Ai

The Ai are a Ryuven clan. They are the clan most known to human scholars, due to their long conflict with the human world (primarily Chrenada ).

Structure

The Ai, like most Ryuven, have a rigid caste system, described in Ryuven Castes and Roles . There are four Great Families of the Ai, which govern by (mostly) mutual consent. They are known by the cardinal directions.
Oniwe, the present aru (ruler), and his half-brother Tamaryl are of the South Family.
Ronal, who sought the position of Pairvyn after Tamaryl's exile, is of the North Family.
Edeiya is of the East Family.

Culture

The Ai, like all Ryuven, use suffixes to reference social hierarchies. The appropriate word can be used independently when referring to a person of a particular caste, or may be appended to a personal name as a form of address.
The ruler of the Ai is an aru (if male) or a silth (if female), as in Oniwe'aru, whose full title is Oniwe’aru, Altayr ni’Ai cin Celæno, Alcyon ni Pairvyn, Majja to Pleione. (The Ryuven reverence for stars may be seen in this formal title.)
Sho (male) or rika (female) are members of the highest social caste, most powerful in both law and magic. (See Tamaryl'sho or Edeiya'rika.)
Che (male) and bel (female) are a central tier of skilled workers. Nori'bel is one example.
Nim are the lowest strata of society (roughly equivalent to tradesmen or peasant farmers in most human societies) and do not receive a suffix in conversation.

Military

The Ai, like most Ryuven clans, have two bodies of warriors. The males fight in battles of conquest, such as the raids upon human settlements. The females fight in battles of defense, as when a male raiding party attacks a Ryuven settlement.
The battles of conquest are traditionally led (though not always practically) by the warlord Pairvyn ni'Ai. The battles of defense have an equivalent warlord, the Tsuraiya ni'Ai. 
Ryuven battles are highly ritualized affairs -- not that the fighting is not intense and severe, but that the assumed rules of engagement are inherently respected. A raid which was not repelled by the female warriors and which required male warriors to assist would be deeply humiliating even if the defense was successful. A raid by female warriors in an offensive action would be considered deeply shameful and the broad reputation of the attacking force would suffer.

Religion

The Ryuven occasionally reference an "Essence," but their religious views have not been extensively documented by human scholars. (The subject does not come up often during the Ryuven-human interactions, which are nearly exclusively lightning raids.)

Agriculture & Industry

Ai agriculture has been increasingly plagued by a blight which has been reducing crop yield. This pressure on food supply has resulted in the traditional raids shifting from social rituals to accrue glory and influence to more serious efforts to procure necessary resources. The sociopolitical strains are evident in Ai society but traditional structures still hold.

Type

Geopolitical, Clan

Head of State

Oniwe'aru

Government System

Monarchy, Elective

Economic System

Mixed economy

Subsidiary Organizations

• The Four Families

Related Ranks & Titles

• Ryuven Castes and Roles

Controlled Territories

• Palace of Red Sands