Vril
Mystic savages hailing from the Great Midwestern Badlands
The Skylanders believed the Badlands were an empty desert, toxed with rads and lifeless. Nobody knew that there were clans of survivors living there. Living! For generations, surviving behind a vast ocean of sand and ash, hot with rads with nothing to eat for miles. It seems the Vril had actually adapted to live in the barren wastes of Middowest and had become a new branch of the human species. In fact, when their first scouts emerged from the orange sands of the Badland they wore masks and scrubbers as though the air outside the Badland was poisonous!
The Vril are a rugged people hailing from a barren desert that the Merikans call The Great Badland of Middowest. These Badlanders have been feared for centuries as a race of cruel and warlike barbarians and this reputation is not unwarranted, for there are many confirmed stories of tortures and torments that shock the conscience of so-called civilized men. One can easily imagine why the Vril may be so harsh, for they are a people raised in the most inhospitable environment imaginable. The toxics and rads of Middowest are legendary. Even the hardiest Laradan Rangers have ventured no more than 20 miles into the Badland. These brutal conditions have surely made the Vril callous and insensitive to the sufferings of others. The Badlands are cruel and so are the Vril. To the Vril, their blighted homeland, the barren waste the Merikans call "the Badland," is simply known as "Vrelland," the land of the Vril.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The Vril speak their own obscure dialect of Precursor English, and their language is known to very few outside of Vrelland.
Culture and cultural heritage
Vril culture is dominated by a caste system that divides men and women into social classes that determine what social functions they will be permitted to perform. The notable castes include the Vrel-Adar (warrior caste), Vrel-Phantar (priest class), Vrel-Sabtar (merchant class), Vrel-Ubar (ruling class). There is some overlap in these castes, but generally caste classification determines the social role of every Vril.
Caste distinctions govern all Vril social interactions and dictate the cultural capital that Vril are able to leverage in all exchanges and transactions within Vril society. Vril caste also imposes notions of taboo that exclude certain Vril from participating in certain roles or even entering certain buildings or regions of Vrelland territory. These taboos are based upon ancient post-cataclysmic restrictions against independent behaviour that may be considered dangerous for the greater good of the collective.
Shared customary codes and values
Vril warrior culture is based upon bonded service and life debt. The Vril war captains (known as "Vedrans") choose their companions from among the Thralls of Bashor, a training college that raises orphaned and abandoned children in the arts of war. The great adaptability of the Vril's genetic legacy results in frequent instances of suboptimal genetic outriders unsuited to survival in the harshness of Vrelland. When family's are unable to provide or offspring are unable to thrive, they are taken to Bashor to either perish under the sword or find the strength to survive in spite of their disadvantages. These warrior thralls have the status of slaves and may only earn a modicum of freedom by becoming bonded to the service of a Vedran's warband.
Every winter season a ritual event called the Culling of the Thralls takes place. During the culling, thralls are forced to fight each other in death matches. The intent of these combats is to separate the weak from the strong and identify who is to be chosen to join the ranks of the Vril army, "the Davorax." Vedrans in search of warriors to join the ranks of their warbands (called "Suborax") attend the Culling and sponsor their chosen thralls. Those that survive their combats are welcomed into their sponsors' Suborax and initiated as junior members of the exclusive Vril warrior caste, the Vrel-Adar, "the Vril of Glory."
Make no mistake, the brutality of the Bashor breeds hard warriors, infamous for malice and cruelty, but contact with Vril merchants in the Silverlands of the Arenko has demonstrated that not all Vril are so brutal as the Vrel-Adar. It may be the case that the wanton bloodlust and savagry observed among the Vril is an attribute of the Vrel-Adar warriors and not to be taken as emblematic of the Vril race as a whole.
Whatever the case, the observed values of the Vrel-Adar are based upon the life debt obligations incurred through the Culling and the sponsorship of the Vedran. Every Vril warrior behaves as though he owes his every breath to the will and whim of his Vedran. Indeed, service in a Vedran's Suborax is a lifelong obligation that can only be broken when the Vedran releases his followers to become free Vril. Such freed Vrel-Adar often become Vedran's and return to the Bashor for the Culling to start their own Suborax.
The Vril conduct of war lacks any definition of combatants and noncombatants and eschews any notion of honourable conduct. They follow a creed of "might makes right" and assert that victims in war must suffer whatever indignities the conqueror seeks to impose. By the same token, the Vril respect the strength of their foes and because they offer no mercy they expect none in return. For this reason the Vril are wary of defeat and often refuse to offer battle against unfavourable or uncertain odds.
Average technological level
The Vril have demonstrated varied technological levels over the past 600 years. When they first emerged from the Badland in the early fifth century PCE, they possessed late industrial vehicles and weapons which indicated access to Precursor technology, but the level of Vril technological advancement sharply declined after the end of the Road Wars era. This decline is likely the result of dwindling energy resources and a lack of genuine manufacturing capacity. Today, through theft and subterfuge, the Vril have stolen and/or imitated the gunpowder weapons of the Merikan Union.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
The Vril share worship of a divinity they call the Dark Sun, a being often identified with the dark lord Ahriman recognized in the Solar Cult of Two Suns. According to all recovered accounts the Dark Sun creed is one of material abnegation which embraces the principle of entropy and awaits the destruction of the created world, perceived to be a flawed parody of the ideal realm of spirit that will obtain in the purity of primordial chaos that will subsume all once the Dark Sun reclaims control of the universe.
During every new moon the Vril perform a ritual in honour of their Dark Sun. They honour the apparent disappearance of the moon as a sign of the eventual darkening of the entire cosmos, the desired End of All that Is. Similar more elaborate rites are performed during every eclipse event as well. These events are monitored and predicted by Vril astrologers, who observe the heavens for signs and portents of the Dark Sun's inscrutable workings.
Coming of Age Rites
All Vril receive auspicious ritual scarifications at threshold moments of their lives to mark significant milestones in their physical, emotional, and spiritual development. As the Vril advance towards the time when their social caste is chosen they receive the identifying marks of that class. Once the marks are fully etched, the Vril's future path in life is fixed and cannot be altered. A man who bears the mark of a priest shall ever cleave to the priesthood; a Vril who bears the mark of a merchant shall ever ply his wares at market.
Funerary and Memorial customs
The Vril are known to conduct sky burial rituals on the borders of the Badlands. According to their beliefs, they seek release from the corruption of flesh and thus conduct burial as a banishment rite that expels their mortal flesh from the fallen earth of their homelands.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
The Vril practice an art of tattooing and scarification that involves carving glyphs and words of power into the flesh. It is believed that the scars of the body carry the story of a man or woman's life and that one can attempt to influence his or her own destiny by voluntarily receiving scars that portend great deeds or the support of powerful gods and demons.
This art is practiced by men and women alike and the more cosmetic examples of it result in swirling scars that come to resemble finely wrought leatherwork. Extensive years of such ritual scarification actually causes Vril skin to callous and harden giving the impression of a leathery exoskeletal hide. The Vril see strength and endurance as the essence of physical perfection and this clearly influences their perception of beauty.
Gender Ideals
Vril women are seldom encountered outside the border zones of Vrelland. However, Vril men commonly refer to their women as figures of authority. It has therefore been speculated that the Vril social hierarchy has matriarchal or matrilineal aspects. The members of the Thorpe Expedition observed this dynamic when they made contact with a Vril priestess named Kalima, who led the Vril garrison at Trinity Village.
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