Welcome to Gaia! ::

The native people of Telk and the surrounding area are based heavily on North America's Native American people, generally speaking. They are very nature-conscious people who focus on existing within the world without causing unnecessary disruption to the life of the plants and animals. They find it very important to know the relationships between everything natural in the world and they are very spiritual, believing heavily in spirits, life energy, and magic.

There are several different colonies throughout Telk, but all colonies exhibit the same sort of culture for the most part. Variation can be found mostly in storytelling, gods that they worship (and how they worship), and dress but their core beliefs and colony structure are almost universal.

::Colony Structure::

The standard colony will have a ruling pair, warriors, hunters, cooks, children, storytellers, nurses, teachers, elders, 'unemployed', and a shaman or two. Colonies range from a single family to dozens of families, upwards of 100 or more individuals and work together for daily life needs (hunting, farming, etc). Males and females are treated equally in most colonies, but certain positions garner more respect than others. Most colonies exist peacefully, both within the colony and with neighboring colonies but there are always exceptions.

Colonies are run by a male and female pair who act as the ruling party in terms of how colony-wide decisions are handed down and their say is almost always the last word. This position is not passed down through family, so when the elected ruling individual passes away, a replacement will be selected from the members (which may even be the partner of the deceased. If not, the remaining person will step down). That person then bring their significant other up with them into the role of leading pair. If the elected has no SO at the time, it is assumed they will find someone to fill that need out of obligation. Dissolution of the pair will result in the elected person keeping their role and the other will be demoted in most cases, though rare cases will allow both members to remain as a ruling party and can result in two ruling pairs who work together. Ruling pairs can stay in power until their death, but many choose to relinquish their power when they are no longer physically able to perform standard tasks like manual labor, hunting, cooking, etc efficiently.

While the ruling pair is the final say, most will not act on anything of colony importance without consulting the shaman(s) and getting their blessing. In a way, a shaman outranks the ruling pair because most will not do anything that goes against the wishes of the shaman, fearing retribution from the spirit world, but they are under no real obligation to listen to the shaman either. A shaman is considered to be the most nature and spirit sensitive human in the colony. They are the one who is sought out for advice about anything and everything. Shaman consult the spirits through various methods, depending on their preference. Depending on skill, a shaman can be regarded as a mentally insane hermit or a magically gifted asset of the community.