Ashan

Basic Information

Anatomy

Standing at approximately 4ft in height, the Ashan are a squat reptilian race with stocky features. They stand upright on two legs and have two arms, each ending with three-toed feet and four-fingered hands respectively. They have large, dark eyes and a wide mouth, with two little holes for ears on either side of their heads. They also have a short, stubby tail about 1 - 2ft long.

Ashan come in a wide variety of colours and patterns that are earthy in nature, the majority of them come in shades of yellow and brown, with patterns such as stripes, blotches, and pebblestone.

Genetics and Reproduction

Ashan mate for life with a single partner with whom they typically have approximately 8 to 9 offspring over the course of their lifetime. Female Ashan lay eggs after mating usually in clusters of 3 or 4, which they traditionally would bury in the sand deep in the inland deserts of the plateaus. Typically this would result in the death of one or both parents, but for the past millennia, they have taken to carrying their yet to be hatched brood with them in their caravans as they travel across the surface and through the upper city, taking care to sequester them away from harm.

Growth Rate & Stages

The Ashan reach adulthood at approximately 10 years of age and will go on to live to a full 60 years usually. Most Ashan are a pale, sandy colour or a dull brown until they reach adulthood which is when the first signs of their lifelong colours start to appear. It typically takes a month or two for them to fully come through. This is almost always a very important event and Ashan families will spend weeks in preparation for the coming of age ritual and celebration, known as the 'ceremony of the colours', a joyous occasion for all filled with dancing, drinking and the consumption of honey-covered locusts, a favoured treat of the Ashan, which they hold as soon as the colour and pattern of the fledgeling's skin confirmed, fully flushed or not.

As an Ashan grows older over the decades, their skin grows more gnarled and leathery. This typically doesn't become apparent until an Ashan nears it's 50th birthday. Far from being seen as distasteful, the Ashan rever such appearances as the individuals who possess them are seen as long-lived and full of wisdom and knowledge of the world.

Ecology and Habitats

The Ashan tend to dwell in the hotter, drier parts of the world, ideally spending most of their time in the Upper City with occasional trips to and across the Surface. Whilst the Ashan do go down to the Lower City when they have to, it's preferrable not to as it is not as warm there. No Ashan to date has gone below the Lower City into the Deep.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Ashan are mostly insectivores but are known to eat omnivorously when amongst settlements and cities that don't cater to their specific dietary needs. Ashan are known to keep hives of clusters of insects such as bees, dune wasps, spiders, larvae and the like as colonies either in or around their homes or caravans as a supplementary food source. As such an Ashan caravan can be a welcome guest who brings honey, or a pest who brings locusts. On travels the Ashan are known to be capable foragers, living off the land as they move on what scarce resources they can find.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Like many races, the Ashan perceive the world through sight, sound, taste, touch and smell, with no one sense being particularly stronger or weaker than the other.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

The Ashan have a two part name structure, a discovered name and a tribe name. The tribe name is that of the family unit they belong to and the discovered name is one that they assign themselves at their ceremony of the colours. Young Ashan are until this point simply referred to as Ashi-dag 'Little one' by their elders, young Ashan will refer to each other by childhood names, some of which may stick once they reach adulthood but most are discarded. Many Ashan spend a great deal of time thinking about their chosen name, with some taking names that reflect aspects of their personality, interests, or family members they wish to emulate or look up to. Some Ashan are less thoughtful and take names of objects, are amusing, or just downright weird.


Typical Ashan names (Translated into Common) include:

• Wordskin
• Riddles
• Map
• Wordsmith
• Dreams
• Tinkan

Major Organizations

The Ashan people have no fixed organisational hierarchy, they are a nomadic people who typically only owe allegiance to their tribe or family unit when and wherever they encounter them. The word for tribe in Ashanti is 'Kith', which serves as a prefix to each tribe's name. The seven tribes of the Ashan are as follows:

• Kith Amutan
• Kith Ceph
• Kith Senet
• Kith Talak
• Kith Nimaret
• Kith Hennu
• Kith Isaw

The Ashan do have one organisation amongst their ranks, however, known as Kho-Raman 'The Scholars'. An organisation drawn only from those of the Ashan who make the greatest contributions to their people's understanding of the world, be it through scripture, writing, or the reclamation of artefacts and relics. Membership in The Scholars does not preclude an Ashan from membership in other academic circles, as they believe that knowledge is to be shared and that it has no one master. Being a nomadic people, Scholar groups are often essentially moving libraries, taking their vast knowledge and works of writing with them wherever they go.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Ashanti is the primary language spoken amongst the Ashan. It also has the privilege in the world as being something of an academic language as many of the world's scholarly articles, books, and works of 'high' literature are written in the Ashanti language. Each tribe may have it's occasional dialectic words but the rigidity of the language keeps it fairly structured and uniformed.

History

The Ashan people began as castes of nomadic tribes living amongst the surface of the world, in the days of old several millennia ago petty squabbles and battles were fought over scant resources with those outside the immediate family unit. During these times life was hard for the Ashan and many would not live to see beyond their third decade at most. Very little is known of the Ashanti tribes of this time as it is before a notable event in Ashan history in which a small tribe known as the Kith-Amutan The People of Amu, received the gift of the written word from an ancient relic of considerable power found buried amongst sands in a tower now lost to time located deep in the reaches of the Inner Dune Sea on the Kho-Wajet The Great Northern Plateau.

The People of Amu would become known as the 'first tribe', of the 7 tribes of the Ashan, and would become the teachers within the race during it's infancy amongst the ruins of the Endless City. Over time the remaining tribes would learn how to read and write and the thirst for knowledge amongst the curious race would grow, leading to a gradual settlement of the Upper City from the surface, in pursuit of greater understanding of their world.

The settlement of the Upper City by the Ashan was atypical by the expectations of most, they did not set up permanent villages or towns in the Upper City, but created temporal residences from which they would migrate between over time. Many of these settlements are still used centuries later often by the descendants of the same tribes that initially colonised them. From these settlements they were able to encounter primitive human civilisation amongst the ruins. Through wary interaction and eventual trade, their use of the written word spread to them and the two species became responsible for the founding of the first permanent settlements.

The Ashan, ever curious in nature, sought greater understanding of the world, setting up centres of learning and trade wherever they went and engrossing themselves in matters such as commerce, science, and religion. Whilst their species was involved in conflicts such as the Punitive War against the Iaressi, they were not major participants as warfare has never been their forté. The Ashan faced their own crisis a few hundred years prior with the Nimaret Heresy, an event wherein an explosive series of councils held over several years upon the Nimareti proclamation that they had uncovered an important relic of some description but refused to allow access to other Ashan academics to study it, instead proclaiming it as a holy symbol and taking it along with their entire tribe into exile deep into the inner dune sea after the failed final council of the tribes. The tribes have not reconvened since, as Ashan tradition requires that the heads of all tribes be present for it.

Common Myths and Legends

The most commonly found legend amongst the Ashan is that of the discovery of the Great Artifact, and that it taught the early Ashan the written word. Whilst this is largely believed to be true amongst the Ashan and by a great number of beings beyond, evidence to it remains anecdotal and often times apocryphal as well. The location of the Great Artifact itself is known only by the heads of the 7 tribes and to a few highly trusted scholars who are granted permission to study it. It is a commonly held belief that other such great artefacts exist, waiting to be discovered.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

The Ashan are generally well-received by most other sapient races in the world, it is difficult to truly dislike a race that is largely responsible for the rapid development and growth of civilisation in a world covered in ruins. They are however viewed with some disdain by those such as the [Snake People name go here] who have a tendency to see them as 'lesser' reptiles, mostly this animosity comes from the males of the species who are similarly sized to their Ashan counterparts.

Geographic Distribution

• The Surface
• The Upper City