Danynn Kin'toni Clan

History

The Danynn Kin'toni Clan was founded in 4E 407. The clan started as a gathering of exiles in the Noit Quagmire. The exiles gathered there as it was an unclaimed and unappealing region. The region, being so ruined, attracted little interest other than by the warring kin'toni bands. In the early days of the Danynn, the clan had to stay hidden in order to hide from the warring bands.

The clan used an overlooked ruin's still-usable basement as their base. The ruin was left the same to avoid notice. The clan recruited to grow their numbers. It accepted exiles and those unhappy with their bands, along with others. To accommodate the new clan members, the clan mined out tunnels and rooms in the soft rock under the basement. Once the clan grew big enough, they struck.

The clan first attacked the Matys band. This band was based in a large clump of thick plants thick enough to shade from sunlight. Their home was found via careful scouting. The clan attacked the Matys at dawn, when the Matys started to rest for the day. To drive the Matys out, the Danynn set fire to the plants. They killed any Matys that tried to flee the flame. A few managed to escape and spread the word of the Danynn's existence.

The next target was the Isu'ak band. The band was based in a large ruin and had fortified it. The Danynn attacked using their hands and numbers to tear down the barricades. There was bloody room-to-room fighting as each room had to be cleared. The Danynn took heavy losses from this operation. Once the Danynn were done, they took over and started to rebuild the large ruin using local wood and stone.

The final band taken down was the Ethi. The Ethi lived under the sludge in a deep sinkhole. To find the clan, they used information from an Isu'ak member they tortured. The Isu'ak and the Ethi were trade partners. To assault the sinkhole would be death. So, the Danynn surrounded the sinkhole and cut off all supplies. To make things quicker, they used the carcasses of animals with sicknesses.

The Ethi in the sinkhole had the choice to either die of starvation or die from the sicknesses in the tainted blood of the carcasses. The clan waited over three months before the band surrendered. Their numbers were decimated by the sicknesses and hunger. The remaining members of the Ethi joined the Danynn. The Danynn started converting the sinkhole into a fortress.

In the Shattering, the Noit Quagmire was overlooked as a "useless" region. The clan only had to deal with wandering lone kin'toni and packs. Even a few bands made a problematic appearance. The bands were problematic as the clan was already weakened. Their battles with the Isu'ak and the Ethi had led it to be unable to bear much more in the way of losses. The clan survived the Shattering by hiding.

By 4E 500, the clan was already dwindling and had new problems. The icy claws of the North and South crept closer each day. The water was slowly chilling. The fish the clan relied on slowly died. The clan's members were considering going into hibernation in order to wait out the new danger. Few kin'toni had thought of coming to the Noit Quagmire, and even cannibalism would not help. Slowly, the clan starved.

Biology

The clan is adapted to the muddy, ruined Noit Quagmire. The clan are short and muscular in the way a swimmer is. Their bodies are adapted to an muddy, wet, ruined landscape. Their skin is mottled and streaked with browns, greens, and pale grays. The clans' skin has bioluminescent bacteria in symbiotic patches. These glowing patches are used for communication in the darkness.

Their skin is slimy and exudes a slimy mucus. This mucus makes them slippery and easily able to move though the mud. The mucus ha mild antiseptic properties, to help prevent infections. The skin has to remain moist at all times, or the kin'toni will start to dry out. This leads to cracks in the skin and pain. Such wounds often become infected. They lack all body hair, as it would be a hindrance in their wet, muddy environment.

The clan relies on their ability to breath though their skin underwater. This clan adapted to be able to draw more oxygen out of the skin then a normal kin'toni. Kin'toni of this clan can extrude a potent musk used for marking territory and deterring predators. This musk is strong and smells like rotting plants. Their eyes are a dull cloudy yellow, with large pupils and irises.

Those eyes are adapted to darkness, light being able to blind them. The eyes have a retractable membrane that protects the eyes in water and allows them to see well underwater. Their ears are small, but pointed and flat on the sides of the head. Their ears have shields of skin that close in water. The clan's flat noses is adapted to an powerful sense of smell, used for tracking prey.

This sense of smell can be overwhelmed by strong smells. heir mouths are full of thin, sharp needle teeth, adapting to feeding on fish. Their teeth shed and grow over time. The clan's tongues are forked and full of chemoreceptors. Using this, they can "taste" the water to sense danger and find food. The claws on their hands and feet are thin and sharp, for catching fish and their feet are webbed to aid swimming.

The clan has flexible joints, allowing them to fit between thick mats of plants. The bones are also less dense and have air sacs inside. This allows them to be more able to float in water. These adaptions have the downside of making them more fragile than kin'toni of other clans. It is noted that kin'toni of this clan have a specialized secondary stomach. This allows them to eat bacteria-rich mud for additional nutrients.

This cannot replace blood, but can supplement temporarily. They also have an organ allowing them to produce clicks and low-frequency vocalizations. These sounds travel effectively through water and mud. The clan possesses lungs, but they are small and only used for backup. These lungs hold a single large gulp of air, used for a short burst of speed. In times of hardship, the clan can enter torpor.

This form of shallow hibernation allows them to survive periods of extreme environmental stress. Whilst in torpor, their food needs are lessened but they are slow to awaken.

Culture

kin'toni of the Danynn kin'toni Clan takes pride in what they are. The only reason they hide is the fatal sunlight during the day. Being knowledgeable is considered a feat. They do not want to be disturbed and love peace, although when threatened, they will slaughter their enemy. On the first day of every month, they participate in a great hunt. On that night, the skilled hunters will go into the nearest human settlement. Being a hunter is one of the highest honor one can get in this clan.

There are multiple classes in this clan, such as Hunter, Warrior, Spy, Harvester, Leader, and a Wise advisor to the leader. There is a different guild for each class, guilds use to be underground large chambers where the warriors reunite to show their war trophies and exchange them for better weapons, armors, materials, or titles. The warrior titles are leather crests carved with symbols that represent the respective titles, being the most complex designs proper of the expert warriors.

They can change of class if they want, they will keep their current title but there will take to start from first to get titles in a different class. War trophies can have any shape and size, they could be enemy weapons, armors, rare articles, the head or arm of a brave enemy or a savage beast, tusks, horns, skulls of large fangs. Skins and leathers are valuable too, however, they are not considered war trophies. Inexperienced hunters can try to get a title by defying to duel to a stronger warrior, it usually ends with the younger one dead.

Younger warriors can become apprentices of stronger ones, they would earn battle experience, and the apprentice can´t get war trophies but keep battle spoils; a master warrior can kill a stubborn and low-skilled apprentice. If their hideouts are assaulted by zu´aan or other kin'toni clans, they will seek revenge even if it takes several times, it´s an insult to their warrior honor to be found in a place where they are weak and vulnerable. These bursts of rage have been used many times for other clans to lure Dannyn kin'toni warriors to a trap.

Blinded by their pride they will fight against any amount of enemies, there is too late to give up when they realize they can´t win. There is no difference between the male and the female members of the clan, both are awarded and punished under one law and one leader. Even though turning a human is an option to multiply the numbers, it is frowned upon, and in lack of a good reason, if a member does turn someone, they can be punished. Even the leader is punished according to this.

The first leader that Klaud throned was dethroned due to this very reason. Her name was Laila La'maul, she used to live in the clan but had no position and was served very last at any type of meal.

Government

Officially there is a leader that rules and commands the decisions in the clan, however, it is not a big difference compared with other members of the clan since the leader has no special benefits or rights that marks a high superiority over the rest of the clan. A leader can be judged with the same severity as anybody, their faults ruling are punished and their decisions must be checked before. The leader uses to take charge of diplomatic relations with other clans, assign missions to the guilds, solve trouble between members of the clan and give rights of caves and grottos.

The leader´s decisions are valued by a group of old members of the clan, who listen to the leader explaining his ideas. There are no official members of a court or council, which is what these old ones do since there are no official posts sometimes there can be more or fewer members each time the leader has a meeting. The leader used to call with a bell to the older ones to follow him and listen to his idea in a wide underground chamber with stone benches, the elders take to sitting and listen to the leader if the idea is good they applause.

If they don´t like the idea they get up grumbling quietly, almost silent, and go out walking, leaving the leader alone in the chamber. The security is in charge of the guilds, each guild has guards that use to walk through the clan territory, searching for intruders or signs of stranger traces. The main interest of the guilds is not to lose turf that could be taken by other guilds to set storages, training rooms, or living rooms; Dannyn warriors are so trusted in their own power that they are more worried about the other members of the clan than foreigner threats.

Each guild has a master, the guild masters are more important and more feared than the leader of the clan. They take their own decisions despite the words of the clan leader. A guild master is a warrior that defeated all the other strong members of the guild, his functions are to value war trophies, manage the personnel in the guild, talk with other guild masters and authorize the title degrees of the ascended warriors. A guild member wins the title of guild master by defeating in the battle the current guild master, it is enough with making the guild master surrender although most of them prefer to die before surrender.

The personnel in the guild is chosen by the guild master, there are storage keepers, who arrange weapons, armors, materials, and other pieces in the storage; guild secretaries make the paperwork related to the missions, rewards and files of the guild members; smiths, who design specialized weapons and fix equipment in a workshop of the guild; and trainers, who teach basic techniques and judge in battle the aspirants who want to join to the guild.

Military

Since the clan doesn´t follow warlike orders of the clan leader or a general there is not an army defined. All members are very proud and believe they can win their battles alone, they only make battle groups fight against other enemy groups, although they only will join with other members if they want. The main war forces are from the guilds, who have specialized warriors instead of the common clan members. The closer to an army is the guild brigades, which are made with members of the same guild, chosen by the guild master and sent to the battle.

The guild brigades use to have high-level warriors, there is not frequent to see guild brigades of two different guilds, and is rare to see battles that involve guild brigades of all the guilds. Hunter guild brigade is equipped with nets, whips, ropes, poison darts, and hammers, they are focused on catch war prisoners. Their armor use to be a mix of light armor and heavy armor apparel that they choose by themselves, the only common characteristic is the hunter guild crest.

Warrior guild is equipped with swords, spears, mauls, and axes, also they use to be protected with full armor; in every battle, the warrior guild is the heavier weaponry, they can control easily a close combat battle and could win without the help of other guild brigades if there were no long-range weapon using enemies. Spy guild brigade is uncommon since they don´t use to fight close to their guildmates, they spread in the battlefield and try to make sabotage on the enemy equipment, send signals to warn their own clan, and use to fight undercover with poison darts, poison daggers, and throwing knives.

To be smooth they don´t wear armor, only cloaks or hoods, depending on the enemy look, to infiltrate their forces. Harvester clan is formed by farmworkers who take work tools as weapons, they are armed with shovels, rakes, scythes, canes, pitchforks, and pickaxes. They don´t have armor, which doesn´t make them easy rivals; their force is in the numbers. The leader of the clan takes charge of diplomatic relations, sometimes is the leader who brings news of a battle coming next, other times is the leader who decides to launch a surprise attack to invade nearby terrains.

The leader of the clan asks the guild masters to send the guild brigades, which will happen if they accept, otherwise it will be until the guild masters decide to send the guild brigades once the enemy forces are invading their territory. Dannyn warriors use to join with others in a battle when there are zu´aan or other kin'toni clans trying to invade their territory, battles to defend turf can become a survival situation, in that cases it doesn´t matter the guilds or affinity relations. There are few clans who could win a war against all the Dannyn guild brigades together.

Religion

The polytheism of Dannyn clan is uncommon, their members believe in many gods, at the same time most of the population believes in a single god according to the guild they belong to. There is the main god that has a snake shape that represents the clan. It is considered the god of life. There was a moment when all members of the clan believe in this deity, once they join to a guild they forget about it and adopt another god. Clan members who don´t join guilds believe in many gods that represent emotions, weather, skills, and labors.

They make altars to pray to these gods, flat stones with many objects representative of the deities. A single altar can be dedicated to many gods at same time. Hunters believe in a god of the hunt that has ax shape, they use to draw it as an ax stuck in a skull, cutting it by the half. The hunters believe their own ax is a link to their god and the best way to give respect to it is by covering the ax with prey´s blood. They pray to the god holding the ax with the eyes closed before going hunting. Their religious altars use to be pieces of wood with an ax stuck on them.

Warriors pray to a god with soldier shape, it is a kin'toni who carries a sack full of weapons. They believe the training is a way to make happy to their god, so they train every day. They pray for getting a victory in their battles, if they lose they pray for the rematch. Warriors believe their god will grant them mastery control of every weapon. They don´t have religious altars, however, they consider the armory and the training room are sacred spaces to pray and make contact with their god.

The spy guild has a god with the shape of a bipedal figure covered with a hood, holding a knife in a hand and a book in the other. Spies use to meditate, hoping to make contact with their god and get enlightened. They pray to their god to not be spotted during infiltrations or when they are watching travelers and trade caravans. They believe their god is always watching them. Harvester clan believes in a god with shape of seed, they believe it is the best representation for their god who makes the fields grow, the gardens bloom and the cattle to get big and fat.

Harvesters pray to their god before work, they hope to make happy to their deity with hard work. Their altars use to be tables with work tools and bowls filled with vegetables, flowers, or seeds. The guild masters make the function of priests too. They use to preach to the guild members in the ceremonial chamber of the guild, they decide if somebody is acting against the faith, the actions that could make get angry with their gods and give advice to their followers. The guild master is accepted as somebody who was enlightened or chosen by their respective deity.

Miscellany

The physic shape and characteristics of Dannyn clan make them believe they could be snakes in the past. Due to their body flexibility, the Dannyn can dodge attacks easier than many kin'toni clans. Since Dannyn can produce a powerful poison in their body they are hunted alive by zu´aan tribes that want to get their poison. There are many classes in the clan, some classes disappeared due to the lack of members and there are groups who pretend to create new classes.

Since guild members sacrifice war trophies burning them, the war trophy storages never get full. They believe burning the trophies is the way to send them to their gods. Each guild has a taxidermy workbench to dissect heads and limbs to convert them to war trophies. Guild members from different guilds can exchange objects for something they think would fit better according to their guild. Dannyn know how to make fire, they only use it in the smithy and for religious purposes.

The leader of the clan can´t belong to any guild, it can´t be a relative or friend of any guild master. A leader who committed several mistakes can be punished by the older ones. The bell for calling the older ones has been always the same, the new leader receives it from the older ones. The head of another clan member can´t become in a war trophy, no matter if it was severed after a fair duel. Due to the nature of their biology, any clan member can spit on a weapon to turn it poisonous.

Despite their belief in a guild god, all clan members consider snakes as sacred animals, and if they are attacked by a snake it is believed it was a punishment from the gods. Since all the clan members are immune to the poison of each other’s it´s considered bad manners to try to poison somebody else. Dannyn clan are great dancers, they enjoy the music and the minor rhythm can make them dance. Warrior guild god has the shape of an advanced zu´aan soldier from before the kin'toni outbreak started, probably they remember it unconsciously.

Guilds are constantly struggling to increase their territory and get more space through more underground chambers and caves, to be bigger than other guilds. Despite the stretch capacity of their bodies to fit in small spaces, Dannyn warriors don´t like to hide unless there is sunlight; they prefer to fight against their enemy even if they are over outnumbered. It was a healer guild before, that helped the wounded warriors during the battles, it disappeared because Dannyn is very proud and doesn´t like to receive help from another guild than the one they belong to.

Dannyn clan is unpleasant for many kin'toni clans with better smell sense, who dislike the smell of rotten blood. There are general smithies to make steel objects and tools, those workers are less skilled than the guild smithies. Since their skull is not flexible, Dannyn jaw is rigid, then they must chew their food instead of eating it completely as snakes, they still try.

Nearby Groups

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Danynn Kin'toni Clan

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