Karni
The Karni people are a group of Humans that share a common language, religion and culture and are living along the Karn River valley on the Arak Coast. They are a collection of tribes that all live within a two-day walk of the Karn River, and have an ancient and productive relationship with the Karn valley and its ecosystem.
The entire Karni race has been dominated by the piratical foreigners that the Karni have named Oshahni, which in their tongue means "of the ocean". In the Karn River valley, the Oshahni constitute less and 25% of the population but rule (or own) the other 75% completely and ruthlessly. Karni are fobidden to have edged weapons, and only women are allowed to use bows to hunt birds. Any men or boys that are found to own or use a bow are hung from the nearest tree with the bow slung over their heads to show their crime. No blade longer than a skinning knife and no axe with a head larger than a hand can be owned or used by a Karni... ever.
Farmers, fishermen and the few craftsman available are forced by the Oshahni to turn over 80% of their product or profit to their lords or owners, and only what's left is allowed to be used or consumed by the Karni. Only the culture's inherent focus on community and family has allowed them to survive as a people at all.
Naming Traditions
Family names
All Karni family names are based on a totemic spirit guardian that guides and protects all the family members, as well as providing blessings and healings when properly honored. Examples would be the family name Otsoa, whose totem would be the gray wolf. The family Uroa would have the totem of the auroch. The family Basurdoa would have the wild boar for a totem. In short, family names in Karni society are indicators of the family totem as much as they are of familial associations.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The Karni speak a common tongue that is related to other peoples native to the Arak Coast and utterly distinct from the languages most commonly used by the Oshahni pirates and slave masters.
Shared customary codes and values
Strong, almost intense, sense of family obligation. To refuse a family member anything is nearly unheard of, and when it does occur it is only after some greater sin or crime is discovered to have been committed by the refused member, such as the murder or rape of another tribal member. This fundamental focus on the well-being of the family is the heart of the Karni faith system. Each and every family is symbolized by a totem spirit that guides and protects that family and all its members.
Average technological level
Except for the interference and domination of the Oshahni in and around the Karn valley, the Karni people would probably still be living at a very early Iron Age level of technology. Since so much of the Karni culture is centered around the Karn River, the only native iron sources are those found in bogs and iron tools and weapons were not readily available to the people. Much development has occured since the pirates arrived however, and skills like blacksmithing and weapon crafting are more common and the number of practitioners is growing.
In addition to a developed iron working ability, some of the Karni people have slowly and very carefully developed a means by which functional weapons are being manufactured and stockpiled in the hopes of someday overthrowing their foreign oppressors. This is primarily being done by creating everyday implements and tools that can readily be adapted to use as weapons without drawing the notice of the Oshahni overlords. Short, sturdy steel knives are allowed to be owned and used by the Karni, but spears and swords are not. To circumvent this oppressive restriction, Karni smiths forge steel knives that have socket-shaped handles rather than handles built around a tang. To utilize the knife as a weapon, the blade is simply fixed to the end of a pre-shaped shaft to act as the deadly end of a long spear. Axe heads are limited in size to the length and breadth of a hand, but Karni smiths forge steel shovel heads that can (and often are) sharpened to a razor edge and can easily be used as a long-handled axe or pole arm. Bows are forbidden to be used by men, but all Karni are trained from childhood over the last three generations to expertly use leather slings to hurl stones with deadly effect. These slings and stones can kill an Oshahni just as easily as they can kill a wild pig or a bird on the water.
Foods & Cuisine
Karni food is primarily based around seafood, be it freshwater or saltwater. Fish of all types, mussels, clams, oysters, crabs, crayfish, eels, and many varieties of seaweed. Waterfowl such as cranes, ducks, geese and herons are also much prized and enjoyed by the Karni. Red meat is rarely eaten due to its expense, but occasionally a wild pig can be snared or trapped and is then shared amongst a large group of family or tribal members.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Whenever two people are married in the Karni culture, the wife brings an offering of special value to the husband's family representing her wish to be accepted by that family's totemic protector, very similar to a dowry in other cultures. After this offering is made, the husband offers the wife's family a feast of the finest food available to thank her family's totemic spirit for allowing the marriage and blessing him with the wife. In this way, a woman gains the protection and guidance of the husband's totem without upsetting or angering her own family's spirit guardian.
Major organizations
The Karni people are ruled almost entirely by one of two oppressive states that claim a portion of the Karn River Valley as their territory: the Corsair Kingdom of Karnesh and the Burna Sovereignty. Both states brutally subjugate and oppress the Karni people as chattel and allow no independence or freedom to be exercised by them.
Related Organizations
Related Locations
