Chonga Nation

Upon the equatorial savannas of Kendul
reside the Chonga Nation, a fierce and proud people known for their riding of
lions. Distinct from all their neighbors through the customs and strong ties to
their ancestral homeland, the Chonga have a deep and rich history and the most
powerful cavalry forces in the world.

## Geography

For the Chonga Nation, borders are a different concept, for as a naturally nomadic people, they are used to following the migration patterns of the herds of gazelles and zebra that they hunt for food. Physically, the geography is very homogeneous, with large, flat expanses of dry land with few trees and watering holes only appearing for half the year during the rainy season. Because of this, though, the Chonga have become expert map-makers, carefully charting out all pockets of resources and marking routes down to the very last detail. However, in recent times, with the genesis of new nations with stricter border policies, the Chonga have been forced into smaller spaces with set boundaries. Most of the savanna belongs to the Chonga, stretching from the equator all the way down to the negative third parallel in the stretch of land that exists in between the edges of the Wilds of Kendul and the shore colonies maintained by Etrein, which forms the entirety of their eastern border. These fronts are both areas of relative peace for the Chonga. Chonga people generally shy away from the density of the jungles, as it does not lend itself to the type of open hunting and warfare of the savannah, but they still honor the jungle as the mother of life and hold sacrifices to honor the spirits of the wilderness. In the east, they see Etrein as their friend and ally, often trading goods of the savanna with precious items obtained by the traders and pirates or working as mercenaries on Etreini ships. On their southwest border the savannah gives way to brush and there exists the tiny kingdom of Daiko, where the Chonga people find their closest ally. The two people groups consider themselves to be of the same ethnic origin, despite their difference in lifestyles, and the seasonal return of the Chonga to the brush is cause for great celebration in Daiko, often leading to festivals and exchanges of goods. To the south, the savanna turns into a desert, and the Chonga mark this as the edge of their influence, ceding the desert to their neighbor and enemy to the south, Shuiv Fros. However, while the two ethnic groups are radically different in linguistic and traditional influences, the wars of the past are long forgotten, and they largely just leave each other alone. The northern border is far more complicated, for though space past the equator is the savanna which the Chonga claim as theirs by right, the Vusani Empire has since expanded into the narrow stretch of savanna between the Okoto Mountains and the wilderness and holding onto it with military force, preventing the entry of Chonga people into the empire but also keeping the Chonga people within their borders from exiting. This has led to tensions between the two powers for years, and the Vusani threat has served as a unifying factor for the Chonga Nation, rallying sentiments against the empire and in empathy with the Chonga being held in the empire’s borders.

Generally, Chonga expatriates are limited to three or four places. Due to proximity and cultural similarity, the largest amount of Chonga people outside of the savanna by far inhabits Daiko. Crippled or disabled Chonga are often left to live in Daiko, where Chonga families seeking life partnership will also often flee, due to commonalities in language and more. Older Chonga men will often also retire here, or even just Chonga who prefer a more sedentary lifestyle. Chonga communities exist all over Daiko, and though they are very much looked down upon by nomadic Chonga, they still maintain many aspects of matriarchy and religion, even in second and third generations. Chonga men (and banished women) will also move to Etreini cities along the coast seeking work, leading them to travel all across the world in ships, and, because of this, it is not uncommon to see Chonga men even in in the Etreini cities on Emer. Some of these Chonga also experience the Call of the North travel to the Northern Territories, though this is extremely rare, given the limited population of Chonga. The most controversial aspect of estranged Chonga are, of course, the Chonga people held the Vusani Empire. For three or four generations, the Chonga here have been forbidden from raising lions (leading to them doing so in private or worshipping wild ones), and the Vusani have conscripted and scattered them across the empire. Even so, though, these descendants of Chonga will often still speak the tongue and practice the religion in their own ways (with some choosing to get lion tattoos) and some even escape the empire and attempt to return to the savannah, only to be rejected.

## Government

Because the Chonga Nation are more of a
confederation of two hundred and thirty-nine ethnically and culturally tribes,
there is no “central government” per say. However, the Chonga do still have
customs or rule that bind them together as a cohesive unit and by which most
tribes are generally organized. Very strict in terms of gender roles, all
Chonga tribes are divided into male and female subcategories. In Chonga society
women stay with the tribe that they are born into for life, but men are
expected to find their own way and wander between the various tribes. Thus, all
women born into a tribe are permitted to become part of the matriarchy when
they come of age (Chonga are generally expected to make their first kill around
the age of fourteen) compose the tribe’s central matriarchy, but men are only
ever caregivers and carriers of wisdom and knowledge. Though they may use the
knowledge they have accumulated travelling between tribes to offer advice, they
are never considered as part of the decision-making process, and their voice is
not counted in the process of achieving unity. In addition to hunting and
providing for the tribe, the matriarchy makes decisions for the tribe in terms
of dividing resources and conducting ceremonies by communal meetings where the
eldest (or most capable) woman acts as a moderator, helping all the matriarchs
work through their decisions until a general consensus (or something close) is
reached. Though all women have a right to speak, elder voices are generally
treated with more respect and given more weight when the group makes decisions.
On a more macro level, tribes are organized in a vague sort of vassal system,
where larger (most tribes split if they reach a size of one hundred and fifty,
but clan heads do not) tribes will fly distinct symbols (usually remains of
animals) prescribed to their clan, and smaller ones will fly those same items
to show their loyalty to the clan, but marked with their own tribe-specific
symbol. Men will often only move between tribes of the same clan and act as
messengers or news and wisdom, helping the clans to stay coalesced within their
specific identity. The current clans of the Chonga people are Zebra (composed
of ninety-eight different tribes), Gazelle (composed of fifty-two different
tribes), Rhino (composed of thirty-five different tribes), Giraffe (composed of
sixteen different tribes), Ostrich Feather (composed of twelve different
tribes), Bison (composed of eleven different tribes), Hyena (composed of eleven
different tribes), and the four clan-less tribes. Many tribes were historical
enemies, but, with the advent of the Daiko Reformations, a general peace has
settled throughout the savannah, and most conflicts are resolved not through
war, but through discussions conducted at the House of Elders, a sacred temple
built on the edge on the edge of the savannah by the Daiko Kingdom where elder
women too old for the nomadic lifestyle live out the rest of their days as
peacemakers, ambassadors, and functional leaders of the confederation of clans.
The House of Elders is also the gate through which all clans pass when entering
the Daiko Kingdom during the dry season, and it works in that sense to preserve
the peace between clans.

Because it lacks for a government, the
Chonga have no central institutions or even a military, but tribes that lead a
clan are capable of calling together all the tribes to unite as a military
force, and vassal tribes are often encouraged to pay dowries to their clan
heads. Similarly, all tribes (barring those on the brink of starvation) must
give some kind of gift when passing through the House of Elders in order to
receive the blessing of entry, making voluntary exchange the only kind of large
scale ‘taxation’ in the Chonga Nation. On a micro level, though, individual
property is not really considered to be a thing in a tribe, so no one person
can hoard all the food or all the grain for his or herself. Similarly, though
there is no written law code, tribes will generally work on the same moral
principals the punish acts on a case by case basis, usually with corporeal
punishment, and the highest crime for men being death and the highest crime for
women being banishment.

## Social Life

### Lion Riding

For a Chonga person, the most important
aspect in life is one’s lion. At the age of two, once it is sure a child will
survive, the child is spiritually bonded with a lion cub in a ritual ceremony known
as *Kulo*. From that moment onwards,
the two are bonded for life, with an empathetic and spiritual connection that
allows the two to work and feel in unison. This same connection also slows the
aging process of the lion, allowing it to age more in tandem with the human
(though lifespan for the lion is usually capped around sixty). Lions are all
given names, the same as humans, and will accompany their bonded human
everywhere, including in the hunt and in battle. If the human dies, the lion
will stop eating and mourn at the human’s grave until it dies as well, and
similarly, if their bonded lion died, any honorable Chonga would kill him or
herself afterwards. Because of this, Chonga social patterns follow those of
their lions, with women doing all the hunting for a tribe, and men staying to
set up camp and care for those incapable of conducting the hunt. Duties of men
also include healing arts, burial of the dead, the raising of children below
the age of twelve, mapmaking, and the message-carrying. Outside of this,
though, men serve a very tertiary function in the tribe, usually only staying
one or two years at the most before moving to another tribe, while women, on
the other hand, stay for life.

### Age Rituals

Age is also very important in Chonga
society, and is measured in the number of full dry seasons one has experienced.
At two, Chonga undergo their Kulo. At eight, they begin to train in archery and
other forms of the hunt. At twelve, both girls and boys are permitted to hunt
with the women of the tribe. By fourteen, it is expected that a Chonga will
have made their first kill, which signifies a coming of age and permits the
right to love. This is also the age at which boys become men and leave their
tribes for the first time. At thirty-six, women are permitted to retire from
the hunt and move to the House of Elders. Age also permits rank in society, as
younger members of the clan are expected to heed the judgement of their elders,
regardless of gender.

### Gender Relations

In Chonga society, there is no marriage.
Polygamy is generally the accepted way of life, and as fathers move from tribe
to tribe, most children are raised communally, leading to them having very
little attachment to their birth parents. Women who are weaning their children
are permitted to stay at camp for the hunt, but most tribes consider that there
need only be one mother for every two suckling babes, and that those farther
from their last birthing have a duty to come to the hunt. In addition, a baby
is permitted to drink human milk for only one year after its birth, after which
is may only drink lion’s milk. Because of this, parenthood is never seen as a
reason for sex, for while it is regarded as a holy and clean activity, it is
only an expression of the freedom of love within Chonga society. Homosexuality
is thusly widely accepted (though variations to gender norms are not). Because
marriage is not accepted, though, and men are never expected to stay in a
single tribe for too long, cases of couples falling too deeply in love to give
up their children do occur (albeit rarely), which will lead to tribe desertion
and the said couples taking their children into either Daiko or to one of the
four tribes that bow to no clan (because these tribes have fewer social
strictures and arrange based on merit and not gender).

### Ethnicity

All Chonga clans are ethnically homogenous
in nature, with the people being dark-skinned with mossy hair and yellow eyes. Daiki
is the only language spoken between them, and the only differences being in
clan dialects. Notably unique as a language, Daiki incorporates more consonants
than usual, including click sounds, and having few compound words, instead
choosing to build longer sentences. Chonga Daiki differs from Daiko Daiki in
that past and future tenses can also have suffixes added onto them to specify
season, and words for animals and natural phenomenon are more specific than the
archaic Daiko counterparts.

### Religion

Chonga religion is animistic in nature,
imparting morals through stories told about the animals of the world in oral
tradition, and recounting fictionalized versions of history (often using clan
animals as analogues for those clans). In Chonga religion, the greatest among
the spirits of animals is Lion, the hero, and she is often opposed by the
trickster god Hyena (who always gets his comeuppance), and most other animals
are usually just set pieces. Bugs and flowers are often invoked in the healing
process, and after death, it is believed that humans return to the dirt to
become lions and vice versa. The angels of Ka are seen merely as fellow animals
by the Chonga, for though their power is respected, they have never interfered
with Chonga life in a predominantly good or predominantly bad way. Some of the
more malicious and powerful angels are feared, but most Chonga experience
angels mainly when in Daiko, where they are buy and large benevolent. On the other
hand, though, the Chonga vehemently reject the Church of Angels from Etrein, as
to them it represents a threat to the stability of their culture, so the only
converts are usually expatriates or members of the tribes without clans.