Gauvajuts

The **Gauvajuts** are a human ethnicity that lives at the central part of the continent of Palkyras.

## Physical appearance

The Gauvajuts have tan to brown skin; dark, wavy or curly hair; and they green to brown irises.

## History

See also: Assuwas, Sixteen Dancers, Gauvajut Empire

The Gauvajuts built an enduring civilisation that lasted for thousands of years, if not millions: from the dawn of recorded literature to the first proper modernisation of humanity. However, their latest empire was notorious for its experimentation of humans to make itself more "perfect".

The Londurilli, their spacefaring kin, sometimes contacted them, only to avoid and condemn them during the Sixteenth Age for the latter's attempts to dominate all of humanity using the Human Sanctification Project.

They were later conquered by the Vozonids, and now most of them exist as a priestly caste.

## Culture

See also: Gauvajut glossary, Gauvajut mythology

### Traditions

Gauvajut culture is very ancient and sophisticated, having thrived and endured for thousands of years since the dawn of the world.

Gauvajut culture prizes wisdom, discipline, self-control, justice and honour: it looks down on brutality and aggression, except to destroy evildoers who have committed great ruin. However, some Gauvajuts try to avoid superstition as something that holds people back.

In Gauvajut culture, punishments are based on the amount of harm any one deed can cause to society. A pickpocket would only be beateb, and shunned from the public until the victim proves that he has returned what he had stolen; a liar would be jailed for a few days; a blasphemer would be forced to clean the streets for a week.

But one who murders even one innocent life (instead of a great criminal) is killed; a traitor is exiled for simply hatred against his country, or killed for even one person put into danger by his actions. In some cases, criminals shunned over certain crimes would end up becoming slaves of their victims, only freed when they returned the appropriate amount to their victims.

Among the traditional symbols of Gauvajut culture include spinels, gryphons, and khopesh swords and axes.

Purple is the traditional colour among the later and modern Gauvajuts, so they were permitted in Vozonid cultures to wear and use purple.

### Destruction of fraud

In Gauvajut religion, fraud, especially scams involving the theft of money, is considered as an unforgivable sin, right next to sexual abuse. Not only are fraudsters killed to prevent them from escaping, but their souls are believed to be doomed to eternal condemnation for causing so much harm to their victims.

If a fraudster did his crimes to support his family, any members who survived by the fraudster's wages will also be executed, their souls eternally condemned to Hell with the fraudster. However, while the fraudster himself will be doomed without any cure, relatives could find ways to avoid being killed.

To avoid execution or murder over connections with fraudsters, relatives are required to turn themselves over to authorities or peers to be investigated, and proven innocent. They could also immediately turn the fraud-making relative over to be killed, and be spared. Or, they must pay the exact amount back to a victim, and they would be under observation in order to be forgiven. In ancient times, relatives who returned anything to the victim were also beaten or lashed, to frighten them into never accepting such an act ever again.

On the other hand, family members who defend a fraudster and refuse to punish them were also killed with the fraudster. This was a policy during the Gauvajut Empire to force all people to expose every scammer in the realm.

## Trivia

* The Gauvajut people were inspired by the Hittites and pictures and videos of Syrian refugees.
	+ The Gauvajut obsession with justice and hatred of fraudsters seem to allude to the Hittites' laws. Unlike the historical Hittites, who avoided the death penalty, the Gauvajuts were more cruel, seeking to totally eliminate and torture the worst evildoers. Brutal punishment against the worst evildoers is considered to correspond to how much harm they have committed against society.
* The name "Gauvajut" was influenced by the Old Persian word *kaufa*, which means "mountain".