Diggers/Society

## **Diggers In Society**

### **Samhon**

If there could be said to be a nation where diggers are in open positions of power it is Samhon territory. Elsewhere they live wherever they can manage to fit into the margins. Sometimes they are more tolerated or even considered proper citizens. But in Samhon the country caters to Digger sensibilities. The political powers of the nation bend to the rise and fall of digger families and the economy of the entire territory is built around the needs, exports and imports of the digger dynasties. Here diggers live free as they wish, and as might be found ironic it is here that they are the most bloodthirsty and ruthless with one another, needing to appease no higher authority the digger families of Samhon are merciless and strike down any family which cannot prove itself strong enough to cost the attacker too dearly. Emissaries are still present but they exist as the voices of their families to the surface folk and spies against the other families, ensuring that no family trespasses against the inhabitants of the surface or secures too much exclusivity with trade on the surface.

### **Kingdom of Abun**

Abunese Digger clans keep prodigious numbers of emissaries to conduct business, observe rituals and ingratiate themselves with authorities. These figures boast slender bodies toned and svelte and skin held taught with artful piercings and silk ribbon weaves. The Abunese Digger Emissary favors black veils with leather 'false ears' integrated into a head dress. They participate in all rituals of cleanliness as required and also all required religious activities. It would be hard to argue that the average Abunese Digger Emissary is not at least socially devout if not even occasionally zealous (they favor worship of Nyar and Risia although they are prone to depicting both as female it is a rare Digger who worships Say'Rada).

Abun Diggers favor the night life, or staying indoors if business must be conducted during the day, places with a large digger family tend to have thriving businesses and facilities kept open after sun-down so that Digger Emissaries can enjoy more revealing clothing styles without risking scorching their sensitive skins in the sun.

The most common caste in Abunese Digger Families is of course that of workers, who generally take up jobs and positions negotiated by their emissary sisters to either perform irrigation, farming or maintenance of the waterworks. A digger family is a boon to their neighbors in abun, making clean reliable water considerably more affordable to even the poorest families. The natural animosity between the families is kept considerably less overt and generally shows more as highly competitive 'clan businesses' who will strive to price gouge or 'push out' competition in any given area. In Abun a battle between Digger families for the business of the populace is generally nothing but a good thing for customers and leads to ludicrously cheap labor and goods until one of the clans manages to be pushed out of business.

Almost all Diggers In Abun politely avoid bringing up the topic of males, fathers or the practices of their mothers and generally make every effort to discourage any none diggers from entering their homes, for social niceties they keep a 'meeting apartment' which respects Abun sensibilities which acts as a gate to their 'real' homes. Nearly all digger families plead the use of Tokayapriests for the Sarenasha ritual, claiming that their fathers and uncles have long since passed (which is generally true).

There are however twelve relatively small digger families who fully embrace the entirety of Abun belief regarding sexuality and religion and have a tense arrangement with one another to ensure that their sons are 'exchanged' to prevent the committing of sacrilegious mating of son to mother. They are also the only diggers to perform the Sarenasha ritual with male family members, an experience which is extremely harrowing for young emissaries who fear becoming mothers before their time.

Most prominent of these families is **Taikal** from whom was born **Guwah Tia'Athi**.

### **The Ge'Za Tribe**

Digger Families who are consistently visited by the Ge'Za make the effort to integrate emissaries into the tribe in the form of tailor prepared emissary wives poised for whatever tribesmen they can seduce. The arrangements are usually purely pragmatic ways to link the family's interests with the far reaching nomadic Ge'za but in exchange the Ge'za tribe can count on food and support from the allied digger family for as long as she is treated well. However it tends to turn these tribe wives into very hard and fearsome creatures compared to the usual demeanor held by sisters of the emissary caste. They often will be required to live for years or decades away from their family with only small or no escort of their sisters for company.

Such emissaries are notable among diggers for almost always becoming accomplished horse-riders. Honing the skill of moving as one with the beasts and supplementing their blindness with careful training of the mounts. It is not unheard of for a digger 'tribe wife' and any warrior caste sisters she might have as escort to be highly accomplished warriors on horseback. This of course usually must wait until after her husband inevitably dies of old age and leaves her with whatever inheritance and ownership that entails.

The result are monstrous shrouded figures with elegant bodies hinted at beneath shear black silk who ride through their foes cutting them down with long bladed spears fighting as if united to their steeds into a single ferocious creature.

However these blind warriors are dependent on a close bond with their mounts and years of careful training from foal hood is required to be able to create a horse-to-rider pairing that can effectively work together for battle.

The death of a mount of one of these warriors is like the loss of a warrior until a new replacement horse can be trained.

It is extremely rare but not unheard of for a tribe wife to manage to become pregnant if her husband is particularly long lived and persistent and she manages to stay away from her family for a long period of time. This is thankfully a tremendous fluke as Diggers almost never breed successfully with other peoples even when fertile, but even so it has happened in the past and spawned horrific camp fire stories and legends. The results of such unions are not believed to have founded any successful digger families.