|History
Original K'N History:
Quote:
Every new beginning is some other beginning’s end, as the saying goes, and for the Kunanda’Nakhun – they marked the ending of a legacy by the name of the Purahka.
The Purahka pride was one of ancient origins, flourishing in a land lost over time on the tongues of storytellers, though a variety of names now exist for it. They were renowned for their strength and tact, breeding some of the most skillful hunters and warriors existing at the time. Outwardly, they had the strength and force only dreamt of in stories. Inwardly, they were crumbling at the core.
As is customary among many of the royal bloodlines of ancient, long forgotten prides, the royal family had led itself to inbreeding for many hundreds of years. Near the end of their reign, the royal family had begun to produce weak offspring that were more often than not troubled of the mind. Only years before the end of the Purahka, the pride saw its last true king and queen – two young cousins who, despite their misfortunes, were deeply in love. Sadly, because of her sickliness, the queen died giving birth to her one and only cub – a son that would one day become the last heir to the throne of the great kings. The king named this son Idbar’Shamat, a cub that was considered unlucky from the day of his birth, and a cub that would one day grow up to spread his bad luck like a wildfire.
When Idbar was little more than an adolescent, his father died from the grief and madness that had swept over him at the death of his beloved queen, and Idbar was named the new king of Purahka. It could be blamed on the fact that his father never paid him very much attention, or on the fact that his genetics had made him slightly mentally unstable, but young Idbar was a lion with a taste for blood and gore. He often stirred fights among his own pride just to see a pair of lions rip one another to shreds or he would give someone an impossible task with the threat that failure meant execution. Unsurprisingly, females were more often the victim of these games than the male warriors simply because of the preference in Idbar’s demented thoughts. Idbar himself went unchallenged for a very long time despite the whispers stirring among the members of the pride. He would continue his merciless rule until the fateful day that he pushed those tactful lionesses just a little too far.
Idbar had seen quite a few of those two-legged creatures in the forest of their lands early one morning and his twisted mind immediately decided he should pit a group of lionesses against them in order to test their strength. Most animals, by instinct, steered clear of these two-leggers, but Idbar had a rather corrupt thought process and a little less instinct than one usually came by with lions. With a wicked grin, he gathered up a particularly crafty group of lionesses and told them they must bring back a two-legger or they would all be exiled to the far reaches of the pride lands where there were larger and more violent creatures than these two-leggers themselves. Now this may have seemed little more than his usual game, until one takes into account that one of these females was none other than a lioness, Vipatti, who had professed her love to Idbar – the lioness that many believed he would take as a queen since no females remained of royal blood. Perhaps he had just been testing her, trying to make sure she was worthy of ruling with him, but whatever the reasoning behind his thoughts, it all ended in disaster.
Not long into their hunt for these two-leggers, the lionesses began to feel uneasy. The animals of the forest were stirring more than usual, frantic and unnerved, and the instinct of the lionesses themselves screamed for them to leave. Many turned back, becoming to unnerved and unsettled by their own instincts, but Vipatti kept going – and so did those loyal to her. As they went deeper into the forest, deeper into the heart of this evil feeling, the surrounding area began to grow warmer. Ahead of them they could see light flickering, great light – but they could also hear the screams of two-leggers. The last lions with Vipatti turned away, begging her to come with them, but Vipatti would not be turned away from her one chance to prove herself worthy of Idbar.
These lionesses began to head back out of the forest, but as they went, a roaring noise began to build up behind them. When they finally turned around to look, the forest had caught fire – probably from something those two-leggers had done. They began to run, knowing it was already too late for Vipatti, trying to save their own lives. Once they had passed the edge of the forest and found the rest of their group, they had all suffered scorches and burns from falling limbs and twigs. They did the inevitable and went back to face Idbar. When he was confronted, for long moments he sat in silence, almost as if he might grieve for Vipatti. Then, with a sudden burst of rather maniacal laughter, Idbar condemned them all to exile while exclaiming that Vipatti just wasn’t cut out for a Purahka way of life.
Outraged, the lionesses of the pride all came together and developed a plan to dispose of their young, corrupt king. By now, even the males had begun to disapprove of Idbar’s actions but they still did nothing. It was no matter, for as the night fell over the lands of Purahka, the tactful hunters the pride was so renowned for formed together for their greatest hunt – their king. They surrounded him on all sides with the shadows as their curtain, knowing that more than one of them could fall from fatal wounds. As he noticed that first pair of yellow eyes staring at him from the darkness, he began to laugh and he continued his laughter even as they fell in upon him with claws and teeth.
Many say that they carved him up, left him intact, but mangled his body with a wound for every sin he had ever committed against a lioness. Others say that they ripped him to pieces and threw him to the scavengers, letting the lowest creatures of the food chain have a meal fit for a king. Whatever the case, he was slaughtered, and since then no male has taken the throne. From among the lionesses, two queens were chosen to rule in his stead and the males of the pride were condemned for being almost as guilty as Idbar himself. Throughout Idbar’s reign of terror, not a single one of them had stood up for a lioness, be she family or friend. They had allowed him to torture and slaughter at his whim and they would pay for it in this life and the next and for as many lives as it took for them to repent their sins. The males that chose to remain with the reformed pride that these lionesses now called the Kunanda’Nakhun believed the lionesses were right and accepted their place in hope of one day being saved from their sins.
The lionesses fled their homelands, seeking a place far away from the tainted land of Idbar, and for many years they were a nomadic group. The original lionesses that overthrew the king died and left their children to lead on until many generations later found them nestled in the heart of the jungle with their new way of life already the norm.
Many have come to believe that perhaps that this historical legend had its events exaggerated as the story passed down from generation to generation and that some of the minor details such as names and locations have been lost to time entirely. Regardless, this is the history they know and follow, despite any exaggeration.
The Purahka pride was one of ancient origins, flourishing in a land lost over time on the tongues of storytellers, though a variety of names now exist for it. They were renowned for their strength and tact, breeding some of the most skillful hunters and warriors existing at the time. Outwardly, they had the strength and force only dreamt of in stories. Inwardly, they were crumbling at the core.
As is customary among many of the royal bloodlines of ancient, long forgotten prides, the royal family had led itself to inbreeding for many hundreds of years. Near the end of their reign, the royal family had begun to produce weak offspring that were more often than not troubled of the mind. Only years before the end of the Purahka, the pride saw its last true king and queen – two young cousins who, despite their misfortunes, were deeply in love. Sadly, because of her sickliness, the queen died giving birth to her one and only cub – a son that would one day become the last heir to the throne of the great kings. The king named this son Idbar’Shamat, a cub that was considered unlucky from the day of his birth, and a cub that would one day grow up to spread his bad luck like a wildfire.
When Idbar was little more than an adolescent, his father died from the grief and madness that had swept over him at the death of his beloved queen, and Idbar was named the new king of Purahka. It could be blamed on the fact that his father never paid him very much attention, or on the fact that his genetics had made him slightly mentally unstable, but young Idbar was a lion with a taste for blood and gore. He often stirred fights among his own pride just to see a pair of lions rip one another to shreds or he would give someone an impossible task with the threat that failure meant execution. Unsurprisingly, females were more often the victim of these games than the male warriors simply because of the preference in Idbar’s demented thoughts. Idbar himself went unchallenged for a very long time despite the whispers stirring among the members of the pride. He would continue his merciless rule until the fateful day that he pushed those tactful lionesses just a little too far.
Idbar had seen quite a few of those two-legged creatures in the forest of their lands early one morning and his twisted mind immediately decided he should pit a group of lionesses against them in order to test their strength. Most animals, by instinct, steered clear of these two-leggers, but Idbar had a rather corrupt thought process and a little less instinct than one usually came by with lions. With a wicked grin, he gathered up a particularly crafty group of lionesses and told them they must bring back a two-legger or they would all be exiled to the far reaches of the pride lands where there were larger and more violent creatures than these two-leggers themselves. Now this may have seemed little more than his usual game, until one takes into account that one of these females was none other than a lioness, Vipatti, who had professed her love to Idbar – the lioness that many believed he would take as a queen since no females remained of royal blood. Perhaps he had just been testing her, trying to make sure she was worthy of ruling with him, but whatever the reasoning behind his thoughts, it all ended in disaster.
Not long into their hunt for these two-leggers, the lionesses began to feel uneasy. The animals of the forest were stirring more than usual, frantic and unnerved, and the instinct of the lionesses themselves screamed for them to leave. Many turned back, becoming to unnerved and unsettled by their own instincts, but Vipatti kept going – and so did those loyal to her. As they went deeper into the forest, deeper into the heart of this evil feeling, the surrounding area began to grow warmer. Ahead of them they could see light flickering, great light – but they could also hear the screams of two-leggers. The last lions with Vipatti turned away, begging her to come with them, but Vipatti would not be turned away from her one chance to prove herself worthy of Idbar.
These lionesses began to head back out of the forest, but as they went, a roaring noise began to build up behind them. When they finally turned around to look, the forest had caught fire – probably from something those two-leggers had done. They began to run, knowing it was already too late for Vipatti, trying to save their own lives. Once they had passed the edge of the forest and found the rest of their group, they had all suffered scorches and burns from falling limbs and twigs. They did the inevitable and went back to face Idbar. When he was confronted, for long moments he sat in silence, almost as if he might grieve for Vipatti. Then, with a sudden burst of rather maniacal laughter, Idbar condemned them all to exile while exclaiming that Vipatti just wasn’t cut out for a Purahka way of life.
Outraged, the lionesses of the pride all came together and developed a plan to dispose of their young, corrupt king. By now, even the males had begun to disapprove of Idbar’s actions but they still did nothing. It was no matter, for as the night fell over the lands of Purahka, the tactful hunters the pride was so renowned for formed together for their greatest hunt – their king. They surrounded him on all sides with the shadows as their curtain, knowing that more than one of them could fall from fatal wounds. As he noticed that first pair of yellow eyes staring at him from the darkness, he began to laugh and he continued his laughter even as they fell in upon him with claws and teeth.
Many say that they carved him up, left him intact, but mangled his body with a wound for every sin he had ever committed against a lioness. Others say that they ripped him to pieces and threw him to the scavengers, letting the lowest creatures of the food chain have a meal fit for a king. Whatever the case, he was slaughtered, and since then no male has taken the throne. From among the lionesses, two queens were chosen to rule in his stead and the males of the pride were condemned for being almost as guilty as Idbar himself. Throughout Idbar’s reign of terror, not a single one of them had stood up for a lioness, be she family or friend. They had allowed him to torture and slaughter at his whim and they would pay for it in this life and the next and for as many lives as it took for them to repent their sins. The males that chose to remain with the reformed pride that these lionesses now called the Kunanda’Nakhun believed the lionesses were right and accepted their place in hope of one day being saved from their sins.
The lionesses fled their homelands, seeking a place far away from the tainted land of Idbar, and for many years they were a nomadic group. The original lionesses that overthrew the king died and left their children to lead on until many generations later found them nestled in the heart of the jungle with their new way of life already the norm.
Many have come to believe that perhaps that this historical legend had its events exaggerated as the story passed down from generation to generation and that some of the minor details such as names and locations have been lost to time entirely. Regardless, this is the history they know and follow, despite any exaggeration.
The Kunanda'Nakhun thrived for many years before fate forced them to disperse, and the pride scattered to the winds. Some chose to live as rogues; others joined new prides such as the Antianeira and Einaliai Thalassai, finding comfort in social structures that were at least somewhat compatible with the beliefs they were raised on; others still moved on to vastly different prides and adapted to the new lives they found. Some found themselves uprooted yet again when their new prides fell apart, and it was then that they began to find their way back to each other.
Sataa, daughter of the lioness Kianga who had been bonded to one of the Kunanda's last Adhi-raj, who had made her new home among the 'mermaids' of the Einaliai Thalassai, was reunited with her daughter Intiha-ka, who had chosen to live in the Antianeira. Sataa was accompanied by Ikkuma, a male from the Kunanda'Nakhun who had chosen to stay with her, and Intiha-ka travelled with a lioness named Aletheia, whom she had befriended during her time in the Antianeira. They decided to stay together and formed a small, informal unit, continuing to live a nomadic life in unclaimed territories...until one day, Intiha-ka came across a strange sight: a rowdy band of creatures, most but not all of them male lions, travelling together. Curious, she followed them, and soon came to the realization that some of them were not companions, but captives.
Furious that these males had the audacity to enslave others - she had heard of such things, but never seen it with her own eyes - she hurried back to her own makeshift group and told them of what she'd seen. They shared in her outrage, and she and the other females returned that night to where the outlaws had made camp and set upon them. By the time they had finished, every member of the band had been killed or else had refused to stand with honor and fled. Not only were the former captives grateful, most wanted to stay with their rescuers, and just like that, their little group had more than doubled in size, with the addition of several lionesses, a lion, and even a few non-lions.
After many days together, hearing stories of where they were from and what they had been through, and telling her own, Intiha-ka decided that merely existing as drifters was not enough. Years and many miles away from the pride of her birth, she had seen time and again that the world was chaos and disorder without structure and obedience to tradition and value to keep it at bay. It was past time for the Kunanda'Nakhun to return, but it would not return quite the same.
They would be the Te'a-Nakhun, the Sharpened Claws.
|Species
All predator species, both regular and familiar, are accepted within the group. However, familiars are not viewed as familiars and should remain on their own certs, rather than going on the cert of a regular species member. The group is strongly opposed to any form of servitude.
|Culture
The core of this group's belief and societal structure is honor. One must always act with honor, and avoid dishonor at all costs. There is nothing worse than dishonor, which harms the soul and will weigh it down when it is judged after death. Traditionally, honor is most commonly earned in battle, not just by being victorious but by fighting honestly and well: the least honor is earned by killing one's opponent; the most honor is earned by defeating an opponent without leaving a mark on them. Honor is also earned by performing one's duties well, whether those duties are hunting, healing, teaching, or so on. Giving aid to those in need is also an honorable act, and so on.
Dishonor, too, ranges from small to great, and can take the form of such things as lying, cheating, stealing, harming those that can't fight back, etc. Those who have dishonored themselves may atone for the wrong by setting a punishment for themselves, but this punishment must be equal to the offense, or they will only create more dishonor for themselves.
They believe that when a creature dies, their soul is judged, their honor and dishonor weighed against each other, and the outcome of that judgement is reflected in their physical appearance in their next life. Those whose honor greatly outweighed their dishonor will be females with brightly-colored pelts and above-average size; those whose honor slightly outweighed their dishonor will be females marked with mostly bright colors and are usually average in size; those whose honor was equal to or slightly less than their dishonor will be females with dull pelts and can also be smaller in size; those whose dishonor greatly outweighed their honor will be male.
(Do they believe that one is always reincarnated into the same species, or can one be reincarnated across species? Regardless, color and size are always indicators of past life; size is judged within species.)
|Castes
Rawal
The highest caste, these females are always brightly-colored and almost always above average in size, but at the very least are average-sized. One small neutral marking (such as a star on the forehead) is permissible.
Gasht
The most common rank, Gasht females still sport predominantly bright colors, but have more neutral accent markings (such as having a white underbelly). A female who by her color would be Rawal but is undersized or unhealthy will be placed in Gasht.
Shikar-i
The lowest caste for females, Shikar-i are predominanly neutral in color, or are exceptionally small or unhealthy.
Parastar
The lowest caste, comprised entirely of males.
|Ranks
Unlike in the original Kunanda'Nakhun, a female's caste is not her rank. A variety of ranks are available to females, although they still do not choose their ranks. Upon reaching adolescence, a female is evaluated by the Council to determine not just the caste into which she will be placed, but which rank she is best suited to. Her color, size, and health may dictate her caste, but her health, personality, and aptitude determine what rank she will be assigned. (OOCly, owners will choose their SoA's rank, but it should be based on their character traits! A timid or sickly SoA would not be assigned to the Warriors, for instance.)
Each rank has a 'First,' called a Sira, who oversees everyone within their rank. This Sira is always a Rawal. Regardless of what rank they hold, or how old or experienced they are, someone from a low caste is always outranked by someone from a higher caste. If a mixed-caste group is going on a hunt, for instance, they will be led by a Rawal; if there is no Rawal present, a Gasht would lead.
Adhi-raj: Queens (2)
Ijman-a: Council of Elders, all Rawal (5?)
Ta: Warriors, includes guards, scouts, etc. (unlimited)
Akheti: Huntresses (unlimited)
Atun: Minders/Teachers (unlimited)
Parastar
Males have no official rank other than their caste, and don't have to do much of anything besides provide females with offspring when it's requested of them (and are responsible for raising male offspring once they're weaned). They may, however, choose to become healers or crafters. These are not official, recognized ranks, but their usefulness is appreciated and their industriousness encouraged as a way to better themselves.
|Males
While males hold the lowest rank of all within the group, they are not slaves. They are not oppressed or mistreated. However, because it is believed that their previous life was a dishonorable one and they are thus more prone to committing dishonor in this life, the group seeks to limit their opportunities to do dishonorable things. They are given no important tasks, and when it comes down to it, they don't have to do much of anything. Thery may take up peaceful pastimes if they wish, but are not required to do so. What they absolutely cannot do is anything aggressive. They are not taught to fight or even to hunt. Even as children, they are discouraged from wrestling or rough play, and at no age are they to engage in any such activities.
Parastar are informally separated from the females. There is no rule against mingling, they simply lead mostly separate lives and so live mostly separate as well. There is a very laidback, commune-type atmosphere among the males, and they often police themselves. Any male who disturbs the peace will be shunned for awhile before being accepted back in amongst them; if he offends again he'll be asked to leave. If he refuses, a Warrior will be asked to remove him.
The males do appoint an envoy called a Bheja, who acts as their voice to the Council, but he has no real power.
|Breeding
Females may rogue breed or choose from the group's males, and almost exclusively choose based on which male they think will give them the best offspring, selecting for traits like color and size. When a female has decided on a male, she will approach him and ask that he give her offspring, a task which will gain him valuable honor. It is extremely rare for a male to deny such a request, and unless he can present a valid and convincing argument as to why he has done so, he will be dishonored. (Requests must be made OOCly first, and OOC refusal of an offer is not equivalent to IC refusal. IC refusal should, again, be very rare, and the male's owner must be 100% okay with their character taking this action and consequence.)
A female may breed with a particular male as a one-time thing, or she may lay claim to him so that he is exclusively hers, and they will only breed with each other. This is most often done if a female was particularly pleased with a litter she had with the male, and wants to ensure future litters of such quality. It is not uncommon for some manner of affection to spring from such a pairing, but love is rarer, and a female is never to allow love for a male to rule her. To do so is to bring dishonor upon herself.
More often than not, however, a female will claim a male only long enough to have a litter with him, then send him on his merry way back to the rest of the males. Having fulfilled his obligation, he will be open to requests from other females. If two females attempt to claim the same male, and neither is willing to wait for the other, the female whose rank is higher will win the dispute. If the females are of the same rank, they will have to duel each other to determine a winner. Once a female has her male, he will leave the males temporarily to go to stay with her amongst the females. After she has the cubs, he will share parenting duties with her until they're weaned, at which time he will return to the other males and bring any male offspring with him.
Female offspring, once weaned, will have their time split between their mother and her family and the Minders, who will ensure that they are taught the group's history, laws, and values, as well as the skills of hunting, fighting, scouting, and so on. At adolescence, they will go before the Council to be evaluated, and will be placed in their caste and rank.
A female can only claim a male with whom she can produce offspring. A lioness could choose any lion, leopard, or cheetah male, but not a wild dog male, and so on. Hybrid females may lay claim to a male, but if she proves infertile will have to relinquish her claim.
|Bonding
Territory
