Uric

The Uric, or Uric-ka are a collection of tribal human societies who live on the southern coast of the Uric Peninsula north of the Dog Islands inhabited by the Tagka. The origin of the term Uric as a endonym is unknown although it might be a loanword from a now-extinct human culture who used it as a exonym for the proto-Uric peoples. Both Uric and Tagka peoples use the term with dialectal variations, usually with the suffix -Ka attached to indicate the ethnicity. The Uric peoples are the main subjects of the Dog Clan confederacy, which is a regional polity covering the southern piece of the Uric peninsula and parts of Southern Bhalos.

## Etymology

The origin of the term Uric is unknown, it might be derived from the PET (Proto-Elbho-Tagka) word *ghe-wit*, which means tongue but also can mean speech in later dialects, which would make Uric-Ka meaning "Those [who] speak / The people of language], but its hypothetical.

The Uric know themselves as Uric-Ka, and their land as Uric-Osh, lit. The Land of the Uric.

## History

### Prehistoric Period

The Proto Uro-Tagkic peoples arrived in the far south soon after humans had initially populated the island of Bhalos. They lived in as semi-nomadic pastoralists and hunter gatherers using stone tools. Climactic changes led to a wetter climate which encouraged the growth of vast dense forests and swamps that cut off much contact between the south and the central plains where those people that would become the Albha developed. This period of climate change also forced many tribes to migrate to the southern island chains, where the intermingled with the native proto-human aboriginal cultures there, leading to the hybridized genetic base of the modern Tagka and related peoples. Those who did not migrate south developed into the Uric cultures.

### Formative Period

This period is marked by intense tribal warfare and social dynamism. The basics of lifestyle did not change much from the Prehistoric period except for the adoption of bronze metalworking, which allowed greatly improved tools and weaponry. This period saw the first large scale clearances of coastal forest to make into better pasturing and settlement grounds.

### Confederate Period

> *Main article:* The Confederate Period
>
>

This is the first period with written records, and the first with renewed intense contact with the central plains. It is considered the period starting with the rule of the First Dynasty King of Kings / Head-Chief Kamadam leading to the present era. This period is also marked by dramatic outwards expansion and colonization.

## Government and economy

### Administration and commerce

The Dog Clan state is organized into umbrellas of authority. At the top is the Chief of Chiefs / King of Kings (in Uric, Ya-sha-ya), who is a hereditary ruler that functions as the ultimate owner of both all goods in their domain and also manages their traditional personal and clan estates. This ruler delegates title and grants unto their subordinate chiefs, who each manage the major clan confederacies of the Dog Clan, who in turn manage their individual client chiefs. The ruler answers to this council of chiefs in addition to their family elders. The chiefs provide the King of Kings with warriors, tribute and lands in exchange for the guarantee of mutual aid in times of crisis and redistribution of wealth in their favor.

Currently the Dog Clan is ruled by the First Dynasty, founded by Kamadam Thunder-Drums and continued by his eldest son as of 34 CE, Mitcam Thunder-Drums.

These chains of management are aided by the existence of a relatively new class of bureaucrats and scribes that aid in day to day operation such as the recording and supervising of clan land holdings, or the actual gifting of grants to ensure no two people receive overlapping rewards for example.

Trade is still carried out under a system of barter exchanges although set weights are used to provide a rudimentary means of evaluating value. The main type of exchangeable wealth is herds and attached grazing rights. Different regions also export regional goods like animal products or lumber. Maritime trade routes serve to link the Uric with other groups like the Tagka, who are important facilitators of nautical knowledge and goods not found on the mainland. Overland caravans also carry goods to the Albha, Panpan and other groups farther north.

### Social status

Uric society is structured broadly into six tiers:

Chiefs and Nobility: These are the heads of clans and their families, typified by great material finery and significant estates and herds. Title is very important with this class, chiefs are called *Ya-*, while Nobles are addressed by *Uk-,* which is somewhat like 'sir / madame".

Shamans: Shamans form a interesting group. They don't really exist inside the Uric social hierarchy but rather besides it. They facilitate religious guidance and are both advisors on all affairs and healers. Unlike Tagka shamans, although they are related in many ways, Uric shamans are less isolated and can be both genders. They do maintain separateness from the rest of society, and they selectively choose those for induction in their ranks from the lay population rather than maintain families among each-other.

Merchants and Bureaucrats: These are often as rich as the noble classes, though they lack claim to rulership of specific clans. Still, they are the ones who facilitate both trade and administration. In Uric society status is gained through wealth, so while traditionally they did not have as much importance in the increasingly complex Confederate period they are becoming more notable and more defined. This class also includes ship captains and master craftsmen.

Warriors and Commoners: In Uric society, these terms are often the same. The large majority of people fit into this class, mostly living as pastoralists who supplement their lifestyles with horticulture and hunting. They are concentrated into dense settlements and are the core base from which a chieftain can call upon for wars or public works projects.

Invalids and Slaves: This class is made of those who either work for others in bondage or who can't work, such as the disabled or those captured as slaves in raids or made slaves as punishment.

Exiles and Criminals: Those cast out from ordinary society. Considered impure and dangerous. They cannot be found among other classes and are usually cast out into small tribes in the most inhospitable parts of the region, including the coastal bogs of the southwest. Hunted for sport by some tribes.

### Legal system

There are no written Uric laws-yet. However, disputes between people or groups are solved in multiple ways. The first is dueling, much like the Tagka do. The parties will fight in combat or select champions and the winner in a supervised bout will be considered in the right. These bouts are increasingly fought under the auspices of a scribe rather than the clan chief as was historically so, although currently most cases will have both present.

Next is a form of a tribunal. The two disputing parties will appear before a council of clan elders, and after stating their cases will await a judgement from the council. In some cases, they will be commanded to undergo trials to prove their purity.

Finally, a aggrieved party can appeal directly to their chief and hope for a direct intervention, though it is just as likely the chief will be irritated if the complaint is petty and punish the party who brought the matter to their attention in the first place.

Here as follows is a example case of the solving of a old land dispute between two families:

*The Maschuk family of clan White-Surf claim Am of the Bebega family has violated their property by grazing his families Ko herds on their land without permission. Am claims the Maschuk lost their right to those lands after a duel that the Bebega allegedly won several years ago.*

*The Maschuk decide against fighting a duel because of the known martial prowess of the Bebega sons and instead bring the issue to the tribal council of the White-Surf clan (of which both familes belong to). The elders first request that the bringer of the grievances, Kanda of the Maschuk, the eldest son, to undergo a trial to prove his honesty. He is ordered to go without solid food or sex for a quarter-season, which he obliges. They then deliberate after hearing both cases and decide that the land ceded after the previous duel did not extend to the lands that Am had grazed his herds on. They therefore confiscate 10 grown bull Ko from the Bebega herd and give them to the Maschuk herd, and Am is ordered to slaughter half the Bebega herd calves to prevent him from recouping the losses for a longer period of time.*

### Horticulture

The Uric live in a climate much more amicable to horticulture than the Tagka do, which has led to a greater reliance on plant foods than in the Tagka diet. The Uric do not practice large scale cultivation like in truer farming societies, but rather smaller gardens with a mixed variety of crops growing together. Primarily the Uric grow several varieties of berry bushes and vines, beans, squashes and root tubers. Many are related species to plants found further north.

Uric gardens are usually found attached to the sides of houses or in communal plots in and around settlements, and are tended by the women and children of a family while the men hunt. Sometimes there will be more archaic forest expeditions to gather wild plants, either to eat by themselves or to establish new cultivars.

#### Animals

Like their southern cousins, the Uric keep dogs as close companions, though the Uric breeds are slightly different and of better build. They also will tolerate forest otters since they eat pests that threaten food stores.

The Uric keep herds of Ko but they also allow herds of Gada to wander nearby settlements. While Gada are only semi-domesticated, docile herds are considered the property of specific tribes even if they aren't actively herded like the Ko. Gada are kept for meat and wool.

### Natural resources

The southern coasts are wet and fertile. The foremost natural resource to the Uric peoples is naturally lumber, of which they make extensive use. Every part of a tree is of use and many specific terms exist to describe specific types and parts of trees.

There are also tin mines and surface iron deposits in the Uric heartland, though they trade for copper from mines on the Tagka islands.

### Trade

#### Maritime Trade

Most maritime trade is going from southern ports to the Tagka islands, or along the coasts to colonies and Tagka trade outposts. Cargo ships are large bulky affairs, with keels and sails to navigate the stormy southern seas. Tagka trade groups also will move between the islands and the coasts seasonally in canoe flotillas, creating temporary markets on beaches outside coast towns, from which caravans take goods inland from there.

Most wealth gained from these exchanges is over animal products and metals, especially bronze and iron.

#### Land Trade

Land caravans are long winding processions of Ko-drawn carts and foot porters. The Uric understand the concept of the wheel, and make regular use of carts and wagons to ferry goods. Caravans are managed by individual merchant families who contract out labor to local tribesmen in exchange for portions of the exchanged goods. Trade routes are ancient well-laid paths that are fought over by merchant families even as they are used for day-to-day travel on a constant basis. Most follow the eastern coast going northwards to the great trading zones in the north but some will wind through the primeval interior forests.

## Language

### Writing

The Uric use a variation of the Albha writing system, that has been adopted for the Uric languages / dialects, although somewhat haphazardly. Its use has exploded since its introduction from merchant caravans traveling from the north, leading to the creation of new scribal classes who can use the new script to record clan histories, disputes and transactions.

## Culture

### Architecture

Uric buildings are with rare exception made from wood. Most common buildings are squat log houses with wide splayed roofs to divert rainwater and are sunk into the ground to provide extra insulation during winter.

Settlements are dense and packed with houses. Roads will wind and spiral and congregate into tight markets and communal courtyards. There is little sense of public planning and no public sanitation. Settlements are ringed with palisades and often built on defensible raised hilltops with watchtowers and fortified gates.

The overall structure of any town is a series of loosely defined rings. From the center outwards, there is the chiefs compound, nobles / wealthy compounds, residential and then craftsmen areas on the exterior nearest the walls. Graveyards are always located outside the compound and often far from the settlement entirely.

Many families live in extended series of houses separated by small palisades or fences, with private gardens and coops. The Chiefs compound itself can be quite large, with many relatives and servants living in long chains of wooden houses around a large central feasting hall.

### Art

Uric art is a highly developed visual language. It is primarily expressed through carving and the textile arts, especially weaving geometric patterns with brightly colored fabrics into the iconic cloaks that distinguish Uric men abroad. Uric carving is mostly either wood, of which there is plentiful supply, or petroglyphs pecked and etched into the glacial boulders that scar the landscape.

Art can be for personal enjoyment, or to deliver a deeper message like giving worship to a deity or marking a significant location.

### Religious beliefs

The Uric are animists, and believe every part of the natural world around them to be imbued with multiple layers of spiritual meaning. Much like the Tagka, they recognize universally a Mother Goddess, who they call Mahma / Mahmac depending on the speaker. She and her male aspect Bahmach form the creator Gods and supreme rulers, seen as embodying all aspects of the world. In addition, the Uric believe in a host of spirit-like beings called *Cani* that lie somewhat between a spirit and just a itemized piece of life-force. Every object has a Cani associated with it, and some multiple, one for each 'aspect' of the objects being. This includes humans and animals, though human Cani are worshipped through a ancestor cult somewhat like the Tagka but Uric ancestor worship is not nearly as central to their religion as it is in Tagka culture. The Uric also do not mummify their dead, nor engage in as grueling and elaborate initiation rituals.

The Uric engage in sacrifice as a way of appeasing the spirits. While only the shamans can directly speak to the spiritual world beyond their material aspects, ordinary people can pray to the spirits and hope that they will be listened to, though they cannot engage in any sort of dialog. To better their odds, lay people give offerings, usually of food or incense. Human sacrifice is nonexistent. While their are no qualms against displaying trophies of captured enemies, and the torture and execution of prisoners is commonplace, it is not carried out in a purely religious context. It is displays of martial prowess, not spiritual offerings, and no-one is captured with the sole intent of offering them to any spiritual entity.

### Burial customs

Unlike the Tagka, the Uric do not mummify their dead. Instead, they dig pit graves and lay the dead with possessions intended for use in the next life when they turn into Cani. The dead members of a individual clan are seen as bound to that clans representative spirit and its homeland as well as their individual family. The Uric believe a human Cani forgets what they were in their previous life, so they stock the grave with goods intended to remind them what they were, and to allow them to carry out their occupations in the spirit world, so as to guide future generations. A cobbler might be buried with replicas of his shoemaking tools so that in the spirit world, he can continue his practice and through his participation in the clans collective spirit, teach future generations of cobblers to perfect their craft.

Uric graveyards are quiet and humble. They are clearings outside a settlement with small mounds indicating individual graves. Powerful chiefs are buried in squat mounds topped with cairns, either inside the graveyard or in a separate area.

## Military

> *Main article:* Warfare among the Uric Peoples
>
>

## Technology, medicine, and material culture

### Dress and Appearance

The Uric peoples dress in layers at all times of year, with dense fibers and bark textiles being most common. Native plant fibers like *Yacha* and *Gudriro* are worked much like flax into tunics, trousers and cloaks.

The basic male outfit year-round is a long sleeved tunic that goes down to the knees with a thick edge and trousers. It also matches with leather boots and a distinctive thick cloth sash. While outside a long cloak is worn which can be wrapped around the body when sitting.

Men wear hats which are squat square or rounded caps made of barkcloth or fur turned inwards. They cultivate thick black beards with mustaches and long hair kept swept to the back. Women don't wear hats but will wear straw raincaps for inclement weather. Female dress is simple, being a long strapped dress of patterned cloth tied with a sash, and a cloak over the shoulders. They wear a plain long-sleeved shirt underneath that can be forgone in warmer weather.