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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nopantsyet" data-source="post: 402608" data-attributes="member: 3109">Prologue IV: Garugh ZakhGarugh Zakh.  The boldest and strongest warriors save the great Nephelym themselves.  The four septs of Garugh Zakh occupy the lands to the west of the Dire Peaks, so named as much for their steep, jagged ridges and fierce weather as for their primary inhabitants, the Nephelym.  The Zakh lands span five days journey from north to south and seven from east to west.  The four septs, Ammah (stone fist), Yahd (strong arm), Qi'akh (blazing fire), and Siau (fierce wind), have divided the lands into equal parcels, each running north to south.  The easternmost land is occupied by Ammah Sept.  These are your people?called the Warriors of the Stone Fist for you have ever been first to face the Nephelym descending from the mountains.The challenges and threats that face the Stone Fist are too numerous to count.  The warm season lasts only the first four moons of the year with a full nine moons of winter following.  Fevers, diseases and starvation are a regular part of life.  And although it does not snow in these lands, terrible storms of thunder, lightning, and torrential rain and hail are common year round.The Zakh have no gods, but if they were to turn their hearts to worship, it would be the great herds of rothe that would receive their adulation, for it is the rothe that provide them with meat and marrow for strength and with skins for shelter and clothing.  Zakh encampments are noted for their scatterings of dhu'aan, or smoke huts, in which they prepare and preserve the rothe.  After it is killed and its blood and marrow drained, they drape the skin of the rothe over a frame built from its bones and tied with its sinews.  In this they hang strips of meat over a bed of coals upon which are placed nuts and herbs to add season to the meat and to remove the scent of death from the skin.  After several days of smoking over the coals, the process is complete.  These meat strips, called waala, are easily transported and will last several months without spoiling.  Since bodies of water are rare, the Zakh create drums of rothe skin and bones that they use to collect rainwater, which serves as their primary water source.  The dried skin, bones and sinews are also used for tents, clothing, or whatever utility might be found.  Although they are more rare and difficult to hunt, great bears are utilized in the same manner as the rothe.During the warm season, in some of the flatter parts of the badlands can be found a wild grain called jau, which is a dark and bitter grain.  The Zakh make use of it in numerous ways.  The most significant use is in a tack they call chapaati.  This is prepared by crushing the grains and mixing it with rothe'blood and marrow to create a spongy red dough that is flattened and placed on hot rocks to create a hard, dark red flatbread that is salty, nourishing, travels well and will keep for several weeks.  In addition to waala and chapaati, the Zakh supplement their diet with whatever nuts, berries and herbs are in season.The ruling of the Zakh within the individual septs falls to a chieftan they call ?dhiin sar.?  This chief is neither elected nor granted rulership by birthright or ascension.  Strength and the ability to lead, both in battle and in providing for their people, are the requirements of any who would be dhiin sar.  Unlike the other garugh, the Zakh do not follow the practice of ascension by challenge-and-defeat.  They are strong and independent-minded, and they will only be led by one who earns respect and proves himself worthy of the position, not by one who demands it by virtue of killing another man.  For this reason, their leaders serve until they die in battle, or in rare cases, of sickness or old age.  This gives the four septs of Zakh a much greater level of political and social stability than is found among the other garugh.When a dhiin sar dies, the new leader steps forward and presents himself as dhiin sar.  The Zakh believe that leadership must be proven before it is granted.  As such, a true dhiin sar knows himself and is known to the sept.  On the rare occasions that there is dissent, the would-be leaders enter the tent of the elder sage and in a ceremony known only to the sages and those who have witnessed it, the true leader is made known.  There is no dishonor in a challenge made by a worthy man, nor is there penalty for loss.Ammah Sept has always occupied the foremost position among the four septs.  As such, the dhiin sar of Ammah Sept also holds the title of dhiin bara and is chief among dhiin sar when the four septs hold council, which they do at midsummer and midwinter each year as well as in times of war, famine, or other extreme difficulty.This political structure is far more sophisticated than that which exists in the other garugh and as a result, the Zakh have proven themselves to be the most stable garugh despite being the least numerous.Each sept also has a sage or khirad who provides council to the dhiin sar as well as to individuals within the sept.  He is healer and historian, judge and adjudicator.  He knows the arts of herbs and the reading of the signs of the weather.  All of this he is taught when he is khirad cheyla?apprentice to the elder sage, and upon the death of his mentor, he becomes the elder sage and takes his own apprentice.  In this manner is the knowledge of the sages preserved through the generations.</blockquote>

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