Crows

## Description

Crow tribe are the chosen people of the barum crater tasked to guard the eclipse temple in the center of the crater.

### Appearance

Crow tribesman have slightly tanned skin on their exposed part with pale base coloration elsewhere. They generally let their black and straight hair grow long with the male members braid and arranges it to form a single bun on the back of their head while the female member let the braid hang down. Their average height is around 180cm for the male member and 165cm for the female member. Due to their diet, they generally have a pretty lean body and limbs.

### Ability

Crow tribe are blessed with the gift of eclipse in order to help them guard the eclipse temple. This blessing allowed them to be able to receive blessing and contact their loa, rasuka, in any time of the day without any penalty.

## Society

Crow tribe is led by two separate leader, one for governing the sigurs and another for governing the commonfolk. The society is focused on guarding the eclipse temple, either by being one of the sigurs or supporting the existence of the sigurs.

### Sigur

Sigurs are the monks of the crow tribe that function as guardian of the eclipse temple and other functions as dictated by rasuka. Only male members of the crow tribe are allowed to be a sigur. Recruitment started at the age of 5 and the recruits usually came from the sons of sigurs themselves. Fresh recruits started their service as acolytes and served the daily maintenance of the temple and the sigur order according to their capability. Beside serving, acolytes also receive various teachings about basic world knowledge and also religious customs. As they age, they receive more important task and knowledge until the age of 15 where they will be divided into various specializations: Warrior monk for acolyte with gift of physical capability and martial arts, Ceremonial monk for acolyte with gift of affinity to rasuka, Administrative monk for acolyte with gift of knowledge and expulsion for acolyte without any gift. After this placement, the aforementioned acolyte will be asked to take an oath to hold no land, hold no love and hold no wealth to officially become a sigur. Do note that even though a sigur may not love, he is not prohibited to lay with a woman and have a child. Children of sigur will not know the real identity of their father other than that he is a sigur. Any land or wealth obtained will be donated to the sigur order to be managed for their future expenditure.

Sigurs trained as warrior monks will be trained to wield the crow's beak. Crow's beak is a pole arm with a blade with the shape of a crow's beak at the tip. The blade can be fixed in two positions with the first position, the spear form, places the blade parallel to the shaft and the second position , the pick form, places the blade perpendicular to the shaft. The fighting sytle of the pick form is accompanied with a dagger in the opposite hand to compensate in case an opponent manages to bypass the tip. Aside from weapon training, they are also trained to abandon their senses by using a blinding mask. In the training process, the first sense that is taken from them is their sight, then hearing, smell, taste and finally even their touch. After they are able to fight without relying in any of their senses, they will be given their blinding mask and are now allowed to carry out their duty outside of barum. Even though the primary duty of sigur is to defend the eclipse temple, they also believed in preemptive strike. Should any other tribe or loa showed any sign of falling into the eclipse, Rasuka will brand them as heretic and then order the sigurs to embark on a purging journey. The warrior sigurs will come to the affected place, don their mask and then purge anyone branded as heretic by Rasuka. The purpose of this mask is so that they will completely rely on Rasuka to guide them in fighting their enemy. This way, they will not be affected by any doubt or distraction that may lead them away from their duty. Should a heretical loa manifest as an avatar, Rasuka will grant sigur the ability to banish said loa from this world back to their realm. Banished loa will be unable to interact with its people for a period of time, forcing both loa and its people to reflect on their previous action and to repent back to the correct path. In the very rare case of an avatar gone mad and transformed into a beast of loa, hunter association will contact sigur to join the hunt as they are the only ones able to save loa trapped inside.This is why the sigurs are also called heretic or loa hunters by other tribes and their arrival to a settlement usually serves as a prelude to that settlement's end.

### Commonfolk

Commonfolk of the crow tribe mainly composed of female member of the tribe because of the recruitment of the sigur order with approximate male to female ratio of 1:3. Most commonfolk worked as farmer in order to feed the whole crow tribe. Farming was done outside of the crater with crops that doesn't require much water or maintenance to grow. Other occupation may include craftsmen, blacksmith, builder, innkeeper and anything else that is needed to sustain life in barum crater.

### Food

Food of the crow tribe consisted of modest meals with minimal variation. They will basically eat anything that can be grown around the crater and any starch bearing crops will be ground to be flour and baked to become flat bread. Protein source came from dried meat traded from other tribes and desert locusts. This very low fat diet is why most of the crow tribesman have a very lean body. Once a year, they will be able to enjoy a sweet treat that came from desert beetle's secretion that burrows around barum crater.

## Relationship

Crow tribe is a member of the 12 rulers because of their duty as guardian of the eclipse temple but everybody know that its actually because of their ability to decimate entire settlements and banish any loa they deemed to be heretic. Because of this, every other tribe in the 12 rulers except komodos tried their best to be in the good side of the crow tribe by regularly sending tributes to barum. Any settlements that are purged by sigurs came under the control of the crow tribe and have to send tribute as well. These tributes are important to sustain live in the crater. Even though these tributes should be enough to give crow tribe a wealthy way of life, they stick to their roots and retain their modest way of life, investing any excess wealth for future need should the sigurs are ordered to purge another settlement or banish another loa.

Crow tribe's most prominent contribution in history and also what cemented their position as one of the 12 rulers is their help in the purge and banishment of the seastars during undersea tunnel liberation.

## Eclipse Temple

Eclipse temple is a massive fortified dome in the center of the barum crater that is used to seal the only leak which the eclipse loa could resurface from its imprisonment in the center of the world. From all of the various loa, only rasuka and its people was deemed worthy to carry this sacred duty to prevent eclipse loa's escape or any other tribes attempt to gain the power of eclipse. Eclipse temple also serves as the residence for sigur order and place of worship for rasuka.