Shantiahe (ʂɒntiaɦe)
Proud people of the desert
Desert folk
In the great desert of R'habali, the Shantiah people are stuck in the tremors of the contestation of the dimension. Once a proud civilization, they thrived in the arid Shan, living in nomad bands. Great cities were erected around the major oasis, ruled by powerful Pariahe, or chiefs.
The Shantiahe share a unique culture, despite being all over the continent. This could be explained by their nomadic lifestyle and the frequent cultural exchanges between the different groups, as well as the fact that they share the same survival constraint. Less fit cultures and species went most likely extinct long ago, and what is left is the winner of the evolution race. And this winner has the look of an intelligent humanoid species, with dark skin covered with a scale-like structure, able to store water for a long time.
For centuries they lived in relative harmony, trading between each other and fighting off the occasional warring bands. They did not have much room in terms of technological progress, as ore mines were sparse and the metal was reserved for tools and weapons.
Shantiah bands
Shantiahe are distributed between nomadic groups and sedentary cities around oases.
The nomadic Shantiahe are organized in groups from three to ten dozens of people, called bands or ketsh in their language. A band is usually a sole family living together. They are led by the elders that form a sort of council and are the figure of the group. Nobody takes offense of misconduct from a youngling, but any mistake from a band leader or ketshariah is a capital sin.
The population of a band shifts organically over time, growing and reducing at the rhythm of the people joining or leaving. It is only possible to join a band through a family link, most of the time marriage. In-family couples are totally acceptable, though Shantiahe tends to not find others from their family attractive. Ketshe are disbanded and reformed every day, only a handful stood the test of time. The power of a band is not function of its total number, but of how many elders it has. A lot of elderly people mean that this family is somewhere people like to stay until the end of their lives and is able to take good care of its weakest elements.
The cities have few permanent residents, and most of their population is made of passing bands. They stay in the oasis for a month or two before setting up a new journey. Many clay buildings are left empty for the best of their time, but that does not stop the permanent inhabitants from having a complex hierarchy and authority.
In the cities, the ruler is called the Pariah, and he possesses all the power. He makes laws, enforces them, and presides over the trials. It is less time-consuming than it seems, as laws are quite lax and the population little enough to have a low number of outlaws. Bandits and rivals are executed on the spot, so trials are rare. In days past, the Pariah was chosen in a match between the best hunters of the city. It turned so often into a bloodbath that the election mode changed to a deathmatch where the ruler would be the last one standing. In current days, the leader is designed by an assembly of people chosen from the permanent population and a representative from each band currently in the city. A Pariah is elected until his death and cannot be a candidate past the age of 50. Mandates are long, but younger leaders have fresh ideas while being advised by a council of elders.
Sustainability
Although it is called a desert, the Shan continent is not devoid of vegetation or animals. If townfolks rely mostly on their cattle for subsistence, nomads are more versatile. Some bands breed their livestock and use their meat as well as skins and bones to clothe themselves. Hunters chase wild beasts of modest size to feed on them like horned lizards or R'hakke. Since they cannot efficiently use the rest of the body, they make their clothes and tools out of fibers and wood. Some ketshe do a mix of both, though these ones are pretty rare.
Mythology
In their culture, Shantiahe means "Those who chose the dust", where dust could be interchanged with earth, sand, or even life as Shan is a term that encompasses many others. This denomination came from their tale of genesis, which is still transmitted through oral tradition from old storytellers to the young public.
Long ago, when the suns were still one, the ancestors of the Shantiah people were nothing like them. Half-dust, half-water, they shared equally the source of life. They lived in the Esher, the space in-between. Above them was Shan, the dust, and below Veter, the water. They were powerful but primals, torn between the backwash of water and the continuous flow of dust. Conflict arose and a millennium of peace was broken. Formidable armies clashed, and friends turned into foes until only a few remained.
The two parties, scarred and tired of this pointless war, decided to put an end to this folly and leave the Esher. Each was given a choice, the Shantiah gave their water to the Veteriah and vice versa, only keeping the bare minimum of the other element to stay alive. The former ascended to the Shan, and the latter descended to the Veter. Split but whole for the first time in their lives, they vowed to never see each other again until death draw them together.
Since this time, no Shantiah is allowed to go underground and risk falling into Veter by accident. Still, their bodies of dust claim water to survive, and so the Veteriahe bring up their dead to the Shan. Above the water graveyards, oases of life blossom. To return the blessing, the Shantiahe drop their dead in one of the deep chasms found all around the Shan desert, so that their brother Veteriahe can sustain their body. It is a supreme insult to leave a Shantiah corpse to rot under the sun, both to the dead who is stripped of their last honor and the Veteriahe who may starve from the lack of this corpse.
— So... they eat their dead? — No, that's just water. Regular water. The whole thing about the consumption of deads from a subterranean sister civilization is just in their oral tradition. — That's messed up. — Heh, gotta respect primitive cultures.
Humanoid in the desert
One could argue that it is strange for a biped whose main strengths are wits and tool manipulation to be the best fit in an arid land. A consensus was found by a couple of researchers from the I.D.E.A. They suggested that the Shan desert, or at least part of it, was once a lush forest that would have favorited this kind of body with hands gifted of opposable thumbs. A catastrophe occured that resulted in a biological bottleneck, killing most of the arboreal species that weren't swift enough to adapt. Their scaly skin or, less visible, their long Henle's loop would then be a byproduct of this adaptation over a very long period of time.
Mines
In Shantiah culture, going underground is an insult to the ancestors and a blasphemy. No one in their right mind would willingly go down a mine, even if their life is at stake. Hence, mining work is for the outcasts, traitors and nameless orphans unwelcomed in any band. They do not form one of their own, for they are banished from entering a family. They gather around the rare mine shafts and dig the earth, extracts the precious minerals and trade them for food and water. Although they are not physically branded in any way, they gave up their shantiahli, what make them Shantiahe, the first time they dived in the depths.
In regards of Shantiah genders
Shantiahe are, like most species in R'habali, hermaphrodits. They possess both male and female reproductive organs, and every one of them is able to bear children. As a result, there is no sexual dimorphism in the species, hence no genre distinction in their language or their society. They do form couples for life, but the bearer of the fruit of their union is usually the stronger of the two, since only a robust body could give birth to a healthy child. The mere concept of "male" and "female" was introduced by Terran settlers, who wrongly assigned genders to Shantiahe based on clothing and haircuts, according to what looked more masculine or feminine to them.
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