Peoples of Qadira

Thursday, January 12, 2017

It's time for another Qadira preview!

Although residents of the Inner Sea region often think of Keleshites as a monolithic people, the reality is a lot more complex. The Empire of Kelesh has made efforts to encourage a unified Keleshite identity, but talking about "Keleshites" as if they were a single culture (which residents of Avistan, especially, tend to do) is about as accurate as talking about "Avistani" (which residents of Casmaron, to be fair, also tend to do). Just as the Chelaxians tend to have very different cultural practices from the Ulfen and Varisian customs and history differ greatly from those of the Shoanti, the various cultures that make up the Empire of Kelesh have widely varied practices and histories. The average resident of the major cities of Kelesh is of mixed heritage, but in less urbanized areas, people still practice traditions that date back five millennia or more.

Qadirans tend to think of themselves as Qadiran first, Keleshite second, and whatever other ethnic identity they may claim third, but those histories still shape their identities and practices.

There are six peoples credited with creating the Empire of Kelesh, corresponding to the seven virtues Keleshites believe they exemplify—the seventh is the unified Keleshite identity, though rumor has it that there was once a seventh culture that has been erased from the historical record.

Althameri: The once-nomadic Althameri tribes founded the Empire, and still form most of its noble class and merchant houses. Althameri still hold to their tribal identities, and many still live in deep desert holds and practice traditional ways, including a unique form of Sarenism. Most of what people outside of Casmaron consider "Keleshite" comes from the Althameri culture; even Keleshites with no Althameri descent often imitate Althameri dress and practices as a sign of prestige. The virtue associated with the Althameri is zeal.

Althameri use a first name followed by a matronymic indicated with the prefix al-. For example, Yaqib al-Marah is Yaqib, son of Marah. They may include a tribal identifier when introducing themselves to other Althameri, but most city-dwelling Althameri consider this information private. If needed, they may append their city of residence or birth to the end of their name distinguish themselves from another individual with the same name.

Most Keleshites who do not strongly identify with another ethnicity follow this naming convention.

Illustration by Eric Kenji

Aishmayar: The Aishmayar were an ancient, settled culture when the Althameri were still nomads eking out bare survival from the harsh deserts. Famed for their pacifism and dedication to the arts, they were the first people conquered by the Althameri. Their lack of written records has caused them to become an enigmatic founding myth in Kelesh. Though only a few noble families can prove Aishmayar descent in contemporary Kelesh, it is common for artists, actors, and socialites to claim it to enhance their status. The virtue associated with the Aishmayar is grace.

The Aishmayar generally used a string of names, the first given to them at birth, and another two to four earned throughout their lifetime based on achievements or personality characteristics, such as Nur-Iqar-Shamah. Particularly desperate celebrities sometimes effect an Aishmayar name, but doing so is generally considered gauche in the extreme.

Khattibi: The Empire of Khattib once occupied a large swath of the territory now controlled by Kelesh, especially the jungles and rich farmland of Casmaron's southern coast. They are famous for feats of physical engineering and their great libraries, but their inability to match their physical infrastructure with similarly robust social systems caused them to overextend and become a tempting target for Keleshite conquest, especially as they controlled the trade routes that brought goods from Vudra and Tian Xia into Casmaron. The vast majority of the citizens of Kelesh are primarily of Khattibi descent. The virtue associated with the Khattibi is inventiveness.

Khattibi names originally put an individual's family name first: Sadikci-Darya is Darya of the Sadikci family, though in recent centuries it has become more common to reverse the order, e.g. Darya Sadikci.

Mideans: The other great empire absorbed by the Keleshites was Midea, which warred with Khattib for most of its existence and claimed many of the port cities of Khardaji Bay. The Midean love of efficiency and organization inspired an unprecedented financial system that includes some of the oldest still-operating banks on Golarion. Mideans are enthusiastic patrons of the arts and the oldest families are devoted to civil service. The virtue associated with the Mideans is elegance.

Mideans tend to use personal names followed by a patronymic or family name, such as Mizha ibn Illiar, but as with the Khattibi, they increasingly drop the prefix, e.g. Mizha Illiar.

Susianam: Known as the People of the Tides, or Susians in Taldane, the Susianam are believed to have begun wandering Casmaron after a disaster destroyed their homeland. The clergy of their moon god go veiled and are accompanied by tattooed bodyguards. Though they are now a rare minority, the Susianam contributed both many of the irrigation systems that allowed Kelesh to bridge the harsh deserts between arable areas of Casmaron and founded its navy. The virtue associated with the Susianam is adaptability.

A Susian generally goes only by a first name, though the clergy sometimes bestow epithets upon other members of their faith, which become part of their names.

Tzorehiyi: Believed to share ancestral roots with the Althameri and Kara peoples, the Tzorehiyi still prefer to live in the steppes and grasslands of Casmaron. Their tribes control security for most of the trade routes and provide most of the agricultural labor that supports Kelesh's major cities. The virtue associated with the Tzorehiyi is honor.

The Tzorehiyi tend to use a first name followed by their tribe's name, such as Nerzad Batgui.

More Introductory Kelish!

Since people seemed to like it last time, here are a few more Kelish words—these are terms of endearment and forms of address.

Endearments

Little dove (term of affection for children)
yunifah
(yoon-ee-FAH)

Little falcon (term of affection for children, especially mischievous/bold ones)
tzaherhyifah
(tzah-herh-yee-FAH)

Spice of my life (term of affection)
reqethnayyah rukhni
(reh-keth-NAI-yah rukh-NEE)

My sun (term of affection, considered blasphemous/profane)
tzorenellni
(tzor-eh-NEL-nee)

My love
hevevhanni
(heh-vev-HAH-nee)

My sweet
deshfanni
(desh-FAH-nee)

Forms of Address

sir/madam
timanah
(tee-mah-NAH)

citizen
isakhmatah
(ee-sakh-mah-TAH)

noble
dimeqan
(dee-meh-KAHN)

member of imperial family
shahiyan
(shah-hee-YAHN)

professor/intellectual
bihuran
(bee-hoo-RAHN)

priest
yeshranah
(yesh-rah-NAH)

government official
ridathan
(ree-dah-THAHN)

kinsman/kinswoman (used not for actual kin, but for fellow Keleshites, fellow tribespeople, etc. to emphasize a connection, generally in the presence of people who don't share that connection)
nithveqalah (neeth-veh-kahl-LAH)

Hope you enjoyed this preview! Stay tuned next week for a glimpse of the patronage subsystem! :-)

Jessica Price
Project Manager

Qadira: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Friday, January 6, 2017

Very soon, dear readers, copies of Qadira: Jewel of the East will be in your hands (or available to be in your hands, if you're not a subscriber), so this seems like an excellent time to list off my ten favorite things about Qadira and/or this book. Behold:

1. The "Adventuring In Qadira" section: These 24 pages of mysteries, perils, ancient secrets, and general weirdness give glimpses of locations like the razor-edged obsidian labyrinth of the Lady of the Burnt Lands; Ihalar, a massive underground city; Ushumgal, a banking center probably run by bronze dragons; the deadly ruins of Qumarin, from which explorers emerge blinded, their faces branded with wheels of wings, eyes, and fire; and the Tower of Winds, set among a sea of colorful grasses haunted by strange beings who ask visitors a single question to which there is no correct answer. There's also a lot more detail about sites we've mentioned before, like the harpy-haunted ruins of Al-Bashir, the military training grounds of Omash, and the twisted gnoll settlement of Shadun.

2. My favorite piece of art ever: Look at this gloriousness. It's the adventurer equivalent of having your cat sleeping on your keyboard when you need to get work done. The poor lady just wants to figure out where these tracks go, and her lion animal companion is demanding that she play with him NOW.

Illustration by Lance Red

3. John Compton's patronage system: In Qadira, getting ahead is all about who you know and what they can do for you. John has put together a brilliant system for navigating the currents of Qadiran society, gaining access to the elite, and benefitting from your connections.

4. Keleshite ethnicities: Did you think "Keleshite" described a single culture or people? If you did, that's understandable—that's what most people from Avistan think, too. But the Padishah Empire of Kelesh is home to many different peoples and cultures, making "Keleshite" more of an umbrella term, like "Avistani" or "Tian," than a specific ethnicity like "Ulfen" or "Shoanti." Learn about the six major cultures that formed the Empire, as well as close to a dozen ethnic minorities common in Qadira. There are also details about how non-humans and different classes fit into Qadiran society, from tieflings pretending to be emberkin aasimars to Paraheen dwarf weaponsmiths, and Taldan brawlers to the pyrokineticists of the Imperial Forces.

5. This other piece of art, which is also my favorite piece of art ever: It's a CYCLOPS WITH A MIGRAINE. I empathize so much, buddy.

Illustration by Eric Kenji

6. Horses! If you like playing mounted characters, especially if you like playing mounted characters who ride horses, you're going to want this book. From new tricks for your horse animal companion, to genie-touched horses with elemental powers, to information on the horse-breeding tribes of Al-Zabrit and their unique cavalier order, this book is packed with goodies for riders.

7. The clothes: There are so many well-dressed people in these pages. Look at this magnificently attired guy. Even his horse is dapper as hell.

Illustration by Anson Tan

8. Creepy desert fey: I'm not going to spoil it, but it's about time we had one of these.

9. Sunsinger skalds: I know, you hear "skald" and you think "Viking bard," right? Well, everything's different in the desert, and skalds there channel the powers of fire and sunlight in service of the goddess Sarenrae. Oh, and there's also a solar sorcerer bloodline. Qadira has a lot of people who are ON FIRE: both in the sense of being badass, and also literally on fire.

10. Kelish: While working out names for places and people in Qadira, I put together a phonology document to ensure consistency (and to help me figure out ways to suggest layers of history with names that didn't follow those conventions). That document turned into a lexicon, and eventually into a reference grammar for the Kelish language. I could geek out about it for 10,000 more words or so, but instead, I'll just note that it drops the copula in the present tense, has a triconsonantal root system (like Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), and lacks grammatical gender (like Turkish).

Bonus: Introduction to Kelish

Kelish started out as a trade language: early Keleshite merchants realized that their tongue, now known as Old Keleshite, was proving an impediment to spreading their influence, due to sounds non-native speakers found difficult and grammatical features they found baffling. So they created a simplified and more regular form of the language, with phonology more similar to that of common tongues outside of Casmaron and with more regular grammar. Old Keleshite is still used in religious ceremonies and among some of the more isolated desert tribes, but these days, almost everyone in Kelesh speaks Kelish as their native tongue.

Like many Semitic languages, Kelish is written using an abjad rather than an alphabet (which is to say it's written using only consonants). Many consonants have both a "soft" and a "hard" version (e.g. a single consonant can be pronounced either as b or as v depending on context). The transliterations below are simplified and may not reflect the way the word would be spelled in Kelish script.

Kelish pronunciation: Kelish has six vowel sounds, five of which (a, e, i, o, u, which are pronounced similarly to Romance language vowels) have long and short versions. The sixth is found in unstressed syllables and can be either pronounced as a schwa sound or left silent. It has a few consonants that differ from their English pronunciations. The kh sound is pronounced like the ch in the German pronunciation of Bach, or the Scottish loch. The r sound is trilled, as in Spanish or Italian, but also exists in a "softened" version (usually transliterated rh or gh), which is pronounced like the French r. An apostrophe (') indicates a glottal stop.

Stress generally falls on the final syllable of the word. Stress on non-final syllables is indicated in the transliterations below with a doubled consonant after the lengthened vowel. (adirah is pronounced ah-dee-RAH, but aninnu is pronounced ah-NEE-nu.)

Greetings

Hello
adirah
(ah-dee-RAH)

Goodbye
baraqqti bshlim (lit. "go in peace")
(ba-RAHK-tee bsh-LEEM)

Poems/Prayers/Idioms

Dawn will come.
lehibwa'ah fishereqel
(leh-hee-bwah-AH fee-sheh-reh-KEL)

Sunlight banishes lies.
li'ekhrabah mutzeirnil et drejem (lee-ehkh-rah-BAH moo-tzeh-ee-MEEL eht dray-JEM)

We are not strangers, for our hearts are old friends.
aninnu la reyevem, qaru qelebeiniannu ekhum qidumum
(ah-NEEN-oo lah reh-yay-VEHM, kah-ROO keh-lay-bay-ee-nee-AH-noo eh-KHOOM kee-doo-MOOM)

Hold my wine and watch this!
bashaddti et yenananni w ri'oyeti et eleh
(bah-SHAD-tee eht yey-na-NAHN-ee wuh reeh-oh-yeh-TEE eht eh-LAY)

Useful Phrases for People Who Annoy You

Be quiet. I haven't had my coffee yet.
batallti. la halli lishqai et kahvenni udina
(bah-TAHL-tee. lah HAH-lee leesh-kie (like "die") oo-dee-NAH)

No horse will carry you.
ianu shisah illi lihi'enubshadah et atah
(ee-ah-NOO shee-SAH EE-lee lee-HEEH-eh-noob-shah-DAH eht ah-TAH)

May you fall in love with a genie.
deyah akhalkhallti et jani'ah
(day-YAH ah-khal-KHAL-tee eht jah-neeh-AH)

I hope you've enjoyed this peek at Qadira: Jewel of the East. Stay tuned for more previews, including a glimpse of the patronage system!

Jessica Price
Project Manager