Fiction:Khoyan'xa

"Our world is a world of war. War all the time. Maybe other worlds are not like that, but ours is. We live by its laws and it is because of this that we prosper."

- King Nolwazi

The Khoyan'Xa (Khoyan: Khoyanxha, great pearl), sometimes known as the Kingdom of the Khoyan, is a massive human tribal union-come-empire native to the southern Tropical Lands. Loyal to the, the Khoyan'xa is often considered to be its vanguard, for their invasion are likely to herald the Shiarchon's eventual arrival. However,the Khoyan'xa in itself is hardly a is very much a force to be reckoned with. One of the largest empires on Koldenwelt in terms of population, their armies are gigantic, well-disciplined, and completely ruthless, having slaughtered in the past entire nations and tribes. Their leader, the immortal king Dhurgwata, is reputed to be one of the most keen strategists on the planet.

Originally a motley collection of nomadic human tribes, the Khoyan'xa was founded by the legendary Khoyan tribe, which eventually became the kernel of the new state's military, and its leader, and father of the current king, Nolwazi the Great. The society of the Khoyan'xa is marked by rampant militarism, extreme army-like discipline within the entire nation, and a sharp divide between the warring Khoyan elite and the Thongan slave caste.

Origins of the Khoyan
What would eventually become the Khoyan'xa, or at least its innermost kernel, was originally one of the many small human herder tribes that eked out an existence in the eastern reaches of the Tropical Lands: a desolate savannah that, while not a volcanic wasteland like planet:Koldenwelt/Abyssus, was still affected by its proximity and hellish heat. This tribe, whose people called themselves the Khoyan, lived at the south of this savannah, which they called Xhenbele, a term commonly translated into Imperial as Blackveld. In terms or culture and traditions, the Khoyan were not very different from their fellow tribes. They all venerated the same spirits, dressed in the same clothes and danced to the same tunes, herded the same animals. Conflicts between tribes were rare back then: there were no resources in the veld to fight for, and warw were waged solely to resolve personal disputes between chiefs and were never very bloody.

However, one thing set the Khoyan apart: they lived by the sea. Their ancestral grounds laid on the great southern island of Layptecallia, or the Isle of Pearls, and extended to the nearby shore. This allowed them to benefit from the bounty of the ocean, and to grow far beyond their landlocked cousins. The seas provided food. While the other tribes lived at the brink of starvation, the steady supply of fish ensured that the Khoyan prospered and multiplied. More importantly, the seas opened way for the tribe to the outer world. Seafaring peoples of the Tropical Lands would visit their island and conduct trade with the Khoyan, exchanging jewelery, exotic spices and weapons for fish and their legendary black pearls. From these traders, the tribe would learn new skills and crafts: how to work iron, how to make stone buildings and how to build boats and ships.

War against the Sea
Amongst the Khoyan's partners, the most important ones by far were the traders from the western city known as Tehuilotl - Freelanders. Unlike so many other sailors who came to visit the Isle of Pearls, they were humans like the Khoyan themselves; they looked like then and spoke like them. The only difference was that while the skin of the islanders was black like their cherished pearls, the sailors were copper-skinned, the colour of their wares. Still, the Khoyan were bound to trust them. They were, after all, their most stable partners, and the jewelry, weapons and rare spices they sold were of excquisite quality. However, the wares they demanded in return were quite strange. Oftentimes the Tehuilotl traders would demand not just pearls, but people: usually the infirm and the elderly, and at times also young women. The Freelanders claimed they would bring these Khoyans to their golden city, where they would serve under their glorious oceanic god.

For generations, this order of things continued. Only after centuries was the pact of the Khoyan and Tehuilotl finally severed, thanks to the actions of Nolwazi, bastard son of the tribe's chieftain. It was him who, having his love, the beautiful Nobhule, taken away by the Freelanders, followed their merchant ships on his own boat. For three days he rowed incessantly, kept alive by his feelings towards Nobhule, until at least he reached a rocky isle to the west of the Isle of Pearls, and saw what really happened to those Tehuilotlians took. Legends are silent on what vile atrocities transpired that day, but they say that, upon witnessing them Nolwazi flew into a rage so great that he slaughtered, single handedly, all of the Freelanders and their underwater brethren with nothing but his wooden paddle. The surviving Khoyans then returned to the Isle to tell the rest of their people the ugly truth about Tehuilotl and its 'generosity'.

But Tehuilotlians would not give up. The next time they arrived at the Isle of Pearls, they did so with an entire warband of tattooed warriors and a flotilla of war canoes, supported also by Merkan allies - all hungry for blood. The entirety of the Khoyan tribe retaliated. The ensuing battle was bloody and brutal. It would appear at first that the defenders were winning. Not only did they have greater numbers on their side, the harsh southern lands in themselves trained them much better in the art of battle than any schools in the stone walls of Tehuilotl ever could. For every dead Khoyan, five assailants fell, and even with the Merkan on their side, the evil Freelanders slowly lost hope. However, they still had one advantage over their enemy: magic. When the battle was nearing its end and it became obvious that the Khoyan will not relent, the leader of the Tehuilotlians invoked his dark god and summoned a wicked demon from the depth - an Abyss Manifestation in the shape of a great tentacled shark. The monstrosity gnawed at the Isle of Pearls itself, devouring friend and foe alike and submerging the very island underneath the waves.

Birth of the Khoyan'xa
With his father dead alongside so many other of his people, Nolwazi assumed the mantle of chief. With the vengeful Freelanders hunting them at the seas, the only place left to go was deeper into the continent, where other tribes lived. But to intrude upon these northern lands was to break the sacred laws of the Blackveld, to violate the rights of other tribes and their chiefs to their herding grounds. Without the sea to nourish them, the surviving Khoyan saw only only way for themselves to survive: they had to take the land they needed. And chief Nolwazi wanted more than that: the ambitious warlord sought to reign over all of the Blackveld.

Even with so many of his people dead, the more developed craftsmanship of his tribe, as well as his own strategic genius, earned him many easy victories. The Khoyan warriors, with their steel weapons and complex formations, flanked their numerically superior rivals and then crushed them like a lioness would crush her prey in her jaws. Still, the Blackveld was large. It took decades of unending ruthless conquests to dominate all of its many tribes, and as those decades past, the Khoyan themselves began to change. Those who were once simple traders and fishermen became ruthless warriors, who knew of no greater honour but to die for Nolwazi and have their souls ascend to the great golden fields of valour. Other tribes in turn became slaves to the Khoyan, raised to obey their masters and, hopefully, one day prove their worth and gain freedom and a right to bear arms as warriors. As the conquest of the Veld finalised, Nolwazi decreed that the mantle of chief was no longer fit for him, and declared himself King of the Great Khoyan, or Khoyan'xa.

Years passed, and Nolwazi finally passed away in his sleep. His empire persisted after his death, but his progeny, unfortunately, was nowhere near as talented as himself. One son, Mtetwa the Lion, was as strong as his father, and just as brave, but had none of his wit or sense, and was reckless and brash. The other, Dhurgwata the Serpent, inherited all of his father's strategical skills and cunning, and perhaps even more than that, but was born crippled and was never a great fighter. As the older son, Mtetwa inherited the throne, and governed it well in absence of greater threats indeed.

Service to the Shiarchon
And such a threat appeared soon enough: the wicked Adravaelic Empire from the East, seeking to expand its dominion to prepare for the wars to come, came to the veld with its great legions. Mtetwa was quick to go to war. Naturally, the Khoyan were valiant in battle, as always. The Shiarchon had found a worthy opponent, who offered heavy resistance and even won, at times. Neverthless, even the greatest Khoyan'xa warriors could not prevail against the sheer power of the Adravaelic Empire. Seeing that the war was hopeless, Dhurgwata suggested Mtetwa to challenge the Shiarchon to a duel. Ever confident in his strength, the young king followed his brother's advice, and faced the Shiarchon's own champion, Praetor Servius. Should Mtetwa have won, the Shiarchon would have left; should he have lost, the Khoyan'xa would have accepted their reign without bloodshed.

Naturally, Servius cut Mtetwa down with ease, just as his brother had planned. With this, the throne passed on to him, and the Khoyan'xa became foederati of the Adravaelic Empire, with Dhurgwata as Legate. The numbers of the Khoyan'xa has grown since then thanks to exported Shiarchon crops, even with many more youth dying in wars, and the brutal and disciplined human warriors, led by Dhurgwata's strategical genius, has become an important part of the Shiarchon's war machine. Their armies have been seen in the and other conflicts alongside the dark elves and, including.

Demographics: the Khoyan and the Thongan
The population of the Khoyan'xa is almost exclusively human - specifically, the tall, dark-skinned humans of the Blackveld tribes. Their origins are unclear, but it seems likely that they, like so many other human nations, descended from those humans who in times gone by escaping the 's domination. Freelanders and the Katarocei, being the Khoyan's closest neighbours, are likely to be their closest relatives, and indeed the Katarocei even show some similarities in terms of physical appearance, but the Khoyan'xa's languages and culture are so different from both that no real ties can be estabilished by historians. Traditionally, the Blackveld tribes lived by herding; of slightly less importance to their lives were sorghum agriculture and hunting. Each tribe had their own alotted land for pasture and farming, inside which they migrated regularily; few ever traveled outside that land.

The conquests of King Nolwazi changed that equality between the tribes, or much rather imposed upon them a higher hierarchy. At the pinnacle of the Veld now stands the Khoyan aristocracy - a development of the original Khoyan tribe that founded the Khoyan'xa, but not the same entity by far. It is actually more of an amalgamation of warrior-nobles brought from each tribe: the initial small size of Nolwazi's original army meant that he had to incorporate loyal warriors from the tribes he had defeated as well, and the practice was continued by his son. Khoyan are forbidden to work by custom and law, and the only craft they respect is war. Tribal allegiances within the Khoyan are removed with the custom of youth regiments and then further by military service.

The Thongan are, simply enough, everyone else (for this is what the term literally as): the many enslaved tribes that pay tribute to the Khoyan'xa. Their way of life remains largely unchanged, except for some new technologies introduced to them, and the warrior-nobles treat them with disdain for their idleness, but they are essential to Khoyan'xa, for it is the crops they harvest and the crafts they produce that is essential for their war machine. As the Thongan are far more numerous than the Khoyan, the king's hold over them is strenous, and has to be enforced through fear. For this reason, the Khoyan raid Thongan villages every year, plundering their houses, slaughtering their people and kidnapping their youth. The girls become house servants to Khoyan warriors, while the boys are conscripted into the army and used as cannon fodder. Those who are hardy enough to survive through seven battles become true Khoyan: the rest are fed to the beasts of war.

Military
The Khoyan'xa's army is indeed massive, comprising hundreds of thousands of men and women serving under the king - large enough to crush many lesser nations by numbers alone. However, such a gigantic force could never exist without proper administation and strategies. Fortunately for the Khoyan'xa, and unfortunately for the rest of the world, they do have both.

The Khoyan's army is built in a rather simple manner, but its organisation is deceptively effective. The King has ten great overseers, who in turn watch over ten overseers, who in turn watch over ten commanders, and so on. The secret to the Khoyan'xa's armies is not in the higher ranks of its leadership, but in how they are organised on the lower levels. Rather than having an army composed mostly from untrained militia, like, say, Alhassans do, or a small group of professionals, the Khoyan'xa army is a thing in itself - a warrior caste. From birth, Khoyan warriors are separated into regiments, age grades that teach them discipline and organise their lives. As soon as they reach the age of 8, they start getting battlefield tasks: scouting, keeping watch, or cooking for older warriors. At 15, they are actually put into battle. According to custom, a male youth who slays his first foe will be allowed a night of pleasures with a girl his age from a female regiment.

This regimentation of life from youth gives the Khoyan'xa's warriors a unique outlook on life: all of them, barring the Thongan militia who are used mostly as cannon fodder, see everything as a military task and apply to it with the appropriate thoroughness. This gives them a degree of professionality unmatched even by more civilised nations, and discipline to perform complex maneuvers. The traditional time-tested buffalo strategy, where a foe would be flanked from both sides and then attacked by the main force from the front, is performed by Khoyan warriors with clockwork efficiency, but they have many more tricks up their sleeve: king Dhurgwata comes up with new strategies every day.

Another thing that makes the Khoyan armies so potent is their willingness to adopt new armaments. Their traditional weapons and armour are quite primitive, which is their main weakness: simple iron spear and cowhide shields. However, as the Khoyan'xa warriors fought new enemies, they came to adopt some of their weapons, whether crudely replicated or taken as trophies: bows, crossbows, iron swords and catapults. These occupy a less important position in the Khoyan'xa's war machine, but are neverthless important and have regiments assigned to them. One particularily important innovation was the horse; the Blackveld itself never had any animals that could be ridden, but during the wars with the, more than a few Imperial steeds were kidnapped, giving the Khoyan cavalry. However, the Khoyan'xa also have a number of war beasts of their own: the savage reptilian troll-beasts, the wild war dogs and of course the Behemoths: a greater, more savage relative of the Alhassan desert elephant, that cannot be tamed and is simply set loose at the enemy.

Government
It would seem that the Khoyan'xa's system of government is pretty straightforward, as it would be expected of such a brutal and militarist state: the king commands and the rest obey. In reality, things are a bit more complex. Dhurgwata's rule, while absolute, is indirect: the savannahs are vast, and mounts to traverse it quickly are few. Though the tribal chiefs were all slaughtered or recruited during the Khoyan'xa's formation, elected village elders and shamans amongst the Thongan continue to govern their lands by themselves. Their rule is enshrined by tradition and religion, and the king himself does not interfere in their duties, though he influences their elections once the old elders die. Should a local ruler cross him, however, Dhurgwata will make sure that, during the next taxation-come-raid, one of his warriors will just so happen to accidentally kill them.

The king's actual local overseers are his trusted generals, who however only concern themselves with keeping the locals in line and plundering them, rather than actual governance. Their spheres of influence usually remain the same, as Dhurgwata generally wants his enforcers to become acquainted with their land, but are not stable. A general can always be called to war, or reassigned to another land, and has little to no say in the matter. In fact, the king deems it prudent to shuffle his overseers from time to time, so that they would not grow too entrenched in any area and gain power. Dhurgwata himself rarely ever appears to the common people, but spreads the idea that he is a just, noble ruler, by contrasting himself with his cruel enforcers. If he appears to the public, then he does so surrounded by pomp and ceremony, shows his concern for the Thongan and on occasion punishes his generals for their misdeeds. Thus, the king's good reputation is preserved while the people remain in fear.

Culture
The Khoyan'xa is a militaristic, enclosed state, and its culture reflects that: it would be fair to say that the entirety of the Khoyan kingdom is an army. Duty is held as a sacred value not just for the warriors, but for all subjects. This is especially true for the Khoyan warrior-nobles, amongst whom discipline and obedience to authority is instilled in them from young age, and even those of them who do not fight - women or the elderly, for example - maintain a military outlook even in matters of peace. However, even the lowliest Thongan slaves are taught that they live in a warrior society and contribute to the conquests of the kingdom. They are not just peeling sweet potatoes - they are peeling sweet potatoes for the King!

The Khoyan'xa's religious beliefs are rather laconic. Above all they revere magic itself - the Source in its purest, unadulterated form, that their shamans tap into, which they call mana. It is a living, benevolent force, but also dangerous, at least for humans, and thus only the wisest can be trusted to wield it. Those gods they revere are merely various manifestations of this mana - like their own shamans, but many times stronger. Indeed, that is how they refer to their supreme god, - umuKozenaxha - or the Great Dark Shaman. The king is seen as someone who taps into the power of mana, whom it has touched and blessed to rule. Thus, he is not a shaman, but, in some cases, even greater than one. Another prominent part of Khoyan'xa's religion is their belief in reincarnation - or, rather, that they will be reborn in another realm to fight there once again, should they prove themselves valiant enough.

Interestingly enough, despite its cult of masculinity and strength, the Khoyan'xa's society is, in fact, quite egalitarian. Perhaps it is a result of men always being away fighting wars, or their reverent attitude towards maternity - after all, mothers are important for giving birth to more soldiers! Women in the Khoyan'xa are allowed to inherit property, choose whom they marry, and dominate civil life while the men are off fighting wars. Though the women amongst the Khoyan nobility are not supposed to fight like their men, they too are considered warriors, and too are raised to work in squads and serve the war effort. Indeed, when not in maternal age, Khoyan females serve on the battlefield like men. Young girls are used as scouts and messengers, maidens help operate war machines alongside the infirm men, while older women are taught the arts of medicine to heal wounded warriors. There are even cases, albeit rare, of women serving on the frontlines as warriors, or even as commanders - indeed, it is said that Nolwazi's wife Nobhule fought alongside her love, gutting men of other tribes with her spear and bathing herself in their blood.

Technology & Magic
The Khoyan'xa's technology is rather rudimentary, due to the harsh conditions of their homeland limiting progress; however, their long history of contact with nearby neighbours introduced them to many innovations that the Blackveld's tribes quickly adopted. That includes masonry, ironworking, jewelcrafting and even a degree of geometric knowledge, for creating war machines. Their allegiance to the further increased their technological level, especially in terms of agriculture. However, this technology is not evenly spread: many Thongan villages continue to live like they did centuries ago, except perhaps with iron tools and more varied crops, while the court of Dhurgwata himself is decisively advanced - at least on the level of an Imperial nation.

In terms of magic, Khoyan'xa's people have never developed far, but maintain a long-standing shamanistic tradition, which includes pyromancy and umbromancy. Some of the shamans grew quite close to their Shiarchon brethren and even began to tamper with the power of the Void, usually to no effect.

Allies
"We are in accord. Our pact sealed by blood and fire."
 * - "It is an honour to serve them."
 * Black Bone Horde - "A crude instrument, like a blunt spear. They have no respect from us."
 * Cult of the Eclipse - "Worshippers of the Tentacled Shaman of the South, our ancient enemy. We remember everything."

Neutral
"Cowards."
 * Vulcanus Horde - "..."

Enemies
"It will be an honour for you to fight us, and to serve us as slaves once we set your land aflame."
 * - So greedy and filthy, like savannah snakes. They deserve to be stomped.
 * - So tender and pretty. They probably break like twigs.
 * - Strong. But not strong enough.
 * - Cowards hiding behind trees! Come out and fight!
 * - Pale-faced cowards from the north! We will take you as slaves and make you shovel the shit from our cows!

Quotes
"Normally, the Empire of Man seeks friendly relationships with all human nations... except THIS one."

In-universe

 * Khoyan means jewel or pearl in the Khoyan language. Indeed, even today, after the destruction of the Isle of Pearls, black pearls are seen as valuable commoditieis of great cultural importance in Khoyan'xa, and every member of the Khoyan warrior caste is required by law to wear at least a ring with a pearl in it. Important generals have entire necklaces.
 * When a Khoyan kills an enemy, he will have his skin pierced by a golden ring. More rings therefore indicate a more influential and stronger soldier. Dhurgwata has more than six hundred of them.

Out of universe

 * The Khoyan'xa were originally invented by . They were later reinvented by.
 * The original page can be accessed here
 * The original name of the Khoyan'xa was Khuyan'xa. It was changed by 9988 on theImperios's advice, for this reason.
 * The Khoyan'xa was inspired by the Zulu Kingdom, classical Sparta and to a lesser extent the Swahili city states.