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Tixryn

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Lands and Peoples

The Tixryni are the foremost of the peoples of Tixryn. They are olive skinned, with dark straight hair, and are tall and lithe of limb. They anciently dwelt in three kingdoms;

The people of Great Tixryn struggled against the forest peoples - Lomen and Bemmel, who then occupied all the wide lands between Lhom and the Aglak - and settled the kingdom of Husyfra in those parts, formerly empty of Humen. When the Empire was founded by the people of Omfala in Lesser Tixryn, Imarxes and Husyfra began also to be called Great Tixryn.
The Lhomishfolk dwell in Lhom, a little country in the north, and islands near there. They are not far-sundered in speech, speaking Tixryni with a distinctive but easily comprehensible accent. They also have olive skin and dark hair, and are a light-boned people. They claim to have originally settled the three ancient Kingdoms after those parts were depopulated by the Great Cataclysm.
To the west of Greater Tixryn originally dwelt people who spoke another tongue, Kitaban, and most who dwell there do so yet. The Kitabans are divided into six peoples; they have swarthy skin, like bronze, and their hair is curly; among them are men with black hair, and brown, and even grey (the women usually have black hair). They are shorter and thicker than the Tixryni. The six peoples are:
To the west of Lesser Tixryn originally dwelt many T'sai Lho and dark skinned folk, with short straight black hair, taller than the Kitabans and heavier than the Tixryni. They had strange religions and spoke a tongue we call Quelian, and they dwelt on all the upper parts of the rivers, by the headwaters of the Glun and the Malash and the Blil. The T'sai Lho lived among them, in cities underground and in the mountains, and they were a peaceable folk. But the people of Lesser Tixryn were not; and their armies rolled across the dark-skinned folk like an avalanche, and many were slain, and many driven away across the Blil, and many taken as captives. And the people of Lesser Tixryn slaughtered as many T'sai Lho as they could find, and planted new kingdoms, of Galimpoza, and Huruku, and Hallinu - and in these kingdoms they married the survivors of the dark-skinned folk in great numbers, so that today most of the people in those kingdoms are neither lithe and olive like the Tixryni, or dark and stocky like the Quelians, but somewhere in between. They all speak Tixryni, and those kingdoms are called New Tixryn. Across the Blil, the dark-skinned people endured longer, and were conquered with less force, and though they took on the language and religion of the conquerors they were not destroyed as a people. That land is called Quelia, although the language of that name has now almost wholly disappeared.
South of those lands, between the two chains of mountains, dwell a people shorter than the Kitabans, with olive skin and blue eyes. They are called Halartuans and have their own tongue.
Further south yet dwell the last of the human peoples, on the cold and rainy coastland of Colaba. They are sparsely scattered, and pale skinned, with raven-black hair, and stand tallest of all the human peoples. They speak a language not unlike Kitaban, and dwell also in the land of Zagath. Their women are esteemed the most beautiful of all women of Tixryn.
In Zimbelaine, and also on the low-lying isle of Gotral, there dwelt no humans for many centuries after the great cataclysm, but only Kalamen in great numbers. Many wandered forth over the other lands, settling in swampy places that no one else wanted; in the wars many entered the human lands as mercenaries, and once their land had been swept into the empire many more were carried away as slaves. Colaba also has many Kalamen, who travelled there in ancient times. All of these Kalamen speak one language among themselves, and have blue-green skin; but there are another kind, that speak a different language, and come from Flilpansnik in the north. They are forest-green, and larger than the Kalamen of Zimbelaine, and now dwell in several places in the Empire. They are called Northern Kalamen and despise the others, the Southern Kalamen. There are probably as many Kalamen as Humen in all the Empire.
The T'sai Lho are reduced in number now, and dwell chiefly in Quelia and Huruku.
There are Lomen and Bemmel still, but they are also reduced, dwelling chiefly in the forests of Great Tixryn and Halartu. The Lomen have their own tongue, and the Bemmel use only that of the land they dwell, whether Tixryni or Halartuan or Kitaban.
There are many Thudun in Tixryn, but they have come from afar in recent centuries. Always they have followed the riches of the earth, sailing to lands far from their home in search of wealth, living there a few generations till all the gold is dug, and then moving on. They speak their own language among themselves.
Many legends say that in times of great antiquity, long before the Great Cataclysm, the Minotaurish or Argandarri race ruled all of Tixryn. Along the coasts there are many ruins attributed to them, and in the lands of New Tixryn, Quelia, and Halartu there were until the conquest nations of Humen and T'sai Lho ruled by small numbers of black minotaurs. There are a few settlements of these people in the mountains between Lesser Tixryn and Zimbelaine, and New Tixryn and Halartu, and greater numbers in Halartu itself. Their language is sundered from, and they have nothing to do with, the brown and grey and black and brindled minotaurs who come from far Nargan and are led by albino priests. In the great seaports of the empire there are not a few of this people, who have always been great mariners; but the minotaurs of the inland, the Dorrenfolk, fear and loathe the sea
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Government

The Emperor is an overlord holding power by virtue of oaths sworn to blurb by the hereditary barons of the great numbers of baronies that make up the Empire. Blurb is advised as to policy in different parts of the Empire by persons known as Episiarchs, whose areas of responsibility are called Episiarchies.
There are Seven Inner Episiarchies, already organised into baronies before the rise of the Empire, where in many cases descendants of the pre-Imperial rulers still govern their baronies. These are the E. of Lesser Tixryn, the three Es. of Great Tixryn (Darxes, Husyfra, and Imarxes), and the three Es. of New Tixryn (Gallimpoza, Huruku, and Hallinu).
Then there are the Four Outer Episiarchies, organised into baronies by the Empire, where the Barons owe their power to the Imperial war machine. They are Kitaba, Quelia, Halartu, and Zimbelaine
. Additional parts of the Empire, not organised into any Episiarchy, are the Baronies of Karad, Hasaba, and Lhom, the Isles of Lhom, and the Isles of Serim.
Outside the Empire are its three liege states: The desert Kingdom of Zagath, the Wild Land of Colaba, and the City State of Orrerery. These places retain their own rulers and customs in exchange for paying tribute to the Empire.
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Religion

The chief religion of the Empire is that heralded by the government and religious authorities as the one true and right religion for humen (and perhaps other species as well; varying pronouncements are made from time to time). It involves the worship of a single supreme deity, Loun, all-powerful and eternal, whose presence is mediated on this earth by nine members of a godlike species known as Iarapi. These are Rhamun, Maxa, Ivro, Davsur, Khud, Mivsur, Veala, Skha, and Zaan. The rites and practices by which they may be worshipped are carefully laid out by the colleges of Omfala, presided over by the Archimandrite of Omfala, head of the Established Rite.
This, the one true religion, was obscured in ancient days by heathenish practices, and was only restored in Lesser Tixryn in the first days of the empire. There are vestiges of the heathenish versions still current in many parts of the empire, which the religious authorities attempt to extirpate through gentle persuasion, argument, fines, imprisonment, and stoning.
  1. The Rite of Lhom was current among the Tixryni before the reform; it recognises a great many more Iarapi - about twenty-four, allows priestesses, and has its own hierarchy culminating in the Archimandrite at Sarthu. They believe that there can be no earthly incarnations of Loun, who they are apt to refer to as Az-Thar, the Ineffable, contrary to the Established Rite's predictions of an incarnation in the last days. The true extent of this rite is debatable because many follow it in secret, attending Established Temples and performing their own rituals at home; and there are many Temples in Lhom and Ashad that are outwardly orthodox but follow the Lhomish Rite. It is estimated about 40% of Lhomishfolk and 70% of Asjhadis follow the Lhomish rite, as well as 10% of the human population in Quelia and 5% in Great Tixryn.
  2. The Rite of Kitaba is still followed by the great majority of the folk of Kitaba, Hasaba, Kalmahar, and Karad. It recognises between fifty and sixty Iarapi, which are referred to by their Kitaban names - Khnum, Nasjhar, and Sluaq are three of the most popular that are not recognised by the Established Rite. The Kitaban rite allows both priests and priestesses, holds that Lhaan has been incarnate in the Ten Great Prophets, and believes in the omniscience of Lhaan. It also has a much more cavalier attitude towards undead and the practice of necromancy. Probably 80% of humans in the Kitaban lands still adhere to the Kitaban Rite, and 20% of Quelian humans. The head of the Rite is an Archimandrite at Huktab.
  3. The rite of Mishapur is strange and baroque, akin to the Rite of Kitaba, and is followed by the Sagathi and many of their subject peoples in Zagath.
As well as the divergent rites, there are numbers of heretical sects, which can be divided into two groups -
  1. Those that place excessive importance on the worship of one Iarap, and hence fall into idolatry; such are the Khudite sects of Mori, the Maxan and Vealan enthusiasts common in New Tixryn, and the bacchanalian "Children of Ivro" whose ecdysiastic dancing has provoked such dismay.
  2. Those over-scrupulous ones who believe the reforming of the old religion has not proceeded far enough, and that it is wrong to give any honour to the Iarapi. These heretics are iconoclasts, desecrating temples and destorying the images they find there. They are often called Curamites, although there are many sects among them.
There are traces of older religions as well in the lands where the true religion flourishes, chiefly in out of the way corners of Kitaba and among the lomen and bemmel.
The Established Rite holds sway throughout all the Tixryni speaking lands; the Old Quelians, or Hurukans, who followed the Religion of the T'sai Lho, were driven from their homes, slain, or converted, by the Empire in the early days of its expansion. Today the T'sai Lho are allowed to practice their religion, but their Quelian co-religionists must do so secretly. The Hurukan Cults are very common in Huruku itself, chiefly the southern parts, and in the districts of Quelia around Uaigul, Ertsud and Thivoon. The Old Quelians show an exaggerated reverence for stars and T'sai Lho.
Another ancient religion of Quelia, that of the Dirlim, is followed by few, but merits comment. They are monotheists, denying almost all attributes to their God, and are morally and ritually strict. Their main centres are at Uaigul and Thivoon. The despicable Nine Birds Sect of the free city of Orrererery is an offshoot of the Dirlim.

To the south, the people of Halartu cling steadfastly to their error, following a weird and mystical religion that seeks to pierce the veil of reality, thinks the ocean is Hell, and advocates the worship of trees. It is closely related to the religion of the Dorrenfolk, or Black Minotaurs, who are common in Halartu. The underclasses of southern Zagath, however, a people closely related to the Halartuans, have been fertile ground for missionaries of the Established Rite.

In Zimbelaine, the majority of the Kalamen have been converted en masse, but the true inward extent of their conversion has often been slight - they tend to worship the old Gods of swamp and thicket under new names, with the same interminable ceremonies of thumping round in circles, ritual vomiting, and water sacrifice. Even the pretence of conversion is absent in most places along the southern coast and west into Halartu.

In Colaba, last human kingdom of Tixryn, the Mother Goddess Varashte is worshipped. A powerful theocratic matriarchal establishment pervades all levels of society, which is thoroughly and irretrievably heathen.
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