Blebur Kin'toni Clan

History

The Blebur Clan has been around since the split of the Dahinbel Clan. The split happened because the majority of the kin’toni in said clan was well aware that they were going to die out soon and wanted to launch a full-scale attack on the zu’aan tribe nearby and forcibly turn them to prevent this. The roughly 300 that refused were driven off and started their own tribe underground, leading zu’aan with them where they would be safe. The Blebur declared them traitors and made a law that any of them were to be killed on sight, an effort that ultimately failed as their enemy clan evolved.

The zu’aan that chose fighting rather than hiding stayed in a war with the Blebur Clan for 50 years, during which time thousands on both sides perished. The zu’aan ended the war when a few soldiers snuck into the Blebur clan’s safest area, previously thought hidden, and lit hundreds of torches while they slept. This warning that the zu’aan knew where they hid was enough to scare the Blebur clan into backing down and a group of them even went to surrender and pay tribute, but they still hold a grudge against that particular tribe and vowed revenge no matter who they had to go through.

After the war, a kin’toni named Arxan came to power. Arxan was a clever, manipulative man who could get an entire family to tear itself apart within just a week and bring down armies with his silver tongue. He won his clan preaching a message of regaining lost strength and restoring the former glory of the tribe by playing to their recently-gained knowledge and skills, and under his leadership, the Blebur set out to rebuild. They built cities and temples out of wood and furs they’d gotten from huge animals and became masters at weapon-making.

When other wars started popping up, they happily traded their wares for significantly more than what they were worth, and Arxan put on airs of support for each side, always managing to come out on top no matter who had managed to win. Very few trusted his clan, but their skill was not to be questioned, so they grew prosperous and soon people were joining their clan by choice. As they grew and became more powerful, the other clans all began to form alliances to face them out of fear, and Arxan has been using this to scare many zu’aan into allying with his clan to fight back.

Secretly planning to wipe out all the other clans so the Blebur would be the only clan left. The zu’aan who’d fought the war with the Blebur refused to listen to Arxan and is the only tribe of them firmly on the opposing side, very likely because the hatred the Blebur have for them is strongly returned. Nothing has actually happened yet, but it will soon. Very soon...

Psychology

The Blebur are firm believers in “win at any cost” and will do just about anything to preserve their clan, even at the expense of others. To them, if you’re not Blebur, you’re expendable and can be killed off for the greater good if they decide it. They are clever, manipulative, and ruthless, having bulldozed entire tribes and races of people in their pursuit of power. If one wants a good example of their psychology, they need look no further than Arxan, their leader. He got where he is by manipulating others, being extremely charismatic and charming, and knowing who he could and couldn’t trust.

He’s been described as an eerily friendly person with a smile so bright it’s hard to note the fangs. By the time one does notice the fangs, it’s usually too late; they’re mere seconds away from death or something worse. If someone wrongs a Blebur, there is nothing they won’t do to get revenge. When the deserters left their tribe, the Bleburs vowed to wipe them out and now have a kill-on-sight law regarding them. There has even been a case reported where a Blebur who was accidentally shortchanged by a random zu’aan went extremely far to get revenge.

The rumors say he tracked down the person responsible, made absolutely sure his family was in his dwelling with him, boarded it up, and burned it down. As the Blebur Clan sees revenge as a good thing, the Blebur in question faced no punishment for this and was even commended by Arxan. Blebur Clan members are even okay with people taking revenge on them; a group of Bleburs attacked a random zu’aan and gouged out her eye, and she went to their dwellings and blinded everyone involved, something Arxan complimented her for and offered her a seat at his table for.

Nobody tried to kill her or even attacked her afterward; to the contrary, even the ones she blinded congratulated her on her ruthlessness. The Blebur Clan respects ruthlessness and encourages it among all its members. Members are taught from the moment they’re turned to have no mercy or remorse; they can’t afford to, they’re told. They believe the world hates them and everyone is out to get them, so they have to be willing to kill, maim, and destroy in order to survive. Everything they do is for their own benefit or for the detriment of someone they hate.

And they will happily destroy themselves if it means even the slightest chance of getting them what they want. The only thing they care about more than themselves or revenge is Arxan. They adore him and would do anything for him, even if it cost them their lives. It’s almost cultish how loyal they are to him. Their only reason for doing this is that he led them out of the devastation they'd experienced after the war or, in the case of new converts, that he's friendly and gives the Blebur clan a very good name.

Biology

Like many kin’toni, the Blebur are abnormally tall. They are strong, but even frailer than humans. They can do devastating damage in fights, but if something (usually a zu’aan) lands a solid hit, they will be bruised at the very least and injured at worst. Kin’thoni have to compensate for this through use of whatever mutation they happen to have undergone to either make them sturdier or more difficult to actually hit. A mutation the Blebur clan underwent has made them the living embodiment of “you are what you eat.” The animal blood they’ve had the most alters their body, granting them abilities related to whatever they drank.

There are four different animals whose blood augments their abilities the most and, with them, four main variations of that specific clan. Their most-often used blood is that of sea lizards, green and blue reptiles with a strong bite force, an electric touch, and sharp claws. Most of the Bleburs, as a result, mostly hang out in the water and resemble humanoid lizards with long tails, a blue-green glow, and very sharp fangs. Bleburs with this alteration have the ability to deliver electric shocks with a touch, bite through stone, and cut through wood with their claws.

Their second most-often used blood is that of the snowbird, a strong bird of prey that gets its name from having white feathers and being extremely cold to the touch. Bleburs with this mutation have wings in place of arms and can fly extremely fast, which makes hunting very easy. However, they sacrifice their ability to travel freely as they have to stay where it’s cold; exposure to even warm temperatures causes them to die of heat stroke. As a result of this, they live in the mountains and don’t come down unless they’ve wrapped themselves in ice.

They are very antisocial, even compared to the rest of their species, and they’re very difficult to find. If you see one, they will try to scare you off. The third most-often used is the earth serpent, which lives underground and kills its prey through constricting it. This translates to such Bleburs being stronger and more flexible than normal (to the point where they can unhinge their jaws entirely and fit very large objects in their mouths) and needing to spend more than half their time underground. They generally sleep during this time, and there are entire parts of each town for them to sleep in.

If one attacks someone, they will try to wrap their arms around that person and crush the life out of them, a very effective process. Should that fail, they will try to pull that person underground and suffocate them. The fourth most-often used is the shell, an extremely large animal that sleeps most of the time and rarely wakes up unless someone deliberately awakens them, whatever the purpose for it is. No shell has ever been killed by kin’toni feeding; in fact, it takes so little out of them that they don’t even stir. The reason they’re not the most-used blood is that the one time the Blebur got a little greedy and swarmed a shell.

It woke up and wreaked destruction on them. Those still brave enough to feed from shells are rewarded with an exoskeleton significantly more durable than they are and sharp teeth that can bite through thin metal. For this, they sacrifice speed and agility.

Culture

The Blebur culture is centered around fighting and hunting. Most of their traditions, celebrations, and way of life are centered around these two things. A recently-turned Blebur is trained by their sire to be able to hold their own in a fight. The sire and trainee are usually allowed to go be alone for a while so this process can happen. After a month of excruciating pain and brutal training by the sire, the trainee is brought back. There, in front of their village, they must face another Blebur in combat. The outcome of the fight cements their place in society.

If they are easily defeated, they rank very low. If they lose after a harder fight, they rank low, but not particularly low. If they win after a hard fight, they are respected, and if they win easily, they are among the leaders of the village along with their sire. If two Blebur clan members want to marry, the proposing party must defeat the other in combat. There are to be no weapons or use of powers in this particular form of combat, and victory is achieved by pinning or restraining the opponent. If the opponent holds back or does not play their best, the fight is considered invalid.

The occasional result of this is that if some Blebur clan members are in love, they focus on learning to fool everyone watching so it looks like both parties are doing their best. This is frowned upon, but so commonplace that there’s not really anything the Blebur clan can do about it. Sires are the pinnacle of Blebur society. Their word is law for their “spawned” kin’toni, not only legally but just on principle (Spawning is another word for turning; it’s not as commonplace, but it’s used enough that one would know what is being discussed).

The main principle behind this is that a sire knows more about the culture and power the spawned kin’toni is being brought into and logically would be able to provide the best instruction for how to live up to the Blebur clan’s standards for its members. Only when the spawned kin’toni can defeat their sire in combat are they allowed out of the sire’s rule.

Government

The Blebur clan’s government is drastically different depending on what level is being discussed. At the smaller level, all decisions are made by the population of a village, each member getting to cast their vote aloud. Each vote counts for a different number based on the voter’s ranking in the town. Low ranking voters count for one, low-mid ranking voters count for two, mid-high ranking voters count for three, high ranking voters count for four, and the town leaders count for five. There is almost always someone who doesn’t get a vote, but they are rewarded handsomely for keeping count instead.

The town leaders are decided by combat, and any kin’toni can challenge for the position if they feel so inclined. A zu’aan could also challenge if they happened to live in the town, but they would have to be sired after their victory. At the mid level, regions are run by governors, who come to power the same way town leaders do. Governors make decisions regarding town trading and punishing anyone who breaks the law. Governors are aided by a group of advisors from each town that argue in their town’s interest. This group holds meetings every twenty days, and each advisor brings a list of five issues.

They have until the governor gets bored to argue for each issue, one at a time, and after the governor gets bored, the issue is put to a vote. The advisors’ votes count for one, and the governor’s vote counts for two. Someone is rewarded to keep track of votes. At the top is Arxan, the head of the Blebur clan. He annually holds meetings where issues of clan importance are brought up and discussed. These issues can range from interactions with other clans and the zu’aan tribes, how the regions have been getting along, and trade in the nation.

As the Blebur clan practically worships him, Arxan can make these decisions more or less by himself; he just needs to be informed of the issues by the governors. At the end of the meetings, his decisions are announced to the public and go into effect as law.

Military

The Blebur’s military has changed since the split. During the zu’aan war, they were made up of only the strongest members of the clan, armed with melee weapons and clad with the bones of animals for protection. Soldiers set up their own camps with tents, camouflage, and stored animals for food. Weapons were sharpened weekly and tests were done monthly to find new recruits or to kick out any members of the military that weren’t strong enough. However, the loss of the war this particular setup was used for let them know that it was not by any means appropriate or even good for the Blebur clan.

As a result, Arxan proceeded to do an entire overhaul of the system, working hard to get it perfect. Arxan changed many things about the system, including making three branches. One is the army, which operates on land. They consist of the entire population of the Blebur clan’s land villages. Residents therein are trained to fight from the moment they wake up as kin’toni. Further, what weapons they use depends entirely on what animal they happen to have. Earth serpents use daggers to hamstring opponents from below and gauntlets made with claws for quick slashes.

Shells use swords and clubs because with built-in armor, they can handle more damage and thus they can afford to be on the front lines. The second military branch is the navy, which is exclusively made up of sea lizard Blebur. They are armed with whips to pull people down into the water and drown them, harpoons to use on anyone that goes near the water, and their own ability to deliver electric shocks. The third military branch is the air force, which is made up of snowbird Blebur. They usually use large pieces of stone or rock to drop on their enemies’ heads and crush their skulls, but they can also use bows and arrows to shoot from the sky.

Religion

The Blebur clan technically does not worship any god, but the way they treat Arxan is close enough to religion that it belongs in this section. Arxan got where he was with charisma and such an impressive vision for his clan that he won over all his fellow clan members. As a result, they adore him and treat his every word like gospel. His words are written down and kept by one person in each town to be read once in the morning and once at night. Arxan is a shell Blebur, so only shell Bleburs are allowed to read his words; the reasoning is that it can seem like the readers are extensions of their “glorious leader’s grand self,” which makes him seem divine to outsiders.

Arxan’s palace is one of the architectural wonders of the world, created more like a temple. Whenever he addresses the nation, he is dressed in large amounts of forged jewelry and a purple robe. People beat drums and sing chants about him before and after the address, and he watches from a throne. If he’s bored, he doesn’t show it, which is why the practice has lasted so long. Arxan has given his subjects five laws they must live by as Blebur clan members.

1. Do right by other clan members. 2. Revenge is to be celebrated, whether it’s on you or on someone else. 3. Revenge settles all scores. After that, there is to be no enmity. 4. Sires must treat their spawns with as much kindness as respect they expect in return. 5. All is acceptable if it’s done in the Blebur clan’s best interest.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Blebur Kin'toni Clan

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