No'rei

Basic Information

Alternative name(s) Is the species known by any other names? Could include in their native tongue Origin Unknown Lifespan 100-150 years. Diet Omnivore Subspecies None.

Physical description

Height 5' to 6'6" Distinctive features Human in appearance, save for some scaling.

Cultural

Organisations Nomadic tribes. Languages No'rei Locations Aberessai Savannah

Out-of-character information

Image source Source of the image used in the infobox

The No'rei, the people of the Alliasai al'M'niago (Sea of Sand and Grass), are a native population to the Aberressai Savannah, with a few tribes fading into the wasted deserts and a smaller population closer to the Allir edge of the grasslands. Some form of The People have lived within the region or in various places around it for several thousand years, with remarkably little change in culture or genetic mingling with the outside world.

The people exist within a loose network of clans that each stake claim to some bit of territory, and are nomadic within the territory they claim. Many of the clans are exceptionally hostile to outsiders; despite their violent reaction to interlopers in their territory and the savage slaughter of any settlers attempting to claim land within their ancestral home, no army or posse from Elbion, Vel Anir, or any other city-state or larger settlement has managed to successfully purge them from the grasslands. What gains are made are usually at bloody cost and temporary at best.

Ever distrustful of the 'city dwellers', the No'rei tend to avoid contact with outsiders unless those same outsiders violate their laws or desecrate their sacred grounds or anger the spirits of the land and sky - all which are, more or less, considered one and the same to the People.

At a casual glance, the No'rei are nearly indistinguishable from humans. They are often of a height and weight with their distant cousins, with very few features harkening back to the split in the grand familial tree.

What sets No'rei apart from humanity is the hints of a draconic ancestor in their past. All No'rei have at least a patch or two of scaling on their body. Usually, the scales cover the tops of arms and sides of necks, but can also include legs and back and other parts of their bodies as well. There is no known case of more than half of a body being given over to such features. The scales tend to match the color of their owner's eyes.

Of more general appearance, the No'rei tend towards jet-black hair and yellow to brown eyes, with few notable exceptions. Despite a diet that consists of anything that cannot get away, their digestive system favors a carnivorous diet, including sharp fang-like incisors best suited to ripping flesh. Some among them even have claws, though that is a rare feature. No'rei men and women can eat anything, alive or dead, rotten or fresh, with little concern.

All members of the tribes bear some tattooing. The marks are considered sacred; the larger the tattoo, the lower the status in society; the smaller, the higher. Among those of the highest status, it is not uncommon to attempt to draw attention to their markings while those of lower status to try and distract from it.

No'rei attire tends toward simplistic clothing. Those of a warriors' persuassion tend to wear shirt, leggings, and boots fashioned from well tanned and softened leather, often in muted tones that make it easier to blend in with whatever environment they might inhabit. Males of a non-warrior persuassion will wear more brightly colored garments than those who wield spear and bow. The women favor skirts fashioned from thread made of a native grass, with blouses made of the same. They, like their more domestic counterparts, prefer to wear brightly colors. All No'rei, regardless of profession, will have some charms and fetishes about their person, either sewn into their clothing or worn on leather thongs at the neck or on bracelets.

The shamans wear shawls and dresses or shirt and pants depending on being male or female, and tend to wear muted colors like their warriors - albeit, with a profusion of charms and fetishes to put the ordinary No'rei to shame.

This subspecies of human is found natively in the Aberessai Savannah in roaming, nomadic tribes. A handful of tribes native to the eastern reaches are distinct from the main population between Elbion and Vel Anir.

Outside of standard human traits:

Hardy: No'rei can take a lot of punishment and keep picking themselves up. In a manner reminiscent of the Komodi, they can eat virtually anything and survive on scant water - a perfect adaptation to the environment they live in. Their skeletal structure makes it difficult to break bones. They have a ridiculous resistance to infection.

Scales: The scales a No'rei possesses are as hard as bronze or steel, capable of turning a blade even if incapable of defending against blunt force trauma. The drawback is, for those that are more heavily scaled than others, a lack of mobility and flexibility.

Superstitious: Very few of their number ever leave the grasslands and desert home. Even those few that do never lose their fear of the supernatural. No'rei know the spirits of the land exist, and fear angering them for the calamitous ruin that can be brought.

The scaled folk of the desert and the grasslands have an unusually high birth rate, which is just as well. Despite hardiness to the lives they lead, the constant fighting among themselves and outsiders would have depleted the population centuries ago without a ready source of new members of clan and tribe. It is even suggested by some scholars that the vaunted Seven may have altered their children in such a way to permit such a thing.

The No'rei culture is complex and difficult for an outsider to truly comprehend. As an honor society built upon warrior traditions, quite a lot of their social pressure comes in the form of honorable combat. The conceptualization of honor extends beyond simple combat, however; one's word carries great weight and breaking it brings great shame; various forms of giving assistance and aid are seen as promises to defend or at least not engage in violence with others. That said, violations of honor may result in swift, lethal reaction from members of the clans and tribes.

No'rei society has a strict hierarchy. Understanding the intricacies of it can take many years of living within it; as outsiders are not tolerated, no study has been done on the people. The People are divided into clans that are themselves divided into tribes. Clans may hold as many as a dozen different tribes, and tribes may be as small as a dozen people and as large as hundreds. Clans have no individual leaders, instead relying upon a council of leaders of each tribe to make decisions when necessary. Each tribe acts independent of the others in all but the most dire of circumstances. Tribes are typically led by the strongest member of the tribe - in physical strength, prowess as a warrior, and cunning intellect.

Within No'rei culture, a significant importance is placed upon names. It is believed that the soul of every member of clan and tribe is immortal and infinite, and that death is but the path to a time waiting in the stars for rebirth. A No'rei is given the name with which they were born to countless times before by the shamans of a tribe. Along with the name comes all of the history associated with it; it is expected that those born with the souls of great heroes to be capable of great deeds, to carry on the tradition of the selfsame soul from lives gone past. Along with those great deeds comes the shame that name might carry with it; it is this that begins the road to determining the status of a newborn child later in life.

One of the People's status is easy enough to determine. Once a child has reached their majority, the ceremony of The Branding will take place, and during which the Seer will verify the identify of the soul within its vessel, and force that vessel to pass through the flames of the rite of passage. Afterward, they will be tattooed according to their name and their status; those of noble birth, born with the souls of hero and heroine, will be granted a small tattoo to mark their status. Those of ignoble birth will often be given sprawling tattoos and, depending upon the infamy of the name, be so extensive as to cover much of the skin.

Those of high status are treated with respect, their words given extra weight. Those of low status are often relegated to unsavory tasks and treated with, if not outright scorn, then a healthy measure of disdain.

It is worth noting that someone on high can fall from their favored place; in such cases, the tattoos are altered and expanded, thus forever reducing their status in the eyes of their bretheren. Beyond the Name, a specific tattoo associated with the name of the soul, each misdeed has a specific and unique tattoo associated to it, so that by merely glancing upon another of their kindred can a No'rei discern status and crime. Those of low status can not escape their penury; at best, they can make their deeds sing for the ages so that when they are reborn the next time, it will be to a higher status than they were born this time round.

Within their society, there are four more divisions beyond clan and tribe: The Hunt, The Hand, The Mother, and The Seer.

The Mother is self explanatory; within No'rei society, mothers are venerated and held in high regard, often higher regard than their status might otherwise indicate. After all, they are the Harbinger of Souls, bringing back those that have come before once more into the flesh.

The Seer are the spiritual class, dealing directly with the spiritual world and the ancestors in their heavenly host. Typically a clan will have a handful of shamans among their numbers, and this group is tasked with the healing of the sick, with auguries, and with communing with the supernatural world and passing on the wisdom of the spiritual world as well as the departed souls awaiting a return to the world. It is far, far more common for women to fill this roll than men, but it is not exclusionary. Often, those who become Seers are blessed with some significant physical difference from other members of the tribe. Albinos, those with light skin or light eyes or hair, or those possessed of great magical affinity are often forced to become Seers. This group is held in superstitious awe.

The Hand are the crafts people of the No'rei, and tasked with mending, making, forging, and the myriad tasks that keep society functioning.

The Hunt are the warrior class, and comprise the bulk of The People. Typically the leader of the clan is a member of this class. Among No'rei culture, no distinction is made between man or woman in regards to carrying the spear and bow, any more than thought is given to whom leads the clan. Those who rise to the position of Chief do so through a combination of a soul of radiance and through their own personal merit. This group is viewed as being the most honorable among all, the ones who earn honor for the clan.

In the beginning, there was nothing but the Sea of Stars and the endless void between those unseen worlds. It was from those worlds that Tiam - the Father - came, he with his brood-mother Lorien. In the morning of the world, the great Wyrms - first blood of the Seven - settled and gave form to all things. The first clutch given the world by the great Mother brought forth the five children of the elder wyrms, and with them the sea, the ground, the wind, the ice, and the flame.

And so it was that the the First Brood was brought into the world. The brood, along with sire and mother, make up the pantheon of the No'rei known as the Seven.

The No'rei worship the deified figures of the Seven - the great Wyrms from times of eld. The Great Ones govern the wild world and all of nature - supposedly - and support the world that it might continue. The particulars of the religion are uncertain, as scholars have been denied the right to access the people and ask or observe - due to their violent nature, of course. What is certain is that the Seven value strength and resolute will over any other thing - the pantehon is cruel, much like the people that worship them. The constant bloodshed of the No'rei among themselves and those of the world outside is seen as tribute to the Great Ones, the blood a sacrifice to honor them.

The Seven Great Ones

The Father, Tiam, is aspected to Light. His is the representation of strength and righteousness among the faithful of the No'rei, and virtually every clan calls upon Him as one of their patrons, if not the sole patron. Those who choose him as their personal Wyrm often are possessed of iron will and a personal, unshakable belief in their rightness. Truth is the highest value for a disciple of Tiam, His light proof against deceit.

Ty'rath - simply Rath to her adherents - is the fickle mistress of the fitful winds that blow across the desert and plains. Her adherents seem to have a propensity towards mercurial natures, shifting like the wind. Seer's aspected to Rath are also wind-aspected, and their magics tend towards that element. Adaptability is the trait most closely associated with those who adhere to Rath.

Ty'garth (Garth) firmed the world round his feet. Aspected to earth, the youthful Wyrm represents the strength of the People. Those aligned with him are tougher than even other No'rei, and it is believed the hardiness of the People springs from the strength of the Earth-attuned Great One.

Ty'mison brought the life-giving waters to the parched world, and wheresoever her waters flowed did the People spring from the earth. Mison represents patience and a quiet, unyielding strength - the patience that sees mountains worn down to hills given enough time. Seer's aligned with Mison are noted for the ability to manipulate the weather during the summer months.

Ty'lochin gave the sun warmth, and seared the land dry during the summer with the fire of his heart. Lochin is also known as the fires of rebirth, represened by the wildfires that sear the plains in summer only to green the fields with the rains. Lochin is the passionate incarnation of fire, and embodies love and hatred in equal measure, both being passions of the soul. Those that claim LOchin as their patron often are passionate creatures, easily roused to anger or ardor. Seers claiming him as their patron are often terrifyingly powerful, as fire is to be feared by all.

Ty'kosin brings the cold of winter, the frost and the chill of the wind. She is an enigmatic wyrm, with few adherent in a land that knows heat most of the year. She is associated with tranquility and cold reason and logic. Seers that claim her as their patron gain the aspects of the ice - intelligence, wisdom, and clarity. Or, at least, the perception thereof. Theirs is the realm of ice and cold.

Lastly, Lorien. The Keeper of the Moon was slain by the hands of the Sundered at the dawn of time, a betrayal that still stings and feeds the fires of war to the current day. Lorien has even fewer adherents than Kosin, for it is presumed that she is dead and powerless. Hers is the realm of the Sea of Stars, the land of the dead. No Seers among the No'rei claim her as a patron, for there is no power to be gained from the lifeless deity - all attempts to reach out to the Mother remained unanswered.

The Sundering of the World

In the beginning, the First Brood was given form, and their and their sire and mother ruled over the world. Crafted in their image, the No'rei were given that very world - were given it to give glory to the Great Ones and all their creations.

The People were not the only to wander the world, of course - the outsiders, those raised in the images of other - probably false - gods also wandered the land. In the early days, there were no troubles. In the early days, all lived in relative peace.

But the greed of those from beyond the Sea of Grass was as legendary as it is today, and among the realms beyond the Grass a conspiracy to annex the Sea into others holdings was hatched. The first blows of the war that was to come were struck there, on the edge of the Sea; the Seven took wing and went to defend their territory - the sacred land of the People. And so, the war began. It raged for years...

Late in the early years of the war, Lorien struck an accord with those born of the realm that would later become Vel Anir. The bloodshed from the endless fighting was becoming too much to bear, and so she had sought to negotiate a peace. Unfortunately, there was treachery; the Mother was betrayed by the outsiders under a flag of parley and slain - her blood given to soil and consumed by the enemy for the power it might grant them.

Word of that deed spread through clan and tribe, the vow of vendetta spoken by chief and Seer the length and breadth of the land. The Betrayal led to the cessation of any attempt to broker peace with the outside world; worse, the violence of the war increased tenfold. Although thousands of years in the past, the People still claim that the world beyond the grass is lost, a realm lost in a post-apocalyptic hellscape fraught with deceit and dishonor. Those who live beyond the reach of the grass are referred to as the Sundered because they hail from the sundered world that the Seers have taught for generations.

The Seers practice magic that is attuned to the six basic elements - earth, air, fire, water, light, and shadow. There is a seventh element that is not really an element, but a blend of all six. It is unsurprising that there are seven, as the Seven feature prominently in the lives of the nomadic people.

Each element is represented by one of the Seven - the great Wyrms of eld, the brood of Tiam whose blood flowed to breath life into the desolate plains.

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