Al'Uma: People of Fate

Roughly speaking, al'uma means "people of fate", a name The Prophet gave to his followers when they began to come around to his philosophy that mortalkind were the deciding factor in the Fall of the Eldar. As his followers grew and expanded, they came to dominate the northernmost continent, which came to be known as Al'Uma as a result. (What its original name was is now lost to scholars, though some believe that it was something related.) Eventually they came to be the dominant culture, and anything Lirian that might have once decorated this peoples' hoomeland has long since been absorbed, replaced, or adjusted to fit the Al'Uman culture.

The culture of Al'Uma is an eminently practical one, embracing the melting pot nature of its location (at the intersection of Lirian and Hordish--now Yithi--cultures, and the Daw Range running through a good portion of it). Differences between human, firstborn, and Created are casually set aside; The Prophet wrote that "all Mortals served the Eldar", and only rarely did he speak of the differences between them. The Hordes remain the only race not widely accepted within Al'Uma, and their ultimate descendants (the Yithi) are regarded suspiciously at times as a result. But for the most part, nowhere in Azgaarnoth is more racially-egalitarian than within Al'Uma, and nowhere in Azgaarnoth are the racial "personalities" as dim as they are here. Elves working the forge, halflings riding the plains, dwarves studying the cosmos for arcane secrets, anything and everything is possible among the People.

Al'Umans hold their religious duties very seriously, regardless of the state to which they belong. Each Al'Uman must greet the rising sun with a small ritual, and again at the setting of the sun, to feel comfortable with the world. The Al'Uman calendar is filled with holidays of various forms--one of the most joyous is the Day of the Fallen Fig, celebrating the day either Alalihat or Zabalasa (fierce debates rage over which) dropped a fig, bent to pick it up, and discovered a long-lost scholarly scroll under a table by doing so. Al'Uman life is a hard-working, hard-celebrating culture, and a popular phrase holds that an Al'Uman wedding is not considered successful unless there is at least one broken bone suffered. (Fortunately, Al'Uman doctors are among the best in the world, and widely cherished and respected throughout the north.)

Not all is harmonious and unified within the People, however--far from it. To begin, many of the People are called to wander the grasslands and tundra of the north, choosing a lifestyle that is nomadic by nature. The nomads, the al'badia ("People of the Plains"), dwell in all corners of the continent, principally north of the Daws, in a highly tribal lifestyle. Generally the tribes are herders, constantly on the move, looking to safeguard their herds, expand their herds when the opportunity arises (particularly if it can be done at the expense of a rival tribe), and trading herds for manufactured or processed goods in the cities when the time comes. The nomads lead an austere, though generally not harsh, lifestyle, and while they can be suspicious of outsiders, once trust is won they can be fierce allies. Loyalty is highly prized among the nomads, almost as much as their incredible equestrian skills.

Not all of the People are nomads, however; the city-dwellers, the al'hadhar ("People of the Earth"), are those who prefer the stationary lifestyle of building, farm, artisanry, or manufacture. Some may be poor, claiming only a small hovel or hut, ranging up through the extraordinarily wealthy, sporting multiple mansions and extravagantly-manicured grounds, but virtually all al'hadhar enjoy far more by way of creature comforts than their nomadic kin. They have roof, steady water, shade, and (generally) a steady food supply owing to a trade or occupation; the nomads frequently lack for one or more of these during their travels. If the life centers around the village, bazaar, city, or port, then it belongs to the al'hadhar; if it centers around the tribe's movement across the plains, it belongs to the al'badia.

To the al'hadhar, all nomads are poor, wandering vagabonds, casually stealing from their betters and constantly looking for opportunities to cheat the rich of their hard-earned goods. Each tends to view the other with pity and no small amount of disdain. Even the poorest villagers believe themselves to be more cultured and more civilized than the nomads; to the al'hadhar, the nomadic lifestyle is an existence of austerity compared to the villagers'. Al'hadhar worship the Eldar in extravagant mosques, with the benefit of established clergy to guide them.

To the al'badia, all city-dwellers are soft, made weak by their refusal to sleep in open air and feel wind beneath the hooves of mighty mounts. What could be holier than living beneath the expanse of the heavens and placing oneself directly at the mercy of the gods and Eldar? Clearly the al'hadhar are to be pitied for their pursuit of craven material comforts, instead of remaining focused on the true task at hand--that of resurrecting/saving/redeeming the Eldar. Moreover, the city-dwellers' existence is one rife with inequality and a lack of freedom, as best exemplified by the common habit of city-dwellers to take slaves, or their tendencies to hide women and men in harems designed to focus purely on appearance and sensuality.

Despite these differences in lifestyle, the al'hadhar and al'badia live in peace, for the most part, at least within their own lands. (Nomad raids against city dwellers are generally purely material in nature; meanwhile, city dwellers usually enact their revenge in more subtle ways, particularly in conjunction with the merchant guilds which are often the buyers of al'badian herds.)

A distinct third class has emerged of the People as of the last millennia, however: the al'maera, or "People of the Water". These are those of the People who have found the strange allure of the sea, and spend as much of their time aboard seagoing craft as possible. These are the most well-traveled of the People, sailing (literally) all around each of the continents, making port in any city that touches the sea, and sometimes even up some of the major rivers. The al'maera are a mix of nomad and city-dweller: organized into loose tribes (the ship and her crew) and never remaining in one place for long, but also comfortable in port trading and selling the wares they have found. Some prefer a more sedentary sea-life, choosing to fish waters and sell their catch, but all embrace the sea in a near-fanatical way. Each of their land-bound kin looks upon the al'maera as a bit strange, but the People of the Water are generally looked upon fondly as crazed cousins, and useful to boot. The al'maera in turn look upon their land-bound cousins as unenlightened souls who simply have not learned the unbridled joys of wind, sail, and sea--to be pitied, but not feared or shunned.

Religion

Central to every Al'Uman lifestyle is that of religion. When Alalihat came out of the desert surrounding Merevets preaching mortals' failures in the Fall of the Eldar, he found a people ready to listen and change their lives if it would bring back the closest thing to gods mortals had ever directly known. The Prophet spoke passionately and fervently, and from his words Al'Uman lifestyle re-formed itself from the chaos into which it had slipped. The rock upon which this new society was to be formed was, clearly, the religious worship of the Eldar that had been lacking prior.

Not even the split between The Prophet and his Disciple could sour the Al'Uman drive for religion in their lives--instead, while the theology might have changed, many (if not most) of the rituals had not. Nominally, the theology is the same between the two, and all eyes turn toward Merevets when the call to prayer comes. In fact, even during battle between the two sects, the call to prayer has been known to put even the most vicious battle on pause, allowing warriors to face north and bow the requisite three times, only to take up again after prayer has finished. Daily life begins with the Morning Prayer, and ends with the Evening Prayer. To be sure, some might be required to do work before Morning Prayers, or after Evening Prayers, but for the average Al'Uman, life happens from Morning to Evening, and rest occurs from Evening to Morning. Violations of this habit are done only under duress and protest.

Religion finds the al'maera slightly differently, as the oceans are not always as forgiving of rigid schedule as the land can be; the People of the Water frequently are obligated to forgo prayers during storms, for example, an act for which they are often contrite. In fact, the al'maera argue that theirs is the religion closest to the gods and the Eldar, as life upon the sea is much more dependent on divine favor than life upon the land. The al'maera, then, frequently and fervently perform the rituals and ceremonies with rigor and discipline when landed, and thus feel more comfortable worshipping opportunistically when on the water. The theology of the al'maera, moreover, tends to walk a careful line between that of the Prophet and the Disciple, embracing the need for both worship and combat--a reverence of the Eldar and a willingness to do their duty, mirroring that of the al'maeran need to battle the seas at times for surival, always respectful of the power of the sea.

Given the central place that religion holds in Al'Uman life, almost all Al'Umans find the Dailish Heresy to be highly offensive, and many's a time two warring tribes have called a truce and an alliance to stamp out a suspected heretic (before then resuming their own conflict).

Honor

Family

Hospitality

Magic

Among the nomads, most magic is divine in nature. Riding with herds day and night does not provide much time for arcane study, and it is far easier to hear the sound of the gods and Eldar in one's ears while out on the steppes than it is to see the stars. Sorcerors are not uncommon, however, and in many cases the bloodline of a sorceror is one a tribe would enjoy having within its numbers. Warlocks are less commonplace, but not uncommon.

Much of the magic of the Al'Uma comes from the clerics of the People. Ironically, for all that religion drives the central facet of Al'Uman life, there is little to no divide over the various religions that dot the face of Azgaarnoth: The Prophet embraced both the Old Gods and Kaevar as part of his theology, and agrees that they are each fine ways to bring worship to the Eldar. Thus, clerics of these religions are tolerated, even welcomed, within Azgaarnoth, so long as their practices do not interfere with the religious ceremonies that are the center of Al'Uman life. Among the Alalihatians, War domain clerics are looked upon skeptically, but not unkindly. Similarly, Zalabasans, are less comfortable with clerics of the Trickery domain, but again, not unkindly.