Short introduction

Hey guys, I've recently considered that although this place has been running for quite some time now, I still have a very poor grasp of the other players. I'm vaguely familliar with some other players and their civilisations, yet the majority are still completely unknown to me.

So, without wanting to delve into metagaming, I was wondering if people would perhaps like to briefly introduce their civilisations so that I may have a better grasp of the diversity of peoples that populate Amauvala. How about it?

Allow me to start then.

I play as the Vht'sjenjé, a pallid and gaunt people driven underground by the relentless sun of the great desert. A fatalist people driven by the keen will to survive in an incredibly harsh environment, it is a culture dedicated to the worship of the ancestors and the desire to maintain the bloodline. The ancestors are worshipped as gods, and the leader of the entire civilisation is an immortal woman called Shjevtyrín, that is considered a living incarnation of the ancestral spirits and have ruled single-handedly for over a thousand years. They live lives of constant hardships; starvation, thirst, bloodthirsty insect swarms that populate the depths of the underworld, and the incredibly bitter enmity between the different desert tribes. Despite their somber demeanour, they're a polite and honourable people, and excellent craftsmen and poets.

My nation-

The Solastic Democratic Protectorate of Raidhsénia is a tribal theocratic state somewhere in the east of Amauvala on the continent that we have dubbed 'Abhainnia' meaning land of rivers. We have an established culture, religious system, military aristocracy, and several industries, including mining, fishing and farming. Our people are tall, red haired with pale skin and blueish green eyes reminiscent of the celtic race found on contemporary Earth. In primordial times, our people were mainly knowledge seekers and explorers but became increasingly martial due to hostility from foreign tribes and inter tribal politics. The dawning of the religion Solasism gave us a clearer picture of our peoples role on the world and a divine sense of right to defend our interests by all means available. Our faith is characterised by 3 main tenants - compassion, logic and martial culture. We believe in charity to the needy, logic to attain knowledge and military force to defend civility and our way of life. The 3 tenants of the solastic faith are personified by 3 sisters, the 3 sisters of light. Each sister represents one of the three schools of Solasism. The collective body of Solasism, the Eaglais (equivalent to the Church or Mosque) has its own holy army, the Order of Light. The Order of Light is the only known army on amauvala whose general is a deity. Our belief system became increasingly hardline leading up to the Ghrgii or Bás moncai (death ape) invasion. This served to consolidate the role of the Eaglais in Raidhsénian politics as well as the precedence of martial leadership. Any tribe or nation that converts to Solasism recieves military reinforcements from the Order of Light. Conversely, any tribe or nation that does so must provide reinforcements of at least one third of its combat able population wherever in the world that the Eaglais is at war.

Yeharene Temple of Soofalss is a theocratic realm originating from confederation of tribes on sunny, somewhat arid fields between mountains and sea. Our people are tall, dark haired and yellowish skinned. We value purity, beauty, and obedience in face of divine truth. We're devoted to the cause of Twelve Gods and Twelve Thousand Angels. Foundation of our faith was laid by Zarak the First Prophet who banished chieftains of old. Under Mannak the Second Prophet we learned the truth about Dharukh and our mission to defeat the Nineteen Daemons of Har Magatha which are using evil men to corrupt world's mother spirit. To fulfill this task, bloodlines dirtied with blood of Daemons must be destroyed and their servants converted or subjected to just punishment of slavery. Temple is commanded by authority of the Twelve Gods through the Glasden Syastan (supreme council) of six high priests and six high priestesses, one of whom is elected by others for life to become Disinia ("first speaker"). Priesthood is also responsible for interpretation of omens and conjuration of magical power with song, fire and water. Since their souls must be connected to gods, priests and priestesses are not allowed to marry, commoners can have two wives. Basic unit of society outside of temple hierarchies is patrilinear household.

The Caliori Tioruna i Camur (The Free of Tioru and Camur) is a highly patriotic and patriarcal society. We are suspicious against our neighbours, and don't have much contact with outsiders. In the lands of Tioru and Camur the army is the ruling class after a coup d'etat against the former king. The Iternaum Iauteri, the Supreme Commander, is head of the Domarum, which consists of the nine highest army commanders and the High Priest of Xena, our capitol. All cities are ruled by a military governor directly subordinate to the Iternaum Iauteri.
Women have always been the lowest caste, ranked well below llamas and fish - after all, THEY are useful, unlike women. In the early days women lived together in pits, and were public property free for everyone to use. Nowadays, however, women live together with their owners. The number of women a man may possess varies, and depends on his status in society.
For hundreds of years we have been engaged in a war against our arch enemies, the amazon women of Runae; from the beginning a group of highly aggressive run-away women, who cowardly attacked our elders and children at home, while the men fought the Great War against the swamp-midgets of the South.
This war gave birth to the legend of Camur Paela, the Chief who was crusified by the blood-thirsty dwarfs, and ever since a highly regarded saint, whom we seek strength and inspiration in.

So that was way too long.

The Syan (river people) are an industrious, practical and fertile people whose homeland spans the confluence of three vast rivers, known in Syannese as the srasyana, or 'serpents of Syan'. Despite the decimating influence of the great flood known as the Beivei, their high birth rates mean their population has rebounded to the point where the high population has a profound effect on their culture. Their lands are more extensively and intensely developed than anywhere else, as a people who can't spread out do all they can to wring more from what soil they own. The landscape of the Syannic core is an endless vista of crop fields, quarries, the odd managed forest or livestock paddock, cut across by brooks, irrigation trenches, and rivers. Another aspect of this incredible density of population is that Syan is an incredibly urban-oriented culture. Indeed, urban life almost evolved before the concept of modern statehood, and Syan consists of a large number of exceedingly competitive city-states and their own orbital towns and farmlands.

This tightness with resources also translates into their architectural culture. A traveller to Syan will find few monuments or grand wonders - for in the careful manoeuvrings of the cities, none can spare the resources. Instead they will find resources poured into practical things - extraordinary fortifications and canal networks. These strong defences also stem from the need to compensate for being physically smaller than some of the nearby, martially-inclined races.

Another reason for the lack of grand buildings is the lack of an organised religion. Syan don't really have a religion. Instead they have a meditative, highly agnostic intellectual and spiritual tradition based on meditating on cause and effect. Common motifs and emblems in Syannic thought include fire and the colour red (representing life) and water and the colour white (representing death). Prominent philosophical schools within Syan include Paranism, a catch-all term for the pre-Beivei traditions based on the drowned Paran people, and Reidaunism, a sort of proto-nationalist pan-Syannic cult. The arbiters of this system are the sarsza, or truth seekers, masked wise men and women who serve as teachers, judges, doctors and more. The development of the mask in Primordial Syan led to Syan developing early a sense of distinction between the individual and their public role, leading to all Syannese states de-personalised governments, where offices exist apart from the individuals who hold them.

Because they have had bad experiences with the Tiorunae to the north, whose invading army they massacred at the now-legendary battle of Ka, and the association of the colour white with death in Syannic culture, Syan have something of a cultural disposition against white people - tall, pale-skinned barbarians could be seen to surround them on three sides. Whilst this is scarcely a raging prejudice, it is something a pale trader in rural Syan might do well to bear in mind.

In an interesting contrast with the Tiorunae, there is a strong vein of sexual equality in Syan - although pregnant women and mothers tend to be cared for by a partner, women who forgo sex or otherwise avoid pregnancy can serve in public office and even the military. Girls receive the same basic education from the local sarsza as do boys, and it is common for the daughters of wealthy families to attend the Tolysa (academy) alongside the sons.

In the Blue Pearl Ocean (an inland ocean, or large briny body of water). Lies a collection of islands called the Balukan islands. Part is inhabited by the confederacy of Natum'we (my people) a state of the Wean ethnicity.

The Natum'we are hard to define, they are masters of human behaviour and rather hypocritical. People tend to be very ambitious, ideological or a combination of the two.

We prefer to be an enigma even to our friends, who may one day be our enemies.