Anukyakti

A warrior of far-southern Palhur who wields aetherial energies of the north. They are elite warriors who are sworn to protect the peoples of the southern polar regions. Anuyakti are always veteran warriors who are chosen by their tribal, clan, national, or community elders, often based on the needs of the community for more powerful, elementally attuned fighters.

The Bear and the Warrior

To become an anuyakti, a warrior of the many nations of the far south, near the pole, must live amongst the bears for a six winters. This means gaining their trust over the other months of those years so they may dwell with them in the harshest months. Living among them means learning how they fight, which is the style of combat used by all anuyakti.

Flowing Ice

When the summers come, the warriors must go to the edges of the ice, where the melt has made it a river of semi-frozen slush, where floes break off, where the seals gather, and there they must swim in the flowing ice. For six summers, they must submerge themselves in the frigid waters every full moon (which, given that there are three moons, can be as many as 15 nights* and as few as three). After each swim, the warrior must go back to the community elders and bring them a bowl of the flowing ice. This bowl is poured into a hole dug in the frozen ground by the warrior's snow knife (see below).

* It is improbable for the start and end of summer to have extraneous full moons from all three moons, but it is theoretically possible.

Blood and Snow

Finally, after the six year period is up, the anuyakti must be tested in combat by other anuyakti or by the best warriors available. They fight within a circle of power enacted by the elders and faith-leaders of the community, centered around the hole with the flowing ice (which by now would be simply mud). If the warrior is defeated (conditions of defeat vary by tribe), they are given another chance six years later. They may try again up until they are simply too old to keep trying. If they win, they must make a blood sacrifice of their own blood, either from a wound gained during combat or, if they did not get cut, from one they make with their own weapons, into the mud of the flowing ice. If they are worthy, the blood will turn the mud into red snow, which they then consume.

Spiritual Combat

Upon consumption, the warrior will fall into a trance. In their trance, they will once more walk with the bears, six of them, each one representing a power, ability, or esoteric skill. They will fight each bear in ritual combat, using the skills they learned from them, and for each combat they win, they will emerge with their powers.

Powers

During their first trance, the anuyakti will gain six powers. As they continue their work, they will periodically return to the trance through similar ritual combats to gain new powers. The most powerful anuyakti ever had 24 powers.

Elemental Powers

As anuyakti, they unite many elemental powers that exist at the southern polar regions:

• Iceblade: the most basic power is the formation of a blade of aetherial ice that lines the arms of the anuyakti such that when they embrace a foe, it slices them apart.
• Evergreen Skin: many anuyakti gain the power to take on the bark of evergreen trees as their skin, giving them protection from attacks, the cold, and the power to sustain themselves in the bitter winter.
• Floe-walking: the ability to move through the broken ice of the seas with confidence, speed, and as if nearly weightless.
• Bear's Wrath: temporarily take on the strength, intimidation, and prowess of a mature, angry bear.
• Stillness: increased awareness, especially hearing, in the open snow fields by imposing the stillness of the world.
• Blizzard Strike: unleash a flurry of icy attacks in a series of slashes that leave the enemy bleeding frozen blood.
• Midnight Sun: intense endurance boost that allows the anuyakti to go a week without sleep, food, or water.
• Lunar Shield: a thin, grey light aura forms around the anuyakti to repel esoteric attacks.
• Starlit Guide: a mote of qeernariji guides the anuyakti through the night on the tundra.

And so on. All powers will be derived from hvittdogg, TykvaVlast, kiiric yihi, conflueverant, lunar aether, true shadow, qeernariji, bijalee, viridian aether, nzwara murazvo, or viridian aether. As warriors, rather than rangers or Wranglers, they do not have animal companions or influence over bears or other animals, but they may take some features of bears. They also do not bond with the tundra or taiga. But they often have bonuses in the heart of the polar winter and penalties in tropics.

Inventory

As warriors of the southern polar peoples, they would already have skills with the following weapons that are adapted to the ways of the bear or used as back up:

• War club: a hard club made of wood, stone, or bone - a basic weapon often used by anuyakti even after they learn the ways of the bear.
• Cable-backed bow: a bow whose tensile strength is backed up by wrapped cords or cables, these are often used in hunting and kept by anuyakti as back up weapons.
• Kakivak: a short spear-fishing leister that has hooked blades that is used as a "bear's claw" by anuyakti.
• Ulu: a short, broad-bladed scraping, cutting knife that is used for jabs and slashes.
• Snow knife: a bone or horn knife used for sawing or cutting ice and hard snow.

Variations

Anuyakti vary only by which bears they were able to dwell and train with:

• Nanuk: the most common, the polar bear warriors are more at home in the deep cold. If a nannuq is part of their clan, they have more powerful aetherial attacks.
• Aklak: the brown or grizzly bears are more common a little bit north, but they are larger and thus grant greater physical strength.
• Iggagri: the Palhuric black bears are the rarest and smallest, but they offer more speed and cunning.

Societal Role

The anuyakti are protectors of the peoples of the southern polar regions. They are called upon when those peoples are in danger from outsiders or greater forces, and therefore, they are highly honored warriors. To become one means repeatedly risking death at the hands of the elements, and only those most attuned to them succeed. They are, therefore, also subject to great persecution from those who seek to subjugate their peoples or their territory, and they are demonized in imperial or colonial societies as cannibals or worse.

Skills

Common skills include

• Polar survival
• Hunting
• Fishing
• Swimming
• Animal care/lore
• Tactics
• Camouflage (tundra)
• Woodworking
• Stoneworking
• Bonecrafting
• Cooking

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species:

PRO +7
ATH +4
STR +6
AWA +2 Smell/Hear +4
WIL /
STH / In snow +3
PRS /