Chernpeshar Clan

The Chernpeshar are a dwarven clan, mainly of Black, Slate, Grey, and Auburn dwarves that lives in black sand (chernpesh) basins. They use the chernpesh to power the airships on which they live and carry their main export, glass.

## Mining

### Sand

The Chernpesh do not mine in the typical sense of the word. They collect the sand that they find under the black sand layer of the basins they inhabit, sometimes using trawling and suction, sometimes simply shoveling it into sacks.

Onboard the airship, they pour the sand into enormous furnaces that are usually used to heat the air inside the envelope of their airship. The sand is then melted into a bubling stew, then poured into molds. From these molds, they extract glass ingots, prized by glassblowers everywhere for being far more efficient than the typical "blow-as-you-melt" method.

### Chernpesh

They will also collect chernpesh in sacks, but not for export - it powers their airships via an internal combustion engine that turns the propellers.

## Family Life

### Airships

The Chernpeshar live in relatively small groups all inhabiting one airship, with about twenty dwarves per airship, all of them somehow related. The typical airship will have four grandparents, two parents, and sixteen offspring (again, dwarves reproduce rather rapidly). Most of the airship will be a storeroom, while the rest will contain one large cafeteria, a kitchen, several restrooms (wooden boxes that jut from the side of the airship and have small areas below - these are needed to compost and grow small amounts of beans in the farm onboard), a small farm with beans and barley, sometimes an office aboard the Deg's airship, and a sleeping area consisting of a large hall with hammocks hanging inside. The personal belongings will be stored in chests below the owner's hammock.

### Leadership

#### Deg

The leadership of a Chernpeshar Clan is usually left to a Deg, who leads a fleet of roughly thirty aircraft. His aircraft will be the largest, and in times of need a malfunctioning airship will be dragged by the powerful motor of the Deg's airship. The Deg will decide where the fleet goes, but the rules of each airship are decided by the elders, or grandparents, aboard.

#### Elders

The elders will punish those children who do not behave, plan for the collection of sands in various locations, and be the representatives from each family to the Deg. Usually, there are between two and four elders per family, one of which will be the representative (typically the oldest of the elders).

#### Emir

The Chernpeshar have multiple Degs in one basin, so to mitigate any disagreements between groups, there will be an independent Emir of the basin, living in a gigantic airship. When two Degs are in disagreement, the Emir will decide. Otherwise, he survives on tributes from the Degs. Any Deg who does not follow the rules or orders of the Emir is attacked by the others.

#### Shah

Across multiple basins, the Emirs are ruled by the Shah of the Chernpeshar. The Shah makes the laws on imports and exports to nations outside the Chernpeshar Nation. He is also the supreme judge, and will moderate discussions between Emirs. His job also entails nominating his representative to the Domain Council, and to make sure that tributes are payed to the Dwarven King. The Chernpeshar do not have an elector in the Domain Council.

### Food

The Chernpeshar survive mainly on their favorite dish - kurt'sh. Kurt'sh is a regional variant of jultuoush, made with the available beans, rice, and various bushmeats that the Chernpeshar can find in the scrublands. Rabbits, condors and vultures, lizards, and antelope are all minced and put to simmer in the tomato sauce and beans. The rice is added later, and sometimes the occasional delicacy - fish, bell peppers, pork - will be inserted into the mixture.

For breakfast, the Chernpeshar eat kurt'sh with lizards, which are easy to catch early in the morning, as they try to go out before noon. At noon, condors and vultures are the fare, while during dinner, multiple meats are placed into the mixture.