Races and Cultures: Salsham'ai
The salsham'ai, or 'tree folk' as the humans call them, are a small arboreal race. They resemble finely-featured humans of about three feet tall, with one exception - their feet are as dextrous as their hands.
The salsham'ai dwell in the hollowed trunks and branches of the giant inter-connecting braashak trees. They are ruled by a matriarchy known as the Motherhood, where positions are awarded on a combination of inheritance and competence. Because of their close ties to nature, the salsham'ai have tended to retain their hunter-gatherer culture at heart, even though they have developed sophisticated cities with complex wooden machinery for transporting people, goods, water and waste between trees and to and from the forest floor. They consider the concept of farming to be distasteful, but this does not stop them from cultivation on a small scale for personal or local use.
The salsham'ai revere the spirits of nature, that they call the shay. As well as the shay they revere Shroma, wild horned hunter and sun god, and Themnass, calm lady of the moon. The salsham'ai view the interplay between Chaos and Concordance as a cooperation between opposites, and this is reflected in their stories about the relationship between Shroma and Themnass, and indeed in the way that the salsham'ai view the relationship between men and women in their daily life. Interwoven between all things is the magical flowing essence known as Pas Aat, which salsham'ai magicians known as Lorewardens can weave to their own ends.
The Lorewardens are important figures in salsham'ai culture; keepers of knowledge, singers of tales, shamans, healers and solemnisers of ceremonies. The salsham'ai have a long history of oral tradition, but they are beginning to use the written word and are building a comprehensive library in their capital city of Thalsa.
Although their small size makes them seemingly weak combatants they have compensated in many ways. Their climbing ability and natural power of camouflage makes them good at ambushes in their forest domain. They have created several fighting styles that make use of their small size, and of the power of Pas Aat to stun enemies with a single gentle touch. These include the Skill of Raindrops and Spider in Amber styles. Furthermore they have domesticated a species of gorilla-like ape, called matoo whom they use as mounts. Matoo are normally docile and used simply as beasts of burden, but war-trained matoo are dangerous indeed.
Salsham'ai tend to stay in their own lands within the braashak but wanderers, traders and adventurers do exist amongst them. Their most sizeable colony can be found in Little Thalsa, a converted parkland in the city of Llaza, but there are salsham'ai amongst most cities around the Sea of Deep Wisdom. Just over 120 years ago, a large number of salsham'ai left their homeland in protest over the terms of a treaty made with the Empire of Splendour. These were Merlessa's Thousand and they have not been heard of since. It is possible, if they did not perish at sea, that they managed to establish a new salsham'ai society somewhere far away.
(c) 2006 The Creative Conclave.
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