Nomads

Origin

Defying the encroaching walls and smoke of the cities, at least mostly, the Nomads consist of various human clans that embrace the perilous dunes through a life of wandering across the deserts.
Hardy and crafty, they remain bound to the ways of yore which once all the people of the dunes had to follow for their survival.
Now they proudly serve the Golden Empire as the pulsating veins of history and tradition. Going where no one else dares and knowing the deserts like few else can.

Culture and Populace

The People

Unlike most ethnicities being grounded in a single culture, or at least minor derivations of the same due to geographical distance, the Nomads have a countless number of different minor ethnicities wrapped up into one collective group due to their spread throughout the deserts.
They make up a fourth of the whole Empire in population, yet unlike other human groups that populate the cities within the hundreds of thousands, the largest clans of Nomads are no bigger than a couple tens of thousands with the smallest making up just a handful of families where some have been known to have a population in the dozen.

Culture

With the spread of their numbers, it is impossible to sum up every nomadic sub-culture to exist and this is why they are categorized in one group as simply Nomads.
Though the larger clans are still recognized with their own traditions, celebrations and derivations of the main Faith, those that do not even reach to twenty members might be a completely unknown people past for the few who interact with them.
These clans and cultures are fluctuating and rise and fall all the time. Though seldom ever from conflict so much as natural causes of the people moving into the cities and adopting the local traditions or splitting off into branch groups due to lack of local resources.
As such, one might say that the main component in Nomad culture is their adaptivity and openness to change in order to both survive and thrive.

Traditions

Though traditions can vary from group to group, there are two striking similarities between most groups.
The first similarity is that by rule, all Nomads shape their own traditions and values after the civilizations they engage closely with. This should not be mistaken for a sign of submission though, as they do this adaptation to better trade and communicate with the surrounding world without giving up their own core lifestyles and spirituality.
The second similarity is their relationship to the sun and desert. Such as while their jewelry, colors and shapes of clothing might change, they all mainly wear robes and turbans to protect themselves against the elements.
Though they hold Ysand within their spirits, they worship the elements and nature to the same degree of Ysand’s Pantheon. To the point where most clans have at least one wind shaman who holds rites and speaks with the lands but also other wind shamans, to guide their clans to bountiful wilds without coming to clash with their fellow Nomads.

Credits:

Created by Tonarus
Art generated with Midjourney