Ivory Savanna Tribes
The Tribes of the Ivory Savanna is the term given to the people who live between the Gold Coast and the Firelands, though they have no name for themselves as a collective. While each of the tribes has their own traditions and customs, there are three 'groups' that outsiders usually recognize. The first of these groups is the tribes that live settled lives in permanent villages. These are predominantly (but not entirely) the Rustspeaking Tribes. The scholars from the Iron Empire suspect that many of these tribes had been subjects to the Old Iron Empire and had supported themselves with agriculture and small herds of cattle. Very few of the Rivertongue and Grasstongue tribes have permanent settlements, but they will often season around others, at times doubling or even tripling the local population. The second group are the semi-nomadic pastoralists, who spend much of the time following their herds and flocks of cattle through the grasslands, setting down camps when the season or weather calls for it. They tend to live in the drier parts of the Savanna, where there are fewer predators to threaten their flocks. The third group are the tribes that rely entirely on hunting and gathering. Many of them are Rivertongue tribes, who tend to live in the areas around the lakes and rivers that dot the Savanna.
Naming Traditions
Other names
The Ivory Savanna Tribesmen have names inspired by East African names, particularly those from the Serengeti region.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The Imperial Scriptorium currently categorizes the Ivory Savanna Tribes languages into three families:
- Rustspeak, whose root languages are related to Irontongue, but clearly diverged at some point during the Age of Storms to be nearly unrecognizable as such. This is the smallest language group among the tribes.
- Rivertongue, whose root languages are related to Scartongue, the language group of the People of Sun and River. This is the second largest language group among the tribes, but it also clearly had diverged from its parent language centuries prior.
- Grasstongue, which is, as far as the Scriptorium can tell, unrelated to any other language groups. There is some connection to Gemspeak, but the loanwords and syntax similarities are so minor in both languages that it is likely a result of proximity than it is because the two languages share a parent.
Shared customary codes and values
The Ivory Savanna Tribes have a family-centric culture, where the entire tribe is considered to be an extended family, though not by blood. Children are raised communally by the tribe and it is the tribe's responsibility for protecting and nurturing them, not just the two parents. Children are expected to shadow their parents when they are young and assist them in their 'jobs' as they grow. A tribe will often divide its labor, with some of its members being hunters and warriors, others working around the camps, performing various chores. This is still true, even among the settled tribes, though they will often have a bit more specialization among their people, especially as they have more interactions with the Gold Coast and the Firelanders.
All of the tribes, even the Grasstongue tribes who prefer to hunt and forage for their meat, fruit, and nuts in the lakes and pools of the Savanna, have a dependence on the animals of the Savanna. For the Rustspeakers, this is obvious in their domesticated herds of buffalo and the mounted scouts that watch over their grazing lands atop the backs of Talon Runners, bipedial green animals with long tails, short arms, curved backs and a long neck. Culturally, hunting is very important and most will use talons, horns, fur, and whatever else they can from the beasts and monsters they kill.
The Tribes revere the Gods of the Bushland, as they call the giant monsters that make their home in the Ivory Savanna. When they appear, word quickly spreads through the different Tribes, and most will send their best hunters to join with other tribes to bring the beast down. It is considered the highest of honors to be the tribe or tribes who can successfully say that they were among the blows that brought the Gods down, and those who do are presented with a special hide cloak, and earn the title of "God Hunter" among the tribes.
A tribe is led by a chief, who serves as an arbiter of justice in the tribe and decides how to best allocate the resources of the Tribe, where they will hunt, who will fight, and such decisions. Most tribes will have at least one sorcerer, known as a Dancing Witch (or Warlock) for they channel the Wyrdwinds for their sorcery through the rapture of their dance. So long as they continue to dance, they can maintain their sorceries until they are exhausted. Many tribes, especially larger ones, will have several of these sorcerers, who serve as apprentices to the Dancing Witch (for, traditionally, the ideal sorcerer is female, the ideal warrior is male). Scholars from around the Shimmering Sea who have studied the Dancing Witches and similar shamans from the Tribes of the Iron Spine believe that there is something in the ritual that ties into an innate sorcerous spark within all humans, even those who lack the true art of it, that allows those who would not be able to use the classical sorcery methods to manifest magic.
Common Dress code
Though the tribes have different manners of dress, most will wear a robe that wraps around their bodies. These robes are always brightly colored, though usually of a single color, which differs between tribes. Many of the tribes wear red for it is said that the color scares off the wild Balkoth, or Warbeast. They will spin metal like copper into wire or beads and use that, along with seeds, stone and painted wood for their jewelry. The most prized jewelry uses ivory, hunted from the Grey Elephants that move in herds through the Savanna, though Balkoth horns are likewise prized for they are a sign of great warrior prowess. Grazing lands are precious and so the Tribes do not have large herds of sheep for wool, instead using hides for their clothes, especially that of the buffalo.
Art & Architecture
When the tribesmen build villages, it is often with the materials around them, though the basic frame structure they all use are branches, often built into a circular hut and then sealed with mud and soil that is baked in the hot sun. The Rustspeaking tribes, who do not move as often or tear down their settlements, will use treated leather from their buffalo. They do not often create large or permanent works of art, even among the Rustspeakers. Rather, art is usually performative, like dancing, or adornment of their bodies for reasons that differ from tribe to tribe. There are many different music styles throughout the Ivory Savanna, but almost all are rhythmic and intended to be danced to and played with simple instruments like bead rattlers and leather hide drums. They will often incorporate nature or natural elements into their 'art', which is used by their shamans and dancing witches and warlocks in rituals. What little metallurgy they perform themselves is often used to create accessories and adornments.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
A tribe is led by their chief, who leads until death. The chief in a month long ritual, consisting of three different trials before a vote of the elders of the tribe. Only men between a certain age are eligible to attempt the trials, and those above that age are considered to be elders. The order of these trials is less important than that they are done. The first trial is a tournament between all the eligible men to see who is the best fighter of the tribe. The second trial is to capture, alive, a beast of the Savanna for taming. This demonstrates less the strength of the candidate but their skill as a hunter. Often, those who are selected to be chiefs will tame the beast they captured to serve as their mount in battle. The third trial is to withstand the effects of the Wyrdwinds the longest. The Dancing Witch or Warlock of the tribe will call the Wyrdwinds to blow across the region and the candidates most endure, while the shaman's apprentices watch for the early warning signs, having those who are at risk of changing into wyrdings or to go mad taken away, until only one remains.
After the three trials are completed, the elders cast their votes for the one they think will make the best chief of those brave enough to attempt the trials.
Like everything with the Ivory Savanna Tribes, there are variations and deviations of this custom between different tribes, but most are similar to this. The Rustspeaking Tribes, for instance, tend to substitute the hunt for a beast for a search for something that enriches the village, more akin to a trophy hunt. The Grasstongue Tribes also differ in this one for they will often instead have the candidates race upon the backs of their Talon Runners.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
The Ivory Coast Tribes each have their own standards of beauty that it would be difficult to come up with the perfect man or woman that would satisfy all of their ideals. There are some traits, however, that are universal among them. The Ivory Coast Tribes have a preference for white teeth, for it is an indication that one cannot hide of their habits. Some tribes keep their hair short, or even shaved completely, particularly in the dry parts of the Savanna. Others prefer to braid their hair in tightly bound threads.
Gender Ideals
Men are warriors and hunters, women tend to the camp. That is the traditional dichotomy of the Ivory Savanna Tribes. Several tribes do have a caste of women warriors, often in direct service to the Dancing Witch of the Tribe that serve as the Witch's guard, but this is not the majority of tribes. Women are responsible for setting up the camp and the houses of the nomadic tribes, but even in the Rustspeaker villages, women tend the home, cook the meals, collect water, and gather milk from buffalo. The men patrol and scout and must be prepared to protect the tribe and its livestock from monsters, raiders, or wild beasts.
Courtship Ideals
Men are permitted multiple wives, particularly as they start to grow older. Women are often married to older men, particularly following times of conflict when men of the tribe have fallen in battle. Marriages are made with the approval of the Dancing Witch of the tribe, but are arranged by either the parents of the two if they are still young, or between the parents of the bride and her husband-to-be if he is already old enough to be married once or more. Sometimes, marriage is done between tribes, particularly in harder times when one tribe cannot support all of its people but another tribe has perhaps suffered many deaths in their ranks.
Relationship Ideals
As children are cared for by the tribe, women of the Ivory Savanna Tribes are encouraged and expected to have as many as they can, for the more children a Tribe has, the stronger it is. Children are to respect and obey their elders. Young men and women are to defer to the judgement of the Chief and those same elders. The elders, even men organize the camps and villages while the warriors are away in the field.
Encompassed species
Related Locations
