. Furthermore, metalworking has begun to expand throughout the Byrn-Na settlements. This has allowed architects to begin experimenting with stone and gold. Great shrines to Apademi have been built: Small crowds of statues lifting up a rising sun covered in gold. Other patron deities have gotten attention as well, and some of the older satellites of Byrnis boast their own stone monuments. The motif of a crowd of people lifting up a symbol is the most common. However, the concept of Saints has allowed for some more anthropomorphic sculptures, often mixing human characteristics with those of plants or (non-migratory) birds. Sculptures of saints are generally painted entirely black save for some elements of gold and blue. White, the color of death, is employed only in "basins" or accompanying sculptures where stalks and chaff are collected and burned as sacred hill fires.

Byrn weaving is perhaps the people's strongest craft. Clothing is one of the most visible distinctions between proper settled peoples and nomad barbarians, and thus essential to Byrn identity. Vibrant colors, especially deep blue, and geometric patterning are hallmarks of Byrn dress. Even villagers make a point of layering colors, sometimes wearing multiple robes in contrast with one another. Nobles and prominent townsfolk add to this gold and silver embroidery. Jewelry, made of beads and colorful stones, is also common in Byrn-Na for all genders and classes. Gold and silver jewelry is unique to Byrnis, and available only to priests and nobles.

Society:
The stratification of Byrn-Na society is irregular, ambiguous, and relatively limited. The clearest elite is that of nobles, which include the Village Nobles and the Byrnis Nobles. The Village Nobles are selected by elders, and the Byrnis Nobles represent the Five Heroic Dynasties of Byrnis, descendants of champions of the long war against the nomads. The nobles meet regularly in Byrnis to bring the many Byrn-Na settlements together, but their formal authority is limited to military matters for the common defense. Naturally, all nobles are capable warriors and strategists.

There is no rigid priestly caste, but spiritual leaders still wield significant power. The priests of Apademi in Byrnis are the town's main patrons of the arts and architecture, save for the walls which fall under noble authority. In villages, the priests or shamans are almost always the most powerful Elders, and in local matters their authority often surpasses that of the Village Noble.

Byrnis has a special Warrior class, tied to the Five Great Dynasties and enjoying spectacular respect. But in the rest of Byrn-Na, the military is generally comprised of militas that drill regularly. They are often trained by Warriors and receive weapons from Byrnis, but their status is that of ordinary villagers.

Peasants and artisans occupy roughly the same rung of Byrn-Na's loose social ladder. Peasant communities are essentially autonomous except for their Noble and some merchant connections, but they are expected to respond to Nobles' calls to arms for the common defense of the people. Artisans do not have military duties except to concentrate on military production in times of war, but as residents of Byrnis they do pay taxes for the maintenance of the town walls and the Warriors.

Merchants, because of their quasi-nomadic lifestyle, are considered below ordinary freefolk. However, the wealth some accumulate is a certain compensation, and the niche they occupy as go-betweens is appreciated.

Finally, true nomads in the region of Byrn-Na are systematically captured and enslaved. Most work difficult jobs in mines and quarries, though the lucky ones with useful knowledge may find work as slave apothecaries or advisors.

There is not a very sharp division between men and women in Byrn society. Warriors do tend to be men, but nobles are more often women. In particular, the Byrnis Nobles are all women, as family matriarchs and representatives of the crown city of Apademi. But, the priests of Apademi are mostly men, to highlight the contrast between the humble Byrn people and the great Apademi. Shamans and village priests vary in gender. There is also a special place for those considered neither men nor women (or both), Gakir, which confers extra spiritual authority that leads many to become Saints.

Geography:
The North of Byrn-Na, its most densely populated region, is a delta of flood plains with a relatively humid climate. Despite much clearing for agriculture and villages, dense forests cover more than half of the total land area. But as one moves south and delta merges into a single river, the climate becomes drier and generally hotter. The landscape here is generally clearer and more desert-like, except along the edges of the river. The river floods seasonally, meaning that villages must be built either some distance from the water or as temporary settlements. The one major exception is Byrnis, which enjoys rare high ground just West of where the delta converges.

Local Influences: The growing class of Byrn-Na merchants has developed contacts with the Bypine and Vargnis peoples. The Vargnis are considered a little uncouth because of their nomadic roots, but generally both peoples are considered civilized. Byrn-Na has incorporated livestock from these neighbors, and it has even adopted the Bypine alphabet. Nobles have employed and adapted the alphabet for the Byrnis Dialect, while merchants are increasingly mixing linguistic elements from all three civilizations to form a common trade language.

The Byrn take no issue with their neighbors' gods, and many are even happy to know that other deities have seen fit to form civilizations like Apademi. Many merchants look up to the Bypine religion for its strong emphasis on mutual aid, and a few have even implanted themselves in Bypine towns and adopted their gods. Yet, almost all Byrn strongly dislike the Bypine and Vargnis insistence on a "true faith." The concept makes no sense to a people who sees every deity as attached to a particular locale.

The Byrn have more extensive contact with the Akir. Some Byrn-Na clans share family ties with their Southern neighbors, and it is likely that these share historical origins with certain Akir Kabals. The Byrn and Akir languages even share many words and grammatical structures, and the southern Byrn dialects and northern Akir dialects are particularly close. However, though some common ancestors are acknowledged, no Byrn-Na clan recognizes ties to the ancient, nomadic Akir. Contact more often takes the form of trading: Akir lands lack forests but are rich in minerals, while Byrn-Na has plenty of forests to exploit but less in the way of metal. Some of the most successful and respectable Byrn merchants are those who maintain these commercial links with their Southern neighbors. A few of the southernmost Byrn villages have even adopted the worship of Di'een, particularly since Akir religion is perfectly compatible with the worship of Apademi and other local patron gods.

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