Mountain Toiks
by hughpierre
Naming Traditions
Family names
Clan Names
In the past, Toiks of the plain heavily identified with their clan, providing comfort and security for one another. During the Binds, these family ties were shattered from the massive loses they sustained from fighting and from their members fleeing in many directions. The many tiny groups who found their way under the mountain, eventually congregated into a nameless clan to become the mountain toiks. Whereby their ancestors maintained pride in their one or two clan names, the mountain toiks prefer to retain their national solidarity in only their one given name.Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
Great Memoriam
A transcendent place where venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, and where the experiences of the formerly living continues on. It is not a concept well understood by outsiders, as its description seems analogous to the Library Hall leading to multiple perceptions such that the mountain Toiks:- are irreligious
- recreate their spiritual heaven inside their mountain
- believe their spirits with remain in their mountain forever
In fact, these are not a godless people. They imagine an alternate plane for their souls, as others do, but put far less faith that ones mortal action contributes to their place in it.
Shared customary codes and values
Delivered Knowledge
Toik administration officials regularly sponsored excursions to foreign lands to find and bring back expertise in disciplines previously unknown to them. Of rarer occurrence is invitation into the Halls themselves as a guest for a definite amount of time.Experimentation
For nearly early all the committees involved in social, biological, physical, mechanical or observational pursuits; experimentation of some kind is required as part of proof for their advancement and implementation in policies or practical application.Art & Architecture
Excavated Halls
Tlopetla Mountain possesses a natural hollow shaft that reaches its apex from the bottom and hot water erupts everyday. In addition, there several lava tubes that loop around the area that allowed for Toiks to excavate and expand into living and work quarters.Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Labourism
The act of paying taxes or offering religious devotions through labour. Many paths are cleared and cave pockets enlarged through this tradition. It was also through labourism that these isolated toiks met their obligations to their conquerors.Omniversal Mind
A meditative practice allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. The words purportedly arise from a subconscious, spiritual or supernatural source; and are much a means of creating abstract art as a spiritual experience. Works of this kind are not popular outside of Toik culture as many outsiders perceive the picture writings as clumsy and messy.Funerary and Memorial customs
Cremation
When someone dies, the body is cremated and scattered in the lower levels, up to and including the maze. This is done because the maze is considered to have some mystical quality where ones ashes intermix with the black sand to become stronger in death than they were in life.Common Myths and Legends
A People Under Siege
The people under the mountain are in-fact descendants of those refugees who were forced to flee into the mountain during the Shadow Binds long ago. After initially fleeing and settling under the mountain, they were quickly discovered by sang scouts, but were allowed to remain as subservients to a fledgling Crochide. This primarily meant providing manual labour to the construction and upkeep of their invaders' infrastructure, which could be voluntary free work for pay or yearly tribute in slaves. From the top-down, the continued forced servitude a hundred years after the final battle inspired the Daylight Conspiracy where the inhabitant tricked the occupiers into letting them build up their defensive in plain view. Once they realized the trick, Sang armies rushed forward to stop it and punish their Toik vassals; resulting in the Sunflower Siege and the fiery immolation of the army. Since forth, Tlopetlan was self-liberated but unable to trade with the rest of Dragonsgrave only controlling their mountain on the foundation grounds where the Sun Pillars stand.Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Both sexes tend to be very stocky, broad-shouldered and possess of short arms and legs.The College believes that they are shorter than their average predecessor for during the shadow binds the then Toiks were forced to voluntarily exile those who needed more food than the primitive farms could provide to the river shores. With the slow emigration of those larger than their peers dispersed these traits away from the inhabitants of the mountain stronghold.
Courtship Ideals
Arranged Marriages
A marital union where the bride and groom are selected by special committee of the college's administration that factors the parent's will and personalities of those being wedded. The government involves itself in this way because the loss of traditional clan names during the college's development made tracking lineage difficult in a traditionally exogamous society. Therefore, state arranged marriage became a way of preempting accidental inbreeding.Major organizations
College of Birds
The original purpose of settling in Tlopetlan was to find sanctuary from invaders. To hide, and only venture out to offer measly tributes. All the while, growing their strength in secret and fostering various means to multiply their power projection safely from their mountain. The College of Birds has become known far and wide more as an exclusive institution, rather than as the settlement it is, to invent instruments and spells geared towards its own defense and survival.
Alternate Names:
- Toiks under the Mountain
- Under-dwellers
Parent ethnicities
Encompassed species
Related Organizations
Related Locations
| STR | (Choose the lowest roll as modifier) |
|---|---|
| CON | |
| DEX | |
| INT | |
| WIS | |
| CHA | |
| Armour | 2d6 |
| HP | 3d6+6 ([min+max]/2) |
| Speed | 2d10+10 ft |
Historical Conflicts
During the Vanilla Warmaintained neutrality and sold materials to both sides in nearly every iteration
Comments