Takha tribes

The Takha tribes are a united group of beaman tribes that live on the western prairie of Pennacerti’s southern continent. Takha beamen are characterised by their green or yellow feathers, pink-brown scales, and relatively thin feather coat. They usually wear a pair of loose shorts and a band around their shoulders, and decorate themselves with jewellery.

(pictured: a Takha-tala hunter and her fearsome mount)

Lifestyle

Takha beamen are hunter-gatherers, hunting the prairie herbivores and topping off their meat with herbs and grass seeds. Most tribes build mud-brick houses to live in, though a few are nomadic, living in portable animalskin tents.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the Takha peoples is their domestication of the equus rex, a giant raptor-like animal, which they use as hunting mounts. Though the equus rex are social and intelligent animals, they are still carnivores, and so they take years of training and a confident rider to be properly tame.

Each tribe breeds their own group, though occasionally a wild one may be captured to provide some diversity to the gene pool.

They direct the animal using their voice, using it to herd prey, and will use spears and arrows to injure their targets. When a target collapses of exhaustion or injury, they will often use the bite of their mount to dispatch it.

Interaction with aliens

The Takha were among the first beamen to be contacted by aliens, and the development of cities nearby has heavily affected them.

Though many of the neighbouring peoples have become farming communities or assimilated into the city district, the Takha people have always stood steadfast in their way of life.

They have a distaste for anyone who lives in the city district, beaman or not, partially because many parts of their way of life is incompatible with the city peoples’, but mostly because of much more harmful things, like alien companies trying to persuade them to give up much of their land for agriculture, or alien tourists being so inappropriately fascinated with them that they trespass on their land or steal their tools or artworks. Trespassers are punished, usually with several days or weeks worth of hard labour.

But the Takha do see the worth in some things from the city, like many modern technologies, and so they make exceptions for those who are willing to help them install and maintain things that might help them, paying them with money they obtain by selling their artwork or things of scientific interest.

In this way, the Takha beamen obtain technologies like heat lamps to incubate their eggs, medicines for when their traditional treatments aren’t enough, or fridges to keep their meat fresh for longer.

Governance

Though the Takha tribes are a united group of tribes with similar rules and traditions, they are not centrally governed, and so every tribe governs itself slightly differently. Leaders in this society are not formally chosen; there are no one person or group of people who are chosen to give orders to everybody else, instead tribesmen will listen to anyone that has gained respect and high social standing over their lifetime.

Anyone who both proves themselves worthy in the eyes of the tribe and steps up to assume the position of leadership is granted as such.

There will always be more than one, sometimes even more than ten, of these leaders, and when their opinions on important matters conflict, all members of the tribe will choose who they stand with and the most universal opinion will win out.

Occasionally, two Takha tribes will disagree on a matter, like land allocation. When this happens, a ceremonial battle will take place. These are not supposed to be bloody fights; instead, they are standoffs with strict socially governed rules.

A set number of strong members of each tribe will camp at the territorial boundary, bringing as many rations as they can carry. They may not rely on the rest of their tribe for food; only themselves. They can throw blunted spears at their opponents, and goad the other tribesmen into a wrestling match, which is occasionally injurious. The first tribe to give up and go home loses. These disputes often take many months, but they are much better than the alternative of a full-on war.

Childhood/education

When an egg hatches, a special ceremony is held where a household of beamen who want to raise a child is granted the chick by the tribe’s head priest.

As the child ages, they are shown the basics of many different skills through play, and when they are ten years old they will select a profession that they want to be taught. At this point they may move into the household of their new mentor.

For the next ten years they will dedicate themselves to learning this skill, until at last they graduate into adulthood with a special ceremony they share with their peers.

There are many different skills a young beaman can learn, as there are many that are necessary to the tribe’s functioning, including hunting, cooking, textiles, painting, sculpting, jewellery making, writing, medicine, and priesthood.

As well as their profession, many beamen have hobby skills, and some skills are shared by many and communally performed, like housemaking. Though some professions are held in higher regard, like hunting and priesthood, no skill is societally frowned upon, and beamen from any profession can earn high respect.

When one Takha beaman respects another, they gift them one of their feathers, which the respected beaman wears on the band around their shoulders.

Religion/festivals

Takha beamen have a polytheistic religion led by priests, known as Takhism. There are dozens of gods in this religion. Each Takha tribe has a patron god, as well as two main gods and many minor gods that are shared through all tribes.

The patron gods and minor gods are represented as animals, plants, or natural resources, while the other two deities are said to be mortal beamen who ascended to godhood through heroicism.

One patron god, for example, is the Takha-talan goddess Tala. Because the Takha-talan are said to be the first tribe to have domesticated the equus rex, Tala is usually portrayed as an equus rex with the arms and hands of a beaman. The Takha-talan put stylised images of her on their banners and artworks, and often perform rituals to her before and after rexback hunts.

The two main gods in the Takha religion are the fertility god Ka and the hunter goddess Tappen. Though they are not the head gods of the Takha pantheon, they are of much greater importance than those head gods because they are said to be much more involved in the Takha people’s way of life.

Ka is said to be a beaman who ascended to godhood by restoring beaman fertility and sexuality after a terrible event, and now controls all such matters.

Meanwhile, Tappen is supposed to be a beaman who became a goddess by leading the tribes in war against the pantheon’s enemies, and now represents war, courage, leadership, and unity.