#reliqun

Kétyé was born in the mountains along the eastern part of southern Qástánê and migrated a bit further towards the center lowlands, where there are more Rélîqûn settlements. She actually lived in a city primarily populated by Trémtónť and traveled with a native of the city,  Ĵéqát, for three years before she came to be in the company of Rélîqûn.

When she changed sides to join the Rélîqûn, Ĵéqát left her side for good and she was assigned to a company of explorers to find and study some illusive and isolated tribal peoples in the west. Out of the party she became closest to the leader, Siakuā, mostly because she just spoke better Ôrnêstán than the others until Kétyé managed to learn some Rélîqûntán. Siakuā and her group are all female and are all grasslanders.

Much, much later in the story Kétyé will have some interaction with the cave, but she doesn't travel much off Qástánê to see the other subspecies- at least not in this story. That particular meeting she had become trapped in a cave and was rescued by a hunter, being the most amiable variety they fed her and helped her get back to full health before she had to head off. Generally a nice visit even though Kétyé had places she needed to be. haha

As far as how the interactions went with Siakuā and her lot, to begin with Kétyé was a little wary. The city she frequented, and had a home in when she wasn't traveling, was invaded and conquered by Rélîqûn, which was how she came to be in their service. The queen Ābdwiwl, who lives in her capital in by the southeast mountains near the coast, wanted a linguist to provide relations with unaligned species to better her front against the Ôrnês.

Kétyé's treatment by the former lord (not the king, who is in the Ôrnês capitol, also in the south) was less than stellar, so she wasn't too broken up about changing sides. That, and Kétyé s no fool, she knew she had no real way to say no without being imprisoned or killed. After that initial iffy meeting Kétyé actually fell right nicely into their company. She liked that she wasn't looked down upon for being female as she often was among Trémtónť, who are more patriarchal. And Siakuā and her group were also not as limiting as the Trémtónť were. They let her do as she needed to get information, where her former lord had his own ideas and aims and wanted Kétyé to do things his way, which often didn't work.

And let's just say she and Siakuā were pretty close. They traveled together in their merry band for 2 years before circumstances took Kétyé elsewhere.

As you may have read Luāglõn are matriarchal, so the females basically run everything. Activities that involve governing or intense thought are considered feminine (hunting, politics, war, the sciences, architecture, philosophy, religious leadership, et c.), while activities that are passive are considered masculine (farming, art, scribe work, music, caring for the home and kids, et c.). That isn't to say there haven't been female artists and musicians or male philosophers and leaders, there's just more of a general stratification towards these particular gender roles with overall few exceptions. Think medieval Europe, except the marginalized gender is treated as intelligent just in need of guidance and protection from their own bad nature.

Luāglõn believe males are usually too impulsive to be in positions of power and this is rooted in their long matriarchal history and in the physical dimorphism of genders- males have more testosterone so tend to get caught up in their sexual and aggressive passions (so the Luāglõn teach anyway). Males are still always taught reading, writing, and arithmetic so that they can be helpful and care for the home if their wives are ever away. It is very important to Luāglõn that males are allowed to expand their minds if they have a talent for it, since no good mind should be wasted, but they are also to be kept safe from themselves and others while they do it so they don't screw something up.

(Note that areas #5 and #6 have no native populations of Rélîqûn or Ôrnês- they were discovered fairly recently. Also the island to the west of area #1 has no native Rélîqûn or Ôrnês either, the dominant species there was Támtkên, who did a really good job of repelling outsiders until pretty recently. And I'm a lazy ass and haven't finished this map uuughgfdjk)

Now, this generalization of their culture is most accurate for the "grassland" (found in area #1) "crested" (found in area #2) and "crowned" (found in area #4) varieties. The "forest" (also in area #1) have a more egalitarian system, though heredity is still passed matrilineally and females still hold most of the political/war power, however males are allowed to participate a bit more in the "active" practices and females may expand their participation in the "passive" ones. "Shield-heads" of area #3, who call themselves Bzunluāglõn (they draw direct ancestry from the goddess Bzunluā, who to them is the goddess of destruction as well as fire), have a more war-like society due to their land being fairly sparse in resources and intense competition with Ôrnês and large predators- in this particular subspecies males are treated more harshly.

Since farming is difficult in many areas some groups still have the nomadic, band lifestyle that all Luāglõn had in paleolithic times. However large cities formed once contact with the "crested" was made and they were taught how to better expand their agriculture. These city-states still pretty much hate each other like they did during pre-contact times and fight on a continuous basis, constantly rearranging borders. All citizens are part of the army and expected to defend their city with their life- females by participating in outright warfare and males by defending the home if the city were ever invaded, though they are forbidden from serving in real army.

Respect is particularly emphasized in this subspecies, and they are usually very formal, even with family and friends, to be informal shows disrespect and they tend to only be informal with individuals they really don't like. The view on males is especially critical, so if they're not good boys they will probably get themselves beat by their wife, mother, or sister for being disrespectful. Among Bzunluāglõn the female's power is so intense that males are set in strict subservient roles and only given rudimentary education as far as reading, writing and arithmetic go and even that isn't actually required by law like it is in most other Luāglõn subspecies.

Each city-state is ruled by a triad of females, one to represent each goddess, but I won't go into that because I can write a whole post just about Bzunluāglõn. xD It should also be noted that cannibalism was common in area #3, unlike in other areas, and this was due to the harsh environment. The practice is mostly dead since contact with the "crested" but some nomadic bands still practice it. Eating your fallen enemy was a way to gain their power and when food is scarce you don't waste meat. 

Another distinct cultural subspecies would be the Xunluāglõn, or the "cave" variety (in a very specific portion of area #1)- as you can see they follow the line of thought of the Bzunluāglõn, only this time they descend from Xunluā, believing them came from deep in the earth, borne from the rocks. Being mostly completely isolated from the outside world and other Luāglõn they have a few more gods. Three represent personifications of the cave around them: Abām, god of the ceiling, Glĕgl, goddess of the walls, and Ngredr, god of the floors. I know, seems a little weird, but when you're delving into rocks to expand your home you want to pray the there isn't a cave-in or a thin floor through which to fall.

There are four more gods who were once mortals who have ascended to sort of a god-saint status due to their achievements in discovering ways to easily live in the caves:Silssaj, goddess of vibrations, discovered a way to send vibrations into rock in order to find out if it was solid or had an air-pocket as well as what sort of rock they were carving into. She made special tools for this.Elūnagl, goddess of the fire-stone, discovered a rock which could be burned like wood, only with less smoke and longer lasting- it had a volatile nature when it occurred naturally so she also perfected a method to make it more stable and safe.Zuobā, god of the harvest, perfected methods of encouraging the growth of various plants and fungi undergroundRalwiwl, goddess of the hunt, invented and perfected a method of hunting large arthropods and fish in the deep, pitch-black watery depths of the caves. She was able to create a method that allowed to find prey through touch, instead of sight, using only a net and spear. This technique also teaches the hunters how to hold their breath for up to 5 minutes.(And Xunluāglõn do a bit of shipping and say that Ralwiwl and Zuobā were married.)

Xunluāglõn are also the most peaceful of all the varieties. Not only is it pretty hard to fight each other in cramped cave-space it's pretty pointless since all cities are on that knife-edge of survival. Granted, they're very comfortable, but they can't waste resources bickering so they have a large and fully unified empire underground. They are the most scientifically advanced and philosophical subspecies due to their peaceful lifestyle.