Om'cer Kin'toni Clan

History

The Om’cer have been isolated from the outside world for a few decades now. This clan appeared halfway through the second century in the second Era. They were a group of zu'aan that lived several miles away from where they are right now, they did not seek out war or anything of the sort, most of them even just wanted to focus on their own lives. This group of zu'aan were tired of the Taerel, they had already been surviving for generations since the Outbreak. They survived way more than anyone thought they would and this was mostly due to a, perhaps idiotic and naïve hope. That the world was going to, eventually, fix itself.

However, many years have passed since then and most of them have started to lose hope that Taerel will ever go back to what it was. This led them to be careless in their ways, they stopped defending themselves as they usually did and, in a short while, they suffered a barrage of attacks from kin'toni clans. These zu'aan held up against the first ones, despite their lack of preparation, most of them made an actual attempt to fight back and, eventually, they were able to repel the kin'toni forces, despite suffering quite a few losses.

This weakened tribe was then attacked once more, this time by a zu'aan ally of theirs. They had been betrayed by a tribe that they had considered almost a “sister tribe”. These other zu'aan wanted to weaken the Om’cer enough so that they could steal their resources in order to survive the long winter that many said was approaching. Fortunately for the Om’cer and unfortunately for the tribe of the betrayers, a group of kin'toni decided to attack that same night. The Om’cer had improved their defenses after the last attack and their wooden walls were now stronger than they had been.

As the zu'aan tribe approached the settlement, they tried to break through the main gate, while the archers fired at them. This did not last for long, soon enough a kin'toni clan appeared, the zu'aan outside the walls were stunned and, because they had not yet broken into the settlement, fighting back was the only option, they were between two small armies. Due to their massive number of troops, the attacking zu'aan were able to kill the kin'toni that had surprised them, but the ones that did live were wiped out by the Om’cer archers.

It seemed as if this was an enormous success for the Om’cer, but in a few nights the kin'toni infection somehow spread and every single member of the tribe became a vampiric beast. After this, the Om’cer decided to flee to the Torsh Dense Taiga Forest, they found a place where the clan could hide from everyone and they have been there ever since. Although they achieved their goal of hiding from everyone, they now face a new problem, this forest was easy enough to enter, they even found it peculiar how easy it was to find this place and how strange it was that no one had found it before them.

But soon they started to find bones everywhere, kin'toni and zu'aan bones. There had been people here, and they had died here. In a few days of arriving there, the Om’cer realized something that has haunted them ever since: they were trapped. They are in a clearing inside the forest, the clearing is quite large and has almost everything one need to survive, there is fertile ground, there are fruit trees, edible plants, a fresh water source. At a first glance, it seems like paradise and despite them being able to enter without any problems, leaving does not seem such an easy task.

The forest around them is so dense that it is almost impossible to distinguish night from day whilst they are inside. And as if that were not enough, there are huge and dangerous animals hiding in every single place of the forest that can barely be seen until they are too close to do anything about this.

Biology

The Om'cer are adapted to the very dense, shadowy, and harshly cold winters of the Torsh Dense Taiga Forest. They are lean and short legged of build. They have powerful shoulders. This allows for efficient movement through dense undergrowth and moving under low-hanging branches. This also means that they lack leaping ability and vertical maneuverability. Their rough skin is of dull, mottled green and browns in color. The hair is wiry, sparse needles of dark hair on their backs and limbs. These allow them to channel rain and snow melt away from the body.

This also acts to break up their silhouette. This hair can be shed quickly if grabbed. This allows them to escape the grip of predators. Regrowing this hair is very taxing on their energy reserves. The eyes are dull green in color, and are adapted to being able to see in the deep shadows of the forest floor. These eyes are also prone to blindness if exposed to light. The nose has wide and flared nostrils that have filtration membranes that warm air. The ears have small, movable cartilaginous flaps that can be moved to allow them to pinpoint the exact origin of distant sounds, even though the dense foliage.

The fangs are slightly curved and hardened. These fangs are adapted to thick hides of Taiga megafauna. This allows deep blood drinking even with thick skin and matted fur. These fangs crack if they hit bone or frozen flesh. The claws are multi-faceted and semi-retractable claws. These claws are broad at the base and taper to a sharp, reinforced point. These claws are adapted to tear though thick flesh, but get in the way of walking and small object use. The muscles in the neck and back are powerful, as these are adapted to allow them to survive being buried under heavy snow and debris.

They also have small, flat scales in their arms and chest to use air pressure to sense size and speed of large objects moving nearby. This sense is useless in high winds. The shoulder and arm muscles are changed to allow for quick, forceful digging so that they can excavate shallow dens in frozen earth. These muscles tire quickly if they are used for sustained activity. Joints in the elbows and knees are changed. The bone is partially replaced with shock-absorbing cartilage. This makes them able to silently move over frozen/uneven ground, but these joints are more prone to damage.

Their feet and hands have thick sponge-like pads to allow for quiet movement on dry leaves and snow. These pads are easy to damage with sharp sticks and stones. They have an glad to allow them to produce a cocktail of Taiga-specific terpenes and pheromones. This allows them to hide their presence among the dominant forest scents. It only works the Taiga, being useless outside. The hepatic filters are adapted to be able to feed tree resins for a short mount of time, and allowing them to feed on prey that consumes it.

Over-doing the pine resins leads to sickness, internal scarring and in some cases, death. The bones are adapted to special proteins in the calcium and iron driven to them. With this, the bones are resistant to shattering in extreme cold. This also means that the bones are very dense and heavy.

Culture

As a zu'aan tribe, the Om’cer kept to themselves. This allowed them to maintain their culture and tradition to a point where it was almost unchanged throughout the years. There weren’t other cultures that came in contact with them and that had an impact on the traditions of the Om’cer. Even their “sister tribe” contacted them almost solely through some of trained bird. They were very proud of having such strong traditions and practices. The Om’cer society had a peculiar way to function, the roles were in constant change. There were different areas in which work was needed.

In the military, agriculture, in politics, in hunting, the zu'aan that were in charge of this changed constantly. No one was in the same post for more than a few years at a time, the intention of the Om’cer was that every single zu'aan could be as proficient as possible in any single task. Ideally, one should be able to take care of the tribe alone. This was so that if a large group of hunters were killed, or a large group of farmers were kidnapped whilst farming, the tribe would not forever lose the only members capable of performing a single task.

These could always be replaced by other zu'aan that had learned how to perform these tasks. Once they were attacked by their sister tribe, there were some farmers working outside the walls of the settlement, because it was there that the crops were, these farmers were instantly killed and did not even try to make their way back to the settlement, they accepted their deaths at the hand of this other zu'aan clan. However, the Om’cer were still able to cultivate a variety of things, due to the fact that several of its members had already performed this task years ago.

After hiding themselves in the Taiga Forest, this particular way in which they had built their clan became increasingly important, the soldiers became almost useless due to the fact that they were trapped in this region, which made them turn to the other tasks that needed to be done. Additionally, there used to be many festivals in the Om’cer tribe, but this all changed after being turned into kin'toni, most of what they celebrated no longer made sense after being turned into some kind of vampiric beast. There was one particular festival that celebrated the existence of hope.

Even if Taerel had worsened over the years, hope was still a resource they could count on, but now it seemed as if there was no more room for hope. Even with all the hope in the world, they would never be able to become zu'aan again. This made them change the colors of the clan, which used to be light blue and white, but are now grey and black.

Government

Because of the constant change of positions inside the clan, the members of the government also change. However, the group that are in charge of the government mut stay there for a minimum of three years, this is so that they can establish some kind of stability, if they were to change every six months, more likely than not, the clan would be all over the place in a political sense and next to nothing would be achieved. The group of Om’cer in the political area is also smaller than in the other areas, such as farming or the military.

They though that there was a limit to the number of people that would actually benefit a government, if they were more than a few dozen, then almost no decisions would be made and the tribe or clan would not move forward. This meant that in total, the government consisted of fifteen to twenty people in any given year, there was no unique ruler of leader, every decision was made according to the majority of this group. The relationship of the people with the government was not always the best, the choice to be isolated was made by a quite unpopular government.

And even the decision to reduce the communication with their sister tribe, which arguably helped in creating this conflict between the two, was also made by the members of this government. After they the whole tribe was turned into kin'toni, they assassinated eight of the fifteen members of the government, the other seven had voted against the isolation. Because there is no legal way for the government to change before the three years pass, something tragic has to happen for the it to be renewed. Now that they are trapped inside the forest.

There is a new government that has focused all of its efforts in figuring out a way of escaping the predicament they find themselves in. They keep sending search parties into the forest that do not return, night after night. There have been talks regarding a drastic solution to the problem, the Om’cer government wishes to burn down the forest, which might kill the entire clan, but they are running out of options and worse, running out of time.

==Military

The military of the Om’er was known for its archers, the “Tyier” were considered experts in their craft. Most of them had to undergo entire lives of training and were the only group that found themselves out of the constant change of roles, because one could not master this skill having only trained for a few years at a time. Furthermore, they would train every day and had no other tasks, they did not need to help the tribe in any other way, this allowed them to focus uniquely on their archery practice. Additionally, they were not allowed to have families, although this later became somewhat of a meaningless rule as they became Kin’toni.

But even then, they could not have any romantic partners or good friendships with other members of the tribe or clan, this was this way so that there was nothing that could distract them from the what they needed to do. The Tyier took this life very seriously and only by believing that this is what needed to be done, is how they were able to live like this. Those that did not have a strong desire to be the protectors of their tribe, soon gave up the training and were assigned to other areas. In the war with the sister tribe of the Om’cer, in which a Kin’toni clan also took part, the Tyier were vital to keep the other Zu’Aan from taking down the settlement’s wooden gate.

As the Zu’Aan approached, the Tyier were already in formation, with nothing in their minds except what they needed to do. The enemy Zu’Aan were met with a barrage of arrows that travelled such a long distance that they could barely see where the arrows came from. A few Zu’Aan were downed in that first wave, but this led them to tilt their shields upwards in order to prevent any further barrages. Despite this strategy, a few more arrows went through and, finally, they arrived at the gate with more than a couple of casualties. Despite being extraordinary archers, as the other Zu’Aan got to the gate, it was almost impossible for the Tyier to shoot at them.

It was a this point when the Kin’toni appeared over a small hill and furiously made their way to the settlement, where they fought with the other Zu’Aan. The army of the Om’cer clan was barely a part of this struggle, everything played out in front of them as the two opposing armies slaughtered each other. Now, in the dense jungle the Tyier only have one use, fighting the animals that are stopping the Om’cer from leaving this place. But despite their abilities, the animals are able to sneak up on them in a way that leaves these long-ranged fighters almost defenseless. The Om’cer decided that it was the casualties day in and day out were leading nowhere and told the Tyier to stand down for this period of time.

Religion

The Om'cer clan aren't necessarily religious, but they do claim to be spiritualists who, in spite of their own hypocrisy, have a very fine way of looking at such topics pertaining to their view on religion. It's not that they don't practice what they preach, nor is it that they could care less about their own beliefs or that or other clans; it's more to do with their unusual philosophical mindsets as a collective group, if anything. And to make matters even stranger, they don't tell most any other clan or tribe of their choice of religion or anything to do with their being 'spiritualists' or what have you.

At the end of it all, they don't usually have an easy time of explaining their religious beliefs because their choice of faith is just complicated. It's definitely something to take on, that's without dispute. In spite of their unbelievable philosophy, they keep their religious beliefs extremely close to their hearts and are immensely secretive about their spiritualist philosophy. To put it lightly, the only entities who ever witnessed their religion being practiced by the Om'cers who engage in said faith or faiths are either no longer alive, too maimed to recall what they saw or are too fearful for themselves to discuss it.

The lucky ones usually tend to be those who were, as a survivor once remembered it, "sacrificed to the Highest Order of Greatness," though due to the infamously secretive nature of the Om'cer clan's religious practices and beliefs this is bound for nothing more or less than speculation. Only the Om'cer Kin'tonis would have the slightest idea of what their spiritualism is about, and as long as the clan exists they will take the most basic fundamentals regarding their religious faiths to their graves. And, this, in turn, implies that nobody may ever know what religion they practice or why they practice it, much less the entities who they worship.

The funny thing about this spiritual outlook is that, according to those who witnessed the religious exploits of the Om'cers, they allegedly -- which, according to those who survived the fallout of seeing what they saw -- worship a severed head that the clan themselves believe belong to one of if not the clan's original founder (not the actual founder itself, obviously). Of those who witnessed the clan's faith at work, only about 10% of the witnesses survived after being caught witnessing what they saw as a mere bystander.

One of the common beliefs amongst this minority of survivors is that the clan is profoundly recluse at times and because they worship the severed head of what they imagine is the clan's original founder they preserve it by means of some strange cryogenic box that is rumored to give the clan a ridiculous source of supernal strength just by them looking at the head that resides in the cryogenic box. This also explains their extremely homicidal reactions to anyone who dares disturb them in their time of praise, probably prompting reactions from the clan itself and very reasonable reactions at that.

To put it lightly, they put privacy above all things outside of their "spiritual outlook" of sorts.

Miscellany

The weirdest thing or fact about the Om'cer Kin'tonis is not the fact that they are open to admitting their cannibalism as a survival mechanism, and it surely isn't the fact that many Om'cer Kin'tonis are almost entirely deaf and blind in at least one ear or eye. Among all the quirks that Om'cers possess is the fact that they are delusional to believe that they are descended from royalty when in reality their ancestors were no more special in the region which was built for the modern Om'cers than the Om'cers residing in said region presently.

They are so immersed, most of them, in living a lie that they don't know they're living in a land that may potentially be located on a ticking geographical time bomb that may or may not be hidden well enough out of reach. Not much else is known of this clan outside of that as they have, in recent generations, proven themselves extremely protective of deadly secrets that have allegedly plagued the clan for at least several centuries. Among those deadly secrets, of course, is also the most interesting and widely confirmed.

Om'cer Kin'tonis have been known for their surprisingly heightened awareness, and yet it comes at a great psychological price. Those within this clan with such an unusually high awareness are often very paranoid and worry constantly about what happens to themselves and each other, though not nearly as much about what happens to the animals whom they care for. These individuals are often very adroit in their ability to take care of their animals, with some having been destined for the caretaker role in terms of the animals they provide for.

They're recluse for that reason: because they spend half of their time caring for animals and the other half of their time doing most anything else that they're good at. This, and they don't sleep very much, averaging at around a fifth of the time of sleep of most other Kin'toni clans from other regions. The biggest question regarding this clan is not their collective and individual sanity, but the fact that they work so diligently and so long at a time to such an end. They genuinely are so psychologically bankrupt, most of them, that they have to work tirelessly to offset their own strain deep within themselves.

And the simple fact that they have many other undiscovered secrets to hide only motivates them to work even harder to maintain their reputation or what they believe their reputation may be; alas, the Om'cers are incredibly egotistical but can back their ego up just as much with action. So, essentially, their uncanny ability to recall various things about their own history but have not even bothered in all the time they've been a clan to document it through some historical book of archives to some degree only furthers the speculation that they're illiterate and also incredibly intelligent.

It's damning to think so, and yet they see what many clans couldn't want to.

Nearby Groups

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Om'cer Kin'toni Clan

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