Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-08T10:13:51Z

(via JWB)

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{{Infobox:TwilightAgeGroup
|Type = Zu'aan tribe
|Name = Johir Tribal zu'aan
|Parent Groups = N/A
|Descended Groups = Unknown
|Areas Controlled = [[Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga]]
|Date Founded =
|Date Disbanded = N/A
}}

==History==

The history which revolves around the Johir Tribal zu'aan follows a series of groups of families that date back to the year of 4E 5, they came initially from a northern placed industrial city near an oak forest valley, whose name wasn't correctly recorded, and, as they struggled to face the rising kin'toni threats, their invasions, and their killings, the city slowly turned itself into a proper slaughterhouse, fit for satiating the hunger any kin'toni clan might have; this in turn made it so any of the families that still wished to have a chance at survival had to flee further south,.

Due to the southern lands' warmer lands and fruity trees, which allowed for the groups to maintain themselves as they fled in search of a place for settlement or a friendly tribe, it was the only choice left for them, especially due to how the kin'toni clans were situated east and west from their initial settlement. Or so that's what most from the city tribe thought, until a factory foreman, Calalith Johir, a zu'aan that for most was deemed to have been driven mad by the effects of hematophagy.

A practice he claimed around the city to be a source of not only vitamins but also of warmth, began campaigning around the few last families to go north, further into the frozen and cold lands of Sebuhe, claiming he knew ways to keep them warm through the way regardless of the condition, which, in turn, only made people within the city to think of him even more as an insane individual. In the year of 4E 8 though, as Johir felt weaker and weaker as age and just plain nihilism got more into his heart and body, a messenger came from the south, her body was scarred and weak, as if she had been dragged around for miles.

And as she puked blood onto the entrance of the old city, she exclaimed the creation of a kin'toni clan's settlement down south that was simply waiting for more foolish zu'aan to walk into their sneaky trap on the way, declaring that was being the destiny of most of the members of this town in their travels. As time passed and people started not only fearing a final kin'toni invasion more and more, but think of it all as meaningless due to how they were surrounded by clans on their east, west and south.

The proposal done by Calalith Johir started slowly sounding more appealing; by now he was a tad old, and just rested in what remained of his family's old house, spending his day reading what was left of literature as he rested on a swinging chair, or so that was until a year after the messenger's warning. A vast group of families came by his door and said they were ready to venture forth into the still little known regions of the Sebuhe, regardless of how cold they might be, and that Johir was the only one with the right mind to lead them to peace.

And so it was, groups said goodbye to what was for years their refuge and ventured north, within days the cold and stormy weather was already setting in, snow was reaching ankle length in many nights, and not only warmth but food became rarer to come by. Most people started to fall into desperation, thinking that Johir's plan truly was mad, that he was a crazy, insane individual, some even theorized that he was an undercover kin'toni that could speak their language due to his hematophagy, and all of that despair and anxiety remained until what many saw as a miracle happened.

A kin'toni group caught up to them and a blizzard, something the fleeing groups feared most, struck the kin'toni into a white-out and also made the refugees lose their trail, making them stumble across the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga the very next week. While still extremely cold, the region had a vast array of beautiful blue trees which gave room for the growth of many fruits that allowed for a sustainable life-style, not only that, but many members of the tribe also adopted hematophagy due to Johir's behaviour, this man of which became so revered by the families which fled.

That the now settled tribe named themselves after his surname, thus creating the Johir Tribal zu'aan.

==Psychology==

The unique historical events which have been a part of the Johir Tribe have a big part of the shaping which is responsible for the organization of the psyche of the tribe's members, this is best illustrated by their foundational fear around the conception of what a collapse means for a member of the Johir, their moments growing up inside a dying city still makes their perception of the world be a violent one, one which is accustomed with experiencing disappearing loved ones, one where slaughter becomes a simple noise in the background.

It produces people that expect deterioration, which makes it so their baseline emotional state becomes a deeply anxious one. Furthermore, they developed a deep notion of distrust to anything that has its origin traced outside of the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga, regardless of it being exports, of it being other zu'aan, if it is any warmer materials, it is all associated with ideas that sound as though a series of false hopes, ideas that present themselves as freeing, but have death just behind them, be that by accusing foods of being poisonous, or by simply taking clothes as prickly.

This breeds a mindset where any notions of comfort are seen as suspicious, sort of recreating what they thought of Johir's "insane" state. This and other notions within their psychology really show how much the blizzard, and their journey towards the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga really shaped their way of thinking for generations to come, this creational myth is actually one of the core notions that allows for their superstition to be solidified, by giving the members of the Johir tribe the idea that the world can intervene in issues where chance is extremely unlikely.

Speaking of insanity, their relationship to plain madness is one which is very interesting, since the members of the tribe often tolerate any examples of abnormal behaviour by the other individuals as if they were something completely regular, as long as it didn't interrupt the going of laws or didn't exist within the spectrum of inconvenience it was seen as completely alright; this is extended to what becomes a practice amongst a surprisingly large percentage of the tribe, being that of hematophagy, which evolves from being seen as a taboo to a tradition of adaptation to extremity.

Where the questions that worry about the morality of sanity turn into questions of practicability. Adding onto this pile of emotional functioning, the way their mentality settled follows a very normal logic for what's to be expected in a tribe that went through as many hardships as they did, something which shapes their behaviour in other sections of their society. The Johir tribe can only find hope rarely, often times via theological means, instead focusing their lives about being committed to the cause of trying to improve their lives to the little ability they have.

Which leads to a tribe which values routine, ritual, and often times, just plain appeasement, which all ties back to their future description in their overall relationship with religion.

==Culture==

The cultural functioning of the Johir tribe follows foundantions that date back to their history as a tribe focused on ideals of survival, their main focus when it comes to expressions, to their recreations, or to any sort of cultural livelihood is the representation of survivability, which makes it so their customs sort of look like something symbolic at first glance, but really just focus on expressing habits that work under critical conditions, sort of giving the idea that customs and practices only exist because someone precviously died without practicing them.

This puts them into a perspective thats a far from abstract values, simply creating a cultural correlation of habits that hold each their own respective expectation of living. One of these survival based notions that are created and recreated culturally is the almost exclusive usage of materials from within the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga, this comes about not only as an idea of belonging and a more natural and simpler sense of nationalism, but due to their imbedded psychological fear and paranoia towards anything which comes from the outside.

This is often see by their usage of the blue dye, which can be drawn and extracted from the Sebuhe trees's sap, then put into clothings and artistic expressions, which deepens even further into that idea of belonging while also providing an extra, though not very thick, layer of protection. When it comes to things such as their practices around consumption, we see how food is treated more-so like a source of energy, to put it more simply, a fuel, instead of any sort of ceremony or area for expression.

Giving just how much they value this basic need and how all those series of basic needs are treated such as a bedrock for their very tribe, be that wine created from pine-sap, or simple blue colored berries harvested from their trees. The only sort of exceptions to when food is seen as nothing but a base for life is in feasts where it gains a symbolic value within their religion, though, even then it is revered due to its importance. Not only that but about nothing that is edible is wasted, and this extends itself to another one of the Johir tribal zu'aan's unique practices.

Hemapothagy becomes a core icon in terms of the practices done by a select number of individuals within the tribe, while the practice of consuming blood sounds odd and does make members which hold prejudice towards the practice associate it to kin'toni behaviour, most of the members that still do this do it out of honor for Calalith Johir. It is practiced in small amounts, seen as something which'll allow for the accumulation of warmth in colder days while also being seen as nutritious, even if those statements aren't very scientifically provable.

The blood drawn for this practice is often found in animal corpses left around from previous hunts, or even by asking around butcheres around the tribe, though, another select few within the small number of practices also take to, in secret, consuming the blood from other zu'aan's corpses, which was declared illegal by the Johir tribe's legal system.

==Government==

The logic which permeates the governance of the Johir Tribal zu'aan is one which allows for the creation of a political system that serves the purpose of impeding collapse within the society, something focused entirely on survival and on the upkeeping of the existence of life within the tribe; this outlook creates a tribe that makes very little political exploration, instead focusing solely on what they declare to have worked and to have stuck, which is often defended by the thesis which goes as follows: "this system survived hunger, migration, and invasion, so why should we seek to change what has already controlled so much damage?".

Within the already declared structure of the Johir, the highest authority which concentrates the highest amount of political power is what's seen as the High Chief, a role that is given to the member of the tribe seen as a practical coordinator, following a structure of the accumulated charisma an individual can come to have. The responsibilities given to such a role, which holds the highest power in terms of decision-making are those of timing migration, of arbitrating and controlling the conflicts which go on in the tribe.

And the organization of defenses towards any type of external threats. The High Chief is expected to remain calm under any sort of pressure, to be resistant to taking unnecessary risks which may put zu'aan lives in danger, and to be conservative in his ways of speech and behaviour, since they are to be blamed first whenever anything goes wrong. The selection of the High Chief is done via hereditary succession focused entirely around the Johir bloodline, members held to have a "Genetic" sense of leadership in their charisma and wisdomm.

Most of the members of the tribe have been taught to believe in such practice to be one which prioritizes predictability over overall competence, but this would actually turn out to be a good thing, since it allows the tribe to maintain the same logic which has kept it alive for years on end. While this does make it so there are no elections within the tribe, a lot of the members already declare themselves as satisfied and heard due to how much the political structure allows individuals to be tasking of the High Chief to keep sure he's in his place politically speaking.

When it comes to the law system it is extremely strict, any sort of actions which can hinder the tribe's survival or the well-being of other members directly are thoroughly punished under orders of a court, this court is where most of the tribe's masses gain representation, since the members of that court are chosen off a select few from their educational units as to make sure decisions are made by the "wisest" of the tribe, while it does challenge the hereditary logic of the High Chief, it is seen as something which allows for balance.

Such as there existed in their travels to the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga, since an opposition always existed, to some degree, as to keep Calalith Johir's decisions in check.

==Military==

The philosophy of the military doctrine within the Johir Tribal zu'aan is one which justifies its own existence by the fact of protecting the survival of the tribe under any circumstances, regardless of the possible losses which the armed forces can face, their inspiration and objective is to be fully selfless of their own lives as to guarantee the well-being of the tribe. Fighting itself is conceptualized to be something that acts as an extension of hunting and of plain survivability, two things that, coincidentally, are crucial for the well-being and upkeeping of the Johir tribe.

The military thus integrates itself as a normalized part of society, just one that emphasizes defense and endurance, unlike other tribes where the military is alienated to some degree from the tribe itself. Recruitment functions in a mandatory manner, where every male zu'aan past the age of 20 is forced onto taking the necessary physical and cognitive tests to observe their capability of integrating the armed forces or to at least be on the list of those which can be called in critical moments.

That second portion being extremely important since they actually still serve normal roles in the labor of the tribe during more peaceful times, tasks of which they return to when their duties are completed within the battlefield.The standing army itself is extremely volatile and tries to enforce the idea anyone is capable of defense, when wars aren't going on they actually go in education units or open air classes on self-defense, with the idea of being able to prepare the entire tribe for any moments.

This in turn, makes it so every five years the military forces are reset from the ground-up, which not only prevents the accumulation of political protagonism and power by the military, but also allows for an easy retirement for soldiers and to ensure every member can help out in some way. This training itself is one which tries to integrate itself in society, as was mentioned by the soldier teachers from the previous paragraphs; each member of the tribe once adulthood comes is put into classes of self-defense and of overall basic combat skills.

This is complemented by the tribe's culture of teaching things such as hunting since early on in a zu'aan's life. Professions such as teachers and medics are forced into that basic training, this is justified by how their labor is one which focuses around tending and caring for the vulnerable, which makes it so they must be able to defend the vulnerable physically if such necessity comes up. The command structure is pretty simple, with small divisible cells that are able to be controlled by not only high ranking officers in the field.

But also the High Chief, all operating under the ideal of centralized command and control which may be distributed within the context of a battle. The fact the High Chief holds such high position once again reinforces how if anything goes wrong with the tribe, he is the one put into the place of blame.

==Religion==

The theology which shapes the viewpoints and religion of the Johir Tribal zu'aan is the one which follows the religion of Eusrirism. At the center of Eusrirism, stands the figure of Eusrir, nominated the god of snow, responsible for all that is good and for all the actions which maintain the world, the universe, life, and about anything drawn from that up and running; Eusrir is seen as the creator of all, and the head which stands above any physical and material component regardless of how sublime something on the world of Taerel can be.

This faith was solidified by a group of faithful clergy members which, when in the historical moment of the migration towards the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga, saw an opportunity in the blizzard that whited out a vast group of kin'toni a grand opportunity to regain power and to restabilize the tribe's religious beliefs. They utilized that to prophesize the existence of a God which was always watching over the good intentioned zu'aan, when asked for the God's name, one of the clergy members spewed out some gibberish that stuck in the moment.

"Eusrir", there existed no other documents proving his existence other than the ones those two members wrote and claimed to have been historical evidence of his self-evident self. The God Eusrir and his image is often related to the idea of silent endurance, a posture of an impersonal force which governs through the expression of the harsh reality of the world, while never giving up his caring and all-loving nature behind. It is narrated by the clergy that this God tells the zu'aan down in earth to always remain strong and anxious.

This might seem odd, but the clergy created such to follow the logic of what the tribe would accept the most within their own beliefs, one which reinforced their developed psyche. According to the very belief in Eusrirism, the God doesn't intervene often, only in critical moments of needs, this is justified by the fact that he shouldn't spend his time, as the one which maintains the entire logic of the universe, over little things which the zu'aan can get over by simply following what he preaches, saying that all other suffering within the zu'aan world is justified due to how the species of zu'aan messed up when creating the kin'toni virus.

And that it's the wisest decision to let things play out in the way that the careless zu'aan scientists were instead of intervening whenever a clutch was needed. Religious practices are often times minimalistic in terms of appearance, but actually heavily ritualized, with whole banquets behind held as to celebrate the tribe's year round cycles being completed with less casualties, or things done just to celebrate the flora and fauna of the Sebuhe Snowy Blue Taiga, overall, while the intent which created the religion wasn't the brightest in intentions.

It allows for the maintaining of the cultural characteristics that are praised by most of the zu'aan within the Johir tribe.

==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:kalilbao's contributions]]
[[Category:1st-century Twilight Age zu'aan tribes]]

Johir Tribal Zu'aan - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)