Kua
The Kua are an ethnically Talani'i tribe native to what once was the northern most Talani'i territory. For most of their long history, they dominated the neighboring Talani'i tribes to the south. The Kua were accomplished raiders by both land and sea. They raided and pirated superior weapons and other goods from the industrious Pu'anu Kahala'i tribe to the north, further increasing their power. The Kua justified their acts by claiming they were the tribe closest in blood to the Great Ancestors, the Koroua. They were hated and feared by those to the north and south.
Then came the Purifying Fire, the religious war that established the Kahala Empire. The forces of the north swept through and decimated the many independent Kua clans and villages. Desperate requests for help from the other Talani'i tribes were ignored and most refugees were spurned. Without this help, they were quickly defeated and occupied. Their greatest warriors, shamans and leaders were executed in Ila'Makau's name.
Once the largest and most powerful of the Talani'i peoples, their tribe became the lowest ranking caste within the Kahala'i social structure. Their fertile lands became the prefecture of Wai Hu'a, now the breadbasket of Kahala, in which most Kua continued to live and work as laborers on their former lands. Many other Kua were brought north to become laborers and servants for the higher castes in the northern prefectures. Families were separated and dispersed to districts far and wide within the empire. Children were made to attend mandatory school where, in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, they were taught the religion of Ila'Makau and to cease all worship and reverance for their familial ancestors and any other koroua besides Ila'Makau.
Over the years, the Kua became an integral part of Kahala's wealth and prosperity and the superior Kahala'i tribal castes become slowly dependent on their invisible labor. But in the homes of the Kua, particularly those of Wai Hu'a, the old ways were not forgotten. Offerings continued to be made to ancestors in secret. Those gifted with the ability to speak to all ancestral spirits, the tukuoro, continued to be trained in secret as well. Refugees who had fled south during the Purifying Fire began to make tentative reconnections with their scattered kin. Over time, the Kua began to take advantage of their hidden strength and the complacency of their masters and Enu Kua was born.
As the underground Enu Kua movement has risen to become a threat to the power structure of Kahala, the Kua of Kahala have suffered stricter rules and harsher punishments, which as only served to inflame the Kua, including their dead, as each unrighteous death created an ancestor full of rage and still strongly tied to the mortal world. Many within the Talani'i Alliance, particularly the young, wish to aid their Kua brothers and sisters, rejecting the caution, fear and past resentments of their elders. The drums of rebellion grow steadily stronger.
Comments