Aiwa valley/Peoples

The following is a raw dump of some information on several peoples of the Aiwa valley in Ndak times, which Radius posted on the Almeopedia in 2006. Some of this information may be out of date; other info will be eventually filed into the appropriate pages for each tribe.

1. Ngauro. Still extant as a distinct ethnicity, subjugated by the Ndak but fiercely maintaining their pride in their former accomplishments (often grossly exaggerated in their legends) and their language, which despite their claims of superiority was in fact dwindling away. The remaining cohesive communities were north of Kasadgad proper.
2. Miu and Meshi. Mostly peaceful, scattered tribes that spoke languages related to Ngauro. Pre-agricultural with religious rites that shocked even the Ndak (I'll leave this to your imaginations). They and the Ndak mostly left each other be, at this point, though conflict occurred later on.
3. Hitatc (Wan, Mlir, and many smaller tribes). Little was known of them; they were the only people to defeat an invasion by Tsinakan, an affair left out of most official histories.
4. Faraghin and Feråjin. Two related, but distinct, contentious peoples that might have been able to resist Ndak invasions had they not fought against each other as much as against the Ndak. Their languages were related to that of the Ngauro, but much more distantly than Miu or Meshi. Among the Ndak they had a reputation for stupidity, heavy drinking, and being content to wear rough animal skins... or nothing at all. Despite this they had begun to settle down and were even producing the occasional scribe and poet.
5. Gezoro. Ancient arch-enemies of the Ndak, aside from the Ngauro. Credited with being the first to develop serious metallurgy, they for centuries had better weapons and better armor than anyone else, which combined with their mountain strongholds had kept them quite secure. Until Tsinakan's father Terakan succeeding in cutting off all their trade routes, which gradually weakened them until Tsinakan himself, early in his reign, fought them in a series of massive campaigns. The final result of these was 60,000 Gezoro marched to Kasadgad in chains, where they remained enslaved for generations (cf. the Hebrews in Egypt). Interestingly, the slaves in Kasadgad held onto their language, which was related to the languages of the civilizations to the far west, longer than the Gezoro remaining at home, who in time became absorbed into the Ndak world. By the end of Tsinakan's reign the former mountain home of the Gezoro had become a mining region of utmost importance to the empire.
6. Talo. Legends say that the Talo and the Ndak were once one people, but that they split when the Talo turned their backs on Ombàsi in favor of a new religion. These tales are doubtful, as the Talo were worshipping a mother goddess they called "Adasi", so perhaps there was another reason for the split, lost in the mists of time. They largely escaped the later Ndak conquests by packing up and moving into the deep forests north of the river, into which armies had great difficulty penetrating.

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