Atxi

The Atxi are the gremlins and dwarves that reside in the Louthian highlands and tundra, preferring to keep away from others and living solitary lives with their communities out of sight. Nearly always found underground, the Atxi are revered as masters of metallurgy and craftsmanship, and examples of their works has caused countless others to seek them out.
Stories are said of how the Atxi have created mythical metals that can outshine the sun, or command the infinite black of the shadows and the dark. Stories exist of how the mystical essence of the stars and the raging fires of even Mount Fencover can be captured in the forges of the Atxi, and how their masterful artisans can bring their terrifying power to bear in the form of various artifacts that are worth triple their weight in orbs and in precious stones.
For all of their talent, the Atxi are an insular culture, preferring the warmth of their hearth and forges over the midst of adventure and conquest that drives others. Most Atxi never leave the boundaries of their community, instead performing trade with the occasional wandering merchant or adventurer that may happen across their warren. These acts of self-isolation have led others to wrongfully believe that the Atxi culture as a whole is dying or dead; the real movers and shakers across Louthia know this to be far from the truth. Nevertheless, Atxi sightings outside of their warrens is a rare occurrence, with the only regular sightings of the craftsman culture being its youthful adventurers who have decided to set out for their own fortunes, and the exceptionally rare circumstances of an Atxi being retained in someone else's service.

Naming Traditions

Family names

Family names within the Atxi are often characterized as a word, comprised of two parts:

1. The first part of the name is an object;
2. The second part of the name is a metal or mineral.

Culture

Average technological level

The Atxi comfortably function within the industrialized level, with the advent of large manufacturing facilities and industrialized production of metals and minerals for trade. 
The metallurgical talents of the Atxi are renowned throughout all of Vinesia, being attributed to the manufacture of several high-grade alloys including Atxian Nightsteel. Atxian artisans are renowned for their skill in their craft, able to compete with the talented craftspersons of the Cleolinian Kingdom.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Atxian males are cremated, and their ashes mixed into a commemorative silver forge. The tool of their particular craft is cast from this silver, and the tool is provided to the family as a memorial piece. Females are cremated in a similar matter, but the commemorative piece is always a variation of a crook, representing their role in the shepherding of the family.
The death of an Atxian child is felt strongly across the community and wider, given their awkward reproductive habits and timing. The entire warren will come together to commemorate the passing of the child and to offer their souls to the forge, before the holy incineration of their body. The resulting metal that is poured from their ashes is forged into a hammer and is laid in the warren's central hall, as a memory to the potential that was lost before its time.

Common Taboos

One of the largest taboos applies to the craftsmen and blacksmiths within Atxian culture - destroying another Atxian's favored tool is considered an open act of hostility, and such transgressions often invite lethal retaliation.
Laziness is considered a mortal vice in the Atxian ethnicity, and is punished severely. Those who are not seen carrying their own weight are treated as pariahs - shunned and ignored, until they either leave the community entirely, perish, or begin picking up the slack.
Although not a taboo per se, the act of leaving the safety of an Atxian commune or warren is often seen as deathly vainglory, reserved for those who have the youthful energy to pursue such an act, and the irresponsibility of abandoning their families and leaving them to always wonder about the fates of their loved ones in the wilds above.

Major organizations

Despite being a fragmented and isolated culture, the Atxi possess some organization that connects all of the individual warrens together - though rarely utilized, such overarching command has seen its use, particularly when events arise that threaten the Atxi as a whole.

Families

The Feathergold Family Notably one of the few Atxi families that maintain excellent relations with the surface-dwellers, the Feathergold family is regarded as Atxian royalty. The warren that is under their leadership is the fabled Evernight Market, which cements their relationship to the Royal Court of Mithambe. Notably, the Feathergold family is a gremlin family, which has drawn ire from human-centric groups that argue that "animals" are not nearly intelligent enough to maintain royal families of their own.
The presence of the Feathergold family acts as a reminder that the Atxi are not only alive and thriving, but that they form an integral and essential role in the social structure and economics of Mithambe, and are afforded the same rights and responsibilities as every other citizen.

Political Organizations

The Atxian Alliance The Atxian Alliance is a grassroots organization that seeks to uplift the needs of the otherwise insular Atxi to the governments in the areas that they reside. The Atxian Alliance organizes meetings and co-operative projects between Atxian warrens and the communities that the warren may be embedded within, which not only serves to benefit the Atxi communities in question, but to uplift the non-Atxian communities in return and to educate them as to who the Atxi are, and for those communities to benefit from Atxian culture and trade.

Factions

The Ocean of Nomis The Ocean of Nomis is an all-volunteer force of Atxian warriors who have taken up the Oath of Water and provide endless vigilance over the Eastern seas, patrolling the shores against Seraxi intrusion. Although separate from the Eastern Watch, the Ocean of Nomis works alongside the international army, augmenting their forces and their equipment in a series of complex but mutually beneficial bilateral agreements. The Shattered Anvil The Shattered Anvil is a militant political organization with extensive roots in the Republic of Moume and the Kingdom of Pehamber - both areas where non-human sapient rights are in jeopardy due to ideological poisons left behind from the days of the Louthian Empire. The Shattered Anvil provides protection from bands of insurgents that seek to bring harm to them, and coordinate the clandestine movement of weapons, materiel, and personnel within areas that are considered contested territory.
Although originally an all-Atxian organization, the Shattered Anvil has evolved over the decades. Far from from typical isolationist ways of the Atxi, the Shattered Anvil also provides protection to other non-human communities and territories that may come under xenophobia-fueled assault, and the ranks of the Shattered Anvil are filled with those who share the common goal of ensuring that non-human sapients are afforded the same rights and protections as humans are also afforded.

Languages spoken

• The Amarian Vulgate

Related Locations

• Dodlemamer
• The Evernight Market