Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-10T12:41:30Z

(via JWB)

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{{Infobox:TwilightAgeGroup
|Type = Zu'aan city
|Name = Hinormi City Zu'aan
|Parent Groups = N/A
|Descended Groups = Unknown
|Areas Controlled = [[Tiewlor Lush Swamp]]
|Date Founded = 4E 175
|Date Disbanded = N/A
}}

==History==

Hinormi is a very new city. It’s been about for as long as the Twilight Age has been going and takes in many new citizens on a regular basis. The city was established by defectors from other cities who’d met on the road and had decided to group up together in order to become a stronger group. The city was built on stilts with wooden docks and huts raised up in the swamps. The citizens believe that it is far safer in the swamp than it is in the other cities. They also have created allies with a neighboring city called Ghaird.

Ghaird boasts a strong military and fantastic agriculture and Hinormi will often send fish in exchange for fresh fruits and vegetables as well as the meat from the farm animals. Hinormi also often relies on Ghaird for protection against dangers that come their way. Hinormi often sends scouts around the expansive swamp land to make sure they stay a step ahead of any enemies that might be lurking. It is with this knowledge that they are able to protect themselves and even ask for help from Ghaird. Despite the city not being around for too long, it has been expanding exponentially.

Many travelers will get lost in the [[Tiewlor Lush Swamp|Tiewlor Lush Swamp]] and thanks to Hinormi scouts, they are rescued. Most travelers choose to make Hinormi their home. They help to expand the city and the population. Hinormi’s occupants have been known to be just a little bit on the strange side. They have strange rituals and even developed their own language. If any outsider wants to join the city, they have to pass through an initialization. The ritual meant for new citizens is a brutal one and there have been rumors that some deaths have occurred during the initialization.

The city does hold a very dark secret and has a very strange lifestyle. If one was to look just a little bit close, they would be astounded by the fact that the citizens seem far too happy to truly be set in their own reality. They seem to be floating most of the time and their carefree life has always been appealing to outsiders who wish to run away and hide from the world’s problems. The young city always has a positive attitude to share with all outsides. They often put faith in the fact that their ancestors would protect them and any problem would be fixed by the spirits.

The citizens will do whatever they can to help where they can. They would share everything they have with a stranger, just because they can, but there is something telling you that there’s chaos beneath the calm surface. The most important resources that the city has to offer is the wood from the swamp land and the special root from a tree only growing in this region of the empire. They protect the swamp for this reason and have been known to use the tree root in transactions to aide the city as a whole.

==Psychology==

Despite being willing to go out and collect strangers from the huge swamp before they get devoured by the predators within the swamp, Hinormis don’t trust strangers very much. They will often hide from the visitors what truly happens in the city. Only during initialization will the visitor truly discover what goes on in Hinormi city. The Hinormi live in a perpetual state of drugged up drunkenness in an effort to ‘be close to the spirits’. There is a species of tree in the swamp which the Hinormi will take the root off. Once brewed into a tea or dried out and smoked, it can leave the user floating in a dream-like state.

Most Hinormi live like this on a regular basis. The root of the Obap tree has been used for many purposes. It is the life force of the city and they have all become very much addicted to the effects of Obap. The people are often very suspicious of those strangers they encounter from far off cities. They are suspicious because coming down from Obap can do that to an individual. It is a potent root that is highly addictive and it has managed to imprison an entire city with its addictive powers.

Other than being paranoid and suspicious of strangers, the Hinormi people are calm and content with their way of life. They live a simple life without a lot of difficult tasks to endure. They go through life pretty much following the same routine and because of this, they have become a somewhat lazy city. If they have a good reason to work they will. This reason is often a newcomer that has passed the initiation phase. They tend to be a close knit family group. They have become like that because they can often be seen doing rituals together to talk to their ancestors.

Children and elders of the city are treated with respect and honor. Children are raised and protected by the entire city. They are taught the basics of fishing, hunting, gathering and Obap. At the age of 16, a child is first introduced to Obap in a ceremony they call the growing. There is no need for the military so there is no need to learn defense. An arrow dripped in Obap is often enough to drop a man dead in his tracks, putting them into a trance-like state. Their enemy is rendered helpless. It is a useful defense tactic and it has always worked out for them.

Apart from the fact that there is no military, there are also no laws or marriage so all the citizens are free to do as they wish when they wish. They are not governed by anyone. They are a free society, living in a community that has become more like a family. In their city, many of the citizens are family, intermingled and free to do so. Their tiny and young utopia as seen a slow and steady rise of new comers with no end in sight.

==Culture==

The culture of the Hinormi is very secretive. Only those within the city know the secrets that they hold close. They understand that if the secrets of their culture were to get out and around the empire, they would lose a very strategic asset which is the Obap root. Obap root can be made into a potent drug that allows them to commune with the ancestor spirits of the swamp. Their entire culture revolves around communing with the ancestral spirits that they believe guide their city towards strength and power. This is one of the main reasons the Hinormi wish to protect this ritual and culture that they have developed over the decades.

In their culture, men and women are equal so both men and women can do the same job or be called upon to fight. Children are raised by the entire city and everyone tends to have an interest in giving children the skills they have. The children have a high standing in the community because they are the future of the community and they will carry on the city. The children born into the community are seen as the legacy that will listen and follow the instructions of the ancestors when those in the city have passed on to the death realm.

That is why a lot of care and attention is put into raising each and every child. Just like the children, elders are honored profusely because they will be joining the death realm shortly. Because they have so much more life experience and experience with Obap and it’s uses, elder advice is valued above all other advice. Death is not something to fear in the city. In fact, death is often celebrated along with birth. The citizens believe strongly in reincarnation and they will have festivals and feasts during a birth and death that could last several days.

The honoring of death and life are celebrated in vastly different ways but use the swamp in both rituals. During birth, when a woman is about to go through her labor she is guided into the waters by the members of the city standing in a long line, arms outstretched to help her. Elders surround her in the water and she is given Obap tea for the pain. She is held by two or three elders and they help her bring life into the world. Then the baby is carefully taken from the water and allowed to breathe before being passed along the long line of citizens to be greeted by all the members of the city.

During a funeral, the body is taken and carried by everyone for a short time till they reach the swamp. There it is carefully placed into the water and each citizen will come and kiss the forehead of the deceased then they let it sink into the water and float away to be eaten by the beasts of the swamp. The culture of the Hinormi is a peaceful and intriguing one, rarely shared with outsiders.

==Government==

There is no government in Hinormi. It would be impossible for anyone in the city to lead the city because there is no one to actually lead effectively. Most of the time the citizens take their cues from the ancestors they see when they have Obap. The thought had not even occurred to the people of the city to appoint a leader. They believe there is no need for one. More often than not, they have no need to make city altering decisions. Those types of decisions are believed to be whether to allow an outside to attend initiation. That is the only important decision that will ever need to be made.

The people feel safe in the knowledge that a government is not needed. Everyone is equal in their rights and they are free of laws. They are an open place of peace and love. They have very little to fear and have never wanted one leader to rule them all. They tend to see each other more as equals than as someone to rule over them.They believe in equality among all people. There is no one better than someone else. They just possess a different set of skills.

They have a set belief that each of them make up for the other’s weaknesses and thus the city will work together to bring forth the best when it comes to decision making. Though they don’t have a leader, they do honor the elderly more. The elder citizens of the city also have more experience with contacting the spirits that guide the entire city with the use of Obap. That is why, when there is trouble or a decision needs to be made, the people will often treasure the elders advice over any other advice. Though equality rules them, they value experience and that can only come with age.

The city has a close bond with Ghaird and it is often the elders that are sent in order to act as liaisons between Ghaird and Hinormi. If the Hinormi need something from Ghaird, they will trade fish or Obap to select individuals in Ghaird in exchange for help such as military men to eradicate a threat. This way of negotiation is often as close to a government as Hinormi will get. The Hinormi are open with each other. When a meeting is held between Ghaird and the elders of Hinormi, the elders always share the events with the entire city.

It is vital for the Hinormi as a group to know everything that is going on so that they can use their spirits to make an informed decision. They share everything, from food to power. They dish out responsibility equally. They believe in freedom which means that no man will follow the orders of another man. Every man and woman is entitled to rule over themselves and their own minds. This is encouraged in the city. Individuality is celebrated among the people of Hinormi. They are each other's strengths and the more individuality they have, the better their chances of surviving as a group without a government.

==Military==

Just like there is no government, there is no military. The Hinormi feel that the need for a military is not consistent enough to account for the creation of their own military. The closest city to them is the city of Ghaird. It is considered a mutually beneficial friendship between the two cities. Hinormi stands between Ghaird and danger so it is in Ghaird’s best interest to pay attention to the needs of Hinormi. If there is trouble reported by Hinormi scouts, Ghaird would send military troops to aid Hinormi. That is the main reason why Hinormi has no need for the military.

They are able to request one of the best military powers in the entire empire. Apart from that, they have a potent root herb called Obap. If they make a concentrated sap from the root, they will be able to knock even a kin’toni out with the sap on a weapon. The Hinormi also have very little fear because they have no enemies. They are a fairly new city, only a couple generations old and they keep to themselves in order to protect their precious Obap. On top of that, one would need a raft to reach them. There are dangerous creatures in the swamps surrounding the city.

For this reason training a military troop would be a complete waste of time. The city has decided that they have better things to do with their time. There are very few disputes that need military power or policing to prevent. If there is a dispute between two individuals, it is normally resolved after a ritual with Obap and the ancestral spirits. Stealing and murder are things that are unfamiliar to the Hinormi people. They are a family that shares everything so there is no need to steal and no reason to kill. Overall, the city is very hard to access.

The swamp surrounding the city is often misty and maze-like. It is a place where countless travelers have gotten lost. It is the scouts on their rafts who retrieve them and return the lost souls to Hinormi. The swamp is a good overall defense system for those who call the city home. There are many dangerous animals and beasts in the swamp that can either be poisonous or deadly if you were to come across them. That’s another reason that the Hinormi feel a military is unnecessary. Before anyone or anything could even find the city hidden in the middle of the swamp, they’d be captured by the creatures lurking within the swamp.

The swamp is a big deterrent to keep anyone away. The citizens have learned to navigate their home quite effectively. The rafts they build are sturdy and strong. Children are often encouraged to travel through the swamp with scouting adults. They believe children are small, smart and skilled enough to escape and get home should trouble befall them. On top of that, it teaches a child to map out the swamps naturally. After all, children are the future of Hinormi.

==Religion==

The Hinormi follow a religion that is extremely unique in the sense that they do not have a singular entity that they follow or honor. Instead, they believe in multiple spirits and honor them all at the same time. Their ancestors are accessed via a special tree root that grows only in the Tiewlor Lush Swamp. They will brew this root into a tea which they drink during a special ceremony. Many of the men and elderly dry the tree root to smoke with the trees dried out leaves or in a pipe made from the wood of the tree.

They believe this tree is infused with the power of the spirits. These spirits dictate their lives via the trance the Obap tree root puts them under. The drug is potent enough to produce vivid and otherworldly delusions and illusions to the user, making them believe that they are communing with the spirit world. When in their delusional state, the people of the city believe so firmly in their delusions that they take it as truth. They often claim it is the word of the spirits and it must be followed.

As such, people follow the strangest laws that are set in place by individual delusions. If the spirits tell them to kill in their name, they would not hesitate. They have been told to end couplings, sacrifice a baby to the swamp and take the blood of an initiate which ended up killing the poor traveler. Over time, Obap had an effect on the cognitive side of the brain causing users to become paranoid, aggressive and dangerous. These individuals are normally isolated from the rest of the city to keep the other citizens safe.They believe that this individual has upset the gods in some way and is being punished by evil spirits.

Unfortunately for those addicted, delusions and the high they believe is a religious connection drifts further and further away the more they use the Obap. Their bodies become use to the drug which will in turn force them to use more and more frequently, for the citizens who do not see delusions when blessed by Obap’s high are said to not be favored by the spirits. These individuals are often sent away from the village. There is a constant battle for each citizen to give valuable information from the spirits.

If there is nothing that was seen during the Obap drug frenzy then the user has no value to the city. Their religious beliefs fuel their drug addiction and their drug addiction fuel their religious beliefs. It’s a vicious circle that everyone in the city will fall prey to, despite age or standing. With this in mind, the city's religion is based around a drug and delusions. There is no god or goddess. They follow a tree root that gives them a high allowing them to see the spirit world. Each individual is responsible for giving guidance to the rest of the city as far as the spirits go and what they are to do to win favour with the spirits.

==Miscellany==

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

{{CrossSiteAttribution
| User = [https://www.royalroad.com/profile/222890 angelsonggd]
| Holder = angelsonggd
}}

[[Category:2nd-century Twilight Age zu'aan cities]]
[[Category:angelsonggd's contributions]]

Hinormi City Zu'aan - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)