Isles of the Yamachai

South of the Forbidden Isles lies another chain of islands with a more remote and mountainous climate. Cool and windy, these islands have little human or centaur presence besides at embassies or in trading areas, due to the isolated nature of the cultures of these lands. They are not united under a single absolute ruler like an empire, or a centralised democracy as with the Dominion, but are a very loose confederation of hereditary lords and priests, often at odds with one another. Nominally, they all answer to a High Priest, elected for life from among a council of the Most Pious, but the lords of the lands mostly run their territories like petty kingdoms, with the priests being the ones more concerned about the unity of their people. A people without hair, and with claws and great hearing, they are unlike any other people in the middle of the world. These are the Isles of the Yamachai .

Structure

The different islands of Yam, Uro, Muri, Yumino, Daya and Chumpana each are ruled by different Clans, who in turn have tribes subservient to them. The clans tend to dominate each island’s secular affairs while seeking advice on spiritual matters from the many priests. The tribes and indeed the clans themselves will frequently wage war on each other over family disputes and petty grievances, forcing their people to go to war repeatedly. It is certainly not an easy life, whicu is why many turn to the priests to secure order in the Isles. Worshippers of the ‘Source’, from which all life in the universe comes from, even the so-called gods, priests go into the tall mountains that run through the larger islands to go on pilgrimaged, offering sacrifices to lesser gods for safe protection. They place great monasteries in the mountains where they may spend years under a vow of silence. Chained to a life of celibacy and vows of protecting the innocent, the life of a priest is a strict affair, offering charity and council to the rich and poor alike. The “capital” of the Yamachai, is the city of Yamato, located in the island of Yam. Here, the most experienced and committed priests, known as the Most Pious, come together to elect a High Priest to lead the whole Yamachai people for life. The election is open only to those in the Great Monastry of the capital, and so the lords of the clans must deal with whatever the High Priest has to say. This understandably leads to tensions between the two groups for the hearts and minds of the common people.

Public Agenda

The priesthood that maintains spiritual and nominal political order in the Isles based it’s principles off the writings of Teacher Hakwasi, who taught that since all of existence comes from the Source, and the Yamachai were meant to be the purest race due to their heritage, they had a duty to each other and the earth of stewardship. As well as the general priesthood, a number of Orders were formed that combined religious, military and scholarly positions to preserve history and martial arts, a practise not as well known in the Forbidden Isles. Considered to be the children of the Forefathers or ‘Ancient Ones’ as known elsewhere and humans, the Yamachai are believed to have the best of both forebears and are taught to keep separately from the other races, hence their isolationism. The priests will readily offer assistance and counselling to outsiders, even visiting their nations to study and offer services, but they do not usually stay. As with any society, however, there are always outcasts who do not conform to the social order, and they often indeed go to the Isles to the north to seek out different ways of living. Their views on the other Yamachai nation, the Kingdom of Gold, tend to cause many debates when bought up at dinner.

Assets

With a cool and mountainous climate, only hardy or semi-aquatic crops are available for the Yamachai, besides many the inedible plants of the forests, though these do feed local animals, which in turn feed the dreadful Apostates, the local top predators. With cold, snowy winters and dry summers, the spring and brief autumn are the best time for growing food, and so the Yamachai live off these plants as well as animals capable of living off many inedible foods. The pig, the goat and the chicken are therefore vital parts of the Yamachai diet, as well as wild elk. With superior sight and hearing, the Yamachai are great trackers and hunters, and so prefer being able to track their own food wherever possible, adding in to their martial culture. Due to their alleged history, the use of horses and mounts is frowned upon in their societies, and individuals who do use this thing are deemed heretical and exiled from the Isles, often becoming mercenaries or merchants to make a living. With great forts owned by the clans, they almost resemble Evergnon’s castles, and as with the lords and barons there, there is definitely competition between clans for the most grandiose living quarters and facilities. With plenty of forest, timber, pelts and berries are easy to find, and the mountains provide abundant minerals for jewellery and trade.

History

The oldest accounts of the Yamachai are shrouded in myth and legend, and for us outsiders, should be taken with a grain of salt. The legends of the Yamachai claim they were once bred as a mixing of the two races of Forefather and human, inheriting the power and mysticism of one race and the creativity and mortality of the other, though other more foul legends claim that this same process was done through trickery. Furthermore, the claims go that less fortunate human women were forced upon by the crueler Forefathers, and in their anguish, bore other races of the Yamachai Isles, the ferocious apostates and the misunderstood giants. This latter race were tall beings, more than five metres tall, and with claws as long as a sword blade. None had a single hair in their bodies, as with the Yamachai, but were wrinkled, with long spindly arms and thick hips and pillar like legs. Though vegetarian, they were mistaken by early Yamachai and even visiting humans to be baby-eaters, starting a centuries-long crusade against them. When the Forefathers and N’Krai warred amnfat each other, the Yamachai were fiercely loyal to their fathers, more so than the humans who came to doubt them more and more. When the N’Krai won a great victory over the Forefathers, the legends say humans and centaurs alike rode off from the battle, leaving many Yamachai to be massacred. From this time onward, t he general culture of the Isles has a taboo against riding horse or centaur. One particularly mysterious aspect of the Yamachai is the population on the easternmost island of Chumpana. Those living there have lighter, almost white skin and follow their gods not as servants of the Source, but as their own. It has been strongly theorised that these people are kin to the legendary civilisation once living in the small rocky island known as the Outer. Supposedly once a larger island, this civilisation of Yamachai as white as snow was said to be the greatest of all before it sank into the ocean. When this happened, if it ever did, is a subject of debate. The legends claim that the city fell into the ocean five thousand years ago, long before any other group was even known to be active in the Isles. Others claim that they collapsed much more recently around the time of the Fires. In truth, neither explanation offers sufficient questions for this, and so we must move on to more tangible matters.

Veritable History

The more recent past allows some more history to be taken into account. The mistaken identity of the giants proved an unfortunate consequence, as the race, with its slow wit and slower replenishment, was driven out, with the last known giants being killed by members of the now-gone Bochi Clan in 968 BF. From this point, the clans began to centralise their control of the islands, as a seperate institution from the various shamans. At this point, the Source was just one of the many views present in the Yamachai culture, with the exception of the eastern lands, subject to their own mysteries.

Demography and Population

Almost entirely Yamachai, with non-Yamachai limited to traders in the cities or in ghettos. Besides a few cities, most of the population live in the countryside living off the land for their Clan leaders.

Religion

Believers in the Source, Priests teach that all life and things in reality came from a pure stream of soul and consciousness known as the Source. The stars, the moons, the sun, the trees and even gods are but extensions of the Source bringing about life wherever it goes. The Source is said to possess innate, knowable traits of morality that are ‘natural’ to the people’s of the world, but are marred by the materialism that the different races, even the Yamachai become preoccupied with. Instead offering higher truths of harmony with the world and with the arcane, said to be directly of the Source itself, the loss of magic in the world is believed to be the result of the gods being reckless with their decisions and not submitting to their Source. Cults to different gods can also exist in the Isles, and are tolerated as the priests see them as subservient to the Source, even if the people’s themselves don’t necessarily. The so called ‘gods’ described bear a resemblance to the ‘Ancient Ones’ or Forefathers, and may in fact be synonymous.

Foreign Relations

Isolationist for the most part, the Yamachai prefer opting for neutrality in the matters of the Forbidden Isles, though there have been occasions when they’ve stuck a finger in the pie to remove an unfavourable candidate or power from a nation.

Tenets of Faith

Believing in the principles of harmony, followers of the Source advocate that since all life derived itself from the common source of all creation, that therefore one must dedicate their lives to the embetterment of their fellow beings, with even livestock only being allowed to be slaughtered as humanely as possible. Enjoyment in the suffering of others is considered abominable in such beliefs, and any killing must be conducted quickly and with good cause. In death, one who is enlightened in awareness of the Source is broken from the cycle of reincarnation and allowed to ascend to the Source itself, where magic is boundless and all worthy souls find their place.

Granted Divine Powers

Visions in dreams, premonition, interpretations of other languages (xenoglossia), and according to rumours, the most Pious can even perform minor magical acts through great concentration.

Founding Date

The earliest known evidence of Yamachai settlement in the islands dates to over three thousand years before the Fires, with stone gauntlets reminiscent of the steel ones used by modern Yamachai being found.

Type

Political, Confederation

Capital

Yamato

Training Level

Levy

Veterancy Level

Trained

Demonym

Yamachai

Government System

Theocracy

Power Structure

Confederation

Economic System

Market economy

Currency

Champs.

Legislative Body

Nominally, The Most Pious, the most high ranking priests who answer directly to the High Priest and who manage the spiritual life of the Yamachai people. In practise, however, their power is contested and limited by the clans of the Isles, who often rule their lands as petty kingdoms.

Judicial Body

The clan leaders enact laws upon their subjects, with some leeway as to their interpretation if it as well as piety.

Location

Yamato

Related Ranks & Titles