Orm'kela Kin'toni Clan

History

Deep under the earth of the Enemu Ice Plains Hills, the murky tunnels inhabited by the Orm’kela echo with the clink of iron against anvil. The highly organized mining, smelting and forging operation of the Orm’kela clan never slow down. This is how the clan has lived ever since the North started its steady plunge into an ice age. While some clans chose to travel South, and others tried their best to adapt to life in the North’s piercing cold, the Orm’kela went beneath the earth and remained there ever since, utilizing the plentiful wood, coal and metal to keep their dwellings from freezing over.

Before settling on the underground lifestyle, the Orm’kela were a clan of the North’s best smiths. Tales of their precise craftsmanship spread all over Taerel. Soon, it became critical for any Northern kin’toni clan to maintain good relations with the Orm’kela, because when war would inevitably knock on a clan’s door, having the highest quality weapons and armour was a huge priority. The Orm’kela themselves would never participate in battles with other kin’toni, instead choosing to supply their allies with the equipment they forged.

The importance of the Orm’kela clan’s products was so valued, there have been multiple wars between Northern clans where the Orm’kela would supply both sides of a battle. The Orm’kela themselves couldn’t care less for political conflict, instead they chose to keep friendly relations with all nearby kin’toni groups and just pour the time others would have spent on war into their greatest passion: their craft. The only clan which the Orm’kela specifically despised was the Loremdra kin’tori clan. They terrorized and pillaged the majority of clans in the North, and the Orm’kela, not being great fighters, were no exception.

Their blacksmithing allowed them to have the most powerful weapons in the region, but amazing weapons don’t fix a poor fighter. As the Orm’kela dug underground and the Loremdra left for the Taerel’s South, the conflict practically solved itself. Both the biological attributes of the Orm’kela kin’toni and the clan’s culture had to change radically after they took to Taerel’s depths. Life in harsh pitch-black darkness wasn’t easy for the kin’tori at all. Today, the Orm’kela community works in complex ways. Resources became scarcer and the clan’s trade partners either moved to the South or perished, so the sustainability of their lifestyles suddenly skyrocketed in its importance.

While all Orm’kela were primarily smiths at the start of the clan’s lifespan, merchants, hunters and stone carvers are now a part of the Orm’kela society. Despite this shift towards more self-sustainability, the level of their smithing skills have not decreased at all, with production actually speeding up as more zu’ann get turned and more space cleared underground. The Orm’kela kin’toni generally have a morbid view of the future. As zu’ann and other kin’toni all migrate towards the South to flee from the incoming ice age, trade becomes both more difficult and dangerous.

Some are still hopeful, because if the size of the clan keeps increasing, it’s possible for the Orm’kela to survive and bloom in Taerel’s next ice age. The heat generated by their enormous furnaces and fires used to smelt metal is certainly enough to live comfortably and shrug off the frozen wasteland above the earth.

Psychology

It is said that the only company an Orm’kela needs is the quiet cracking of a nearby fire. Members of the Orm’kela clan nearly all prefer solitude and hard work to the company of other kin’toni. However, whenever teamwork in the clan is necessary, such as between the kin’toni who smelt metal and the kin’toni who forge, they can show themselves to be very communicative and social. The same happens when the topic of conversation is their craft, as Orm’kela kin’toni will proudly brag about their achievements and discoveries in their field.

It seems that all Orm’kela are naturally hard-working, often not leaving their forges or mines for days on end. If an Orm’kela started on something, they are not going to stop until the task is finished. Work in the Orm’kela society is more than just an obligation though, it always takes up a giant chunk of their thoughts specifically because it’s their greatest passion. Nothing feels more enjoyable to a clan member than to sit warming their hands by the furnace while watching iron continuously smelt.

Even though different members on the clan specialize in different fields on the Orm’kela production pipeline, this love of metal, fire and warmth, is what bands all Orm’kela tightly together. Heat and light are worshipped as forces of good, while the cold and the dark are two things that terrify members of the Orm’kela clan. It’s almost unbelievable that the Orm’kela were once a clan living on the gloomy, frosted plains of Enemu, surrounded by hills of inky jagged rock. Their fear of the dark and attachment to heat is justified now that the clan has moved underground.

Darkness is unexplored, uncharted territory; being surrounded by shade in the deepest Orm’kela mines is a death sentence for all zu’ann and other kin’toni, and while the Orm’kela clan have remarkable night vision, exploration and risk-taking aren’t traits that run in Orm’kela blood. The truth is the polar opposite, the Orm’kela prefer to stick to the safety of what they trust and are petrified by the idea of wandering into the unknown. Orm’kela tunnels are all explored, well-lit and known inside-out by clan members. This is why the kin’toni whose responsibility is mining coal and metal are so highly respected in the clan.

They choose to sacrifice themselves, getting far out of the comfort zone of any other Orm’kela and exploring murky uncharted areas of Enemu’s large underground world, all for the good of other clan members. Those kin’toni seem to fear the dark way less than their smithing clanmates, and the reason for that is unknown. Occupations which require one to spend time above ground, such as trading, hunting and gathering, are met with the same lack of enthusiasm as mining among the Orm’kela kin’toni. Volunteers are very rare as the land outside of the underground tunnels is even less known than the Orm’kela mines.

The icy plains are an easy environment to get lost in once home is out of sight. The possibility of getting lost above the earth and being left to wander the cruel North for the rest of one’s days is spine-chilling to the Orm’kela. It is the worst fate they can imagine. The fear of the outside world has gotten more intense and widespread as the clan spent more years underground. The younger kin’toni are especially common victims of this fear, while the older Orm’kela kin’toni, who have likely spent at least a tiny part of their life above the earth, are more tolerant towards that way of life.

Biology

The Orm’kela kin’toni were not much different from other Northern clans once, but spending the majority of their lives in the Orm’kela subterranean cities led to them developing an array of adaptations useful to a species living underground. However, there is a specific trait that the Orm’kela possessed even before they went under the earth, one which pushed blacksmithing to be Orm’kela’s claim to fame. This trait was an extreme resistance to heat. Even before they discovered iron, the clan had a huge advantage over other primitive kin’toni clans that tried to smelt and forge metals.

The Orm’kela are fairly small in stature, their skin’s colour is a pale, slightly translucent white due to lack of sunlight. The limbs of Orm’kela kin’toni are thin, yet way more powerful than they actually look. It should be clearly remembered that the Orm’kela are a clan of smiths, and a smith who cannot lift a hammer is likely to be of no good. Orm’kela are slow and generally poor hunters without their weapons, so it’s very common for them to exchange equipment crafted for other clans and ask for captured zu’ann in order to fulfill their thirst for blood.

High intelligence and preservation of smithing traditions was what made the Orm’kela survive and prosper while other Northern clans slowly perished due to the shifting climate, despite those same Northern clans possessing a better degree of strength and military power. Orm’kela eyes are very unique compared to other kin’toni. While spending years underground dulled their vision in favour of sharper hearing, Orm’kela actually have excellent night vision. It is said that the aforementioned night vision was what allowed for the Orm’kela to navigate the pitch-black caves and mines of Enemu before light was made commonplace in their housing.

The few hunters that are part of the Orm’kela clan utilize this skill to the fullest, using stealth to penetrate zu’ann settlements and sneaking up on their unsuspecting prey in the dead of night. Adaptation is not always good though. While being short may be advantageous when you spend your days in narrow underground tunnels, it’s not exactly a plus in combat. The heat resistance that the Orm’kela evolved wasn’t cost-free either. It made them more sensitive to cold, which is a tremendous problem for a Northern tribe.

Had they been more resistant to cool weather instead of heat, it might have been possible for them to stay as a clan above the ground and expand their control beyond Enemu’s icy plains. Orm’kela kin’toni have smaller teeth than their surface-dwelling neighbours. They also have trouble growing hair, so the vast majority of Orm’kela are fully bald.

Culture

Work is without a doubt the center focus of the Orm’kela culture, not just any work but the metalworking the clan is known for. Orm’kela kin’toni take great pride in how skilled they are at the craft, it is the focus point of their entire lives. Therefore, it’s not only functional weapons and armour that get created, the Orm’kela are fond of decorations and statues as well, since they believe that beauty is the superior way to showing off the intricacy of their work.

The underground cities that the Orm’kela build use this philosophy to its outmost importance, it’s nearly impossible to find a building carved from either stone or metal by an Orm’kela kin’toni, and not be amazed by the sheer time and effort sunk into it. Just being able to gaze at the fruits of Orm’kela labour is considered an honour reserved for members of the clan, everyone else has to pay if they want to take a peek at Enemu’s subterranean wonders. The Orm’kela society was forged with as much care as their weapons. Kin’toni are split up and identified by their occupation.

The four main jobs a kin’toni has to choose between are mining, smelting, smithing and surface work. The clan mines their own ore to use for production, and providing that is the responsibility of Orm’kela miners, who choose to leave the cozy and warm underground tunnels behind and instead work in the unforgiving, clammy mines in nearby hills. Mining ore isn’t the only stage before the metals are ready to be used by the clan’s talented smiths. They have to be melted first, which is done by kin’toni working in their own personal foundries and forges.

These clan members tend to be the most resistant to heat, spending their hours at boiling temperatures. The final product is usually created by the same kin’toni who turned the ore into liquid, but for collaborative projects where multiple clan members work together, it’s more common to see specialized roles like this. The various smiths of the Orm’kela clan employ different methods. Plenty of well-respected smiths in the clan have their personal secret ways to craft versatile and high-quality equipment. Forging is a classic way to shape and polish metal that the Orm’kela make great use of.

The hammer and anvil are even considered to be the symbol of the Orm’kela clan, and the Orm’kela definitely do not mind. Still, Orm’kela are very secretive about their craft with anyone but fellow clan members, which is understandable because if another clan somehow manages to do a better job than them at their strongest side, what can the Orm’kela do to stay in control? While Orm’kela prefer living in solitude and focusing on the art of smithing, it’s not to say that they’re all completely asocial. In fact, Orm’kela have a rich history of traditions tied closely together with their religion.

Light and heat are sacred elements that must be preserved, darkness and cold must be chased away, so the Orm’kela sometimes hold festivals where they celebrate the kin’toni being blessed with fire by starting a monumental bonfire in the middle of the Orm’kela capital. The last category of Orm’kela kin'toni are the surface workers, they are a small but very crucial minority among the clan, which provide all the resources that a fully underground lifestyle can not sustain.

It is them who gather lumber, patrol the plains to make sure that other clans don’t settle on Orm’kela territory, hunt zu’ann and engage in exchange of goods with neighbouring kin’toni clans. Since volunteers for surface work are so few, the clan has taken to forcing the clan’s worst, but most charismatic smiths to take up the role. Even though this move could have spoiled the reputation of surface workers, Orm’kela simply don’t care and believe that even the clumsiest smith has a place in the society. Ultimately it turned out to be the correct thing to do, and the Orm’kela clan manages to prosper in the bitter cold.

Government

Despite the Orm’kela being a relatively old clan, an organized government is a recent invention for them. The solitary lifestyles that most Orm’kela led simply didn’t make the presence of a government and laws a necessity to preserve the society, yet at a point it was decided to set up a proper system of laws which would have to be followed by every single Orm’kela kin’toni. The laws are decided by a ring of the clan’s 20 most skilled workers, and they include things such as prohibitions of violence between clan members (not like it’s happened more than a couple times throughout the clan’s history though) and theft.

The punishment for breaking these Orm’kela laws is an expulsion from both the clan’s subterranean territory and the Enemu icy plains in general, a fate worse than death to many a kin’toni. It is suspected that the all-time worst offenders joined the Loremdra clan after their exile from Orm’kela. The weapons, armour and miscellaneous tools forged by the clan’s members are all taken up to the surface and sold by the clan’s merchants. Everyone gets a share of the profits after the merchants come back, and even the most hard-working smiths do not mind, because they do it out of passion rather than dreams of high status.

As a result of this mostly equal distribution, Orm’kela kin’toni are somewhat equal to each other when it comes to how much blood, clothes and workspace they receive. Status is expressed by a kin’toni’s collection of forged items, as well as any expansions they make to their tunnels themselves. The kin’toni of highest status have huge collections made up of countless masterfully forged items, but there is little difference in quality of life.

Critical decisions such as which sides to support in the case of a war between neighbouring kin’toni clans, how to deal with trespassing clans and which clan members should be sent to the surface work are all handled by this ring of 20 kin’toni, who prioritize the best interests of the Orm’kela clan members. However, making big decisions is something that became rare as more kin’toni clans left for the South, and there are talks about potentially disbanding the government completely and replacing it with a democratic voting system when there is need for it.

Members of the Orm’kela government are the only clan members who are constantly updated about the state of Enemu above the earth. The constant flow of information is usually not shared with the rest of the clan, but that’s because the Orm’kela are barely interested in politics or diplomacy. To the average Orm’kela, they are complexities which serve no purpose but to distract one from their labour.

Military

The Orm’kela military is split up into three branches. The first one is the underground branch. It’s a moral obligation for every Orm’kela kin’toni to defend their home in case of an invasion by a hostile clan. Because of this, all kin’toni are technicaly members of the first military branch, except those who work on the surface and are part of the other two branches. The defenders are untrained but well-equipped due to the entire clan engaging in the production of armour and weapons. An invasion has never actually happened, but if it ever does happen the Orm’kela will very likely be able to beat the unwanted guests back thanks to their tech and numbers.

The second branch of Orm’kela military is the guard branch. Since the Orm’kela clan has control over the Enemu ice plains and hills, settling on this territory is forbidden for other kin’toni clans. If regular patrolling didn’t happen on the surface, there would be nothing preventing other clans for making the ice plains their home, as an underground clan is unlikely to notice a rudimentary tribe of kin’toni living above their cities without checking up on the situation up there. This was the riskiest military branch to work in, especially before the savage Loremdra moved away from Taerel’s North.

An Orm’kela stumbling upon a group of those would somehow have to survive the encounter with those crude barbarians. Being armed to the teeth didn’t do much when the Loremdra had pure unmatched strength and bloodlust. In modern Enemu, the vicious elements are enough of a danger, and so are the beastly predators inhabiting the North. The third and final military branch of the Orm’kela is the hunter branch. The hunters were a branch created with the purpose of supplying the clan with a constant supply of fresh zu’ann blood, something that has progressively been getting more and more difficult with a lot of them leaving the North.

Nevertheless, a couple zu’ann settlements remained close by, specifically because a lot of kin’toni clans migrated too. The Orm’kela aren’t well-suited for hunting from a biological standpoint, so stealth and guerilla warfare are utilized in order to capture the zu’ann stupid enough to travel alone. Zu’ann who get lost in the vast ice plains are always considered an easy target, but sometimes the hunters target animals too. Wildlife in the North isn’t primarily a source of food, but the skin, fat and fur of Enemu’s fauna are incredibly useful for making clothes, oil lamps and decorations.

Religion

The Orm’kela kin’toni use religion as a tool to rationalize the world around them. This is why they tie the elements and forces of nature they observe in their life to deities. According to the traditional Orm’kela religion, the goddess Su’ol manifests herself as the forces of light, fire and heat. A lot of the kin’toni working on the surface would swear that they have seen Su’ol in her true form, a scorching, blinding entity of light in the sky. This mysterious entity was of course the sun.

The Orm’kela clan view their resistance to heat and love of light as blessings given to the whole clan by Su’ol herself, in order to keep the influence of the second Orm’kela god, Lirian, away from the underground world. Lirian is the polar opposite of Su’ol in Orm’kela mythology, he manifests himself as darkness and piercing cold. It is believed that the two of them are in an endless battle, and that Lirian was only a step away to gaining control over the entirety of Taerel, but that Su’ol managed to save the world with her gift of fire, which may not have been enough to get rid of the freezing temperatures above earth, but enough to keep the clan’s underground tunnels comfortably warm.

Other deities representing other things in nature were also worshipped, though not to the same extent as Su’ol. For example, Azuri was the goddess of water and the sister of Lirian and Su’ol. However, unlike her two other siblings, she preferred to stay away from conflict and do her own thing in the background, much like a lot of the Orm’kela kin’toni. Worship and remembrance would take different forms depending on the deity. Giant celebrations happened in Su’ol’s name, where equally giant bonfires would be lit and weapons would be thrown into the heat as a sacrifice to help the goddess in battle.

Lirian would be cursed instead of being worshipped, and certain days of the year would be reserved specifically for “spreading the light”, as some kin’toni called it. What it actually meant was sending pilgrims to the clan’s mines and tunnels which were lacking in light, and putting up lamps all over the place. This wasn’t just something done for fun, the Orm’kela believed that darkness could breed monsters which would drag unlucky kin’toni into the void, never to be seen again. There is a grain of truth to those legends, as it would be common for the Orm’kela to get lost in the dark before the younger generations developed better night vision, and before light was as widespread as it is in today’s Orm’kela cities.

One of the most important myths the Orm’kela kin’toni believed in was one about their clan’s responsibility. The Orm’kela were founded and blessed by Su’ol, who taught them the art of working metal and gave them a task of outmost importance. As long as the clan’s forges remained warm, the tunnels well-lit, and the traditions didn’t die out, the world would be in balance. However, if the clan collapsed or abandoned the underground, Lirian would get the advantage, slay Su’ol, and plunge the entirety of Taerel into a frozen lull, until it would get consumed by his living, breathing darkness.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Orm'kela Kin'toni Clan

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