Krri'ura
More than half of Kemesh is covered in dense rainforests. These forests are home to the most populous and wide ranging varhani culture, the Krri'ura.
Settlements
Most Krri'ura tribes make their home high in the forest canopy, constructing semi-permanent, open air structures of limbs, jirrka silk and woven vine that are connected to each other by three ropes arranged so that one rope is a base for walking and the other two are for hand-holds if needed. These bridges are only usually used by very young varhani, the elderly, gravid or infirm. Healthy youths and adults thoughtlessly move between structures by way of convenient limbs or vines. Walkways are left intact when the band migrates and are simply repaired and improved when they return to the area.
Krri'ura tribal bands will usually have four to six of these settlements within their territories, rotating between them based on season and to allow the local fauna to recover from their predation.
Way of Life
The Krri'ura are nomadic hunters who range over large areas through the year. Forest clans normally number between a hundred to a hundred and twenty individuals governed by co-mates who lead the clan with a light hand and generally by simple example and good will. Forest varhani are very territorial and most are careful not to violate another clan's hunting grounds. Though forest varhani are scrupulous in their manners with those outside their clans, disputes do occur, usually caused by border disagreements, perceived slights, theft or attempts to steal mates. These result in skirmishes and raids, but rarely many deaths and are eventually resolved through the intercession of the uratik'k of the disputing clans or tribes.
Krri'ura interact in a complex gift system by which status is determined, permissions are given and obligations are met. It is important for Krri'ura to know precisely where they stand within their clan. Knowing one's role within clan and the world is believed to be the way to a harmonious life.
Krri'ura traditionally fight and hunt with bows, slings, blow guns, nets, and snares. Venoms and plant derived poisons are almost always employed. Poison is seen as just another tool, not as nefarious or dishonorable as many other societies view them.
Appearance
Krri'ura have the lightest scales of all the varhani peoples, with light brown and vertical stripes of darker brown scales dorsally and saffron colored scales ventrally. Their eyes tend to be iridescent yellow or golden in hue. They are the shortest and lightest of the varhani, rarely taller than 1.3 meters. Female Krri'ura are slightly taller and heavier than males.
Males usually have manes of dark green and black plumage and are not as large as the sea and plains people. Many clans keep their manes completely shorn. Females have longer, flowing head plumage of bluish-black that is arranged in eloaborate styles denoting their clan and family.
Spiritual Practices
The Krri'ura revere Arrik'tukli, telluric spirit of Kemesh, particularly its forests. Rituals are led by a clan's uratik'k who may also be a clan leader. The uratik'k communes with the land to determine when and where it is appropriate for their clan to hunt.
Aside from their hunting weapons, the forest varhani are known for their hardwood clubs made from the extremely dense wood of the ik'tir tree. These clubs are edged with their own sharp, black teeth, which are continually replaced throughout their lives, like most keratoplexans.
These 'trrati' are spiritual weapons, believed to contain a piece of the soul of their maker who is also the only one permitted to wield it. Capturing another's trrati is a major accomplishment in battle. Heavy payment is sometimes demanded and readily given for their return.
In recent years, tribes in contact with colonists have begun to favor the iron or steel machete. The trrati is still worn, but only as a ceremonial totem. Many uratik'k disapprove of this change and believe it dishonors Arrik’tukli and weakens the varhani's spirit.
Foreign Relations
In the first years, the colonists entered the forests in small groups, exploring and prospecting. Some trees were cut to make permanent shelters, but in small enough numbers not to concern the varhani though they did not understand why the aliens made their shelters in such a destructive, wasteful and noisy fashion. Soon though, the colonists began to enter the forests in larger numbers, cutting lumber and creating roads from which they expanded their operations deeper into the forests.
At first, the varhani leaders still felt caution was the best course of action and instead of all out war, colonists were shot with poison darts with what the varhani believed were non-lethal doses of paralytic poison as a warning. Such was how they often handled territorial disputes among themselves. However, they did not realize the humans were not as resistant to poison as varhani and many of the colonists shot died of asphyxiation and heart failure.
Afterwards, the colonists became better armed and hunting parties searched for varhani settlements near their operations to destroy. The Krri'ura reacted with anger and the conflicts escalated. Though the colonists were much better armed, they were no match for the varhani in their forests.
Steadily losing money and men, the various lumber and mining concerns changed their tactics to diplomacy. Some varhani, captured in raids, learned the tongues of their captors and began acting as translators. The colonists offered presents of metal knives and machetes, alcohol, dyed textiles and jewelry.
After a long slow effort, those forest tribes who had the longest contact with the colonists reached peaceful treaties that allowed for the expansion of the colonies into the interior, the largest of which became the province of Guryar.
Aside from those clans with territory near Guryar, most Krri'ura have never seen a human, though they have heard of them, as well as the troubles their cousins on the seas and plains in the west are having with another, less strange foreign race, the hakanu. Krri'ura elders shake their heads knowingly and tell the youth that this is what comes of foolishly living outside of the protection of the great forests.
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