WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0074 0074
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Prajalu Royalty In Abeyance
Alas, in more than a century, no royal family has ruled
over the tribes since the Great Reprisals killed the last
ruler and the next 40 members in succession as well as
hundreds of other innocent citizens and family members.
• Nayak: The Nayak is the ruling monarch, be he
a king or she a queen. Nayaks have no crown but
wear the Nayakahin, a sash of woven silver and inset gems allegedly made by the Daragkark Arjaloras for the first nayak more than three centuries
in the past.
• Pujan: The Pujan are any royal children directly
born of or adopted by the nayak.
• Upanya: The Upanya are related sub-nobility
of any stripe, more often relatives from previous
generations long distanced from any succession
to the Nayakahin.
arts of poison crafting as ways to bulwark their abilities
in battle when vying with other tribes for lands or power.
For centuries, many said the Prajalu were lazy and idle,
doing the least work of any of the Khitan peoples. This
insult has not been uttered in at least twelve generations now, since the Night of Nine Dark Feasts. Distant
but never forgotten, that massacre saw the deaths by
poison of more than five hundred Attites and Makadan
who had insulted the Nayak Ualor IX, his daughters, and
repeatedly disparaged their Prajan ways.
Of course, the fallout from those assassinations saw
multi-pronged attacks against the Prajalu by many
other tribes. The Great Reprisals decimated the tribe’s
numbers and slew their ruling family before the last remaining Prajalu Dragon King ended the wars. Arjaloras
protected the few Prajalu from further vengeance for
nearly 20 years, often by invoking the Rite of Vindicta to
spare lives, and then the Argentalon disappeared without warning, like so many other Daragkarik.
Most remaining tribal chieftains are mid- or lowerranked upanya seeking to claim the Nayakahin. While all
have claims to it, all connections to succession are tenuous and distant by more than twelve generations. Also,
with their populations so destroyed for a time, the chieftains could do little more than talk, bluster, and remain
busy rebuilding their individual tribes and their settlements. While maneuvering gambits to seize power have
yet to risk lives in combat, that time may be coming soon,
as the Prajalu again match the Chindi and Nordor for
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sheer numbers. In the past decade, at least two chieftains
and their heirs have died via vargam poisons just before
they were to stake a claim for the Nayakahin.
Since the Reprisals and the disappearance of the Dragon King Arjaloras, the closest thing Prajalu have had to
a unifying tribal government or force is their Unnata,
the Council of First Sons. As they have for more than
two generations, the sons of the tribal chieftains gather
thrice annually to settle disputes, arrange marriages, and
forge trade and other alliances. Hardly a governing body,
they are sometimes looked to as such during desperate
times, such as those that befall Khitus today. The Unnata
has produced some stability, since those chieftains’ heirs
build alliances and understandings over years of working together. Such relations are rarely tossed aside lightly
in mad scrambles for power, especially since the others
among the Unnata can better predict how each of their
fellows will react to such actions.
Ranks & Types
All governmental and social hierarchies once followed
their common Prajalu familial roots, though these
structures have been disrupted (see “Prajalu Royalty in
Abeyance”). While there are other higher-ranked individuals among the Prajalu (noted above), the majority of Prajalu follow the old lines of social power. Aside
from the military notes immediately below, the relative
ranking of these types of Prajalu are in order of influence from highest to lowest.
Military ranking comes from personal ability, experience and victories. Champions and successful veterans
lead those skilled in their primary weapons; thus, those
most experienced or skilled with each weapon lead
troops of like-armed soldiers into battle. Prajan-crafted
weapons include the sajnika (war club), shurudu (poison dart), and phatar (flexible javelin), though they can
field other companies with champions and warriors
wielding most weapons available on Khitus.
• Rumu are the famous professional Prajan poisoners
who operate quite openly as an accepted part of everyday commerce. They brew, sell, and advise on all
sorts of concoctions, from something to make someone vaguely ill to that which will leave them dead as a
stone. These “assassin’s assistants” are above reproach,
their services available to any who can pay. They commonly keep lu’urat ghost snakes and harvest their
venom. They wear the social air of appreciation like
apothecaries do in other cultures, for their many poisons also have wide varieties of beneficial uses.
• Ruchi, on the other hand, are highly paid professional food tasters, a necessity in Prajalu culture for
