Chaqway
Chaqway
Religion
Traditions
+10% Global Trade Power
-15% Stability Cost Modifier
Way Apart From WarStalked by the perennial spectre of famine, not all will turn to violence. Eschewing the endless raiding and warfare of their Chaqanel nemeses to the south, the Amadians of the cape slowly became the Banche: the people of exchange. Their caravans roam far, and a Banche trader-gentarch may not come to the coast for a decade or more at a time, yet all Banche call the cities of Chaqway their home beyond home. It is the place one can always return, laden with new knowledge.
-5% Technology Cost
Words to WingsIn the time almost before memory, soon after the golden serpent fell, the king Falchiquél beheld in a dream the visage Sumaq. She had recently allied with her wily brother Poqi, patron of humanity, in the endless machinations of their family war. She spoke to him the language of the wing, the method to bring birds to one’s wrist and carry them to the hunt. The détente of these sibling gods is a secret known only to the Banche, and they have made companions of the many birds of Amadia ever since. The caravans of the interior scout with cruel-billed vultures for threats and opportunities alike, while cormorants and seagulls are used all along the Chaqway coast to double or triple the daily catch.
-15% Land Attrition
Wherever the Wind Takes YouThe Banche trader does not hug a narrow corridor, glancing panicked over her shoulder at every noise in the bush. Instead she leads the hated Chaqanel on a merry chase, dancing with her birds across the face of Amadia. Banche caravans are famous for their improvisational and sometimes exploratory routes, bringing valuable goods and stories from extraordinary distances to the great homeland markets of Chaqway, and laughing at the most hostile terrain in the process.\n\nAfter all, the vulture fears not even death.
+20% Caravan Power
+10% Trade Steering
Window to the World\"Baní is perhaps the only true seaport of the Amadian ruinborn, a city which swells and deflates like a lung. On those rare occasions when a marriage fair coincides with a visit from the Caamasi seafolk, it can seem to rival even the great lake cities, a half-tented Kheion. I have seen here almost as eclectic a collection of Taychendi jewellery as one might find in a Devandi market, and things stranger still. The people here delight in the hodgepodge; for them, objects acquire something over distances, catching some strange dust on the wind. A Banche caravaneer will wear three or four utterly disparate pieces, displaying not merely her wealth but her journeys, her connections, her ability to vibrate the strings of the immense web of which Baní is but a node.\"\n\n - Ivrandilos Katastos, The Collected Diaries
+1 Tolerance of Heathens
+5% Trade Efficiency
Wings of WarFor the Banche, war is a backwards movement, a dance they never lead. Those same great birds which scout on behalf of caravans also allow for extraordinary feats of communication and manoeuvre. This is true even among the least formally trained levies, who after all use their birds on a daily basis in their civilian lives. Such flexibility allows the Banche to anticipate and retreat from danger, forcing battle in favourable circumstances and blunting even the most fearsome terror charges.
-10% Shock Damage Received
Winds of ChangeThe Banche welcomed the strangers from beyond the Torn Gates the way they greeted any others: with the squawk of gulls sounding the call for approaching ships, and open arms. Explorers landing in Baní found entire markets full of guides eager to take them inland, and canny traders who would establish a solid trade pidgin within a half decade. This openness spelled doom for the Banche, who were slow to recognise that those willing to trade could represent a real threat. Nevertheless, the people of Chaqway earned high esteem and established many vital Cannorian contacts, a necessary tool for navigating the choppy waters that awaited.
+1 Diplomatic Reputation
Wandering upon the WavesBy the late 18th century, the Banche diaspora had spread across Aelantir and become a familiar sight in almost every major port, flanked by their steel-eyed peregrines and baleful seahawks. Dispossessed of land and political independence and often muddled in the minds of outsiders with sea elves, the Banche nevertheless retained a powerful sense of collective identity. This was further reinforced by sumptuous quinquennial marriage fairs, a tradition once confined to Baní which acquired increasing prominence as the diaspora scattered farther and farther afield.\n\nDue to their fine reputation as merchant seamen and their large family-owned fleets, the Banche became disproportionately wealthy compared to other indigenous Amadian groups. A number of estates along the coast of the Torn Sea were eventually bought out and resettled by diasporic Banche with the encouragement of the international Kúytimuspa ('Returning') Movement, but the Banche never again formed the majority in their ancestral home.
+1 Naval Leader Manoeuvre
Ambition
-0.03 Monthly War Exhaustion
History
TBD
Strategy
TBD