Takheti People, The
(Author's note: For the sake of clarity, it is highly recommended that you first read the primer on culture and ethnicity in Tahuum Itaqiin.)
The Takheti people are the descendants of the indigenous people of the subcontinent known to outsiders as Vast Takhet. The arid climate and mountainous, unforgiving terrain there, along with its relative geographic isolation as a peninsula, has had a profound influence on their lifeways; explorers and merchants across Tahuum Itaqiin know them for their unparalleled aptitude in navigating seas of sand and saltwater alike—and are all too eager to exoticize the Takheti cultures at times. Takheti cuisine and arts are well respected, if considered somewhat simple by the Continent's urbanites: While an outsider unfamiliar with their ways might not be enthusiastic to sample their hunted game meat or camel's milk cheese, the Takheti people have honed a culinary creativity that can convert otherwise not-so-palatable foodstuffs into what visiting merchants and statespeople regard as delicacies. Likewise, their woolen tapestries may seem simple to those who are accustomed to the likes of portraiture and stained glass, yet a vibrant color palette and dyes imported from faraway lands have made Takheti traditional crafts coveted by all who have heard of them.
Perhaps because the dunes and mountains of Vast Takhet are both resource-rich and hostile to the formation of large settlements, Takhet and its native people have frequently been subject to the imperial designs of rising powers in Northwest Tahuum Itaqiin. This unfortunate legacy, too, is burned into the collective culture of the Takheti people.
The geographic range of the Takheti people, combined with the aforementioend history of imperial subjugation, have made them a diverse people, albeit with a number of shared cultural features. In terms of their appearances, those Takheti people who are not known to have significant mixed Haifah or Northerner ancestry are best known for their tall stature (typically 165 to 176 cm) and broadness in the shoulders and hips, especially compared to the slim Haifah. Their skin tone varies from light to dark brown with warm, reddish undertones, their hair and eyes are dark, and their hair types range from wavy curls to tight coils. Those with clear Haifah or Northerner admixtures may have olive-toned or relatively light skin (which still tends to than rather than burn) and a wide spectrum of hair types and colors. In the popular outsiders' image of the Takheti people, they drape nearly their entire bodies in light, breathable linens to protect their skin from the sun; in reality, those who lived in Near (coastal) Takhet and major trade hubs readily adopt cross-regional fashions for themselves, though their dress may be more conservative than that of their neighbors.
Origins
Relatively little is known of the Takheti predecessors aside from the contents of local oral histories, but rare archaeological expeditions to the salt flats of Takhet Alay (the Takheti Mountains) have unveiled evidence of a once-vibrant ancient civilization there. Despite the fact that the contemporary Takehti people are known mainly as camel-riding nomads, their earliest known predecessors may, in fact, have been successful agrarians—before some calamity caused the rivers of their scorching mountain valley to run dry. By the time history began to be recorded in Northwestern Tahuum Itaqiin's earliest writing systems, the Takheti predecessors had already taken up pastoral nomadism and spread both eastward and westward beyond the ridges of Takhet Alay. It is thought that in the harsh coastal desert and wind-blown dunes to the west, the lifeways of the pre-Takheti nomads changed relatively little. Their lengthy travels for access to water and other essential resources mean the Takheti Desert is sparsely populated by far-flung tribes. In the east, meanwhile, the mountains and foothills of Takhet Alay rapidly descend, reaching a (sometimes stiflingly warm) maritime coast. Here, the pre-Takheti tribal networks evolved into chiefdoms and a number of settlements that survive to this day. The people of coastal Takhet took to a blend of agriculture, fishing, and coastal trade for their sustenance, growing considerably in wealth compared to their distant kin across the rest of Takhet. A collective Takheti identity is only attested as far back as the early Grim Era. In fact, "Takheti" is originally an exonym, as explorers from the early Haifatnehti states and the Reborn Theocracy named the people after their homeland's best-known mountain range. (Takhet Alay itself means "the sheer-faced mountains" in most Takheti dialects.) For most of Takheti history and prehistory, social identities were bound to tribe and direct (usually paternal) lineage alone. However, many elements of their culture were suppressed or destroyed during the colonization of Takhet by the Reborn Theocracy. Following the fall of the Theocracy and the consolidation of the first warlord states in Takhet, an ambitious, mountain-dwelling warlord by the name of Zamayiir drew inspiration from his grandfather's tales of the Theocracy's former unity and sense of purpose. He concluded that if he was to build a legacy worth remembering, he could best do it through unifying the pre-Takheti tribes under a single empire. What followed was not only a string of conquests and a network of inter-tribal alliances to consolidate Zamayiir's rule, but a social project to salvage the cultural legacy of the peoples of Takhet—and even fabricate new traditions when the old ones proved no longer salvageable. Though there are considerable cultural gulfs between the settlements of coastal Takhet and the nomads of the distant desert, they have all developed a certain pride in their shared heritage and the struggles of their people against foreign depredations.Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The family tree of Takheti languages was historically broad enough that speakers living on one side of Takhet Alay could rarely understand those on the other side. As Takheti and inter-state trade networks grew with advances in camel husbandry and the development of caravanserais by fledgling states, however, the cross-Takheti pidgin (trade language) that emerged as a result evolved into a creole which a number of the less isolated settlements adopted as their official language. The subsequent propagation of the Takheti creole and development (or redevelopment) of local dialects has proceeded at an unsteady pace ever since: The Reborn Theocracy sought to establish their tongue of Kraesprauch as Northwest Tahuum Itaqiin's principal language, and later, Zamayiir the Lion sought to consolidate his empire's disparate dialects. More recently, the recovery and political rise of the city-states of the Haifatneh Basin have introduced pragmatic incentives for younger Takheti to master Andaeni and other Haifatmizti languages, sometimes at the expense of full fluency in their mother tongue.
The Takheti languages share several features with Haifatmizti, up to and including a verb-subject-object sentence structure in most instances. Thus, it is a matter of speculation whether the two language families in fact have a shared origin. The mainstream consensus among philologists, however, is that Takheti and Haifatmizti are two distinct language families which have borrowed many of each other's features through extensive contact. It is also likely that the Agratekti nomads or their predecessors spoke a Takheti language, further contributing to the blending of the two language families' features as these nomads proliferated through the western Haifatneh Basin.
Common Etiquette rules
While multiple magical traditions are known to the peoples of Tahuum Itaqiin, at least on a surface level, the discussion of spellcraft and magical phenomena is generally taboo in the Takheti cultures. While the Takheti hesitance to broach these topics is most often attributed to the repressive reign of the Reborn Theocracy—and there is likely more than an ounce of truth to this—accounts of travels to Far Takhet (the Takheti Desert) attest to a wide range of methods of divination and entire communities of reclusive mystics. The Takheti people are fervent believers in the power of curses as well, such that they are exceedingly careful with their choice of words in heated situations.
A custom that visitors from the Haifatneh Basin are well familiar with is the practice of taking one's shoes off and changing into slippers upon entering one's home. Interestingly, however, this appears not to be practiced in the deserts of Far Takhet; it is sometimes assumed that attempting to keep sand and dirt out of their tents in such an environment is simply a futile effort, though perhaps there is a reason for this discrepancy that remains lost to the passage of time.
Although meals are communal, the first servings are given to the adult men present, starting with the oldest. (Women who are well-versed in the oral storytelling traditions of nomadic Takheti clans are fond of insisting that this was not always the case.) Even when guests are present, the first serving will go to the patriarch or oldest Takheti man present, followed by male guests, then the other male kin present, and finally the remainder of those at the gathering.
Common Dress code
As outsiders to Takhet are fond of saying, "You do not truly know a Takheti friend until you have seen their skin." The overbearing sun and wind-blown sands that dominate much of the Takheti landscape have made head-to-toe dress in lightweight, breathable linens the norm; wool is mainly used as a craft textile rather than for clothing, with rare exceptions for cloaks and head-wraps worn during winter nights or in the highest reaches of Takhet Alay. Inside their homes, Takheti people will take off the majority of their clothing if they are around familiar company. (A key exception is in most of the east coast settlements: Likely due to the residual conservative norms of the Reborn Theocracy, it is rare for a Takheti person to be found undressed except in the most intimate of situations.)
Among the nomadic Takheti tribes, there remains a practice of men covering their faces with a cheche in public. The explanations for this behavior in folklore are as varied as the colorations of cheche and wearers' methods for wrapping them around their heads: Some interviewees might claim this practice honors the Takheti man's facial features—or better yet, protects them from the sun—as they are a source of pride; others will speak in hushed whispers of men hiding their faces so that temptresses and charlatans cannot bewitch them; others still will claim with equal conviction that the highest mark of a Takheti man's achievements is that he will be feared and respected by his peers even before they see his face. It is possible that there is truth to all of these explanations and more, or else that the practical form of headwear has served different functions across different contexts.
Art & Architecture
The most obvious differences between Takheti subgroups are seen in their preferred abodes. In non-settled areas and sites where temporary workers stay, tents constructed from felted wood, hide, and sparse wood are normative. Tents' entrances or their lightest surfaces will be set up to face the rising sun so that those sleeping inside will wake up as early as possible, completing the morning's essential tasks before the mid-day heat encroaches upon them. In the settlements and plantations of Takhet's east coast and relatively populated foothills, residences are normally low-lying adobe constructions, though unlike the flat-roofed houses commonplace in the Haifatneh Basin, those in coastal Takhet typically have sloped roofs. This is another cultural feature that is popularly blamed on the Reborn Theocracy, but the sloped roofs may simply be an adaptation to the more frequent rain there.
The extensive history of nomadism among the Takheti people has resulted in much of their art being relatively portable: Bracelets, lanyards, their clothes themselves, and most famously, woolen tapestries. In sedentary Takheti communities, tapestries are often employed where other cultures would use murals or paintings. (Wealthy travelers returning from Takhet will claim that they even frame their most prized tapestries in wood, but this is not a well-attested practice and might merely be a trick played on undiscerning outsiders.) Sheep's wool is often woven into practical crafts which see more wear and tear, whereas goat's wool is typically reserved for gifts and the finest clothing.
Foods & Cuisine
The earliest and best known Takheti cooking method takes advantage of the overbearing heat of Takhet Alay and the desert reaches. As these places have relatively little access to fuel—aside from animal dung, which certainly is an option if the situation calls for it—it has proven practical to simply bury a covered or sealed pot in the sand early in the day, allowing the contents to stew until the evening. This method, known as tahqayat, remains in use to this day, even if the ingredients themselves have changed.
Originally, the Takheti pastoral nomads subsisted mainly on the dairy products and meat of their sheep, goats, and camels, supplementing this through hunting and gathering. (The diet of the ancient river valley civilization of Takhet Alay is not yet known to archaeologists or historians.) These wild herbs, game meats, and pastoral products have remained the base of nomads' recipes for thousands of years, it is thought, but the growth of trans-regional trade as the Continent's civilizations recovered from the Grim Era has contributed further to the variety of foodstuffs available to these nomads. Now, they frequently trade a portion of their pastoral products in exchange for semolina wheat, various tubers, olives, and foreign spices.
In coastal Takhet ("near Takhet"), meanwhile, these traditional cuisines are accompanied by Haifah-style flatbreads, seksu (granules of semolina wheat), other local agrarian products, and a wide range of seafoods. However, the dietary norms of the former Northerner occupiers had forbidden crustaceans, and one side effect of trans-regional exchange is that oysters from the Haifatneh Sea are now regarded as superior to local Takheti shellfish.
The foothills and mountains of Takhet Alay also happen to be the birthplace of coffee, which is of great cultural and economic significance, as demonstrated through the growth of Igh-Berkana from a humble village to a bustling trade hub. Control over lucrative coffee plantations has also motivated imperial and colonial incursions into Takhet, however, as seen in the infamous Igh-Berkaana Incident, known to detractors as the "Great Takheti Coffee Coup."
Funerary and Memorial customs
The nomadic Takheti tribes have long practiced burials with grave goods, not unlike the Haifatnehti people from ancient days, though Takheti grave goods mainly consist of items of sentimental value rather than weaponry. In the dry, high-altitude reaches of Takhet Alay, meanwhile, mummified bodies have occasionally been found in crevasses and other sheltered places. These bodies were once thought to be those of hapless explorers—and information about their true nature was not forthcoming, as locals were taciturn when asked about their ancestors' remains. Nearly a century ago, the fieldwork of half-Takheti, half-Andaeni scholar Faram an-Agrati indicated otherwise: an-Agrati found that these mummy burials are in fact deliberate, a practice reserved for the bodies of chieftains and other highly honored individuals, especially during times of intertribal conflict when there are fears of remains being tampered with.
The typical burial practice of coastal Takhet ("Near Takhet")—cremation—is thus a surprising development. While it is true that a number of coastal Takheti traditions parallel those of the former Reborn Theocracy by coincidence, and coastal Takhet boasts somewhat larger reserves of evergreen woods that can be used for fuel, it is well known that the Northerners who established the Theocracy thought that the smoke of cremation was the only proper means of guiding a soul on its journey to the next life. That much of coastal Takhet today practices a syncretic religion that incorporates both indigenous and Northerner teachings also suggests that the idiosyncratic funerary rites of the coastal settlements reflect a broader gulf in inter-tribal worldviews.
Demonym:
Takheti (exonym)
Members of individual tribes and inhabitants of settlements also have their own endonyms.
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