Yamaqhacha people
| Yamaqhacha People of the Sun | |
 Flag of Kulussi | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Around 1,000,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Caradia |
1,139,835 |
| Languages | |
| Shahvekh | |
| Religion | |
| Ssethassiks | |
The Yamaqhacha people are a primitive, bronze-age technological level people and ethnic group in southwestern Eura, though they only hold a majority population in the area known as Kulussi. The Yamaqhacha retain their tribal society and purposefully-low technology level in all areas of Eura except for the city of Kaleksiss, which was a region forcibly settled by their Caradian occupiers.
Overview
The Yamaqhacha are believed to be a people descended from the Dromosker, however centuries of both inbreeding and association with the Androphagi have diluted the bloodline and made genetic tracing difficult. Said association has also made previous scholars include the Yamaqhacha with the all-encompassing term of the Androphagi. While the largest city inhabited by the Yamaqhacha is Kaleksiss, very large portions of the Yamaqhacha do not live in cities, instead preferring to remain in their tribal lifestyle that they have stayed in for most of their existence. Villages eke out existences throughout the interior portion of Eura, in a constant state of being raided by both other Yamaqhacha villages as well as Androphagi nomads (groups of which often include a number of Yamaqhacha themselves).
The Yamaqhacha (at least the ones that choose to settle) are loosely organised into Assavhi, each led by either a Ssibithiss or a Arakanssi depending on whether the Assavh is primarily peaceful or warlike. However, despite this slight distinction, no Assavh is completely peaceful, owing to the nature of the religion practiced by most tribal Yamaqhacha, known as Ssethassiks.
Religion
Ssethassiks is the religion practiced by almost every tribal Yamaqhacha, though it is banned by the Caradian government in Kaleksiss. Most Yamaqhacha place extremely high value on the practice of Ssethassiks, which is also the primary motive driving a different categorisation of the Yamaqhacha and the Androphagi. It is unknown where the religion came from, though the most popular theory is that the cult sprang up following the Babkhan holocaust, which forced most of the peoples of Eura into a fragmented life. Scholars believe the emergence of the cult to be due to the stress of the hard-living following this event, as it does not maintain a large set of beliefs common amongst all practitioners, though the objects of worship are always both the Sun and the Anasshara, which is a species of python believed to be a mutated variant of other species of snake already indigenous to the region, and has the peculiar biological trait that it does not stop growing, which often leads to its death in the wild. Specifically, practitioners of Ssethassiks believe that the Sun is the embodiment of the god Takseklot, also represented by a great serpent. Practitioners believe themselves to be the caretakers of Takseklot's wellbeing, which is sent to Micras in the form of Asshkui, which practitioners believe to be inherent to all objects containing light and life. Fire is among the sacred things in Ssethassiks. As Takseklot's Asshkui is also thought to give life to all beings of Micras, practitioners of Ssethassiks practice ritual cannibalism in order to obtain the Asshkui of the dead. In villages of Yamaqhacha, and elsewhere the religion has followers, this practice is usually only performed by a Sekanoss, which is a designated member of each village who is responsible for the collecting of all Asshkui obtained by the village, and the village Yachessaga, who, according to the religion, must keep himself in strength in order to lead his village. Often, a village will feed some dead bodies to the Anasshara kept by the village, because it is believed that Anasshara infused with Asshkui will grow faster. It is believed that people and animals killed by ritual sacrifice will give their Asshkui to Takseklot, and as such Sekanoss and the Anasshara are believed to be something akin to "batteries" for the Asshkui, passing on their Asshkui to their successor when they die (via cannibalism) in order to keep the line going and build a font of Asshkui so that one day they can be sacrificed to give all of the stored Asshkui to Takseklot so that he will wake up and encircle the world, preventing anything from ever being cold or dark again. However, village followers are instructed to kill via sacrifice so they do not waste Asshkui, and thus the only villagers typically permitted to engage in cannibalism are the Yachessaga and the Sekanoss. This also leads to practitioners' main goal in war being capture so that they can ritually slaughter their victims. Villages also keep an Uminya, who is well versed in the lore of the religion and on the procedures of ritual slaughter; sometimes the Uminya and the Sekanoss are the same person. Uminya who travel to different villages to spread the word of Takseklot are called Qhacha, and Sekanoss who travel in this way are called Ssavi-Qhacha. Ssibithiss and Arakanssi tend to be Sekanoss who gain control of multiple villages.
Language
The Yamaqhacha language, called Shahvekh, is a peculiar case of language isolation; it is believed to orginally have been a creole language influenced by the religion of Ssethassiks as well as ethnic pride causing a desire for linguistic uniqueness. The language is primarilly categorised by its use of sibilants, with "s" being the most common letter as opposed to "e" in Common Tongue.
Terms
- Qhacha
- Ssavi-Qhacha
- Yachessaga
- Ssibithiss
- Arakanssi
- Uminya
- Sekanoss
- Shahvekh
- Eganessach
- Assavh
- Asshkui
Notable Assavhi
- Ukirochas
- Hassiga
- Kaishimiss
- Avesso
- Yasemacha
- Kunya
