Phoenexi

Phoenexi fully live in the present but plan for the future, striving to leave a lasting legacy. They love to keep an ear to changing politics and social dynamics. They also love to turn trends into traditions that become fixed in the bedrock of history. There are four differing nationalities of Phoenexi. The Kannon a nomadic herder people, and the three kingdoms of Nurda Naram, and Zuddan.
The Kannon strive to have their deeds remembered in the songs and folklore of their tribes. When it comes to politics, the Kannon are not so concerned. The Council of Elders within a tribe chooses their chief while the priests and priestesses choose their successors from promising younglings that they then spend many years teaching.
As for the three kingdoms of Nurda, Naram, and Zuddan, each is ruled by a king. Alliances within a kingdom are sealed by marriages so kings are the only ones who have a harem of wives. With so many wives, a king traditionally has many children. When his sons come of age, they are assigned as advisors to the Princes who rule the other cities or trained to be generals or admirals. Daughters are trained as priestesses or enchantresses and when they come of age are placed to advise the leaders of the academies and temples.
The citizens of these kingdoms strive to build something; be it a business, monument, or tale to be remembered by family. Maintaining the family business, prominence, or monument is a thing of family pride passed down each generation.
History

The Phoenexi wandered the land of Phoenexia as hunter-gatherers in the Time of Legends.
3330 WH The Phoenexi devolped a culture that believed in the same two gods, the married couple of Inzak, the god of all waters who rides a Goatmera and Meslila, the goddess of fertility and nature who rides a mightly white lion with a white mane and blue eyes.
4000 WH The Phoenexi split into two distinct cultures. One called themselves Chalco. They took up subsistence farming and wine-making. The Chalco, those Phoenexi who farm, mine, and make wines, believe more strongly in Inzak as the rains and storms are vital to the success of their crops and orchards. The other called themselves Kannon. They were nomadic herdsmen who traded meat and hides to the Chalco for grains and wine. The Kannon believe more strongly in Meskila to give them strength against those things that would kill and eat their herds.
Also during this time the Chalco began mining and smithing copper. This, too, they traded to the Kannon. So began the BRONZE AGE
4630 WH The Chalco in the south started to build a temple to Inzak, in the town of Gedi. During the many years of construction Gedi grew into a city.
4640 WH The Chalco in the north saw this and wanted a temple of their own so began constructing a temple to Meskila in the town of Meggido. During the many years of contruction Meggido grew into a city.
4830 WH In the south, the town of Nuzzi became a city.
4865 In the north, the town of Ramak became a city.
5530 WH In the middle of Phoenexi the town of Naram began to build the Great Library. During the construction, Naram became a city.
5590 WH The Chalco rivalries between the north and south turned into the formation of the Leagues of cities. The Zuddan League in the south was led by the two cities Gedi and Nuzzi. The Nurda League in the north was led by the two cities Meggido and Ramak. Between them stood the independent middle, the biggest being the city of Naram.
5936 The Aquill on their hippocampi invaded Phoenexia. Conquering the cities and settling in to rule over them. As for the nomadic Kannon, they were left to their wandering ways and of little significance to the Aquill beyond their trading as long as they did not interfere with the Aquill Occupation. During this occupation they began the first Academies of Magic to teach menial magics to the Phoenexi so they could be worker mages. The Aquil themselves were sorcerors, and for the teaching of menial wizardry to their Phoenexi subjects they hired Pandion masters.
6036 WH During the Aquill rule of Phoenexia, the Kannon saw the seafolk riding their hippocampi and developed their own riding styles by riding steers. Bulls were just too uncontrollable. Wielding lances and bows, they were now a formidable force though they cared only about the protection of their herds and tribes. Trade between them and the more settled Chalko continued as did trade with the Aquill.
6235 WH to 6237 WH The Chalko, Zuddan and Nurda, united with the Kannon and drove the Aquill off of Phoenexi and back into the sea in a bloody rebellion that spanned two years. It was fueled by the greedy Aquill Governors who drove the Phoenexi into famine and destitution while they lounged in wealth and excesses and the favor of their Homeland. The Phoenexi once again became a land of independent city-states. WIth the Aquill driven out, the Phoenexi began to learn the master magics of their former rulers.
6280 WH The alliances were once again built, reforming the Zuddan League and Nurda League and the ever independent Naram.
6351 WH The Aquill again invade and conquer Phoenexi. They again ruled Aquill. Some Chalko abandoned their cities to live in temporary, and hidden, villages where they survived as bandits who robbed the Aquill. They were the only ones with wealth.
6430 WH These mercenary Chalko bandits were the most rebellious and kept looking for ways to improve against the hippocampi riders. This led to them developing chariots pulled by large sturdy goats with sharp horns. These chariots were ridden by two people ... one to drive the chariot and the other free to use a bow or spear.
6486 WH to 6508 WH In the north, the former Nurda League, these bandits were the most numerous and they launched their rebellion using chariots. For twenty-two years they fought but eventually freed The Nurda League from the Aquill.
6715 WH to 6753 WH Nurda invaded the rest of Phoenexi with the intent of driving out the Aquill. Local Chalko, and often Kannon, joined them. It was a grueling thrity-eight year struggle but the Phoenexi were relentless in their determination to be free of their greedy overlords. Once the Aquill were finally driven out, the Phoenexi returned to their city-states and formed into Kingdoms under the rule of the strongest city-state prince.
6730 WH Nurda began trading with the strange sea people, the Pinephell. These silent fish folk often traded iron and the occassional secrets of how the Fyrians made steel ... for a healthy profit. Without any iron to be had on Phoenexia, the iron was used only to forge weapons. The bones of ones ancestors were forged into the weapons to provide the ash for making great steel, and the family spirits sharing their wisdom through the weapon to their descendant.
7630 WH The Kingdom of Zuddan, feeling the vulnerability of not having iron trade with the Pinephel, invented ships so they could conduct their own iron trades directly with the Fyrians on Uruk.
Their ships are called Gaoloi and have rounded hulls, curved sterns, a single great sail in the center hung from a yardarm on a mast and a large portside oar used for steering.
7730 WH The Nurda start building ships to pirate iron from Zuddan ships. This escalates shipbuilding until both kingdoms develope a new kind of ship, the warship.
Warships are longer and narrower than Gaoloi. They have two masted sails hung from yardarms. On the front is a forecastle for bowman and catapults and the prows sport a Rostrum, a bronze tipped spar for ramming other ships.

Culture

The Nations

Kannon: the nomadic herds folk who ride bulls and armed with bronze tipped lances and bows. They have no traditions of wizardry but do have a strong tradition of holy magic.
Nurda: the northern kindom and are the only Phoenexi who trade with the Pinephel, the silent fishfolk trades of the seas.
Zuddan: the southern Kingdom. It is they who invented sailing in an attempt to attain the coveted iron Nurda gets in their trade with the Pinephel
Naram: a small narrow kingom between Nurda and Zuddan that practices the art of neutrality. Their greatest pride is in their fine libraries and academies, considered the best in all Phoenexi.

Naming Traditions

Common Male names: Brez, Grugir, Hyrild, Juffru, Juzzu, Wuzlu
Common Female names: Dubiry, Dynn, Filys, Myra, Zeu, Zinda
A family, or surname, is based on their most famous ancestor and ends is -zahn for a male ancestor or -eddi for a female ancestor. SOmetimes the name is based on an event or place and given the gender suffix of whomever was involved or discovered it.
Some surnames: Abbottizahn, Bakerzahn, Beareddi, Cookeddi, Dynneddi, Eaglezahn, Fieldeddi, Grugorzahn

Phoenexi are the round eared manfolk of Aquillanis who breathe air and live upon the long land called Phoenexia. Their skin comes in many shades from bronze, ebony, ivory, olive or topaz and all shades in between. Their hair also comes in many shades of black, brown, red, white, and yellow. Even in size they greatly vary: from a petite four feet tall to six and a half feet tall with body shapes from thin to rotund.

Phoenexi by Pascal-Laurent

Origin/Ancestry

Human

Lifespan

80 years

Their average lifespan is about eighty years though some have been known to live past one hundred years. None have lived beyond the age of one hundred twenty years.