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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nopantsyet" data-source="post: 403892" data-attributes="member: 3109">Intermezzo: NattaThis is a piece I put together quickly for a part-time player to have a character from a different clan.  Probably needs editing or creative attention, but it is definitely the last of the intro material.  I promise the first session will be posted very soon...* * * * * * * * * *Natta.  The Lame.  The Betrayer.  The Cunning.  He was called by many names among the Vek and there is no question that his ambition was fed not by honor, but by baseness and depravity.  He waged and incited war against his brothers.  And when his life was spared by his brothers, his shame moved him further into the shadow of hatred, leading his people to become a wild and incestuous people and are such to this day.  While at present they are tolerated peacefully by the other clans, it is not without contempt for their strange and base customs.Among Garugh Natta alone is it known that the ambition of Natta was fed by his firstwife Zianna, who whispered flattering lies into his ears.  It was she who told him he was despised by his brothers for his infirmity.  It was she who claimed he was wronged by his brothers and granted the poorest lands.  It was she who persuaded him that his brothers would turn on him if he did not strike fear into their hearts first.  And so with boldness and cruelty he led his warriors against Teg.  But these secrets are no longer spoken among the other clans, only that there are bizarre and depraved practices among them which cannot be named.  These are the stories that are known to none but their own.When they were victorious in their first assault on Garugh Teg, Zianna told Natta that they must eat the hearts of their fallen, that their strength might not be lost, but never were they to taste the blood of any not of Natta or they would be tainted by the contempt of the other sons of Kereg.  This practice persists.  In the grasslands on the southern border there are a people known as Shatwe.  The Shatwe are a small dark-skinned people, barely larger than Vek children but nimble of foot and sly of character.  At present, the people of Natta wish to move into the more fertile steppes of the Shatwe that they might indulge their indolence.  More than one Shatwe has stumbled upon the terrible sight of crows picking at the gaping, heartless chest of a fallen Natti warrior.  However Natta has failed to progress in their desire primarily as a result of the stealth and strange weapons of the Shatwe that allow them to kill a man from a distance where he cannot be reached and disappear into the tall grass.The Secret Rite of the Warrior's Heart is practiced to the revulsion of all other Vek.  When a warrior falls in bold combat, an axe is struck into his heart as one would split a log.  With the head of the axe embedded in the chest, it is twisted until the ribs split and the chest cavity is laid open.  The heart is then torn from the chest, never cut, and eaten by the same warrior.  It is a mark of honor and strength to do this, and so it has become custom for warriors to take a length of one of the veins drawn out with the heart is ripped from the head, dry it, and string it from his belt creating on a veteran warrior the appearance of a skirt made of dried vines, but what is terrifyingly the veins of an eaten heart.After the death of Natta, the ambition and cunning of Zianna were not abated.  Upon the rise of her son Zez to the leadership of the clan, the convinced him to take her to wife in a practice so despicable that if the other clans had known, they would have immediately descended upon Garugh Natta and destroyed them from off the face of the earth.  But this secret practice is not known to any of the other clans, but has continued even to the present in the following manner.  Zianna was firstwife of Natta and it was she who fed his ambition.  She became the thirdwife of Zez, but remained the true power and mind behind his chieftanship until her death by the hand of Sora, firstwife of Zez.  Upon the death of Zez, Sora placed her eldest son as chief and became his firstwife and the secondwife of Thar, who challenged and slew the son and husband of Sora.  The woman who holds this position is known as the Firstwife of Natta, and it is she who wields ultimate power and deference, although through the chief, who is very often her own son or grandson.  Vi'sha is firstwife of Natta, the chief being her second son Gerik.  It is Gerik who began the attacks on the Shatwe, but Vi'sha is displeased with his lack of results and even at present plots his murder with her youngest and more pliant son, Khath, who she hopes will carve a significant holding from the lands of the Shatwe.</blockquote>

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