Update 3
In the north, events become more settled after the turmoil of the past millennia. In the place of violent invasions and plagues comes centuries of relative calm.
The
Vahaeara find breathing space on the misty north-west coasts, keeping the various clans of
Odoni at arm’s length, and keeping well clear of the aggressive
Rasna in the south.
Though not afraid to explore beyond their territories, they remain fiercely territorial and xenophobic within their borders. From this relative isolation comes a rich mythology, born from garbled legends of ancient migrations and bitter tribal feuds; over the next few centuries, the Vahaeara develop a unique and complex pantheon of deities and nature spirits - interwoven with garbled memories of past events and battles with southern neighbours; a shared set of beliefs that help explain the universe around them and promotes greater brotherhood between their clans.
Vahaeara voyages to the deep south - along the coast to
Sentri lands - become more rare as time passes; the Vahaera are drawn instead to the islands they have discovered in the west - the lands of
Amasido, god of the sea. Here they discover something of a paradise to themselves, free from bears, wolves, lions and the ravages of rival human tribes - with only the occasional ferocious storms to contend with. As centuries pass, more and more families take to the seas to find new homelands; here there is abundant fish, seals to hunt, and even giant birds - which can give a fatal kick with knife-like talons to the unwary, though are otherwise not too difficult for experienced hunters to defeat.
However, as it turns out, the Vahaeara do not have a total monopoly on these islands; a race of ‘small ones’ inhabit certain coastal caves, about half the height of an
Odoni, with faces painted in red pigment; they are found hunting and fishing with primitive tools, and seem to barely have any language. The numbers of these half-Odoni are already small when the Vahaeara first arrive, and they stand little chance of competing for the hunting grounds. After a few violent encounters, the survivors retreat into caves and remote cliffsides, steadily dwindling into myth and legend. Now only a few living Vahaeara can claim to have ever seen one of these beings.
Over time, the prey animals of the islands also begin to dwindle. But whereas seals can move to other colonies, the giant flightless birds are not so lucky, and are soon made extinct on several smaller islands. The Vahaeara venture ever further and further in search of new hunting grounds, finding yet more islands across the seas - and as their numbers bloom, their connection with the mainland diminishes. Soon there are whole clans that have not set foot outside the islands for generations, using a new set of tools - harpoons, nets - and a new lexicon of words revolving around this great ocean and its many changeable moods. The culture of the
Vaheomo (sea people) is born.
Meanwhile, from the brink of in-fighting and violent disintegration, the
Rasna identity survives as a kind of tribal confederation. Visionary leaders emerge - part high-chieftains, part priests - who inspire the building of a great stone monument aligned to sun and stars, but in particular aligned with the spring equinox - a day of great significance to the Rasna, the trigger for a yearly celebration of life and fertility. These celebrations draw tribes together from many miles around, ending in everything from ritual duels to amorous encounters - aided by consumption of psychoactive mushrooms and experimental fermented drinks made from starchy plant roots. There are few inhibitions in Rasna society - this is a culture that fully embraces the realities of life and death.
The construction of the great monument effort takes around a century, with stones hauled from miles away and raised into place using sheer muscle and some simple timber engineering. Each of the great stones raised is a dedication from a particular tribe or clan. Once complete, visitors are drawn from far to the south and east, to visit what has become known as the
Tiimhaa.
After several more centuries, the
Viirsa identity is subsumed into the Rasna. Viirsa becomes a prominent sub-group, along with clans known as
Rashaami and the
Omhiir; peoples always threatening to go to war with each other over several famous murders that have happened through the centuries, but never quite doing so. With the threat of the
Sentri to the south, there are more advantages in staying together, and bonds are renewed each spring gathering.
Indeed, hunters from the Sentri and Rasna frequently clash in the plains that lie between them. Bands of hunter-warriors from each side traverse hundreds of miles each summer in their adventures. Sometimes peace is made, and gifts are exchanged; other times, there are bloody fights and ambushes. But more often, there are somewhat-ritualised fights that allow both sides to save face without risking too much; there are, after all, still many large and dangerous animals for all of them to hunt. However, the elders notice that the animal tracks of the larger beasts do seem less common with each passing year.
Some Rasna, seeking new lands and a more settled way of life, begin to settle in large numbers in the fertile wetlands to the south-east - displacing, often fighting the peoples who already live there, chief among them the
Carva, before beginning to merge with the remainders. The wetlands offer all manner of fish, game, and edible grass seeds that can be collected en-mass. For a time, is seems that a whole new culture is emerging here on the edge of the desert - one with the beginnings of cereal agriculture, bread and beer, durable pottery, along with a dynamic set of religious beliefs born from a mixing of east and west. The population blooms, and with it, great stone monuments begin to be raised on the riverbanks, rivals to anything seen elsewhere in the world...
However, it seems the gods are unhappy with this hubris; for years the ground shakes and trembles, then finally a devastating flood - far more powerful than the seasonal floods the inhabitants are used to - bursts down from the icy mountains, out of the valley and into the hillsides beyond, sweeping away both humans and animals. Many of the survivors succumb to disease in the filthy, carcass-strewn swamps that are left behind. Monuments are destroyed or left buried in sediments. The
Masa peoples in the south are somewhat sheltered by the hills of their homeland, and offer a refuge to a few survivors, while others head east and west. But many thousands of humans perish.
The psychological impact of this disaster is felt for countless years to come. The losses are heaviest among the Rasna and Carva groups, but a wider effect is the disrupting of east-west contact; fewer camel-trains now dare to trek through the dangerous wetlands that have now been marked with the aura of death and destruction, with flood plains strewn with bones for years afterwards; peoples of east and west now seem much further apart. One relic of former times is a small population of domesticated camels which end up in the Rasna heartlands, serving a greater purpose as status symbols for their owners than their practical value.
Meanwhile the Akut, in their ancient lakeside home, find themselves surrounded by the
Ashala to the east - who are using weirs and fishing nets to take a lion’s share of the nearby fish - and by waves of migrants and refugees from the west; their culture is gradually broken up by these competing forces, as well as occasional warfare and raiding. The Ashala absorb roughly half of the Akut peoples, with the remainder being absorbed into a new group known as the
Kutan, comprising the largest group of survivors from the western floodlands, with a mix of Rasna and Sentri blood as well as Akut and Carva.
While the Kutans are influenced by the
Carva peoples and their camel-centric culture, who continue to roam the deserts and riverlands, the
Ashala have a deeper influence over the whole region. Ashala mythology and religious beliefs are rich and complex, and there now develops a tradition of laying out complex patterns of stones, from boulders to pebbles, as places of communion with the spirits of the landscape and the heavens above. These rock-shrines are soon to be found across the steppe...
While the Ashala population rises around the great lakes, the ancestral call of the open plains in the east remains strong. After centuries of building up their numbers, several groups of Ashala return in strength to the east, now being able to stand up to large clans of fearsome cave hyenas, fight off giant bears, and hold their own in encounters with the Utur (snow people). Crucially, they are also able to regularly hunt mammoths and wooly rhinos with success, to the extent that these creatures become less and less common sights on the plains. With a huge supply of fat and protein from these hunts, Ashala populations grow rapidly on the plains, and some clans continue to push east - eventually, their furthest explorations reach lush forests and a ‘great salt lake’ stretching across the horizon.
Carva peoples follow up this success, opening a trickle of trade with the south - the main trade being in furs and carved ivory artefacts, in exchange for dried medicinal herbs and oils from the southern forests. While the Carva treat the camel as an especially divine and mystical creature, they also continue to import spiritual ideas from the Ashala as a result of this trade route.
Meanwhile a sister-group calling itself the
Ashut’ar now emerges in the east, removed from the core of Ashala culture, and known for its more extreme pragmatic and survivalist attitudes - with a tradition of crafting excellent cold-weather survival gear. The Ashut’ar also have a sizeable influx of
Hannu blood - from peoples who are also moving eastwards at this time. As
Mau explorers also push north and east along the coasts, a new world opens to homo sapiens in the east of the great continent; temperate forests and fertile river valleys await, although guarded by many strange and ferocious beasts.
The hardy ‘snow peoples’ or
Utur are found scattered throughout the east, as they are the north. Relations between them and homo sapiens are a complex mix; Utur are deep thinkers, with only basic spoken language; they seem to understand complex symbols and ideas, but other times seem childlike. The Utur do not willingly give up their prime hunting grounds, but they are slow breeders, and simply cannot compete with the increasing influx of homo sapiens as the centuries pass. The Ashut’ar make special efforts to befriend the Utur, and sometimes gain their assistance in hunting, but there remains a divide; and despite some stories of romance between the two races, it seems no children can be born between them.
The
Mau, meanwhile, have begun to grow in number, experimenting with cultivation of coconut trees and various kinds of fruit, gradually learning how to grow food to supplement their fishing and foraging. A complex storytelling tradition arises; the stories and songs encode information on how to navigate between islands, what seasons to make which journeys, and what plants and animals are good to eat, and where to find them, while serving as a way to memorise and pass on that information from one generation to the next. On the island continent to the south east, an offshoot of Mau known as the
Oai arises - these are people who have all but forgotten their seafaring roots, learning instead how to hunt the large and dangerous animals that lie in the interior. It is rumoured that small, dark, hairy, humanoid beings also share the island with them - though their existence is shrouded in legend.
Back in the west, the
Sentri continue to prosper, though they are forced further from their mountain homes in the search for sufficient food. More time is spent in the north-west hills, where some Sentri eventually learn to corral and semi-domesticate the goats which live on the hilltops - a process aided by the importing of wolf-dogs, via encounters with the Rasna. The north-west tribes gradually become more specialised as hunters and herders, still with occasional contacts with
Vahaeara seafarers who come to trade their seal hides and giant bird feathers.
As the
Rasna build their great
Tiimhaa, and stories of it are brought back by travellers, the Sentri also begin to organise around great yearly festivities. Here the mountains themselves serve as the backdrops to the gatherings; the ‘Festival of Light’, begun by the semi-legendary figure known as Tima, is centred around ritual competitions - duelling with blunt weapons, wrestling, rock lifting and throwing, archery competitions, and competitions between trained
Imponi (large eagles) are the main events; there are also crafting competitions of sorts, with the best ornaments being chosen to be placed in sacred caves as an offering to the mountain spirits.
As centuries pass, the Sentri grow into an increasingly loose coalition of different tribes, who are not always at peace, but the ‘Festival of Light’ helps to diffuse tensions and promotes healthy rivalries between factions. Besides, there are external enemies aside from the Rasna; during this time Sentri take a more aggressive stance towards the
Ingoni, beast-men of the southern jungles, organising expeditions of hundreds of warriors into their homelands. Together with the emerging
Traessa tribes further south, the Ingoni are attacked on multiple fronts, and their clans are eventually forced east, finally relinquishing large swathes of jungle to homo sapien hunter-gatherers.
The Traessa have emerged as an offshoot of the
Baessa peoples, but are far more aggressive; learning crafts of jungle fighting, camouflage, stealth and deception, as well as setting elaborate and deadly traps, and crafting unusual weapons such as blow-pipes and barbed lassoes. Having pushed back the Ingoni, they now encounter bands of Sentri warriors and hunters, and more violence follows. The Sentri soon learn to respect their new southern neighbours, who become feared and hated for their trickery and stealth - and sometimes pitiless cruelty - in contrast to the Sentri’s more honourable (as they see it) way of confronting enemies. Despite being outnumbered, the Traessa are able to push back Sentri probes into the jungles.
The Baessa meanwhile head south along the coast, away from the troublesome Traessa, settling in riverlands and grasslands, where an icy chill often blows in from the coast during winter. As centuries pass, there are rare encounters with
Naua peoples, island-hopping voyagers from the east (and distant relatives of the Mau and Hannu).
Across this world, the weather now seems to become more and more unpredictable, such that even the most basic agriculture is made more difficult, at least outside the more sheltered parts of the tropics. There are stories of smoking mountains and burnt skies that block out the sun for months at a time. Nonetheless, homo sapiens has now colonised much of its home continent as well as the islands on its periphery - but in time, a larger world awaits…
What now? (repeated from last turn)
We remain in ‘deep time’, and stat-less for now. Players have two choices - you can branch a new tribe from one that already exists, or play as an existing tribe (including a possible switch to an NPC tribe - shown by white titles on the map).
Branching off with a new tribe will mean you have a smaller starting population (only really viable if you have 2+ population), but you get a springboard to migration, and can have two new physical traits.
Developing an existing tribe will mean it stays more united and ‘cohesive’, but you’ll only be able to add one new physical trait [NOTE if more than one player wants to switch to the same NPC faction, I'll make a decision based on closeness of ethnicity/culture to factions previously played].
To carry on with an existing tribe, order template is below:
What physical characteristic are you adding? (if any)
What two new specialisations does your tribe develop?
How aggressive/adventurous or cautious is your tribe?
What are your relations with other tribes?
Will your people migrate, or remain where they are?
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As with turn 0, new players are free to branch from any named tribe on the map, including player-created ones (at least for now). You may want to consider being born from a mix of two tribes where they are close together!
