Kimya Kivuli

According to the oral histories passed down by the Tribal Elders and the shamans, the Watu Tribe has its origins in an ancient and glorious civilisation nestled deep within the jungle. During the Time of Heroes, great chieftains and warriors arose who united the Tribes and built a great village of stone which was named Tīrthasthāna in the Old Tongue.

The Tigers ruled over the whole nation, great kings and lords and nobles, as well as fierce and powerful warriors who formed their own elite force placed above the common Jaguar soldiery, body-guards for the High King himself.

The Panthers became gifted shamans, protectors of the spiritual well-being of the city and mediators between the Spirits and the people as well as mediators between the different factions within the city.

The Jaguars became the warriors and hunters of the city, respected by the populace and feared by their enemies, protectors of the mighty stone village from which they hailed.

The Ocelots became traders and navigators, ranging far and wide from the city in search of other tribes and new opportunities for conquest or trade.

Finally there were the Leopards, the labourers and workers of the city, who undertook all of the vital functions required for the city to thrive that were not taken up by the other species.

Those born to the Jaguar and Leopard species that possessed pure black fur - the panthers - would be given over to the panthers to be raised and trained, taken forever from their families to be part of the secret circles of the most mysterious of the tribes. These distant ancestors to the Watu would eventually form their own subspecies of 'pure' panthers, all of whom would be born with the melanistic trait indicative of their kind.

Things persisted in relative peace and stability for many many generations, the city of stone growing ever greater and more wonderful with each passing year, its conquests and riches unimaginable to the later tribes that succeeded it. But no golden age would last forever, and the city would face utter ruination at the hands of a foolish tiger prince.

The youngest son of the High King, whose true name has long since been lost and is known only by the epithet 'He Who Greeted The Red Dawn' or more simply, 'The Red Dawn', sought to usurp the place of his elder siblings and succeed the throne. Through murder, deceit and dark magic, the young prince overthrew and destroyed much of his family, his plots only revealed by a powerful shaman of the Panther caste and a loyal general of the Jaguars.

Outraged, the High King banished his son into the jungle, never to return on pain of death. Humiliated and filled with hatred and rage, the prince plotted and schemed for years in the dark heart of the jungle, invoking dark spirits and conducting terrible rituals of forbidden magic. Driven to insanity by the powers he had sought to control, the young prince raised an army of demons and attacked the shining city he had once wished to rule, seeking only its destruction.

A terrible battle followed, filled with many tales of heroes and legends and many valorous deeds, as well as terrors and horrors barely whispered by the shamans even now for fear of the things such tales might unleash. In the end, the mad prince was cast down at the dawning of a red sun after many days and nights of fighting. The High King and all of the Tiger tribe were dead and scattered, vanishing into legend. The city was devastated and broken and the people disheartened. Without the leadership of the Tigers binding them together the unity of the Tribes evaporated and they went their separate ways, the city being abandoned by all but the Panthers, who resolved to remain and guard their holy places.

These were the proud ancestors of the Watu, who have remain even now in the decayed ruin of the once-grand city, their village nestled on a path that once led from the Royal Palace to the Temple of the Great Spirits, that their shamans watch over still.

The Watu and the surrounding tribes would face many hardships over the generations after the city's fall, eventually forming a very loose confederacy of tribes, reminiscent of the unity of old. Without the Tiger Kings leadership of the tribes fell to the Watu and the Chief of the Watu is nominally held as Great Chief of the Feline Tribes. The power of this is limited, however, though the tribes gather every five years to discuss matters and settle disputes and the other tribes pay lip-service to the Watu as their leader in truth the unity of the tribes is very fragile and the Watu hold very little power over the others, their roles more ceremonial and symbolic than anything else.

Nevertheless, several times in the history of the tribes they have been forced to band together to defeat a threat to their joint existence, and in those times when the Great Chief calls there are again great deeds and glory and valour, and again there are heroes that bestride the earth like the great ancestors of old and for a brief time there is peace and unity between the tribes, a dim faded remnant of the glories of elder days...

The Weupe Mkuki, the White Spear Tribe, are descendants of the Jaguar Warrior Caste of the ancient city which the ancestors of all the tribes once lived in. The Weupe Mkuki were once close allies of the Watu Tribe due to the close ties the Shaman and Warrior Castes held during the final years of the city's life as they fought side by side against the mad princes' army of spirits and demons and thralls.

In the generations directly after the city's fall the survivors of the two castes drifted apart, the Jaguars being the last caste to leave the ruins, though they did settle relatively nearby further downriver. For some time the ancestors of the Watu and the Weupe Mkuki retained a distant but cordial relationship, honouring their alliances of old, but eventually this soured.

No one is really sure what caused the two tribes to go to war, possibly one chieftain insulted another, or one tribe violated the territory of another, or any one of a thousand reasons. What is known is that many on both sides died in the fighting and that there has been bad blood for generations since, each tribe raiding the other - to humiliate their rivals and increase their own prestige. These raids are especially popular amongst young and aspiring warriors and hunters seeking to prove themselves.

In the present time, the feud is so bad that members of either tribe are likely to be murdered if they accidentally stray into their rival's territory, and they would not hesitate to take any possible chance to humiliate or harm each other.

Because of the origin in an older, more complex and advanced civilisation, the Watu Tribe are more of a quasi-tribal society. Unlike a true tribal society, the Watu have a formal, written set of laws and strictures, a semi-organised religion based around animism and ancestor veneration and a greater degree of social stratification than in most tribal societies.

Whilst everyone does participate in most activities like washing clothing, crafting, pottery, herb gathering, farming and hunting most Watu tribesmen have a singular focus towards which they will devote most of their time and effort. For example, Kimya's mother is by skill and preference a healer and herbalist and devotes most of her time to activities related to those professions. However, if the tribe has need of more baskets than the weavers can produce on her own then she has no problem with becoming a weaver for a while until enough baskets are made and she can return to being a healer.

All members of the Watu Tribe choose their future work preference before their final rite of passage into adulthood as it is in this rite of passage, the Trial of (Wo)Manhood, that they are given their adult body markings. Different patterns and colours denote their 'profession' as well as how skilled they are in that field.

The local feline tribes near the territory of the Watu are all descended of the same ancient civilisation, sharing a broadly similar culture and mutually-intelligible languages. They are nominally united beneath the Chief of the Watu Tribe, who styles himself as the Great Chieftain of the Four Peoples. The confederacy uniting them is far from a true nation-state, however. The bonds between the tribes are loose and their chiefs merely pay lip-service to the Watu Chieftain and he wields no real power or control over the other tribes. Only in times when all of the tribes have been forced to band together against a common foe has this unity crystallised and the Watu Chieftain gained any real amount of influence over his fellows.

The Panther Caste

The Watu Tribe in the Ruins of Sorrowed Tirthasana

The Jaguar Caste

The Weupe Mkuki Tribe
The Jiwe Kudumu Tribe
The Watoto Wa Mkuki Tribe
The Jiwe Upanga Tribe
The Watu Wa Milima Tribe

The Leopard Caste

The Nguvu Kubwa Tribe
The Nadi Manusa Tribe
The Alma Mahana Tribe
The Dure Bhara Tribe

The Ocelot Caste

The Majhari Jangalera Manusa Tribe
The Watu Wa Miti Tribe
The Ujjbala Jala Tribe

The Lost Tribe

The Mkasa Tribe

The Mkasa are a tribe of hybrids born of every caste mixed together. They were founded two generations before the destruction of Tirthasana by the illegitimate son of the High King of the time. When the Queen gave birth to a miracle son, the illegitimate elder child and his followers went into voluntary exile into the northern mountains to prevent a civil war. This isolation in the valleys and caves, coupled with the great strength of the tribe's shamans and acolytes, spared them the ravages of the War. In the centuries to follow, the Mkasa fell out of all knowledge and were forgotten by the rest of the Mother Jungle. Whilst no pure-blooded Tiger remains amongst them, they are the last heirs of the Tiger Caste yet living.