Shy'is Kin'toni Clan

History

The Shy’is Kin’toni clan was formed right after the fall of zu'aan. Unlike the other kin’tonis who preferred to stay in the ruins of zu'aan, the Shy’is kin’tonis chose to leave the destroyed Xerea Empire because the place disgusted them. They did not want anything to do with the fallen Empire anymore and left for other lands during the night. Originally formed by only a dozen of kin’tonis, their number grew over time reaching the 200s in current age 4E 250. The Shy’is have dozens of ancients in their clan, some of whom have died during raids or fights with zu'aan, but they are always searching for new blood to replace the dead warriors.

They currently live as a united clan of elite soldiers in the Calai lands. Calai contains plenty of small zu'aan villages and cities, many of which are pacific in nature. The Calai zu'aan are not warriors per say and only know how to wield pitchforks or hoes and spades as weapons. They are most often defenseless against the raids of the elite warriors of Shy’is. The Shy’is are not too far from the Sagado canyons and have ties to another clan of kin’tonis called the Sagado clan. The only weaponsmith of the Shy’is clan from 250 years ago chose to form his own clan after he realized that none of the other Shy’is knew the craft of weaponsmithing.

It was counterproductive to stay within the clan and he struck a deal with the Shy’is and left to form his own tribe. However, the Shy’is’ deal involved keeping relations with the Sagado clan so that they could help one another in the future. The Shy’is live in Calai in a protected city-state. The ancients of the clan had infected some of the toughest and strongest zu'aan farmers in the vicinity and turned them into Shy’is kin’tonis. But throughout those two hundred years or so since the birth of the Shy’is clan, they have not infected too many zu'aan because training farmers by trade and turning them into elite soldiers is an arduous and time-consuming process.

The Shy’is are feared throughout history as being tough and merciless kin’tonis. They are sometimes at war with other kin’toni clans who try to claim the Calai lands as their own. They have total control over Calai, a province where crops grow abundantly due to their fertile soil and fair weather. The zu'aan who live in Calai refuse to leave in spite of the dangers that the Shy’is represent because they cannot survive or sustain themselves in the arid lands unfit for cultivation outside of Calai. The Shy’is may be unforgiving towards the zu'aan farmers who plead for their lives, but they mostly feed on men zu'aan because the women are precious and can produce more food for them in the form of new blood.

The Shy’is kin’tonis treat the Calai zu'aan denizens as mere cattle and often let them breed so that there is a constant supply of blood in the future.

Biology

The Shy’is kin’tonis are very tall. Their height is on average around 2 metres. They have a strong build fit for combat and can wield heavy swords and shields very easily. There are only men among the Shy’is because they do not infect female zu'aan so they can reproduce more blood for them. It is pointless to have female kin’tonis because they cannot reproduce. Their eyes have dark orange irises with white sclerae and horizontal slit pupils. Their skins are not pale and they have kept a rather rosy, healthy complexion. This is mostly due to the sheer amount of healthy blood they drink.

Kin’tonis from the Shy’is clan can see further than any ordinary zu'aan and most kin’tonis. Their irises are very big like owls or cats and their sclerae are mostly hidden by their big round dark orange irises. This ultra vision allows them to see villages or cities from afar and spy on and observe their prey from long distances. They can spot city lights very easily. The Shy’is’ sense of smell is quite good. They can smell zu'aan but also the scent of crops, flowers, animals and less pleasant smells. Where there are good scents, there is life normally.

The zu'aan farmers often cook and roast their food or boil vegetable soups or make bread. Those sweet scents do not make the Shy’is hungry but allow them to find their prey more easily in Calai villages or cities. They follow the sweet fumes of cooked food and often barge in houses during a zu'aan family dinner to drink from their prey. Like a family dinner, the Shy’is share their food by drinking blood from a healthy and well-fed victim. The long legs of the Shy’is kin’tonis allow them to travel long distances very fast at dusk. They often make a trip from their lair to surrounding zu'aan cities and villages in a couple of hours only.

They are naturally muscular and they do not tire very easily. They are used to travel long roads, sometimes sprinting lengthy distances, to reach their destination faster. Their legs are heavy like logs but astoundingly fast. It is difficult to outrun those colossi. They are however quite heavy and when they run in groups, it is easy to hear them from a distance. Running groups sound like a stampede. That is why they prefer to walk. The Shy’is have big, long, muscular arms and massive hands which allow them to hold heavy weapons or carry their prey home.

They can load two heavy male zu'aan on their broad shoulders or carry a fat zu'aan on their two shoulders. They like having a friendly or familial dinner at home where they can share their food with the other Shy’is who stayed in the Shy’is city to guard it from intruders. The Shy’is have a strong sense of taste. They can tell which blood is healthy or not simply by having a small bite and tasting a droplet of blood. They avoid unhealthy blood because it sometimes makes them sick. Sickness involves feeling hot or having a fever and itches. It is probably due to a disease that plagues certain zu'aan in the Calai area. It can strangely affect the kin’tonis as well.

Culture

The culture of the Shy’is kin’tonis is centered around breeding cattle, oxes or horses. They have patches of grasslands where they let those animals feed and breed. While they do not eat cattle, they often use those to lure zu'aan at night by pretending to be sheep traders or shepherds. They disguise themselves with cloaks. Sometimes they really do business with zu'aan in exchange for zu'aan currency. They can buy slaves and servants with zu'aan money and bring them to the Shy’is city state as food and fresh blood. Culturally, the Shy’is share the same language as the Calai zu'aan. It is more like a dialect that branched off from the main zu'aan mother tongue.

They share similar words and phrase structure, only that the accent is different and there are neologisms that refer to farming and cultivation concepts. The accent is very thick and hard on the ears. But Shy’is speak the zu'aan dialect fluently, which is notably named the Calai dialect. In Shy’is culture, it is common to ride horses. Horses are noble animals that represent power and strength. The Shy’is know how to breed the best race of horses in Calai. They are fast and endurant like the Shy’is kin’tonis themselves. The Shy’is often organize races among themselves to see who is the best rider.

The equestrianism culture was born from one of the ancient Shy’is who knew how to ride horses during his life as a zu'aan. Since most of the Shy’is kin’tonis were once farmers during their life as zu'aan they have kept the tradition of breeding and raising cattle and know how to milk cows for example. The Shy’is possess the most lush grassland territories and often trade their cattle or milk for blood or money. They have lesser tendencies to scare the Calai zu'aan away in this manner by feasting on slaves they purchase instead of preying on the rich farmers who are willing to trade slaves or servants to preserve their own lives and families.

It is an accord that the Shy’is made with rich and wealthy landowners of the Calai. The Shy’is culture is one where fertility is at the center of all things. From rich soils to fertile zu'aan, the seed of life can only grow in the green and luxuriant fields of Calai. The color green is the color the Shy’is wear normally because it represents the source of life. Without the green crops or grasses, there would be no cattle for zu'aan to feed on, and no zu'aan to drink the blood from. Sometimes, the Shy’is eat gruel and bloodroot instead of drinking blood when they are fasting or feeling unwell from overdrinking blood.

The garments that the Shy’is wear normally are similar to that of zu'aan farmers except that they are dyed with a green liquid from a plant called the Lua. The Lua is a restorative plant with healing properties. While most zu'aan drink it as a medicinal brew, the Shy’is kin’tonis use those on wounds and cuts and it heals them in the span of a day or a few hours.

Government

The Shy’is Kin’toni clan’s government is mostly a military and farming government. They do not rely solely on farming to trade cattle and milk for blood, but also organize raids to bring zu'aan Calai cities or villages to their knees and spread fear among the Calai zu'aan. The military and farming ministries work hand in hand whereby the military makes sure that they acquire all the cattle from different zu'aan lands as their own so that the zu'aan are left with nothing but crops. For all the hard work that the zu'aan farmers do, they need to feed on cattle and meat and milk to stay strong.

The government of the Shy’is has successfully driven the Calai province into a form of slave-state and turned the Calai zu'aan into cattle which are bred and fed. The government is centered around the concept of farming and even agriculture. The Shy’is know the seasons by heart and know when crops are planted, grown and reaped. They also know the natural life cycle of cattle as well as zu'aan. They plan very carefully when zu'aan can be reaped for feasts and gauge the amount of blood they can drink. The Shy’is have never starved as a result of their cautious planning.

When blood is rare they feed on gruel and bloodroot that grow in their territories. It sustains them during hard times. There are hundreds of Shy’is kintonis who are called Farmers. Farmers’ role is to take care of cattle and also trade them for zu'aan slaves. When it is not necessary to barter, they sell excess cattle and milk for zu'aan currency. They have savings that allow them to buy blood supplies when they need them, even during the cold winters. The slave and blood trade is always bustling because the Shy’is farming government is excellent and knows when it is perfect to reap and when it is essential to save provisions for the winter.

The other hundreds of kin’tonis are elite warriors. The government may be centred around farming but they have an excellent ministry of war. The ministry of war provides offensive and defensive strategies for the Shy’is clan. The offensive strategies involve raiding all the surrounding Calai villages or cities and pillaging them when the time is right, especially if the Calai zu'aan try to secretly riot against them or secretly raise cattle in their farms. The Shy’is govern the Calai province and all its city-states and villages and the Calai zu'aan have to work under them as pseudo-slaves who have only the illusion of freedom.

This illusion is kept since the Shy’is let the zu'aan have families of their own and let them live for about 20 to 40 years years before reaping them as food. The defensive strategies of the Shy’is involves protecting their city-state, found at the center of Calai from intruders, especially other kin’tonis clans who want to claim the Calai as their own. They are at war with certain tribes or clans who want to acquire their rich lands populated with fresh and abundant zu'aan.

Military

The Shy’is Kin’toni clan military is led by the General, Zu’ber. General Zu’ber oversees all tactics and combat operations of the Shy’is clan. He is one of the ancients having lived for 250 plus years until present day Taerel. As a former zu'aan general turned kin’toni, he has a lot of experience when it comes to leading a well-structured army. The general has some lieutenants to carry out his missions or tasks. The Shy’is army is made up of only elite soldiers. There are no ‘weaker’ or ‘lesser’ soldiers. They are all trained to wield long, heavy and broad swords and carry gigantic shields for protection.

The elite Shy’is soldiers also wear intricate armor crafted and bought from the expert armorsmiths of the Sagado clan. They also have helmets on for additional protection and wear green capes and green loin cloths over their armor to differentiate them from any other clans. They are covered in armor from head to toe but can move very easily in them due to their natural strength and muscle mass. The General, lieutenants and captains wear emeralds and green stones encrusted in their armors and sword hilts as a sign of their status in the army. While the Shy’is use Calai zu'aan currency for farming, they use a kin’toni currency called the Shira for trading with other kin’tonis, especially to buy weapons, armor and green jewels.

They acquire their weapons and armors from the Sagado clan, but the green gems, which are not found in the red Sagado canyons, have to be bought from other kin’toni clans who mine emeralds and precious green gems or stones like jade. The army’s formation is both offensive and defensive at the same time. There are only frontliners and they advance in horizontal or rectangular formations. Their giant rectangular shields can stop or deflect arrows that the enemies may shoot and provide protection against sharp and pointy weapons such as spears. Their defense is almost impenetrable and they advance fast and methodically towards the enemies backlines by forging their way through and cutting down frontliners.

They are an army of colossi to be reckoned with. During the offensive tactics, the Shy’is elite warriors push their enemies with their strong shields to break their formation. The enemies can rarely overpower the overbearing pushes of the Shy’is and many enemies fall and stumble. When the enemy is dispersed, the Shy’is then use their long swords to slice and slash at their opponents, often impaling them in the process with their long reaching swords. Each Shy’is soldier can take down dozens of opponents on their own but the Shy’is prefer to work together as a compact platoon or group in formations that are impenetrable.

Their defense is their best offense. The Calai greenlands are not too vast and the Shy’is army not very large either, but the smallness of the Calai fertile area is what allows the Shy’is kin’tonis to deploy their soldiers very quickly to the danger zones. It takes only a couple of hours for warriors to reach the zones by foot and even less when they ride their horses. All the Shy’is warriors know how to ride and also fight while riding their war-trained horses.

Religion

The Shy’is kin’tonis’ religion was created in year 4E 73. The Shy’is adopted the religion of the Calai and praise the Goddess of Fertility, Nali. Nali is the Calai goddess of fertility and the kin’tonis pray to her to keep the lands of Calai fertile so that they can reap blood. While the Calai zu'aan pray to the goddess for abundant harvests or zu'aan women pray to her to have many children and stay fertile, the kin’tonis invented new beliefs around her worship. They worship her as the creator of all life and the one who makes sure that they never run out of blood. They do not praise her as a kin’toni or zu'aan goddess and she does not bear much resemblance to a zu'aan in kin’toni religion.

In kin’toni religion, she looks almost inhuman often depicted as having green skin and several arms. The zu'aan Nali is depicted as a zu'aan who holds a wheat crop in one hand. The religious practices involve sacrificing cattle such as sheep and goats to the goddess of fertility on a special day called the Harvest. During the Harvest, it is normally some live zu'aan slaves who have to cut the throats of the animals. It is symbolic since zu'aan kill cattle to feed and grow. After the sacrifices, the Shy’is kin’tonis feed on the slaves and drink their blood, digging their sharp canines in their throats and sucking the life out of them.

These rituals represent the food chain where the Shy’is kin’tonis stand on top. The Shy’is religion was borrowed from Calai zu'aan where they sacrifice animals to feed upon on special occasions, especially after a good harvest. One less bloody religious ritual is called the Seeding. During the Seeding, Shy’is kin’tonis take seeds from crops and plants and throw them in the wind during the night. It is a symbolic practice that represents the harmonious bond that the Shy’is have with nature. They may not be agricultors but they let the seed grow into wild plants around their territories.

The Shy’is let the cattle, cows and horses they raise eat their fill in the grasslands which are brimming with a variety of nutritious crops. Some Shy’is kin’tonis keep sheep as pets and play with them, often caressing their soft wool. It is customary to have sheep pets because the zu'aan need sheep for wool and meat. Possessing a sheep at home is believed to ensure that blood will always be provided to them. Sheep bring good luck and are sacred animals. There is a big temple where the Shy’is worship their goddess of fertility. It is made of white marble and pillars and looks very lavish compared to the Shy’is kin’tonis’ houses.

It was formerly the residence of a rich landowner who had been slain by the Shy’is a long time ago. It had since been redecorated with statues of Nali, the Goddess of Fertility, with her green skin and ten arms. The Shy’is worshippers throw a zu'aan coin in fountains inside the temple to pray for good harvest.

Miscellany

The Shy’is kin’tonis love nature as much as they love war. They often go out at night and lie down on the soft grass to look at the starry night, often holding a strand of grass between their teeth and feeling the gentle breeze on their faces. They also pick up flowers that bloom at night and place them in beautiful vases at home. The scent of flowers is very pleasant to them. The Shy’is city is found atop a large hill which towers above the rest of the Calai province. Since it is found in the center of Calai, the Shy’is kin’tonis can see all the beautiful lights from lively cities and villages at night.

Their ultra-distant vision allows them to spot enemies from afar and the hills of Calai are a strategic watchpost for the Shy’is. Their innate love for nature makes the Shy’is seem peaceful and harmonious, but they are willing to cast off their cool nature to preserve their territories. They are often seen as bloodthirsty and cruel by zu'aan and different kin’toni clans alike. They wish to preserve the natural cycle of life in Calai and they believe their government and clan are best suited for maintaining such order.

The Shy’is elite warriors are also called the Green Warriors by some. They take life away but also protect it by killing off anyone who would disturb the natural cycle of life. They have a deep hatred for kin’tonis with primitive natures, who hunt without knowing how to handle and manage their livestock, who drink blood without giving it the chance to renew and reproduce. They hunt down and ward off kin’toni tribes with such destructive natures to protect the zu'aan in Calai. Many Shy’is do not like their infertile nature. They still wish they could reproduce normally like any zu'aan.

They pray to the Goddess of Fertility to lift the curse of infertility from them everyday. They believe that such a miracle will happen one day. They sometimes mate with zu'aan women during certain nights in the hopes that they will bear children. But no child can be born from them. Some of them adopt male children and grow them in their city-state, feeding them with milk and meat and teaching them how to fight before they decide to turn them into kin’tonis when they reach their 16 years. Some kin’tonis who have bonded with zu'aan by adopting children that they raised have a lot of pity for their prey.

They are quite a sensitive race and some decide to live solely by eating gruel or bloodroot. But those who do not drink blood are often weaker than the rest and they are thus relegated to roles such as raising and breeding cattle instead of being warriors. The warriors are trained mentally to accept their vampiric nature and have to be strong and insensitive to not feel pity for the zu'aan. The Shy’is kin’tonis can be fathers of many adopted zu'aan sons that they raised themselves before turning them into kin’tonis. They treat their adoptive children as their own even if the do not share blood.

Nearby Groups

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Shy'is Kin'toni Clan

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