WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0056 0056
Bạn đang xem bản rút gọn của tài liệu. Xem và tải ngay bản đầy đủ của tài liệu tại đây (1.06 MB, 1 trang )
The last rank has no title, encompassing all other
Makadan and allowing their internal ranks and social
strata to organize by achievements and skills. On the
fringes of their villages and cities are the Plemecs, a
blue-veined subgroup known to be excellent farmers.
Only an oganekat, or firemaker, makes any fire; others
may tend it and add logs and kindling, but the sparking of a new blaze is sacred. The cuvarna, or custodian
of the wells, is equally revered in finding water or being the one to dig a new well; they gravitate toward
the growing Raetann, or Water Guild, emerging across
Khitus, but universally warn against the use of the water
spice hesheyel, pointing out its dangerous side effects.
Customs & Culture
Most assume that the Makadan organize their people along martial lines, preferring strength of body as
a measure of a fit leader. While this is at least partially
true, it is an oversimplification that avoids much true
understanding of these people. Many nuances and peculiarities remain in Makadan culture from their history before the Kod, though the warrior culture dominates
much of what outsiders see.
All Makadan greet each other with a hard slap to the
shoulder. Their warriors never look directly at a superior when he is speaking, as this can be considered a
challenge to his authority. Any who fight together with
Makadan are considered like brothers, though this
does not transcend tribal exclusion (i.e. friend but not
Makadan).
One must be born into the Makadan tribe or marry
into it; men doing so must endure a brutal scarification
that leaves the cheeks and arms forever marked. When
the head of a Makadan household dies in personal combat, the victor can invoke the Krvash, the family-claiming blood rite, and assume leadership over his survivors
and properties. Krvash rites scar the length of the left
arm. Slaying a Makadan warrior in single combat and
claiming his family is another way for an outsider to
gain unquestioned entry into the tribe, though that entry may be short-lived due to almost-certain vengeful
challenges.
Tribal newborns are named by village consensus
around the age of five years. Prior to that, newborns gain
family nicknames or numbers for identification. Formal education is the exception rather than the rule in
Makadan society. Only the Bokata and Sovetnik youth
destined to become government officials are fully literate, though most people can accomplish reading and
writing critical to their functions. All Makadan youth
54
have marriages arranged by their families; if the first
marriage ends for some reason (usually a death), they
make subsequent pairings by choice. For this reason,
many view any deaths in wedlock as somewhat suspicious. Makadan dead are commonly buried in sand or
earth, but leaders receive a fire burial—a day-long celebration of their deeds ending at their funeral pyres,
centering around the roasting of entire uludur beasts.
Most humans who claim Makadan ancestry also adhere to these traditions:
• Tent Camps: Makadan field camps are made of
enormous canvas tents, erected against the rocks
whenever possible for better protection.
• Fullet Calls: Makadan in the open desert commonly
mimic the fullet’s cry to draw them close to hunt
their precious store of water (see Chapter 7).
• Marble Builders: When such resources are available, the Makadan also fashion their cities out of
marble with plastered stone buildings as well, making their settlement a broad swathe of white or
brightly painted surfaces. In good times, hanging
vines and flowered gardens adorn every external
surface.
• Qath Manhar Enmity: Makadans hate the Qath
Manhar and sometimes insist all others are in
league with them and must prove otherwise.
• Krikis Enmity: They face off against the Krikis
Hivelands to the west, and so bear an almost universal hatred of the insect men, regardless of what
color chitin bears the glint of the sun.
Rumors & Whispers
While many who trade with them know much about
the Makadan, there are those who spread rumors with
jealous intent. Even the Makadan spread lies about their
own kind to foment even more fearsome reputations.
• Makadans mutter to themselves, their camps always abuzz with noise, to distract themselves and
drown out the ghostly whispers of all those they kill.
• Makadans only look into the eyes of those they either plan to kill or consider too weak to be a threat.
• Makadan make their metals immune to the Iron Virus (see Chapter 5) by quenching forge-hot metals
into the blood of those they capture and enslave.
• Among their own kind, Makan prophecies speak of
a genderless Plemec child who will be born to lead
the Makadan in a cataclysmic struggle against all
other races that eventually leads their tribe to world
supremacy.
