Aki

Perceived as little more than hairy barbarians or savages by settled Hivokia, they represent all that remains of a forgotten way of life, reforged from the shattered remnants of the tribes that refused to bow to the dwarves rule, 7000 years ago. The Aki Tribes are a conglomeration of races that form self reliant, nomadic groups of hunter gatherers and are native to the isles of Hivokia. They are a culture of monster slayers, taking pride in earning the biggest kill, but who also live in synchronicity with the world around them, only taking what they need to survive, replanting what they reap.
They share their gods with Hivokia and worship the same spirits they do, though they call them by older names. They believe that the beasts of the land and sea are gifts from the spirits for worshiping them. While they are widely accepting folk they have a wariness and bias of Hivokian culture in general and dwarven people in particular.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Common, Aki, Gnomish, Draconic, Giant

Culture and cultural heritage

Their nomadic customs has bred a utilitarian nature into the Aki. They live spartan lifestyles with everything they own having a use if not multiple uses. They are an allegorical people whose history comprises of stories, often revolving around the fey, the gods or the beasts of the Isles.

Shared customary codes and values

The Aki are skilled hunters and hold that living off of the land is the true way to live. To this end they honour their kills by using everything from its body, whether it be eating the meat of the kill or making armour, weapons, equipment or furniture from its hide and bones. They ride across the countryside on the backs of giant lizards, birds and mammals which they have bred into domestication.
All the Aki Tribes follow a shared code of honour, called Akireso'sho or The Resolutions of the Aki and was compiled by Adachi Firequencher during the civilizing.
The central tenents of the code are:

1. Do not waste you kill- Make use of every part. Consume its flesh. Make armour from its hide. Make its teeth and claws your weapons. In this way you honour it
2. Defend yourself and your family- When you fight you do not just fight for yourself. You fight for your family and they in turn fight for you. Together we are strong
3. Teach the children- By teaching them our ways you raise them to be strong. They are the future of the tribe and if you do not conduct yourself with honour, neither will they
4. Honour your Tribe- By honouring the tribe you ensure its survival and prosperity. Honouring only yourself weakens the tribe and grants only tempory gains
5. When called upon by the Adachi, rally to their cause- The Adachi is the leader of all Aki and beyond reproach. When they call to action it is to the benifit of all the Aki

Common Dress code

The Aki wear armour and weapons crafted from the hides, bones, teeth and feathers of their kills. They commonly use large melee weapons such as greatswords, axes, hammers, mauls and spears, as well as ranged weapons on occasions. These weapons are enormous in scale, capable of bringing down the great beasts they hunt. Aki people wear armour at all times except when sleeping and even then it is not unknown for a warrior to sleep in their armour.
Beneath this armour they wear a long robe woven from bark fiber of the knot-tree.
Important members of a tribe will often wear a ceremonial headdress woven from grape vines and decorated with a bone or tooth totem.

Art & Architecture

Being a nomadic culture the Aki live in tent cities that can be easily loaded and unloaded onto the backs of their beasts of burden. Not being confined to one area means that examples of their art can be found all across the Hivokian Isles in the form of painting on cliffsides and statues carved in grand scale from the rock face of the land.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Pawowa- A gathering of the tribes that occurs yearly but which can be called at any time by a tribe leader. During the Pawowa all of the tribes of Aki people gather to discuss current affairs, arrange marriages and to show off their most prestigious hunting trophies.
Omotenashi- At the years end it is customary for Aki families to capture a clawfoot raptor fledgling and bring it into their home. For three months they treat the clawfoot as an honoured guest, feeding it the best cuts of meat. Some legends even talk of the fledgling being nursed on Aki women's milk. After three months at the midwinter festival the raptor is ritually sacrificed to Libitsu, the God of Life so that its spirit may travel to the afterlife and tell Libitsu of how well it was treated.

Coming of Age Rites

On reaching 14 summers in age each member of the tribe must complete a solo hunt to kill a mighty beast and return with its carcass to the tribe. Those who fail either do not return or are cast out.

Funerary and Memorial customs

While old age is not a common death for the Aki, when a member of the tribes does pass in that way the body is left on a ceremonial dais to be consumed by the tribe hunts. In this way the circle of life continues. A funeral is held for the deceased at which his possessions are handed down to their children or divided up among the tribe and stories are told of their brave exploits.

Common Myths and Legends

There are very few written documents of the Aki people that are written by the Aki themselves. This is because their history is an oral tradition of myths and legends. As such their is little known about the true history of the Aki as what little written history there is that pertains to them is stained by the Hivokian peoples distain for their customs.
The Aki believe that they are their ways are the true ways of the people of Hivokia, claiming that their culture and customs runs back to the original tribes of Hivokia that resisted dwarven rule during the past age. They maintain that at that time all of the islands races were divided into tribes of their own and that when the dwarves conquered the Isles and brought everyone under one banner not all were convinced. Those tribes were all but wiped out and their remnants banded together to form the Aki.

Historical figures

Adachi Firequencher- First known leader of the Aki tribes and whose name is synonymous with the peoples leadership. Adachi gathered the broken remnants of the original tribes together after the founding of the Hivokian kingdom and made them strong. Legend has it that he fought and killed a dragon single handedly.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Beards are not shaven past the age of 20 winters and hair is usually grown long, sometimes undercut at the back and sides. Women often have intricate designs tattooed into their lips with ash from a displacer beast.

Parent ethnicities

• Hivokian

Encompassed species

• Firbolg

Related Organizations

• Hivokia
• Ish'akath
• Monastery of Celestial Harmonics