Chien people

## Basic description

Chien (Chi-en) are a small kumiho tribe who speak the Mugvonhvo language. The origin of "chi" in their name is unknown, but the "en" stands for "people" in Mugvonhvo.

Chien are a mountainous people, living in the extremely hostile Fvong mountain range of Helvetya where a single misstep will lead to one falling for several kilometers and end with getting impaled on a sharp rock.

While most kumiho cultures tend to be violent and warlike, Chien spend their time farming and trading.

## Appearance

Visually, Chien look like any other kumiho, that is, they are all female fox people, with fur covering their bodies, and with snouts, paws, tails, and large canine ears. Some traits that are very rare to other kumiho are common to Chien. For example, they have very narrow eyes, more akin to megitsune than kumiho, their ears tend to be longer, and most of them have thicker gray or orange fur. Almost all Chien have orange or silver eyes.

Most of their attire is made from leather or wool. They tend to wear cloaks over their clothing, hiding both their arms underneath. They are picked on by other kumiho tribes for their overuse of buttons. Many also wear oddly shaped hats which appear to point in random directions.

## Culture

The landscape of their home makes it near impossible to support any larger settlements, leading to very scarce small towns here and there, but for the most part, Chien live solitarily in remote farmhouses or in nomadic tents.

Chien follow a different religion than most kumiho. It is one that is unique to them. While a lot about it is a mystery, it is known that Chien revere their ancestors and build temples across places they inhabit. These temples are often gathering grounds for trade and hook ups. Furthermore, when a kumiho dies, even if she is of another tribe, the Chien will encase the body in amber and place it within a temple for safekeeping for all eternity. Anyone may view the body of the entombed.

## History

The Chien were forcibly annexed into Tantvits' Shogunate. As their land is a logistical nightmare, Tantvits let them continue on with their lives as long as they would obey her and supply her.

At some point, one of the Chien, a troubadour known as Tienshvu the Songbird, united many of the her people and opposed Tantvits. Knowing that they could not actually win in a real war, the rebels were hoping that Tantvits would find it not worth the effort to maintain her hold on Fvong and that she would simply leave and focus elsewhere.

However, the Shogun was notoriously vengeful and saw this betrayal as the greatest offence. She let the Chien live peacefully under her and this is how they repay her? They would have to be punished.

Tantvits' response was swift and unsurprisingly cruel.

She invaded Fvong and rounded up countless Chien. According to legends, Tantvits had her soldiers massacre over 13 000 Chien in a single day. Approximately 60% of all Chien were exterminated in the coming weeks. Both rebels and innocents were indiscriminately targeted. Another 50 000 had their tails cut off, the greatest shame for any kumiho to endure. Chien temples were ransacked and destroyed, their amber clad deceased broken apart.

Tienshvu the Songbird was forced to watch the carnage unfold, was gang raped over and over again, and finally got disemboweled by Tantvits' very own claws, after which her agonized defeated expression was forever immortalized by being encased in amber, a mocking of the Chien's religious practice.

## History, aftermath

Soon after, Tantvits started a new campaign to reeducate the Chien. Their original culture and religion was heavily oppressed and outright criminalized. Instead of ancestor worship, Chien had to now pour all their faith into the Shogun herself. The Kutsanka script, used by the Shogunate, was enforced upon the Chien, which up until now had been using their own, called the Singing Script. All leaders of Chien had to be handpicked by Tantvits and were usually not even part of this tribe. The few towns that Chien had were razed to the ground and rebuilt in a style more akin to the rest of the Shogunate.

In addition, exploitation of natural resources, such as iron and amber, increased greatly and many Chien were put to work in the metal industry. Amber proved to not only be useful for jewelry, but also for lightweight and durable armour. As one might expect, encasing the deceased in amber was thenceforth illegal.

While they were unable to openly practice their culture, the Chien continued to do so in secret or in exile. Due to the terrain of their home, finding all the temples was impossible and so surely some must've survived the cleansing.

Chien in the Shogunate's armies are very few and are heavily bullied due to their past and culture. In turn, Chien that do pursue a soldier's path tend to become even more violent than normal kumiho. For the kumiho, strength is everything, and if you show any weakness, you will suffer for it.

## Tonal messaging

Besides their amber burials, the only thing Chien are really known for is their invention of a long distance communication method using singing bowls and other similiar apparatus.

As sending messengers on foot would be very dangerous and take forever Fvong, the Chien developed tonal messaging. These tones, or Yunfvon (Songs) as Chien would call them, would easily travel across the mountains. Each tone is a word and each melody a sentence or several.

Despite her disdain for them, Tantvits does employ Chien in her armies due to their secretive communications. Tonal messaging is barely understood by kumiho themselves, much less their enemies, and allows for easy communication between units. It also helps that kumiho have the most sensitive hearing of all Helvetyans and can hear sounds other species can not.

Since the Chien tonal messaging is only really known by the Chien, they use it to send coded messages to each other as well as insult the Shogunate. Several of the communication melodies used by the Chien are based on protest songs against the Shogun. Tantvits' Shogunate rarely finds out about these, but when they do, many Chien are executed.

The melody of one such song can be translated as the following, usually played on a fife:

"Thousand victories, thousand tails,

Yet alone the Shogun digs her grave.

When her crimson blood she sees,

Terror in her eyes, so embarrassing!

Thousand wails, thousand barks,

The Shogun by vultures torn apart.

Tantvitsvirda her name, the world's rejoice!

Tantvitsvirda her name, the world's rejoice!"