Shadb Trasque
People of a mixed Aboriginal and African descent, the Shadb Trasque inhabit a massive mountain range in the center of the continent, where they settle in tightly knit, isolationisting cave cities. Over several millennia, these cities grew to a size of true megapolises with dozens of thousands of people dwelling in many of them, populating highland caves (natural and artificial). While originally they took advantage of seasonal hunting during massive deer migration events (using cooler caves as storage chambers for the meat), eventually the ecologic impact of overhunting shifted them to a more diverse mix of agriculture, hunting, and gathering. Starting the 13th Century, the cave megapolis of Roque-Esh has been shining as an imperialistic beacon of the Shadb Trasque civilization, having established itself as an informal hegemon through its position in the center of the Trasque Ridge and via conquest of neighboring tribes. It has survived a two-century-long downturn and re-emerged as a leader of the wider Eshan-Ro League, formed at the time when the Shadb Trasque civilization was under siege from its neighbors, the Shaln Trasque and Chorok Enaman. Today, the cave cities of the First Tall Ridge are some of the biggest human settlements in the Land of the Shining Sky, and their clan-like “bloodlines” are very protective of their heritage. Their mines dot the central mountain massif, and their runic script and bas-reliefs capture the history of this blossoming civilization. Their artisanship and war craft are characterized by relatively primitive production techniques, but quality materials (primarily, gems, obsidian, and metal ores) brought from the sprawling mines.
Shaln Trasque
Having separated from the Shadb Trasque millennia ago, the Shaln Trasque are less tightly knit, having spread through the high mountains of the Second Tall Ridge (massive volcanic traps in the center of the continent), as well as the Masque-Una-Eshal and Astinanana highlands. Less isolationist and less sophisticated than the Shadb Trasque, they’re aggressive colonizers and frontier settlers who spread their civilization far and wide. During the Time of Troubles of the Shadb Trasque, the Shaln Trasque cave town of Shlanathaln briefly emerged as a rising power in the region, benefitting from its military successes and its advantageous position in the center of the central mountain massif, at the crossroad of major trade routes. Despite this brief golden age, Shlanathaln never quite reached the glory and size of the cave cities of the Shadb Trasque and has recently been losing its satellite towns to the resurgent and vengeful Eshan-Ro League. Just like the Shadb Trasque, the Shaln Trasque people have been benefiting from centuries of access to quality natural deposits, but that, surprisingly, led to a relative stagnation of their crafting techniques. Still, their hunting culture has made them prominent producers and traders in fur and pelts, and main competitors of the Shaln Trasque in gem trade.
Path-Shan
A small, mixed group of Shaln and Shadb Trasque people who abandoned their cave-bound lifestyle and adopted to living on the mountain slopes, mostly as pastoralists who herd mountain goats on the rare, frigid alpine meadows of the central mountains. Their name originates from the name of relatively warm geyser valley, in which first groups of them settled after abandoning the dark, chthonic, and strange Trasque ancestral fait and adopting a worship of Ga-Choque, the Spitting Mother (personalization of their home valley and the symbol of their blessed expulsion from the cave cities). Legends aside, it’s likely that the first Path-Shan were simply the misfits forced to leave their struggling cave towns during the particularly intensive conflict between Shlanathaln and the Eshan-Ro League, leading to food shortages, looting, and blockades. Now, these converts and exodites attract followers from the both civilizations, especially from among the Shaln Trasque. Relatively unsophisticated and surrounded by much more powerful ethnic groups, the Path-Shan do seem to thrive in their limited niche.
Lakeshore Enaman
The oldest Enaman group of Aboriginal descent that settled in a rich valley surrounding a lake (a region known to them as Mona yi Hu, or Mona’s Rest). Viewing the lake as the final destination of the ocean-crossing exodus that their legendary Forebearer Mona had led them on, the Lakeshore Enaman people quickly spread around the savanna teeming with wildlife of all sizes (most prominently, flightless birds that range from peaceful moas to predatory Phorusrhacid “terror birds”). For several millennia, the Enaman people lived a very unsophisticated lifestyle of nomadic pastoralists, following herds of moas (their main hunting game). This led to their spread through the plains and lowlands surrounding their region, which came at the cost of several cultural splits. What broke this trend was the discovery of salt marshes of Syo-Ke Ao in the lower flow of the Chorok river. With the salt being a highly demanded commodity, the peaceful Lakeshore Enamans naturally became the main middlemen within the trade network of the Enaman world. This eventually gave rise to the sprawling mound cities of the lakeshore lowlands, which seasonal fairs attracted thousands of Enaman traders and commoners, driving up not just the barter, but also cultural and diplomatic exchange. This prestige was converted into a religious revival of the Monite faith, when a line of female prophets (starting with one Mona shi Mahu) claimed not just spiritual, but also political leadership in a mound city of Ai ta Loda. Since then, the Lakeshore Enamans started to slowly, but gradually unite around Ai ta Loda’s unspoken hegemony.
Hill Enaman
One of the earliest splinters of the greater Enaman civilization, the Hill Enamans live in isolationist clans at the edge of the Mona yi Hu valley. Their economy is based on primitive pastoralism and occasional cattle raids, and their earthhouse villages slowly but surely grew into towns. Having stagnated for centuries, they still have the numbers (if not the sophistication) to be considered a large civilization.
Monite Enaman
The ocean-facing communities of the Monite Enamans are a result of cultural intermixing between the Lakeshore and Hill Enamans that occurred at the height of the Hill Enaman domination of the lowland mound cities. This mix resulted in a formation of isolated clan-based societies, in which the pacifistic and escapist ancestral worship of Mona became a replacement for the more militant lifestyle of the hillmen. The Monite Enamans became some of the most active facilitators of salt trade and resulting commodity barter, as their Monite priests combined preaching and missionary work with trade (often using one as a premise for the other). Having largely stayed away from any social or geopolitical conflicts, the Monite Enamans recently became the main exporters of the Mona worship into other cultures, with the war-ravaged Ankarne communities being the first mass converts outside the Enaman world.
Saltmarsh Enaman
The Saltmarsh Enamans are a small ethnos residing in the inhospitable salt marshes of Syo-Ke Ao in the lower flow of the Chorok river. Despite being the original discoverers of mass salt production via pool evaporation techniques, the Saltmarsh Enamans recently lost their production monopoly as the other Enaman civilizations also established their settlements in the strategically important region. Now, this small tribal group remains quietly existing in the periphery of the Enaman world, living in surprisingly big floating villages, built on reed-based artificial islands deep within the marsh.
Chorok Enaman
The most distinct of all Enamani civilizations, the Chorok Enamans splintered when they became roaming nomads of the Choroki pampas. The economy centered on herding of moa birds naturally made cattle raids a common way of intertribal competition, contributing to the early Chorok Enamani militancy. This concentration on the power of military chieftains gave rise to the first several (historically brief) tribal leagues, associated with the legendary she-leader Tak aya Tan. Her image and name would later be immortalized in the somewhat primitive Chorok Enamani folklore, as many future proto-empire builders would claim her name as a spiritual title or a part of their bloodline. The first true big departure from the old ways happened among the Chorok Enamans when some of their south-eastern tribes started to settle at the fringe of the Mask ui Sha forest (known to the Trasque as Masque-una-Eshal). Rich with timber and ores, the region helped those fringe tribes quickly prosper economically, as the Chorok Enamani leather, pelts, timber craft, gems, stone and copper tools, and eventually Trakkan artifacts found their way to the salt markets of the Mona’s Rest valley. Quickly urbanizing Chorok Enamans of Mask ui Sha didn’t abandon their militant ways, however. Instead, they clashed repeatedly (and with changed fortunes) with the Shaln and Shadb Trasques, once even eliminating a Roque-Eshan army and invading the Tall Ridge of the Trasques itself. Recently, the Eshan-Ro League of the Shadb Trasque has somewhat pushed the Chorok Enamans back, but the centuries-old enmity is still a stalemate. On the wave of military successes, a new dynasty of chieftains has emerged in a camp city of Ui-na Tan, located in a minerals-rich section of the Mask ui Sha forest. This finalized the shift in gravity within the Chorok Enaman civilization, as the greater power and prestige no longer resided in the hands of the pampa-roaming nomads, but could be found in the woody hill country, at the forefront of the unending conflicts with the “copper-clad Trask.”
Highland Ankarne
The Highland Ankarne are the first of the Aboriginal civilizations that formed in the ascetic Neu Tyekye mountain range. For a long time, they remained fairly isolated from the rest of the world, living a lifestyle based on sustenance agriculture, hunting-gathering, and herding of local dwarf horses and giant Macrauchenia llamas. In the recent millennium, the Highland Ankarne started to venture into the right bank of the Chorok river, following the earlier migratory kinship groups into the pampas. There, the Highland Ankarne established a firm foothold, taking advantage of their highly advanced animal husbandry techniques that saw the “long llamas” and dwarf horses well-domesticated and bred. The non-stop population growth brought the Highland Ankarne into a perpetual internecine conflict with the lowland branch of their civilization, a long and bloody sequence of genocidal raids and warfare that has seen the Highland Ankarne dominate the north-east of Chorokpan thanks to their revolutionary military innovations: chariots driven by draft dwarf horses, as well as reigns that allow up to two warriors to ride long llamas. Despite these innovations, the Highland Ankarne remain relatively unsophisticated in their lifestyle, and urbanization has been slow to catch up among them.
Lowland Ankarne
Originating from the first Ankarne people who descended from the Neu Tyekye mountains into the Chorokpan plain, the Lowland Ankarne are unsophisticated people, whose simplicity and poverty largely made them an unworthy target in the eyes of the warlike and formidable Chorok Enamans. However, when their highlander kin also started to venture into Chorokpan, a long and bloody conflict (or, rather, a perpetual civil war) ensued, characterized by extreme cruelty of the both sides. So far, the Lowland Ankarne have been mostly on the receiving end of the slaughter, hunted down across the pampas by the chariot-riding highlanders.
Monite Ankarne
The brutality of the constant warfare between the Highland and Lowland Ankarne pushed many familial groups to the brink of extinction. The desperation they suffered made them prime targets for religious conversion, when Mona-worshipping Enaman salt traders started to reach the Chorok river’s right bank. The positivity of the exodite, hope-granting Monite faith found many Ankarne willing to listen to the merchant-priests’ preaching. Largely composed of the lowlander refugees, the Monite Ankarne recently migrated into the upper Chorok river valley, where their culture and language developed into a unique ethnic phenomenon. Thanks to their still primitive lifestyle, they continue to enjoy blissful isolation, even amid the looming conflict that the overpopulation of Chorokpan is likely to bring.
Kineka
One of the beacons of civilization in the Land of the Shining Sky, the megapolis of Kineka started of as a mere camp founded by the Nekenee, mountain hunters-gatherers of Amerindian origin. Populating the fertile and minerals-rich Pulete highlands, the Nekenee were some of the first urban civilizations on the continent, and they enjoyed unprecedented scientific and economic growth for over a millennium, during which the town of Kineka first achieved its notoriety as being the main center of worshipping Xamaneha the Sun God (the city itself is located above the cloud level, making its sky clear year-round). As the local craft and trade prospered, the merchant class started to play ever larger role in the Nekeni society, to the point when Merchant-Princes emerged as the true rulers of the cities of Nekenee, overtaking the priesthood. The first test of their authority came when a tribal group of Syrysil people from the lowlands ventured into Pulete and overtook some of the town sites. This was followed by centuries-long struggle between the Merchant-Princes of Kineka and the resurgent Syrysilian city of Dyesynil. After some setbacks, the Nekenee, led by Kinekan Merchant-Prince Lekinam, achieved a decisive victory, took over and destroyed Dyesynil, and forced many of its surviving citizens into an exile back into the lowlands. There, the wars against the battered Dyesynil civilization continued, as the remnants and colonies of the once powerful city were viewed by the lords of Kineka as the archenemy of their hegemony. Recently, some cracks appeared in the once solid edifice of the Nekenee civilization, as the rising cultural influence of the enterprising Wiet-yrisi Syrysil people led to a proletarian revolution in several cities, led by the cult of Moon Goddess of the city-state of Tenankan. Yet, the Kinekan elites recovered from that blow and recently regained their hegemony on a wave of military victories against the Dyesynil remnants, vassalization and conversion of some of them, and the evident weakness of the Tenankan league. Kineka-led Nekenee civilization is known for its superb masonry and copper- and bronzemaking, with their giant stone cities built on highland slopes. Their trade power is facilitated by jade dice and gold rings functioning as the first currency ever created, and the non-stop population growth is made possible by terrace agriculture below the cloud level. Along with the cave cities of the Shadb Trasque, the terrace megapolices of the Nekenee are the largest centers of civilization in the Land of the Shining Sky.
Tenankan
The city of Tenankan has been the main competitor of Kineka over hegemony among the polices of Nekenee. In the 25th century post-KT, it started to slump to the economic pressure from Yulyp, one of the two leading trade centers of the Wiet-yrisi Syrisil. This led to a growing dissatisfaction of the commoners with the rule of their merchant elites, closely integrated with the Xamanehite cult of the Sun God. Spiritually, it manifested in their transition to the more horizontally-organized, grassroot clergy of the Moon Goddess, Nakaxu. The dualistic, animistic faith of the Nekenee fell an easy victim to the proselytization of Wiet-yrisi Syrisilian witches of Alignak, the goddess of river and moonlight. Eventually, a series of urban riots and split of ruling elites led to the Alignak-Nakaxu cultists taking control of several Nekenee cities, forming a more populist, yet much less politically cohesive Tenankan League, in opposition to Kineka. Unfortunately, since then Tenankan and its allies have had a hard time, suffering from the Dysynilian raids and losing their home markets to the shrewd and mercantilistic Kinekan and Wiet-yrisi Syrisilian merchants.
Wyet-yrisi Syrisil
The Syrisil people of Amerindian origin were some of the later ocean-crossers that landed on the mainland of the Land of the Shining Sky. During the early days of their development, they inhabited the thick jungles and flooded mangrove forests of Wiet-yris lowlands, mostly living along the Alignak river valley. The river became personified as the Moonlight Goddess in the surprisingly sophisticated Syrisilian folklore rather early, but the first few millennia of the Syrysil’s development were rather quiet, as their homeland lacked the access to the natural resources of other civilizational cradles. Yet, over time their culture matured, reaching a peak when their spiritist cult transformed into an early form of polytheism, which gods were traditionally tied to certain locations, which natural phenomena they personified. The transformation was spearheaded by the witches, a well-organized, educated, matriarchal clergy that acted as the lorekeepers and administrators of the maritime Wiet-yrisi Syrisilian communities. The discovery and colonization of the Cysid-is-Syv island, with its large population of arachnide species, gave the resourceful Wiet-yrisi Syrisil a valuable material for superb silk textile production. The spider silk also became the material behind the first writing system invented in the Land of the Shining Sky, based on knotted sequences of silk threads. With time, this fueled the growth of the indigenous natural philosophy at home, while the masterful Wiet-yrisi Syrisilian boatmen spread their fishing colonies across the Inner Sea. While many such colonies often found themselves in episodic dependence from the better established insular peoples, they did contribute to the Wiet-yrisi Syrisil’s access to better craft materials. They also facilitated the trade network, as the rapidly developing civilization came into contact with the advanced people of the Pulete highlands (the Nekenee) and of the Sagulan-Nadelis island (the Turape). These traders recently became particularly welcomed in the advanced communities of the north and the south, known especially for their silk clothes, vibrant pearl jewelry, and, as of recent, exotic pets (traded mostly as sacrificial animals for the temples and symbols of status for the rich). Enriched with this trade, two swelling stilt towns of Sylla and Yulup formed a diarchy that currently dominates the Wiet-yrisi Syrisilian politics. Their power was questioned only once, during a brief and mutually hurtful clash with the Nekenee civilization that ended with a cautious detente.
Sheneti Syrisil
Peaceful agriculturalists of the Fee Shenete floodplain, the Sheneti Syrisil are a splinter group of the original greater Syrisil culture. Living in idyllic hamlets and groupings of stilt villages, they have so far managed to stay at peace with the vast majority of their neighbors, often even managing to dominate some local markets through trade of foodstuffs, weaving craft, and textile. Through cultural exchange, they borrowed the Wiet-yrisi Syrisilian rope script in a modified, less “elegant” form of rope writing. Their spiritual culture, while drawn from the same legacy, has diverged from the northern kin as well. Firstly, witch covens have not had a chance to form, and what religious organization does exist, is dominated primarily by elder men. Secondly, Alignak has remained the most venerated deity among the Sheneti Syrisil, but she lost the most of her association with pearls, seafaring, and tide, while gaining an even greater agricultural and procreational portfolio.
Dyesynil aLytu
The original city of Dyesynil was founded by a militant group of Sheneti Syrisil settlers in the Pulete highlands, probably built over a layer of a destroyed town of the Nekenee. Almost immediately, these often disunited and relatively unsophisticated people started to threaten the idyllic order of the Nekenee civilization, which terrace agriculture depended on a high level of social organization. Centuries of wars of various intensity ensued, entrenching Dyesynil as the ultimate archenemy of Kineka and other Nekeni cities. Yet, the numbers and economic power were still on the side of the Nekenee, and a titanic conflict culminated in a siege that saw Merchant-Prince Lekinam rase Dyesynil to the ground, while his heroic counterpart, king Lyt, led the escaping refugees back into the lowlands, where they settled at the mouths of the two rivers, Fee’nak and Shenete. As legendarized as the story is, one of these remnant settlements was indeed named Dyesynil aLytu (Lyt’s Dyesynil). While one of the remnant ethnoses ended up under the Kinekan heel, Dyesynil aLytu (in the Fee’nak river delta) continued standing strong, despite the traditional clashes between the exodite tribes. Having so far fought back all Kinekan invasions with their guerilla tactics, Dyesynil aLytu has even briefly struck back at the Pulete highlands, forcing the disorganized Tenankani alliance to pay shameful tribute. Still, despite the high military tradition, this combative civilization is the ultimate underdog in their centuries-long struggle with the Kineka-led Nekenee.
Xamanehite Dyesynil
Dyesynilian remnants in the Shenete river delta were not as lucky and quickly fell under the blows of the copper-clad Kinekan levy. As battling the Dyesynil was a common way for any Kineka-aligned Nekenee oligarch to gain approval of the Sun God’s clergy, the series of wars resulted in a series of treaties that saw virtually the entire ruling class of the Sheneti Dyesinil being turned hostage under the guise of temple education in the shrines of Xamaneha. Over a few generations, this turned the tributary agreement between Kineka and the Sheneti Dyesynilian remnants into a radical transformation. From now on, the rulers of these surviving settlements were firm Xamanehite converts and advocates of the Nekeni culture of Kinekan flavor. Now, the Xamanehite Dyesynil act as a loyal buffer between the Kineka-dominated Nekenee and the ambitious upstarts, the Yulup-Sylla diarchy of the Wiet-yrisi Syrisil.
Sagulan Turape
The Turape people were one of the last groups of Amerindians to cross the ocean and settle in the proximity of the Land of the Shining Sky. There, in the lowlands of the Sagulan-Nadelis island, they found their villages amid the sea of tall elephant grass, living quiet, idyllic lives of subsistence farmers. As the Turape natives spread across the island, first cultural splits occurred, but the Sagulan farmers remained living in their cradle, relatively isolated from the larger world. The big change to this peaceful, insular life happened when Wiet-yrisi Syrisylian colonies were founded on Sagulan’s western shore in the 3rd millennium post-KT. From the peaceful Wiet-yrisi Syrisylian colonists, the Sagulan Turape - already fairly advanced technologically, but politically disorganized and largely rural - borrowed many spiritual and cultural achievements, such as rope writing (based on soaked elephant grass stems), basic natural philosophy, and coven-like religious organization (although, in the Sagulan Turapan case, it remained largely patriarchal and less caste-like). As of recent, this cultural and economic exchange pushed many Sagulan Turape seek luck outside their quiet home island, and some colonies of boatmen have started to appear on the continent.
Nadelis Turape
The Nadelis Turape formed into a distinct entity after generations of relative isolation from their Sagulan kin due to living in the rainforests on the other side of the mountain range that divides their island. During the first two millennia post-KT, the Nadelis Turape were the main seafarers and explorers of the Inner Sea and the outer ocean surrounding it. As they populated the outer Bolevel island and the Racatan atolls, their culture yet again splintered, as the distant communities no longer stayed in close touch with Nadelis. Many centuries of rather uneventful development followed, during which the Nadelis Turape established themselves as great shipbuilders. Unfortunately, their chiefdoms remained fragmented, and for quite some time their culture grew in the shade of more dynamic societies of the continent. However, recently the Wiet-yrisi Syrisyl, the “great teachers of the Inner Sea,” as future historians would call them, have established direct contact with the Nadelis Turapan chiefdoms. While the trade exchange was mediocre at best, the Nadelis Turape learned from the continental traders the rope writing techniques (yet again, using the fern-based ropes and writing in a hoop-like pattern), which promise to open a new chapter in their understanding of the world and lore preservation. The “ugliness” of the Nadelis Turapan rope script is a joke among the sophisticated Wiet-yrisi Syrisil, but this might change, as the Nadelis Turape have started to settle the spider-rich Sysid-is-syv island, forming first silk farms there.
Bolevel Turape
The youngest of all Turape civilizations, the Bolevel Turape are settlers of the relative isolated islands that shield the continent and the Inner Sea from the oceanic storms. For a long time, the remained very unsophisticated, but the contact with the omnipresent Wiet-yrisi Syrisil changed that. Well-positioned to benefit from the Syllan colonists’ need for food during particularly bad seasons, the Bolevel Turape borrowed not just the precious textiles and jewelry from the grateful settlers, but also their knowledge. Recently, the Bolevel Turape became the last of their greater civilization to adopt yet another, distinct form of rope writing. In addition, they came up with a revolutionary development of their own: their petty chieftains started to impose primitive corvee and food tax requirements on their villages, thus providing a framework for effective economic mobilization. So far, their forest-bound, insular culture hasn’t had a real chance to exploit this unique development, but they have a chance to reach a real breakthrough should they switch to a more settled, agricultural lifestyle.
Maramapi
The most seclusive Amerindian culture that spent two and a half millennia in near-full isolation on the Maranmapa archipelago. During a brief period, this unsophisticated group faced outsiders, when a host of Wiet-yrisi Syrisylian boatmen subjugated a few shorebound tribes, but their reign lasted less than a generation. Only recently, the Maramapi started looking for places outside their cradle, facing the world that’s gone much farther in its development than they ever could imagine.
