Khurvans

I have traveled far and wide throughout our world. I have seen many wonders. I have been at the foot of the Glaciers and at the border of the Unending Forest, but to this day I have never seen something as fascinating and repugnant as the Khurvan lands.
The Khurvans are a race of Man, at first sight, though alien to Kathetí. Like the Dunladirs, they are mongrel in origin. However, unlike the Dunladirs, they have not adapted to the land, remain nomadic and arrived fairly recently from the Great Steppe. I have not seen a single Khurvan shorter than 5 feet and 11 inches, and not a single one clean shaven. Their narrow eyes, wide lips and underlined forehead make for a truly savage face. Upon arriving in their empire, I traveled through lands they shared with the Dracons. Shared being a loaded term, of course, as the poor lizards were simply slaves.
That was the first time I encountered the Khurvan system of slavery. Khurvans enslave anyone who they didn’t kill and who is of any race other than them. It seems that the slaves of the nomads are divided into several categories. At the top lie the educated slaves, well paid, tasked with overseeing a number of things from finances to the development of sciences in the barbarians’ nation and are awarded a degree of autonomy. Under are the slaves of the arts, that entertain their masters. They are paid fairly well, however lack much autonomy. At the bottom are the menial slaves, tasked with manual labours and tending to the needs of their masters. They are not paid and face horrendous mistreatment. All slaves are abused, from my observations, some less harshly than others, of course, but it is far less humane than the Deion slavery of old.
The Khurvans often try to dress in an extravagant manner, clothing being a symbol of status. Men wear fur caps with ornaments dawning the top, padded tunics, trousers and boots reaching to the knee. They also wear long necklaces, made of bone, I did not ask what type of bone they used. Women tend to wear dresses with padded shoulders, over light tunics, trousers and boots to the ankles. Many women brandish a mustache the same as men, and it seems that they are a status symbol as well. Naturally, the moustaches of women are not as grand as those of men. The riders clad their unnaturally six legged horses in beautifully decorated rugs and sheets of fur or skin, many containing what seem like religious rites and breathtaking patterns of steppe landscapes.
Now, the overwhelming presence of magicks is a signature part of Khurvan existence. Wherever I was in their lands, I got headaches from the magical influences, nearly passing out when I entered the grand city of Chandgad. Oftentimes, one would see Khurvans levitating in place while enjoying a rest, or floating mugs of watered down beer passing through their primitive built taverns, men lighting their pipes with a flick of a finger or the ritual burning of bodies by a mage, or as they call them, a shaman, using simply words of power. Their mongrel speech, full of grunts, clicks and gurgles, reveals yet a fascinating, magical tone, that one is almost enamoured by. I experienced this kind of magical trance while listening to a performance by one of the Khurvans “throat bards”, a well respected guild of singers who perform utilising their throats. It is said that a number of them have been ascended to godhood by Tengerburkhan, the Sky God of the Khurvans.
Now, while most Khurvans live out a totally nomadic lifestyle, travelling through the land on horseback, tending to their animals and living in spacious tents named yurts, a good number live in the mighty, breathtaking Travelling Cities. A miracle if I’ve ever seen one, these great cities of stone and wood travel on mountains of ground, carried by powerful magicks. Many of these cities are smaller in nature, as the magicks can only carry so much, however the greatest, Chandgad, is said to have been blessed by their demonic god and is a true metropolis. These cities oftentimes support agriculture on their grounds, however it rarely is enough to feed their populations, as such they’re helped by the herders and hunters on the ground. The cities of the Khurvans are a fascinating environment. Houses upon houses, buildings defining logic and common sense, bent, standing sideways. Grand bazaars under sheets of cloth, full of shouting traders and scurrying people. Even as the bazaars are breathtaking, the cuisine is putrid, with the nomadic populace basing it mostly on different horse and cattle products, mostly fermented and the urban cuisine is so full of spices that you cannot feel the dish, but I presume that the base is the same as the nomads’.
The nomadic Khurvans often group themselves into smaller “tribes”, mostly made up of families with some additional friends or outsiders and of course slaves. The heads of these tribes are the patriarchs of the families. The men in Khurvan culture oftentimes have many wives, all equal by divine law, as a way to birth sons who can provide for the tribe. Men nor women use surnames, being referred to only by their first name and possibly a cognomen. Tribes sustain themselves mostly through herding cattle, goats and abominable creatures called "Koi", that have six legs, no neck and one eye and produce oddly good tasting milk. Some tribes, and a majority of those living in more forested lands, pride themselves in their hunting abilities, utilising magicks and archery skills to hunt for animals. Almost all tribes, however, partake in constant raiding. As expected of a barbaric, alien race, they pursue an agressive lifestyle, gathering wealth from constant raids. Tribes conduct these escapades either on foreign lands, mostly Slevland or the Border Principalities, pillaging villages, taking slaves and attacking convoys. Like common bandits, truly. However, many times they raid within their Empire, attacking the many villages and towns of Dracons or Dunladirs. Oftentimes, tribes band together, forming raiding parties that then split the loot. During wintertime, tribes settle down and live off what they've gathered. Many come to the Travelling Cities to winter, either outside or inside the city limits. All year round they come as well to trade goods and contribute their share of the food to the cities.