Category:Keshani



KESHANI "The Barbaric Kingdom in the Eastern Hinterlands" Keshan is another of the northern Black Kingdoms, ruler of trade along a stretch of the Styx and lord of several smaller, tributary regions. Located to the east of the Styx, south of Amazon and Darfar and west of Punt, Keshan is a land of vast grassland prairies that merge to the south with great, humid forests. The people of semi-mythical Keshan are not friendly with unattached strangers.

Description
The common Keshani are a tall, dark people. Those of the ruling class are lighter skinned. They are horsemen and cattle-herders by nature and are not particularly suited for traveling among mountains and jungles. Indeed, the jungles to the southwest are forbidden to them.

Keshani history is shrouded by the mists of time. The dusky-skinned ruling class claim descent from a mythical white race that ruled from Alkmeenon. The Conan saga is silent about the identity of this mythical white race; they could be of Iranistani stock, they could be Khari or Stygian, they could be a remnant race that survived the Cataclysm or they could be a race unrecorded by the extant history.

Tip: The Keshani use in-game Kushite or Stygian (depends on a class) race when creating a character.

Clothing
The black Keshani men wear little save plumed headdresses, animal-hide loin cloths and rings of ivory or precious metal in their noses, ears or lips.

The women wear sandals and short skirts held up by thin girdles; just as often, they dispense with the skirts and just wear the girdles.

The priests wear leopard skin tunics. The rulers, lighter-skinned people descended from an unknown white race, dress similarly but with wealthier materials. The wealthy women, for example, add gold breast-plates, skirts of silk and jeweled girdles.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
Like the Kushites and the southern Black Kingdoms tribesmen, the Keshani are an enthusiastic and excitable people given to wearing their emotions proudly. For the most part, if a Keshani feels an emotion, he displays that emotion, even if the emotion is inappropriate to the situation.

Keshani are quick to take offence, even to mild or accidental slights. These offences usually lead to a fight as violence is the first choice for resolution of a dispute. The Keshani way is to fight then make peace; such is social acceptance earned among the Keshani.

As with many primitive cultures, the blood feud is a way of life in Keshan.

Livestock is the measure of wealth and prosperity among the Keshani. The Keshani are horsemen and cattle-herders.

All Keshani males are raised to be warriors.

Keshani will rarely attack women or children and will only kill one in self-defence; if he kills a woman, he has to pay her price to the husband or father, which is usually around forty head of cattle. That is a steep price to kill someone, so few Keshani attack women.

Religion

 * Primitive Beliefs
 * Gwahlur

Keshan maintains an order of ordained priests instead of traditional shamans. This order of priests is a remnant from the culture that descended from ancient Alkmeenon. This priesthood is often corrupt but many of them honestly believe in their grim gods.

The priests have deified the unnamed white race that founded Alkmeenon, with Yelaya at the height of that hierarchy because of the physical ‘evidence’ of her divinity. Her body does not decay and the priests record hearing her voice as a true oracle.

Many other disgusting and bestial gods are acknowledged and worshipped by the people of Keshan along with Yelaya; at one point in Howard’s story, the Keshani priests worship at the foot of toad-like, repulsive idol. Gwahlur is one of those dark jungle gods worshipped by the Keshani, a king of darkness that was thrown down by the other darkly powerful gods. Gwahlur’s glowing teeth were given unto men for safe-keeping.

Priests wear leopard skin tunics and are honored for their morality and spirituality. They may offer sanctuary to anyone and no Keshani will violate that protection, even if in a blood feud. The priests also have the power to end blood feuds by negotiating cattle prices.

Government
Ruler: King of Keshan

Keshan is ruled by dusky-skinned nobles who claim descent from the people of ancient Alkmeenon, an older and more advanced civilization. The head of these nobles is the King of Keshan. Law is determined by the nobility and priests.

If a matter is deemed too grave for the priests, the Oracle of Alkmeenon is consulted.

Economy and Common Professions
The Keshani are horsemen and cattle-herders. Keshan trades with its tributary regions, as well as with Zembabwei, Darfar, and Amazon. It is possible that some slight trade with Stygia or Shem exists, although most northern countries consider Keshan to be a mythical nation. Punt’s hostility toward Zembabwei has made trade with that nation problematic. Most trade with Keshan involves cattle, sheep and goats. Since cattle are considered communal to the family, anything purchased with cattle is communal property thereafter. So if a family buys an Akbitanan scimitar with a cow, that scimitar belongs to the family as a whole. Sheep and goats are individually owned, so are more readily used for trading than cattle.

During the rainy season, the crops are usually planted. Crops include sorghum, nuts and sesame. Sorghum is the staple cereal crop. After harvest, the people spend their time repairing their houses and brewing beer.

Harvest is usually done by October and the dry season has begun by then as well. By November, the men move away from the villages as the cattle seek water and new grasses to graze. As the waters recede, fishing becomes more prominent because the fish become trapped in pools on the meadows, easy to catch by hand or spear.

Common Professions:
 * Warrior
 * Herder

Sex Roles and Marriage
Sex roles in Keshan are similar to sex roles found throughout the Black Kingdoms. Men do the hunting and herding and women do the domestic labor and farming.

When the eldest son of a family reaches marriageable age, he is allotted some cattle which he may use to ‘purchase’ a bride. A typical bride-price in Keshan is forty head of cattle. The next oldest son must wait until the family herd is back to its earlier numeric strength before he is allowed to wed.

This exchange of cattle is usually handled in stages, with the full forty finally being delivered when the marriage is considered binding, or ‘tied.’ A marriage is not considered final until the bride is pregnant with the couple’s third child. Thus, fertility in women is tied to the profitability of a family, for an infertile woman will never be fully married – and, thus, worth the full bride price.

Keshani may marry as often as they wish and as often as they can afford to do so. Additional wives are usually given their own homesteads and the husband will travel from homestead to homestead. Polygamy is a sign of wealth.

Slavery
The organized slave trade is almost non existent. Ruling class keeps some slaves, bought from Kush and Stygia.

Influences
Most of Keshan’s ‘cities’ are nothing more than tribal villages built around herds of cattle. The royal city is nothing more than a swarm of thatched huts crowded around a mud wall that encloses a palace of stone, mud and bamboo. The people of Keshan dwell in bee-hive huts of thatch with circular mud walls. Grain is dried on scaffolds. Men usually sleep in simple shelters made from grasses with the cattle. Livestock is the measure of wealth and prosperity among the Keshani. They Surrounding the villages and the cattle are dried cow dung fires, the smoke of which drives off insects. In addition to cattle, the Keshani keep sheep, goats and dogs. Sheep and goats are used as money in most places throughout Keshan.

Tip: T1 for most part of their villages, cattle enclosures etc and T2 for the more important structures, like a chieftains hut or a small 'castle', is most likely.

More Information
RPGS:
 * Return to the Road of Kings (Keshan, p 127-131)
 * Faith and Fervour (Gods of the Black Kingdoms, p 25-30)