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--- khurite [2025/09/15 23:36] – [Tindremic Incursions] mortalitas
+++ khurite [2026/02/05 00:21] (current) – [The Assassination of An Emperor] mortalitas
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+{{wiki:khurite.jpg?0x290|A Khurite on the Myrland steppe in a time prior to The Irruption.}} {{wiki:khurite.png?0x290|A Khurite horseman.}}
+====== Introduction ======
+The //Khurites// are an ancient people that has spread far and wide throughout the history of [[Nave]], and they now consist of several different tribes on many continents. They don't regard themselves as "one people" in the nationalistic or political sense however, and conflicts are common, although they do recognize their common ethnicity and ancestry.
+One way to describe this mindset is that the //Khurites// see themselves as a collection of different autonomous peoples and wills that are divergent from other races.
+To an outsider, their various languages, customs, and lifestyles may give the impression that the cultures are more different than they are alike. However, they share deep-running traditions that have integrated and bridged the tribes over the ages despite geographic distances.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== Major Khurite Cultures ======
+There are at least four large and relatively distinct //Khurite// cultures, each with its local customs and language, which in-turn have various tribal dialects.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Gákti =====
+The Gákti are arguably the largest and most widespread of the Khurite cultures. They are most common in [[Nordveld]] and western/southern [[Myrland]] and speak //Inari// in a number of dialects. Historically, //Gákti// in Nordveld have had good relations with the [[Kallard|Kallardian]] settlements including [[Varborg]].
+//Gákti// on //Myrland// conversely hand have never seen eye to eye with the [[Tindremic Empire]], but have great relations with the [[Alvarin]]. Both [[Nordveld|Nordveldian]] //Norn// and Alvarin //Shi’an// seem to have influenced the //Inari// language and personal names. The Gákti in Myrland have three permanent settlements—[[Vadda]], [[Bakti]], and [[Moh-Ki]]—although the tribes in these villages often rotate, even between //Gákti// and //Khurs//.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Khurs =====
+The //Khurs// are found in eastern //Myrland// and speak //Serbi//. Although most //Khur// tribes are nomads or seasonal nomads like other //Khurites//, they stand out with their large permanent settlements of [[Morin Khur]] and [[Toxai]]. Their long-standing relationship with the //Alvarin// can be noticed in both the //Serbi// language and their personal names.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Bediai =====
+The //Bediai// live among the dunes and cliffs of [[Sarducaa]]. They speak //Oğuz//, a language that has many words in common with [[Sarducaan]] //Ana’dil// which is mostly spoken in the [[Beth Jedda]] region.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Yuits =====
+The //Yuits// are a scattered collection of small tribes living in the arctic regions of //Nordveld// and above. They are known to trade with [[Branth]] and smaller settlements in the north, but tend to keep to themselves. Encounters are scarce and as a result so too is common knowledge about them. Their language is //Yuit// which seems to have few other influences besides //Urag//.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== Minor Khurite Cultures ======
+At least three other //Khurite// cultures are believed to have existed, or may still exist, although of unknown size and extension.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Dalai =====
+The sea-faring //Dalai// of the southern oceans periodically visited //Toxai// to trade before [[The Irruption]] but haven’t been seen since.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Te’el =====
+The //Te’el// are only known through legends and stories and their fate is unknown.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Chandrû =====
+The //Chandrû// are only known through legends and stories and their fate is unknown.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== Khurite Languages ======
+Scholars often find etymological studies of the //Khurite// languages impossible due to cross-pollination, especially as there are very few textual sources to come by.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Urag =====
+One ancient //Khurite// tradition is the adherence to their common language, //Urag//, also known simply as //"Khurite"//, although outsiders frequently group all //Khurite// languages within that term, without distinction. The majority of //Khurites// are mostly nomadic societies and travel the lands over time, which also includes taking part in meetings with other tribes according to an enigmatic calendar.
+Furthermore, emissaries are sent out over great distances to communicate with other tribes, and shamanic rituals hint at other types of physical or spiritual journeys.
+During these meetings, legends, stories, and news are shared by recitation, dialogue, and singing in //Urag//. At the same time, the local languages are allowed to influence the ancient //Urag// itself. This means //Urag// constantly grows and evolves—and in turn, may affect the local languages of tribes in completely different locations.
+  Máttârää’jj mis lie tuu’l
+  Vuäitám verrušeijee badjel
+  Vuástálistup, viiljah, miige
+  Siđhesvuođáin suäʹrddeejeem
+  Our forefathers withstood
+  Unjust assailants of yore
+  Brothers, let us likewise fight
+  Stalwartly against the tyranny
+  - Excerpt from Bakti dialect Magtaal "Khurs Laull" – "Khurite people's song", author unknown
+Several word examples are:
+  Siebri/Sierve - union/alliance/guild
+  Leamoste - "boil power out of" or "alchemy"
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Inari =====
+Spoken by the //Gákti// in a number of different dialects, //Inari// has been noticeably influenced by //Nordveldian Norn// and //Alvarin Shi'an//.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Serbi =====
+Spoken by the //Khurs//, //Serbi// is closely related to //Oğuz// which points to a relatively late split of the //Khur// and //Bediai// cultures, and is also said to have some //Alvarin// influence as well.
+ Known words include:
+  Urlan - guild/craft/workspace
+  Khand - most everything that has to do with extract, infusion, potion, tonic, liquor etc.
+  Id shidiin - something miraculous, extraordinary, "magical" in the real-world sense
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Oğuz =====
+Spoken by the //Bediai//, //Oğuz// is a language that has many words in common with Sarducaan //Ana’dil// which is mostly spoken in the Beth Jedda region. //Oğuz// also has many similarities to //Aurish// which is the local language of the Sarducaan-Kallardian village of [[Aur]].
+Known words include:
+  Yarasi - Bats (the animal)
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Yuit =====
+Spoken by the //Yuits//, //Yuit// is a language with few influences outside of //Urag//.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== Khurite Names ======
+Most //Khurite// tribes assign unique names to newborns in the current generation and the use of surnames is rare. However, if a name is currently in use by someone very old or it was recently in use by someone who died, it can often be given in honor, although usually with the addition "the younger". Assigning the names of rulers, alive or deceased, is normally completely taboo unless there’s a clear blood lineage.
+When different tribes meet they often need to add surnames to avoid confusion, and in those cases they vary between using patronyms, matronyms, paedonyms (teknonyms), and/or the tribe name as they see fit. Thus a traveling //Khurite// may introduce himself as //Gangiir Chono// (Chono, son of Gan), //Chono Sohviin Etseg// (Chono, father of Sohvi), //Garras Chono// (Chono of the Garras tribe), and so on, which can lead to confusion for //non-Khurites//.
+A given name isn’t regarded as sacred or of particular spiritual significance. Longer names and combinations are often permanently shortened during an individual’s lifetime or may be completely replaced with an epithet or moniker.
+Tribe members who are considered to clearly show traits of their personal spirit animal—//Miigi//—often get the animal name as an epithet, usually with an added adjective such as "fast" or "red" to make them more unique and personal.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== Khurite Religion ======
+The //Khurites// view most birds (especially birds of prey) as sacred beings. It is allowed to kill them for resources, however they are always treated with the utmost respect. They are seen as messengers or avatars of //The Sky Father// [[Gods#Jumal|Jumal]].
+Most snakes and reptiles on the other hand are considered evil; manifestations of the spirits of [[Gods#Tark|Tark]], //The Darkness//. The //Khurites// find symbolic meaning in the natural struggle between the two animal groups, both in legends and in the observable present. //Khurite// songs also tell about ancient battles between the //Khurites// and the [[Cold Broods]], where birds play important roles as allies to the tribes.
+//Tark// and/or [[Gods#Tjaka Baarve|Tjaka Baarve]] are the entities below the world, with belief in either or both varying from tribe to tribe. In cases where //Tark// is acknowledged, she is the literal underworld or //"below life/soil"//, but also acts as the arbiter of the metaphysical [[Etherworld]].
+A //Khurite// may say the soil, earth, and/or dirt is the living tissue of the //Earth Mother Akana//: where vegetation grows and water is stored—whereas the bedrock and everything beneath it is cold and inhospitable. And there, below, is //Tark//, who sometimes infects the living soil with her coldness such as through frost or permafrost.
+There are a number of legendary bird-creatures, and [[Gods#Geeredh|Geeredh]] is one of them. Statues in //Morin Khur// depict the defeat of the evil serpent—a well-known legend and concept among the tribes—but also act as a historic symbol of the //Khurite// opposition against the //Tindremic Empire//, the [[Dragon|Dragon]].
+{{wiki:morin_khur_entrance_geeredh.jpg?0x300|A statue of Geeredh seen at Morin Khur's entrance prior to The Irruption.}}
+//Geeredh// also stands for justice, which is why elite //Khurite// guards have historically worn his mask.
+{{wiki:khurite_lictor_front.png?0x200}} {{wiki:khurite_lictor_side.png?0x200}} {{wiki:khurite_lictor_rear.png?0x200}}
+An ancient Khurite prophecy involving //Geeredh// was once spoken:
+  It was the strangest dream
+  The vague premonitions
+  suddenly became enhanced
+  ...as if seen in a new light
+  The sky father will take wing again
+  in yoni shape
+  what tidings will she bring
+  The man beasts, despoilers
+  will trample our lands
+  seeking the unperceived
+  The warriors of old
+  called to arms
+  in this new world
+  There might yet be time
+  for mankind
+  in Nave
+Another legendary bird-creature in //Khurite// mythology is //Tjaka Baarve//, a giant vulture-like creature and the envious sister of //Akana the Earth Mother// that is said to reside in the //Ether//. She is responsible for the "cleaning wind" that sweeps the earth, the force that enables new life albeit not by seeding it directly, and is also the devourer of corpses.
+Although not necessarily considered evil, her connection to the //Tark// makes her rather ominous. She is associated with vultures, which are avoided by //Khurites//, and is sometimes portrayed as //Geeredh's// lover who ended up in the //Ether// after killing herself. In that version of the story their children are the mortal [[Syenah|Śyenah]].
+{{wiki:candle_3_unlit.png?0x300|A candlestick depicting a Śyenah.}} {{wiki:śyenah.png?0x300|A Śyenah witnessed flying over Fabernum prior to The Irruption.}}
+Dialectal variants of these entities are:
+  * Urag (with //Inari// roots): Tark, Tjaka Baarve, Śyenah, Jumal, Akana/Ahkkana
+  * Serbi: Tarch, Tas Araat'n, Tengǒu, Tenger, Ankha/Umai
+  * Oğuz: Tarğ, Kerkes, Semruk, Deywos, Anğa/Ankah/Degōm
+[[Terror Birds]] are seen as the guardians of the border between the jungle and the plains. According to the //Khurites//, they are reason the //Cold Broods// seldom venture up to the plains. Unbeknownst to many, the tribes closest to the jungle sacrifice food down the cliffs to the violent birds deep below.
+The //Angaq//, Khurite shamans, are often "selected" by birds for their personal //Miigi//, totem. Furthermore it is said that tribe members with a strong connection to their bird totem not only use tamed birds as trained messengers, scouts or hunting companions—they can even perform rituals where they actually see what their birds see.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== The Khurites of Myrland ======
+The ancient //Khurites// of [[Myrland]] have long endured as nomadic hunters and herdsmen. Living closely with their herds, they are among the best horsemen in the world. These fierce people identify themselves by tribe rather than race, and tribal wars are common.
+Adapted to survival on the steppes, //Khurites// of //Myrland// are small, lean, muscular people with almond eyes and ruddy skin. Acclimated to life in harsh environments, they have been known to lead their herds where even [[Kallard|Kallards]] refuse to venture.
+Prior to [[The Irruption]], [[Morin Khur]] was the only permanent //Khurite// settlement on //Myrland//, and acted the only place of peace between the tribes. During this period, each fourth year, the tribes converged there to exchange goods, perform wedding vows & ceremonies, engage in competitions, and tell stories.
+Despite the fact that the //Tindremic Empire// was considered an ally by //Morin Khur// at this time, some rumors told of [[Tindremene|Tindremic]] emissaries spotted among tribes which later began to wage war with each other. A few men of power in //Morin Khur// suspected this to be a tactical scheme by the //Tindremenes// to keep the Khurites from growing too strong.
+In the wake of //The Irruption//, growing tensions between the recovering //Tindremenes// and the newly-formed //Khurite Allied Tribes// would culminate in the annexation of //Morin Khur// by the //Tindremic Empire//, with the city still under occupation to this day.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Children of the Steppe =====
+The //Myrland steppe// is a vast area in the heart of //Myrland// that borders to the cold //Talus Mountains// to the north and to the tropical //March Jungles// in the south. They are barren lands where it hardly ever rains, with a very poor soil and on occasions a high salinity level where only very resistant vegetation can survive.
+Besides, they are generally lands where salty lagoons form because the accumulated water cannot drain into the sea. Traveling across //Myrland// on foot is not an option due to the vast distances and scarce civilization. Also, the predators are in general fast and adapted to stalk their prey to exhaustion. Among others a number of wolf species, giant wolverines, terror birds and the occasional sabertooth are constantly on the watch for a suitable prey.
+Though most of the animals on the steppe are mammals or invertebrates, a great number of birds frequent the environment. Of the former, the most abundantly present are rodents, foxes, deer, horses, [[Wisent]] and mammoths. The animals that inhabit the salty bodies of water are amphibious such as frogs, lizards and salamanders, which feed off the large variety of insects that are found in surrounding areas.
+Life on the //Myrland steppe// also affects its //Human// children, the //Khurites//. The //Khurites// are among the best riders in the world, and the horse and mammoth play important roles in their culture and society. The //Khurites// don’t regard themselves as one people instead the difference between the various tribes and one’s ancestry is important. They all live on or in connection to the steppe, however the steppe has no set of firm borders.
+The tribes have no name for their land, only for smaller regions and territories. Their villages consist of //gers//, which are tent-like living quarters that are more or less transportable, and by making camp in a specific area the tribe claims it and the surrounding environment as well. There are a great number of different tribes and areas which they occupy and the name of a tribe is often related to its totem animal, while the regions often are named after an important landmark in the surroundings.
+The //Khurite// tribes have a long history of civil war and conflicts, and prior to //The Irruption// a united //Khurite// nation had never existed outside of legends.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Life in a Myrland Khurite Tribe =====
+Every tribe is ruled by a //Mogul//, which can only be male, and the title is usually passed on to the //Mogul’s// sons if they can prove themselves in hunting and battle. A //Mogul// often has several wives but his first wife, //Hatun//, or queen is always the one who enjoys a large amount of respect from the tribe. She is also seen as capable of leading the tribe until a new Mogul is chosen, should the //Mogul// pass away before choosing a new heir.
+The spiritual leaders or shamans of the //Khurites// are called //Angaq// and possess a major influence on the tribe and its Mogul through predictions, enchantments and music. The //Angaq// in a tribe is responsible for communicating with the tribe's totem animal, //Miigi//, which is seen as a powerful spiritual ally. The //Miigi// is said to sometimes incarnate in or possess a corresponding animal on the steppe, and therefore all animals of that totem is regarded as sacred by the tribe.
+A settlement of the //Khurites// is a //Khuren//, which means circle and refers to the shape that is formed by the //gers//. In the center of the circle the //ger// of the //Mogul// is placed. The //Khuren// is often built against a cliff formation and then minor bone and stone palisades are raised as a defense, surrounding the camp.
+Prior to //The Irruption// and the establishment of more permanent settlements, wood was a scarce commodity for the majority of the //Khurites// who spent their lives wandering the steppe, therefore stone was used as a base and low walls to the //gers//, and they were then constructed with supporting bones from large animals and covered with large tent canvases of leather.
+The ground on which the camp is built upon is carefully chosen by the tribe's //Mogul// and later blessed by the //Angaq//, making the water drinkable and the pasture for the sheep and goats remain rich until the time had come to move on once more.
+The tribes often construct watchtowers, outposts and monuments located on the highest hills in the surroundings, which acts as signal beacons for the villagers, sometimes offering a limited range of food and water supplies for travelers.
+Day to day life in a //Khuren// is fairly peaceful but is still characterized by constant expeditions to the outskirts of the territory to track game or to scout for anything that might threaten the tribe. In addition to the steppe horses, birds and wolves are caught and tamed to be used for scouting and hunting. The wild animals are caught young since their connection to //Akana, the Earth Mother//, is said to be stronger than in their already domesticated cousins.
+Although the horses on the steppe are considerably smaller than many of their relatives they possess great stamina. These reliable animals constitute the back bone of the //Khurite// tribes, and a popular saying is that a true //Khurite// learns how to ride before learning how to walk. Men and woman alike are taught to fight equally well from the saddle as on foot, and a selection of traditional scimitars and polearms are used in close combat while the asymmetrical //Khurite// horse bow is used for archery.
+Crimes are very rare in a //Khuren// since the majority of the //Khurite// tribes are relatively small and their survival depends upon their ability to cooperate. Traditional rules and resolute leadership handle most of the quarrel which may arise in the close knit community of a //Khuren//. Additional to this, most of the //Khurites// possess a strong social sense of honor.
+Theft is unusual and jealousy is regarded as nonexistent. A //Khurite// husband or spouse may share their bed with whomever they desire in the tribe, and are expected to do so with a willing visitor since sexual activities are regarded as a natural part of the social trade exchanges, or as a //Khurite// would put it: //"It keeps the blood of the tribe from getting too thick"//.
+In the few cases when a dispute proves to be impossible to resolve, the //Mogul// can decide to expel an individual or a family from the tribe which is considered the harshest punishment possible. The tribes very rarely accept a drifter and an individual or family often face an early death on their own.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Physique and Appearances of the Myrland Khurite =====
+The most apparent characteristics of the //Khurite// race are their almond-shaped eyes and their skin tone, which ranges from a deep brown to a reddish color. Beard growth is only observed in //Khurites// of old age, and even then many stay beardless.
+The native //Myrland// //Khurites// have good physique with trimmed and hardy muscles and are accustomed to a life on the steppe, where the temperature changes can be dramatic and drinking water is scarce. To further cope with the changes in weather they use different pastes of animal grease mixed with herbs on their exposed body parts, which has given them a reputation of being "smelly and unclean" in other societies.
+Contrary to the popular belief that the //Khurites// are unclean, tribe members often swim in the salty lakes and streams near their //Khuren// and use vapour baths, or //sweat gers//, in the winter. Swimming is learned at a very early age by both sexes, and //sweat ger// competitions are a common way of settling arguments.
+Most //Khurites// have sacred tattoos, //Tamko//, that is carved into the skin rather than punctured, leaving grooves and dents. The first //Tamko// marks the important transition between childhood and adulthood, and future tattoos mark status, rank and achievements in the tribe. Men and women have different parts of their bodies tattooed, most often faces, buttocks and arms for men—lips, chins and stomachs for women, but this varies from tribe to tribe.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Technology and Culture of the Myrland Khurite =====
+The //Khurites// live a nomadic life on the steppe, and their inter-social advances and organization may be hard to detect for the uninitiated who can only observe their primitive resources and tools. The //Khurites// do not use or forge that many metals, but they master those which are used to perfection.
+The composite //Khurite// horse bow, //Ikil//, may look strange and rough at first sight, but the making of a bow of that kind can take up to a year and involves soaking and drying processes in several layers and a material composition which has taken several centuries to develop.
+The largest of the bows, //Mor-Ikil//, are used for hunting mammoth and are surrounded by a number of traditions and rituals. They are exceptionally tall, often surpassing the height of the archer, and the draw force is comparable to lifting a fully grown man by two fingers.
+Neither do the clothes of the //Khurites// reveal the measure of care used in their manufacturing, but the typical //Khurite// leather armor is extremely flexible and durable, useful in heat and cold alike and it has metal plates sown into it to better withstand arrows.
+Life on the steppe usually requires practical craftsmanship and reliable tools, and it’s first when you come to see the ritual dresses or the musical instruments of the //Khurites// when you are able to truly appreciate the level of craftsmanship involved in their making.
+[[Magic#Harmonism|Music]] is an essential part of the //Khurite// culture with both shamanistic and social value, and have unique features not found anywhere else in the world. Among the most known are the //Urtunye//, //Everlasting Songs//, where each syllable of text is extended for very long periods. The spiritual "throat singing" known as //Oomii// is another example of specialized vocals, where the greatest performers can produce up to three distinctively audible pitches at the same time.
+Instruments range from drums and tambourines to flutes, and the //Mornur//—a mammoth-tusk horn believed to have superior magical powers. Notably, the //Khurites// have an aversion to at least some metallic instruments, possibly owing to the //Tindremic// //Ophis//, a //Messing// horn itself potentially inspired by the horn-like calls of //Sator// and //Dragons//.
+At important occasions the tribe gathers in dancing rituals, //Yange//, through which they enter a trance with the help of music and //Yage//, an herb extract which grants contact with the [[Etherworld|spirit realm]].
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+====== Recent History & Scars of The Irruption ======
+The //Tagmaton assault//—although seemingly chaotic—involved several waves. The //fleshbiters// ate everything in their way—affecting all living things—but the actual //Tagmaton// hordes apparently missed or passed certain settlements for reasons unknown.
+To the east, some //Khurites// found shelter in //Morin Khur//, but many fled to the //Sheevra// caves in //Toxai//, which seem to have been impregnable. Where the western //Khurites// found shelter is undocumented, but there are rumors of caves being involved as well.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Khurite Allied Tribes =====
+After //The Irruption//, what remained of the //Myrland// //Khurite// tribes was supposed to meet on the steppe for a traditional quadrennial gathering. As with the //Tindremenes//, this involved some confusion at first as each tribe apparently had a different concept of what year it was. However, after riders had been dispatched to summon the stragglers, the gathering took place with what would become a pivotal meeting among the Moguls.
+As all tribes were heavily decimated and struggled with propagation and resources, it was decided that an interim confederation would be set up to better aid all //Khurens// until the world was back to normal. The coalition was to be ruled by a //Tribunal// consisting of the tribe //Moguls//, in turn led by a provisional chief of state, the //Deed Mogul//, with a permanent head office in //Morin Khur//.
+This unorthodox arrangement was met with surprisingly few protests, even among the most backwoods and freethinking tribesfolk, but times were desperate and the extant stockpiles of //Morin Khur// enticing. Thus the first //Deed Mogul//, //Ulagan khy Ulagan//, took command of the new alliance.
+Part of the //Tribunal// were also the //Sheevran// and [[Veela|Veelan]] emissaries from //Toxai//, where both races have small colonies. When the caches of //Morin Khur// started to dwindle, //Alvarin// shipments with supplies started to arrive from their home continent [[Urmothâr]], which didn't seem to have been as grievously afflicted by //The Irruption// as //Myrland//.
+It didn't take many years for the tribes to grow strong again, but the confederation stayed. In true //Khurite// spirit the tribe gatherings were still held on the steppe and the Tribunal stayed away from bureaucracy and interfering with the individual //Khurens//, mostly handling communications and making sure the common stockpiles were properly supplied and distributed.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Tindremic Incursions =====
+The //Tribunal// rallied a few warriors from time to time to scare off the occasional //Tindremic poachers//, but for the Khurens and the individual //Khurites// the sense of autonomy hadn't been affected. Although being part of a confederation the concept of belonging to a //"nation"// was still a remote notion for most.
+Not long after the //Tindremic poachers// soon grew to bands of plunderers, which upon investigation revealed their true nature to be [[Tindremic Empire#The Dicapita & Constitutio Mundanus Tindrem|imperial soldiers on "hunting missions"]]. It didn’t take long until the raiders came undisguised in //contubers// and full //centurias//, and for a few years the tension between the two nations escalated.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Fall of Morin Khur=====
+Everything culminated in //9 AD// when a small group of what were allegedly //Tindremic// [[Tindremic Empire#Alis – The Wings|Draconigena Knights]] managed to skulk their way into //Morin Khur// and massacre the entire //Khurite Tribunal//, who were all heavily drunk on //airag// and bathing in a sweat ger. After this exemplary //Tindremic stratagemma// the gates to the capital were swung open, letting in a cohort led by a triumphant //Emperor Livi Avitus Decollator// himself.
+This so-called battle went down in the //Tindremic// history books as the Heroic Conquest of //Morin Khur//, and to this day the city has been occupied, currently under the //Procurator Gnaeus Avitus Tesqua//. //Khurites// still living in the city are allegedly treated with partial respect, although control is strict and there is much suspicion from the //Tindremenes// in regards to outsiders.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Khurite Resistance =====
+Contrary to disrupting the //Khurite// tribes, the taking of //Morin Khur// united them and cemented their alliance, commonly known as the //Khurite United Tribes// or //Khurite Allied Tribes//. For the past 30 years the new //Tribunal//, currently led by //Toroi Bandi//—//"Toroi the Outlaw"//—has waged guerrilla warfare against anything //Tindremic// on the steppes with the ultimate goal of recapturing the former capital.
+Rumor has it that this rebellion has ties reaching as far as [[Kranesh]], although this may just be //Tindremic// propaganda as the village remains a thorn in //Tindrem's// side for its continued refusal to rejoin the //Provinces//.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Assassination of An Emperor =====
+In //11 AD//, the conflict between the //Empire// and the //Khurite Allied Tribes// would take another turn when two //Alvarin// assassins allegedly took the life of //Imperator Livi Avitus Decollator//. From the //Anam Sith// perspective, the death of their //Tribune// was properly avenged and afterwards the nation withdrew from the conflict entirely.
+//Myrlandic Alvarin// emissaries from the //Veela// and //Sheevra// are still part of the //Tribunal//, though the //Anam Sith//—the //"Alvarin Nation"// or //"Alvarin People"//—is not participating in the war.
+The //Alvarin// colonies in //Toxai// remain but have seen a dwindling population for the last few decades due to the //Myrlandic// conflict and unrest.
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+====== Symbolism ======
+The //Khurites// do not have a common flag as they are separated into individual tribes, however the concept of //Feng//—a bird embracing or constituting both the //Earth Mother// and the //Sky Father//—are recognized by all tribes.
+{{wiki:symbol_khurite_feng_color.png?0x300|A example of a Khurite ritual feng using a traditional color palette.}} {{wiki:symbol_khurite_ritual_feng_color.png?0x300|A example of a Khurite ritual feng using a traditional color palette.}}
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