Migration of Zimazirat (Zih-mah-zih-raht)
Zimazirat the Starmaker
*Generated by Smokingbat7906 in Midjourney*
While the Kaban have always worshipped incarnate gods, Zimazirat stands out as the exception. Known for her exceptional resilience to the corrupting Waters of Taev, Zimazirat drifts from one end of the universe to the next, planting suns from her fiery clutch in the universe's darkest corners.
Zimazirat serves as an origin myth for the Tortoisefolk. Upon finding the drifting rock of Laminarum, she encountered the curious Kaban: tribes of single-sexed, lizardlike individuals. In order to propagate life across the world and profane the Waters of Taev, she captured Laminarum with a new star from her clutch. As the sun brought heat to the world's sands, dormant eggs would give rise to female Kaban. Now possessing the gift of procreation, the tribes began to spread along the world's coasts.
As her final act of kindness, Zimazirat would shed her scutes, allowing them to drift upon the world's surface. The reptilians were to donn these as shields against future threats in her stead. The arming of the Kaban gave them the shelled appearance they have today.
While the Kaban once believed that Zimazirat drifted through the Waters of Taev and consumed the eldritch entities that approach Laminarum, her current status is a mystery. The same can be said for most divine entities after the Company of Fools removed Laminarum from the planar map.
Though her status is unknown, the Kaban occasionally look to her when going through any manner of crises, particularly those that result in the loss of life.
Other species within Laminarum rarely understand the significance Zimazirat can have when the tortosiefolk choose to embrace her. The creation of the sun marks the division of the sexes for Kaban, similar to other closely related turtle or tortoise species. When the Kaban were enslaved throughout the dark marshes of Mot D'nir, it resulted in annual crises. The regular lower temperatures compared to Shellbay meant that most individuals were born male, but it was their understanding of Zimazirat's influence that saved the slaves from gradual extinction.
Zimazirat's Eternal Journey
The migration of Zimazirat is a myth told amongst the Kaban that directly clashes with the Augury's understanding of the Waters of Taev. The current understanding of the Waters claims that they are all corrupting, and the only beings capable of eternally combatting its influence are the Ohkinate, such as Ornjack; however, this myth presents Zimazirat as a purifying agent amongst the growing corruption. The myth was spread orally for two thousand years, resulting in the loss of details and inserted falsehoods, but Kaban anthropologists have uncovered a succinct truth amongst the hundreds of tales. The official record as held in the Augury summarizes the story as follows:
"Zimazirat, the great sunbearer born of unknown means, drifts along the oily Waters that no mortals cross. Said to be 10 stades across, no god incarnate of the Kaban would be greater than a speck by comparison. Throughout her endless journey, Zimazirat wades far from the Web's rigid structure, diving into the chaos bled by Taev. Deep in the black, she consumes the eldritch denizens and refines their discord into independent order: stars free from the Web's silk. Zimazirat cannot create life such as the elvish primordials or Ornjack, but she refines and adopts what she can, improving the chances of abandoned mortals against their inevitable decay among the Waters; in that regard the Sunbearer's nature gives credence to the Kaban way of life: hospitality, charity, assistance, and growth against fragmentation.Her carefree passage across the universe implies strength that few other entities could replicate: not even Ornjack, Bailum, or Heien. While an entity such as Bailum could withstand corruption for a single voyage, Zimazirat endures migrations that last 200 years from end to end, with each completion resulting in hundreds of stars. Due to her investment in the Kaban, it is said that she journeys to Laminarum often, perhaps every 30-40 years, passing before the sun when she arrives. Calcuations imply she was near Laminarum when it was removed from the planar map, leaving two assumptions about her voyages. First, is that she was removed from the greater universe and remains trapped just as we are. Alternarively, she is now trapped within the void where Laminarum once rested (the implications of which are unknown)"
Impact of Zimazirat's Migration on Kaban Culture
Daily Life
The Kaban don't tend to dwell on the cosmos, including Zimazirat. She has no formal teachings and is spoken of more in children's tales of adventure than in religious texts. However, her nature was passed on to the tortoisefolk upon bearing her scutes, meaning that your average Kaban is kind by nature, ensuring that none are precluded from the good tidings their tribes have to offer. While the Kaban are sticklers for tradition, they also use Zimazirat as a symbol of moving on. The ideals, lessons, and stories about surrendering your past and control in the name of survival helped the Kaban survive their initial diaspora, and for the centuries that followed.
The Kaban are currently split between nomadic tribes and sedentary villages. It is typically the nomads that give attention to Zimazirat, partially explaining why the Augury views her as an outdated tale. The tribes never settle for long, quickly dealing with hatchlings and continuing their journey, just as Zimazirat before them.
Traditions
The shells of the Kaban are gifts from Zimazirat that require care and maintenance; however, Zimazirat's nature is to refine, correct, and mend even through imperfection and damage. These ideals can be found when performing Otari Tatara, which reflect their views on a millennia of slavery through the lens of the sunbearer herself. Damage does not represent death or ineptitude, but experience and opportunity to rebuild.
Another example of her impact on tradition is the reverence for eclipses. While each culture has its own understanding of the phenomenon, the Kaban believe that she passes over Laminarum to keep a watchful eye on her people.
Zimazirat is poorly tied into other facets of Kaban tradition, being absent in all tales of Korahaman and Kadelkonatl. The tortoisefolk still try to explain the connection between the entities but at present, only one holiday binds them. On the 1st of every year (by the Standard Augury Calendar), the Kaban lay their eggs. The act itself reflects Zimazirat, while the regulated day harkens back to their mental convergence with Korahaman, who chose a single regulated time frame to merge the Kaban consciousness and consolidate their memories.
Answers
The Kaban origin has always been muddy; perhaps not as harshly as the orcs', but it still holds questions with records lost long ago. Why was the Kaban population limited to Shellbay until their diaspora? Why were they under the protection of Korahaman? Why are they baubles of intrigue for incarnate gods? The migration of Zimazirat fits like a puzzle piece into the greater question of the Kaban origin.
The cosmic turtle's migration also serves to explain why Laminarum exists as it does, even adding credence to the Augury's perspective. For example, if Laminarum was removed from the planar map, why do we still see stars? The Kaban theory asserts that her stars are not held within the Web as the planes are (and as Laminarum was long before mortals arrived). As a result, those within the proximity of Laminarum were removed from the planar map along with the world of mortals, leaving the night sky intact.
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