Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-10T12:40:30Z

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{{Infobox:TwilightAgeGroup
|Type = Kin'toni clan
|Name = Tiess Kin'toni Clan
|Parent Groups = Unknown
|Descended Groups = Unknown
|Areas Controlled = [[Uayata Sea Caves]]
|Date Founded = Unknown
|Date Disbanded = N/A
}}

==History==

In the year 4E 52, A pair of land kin'toni named Yarbaza and Roquala decided to go into the ocean and live there. They had abandoned all that they possessed at the time in search of what they thought would be a peaceful and solace-bound existence. This was to escape the zu'aan who had killed many of the kin'toni on the land at the time. It was then that they decided to continue living in the ocean permanently, thus naming their home on the ocean floor [[Uayata Sea Caves]]. Every night for the next several thousand years, Yarbaza and Roquala made it a habit to swim to the beaches to turn unsuspecting zu'aan beachgoers into Tiessans.

The Tiess were a small clan, even at that time. They had around five thousand to five thousand, five hundred kin'toni in their Golden Age. They chose to stay in the deep oceanic caves as their home after fleeing from the war against their kin. This war was called the War of the Three Tribes. Most of these unsuspecting beachgoers would experience growth of scales all across their body, as well as transforming of their hands into webbing upon three weeks of being bitten; however, this process takes around four weeks to complete completely and when brought underwater during the transformation this process often took somewhat less time to complete.

However, during this process from zu'aan to Tiessan, the victim might have ended up drowning before the process is complete, in some cases, when taken underwater too early in the transformation. Most, however, were able to complete the transformation successfully without drowning. This change only happen to those turned directly by Yarbaza and Roquala, for they were able to pass down the mutations that they had due to chance. The first generation of Tiessans, turned directly by Yarbaza and Roquala, numbered around three thousand kin'toni in number. The first generation mostly died in the fires of the Shattering, having been sent out to drive away from nearby clans.

Only one-hundred of the first generation lived through the War of the Three Tribes, to turn a small second generation of Tiessans. All of the first generations are dead today. Those zu'aan turned by the small second-generation of Tiessans were mostly zu'aan in biology and look, bar the basic kin'toni changes. They were also weaker than the first generation. After what seemed like ages, the bodies of the later generations adapted to the rigours of the deep ocean, allowing them to escape the torture of the sun. Because of their ability to adapt to ocean life, they have all but escaped from the solar clutches of Terael 's sun, which is often referred to as Omphalos by kin'toni.

The clan had not got themselves involved much with other clans. This is because few clans of the time thought there was anyone in the region of the Uayata Sea Caves that are near the Sayine Plains and are divided by the Havlvanuu Cliffs. There was a civil war in the clan, over a leadership debate about the eight of these elders of the clan that turned very bad. Some kin'toni in this clan thought the leadership of the eight these elders of the clan was corrupt. This war tore the clan in two, with those that were loyal to the leadership on one side and rebels who wanted a new leadership on the other.

In the end, the loyalists won, after killing nine hundred rebels, the rest were driven out. Most of the five hundred loyalists died too. Only two hundred and fifty of them did not die. The hundred that stayed out of this war, lost very few of their number. This war has had its name forgotten. It is known this war had happened in the shattering era. Countless generations of kin'toni descendants have lived in this underwater region ever since. The clan now has around one hundred to three hundred kin'toni.

==Psychology==

Because of the simple fact that the Tiess clan is unable to adapt to land technology they are often referred to as one of just a few kin'toni clans in existence that can successfully adapt to sea life. Some also suggest that althoughTiess kin'toni can live freely in the ocean they often find life on the land to be distasteful, uncomfortable, and (in some cases) intolerable due to their clan founders' decision to move into the ocean many years ago and because they are known for their strange behaviours in the sea the Tiess clan has a distorted sense of communication and rarely interact with other clans.

For that very reason, the Tiess clan is a clan that is also very reclusive and wishes to stay away from other clans, they are antisocial too. It is not uncommon for a kin'toni in this clan to keep to themselves most of the time as they often hunt on their own or in small groups of three to five. Family life in this clan is often very strange as well as it involves almost all of one's time underwater and virtually no exposure to the sun. It is often rumoured that kin'toni in this clan mistreat each other, but more often than not that is not the case. This does happen and is dealt with.

Most of the kin'toni in this clan can get along with each other despite not being able to speak in a kin'toni'ati tongue (save for their official languages of Anuian andTiessan, which consists of a dictionary that is almost entirely defined by screams and trills). A commonplace theory among kin'toni as it regards the kin'toni belonging to this clan is that althoughTiessans rarely come up for air, they occasionally do so to hunt for zu'aan on the beach during the middle hours of the night, thus paying tribute to their clan founders, who would hunt for zu'aan beachgoers each night before sunrise.

This theory has been proven countless times throughout kin'toni'ati history. Two traits the clan shows is egalitarianism, a personality trait characterised by the tendency to hold to the political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals, and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights. Generally, it applies to being held equal under the law and society at large. They often have fantasy-prone personalities, a disposition or personality trait in which a person experiences a lifelong extensive and deep involvement in fantasy. Not all kin'toni from this clan haves these traits.

==Biology==

The Tiess are adapted to the high water pressure, constant salinity, low visibility and complex currents of the Uayata Sea Caves. They are sleek, slender and hydrodynamic of build. They have long, powerful torsos and webbed digits. This allows them to me quickly and silently though water. The downside of lacking mass and bulky muscles is being weaker then other clans in land-based combat. Skin is thick, stretched tight and slightly slick. It is a translucent, mottled grey-blue in color and has faint bioluminescent streaks across the torso and limbs.

This skin is s saturated with elastin and resilient protein fibers to allow it to survive extreme hydrostatic pressure. Being thin and flexible, it is not as tough as normal kin'toni skin, having no protection from cuts, or piercing. The skin is hairless, having only an dense layer of microscopic, water-repellent cilia. The ciliary layer reduces drag and assists in propulsion through the water. The eyes are large, dome-like and jet-black. These eyes have an glossy, highly refractive surface, lacking visible eyelids.

These eyes have an internal membrane that separates the aqueous humor from the lens. This allows the eye physically change shape to focus perfectly underwater. The downside of this is being hypersensitive to light and with blurry sight when exposed to air. The external ears are vestigial. These are sealed under an tough layer of skin, with only an tiny, reinforced aural pit on either side of the head. The inner ear structures are inside an dense, liquid-filled cartilaginous bubble to transmit water pressure-waves directly for sound.

The noise is gone, all is left is smooth, featureless skin. Chemical absorption through the skin is relied on for environmental sensing. In replacement, they have chemoreceptors embedded inside the mouth that analyze the salinity and trace compounds in the surrounding water. The teeth are very small, needle-like and in multiple recessed rows that continuously shed and regrow. These teeth are adapted to feed on small marine lifeforms. The constant shedding and regrowth is incredibly taxing on their regeneration that slows overall healing.

The claws are short, broad, paddle-like nails made of an dense, highly calcified keratin that can resist saltwater damage. These claws are hard, but prone to shattering. The low buoyancy is countered by an large amount of internal swim bladders. Using rapidly pressurizing and depressurizing using prion-driven muscle contraction, they can reach neutral buoyancy. The peripheral blood vessels contain a pressure-sensitive valve system. This allows them to seal off blood flow to damaged tissues to deal with crushing deep-water injury.

The downside of this, is that they are prone to necrosis in body parts that they seal off, forcing amputation. The Their epidermal cells include photophores to allow them to produce bioluminescent patterns. This allows them to communicate and locate one another in darkness. The downside of this is being able to be located by underwater predators.

==Culture==

They do not seem to have any technology at all, relying instead on their physiology to survive. Some might gather kelp to use as camouflage, but it seems that it's the extent of their tool use; they even forsake clothing, which they think is a hindrance in water. Their society is very simple, gathering in a promiscuous group in their sea-caves or going out in small hunting parties. They hunt what they can, some even risking going to the beach at night to snag unsuspecting fishermen or the like. TheTiess's language is very rudimentary, vocalizing shrieks and trills to convey the same primitive concepts that their ancestors conveyed.

And oddly enough, they have a complex sequence of screams and shouts that would otherwise be completely different in the language in tongue than almost any other language in the kin'toni'ati lexicon. Their name means "Ocean Dweller" in plain English and "ocoaaya" in Tiessan. In the sea eachTiessan is marked with one of eight distinct signs that symbolize their existence in the ocean upon transformation's end; these include the trident (which symbolizes stability and control), the clam (which signifies strength), the shark (which symbolizes perseverance), the octopus (which symbolizes agility and speed).

Along with four other distinguishable mark types that symbolize goodheartedness, leadership, mission completion, and exaltation, respectively. In deciding who must go out to hunt for zu'aan beachgoers during the night, the clan guardians must choose a group ofTiessans, each with the same mark as the other, to swim to the shore and recruit and transform unsuspecting zu'aan into their own. The process normally of choosing takes a few minutes, and any group ofTiessans with any of the eight marks can be chosen to take part in this, so equal opportunity is inevitable to a degree.

Two holidays are Thika, a joyful religious holiday celebrated on the first full moon of autumn. It is associated with compassion, a parting of ways, a thwarted plan and corruption. Celebrations last from dusk till dusk again. Traditions include private forgiveness from debt and contests of cleverness. Most individuals celebrate it differently and Sach is a cultural holiday celebrated on the first full moon of summer. It is associated with death, prosperity and competition. Traditions include the public and private airing of grievances, athletics competitions, affirmations of relationships and signing of contracts. Very few families celebrate it differently.

==Government==

The Tiess clan's government consists of eight guardians that rule the clan and must convene together to determine how their activities are to be carried out. Each guardian has a different mark on their left arm, with an additional and unique mark on their right arm that symbolizes their ability to lead their clan. The guardians are descendants of clan founders Yarbaza and Roquala, with a combined 19,000 years of experience as it pertains to clan loyalty. Every fortnight the eight guardians that rule over this clan will appoint eight elders to watch over the rest of the clan while they spend most of the night on the beach looking for unsuspecting beachgoers to transform.

And all eight of these elders must have different marks on their left arms. If at least one of the guardians does not return to the ocean floor before sunrise, the elders that were chosen by those that appointed them will take their place as guardians of the clan. Every month the eight guardians that rule over their clan will meet for a traditional worship service on the ocean floor to praise the clan founders as well as a certain octopus-like sea creature known as the yubix. During this ceremony, they will hold a meeting to determine what the kin'toni in this clan will do for the month that follows.

These special occasions are often private, but some Tiessans notice it going on below them while swimming in the ocean. If it is confirmed or determined by the guardians that someone in their clan has committed a wrongful act, the wrongdoer will be confronted by the guardians and interrogated. If the guardians find that the accused is showing signs of deception, the accused will then be fed to the yubix, which almost always consumes their victims whole (the yubix, by the way, is the largest creature in the sea of Uayata). If otherwise, the accused will be pardoned and allowed to return to his or her daily activities.

The political Structure is an oligarchy and a strong Influence is a military. The most popular Issue is foreign relations with other kin'toni clans and the government's stability is rock-solid. Personal Freedoms in this clan are decent, but scandals are common. The foreign relations are at war and winning the main export is food animals from the sea. The main import is knowledge, not normal goods, for they need little of what other clans make. The main resource is food. The trade-in of this clan is a major surplus. The economic Strength's is stable but declining and the wealth in this clan is in the hands of the elite.

==Military==

The Tiess clan's military is led by the eight guardians who rule over the clan; as a result, most of the military activity in this clan is operated upon the command of the guardians. For example, the primary military leader (that is to say, in this case, the guardian with the trident mark on his left arm and a gold star on his right arm), will select a group of kin'toni with the same mark as the guardian who is chosen to lead them, and they will head to the beaches on the surface, near the region they live in, to transform unsuspecting zu'aan beachgoers. During the night this military group will split and head towards three different designated and random paths.

All of which might or might not lead to any zu'aan. The trick is that they must sneak their way to the zu'aan to catch them by surprise; however, if the zu'aan happens to notice the Tiess kin'toni sneaking up from behind (which often happens), the zu'aan will either fight the kin'toni past sunrise, leading to the kin'toni burning up within a matter of minutes, or run away, which would attract the attention of other zu'aan beachgoers. After they have successfully or unsuccessfully recruited unsuspecting zu'aan, depending on if they bite any, they will immediately swim back to the ocean floor; by that time.

However, it will already be dawn or a little bit close to it, give or take, and that means that they will have just a mere half-hour to swim back to their territory on the ocean floor, which is often done successfully, but with the sunlight catching them a little. Very rarely does this end without them feeling the burn of the sun. The frequency of which they perform these particular tasks is not entirely known, but Vampyrian and zu'aan alike estimate that this is done almost every several nights. If this is the case, then the Tiess clan, though weak in numbers have a very strong output as far as strength and tolerance to water is concerned.

Even though they would burn to a crisp very quickly if exposed to it at the wrong time. This army relies heavily on accurate archers and the use of mattocks. They have been known to use druids from the Gynazul religion, who have tamed local animals to help them fight. They are famous for only accepting the best soldiers and for their strict code of ethics. Each faction contains 30 elements of 330 soldiers. They have a loose chain of command, with ranks based on political connections. At present, they are on the verge of a mutiny, for the primary military leader is not very popular in this clan.

==Religion==

The Tiess clan believes in a religion that was created by the clan founders; this religion, known commonly by Vampyrian experts as Gynazul (Thrafeyan for Animal Worship), is also a faith that involves the praising and worship of large oceanic creatures, such as the yubix, as well as a two-headed shark commonly known as the cazyula. It is not entirely known how the Tiess clan worships these creatures, but every few days they will occasionally feed on them briefly, even though their bite marks on said creatures heal virtually instantly as does with some very rare other animals on Terael.

In the Uayata sea caves it is believed that every full moon everyone in the Tiess clan will gather in their masses for what they call a church service in honour of the creatures of the sea; this church service, often referred to as Plazwicota (Anuian for "Ceremony of the Sea Creatures"), begins right at or very close to sunset when the sea is radiated with a distinguishable shade of orange rays, and it ends at dusk when the sun sets down. During this Plazwicota ceremony, the guardians perform an ancient ritual that goes back to the origins of this clan. It often involves a combination of interpretive dance.

Somewhat atonal chanting, and a strange-looking percussion instrument known as the qynecla, which is generally used with several thin, rectangular pieces of strong coral. After this comes a unique, one-of-a-kind echoing from a sea bear-like creature known as a tubuzu, after which the ceremony comes to an end. As soon as the entire clan disperses and goes to the surface to begin their regular hunt for zu'aan they often go in groups of 100, almost always to pay respects to their animal counterparts from the ocean. There are many animals that they pray to and they often have holidays in their honour.

If a Tiess kin'toni comes across a beached whale, they often try to resuscitate it by way of giving them oxygen into their blowhole with their mouths. If successful, then they will take the whale back to the ocean, especially after making a prayer to their version of God, which is an octopus-like deity named Qian. In the Gynazul religion, some druids tame local animals to help them fight in the battles that the clan takes part in. When they fight in battles, it drives the Tiess kin'toni Clan to even greater arts of valour. They have a very wild nature and are said to have a connection to the local animals. They are said to have been chosen by the God named Qian.

==Miscellany==

A commonly overlooked fact about this clan is that despite this clan's small population it is surprisingly strong in terms of stamina and strength. SomeTiessans have been known to lift things close to ten times their size, but while super strength comes as a hidden benefit for this clan, there is also a hidden weakness: that weakness, of course, is insomnia. Insomnia, or a lack of sleep, is a constant attribute amongTiessans. While during the day most are not able to sleep much, some are not able to sleep at all. The reason for this is quite simple: on top of the fact thatTiessans constantly stay busy.

And have next to no time whatsoever to themselves their environment also makes it hard for their bodies to enter sleep mode while on their side, back, or stomach. The only way these kin'toni can get any sleep is if they sleep while standing up. Most of the kin'toni in this clan don't know how to make weapons out of commonly used land materials, however, they do make weapons out of the bones of certain small sea creatures and coral. They make three different kinds of weapons: a blunt instrument is known as a cawadro that is used when in battle with an enemy of the sea is one; a dental instrument known as a focus.

Which is used to make their mouths clean and free of bad breath, is another; a hygiene tool known as a vicapo, which is used to clean their scales, is the last. But the strangest thing of all is the way they communicate with each other. Random conversations between a pair or even a trio ofTiessans can occur at the drop of a dime; for example, when they suddenly wake up during their slumber and search for someone to talk to. What's particularly peculiar about this kind of communication is that they often scream in various and differing tones, sometimes during a single exhale.

The clan highly values independence and is known for its underwater architecture. The most popular entertainment is politics and the respected profession is an athlete. Most discrimination is gender-based. In this clan, a major taboo is strong emotions and a major social ill are drugs made from underwater lifeforms. Their superstition involves luck and its prevalence: somewhat common but is viewed as folly. In the clan's written language, characters are formed with mostly curves in a detailed style. They represent concepts. Quite a few of the characters are taken from an older culture's writing system.

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

{{CrossSiteAttribution
| User = [https://www.deviantart.com/iamtheskull Kevin Thomas Anderson], [https://www.deviantart.com/CarrionTrooper CarrionTrooper], [https://sites.google.com/view/eytirth Stevie Lambert] (biology)
| Holder = Kevin Thomas Anderson, CarrionTrooper, Stevie Lambert
}}

[[Category:1st-century Twilight Age kin'toni clans]]
[[Category:Kevin Thomas Anderson's contributions]]
[[Category:CarrionTrooper's contributions]]

Tiess Kin'toni Clan - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)