Tribe Szageki

In the central dune fields of the Neszekotalo Basin, the high temperatures and low rainfall make it a challenge to survive. Hunting parties from the szageki colonies in the canyon areas rarely cross into that region. Only the occasional rock formations provide enough shade and shelter to support sand snakes and rockflowers, the primary food and water sources of the szageki. The groups that settled there have, over time, developed a culture strongly distinct from the colonies they originally came from.

Naming Traditions

Unisex names

Szageki are given any forename that is not currently being used in the tribe, followed by a surname that indicates the generation in which they hatched.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The tribes speak exclusively Katadei Digenei. A dialect continuum exists from north to south, but since the language change is slow, both ends of the continuum are mutually intelligible.

Shared customary codes and values

In such a harsh environment, strength is important. As the ones who provide food and defend the territory from invaders, the hunters are the most valued members of the tribes.

Average technological level

Thanks to an abundant supply of sand, tribal szageki excel at glassmaking. By using lenses strategically mounted in rock windows, they can create solar furnaces capable of smelting iron. However, due to the importance of rock as shelter, they use metal sparingly and make most tools of glass and bone.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

Tribe szageki lay their eggs in a shaded rock hollow.  Keepers monitor the eggs' condition carefully until hatching, and continue to care for the young for the next two months.  At the time of choosing, each adult who has been granted the the honor of raising children is permitted to enter the hollow in turn to select a hatchling.  The child may be named immediately or after a few days' thought, but the name must be recorded on the tribe's history rocks before six days pass.

Coming of Age Rites

After six years, young szageki are considered responsible for themselves.  This marks the beginning of a period of mentorship, when they choose an adult to train them in a particular role within the tribe.  They often, but do not always, choose the adults who raised them.

Funerary and Memorial customs

When szageki die, their bodies are taken to the tribe's food preparers, who remove the skin and bones.  The deceased's accomplishments are recited aloud; the greater the list, the more important the work the remains will serve.  Most often the body will be used in tools related to the deceased's role--hunters become weapons, thinkers become carving and writing tools, keepers become digging and carrying tools.

Common Taboos

Because of the deadly heat in the middle of the day, tribal szageki believe that wandering too far to either the east or west will bring one too close to where the sun lives, and therefore certain death.

Historical figures

Kaji--an outcast who survived the Death Hours multiple times and founded a tribe
Kaji Rakajite--first szageki to leave Kot Petaszi
Kele Szerekajite--noted scribe

Ideals

Relationship Ideals

The most valued relationship in the szageki tribes is friendship. This is not a breeding relationship, but a social one. Young tribe members socialize broadly within their generation, but at maturity will frequently form a lifelong bond with another szageki, usually in the same social rank. This bond cannot be re-formed later in life. The death of one member of a pair results in deep and lasting grief in the remaining friend, which may be ameliorated by possessing tools made from the dead friend's body.

Related Items

• Rockwriter

Languages spoken

• Katadei Digenei

Related Locations

• Kot Petaszi