Stastwar Kin'toni Clan

History

The history of the Stastwar Kin’toni clan has been recorded the moment it was created in year 4E 51. The Stastwar kin’tonis were originally from the Taeel:Et'woro Kin'toni Clan. But because the Et’woro clan was overpopulated, there was a great famine whereby not all Et’woro could find food. Many fought over blood and died. The Stastwar decided to find food elsewhere by leaving the clan and going into different zu'aan territories. The Stastwar is made up of around 50 kin’tonis in present age 4E 250. Their number was originally in the 100s but it dwindled when many kin’tonis of the Stastwar clan died of hunger during their journey to other zu'aan territories.

The Stastwar clan was originally founded by O’tor Stastwar. He was the kin’toni who chose to leave the Et’woro clan and led the mass exodus during the Great Famine. The Star Chief of the Et’woro clan was against the creation of a new clan, fearing that O’tor would try to create a revolution among his clan and kill him. But O’tor Stastwar swore he would never come back to the Et’woro clan and left peacefully. There has since been animosity between the Et’woro and the Stastwar clans where the Et’woro write with bad faith about the Stastwar clan leader, painting him as a deserter who left the Et’woro clan during hard times instead of helping the clan.

The Stastwar are no longer welcome in Et’woro territory and they are aware of it. The Stastwar’s historical records are less biased than those of the Et’woro clan. They wrote rather objectively and not subjectively in order to maintain the truth, writing only about facts rather than romanticizing history. They know of the origins of their condition as kin’tonis and recorded their experiences as past zu'aan guinea pigs or test subjects. Many keep diaries since their past life as zu'aan and have not discarded those precious bits of history.

The diaries contain biographies about their years as zu'aan from the Empire in which the Stastwar wrote about their experiences as zu'aan soldiers or simple residents of the former Empire. They even wrote descriptions of how the Empire used to look like and even drew some sketches of the former Empire’s cities and houses. They have not forgotten that they were once zu'aan before transforming into kin’tonis. The Stastwar keep writing about their years as kin’toni in their diaries from their zu'aan years. Each one is a life story and each one tells the story of the Stastwar clan members.

There are around 50 diaries filled with interesting stories and information about the past and the present of the Stastwar kin’tonis. They are all written in ancient zu'aan and only zu'aan scholars who understand and study the ancient language can decipher the Stastwar kin’tonis’ writings. The Stastwar’s historical records are extremely valuable and can provide an objective view of the history and evolution of zu'aan turned kin’tonis. To this day, some of the diaries that the Stastwar kin’tonis always keep on them have fallen in the hands of zu'aan who had slain a couple of the Stastwar kin’tonis.

Biology

The Stastwar kin’tonis have an average height of 1 m 75 cms for both men and women. Their eyes have yellow irises with white sclerae and horizontal rectangular pupils. They have pointy claws or nails that allow them to wound and impale prey or enemies. They are naturally strong and can dig their sharp nails deep in the flesh of an opponent or victim. Their nails are as sharp and strong as metal blades. They use those in self defense or to hunt mostly unarmed prey. Despite their relatively average stature and height they can take down strong zu'aan with their bare hands, using their pointy nails to claw at the enemy, digging into its flesh.

The Stastwar have very long canines and a deep bite in the neck would mean certain death. Their skin is pallid and they are very sensitive to heat. They dislike fire and burn easily in them. Their skins are way more sensitive than ordinary zu'aan and they can be cut or wounded very easily. Contrary to the sharpness and strength of their claws, the Stastwars have very thin and soft skin. They do not have too much muscle mass but they are swift and light and can claw at their enemies in melee combat with extreme speed. It is very difficult to dodge a swipe of their sharp claws. They sidestep and flip to avoid an enemy’s sword or weapon and are very nimble and agile combatants.

The Stastwar have night vision like most kin’tonis and can see in the dark fairly well. Their eyesight, despite being accustomed to darkness, are not blinded by fire lights or lamps. They can adjust to the brightness of such sources of light without much difficulty. Lights to them lead to a source of food in the night, since zuann need light to travel the dark paths they tread at nightfall. They often ambush travellers who light up lamps in their caravan in the dark. The Stastwar also look at the city lights to know where there is food as they keep on travelling as a mob. They raid and attack small villages in groups, drinking their fill before moving on.

A Stastwar kin’toni has a very solid stomach. The Stastwar can stay for days and even a few weeks without food. Their metabolism is not too active and they do not burn energy too fast unless they are in combat or use their energy to do rough work like carrying heavy loads for miles. But they avoid doing too much effort and only keep their strength for combat. They can slow or speed up their metabolism at will, burning more energy to increase their strength and speed and saving it when they are not hunting. Stastwar kin’tonis do not have ultra hearing but they can smell blood fairly easily.

Whenever they smell blood, their bloodlust increases and their metabolism is triggered and becomes active. They are in hunting mode whenever they smell the scent of blood.

Culture

The culture of the Stastwar Kin’toni clan is one where martial arts is valued. They believe that hand to hand combat, or in their case claw to claw combat, is an art that all Stastwar kin’tonis must adhere to. If they do not know how to fight with their bare hands, they are defenseless and can fall easily to an enemy’s sword. The martial art culture is borrowed from ancient zu'aan martial arts. The clan leader, O’tor Stastwar, was once an adept at zu'aan martials arts. Even if the Stastwar can and do wield weapons, they all know how to fight without any. The Stastwar have adapted the zu'aan martial arts to their new morphology as kin’tonis.

They use their hands and claws like a sharp weapon. The Stastwar martial arts, now known as the Stastwar arts, is a form of melee, hand to hand combat. The Stastwar kin’tonis have learnt and know the weak spots of any zu'aan and capitalize on hitting their opponents’ weaknesses. They can bring down large and strong zu'aan to their knees despite the Stastwar’s relatively smaller and average frames.

They often try to hit their opponents with their fists and kicks to subdue them and avoid harming and digging their claws into the flesh of their victims. They can drink more blood from their prey if the latter are not bleeding. One of the best techniques of the Stastwar is to knock zu'aan unconscious with a hit on their neck’s weak spot. The Stastwar arts is an age old art, but the other clan members have adapted this art into new forms and techniques unique to them. As such many of the clan’s members have unique fighting styles. Some enjoy using kicks while others prefer wrestling.

Those variants are part of their culture and fighting is at the heart of Stastwar culture. They will often organize competitions to see who is the best martial artist. They avoid wounding their kin’toni opponents lethally by wearing thick gloves made of leather that cover their pointed nails. The Stastwar prefer wearing form-fitting clothing like tight shirts and pants which allows them to move easily. They avoid loose clothing in general. Sometimes, they wear light armor made of leather for additional protection. But most do not wear armor because it slows them down. They are like glass cannons,fragile but lethal.

But the culture of the Stastwar is not only centred around combat. Many are very good writers. When they are not fighting, they write. Most of their writings involve recording their nights as kin’tonis, writing a little everyday as a hobby. But often they write about their martial arts techniques. They like writing stories about combat, often writing about a fictional kin’toni hero who fights hordes of zu'aan single-handedly. They enjoy sharing their writings or books among themselves and avidly read the action-packed stories. It is a great form of entertainment for them, which further inspires them to become the best kin’toni martial artists of Taerel.

Government

The government of the Stastwar Kin’toni clan is more akin to a demarchy whereby the clan members vote and elect a clan leader through a random vote. O’tor Stastwar has not always been the clan leader and many others have replaced him. The members cast a random vote by lottery to determine who should be in power to lead them. But O’tor has proven time and again that he was one of the best leaders. But he has not yet been elected again due to the random nature of the lottery system. The Stastwar kin’tonis vote every decade for a new leader.

The luck factor of the sortition can be both good and bad at the same time. The sortition gives the chance to any member to become a leader and their election is based solely on luck. All the members have to participate in the sortition, whether they want to or not. The names of the 50 clan members are written on pieces of paper and juggled in a large bowl before the current blindfolded clan leader takes one of the pieces of paper and opens it to reveal the name of the new clan leader. Some wait in anticipation while others dread it. Not everyone wants to be a leader, but they are forced into the role.

Because of the lottery vote, there have been a variety of different leaders over the course of 150 years. Approximately 15 different leaders to be precise. By chance or coincidence, no one has been re-elected yet. The current leader is a female kin’toni by the name of Aw’re Tagipli. Ever since her election, the Stastwar keep a rather low profile, sneaking into the houses of their victims instead of making a grand entrance in the cities they raid. This is seen as a rather cowardly tactic by many of the other kin’tonis of the Stastwar clan, but they do not complain too much about it.

It was the fault of the sortition or bad luck, many say. The Stastwar have to continuously adapt to the leadership of a new leader every decade, but many wish to change the vote system to make it more of a democracy where a leader is chosen by popular vote. However the sortition has allowed the Stastwar to adapt to different leaderships and allowed many of the kin’toni clan members to develop leadership skills by being elected. Those elected have a decade long experience in leading and while not all are born leaders, they learn how to lead.

These skills improve their decision-making and help them understand what works or what does not. The new leaders are often given a crash course on leadership by the former clan leader. This makes the new leader not completely lost when making decisions. But the newly elected clan leader, who is most often an awkward or shy Stastwar, develops confidence over time, free to carry out his or her role as leader in the way he or she wants.

Military

The military of the Stastwar Kin’toni clan is made up of martial artists. It is natural for the Stastwar to know how to fight without weapons. They are all martial experts who have honed their skills for more than a century. Their technical combat ability is unmatched by the zu'aan. Not even the most trained zu'aan martial artist can match up against a Stastwar. Not easily at least. But in spite of their natural combative prowess, the Stastwar also have to learn how to use longer range weapons like swords. Most of the weapons they use belonged to armed zu'aan they fought in the past with their bare hands.

It was not easy to retrieve those weapons. So they make good use of them by learning how to wield them during duels among themselves. They are not warriors meant to serve an army but very good duelists. Their swordplay is surprisingly elegant and refined like duelists or swordsmen from noble houses. They have learned not only to kill or defend with swords but also to disarm their opponents. Most of the weapons that the Stastwar use are stolen from the zu'aan. They learn to wield a variety of stolen weapons such as knives, daggers, spears and swords.

Anything that will give them a slightly better tactical advantage in melee combat against zu'aan with longer reaching weapons. The Stastwar can hold their own without those weapons but it is way too risky to fight armed opponents without them. They collect weapons as a prize from fallen zu'aan duelists and the most skilled Stastwar duelists keep the best and intricately decorated sword with them during their travels. The military of the Stastwar clan is not united even if they have very good elements. The Stastwar rely on duels against a small group of zu'aan guards or combatants to win.

They cannot deal with armies or large armed mobs. That is why they prefer to hunt and fight in small villages or cities with few guards who patrol the streets at night. With approximately 50 kin’toni duelists, they can easily take down 50 to 60 zu'aan opponents. But they prefer singling out the zu'aan so they are not at a disadvantage. They dislike it when zu'aan mobs try to overpower them in numbers. To the Stastwar, such behaviour is dishonorable and unfair. They enjoy a good and fair fight. During raids, the Stastwar travel in duos or trios to fight armed guards.

They prefer to fight one on one and do not gang up on a single zu'aan opponent. The Stastwar silently watch as their fellow kin’toni brother or sister fights an armed zu'aan, like spectators watching a fierce duel. Each fight is like a show to them. Often they will tell the zu'aan to fight in solo combat with one of their fellow kin’toni. Some honorable zu'aan agree to those terms and conditions, but not all do. Many zu'aan engage in dirty fighting and anger the honorable Stastwar in the process by breaking those terms or disagreeing with them. The pride and honor of a Stastwar, while virtuous, can be their greatest weakness.

Religion

The religion of the Stastwar Kin’toni clan is polytheistic. All the Stastwar clan members have a different belief. Often, they keep praying to the zu'aan gods they used to worship as zu'aan. They are free to form their own religion around them but mostly keep the old religions of the zu'aan. They have not made too many variations to them as a result. They are purists who believe in the old religious texts and keep the same religious practices. From the God of Fire to the Goddess of Beauty and Youth, they keep worshiping those deities as if they were still zu'aan.

The kin’toni women often pray to their goddess of beauty to keep them young and beautiful, putting on stolen perfumes or jewellery and occasionally dressing up in dresses. But O’tor Stastwar and most of the male kin’tonis from the clan worship the God of War. To the men, the God of War represents the pinnacle of strength. Without Him, they would be weak and frail. Even some of the female kin’tonis revere him. The God or War is the Stastwar’s model of the perfect and divine combatant. They want to be like Him. To them, being the best combatant or duelist in Taerel means that they have reached a more divine status as angels of war.

Perfect servants of the God of War. The best Stastwar kin’toni warriors see themselves as angelic vessels for the children of the God of War. They believe they are his angels. Not all kin’tonis of the Stastwar clan are believers, some are agnostic and even atheists. Regardless of their beliefs, the Stastwar are free to practice their different religions without being judged by others. Their clan is almost laical or secular. Some Stastwar are not overly religious even if they still hold their personal beliefs. But those who are will not try and convert the others into their religion.

Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. The most religious Stastwar will carry out or perform their rites in a small prayer group, often under the watchful eyes of the other kin’tonis who do not practice said religion. It is however forbidden to form a cult around oneself in Stastwar religions. No one has the right to be worshipped as living gods because it is heresy. Those who try are seen as derelicts and are exiled. The Stastwar believers or non-believers respect the gods and the religion of others. Even if it is not viewed as heresy by some kin’tonis from the clan, pretending to be a living god is seen as highly arrogant and vain.

Many of the Stastwar kin’tonis believe in the virtues that their gods created for them. Even the non-believers appreciate those virtues. Strength, honor, intelligence are some of the virtues the Stastwar believe in. There are also vices in Stastwar religion such as lust, weakness and cowardice. Most of the kin’tonis do not mate because it is taboo or shameful. Since they cannot reproduce, it is useless to mate. Being weak or cowardly is laughable or seen with disdain among the Stastwar. Fleeing from a strong opponent is a sign of weakness and is a very shameful behaviour.

Miscellany

The Stastwar kin’tonis keep mostly to themselves. But when they come across other civilized kin’toni clans, they will challenge the strongest combatants to nonlethal duels for fun. They may speak and write in the old zu'aan language but they have adapted their language to current spoken zu'aan. To make themselves understood by kin’toni foreigners who speak a different language, they often make a peaceful sign by lifting their right arm in the air and waving at them. Most civilized kin’tonis know that waving is a friendly sign and wave back to show that they are peaceful.

The Stastwar have met many different kin’tonis and zu'aan in the East of the fallen Xerea Empire and continue their journey East. They wait for the sun to set before adventuring themselves in those unknown but civilized territories. Many Lahwyr zu'aan thought that the Stastwar are foreign kin’tonis with special features. The Eastern zu'aan are also adepts of a different kind of martial arts which the Stastwar observed and appreciated during their fights with the Eastern zu'aan. Some of the Stastwar even borrowed techniques from the eastern combatants, showing a lot of respect for them.

The zu'aan from Lahwyr, to the East have very different features from the zu'aan of the fallen Empire. They are either fair or tan-skinned and have slanted eyes. The Stastwar kin’tonis write about the different zu'aan races they meet in their personal journal and even make sketches of their appearance. They also draw the Lahwyr architecture they come across. The land of Lahwyr is a new land that none of them could have come across during their time as zu'aan from the Empire. They even converted some of the Eastern zu'aan into kin’tonis, trying their best to communicate with the new Lahwyr kin’tonis.

While the Lahwyr kin’tonis the Stastwar turned did not share the same features as them due to their slanted eyes, they inherited their eye color and sharp fangs and claws. Many ran away after being turned, unable to understand what the Stastwar were trying to communicate to them. That is why the Stastwar are doing their best to understand Lahwyr language. They often go in villages at night peacefully to make themselves understood and learning the different culture of the Lahwyr. Most Lahwyr have never seen a kin’toni before and while they look scary, many do not see them as threats.

The Stastwar have reached Lahwyr in the span of a century or so and are only just learning this newly discovered land’s culture and language. They try to be peaceful but at times they do not have a choice but fight and feed. Because of this they have built themselves a reputation as monsters in the Lahwyr and the Lahwyr zu'aan are very afraid of them. But with the base Lahwyr language the Stastwar learned, they can make themselves understood, challenging the strongest Lahwyr zu'aan to battle and letting them live if they are strong enough or worthy opponents. They only feed on weak or cowardly zu'aan.

Nearby Groups

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Stastwar Kin'toni Clan

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