Naihyo (On the Peoples of Empire)

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The Naihyo culture, known in Rhaetia and Lucania as the ‘Western Barbarians’ so fixated on social standing and infighting that they did not notice the Sultans establishing control over their lands, are in fact a complex culture predating their Sirrenese domination by several hundred years. The three provinces known to us as Okcho, Dvaravika, and Telang (plus the dubious coastline of the maritime Joryo Commandery) are their population center, though many of the petty settlements north of the border are culturally and ethnically similar to recorded pre-Sultanate Trowulani peoples.

In the Ascendant Era, before Caladan the Conqueror was a Rhaetian fever dream, the city of Cirebon was already old, and boasted a long record of its kings in the hexagonal hewn-stone crypts that dot the city’s uplands. These god-kings claimed aspects of their barbaric gods as their divine ancestors and patrons. Among them are some aspects that can be recognized as positions the Twelve Holies now sit, such as Sun-God, Earth-Mother, and Wave-King. Other false ones, such as the ox-skulled god over the tombs of the Pawarman kings of Trowulan, are lost to time. These deities are shared between the northern Naihyo (ruled from Cirebon or Trowulan as often as not) and the southern Naihyo (ruins give this group the name of Majarina, though no city of that name remains).

Over this long period of settlement, the Naihyo of both north and south developed a culture focused heavily on social class. The leader, as depicted on many tombs, was the god-king, who was believed to be mantling a specific deity's powers, who the king sacrificed to in order to maintain favor. The next social standing belonged to the slaves of the king, who wielded his power in his absence. This position could include high-ranking advisors who nevertheless were not free men. Then came the men of the book - wizards, scholars, and scribes. Their education entitled them to greater social status than skilled laborers, and equal to that of soldiers-in-service, who were differentiated from soldiers-for-hire. Sellswords fell under the 'artisan' class, which was above unskilled laborers. At the very bottom of the totem pole were unknown foreigners and prisoners. Slaves' status was not automatically denigrated for being a slave; it depended more on the status of the house that owned them.

Even after the imposition of the Twelve Holies' worship with indisputable proof, the people of Cirebon, at the very least, still burn a freshly slaughtered gaur and leave out its blackened skull for six days and seven nights to ensure the rice harvest would go well.

In appearance, the Naihyo peoples are darker in complexion and wider in face than the peoples of Rhaetia, as a result of their humid environment.