Hibere Tribal Zu'aan

History

The origin history of the Hibere tribal zu'aan begins as a chronicle of a force that, despite all the challenges they were forced to face, never agreed with their own downfall, forever refusing to shatter and falter, marking their history with strong critical turning points that forced them into a series of tactical decisions just so they could have the right to settle. Up until the year of 4E 450, the Hibere were nothing more than an extremely skilled, disciplined military legion that carried with them the name of the Hibere as a symbolic continuation of one of their strongest leaders.

Who was said to lead them down the path to being a fair vanguard of steel within the world of Taerel; this legion operated autonomously within a series of mountains where another tribe also lived. This tribe often hired them to do the tribe's dirty work; though, this same tribe came to collapse under the weight of a civil war that took place in the year of 4E 455, which opened room for a massive kin'toni surge that took zu'aan civilian lives at exponential levels.

From this point on, the Hibere refused to give up the land of their previous masters and decided to engage in a rough fight with the kin'toni for a couple of weeks, a war which forced the Hibere to take retreating tactics into account as they dragged themselves back south until arriving at the Nyst Stone Fields. When the Hibere entered the Nyst Stone Fields, their entire legion had to face another challenge added to their burden along with the kin'toni attempting to ravage their lines.

That challenge being the environment around them, which, due to all the effects of the volcanic winter that was going on in the Fourth Era, was filled to the brim with black dust that combined ash and metamorphic powder from the rocks in the region. Oftentimes, this led to soldiers of the legion dying of asphyxiation or having their very armor slowly rust away due to the decay of the material; though, instead of perishing or giving up, the Hibere worked on a total restructuring of their army during their combat.

Within that new reorganization, they had already fully declared that the Hibere was now not only a legion, it was a tribe; another declaration they made was that the Nyst Stone Fields were theirs and theirs only. To back such a bold claim, the now Hibere tribal zu'aan clashed for two years on the Nyst Stone Fields, a region that, despite being extremely treacherous, was extremely open and ripe for invasion. This was something the ever-decreasing kin'toni numbers attempted to take to their advantage by constantly raiding the attempts at outposts made by the Hibere tribal zu'aan.

This led to a back-and-forth where large zu'aan casualties took place, backed by the destruction of invading kin'toni and sometimes even the burning of clan infrastructure; something that only came to a stop in the year of 4E 117, though not without its consequences, considering that the Hibere took such a war-torn opportunity to justify military control over the institutions of the tribe.

Psychology

The psychology of the Hibere tribal zu'aan defines itself around concepts that are grounded within a sort of lithic mindset; something that is drawn directly by how the tribe shapes itself fully around militaristic categories that determine the Hibere individual to behave as though they were themselves a living fortress. This shapes the psyche of the members of this tribe into creating an internal mental world that is deeply characterized by extreme layers of emotional density.

Something that drives the tribe into being extremely rigid with themselves and extremely adherent to hierarchical systems, along with an incredibly individualized view of the world, rarely relating to other zu'aan outside their own borders. Within the psychology of the Hibere, a notion that is deemed and commonly treated as dangerous is the very idea of self; this is something passed down to every member of the Hibere tribal zu'aan since birth. An individual is seen as nothing more than a mere grain of sand that can be easily blown away by any amount of wind.

While the tribe itself can form beaches, itt can form mountains, it can fill seas, and outlive zu'aan themselves. This all contributes to what is a quite common notion among other tribes, though not without the Hibere's own specific characteristics, that is of a collective psyche that attempts to drown out personal desires and ambitions in favor of cohesion within a popular unity; something that is also increased by their treatment of hierarchies, with many of the members simply looking at themselves based on their rank or position in specific divisions.

Furthermore, the members of this tribe, as can probably be guessed by how their psychology has been described so far, also partake in a fair bit of stoicism when it comes to their behavior around life. This is seen as a philosophical basis that is undeniably necessary due to what is required for the mind to withstand all of what can happen within the slow and nauseating grind that happens within the Nyst Stone Fields. This behavior is manifested as an incredible tool for the Hibere to deal with many different ills that are forced upon them by their lifestyle and by existence itself.

Such as boredom, physical pain, and practices that lead to repetitive labor, all of which develop into a reactive stillness. This makes it so the Hibere are a lot more grounded in their own sense, locking down on their practices and rarely reacting to new experiences or surprising events, even if they are under threat; this makes it so things such as their trauma aren't processed through open emotional expressions, but through manners of developing self-discipline as a form of maintenance.

Due to the fact that their social status is quite literally painted on their faces, the Hibere have come to develop a sort of hyperfixation on paying attention to anything that is related to authority and order, often contributing to the dehumanization of other individuals by treating them differently based on their position and rank; this contradicts their attempts at unison with select internal forms of prejudice.

Culture

The cultural development of the Hibere tribal zu'aan allows for quite the stark manner of placing an utilitarian lens onto observing the sociohistorical landscape that they had come to develop from their brutal efficiency forced forward by their extremely militaristic origin, complemented by the environment of the Nyst Stone Fields, it is possible to observe a cultural framework that sees artistic expression as something meaningless, instead, what was able to call their attention in terms of expression was to find beauty through efficient means.

In structural integrity, and in architectural endurance, all within the means of maintaining their tribe's war machine and their self-fortresses despite whatever challenge they came to face. Since they often regard everything that is done via the means of preservation in stone as something that is eternal, a logic justified by the cycles of which rocks undergo to recover back into nature after they are destroyed or forming into different rocks after different geological phenomena, writing is done in a manner that fully neglects the use of paper or parchment.

Things that decay in manners that are not recoverable, but instead done onto the walls of their subterranean posts, We observe this mostly within their stone bunkers that often contain things such as communal areas where names and ranks of each individual are placed on the walls, though things such as children's drawings or attempting to carve things by the usage of rocks and other minerals are often taken down or erased, all to reinforce their initial notion of negating artistic expression as a whole.

The only members that are able to truly place something on those walls that are not just expressions of the tribe's hierarchy are the tactical historians that utilize the walls to reiterate, simulate, and describe battle styles and dogmas. The tribe also contains a series of bonding social rituals that attempt to simulate, more than anything, expressions of the ranking systems within the tribe's military system, such as by practicing and oftentimes doing body paint by the usage of volcanic ash.

This is one of the few little things that still have an artistic air to it, but all the drawings are still placed under mandatory patterns that elude back to the ranking system of the tribe's military force, with regulation so strict that members that refuse to wash off a different pattern can be executed, since such action is described as a perversion away from the tribe's history and pride. Another thing that the Hibere tribal zu'aan value a lot is stability itself, something that they historically put a lot of effort fighting for.

And, with this in mind, the tribe makes festivals that are fully shaped around the idea of seeking to celebrate stability within the environment of the Nyst Stone Fields, something that is commonly done once a year to celebrate the anniversary of the tribe's arrival in the Nyst, it is the only day of the year where relaxation is not only allowed but promoted.

Government

The governing form of the Hibere tribal zu'aan is nothing more, nothing less than a pure stratocracy, relying on the establishment of a system where the state and the military are not only joined together in many of their decided actions, but are legally and functionally identical and indistinguishable from one another, This is something that often treats democracy as a side option that should not be mandatory for the maintaining of a society, This is seen due to the fact that there is no civilian-based government.

No formal constitution beyond the very military code of the tribe, and no concept of what would be the public perception of issues or things outside of what is ordered within chains of command, which develops something extremely common to the Hibere, to see democracy as a structural flaw, something often attributed to be the crack in the foundation that led to the downfall of the tribe they were previously a member of. The highest form of political authority within the tribe follows a strict path within military hierarchies.

Since it is formed by a supreme junta placed upon the military high command, composed of a series of generals who have ascended through the ranks over decades of service for the tribe, The absolute head of command has a right to absolute rule over the tribe and all of the decision-making that takes place within it, his command being absolute and his decrees being inviolable, No other political entity, be it the people, be it his chosen comrades, or the deliberation of the entire military chain, holds power against the power of the one at the top of the entire structure.

This has been established within a couple of manners, firstly within cultural norms, then after by means of persecution against any opponents that dared to challenge the hegemony of the Hibere's military forces. Any sort of civil law gets mangled within a single declaration that attempts to oversee it all from the perspective of the military, being via a civil-military code, something that is developed and placed within a uniform manner that is very openly attempting to create a single pattern of an ideal individual that serves the interests of the military.

This extends itself to just about every different sector of the Hibere's society, be it their education system, or the media's access and expansion in everyday society, such as by carvings on the sides of healthcare units, or by direct marches that take place all across the tribe that openly choose to condone this form of government and come to influence other members to do so as well, Thus, even despite the non-democratic stance when it comes to the organization of the Hibere's government.

Their movement and history have coerced the members of society into fully abiding by and supporting the style of control that is done by the military.

Military

The military of the Hibere tribal zu'aan is a crucial sector of their ontology and what makes them exist as a tribe, being responsible for not only having a deep tie to their history and their so-proud origin story, but also being able to dictate much of what happens within the tribe and the development of organization within Hibere society. This leads to the motto that the military for them isn't a simple branch of their society; it is the society itself. This builds into a doctrine that is quite important for the tribe within a cultural sense.

The concept of transforming the entire congregation of their tribe into one organic and complex fortress, leading to a lack of distinction between citizen and soldier, differentiated only via the hierarchies of the armed forces. The military is fully intertwined with the political functioning of the Hibere tribal zu'aan, and due to such political protagonism, they operate with a high degree of autonomy within the tribe, being able to fully divide their sectors with close to no regulation.

Sometimes even being placed above the law when it comes to decision-making. This is due to the fact that the military is held in such high regard that they're trusted to be responsible enough to decide the well-being of the tribe and potentially go past their already established institutions to guarantee their mission as the historical saviors of the tribe. The primary means of the defense of the Hibere rest upon a series of ably trained members of the military who are also given the role to fully represent their new home in the Nyst Stone Fields.

They are a heavy-based division that, unlike other styles that operate on quick speed or perhaps on hiding, operates upon the logic of moving slowly and appearing against the enemy as an inevitable momentum that forever charges as though it were an unbreakable wall. Speaking of walls, one of the main strategies utilized by this division is the organization of massive rectangular shield walls using locally crafted shields (often carved in rectangular shapes from wood in their region along with durable volcanic ash reinforced with iron banding).

These often make it hard to breach their division with standard kin'toni weaponry. Since the military has also expanded itself into being a fully intrinsic part of the culture of the Hibere tribal zu'aan, we observe how the military hierarchy expresses itself through other means, such as practices of body paint, marking soldiers with distinct patterns of volcanic ash that distinguish their ranks within the tribe. These paintings are often done on the face so that one's rank can be carried and be as known as an individual's very face.

Which creates a lot of dynamics around the microphysics of power on a daily basis within the tribe's functioning. All in all, this makes it so the military operates within different sectors of society instead of being a simple extension of the government's public policies around security.

Religion

The religious outlook of the Hibere tribal zu'aan also follows most of the key notions that have allowed the tribe to develop and sustain itself within its own history and space, which means that it attempts to remain as stern and pragmatic as possible, This allows for the creation of a faith that attempts to avoid excessive superstition and instead promote philosophies that use the supernatural and the material conditions of the world to ensure people do not perceive the supernatural or reality as soft,.

This makes it so the Hibere's religion replaces gods with physical principles that treat the very act of survival as the only valid form of prayer, which is extended to the very purpose given to the Nyst Stone Fields, not only a biome, but also a materialization of a sacred space. The matter of building a deity is treated by these zu'aan as something fully anthropomorphic, which makes it so even in the writings it is not treated as an absolute truth or a creator and divine being, It is often utilized as a metaphor to signify much of the matters that shape reality around Taerel.

The Hibere do not worship a personified God, they utilize concepts that seek to represent deities by relating them to physical concepts directly related to their own doctrines, This deity follows the very social shaping of the wants and needs of the military control of the state, which leads to a belief system centered around the idea that the world is a core of absolute and unchanging stone that attempts to hold the universe together, related to the military and their purpose within the Hibere tribe.

Any sort of physical matter that is not rock is seen as a chaotic corruptor that exists with the sole purpose of breaking the resolve that has kept the world going, existing solely to erase and erode the truth of the world, A member of the Hibere is taught to mimic the behavior of such rock, becoming impenetrable and so physically rigid that not even time or the enemy can break them. In keeping with the shaping of their military stratocracy, the religion of the Hibere tribal zu'aan also remains closely linked with the military in how it organizes itself as an institution.

Religious leaders are also directly linked with the military's control of the tribe and the ranking systems derived directly from the military control of the world, This makes it so the very priests who chant about the religious tones the tribe must follow to remain rigid and strong are the same head engineers who plan out and discuss war plans regarding invasion or defensive tactics, These members at the top of the control chains of both the church and the military are given the task of maintaining sermons that consist of reciting the properties of rocks and relating their geology to the historical victories of the tribe.

Which acts to frame tactical brilliance as not only natural but also a divine grace possessed by the military of the tribe.