Inhabitants

City Dwellers
Most people live in various huge City-States that have formed around water sources and key trading routes. As they must share little resources with too many people, strong materialistic roots have formed in these societies and there is a huge difference between rich and poor. The poor work slave-wages or turn to crime to feed themselves, while the richer (often merchants) style themselves in lavish clothing and jewelry, living a life of wealth and comfort. Life in the confines of the city walls has made these people shorter and stockier of build. Beauty ideals are light skin (meaning that the person does not need to do manual labor in the sun), and a slender body. This, to the citizens, shows restraint and more aptitude with their environment, instead of taking more than you need.

City States: Alluvia, Bir Say, Khord, Mandesore, Therkand

Social Structures
The City-States are separate entities. Long isolation combined with a big population ensured forming unique cultures in each city. However, some did have regular contact and formed alliances and small empires. However, most City-States are plagued by old feuds and internal squabbling for resources and power. The autonomous city states control space and resources. They are proud and self-centered. They all feel like they are the ones that fight the planet’s harsh conditions the best. Usually on their own, developing own cultural quirks and laws. However, they occasionally need resources from each other as the lack of space also brings a lack of natural resources, so as populations began to rise again, trade has become unavoidable.

Trading is a well-paid, but dangerous job. The harsh desert, the treacherous quicksand and raiders plague the trade caravans. Equipping a caravan is always a trade-off between protection and speed. Bringing a lot of protection means the caravan will move slower, which increases travel time and all the danger that comes with that. Traders are very influential in the cities, as they are the citizens’ only source of information and products from outside the city walls. Flamboyant and arrogant, most merchants lead privileged lives.

The City-States’ ruling classes differ from city to city, but most are led by hierarchs. Tyrants and military leaders, passed down from father to son, they are well educated, rich and powerful. Being able to control a standing army allows them control over their population. Notable exception is the free state of Alluvia, where no centralized leadership is tolerated. The city is therefore rampant with crime, bad sanitation and very little political power.

Below the merchants and noble families are the common people. Usually serfs, laborers, or local craftsmen, doing physical work producing necessary goods to survive. Some of these people try to mount their own trade expeditions, seeking riches. However, as they often lack the funds and tools necessary to survive the ordeals of travel, most fail miserably and die in the sands or get captured by the Nomads.

Outside the city, away from society, the nomad society exists. Each tribe is led by a strong warrior king, believed to lead them to certain victory. They fight amongst themselves, as they believe that all weakness should be eradicated from the world, and only the strong will prevail. However, there generally is no bad blood between tribes, as it simply is their custom to fight. In the harsh deserts, there is no place for weakness, sloth or gluttony. The nomad leaders come together every year to discuss recent events, politics, the balance of power between them and to divide loot gained from plundering. This event ends in bloodshed as often as not, as both new and old feuds are rekindled.

Religion
The leading religion in the East Basin is a monotheistic religion based on morality. The original teachings say that there is one god, namely the sun, and within it exists both good and evil, and the struggle of man is to walk the fine balancing act of trying to be a good person, even against impossible odds. The sun gives life during the day, but is at the same time a potential danger in the harsh environment of the world. At night, the same sun comes up, but reminds humans that without its light nothing will grow, although the absence of the sometimes scorching sun can feel like a relief. Duality is in everything.

A schism exists in this religion, where a new wave of holy men is talking about two seperate gods, as they do not believe that the most powerful being in the world could not rid himself of evil. They argue that the two forces are in a perpetual fight over the dominion of people, and people should do anything to help good prevail, always. This religion is fueled by religious astronomers, peering into the skies to uncover the will of the gods. According to them, the day’s sun is not the same as the night’s sun, which would mean that two gods exists as separate entities. This new teaching has found solid ground and is growing rapidly, as they also impose taxes on their followers to maintain places of worship and give back to the community.

   

Nomads
In the desert, away from the cities, a different kind of people live. A small group of desert nomads scratch a living from husbandry, and raiding. They are nomadic pastoralists and hunters. They use knowledge of the sands, their flock of Sand Grazers and anything they can plunder from weaker tribes and caravans to sustain their society. They are well adapted to the harsh desert environment and shunned by the civilized world because of their renowned untrustworthiness. They are tall and lean, with leathery, windswept faces covered in light clothing to protect against wind and weather.

Lacking centralized leadership, groups of the same tribe live separately in communes of varying size. Tribe leaders frequently convene to discuss political, cultural and economic issues and share ideas. The lack of centralized government makes it hard for City-States to form a unified policy on how to deal with the nomad tribes, as they are as likely to trade with you as to raid and pillage. However, they are the only ones with access to large quantities of smoke crystals, used as a popular recreational drug in many City-States.

Mostly use bows, javelins and light armor to make use of hit and run attacks.

Sand Grazer
(Looks like:  Big Lizard - Acts like: Hippo - used as: Cow/Donkey)

Lumbering, docile beasts that roam the desert. Hard to domesticate due to their size and strength, and able to kill people with a quick snap of their huge jaws. However, they are used by both the nomads as well as the city traders as beasts of burden and to navigate their way through the desert. These beasts can swim through patches of quicksand (not distinguishable with the naked eye), making them a natural guide through the desert. They live off filtering tiny food particles out of the sand while they plough through it with their huge jaws. Because of their size and strong jaws, they are high up the food chain, but being herbivores, they are not aggressive.

City Monkey
Several types of small monkeys have taken refuge and shelter in the cities. They are a plague and live off stealing from city dwellers and trash. Frequently found in dump sites, temples (offerings are not holy to hungry monkeys) and poorer parts in the cities. Due to high chance of sickness, only the poorest people consider them a source of food. Being omnivores and scavengers, they can be used as pets, as long as they are fed well.

Companion Flock
Tiny bird that lives in symbiosis with Sand Grazers. They feed off the clumps of unfiltered minerals that the Sand Grazers have on the back of their mouths. In turn they keep away flies and insects from the Grazer’s exposed eyes and breathing slits. Seen in flocks around herds of Grazers, and can make nests on very old and big Grazers.

Spearhawk
Bird of prey that has adapted by being able to make diving runs at small prey in the desert from high altitudes. Its wide wingspan make it easy to spot, but when folded in diving position, this gets increasingly hard, and will devour most prey unannounced.

Rukh (Roc).
Giant mountainous bird of prey, used as pets by Khord lords. Solitary, arrogant and aggressive.