Nothing can last forever; the inevitable end comes for all things. This is a fundamental truth that the Unganna live by. Once they were human, but their homeland of Nyojuma changed them, making them some of the strongest and most resilient warriors on
Nostrina.
Appearance
The Unganna are a humanoid race with an appearance often compared to chiseled stone. Their bodies are covered in gray skin and geometric musculature, which give the Unganna an artificial appearance. Their faces are the most striking part of their body, as the familiar facial features of their human ancestors have been shifted into angular alternatives. Their cheeks and neck show a lower layer of their skin which is darker than the rest of their skin. The Unganna have short noses, although their breathing and sense of smell are strangely unaltered. Instead of having hair on the top of their head, the Unganna have thin, light gray color plates on the top of their head, which comes in many different formations, giving individual Unganna their own unique identifying feature.
Besides the physical changes, the radiation changed the Unganna in other ways. On average, the Unganna are stronger than the average human or elf, only really beaten out on average by the
Sun Elves. Their gray skin and geometric muscles are harder than their human counterparts, making them a highly resilient people. The Unganna have almost complete immunity to all diseases, only ever at risk of catching only the most dangerous and lethal pathogens on Nostrina that would quickly kill other races. However, the most significant change the Unganna underwent is that they can't die of old age. After growing into adulthood, an Unganna will stop aging entirely, their bodies never deteriorating even after living over a century. This gift comes at a significant cost, one that shapes the entire culture of Nyajumo to this day.
Death of the Soul
Between 190-210, an Unganna will start to show the first signs of Nafsi Kifo, the Death of the Soul. The first symptoms are bloodshot eyes, insomnia, fatigue, and weight loss. At this point, the individual would be transported to a Kuumahardi, an arena where those in the process of Kafsi Kifo are given a chance to fight before their ultimate demise, a grisly end that spares them from an even worse fate. If the afflicted individual is still living past this point, they will begin to suffer extreme dementia and psychosis as they become nothing more than a screaming madman no longer aware of who they are. Their bodies become a prison of agony as they experience muscle cramps and seizures while their heart rate increases exponentially. If left in this state long enough, the body will become limp and lifeless as if the individual has finally died; however, the worst has yet to come. The Unganna is still alive at this point, their heart rate coming to a crawl as their body lays still, paralyzed as they begin the process of transformation into a Macganda. The heart rate increases and the paralysis will wear off while the body contorts as the individual painfully transforms into a writing creature screaming in perpetual torment. Entropic energy will emanate from the twisted creature as it begins to attack everything in its vicinity, wreaking terror upon all that cross its path.
History
Origins
The Ungan, Wanmaw, and Sintu tribes were the first humans to settle in Nyojuma and the surrounding islands between 700 and 800 AE. What happened during this time isn't clear, but it is believed by the Unganna that the three tribes lived a tense be peaceful life in Nyojuma. The tribes grew and conquered the jungles they called home, but little did they know that the island slowly changed them. At first, the effects were only noticeable in the elderly, who were universally showing symptoms such as bloodshot eyes and insomnia before dying days later. With little the humans could do, they continued on with their lives until new symptoms began to emerge in newer generations. Children were no longer growing any hair on their bodies, and their skin was somewhat tougher than usual. Some groups exiled these mutated children to prevent them from overtaking the non-mutated humans. Still, this effort proved futile, as the number of mutated humans outnumbered their normal counterparts by the next generation. As the decades went by, the mutations became more extreme as the gray skin and geometric musculature became the norm among the population of Nyojuma. Researchers believe that by circa 3000 AE, the modern-day Unganna was finally born. It is theorized that the mutations ended at this point since the archipelago was no longer emitting the radiation which had mutated them previously.
The Unification of Nyojuma
Sometime around 1200 AE, the Ungan, Wanmaw, and Sintu tribes began fighting in a bloody conflict across the entire archipelago. The exact reasons for this conflict are unknown, although some Unganna storytellers claim it was a war for dominance over the region. As war tore through the land, a figure emerged among the Ungan tribe, simply known as the Upamoja, a nameless individual who sought an end to the fighting and wished to unite the tribes of Nyojuma. According to legend, Upamoja would stop battles as they were happening and broker peace between both sides. Through his efforts, Wanmaw and Sintu tribes gave up on fighting each other, while the chief of the Ungan tribe saw this as a sign of cowardice from his enemies. On the slopes of mount Kendumoto, Upamoja and the warlord chief of the Ungan tribe fought for two days straight as the Unganna watched, knowing this fight would determine the fate of their people. Despite suffering grave injuries, Upamoja would be victorious. Surrounded by warriors from each of the three clans, Upamoja would declare that a new era had begun, one in which the divisions sewn by the old tribes would be no more, and the Unganna would stand united as one.
With the fickle and everchanging nature of Unganna stories, it is debatable how much of the story of Upamoja is true. However, it is confirmed that after this war, the three tribes of Nyojuma dissolved into one collective group. Traditions and customs were preserved and spread across the population, forming the modern-day culture of the Unganna of Nyojuma.
Culture
Society
Change is a part of life, a fact that the Unganna have embraced into their culture. Embracing change is a significant part of an Unganna's life, as they must learn to adapt to the dense jungles of their homeland and the ever-shifting political climate of Nyojuma. Due to their physique built for combat, many young Unganna are encouraged to become warriors and seek glory through combat. Some of these warriors choose to seek glory in lands beyond Nyojuma, giving the Unganna a reputation as a fierce warrior race.
Nyojuma is ruled by a Rais, who is elected by the citizens every 25 years. During these elections, the citizens may choose to keep the current Rais in power for another term or elect a new ruler. While they vote for a new ruler, each of the five provinces of Nyojuma will vote on their representative to the Nyumba Ushauri, a council that acts as advisors to the Rais. Local politics within the provinces also use democratic elections, although the specific rules and practices vary depending on the province.
Language
The languages of the Ungan, Wanmaw, and Sintu tribes have been lost following the unification of the three tribes in the early Ancestral Era. In the second era, most Unganna speak Mzelimi, a language adopted from humans traveling from mainland Imbelek.
Naming Conventions
The traditional names of the Unganna stem from the traditions of the early human tribes of Nyojuma. An Unganna's last name has two parts, the first being either the suffix Ma for men or Bi for women. The suffix is separated from the second half of the familial name by an apostrophe, with the other half being their mother's name. In the eastern parts of Nyojuma, the Unganna have a practice where children are given an unspoken middle name, which are numbers that designate the children's order.
Art and Architecture
The geometric architecture of Nyojuma is some of the most distinct and recognizable in all of Nostrina. There is beauty in the simplicity of Unganna designs, which ditch any intricate detailing in favor of clean stone buildings. Sites of worship are often denoted by pyramids or ziggurats surrounded by expansive stone plazas for the faithful to congregate. Shallow streams of water run through the streets and even on the sides of buildings in many Unganna settlements. This practice is done to collect rainwater and transport it to reservoirs for drinking, farming, and other uses members of the community may have. Stone or concrete are the most common materials used for construction, with newer buildings adding supporting metal rebar, a technique taken from the Sun Elves.
Religion
Kafsi Kifo, the Death of the Soul, became the basis of the religious practices on Nyojuma. Unlike most other faiths that worship a specific god or pantheon of gods, the Unganna worship the inevitable end of all things, which they often refer to as Ruin's Truth. All things must come to an end; denying this fact is denying a fundamental law of the universe. Only that which can truly last forever is worthy of worship to the Unganna. Some groups personify Ruin's Truth as Majukwil, though most worship it as an idea. For most Unganna, faith is not how you worship Ruin's Truth, but rather what you do with your understanding of it. Living one's life to its fullest and dying before becoming a Macganda is the most pious an Unganna has to be.
Some groups have formed their own interpretations and applications of Ruin's Truth in their lives. The Mengha are a group focused on the study of magic, specifically the study of the Entropic element. They believe that Entropy is the physical manifestation of Ruin's Truth and related to the radiation that changed the Unganna. They believe that mastery of this element is the way to a true understanding of the universe. The Ananuka is a cult that believes that one can unbind themselves from the fundamentals of Ruin's Truth and become an eternal part of the universe itself. While their ideas may be heretical to many Unganna, they aren't taken seriously enough by the whole of Nyojuma, who instead find their antics amusing. The Sanarrembi comprises artists, storytellers, and writers who believe that expressing oneself through art is the greatest way to live one's life.
The Unganna are a humanoid race with an appearance often compared to chiseled stone. Their bodies are covered in gray skin and geometric musculature, which give the Unganna an artificial appearance. Their faces are the most striking part of their body, as the familiar facial features of their human ancestors have been shifted into angular alternatives. Their cheeks and neck show a lower layer of their skin which is darker than the rest of their skin. The Unganna have short noses, although their breathing and sense of smell are strangely unaltered. Instead of having hair on the top of their head, the Unganna have thin, light gray color plates on the top of their head, which comes in many different formations, giving individual Unganna their own unique identifying feature.
Besides the physical changes, the radiation changed the Unganna in other ways. On average, the Unganna are stronger than the average human or elf, only really beaten out on average by the Sun Elves. Their gray skin and geometric muscles are harder than their human counterparts, making them a highly resilient people. The Unganna have almost complete immunity to all diseases, only ever at risk of catching only the most dangerous and lethal pathogens on Nostrina that would quickly kill other races. However, the most significant change the Unganna underwent is that they can't die of old age. After growing into adulthood, an Unganna will stop aging entirely, their bodies never deteriorating even after living over a century. This gift comes at a significant cost, one that shapes the entire culture of Nyajumo to this day.
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