Kres Jah

The Kres Jah are a pre-Kepian culture that existed on the Kepian continent in the area now known as the Mason's Heart. Possessing a society centered around battle and conquest, they are very warrior-like, and wrecked havoc in Southern Kepia for most of the First Age before eventually falling to the combined efforts of the Bartel-Nuria Alliance.

## Geography

The Kres Jah are located on the southern end of Mason's Heart, though they existed as far up as the Low Greens during their height of power.

Despite technically being classified as a swamp, Mason's Heart has a landscape more akin to a loosely scattered canyon, containing large, irregular clusters of boulders which can very in sizes from as small as a person to as big as a large hill.

The area is connected to the Swallowed Isles in the north, ensuring a constant flow of water which renders the earth to be swamp-like for most of the year. Despite this, plant life is largely absent from the area as a result of the various toxic mineral deposits natural to the area making most bodies of water toxic and often times even corrosive.

Mason's Heart has many areas of high volcanic activity, which periodically erupt, evaporating the water turning the region into something akin to a poisonous sauna. Such harsh conditions typically are not survivable for long term human settlements, making life here especially difficult.

## History

Where as most First Age civilizations existed as hunter gatherers, the Kres Jah subsided solely through raiding and pillaging others. Originally coming into existence as a small group of bandits who were cast out of their homelands, they quickly grew to become the dominant power in Southern Kepia. Although they had a relatively small population, their proficiency in warfare allowed them to dominate in most conflicts.

Despite their military superiority, the Kres Jah policy of nonstop warfare would eventually lead to their downfall as more advanced civilizations began to come into being. The Wars of Creation saw the rise of the two prominent nations of Bartel and Nuria, who joined together to fight against back against the Kres Jah. This alliance pushed the Kres Jah out of their original land in the Low Greens, imprisoning them at the southern end of Mason's Heart.

The lack of natural resources in Mason's Heart combined with the Kres Jah's inexperience at the hunter gatherer lifestyle led to a final desperate attack against the alliance near the end of the Wars of Creation. The Kres Jah lost this war, and faded away over time.

### Historical Figures

#### Rulers

The Kres Jah never organized enough to have a ruler in the traditional sense. Instead of taking orders from a centralized king, they are more similar to a large collection of smaller tribes, each possessing their own hierarchies.

Although all falling under the name of Kres Jah, tribes usually will act for their own self interests, sometimes even coming into conflict over territory.

#### Legends

The original founders of the Kres Jah are legendarily known to be a group of four bandits:

De Leevi

Heliodaros

Dirkses

Vuokko

 Together, they would become infamous in the region, going on to gain more members and eventually taking the name of the Kres Jah.

#### Heroes

Secher De Leevi II was an acclaimed general who led the Kres Jah during the Battle of Maleso Valley, supposedly the closest the Kres Jah would ever come to achieving victory over the Bartel-Nuria Alliance. Fighting alongside him were a number of notable individuals, all of whom would become folk heroes in time.

#### Adversaries and Wars

The Kres Jah fell by the hands of the Bartel-Nuria Alliance, which was formed through the marriage of Queen Rexana Nuria and King Jeyant Oliver Bartel. These two are historically credited to be the main reason as to why the Kres Jah faded from history. In many cases, they often led the armies themselves, heading into battle hand in hand.

## Warfare

The Kres Jah are a warrior race, and its members typically all have at least some amount of combat experience. Chaos and battle is generally viewed to be the natural state of being, and the Kres Jah have always been at war with at least one nation throughout its existence. As technology and civilization advanced however, the Kres Jah would gradually be viewed to be less of an actual nation and more of a scattered collection of bandit parties. In particular, the unification of Kres Jah, Bartel, and Nuria under Vidir Aldean would not recognize Kres Jah sovereignty, thus excluding them from governmental positions.

## Technology

The Kres Jah existed in the early periods of the First Age and Wars of Creation. The lack of civilization advancement means that there was very little to no technological advances at all in Kres Jah society. In most cases, due to being more similar to a collection of bandit camps than an actual nation, any tech that did appear would have been brought in by outcasts of other, more advanced societies.

On the other hand, the mix and matching of various different technologies would eventually lead to the development of an unorthodox system of warfare unique to the Kres Jah, known as Magnian Warfare.

## Economy

The Kres Jah did not accomplish anything economically significant. As raiders, they lived primarily off of loot obtained through force from other nations. Any goods that did circulate between its peoples originate from other areas.

Buildings and architecture was undeveloped, generally consisting of tents, cave shelters, etc. In such cases, materials such as leather, straw, wood, etc, were mostly obtained through looting as well.

The government, in the rare cases where it did exist, was tribal in nature, with decisions often being made from votes by a council or tribune. Rules and laws would differ from group to group, and generally weren't enforced systematically.

## Manufacturing

Kres Jah manufacturing was very generic, consisting of a sort of mash up between a large number of other prehistorical civilizations. However, the unique conditions enforced by Mason's Heart during the latter half of the nation's existence did see rise to a number of unique artifacts.

### Energy

The hot and humid climate of Mason's Heart made it generally unnecessary and often times potentially dangerous to use traditional campfires for cooking due to the constant risk of heat exhaustion. Instead, the primary method used to heat food and water was through a naturally occurring mineral in the area known as Rebincant.

### Food

Mason's Heart does not have enough life to sustain a population through hunting and gathering alone. Instead, the Kres Jah get a large majority of their foods as tribute or loot from neighboring settlements. The humid, wet climate of Mason's Heart also makes it extremely difficult to store food, meaning that the Kres Jah diet typically consists of whatever a given tribe was able to obtain at the time.

Despite this, there does exist a small collection of plants an animals that can be found in Mason's Heart. Examples include bugs, occasional migrating birds, lizards, and most notably Uvanor Shrooms, which still remain as a staple food in the region to this day.

### Construction

The primary building materials used by the Kres Jah were stones and minerals. A lack of plant matter made it difficult to construct traditional wood and straw houses. Instead, members of a tribe would typically dig into the sides of large boulders, creating makeshift tunnels and interconnected villages as part of a large superstructure. This was primarily possible due to the large variety of stone and ore types that could be found in Mason's Heart. Softer ores such as Pulsant and Zyantum are nontoxic, porous, and could be dug out by hand with some effort, making them ideal homes in the hot, sauna-like environment.

### Textile and Clothing

The Kres Jah's transition from their native land in the Low Greens to Mason's Heart also came with a very distinctive shift in Kres Jah clothing. The lack of plants and animals in Mason's Heart to make clothing out of combined with the hot, sauna-like conditions meant that more often than not individuals during the latter half of the Kres Jah's existence typically went without clothing altogether, only wearing what they looted when they traveled out of Mason's Heart while looting.

Although traditional clothing was often ignored, the Kres Jah did make heavy use of body paint made out of crushed Zyantum due to its ability to absorb ambient moisture. As the paint absorbed water, it would become dense and heavy, eventually falling off the skin altogether.

## Government

The Kres Jah do not have a centralized form of government. Instead, individuals gather into tribes, the leaders of which dictate the laws for a given region. Such tribes differ greatly in power, and in some cases will even expand and conquer their neighbors.

Over the course of the Kres Jah's existence, a number of notable warlords have risen up and attempted to unite all tribes, but a lack in ability to govern and unify all these different societies resulted in failure every time. The most notable of these is Secher De Leevi II, who actually succeeded in uniting all the tribes into a single army, however he too failed after the Kres Jah's defeat at the hands of the Bartel-Nuria Alliance.

Although every tribe was different in its method of governing, a few notable tribes grew large enough to exert a significant influence around their local region, prompting nearby tribes to follow in their governing structure. These groups were more akin to city states, containing as high as tens of thousands of members.

## Culture

### Architecture

Kres Jah cities were carved out of stone. Due to the volcanic and seismic activity commonly found in Mason's Heart, most if not all signs of Kres Jah civilization have been wiped out over time. Although attempts have been made to preserve what few sites still exist, it is predicted that said remnants will likely disappear within the next century.

Although no notable structure still survive, the cave systems that the Kres Jah carved out are still present, and what little does remain is always found within such cave systems. The most famous of these caves is the Alcanbar Sprawl, where over 80% of all Kres Jah artifacts have been found in the past three decades.

### Cuisine

Cuisine remains as one of the few surviving remnants of the Kres Jah culture, primarily due to the difficulties in surviving Mason's Heart making a few key ingredients and dishes necessary to survival for any who lived there. Although no written records exist to trace modern equivalents back to their supposed Kres Jah roots, the traditions and recipes have been passed down orally, and many such linkages are supported by modern surviving descendants of the Kres Jah people.

Kres Jah cuisine is often seen to be the original style behind multiple other cuisines, including

See Kres Jah Cuisine.

## Religion

Based on the written records of Baltazar, the Kres Jah people had no centralized religion. As the civilization was originally founded as a gathering of criminals exiled from their homelands, there are also a large number of religions practiced by its various members. During the reign of individuals such as Secher De Leevi II and Totantah, major settlements tended to favor specific religions, but the Kres Jah do not have any significant history of discrimination against individuals due to religion.