Cutiausk Kin'toni Clan

History

The Cutiausk Kin'toni Clan was founded by three newly turned kin'toni. Their names were Avar, Torak and Sha'ok. These three recruited three hundred of the kin'toni living in the ruins of Xae'dehar who wanted to avoid persecution. The persecution was from zu'aan due to their proximity to Kran-Xtar. The Kran-Xtar zu'aan sent out hunters every so often to thin the herd of the kin'toni living in the hive city ruins. The clan formed slowly but surely. Avar, Torak and Sha'ok recruited kin'toni with their charms.

They promised safety and to be above the common rabble. Many loners and packs joined their cause and soon grew to three hundred individuals. The zu'aan of Kran-Xtar noticed and sent a large force of hunters to hunt down this fledgling clan. When the hunters entered the underhive, the clan struck. The darkness and the tight, ruined quarters gave the clan an advantage. The clan used ambush tactics to slowly pick off individual hunters and small groups. Slowly, the hunters' numbers thinned. The hunters tried to retreat and then clan struck as a whole.

Those hunters were bitten by the clan and secured for turning. The clan decided that it would be best to leave. The clan kept recruiting and soon had five hundred kin'toni. Under the cover of dusk, the clan left Xae'dehar. The clan traveled for many nights to the west and reached the Qobvoud Mountains. There, the clan found a cave system that went deep into the mountains. There, they decided to dig out their city from the rock. Slowly, the clan carved the rocks into the start of a grand city, that they called "Catalvar City".

The clan kept growing though the means of slow recruitment of loner kin'toni and even some packs. This city is carved into the stone of the Qobvoud Mountains. The clan built Ubvurai (homesteads), Mydrzuyirae (Turning Grounds) and Ouxuzai'zyzrs (Workshops). The clan wanted to avoid being persecuted again and decided it would be best to be beneath notice and hide. This also grew the mindset of preparation for disaster within the clan. The clan started to grow bloodroot, mushrooms and and started to farm animals in the caves that they controlled.

This plant can sate a kin'toni's bloodthirst for a while, but cannot replace feeding on mammals. They also started growing stocks of dried bloodroot and preserved animal blood. During the Shattering, the clan's preparation paid off. The clan hunkered down in their caves. They fed on bloodroot and their stocked animals. The clan was only found by one zu'aan tribe that was seeking shelter from the wars of the Shattering. The tribe was ambushed by the clan in the shallow caves of the network. When the tribe was overcome, they were bitten and turned.

The Shattering passed quietly for the clan in their well-hidden lair. As of 4E 500, the clan is feeling the cold creeping in. The clan plans to hunker down again and feed on their bloodroot and animals. The clan is confident that they can endure the ice age as they did the Shattering.

Psychology

Biology

The Cutiausk are adapted to the dark, cramped and damp Catalvar City. They are compact, dense, and heavily muscled of build, and built to rushing forces and navigate tight tunnels efficiently. The downside of this that they are slow and cumbersomeness in open space. The skin is pigment-less, white in color and covered in a keratinous, semi-flexible armor plating. This allows them to resist scrapes and falling debris. The downside of this heavy plating is that their dexterity and thermal sensitivity is limited.

Their hair is coarse and sparse, repurposed into bristles concentrated on the limbs and face,. These allow them to sense air currents and find obstacles in pitch darkness. Their eyes are blind, recessed and vestigial. The eyes are covered by an opaque, thickened membrane, protecting the eyes, but also rendering them sightless. Their ears are small and close to the skull, but the inner eyes are hyper-optimized to hear subtle echoes and vibrations traveling through solid stone. The downside of this is that loud noises can overwhelm their sensitive hearing.

Their noses are very large, and vascularized, with highly specialized chemoreceptors capable of detecting subtle gaseous leaks and blood from a great range, but can be overwhelmed by strong smells. Their teeth are thick, short and rounded, adapted for crushing small bone fragments or mineral deposits for supplementing their high calcium/iron needs, but due to this, they are inefficient for making clean, deep piercing wounds. The clan uses controlled, low-frequency guttural sounds as a form of echolocation.

The echolocation works well in confined spaces such as their city, but not so well in open spaces such as outside. The claws are blunt, spade like, and non retractable. They are reinforced with mineral deposits and are adapted for digging and bracing, but they struggle with fine manipulation or delicate tasks. Their elbows and knees possess a limited secondary joint lock. This allows them maintain rigid positions for extended periods while bracing heavy weight or tunnel collapse. The downside of this is that it sacrifices the fluid, dynamic movement needed for pursuit or evasion.

The hands and feet have specialized nerve endings and highly sensitive bone-receptor, via vibrations, they can have advanced warning of cave-ins, shifts, or large, approaching entities. The downside of this is that sensmic activity can overwhelm it. Their blood vessels are positioned deep within the muscle and bone mass for protection and lowering heat loss. The skeleton is very dense and thick, for resistance to heavy impacts and falls.The downside of this is that they are slow and with very low buoyancy.

The digestive tract has evolved temporary storage sacs to hold a small, emergency reserve of iron-rich fluid/sludge. The sacs are located next to major blood vessels as to allow for quick intake via the bloodstream. This allows them to endure periods of low-nutrition prey availability for days. The downside of this is that it is an weak point in their biology, and if damaged, it can lead to large amounts of bleeding.

Culture

When kin'toni of this clan go out for the night, they try to find something to quench their hunger and thirst right off the bat before the moon reaches its peak, so instead of looking for leaves to munch on they instead look for a Daquo Tree, which is often found on the grassy hills of the Gaia region. Once they bite into the bark of the tree the tree's sap, often referred to as yuwu, will begin to enter their mouths and once they've had a certain amount of the yuwu they will immediately take their fangs off of the tree and head off for the night to wander around. But while underground, Cutiauskans teach themselves how to make weapons out of rocks and metals.

Often spending half of the day working on a pair of weapons while at the same time making sure that these weapons are done at just the right angle and just the right size to carry around with them in case of invaders come and try to vandalize their land; this, in turn, makes the Cutiauskans one of the hardest-working clans in the kin'toni'ati species. During the latter half of the day leading up to the setting of the sun and dusk, they will hibernate while standing up, starting from the moment they step over a line inside their pod and start to fall asleep; sometimes, however, they may begin to sleepwalk sometimes and accidentally run into cavern walls while in their underground bunkers.

Causing them to wake up temporarily and walk back to their pod. As a result, they are one of the only clans, kin'toni'ati or zu'aan, that can sleep while standing up. Sometimes when they are out during the late hours of the night they will start to look for large-winged creatures called xytils and quench their thirst for blood by biting gently into the edge of the left or right-wing, which is surprisingly durable and strong as a result of the xytil's many layers of skin. Biting too soft or too hard will cause the xytil's wings to shake violently and send the Cutiauskan flying backwards and landing on his or her back; needless to say, it has to pierce the skin, but it can't penetrate it.

Two holidays of this clan are: Oraekai is a joyful cultural holiday celebrated just after the summer solstice. It is associated with strength and empathy. Celebrations last three days. Traditions include private singing, exchanges of gifts, signing of contracts and athletics competitions and Vorra is a religious holiday celebrated just after the spring equinox. It commemorates a change in plans. It is associated with balance, hope, a certain animal and love. Celebrations last six days. Many regions celebrate it differently. The written language has characters are formed with mostly curves in a detailed style.

Government

When the Cutiausk clan's initial rise to power peaked in around 4E 80, a government within the Cutiausk clan formed and was known at the time as the Cutiausqui, (Lilyt for Cutiausk Order and Tannt for Cutiausk Congress), which had a distinct set of rules for its clan and its government and was governed at the time by a tribe of 5 Cunzos, or Councilors. After the government was forcibly dissolved by the zu'aan governments of the time. The Cutiausqui was deemed inactive for 4 years after reforming in 4E 86 as the League of Cutiauskan Officials. It has remained active since then, but it is governed by 15 Cunzos, three of which assume the role of the clan leader.

In the Cutiauskan government, there are three leaders. The first is responsible for making all decisions regarding kin'toni'ati currency and value and is referred to by fellow Cunzos as the Monoza, or the Monetary Secretary. The second of these three leaders make decisions regarding how the clan's military carries out its missions and what it does in a typical session and is referred to as the Miliza, or the War and Militia Secretary. The last of these three leaders have the most control in this government and is responsible for passing laws related to the clan's way of life and nightly operations, and is referred to by fellow Cunzos as the Solza, or the Clan Enforcement Secretary.

The League of Cutiauskan Officials, often referred to in Tannt as the 'Cutiauskinati' and in Lilyt as the 'Cunzogocon', is primarily responsible for making sure that the clan they rule doesn't go extinct. It is also responsible for several other things, including the conducting of meetings to reach a consensus that allows the Solza to give the other Cunzos the power to vote on a law that he or she proposes and the carrying out of a general election cycle to allow members of the Cutiausk clan to vote the candidate of their choice into the League. During an election cycle, which occurs every six years.

Four of the Cunzos from the League will be selected randomly to create ballots to hand to members of the clan so that the ballots can be cast. Once the voting ends, the candidates that receive the most ballot votes will be chosen to represent the clan in the League as a Cunzo, with the option to serve either one term, two terms, or three terms, but they cannot serve more than three. Political Structure is a democratic republic and a strong influence is a religion. A popular issue is the bad legal system and the government's stability is extremely stable. Personal freedoms are somewhat repressed.

Military

The Cutiausk clan's military is often referred to as the Zulutu Quataka (Lilyt for Militia of Valor). It first came about at around the time the zu'aan governments discovered the clan's rise to power many years ago, but it, too, was forcibly dissolved for a time for obvious reasons, one of them being because it posed a threat to the zu'aan way of life. It wasn't until close to 4E 120. that the unnamed military reformed as its present name was decided upon by the clan's government at the time.

It has three main branches: The first is the Trysknorxa. To get into this branch you have to have a whole lot of patience, as well as a balance of strength, stamina, willpower, and agility. Members of this branch of the Zulutu Quataka must endure a physically demanding obstacle course that consists of three stages. The first of these stages, the Yal Ziq, requires a superior amount of agility and balance; the second of the three stages, the Fro Walo, requires a distinct and effective use of skill and strength; the final stage of the basic training obstacle course, the Baaq Caxra, is the most physically and mentally demanding of the three, requiring lots of stamina and willpower.

Many try this obstacle course, but less than a third of them ever get through the obstacle course and are initiated into this branch. The second is the Fyglitxob. Getting into this branch is often time easier, but the requirements of getting into this branch are quite tricky and the demand for intelligence, memory, and recollection is a must. People who apply for this branch are subject to a lengthy quiz spanning more than a hundred questions about the origins and chronology of the clan's military.

All responses must be made in either Lilyt or Tannt, but a person applying for this branch must get at least ninety of the questions correct. If the applicant incorrectly answers more than ten questions the quiz will come to an abrupt end and they will have to come back at a later time to try again. Less than a third of the applicants who apply are successfully able to complete the quiz the first time around, but a third of those who fail the quiz once eventually pass it the second time around. The third is the Xa Qonla. This is by far the most advanced branch of any clan militia in Terael, requiring a great deal of super kin'toni'ati stamina and agility.

Applicants for this branch are often subject to both an obstacle course and a quiz, but the initiation process is a combination of the two aforementioned branches, with the option of choosing either the obstacle course or the quiz first being very much an option. If they can get through both parts of the initiation process successfully, they will then be initiated into this branch and be given the privilege of learning how to glide. To apply for this branch, however, the applicant must have a wing

Religion

The clan believes in a faith called "Makaia", this is a faith in which a believer is said faith believes in the presence of an of spirits in all things around them and the gods, Gal (good of the sun), Tae (God of the stars), Nala (God of the moon), Tya (God of the earth), Mka (God of the seas) and Yatla (God of the sky). The Goddesses they believe in are Ual (Goddess of animals), Tala (Goddess of plants), E'ku (Goddess of light), She'a (Goddess of darkness), Dhe (Goddess of faith), Na'tal (Goddess of hope). They also worship their clan founder, Rykintas Aughan.

Therefore, Makaia is also a religion of common importance in the ideology of both one zu'aan tribe and a few kin'toni'ati cultures. The main deity of this clan's dominant religion of choice, as in most clans who believe in this religion of choice, is their clan founder; in this case, Cutiauskan Makaia praise and worship Rykintas Aughan. Makaia followers in this clan also believe that the many gods and goddesses live in the sky. They often eat a small piece of tree bark as it serves as a symbol of their devotion to the goddess of plants, Tala and of light, E'ku.

What's quite common in the Cutiauskan culture is the fact that, unlike most clans, church and state are not separate; given this, they can often be seen forming churches in underground bunkers that are dedicated to praising clan founder Aughan. Some of these churches can be found in caves, and those caves in which they worship and praise their clan founder are often known as cuthlaques (Lilyt for cathedrals). Common practices in Makaia churches and cuthlaques include a wide variety of songs and dances, which include a popular stomp-and-clap dance known as the yeqxo.

Which involve the chanting of their clan founder's last name and a complex synchronized combination of stomping and clapping. They sometimes go outside their cuthlaques to take pieces of bark off of trees and consume them to praise the spirit god in them. Symbol: is asymmetrical and has a crown. The holy colour is scarlet and it is passed down via several versions of one holy book called the Juayt. The creation myth type is the world-parent. Mortals' originate from ashes and a major myth and its symbol is the journey.

The Deadly Sins are apostasy, neglect, blasphemy and irresponsibility and High Virtues are selflessness and moderation. The Associated Artform is stories and parables and the coming of age rite takes place in a private ceremony. Marriage involves two people of either gender and marriage rites generally take place on holidays. Death Rites are performed by close friends and family and a major taboo is a physical contact. This is believed by almost all and outsiders are viewed with mistrust. The clergy study to become clergy.

Miscellany

It has been proven by kin'toni'ati and zu'aan scientists in the past that since the Cutiausk clan's body mass is predominantly muscled their scars and wounds heal very quickly with the right treatment, although it depends on how significant the injury is. It is also a proven fact in the kin'toni'ati community that when wounded in battle Cutiauskan soldiers often retreat to nearby underground bunkers for medicinal yuwu that is supposedly used as a makeshift dura bond to heal the skin of any flesh scars.

What's even stranger than that is, when used in battle, the weapons Cutiauskan kin'toni make out of rocks and metals can be surprisingly effective when dealing damage, but not so much when it comes to shielding themselves—so in addition to the weapons they spend half of the day making, they also make shields out of leather; according to some kin'toni, the shields, which are made out of a rock known as reifsdon, prove to take quite a bit of damage in battle and are surprisingly lightweight and hard to break.

Also, note that there are also moderate-sized animals in the underground caves which they find and take care of called myrzats. A Myrzat is often recognized by its dog-shaped face, cat-like whiskers, pointy spines, and strange cockatoo-like sounds. It is at times one of the smartest animals in the wide spectrum of animals of the Terael kingdom as they are often able to recognize and repeat certain phrases. When scared they will walk upright in a seemingly drunk fashion.

But among all the other things that have been proven about this clan, one of the most intriguing is the Cutiausk clan's ability to use their sharp fangs to chisel small pieces of rock. Sometimes when making weapons Cutiauskan kin'toni will use their fangs to chisel a piece of unwanted rock or metal and carve it into a sculpture that they intend to keep for safekeeping. It does take a couple of days of on-and-off work to accomplish this feat, however.

Nearby Groups

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Cutiausk Kin'toni Clan

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