Lands of Tyranny
Day 14 of The Overlord, Year 416
Hymani
The inhabitants of the western-most part of the Continent, that is the Archipelago called Yaintos (Yuwei in the tongue of the locals), and the coastal region called Hym, now proud citizens of the Empire that brought them peace, are a people that based their lives between the isolation of mountain and hill fortresses and city-fortresses, and coastal, ports. The prideful tradition of peaceful farming, fishing, arts and knowledge keeping, contrasted with their particularly bloodied history, made of constant wars between small kingdoms, factions and families, as well as assassinations, plotting and back stabbings at the noble courts. A tradition of eruptive and silent violence that was stopped only by the arrival of the Empire, to which every one between the common people is grateful for.
Society
Hymanians society, before the coming of the Empire, was strongly split into castes and very rigid overall. Its power was strongly split between rival families constantly fighting each other, both with subterfuge and actual armed conflict, even if every province and family has always been under the nominal banner of a united court in the great port-city of Hwahwat. The castes being essentially, in order of prestige: the very poor people who live by the day and others that are marginalized by society, such as prostitutes; the common folks, to which everyone that has enough to get by belongs; the rich and wealthy merchants or ship-owners; the non-noble eunuchs, in service of the nobility; the nobility itself.
The caste of the eunuchs in particular, traditionally thought to be the best and most loyal people due to their physical impossibility of having heirs, and therefore limited in their hunger for power, still traditionally produces several functionaries of the Empire, such as Fatebinders, or high ranking military officers.
Given its geography, the life of Hymanians and Yuweian alike has always been projected onto the water: navigable rivers and the peaceful waters of the ocean protected by the Yuwei archipelago marking for a perfect environment for fishing, maritime trade, and warfare.
Commerce and city-ships
The life and everything that goes on in the region is projected on the sea at the point where -together with a form of protection against the frequent floodings- some of the major ports started to build houses on the sea, over shapes that resembled actual ships.
A phenomenon spread enough that entire neighborhoods started being built on house-boats, including some more important buildings. All this until some enterprising ship builders and architects designed ships so large that could have carried and did carry entire villages or neighborhoods, some even including halls, temples or small palaces, making them small floating and movable towns.
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Together with the presence of the city-ships, huge commercial fleets are amassed in the ports or along the city-ships themselves, often traveling in impressive groups for mutual protection for travels to very distant lands, in which they would not only trade for goods and riches, but also invite foreign merchants and even more sages and cultured people from abroad on their ships, to increase the knowledge and wisdom of their people.
Nobility and power
The power is of course in the hands of the Empire, which controls everything in the political life of the Yuweian and Hymanian people thanks to its Adjudicators and Fatebinders, carefully selected to be a balanced mixture of foreigners and locals, to ensure fairness and friendliness to the population. The substrate of society remains roughly the same since hundred years ago, before the coming of the Empire: each noble family controls a keep, or fortified town in the mountains, a port, a fortress on a river, a floating town, or perhaps just a neighborhood, and even if any possible armed conflict is thankfully prevented by the presence of the members of the Tribunal and the Imperial Army, assassinations and sabotage between rivals are still quite common.
Nobility follows the same ranking as in the rest of the Empire, even if local titles are used, and even residing in the palace at Hwahwat (now residence of the Adjudicator and the Tribunal), is still a symbol of prestige.
Historically, the noble court at Hwahwat was focused on influencing the current Great Leader to have him as a puppet for their faction or family. In particular, due to succession laws, since only males could inherit titles, the Great Leader was surrounded mostly by noble Women or Eunuchs, to decrease the chances of attempted coups happening from even inside the Palace. However, the life of a Great Leader was impressively short, and often successors were simple children or even infants, each backed by a noble family represented between the Eunuchs, or the Royal Harem, or the other womens at court, the only limitation being the murder of pregnant women, which has always been deemed a terrible, unnatural crime. These beliefs brought to several attempts at keeping
newborns hidden, at ‘stealing’ them, or even more often, at trying to mask the true sex of a newborn, in the hope that they would survive at least until coming of age, when they would finally be able to have some actual power.
Gender roles
The society is strictly male-based, with every succession law being based purely on the males of a family, both for commoners and nobles. Women are supposed to obey their fathers, at least until they have a husband, at which point they become theirs. Between especially the common people, females hold absolutely no influence and almost no rights over their male relatives.
Only with the coming of the Empire the first forms of rights for women started to appear slowly with the years, especially thanks to the new, imported and very welcome religion of Mother Minerva, which brought countless young women to join its clergy.
The only other role of influence and prestige of a woman would have been as part of the Royal Harem, an ancient and since long time dismissed tradition,
which however remained in the form of the tradition of noble families to send their Daughters to the Tribunal Palace at Hwahwat, to serve as functionaries of the Empire, emissaries, or maids.
Education or any form of sensible, important work for women, while not being forbidden by the laws of the Empire, would however be in practice inexistant, as the belief that women should only care about the house and their children would still be very present in society. A sight as rare as the one of a cultured woman would be the one of a woman dedicated to the martial arts, and both would be heavily frowned upon, if not even excluded from society.
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A peculiar phenomenon however is characteristic of the this region of the world: the odd traditions between the nobility of both keeping male eunuchs as their trusted advisors, and even more so of hiding the sex of their newborns to shield them from murder, or pretend to be able to inherit titles and lands, these customs partly and slowly diffused even among the common people.
This causes phenomena on the spectrum of crossdressing and transgenderism to be somewhat diffused with respect to the rest of the Empire, where the practice would be extremely rare and frowned upon.
Religion
By far, the main religion of the inhabitants of the region would be the faith in The Three, especially so of Mother Minerva, a figure worshiped by women of every age.
Before the coming of the new religions, the two that were diffused in this region of the Continent were almost exclusively Astaroth and Umbra. Astaroth, seen as the deity of knowledge, wisdom, and the other world, while Umbra being its spouse and ruling over secrecy, sins, and the perpetual darkness that would one day engulf the world.
The inheritance of these cults in local traditions and ideas is still strong, for example in how everything from books to documents, even the most needed ones, would be written in thin paper, so that it would all deteriorate with time and eventually disappear completely. Or in how the memories of the dead are often destroyed, with the exception of statues, bas-reliefs, and what is described through drawings and symbols.
Women, especially the least fortunate, would often entrust their sorrows to Umbra, together with these people breaking taboos and doing shameful acts, while people would sometimes lit lanterns to Astaroth to guide them in a difficult decision, or to guide their dead relatives in the other world. Some remote villages in the mountains or in small islands would even still host the yearly Festival of the Lantern, even if the practice is forbidden by the law, together with the use of flying lanterns in general.
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The two most diffused heresies reported and fought by the inquisition would however be diviners, and even more so, a sect that goes by the name of “The Many” (Duxo in the local idiom). These are often male soldiers and warriors that are still secretly vowed to Astaroth, and that believe this existence to be just a meaningless waiting time before the ‘real’ life that would await them in the other world. Their nihilistic and often hedonistic view of existence, together with their martial prowess and sectarian organization would be seen as particularly dangerous for society, often even by those who care the least about other religious principles, or are less strict about their faith in the New Gods.
Other faiths of the Old Gods were very rare in the region even before the coming of the Empire and essentially unknown to most.
Apparel
Hymani and Yuwei dress and look quite similar to each other and share some common and universal characteristics, such as black or anyway dark hair most often straight, dark eyes, a generally short stature, and a strong sense of prudeness, that brings them to wear covering -even if lighter- clothes even in somewhat warmer climates. The use is likely also tied in the roots of the religious and traditional customs of these people, influenced by the general principles of secrecy, modesty, and privacy suggested by the ancient cults of Astaroth and Umbra.
Women especially are supposed to be covering their bodies to ‘be proper’, as the judging eye of society would otherwise be very quick at labeling them cheap prostitutes belonging to the low caste.
This strong view of women does sometimes create some friction, especially with the cultures of the southern and warmer part of the Continent, such as Khemani. These clothing traditions are even more reinforced and approved by the Empire and their New Gods which are also promoting modesty and prudeness.
History
Until the day the Empire came, about 100 years ago. Its Legions found no opposition in the population, already for the most part converted to their new religion, and the noble families, mutually weakened by years of constant warfare, could also not form any kind of united front, only able to close themselves in the apparent safety of their keeps and halls.
As the Empire armies swept in, mostly unopposed, causing little bloodshed, not abandoning themselves to pillage or violence against the population, and giving pardon to every noble family that would recognize the authority, they became acclaimed as saviors, and bringers of peace and prosperity for the years to come.
Authors: Rashan
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