Post:Nomads of the Arid Steppe - 01/10/2015 - 09:29

Nomads of the Arid Steppe · on 01/10/2015 09:29 AM CST	815
The People of the Steppe: Since Kir brought peace and unification to the tribes of the steppe, the nomads refer to themselves sometimes as the People. There is a lot to say about them, one can be forgiven for having rather stereotyped views given the limited exposure that easterners have to steppe life. The most important thing to realize is that the People are not a sub-division of the Moon Mage Guild, but an entire (albeit small) nation onto themselves. The shaman commonly known as the Nomads of the Arid Steppe are a particular profession among the People, one that is highly venerated and powerful, but nonetheless a great mass of humanity lays behind them. Behind the shamans lies examples of nearly every profession known to the East. The commoner-nomad is a herder and bowman, a life that a eastern Ranger might find comfortable. Medicine men work the empathic and alchemical arts. Hedge elementalists are considered a great luxury among the tribes, for they bring water and earthworks. Missionaries from the Temple live among the People, generally frustrated with how hard local beliefs are to dislodge. The People are principally Humans, though that is not absolute. Especially after the signing of the Lunar Accord, outsiders have come to dwell among them for their own reasons, and bloodlines of essentially everything that can breed with Humans are represented (albeit rare). An Elf or a Halfling among the People raises eyebrows among strangers, but are not unheard of. The Shaman: Of course, we're all Moon Mages in this category and it'd be silly to displace the Shaman as the principle actor of our drama. Since Kir, the shaman take a dual role of spiritual adviser and leader. Cherulisa, in particular, is the "shaman of shaman" or nominal leader of the People since dislodging the False Kir from his place. The specific role of the shaman varies among the tribes. The Nera are known to formally place shaman (inevitably a woman) in leadership roles, while the Benesu typically have what easterners would recognize as a Trader as formal leader. Some shaman eschew leadership and take on a life as wandering wise men. Inevitably, the shaman that make it from the steppe to eastern lands follow this path. For much of the Moon Mage Guild's history, the transmission of shaman was largely one way. Shaman would come to participate in the greater Moon Mage Guild, but Moon Mages rarely, if ever, became shaman. This is primarily because until the Mirror Wraith Prophecy, the Guild was quite adapt at perpetuating a guild hegemony. It was important to the guild for most of its history to emphasize its unity and the sects suffered. In the past decades, though, eastern Moon Mages have begun studying the lore of the steppe and identify among the Nomads. The place of these "outsider shaman" is debated among the tribes. The shaman by and large welcome fresh blood, but the outsiders are not granted the same respect or leadership opportunities among the People. To date the vast majority of outsider shaman have been content to stay in the east and ply their trade among Moon Mages, so this has not become the explosive issue that it someday might. Spiritualism: While the People recognize the Immortals and are quick to integrate them into worship, they have their own customs that, to the Temple's dismay, refuse to die. These are broadly a belief in animism and ancestor worship. Animism is the belief that all things, including inanimate objects, have active spirit. The wind blows because the wind chooses to blow. If a Warrior Mage demonstrates otherwise, then the elementalist is clearly strong-arming the wind. Ancestor worship is much as it sounds like. Unlike orthodox Temple beliefs, the People believe that individuals (or, at least, the People) retain their identities upon death and can communicate to shaman if they follow the proper rites. The Temple is quick to point out the proper rites include the use of powerful hallucinogens, but nobody's really listening. It frustrates the Clerics and Paladins among the People endlessly that shamanism is the providence of Lunar magicians. However, in a sense it is Lunar magic that provides shamanism its validity. The shaman historically have interacted with animistic spirits and great spirits that take on paternalistic roles. Historically. In the past few centuries, relations between the shaman and the spirits have soured, completely in correspondence with the increase in hostility between Moon Mages and the Plane of Probability. Gone are the days when shadowmagi whispered profound secrets to Kir, the spirits are angry and often scream only one word: Defiler. The shaman retain their Moon Mage powers, of course, but they have been severed from a relationship with the Plane of Probability that made them uniquely powerful. The severing is recently enough that many shaman still try to understand why it is so, and perhaps one day appease the spirits. Of course, when their Moon Mage cousins are spending equal amounts of effort trying to wipe the concepts off the math every time they appear, this has been frustrated. -Armifer
This message was originally posted in The Moon Mages \ The Moon Mage Sects, by DR-ARMIFER on the play.net forums.