#tcs lore

[adriah tomas] : i thought everyone was really nice, especially kiyoko-san

[ks] : thank you, adriah. i thought you were nice, too

[tsukishima kei] : i didn't really think anything, to be honest. they were all a little loud for me, and i've known kiyoko-senpai since highschool

[ks] : yes, and i remember seeing adenosine show up to our zoom call in a very formal work attire *giggles* i thought it was cute

[ds] : really? she showed up in a cat girl hoodie to my zoom meeting

[ad] : that's because we already knew each other from highschool

[ds] : yeah, we met when you betrayed you're team

[ad] : i did not betray-

[ds] : you were roasting nekoma by the sidelines

[ad] : but i cheered for them and we won against you, didn't we? slimy bastards

[ds] : well fuck you too

[ad] : you wi-

[at] : anyways, since i met daishou and adenosine at a volleyball event, i thought they were professional workers hence why i signed with adenosine

[ad] : you say that like you changed your mind

[at] : well, you know.. you're not as professional as you came off,, but in a good way! it's like we're one big family rather than colleagues and that's nice!

[ad] : aww adriah 🥺

[ds] : that is true... the chaos suite is very much a big family

[tk] : even kiyoko-senpai, who doesn't hang out with us a lot fits right in

The Kel-Varath are a heavily nomadic and warrior based tribal culture with dozens of tribes across the Massandr’e (A land in the continent of Vessia composed mainly of dry grasslands and some desert from the south that crept into the land). They will raid and pillage the few small villages within the Massandr’e or attack the larger cities on the fringes of the Massandr’e. The Kel-Varath have no form of currency, they barter through trade and a prominent figure in the slave-trade industry of Vessia (Slave trade is one of Vessia’s biggest things)

Like the priests of the Sun Temple, the Kel-Varath worship the Sun God. To Kel-Varath he is known as Varathakun, the name for their people ‘Kel-Varath’ is derived from the name of their god and translates to ‘People of Varath’ aka ‘People of the Sun’. 

Though they worship the same god, the Kel-Varath and the Sun Priests rarely get along. The Kel-Varath have a strong distrust for any form of magic, and the study and practice of the fire dance (fire magic, though in the era the story takes place the magic has grown from an inferno to soft embers) is seen solely within the sun temples. The Kel-Varath also strongly believe in reincarnation. For them a death is not the end; there are an infininte number of lives in the world and each person lives both as an animal and as a human. When they die a human, their soul is reborn as their animal half, and vice-versa. 

The Kel-Varath are often called having crocodile skin, this is due to a coming-of-age ceremony among boys that marks them as men. In a ritual that can take weeks, they scar their upper body and arms with bumps and ridges of scarred skin that gives them their noticable ‘crocodile like’ skin appearance. However, becoming a man has nothing to do with age but rather worth, because of this there are those considered men among the Kel-Varath who are as young as twelve, and boys as old as forty. Because their standards for boyhood and manhood are different from other cultures, there has been a misconception of that the Kel-Varath sleep with young boys.

The Kel-Varath tribes are each led by a tribe chieftan called the Vosh. The Vosh is deemed the strongest of the tribe and can be replaced by another if he becomes weak. His heir is the Iirovosh, in some cases this may be the Vosh’s own son, otherwise it is a member of the tribe that the current Vosh sees as a strong leader to rule after him.

The Kelash is the name for individual tribes and the Vunlat refers to their language. Few among the Kel-Varath can speak the common tongue. Even among the Ohir (teachers) in the Kel-Varath.

Overall, the Kel-Varath are considered to possess some of the fiercest and strongest warriors in all of Vessia. Cities fear approching Kelash’s and even if they have twice the number of guards than the tribe has warriors, their chances of surviving an attack would still be low. Cities will often give the Kel-Varath tributes and gifts to protect themselves from attacks, and cities that can’t afford will try to protect themselves by offering their livestock, because losing their cattle is better than losing their lives. 

There are many ceremonies and traditions among the Kel-Varath. One of the more prominent ones are the marriage and binding ceremonies. The Kel-Varath believe that marriage can not occur between a man and woman until there has been a binding ceremony, and then the two must travel together in the Kelash for nine months. During this ride, the woman must prove her to be able to ride beside the husband and to be able to endure the tribe’s customs. This is especially important for outsiders (Such as Arryn). During the nine months the man cannot touch his betrothed in any intimate manner, nor may he sleep with any other person until he has been married in a test of his own control. At the end of the journey the wives of the Vosh will cast a final judgement on the pair and if they approve then the two may be married. 

Names are another important aspect of the Kel-Varath culture. Boys are given two names; their own name and the name of their father. Not many know of this bit and thing that the entirity of their name is one single name. Jhaero, for example. His name is Jhae, and his father is Rotho. As such when his mother Ayur named him he became Jhae|Ro “Jhaero”. Varis is the only known exception to this rule at the moment, as instead of taking his father (Rotho)’s name, he took his mother’s (Ris). Girls are given only a single name. 

If a Vosh dies as the tribe does not agree to follow under the new Vosh, then the tribe may break off to follow a different leader. Alternatively, if a Vosh kills the Vosh of another Kelash, then they may absorb the defeated Kelash into their own. 

There are many smaller Kelash’s that have recently broken off and before long they will merge together into a bigger one. Currently Vosh Rotho is the leader of one of the larger Kelash’s (is also the Kelash that POV character Arryn is traveling in due to her engagement to Jhaero).

The Kel-Varath have no villages or settlemants. The only permanent place they have is Ashalkir Varath, a city of ruins that is home to their temple to Varathakun. It is tended to by the Ghay, the men and women who are too old and sick to ride and fight, as well as numerous slaves. The city is considered to be the womb of the world, where life originated, and as such is sacred grounds to all the Kel-Varath. Within the city, all are brothers and sisters and rivlaries are put aside.