"We could cross the whole of the mountains, and never find a place that was made for us."— Alliyma Antisuyu
The Yuyak are a group of people within the
Intersedran Empire who are recognised as fundamentally different from their non-Yuyak peers. They possess distinct legal rights compared to other Intersedran citizens, and are treated within the state as a separate category of people to all other groups. The Yuyak identity transcends regional or ethnic identities, as well as to an extent social class, and tends to take precedence over most other aspects of an individual's identity.
To be Yuyak is to be recognised as having a mind which functions in ways that are different from those of other Intersedrans; at times subtly, at times very obviously. These differences are pronounced enough that Yuyak individuals tend to stick out when placed in groups of non-Yuyak Intersedrans, which often leads to them experiencing discrimination. Their low numbers within the overall Intersedran community - with most villages having at most one or two openly Yuyak individuals within them, and many none whatsoever - and their lack of communal bonds with others like them have meant that they have historically found themselves in difficult positions within Intersedran society.
The efforts of
Prismatic Empress Alliyma Yuyak in the last century saw the creation of the city of
Kurkuki to serve as a safe place for the Yuyak. In the decades since, awareness of the Yuyak has increased greatly throughout Intersedra, and this has also resulted in the birth of a fledgeling culture among Yuyak gathered together within the city.
First Developed: Unknown, thought to have been many thousands of years before the beginning of the Reunion calendar
Spread: Prevalent throughout all of Intersedra, but concentrated in Kurkuki
Population Size: Unknown, considered impossible to estimate at present. Kurkuki is home to around 30,000 Yuyak, and rough guesses put the rest of Intersedra at anywhere from 5x to 30x this number
Definition
The issue of how to define being Yuyak is one that has troubled the Intersedran people for many centuries. In the past, the term was commonly used as a general catch-all for troublesome or disruptive individuals who did not conform to social norms or who challenged authority figures; it is only in the present that it has started to develop a concrete definition within the Yuyak community in Kurkuki.
Challenges in attempting to define the term began with the broad scope of differences that it had to cover. Unlike the other ethnic groups in Intersedra comprised of non-Yuyak, which could vary enormously from one-another but tended to be relatively homogenous within themselves, the Yuyak tended to be out of place even within their own culture groups. Initial attempts to define being Yuyak focused on individual traits exhibited by the majority of them; relative introversion and a lack of social capability when compared to other Intersedrans, an unusual focus on repetition in tasks and daily life, and a very poor ability to deal with change.
"There are all sorts of things you could point to to try and define being Yuyak: How we don't fit in, how we feel things differently..."
"...but the way I see it, the biggest difference is in how we think."— Unknown
These ideas, however, were examined and later noted to have originated from a perspective that treated the Yuyak as 'outsiders'; defining them by how they did not fit in with typical Intersedran society. In response to this, a new definition began to emerge over multiple decades of debate, one which defined the Yuyak not by how they were seen by others but by how they saw themselves. The defining characteristic of being Yuyak, it was decided, was to be possessed of a mind which worked differently on a fundamental level to those of the non-Yuyak.
After decades had passed, the new generations of Yuyak brought up in Kurkuki had the chance to grow up in an environment tailored for people like them for the first time in Intersedran history. And as they did so, they near unanimously decided that the way the non-Yuyak - those they took to calling the
Ch'ikan, meaning 'outsiders' - did things was entirely unappealing to them. Their focus on conformism, uniformity, and adherence to a strict social hierarchy which they prized above all else was antithetical to the Yuyak's more individualist tendencies. The last one they found particularly egregious; with most among the Yuyak considering the divisions in
Ch'ikan society almost entirely arbitrary and pointless.
Determining Whether Someone is Yuyak
One of the principle issues facing the Yuyak is the question of detection. A person who is Yuyak has no innate awareness of this fact, and may go decades- or in some cases their entire lives without ever finding out. This issue is exacerbated in rural Intersedra, where knowledge of the Yuyak is extremely scarce, and so the residents of a village may have little experience in identifying them. In some cases, the religious traditions through which knowledgfe of the Yuyak is usually passed down may be absent; meaning the villagers may not even know that they exist. These combined factors all pose serious problems for identification, and have meant that although there has always been a role for the Yuyak in Intersedran society, very few people have been able to benefit from it historically due to not knowing what they are.
The biggest problem in discerning whether or not someone is Yuyak is that there is a great deal of variability among Yuyak individuals. Some may have traits or behave in ways which go completely opposite to other Yuyak, and it is possible for two individuals to be near complete polar opposites of each-other despite still being part of the group. For this reason, the most common method used to determine whether or not someone is Yuyak is to compare them to a group of people who are decidedly not. If they obviously stand out in some way or are the only person to not want to engage in activities that everyone else in the group likes, or who consistently seems to pursue their own agendas over those of the group, this is usually an indicator that they are Yuyak.
In the Present Day
The ascension of Alliyma Antisuyu to the prismatic throne had the effect of making the Yuyak a talking point across the empire. The unprecedented act of one of the Yuyak becoming the empress meant that individuals all throughout Intersedra suddenly took an interest in them, and priests everywhere began to consult the scripture more closely for information on how they ought to be treated. This was only the beginning, and in the years since Kurkuki's founding, awareness about the Yuyak has vastly improved within the empire.
In the present day, more individuals than ever are ideThe lefntifying themselves as Yuyak; in large part due to Alliyma's declaration that Yuyak have the right to migrate to Kurkuki at will. This law has sparked a number of results, with many people jumping at the chance to leave their hometowns and move to somewhere they hope will be more accepting. Elsewhere, however,
Scalebearers embittered by the loss of their subjects claim that ordinary people are pretending to be Yuyak in order to have an excuse to move to Kurkuki. In order to combat this abuse of the system, they say, they demand that the right to adopt Yuyak identity be regulated.
Within Kurkuki
Concerns about the validity of one's claim to be Yuyak are of vital interest to the denizens of Kurkuki as well; albeit for different reasons. In the Yuyak capital, a population of around four-sevenths Yuyak coexist with three-sevenths non-Yuyak. Though the city is largely free of discrimination, interactions between the two groups are both tense and difficult at times, and the key to avoiding friction comes in being certain whether someone is or is not Yuyak. To this end, numerous scholars in Kurkuki have pooled their resources in attempts to develop new techniques for discerning whether a person is Yuyak.
The philosophy underpinning the majority of these systems is the idea that the core of the Yuyak experience is difference. For this reason, the methodologies employed commonly use non-Yuyak as a baseline for behaviour, and tests consist of contrasting a given individual's behaviour, personality, and other such factors against those of typical Intersedrans. These comparisons are most commonly conducted on a gendered basis; with men being compared against men and vice versa for women. This is based on the assumptions that non-Yuyak individuals within Intersedran society tend to behave in relatively consistent ways that are based in large part on their social role as derived from their gender, and that therefore one way to determine if someone is Yuyak is to observe how closely they conform to these roles.
Aside from social behaviours, sensory profiles are also examined. Yuyak individuals tend to exhibit particular sensitivity in one or more of their senses; such as for example hearing or sight. Many Yuyak have sensitive hearing and experience discomfort when subjected to loud noises, while others dislike being in bright light and may develop headaches when left in the sun for too long. In less obvious cases, comparisons are made to see how the individual's experiences of certain common activities, as well as their likes and dislikes and general interests, vary from those of average people. Denizens of Kurkuki have constructed profiles of average men, women, and third-gender individuals from Intersedra in order to compare people to, and commonly use these in an attempt to discern whether someone is Yuyak or not.
Impact
Although being Yuyak does confer a small number of genuine detriments, the primary impact that the Yuyak have suffered is widespread discrimination at the hands of other Intersedrans as a result of their mental differences. As people living in a society that values tradition and conformity over all, they have experienced persecution for what is thought to have been many thousands of years as a result of their unwillingness or inability to fit in. This has generally meant that the Yuyak have consistently held lower positions in society, and had less access to opportunities than their peers.
Health Issues
The Yuyak tend to be somewhat sickly compared to other Thousandforms. Though they do not suffer any more frequently from life-threatening illnesses, they are prone to a variety of non-lethal afflictions at a noticeably higher rate than non-Yuyak. The most common of these include difficulty sleeping which can be either sporadic or permanent, chronic pain in parts or all of the body that seems to have no cause and cannot be alleviated, and severe aversion to many types of food; particularly those with strong tastes. These conditions only serve to exacerbate the difficulties they already experience as a result of their social and sensory differences.
