Nerek

The Nerek were a people from the continent of Lether, subjugated by the Letherii.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US TPB p.181 Their homeland was on a vast plateau on the eastern edge of the mountain range separating the lands of the Tiste Edur from the Letherii.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.62 They were organised into clans.Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.209
The Nerek had believed they were originally all the children of a single mother (known to the Nerek as Eres'al, Eres or N'eres)Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US TPB p.184-185 and a serpent, which still dwelt in their bodies vertically as their spine. However, the mountains wanting this 'serpent' to return to its slithering form, the Nerek began bending over, which caused their spines to curve more and more towards the ground as they aged.
The Nerek civilisation collapsed at the hands of the Kingdom of Lether. Their mercantile focused neighbours lured them into chains of debt and made them dependent on Letherii-supplied Durhang, White nectar, and alcohol.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.67 They destroyed the Nerek's holy sites to weaken the connection to their goddess.Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.432 The Nerek buried their dead beneath flat stones prior to being forced to convert to the faith of the Holds by the Letherii. After this subjugation and forced conversion, the Nerek began leaving their dead lying where they fell. The Nerek villages became deserted cemeteries and the Nerek were described as a destroyed people with no chance of rising again.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US TPB p.53-54 Letherii scholars justified the Nerek's subjugation by claiming the Eres'al was a false goddess.Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.478 Those Nerek that the Letherii enslaved were scattered throughout the empire far from their traditional homelands.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 6, US HC p.149
The Nerek believed the Tiste Edur were the children of demons, their skin stained by the ash in their blood. Looking into an Edur's eyes, a Nerek saw the greying of the world, the smearing of the sun, and the rough skin of night. Consequently, Nerek fell to their knees, began to keen, and beat their faces and chests with their fists when in the presence of an Edur.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.120
They feared the sea as the site of their netherworld, a place where drowning was eternal and home to betrayers and murderers.Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.191
The Nerek felt no sympathy for the Shake, hunting them in the forests.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.339
==Notable Nerek==
*Nerek youth (dreamer)
*Nerek youth (knife-brother)
*Unn, Nerek-Tarthenal half-blood
*Urusan
==In Midnight Tides==
It was revealed that the Nerek had been unintentionally brought low by the efforts of Hull Beddict. The former Letherii Sentinel had been sent to study the Nerek by King Ezgara Diskanar, ostensibly to further the two neighbours' peaceful co-existence. Hull was heartily accepted by the Nerek and developed blood-ties with them. In reality, Hull's observations were used to exploit and subjugate the Nerek. Hull was so distressed by the Nerek's downfall that he resigned his commission and turned his back on his own people. Despite their fall, the Nerek worshipped Hull.
The Letherii exploited the Nerek's weaknesses so that the goddess never truly awoke and defended her people.Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.416 After their subjugation, the Nerek lost their dreams and the knowledge of the old paths that allowed swift travel between realms.Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.545 But the Eres'al appeared to be awoken when Mayen unwittingly consecrated the ground beneath a group of Nerek Indebted brought to the Warlock King's village by Buruk the Pale. When war broke out between the Kingdom of Lether and the Edur, the sacred earth shielded their band from the Letherii sorcery that destroyed the rest of the village.
Afterwards, the dreams returned to one youth, and with them knowledge of the ways between worlds. The youth and his knife-brother set off on the old paths in search of Hull. They found him in Letheras where he had helped the Edur army conquer his own people. The youths claimed Hull had been judged for standing with the Edur, his heart poisoned and unable to forgive. They wept as they stabbed him to death.Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.724
Many Nerek refugees found their way to Letheras where they lived on the streets with other indigent tribes. Hull's brother, Tehol Beddict, resettled many on a string of islands he purchased for his brother's sake.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.91
==In Reaper's Gale==
Ublala Pung identified the Draconean Sea as the location of the islands Tehol Beddict had purchased to resettle the Tarthenal refugees from the Letherii Empire, so the Nerek were likely there as well.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.302
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==Notes and references==
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Category:Lether natives