Sumuar cultural notes
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Information about the Sumuar people and what their culture and lives are like
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 26 Mar 2024, 06:33.
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4. Sumuar numbers
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The Sumuar people live in an area which is almost entirely windswept grassland, surrounded by the sea on one side and a (so far) impassible mountain range to another. The area they occupy is mostly not flat, however, instead being mostly steep hills and valleys. This makes extensive travel difficult.
Some common plant and animal species here include:
- Sweet vernal (anthoxanthum odoratum) - grass species
- Marram grass (ammophila arenaria) - grass species
- Ripgut brome (bromus diandrus) - grass species
- Various tall grass species
- Various endemic tree and plant species
- Various bird species, including some flightless, quail-like birds; and larger, penguin-sized birds; both of which browse on the seeds of the grass species.
The difference in seasons is stark, especially due to the difference in wind strength between summer and winter. Summers are usually spent growing and harvesting the few crops the Sumuar have managed to cultivate, while winters are generally spent hunkered down in special houses built with several storeys under the ground.
Sumuar families take great care of themselves and their communities. The eldest person in a family (unless they are unfit for the position due to mental deterioration) is the family matriarch or patriarch and usually is the one who arranges marriages, plans gatherings, allocates food resources, etc.
Children are raised not only by their parents, but also by their parents' siblings and their grandparents. The matriarch or patriarch usually does minimal child-rearing when they ascend to that position.
Marriage not only brings the family member's spouse into the family, but often also a significant chunk of their family with them (generally their immediate relatives). Marriage within the same family (intermarriage) is only ever considered as a possibility if the last common relative the two spouses-to-be share is female. If they were male, then intermarriage is not considered.
Common foods include caught and roasted birds, often the quail-like species mentioned before, as well as some cultivated crops.
The crops the Sumuar have access to are:
- Meon - a type of root vegetable not unlike the Australian murnong, however it is generally much larger and has a starchier texture and a slightly sweet taste. It can be freeze-dried and stored for many months, though it lasts long anyway.
- Tusac - a grain which is harvested from an endemic tall grass species. It can be dried and crushed into a fine powder, which is used to make flatbreads and thicken soups and the like.
- Cūda - bulbous root vegetable with a strong savoury taste, used to flavour foods (not unlike garlic or onion).
- Dolhau - a form of pepper which has adapted to the colder climate.
Non food-related crops include:
- Mocor - a kind of tree cotton which is used to make cloths and rugs and the like.
Sumuar people are organised into clans. Each clan is headed by a main family and resides in one or more small settlements across an area. The main families (houses) in each clan control things such as management of crops, preparation for winter, etc., and they generally perform all the functions of government for the area they control. They collect taxes in crops and use these to fund mercenaries when necessary, such as when they have feuds/wars with other clans, or simply to help people and help in the development of their settlements. Many of these houses are further subservient to a king or other great ruler, who they themselves pay taxes to from harvested crops. The eldest person in the house serves as the head of house and leads their own family as well as being the main leader for the area their family controls. In families which serve as their settlement's great house, it is more common for inheritances to pass to male family members, generally in emulation of their contemporary kings.
In each settlement, there usually exists at least one circular building which is made of large stones and has a roof of dried grasses. They are usually placed within a valley rather than on a hilltop for ease of construction, though never at the lowest point so that the cold can be kept out easier. It is usually one storey tall above the ground and generally not especially large. Underneath the ground, however, there may be up to five stories which are stacked one on top of the other. The lowest level or levels are usually reserved for food storage, the middle level or levels are used as sleeping areas, and the upper levels being used as communal spaces, with the uppermost level serving as a meal-eating or lounging area. The floors of each story are constructed of wood beams from the scarce trees found along the grasslands.
Outside of these structures are usually found hearths or other fire-constructing places, as well as other huts and tents (out of bird-leather and wood). All of these structures are placed within the valleys of the land rather than the hilltops so as to avoid winds and wind chill.
The only structure which is not built within the valley, rather solely on the hilltops, is a great walled castle-like construction, into which the villagers may flee on the pretense of invasion. The ruling houses may use ownership over one of these buildings as a show of power and a sign that they may be able to defend those who ally with them.
The main religion within Sumuar society is what is known as the Ayar faith. The Ayar religion is a monotheistic religion consisting of nine manifestations of the same god. The religion was introduced to the group which would eventually become the Sumuar less than one hundred years before they migrated to the windswept plains upon which they reside today. The holy text of the Ayar religion is called the khemek /xemek/, which was Sumuarised to camec. Ayar is a foreign word which entered the Sumuar vocabulary and was reanalysed to be a genitive form of the word aya, which was then again reanalysed to be the simple noun form of the verb ayan, which means "to devote". The religion follows the narrative that Asdāni, a woman born as a peasant, received a dream in which she was visited by a heavenly being with nine faces around its head. This being said then to her, that she must wake up and find that she would be pregnant with Shes, a child who was the manifestation of this divine being. And when she woke, she found that indeed she was heavily pregnant and very near to giving birth. When the baby girl was born, it was found that the child could speak and form complex words and sentences very near to her birth, and, taking this to be a sign that the nine-faced being truly was real, the mother took the child far around the world, spreading the message of the nine-faced god. The girl, through her life, proclaimed that upon her death the next knowing-child would be born, and so he was, and after he died, another was born. This continued 8 more times, for a total of 11 knowing-children, or prophets, speaking for the nine-faced deity who would be revealed to be called Hamlud. All of these prophets wrote in the khemek under the pretense of writing "Hamlud's word" and talked in much detail about how one should live their life to be moral and true to themselves and to other people.
Religious buildings in the Ayar faith are usually nine-sided towers made of stone with a protruding extra section from one of the sides along the base. They are one of a small subset of buildings which may be placed upon the top of a hill rather than within the valleys.
Those people specialised in the study of the khemek and have studied the Ayar religion in a divlēo (monastery) are called ulud, akin to "priest" or "imam". ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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