Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-08T10:15:56Z

(via JWB)

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{{Infobox:TwilightAgeGroup
|Type = Zu'aan tribe
|Name = Cydon Tribal Zu'aan
|Parent Groups = N/A
|Descended Groups = Unknown
|Areas Controlled = [[Rinix Lush Desert]]
|Date Founded = 4E 288
|Date Disbanded = N/A
}}

==History==

The Cydon tribal zu'aan follows a history of groups of autonomous nomad warriors which were initially divided into many independent legions across the various lands of Taerel; in the year of 4E 288, on the brink of various conflicts across the land, where many regions faced things such as wells being poisoned and seized, or the drying up of trade routes, many refugees, deserters, and exiles began drifting into the Rinix Lush Desert, a vast region that is surrounded by green walls capable of producing anything an individual needs to survive.

But the more you travel within it, the more scarce it becomes, that is, until you reach the very center, where the lushness revives itself in an even more productive way. Many attempted to cross the more isolated area, feared for its storms, shifting dunes, and dryness, with the few who succeeded being an organized minority which was able to put together a strong and reinforced settlement in the center of the Rinix Lush Desert; that organized few comprised itself of warriors who arrived by caravans filled with hunters, soldiers, and ex-guards.

Though, that small region lived for many years in constant conflict amongst those fighter groups, be it over water, better shelter, or salvaging of resources, and that remained until a legion came out on top, that being the one commanded by Lassim Marast, which came out on top in the year of 4E 184. Though, he realized that establishing his rule over the Rinix Lush Desert with force would be a stupid idea, since that whole region was occupied by differing types of warriors which could at any moment slice off the head of governance if it didn't deserve being cheered.

Thus, Lassim Marast chose to operate the region with a set of well-established laws that held the objective of organizing and mediating the many conflicts that the differing warrior legions could have amongst themselves, and by the time of 4E 193, that leadership was highly popular due to the established peace in the middle of the Rinix Lush Desert. As their settlement developed, they not only began extracting what they could from the lushness in the center of the Rinix, but they also began building outwards, setting up countless outposts in the sandy regions of the desert.

And assigning the role to a couple of scouting units and legions which would capture any zu'aan who neared the outward lush walls of the Rinix Lush Desert and fight any kin'toni in the same region. The same legions and outposts would also rescue any foolish attempts at crossing the desert by individuals or less prepared nomads, often forcing a debt onto them to serve different mercenary groups within the Cydon tribe. The name was decided on after the founding of the first outpost, since the group still didn't know what to call themselves.

They decided to do so after a citrusy fruit which grew in the very center of the Rinix Lush Desert, and also went by the name of Cydon. By the time many of the outposts were established, they set up a network of communication amongst them which allowed for the tribe's main source of income, mercenary work, basically operating as a restaurant menu of guns for hire. Letters and ambassadors would arrive at the furthest outposts and slowly make their way to the center of the tribe, where individual warriors or groups would be chosen to follow the described tasks.

Be them to protect another tribe from invading kin'toni, or to assassinate political zu'aan leaders, such as what happened with R'pol Nokeugh, the leader of the Enr tribal zu'aan, in the year of 4E 203.

==Psychology==

Since the Cydon tribe isn't at all uniform and is comprised of federalized groups of mercenaries which often enter into conflict over their interests, it's quite difficult to elaborate a certain description that is able to fit every single one of them. However, it is necessary to show some psychological characteristics that are pretty commonly observed among the varying groups of the Cydon tribe, and some which are oftentimes coerced into the tribal members. One of the primordial notions that can be discussed as common amongst the Cydon tribe is the usage of violence as a baseline for most decisions.

And violence is a part of their logical functioning ever since they are born or taken into that tribe, although not a choice to enter but to be birthed and nestled by. Conflict and war are treated as what's the usual state of reality, thus, most individuals seem ready to kill and betray whenever necessary for the good of their legions or simply of themselves, which normalizes even more the idea that conflict is normalized; brutality isn't something to enjoy, it is instead a neutral state of reality.

Not only that, but things such as peace are simply seen as pragmatic negotiations that are placed with a means to set up temporary suspensions in what is seen as the normality of reality. Furthermore, this logic expands itself into the internalized moral truths that are held close by a vast majority of the members and divisions of the Cydon tribe and their perceptions of the tools needed to maintain order, such as laws; they are often interpreted as things that should be fully servant to the individualistic logic of the tribe, and obedience is more like a transaction.

Since those laws are often only followed if they continue to serve individual interests, which actually makes it so the mercenaries within the tribe are more psychologically sturdy than any of their governors. Self-perception, for many members of the Cydon tribe, is often attributed to their self-interpretation of usability and results in their transactional tasks; there exists a common phenomenon where identity is, at least to a certain degree, eroded into bundles of capacity, be it endurance, lethality, or contract quantity.

The main consequence of this is how self-expression and understanding turn one's personal identity into a metrification of function, dissolving selfhood into the obligation of productivity and efficiency demanded by the tasks warriors oftentimes are responsible for; all of this sadly lays the groundwork for emptiness and constant burnout, which increases the amount of internal conflict within the tribe. This tribe, as has been highlighted in this section, actually differs a lot from many due to it not seeing itself as a unified group of people.

This is despite their settlement being central, their objectives and jobs being very identical, their origins, histories, and of course, the fact they live together, the psychology of the majority of the Cydon remains nomadic, keeping an attachment to their group or themselves at most, with anything more being nearly a liability; creating a psychological base where emotional bonds can feel shallow and conditional, only tolerated so it can serve conflict.

==Culture==

When observing the cultural outline of the Cydon, we observe a sort of developing logic which follows similar fundamentals compared to the other sections of this society. One of those basic notions is how culture does not share roots with matters of myth; it is simply the recreation of the leftovers generated by the repetition of transactional life; this explains their lack of founding histories which may be able to unify cultural development within the Cydon, allowing for the creation of fragmented history throughout the different expressions in the groups and legions.

The only cultural traits that seem to emerge often come from the few actions which are shared for most of the tribe, such as contractual relations and standardized violence, both things that are absorbed through the work and labor operation as it exists in the Cydon tribe. Another interesting cultural notion which shapes the Cydon's perception of the world is their attitude towards death, which is something seen as a quite neutral state of the logical functioning of the world, it is looked at as something actually more favorable than wasting your survivability by not pursuing the actions you could have done whilst alive.

Fallen mercenaries are often placed in ranking systems which depend on the amount of contracts they've fulfilled and their efficiency in relation to costs which may have incurred, along with the prevention of needless losses, therefore creating no room for a heroic afterlife narrative, individuals are simply ranked (a process which starts while they're still alive) and placed in a different list once they die, if they serve as an example, it is solely due to their performance in their duties.

Social bonds are also shaped by the conditionality of processes and their practical functionings within the customs of the Cydon tribe; they often regard their relations between the members of units as one which focuses a lot on camaraderie supported upon functionality, which basically means that emotional bonds exist but are tolerated only insofar as they don't compromise the necessary contractual measures that the Cydon must enact. This may make it seem that social relations are often shallow and apathetic.

However, it actually creates deep loyalty inside units, the shallowness only translating to how they behave amongst different groups, that is, if the different group has conflicting interests or not. This also extends to things such as romance and family structures, which function normally under the idea of being temporary and non-centralized, which basically translates emotional expression into a pragmatic idea. As for things such as leisure, the Cydon minimizes the indulgence in it, now, it is necessary to understand that there is open access to it, be it by martial arts, mock fights, or even infrastructure to enjoy and practice shooting.

It's just that those things are often negated out of plain disinterest by most members towards needing a pastime, or regarded as things which should be focused around plain training instead. Other entertainment methods also developed around the tribe though, such as simple moments where warriors would sit around a campfire to storytell about their previous missions, or establishments focused around the ability to gamble gains from those same missions. Art also exists but no institutions for formal training, it's mostly expressed in a more portable and utilitarian way.

Oftentimes anonymous as well, such as carving onto trees or writing poems on papers that are left scattered across the Rinix Lush Desert.

==Government==

The government follows a very federalized style of functioning; it emerges logically from how mercenary structures operate historically, be them leagues, legions, or companies; this lack of centralized power isn't fully focused on sovereignty as much as it is on the formation of a federalizing logic. How this is usually translated into practice is in the way different legions retain internal autonomy within their own region, be it over decision-making around discipline, contracts, or recruitment style and acceptance.

Which makes it so the central body of government serves very little above the purpose of settling conflicts between legions and making external negotiations. Furthermore, most of the perception by members of the Cydon tribe tends to not observe the functioning of government or the heads in front of it as the primary objective within politics; as we saw from the example of Lassim Marast, a leader deemed important and popular, though his political protagonism never expanded past the fact that he executed his function in a satisfying manner for most of the mercenary legions.

Thus, most of the legitimacy attributed to central leaderships within the Cydon tribe is way more seen through their practical and concrete ability to mediate disputes, prevent any threats of internal bloodshed, and prevent the monopolization of power around a singular legion; this really illustrates how the Cydon prefer safety and a series of guarantees in their way of life instead of plain ideological debacles. The law system in the Cydon tribe functions by a series of standardized contractual relations instead of plain statutes.

Most of the laws in place within the tribe are those around the most fair manner to measure mediations between disagreements, those to guarantee fair punishment and paybacks in cases of contract breaches, and things such as the regulation of debt as it is imposed on rescued outsiders (to guarantee a recruit from the outposts has an already organized timetable as to how long they'd serve certain legions for). This sort of labor absorption through policies of debt relations is one of the most important ways to keep the population of the Cydon steady.

Even if the integrated outsiders live with titles lower than that of citizens, instead being seen as a sort of asset under legal obligation; the rescue from the Rinix Lush Desert done by the many outposts automatically places them into debt, which has to be paid under a certain schedule by mercenary service, otherwise the individual in debt tends to be executed most of the time. Speaking of the rescues done by the outposts, communication logistics is also one of the fundamental parts of infrastructure the government has to guarantee for the members of the Cydon tribe.

The creation of intricate networks within the Rinix Lush Desert being crucial ways that allow not only for the intake of contracts (the base of the Cydon's economy), but the rescuing/capturing of the individuals which near the Rinix Lush Desert or try to venture foolishly into it; in conclusion, this sort of logistical and practical system replaces bureaucracy almost entirely, due to the importance attributed to the assignment and flow of binding offers.

==Military==

The Cydon military is one that, when explained concretely, is undeniably one which preceded itself in material terms before any sort of ideology or doctrine. Such as most of the tribe, it prides itself on its mercenary plurality as a structural condition which shapes its functioning. The military, as has also been described before indirectly, is not a single standing army which divides itself into many; it is an aggregation of many individual sets of legions, companies, and specialized detachments that operate in various forms of units.

Those units each form around their shared contractual history and their own manners of specialization, be it geographical or purposeful, such as desert training as a way to traverse the harsh sands of the Rinix Lush Desert (usually given as training courses to those soldiers responsible for staying in outposts across the Cydon's desert region) and those prepared to escort caravans, respectively. Now, this in abstract sounds like quite a complicated situation to take practical outcomes from; this sort of contractual command and autonomy rarely ever needs any sort of proper and formal authority.

This turns such an event into a situational thing. This happens rarely, and when it does, it's usually due to kin'toni invasions that hold the potential of destroying large parts of the infrastructure of the Cydon tribe; otherwise, even if infrastructure is under threat, the responsibility of defense usually befalls that of the legion controlling the area under attack; which opens space for one group, the integrated outsiders, who are able to shine regardless of ranks or origins whenever performing in one of those minor to medium conflicts between the outside and individual clans.

Systems of training and discipline are also heavily federalized and distributed amongst the different groups which occupy the center of the Rinix Lush Desert. Military asymmetry becomes the key component which makes it so the Cydon's "army" is often seen as heavily unpredictable and hard to defeat. Each legion having the responsibility of developing their own doctrine and training methods makes it so punishment norms and drills create situations that can both be way harsher than the usual universal training, or situations where punishments are so mild discipline is rarely resolved.

The military, as an extension of the government, does have a force which operates within the territory controlled by the Cydon tribe, that being a group of specialized police that would operate in sky, ground, and water patrols as a means to solve situations where a mercenary group can't be very much trusted, such as the extension and application of law, since one of the Cydon government's only duties is to guarantee safety for contracts and the mediation of suspect information and probable crimes related to fraud, which is exactly where this policing force came in.

They were responsible for not only attempting to visualize types of bribes (even though they themselves fell into them sometimes), but they may arrest individuals who break contract specifications about a region, or to control conflicts that have the unfortunate tendency to become littered with aggression.

==Religion==

The overall core premise of the structured way of thinking of the Cydon tribe's religious beliefs shapes itself in an orientation which diverges from salvation and cosmic justice, it instead emerges as a tool for social cohesion, which helps the many different warriors face the uncertainty in a world where violence is the dominating force with some more peace in their minds; it does not shape individuals by meaning or by moral codes, instead being about predictability, to be ready for what's to come.

It sort of exists to answer existential issues that are born from the contractual relations which shape the Cydon tribe, coming down whenever violence is ambiguous or when survivability fails. As it has been described, the mannerisms distributed amongst the Cydon tribe are nearly always divided and federalized, and religion does not differ from this due to how it is divided based on legions and groups. Each group tends to develop their very own patron figures or ritualistic framework, be some more performative than others which choose a simpler and more content set of practices.

They can vary in their following around many abstract notions, such as the qualification and creation of blood oaths, personalized ancestors which represent a martyr of leadership, or simply praise different natural phenomena, such as how the center of the Rinix Lush Desert is as pretty and lush as it is. Though one characteristic that's very common is the visualization of those divine figures as partners, almost as if even deities were individuals that help from camaraderie, this counterparty style of belief allows for faith in something divine without placing it as an authority.

This actually makes it so religion differs a little bit from their usual transactional logic, which is illustrated by how things such as prayers or offerings are seen more so as bribes, something that could be contradictory to devotion. The key consequences of this unusual treatment of divine figures actually let the Cydon dive into their faiths without many examples of blind worshipping, and it's also quite common for one's chosen doctrine to be changed around if a God is deemed to fail their purpose as a comrade.

Post-mortem is actually also quite interesting in most of the religions which are birthed within the Cydon tribe, instead of systems regarding heavens, hells, or purgatories, the dead are usually treated as individuals that have retired from their duty in mercenary work, and their worth as a post-life individual is usually measured by how many accounts they managed to settle or if they left any unresolved debt behind that lingers within their soul. Many of the cultural effects of this are expressed in how rituals regarding the dead come about.

By celebrating one's demonstrated skill during their lifetime, or, in contrast, the lived anxiety around unfulfilled contracts after their passing; this also creates quite an interesting phenomenon with superstitions of the possibility of dying during a negotiation or a mission, where your soul would be condemned to forever suffer with those debts.

==Miscellany==

==Miscellany==

{{NearbyGroups
| Centre = Unknown
| North = Unknown
| Northeast = Unknown
| East = Unknown
| Southeast = Unknown
| South = Unknown
| Southwest = Unknown
| West = Unknown
| Northwest = Unknown
}}

{{CrossSiteAttribution
|User = kalilbao (Discord)
|Holder = kalilbao
}}

[[Category:3rd-century Twilight Age zu'aan tribes]]
[[Category:kalilbao's contributions]]

Cydon Tribal Zu'aan - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)