Quahat Kin'toni Clan

History

One day, several months after the initial outbreak that marked the beginning of a new world for everyone and everything in it, a group of scientists that had survived the first kin'toni attacks by hiding in bunkers that the army had built, continued to work on the super-soldier program. They had such a strong belief that this would not only help with the problem that they had created in the first place, but also fix it. They had hopes that this new super soldier would be stronger than the kin'toni that were created in the first place. These scientists, however, did not have any connection with the Xerea Empire.

In fact, they despised them, the empire had them work for long hours with little pay and no respect for the project that there were in charge of. The scientists did not want to carry out this project for the sake the old days, they wanted to carry it out for their own sake and for Taerel. They felt as though they owed themselves a chance to try the experiment under their own conditions, not as a weapon, but as a cure for the problem that the world now faced. In the end, they though of their work as a process of healing, science is a way to heal the world and make it once again a prosperous place.

After a few years of hiding during the nights and using them as time to chart their next step, and using the days as opportunities to work in a lab that had not been fully destroyed, they finally reached a breakthrough. The scientists felt like they had identified the problem with the first experiment, however, as it often happens to good things, this progress was cut short. A zu'aan tribe appeared out of nowhere and found the hidden lab in the Lyrodrak cold forest, the scientists were stunned and their immediate reaction was to flee, without knowing that those were actually zu'aan and not kin'toni.

The zu'aan thought the same about them and was able to kill a few, nevertheless, a large group of scientists was able to escape and refugee themselves in a group of caves nearby. For years they lived in those caves, being shaped by the environment they found themselves in, and still being able to reproduce, given the fact that they were still zu'aan. After several decades, a large search party was sent out to the old lab, to check if anything had been left intact; unfortunately, almost everything was gone with the exception of a few samples they had made before the zu'aan barged in.

One of the oldest scientists analyzed the sample and made a decision to consume it, it was the very thing they had been working for a long time, it was their cure for the world. The first few days nothing happened, it seemed as though he had ingested nothing but old water, however, after one week the man started to experience changes in his body and shortly after became what could be called a kin'toni. Despite this change, he did not infect anyone else, he simply told the other people of the clan to ingest the same liquid he did and, due to his age and reputation, they did as he asked.

A few months after this, every single person had now become a kin'toni and the Quahat clan was formed.

Biology

The first man to change from zu'aan to kin'toni in the Quahat tribe was Umur, shortly after he drank the liquid they had prepared all those years ago, his body began to change, day the tone of the skin went from blue to green and everything in between, this was, as they later found out, a normal reaction to the ingestion of the liquid. After taking what later became known as “the cure”, the zu'aan slowly becomes a kin'toni and the first changes that can be seen are the one happening in the color of the skin and the lust for blood. However, these changes vary from person to person and some kin'toni aren’t even affected by this at all.

This blood lust is particularly interesting and something that the scientists meant to eradicate from the previous trials and, although it did not fully work, there are members of the Quahat tribe that do not have it and, in general, it is much weaker than in other kin'toni clans. This allows them to live their lives not tied to this constant need that needs to be fulfilled, the lifestyle that they lead before, as zu'aan, can almost be replicated now. However, the body does not have a healthy appearance after the infection, small things start to grow on the body itself.

Things that appear to be plants or fungi, dark orange irises with black sclerae and crescent pupils started appearing. This causes no pain or discomfort, nevertheless, some members of the Quahat tribe are afraid of this biological change and are worried that it will spread and cover the whole body. This does not happen in most kin'toni tribes that the Quahat have heard of, which means that something happened to the experiment that changed the way it impacted the zu'aan body. Additionally, their bodies react almost like paper when near fire, it can take only a few seconds for a kin'toni of this clan to burn to death, leaving no bones behind.

It was a tragic experience for the scientists when they understood that they had failed once more, the “cure” that they had been working on after the initial outbreak and that they have waited for, in the caves, for several decades, did not have the desired effect. They had not created something that could change the world, on the contrary, they had only succeeded in turning what where probably the only scientists left from the old zu'aan empire into kin'toni. And what they became wasn’t even the true super soldiers that they intended to make, they are not particularly strong, fast or agile.

If anything, the Quahat are, physically, underwhelming. The dream of making Taerel what it once was and fixing the initial mistake that they had made was now impossible, all the labs were destroyed and part of the knowledge was lot. The Quahat scientists had failed once again. However, as the “cure” continued to affect the biological traits of the Quahat, they began to see further changes and consequences of those changes that could have an enormous impact on the world, it remains to be seen weather this clan can take advantage of it.

Culture

Members of the Quahat tribe focus on a specific group of aspects in their society, these aspects are in accordance with what the goals and ideas the rulers of this clan have for the future. One of these important aspects is education, they are incredibly dedicated to educating new members of the clan, or even younger members in order for the knowledge they possess not to get lost. There are still children that a few of the original scientists while the tribe still hadn’t become a kin'toni clan. These children learned directly from their fathers and mothers.

And were instructed to keep on teaching others about the scientific discoveries of the past. Ever since, they have been fulfilling their parents desire to instruct others of the amazing things that were once achieved and will be achieved again. The whole identity of the Quahat is connected to science, given that they mutated through the liquid that one of the scientists ingested after being underground for decades. It is considered one of the objectives of the clan to teach everyone the most they can teach, the more information one has about something, the further all of Taerel can progress.

They hope that the kin'toni can have a better future and that the zu'aan can be a part of this future, however, many question the willingness these two sides have to work together. Furthermore, this clan has an obsession with languages, the majority of cultures usually rely on one single language, however, the Quahat have two main languages. These are not different dialects, but different ways of communicating altogether. Besides their main language that is made up of an alphabet with almost forty letters, they have a second language that can be considered more primitive.

This language is only used in specific situations in which a kin'toni wants to hide the fact that they are in a particular area, it is often used as a means of communication around enemy soldiers. This language is entirely made up of sounds, specifically, whistling. Each sound that one can make by whistling represents a particular word or expression and, although this has its uses, the amount of words one can say using this language is very minimal, which is why it is spoken in key words, such as this: “Tomorrow be sun”. Nature is also very important to their culture.

After the first mutations, the members of the clan understood that they had developed a special connection with nature, maybe due to the fact that they lived in caves to survive for a while and never ended up building a settlement. This means that everything they do has a large focus on nature and every aspect of it. They absolutely refuse to harm animals in order to retrieve pelts or something else of the sort, on the contrary, the animals live with the kin'toni as if they were also an important part of the clan, which they end up being.

Government

In their days as zu'aan scientists after the outbreak, most of these men and women did not have any purpose besides surviving and this was only important because surviving served their actual objective, to solve the problem that they and the Xerea Empire had created. Due to this, the leaders of the group of scientists were a man and a woman that had been in charge of the whole experiment and were highly regarded as top scientists, despite their recent failures. The roles they had were simply to keep everyone alive and maintain the conditions of the lab so that they could advance their research.

However, after a zu'aan tribe entered the lab out of the blue, this man and this woman were killed and the Quahat – that still did not call themselves by this name – had to abandon their bodies if the tribe was going to survive. In the caves, leadership was important, the scientists never had to do much else than work, they lived for their job and there was nothing on their minds beside it, this meant that leading the survival of this group out in the wilderness was not an easy task. They used their analytical thought-process in order to chose a leader that could step up to this role.

In the end, an unlikely leader was chosen, she was considered one of the worst scientists of the group and usually the other preferred to do their assignments without her. However, what she lacked in this particular aspect, she compensated for in bravery and creativity, it was her that led them out into the caves after the death of its former leaders had left the group disoriented and it was her who had delegated the tasks that were necessary to perform if they were going to survive. She ended up ruling for a few decades and taught the other how to act in a situation that required more than simply being a “scientist”.

She died of old age and never saw the transformation of these zu'aan into kin'toni, although she never lost sight of their former goal, she was never able to see her tribe succeed in getting back to the lab. After she passed away, an old man was chosen as the best choice to lead the tribe, he had been a trusty advisor of the former leader and was the obvious candidate for the job. Despite him being an old man, his rule was quite energetic and it brought about the greatest change that had happened to the Quahat for a few decades now. He was the one that created a search party that went back to the lab.

And he was the first to undergo the transformation, by his own choice, to what he though was going to be the solution for Taerel’s problem. Until now he has been the ruler of the Quahat and has taken the clan in a direction that most did not expect.

Military

The focus of the Quahat is not on military prowess, they are considered one of the clans that is less focused on their offensive power. As scientists, they had little use for war and almost no time to train and build weapons, the time that they did have, was used almost solely for their project. Besides, war was something that they did not want more of, the whole purpose of their lives was to rid Taerel of the same suffering they had created. Once they found themselves on the verge of a conflict, with the zu'aan that had strangely found out where the lab was, they had almost no way to defend themselves.

Although the entrances to the laboratory where being controlled by a gas the scientists had created, it did little more than stun the zu'aan as they entered, and it might have even made them more furious. Obviously, the fight did not go their way, a few scientists ended up dying and only one of the zu'aan was killed due to an explosion in the lab itself. At this time, the Quahat could be considered one of the weakest zu'aan in all of Taerel, they lacked the skills that others have naturally learned in order to survive. After leaving for the caves, this had to change.

The new leader of the tribe created a training regiment for a few soldiers, that from now on would protect the tribe. The cave did not have many materials, which meant that the soldiers needed to learn to fight with only their bodies, which turned out to be a positive thing, they do not need to rely on other things such as weapons. As they gained the confidence to leave the caves, they were able to gather wood and rocks that then were used to make several spears and stakes. These were the first weapons that the Quahat had access to and it took them a while to integrate them into their original, weaponless, fighting style.

However, even after these changes, the army that the Quahat had was not very impressive, most of them had no experience in a battle and whatever training they had could not compensate for that. What this clan excels in is using their intelligence to given them an edge over adversaries and that is precisely what they have done to have a chance against more powerful clans or tribes that could be threats in the future. They have constructed a series of structures that range from massive crossbows that take two men to operate and can shoot an arrow almost a meter long.

To moats that cannot be spotted by the enemy and are spread out all throughout the region – these are also used for hunting. In the end, their competitive advantage over the enemies derives mainly from the things they are able to invent with what they have. Animals have become a big part of the Quahat army, because of their special link to nature, this clan has been able to get horses and other kinds of animals trained so that they could be used as war animals. Due to this, the Quahat have one of the largest potential cavalries in Taerel, unfortunately, the number of riders is far inferior to the number of horses.

Other animals that have characteristics that would benefit them on the battlefield are also trained to fight alongside the Quahat soldiers.

Religion

Religion is a complicated aspect of this clan, on the one hand, they have always denied the existence of a God or anything that could be considered supernatural. As scientists, anything that transcends the laws of logic is seen as something that goes against their own beliefs. What they were trying to achieve was a product of a long and arduous scientific process, that relied on a scientific method and a worthwhile experimentation. The belief in the supernatural goes against these ideas and, for some, even feels like a betrayal of one’s own integrity.

This means that the scientists who do believe in a particular God are looked at as less important and less dedicated to the mission that they are trying to accomplish. As they left the lab, their purpose was now more distant than it had ever been and, for some, this left a whole that many tried to fill through a variety of ways. One of these ways was religion, although it was still looked down upon, many Quahat had nothing else to hold on to besides the belief in a single or many Gods. It was not really important what kind of God it was, or even if there were several.

Most Quahat only cared about one thing, preserving their sanity, through whatever means necessary. Many forced their beliefs on themselves, it was clear that they did not think God was real, however, they made themselves think that in order to achieve their goal. Their connection with nature provided a perfect middle ground, through it, they developed a kind of spiritual life that did not go against their values and ideas of what they should be. They though about nature as if it were a God, a powerful being that never waivers and is in full control of the world, however subtly.

Natura, as they called it, was not only all of Taerel’s living creatures, it encompassed the entirety of the things that nature is in control of, winds or rivers, for example, very much counted towards this entirety. Although there are no rituals, they are glad to know that something they respect is controlling the world.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Quahat Kin'toni Clan

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