Jasuve (dza-sue-vay)
The Mythology of the Jasuve begins near the end of The Common Mythological Cycle.
A series of three xenophobic tribes, the Jasuve, or Hill People, live in the mountains and hills near the Azou's forests and Falls Lake. While they know of the Azou, Niechela, and have stories of the Bnakupinze, the Jasuve are skittish about "outlanders" and very protective of their secrets.
The only exceptions to this are a prophecy and the Wasteland Zmai. The Myths say that the Zmai were once the Great Herds now lost to the Jasuve, so the Jasuve must treat them as equals now.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
The Jasuve have, over generations, split into three distinct ethnicities. The Sunset Hills have the fiery-haired Jorzhi, the Greenteeth Mountains have the short and broad Zayrzhi, and the Barrow Hills have the nomadic Koirzhi.
The Jorzhi have become near fanatical in defending their home from percieved threats.
The Zayrzhi have become a rather enterprising group for introverts, developing a culture of trade without ever communicating with another species.
The Koirzhi are perhaps the strangest of the Jasuve. They have taken to marrying their men into the other Jasuve tribes, who always seem happy to have the strong and somewhat tall men to strengthen the bloodlines. The odd thing is that they never take husbands.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
The ancestors of modern Jasuve explored the North-South River and settled in the hills and mountains to either side. They work their sun-metal and keep its secrets and have sworn to never again be prey. To that end, every Jasuve is a Nyirzhi or soldier, and skilled with their sun-metal spears. Art is prized and is usually worked plaster. Music features string instruments artfully crafted from the little wood that the Jasuve have access to, strung with sunmetal wires. Theatre is usually a drama or tragedy from the tribes' history, and is usually the only time you will see Jasuve cry. Jasuve as a people prize being as solid as the stone they build their homes of, unyielding and strong. Their culture is highly militant, well-armed, and insular.
History
The Jasuve have a shared oral history and a well-preserved language, considering their generations of wandering. The myths say that once they were one tribe, all bound by blood just two generations after the Invasion. (What invasion is left strangely vague...) Their unions were triples - three people bound into a singular, quadrupartite relationship. (That's each with the two others, and as a friend to the other couple, and finally united as a triple.) They had settled on the northern edge of a mesa, and lived peaceful lives. (Possibly Brokenridge Mesa?)
But on the Mesa where they came from the peaceful tribe was hunted. To move quickly they abandoned their elderly and their children in caves and fled. They drew the winged death that hunted them with shouts and cries and eventually fled over the edge of the world into a "sea of clouds". When they went into clouds, they landed in water where they were hunted by the strange, hairless, swimming fish-people. Once on land they were harried by strange grass-covered hunting cats. By the sky, the water, and the forest they were hunted and killed.
They crossed the river's mouth and were only safe on the hill tops between the rivers. The Jasuve Ancestors saw this as a sign and broke their triples, and each person went to a new group. The three groups of Jasuve became the three ethnicities of Modern Jasuve.
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