Bohemia

If you leave tomorrow, you might stumble upon the Bohemians once you're past Tistakas. I was told that they were going to settle down next to the northern lake for the next decade, so we'll often see them here in Irisport I guess. Anyway, take care and make sure you bring your map with you, got it?

Bohemia is a moving village, the last vestige of what the first inhabitants of the desert looked like. Unlike most of their former kind, Bohemians rejected the new sedentary and urban lifestyle the Greshorio family brought with its gold mines. They believe that the desert is sacred land and want to live the closest to its nature. Every ten years, they pack the whole village and move from one lake to another.

Demographics

Around two hundred people live in Bohemia. When past nomad tribes became fewer after the creation of Irisport, the last people willing to maintain their lifestyle gathered and formed Bohemia.
To them, Giraun is responsible for the region's desertification. Thus, they worship the desert as a holy place touched by the hand of the creator. While Bohemians are not the only ones believing this, they are pushing the adoration further than anyone else by refusing to build anything long lasting in the desert.
Nomads went as far as asking the clergy to grant the desert's lakes a divine status and to forbid anyone to build anything nearby them. Yet, they are very welcoming to strangers and always accept new people to join their ranks, as long as they prove themselves useful.

Society

Bohemians live in a sort of communistic society where everyone participates in whatever way they can. Every single inhabitant, even the elders have their tasks and duties in the city.

Hunters

Hunters are trained bowmen that protect the village and hunt animals for meat and materials. Each day, around half of them leave in the morning and come back at dusk. When there are not lots of preys outside, they often reach out to nearby villages to offer help against bandits or dangerous animals.
The rest of them stay at Bohemia and refine materials from previous hunts or help at the fields.

Farmers

The desert's native farmers were the first ones who knew how to use the soil surrounding the desert's lakes. They work hard every day to make sure the village has something to eat and to bargain. Farmers also take care of the livestock, mostly Dlinhiaplas.

Artisans

No one is a fulltime artisan in Bohemia, everyone knows how to refine and craft objects with what they produce so they can do that during calm days. Any unnecessary object will be stored in the shared tent and traded to strangers against tools.

Elders

Elders still have to be useful to the community unless their condition is too bad for that. They are usually expected to handle commerce and to teach the young how to do their future work alongside the local Dove.

Architecture

Bohemians are forbidden to build any long-lasting building at all. They live in large tents called Siannellis that they receive when they join the village.
Average tents measure up to five meters of diameter and three meters high. Tent fabrics are always bright and colored with various shapes and drawings weaved on it. This makes the village look like a beautiful composition of round shapes from afar.
Bohemians do not have lots of furniture but small tables. They like to sit and sleep on cushions, closer to the ground they love so much. Interiors are covered with beautiful and comfortable carpets, laid out in gorgeous patterns. Furniture, cauldrons and other iron-manufactured tools are bought in by outsiders, as Bohemians do not have miners and smiths.
Everything needed for a family's everyday life is in their home. They store things in cloth bags or small cupboards. In the middle is the firepit, used for both cooking and heating during cold nights. As the desert is low on wood, they mostly use dried manure as a combustible. When farmers need it to fertilize the fields, families gather during meals to avoid penury.
Each time someone needs a new tent, a whole festival is organized in Bohemia where friends and family work together to craft it. Usually, tents are passed from generation to generation, but in cases of families with many children, new ones are often needed when kids become adults.

Trade

Bohemians often trade with outsiders as it is their only source of iron and wooden manufactured goods. Each month or trimester, depending on how far they are, they take a chariot to Irisport to trade with the locals. They mostly sell carpets, handmade jewelry, and wicker and leather goods.
While they do take money, they prefer directly trading their stuff against other goods as they do not really know how much anything costs. They like to establish partnerships with trusted merchants to ensure being paid the right price for what they sell.
Bohemians are exceptionally well known for their Dlintiarnas raising skills. They are said to breed the best mounts in the east, resulting in nobles and bourgeois making the whole trip to Bohemia to acquire their own animal.

Alternative Name(s)

The Drifting Village

Type

Village

Population

200

Inhabitant Demonym

Bohemians

Location under

Eastern Desert

Government & Justice

Sandside is led by a council of 10 family heads and the local Dove. The number of seats is fixed since the birth of the village. The council meets every week and talks about matters like commerce, daily management, and sandsiders' future. They also decide which lake they will be headed to during their next migration.
Whenever a conflict occurs between members of the village, the council is the first authority consulted. They arbitrate the debates, and their word must be respected. If the crime is above their rights of judgment, they ask the Hunters to bring the culprit to competent authorities, either in Tistakas or in Irisport, depending on which is the closer.
If a family with a seat in the council leaves the village or gets banned from the government, the next older family in the town will be granted with a chair.