Gocebe

## The Göçebe

The Territories of the Göçebe are highlighted in purple.

The Göçebe are swarthy, short, thin people. Göçebe tribesmen are famous for their bison, 900-2500 lb hulking beasts provide everything the nomadic people need. From their food and drink to their clothes, tools and yurts. They’ve even been known to ride them from time to time. The Khaganate made the hard decision to break their longstanding neutrality after the Dominion demanded the annexation of a region of their territory by forcing debtors and petty criminals to settle them. The Göçebe are renowned for their way with animals, spending their lives alongside them. The Göçebe believe that humans and animals share the same soul, and that being reincarnated as a human is punishment for transgressions of their past life.

### Food

Göçebe people drink the milk of their herd (fermented and fresh) for a significant amount of their daily calories, the rest coming from wild vegetables, game and the flesh of their bison. On occasion, the kingdoms of the Rischnoy and Berglanders will allow Göçebe bison to graze on their land when it is time for planting. The bison will till the earth with their hooves and fertilise the soil with their waste.

### Recreation

Paan beetles are commonly chewed as a psychoactive drug. Chewing the lightly roasted beetle will produce a bright red saliva that is to be spit out. Paan beetles are found near anthills, digging conical burrows in the sand/soil to entrap them. Prolonged Paan beetle chewing can cause inflamed and receded gums and eventually loss of teeth.

### History

In a time before the written word, a tribal Halk people living in northern Gazar would reach the Continent, it is not known whether this was on purpose or by accident in a manner similar to the Rischnoy discovery of the landmass. Regardless it did not take long for these people to make the Continent their home, settling every temperate zone in less than 300 years.

They regarded this new land as a wild and mythical place. According to their oral traditions it was populated with giant beasts standing as tall as two men put together. As fearsome as these creatures may have been, they did not put up much of a fight, dying out around 700 years after the settlers first arrived. Over the millennia these brave people would not only kill one of the other giant beasts on the Continent, but domesticate them. It is in 1300 BT that the oldest Bison flute or Bukh limbe has been dated, suggesting they were probably in use even longer.

The Göçebe are a nomadic herding people, living off the land as sustainably as possible, as is their way. Long ago the Göçebe would find themselves embroiled in Continent-wide war between dozens of familial tribes. It wasn’t until a confederation between several powerful matriarchal tribes began working together that any one side could gain the advantage in the fighting. The consensus style electorate government that these early people would go on to form is still in use today. The First Great Khagan Urgulan Jargaal unified the Continent’s disparate tribes, founding the Göçebe Khaganate in 905 BT.

Everything changed after first contact. A peaceful people, the Göçebe were happy to allow foreign peoples onto their plains, not realizing that to the interlopers they were permanently ceding land. After being expelled from much of their ancestral lands the Göçebe decided to begin fighting back. After millennia of relative peace the Göçebe had not been exposed to the crucible that is constant war, therefore they were easily dispatched by the superior tactics of their enemies. In 264 BT a raid on a Rischnoy settlement kills a revered figure in the Triumvir religion, after several years of preparation the Rischnoy and Berglanders begin an organized extermination campaign of the Göçebe in a period referred to as the Büyük Kanama or the Great Bleeding.

A valiant fight ensued, the Göçebe learned much in the ways of war, developing their iconic horse-archer technique, though it was not enough. Over the next century the Göçebe would lose over three quarters of a million of their number, being pushed to little more than a rocky peninsula by the end of the conflict. With much of their herds slain and lands seized the Göçebe were relegated to a century of utter poverty and deprivation.

To the outside it looked like they were a beaten people, however they have merely been building their strength. In the year 95 AT, the thousand anniversary of the founding of the Göçebe Khaganate, they struck back at their oppressors. Managing to take back most of their ante-bellum lands in a five day period, the Göçebe presented the panicking Berglanders and Rischnoy a generous peace agreement. The sister kingdoms accepted, battered by famine and unwilling to continue the war during the Long Night. By the time summer returned, the Göçebe had resettled their lands and fortified them heavily. These borders still stand today, while the Göçebe continue to gather their strength.

In the year 210 AT the Göçebe encountered a series of Dominion settlements erected on their borders using prisoners and slaves to inhabit them. The decision over what to do next split the Khaganate into three factions that continue to fight for supremacy to this day. The Zehran Horde, a vengeful sect that endeavours to wipe all foreigners off the Continent for good. The Derya Khaganate, the legitimate ruling Khaganate at the time of the split, they wish to remain at peace, continuing to build their strength until they believe they are ready. And the Isran Khaganate, a pro-Dominion faction that wishes to ally with the DSPR. Many doubt whether they are sincere or not but the Dominion is willing to make peace with their government should they succeed in their civil war.

### Combat

A soldier of the Khaganate is like dust in the wind, engaging from afar and always with the element of surprise. Often using guerilla tactics and favouring mobile skirmishes to large pitched battles, they appear to be having the better of the DSPR, at least for the time being. Mounted archers comprise the majority of their forces, with lancers and heavy cavalry for chipping away at the flanks and attempting to bait the enemy out of formation.

### Governance

The Göçebe are a matriarchal society with each tribe maintaining a council of female elders who elect annually, by consensus, the tribe’s new Khagan. Expectedly, this results in considerable political scheming, infighting and instability.

### Contemporary Issues

By far the polity with the worst economy, Khaganate citizens want for much. Poverty is everywhere. Coats made from the skin of field mice are common and often Göçebe clothing and gear is several decades old. After the death of the last Great Khagan a civil war has raged over which of her three daughters will take her place. These Khagans and their loyalist armies pit tribe against tribe, spilling Göçebe blood while the Dominion marches ever onward.

Related topics

* Settlements
* Buildings
* People
* Homelands