Kuzana

The Kuzana (Kuzanan Cant: Kuɕaɲɲe) were widely dispersed ethnolinguistic groups that were known that traditionally most concentrated the parts of Southern and Central Aethera before the Shattering. Traditionally known to live a nomadic lifestyle, they are thought to have first arrived in Aethera around 1600-1200 years before present, they are the seventh to arrive according to archaeological data.
According the the Kuzana, they originate from a great desert, in which sand stretches on miles on end. It is unknown how they entered Aethera, and it appears they do not know either or have long forgotten, remembering it to be the will of the gods in their time of desperation/wandering.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The Kuzanan language has been long used as a cryptolect, often mixed with Common to discretely speak. Variations in these argots differ significantly in each region, enough to call them seperate languages. They have long since adopted common, and words of Kuzanan origin are often relegated to customs and food.

Culture and cultural heritage

The Kuzana are believed to be often managed by tribal councils, which are an assembly of elders and chieftains, being a legislative, diplomatic, investigative, judicial, and militaristic governing council.
In matters of significant importance, or once every ten years, all leaders of the Kuzana participate in the Great Summit, in which debate may take days, weeks, or even months.

Shared customary codes and values

The Kuzana live together, oftentimes having several generations living with one another. Each family has a familial hierarchy determined by a family member's age, with the eldest woman being the head of the entire extended family. Independence from the family requires collective consent from the family and head. Not doing so will cause them to forfeit their rights/inheritance.

Common Etiquette rules

The Kuzana often despise uncleanliness. They do consider the lower areas of one's body to be particularly impure, and they clean such clothes separately and with great rigour.
Likewise, the act of childbirth is also considered impure amongst these people, and it is considered imperative to clean shortly after childbirth.

Common Dress code

The Kuzana wear intriquitely patterned plaid robes and pants, with a double lapel.
Kuzanan Monks often shave themselves, and wear plain white robes, in a testament of their suffering and cleaning. These Monks are often barefooted and malnourished.

Art & Architecture

The buildings of the Kuzana prominently feature high towers which helps ventilation. These often were paired with storage facilities for ice and water. Another such innovation is heated floors and beds in times of harsh winters, facilitated by lighting fires underneath their homes.
They also rely on beavers on their irrigation for oases, often in desert river/lake systems. As such, they often travel using narrow canoes to quickly traverse the waters.
This allowed their people to expand everywhere (with exception to Emberfall) due to their extreme climate adaptation, with the historian Archathanes comparing them to rats.
They are known for having the expert craftsmen, with their textiles, weapons, and furniture are greatly sought after.

Foods & Cuisine

The Kuzana are pastoral agriculturalists and they usually manage cattle, pigs, horses, lamb, goats, and camels. Due to the arid environment from which they came, they excel in cultivating crops. Food is often a combination of goat milk-yogurt with figs, cherries, lemon, onions, garlic, melons, and grapes, often with a flatbread.
Cow meat is expensive for the common people, and is occasionally eaten during special occasions. However, they are most known for their round flower shaped hand-pies made from slow cooked pig, mushrooms, vegetables, and spices.
Wine consumption, particularly made with figs and cherries, are enjoyed.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

The Kuzana practice ritualistic self-mutilation and head elongation, oftentimes subjecting themselves to starvation, poverty, torture, and to the elements.
Oftentimes, groups of Kuzana migrate in search of uncontested land, no matter how barren it may seem. This had lead to them being pejoratively described as cockroaches.
It is customary to donate food offerings to the monks.

Funerary and Memorial customs

The deceased are often considered impure, and the family of the deceased are often considered impure in their grief.
It is believed that truly pure sages do not in fact decay, and their bodies are treated as holy relics of the newly awakened.

Common Myths and Legends

The Kuzana are religiously divided into the Path of Suffering and the Sword Sects. Both are polytheistic, animistic, and ancestor worshipping religions. They believe that their actions determines everything, from this life and the next.
The Path of Suffering's main prophet is The Lord Observer, the founder of the path of suffering. This man is treated akin to a god to the Kuzana.
In contrast, the sword sects are much more revering to whomever founded the sect, with the most notable being the School of the Sword Saint.
Their other gods are as follows:

• Nanaya: Goddess of the Heavens.
• Swarya: The Mother Sun Goddess.
• Karm: The personification of Causality.
• Lakle: The personification of Suffering.
• Brahm: The Creator God.
• Ilain: The Storm God.
• Salen/Men: The Moon Goddess.
• Ogun: God of Fire.

One belief amongst the Kuzana is that they too could free themselves and become perfected, as their Lord Observer had done himself long ago. As such, those who are believed to reached perfection would be likewise be seen as prophets and treated like gods.
One ancient saying of the Sages is as follows:

"As a child, be kind.
In your youth, be modest.
As a man, be just.
As an elder, be wise.
Then perish without suffering."

Historical figures

Aside from their religious figures, it is said that the most sword sects in Aethera derive their origins from Kuzanan bladesingers. The most prominant of such, being founded by a figure named Riara. This name would later be adopted by later leaders of the Sword Saint Sect, of which owes its title to the second Riara, one of the heroes who slayed the Flayed One.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Their skin complexion varies from pale to dark tan, though lighter complexions are more valued in Kuzanan society as it indicates a more sheltered (and therefore luxurious) lifestyle.
Their hair color likewise is highly variable, with Brown, Blonde, and Red hair being common amongst the Kuzana. They often have long hair, and mustaches are not uncommon amongst their men. The Kuzanans have Blue, Grey, Green colored eyes, though darker colored eyes is not especially rare.
It is said that the most desriable trait is to have a muscular physique, as it is a testament to both honing the body and staving off gluttony.

Gender Ideals

The Kuzana do not in general separate males and females or frown on contact between the sexes.

Courtship Ideals

Generally one's parents assign a suitable partner amongst their own friends or kin's children to strengthen their bonds with another.
Both parties have a say in whether or not to be engaged (though it is frowned to turn down a arrangement). The man's family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents, as the woman joins her husband's household.