Post-Sjittite Kiith Caste System

One of many common traits shared by the Empire of Gaennan, Essite Sjahaarate, Sajarate of Sharaad, Kingdom of Kalwaar, Kingdom of Othmaad, and the Nasaamid Nomads is known as the **Kiith caste system**, the cultural and sociopolitical system by which vast tribes and clans associate with one another and themselves. **Kiith** (plural: **kiith'id**) is a family, tribe, and house all in one, and such kiith could, potentially, have up to several million members across several star systems depending on the national identity or ethnic group. The marshal, economic, and scientific strength of an individual kiith may place it as a rival of kiith larger than itself, though its size is its primary quality that marks its overall social and political power.

A social structure reaching back to the pre-Imperial Sjittite fleet-tribes, the kiith has continued to survive through the millennia as a strong bond between individual and community. These tribal units hold such power over their members that inter-kiith feuds and even wars have begun over a slight or violence done to a kiith's most inconsequential member. In many kiith, these familial bonds are held as sacred as the gods and goddesses that worship.

## Kiith Caste System

"*The Roots support the Body. The Body supports the Heart. The Heart supports the Peak. Thus, the Mountain remains whole.*"
A Gaennid Proverb
The **Kiith caste system**, the system that embodies all of the qualities of what a 'kiith' is, derives from the same Ancient Sjittite word for "mountain," *kiith*. As described in the offered proverb above, each section of the "mountain" supports the part above it. In the proverb, the Roots are tradition and culture, which supports the body, the kiith as community, which supports the Heart, the elders, which supports the Peak, the kiith as a unified political body. Without the parts beneath, those above have no foundation. Without those above, the parts have no structure or meaning. With this interlocking, interconnected body, the kiith becomes whole.

Despite the wide and varying nuances to the societies that adhere to the Kiith cast system, it is as much a part of Essite, Gaennid, Sharaadi, Nasaam, and others' lives as a mountain is strong and unyielding.

### Composition & Structure

Regarding terms like ‘*tribe*,’ *clan*,' and ‘*house*’ are (in Post-Sjittite Languages) essentially the same, rolling both familial, community, and cultural connections into the socioeconomic and -political functions that such a body exerts over its members and the members of other kiith. However, when asked, kiith members will often cite the effect that the kiith as over familial ties over any other aspect of its function as a cultural, political, economic, or martial tool. It provides a certain structure and protection from the unknown, even if that protection is expressed through community and interpersonal connection.

The kiith caste system originates with the Kryssiad Sjit Naval hierarchy, starting with the allying of shipboard workgangs into coalitions based similar interests groups with bargaining power against a warship's chain of command before evolving into tightly-knit family groups. As ships continued to integrate based on these tight family groups, whole ships eventually coalesced into vessel-wide family. Some fleets even went a step further and became an entire kin-group itself, though evidence of such eventualities was rare and are still hard to come by, today, even as more descendants of the ill-fated monarchical thalassocracy.

A kiith is an arrangement of individuals based on shared either ideals, bloodlines, or oaths, or all three combined. They can range in size from a nuclear family to millions of members. Because of this specific origin, there is a unifying and similar hierarchy within every kiith consisting of:

* The *kiithim-fa* ("First Family," or "First Tribesmen"; primary kiith family unit)
* The *kiithim-ira*, a secondary or (depending on the size of the kiith) a council of secondary *kiithim* that hears disputes, makes recommendations, and offer counter-points to the *kiith-sja* and *kiithim-fa*
* The wide collection of lesser *kiithim* that have sworn allegiance and fealty to the *kiithim-fa*

At the head of the primary *kiithim*, and by extension the whole of the kiith, sits the *kiith-sja* (Komenspek: clan chief, tribal leader, house lord). Whereas kiith of the Sjittite Empire were focused on their utilitarian capacity, where a member's station was determined by a quasi-meritocratic system derived from their capabilities as both a leader and their skill, today's kiith'id rely on connections, wealth, personal influence, or (most likely) inheritance by bloodright. The *kiith-sja*, aside from acting as a general leader for their people, is also the face of their people to other kiith and their nation as a whole regardless of statehood.

### Non-Contiguous *Kiithim*

**Non-contiguous *kiithim*** are the splinters of a kiith that have moved far from home and the *kiithim-fa*. They are allowed to leave by the will of the *kiith-sja* for a duty that will most often permanently remove them from the majority of the kiith, such as establishing company branches in other systems, groups of *kiithim* drawn up for duty within a wider state military or dispatched as contracted mercenaries, or to muster or join trading caravans as nomadic merchants. Though they are no longer within reach of their *kiith-sja* and their rule, there will have been appointed local kiith leadership in their elder's stead.

As these large kiith'id propagate wherever their orders take them, mostly while settling on other worlds, stations, and systems, the non-contiguous kiith leadership will form into councils that regularly speak with the *kiith-sja* through available, local ansibles or via couriers if there is no ansible network available to them. This allows the largest and most powerful kiith'id the reach they often possess across the Deep between stars.

### Extra-*Kiith'in* Adoption

It is rare that those who are not Children of the Sjit are accepted into the kiith'id, but it is not unheard of. Most often it is through marriage, where an Outsider is brought into a kiith's fold through ritual, ceremony, and festival. This takes some time to be fully realized, as the request must go through the kiith's elders and then the *kiith-sja* for final approval with interviews and regular pleas to the Yaashite gods.

Sometimes, however, abandoned or orphaned children who are neither Sjittite in heritage nor genetics will be brought into the kiith as a member of a certain nuclear family. These children often have difficulties growing up in a culture and society that regards them with suspicion or distaste, but the kiith's community will make up for the racism and xenophobia the child experiences through their life. The kiith protects their own, regardless of their origin.

#### Servants Of The Kiith

In some instances, children brought into the kiith or even its *kiithim-fa* face other difficulties. Though they are inducted into the kiith as full *kiithim*, their genetic disposition places them far outside the perceived cultural bond that *kiithim* normally enjoy. The

#### The Illuminated Kiith

The Gaennid Kiith E'ossim (//; lit. "Tribsmen of Eos"), the kiith devoted to the Thuulian religion Luminism, is an example of the Forgotten coming together to form their own kiith inspired by the care and kindness shown by Thuulian Luminaries allowed to settle and preach within the Empire.

### Distinction Between Two Families

The concept of "family" is a vital part of Essite culture, though it is important to note the duality of the word in the Sjahaarate and make a clear distinction between the royal noun “Family” and lesser noun “family.”  Among Essites, one’s immediate family is as equally important as the collective Family (the larger community) they serve. The concept is further separated from the tribal kiith to bend a focus on a member's immediate community, which may include a collection of mingling kiith that serves to integrate different ideas and values to instill a stronger connection between one's immediate family and those around them.

### Significance Placed Upon The Kiith

Kiith within the Empire of Gaennaan, Kingdom of Kalwaar, and Kingdom of Othmaad (as well as a many obscure others) maintain a common propensity toward service to the kiith before the individual.

### One’s Ship Before All Others

Though as different as the Rahaabate of Sharaad and the Nasaam nomads are, these two widespread peoples both see kiith as confined to a singular ships or rarely spread across a full fleet.

## Controversy

Despite the noble metaphor painted by the Kiith caste system, it has historically been used as a tool to legitimize serious human rights violations throughout Essite, Gaennid, Sharaadi, Kalwaari, Othmaadi, and Nasaam history.

### Turabi

The Turabis (//; English: of the Dirt, Dirtborn), kadhari ( //; English: the Filthy)

### Kiith Markings

The most common tradition among all Gaennid clans is the use of clan markings, or tattoos applied to the face that easily identify a person belonging to a specific clan. In design, each clan marking is geometric and symmetrical featuring simple shapes such as lines, circles, squares, rectangles, and diamonds of varying sizes that may or may not be filled.

These markings will also allow someone to see the physical genealogy of a clan’s existence. As a general rule, the simpler a marking, the older the clan. New clans born from a conjoining of two different clans, the clan’s marking will build upon the markings of those clans that came before them.

### Important Minor Kiith'id

Words.

**Kingdom of Kalwaar**

**Kingdom of Othmaad**