Kyahida Ethnic Group
Symbiotic Human/Golem Coastal People
Golems form center of Human family units, which form clans, which form a loose federation
Religion based on ritually building things & ancestor reverence
Federated, clan governance
Relatively peaceful, maritime ambitions
Location
Coast, waterways, and vales of the Southeast Lyran Peninsula
- KyahidaGeoContext.png (63.41 KiB) Viewed 5169 times
- KyahidaPrehistoricRange.png (11.24 KiB) Viewed 5169 times
Racial Composition
75% Human
25% Golemmic
Subsistence
Gardening
Fishing (Lowlands)
Hunting (Highlands)
Limestone & Salt Mining
Humans do most of the work, with golems pitching in for heavy labor tasks (typically construction and mining). The 'characteristic' dish of Kyahidans is a hot, spicy fish soup with cabbage and not-accidentally-swallowed-sized chunks of pumice with a pleasingly carved limestone or salt figurine standing in the soup. What parts you eat is raciallly dependent
Social Schema
Geographic clans consist of 3-12 families each, loosely federated and engaging in commerce with each other.
Clans are relatively sedentary and have an extent of territory with access to the coast (or at least a fertile waterway), a quarry-able location, and some forested hills. Each family is comprised of 1-2 golems and 2-10 humans, the human portion composed of a slightly extended family (grandparents and unwed aunts & uncles, typically). Where paired, the golems are typically 'mates', or the second golem is an orphan that has been adopted.
Kyahidan families are headed by the golem member, who is exalted in the culture for their longevity and coolheadedness: a lot of the culture is about showing to other families that one's golem is well looked after. Children seeking to start new families will adopt golems that have outlived their own families, or the child's family will endeavor to create a new golem. In return, a family's golem acts as an arbiter of disputes and 'heavy lifter', as well as a focus for the Kyahidan's reverence for ancestors. For example, each golem has adorning/embedded into them relics of ancestors who died: the oldest golems tend to acquire quite ornate bone necklaces with the fingerbones of past family members.
If it weren't for golems' general predisposition to being humble and unambitious, (if they were human) they would likely have subjugated the Kyahidan humans a while ago. However, the combination of social privilege and the psychological/material rewards of engaging with a family together make being a Kyahidan golem a pretty comfortable station in society, aside from dealing with human passions. The strength of the typical golem (physically and in terms of social capital) is typically enough to curb the ambitions of sociopathic or violent family members.
However, Kyahidan clans can become just as territorial as human tribes can be, so the federation of Kyahidans are constantly at some level of low-order war or dispute.
Religion
Kyahidans are a very spiritual people, but straddle a compromise between their racial sensibilities, engaging in a combination of ancestor remembrance and an explanation of the material world via capricious forces of nature that are unconcerned, though only occasionally bearing malice, for the happiness of its people. Golems are hardier, it is said, because this force enjoys constructed things more than that which grows by itself. This informs a general societal pressure to raise golems, construct buildings, and engage in fine crafts (usually of stone, wood, and sea shells). Ancestors are believed to resonate with the family golem, imparting a degree of luck: some Kyahidans even believe that the act of having one's bones turned into a golem's necklace represents a final 'construction' that explains how ancestors can impart luck & wisdom to the golem.
Ritualistic practices usually involve crafting something piece by piece or erecting some form of structure, sometimes left to stand or to be burned or sunk into the ocean, depending on the desired effect (and the particulars change over the 2500 years of prehistory).
Sexual Mores
Kyahidans early in their history are best described as being relatively 'Old Testament'-level patriarchal, but with the power of the father being checked by a half-ton golem whose sensibilities are to protect all of its family members from violence. So, although the mores themselves are very strict and rigid, the consequences for breaking them are usually verbal, not physical, haranguing. Mothers bearing children out of wedlock (i.e.: not having adopted/constructed a golem to create the new family) are either hastily arranged into a marriage or their child adopted by the mother's father (with the family golem's ritual approval, of course).
Homosexuals face pressure to 'straighten up and get married to have children' if possible. Where this isn't the case, they bear a 'disappointment stigma' that can nonetheless be overriden by becoming a warrior, craftsman, long-range fisher, or caretaker of children. The stigma is more due to parents wanting grandchildren than a consequence of the homosexuality itself. Married individuals who engage in homosexual affairs are shamed for their unfaithfulness, but less so than those who engage in heterosexual affairs (where risk of child exists). Homosexual marriage is a Kyahidan oxymoron: marriage is for kids.
Trangendered individuals are seen as having an 'odd' fashion choice, but are generally treated by others according to whether they are willing to reproduce ('odd looking heterosexual') or not ('odd looking homosexual').
Golemmophilic individuals are seen as profaning the esteemed golems, and are the main group that has systemic hatred borne against them: it's like saying you 'get hot for Jesus wearing grandma's dress'. Where the golem returns the affections, the golem risks shunning from other Kyahidan golems and disgracing their attendant human family members.
Government
The largest unit of Kyahidan culture is the federation, with eligibility based largely on linguistic grounds, with accomodations for those few tribal peoples who revere golems in a similar fashion as Kyahidans. The real governance, however, is done at the clan level with an elder council composed of the oldest humans and golems. Occasionally, various clans' councils will send delegates to each other or visit for festivals, disputes, and joint operations (such as military alliance obligations). To war within the federation is discouraged, and manifests as series of raiding sorties. Actual conquest is typically of non-federated peoples, although the need for conquest isn't typically expressed except in instances where Kyahidans have been aggrieved by a non-federated tribe.
Language
Kyahidans (golem and human alike) speak
Kjáhida. I'm gonna handwave here and say that Kyahidans of this period speak 'proto-Kjáhida', though, so that I don't have to redo it as we move forward
Division of Labor
Kyahidan families generally specialize in an activity, and share the fruits of their labors with other families in their clan. As such, a whole family (excepting 'vulnerable' members like pregnant women, very young children, and elders) will generally engage in their trade. Families are very often formed by a couple from two different kinds of family, and they will typically grow/expand the business of the more infuential partner's family. Kyahidans are talented sailors, and will do well in maritime affairs once their material technology rises a bit.
Goals
If I receive votes, and I put them to cultural expansion, I intend to take the squares to my east, nab the islands extending south, and (if still having squares left) push inland along the peninsula and hopefully encounter Kawdek.
Man, it's a lot of work to put together the most rudimentary culture sketch!
