Bonduins
From FiranMUX
Contents |
Overview
Little is known about the Bonduin people and what the Firans do know is sometimes contradictory. (Hence, this page represents what is known about the Bonduins and may not be entirely accurate.)
The Bonduins were one of the first races known to encounter the Shamibelians and quickly fell under the yoke of their oppression. A majority of them were killed or enslaved. Those who remain free are mostly nomadic.
The Bonduin plains are a much different place than the Firan lands. There are strange animals, exotic spices and sundry other delights. Bonduin traders are the only other source of raw silk for the Firans outside of the Bear Clan and, as such, they try to keep relations with these nomads on a good level to keep the luxuries coming in.
History
The Bonduins are a group of nomadic tribes who come from the far south, east of the lands of the Shamibelians. A few tribes remain, but most have been conquered and enslaved by the far superior Shamibelian armies. A few Bonduin people managed to escape their bonds and find their way north to the free Firan lands where they are generally welcomed, though not treated as equal citizens.
Physical Appearance
Bonduins are generally tall (the average male is 5'10" to 6'2"), with ruddy tan to dark red skin, dark brown or black hair (often long and intricately braided), and dark colored eyes (brown and almost-black are common). Their clothing is traditionally leggings (pants) under tunics for men, and dresses for women. Some wear turbins.
Martial Arts
Bonduins born into slavery tend to be experts at a martial art form called Endab. (OOC Note. This is very similar to the real world Carribean fighting style called Capoeira.)
This martial art relies upon a lot of dancing and spinning and cartwheeling, using the legs to choke, hold, and kick their victim. It's also well-suited to fighting when chained to other slaves, and because it looks like dancing, the Bonduin slaves have been able to practice it under the nose of the Shamibelians for decades.
Relationship with the Firans
It was thought that the Bonduins had a great deal to offer the Firans. The tribes produced meat, exotic hides, silk cloth, bamboo armor (which is resistant to puncture type weapons due to the weave and material), ivory, and various spices and herbs found only on the plains, though different tribes specialized in different things.
Bonduins are also uniquely suited to infiltration in Shamibelian settlements. Because there are so many Bonduin slaves, those with many slaves often do not notice the coming and going of outside ones, able to make a spy network equal to that that the Shamibelians have within Anarinuell.
In the past, Bonduin freemen generally are in the Firan lands only for purposes of trade or to forge ambassadorial relationships with the Firan people in hopes of garnering military support for their rather futile fight against the Shamibelians. Since the Bonduins tend to know a great deal about the Shamibelians, Elianos and the Clan Council would do whatever they could for these ambassadors.
The fact that many Firans frown on women being able to fight perplexed both male and female Bonduins who had endured Shamibelian raids, and their ambassadors made no secret of their belief that Firans are too fixated on single bloodlines ruling.
Bonduin traders brought exotic goods such as handmade baskets and jewelry; the furs of great cats and the ivory, and the hides of elephants. They also brought stolen Shamibelian documents, weapons, and other foreign artifacts. But in recent decades it has become apparent that the Bonduins lost their fight. There is little to no contact at all with Bonduin traders anymore, and fewer and fewer spies out of the Shamibelian Empire.
What news the Firans have received is that the Bonduin tribes have slowly started unifying in similar fashion as Ticanee, but are reluctant to trust Firans, given the Firan xenophobia and the reportedly poor treatment of those Bonduins who live or had lived in Anarinuell.
Lifestyle and Culture of Free Bonduins
Leadership
Bonduin society mimicked one of the strongest social animal groups of the plains... that of lions. Because the only definite link in parentage was through the mother, and because Bonduins tend to follow the mating patterns of lions instead of forming single 'until death do you part' marriage bonds because men would wander between tribal groups, women became the more stable ruling gender of the society.
Men could be formalized "chiefs" of tribes who had breeding rights with all the women for as long as they could hold onto the position, with changes in leadership usually done through very ritualistic trials.
While physical prowess generally decides who rules in the Bonduin tribes, age comes a close second to that. The tribes are ruled by a council of elders, usually mostly women due to men tending to die younger. They are hardly frail by any means, hardened by years of harsh survival in the plains. The elders also tend to be priests and priestesses, who garner a great deal of respect for their age, wisdom, and skills. Even the strongest of warriors dares not show insult to elders, because the entire tribe would react and rip them to pieces.
Marriage and Sexuality
This is not to say that there would not be long lasting marriage bonds between men and women, but they are often the exception to the rule.
There are long lived bloodlines among the Bonduins, the results of generations of 'survival of the fittest' and fierce mating practices. But leadership is not granted because of blood to Bonduins, it is granted through skill and strength and wisdom, which can only be learned through experience. However, because of this 'breeding' the leaders tend to be from the same bloodline, which might make it appear that leadership is hereditary.
To outsiders, Bonduins have an even 'freer' view on sex than even the Ticanee. However, there are strict rules that the society follows, and it is the female who tends to be the decider in these matters. Whether or not she is bonded by a 'marriage' bond to a male, if she sees another male as an acceptable mate to sire a child on her, she may accept him in his bed. Her husband, should he protest, would have to fight a duel to assert his own mating rights, much as one male lion would do to another intruding on his territory. Or, if the woman declined but the man insisted, there would often be a duel between the man and woman. If he is unable to beat her, he cannot claim her. If he could, then he could claim her as a mate.
These customs, perhaps, made it somewhat easier for Bonduins in captivity to adopt to Shamibelian culture which has similar elements when it comes to mating and marriage. By the same token, The stories of the Firan marriage prize and arranged marriages without the required proof of worth is offensive to Bonduins who feel it is an insult to their gods that adequate proof of worth was not made.
Religion
Free Bonduin plainsmen have a strong matriarchial culture, lead by the eldest women in the tribe. They worship a handful of spirit-gods including:
- Doya, the Lioness who guards the land
- Ulashanai, the Vulture who takes the undeserving dead to the land of never
- Ithadu, the great warrior woman who sometimes appears as an elephant.
It is believed that Doya is the Bonduin equivalent of the Firan Goddess Soli, Ithadu is the Bonduin equivalent of the Firan Goddess Srenna, and that the hated and feared Ulashanai is the dread Firan God Drik.
Medicine
The Bonduins believe that sickness is caused by an infestation of evil spirits that must be driven out by medicine men and women. To help drive out these evil spirits, powerful poisons have been developed by the Bonduins that medicine men use to kill the spirit inside a sick patient. Unfortunately, sometimes they also kill the patient.
Children
Children were raised and protected collectively by the tribe, as female lions protect their cubs, and also how male and female elephants protect their young together.
Children do not grow up not knowing their definite lineage. If their fathers are a mystery to them, that is acceptable in Bonduin culture. It is the mother's bloodline that matters. The older bloodlines, by virtue of their longevity, have the right to 'mark' themselves and their offspring with scar tattoos. Such marks were equally a blessing and a curse to children, who often had to live up to the legends of their ancestors, but made them more favorable to mating bonds because of that heritage.
Children tend to be raised from birth in the skills of their family, though if they are more inclined in other vocations, they will be taken under the wing of a master of that vocation.
Nomadic Nature
As nomads, the Bonduins moved across the great plains north and west of the Shamibelian lands (far south of and slightly east of the Firan lands), following game. During the winter, they dwell in semi-permanent mud-brick structures, but in the summer they live in tents made of finely woven linens. The Bonduins are expert weavers of both fabrics and baskets.
Because the Bonduins are not an agrarian society, their livelihood depends on animals, and there are usually several groups that travel with a tribe. A somewhat domesticated animal similiar to the waterbuck indiginous to the plains, is raised for its wool, milk, meat and horns. Other wild creatures separated from their herds and raised with the waterbuck herds are also known to follow tribes. The other major creature of note is the elephant. These gigantic creatures have been working and living with Bonduins for longer than most oral history goes back for. With the great respect given these animals, some may wonder whether the elephants consider the humans part of their herd, or it's the elephants who are a part of the tribes. Ivory is a sacred treasure, and the only known artisans of ivory are among the Bonduins.
Crafts
Aside from warriors and priests, two crafts that enjoy a special respect in Bonduin society are weavers and animal handlers. Weavers are incredibly important because nearly everything they own is derived from weaving, from clothing to tents to baskets to the great bamboo like 'saddles' for the elephants that have served to protect the great beasts during raids as the more skilled artisans can create a flexible cover that even griffon claws and beaks have trouble finding purchase on.
Because Bonduins have a rare ability to weave silk, the skill of weavers has served to become a fundamental part of trade, their work allowing the tribes to trade for other things that they cannot produce so easily, most especially metal weapons.
Ivory carving is also a prized skill.
Militarism
Males and females in the tribes both were expected to learn how to fight, and physical prowess is something highly prized in Bonduin society. It is often a necessity because of Shamibelian raids on encampments. Without anywhere to run, fighting is usually the only option for all members of the tribes.
Literacy
Bonduins have a rich oral heritage, and there are many stories, rituals, and other knowledge passed down from parents to children. Writing is not disdained but is seen as needless and burdensome. Writing requires something to write on, and then saving that object, and space while traveling is a precious thing.
Population
Bonduin tribes had been numerous and large before the Shamibelians appeared on the scene, with between 1000-3000 members in each tribal group, though they would only gather in large numbers for seasonal celebrations, where mating bonds between tribes would be made to strengthen ties and bloodlines. Nowadays, there is possibly only a few thousand remaining free. The tribes remain broken up in subgroups do not get much larger than 50-150 members because it's easier to protect smaller groups and very rarely gather in any substantial numbers where raiders are prone to attack. Some Firan scholars argue that there may be even fewer than this.
Bonduin Slave Culture
Even after most of the Bonduins had been absorbed into slavery by the Shamibelians, they remain a matriarchal society among themelves, despite the number raised to be monothesitic Drikkists. Perhaps it is the 'sacrificial' nature of mothers to protect their young that had enabled the Bonduins to adapt to slavery yet preserve some shreds of their society. Their Shamibelian masters were more willing to ignore some of the idiosyncrasies so long as they obeyed their masters and performed for them well. Because of this, cultural things such as Endab and knowledge of the three Bonduin gods and other things passed down from parent to child were not entirely extinguished, so long as they were not flaunted publicly.
If some slave Bonduin mothers can get away with claiming the child is too weak, the child will be 'abandoned to die' in the woods, where free nomadic Bonduins might find and take them back to the tribes.
However, by and large, the Bonduins have bonded to their Shamibelian masters and take great pride in this fact. They consider themselves to be better than all other slave races, more loyal, smarter, and more valuable in every way. In truth, the Shamibelians place Bonduin slaves in higher positions of trust than almost any other slave race, and Bonduin slaves tend to become overseers that oppress those beneath them on the social hierarchy.
Prospects of the Bonduin Plains
Bonduins were more nomadic due to the plains that they called home. The land was not conducive to settling in any one place very long, which has inhibited any type of agricultural society. When the seasons would change, the herds would move on to find more food and water. Since much of what the herds of animals needed, the human tribes needed as well, they would follow them. The plains are sparse in natural resources, which is a major reason why the Shamibelians do little more than do sporadic raids across it to perhaps find more slaves. Because the plains would require a drastic shift in how things were done to flourish, and Shamibelians are some of the most resistant to changes in the status quo, it has served as a natural barrier to the Shamibelian advancement on that front.
Bonduins in the Game
For game purposes, there are two groups of Bonduins: refugees and freemen. Some Bonduins were born into slavery, and so were their parents, and their parents' parents, so they know little of regular Bonduin life. While they are welcomed by free Bonduins, these former slaves do not fit in well in normal Bonduin life. These Bonduin refugees have little to offer Firans except for any new knowledge of Shamibelian culture, language, troop sizes and movements. Many end up living in Anarinuell ghettoes permanently, though some do hook up with traveling Bonduin groups and find their way back to their tribal plains where they join other tribes. There are very few PC Bonduins in the game.
Categories: Theme | Cultures | Bonduins
