"This is not just any staff child! This is a piece of ancient jungle wood, taken from the ruins of Balbekow. This wood came from a great jungle tree that once gave shade to my ancestors. It is precious to me, more precious than you can possibly imagine."

-Chief of the Karadia Tribe, Karnavati the Wise One

Western Yogan Culture

Nomads From Another Age

There was once a noble Sovereign, who brought under their banner the disparate and chaotic Kith of the West. From the shores of the Red Bay, all the way to the Glittering Sea, they united what was at the time the largest human realm in history. Today, most simply refer to it as the Great Jungle Kingdom, named after where it lay, deep in the heart of the Great Western Jungle. However, its true name was Yongara, which in the Yogi language meant Sacred Wood. This nation and people rose, not on its own, but through the benefaction of one of the Dwarvish Underkingdoms, to the north, Broagdoor. The Yogan people harvested fields of lumber, sugar, coffee, and fruits, and sent them up the mountain. In return, the Dwarves sent troves of platinum, which made the kingdom rich and its people prosperous. In these dark days, the Yogans built some of the earliest human settlements outside of Yuyake, and founded massive temples built to honor their God, Metekalon. The Yogans were also not just humans, but also gnomes and kobolds in many great numbers. The gnomes came in droves, seemingly out of nowhere. The kobolds abandoned their master dragon's armies and settled in the shade of the jungle. This mighty kingdom marked one of the first of its kind, and the first successful partnership between Dwarves and other Kith. And yet, all would not last forever. A family of Black Dragons, led by the Dragon Ulenloth of the Falling Sky, set their eyes upon Broagdoor. They besieged and sacked multiple Broagan strongholds, and after several key battles, moved upon Broagdoor itself, besieging the city. After a few years of besieging to no avail, with two of her sons killed during the failed assault, Ulenloth took the survivors and led a scathing and brutal raid against all of Yongara. They melted whole settlements with their breath, and made a mockery of the temples to Metekalon. In a final bid at destruction, the dragon set loose suicidal Wyvern servants to destroy the Great Volcano, which exploded, sending fire and destruction across the whole jungle. Eventually Ulenloth was defeated by a colation of Yogans and Dwarves, but the damage had been done: the jungle's biomes turned to ash, and where once there was paradise, became a vast desert, known today as the Bleached Desert. The people of this land split into two groups: with their authorities scattered to the winds, most of the gnomes went east. Most of the kobolds went west. These masses of refugee kobolds found themselves unwelcomed by the once deferent client states of Yongara, and became stuck in a no-man's land, in the western wastes of the jungle they once called home. The land there each year turned hotter and drier, as streams choked, lakes evaporated, and wells dried up. Many thousands sold themselves into the bondage of the western states to avoid starvation and death. Those that remained had to change, adapt quickly to the hostile world they inhabited. The once city-dwelling cosmopolitans reverted back to being tribes of nomadic hunter-gatherers, finding food as it came, searching relentlessly for sources of water, and sleeping for long periods each day to conserve energy. Once the booming slave trade continued to expand in the western satrapies, eventually bold slave traders came into the desert lands to capture Western Yogans and sell them in markets back west. This caused the desert nomads to become tougher, more aggressive, and less trusting of outsiders. Eventually, the nomads turned to raiding settlements along the edge of the desert in search of useful supplies, and their fierce hit-and-run tactics became known and feared in both Kelior and Arissia. When lucrative trade began to flow along the Salt Road, caravans who didn't keep their baggage well guarded were attacked, and their cargo was stolen. Various Western Yogan tribes formed alliances and rivalries among each other, sometimes siding with outsiders in proxy wars for control of the desert trade routes. And still, all this time, no matter what hardship befell the Western Yogans, they remembered who they were. In order to survive, and thrive, they kept their ancient culture, their ancient faith, and the memories of their old kingdom alive. Dreams and tales of the old kingdom are still kindled to this day, around hungry campfires, as the Yogans remember who they are.

          Western Yogan life centers around reverence for the past, though this takes multiple forms. It can take the form of reverence for their ancestors, when stories about past forefathers and their deeds are told around campfires. It can take the form of reverence for their ancient culture, as elders draw sketches of the great cities of Yongara on cave walls, or trace maps of the Great Jungle in the sand. It can also take the form of reverence for their dead god, Metekalon, as they craft altars out of bones, or the rare lumber or stones they scavenge from the desert floor. Indeed, showing respect for the Yongaran past, and the past of the tribes of the Bleached Desert, is thought to be a necessary virtue among Western Yogans. This deep situating in the past can often become a source of spiritual strength not present in other peoples. However, it can also form a crippling nostalgia, that prevents new ideas and innovations from taking hold among the tribes, for fear of the dangerous change it could bring. Western Yogans are also extremely resilient survivalists, constantly living on the very fringe of what can be considered livable territory, and in fact beyond that. The deserts they inhabit are considered almost untraversable by the nations which neighbor it, and the springs and oases that larger tribes congregate at are hidden beyond the roughest terrain in the desert. In order to supplement their harsh lifestyle, the Western Yogans take to raiding, and as such they make fearsome warriors, using hit and run tactic to secure booty before they can be killed or captured. And because of the constant attempt by slavers in Kelior, and sometimes in the east as well, to capture Western Yogans and bring them to market, Western Yogans tend to be extremely wary of any outsiders. Contrary to some other kobolds, the kobolds of Western Yogan descent harbor no fascination or love with dragons. Instead, they harbor a deeply-seeded ill will towards all dragon-kind, for they tell tale after tale of the dread dragon Ulenloth and its clan destroying their ancient kingdom.

          The Western Yogan people are most highly concentrated in the Bleached Desert, particularly around sources of water, though many communities of enslaved Western Yogans live captive in Kelior. The races of the Western Yogan Culture are most predominately kobold, with a minority of gnomes, though occasionally others will be welcomed into the fold when they prove themselves, often escaped goblin and kenku slaves from Kelior. The most popular god among the Western Yogans is their dead god Metekalon, and other gods tend to be shunned in his favor. Western Yogans tend to be resilient, well-oriented, and reverent. They also tend to be xenophobic, piratic, and unchanging. Yogi is the only language predominately spoken among the Western Yogans, an important aspect of their reverence for their ancient culture.

If you choose the Western Yogan Culture, you gain the following:

~Either a +1 to your Dexterity score or a +1 to your Constitution score~

~A -1 to your Strength score~

~As a known language, Yogi~

~A Sub-Discipline in every knowledge skill on checks relating to Western Yogan Culture~

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