Category:Hyrkanian



HYRKANIAN Riders of the Steppes Hyrkanians are nomadic horsemen, cruel and ruthless, whose violent rampages across the steppe are still spoken of in frightened voices as if the brutal conquests happened but yesterday and not years or decades or centuries before.

The area called Hyrkania lies to the east of the Vilayet and ranges from tundra, taiga forest, steppe, prairie and even desert. Hyrkania extends from the Vilayet to the Eastern Ocean. The Hyrkanians conquer all that they see, swarming over the terrain in overwhelming numbers on fleet horses.

Description
The Hyrkanians are a race descended from emancipated slaves descending from the ancient Lemurians, who were in ages past enslaved by the ancestors of the Stygians, and are now separated into different nomadic tribes.

There are two types of Hyrkanian. The primary cultural type is dark, tall and slender but a squat, slant-eyed type is becoming more common due to an admixture with stunted but intelligent aborigines in the mountains east of the Vilayet which the Hyrkanians encountered as they migrated west from the coast.

Clothing
Hyrkanians like hats; they wear turbans, head-dresses or high fur hats. This is true of both men and women in Hyrkania. Most hats and helmets are decorated with fur.

All Hyrkanians wear long and loose silk undershirts beneath whatever armor or clothing they might also wear. Silk is impervious to arrows and the shirt is pushed into the wound with the arrow. The shirt can then be carefully pulled out, pulling out the arrow as well, resulting in a smaller wound.

In addition to hats and silk undershirts, Hyrkanians wear sheepskins, wide-sleeved tunics, sashes and loose-fitting trousers. The women are veiled, especially around strangers. In more conservative circles, usually the upper classes, the women favor the khalat, a long costume that conceals the entire body. Most Hyrkanians in the Far East wear dels. A del is a dress belted or sashed at the waist. For a man, the del might be long or short but women always wear their dels long. Both men and women are fond of jewelry, especially wide bracelets of gold and bronze and necklaces of precious metals.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
All Hyrkanians are taught survival skills.

All Hyrkanians are taught to be hard-working, honest and skilled.

A Hyrkanian would rather die with a good reputation than live with a ruined reputation. Hyrkanians have a strong animistic belief in the spirituality of all things. This belief system teaches Hyrkanians to respect all animals, even those killed during a hunt.

Hyrkanians will never lean against the support column of a yurt for fear of bad fortune or natural disaster. For the same reason, a Hyrkanian will never whistle inside a yurt. Some Hyrkanians will carry those two superstitions to any house or structure. It is a grievous sin to urinate inside of a yurt; the penalty for such an action is death. One never steps on a threshold but instead steps over it. Stepping on the threshold of a chief or khan is punishable by the death penalty. Hyrkanians also have a strict order of seating.

An honorable Hyrkanian will not put water or trash into a fire out of respect for fire, which is sacred to a Hyrkanian.

Hyrkanians are notably haughty in their dealings with foreigners, no matter what their status might be; for example, they will not show deference to a foreign noble. A Hyrkanian who would not think about lying to his lord has no problem lying to a foreigner. Although they rarely commit murder among themselves, killing a foreigner is of no consequence to Hyrkanians. Hyrkanians will gladly feed fellow nomads and share all they have but they are fiercely greedy and violently stingy toward foreigners, unwilling to share a thing.

Religion

 * Shamanism
 * Hyrkanian Pantheon

Basic Cosmology - The shamans have a cosmology where the cosmos has multiple layers, all connected by some spire, be it a tree or mountain. This system of belief requires that souls and bodies are separate entities. The religion is one of nature and is animist, for the Hyrkanians believe spirits walk the world around them, living in all things. To a Hyrkanian, the sky itself is a spirit-god with a soul. Kanum Kotan is the name of the land of evil gods and unseen forces. It lies to the north of Pathenia.

The Power of Words - The Hyrkanians believe words create reality if said with conviction. Melodies and songs carry words of power, and the drum is the primary instrument. They believe in astral projection and have similar ideas about out-of-body experiences where battles with hostile spirits occur. Astral projection is a dangerous occupation, for certain powerful objects can trap souls. The northern Hyrkanians believe the ‘man in the moon’ is a shaman who flew too close to the moon and became ensnared by it. The moon is analogous to the Land of the Dead for most of these Hyrkanians.

Fire is Sacred - Fire is a purifying force for the Hyrkanians and is sacred to the point that anyone who can control fire (such as a smith) is seen to have magical powers. Hyrkanians believe it is rude to stamp out a fire, put rubbish in it or douse it with water.

Sacrifices to the Gods - The most famous way the Hyrkanians make live sacrifices isthrough the Pole-offering. Horses, humans or game meat are suspended from poles and dedicated to the gods.

Idols - The Hyrkanians make idols out of felt to represent the images of their household gods. These idols are set up on the sides of the tent-doors. Hyrkanians always offer these idols the first milk from their flocks.

Temples - The sites of Hyrkanian worship are cairns of stones with a single vertical pole sticking out of the center where prayers and sacrifices are performed. Turanians, however, build temples to their gods.

Government
Ruler: Khans. In times, powerful warlords emerge, uniting many clans

Nomadic culture is divided into commoners and nobles, a fluid system of caste. Anyone may be recognized as noble upon displaying skill in organizing a tribal government or simple proving himself a capable leader.

Most Hyrkanian tribes permit titles to be inherited but no Hyrkanian nomad ever believes a title guarantees leadership. The Hyrkanian nomads will not follow a leader, regardless of title or heritage, if that leader is not worthy of respect.

A Hyrkanian noble must display courage, wisdom, generosity and luck in order to lead. Keep in mind that courage does not equal stupidity. Retreat is not a cowardly maneuver for the nomad. The overall social structure of Hyrkania is a clan structure. Clans are divided into sub-clans, or families. Sometimes, several clans might merge into a small nation – which is what happened with the Turanians. Successful warlords are notorious for gathering clans into small, mobile nations that sweep out of Hyrkanian, conquering all before them.

Economy and Common Professions
Hyrkanians are described as shrewd merchants and traders.

The Hyrkanian economy is fairly self-sufficient and easily sustainable. Most trade is conducted by the women because the men prefer to focus on hunting or warfare.

The economy of Hyrkania is based on livestock breeding, especially camels, cattle, oxen, goats, sheep and horses. Most traders in Hyrkania are actually Khitan. Most Hyrkanians have a practiced disdain for money, material comforts and luxuries.

Hyrkanian khans exact taxes from any cities under their domination. These taxes vary from khan to khan, from city to city. Nomads are by nature mobile. Trade works best among sedentary people. The sedentary cities managed by the Hyrkanian khans conduct trade and the goods are passed along to the tribes via taxation and the offering of tribute. Those who pay their taxes or offer tribute are spared. Those who do not pay are put to the sword down to the last person.

Common Professions:
 * warrior (on horseback)
 * archer

Sex Roles and Marriage
Culturally speaking, the Hyrkanians respect women and view them as fonts of wisdom. Hyrkanians believe a man who does not listen to his woman to be unmanly and immature. One of a woman’s roles in Hyrkania is to be a guide for her man in practical matters. Women can inherit property and can assume the head of a family when their husbands die. Widowed women are allowed to remarry as they wish and their children are treated as the children of the new husband.

The strongest and most capable of women fight alongside the men as equal members of the war machine. A woman who fights with the men is given high honor and is in no way treated as non-feminine. Hyrkanian women are also noted for using highly vulgar or offensive language in a playful way. Hyrkanian women are practical people and are almost cold-blooded when it comes to death, setting an unsettling example of mercilessness. Red Sonja, a Hyrkanian, is not an unlikely character.

As a warning to any would-be lotharios in Hyrkania, Hyrkanian women are notably chaste. Hyrkanian men may have as many wives as they can keep. Abduction is another way to accomplish a marriage. A Hyrkanian can abduct his bride (or groom) and, if successful, the abducted person must acknowledge the new situation. This custom of abducting brides from other tribes leads to intertribal wars on the steppe.

Slavery
The Hyrkanians usually do not take slaves, at least not adult male slaves. Sometimes they take young children or non-Hyrkanian concubines, but otherwise they kill those who stand in their way.

Influences
Architectural influences: Mongols, Huns.

Other than areas in Turan, Howard does not name Hyrkanian cities nor does he describe them. Being nomads, the Hyrkanians of the central regions probably do not actually build cities. They create camps and temporary villages in yurts that quickly can be disassembled and moved by great herds of horses. Other people, such as the Turanians, build cities in Hyrkania along the caravan routes, however. Other Hyrkanians build cities along the eastern coasts and along the coast of the Vilayet.

''Tip: Build many small round structures, and use tents for Hyrkanians. Smaller fortresses can work with them to some degree, most likely made out of T2 wooden building pieces.''

More Information
RPGS:
 * Return to the Road of Kings (Hyrkania, p 109-122)
 * Faith and Fervour (Lords of Hyrkania & Turan, p 51-52)