Category:Tribal Himelian



TRIBAL HIMELIAN Mountain Men of Ghulistan Inhabitants of a land called Ghulistan. Ghulistan is a mountainous area between Vendhya and Turan, a buffer that actually protects Vendhya from Turan. The Ghulistani and the other hill men are too fast and too savage for the Turanian, Hyrkanian or Vendhyan armies to flush out and destroy.

Northern Ghulistan is peopled by urban populations. A number of small tribes inhabit the colossal hills and mountains of the South. These southern inhabitants of the Himelians are divided into many different tribes and clans of tall, hairy hill-men who are both strong and fierce.

These hill-tribes have their own barbaric code of honor, disdaining civilized behaviors, making fun of the weak and foolish. Above all, they seem to hate traitors despite being bandits themselves.

Description
Tall and powerfully built with a skin tone in-between yellow and white, olive- or brown. Grey, green, brown eyes. Hair color can vary between dark, brown, fair and red hair. The men have long ragged beards.

The Himelian tribesmen probably descend from intelligent aborigines that developed after the Cataclysm, remnants of ancient peoples trapped in the rising mountains and forced to adapt to their new surroundings, becoming more and more savage with each successive in-bred generation. Later, new blood may have come to them from the Lemurian incursions that founded Vendhya. Some scholars speculate that the original tribesmen may have been called the Ghuli, giving rise to the name of the region.

Himelian culture resembles the tribal lifestyle of Afghanistan and surrounding area which also covered the Kurdish people, Khirgiz, Uzbeks and northern India and is survivalist and barbaric in nature. Some Himelian tribesmen are a curious race of intelligent, though stunted, aborigines, conquered by the Hyrkanians on their westward drift. These would correspond more to a Tibetan style culture.

Clothing
The men wear sturdy sheep- or yak-skin tunics, belted cloaks, wide turbans and leather boots. When traversing the higher slopes they wear huge fur coats with long sleeves. They have no taboos against wearing armor and may well have captured what's available to them.

The women dress in embroidered vests, wide-sleeved shirts and baggy, wide trousers and sandals. Young girls go without head coverings but mature women cover their heads with long colored headscarves. The color of a headscarf depends on the tribe a woman belongs to (white along with the tribal color in a headscarf indicates that a woman is married).

They have no taboos against public nudity and in the summer they often dispense with the shirt and even the vest.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
The Ghulistani have their own barbaric code of honor that teaches bravery, steadfastness, persistence and hospitality. The hill men tribes believe strongly in this code, nearly to the point of fanaticism. Every action they take either enhances or weakens their honor and the honor of their clan.

Girls mock a disgraced man. Honor is everything.

The right of revenge is also granted by their code of honor.

Another aspect of the Ghulistani honor system allows for a ceremonial, humble admission of guilt when a wrong has been committed; this admission usually requires forgiveness from the wronged party. This avoids the blood feud in most cases; however, if the wronged party does not forgive he becomes the transgressor and may be feuded against.

Above all, they seem to hate traitors despite being bandits themselves. Like the Hyrkanians they prize horses and like the Vendhyans they prize customs and traditions.

Like both, they fear mesmerism and sorcery.

Religion
It is most likely that the hill men subscribe to shamanistic beliefs, considering that their lifestyle is so entirely dominated by the ecology around them. However, the influence of Vendhyan religion has probably created a more complex and elaborate form of shamanism than would be found in Hyrkania. With such irreverent places as Yimsha and Raktavashi, where black magic and diabolism are practiced, shamanism in the Himelians probably centers around the destruction of evil spirits and spiritual battles with demons and sorcerers. These battles are grave indeed and the shaman does not enter such a combat unafraid; in a battle with a sorcerer either the sorcerer or the shaman dies. Fortunately, the hill men believe a shaman can be killed three times before ordinary death can take his soul. the ritual

Additional religions may exist in the area. Grey apes lurk in the hills, so cults of Hanuman may exist, as might other animalistic religions. Hill men may also have picked up Vendhyan beliefs, worshipping Asura and the Vendhyan pantheon, including Katar, which they call Kali. Unlike most of the peoples of the Hyborian Age, the hill men of the Himelians do not seem to use their gods’ names as curses. Perhaps this is a barbaric taboo of theirs. Perhaps they have no gods, or perhaps their gods have no names.

Government
The central government of Ghulistan can be found in the capital of Khorbhul. The king of Ghulistan rules here but the tribes rarely acknowledge his rule. The northern clans and urban dwellers follow him. In areas occupied by Turan, the King of Turan is followed.

There are hundreds of tribes in the southern mountains, each following charismatic warriors called hetmen. These leaders rule by might; as barbarians, the hill men have no compunction about killing an ineffective, traitorous or weak leader. Unlike the civilized people to the south, they do not teach that their kings are holy, divine or special in any way, so the chiefs must defend their right to rule by force of arms. These leaders settle intertribal disputes in an arbitrary fashion. Disputes between tribes are settled via war and feuding. Tribes probably raid each other for wives, as well, to prevent too much in-breeding among the close-knit clans. hetman The southern tribes of Ghulistan, Afghulistan and other Himelian ethnic groups are generally governed by groups of elders called Jirga.

Hetmen are the war chiefs of the tribes. A tribe is divided into Khels (clans), which are divided into Pllarina. A Pllarina is a group of multiple Kahols (extended families). It is a complex system and Himelian tribesmen may see themselves as belonging to various parts of these groups depending on the situation.

Economy and Common Professions
In the south, the hill tribes raid for their sustenance. They raid the Vendhyans. They raid the Turanians. They raid each other. Other than a bit of subsistence farming and herding, their economy is primarily one of banditry.

Sex Roles and Marriage
Women do the cooking and household chores and are expected to perform these duties no matter what. Failure leads to a whipping. The women tend to be slim, practical people and many are characterized as ‘she-wolves.’

Slavery
Organized trade in human beings is almost nonexistent. Ghulistani men will often steal women of the other tribes, but they tend to accept their role fast and are no longer considered slaves after that.

Architectural Influences

 * Afghan mountain tribes.

Ghulistani dirt-floor homes are fairly large and are made of uncut rocks cemented with mud. They have rock and mud roofs that are supported by heavy beams. Each roof has a trap-door and a ladder leading up. The huts do not have large windows, just small loopholes. The hill-men sleep on beds of leaves covered with sheepskin. An iron grid laid over blocks of stone provides a crude kitchen. Clusters of these rock and mud huts are built on relatively level areas in the mountains to create villages. The hill men keep dogs as pets, using them to hunt with and guard the villages. The villages themselves usually include fortifications, if not primitive strongholds.

Tip: Ghulistani buildings is simple to make as they are fairly modest, I suggest making them in T1. A small fortress would also fit, but probably no higher than in T2.

More Info

 * Return to the Road of Kings (Ghulistan, p 100-104)
 * CONAN AND THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE comics (issue 1 - 4)