The Quitaron are a primitive tribe in the far north of Tirakan. The scattered tribes of the Quitaron spread across the vast tundra of the north. The tribes are led by two special chosen leaders, a guardian and a warrior. The people have very little contact with other realms of Tirakan, only maintaining hostile relations with the Atiarel elves.
Origin and past
The Quitaron are one of the few remaining primitive peoples on Tirakan. Although this knowledge is now almost completely unknown, it can be assumed that the Quitaron were the origin of the human peoples many thousands of years ago. At a time when the Atiarel and Silkanda ruled the steppes and forests of the north, the Quitaron and the much younger Nur'Tuk were the only human peoples. They lived isolated from the elves in small tribal communities. Contact with the elves was never particularly good, and after the Atiarel, who had been forced out of the south, settled in their territories, there were more raids by the Atiarel. Thus the tribal territory was reduced by almost half, and the Quitaron left the brazen mountains in the west to the elves. In the eighth century before the new era, the tribes were to split. While the majority of the Quitaron under Aporek Ngey retreated further north, the shaman Uoxaratum led a few hundred followers south towards the forests of Silkanda. In this way, he intended to recapture the ancient forests and regain the sacred places in the forests. The group around Uoxaratum disappeared at that time without any further sign of life. In more recent times, the Quitaron retreated far from the south and avoided contact with other peoples, especially the elves.
The life of the Quitaron
The Quitaron have always been a nomadic people, although some larger settlements have been formed over time. They move through the northern forests in small groups belonging to eight tribes. The routes of their migrations are largely determined by the winter and the presence of animals, but also partly by the Atiarel.
The Quitaron believe in the two-part unity of warrior and guardian, which they worship in the form of their totems as wolf and eagle. Each tribe is led by a warrior and a guardian who act as representatives linking these idols to the tribe. The warrior and guardian are equal in the tribe, and combine the roles of spiritual and worldly leader, as well as judge.
The warrior shall be a man strong as the bear and swift as the wolf. No fear shall soften his eye, no suffering weaken him. Only when he has shown skill in battle can he be chosen as chief.
The guardian shall be wise and prudent. Only he who treads the path of the beast or the path of the living soil can be a guardian. In his capacity as a shaman or druid, it is up to him to choose the predetermined path and point his tribe in the right direction.
On ritual occasions, the warrior and the guardian wear wooden masks in the shape of the wolf and the eagle. They supposedly allow the spirit of the warrior and the guardian to flow into them for protection and guidance to the tribe.
The guardian and the warrior belong together in every case. They perform this task until death, after which they are replaced by a successor through a ritual ceremony. In most tribal groups, it is customary that after the death of one of the two, the remaining one commits ritual suicide. In the community, the Quitaron live largely patriarchal lives. Women have a high position in the Quitaron community, but they cannot be chosen as warriors or guards. They are considered by the Quitaron to be the highest asset of the community, the guarantor of the continuity of the tribe.
The lost Uoxaratum
Uoxaratum, who headed south in the first century with about 2000 Quitaron women and men, quickly encountered elves in the forests of Silkanda who were not well-disposed towards humans. So he changed the route to the west, where they came across a large swamp in the middle of the forest. Here they settled, the way back blocked, and to the south the home of the Silkanda. Uoxaratum could do nothing against the elves with his fighters, and so they spent many years in the swamps. One day, a boy discovered the entrance to a stone cave in the swamp. Exploring the caverns, it soon became apparent that beneath the swamp was a huge stone structure, almost man-made, yet strangely natural. The Uoxaratum, as they had come to call themselves, moved into the upper vaults, becoming the first Quitaron with a truly permanent dwelling.
In the following decades, the Uoxaratum community grew steadily. It seemed that the vault had an influence on how fruitful the tribe developed. But the environment also had a strange influence on Uoxaratum himself. His magic seemed to grow stronger and stronger, although he became far more restrained in his actions. An aura of hidden secrets surrounded him during that time, driven by the fact that he apparently no longer aged. Despite the strange appearances, his followers remained loyal to him and the tribe grew to many thousands of men and women. They lived a life that until then had seemed completely alien to the Quitaron. Instead of hunting, they found food in the swamps and underground lakes. Their rituals were soon forgotten; the guardian Uoxaratum alone determined the well-being of his tribe. He introduced dark rituals to help preserve the community, and he renounced all freedom for his subjects. Shortly afterwards, he began to have the gifted of his followers killed. He explained this with the growing danger of magical outbreaks, and his people supported him in this. Year after year, these conditions became worse, until the Uoxaratum's own people lived only in fear and dependence.
Today, it is safe to assume that the community of the swamp still exists, and probably numbers well over 7000 people. Uoxaratum watches over them himself, there are no guardsmen or guardians to enforce his decisions. His unholy magic gives him the power to override anything. Moreover, it seems that the place itself is not subject to the fluctuations of magic.
Excerpt from the travel reports of Anadal Fangir, an Asgoran explorer:
It is the third moon of the journey and we have reached the territory of the infamous Uoxaratum. So far we had met no great resistance, only a few skulls on spikes in the steppe warned us of what we were about to encounter. It was a new moon when we entered the long-sought temple complexes of the Uoxaratum.
What we were to find here surpassed all expectations. Not only was it an underground temple. No, what the Quitaron described as a taboo zone turned out to be an extremely complex building constructed under the earth's surface. The walls seemed to me to be of ancient construction, and certainly not created by the Quitaron. Level by level, the walls poured deeper and deeper into the earth, and I cannot begin to describe how deeply we penetrated them.
From the drawings I made of the structure, it seemed that this whole construction was not just a temple carved into the ground by some primitive culture. Rather, it had the appearance of a tower. As unreal and untrue as it sounds, it appeared to me to be a tower that had been built into the ground the wrong way round. Moreover, the way the walls were made turned out to be something far older than the culture of these savages. We were standing in front of something that had survived the aeons of the past.
The biggest surprise, however, was when we came to the well. In the middle of the old walls, in the deepest blackness, we found a kind of well, which, however, seemed to be turned upside down like the tower and pointed to the ceiling. Hagbart, who had always been too quick with action and too slow with the mind, stuck his head into it. He reported a completely different vision, as if the exit of this well was located in another tower, which was not turned upside down.
Gods and religion
Wayfarers and Titans are known but not worshipped as gods. Shamanism and Druidism are practised, local gods and totems are worshipped.
Contacts with other peoples
There are hostile contacts with the elven peoples of Silkanda and especially with the Atiarel. Some incursions by the Orcs from the West. So far there are no contacts with other human peoples.