Kaashi

The Kaashi are a people that share a common language and culture and that reside in and around the Kaash River Valley of the Arak Coast. The Kaashi language is closely related to the languages of other Arak native peoples, including the Karni, the Vashi, the Sarni, and the Menash. A Karni-speaking person could understand and be understood by a Kaashi-speaker, but it would not be easy communication. Kaashi are ruled as chattel by the Oshahni. Forbidden to own or use weapons and threatened with scourging or death for gathering into groups of more than 10 individuals, they have no rights or privaleges in their own lands. Any Oshahni can demand food, drink, or any possession of a Kaashi at any time. Kaashi practice a totemic religion very similar to the Karni, but their totem protectors are associated with places rather than families or clans. A village might have a centuries-old association with the horse totem, Zalday, and this would be seen by residents and visitors alike in the idealized carved statue of a horse at the village center. The same would be seen in a village protected by the hawk totem, Belatzay.