Rekiret

Interpersonal Reactions

The Rekiret fill a societal niche on an international level very similar to Digir. Which, of course, is a kind way of saying they're xenophobic and reclusive coming as close to a true hermit kingdom as possible. However, unlike Digir, this self-imposed isolation is not ironclad. In most cases it simply prohibits visitors to a Rekiret Qishemi from accessing temples, seeing rites performed or given insight into the obtaining of Unknown. Otherwise, most people see them as wise, but aloof companions who paradoxically see dangers before they happen, yet cannot always act in time.

Origin Archetypes

Rekiret are a highly religious species with deep ties to the diurnal cycle. Their fairly strict society and air-tight logistical bureaucracy leaves little room for notorious career options such as thief and smuggler, although they of course still exist. Warriors and priests are highly honored among their kind:

• Cavalry Lord, Enlisted Soldier, Forager, Librarian, Occultist, Ritualist.

Character Archetypes

Adventurers usually lean towards careers but as applied to a mobile lifestyle. Of course clerics are common, but they often stay cloistered in the temples to Am. Thus, paladins are a more common archetype to see traveling the world:

• Archer, Astrologer, Champion, Cleric, Fighter, Sage, Vizier, Warpriest.

Common Names

Feminine Names

Amaunet, Amuniritis, Bantanath, Hat-scheps, Hehet, Nanu, Pthah-se, Shoshan.

Male Names

Apepi, Amentuankh, Hru-amen, Mukhwana, Najja, Namurot, Seti, Tebu, Ur-atum.

Family Names

Rekiret bear the names of their most important ancestor or parent with the most political power. Often for the more noble members of their tribe, this is priests and priestesses. For the warrior and civilian castes, it tends to be whichever parent had the most lucrative career or the most prestige with the community. If neither fits the qualification, the decision is often left to the parents.

Culture

Rekiret culture bases much of itself around their Phaorabeh and their Abeh, not unlike the Digir. According to the Rekiret, it was the Sun People that brought the knowledge of foresight with them when they rained down upon the land from Am, the Sun. They entrusted it to only the wisest and most intelligent of their number. These priest-philosophers exist to this day diving the future from the path of Am, and even traveling with it in their ancient past. They use this knowledge to guide their people in their daily lives. Even the common folk are offered this knowledge allowing them to better support their communities.

Disinclined to share it with outsiders, the Rekiret often seem aloof or detached from others in the land. Trusting their seers to steer them clear of any catastrophes that may occur and leaving the other tribes to find their own way. This means that even in areas where they live shoulder to shoulder with others, they seem secretive and suspicious.

Waiting for word from their sun priests means that Rekiret society, ironically, moves slower than others unless reacting to outside influences that were foreseen. This fosters, as well, a sense of traditionalism that Rekiret often have difficulty overcoming.

Native Language

Sesh is the native tongue of the Rekiret. Each word is spoken with force, as if commanding respect and with a confidence like the speaker knows they are correct regardless of circumstance.

Customs & Values

While Rekiret are suspicious of outsiders and do not trust their secrets to them, they are not unwelcoming like the Digir. They allow trade to their ports and even entertain diplomatic missions in their temples. Visitors, however, often find walls constructed to keep them from learning too much about their culture and society.

Rekiret society as a whole begins each new day with greeting Am as it crests the skies. They offer it praises and beg of it to illuminate their path forward in life. This is followed at the end of the day with a farewell to Am, who is believed to fall from the sky and die, only to rise from its own grave at the start of the new day.

Common Etiquette

Rekiret seek to end conversations efficiently. Seeming cold in the process, it is not meant to be rude. They simply wish to accomplish what they can and move on. Visitors are often confused when arriving in a Rekiret settlement for the first time only to be lead to accommodations, given a meal, and then told how long they can remain before departing.

Taboos

Rekiret live their lives around their precognition. To withhold forewarning that might do good to their community or loved ones is considered evil. However, this seems to only extend to those outsiders who have earned the Rekirets' trust.

Art & Architecture

Rekiret build their homes and utility buildings of stone and broad, angled sides that rise to a plateau. Homes use this flat roof as a gathering area for the family. Other buildings might use it as storage. Temples and governmental buildings continue upward to a sharp peak. The outsides are kept plain, but the interiors are covered in carven images and hieroglyphs. 

Their statues and art often depict the strange Sun People or Rekiret of historic importance, gilding them in the strange yellow metal; Dama, or gold. The Rekiret claim they gather this precious metal as rain from Am as it cries in its descent to death, but outsiders claim they possess what few mines the metal can be found in.

Clothes & Dress

Rekiret often forgo chest garments, donning caps and skirts of silk, and treading the land in barefoot. Depending on their wealth, they may be simple cotton textiles with plain colors, but a Rekiret with means will choose lively colored silks. A key feature in their lower clothing is an artificial tail woven from the same fabrics as the skirt known as a "mes" (Mesh). Rekiret have vestigial tails and wearing the clothing is an homage to their ancestral past and seen as a sign of affluence.

By contrast, their armor is often made of burnished bronze hammered into a scaled texture. Their shoulders are often draped in bold colors with capes or mantles. Though armored, the skirt and its mes affixture remains.

Foods & Cuisine

Rekiret are obligate carnivores, spicing their meats with herbs. They prefer it to be extremely intense, but are not above eating it seared from a fire. While they are carnivores, there are a few mushrooms in the Riven Lands that the Rekiret enjoy.

Myths & Legends

The Rekiret believe the world was born when Am burned to life for the first time. Their ancestors spent their first millennia floundering in the hot muck of this new world. It was only when the Sun People, the children of Am, rained down upon the world like golden drops of fire. They elevated the Rekiret, giving the gifts of foresight and precognition to their most intelligent members and teaching them the fate of Am and Trynnalta.

They believe that they are the oldest people of Trynnalta and know with certainty the world will end when Am rises for the final time. The mummified dead will rise with it, joining the Sun People in their home alongside Am. When it descends, the world will be remade in Am's passing and the preserved organs in canopic jars will birth a new generation of Rekiret to lead this new world forward.

Dama, the Flesh of Am

Gold, known to the Rekiret as Dama, is a sacred metal. Though it was first fashioned by their god Aakhu, the Fire-Bringer, the Rekiret use it mainly for decoration. However, while they rely mostly on barter, they have found currency to be beneficial in foreign trading and thus small ingots of Dama known as Damala are used in place of coin.

While the abeh claim that the Dama is gifted to them directly by their gods in religious ceremonies, many believe this is a farce. There are those that sometimes attack, pillage or otherwise use guile to procure the lustrous metal. Some have even attempted murder and torture to force Rekriet into detailing where they obtain the metal.

Birth Rites

Rekiret give live birth, contrary to popular belief that claims they lay eggs like Unknown. The children are then blessed with water purified in Am's light, the ritual taking place at the next solar equinox. Often times this is done in a minor temple to Nubit, the Child-Bringer near the Qishemi's center.

Funerary & Memorial

Death for a Rekiret is more involved. The body has its organs removed and placed in canopic jars of clay, the lids of which are formed in the image of the highest priest of Am during that time. The corpse is then embalmed and mummified in the high mountains or searing desert sands before being interred in the local Necropolis. 

This is done so that when Am begins its final ascent, the bodies of the dead are light enough to rise with it and ascend to Am's embrace and dwell with the Sun People in eternity. The new world is reborn on its final descent, the canopic jars becoming vessels of birth for the next Rekiret population for the reborn world.

Beauty Ideals

Rekiret value well kept appearances. Loose scales, untended teeth and shabby clothing are looked down upon.

Gender Ideals

Rekiret society is only divided by gender in their Priesthood of Am. Men cloister themselves in deep contemplation, looking into the future and ascertaining the right course of their people. Priestesses go out into the community and deliver these portents to the people, as well as bless offspring during the solar equinox.

Courtship Ideals

Rekiret looking for a partner will often spend long days consulting the Priestesses of Am, hoping that the Priests will foresee their future partners. If this is not the case, then Rekiret often fall into relationships with those in close proximity to their own place in the social strata. In either event, the courtship is begun with the Rekiret seeking a relationship making a clay pot bearing depictions of the accomplishments of their prospective partner and offering it to them. If they accept then a new relationship has begun.

Relationship Ideals

Rekiret are, even in their own culture, somewhat solitary. They often seek partners and friends that they can spend quiet time with, simply sharing the same space is enough. This means that preferences and personalities must coincide with past times that facilitate this quiet time together.

Am Ra Aned of the Qishemi

Rekiret worship the Am Ra Aned; consisting of the sun god known as Am, the embodiment of the literal sun, and a cast of figures known as Sun People that descended from Am itself. Those that worship Am and his People are typically a peaceful, if somewhat insular, priesthood. Secretive even to their own tribe, Rekiret priests and priestesses fulfill a conciliar role to their local Phaorabeh, or royal noble, providing future insight and divinations beyond what the rudimentary Rekiret precognizance normally can.

Rekiret Qishemi

The term used to describe Rekiret settlements and cities is Qishemi. This word, too, is used to describe the loose confederation of Rekiret settlements. To the Rekiret, their homes and governance are the same. They are ruled by the Qishemi and live within their Qishemi as well. Each one is overseen by the local Phaorabeh of Am. Beneath them are the Abeh, and beneath them are the Vizier.