Kelwori Kin'toni Clan

History

The Kelwori clan are master weapon makers for a world so set backwards. They used to be a part of the Eawa kin’toni clan and were a key factor in preparing the oppressed kin’toni for revolution. They all are amazingly skilled in the weaponry craft and used this skill effectively in making weapons for the revolutionary group ‘Kuchamasa’. With the help of their advanced weapons (such as nunchucks and a spear that with a little twist, could spring a sharp blade out of its back, which could both surprise and kill the opponent) they could help the Kuchamasa in numerous ways. And they did.

After the revolutionary wars most of the Kuchamasa split up and formed their own clans and went their own ways. The ones who went to live near the forests and on a plain, which was in the south, decided to call themselves the Kelwori kin’toni clan. All of this clan’s kin’toni are extremely skilled in weaponry making. They are also skilled fighters because of it. They have learnt of ways to weave nets and polish iron to the point that it won’t break in a battle and can kill easily.

Long ago, they discovered iron by mining under these lands and found iron ore; a sedimentary rock which after some modifications could be used to make weapons. Their creativity also helped them and they made weapons that had never been thought of before. Early in their days, just after a few years the clan was formed, the kin’toni were attacked by an army of soldiers of the zu’aan. They came from a nearby zu’aan city, with walls that had kept them protected from these murderous kin’toni. They wanted to protect these lands from the clutches of the kin’toni and had thus, come out to fight.

The kin’toni were not that developed in the military sector and so were heavily unprepared. Their clan had only been formed a few years ago and even though they were great weapon makers, as their military wasn’t properly developed, they were unable to predict this invasion. Many kin’toni were killed as a result of that. The kin’toni did have an advantage however and it was a surprise; Their weapons were unlike the ones the zu’aan had ever known before.

Since they didn’t have the abilities these kin’toni did, they were at a loss. The battle also got dragged for longer than it was supposed to be and the battle ground became a total blood bath after sunset. The zu’aan lost this battle but the kin’toni also lost their leader, Jaza Kelwori, who was killed trying to fight four zu’aan at once. The kin’toni call this battle “Khaga ma Lana” or “The battle of the lands”. Every year on the day of his death, this clan gathers in one of their grounds and bows down to his sword, which was set in stone.

These kin’toni have only one religion, one goal, and that is to avenge their leader who received the killing stroke by a zu’aan leader who lives deep in the heart of his walled city.

Biology

he Kelwori are adapted to the dry soil and sparse rains of the Denold Dry Forest. They are tall, with a lean wiry build, containing dense muscles, to aid explosive jumps. They have long, slender limbs as to aid in heat dissipation and movement on the broken ground. This means that their long distance running endurance is limited. The skin is a mottled, dark-reddish brown. The texture is rough, and adapted to look like dried bark. This is for camouflage on the dry, rocky ground, bark of the great trees and deadwood.

Their eyes are reddish in color, with natural polarizing filters that darken when there is bright light. They also have a second eyelid, that slides vertically across their eyes. This is to protect from flare and dust, while retaining their highly refined sight. Their ears are very long, wide and pointed. The ears are highly mobile, and move with the kin'toni's mood. The ears have an dense network of sub-dermal capillaries, used for shedding heat into the air as natural radiators. Their noses are long and narrow, with an highly developed olfactory bulb.

This means they can detect trance amounts of moisture and recent urine trails from their prey, even over vast distances. The nasel passages are long and complex, and act has heat exchanges to cool the air they breathe before it reaches the lungs. This is to reduce moisture loss from breathing. Their fangs are short and broad, and are adapted for quick shallow bites to drink blood quickly from their small, dehydrated desert prey. The claws are thick, blunt and curved, and are adapted for digging prey from the soil.

They also used for carving small shelters into rock faces or large, thick-trunked, water bearing syae'k trees. The feet are long and wide, almost padded shaped, the pads are thin and calloused. They have large, webbing to help them distribute their weight well on the loose sand and gravel. The skin on their joints and limbs is thinner as to aid dissipating heat. This leads to them being susceptible to cuts and abrasions. Many clan members are riddled with scars from sharp rocks and thorny bush. Their bodies have specialized fat deposits on the outsides of their skeletal muscle bundles.

These are adapted in such a way that they can be quickly metabolized to release metabolic water. They also have an set of specialized large sacs to hold water inside them. Their kidneys are highly efficient, along with an modified large intestine, both adapted for maximum water retention. Their blood is thicker and more viscous as to help water retaining, but this slows down regeneration significantly. Due to higher iron contents, it is black in color. These adaptations allow for a body that can minimize fluid loss and survive extreme droughts.

Due to the fact that they are adapted internally to droughts, they struggle, sicken and slowly die in high humidity and immersion in water for more then a few hours often proves fatal. The clan posses highly concentrated digestive acids, adapted to break down tough fibrous material such as syae'k tree wood (as it contains large amounts of water). They can also break down the dry hides of rare prey as to maximize the nutritional yield.

Culture

A prominent part of the Kelwori culture is their weapon making craft which has been around even before this clan was formed. They have built both common and unique weapons which are strong and durable. The handles of their swords are intricately carved and decorated with jewels sometimes, mostly for the kin’toni of higher ranks. The Kelwori kin’toni make designs for their weapons. They use creativity and innovation for this too. The double-edged sword, steel-lined whips, keen-bladed axes and cleverly weaved nets are all parts of their creativity.

They make all these weapons out of hate for the zu’aan and their ultimate desire to perish them. They test these gadgets on the zu’aan they have captured. The clan encourages the study of this craft and teaches the newly added kin’toni, the turned, about it. The Kelwori are also quite fond of fighting and use those skills for their military.Apart from weapon making, the tradition of this clan asks that the kin’toni who has reached the age of a hundred and fifty, shave their heads.

This has become a sign of respect and honor among the clan’s kin’toni. Be it a turned kin’toni or an original, a kin’toni who has turned to the age of one-fifty is required to shave their heads. The Kelwori are a warrior clan and thus takes little interest in plantation and cattle farming. They take hunting seriously and set out in groups for it. They do have cattle but it mostly consists of animals that aren’t available easily and have richer blood. They only kill these cattle at the time of festivals and use their blood and meat for these occasions.

The Kelwori clan is a bit wilder than the other clans and the way they celebrate their festivals prove it. Their most anticipated day is the ‘Jaza Kelwori rata’ or ‘night of Jaza Kelwori’. In this festival they morn the death of their founder and capture and murder many zu’aan for it. Plenty of lives for the cost of one. They impale these zu’aan or leave their bodies out to bleed dry. If they feel merciful, they might turn them but that is rare for a night like this.

Afterwards, they dance on the bodies of these zu’aan. They do all this so they could avenge their leader and in honor of him. He was a blood thirsty and murderous kin’toni, who enjoyed seeing zu’aan in pain. The homes of these kin’toni are made from stone. This helps keep them warm in winter. They insulated their houses using hay and leather from animal skins. These kin’toni are also miners. They dig up iron ore from their own lands, purify the mixtures, make weapons out of it and use it for themselves or sell it to other clans.

Almost all other clans buy their weapons from this clan. The Kelwori clan has kept their innovations a secret from the other clans and only limited their sales to the standard weapons such as swords, spears and arrows. This way they get the upper hand in disputes among the clans.

Government

The leader of this clan used to be Jaza Kelwori, who also ran the government. He took an active part in the success of his clan and worked accordingly. He also had a number of advisors who used to help him with the matters of the clan. After his death, these advisors were made into the leaders of the clan. They had been side by side with Jaza Kelwori in all his years of leadership and thus, knew ways the government system was run. The sensible choice was to make them the leaders and let them run the clan.

There are three of them; Makaha Kelwori, Uava Kelwori and Qacaz Kelwori. These kin’toni are all originals and have been with Jaza Kelwori from the time Magdar ruled. They were also a key part of the revolutionary group that was formed. Their bond stood the test of time and they went on to form a clan of their own. They made Jaza the leader and took their places as faithful advisors by his side.bThe question does arise that; how could they stand being mere advisors after all they’ve been through together?

And how could they easily let Jaza take the place of leadership which all of them had an equal right to? If there is one thing about the kin’toni, it is that they are greedy and arrogant. Each of them believes that they are worthy of every single thing on Taerel and the rest should obey him/her. The advisors didn’t stand for it, but since the crowd had a major appreciation and acceptance towards Jaza, they couldn’t do much. After he died, they immediately took the place of leadership and divided the clan’s sectors amongst themselves.

One might have noticed that they were a bit too eager for it and it could be thought that perhaps, they had some hand in it. Their clan however weren’t much observant. They were only grieved for their former leader’s death and wanted the sweet taste of revenge. The three leaders divided the sectors as this; Makaha Kelwori took the military leadership. She is a powerful and talented kin’toni who fights better than most. Her talented swings and blows can best even the best of fighters.

She also has the bone of command within her. With her help, the military has expanded and developed to be far better than it was in the time of Jaza himself. Uava Kelwori handles the trade of the clan. He deals in money. The clan is a rich one because of their weaponry craft which is bought by kin’toni from far and wide. Uava is responsible to oversee this operation and to make sure that the trade sector always flourishes. He is known to survey the work places once a month and randomly at that, to make sure everything keeps running smoothly. Qacaz Kelwori was always the clever one out of all four of them.

He is responsible for the religion sector. He is their priest, who has helped the grieving kin’toni make sure that their thirst for revenge cannot die and is used effectively. He gave speeches and sermons on how brave Jaza was and how they should worship only him. He was also the one who set Jaza’s sword in the stone and high above on an altar to make sure everyone would kneel to it. Together, these three have been running this clan successfully and it has flourished rapidly under their rule.

Military

The Kelwori kin’toni clan’s strongest point is its military. The kin’toni of the Kelwori clan has always been skilled in weapon making and fighting. They have even adapted according to it.mLike all kin’toni, the Kelwori kin’toni know their abilities well. Their extraordinary strength along with their ability to move around so softly that they can’t be detected, has been extremely useful for military uses. The Commander General of their military is Makaha Kelwori.

She is responsible to oversee the whole military operation and to make sure it runs smoothly. She has personally made sure that their abilities are utilized properly. The military consists of 500 trained kin’toni. Most of them are in the army sector. The army sector consists of kin’toni who, depending on their choices, wield their weapons with deadly precision. There are 350 kin’toni in the army sector. All of them have been trained in all kinds of weaponry, even if what they choose to fight with is their own choice.

They are skilled in archery too. With arrows designed by their best weapon makers, their aim is downright lethal as the arrows fly through the air in the blink of an eye. A Kelwori never misses his mark. The other forms of weaponry include swords, double headed spears, battle axes, razor-lined whips, daggers and etc. Their battle formation is also unique and they change tactics every time so as to not let the enemy predict their move. Some of these kin’toni are so strong, they have been known to crush zu’aan with their bare hands.

The second sector is the defense sector. After the battle with the zu’aan, these kin’toni worked hard to make sure their defense system doesn’t fail them again. It was previously underdeveloped, with only a few kin’toni situated at the clan’s entrance. Now, over a 100 kin’toni are involved in this sector. Makaha Kelwori had them take various positions not only around the clan’s perimeter but also on the roads leading to it. She came up with a closely knitted defense system that would ensure that the clan could both predict a threat approaching, and also be able to defend themselves against it.

She also explored the different ways one could enter their clan undetected and either closed those passages off or placed some kin’toni on guard there. The third sector is their spy sector. It consists of over 50 kin’toni. Even though the Kelwori are strongly built, they still are agile and fast on their feet. This enables them to be good at spying too. Makaha Kelwori worked especially hard on this force as the presence of a spy force could definitely tip the scales in their favor.

They went under a series of tests and when they qualified that, they were given hardest of trainings. Their spy force disguises themselves as zu’aan and enter their cities and tribes. They have been successful in infiltrating two zu’aan tribes and invading them afterwards. They turned these zu’aan and made them join their military and clan. The spy force also spies on some kin’toni clans too. The trust between clans is always very thin as each strives to win over another and eventually have the whole world to themselves.

The military consists of both original and turned kin’toni who have all been trained, both in the shadows of the day and in the darkness of the night.

Religion

These kin’toni previously had no religion and followed no one other than their leader, Jaza Kelwori. His command was their top priority and they always made sure to obey it. He lived to be a full two hundred years before he was killed in a battle only a few decades ago. When the zu’aan saw that the battle wasn’t going in the direction to their liking, they retreated. They took their wounded leader, who also happens to be the one who killed Jaza Kelwori, with them. He still lives in his heavily fortified city.

After their leader died in a battle against the zu’aan, while trying to protect his clan, the enraged kin’toni of his clan vowed to take revenge. Their sole purpose in life was up till now to please their leader who had given them this clan and a place to live in. They didn’t worship him but made sure to please him and obey his commands. They took care of his wishes and were inspired by the stories of bravery he had spun which were about the situation of kin’toni before the revolution.

He was their leader who had earned them their freedom and that’s why they looked up to him. The news of his death was a serious blow to these kin’toni who now didn’t know where to turn. The battle was won at the end of the day but no number of killing and torturing hundreds of zu’aan could bring their leader back. They all were united in one belief though, and that was vengeance. They vowed on their hearts, their wealth and their lands that they would never ever rest until their leader was avenged.

Jaza Kelwori’s sword was a really beautiful one. With a gold handle and gems studded in it, it made every sharp cut through the air a gleaming one. It was also precious to the Jaza himself, as it was a gift from the most talented sword maker of their clan, Tawaha Kelwori. After his death, the kin’toni took his sword and set it in stone and placed it on a high altar in the middle of the clan. This sword catches the moonlight and sunlight both at different angles and makes itself look like a shining star set up high.

The Kelwori decided to worship him after his death. They bow down to this sword and send their pleas and prayers to him. They believe that Jaza Kelwori listens to them still and grants their prayers. The zu’aan who killed him is probably the strongest zu’aan of all. He lives in the most heavily guarded and multi-walled city of all zu’aan. To reach to him, these kin’toni would have to go through whole armies, defense systems and if after all that they did reach his palace, they might be disappointed to learn that he had already escaped.

This zu’aan is a clever one and has built multiple escape systems just for this reason. It would require years of scheming and dedication to get to him and that is exactly what the kin’toni of this clan are trying to achieve, but haven’t been successful in it yet

Miscellany

Probably the most noticeable thing about the Kelwori clan is their popularity. Every clan knows about them, no matter how far away they live. They don’t have technological advances or even the concept of proper letter writing, yet every kin’toni somehow knows about this clan and its cultures. Even the isolated clans know about this clan. The zu’aan also know and fear this clan, as it is one of the strongest and one of the most violent of all kin’toni clans.

They fear them largely due to their ability to be extremely brutal and also because of their excellent weapon-making craft. Their weapons are durable and are bought by kin’toni from all over the world. This clan also has iron mines and the best of blacksmiths. They have also developed tons of methods and devices for torture. They use these devices on zu’aan they have captured and make them forcibly tell them their city/tribe’s secrets.

Their weapons coupled with their abilities of immense strength and agility make them almost impossible to defeat. The zu’aan would have to be extremely sharp-witted to be able to think of a way to defeat these kin’toni and even if they do, they would need huge amounts of luck to carry their plan off as just one of these kin’toni is enough to easily defeat 3 of them in single combat. They make great spies, are also strong and can not only wield their weapons with deadly aims, but are also creative about the weapons they make.

Their trade sector is also well established as they sell enough weapons to get them good money for it. Despite all their strengths, they are still kin’toni and even the slightest cut to the heart can kill them. On top of all that they are extremely restricted in the daylight. So, if an invasion happens in the daylight, then these kin’toni would be trapped in their own homes and would be thus, easily defeated. To make sure this doesn’t happen, Jaza Kelwori, the clan’s previous leader, made sure to construct a way out of their lands if such a situation arises.

One of the mines they dug was no use anymore as they had extracted all the iron-ore they could from it. Jaza Kelwori decided to use this mine to make a safe passage that would evacuate the kin’toni in case of an invasion. This passage took three years to build and opens at the other end to a land by the Tafa sea, in the east. Unlike the other clans’ secret tunnels, this doesn’t have multiple ways and passages. It has just one broad path that goes on and on in the darkness till it eventually emerges on the other side.

Even if the clan might know about this passageway, they don’t know where it opens to. The leaders of the clan were especially careful not to get such a vital information be known to everyone as a single spy in their midst could be the result of an army marching to their doors, trapping them in their own lands and also closing off their escape passageway. This passageway is probably the only reason why the zu’aan haven’t tried to attack this clan again as they don’t know its exit either and to waste a good number of soldiers on a battle that they would only lose, would only prove to be a move of utter stupidity and a waste of valuable lives.

Nearby Groups

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Kelwori Kin'toni Clan

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