Neraksam Kin'toni Clan

History

The Neraksam Kin’toni Clan was originally a wondering clan that was founded by a single kin’toni who was banished from her original clan during the Awakening age. Her name was ‘Aksa’ and the clan that had turned her had been a subset group of another clan- the Ydari kin’toni clan. The subset clan kept with the Ydari’s strict rules against any interclan fighting. One day, Aksa had gotten in a fight with another member that resulted in that member’s accidental death. She had been kept as a ward by the clan’s leader, so she was granted the mercy of banishment instead of death.

She was forced to take the prefix ‘Ner’, meaning ‘fallen’ by the clan. Neraksa quickly became resentful of the clan for abandoning her and quickly decided that she would wipe out all those who allowed for her banishment. Neraksa started seeking out other banished kin’toni and the disenfranchised zu’aan of the larger cities throughout Taerel. It took nearly two decades for her to find or chance enough zu’aan to form a decent midsized wondering clan. For another decade, the clan wondered and defeated smaller settlements to gain as many military resources as they could handle.

Once they decided they were strong enough, Neraksa’s clan returned to her old clan and waged war on them, finally enacting her revenge. The war between the two clans lasted for another decade due to the two being equally matched in strength and resources. The final battle between the two lasted a week, where the wondering clan sent wave after wave of relentless attacks on the settlement. In the final wave, Neraksa snuck in and killed her previous guardian. With their leader dead, the clan fell it chaos and Neraksa’s forced defeated them easily.

After they won the members believed that Neraksa was the greatest fighter to ever live due to rumors and tales of the battle being exaggerated. Her followers decided to take on the name Neraksam with the clan officially forming together under her rule. Her first act as ruler of the clan was to absorb the remaining members of her old clan into her new. Many were unwilling until the threat of execution was given; only a handful still refused, believing that she was unworthy due to her ‘fallen’ status. The Neraksam took over the Zashxkel Shield from the fallen clan.

For a short period after the clan formation there was outright strife within the ranks due to the absorbed members being unwilling to give up their homes for the new clan members. There were often small civil wars in the clan until the members were able to finally accept that the old clan was no more. This was brought about when Neraksa openly broke ties to the Ydari clan. The Ydari surprisingly accepted the break without any problem, so the two remained on neutral terms as long as they didn’t try to assert that Neraksam was one of theirs. Part way through the Shattering age, Neraksa started making plans for stepping down as the clan’s leader as she was finally reaching the end of her life.

The other clan members did not know of the development with the leader until she officially stepped down refusing to lead in any capacity any further.

Psychology

The clan members were originally all outcasts from their society- either due to their personality or because of their crimes. This led to the clan members having an underlying self-serving agenda when dealing with others, as well as having a number of psychological issues. If they saw weakness, they’d attempt to take advantage and raise through the ranks. The best way to describe their dynamic is a dysfunctional large family unit. They won’t hesitate to backstab and betray other members, but any outside threat has members putting their slights aside to keep each other safe.

Because of their history, most members are also quick to accept any new members that come along. This is since many were alone for long periods before being brought in that they constantly crave to be surrounded by others. Due to this, it wasn’t uncommon for members to form smaller family units and create close immediate bonds, with those who changed zu’aan acting as their parents. There was no rule against changing zu’aan, so anyone who wished to have a closer family unit was open to create one if they found members who fit their wants and needs.

Some of the more ruthless kin’toni would keep young zu’aan children as ‘pets’ until they were of age that they would most likely survive transformation, to which they’d then be accepted as true members of the family. ‘Pets’ were often viewed slightly above objects to the members who kept them, as they likened them to something that couldn’t runaway from them. By the time that the zu’aan ‘pet’ was changed, they’d developed Stockholm syndrome, and save for a rare twice, stayed with the kin’toni family unit.

The clan members follow the strongest out of self-preservation more than any true loyalty to the leader. Though like with anything, there are exceptions- usually from those who were brought or changed by Neraksa personally. Those members tend to have an extreme loyalty, to the point of unhealthy obsession for a number, viewing her as their savior. Neraksa often didn’t care, as long as they didn’t cause issues, which allowed for their obsession to grow dangerously at times.

(One member had attempted to kill another purposefully for glaring at her, so Neraksa had to have him locked up.) The main issue common throughout the clan was the fear of abandonment; even for the ‘pets’ who had been changed. For the more timid members, they would have mental break downs if they believed that any of the members of the clan had abandoned them. Some were so bad that they had to be quarantined for a period with a few others to form new connections to settle them.

For the more aggressive, they would lash out verbally or physically at the member who they believed wronged or left them. This caused many issues in the clan when Neraksa stepped down that the only way to reassure that she wasn’t abandoning the clan was to give her a new but not ruling position. It still took nearly a year for them to settle after the fact.

Biology

The clan, due to its original ‘piece mill’ creation the clan has a number of ‘strains’. Each strain had varying adaptations leading to it being very easy to mistake members for other clans by outsiders. There are members of the clan who are considered ‘pure’ Neraksam as they are ‘descended’ from those turned by Neraksa herself. Those ‘pure’ members have lighter bones and are capable of low-level flight. This originates from the Ydari clan’s adaptations, though it became weaker over the centuries.

Their arms are longer, spanning 14 for more feet across and they form fine hair like feathers on the skin that connects to the side of their abdomen. They can only reach a height of about 30 feet off of the ground and in short bursts lasting a max of 5 minutes due to the strain it puts on their system. When a zu’aan is turned by a pure member, they lose their pinkie, ring and middle fingers to form the bones in their wings, similar to a bat. The nails on their index finger and thumb harden and become more like a claw or talon.

Those which had the wing adaptation had difficulty using standard weapons so they learned to use their claw talon nails as their main weapon. Their toe nails also hardened and became a secondary weapon- many wore sandals or no shoes to allow quick use in a fight if needed. The other main strain the clan was one that made them snake like in appearance. Their skin would turn a green like shade to match the surrounding vegetation. The original members were native to the regions surrounding the Zashxkel Shield, so with the clan formation a number had joined the ranks creating the Neraksam’s version of the strain.

They would burn easily in the sun, but not to a life-threatening extent- it only caused mild discomfort in movement and would require a full day and night of rehydrating to ease the pain. Their eyes were also adapted for hunting at night, so they would be most active at the dusk and twilight hours, taking the middle of the night to socialize. Some of the newest in the strain have started developing venom like pockets they can administer through bite or spit. The majority though did not gain any real change beyond a tougher skin and the change to their eyes.

Members of this strain would be careful to keep hydrated though soaking baths and various moisture applications to prevent from cracking and bleeding. Being in close proximity a common adaptation emerged during the Shattering age. All the long-standing strains, and those turned directly from those members would have an increased sensitivity to vibrations in the ground. Some would use this for tracking prey, to be able to sense their location, while others used it to track other clan members if they were looking for someone specific.

The oldest of the clan, Neraksa included, started to develop the ability over the years, though they are significantly weaker and only able to track around a 30 foot radius vs the newer miles wide radius the youngest members are capable of.

Culture

Because of their outcast nature the majority of clan members formed a tightknit almost familial bond with the other clan members. (This doesn’t stop them backstabbing one another.) There are members who joined the clan and prefer to keep to themselves, though the other members don’t give up on attempting to get them to join in with them. They would often get into fights over the issue, as the other members would start to fear that the isolating members would abandon them.

Many over the years formed small family units, and it became viewed as a kind of rite of passage for young kin’toni to become full-fledged adults. Dating other members was not uncommon for the young members, with their marriage kicking off their family. Some family units were the ‘nuclear’ family set up while other were simply the two kin’toni. Some kept ‘pets’ in the form of zu’aan. Often, they were kidnapped children from hunts for meals or defeated settlements that gave them as sacrifices.

The zu’aan pets were given a protected status almost to the level of Neraksa. They were forbidden to be used as food, and those who attempted to do so were severely punished. Those who cooperated with their new status were often spoiled by fulfilling any request that they could. If they wanted specific objects, the member would often get a small group and raid the necessary caravan or settlement to retrieve it. They would hold celebrations near daily due to the member amount. The most common celebration was clan joining- for those who were kin’toni already, it was the day they arrived.

For the zu’aan it was the day they were turned. ‘Pets’ often got multiple celebration days- the day they became a pet and the day they were turned, some also had their original birthday celebrated if they requested it. The celebrations were viewed as great ways of bonding. So nearly every member made an appearance, even if they were working that day or night. Others were religious ceremonies, or if there was a particularly plentiful hunt. The largest and grandest of the celebrations was the forming of the clan and the day that Neraksa claimed she was turned.

(She’d lied because she couldn’t remember, so she just picked a random day.) The clan would celebrate for a full week, despite Neraksa telling them not to, as they claimed it was the only way to properly celebrate everything their leader had done to bring them together. Apparent superiority over the zu’aan wasn’t a common thought across the clan. They believed themselves superior over anyone they could best in battle, zu’aan or kin’toni. Because of this, over the years, more often by the request of their ‘pets’, the Neraksam started transitioning to non-zu’aan food options.

As more changed to the alternate food source, the celebrations adapted as well, to plentiful hunts turning into plentiful harvests. One of the major parts of the celebrations were sparring gladiator like matches that spanned across the entire day and night. They were held for entertainment, though official challenges also became large spectacles on such a scale that other clans would request permission to enter the Zashxskel to watch.

Government

During the earliest days of the clan there was no official leader of the group. Neraksa was the default leader to most as she was the one who brought everyone together. There had been a handful who had tried to ‘usurp’ the role of leader from her, though the majority had decided that the role should be given to the one that was the strongest- thus any challengers had to beat Neraksa in combat. Nearly all that attempted failed miserably and were ostracized for a short period for thinking they were capable of defeating her.

There were 2 opposers though that had managed to tie her in combat. So the members decided to look to the 3 as the main figure head of the clan. After the official formation of the clan, Neraksa was appointed the official head of the clan, with the two becoming her top commanders. After enacting her revenge, Neraksa didn’t care much for leading the clan so the two positions became the ones who would handle the day to day requirements of the clan. The leadership role became a military general position that would handle any battles or war should it break out.

Neraksa allowed this on the single stipulation that interclan fighting would not result in banishment or death like in the Ydari’s. This became only one of two unchangeable laws of the clan. The only time that infighting was not allowed or severely punished was if a member died, though if the offender did not like the punishment assigned to them, they were free to leave the clan. The punishment ranged from physically demanding punishments such as lashings to more mental driven ones such as solitary confinement.

The governmental body as a whole was quite small, with only one more rank under the leading trio. It consisted of ‘apprentices’ to the trio, those whom were chosen were trained and guided to take over that leader’s role once they stepped down. The apprentices are hand picked by each station though like any role in the clan, it can be taken by someone stronger. There was a law called ‘the clause’ that stated if someone wanted to become clan leader that they had to defeat all 3 top members.

If they only wanted to take over one of the commander roles, they would have to defeat that commander in battle. The same went for the ‘apprentice’ role, though if the leader deemed them unfit to lead after the defeat they would be able to choose a new student from the remaining pool of clan members. There was a single stipulation to the clause that the challenging member had to have been in the clan for a minimum of a year as to prevent any random challenger from attempting to take over the clan.

When Neraksa stepped down the replacing leader created a dowager like position for her, allowing for the previous leaders to be approached for guidance. It was written into their government that the dowager position could only be received once a leader officially steps down from their position, but could return to power if the clan as a whole gave the residing leader a vote of no confidence, despite no one being able to defeat them in battle.

Military

The Neraksam’s military power has grown almost exponentially since their founding. To do so, they would take over slightly stronger opponents through careful battle strategy, so they were always gaining more than they lost with each battle. Over years this allowed them to go after larger and larger settlements until they could finally take on Neraksa’s old clan. They were considered a powerhouse pertaining to military power in their region, but were objectively still weak in comparison to the larger clans throughout Taerel.

They could easily defend their region and take on surrounding areas. But were still in a precarious enough position that if caught unprepared that they could easily be overwhelmed by a smaller but physically stronger clan, or a sneak attack. Due to this they kept an extreme, almost over kill amount of forces to watch their borders. They kept three groups of patrols that cycled the border; the first being from the snake like strain that operated the dusk and dawn hours.

There were 3 patrols that circled the region during that time, as that strain had better eyesight and could see further than the others, allowing for larger gaps in the patrol groups. The second patrol group was the night time group made up of the other miscellaneous kin’toni types they’d adopted into the clan over the years; the only stipulation was that they were to have better night eyesight than daytime. This patrol was made up of 6 small groups in much closer proximity than the dusk and dawn patrol.

The last patrol was the daytime group. This was made of the miscellaneous strains more suited for daytime, as well as 3 special ‘pure Neraksam’ groups that would fly between the 6 groups reporting and providing an extra layer of scouting. The dusk/dawn and the nighttime patrols also had a single pure Neraksam in their groups to act as a messenger; though it was on a volunteer basis since the pure Neraksam’s eyesight was not suited for the darker hours.

Should there ever be an attack, the special patrol would return to the city and warn the others while the patrols held off the invaders as long as they could before being forced to retreat. Neraksa is considered to be a military genius by her clan, though for many battles it came down to luck on her part. The clan’s members were all trained to fight, even the zu’aan ‘pets’. Though Neraksa valued their lives more than keeping the region considering she already got her revenge.

She drilled into their heads that retreating and living to fight another day was more honorable, important and better than dying defending some cold buildings. You couldn’t get revenge if you were dead. There has never been the need to retreat yet, but she made a specific group that would act as the final defense for the clan, laying down their lives so that they could buy as much time for the rest of their ‘family’ could escape an enemy. The stipulation to join was that they had to have some kind of succession (a family) meaning they were a full adult member.

And that they were older members who were losing their strength. Upon her abdication of the leader position, she and the other two leaders joined the group. The military is organized mainly into weapon types and the ‘line’ locations. The majority of the members fight using stolen weapons that she managed to train them on based on what she saw during the previous battles. The more sensitive eyesight members were given the archer rank and training. Those who were stronger were designated for frontline sword battles or hand-to-hand combat.

The pure Neraksam members made up a special platoon that were considered the second line, capable of leap frogging the front line if they were required due to their minor flight capability. Their talons gave them the hand to hand and close quarters fighting by default within the military. Neraksa knew her clan’s strengths and was capable of making up for their weaknesses with thorough battle plans she’d learned from her guardian before her exile. This made them appear more menacing and a threat to the surrounding areas.

Religion

There’s no specific religion that the clan endorses. A number of the clan members are atheist due to the harsh upbringing and lives that that they had before being accepted into the clan. They felt that if there was a god, that they’d been abandoned, so they chose to believe that there was none as it was easier for them to handle mentally. They would often end up in verbal altercations with the religious members of the clan as they refused to believe that there was any deity, and the other members would often try to convert them.

For others, Neraksa was believed to be the daughter of the god of war and death, Palcil. They set up a religion revering her as the deity’s avatar on Taerel, and everything she did was an execution of Palcil’s will. The religion quickly spread through the most loyal members with them pledging to follow and protect her through the depths of Faril, their version of hell. They believed that if they did this that they would gather enough good will from Palcil so that when they died that they’d come back as an avatar themselves.

Or as a Firenrian whom they believed were mythical creatures sent to protect the Palcil’s avatar on Taerel. Some members become obsessive over the idea that they would take it upon themselves to convert anyone else they met or punish them for their refusal to accept Palcil and his will. This led to many issues and infighting over the years. Neraksa herself believed that Palcil was a god of luck and revenge, and that after her banishment condoned her path for revenge which led to her success.

While not often, she would pray to the god to aid her in vengeance against any clan or zu’aan settlement that decided to cross them in battle. Unlike the others, she believed that the god would reward and provide luck as long as the one asking for favor put in the work for success; often in the case of a strong strategy. Those closest to her knew of her beliefs and often adopted them in a similar fashion, though what the god represented was different depending on what that person felt they needed or desired throughout life.

These branches all kept with the idea that the devout needed to put in the work to be graced by the god’s favor. It became common thought through the branches that if something was meant to be that it would happen. If their prayers weren’t granted then it was because it wasn’t destined to happen. Such as if a follower failed their power grab, then they weren’t destined to be in power, at least not at that moment. Due to the wide range of religions, the Zashxskel did not have any specifically devoted religious buildings.

Except for those that the more aggressive followers of each stole and made their hub. It had become such an issue that Neraksa that had to make a statement on the issue that there would only be 1 building per religion as long as they had a specific number of followers. One set to change with the clan’s growth, or they were only allowed to have shrines in their homes. Meetings weren’t restricted, but the fighting over the buildings was to stop unless they wanted her to take away the buildings from all of them and make them extra warehouses.

Miscellany

The Neraksam did not shut their borders completely, but it was often given the impression to any kin’toni or zu’aan that entered without permission they’d be considered threats and treated as such. This often led to them sending a mostly unarmed messenger to the region asking permission. The clan doesn’t discriminate against anyone, due to their origins, though zu’aan were often uncomfortable around them until the majority of the clan had converted food sources.

Nearby Groups

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Neraksam Kin'toni Clan

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