K'hil Kin'toni Clan

History

Psychology

Biology

The K'hil are adapted to the Echves Coniferous Swamp, with acidic, cold water and dense trees casting an eternal gloom. They have lean, elongated bodies with narrow shoulders and hips. This allows them to move silently between the tight trees and dense underbrush. Their skin is a dark, almost black grey, that has subtle vertical stripes of dark grey. This acts as camouflage in the dark, wet conifer trunks. The texture is oil-slick.

The skin produces an mild alkaline oil to protect from the acidic swamp peat water, stopping them from getting chemical burns and erosion. The clan are hairless, lacking all air to lower drag in the water. Their eyes are dark green in color, with a enhanced tapetum lucidum to aid their dark-sight in the very low light of the perpetual gloom. This comes with the downsides of light brighter than moonlight being blinding.

The ears are pointed, small and flat to the head with ear canals that are angled sharply forward and protected by a hood of hardened cartilage. This aids their skill at hearing the quiet movement of prey in the sound-damping moss and peat. Their inner ears are changed to accurate spatial awareness, as to aid them moving in complex three-dimensional ways in the canopy. Their hearing comes with the downside of being easy to overwhelm with noise.

They have an specialized vomeronasal organ in the roof of the mouth. This used to help find the pheromones and chemical markers of the local mammalian prey. The skin has long, thin, sensitive "whiskers" that grow from the chin and forearms, allowing them to detect obstacles and air currents in the dark, without relying on sight. Their fangs are three inches long, and shaped for shearing the tough skin of large prey. They then drink the blood from the wound by licking.

Their claws are long, hook-like and with reverse barbs to allow them to cling onto and climb the rough bark of the trees. Their joints have specialized protein sacs able to act as sound-dampening, low-friction buffers. This allows for silent movement on brittle found cover and frozen branches. Their long, prehensile, feet have four long, widely splayed toes, acting like clamps to have a powerful grip on slippery, moss coated logs and branches.

Their lungs are large and strong, and set inside a large torso, to allow them to hold their breath for a long time, along with using the extra skin to maximum oxygen through the skin. This allows them to submerged in cold, oxygen-poor water for extended periods. Their blood are highly elastic, with complex vasoconstriction controls. This allows them to survive sudden immersion in near-freezing swamp pools. It also aids with living though blood loose.

Their bones are dense and hard, with carbon-based filaments. This gives high impact resistance, to protect from impacts with tree trunks while jumping tree to tree. The downside of this is being unable to swim, as they are too heavy. This disadvantage forces them to walk on the bottom of large bodies of water. Their blood has modified antifreeze proteins to stop cellular freezing, this means they can stay active all year around in the cold.

Culture

This clan assumes itself much more superior than the rest of the kin’toni. This is a sign of their great arrogance. They do not turn any zu’aan unless they prove themselves worthy; they should already be smart and physically strong. They do, however, don’t have any zu’aan to turn as none, except the biologist who conducted these experiments on them, lived here. They have a tradition of hunting animals and birds, draining them of blood and them consuming them. Some of these kin’toni only hunt those animals which are able to fight back, they do not hunt innocent small creatures.

They do not just hunt and kill animals, rather, they make sure to behead every specie they kill. This ensures that their main artery is cut off and there is no blood residue left. As dried blood in dead animals leads to many diseases, draining their blood prevents this from happening. They conduct blood rites every month. This tradition is known as the ‘Fugit sanguinis’. On this occasion, the men of this clan pierce their bodies, line them with small cuts, about 1 cm each and then, suction cups are attached to these areas. This tradition is said to drain bad blood, unholy blood, the part zu’aan blood these kin’toni possess from their earlier lives.

Some kin’toni prefer using leeches for this purpose. This tradition helps boost their blood production, prevent any sort of illness and ensures good health. Their other traditions celebrate their existence and while half the clan vows to protect and take care of the plant species, the other half of the clan vows to destroy the kin’toni who were responsible for attacking and killing the biologist who conducted the experiment on them. These kin’toni live inside a cave, which is vast enough to house all of them easily. It contains many passages which branch off into more caves. This network of caves is now the home of these kin’toni.

They wear ornaments and jewelry made out of bones and skulls of every animal they have hunted. This clan has a tradition of ear piercing, for every kill they make, they get themselves pierced. The women line their ears with sectional piercing from lobes to conch, daith and tragus depending on the degree and expertise of the kill they have made. The men begin from their faces proceeding down to the neck and farther. For every dishonor, one of their piercings has to be taken off and buried, the piercing hole is left at that place, it is not sewn shut neither covered up.

It serves as a reminder of their lost honour and the disgrace their actions have brought.Though the clan might live together despite their differences of religion, there are always arguments to be heard of. All of these kin’toni are smart and each believe themselves to be the better of the other. They believe that the way they follow is the right one and anything else the others might do is simply wrong. The kin’toni of this clan have been preparing and building a ship for a few years now. They intend to travel the world conquering areas and lands, until eventually, they could be powerful enough to rule the whole Taerel.

Government

The religious groups of this clan each have their own leaders. These two leaders collectively make the ruling entity; the major rules are a result of common negotiation. These clans are divided in their religious beliefs, but this is where they stand united. There is the law-making category; the crimes and punishment however, depend upon the religious group an individual belongs to. For the nature worshipping delegation; any violent act against nature that is unnecessary harm or any creature, plants, cutting down of trees without need, ill treatment of any species and taking any blessing for granted, are all acts of disgrace.

The nature worshippers have decided ways of payment for each of these, which ranges from whipping, starving them, draining the kin’toni of blood, and if the crime is severe then, drowning them. The worshippers of nature believe in cremating and then giving the ashes to the ocean. They say that this allows the ashes to be reunited to nature again. But for the ones that have done severe wrong, they are left to drown in the water of the ocean which they believe is equivalent to never joining with nature because their body wasn’t turned to ashes that the water could carry away into the unknown.

The ones which worship the research biologist, Hutton Lao, have different acts listed as breach of trust or committed sins. These include; failure to follow any direct given order, mismanagement of resources, hoarding of food and drinks, dispute amongst the religious group, disrespect of religious beliefs etc. The consequences of these crimes ranges from hurting ones fellow worshipper of Hutton to execution. The consequences are decided upon by voting by former members of the religious group. There are two accountants which look after the rationing and distribution of limited resources.

One of these kin’toni is from Hutton’s worshipper’s group and the other is from the nature worshippers. This arrangement ensures that there is no injustice and the two kin’toni keep an eye on each other. Everyone in this clan is a skilled hunter and capable of making a kill themselves, the nature worshippers however do not make kills as generously as the other group does. It is against their code of conduct, they however, are beyond holding it against the other group as matters have now been settled. Then there is the weapon production department, they make fire torches, spears, harpoons, slingshots and arrows.

The hunters use these weapons for their hunts and for defense purposes. The leaders are ones who have the largest of the caves to themselves. This cave is so large, it has even more caves into it. This gives them the look of a stone house. These houses are decorated with skins of animals they have hunted and for the nature worshipper’s leader, vines and other plants giving the place its forest look. Each of these leaders also have the plans to the ship they are currently making. After consulting their own kin’toni from their respective religions, these two meet in another broad cave and talk about further matters.

This place is neutral territory and these meetings are conducted here. The other kin’toni sleep in small caves which are sometimes no more than glorified holes. They use straw and leaf mattresses for bedding.

Military

The kin’toni have their guards up. The leaders choose the ones best at combat to serve. Depending on their skills, there are two groups; the ones whose expertise lies in attacking and fighting and the ones better at defense and protection. The attacking group naturally has ground control, archers, and others who have to aim and need better ground. The defenders remain on land and are positioned at the vulnerable regions of the island. The island is too vast to be guarded completely from all sides but the place where they all reside is hidden and cannot be easily traced, this offers some comfort.

There are guards situated outside the gigantic cave, they are there to protect the kin’toni and their home in case of any invasion. The two leaders have two personal guards each that are from their respective religious groups. These are the most trusted ones, usually one of them is the leader’s advisor. Each leader has one substitute who will take over if anything happens to them. There is a team of explorers, which consists of 5 members. They trek on the lands and try to explore as much as they can. They know all about the geography of the landform, every cave and even every deadly plant.

One of these explorers discovered the corpse flower, after losing his hand to it. This enthusiastic explorer regarded it brilliant for defense. These plants were then planted on the eastern coast of the island. They look like ordinary vibrant flowers, but are extremely deadly. There is also a ship building department; these kin’toni do not plan to remain on this island forever, they intend to claim more territory and with their vigour rule over a large population of kin’toni and zu’aan alike. Each member of this clan is capable of hunting and fending for themselves.

They have received the usual trainings but not of the heavy military variety. There are no trained hunters here; each person is given a particular task, a target they have to complete in the hunting process. These tasks are designed to test both, their logic and strength capabilities. These tasks are handed out to everyone on the full moon of every third month. The winner of these tasks gets to take honourable positions by their leader’s side. The leaders of this clan wear metal armor molded by the strongest kin’toni. They are rarely seen without their armor and carry their own weapons with them at all times.

Most of the kin’toni can mold their own weapons and don’t need equipment for this purpose, they can mold weapons and armor with bare hands. The most famous metal molders are a pair of twin kin’toni called Habebat unus by everyone. They have thick strong arms and their weapons have never worn out despite the tests it might have endured. They have a sport in which heavy lead weights are spun and thrown over large distances, this is used to assess strength and perfection. Most men here train in weight lifting and exertion. Several exercises are conducted for this purpose.

The one with the farthest breaking point is considered better than the rest. This is how their military chooses the best kin’toni to undertake the toughest jobs.

Religion

This clan has divisions amongst them based on the gods they preach and bow before. The first category includes the kin’toni who believe in the one who gave them this new life, this better chance at living. The one who gave them purpose, a new aim. They believe in the zu’aan who caused them to become this powerful. Their leader, the one who conducted this experiment. They believe in the man who kept them captive for weeks and then conducted this painful experiment on them. These kin’toni believe that they were taken from their lives by this man, only so that they would be a handed a new, better one.

The ones who consider this man, the biologist that brought upon them this doom, believe that their lives belong to him and that only he is the rightful god. That they owe him a life debt. Everything they do, little deeds, every step taken is to please his spirit. When their fellow kin’toni killed the biologist, this group waged war. They turned on each other and many kin’toni were killed in the battle. It was after negotiation that matters were settled and all members made peace with each other. Another reason for their firm beliefs is that the biologist made sure to provide for these kin’toni for a long time.

Everything has been thought of, their safety, their needs, and their inability to cope with the sun. Their food store was built, filled with food to last them for weeks. They do not seem to know, or choose to ignore, that he did all this for his own sake. To use them all, control them, and then eventually rule the world through them. Their greatest regret in life is that they could not protect their god, could not save him, and were unable to serve him. This class intends to detach from the clan and start their own clan, bringing destruction to all the kin’toni who killed him.

The next class is of the nature worshippers. They believe that when they were deserted on this island, helpless and not sure about themselves, their mother nature facilitated them. Provided them with everything they required. This group consists of people who are very pious; they abide by strict laws that they have made themselves. They do not harm any creation without due reason and never do, regardless of need. They value every blessing and the aid nature provides them with. They do not hunt tame animals, the ones that are innocent and cannot defend themselves.

They are also strictly against harming plants and trees. They believe that all the roots of all plants and trees connect to their god. That they shouldn’t harm these roots or risk bringing devastation upon themselves. Every night they soak themselves in the ocean and seek forgiveness for their sins against nature. The deceased ones in this group are burned to ashes, which are then poured in the ocean. It is believed that by doing this, these kin’toni return nature’s creation back to itself.

Miscellany

The kin’toni of this clan need to be fed on blood at least once every day. This is a serious predicament as they live completely isolated and hidden and the chances of any zu’aan stumbling across this island is near to 10%. Thankfully, the research biologist intended for them to live here and made all necessary arrangements. He intended for them to live here for years till he could eventually gain control over all kin’toni and use them to launch an invasion. Because of this he made sure to accommodate the kin’toni properly till they were to be fit to leave the island on their own.

Thus, they have their own supply tank of blood. However, they are only allowed to ration according to need as their store won't last forever. They make a wide variety of metal utensils, armors and weapons. Most of their furniture is wooden, logs of wood turned into rough wooden blocks which are used for seating. Most of this equipment is unceremonious. Only the leaders’ housing is lined with the best quality furnishing, carved to near perfection. There are proper curtains, entrances, mannequins and ornaments. Only the leaders dine in their own houses.

All the others dine in the open, near the entrance of the cave. There is a long table adjusted a few miles away from the leaders’ quarters. It is necessary that all meals be had on this table and everyone must be present at each meal. Absence of any individual is considered disrespect to the food and their leaders. The utensils are made out of straw or wood. The leaders prefer to have fully cooked food with spices and flavor. The others also get cooked food but it is just cooked meat without the addition of even salt. The cooks of this clan wear straw hats; this is the indication of their profession.

On rainy nights, this clan stays inside their cave and plans late into the night. Most kin’toni in this clan work in shifts; their work is so hectic that they need their rest. The nature worshippers have the tradition of wishing upon stars and when their wish is granted, they give something in return to their mother nature. They mostly feed an animal or plant a tree. They have an important ritual for cutting trees, every time they cut down one, they say a prayer and then bring the tree down. It is said that this prayer is to seek forgiveness and to convince mother nature of their need.

While travelling long distances, the leaders are carried on wooden slats by their guards. There are only two women in this clan who prefer to live farther away from the rest of the clan. They claim that they like the silence and peace, away from the usual hustle bustle. They are only present at meals and have their own cave near the coast where they spend most of their time. No work is taken from them but if they will, they can make themselves useful. They usually look after the shipbuilding process, the tides and the calculation of their directions, the sails and winds.

Nearby Groups

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K'hil Kin'toni Clan

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