Chir'kualu
The varhani were perhaps the first species in Torvalen to construct boats. According to the ancient accounts passed down through generations of amas, the first interactions between ulan and land peoples was with ancient varhani on their primitive rafts and canoes. These are the ancestors of the varhani tribes known as the Sea Varhani, the Chir'kualu.
Settlements
Communities of Chir'kualu exist along most of the coasts of Kemesh. These villages are normally found in reedy river deltas, mangrove forests and protected coves. Though construction methods and material varies by habitat and custom, the typical Chir'kualu village is built upon wooden pylons sunk into the soft soil of the tidal zone. Built upon these pylons are wide, woven platforms that support shelters of woven wood and thatch. These dwelling platforms are connected by walkways of rope and wood. Rafts and small canoes are tied at the base of the pylons.
Most Chir'kualu usually only spend half the year in these permanent settlements, normally during the stormy seasons of the spring and fall. In winter and summer, these villages are largely abandoned and the sea varhani live upon their covered double-hulled catamarans. Chir'kualu clans sail as a group along the coasts, moving with fish migrations and harvesting seasons for crustaceans and shell-fish. This is also the time where young Chir'kualu males display their prowess by diving and hunting the dangerous achamatl near their hive territories.
Way of Life
Most sea tribes adhere to a traditional way of life composed of fishing, hunting and foraging. They also trade with other Chir'kualu settlements, sometimes traveling hundreds of kilometers along the coasts. These trading missions are as much social as transactional and in addition to providing each other goods difficult or impossible to find in their own territory, they are also means of trading stories and to introduce one's children and grandchildren to likely mates.
Much like the ulan, and unlike their cousins in the forests and plains, the Chir'kualu are matriarchal. Though all work is shared equally between the genders, it is the great-grandmothers, the krrihuiku'u, who rule with a gnarled fist. All these thrice-mothers of a village rule as a council. It is they who decide when large hunting or fishing expeditions and how they are distributed. They lead the rituals and give permission for marriages.
Appearance
Chir'kualu have the darkest scales of all the varhani peoples, with pure black scales dorsally and dark brown ventrally. Their eyes tend to be iridescent silver in hue. Though females are usually slightly larger than males among the varhani, this difference is more pronounced among the sea tribes. Female Chir'kualu are normally a full head taller then males.
Male Chir'kualu have manes of brighter plumage then their forest or plains counterparts, sporting manes of bright red, blue and iridescent gold rather than the duller greens, purples and blacks of other varhani males. They are also richly decorated with jewelry, gifted to them by adoring lovers, mates and kinswomen. Varhani males from other tribes call them 'little dandies', but sea males mock them back as jealous uglies afraid of losing their mates to the sea.
Female Sea Varhani have long, flowing head plumage of iridescent dark blue or purple. They dress more conservatively and practically then the males. Adult female head plumage is kept shorn on the sides of their heads where they are branded with the glyphs marking their maternal lineage.
Spiritual Practices
Chir'kualu revere the same telluric spirits as the ulan, the Sisters and Bright-Water, but they also show reverence and make offerings to the local spirits of their home territories. The thrice-mothers of a village, those with the longest relationship to these local spirits, are capable of calling upon them to manifest in great need.
Foreign Relations
The sea varhani have the closest relationship to the ulan of any land dwelling culture. They visit and communicate with each other on a regular basis. There are even amusing stories that tell of amas becoming smitten with a particularly handsome male and granting them the 'water-kiss', allowing them to live beneath the waves as consorts of their ulan lover. They have a particuarly close relationship with the Blue Warders and some young varhani, usually males, leave their communities to join the order.
The Chir'kualu of the northeast have generally friendly relations with the humans, though their connections with the growing power of the pirate Tikrit the Bloody has strained these relations, particularly with the Kalmasans.
Their greatest threat is in the northwest, on the coast of the Nukuroa plains. There, the Kahala Empire has established colonies and are committing a campaign of genocide against the varhani, whom they consider dangerous vermin and savages.
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