Qavala

The qavala are a militant and pious race of seafarers from a distant continent. They resemble goliath tieflings, have skin the shade of iron and up to four curved horns on their heads. They are feared by many sailors, as they often rescue shipwrecked only to force them to convert to their religion.

The word Qavala derives from the words "Qav" and "Val", meaning "role" and "understanding" respectively.

### Society

All qavala are devoted to the Val. The Val is a set of of laws and philosophies which comprise the qavala's religion. It heavily relies on one's Qav, or role in society. According to Aban-Hissera of the Sea Viper, all converts are brought before the Arishok, a leader of some sort, and assigned a role based on his soul reading of them. The person is then placed into that role for life. The alternative, if they do not accept this role, is death. The concepts of ambition and personal desire are completely stricken from their culture.

Only a few roles are known to the party.

* Seeker: qavala tasked with travelling inland and learning as much as possible about the cultures who live their. It is unknown whether they are genuinely interested in learning about the world, or if they plan to use this knowledge for mass conversions and conquest.
* Rescuer: the most infamous of qavala roles, the Rescuers serve to capture stranded sailors and bring them before a converter. Rescuer ships are well known to attack weak looking vessels and plucking survivors from the wreckage.
	+ Jeb and Corn were two such converters aboard the Sea Viper.
* Saarebas: mages are a new concept to the qavala, who never lived in fear of the Revari. Rather, the only spellcasters they encountered in their history were the Vyrik, who bore neither ill will nor aid. As such, they initially greeted the arrival of arcanists as a gift, a new tool to aid them in their conquests. As their power grew, however, they soon began to fear their power would allow non-complacent qavala to break free from their Qavs. As such, they were all abound to stronger qavala, as if under permanent dominate person spells. Converters kept at least two on hand at any given time.
* Converter: the equivalent of a priest, converters serve as captains of rescue ships. Their mission is to explain the Val in a way relative to each person rescued. Following the explanation, they present rescued with a choice: convert or die. Despite this, very few have any higher understanding of the principles they have memorized, due to this not being their role.
	+ Aban-Hissera was a converter aboard the Sea Viper.
* Arishok: a leader of some sort who distributes Qavs.

As noticed by Bug during his encounters with the Qavala, he has never seen a female qavala. Simon assumed that this could be due to a system of gender roles within their strict society. How wrong they truly are...

### Vantorren

The Qavala homeland Vantorren is located in a subtropical continent far to the northwest. Historians in Edra Port have speculated that this could be the same landmass which once held the loxodon kingdoms, long before thye were enslaved and gifted to the yuan ti.

### Link to the Gith

Uweya, a master of the githvyrik style, stated that the githvyrik lived in Vantorren long before the qavala, and shared their understanding of societal roles with them. The qavala then went wild with it and made a whole religion based on it.

### Gaatlok

The qavala have one resource which baffles the residents of Ellegris: the black powdery substance called gaatlok. The qavala believe that they discovered gaatlok as a cosmic reward for their devout dedication to building the perfect society. Due to its raw destructive power, the qavala do not trust others with it. Despite this, a select few qavala have the authorization to exchange barrels of gaatlok for converts.

Gaatlok is made from a rare stone in Vantorren. The secrets of making gaatlok are well preserved, and any non-qavala who discover or steal them are hunted down and destroyed with their notes.