The Heteri were the original inhabitants of the Rhiat. They were a smattering of tribes, the Heter, Luggai, Naggai, Polog, and others that lived in what is now Ghikarn, Vennosat, Balancont, and other lands along the sea. The tribes were horsemen, brigands, and herders, may of whom settled down to an ever fluxatitng alliance of city states, ruled by king and chief who claimed lineage from the heavens.
Construction is hide and thatch tents in nomadic regions, and buildings of wood timber and red granite-like stone in sedentary communities. In warmer climesdobe or wattle and daub materials dominate. Structures are rectangular, and only in modern urban areas greater than a single story. Outlying structures are built for task areas and nuclear family units. Smaller clans may build these in a contiguous area, and surround it by a wall or fence, with a single main gate of clan markers. Most Heteri communities are built upon hills or man-made earthen rises, walled in stone or timber, and have a central well. In larger towns are cities, the well is replaced by an ornate fountain.
The Heteri are burly sun-browned people with long, curly hair, and dark eyes. They wear clothing of hide, skin, and wool, ornamented with beads, feathers, teeth, and scraps of fur. In more cosmopliton arenas, the same fashion persists, but with finer tailoring, and polished stones and finer furs as ornamentations. Traditional head covering is an embroidered leather hood, which wraps around the neck or chest as a sash or scarf. The Heteri worship a pantheon of gods headed by Utan the Destroyer, who conquered ‘The Old Lords’ and birthed a new family of deities.
The Heteri practice slavery of criminals, war captives, and debtors. This captivity is not hereditary, except in the case of Nogs and Banthanogs, which can still be freed by their owners. Horses and oxen are used as labor everywhere, but the reptilian beats of the Mindat are only found in the warmer southern regions.
Social Organaization: Heteri are patrilineal and patrilocal. In rural areas they are gather as “tribes” which are equivalent to clans in other cultures. In larger urban settlements, tribes may settle into neighborhoods, honoring the Vuhwul (chief) locally unless there is a Heteri King. All of the tribes/clans trace their lineage back to one of the “original tribes”: Luggai, Naggai, and Polog are the most famous. It is divisions between these groups that is the basis for the civil war in Ghikarn’gai.
Clan Marker: carved wooden totems, the tops of which are hollowed depressions for torches or lit pitch.
Names & Title: Traditionally, it would be, ‘Firstname of Clan_Name’. Among other Heteri, the Tribal affiliation (Polog, Luggai, etc) would be known from the Clan Name. If you were of noble lineage, you might just say ‘Firstname, son of Fathername’, as any proper person would recognize the name of your father. In more modern times, the clans have larger settled and because of some intermixing, some will use ‘Firstname Lastname of Cityname’ instead of the clan name. Last names are a convention adopted from other cultures. In Cuvauw, they’d be sued by a lot of Heteri. In Ghikarnaggai, they only care about your clan.
The Heteri aren’t too formal beyond that. They would use terms like Elder (for age and respect) and Sir (for politeness or unfamiliarity), but I don’t know that I have specific Heteri words for those. Women don’t hold title, but would still be respected, and might call them selves “Firstname, son of Fathername” (yes, son) is their father was a chief. There aren’t specific vowels used in female names, but I’ll try to come up with lists of common names for each gender.
The main Heteri tribes: Naggai, Luggai, Polog. There are three or four minor tribes. Each tribe is made up of dozens of clans. Naggai are the clans of the south (which includes Irosk’s). Luggai are the clans of the west (which includes Rikuu’s).
Ghikarnaggai: A modern Heteri nation in Northern Rhiat, bordering on Argaevaligne, Balaconth, and Nipend. Currently in the midst of a civil war between tribal factions. Punluggai: In modern times, a political faction among the Heteri people. The faction arose from a historical Heteri aristocratic lineage. The Punluggai ruled cities and small kingdoms along the southern Blood Coast. They were the first to be conquered when the Mindat Empire expanded north. Other factions allied with the Maldaer and Eschaltlin forces to the north, the same peoples that invaded Heteri lands along the northern Blood Coast centuries earlier. Seeing their kingdoms being destroyed and their fellow Heteri allied with traditional enemies, the Punluggai moved to retake traditional lands, some of which were being occupied by Heteri/Eschaltlin allied peoples.
*(Second Epoch): Heter, Dubhe, Nukora, Phecta, Vulag
Along the Blood Coast and Inland Territories: Givos, Dlutuz, Sofegai, Oshej, Glaivuf, Narrosh (along the Maldaer border), Pegaigoth, Fokhei, Shaekzhul (near Mindat), Ghofeka (also near Mindat).
Bolog - ancient Heteri community at the base of Moniin peaks at one of the ends of the Cuvauw Pass. The hills behind the small city are lined with caves and tunnels and contain the Grand Temple of Hilinavyu. It is ruled by the Vuhwul (‘king’ or ‘chief’) Solok of the Smoking Thunder, who is descended from the Luggai Heteri tribes. His only daughter was to marry the lord of Akklai Point, but was killed during the goblin invasion. Solok is fiercely independent of both the Ghikarn’gai revolts and the goblins, and has close ties with the Temple of Hilinavyu to this end. Bolog maintains good relations of Argaevaligne, Cuvauw, and other independent communties in Balaconth.
The city of Bolog is a sprawling mess, with neigborhoods running up and down the hills, with towers lining the highest peaks. In honour of the city’s patron, Hilinavyu, great coal braziers are lit of hillstops and city walls during every new moon, as well as the feats of god. Its ancient inner gates are lined with huge boulder rlled down from the hills, upon which chunks of iron slag and molten were thrown to cool. The populace is predominately Heteri, although there are no extensive clan presence outside that of Smoking Thunder. Even in other ethnic neighborhoods, Heteri style clan markers are used upon gates and entranceways. Given the predominance of Hilinavyu and worship of the rest of the Heteri pantheon, the city is remarkably tolerant of other faiths, though the small Thedine presence is limited to insular churches.
Givos - coastal town, traditionally disputed by Balaconth and the rulers of Teldarpha. Currently occupied by the Goblin Queen’s forces, it is ruled by ‘Mivuhwul’ Isasnias Koman, the middle-aged burgher of a upper class family who act as puppets to the local goblin Captain Nivinak. Isasnias demonstrated his loyalty by killing the previous Mivuhwul in the city square. Givos, for unknown reason, was one of the first communties targeted when the goblins came surfaceside.
Despite the crumbling walls and downtrodden residents, Givos stills welcomes travellers and merchants, so long they keep clear of the Goblin occupying force. Discreet travellers can find same loding at the White Witch inn, two blocks in the from east gate. The Sorceror’s House of Duslangarot is still active, but only with a skeleton staff. They are said to be in the good graces of the Goblin Queen.
The city is a mix of Eslka and Heteri ethnicities, and most building are small houses of stone and peat, able to withstand the stormy summer season.
Pulagesh: Former capitol city of the Heteri lord Fiemlilvev (Femervul) Kugol (during the Third Epoch. After the siege of 400 nights, the city fell to the Mindat, aided by traitors among the Punluggai. This marked the end of third epoch and the worship of the Vapourous Host.
Teldepha
Vedeldemoush
Dunzeldaryn - captured from Mindat. Military fortress and center of the Punluggai revolt.
Sofegai - founded by Heteri King. Once glorious city-state fell into squalor during the Mindat invasion. It’s central location led to it being ravaged by the civil war. Current Mivuhwul believed to be puppet of organized crime.
Oshej - ancient Heteri city-state towards eastern coast, now in ruins. Punluggai forces are camped here.
Glaivuuf
Narrosh - (along Argaevaligne border)
Pelgaigosh - ancient capitol of the Polog/Punluggai tribes. Now secondary center to Dunzeldaryn.
Fokhei Shaezhul - (near Mindat)
Dutuz Heter (no longer extent) – According to legend the mythological home of the Heteri people, said to be in the nortern mountains near Bogog.
Ghikarnaggai was unified in 1023 by Nefef, son of Irosk, who married daughters of the headmen of the Polog and Naggai tribes. The Punluggai were the allied Kingdom of the ancient Polog tribes, who are ethnically Heteri. After the succession of Gefef, son of Nefef, the Polog chiefs were replaced by confidants to Gefef and their coffers used to build the northern line of fortresses to defend against the encroaching alliance of Chlendi and Maldaer. The Polog unified as the Punluggai, the ancient council of the Polog and Luggai tribes when they were faced by the conquests of Lhekulot, Irosk’s grandfather. Punluggai began quiet concils and organizing in the shadows of the southern cities. The Punluggai unified under Holok, of the lineage of Polog kings, and allied with the Mindat in Hopes of regaining Heteri homelands after the war.
Historical Heteri Kings (Vehwul): Ogliard, Putuv, Irosk, Nefef, Gefef, Hugdosl, Bogog, Lhekulot, Holok, Coweulz, Gevuv. Comprised of a number tribal factioms: Naggai, Luggai, Polog, and a number of more isolated groups.
Uglaiaerd - First of the “Known” Heteri kings. With the help of the Mindat militia stationed in Dunzeldaryn, fought off the invasion of the Shn-Kvaruth, who then turned their forces farther south Mindat communities. Uglaiaerd went on to found a number of small cities along the coastal cliffs.
Putuv - most famours of old Polog chiefs, who built a city-state around the then meetingcamp Shaezhul along the Mindat border. Putuv gained riches from raiding Mindat communities near the mountains.
Uphos - defended Teldelpha against the Kha tribes from the hills in the north.
Ushuul II - brief Heteri king who built Vhuemach, now in Balaconth, into a city-state, and waged war against Teldelpha.
Cuweulz - founded the Luggai city-state of Glaivuf in the east and waged a campaign against the budding Jakinta Mindat encampments and brought knowledge of the white steel to the west.
Irosk, son of Uphos - fortified Teldelpha and mounted forces with the Kha hills tribes that his father repressed against the rampaging Chikierzi (nym) tribes. Brought together the Naggai lineage tribes under the worship of Utan the Destroyer.
Gevov - Polog Mivehwul who ventured north to marry the duaghter of a Maetah coastal chieftan. While in the north, he studied under Maetah shamans who gave him the teachings of the Great Serpent brought with them from Salphani. Became the heraldic icon of the Polog tribes, but the worship was viewed as demonic by the Naggai, and prevented the allegiance of the Luggai until many years later.
Nefef: An early Heteri leader from Fourth Epoch (modern times) whose lineage once ruled the city of Ghofeka, the first Heteri kingdom to be conquered by the Mindat. Nefef gathered followers of the Punluggai and returned to the southern lands in hopes of regaining Heteri homelands. Nefaf and his followers were seen as allies of the Mindat and their acts began the vilification of the Punluggai as traitors to the Heteri cause.
Gefef: Grandson of Nefef. Betrayed the treaty with the Mindat and fought to free Ghofeka. As a backlash, Mindat forces flanked horseman patrolling the region to destroy many towns in southern Heteri lands.
The Heteri worship a pantheon of gods headed by Utan the Destroyer, who conquered ‘The Old Lords’ and birthed a new family of deities. He is the god of warfare, power over others, and death.
Legends tell of the ancient worship of the Vundaelad, the Great Serpent, in Heteri and Maetah communities along the North Sea Coast. [metaphor for fishing/living off the sea?] The use of the sea serpent image can be traced back through early maetah/maldaer colonization, and is believed to be imagery and cosmology brough from their homeland We later see this imagery later used by the renegade Heteri king, Sheiluch of Punluggai (an aristocratic dynasty), in his attempts to reconquer traditional Heteri communities along the Blood Coast from Eschaltlin forces. While other factions of the Heteri nobilities supported his goals, rumours abounded about pacts with demons and the Great Serpent. Ancient stories of fishermen appeasing spirits of the ocean were acceptable, but offering the collective soul of the civilization provoked outrage amongst the remaining kingdoms and tribes. None were surprised when Sheiluch vanished amidst a naval attack on Noduan.