Brainsplurge-Zevan-The Korrin People

The Korrin are a semi-nomadic tribal people who live in Southern Zevan. They live in an ashen environment with sparse shrubs, very dry. The Korrin revere the element of fire in all aspects of their culture. The Korrin wear their history on their bodies, every Korrin has several ritualistic tattoos, each tattoo indicates the Korrin’s status and history. A decorated hunter will have tattoos celebrating their entrance to manhood, their acceptance as a hunter, the birth of children, any battles they have participated in, acts of heroism, or any incredible deeds. They are a large, muscular people, with hair colors ranging from dark brunette to shades of red. Their skin ranges from dark tan to light tan to shades of grey from the constant exposure to ash. They follow a shamanistic, fire-based religion. A chieftain has rule over an individual tribe, but a circle of elders gathered from every tribe may veto their decisions. Chieftains are heavily influenced by their traditional advisors, the fire shamans. Flame shamans are those born with the gift to see the streams of mana in fire. They serve as fortune tellers, medicine men, religious leaders, and powerful warriors who fling fire into battle. They tell fortune by arranging the bones of an animal killed in the hunt into a particular pattern based on the question asked. They then set fire to the bones, and divine the answer from the mana in the fire and the shaped of the ashes. Every season there is a fire dance, where the shamans and the berserkers gather and dance with fire. Their movements are like that of a ribbon dancer, except it seems that the fire is leading their motions, not the dancer leading the fire. Korrin rarely write because of their semi-nomadic life style. Instead, the oral history of the Korrin people and the individual clan is kept by a storyteller, who will recite a different story of the Korrin people every night for the tribe. Occasionally, a Korrin is born with an innate connection to fire. They easily manipulate and create flames, and are unharmed any sort of fire. They are the heroes of the Korrin and are respected above any other member in society, even higher than individual circle members. They are incredible warriors, combining natural control of fire magic with a secret fighting style taught only to those born a berserker. Korrin criminals are often punished by removing their tattoos. The fire shaman will burn off the tattoos of an offender, stripping them of their status as an adult, a parent, or jobholder. For the most severe crimes, the offender is declared a wastelander and banished from society to the Ash Wastes. They are given their weapons and a canteen of water, and then removed from the tribe’s oral history. They are declared to have never of existed, their children, deeds, and property are all considered community owned from then own. To survive in the harsh Ash Wastes, the Korrin wear gasmasks. Two vials of a mana infused liquid boil off clean air, leaving the toxins behind. Chitin from a special beetle is polished until it is clear, then folded into the leather mask that is strapped around the head. A korrin is still identified by their tattoos, so the leather is carefully dyed to match the owner’s facial tattoos. The Korrin’s lungs are naturally resistant to inhaled ash. The breath of most korrin is always a black, ugly color. There are many rumors of the Korrin’s breath being poisonous, this is simply the removal of quarantined ash from their respiratory system. The Korrin’s favorite weapon is the crossbow with obsidian barb bolts. Korrin crossbows and axes are unmatched throughout Zevan. Many crossbows are highly advanced for an otherwise primitive people, utilizing precision sights and repeating magazines to create fast, accurate, and lethal machines. The Korrin have only a single city where they meet twice a year as people. The Korrin ride camels. Wells are the only source of water in the ashlands, open water is quickly poisoned by volcanic activity. The lands that the Korrin live under see constant volcanic activity, there are stories where no Korrin saw the sun for an entire year because of great eruption. The Korrin are fiercely honorable people, and are disdainful of outsiders. They have a caste society, each child goes through a trial to prove themselves an adult. The shaman then gives the child their place in society, and gives them a tattoo indicating it. This tattoo places them into a new caste, they are required to work in that job for the rest of their life, but allowed to socialize and marry outside of their caste, nor are their children born into it. There is no specialized warrior caste, every Korrin is expected to be able-bodied and trained in the tribe’s fighting technique. Each tribe uses a different technique, the Star’s Hammer tribe uses a hammer and short axe dual wielded, the Korsans uses a single longs word and repeating crossbow. The ashlands can only support a few slow growing plants, so the Korrin cultivate small gardens across are large region, supplementing themselves with meat from the frequent monsters and animals that the tribe must defend themselves against.
In the first Demos War, the Hero Kor was inspired by the grand spirit of fire to unify his people against the Demos. He was declared one of the First Eight, and fought the Demos on the perennial fields. He was the mightiest of the First Eight, and realized what he had to do in order to defeat the Demos. He activated the spell that destroyed the Broken Lands, and much of the world. Kor saved the world and was able to stop the Demos, but he was the one responsible for the destruction of so many. The people of Zevan cast out the Korrin, and banished them to the burnt ahslands. Even to this day, the Korrin, people of Kor, have been despised by the entire world. They are reclusive and evasive, defending their ashen territory with their lives against the arrogant fools who had cast them out. The rest of the world sees the Korrin as untrustworthy and simple minded barbarians. They are often refused simple services and the korrin are heavily persecuted against.