Cral Tribal Zu'aan

History

The origin of the Cral tribal zu'aan instantly ties their history with the biology and the natural structures which developed within the ever-shifting world of Taerel during its disastrous latest years. This tribe originated as a group of nomads which walked through much of Taerel after fleeing from a kin'toni invasion that destroyed their previous tribe; and, despite all the challenges and casualties they had to face during these troublesome traveling years, things were oftentimes looking quite positive for the members of this tribe.

Who often thrived while utilizing the local landscape to their advantage and occasionally hiding from patrolling kin'toni clans. Though, much of this developed peace, which is undeniably a fruit of their skillhood, was to face a much bigger challenge. In the year 4E 462, the tribe decided to route back to one of the most fruitful biomes they knew, with the main objective of holding a feast in the name of celebrating the birthday of their leader, Votor Cral. The main challenge came in arriving at that biome.

It was good considering that the quickest route, which allowed for the arrival to be near the date of the birthday, had to cross the infamous Hebata Cold Desert, a desolate region which even various kin'toni clans consider to be a "death zone." Though, one of the secrets of the Cral tribal zu'aan was not only their organizational skills within much of their journeys, but the fact that they had cycled the path across the Hebata Cold Desert before, following a set route back in 4E 466, a route which allowed them to catch different regions during more productive eras.

This allowed them to thrive despite the undeniable and harsh cold of the region. However, as the crossing was done once more, now in the year 4E 470, nature seemed to hit back at the Cral tribe for going against the laws of nature and ignoring the dangers of that place. An entire volcanic range seemed to have emerged from the ground up, blocking some of the most crucial parts of their routes; this was the fruit of strong volcanic activity which had been hyper-developed. The volcanoes, within a century, had grown to over four-hundred meters.

Th range wasn't fully tall, and, in fact, it was made to seem even taller than it actually was due to the flatness of the Cold Desert, though it was enough to halt the Cral in their travels. They spent around a day trying to find routes around that range; however, no luck was given to these nomads. Their leader, Votor Cral, became even more prominent by seeing the positive side of things, pointing out to the members of the tribe that nature had finally given them a place to rest, and so it was.

The tribe decided to spend the leader's birthday and the days around it by settling within that region, a new right they came to value greatly.

Psychology

The psychology which is responsible for shaping the mind and the overall behavior of the members of the Cral tribal Zu'aan is a stark example which expresses an unyielding nature, fruit of the permanently frosty environment which the tribe inhabits, which makes it seem as though their functionings and social outlooks are cold and unfeeling, something which, within the tribe, is often seen as a bare fallacy of their actual selves, that instead try to clash contrasts into a new synthesis that seeks to place rationality and empathy to walk along the same road.

As a means to prioritize efficiency while still being caring and rational towards other individuals. As efficiency was mentioned, it is crucial to mention how most of their efficiency is based around efforts to conserve many of the limited energies and calories that are often stolen from the members of the tribe by the cold environment around them, which makes it so the members of the Cral Tribal Zu'aan often objectify themselves to a certain extent, viewing their own lives as a certain array of batteries.

Something which often makes it so they are psychologically prone to seeing things such as laziness as a plain virtue necessary for continuing and for the maintaining of society. The members of the tribe are often viewed as sluggish, not because they are tired per se, but because they often have to save and conserve their own life-force, not only for the next day, but in the case of any emergencies; this tactic has allowed them to outlive many blizzards throughout their history.Their mentality is often seen as cold because of the following trait:

That being of an extreme comfort the members of the tribe have with the notion of silence, since, in all of the Hebata regions, many of what are seen as noise, be it necessary or not, loud or quiet, are often seen as threats, either if they are produced by the very members of the tribe, which leaves them prone to attack, or be it from the outside, which might signal a potential threat; this has created a very "quiet mind" sort of psychology for these Zu'aan, which allows them to, for example, sit for hours alongside their friends in total silence without feeling any awkwardness.

Which actually improves social relations by making it so they have a higher degree of intuition towards others' feelings, making it so the Cral are extremely considerate while remaining quiet by nature. This is something highly valued by the members of the tribe itself, which often naturalizes the entire tribe as a full-on safe space to express the undeniable pain which is produced and reproduced within the world of Taerel. Outsiders who are able to see this trait often attempt to infiltrate into the tribe.

The Cral, more often than not, notice these "intruders," but they don't mind, instead understanding the need for silence in such a cruel world.

Culture

The cultural framework of the Cral tribal zu'aan seems to teach much of the world a full-on masterclass in the art which can be created and developed within a region which tries to exist outside of harsh realities, where each person can be on their own, embracing a strong and cold sense of loneliness while still sharing the warmth of society; this is observed within most of their traditions and aesthetic choices, which are, in their majority, designed to reinforce the walls, be them physical or psychological.

That the Cral had built against the challenges placed by the Hebata cold desert, being a splendid showcase of the human ability to remain warm despite the trials of nature. One of the key expressions that became almost a mascot of the culture of the Cral tribal zu'aan is their music, often expressed through throat-singing, something which avoids all the efforts placed by just straight up shouting while still developing a strong and varied array and showcase of skill, and, as an added bonus, also avoids the need to place efforts into clear speech.

This is something that is often considered rare within the Cral tribal zu'aan. When translating chest vibrations into music, the Cral basically created a warm manner of showcasing communal languages, where resonant tones are ways of telling histories and even soothing children before going to bed; these songs are often even sung communally within bone structures, so the echoes can outlast the effort needed by the very zu'aan of the tribe, who often simply listen to it, reminiscing about the potential story a song can hold to each one of them.

Though, their artistic development and its beauty wasn't limited to music alone, also being thoroughly expressed within their vast array of visual arts, which is oftentimes based on the usage of bone and ivory, considering the rarity of wood and any materials needed to make paper. Patterns are often made into bones and ivory, each carrying their own meaning and oftentimes being carried around with each member to represent things which mean lots to them. But, not only are those materials carved and shaped into meaning.

They are also placed together to represent different sorts of imagery, telling tactile stories without the need of writing about them, as an example of their communal museum, which takes place around many bone and ivory built structures, the most famous of them standing at the end of a hall, where we observe a single bone lay flat and still within an avalanche of ivory, representing the very nature of the Cral. Another example of the nature of these social rituals were those which are done around a very important torch.

This is often referred to as a simple fat-lamp in more informal settings; though despite the jokey nickname, it was a highly important historical artifact for the Cral tribal zu'aan, since it is a lamp placed around the first communal torch the tribe managed to build, and, every year, gatherings are done around it to celebrate the tribe's ability to stay in such a harsh environment and still thrive to their standards.

Government

The governing form of the Cral tribal zu'aan is one which follows very different ideals than much of the ones placed around hierarchical roles and is very far away from those which place the idea of a governing body as a means to accumulate political power; instead, the Cral focus their government around the survival of the flame (in a poetic and literal sense) and the stability of the shelter which they had built within the Hebata cold desert. Political power isn't seized through any showcases of strength or financial leeway, much less through charismatic images which build their career through popularity.

It is built upon the developed skill around the mastery of remaining a proper steward and maintaining the necessary thermal efficiency to lead and influence others. Leadership is, by definition within the Cral tribal Zu'aan, a burden; it is cold and heavy, and it should not be held with pride, simply engaged with as much of a task as it would be to engage in housework. It is a role given to those who are able to calculate the ranges between the tribe's already accumulated resources and their potential survivability against the killing edges brought by potential disasters, be them kin'toni attacks or blizzards.

Their primary body within the normalized structure of three branches was encompassed by members of the legislative, often named as keepers of order or the maintainers of the fire. This group was led and organized by elders and specialists who have been deemed by the tribe as proper geniuses in the fuel conservation department, often also being handed a fair amount of accolades for their skills in critical situations, such as those of starting fire in oxygen-thin freezing conditions.

These legislative members do not sit on thrones, or even properly built office chairs; their discussions are public and normalized, done on the communal warmth of popular structures. The laws they attempt to create and pass are strictly around thermal conditions and resource allocations, as an attempt to huddle the members of the tribe with the end of maximizing heat efficiency. Alongside the legislative body is when the tribe takes their own creative spin into the development of politics, since the next role isn't as much part of the three classical branches as much as it is a proper working role within society.

That being of a civic planner—a role given to the individual who holds some of the highest concrete political power within the tribe, though it is still very limited as to not allow for the accumulation of needless political power. The civic planner is deemed an anchor of the tribe, since they are responsible for understanding the key components for structural integrity within the architectural nature of the Cral tribal Zu'aan, even many times being an expert in knowing the aerodynamic nature of the Hebata cold desert.

This role and its importance justifies the fact this member holds a proper veto power, being allowed to determine spaces which are seen as too unsafe or cold for families to settle in.

Military

The military forces of the Cral tribal zu'aan don't focus on conquest or even internal policing; it is a simple force that has specialized itself as guerrilla fighters within the frost-like conditions of the Hebata regions, treating the environment around them as the primary weapon which is to be fairly used within combat and its possible necessities. This is often done considering the fact of how dangerous and dangerously acclaimed the Hebata cold desert is for outsiders, be them zu'aan or kin'toni.

Which makes the defensive task of the military quite simpler, as they often rely on simply amplifying the environment around them, using the cold to finish what their weapons start, while also being complemented by the Cral's terrifying patience and physical advantages. The specialized units of the Cral tribal zu'aan are shaped and created with warriors that are chosen from specific families, something determined by a military and strength test very early on in life to deem and classify children into different roles of military potentiality.

These warriors are declared to have to specialize within the weaponization of the Blue Silence, which exists as a concept so culturally and militarily feared that many outsiders relate it instantly to the very Hebata cold desert, even treating it almost as though a natural threat alongside blizzards. The members trained within the role of manipulating the blue silence don't use any sort of war cries or even marching drums; they are terrifying due to the fact they themselves are as detectable as a single snowflake, moving in absolute eerie silence within the cold desert.

They communicate in low-humming tones that are brought from much of the tribe's throat singing, which is nearly undetectable by outsiders, allowing for their tactical shifts to be done without raising any potential suspicions. It is an undeniably haunting presence that has had the historical ability to wipe out any threats which come their way with very few casualties. The equipment used by this specialized force oftentimes is focused mostly on the ideas of camouflage, something necessary to fight within snowy plains.

This is developed a lot by the usage of blue moss and its transformation into ghillie suits, allowing the members of this force to simply vanish into the tundra without leaving any trace behind them. All of these combined techniques allow them to also hold their own body heat by burrowing into the snow, utilizing many of the tribe's heat-conserving strategies so as to remain alive despite the critical conditions. Weapons, though, are often simple, with quick serrated bone daggers that are used to take out enemies at close range.

And when distance is needed or the threat is bigger, the usage of harpoons made from ivory, which are used not only to reel enemies in but to also cause bleeding wounds which are enough to kill anything within the Hebata cold desert, leaving them prone to extremely strong permafrost and, poetically enough, making their own blood work against them until they fall dead.

Religion

The religion of the Cral tribal Zu'aan exists as a very fabulous expression of Zu'aan creativity and the cultural notions developed in the vast existence of Taerel, since it operates as a grim, yet beautiful theological monument that focuses itself all around the ideas of thermal preservation; this makes it so the members of the Cral tribal Zu'aan don't focus or believe in any ideals around a warm and loving creator, instead observing the universe as it came to be as a vast and entropic void.

It is one that is cold and undeniably indifferent towards the existence of life in any of the planets that dare to interrupt its silence, and in those interruptions, the fire which keeps the Cral community afloat remains strong, and exists despite the condemnation of the very universe, which makes for a faith which acts as a very spiritual manual for staying ablaze despite living in a frosty world. The main deity of the Cral's religion is Yvorivoru, which is the very personification of both the concrete representation of cold within the world of Taerel, and the existential and theological concept of the void.

Yvorivoru is seen and declared the universe's thief, responsible for living a constant fight to drain the life out of all the beautiful things which attempt to rise despite the critical conditions of the world; it is represented as a formless yet sentient image, one whose hunger inhabits the very wind, the breezes that are constantly pushed onto Zu'aan's faces. Though, the very members of the Cral don't declare it as a moral evil; it is a simple force of nature, the shame being that its interests and notions don't contribute to the well-being of any life in any planet.

It exists as a force which seeks to reclaim the heat that living beings borrowed from it by simply being birthed. Though, despite this force of nature, the Cral cling their existential justification for existence upon a historical myth around the origin of the first embers and flames; this myth focuses around the idea that humanity began when the sun fought with Yvorivoru, and after such battle, both beings were harmed, and a piece of the sun fell into the world of Taerel.

This piece gave enough light and heat for all of the world to thrive, for the first plants to finally sprout and for the first mammals to start walking, and not only that, but that piece embedded sparks into every life force—a curse done towards Yvorivoru, which was now forced to suffer in a universe where silence will always be negated to them, no matter how much they seek to destroy it. Furthermore, this religion is quite split; some members try to value the living aspect of it by praising the sun and the flames within each being.

While some attempt to be more empathetic by developing solidarity towards both the life within Taerel and the pain that Yvorivoru faced by having their silence negated.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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