A Kith is a collection of people bound by blood, purpose, and traditions, serving one of the four Great Clans and working towards their own goals and prosperity. Kiths are intensely communal, living and eating together whenever possible, building bonds of loyalty and trust as strong or stronger than any ties of blood that might link their members together. Tomarrans view their Kith as an extension of themselves, a family that will live on after they are gone and whose prosperity and survival is more important than their individual fortune or life.
The vast majority of Tomarrans are born into and spend their entire lives within a single Kith. Those who leave or are cast out of their Kith without joining another are called Clanless and treated as outcasts; only the holy cities of the Khramadzi will take them in to attempt to rehabilitate them back into Tomarran society. All Tomarrans are, by ancient tradition, free to leave their Kith and join another at any time, though changing Kiths is never done frivolously. Most Kiths demand that there be significant time spent proving oneself and working alongside their members before they will accept an applicant. Many Kiths practice fostering, exchanging young children with another Kith that they wish to ally with in order to build tighter ties. When these ties grow close enough, it’s not uncommon for two Kiths to merge, formally unifying under a single name and banner.
There are four Great Clans that collectively rule over the Steppes. Some Tomarrans belong directly to one of the Great Clans, though this is mostly restricted to the direct blood relations of the Clan’s within seven generations. No Veilwalker has ever been recorded as having been born to one of the Great Clans. Most Kiths serve one of the Great Clans, though the directness of this service depends very heavily on the specific relationship between the Clan and that Kith.
The Great Clans do not hold land, per se, though they each have regions of the Steppe that their influence is strongest in. Instead, they fulfill a role blending governmental bodies, military force, and massive trade syndicate, using their vast resources and connections with their subordinate Kiths and the other Clans to safeguard the Steppe and the Tomarran people. Each large settlement has at least four Clanhalls where representatives of the Great Clans hold court and manage their Clan’s interests in the city, ensuring that no part of the Steppe is entirely dominated by any one of the four.
Each of the four Clans has its own unique take on its role in Tomarr, and has specialized in a niche that grants it power equal to the others but in its own way. The Krovodny are focused on security and military readiness; the Sazhirny are a religious and cultural powerhouse; the Yarkavy are masters of trade and protectors of the thousands of caravans traveling across the Steppe; and the Zelvarghy are the keepers of the cities and farms, ensuring that the granaries are full and the roads, wells, and walls maintained.
The Tomarran Steppe encompasses much of Helikhar’s former empire, and the God of Purity’s insidious miasma still lingers over the land. Folk dwelling in Tomarr who lead lives filled with too much Order begin to suffer from an affliction dubbed simply “Calcification.” It begins with a malaise, an itch of increasing discomfort when things don’t happen according to plan or when something looks a bit too chaotic. If not dealt with, after a few months the sufferer begins to have pain in their joints and increasingly limited mobility, which is only alleviated by constantly attempting to order their surroundings and reduce the amount of chaos present in their vicinity.
After a year or two of the pain growing increasingly worse and their behavior becoming progressively more obsessive and tyrannical, eventually the patient becomes unable to move entirely, their joints petrified and locked in place. Without the ability to effect any kind of order on their surroundings, the curse progresses quickly and agonizingly. The rest of their flesh petrifies over the course of two weeks or so, and all the while they are fully conscious and in terrible pain before eventually their heart turns to chalk and they finally perish.
Reversing a case of Calcification requires the patient to either relocate to somewhere outside the Steppe or voluntarily introduce chaos into their surroundings on a daily basis. Relocation is by far the least painful method, but it also removes them from their family and the traditions of Tomarr, which makes it a difficult option for any Tomarran except perhaps an Onager to contemplate. The chaos-cure requires determination and a strong will to resist the psychic and physical pain inflicted by the curse, but the necessary amount of chaos can be as simple as breaking a clay vessel and leaving its shards out in the open, or painting a sloppy and chaotic painting every day and hanging the canvas on the wall — easily accomplished, if the victim has the willpower to do it consistently.
The Spirits of Tomarr are wild and savage things, rarely interacting with mortals except to demand, take, or destroy. They often manifest as Spirits of elements or natural phenomena, such as the Firebird and Thunderbird (see below), and only rarely as Spirits of animals, plants, or places. Many Tomarran traditions center around placating, redirecting, or surviving the attentions of such elemental and migratory Spirits. Very few Tomarrans actively worship, venerate, or speak with the Spirits of the Steppe, as doing so is seen as risky and foolhardy except in the direst of circumstances.
The few mortals who do worship the Spirits of the land are viewed as being only slightly less dangerous as Old God cultists. These Primordial Cults meet in remote areas of the Steppe, far away from the eyes of their Kiths and Clan, to perform rituals meant to beg the favor of the great elemental Spirits — though often as not those favors come in the form of some disaster that befalls a community while just barely missing the cultists themselves. The Shrikes of Tomarr are constantly on the lookout for anyone who disappears for a few days at a time, especially when those absences correlate with some freak storm or earthquake that hurts someone the person in question has a feud with.
The Tomarran tendency to glorify their ancestors and the greatness of the past has a dark side, especially when some Tomarrans choose to glorify the bloodier periods of Tomarran history. Tomarrans call these folk Zhuvani, a derogatory form of “bone chewers,” with the implication that they are obsessed with gnawing upon the bones of history that are best left buried. Most Zhuvani are what the Vauldans like to call “armchair legates,” harkening back to the “good old days” when Tomarrans were strong and the blood of their enemies painted their horses’ hooves… but without any intention of actually doing anything about it. Some, however, go beyond this halcyon fantasy, and have begun to put their desire for a bloodier, more militaristic Tomarr into action.
At present, these Zhuvani fanatics haven’t made themselves into a major threat, but the Vyshalka and the security arms of the Great Clans are still concerned. Though the Zhuvani’s attacks have so far been limited to robbing foreign merchants traveling with lightly-defended Onager caravans, there are clear signs that they intend to escalate to more violent and wider-reaching means of achieving their aims. More worrying, perhaps, is that a number of ancient tombs have been violated in the last five years, and there are persistent rumors that one of them, the tomb of the notoriously bloodthirsty Koro Zakharik, was opened from the inside.
Each Tomarran has a Calling, or profession, which they choose as part of their coming of age. Every young Tomarran trains under the various elders of their Kith, or (if there are no experts in a given trade within their Kith) under the supervision of an elder of a friendly Kith, in order to find the path in life that feels like the best fit for them. Once they have provisionally chosen their Calling, they train intensively under the various elders and experts in that field, regardless of their Kith, learning their craft and hopefully confirming that the profession they have chosen truly is their Calling in life. Eventually, once they are certain of their choice, they are initiated into the Calling by the elders of that profession, officially joining the community of that profession.
A Tomarran’s Calling is more than a job; it forms a new kind of family, one that can be completely different from an individual’s Kith, which they share with all the other members of the Calling they meet. The community of a Calling is much looser than that of a Kith, but members of a Calling who deal with each other regularly still tend to follow the same habits they do with their Kiths — respect and deference to the elders, cooperation to achieve greater goals, coming together in defense of other members, etc.
Tomarran adults without a Calling, known as Trackless, are seen as aimless and indecisive, lacking the drive to achieve any kind of true greatness for themselves or their Kith. Most Kiths will push their young members to find a Calling, both to give them a sense of direction and to help them find a sense of community outside of their Kith-mates. Despite the negative view of Trackless in Tomarran society, there are a number of stories of such individuals using skills from multiple different Callings to succeed in life, making them into more of a cultural underdog than actual outcasts.
Two of the central pillars of Tomarran culture are tradition and the wisdom of their ancestors. They pay homage to the lore and traditions of past generations of Tomarrans almost as much as they worship the True Gods and their Saints. The rituals and traditions passed down since the founding of the Clans millennia ago (since before the Godswar, if the stories are to be believed) are treasured, and seen as almost holy in Tomarran culture. Tomarrans look to past generations for wisdom and guidance in how to maintain the Great Balance, following the traditions laid down by their ancestors in the belief that there is power in such well-worn paths; that old solutions which worked did so for a reason, and are still quite likely to work again.
Tomarrans revere their ancestors, and do so intensely enough that outsiders sometimes misconstrue it as true ancestor worship. Every Kith’s compound features some sort of shrine to its departed ancestors, where members of the family often come to meditate and pray for wisdom or guidance. Many Tomarrans wear amulets fashioned of items that belonged to particularly revered elders or scrolls with the wisdom of their ancestors written on them, and use such items as foci for rituals or prayer. However, no Tomarran actually believes that their ancestors can hear or answer their prayers — instead, the practice is seen as a way of bringing the ideals and understanding of the elders to the forefront of one’s mind, to help them act in a way that is aligned with their ancestors’ values and wisdom.
Traditions are passed to young Tomarrans via oral tradition and a collection of written stories known as the Kaska, or “tales of old” in Skytongue. Each Kith passes down its own embellishments and commentary on the fables and histories of the Kaska, and debates over the exact meaning of some of the tales are a long-standing sport amongst Leopards and other loremasters of the Steppe. The Leopards of each Kith are steeped in the lore of the Steppe, both the horrors and the wonders of its past, and a core part of the Leopards’ Calling is to ensure that the young are taught the stories and rituals of the Kith, Clan, and Steppe. Leopards often visit other Kiths that lack their own loremaster, or even hold public lectures for the whole community to attend, to ensure that no Tomarran ever grows up without knowing their past and the heritage that they are descended from.
The unifying philosophy of Tomarr is the Great Balance, the idea that the world is held together by the balancing of a multitude of great dualities. Life and Death, Order and Chaos, Creation and Destruction, Peace and War, Nature and Civilization, Earth and Sky; all of these and more form the underpinnings of the world, and the old tales say that should one ever fully conquer its matched partner it will begin a cascade of failure that will bring the universe crashing down upon itself. Most Tomarrans don’t put much stock in such apocalyptic warnings, but they all understand that an imbalance between these forces can cause havoc in the mortal world, and so it is incumbent upon them to ensure that the world remains in balance as much as possible.
While Tomarran scholars and mystics can go on at excruciating length about the details and subtleties of the Great Balance, for most Tomarrans the philosophy usually manifests as an aversion to any kind of black-and-white thinking, a belief that too much of anything is probably harmful, and a perspective that focuses on understanding the forces at play in a given situation. When confronted by a problem, most Tomarrans will seek to discover what dualities are at play, how they are interacting with each other, and what is throwing that system out of balance; once these things have been identified, solving the problem becomes a matter of finding ways to return balance to the world.
Of course, frequently there isn’t the time needed for this kind of careful consideration, when action is needed immediately rather than after an hour or a month’s investigation and debate. When such a situation arises, Tomarrans rely on their intuition and the traditions of their people, letting the accumulated wisdom of the past and the training passed on by their elders guide their actions.
Chaos and Order are the most crucial pair of great forces for most Tomarrans’ day-to-day lives, thanks to the ever-present threat of Calcification. The majority of Tomarrans actively dislike having chaotic lives or surroundings, but they all understand the dangers of having too much Order, both in their personal lives and in their society. Calcification afflicts those who do not find ways to introduce bits of chaos into their lives, and stagnation and eventually corruption will eat away at the foundations of a people who refuse to change; the Tomarrans may not always agree on how change should occur, but they all know deep in their bones that if they keep their society static for too long then it will inevitably crumble and fall.
To avoid such a fate, Tomarrans have incorporated what they call “touches of chaos” into their lives, bits of whimsy and spontaneity that help to fend off Calcification. Going on a walkabout wherever your feet might take you; taking the scenic route to get somewhere, just to see the sights; spontaneously deciding to draw a sand painting; making a dish that you’ve never made before; wearing something silly around the house for your own amusement; all of these and more are some of the minor, commonplace things that Tomarrans do to avoid Helikhar’s lingering curse upon their land. There is also a universal agreement amongst Tomarrans that no building or structure should ever be perfectly symmetrical or arranged — fences are always crooked in some small way, buildings always have an out-of-the-way section of wall that is painted the wrong color or left unfinished, and paving stones always have one that is ever-so-slightly askew from the rest, just to throw the pattern off.
This also applies at a societal level. Art and performance are highly prized in Tomarran culture, and while the classics are always the most popular in Tomarr’s traditionalist society there is a great appreciation for artists who can come up with new variations on an old theme. Those who have new ideas for how to do things can petition the elders of their Kith or the leaders of the local settlement to play the role of “Agent of Chaos” and take a trial run at whatever they think would work better. Though these experiments are not always permitted and are always heavily monitored, there is a great weight of tradition behind allowing and even encouraging such things, so that the Tomarrans might avoid the fate of so many peoples who allowed stagnation to destroy them.
Another crucial aspect of the Great Balance that Tomarrans have incorporated into their culture is the idea that life and creation cannot be balanced without the existence of death and destruction. Tomarrans are culturally fatalistic, accepting that all things will end in time — themselves, their Kith, their people, even the world itself. To fight against that ending is to fight against the Balance itself, which they see as both futile and morally questionable. Instead, they view endings as something to be prepared for, accepted, and even celebrated, provided that the ending in question is part of the natural cycle of events and not the result of an outside force.
This is most apparent in the Tomarran attitude towards death. Rather than focusing on fearing or staving off the inevitable, the Tomarran attitude is to fill one’s life with as much vibrancy and joy as possible, making the most of the time each person has in their life, so that when the end comes it can be met and accepted knowing that one has lived a fulfilled life. Tomarrans see their Kiths as a form of immortality, allowing them to live on in a way after they die, and so much of the drive and passion that Tomarrans put into their lives is focused on ensuring the security and prosperity of their Kith and Clan, to help push back the time when the mark they leave upon the world will inevitably be erased for good.
The balance between civilization and nature is also strongly emphasized in Tomarran culture. Tomarrans have a deep appreciation for natural beauty and the role that natural processes play in maintaining the ecology of the Steppe and the bounty of their herds and crops. The Caracals of Tomarr are charged, among other things, with surveying the wilderness they patrol, identifying when something is out of balance, and doing whatever they need to in order to correct that imbalance, thus ensuring the ongoing health of the wilds that their Kith and communities depend upon. Those who despoil the wilderness without care to the long-term consequences, whether through overhunting, zealous clear-cutting of forests, or pollution, risk the wrath of not only the local druids but the entire community — Tomarrans do not tolerate those who would destabilize the Balance for their own gain.
Tomarrans have a tradition of building paradeisos, or walled gardens, in any settlement where such things are feasible. The ideal for such locations is to recreate patches of the local wilderness with as much accuracy and beauty as the gardener can manage, so that those whose lives do not take them beyond the borders of the settlement can still appreciate the beauty of nature around them. Larger settlements frequently have expansive public parks that resemble curated nature preserves, where any resident can visit and wander the paths to appreciate the nature around them, search for Balance, or both. Parks and paradesisos are all designed with the local animals, both tame and wild, in mind, and many cats and birds can be found in small houses or nooks set aside for them by the caretakers of the space.
Tomarrans are known for having an “us against them” attitude, and this is exemplified in their concept of “zemni,” or “the alien.” Something or someone is said to be zemni if it holds no clear value to the Tomarrans discussing it, has no relation to them by blood or oath, or goes against Tomarran traditions or the Great Balance in some way. Most often the word is used to describe foreigners or foreign behavior, but it can also be applied to untested and new ideas, enemies of one’s Kith, or (especially relevant with the onset of the new Churning) the servants of the Old Gods.
Zemni represents something that must be either guarded against or actively wiped out. When Tomarrans use the word it always implies a level of wariness against whatever it is applied to; frequently it implies that the speaker believes that violence is an acceptable means of dealing with whatever the subject in question is. When zemni is used to describe other Tomarrans, it is almost always a signal to third parties that arbitration and mediation is needed in order to prevent two or more Kiths from starting a bloody feud.
It’s important for non-Tomarrans to understand that zemni is not necessarily evil or bad, only that it is alien and/or possibly dangerous. A foreigner who proves themselves a friend to a Tomarran Kith loses the label of zemni. A new practice that proves over time to be mostly beneficial and with few negative side effects gradually loses the label as well. Generally the best way to tell whether or not being called “zemni” by a Tomarran is a bad thing is the tone of voice they use: if they sound wary but calm, it’s likely just a matter of proving that you aren’t a danger to them or theirs, while if they sound angry or upset that’s a good sign that some sort of conflict is imminent.
The bonds that Tomarrans make matter deeply to them, and they signify those bonds with oaths of friendship, loyalty, and camaraderie. The symbols of such oaths are a pair of matching stars, woven out of thread or sinew around a crossed set of acacia thorns or other small bits of holy wood and soaked in the blood of those who are swearing the oath, which are worn as talismans by the two people who swore the oath. When crafted by an enchanter, the stars remain the bright crimson of fresh blood for decades, only fading to the ugly brown of dried blood a week or so after the oath has been broken or the agreed-upon duration for it has elapsed.
Those who swear too many Blood-Star Oaths are seen as profligate with their trust and energies, and their ability to keep so many promises is viewed with skepticism. The Tomarrans view it as better to make and hold true to a handful of bonds than to spread yourself thin and be forced to break your word when placed in a difficult situation.
The emphasis that Tomarrans place on personal capability is exemplified in the way they treat those who seek to be acknowledged as an adult. Called the First Flight, this rite of passage was once a brutal test of survival, stealth, and combat ability: young Tomarrans (”fledglings”) were sent out of the Clan’s territory with a horse, a cat, a weapon or two, and a few days’ supplies, and told not to come back without loot or trophies from a neighboring Clan.
In modern times, the First Flight is a much less violent test of a young Tomarran’s ability to make their way in life on their own. Instead of a raid on a neighboring Clan, the young person is gifted a horse, a cat, and a selection of goods and equipment by their Kith and the local elders of their Calling, and sent off to find their fortune elsewhere. For nomadic Kiths, the youth is either left behind at a settlement, or “given away” to another nomadic Kith that is traveling in a different direction.
Each Kith defines when the fledgling may return, or what they must have achieved or acquired in order to return. For some, it’s a period of time, a test to see how well the fledgling can make it without the Kith’s direct support. For others, it’s more focused on results: to come back with a set amount of money or worth of goods, for example, if the Kith is focused on trade, or to return with a signed commendation from a commander outside the Kith, if their family is focused on martial prowess. Whatever the case, most Kiths will still welcome back a fledgling who has not met with success, though their status within the Kith will be notably lower than it might otherwise have been, at least until they find a way to prove their usefulness and capability through hard work or cleverness.
Tomarr is known as a land of swift justice and bloody punishments for those who transgress against its people. The ones who enforce this are the Shrikes, holy mystics of Alethos who hunt down the criminals who violate the laws and traditions of the Steppe. Shrikes often work hand-in-hand with the local guards or Kocharr, but just as frequently operate on their own or as part of their Kith tracking down criminals and sniffing out corruption across Tomarr.
Though there is an entire set of laws and customs governing the punishments for those caught and judged guilty of crimes against the Tomarran people, the Shrikes are most famous for the punishment they use least frequently: execution, followed by impalement upon the thorns of an acacia tree at a nearby crossroads or settlement. This is usually reserved for foreigners who violate Tomarran laws and customs and show no regret for their actions, or bandits who have repeatedly turned down opportunities to redeem themselves and return to Tomarran society. The Steppe might seem like a bandit's paradise to a newcomer, with its vast open plains and countless places to hide, but the notion is quickly squashed by the bleached skeletons dangling from the acacia’s thorns.
Animals are everywhere in Tomarran culture. The herds of cattle, sheep, and horses that the Tomarrans depend on for wool, hides, milk, and meat are present near every city and town of the Steppe. Domestic housecats offer comfort and companionship to their families, while well-trained hunting cats help bring in game and herd the sheep. Specially-trained birds of prey are used as foci for divination rituals to scout from the air, and the swift and hardy horses that are lovingly tended to by the Tomarrans allow their riders to travel swift and far across the plains.
Tomarrans praise those who have learned how to train and handle animals, and such skills are valued regardless of what role someone has in Tomarran life. In their eyes, there is no part of Tomarran culture or society that cannot benefit from being able to “speak with the animals” around you to gain their cooperation and companionship, and anyone who is particularly gifted in handling animals is dubbed a “Beast-Speaker” out of respect for their talent.
OOC Note: Because Veilguard is a LARP, with limited ability to safely have animals be part of the game and/or events, the Beast-Speaker title is mostly for show, and to signify that your character is particularly good at dealing with that critical part of Tomarran life.
Just under half of the Tomarran population lives on the road, traveling the Steppe in caravans of brightly-painted wagons. Nomadic life is a core part of Tomarran culture, and even Tomarrans from Kiths who have been settled in one place for centuries have a great appreciation for the nomads of the Steppe, and the vibrancy and prosperity which they bring to the Tomarran people as a whole.
The nomadic Kiths are called Kocharr (koh-CHAR) in Skytongue; the word describes the nomadic lifestyle but is never used as a cultural or ethnic distinction, as some Kiths switch between sedentary and nomadic lifestyles every few years. The Kocharr travel in large and sturdy wagons, fashioned of a broad wooden base with hides or oilcloth stretched above it on wooden hoops that form an arch stretching down the length of the wagon, tall enough for their owner to walk into the tightly-packed interior without bending over. The sides of the wagons and their awnings are brightly painted in a blend of geometric and organic patterns, with each wagon’s decoration being a representation of its owners’ personality, Kith, and Calling(s). The Kocharr call their traveling wagons “caravels,” after an old story about a scout mistaking a caravan for a flotilla of ships sailing upon the sea of grass.
Kocharr very rarely sleep in their wagons. They travel with two tents packed away alongside all of their other cargo: one is a very simple and easy-to-set-up pup tent, which they use primarily when stopping for a single night, while the other is a much more sturdy and spacious structure, which they use when setting up camp in a location for a few days or more. The wagons themselves frequently contain wardrobes, pantries, tool boxes, and other storage spaces needed for daily life, but none are really designed for sleeping in; it’s possible, but rarely comfortable, and the Kocharr see no reason to change that.
Onagers and Eagles are particularly common amongst the Kocharr, as those Callings are specifically nomadic in nature. Leopards frequently travel amongst the Kocharr, either as full-time members of the Kith or as honored passengers traveling to where their knowledge is most needed. Vultures and Shrikes often travel as passengers in Kocharr caravans, traveling across the Steppe wherever their Calling takes them. Caracals sometimes travel as part of a Kocharr caravan, but after a while they tend to “jump ship” to another caravan that’s going in the other direction so that they can stay within the range of natural terrain and ecology they are most familiar with. Gazelles are the rarest Calling amongst the Kocharr, as they tend to be sedentary by nature and tied to their place of business or craft.
Tomarran urban design is rather unique. Not only are large portions of “valuable real estate” in every settlement regularly left open and undeveloped to leave room for visiting Kocharr caravans, but the settlements themselves are almost always worked into the landscape in some fashion. Rather than seeking out the lights, walls, and urban sprawl that many other nations have for cities, often the best way for a traveler to locate a Tomarran settlement is to look for the funereal towers nearby, or to search for one of the massive artworks painted or carved into the land and terrain itself, known as Horizon Art, that are frequently found in the vicinity of large towns or cities.
The cities and towns of Lyukabte, for instance, are built with their rooves flush with the ground, using the stone and earth to protect them from deadly winds should a hypercane push through the coastal Stormwards and make landfall. The permanent settlements in Haravde are carved into the mesas that dot the region to avoid being crushed by the Creeping Woods that roam that Province. The towns and villages of Zhyamade look more like rolling hills than proper settlements, with each building covered by a dome of living sod and strong enough to support a herd of horses or reindeer grazing atop it. Settlements in Kanazve are carved into the stone of the cliffs surrounding Kana Bay, or into the rocky hills that dot the region, providing defense against raiders and protection from the harsh arctic winds that blow in from the northern seas. Similarly, the cities and towns of Gorazke are cavernous halls dug deep into the mountains of that Province, with only the villages above ground to tend to the farms and herds within the fertile alpine valleys.
Practically the only regions that have “normal” settlements that other nations would recognize as such are Peladoste and Laakrote. In Peladoste, the deep desert sands make underground dwellings difficult to engineer, and the scarcity of water means that any cities or large towns must be built along the banks of the four rivers that flow south from Gorazke to the sea. In Laakrote, the few towns or villages are buried under sod like those of Zhyamade, while the cities are all heavily fortified, with towering walls dotted with murder holes that loom high above any visitor and promise horrific casualties to anyone who would seek to lay siege to them.
After the first heavy rain of the autumn, Tomarrans go out and make a festival out of setting the steppe aflame. This tends to take the form of a week-long event, as various parts of the steppe (the grassy landscape, not the whole Tomarran plateau) around a settlement are set on fire. This burns away the tinder that might give rise to a proper inferno during the dry season, but in a much more controlled manner thanks to it occurring in the first days of the rainy season. This practice started as a safety measure in Laakrote, where the savannah would regularly catch fire during the dry season, but over time the festival has spread across the entirety of Tomarr. Even in areas where it’s physically impossible to set the land aflame, Tomarrans still celebrate Firebreak, wearing flame-motif dress and jewelry, performing fire-dances, and setting off an assortment of alchemical fireworks.
Celebrating the end of the Clan Wars when the Four Clans came together to form the nation of Tomarr, Aldmeet is a day of both celebration and remembrance. It begins as a festival, where the representatives of all four Clans parade through the community and make patriotic speeches before a grand feast in the central square. Then as dusk falls it proceeds into to something much more solemn and spiritual, as communities give thanks to their ancestors and the wise elders whose foresight led to the nation’s survival, remembering the lives lost to the Age of Thunder and the Clan Wars that ended it.
The Spring Equinox is celebrated on the Steppe by horse-riding marathons that occur across the Steppe, collectively called the Sunward Festival. The best riders of a region show off their skill and that of their mounts by riding a circuit between neighboring settlements and nomad camps, with their arrival setting off a celebration honoring them and the warriors of Tomarr, before the riders set off once more the next morning. Each city and the largest Kocharr caravans organizes their own Sunward Festival route every year, and put out a call to riders with fast and tireless horses to try their skill and endurance in the race; the winners are traditionally offered a year of training under one of the most respected elders of their Calling within the region, or a fat purse of coin if training isn’t something they’re interested in.
The Autumn Equinox is a celebration of nature, as the local Caracals and other mystics of Druathos lead children through the community dressing in costume as either animal or plant spirits, asking for Harvest’s Blessings from each house or caravel they come to. It’s customary for households to hand out a sweets and a seed to each child, which are stored overnight and then eaten and planted the next day with the guidance of a Druathan mystic. (It’s considered very bad luck for someone to eat any of their Green Hallow sweets the night they received them, as part of the ritual of the celebration is teaching children the importance of time and patience; just as the farmer must wait months between planting and harvest, so too must the child wait a day to enjoy their tasty prizes.)
The Nibbler, also known in Skytongue as Iklaryzti, or “the fangs that tingle,” is a serpentine Spirit said to sneak into homes and caravels to nibble on the occupants’ feet and ankles. Its teeth don’t break the skin, but instead leave behind a burning pain in the joints. It’s seen as a punisher of the greedy, bullying, and gluttonous, and is often used as something to threaten children with.
Two Spirits that feature prominently in Tomarran lore and depictions of the Great Balance are the Thunderbird and the Firebird. The Thunderbird is a Spirit of the earth, its call rumbling in the hoofbeats of the herds and the crashing rocks that tumble down the mountainsides. The Firebird is born of the sky, soaring above the clouds and basking in the warmth of the sun. However, the two Spirits are linked to one another, and the dance they perform every few months helps to keep balance within and across the Steppe.
When the dark clouds gather like great mountains in the sky and blot out the sun, the Thunderbird enters the Firebird's domain, its rumbling roar echoing across the plains. In return, the Firebird descends to the earth, burning everything in its path, whipped into a frenzy by the Thunderbird’s powerful winds. Tomarrans welcome this cycle of change, but prefer to hunker down in towns and cities with their herds, waiting out the fire. The Kocharr build bare-bones fire-shelters across the plains, empty most of the year and bare of anything that can burn, that they race towards and take shelter in whenever the stormclouds gather. The city-folk have similar customs, performing the Firebreak festival so that when the Firebird comes the inferno is not so hot as to destroy the city or harm the inhabitants.
Blue is the color of death in Tomarr, the bright and shining color of the sky that stretches into eternity above the plains. Tomarrans expose their dead to the elements, raising them up onto stone or wooden platforms for carrion birds and insects to feast upon, thus returning their bodies to the Great Balance they were born from. The fields of funereal towers that serve Tomarran communities as graveyards are distinctive landmarks, festooned with blue fabric banners and surrounded by small shrines of remembrance for the dead. The Kocharr prefer to place their dead within the boughs of an acacia tree or on top of a cliff, though if a settlement is nearby they will frequently make a detour to have a funeral and wake at a proper funereal tower.
<aside> 📜 The Death & Funerals section here is a stub; the full text of this entry is still being worked on.
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<aside> 🚫 Please note that "sky burials" are a real-world tradition of Tibetan Buddhists, one which outsiders are not permitted to attend. While this in-game practice is strongly inspired from their funeral practices, we ask you to refrain from calling them "Sky Burials" in game out of respect for the differences between the real world practice and the LARP playscape. "Sky Funerals", "Open Burials", "Returning to the Great Balance", etc. will be utilized instead. Thank you for the understanding!
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