Zeugridas

The Iskuzai of the East, the most influenced by the Etoi customs, are called **Zeugridas**, and matriarchal traditions usually guide their cities. All the Zeugridas boast of being descendants of Zeugro, the Hermaphrodite, the first fruit born from the union of an Iskuzai King and an Etoi Matriarch: Auleo the Cartographer and the fair-cheeked Autonoe.

## Society

Typically the Zeugridas cities are ruled by a female oligarchy or a diarchy of tyrants. War affairs are handled by women or, in some cases, by skilled mercenary captains hired thanks to the queens’ vast wealth. It is said that all the ruling phratries of the Zeugridas descend from the firstborn hermaphrodite of Autonoe and Auleo, a legendary figure whose cult is celebrated in Zeugreion, a temple inside every city where the matriarchs, in accordance with ancient customs, are to offer lavish sacrifices.

The Zeugridas represent a peculiar case of cultural syncretism. Despite maintaining the typical social structure of the Iskuzai, the descendants of the Hermaphrodite gradually adopted Etoi customs and traditions. However, their heritage did nothing to endear the Zeugridas to the Thiasoi society.

On the contrary, they are at best not distinguished from the Iskuzai usurpers, and at worst are condemned as the descendants of the traitorous matriarchs who preferred surrender to fight.

## Religion

The cult of Dodekathia is widespread among the Zeugridas; however, the reverence for the Double-Crested Panther is often replaced with the veneration of ancestors and ancient Paratestoi. For example, among the powerful Acamantidai of Beitris, the cult of the founder of the lineage, the Matriarch Acamante, is mixed with the devotion for the sacred beast called the Bronze Moray, protector of the thiasos that once reigned in that region. Among the Zeugridas, those who have distinguished themselves by acts of extraordinary courage or devotion are defined as Parasarkos, which means 'close to the flesh', in the sense of 'close to thedivine substance of our Paratestos'. This belief is implied by another: the Zeugridas are among the few communities of Iskuzai origin to embrace the idea of the reincarnation of souls. This privilege is thought to be reserved only for those who, having mystically become one with the totemic animal, will return again to the world to guide their phratry in a perennial cycle.

Although it rarely happens, some receive the title of Parasarkos while still alive. Their bodies are ritually tattooed with sacred drawings that mysteriously resemble the hieroglyphs of the Hattusas of Pesimar and other northern islands.

### Festivities

Influences from both the Iskuzai, with their rhythmical structure of the calendar and predilection for ritual challenges, and the Etoi, whose ceremonies are marked by exceptional rigor, helped to develop among the Zeugridas a tradition of sacred seasonal contests of enormous importance – the Megagona. During these great communal rites, the Zeugridas cities compete for the right to exploit fertile land and mineral resources, the possession of which belongs to the victor until the next cycle of competitions. This custom allows the Zeugridas, troubled by inner feuds dating back to the time of the Coastal Eparchies, to challenge each other and to resolve disputes without breaking the bonds formally imposed by the Aulea Pact. The most important of these ceremonies is the biennial Great Erinthian Struggle, fought by the major cities built along the Sacred Road that winds from Beitris to Iapitos. Many political and economical agreements depend on this venerable competition: trade duties between the cities of the region, the sharing of the gifts brought by the pilgrims in the temples erected along the Sacred Road and exploitation rights over the Red Quarries, the richest gold mine in south- eastern Askedoria.

Although potentially fatal, unlike the Cicada Games, Megagona are coded in such a way as to prevent death or mutilation of athletes. However, a dire fate may still await the defeated: they are not infrequently forced into exile or condemned to slavery by their angry fellow citizens. The victors, instead, receive honors and prestigious titles when they are free, or they bring riches and glory to the Phratry of their masters when they are slaves.

## Language

In the Zeugridas cities it is common to use the Classic Black Etoi vernaculars as well as Amphilos, the most widely spoken of the Iskuzai dialects, but both of those contaminated with the aspirated consonants and rhythmic pauses of the Hattusas language. To the ears of those who are not used to this mixture, the Zeugridas dialect often sounds like a lament.