Dynlor Tribal Zu'aa

History

The history around the Dynlor Tribal Zu'aan dates back to the year of 4E 381, when they originally followed the role of the usual member of the Ghardough tribe, adhering to religious beliefs around the Sun and its astronomical role in shaping the functioning of everything that is a part of nature itself. This lasted all until one of the members of a small group, that for a while had doubted the dominance of the Sun god and its plain presence amongst Zu'aan, began to question their faith, especially due to the overtaking of the sky by the ever so raising volcanic winter that coated the planet.

Through many moments those tribe members began coming together during freer days to explore a biome by the side of the one controlled by the Ghardough, many times having meetings or discussions in the insides of the Anierry Brumal Forest, even despite its freezing mist and seeming infinite range of shadows from the trees' canopies, which blocked their still current god, the Sun, from enacting its will. It all followed protocol of pendular migrations in free days that allowed for freer discussions and anti-religious meetings.

Until the year of 4E 385, when a group of Kin'toni caught those members after a huge portion of them had already crossed into the Anierry Brumal Forest, basically creating a wall that cut them off from the rest of the Ghardough Tribal Zu'aan; many just got casually picked off by the vampirical predators, the ones that survived being those which embraced the darkness of the Anierry Brumal Forest, huddling in small and tight spaces. It all followed, those Zu'aan lived for a couple of years in plain misery.

Slowly adapting into the ways of that new ecosystem, or so it was until the Kin'toni finally decided to advance further into the Anierry Brumal Forest, as a final attempt to secure a food supply in Zu'aan flesh; this might sound fully disastrous, until a legend was allowed to be birthed during such critical times, that being Dynlor, a young scout who, when cornered by a pack of Kin'toni, took some of the local blue moss from a nearby tree stump and threw it as a distraction.

This light was just enough to be able to disgust and force the Kin'toni into recoil, and answered the core of the now Dynlor tribe's questions: Light was always good, it has always been the primordial source of life and all that is positive, however, the light of the Sun was weak—was that really the true source? And the answer they found was that such light, such divine relic of existence was rebirthed in a smaller, colder, and more grounded example, that of the glowing moss inherent to the Anierry Brumal Forest.

Afterwards, the tribe followed the standard procedures to fully migrate into a new region, creating a series of settlements, units for living and agricultural production, and, as a highlight, many places to both embrace and praise the light of the blue moss, and even wells utilized for their farming.

Psychology

The psychology responsible for shaping the way the members of the Dynlor tribe behave is fundamentally conceptualized around a deep sense of dependency when it comes to anything related to light, something that has evolved into what can sometimes only be compared to an addiction. This comes in its core from its very contrast, that being of darkness, something seen as a consequence that lives as a physical weight that has come to such a point where, for the members of the Dynlor, a deep sense of anxiety and hallucinatory circumstances can come about when one is left within a fully black space for too long.

Other notions related to such are also expressed during another plethora of events, such as how the members of the tribe never allow themselves to sleep in the dark, often choosing to sleep over glowing moss, almost as if it were a carpet, and they, logically enough, find safety in anywhere that can be bright, even relating failure to lights getting dimmer or weaker. Another crucial detail of the tribe members' psychology is their deep sense of arrogance due to their history and their outcome from it, basically placing themselves above any other beings due to the survivability shown despite the contest they once had to clash with death by hiding during a Kin'toni siege.

This even extended itself to their perception of their past deity, the Sun itself, creating a condescending attitude within each and every member of the tribe, amongst themselves and even more towards outsiders, placing themselves as though they were the very centers of Taerel. Another thing they believe is one of the core objectives of light itself if it carried a will, which is to literally clear things out, to bring hidden facts to transparency, which has quite strong psychological effects over the members of the tribe.

The act of hiding something is similar not to what they did whilst hiding from Kin'toni, but to what Kin'toni themselves do when attempting to divide members of the same tribe; this leads to a tribe which values blunt and brutal honesty which can elevate to whatever degree necessary. This creates social interactions that are extremely direct and straightforward; eye contact is forced and members normally find themselves speaking their minds out openly, whilst expecting the same openness from others.

Furthermore, another psychological trait of theirs that is birthed directly is their hyper-developed and very strong sense of paranoia, which is complemented directly by the region where they live. Many nights are extremely foggy and make it extremely difficult to be able to visualize everything in a dark environment correctly; and this limitation of visibility creates a strong baseline of anxiety towards what isn't known. Members of this tribe often find themselves scanning about every step they take, following little glimpses of light whenever possible.

All with the very fear of succumbing back into what can only be described with the color black.

Culture

The culture of the Dynlor tribal Zu'aan follows a series of core concepts that flow around notions that reject many of the fundamentals followed by many other groups of Zu'aan within more surface-like areas of Taerel, such as those that live above the trees' canopies or within high and mighty groups of towers. Instead of that, the Dynlor culturally embrace the ideals of living under the shadows of the trees of the Anierry Brumal Forest, creating many different contrasts between their inherent fear of dark spaces and their existence within a region which can be seen as a hazard due to its visibility challenges for any other group of Zu'aan.

Some of these notions are very well illustrated within their architectural prowess, oftentimes utilizing infrastructure, specifically living units, as a means to expand the area of control of the moss, oftentimes building houses and such within hive-like settlements that expand in small clusters around the forest, utilizing a combination of resin with silk that would be used attached to trunks with the moss as a way to display it clearly; often times this is best shown as some wells placed in the center of those settlements.

Which consist of a big carved out trunk that is lined and polished with metals as to look smoother and spread more light around. The same sort of notions follow the ideas of their clothing and how they utilize these same sorts of moss as material to make for pretty and shiny clothing that is used to shine in the dark, both as fashion statements used to regard brilliant manners of clothing and also as an element with very practical usability, allowing for them to move around better under the shadows left by the forest trees' canopies.

This sort of manner is not only carried in their usual day-to-day tunics that are used for harvesting or for just spending time at home, but also for their warrior class, who often use the same sort of mossy paint on their very faces, drawing lines to remark their battle-hardened nature, as a means to attempt to scare Kin'toni. Within the tribe's cuisine, we observe a very deep and strong biological effect within their livelihood provided by their obsession regarding sources of light, following a series of highly vegan practices of nourishment, where they often avoid many of the meats associated with the ground itself.

Allowing for meat consumption in an overly small scale, mainly from birds, since they often consider the meat of animals bound to the floor as meats tainted by the very darkness; other than birds, as has been mentioned, they partake in a very vegan diet by consuming different combinations of stews and salads made by combining some of the vegetation and different sorts of moss from the forest, which might sound healthy on paper, but it often causes long-term health issues, which explains the low life expectancy from members of the tribe, along with them carrying a faint level of glow in their very bodies.

Government

Within the doctrine utilized by the Dynlor state to justify their control, we observe many of the traits that have been formulated as a means to make the Dynlor a proper tribe, which mostly floats around their notions and values regarding transparency and the collective objective of achieving light. This was seen by the tribe's main political project as something which can be thoroughly achieved only via the means of a democratic system that allows for voices to be heard, but where decisions aren't made in secret, guaranteeing a lack of secrets amongst any and all members of the tribe, especially politically.

The core political body where this democratic system is shaped is an assembly, which extends itself as, practically, a legislative branch of political power, representing a classical and usual parliament system that is divided by the different regions of the tribe. This allows for wider federalized representation within the tribe's political project as a means to guarantee that every different member of the tribe, despite their conflicting ideologies and objectives, may be able to share their prospect for the future.

This assembly takes a couple of members that are chosen via election from each district to meet in a large open-air platform known as a Forum, which allows for the allocation of debates, where different defense strategies or manners for infrastructural maintenance are put into theoretical discussion before allowing for the voting in the different leaders of the tribe. The executive branch is held strongly by a chancellor that is represented from this voting around the forum; that chancellor, often given the title of Prime Illuminator.

Is given the role to serve as the head of government for a fixed time period of 5 years, where one individual family can only serve for a max of three terms. This chosen individual isn't seen as a ruler itself, as a strong leader responsible for the maintaining of society, but moreso placed and given the social role of a public servant, one which has to objectively follow the will and decisions made by the assembly itself. His actions are heavily monitored as a means to guarantee he holds no dishonesty to the public.

Otherwise, the assembly can choose to hold up a vote for the entire tribe to determine the permanence of such executive leader. Now, regardless of the power held by either of those bodies which, in practice, are forced to function under a cyclical rule where one depends on the other to keep political protagonism, we observe that both are forced to submit to a higher position of power that they're not allowed to declare things over. That position isn't a role or an individual, much less a deity.

It is the constitution that was settled within the first establishment of the tribe, creating a tribe ruled by laws instead of by Zu'aan. These laws follow strict outlines around the rights given to each citizen, being that the right to rations, to speech, and to protection from being condemned without a proper trial, along with many others, all with the objective to guarantee the very well-being of the members above any sort of megalomaniacal individual's interests.

Military

The military of the Dynlor tribal zu'aan often follows doctrines that prioritized what would often be considered dirty within other military regulations or in more casual displays of battle prowess, simply seeing the kin'toni population as something that doesn't have the right to be fought “fairly” against, often choosing tactics involving seeking to blind or burn enemies despite the very wasteful nature of it, despite its shown inefficiency, and despite it many times backfiring when not performed correctly, or performed to a stronger kin'toni clan.

Their most standard fighting unit follows groups of infantry that act as the very backbone of the army, often adapted for narrow fighting such as is most commonly done within the limitations created by the narrow paths within the forest's groups of trees. These standard soldiers often fight while wielding long spears that serve the objective of keeping most of their enemies at bay, and massive shields that can be used to block paths in between trees quite effectively, oftentimes even being shoved in between two trees as a means to lighten up a soldier's weight and make for a more efficient escape.

Oftentimes when these soldiers are lined up, they utilize those shields, that are very much polished thoroughly, often attempting to resemble clean mirrors, as not only a practical barrier but also as a blinding mechanism, where glowing moss placed into a lantern is held by a single soldier in front of the formation (a position that is often highly suicidal) to emit a strong ray of light with the objective of blinding kin'toni, which oftentimes backfires by drawing the attention of those kin'toni that were lost in the dark.

Another important unit that makes part of their armed forces are some small in numbers but extremely large in combat, often drawn from teachings of the Dynlor's past tribe; these units are some that occupy the canopies of trees, often specializing themselves by means of quick and systemized transportation from above. Due to their already fond understanding of the dark, they're able to move around quickly without being detected by kin'toni properly. These units wear lightweight robes and use pseudo-grappling hooks to swing quickly between trees.

Dropping from above onto already lost kin'toni, flanking them by even dropping what can be considered biological weapons onto their heads from higher branches. These biological weapons are regulated by alchemist groups that develop them in what can be considered less developed chemical laboratories. These alchemists use many different combinations from the limited resources of the forest as a way to create different levels of flasks that can be thrown onto kin'toni as a way to combat their advances.

The main example can be what they name star-fire, where they go through a separation method with the bioluminescent properties of many moss types to create a sticky, gel substance that can enter into combustion once given contact with carbon dioxide, which means that it can be thrown from inside bottles that, when broken, catch on fire, which is great at dealing with kin'toni, at the price of possible damage to the forest itself.

Religion

The religion born within the Dynlor tribal zu'aan is one which is birthed directly from abandonment, creating a faith based around two dualistic figures that exist within a contrast of everything that makes up existence for the Dynlor, though it's not one of mutual faith and acceptance, as one of those figures is openly worshipped and seen as the bearer of moral righteousness whilst the other is rejected and seen as that which a good zu'aan should reject in order to be the best they're able to.

The first deity that is concretely placed forward by the Dynlor's theology is fully based around what is known as a lord born from the faithful spark, a faithful spark which was placed forth upon the world from the death of the Sun (or, in more modern views of the religion, the betrayal of the Sun, since they recognize that it maintains its existence outside the Dynlor's forest, instead changing the Sun's title to that of a traitor star). When the Sun had its death/betrayal, the Dynlor believe that its essence was passed down in fractions of light into a shape that was able to outlast it.

The one of moss and fungi that existed within the Anierry forest, allowing zu'aan to keep existing once more, creating a notion where God is alive and well within bark, moss, therefore being a very tangible and present divinity unlike many other religious frameworks. Now, in full contrast to that of the spark, we have what can only be described as what was mentioned before, the traitor star, the Sun, a deity which failed in providing light for the zu'aan of the Dynlor and slowly evolved its view of itself into that of, in most optimistic representations, that of a traitor; in others, one which represented the Sun's death.

All of what is preached by zu'aan which follow the Sun's doctrine is seen as fully foul and condemnable to all sorts of degrees, the biggest comparison being the tribe the Dynlor emerged from, where that society is considered non-zu'aan-like and barbaric. The members of the clergy keep an important role, since they are seen as live zu'aan responsible for tending for that which makes the Dynlor's religion still holy despite all issues that may come up from the events within the Shattering Age.

And they do this by means of biological and chemical study, sometimes even what can be best described as gardening, instead of by preaching or writing and interpreting holy scriptures. The selection style done around those clergy members is known as their very first miracle, where they're successfully able to do an action only God is able to in theory, that being of reproducing the brilliant moss of the forest, where those aspiring for clergy have to successfully breed a brighter strain of moss from a patch they find.

Which allows them to be invited to partake within a meeting in a warm, humid, and still very glowy greenhouse, allowing themselves to bask in pure light within a ceremony that invites them into the religion fully.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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