Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-08T10:20:11Z

(via JWB)

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{{Infobox:TwilightAgeGroup
|Type = Zu'aan tribe
|Name = Faelen Tirbal Zu'Aan
|Parent Groups = N/A
|Descended Groups = Unknown
|Areas Controlled = [[Wayau Badlands]]
|Date Founded = 4E 459
|Date Disbanded = N/A
}}

==History==
The Faelen zu'aan clan lived in the arid and hostile environments of the Wayau badlands region. They were founded by a zu'aan native of the region, named Narvi Kalai after a kin'toni attack decimated most of her former tribe. These small nomadic tribes were the only inhabitants of the vast badlands and were known for their intricate knowledge of the local geography as well as the survival techniques necessary to survive in these lands. Prior to her founding of the clan, Narvi Kalai lived as any normal tribesmen of the Wayau.

She learned the skills associated with survival as well as navigation in the sometimes-featureless stretch of badland that could stretch for days on each direction. She was married to one of the skilled hunters of the tribe and had a single child from the marriage. Her young family would be displaced and torn apart by the kin'toni outbreak that occurred simultaneously across all parts of the continent. The kin'toni that showed up in the region were tunnel digging varieties, who lacked eyesight but made up for it with heightened senses of noise, motion and smell.

They lived underground for most of the day to escape the sunlight and surfaced only at night to prey on the zu'aan. The tribe lost most of their people- including Narvi's husband, to one particularly disastrous night attack while the tribe was camped at the site of an underground wadi. The attack caught most of them asleep while those that took up arms were quickly cut down by the kin'toni's overwhelming numbers. Narvi and her still infant son, survived this attack and quickly led the surviving members into the rocky outcrops and terrain which the kin'toni couldn't tunnel through. She would quickly establish herself as a leader within the group due to her sound reasoning and the emotional grit she displayed despite all of her personal losses.

She would name this new clan the Faelen zu'aan clan and maintained their nomadic ways. The clan travelled in safety during the day when the heat and light kept the kin'toni away- while taking shelter in rocky outcrops during the night. Their numbers would increase as they began accepting many refugee zu'aan who fled to the region in search of safety from the chaos and wars of the heartlands. Their stories about conflicts, treachery and wars fascinated Narvi and made her welcome the idea of training a military to prepare for such eventuaities.

She would start the training of each member of the clan in the handling of weapons by organizing hunting expeditions and tournaments. These exercises helped the clan to become more formidable and prepared to handle kin'toni attacks by the time of her death in 4E 64. Her grown-up son- Nari, would also fall soon after her, when he and a few other brave members stayed back to repel a horde of kin'toni emerging from a sudden collapse of the rocky terrain, while ordering the rest of the clan to flee.

This would leave the clan directionless for many years while they tried to recover from the heavy blow dealt to them by the kin'toni.

==Psychology==

The Faelen zu'aan were a very simplistic clan, largely due to their isolation from other zu'aan of the region along with their advancements and systems. They followed their simplistic code of morals and were mostly known as a passive clan who were more concerned with survival than warfare. They had no knowledge of systems such as banking and financial systems as well as negotiations and political organization. They had no knowledge of politics or diplomacy and considered their words and promises as their most valuable asset since they were not mentally conditioned to seek value in material possessions.

They were also quite primitive in their technologies which hadn't evolved much in centuries due to the lack of resource on the surface of the Wayau badlands. The clan had evolved and honed their survival instincts over hundreds of years in the hostile environments of the Wayau. Their first reaction to every event was to carefully observe for threats and avoid it if uncertain. They had a very cautious mentality and were not known to be brash risk-takers. This was a vital characteristic for survival in their hostile homeland where any wrong move could spell the death of their entire group.

They were mentally, very strong and resilient and could endure long periods of suffering. They were required to be built in this way in order to survive the unpredictable environments of their homeland where supplies were extremely rare and suffering was a constant part of life. In their own society, their simplistic natures made them a very close knitted clan. They displayed genuine concern and affection for the well-being of their peers and would often go out of their way to see that everyone was doing well.

This attitude was also helped by the lack of money or an economic system within the clan. They shared everything they received and harvested from the environment amongst themselves. There was no room for greed and individualism within their clan and such tendencies were quickly punished and forced out of their mentality through harsh punishments, during their childhood years. This meant that the clan had no room for corruption within their simplistic lifestyles. The Faelen were predisposed towards hard work and group activities.

For them, survival was a group effort and laziness and irresponsible behavior was highly discouraged. Due to their isolation, the Faelen could be very excitable at the sight of strangers. They readily welcomed these strangers such as zu'aan refugees and escapees who escaped to their region. They were hospitable and would crowd around them- observing and listening to tales about faraway lands that they had never heard of. Although they were capable of violence and defense, the Faelen were a naturally nonviolent clan. Their mentality was geared towards survival and battling the elements rather than warfare.

==Culture==

The Faelen culture was known for its very simplistic beliefs and principles. They prided themselves on the deep camaraderie that existed among all members of their clan. This came from their need to rely on each other due to their isolated nature and the absence of any readily available source of help in the region. Their culture encouraged the clan to maintain close relations with other members and provide constant emotional comfort to each other in tough times.

They displayed genuine concern and affection for the well-being of their peers and would often go out of their way to see that everyone was doing well. The Faelen were known for their constant displays of affection and positive reinforcement that they provided to each other. Their culture considered survival as a group effort and heavily discouraged individualism and greed within its members. Faelen's culture was very different from other zu'aan clans of the continent, owing to their isolation.

Their language and accents were entirely different from their distant neighbors and they were known to have a distinct fast-paced pattern of speech that made their words indecipherable for the unaccustomed. Their language was also known to have many guttural and throaty sounds which was a product of their dry environment which left their throats and any exposed cavities, dry. It also did not have any form of writing or record keeping which was an alien concept for the Faelen zu'aan.

The Faelen were known to take every day as a celebration of life. They did not have any specific dates or events marked out for celebrations due to their relaxed attitudes to record keeping. Their non-attachment to material possessions also meant that they were not known for presenting gifts or splurging out all of their supplies for wasteful feasts and ceremonies. The Faelen diet was very varied due to the unpredictable availability of their resources. Thus, they did not rely on a single source for all their sustenance.

Some of the delicacies of the Faelen culture included the locally available wild Tayla-Ade which they usually ate roasted along with underground reptiles that could be roasted on sticks along with the fleshy roots of the rare shrubs that grew in their region. The Faelen were very accepting towards any alien or refugee who came looking for help in their region. They could get very excitable at the sight of strangers. They readily welcomed these strangers such as zu'aan refugees and escapees who came to seek refuge in their region.

They were hospitable and would share their meagre supplies with them while also crowding around- observing and listening to tales about faraway lands that they had never heard of. The Faelen culture did not encourage violence or wanton acts of aggressions towards other members of the zu’aan. They resorted to violence only as a last resort or for defense against kin’toni hordes. For this purpose, the clan would adapt many naturally occurring objects such as dried tree stumps and branches that they would fashion into rudimentary spears and knives that were topped with the sharp-edged rocks gathered from their environment.

==Government==

Being a very tribalistic society that was very isolated from the rest of the major zu'aan societies in the continent. Given their circumstances, they were yet to be exposed to the complex systems of the larger zu'aan cities including their politics, culture, diplomacy and military. Their backwardness was very evident in their form of government or leadership which was handled in a very arbitrary manner. Their leadership was not an organized position and functioned in an unpredictable manner.

There was no proper assignment and distribution of responsibilities and power within the clan. It was up to the leader to decide how much power they wanted to assume and how many decisions they were willing to leave up to the clan. The first leader of the Faelen zu'aan was their founder Narvi Kalai. She rose to the position based on the wave of emotional support she received after the loss of her husband and family. This was following the fateful kin'toni attack that decimated more than half of their numbers.

The remaining survivors would rally around her on seeing the initiative and determination that she displayed to lead the clan out of the region and rebuild them from the state of neat-total destruction. Despite being the leader of the clan, Faelen did not create any special privileges for herself. This was in keeping with their clan's belief of survival being a collective effort. Every person was expected to contribute to their cause in an equal manner- including the leader.

Their system valued the lives of their members and thus, harsh punishments were usually meted out only in the most severe cases. Examples included, murdering within the clan which carried a sentence of expulsion from the clan- a death sentence given the hostile conditions of their habitat. The clan looked to the leader to make these judgements after careful deliberations. She took many measures during her reign that saw the Faelen become a formidable nomadic clan of the region.

Some of her most popular measures included the system of movement that she pioneered where the group travelled in safety during the day when the heat and light kept the kin'toni away- while taking shelter in rocky outcrops that the kin'toni couldn't tunnel through during the night. During this period, the Wayau Badlands also saw a large influx of a number of zu'aan refugees who had escaped their once cities and populated hubs which were now overrun by kin'toni hordes to seek shelter in the wilderness and isolation of the Badlands.

Narvi willingly accepted and integrated these zu'aan into her group to strengthen their dwindling numbers. Their stories about conflicts, treachery and wars fascinated Narvi and made her welcome the idea of training a military to prepare for such eventualities. She would start the training of each member of the clan in the handling of weapons by organizing hunting expeditions and tournaments. These exercises helped the clan to become more formidable and prepared to handle kin'toni attacks by the time of her death in 4E 64.

==Military==

The Faelen were not known for their military since they had no dedicated arm meant to handle the combat and military affairs of the clan. Instead, every citizen was expected to chip in on their military efforts whenever required. This was based on their system of survival being a collective effort and not an individual responsibility of a single person or a certain group. Before the kin'toni outbreak, the tribe had very little reason or occasion to resort to violence and military action.

This was because their region was sparsely populated and given the hostile nature of their habitats, these people were more interested in surviving than warring against each other. The only times where there was a need for application of force was during hunting activities or when they were faced with aggressive predators. The kin'toni outbreak changed everything for the clan. The region began to witness the appearance of more and more kin'toni who were naturally adapted for the environment.

They could survive in the hostile conditions through their tunnelling skills that allowed them to escape much of the midday heat and the sunlight that was dangerous to their skin and left them free to tunnel out and hunt during the night. Like all kin'toni these varieties were also quite aggressive and were on the constant prowl for new victims to feed-on and 'turn'. Initially, the zu'aan defense against these attacks were pathetic and without results. They were relentlessly butchered and stalked until the Faelen under Narvi discovered a tactic to avoid detection while still being able to carry out their activities on the surface.

This method involved the strictly regulated procedures of travelling only under the cover of heat and sunlight and hiding over rocky terrain during the nights. The rock layer which was unbreachable, prevented the kin'toni from tunning underneath the resting Faelen and launching their surprise attacks. Although their method was a huge success, they would still have their occasional run ins with the kin'toni- necessitating the presence of a militarily capable force at all times.

They would use the stories they heard from the zu'aan refugees about the presence of large armies in their previous cities far-far away as inspiration to undertake a similar venture themselves. Their leader, Narvi Kalai would start the mandatory training of each member of the clan in military tactics that they learned from their most recent arrivals in the Wayau region. They would be taught the proper handling techniques of weapons and their most effective use which they would then practice on the savage wildlife in organized hunting expeditions and combat tournaments.

These exercises helped the clan to become more formidable and prepared to handle kin'toni attacks by the time of her death in 4E 64. Their most heroic military involvement would follow soon after when Narvi’s son Nari along with a handful of Faelen perished while heroically repelling a surprise kin’toni attack. Their actions bought the rest of their members enough time to escape and saved them from extinction.

==Religion==

The Faelen zu'aan clan had very vague religious beliefs. They prayed to their environment and their surroundings which they believed to be living creatures, like themselves and capable of thought as well as immense power that they could bestow or unleash in anger. Their prayers were usually ones of peace, asking their environment to have pity on them and to bless them with favorable conditions and circumstances. The Faelen did not have any elaborate ceremonies and sacrifices like the other zu'aan clans.

Their methods of worship and prayer were simple and carried out using whatever they could find in the environment at that instant. These could be as simples as tiny rocks and shrubs or the majestic views of the horizon in dusk or dawn. The Faelen would sit there admiring and worshipping nature for hours on end in a meditative state. It was no surprise then, that the Faelen were known for their very calm demeanor and their perfect reasoning and ability to rationalize even the most perplexing actions and crimes.

This was vital to their justice system which was based on leniency and teaching the perpetrators the folly of their ways instead of sentencing them to harsh punishments and sentences that could lead to bitterness or dissatisfaction towards the clan. The Faelen believed in the balance of nature and looked for ways to change very little within their environment. They believed that nature had a way correcting itself and if given time, even the harshest and cruelest acts would be compensated for naturally.

Their founder, Narvi Kalai was also a big believer in this principle and was thus reluctant to resort to violence or cruelty unless she was forced into it. Their religion preached equality and the attached the same value to each life, irrespective of the actions and behaviors of the individual. This was why the clan's actions and principles stressed on equality and offered no special privileges to anyone based on their position and accomplishments- including their leaders.

This solidified a feeling of camaraderie and equality within the clan. The clan would go out of their way in helping new migrants to their lands with supplies and advice and would even willingly admit them into their clan- provided, the individual promised to live by these same principles. According to their beliefs, a person was as good as his word. Thus, a promise was the most valuable gift that one Faelen could gift to another. Their system had no regard for individualism or greed which were highly discouraged and went against every principle that they believed in.

Material and individual possessions were frowned upon and everything that the clan owned was seen as the collective property of the people that could be utilized at any time for the good of the clan. Their belief system was incompatible with trade or commerce and was one of the main reasons why neither of these developed within their clan.

==Miscellany==

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

{{CrossSiteAttribution
| User = [https://www.freelancer.in/u/Jangou Jangou]
| Holder = Jangou S
}}

[[Category:5th-century Twilight Age zu'aan tribes]]
[[Category:Jangou S's contributions]]

Faelen Tirbal Zu'Aan - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)