Ar'cer City Zu'aan

History

It was a well-known fact that the Ar’cer zu’aan were a proud and smart clan. They took pride in their lives and always made sure they were courteous and kind to each other. At least, that was how they were. When the Shattering happened, there was as shift in their reality. Everything they thought they knew had changed, and they were they were faced with a huge decision. They would either have to leave their beloved city, or they would have to stay and fight. For the longest time they chose to fight. Everything they did, they did for the well-being of their people.

That meant that when the kin’toni started to flood their city, they did everything in their power to stop them. They crafted crossbows with poisoned arrows designed to severely injure the kin’toni, if not kill them, and they fortified their homes to keep them safer at night. This worked for them for a long time before they realized they would have to move. They had been fighting the kin’toni for so long and they were losing more than they were winning. There was no longer a point for them to stay where they were. This was when members of the government convened and decided there was no feasible reason for them to stay where they were.

They were being attacked most every night and were losing many members of their villages, all to do it again the next night. So, when morning came, they packed as much of their things as they could and they fled. Women and children stayed in the middle of their group, surrounded by the men who were equipped with what they needed to keep everyone safe. They took as much as each of them could carry, and they loaded up carts and trollies that were drawn by animals. It was nearly a week of travel and defending themselves through the night before they stumbled upon Tin'quee Verdant Sands.

There looked to be nothing but sand there when they laid rest on the 7th day, but as they looked around, they realized the potential of the land around them. They knew they were father from kin’toni clans as there weren’t nearly as many attacks on their people, and the warmer climate made it easier for them to enjoy themselves as they started to build their city from the ground up. It took them just over a month to build as many homes as they needed for their people, ensuring each and every one of them had somewhere to live. As they made their homes, there were some members that had to leave their regular building job to help build a fortifying wall around the city.

While at first there was confusion surrounding the wall, the people were happy that they wouldn’t have to worry about kin’toni getting into their city to attack them. This is when the madness started for them. There were men and women from their military appointed to guard the wall day in and day out, and the vow was made to never leave the wall as doing so would mean you would be assumed kin’toni and would be murdered. This madness continued on for years and did nothing but create problems for their city.

Psychology

The paranoia of the Ar’cer city had continued to grow from the time they built their city. They had sought out living in Tin'quee Verdant Sands because they enjoyed the heat there, and because they knew they were far enough away from any surrounding kin’toni clan villages. When they first moved there, there was happiness. They were excited that they didn’t have to worry about the attacks as much as they had when they were forces to leave their previous city. As the wall around their city was erected, there was peace felt among the members of the Ar’cer city. They were able to sleep better knowing they would be safe there.

After a while, there was more paranoia surrounding members leaving the safe walls of the city, and the government declared that anyone leaving would be assumed to be a newly changed kin’toni and would be ordered to be killed on sight. At this point, no one was allowed to leave the city, as it was widely believed that no on would be safe if they did. It had gotten to the point where they weren’t even allowed to step out and step back in without being assumed as a kin’toni and killed where they stood. It became a widespread paranoid around the city, with the news of it spreading fast.

They all talked about it, wondering how they had gotten to this point. There were some that didn’t agree with the tactics being used by the government, but if they were to announce their non-compliance, they would be taken outside the wall and left to die there. It was known that the government had gone overboard with their so-called survival techniques. There were members of the city that wanted to leave to explore the world beyond, but they weren’t allowed to. There were no other zu'aan allowed inside the wall either, and so they became very reliant on each other, and that was it.

There were shipments from supposed “trusted” zu'aan cities that would be left on pulleys on the other side of the wall to be hoisted over for their use. The things contained on these crates were things that couldn’t be found on the inside of the wall, and so they would be put through a heavy inspection before being released to the public. Even in having these shipments, members of the city were very confused and unhappy with how they were being treated. While they were happy they didn’t have to worry about being attacked in the middle of the night, they didn’t think they should have to stay stuck inside the wall when there were other things that could be done to keep them safe.

For the longest time the members of the city remained compliant with the laws surrounding the wall, but after some time, they started to curse the existence of the wall, wishing they could leave. There was never anything that was done about it, as they didn’t want to be tossed out and killed beyond the wall, but the drive to leave was always there.

Culture

Since they only had themselves and each other to rely on, practices and holidays started to look a little different inside of the wall. For the first few years they had tried to re-conform to the way they had been before, celebrating their old holidays to keep the joy there. They tried so hard to make it work for years before they gave up, realizing that they weren’t happy with their holidays the way they were. They didn’t want to stay the way they were, and in a matter of years, they had denounced their holidays.

For a couple of years they did nothing in the way of celebrations that weren’t birthdays. However, once the government announced a new idea for a celebration, there were many zu'aan that were excited to adopt it. This holiday came once a couple times a year, usually on the hottest, driest days, and they named it the rebirth solstice. During this time they would score their skin with knives so they were bleeding, and they would walk outside, naked, into the hot sun to ensure the scent of their burnt, dry blood carried for miles around them.

They did this to thank the sun for the way it was keeping them safe and keeping the kin’toni away from them. As well, as a group, they would all collectively fill a bucket with their blood and dump it over the wall so it would draw kin’toni to the wall in the night. As soon as night fell they would take their turns going up and shooting any kin’toni that showed up so they could brag about it. While they were taking their turns, they would have a cookout for the rest of the city to enjoy themselves while they waited for a turn. They would get drunk and be loud in hopes that it would draw even more kin’toni to them.

That was how they liked it to be, but how much they got into it was the reason why they didn’t want to have it happen too often. Aside from celebrating their rebirth solstice, there weren’t many other things they would do that set them apart as their own culture. The only other thing was that they weren’t allowed to have children until the government told them they were allowed to. They would have to prove themselves, as well as meet certain milestones so they would be allowed to reproduce.

This was put in place so that there weren’t too many children born into the city, since there were no plans to expand, in the near future. Because of this, they would have to make sure the government approved of them having children of their own. Since this was such a problem for them, all children born with permission would be marked with a scar on the bottom of their foot. They would be branded so that at any point the government would be able to check and see if they were allowed to be born or not.

If there were ever any children that weren’t allowed to be born, that didn’t have that scar, they would be taken from their homes and would be thrown over the wall to the kin’toni.

Government

The government for the Ar'cer city had become corrupt over time. The longer they were in the wall, the more corrupt they became. There were members of the government that were appointed because they were the ones that decided to move their home, or because they had the idea to build the wall. Because of this, these members of the government were given more power than they should have been, and that in itself made them more corrupt. Because they were allowed to have full reign over laws that were made, there were members of the city that didn’t like the laws that were made, but weren’t able to change them.

The laws in the city were 1. No kin’toni allowed inside the wall. 2. No leaving the city, 3. Always protect the wall. There were many people that didn’t like that the protection of the wall cam over the protection of the people inside of it. While it was known that they were to be protected inside of the wall, there were many that didn’t feel safe because of how the laws were inside. There wasn’t a lot of leeway when it came to people being allowed to grow their family or to have fun, meaning they weren’t able to have children unless the government told them they were allowed to.

As children grew, they were embedded with the knowledge that the wall was there to keep them safe, and that at the same time, they would grow up to be a protector of the wall. Going through school, they weren’t able to learn the same things as regular zu'aan children were. They would be raised with the knowledge that once they were out of school, they would have to get a job within the government, or they would be joining the military. Since they were the youngest, and there were so few children born, when they were born, they were responsible for keeping the city growing and progressing.

There were only enough children allowed to be born each year to replace losses, and that was to always ensure that there weren’t too many children overpopulating the city before they would be given their jobs once they came of age. As time went on and the children grew into their jobs, they settled in well with the tasks they were given, wanting to fit in well and make their place in the city the same was as their parents and family members did before them. They grew up as corrupt as the government was, as that was the plan to keep them that way so the city could progress as the original government officials had built it.

Military

Because they didn’t leave the wall, the main purpose of the military was to guard the wall and make sure there weren’t any kin’toni that were climbing the wall or trying to get through. Since this was the most daunting job to be done, the members of the army were regarded just as highly as the members of the government. They were the ones that had to keep everyone safe, and because of that they were usually the ones that were at the front of the line for food, or they were the ones that were asked to find suitable people to have children with so that their bloodline would carry on.

As well, since the army had the hardest job of everyone, the government expected more people to apply to be a part of the military. While this was the expectation, there were many that didn’t want to risk their lives and have so many expectations on their shoulders at the same time. There were always eyes on the members of the army, and that was a strong reason why other members of the city didn’t want to apply. As soon as someone was accepted to be a part of the military, their training began right away. There was training with cross-bows and shields as main weapons since they were only in charge of being on top of the wall, shooting the kin’toni that gathered there.

On top of cross-bows and shields, the army would have to train with swords as well, that way if there were any kin’toni that did manage to climb the wall to quickly, they would be able to fight them there and not have to worry about being without a weapon to fight them off. While they were working the wall, they would have 2 members on each part of the wall. This was to ensure that there were no kin’toni missed while the other was fighting off some of them. While there weren’t usually too many there on a good day, knowing that there was backup in case something happened, a weapon failed, or the kin’toni were too fast too keep up with was a good insurance policy.

When the members of the city would participate in their rebirth solstice, the army would have to call in every member that they had, because there was always a chance that there were going to be hoards of kin’toni, especially since there was blood that was poured over the side of the wall. When there were so many kin’toni showing up, the military would make games out of killing them. They would do what they could to hide and make it seem like there was no one there, and then all of a sudden they would jump out of the shadows and kill the kin’toni before they had a chance to retaliate.

This was common practice for the military as they craved entertainment while they were working.

Religion

Since they had moved to a warm and sunny climate, the Ar'cer city zu'aan had started to worship the sun. They were thankful that the sun would keep them safe from the kin’toni, and that the heat would keep them warm year-round. When they first moved to their new city and started to build it up, they weren’t trying to find a new religion, but the people of the city realized this was something they could control, something that the government couldn’t take from them like they had with everything else.

Once they had established everything that they needed to make the religion of worshipping the sun work, they had to recruit believers. This didn’t take long, much to the surprise of the founders of the religion, but they realized that many of the members of the city were looking for something to do with their free time since they weren’t able to go outside the wall. It wasn’t long before the government was approaching the founders of the religion to see if there was any way they could work together. The government initially wanted to own part of the religion, but they were quickly told they weren’t allowed to, as they would change things without notice and that wasn’t something they wanted.

Instead, they came to the conclusion that the ritual of branding newborn children would be done within the church, on top of marriages and funerals. They were okay with it as it gave them purpose, and a say in what was happening within the city. Because of the way the religion worshipped the sun, when the city celebrated their rebirth solstices, it was regarded as a highly religious event. Since they were going out and thanking the sun with their blood, the leaders of the religion made sure that the zu'aan that were participating were following the religion well, and in doing so, would be maximizing the believers of their religion.

They had crafted the blade that some of the zu'aan would use to score their skin to make themselves bleed, and they did this because the members of their religion that used the blade to score their skin would be regarded as higher for performing the solstice within the rules of the religion. The more members that were seen doing this meant that there would be others that would do the same, and that made more flock to the religion. While it had no name, it was widely known through each generation that worshipping the sun was something that could be done without much touch from the government, which was why there were so many other zu'aan that would flock to it.

They felt safe being able to choose what they wanted to believe, and there was never any pressure to participate more than they already were.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Ar'cer City Zu'aan

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