[ERF] The Suthi

LIFESTYLE:
Ever since the Suthi drifted into Baclama 300 years ago, the Suthi have wandered its wastes. The impact of the nomadic lifestyle on Suthi beliefs, culture, and character has only been magnified across the hundreds of years spent trading and traveling through the desert.

Suthi technology is rarely their own. Most is either traded from the sedentary towns or from outside of the Baclama. Firearms are common, albeit primitive. The majority weapon is some form of matchlock, less commonly early editions of breech loaded rifle, and rarely anything more advanced. As a result, firearms remain secondary, giving way to widespread usage of medieval weaponry. Sabres, estocs, and rapiers occupy melee range, bows find their place at long range, and firearms take residence in between the two. Units consist of light and medium armor, usually hauberks sometimes covered by a front/back breastplate. Desert protection like cloaks, turbans, and headscarves are also common among soldiers and civilians alike.

Civil technology has rarely progressed beyond pre-industrial levels, and electricity is far rarer than other parts of the world. In the rare case where the Suthi obtain a stable source of energy, usually by solar power, power is limited to communication and simple automation.

The Suthi use the Humaydi as home, almost exclusively building below the Humaydi’s cap, with populations usually numbering in the 30s, the largest numbering around the 100s. The structures themselves are made of wood or scrap, sometimes both, and are anchored in small indentations of the Humaydi’s chitin. The building protrudes from the Humaydi about 10 feet, and is typically two to three stories tall, each story being six to seven feet. Beds are located on the bottom floor, with dining halls, facilities, and leadership at the top. Often times building is unregulated, and random additions to the structure routinely fall off.

THE HUMAYDI:
The Humaydi, or Traveler in Suthi language, are the leading reason for Suthi nomadism. Standing up to an amazing 30 feet tall, with a maximum 40 foot diameter, these behemoths look peculiarly like chitinous mushrooms with legs. The mushroom cap, located at their top, and the reason for its extraordinary diameter, is actually hollow, allowing for the storing of the thousands of gallons of water necessary to trek between the rare sources of water in Baclama. The long stalk descending 20 feet to its legs could be described as the body proper, composed of its digestive tract, respiratory and circulatory systems. At the bottom of its body rests its ‘mouth’, composed of numerous roots or tentacles which comb the desert floor for any nutrients, and storing the massive amounts of water needed in its roof. Weirdly enough, no other sensory organs are found on the outside, and the Suthi bar any autopsy, leaving it up to speculation whether or not it can even see, smell, or hear.

The appearance of the Humaydi is a relatively new concept compared to the other monolithic forces on Set. Only emerging from the north about two centuries ago, the creatures remain an enigma. Religious law prevents any in depth observation of the Humaydi, while their origin is unknown even to the Suthi. As a result, many of the questions about the Humaydi have gone unanswered. These questions mainly revolve around two things: the lack of any similar evolutionary cousins or ancestors, and their seemingly impossible energy balance. Although no one knows the inner workings of the Humaydi, common sense dictates that there’s no way that the nutrients found in sand would be enough for such a large animal to survive. It is often claimed that a process akin to photosynthesis provides the energy needed. Another common theory purports the Humaydi filtering in nutrients from the air and water, storing the food like camels. Neither have been proven, and either way, it leads to the first question: their mysterious origins.

Various Humaydi herds take different routes, not all of them are known, or even finished, however the one link between all of them are their pit stops on each of the thousands of water sources across the Baclama. However, the Suthi have recorded a few key components about Humaydi migratory routes, chief among them is their reluctance to either leave the desert, or go near the ruins to the north of Baclama.

GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY:
There is no official Suthi government. Rather, local chiefs rule on individual Humaydi, acting as the arbiters of any disputes and are responsible for the enforcement of religious law. Other than chieftains, two sources of institutional power exists: the merchants and the priests. Both vie for control over the Suthi, and expectantly come into conflict with each other and supporters of the decentralized status quo.

The lack of a formal government has not stopped the Suthi from organizing themselves into different clans. Numbering in the thousands, these clans range from control of an entire herd of Humaydi, to as small as one or two of them. The Suthi conception of clan has less to do with family (although still a factor) as it has to do with loyalty. Such that entire villages can be, and in many cases are, part of the chief’s family. To a lesser extent, members of a clan don’t even have to be of the same species. Albeit rare, there are stories of aliens proving themselves to Suthi chieftains and becoming full-fledged clan members. Despite this meritocratic entrance to Suthi flock, many are tentative to join. The hard life on the desert, as well as swearing oneself to the Suthi religion, Aba Cayim, makes outsider recruits few and far between.

The merchants are a collective group of six major clans and dozens of minor ones, whose primary goal is trade. In order to ensure that trade flows as smoothly as possible, the Council of Six was created to monopolize trade routes and coordinate merchant policy. The Council of Six, engorged from trade profits, have taken the leading role in Suthi politics. Over the last fifty years, most chiefs have fallen in line with one of the six merchant families which reign de facto among the herds of Humaydi. The opposition to the merchants among settlements have remained fierce however, many angry with merchant policies of stamping out local trade and their maintenance of an influential smuggling ring of drugs and human trafficking.
As the only significant counter-balance to the merchants, the clergy barely hold on to that namesake. Used to being the dominant force in Suthi politics, and the unifying force of all Baclama’s nomads, their power has been in perpetual waning for the last hundred years. The priests take residence in three Humaydi, decorated like throne rooms. Rare metals and silks dot their homes as homage to their God, and surrounded by numerous Suthi loyal to Their cause. Their cause (as interpreted by the priests), has been the absolute supremacy of the Suthi in the Baclama desert, and the expulsion of foreign trade. To meet this end, as the clergy say, requires the conversion and pacification of every settlement in the desert, the cleansing of Baclama through the uprooting of Meat Heathenry, and the dissolution of the Council of Six.

In recent years, the tensions between the Council of Six and the clergy have reached a boiling point. Although outright hostility has yet to be seen, whispers of sedition and civil war are heard throughout the desert. Armies and paramilitaries are preparing for confrontation, and mercenaries are appearing from foreign lands to sell their sword to the greatest buyer. Between casual observers, worried settlers, and indeed even the Suthi, all agree that one hostile move from either faction would be enough to create open conflict. It is generally accepted that there are four factions that are either the actors, or the effected, in the case of civil war.

Clergy:
Disregarding secrecy, the clergy have taken to open defiance against the merchant policies, and the recruiting and training of holy warriors has accelerated in recent years. Because of this, many believe the first shots will be fired by the clergy, and the clergy don’t disagree.

Council of Six/Merchants:
The merchants, on the other hand, have been dismissive of the priests. Although this policy isn’t as damaging as outright repression, their disregard for the clergy’s wishes might lead to the spark needed for an uprising. It is unknown whether or not the Council of Six knows this, but if they do it doesn’t seem to affect their business.

Settlers:
For the settlers, it’s a lose-lose situation. The clergy want to convert them, the merchants want to exploit them, and either way the vital trade needed for survival will be stalled during war. In the case of civil war, it’s likely that many settlements will try and gain protection from local Loonies. Those that can’t will either fight, most of whom will join the merchants, or stay neutral and hope to survive in isolation. And although rare, the clergy are guaranteed the support of more religious towns and settlements.

Chieftains:
Even with many chieftains professing support for one side of the conflict or the other, the majority have decided on apathy, seeing the conflict as nothing more than a large tribal squabble. As push comes to shove however, it’s likely that number will decrease to opportunists and kinsmen. The rest will either attempt neutrality or banditry, both viewed as equally despicable by merchants and priests.

RELIGION:
The Aba Cayim (literally Sand Cult) is the primary religion of the Suthi, and a significant minority for Baclama settlers. Their theology is mainly based around the “God in the Sand”, a magical force that occupies the desert and helps its original settlers, among them the Suthi, prosper. The religion itself was founded shortly after the the original Suthi wanderers made their way to Baclama, many of its traditions taking from the older, forgotten faiths when the Suthi were not the Suthi.

Aba Cayim has no written text, with most passed through the generations by members of clergy. Like a vast generational game of telephone, words were misremembered, connotations were changed and entire rules were forgotten or “remembered”. The proliferation of the Word across the sparsely populated Suthi have led to numerous sects of Aba Cayim, major parts of the religion varying from clan to clan. The only thing keeping the religion glued together are the big three clergy clans, who act as the arbiters of faith.

In their most practical sense, the clergy represents the judiciary. Among the tenants of Aba Cayim lie vast dialogues on crimes and their punishments, which have remained surprisingly static over the faith’s lifespan. Religious law touches on the usual ethics of every society: murder, thievery, and assault are illegal, with the addition of immoral acts being banned, the biggest being drug use and slavery. Due to the lack of prisons, being forced to wander the desert unarmed and unequipped is the most common. Less common is execution, administered only to the most heinous crimes and done only by sanctioned executioners. Beheading is the most common form.

The sudden and enigmatic entrance of the Humaydi 200 years ago has since been attributed to their God, putting a clout of religion on what can and can’t happen to the animals. Killing them, maiming them, or otherwise harming them is considered to be one of the cardinal sins of Aba Cayim, and punishment for such an act is exclusively death.