Clans and Wandering People of Paniya

Generally speaking there are three groups that appear outside of most Guild, House, or Caer setting on Paniya. They interact with such places on a regular basis of course, but by and large they remain apart from them and maintain smaller villages and holds scattered over the entire island. Most are protected by one or another larger group or location, and many have dragons or gryphons with them as bonds, allowing them to maintain their sovereignty.

Large Clans of Paniya

N'someka Aerie is mainly populated by a drifting people of the same name, who have dozens of splinter tribes and villages around the dry plains. The N'somekan population are largely tall, strong, long-limbed and dark-skinned people, having descended from people of Kenya and surrounding African areas. They are not necessarily insular but overall require compelling reasons to allow others into their fold - they do protect whoever is on their territorial lands, until such time as those people betray their trust...

Their two major groups are the herders and the planters. The overall population of N'somekan people is estimated at around 200 thousand, distributed mainly in the planting community as it is easier for small groups to work the animals.

The herding folk wear and carry little beyond what is needed for survival, and have strong attachments to the ground and animals. They often have a spear or staff on their person, for use as a walking stick mostly, but also to keep more ferocious beasts away from their herds. A typical herding group consists of a leader, at least one second in command, a dedicated healer, a dedicated 'runner' for communications, and often up to 10 or 12 who do the actual work full time. Though most notable of the herders are men, they do not discriminate and will eagerly accept women in leadership roles if they have proven themselves capable. These herders drift from site to site, allowing their various animals to graze and browse, mate and bear, and shear or slaughter on a yearly basis. They usually keep themselves fit and healthy with constant trekking around the island, but are also apt herbalists and emergency healers when needed. Their journey takes them around the entire perimeter of the plains, and some members have been known to take their smaller herds around the entire island.

The planters on the other hand are the builders and more settled of the population. While some of them are the husbands and wives of those found on the herding journeys, most have made permanent small settlements for their families where those herders take breaks during their trips. The settled population display strong T-powers tuned in to the weather of Paniya, which is often unpredictable; but they manage to keep most of their crops and their hamlets or villages safe from storms or flooding. They maintain fruit orchards, harvest grains and grasses for food as well as weaving, flowers for both scents and dye making, and are often the ones who have beehives for honey that is quite sought-after across the Isles! The biggest of the villages has perhaps 2 thousand people in it, and that number is echoed in fits and starts all across the plains, mostly around the edges of it and into the scrub or forests, hills, and along rivers. Their housing is usually made of felled wood, woven reeds, clay bricks, and found stones. However, some have begun trading for more advanced building materials, like lumber and quarried stone, brick and mortar, and even glass or metal.

The extent of their metalworking is mostly geared for tools, from gardening and harvesting to hunting and trapping. They often have water collection barrels, and can typically purify any water that becomes contaminated over time, using this for drinking and plant growth. Their lives overtly seem simple, but like any village there's always an idiot... and thus also usually some form of more advanced government than 'a leader and a lieutenant'.

Both groups are tightly related by blood and marriage, and both have eagerly welcomed in the Triptych at one point or another. However, they are also responsible for keeping the other herders on the west coast from bringing their own animals onto the plains and destroying the balance of their ecosystem. This is mainly the influence of the Gryphons, some of whom have particular dietary preferences and want to make sure they can continue to feast on their food, rather than someone else's idea of it.

Clan Triptych, who arrived shortly before the 500th year, used to be a very large group of people: over 5 thousand as a sort of bulk-arrival quantity. However they have since been decimated by the Faustas intervention. Note well that the Triptych people have their own website and only some of them are still 'here', those on the site may have left Alskyr or been here only briefly, similarly to the 'furries' among the Pernese population elsewhere in the Kshau Protectorate.

Triptych clan members are currently very diverse in appearance, from pale even albino caucasian, yellow to deeply tanned, red or swarthy, and even exotically black; the darkest end of that having appeared with the intermarriage with N'somekan folk, along with some intriguing new abilities accessed.

They had tried to settle on the northern face of Paniyan Mt Ghera, and were doing a good job of it, before Faustas arrived. That their work is now called House Faustas is deeply distressing to most who remember it. Those who evaded capture and enslavement (whether it is under that term or 'employment' ... there's the question, eh?) have scattered and remain in small groups usually under 25 all along the hilly northern area, and sometimes find themselves quite far from there down on the south-west or southern coasts, where it is a lot safer from Faustas' hunters.

The Triptych clan's claim to fame however is that they are remarkably adept at Tpower use, specifically 'shapeshifting'. Many of their elemental abilities stem from the creatures they shift into, so if they do not openly display a power, it may very well be latent or hidden from view. Some exhibit preternatural stealth, up to full invisibility. Others have blood healing and empathic controls, and still more bear the speed or strength of the animals they emulate. Though originally represented in small numbers, creatures which were found only in Africa or the southern Asian areas of Earth are more strongly represented in their shifting because of the influence, however ancient now, of the N'somekan bloodline.

It is because of this Tpower use that Faustas wishes to exploit them, and why they are now dwindling in number 'in the wild'. However it is also becoming their most important feature when it comes to bonding. They are more oriented toward dragons, however some will drift toward gryphons, and one or two will certainly try bonding at a Cove. Once they have a significant number of riders of any type, they will seek to have Faustas stopped once and for all - or they will, as a group, decide to leave for more safe shores. Some are convinced that in order to keep themselves safe, Faustas must be dealt with, and there's no better way than taking the fight to them on dragon back.

Small Clans of Paniya

The western clans run only along the coast and onto the smaller islands near Paniya, having come while House Chagga and Tsan Nu established themselves. Potters and leather workers, fishermen and and the like, populate these clan lands. Trading caravans also are dominated by these clans, and each of them tend to have a small set of connections to and from each House. Quite a few settlements rest around Mt. DeyPhong (to look out for) since the weather around this location is pleasant most of the year.

Most small clans have an equally small House or Guild which goes along with it. Very few of them consider themselves true Clans, however the potter group Szin (color) and the fishermen Halaszni (to fish) carry themselves proudly under their banners.