There are 24 goemagot tribes, each at war with the others. All of them are part of a massive, autocratic slaving empire. They are slaving raiders, horse-riders, and cannibals. They are feared around the world, and many other cultures have stories of how they had to fight off invasion by the goemagots.

The goemagot tribes answer to an emperor, who rules the strongest tribe. The other tribes are ruled by a warlord. The emperor and warlords each have many wives, who are slaves, and many more children, though they only bestow inheritance on the eldest son. The others are enslaved by the eldest son when he takes over (and therefore, many elder sons are killed by their siblings). They take their sisters as wives if they have not been sold off by the time the son takes over.

Women (or those the tribe decides are women) are raised as slaves and sold off as wives when they are able to bear children (despite this not coinciding with adulthood). Men (or those the tribe decides are men) are raised as warriors. Those who take up other roles are lesser in the eyes of the tribe, barely more than slaves. Slaves take up almost all domestic labor, including raising children. Children are taken into slavery immediately if they are the children of slaves or if they are girls. If they are sons of warriors, they are trained as warriors from the time they learn to walk. Adulthood is reached at the final growth spurt, usually around the age of 16. If they do not reach this by then, they try to force it through eating stolen fetuses in secret. If they are caught or if they fail, they are enslaved. At adulthood, a warrior is tested. If he succeeds, he is given his first slaves (sometimes including a wife, sometimes not).

Gender non-conforming goemagots are feared and killed as soon as they are recognized. Those that survive generally have more powerful mystical energies than other goemagots.

The tribes vie for dominance amongst each other through conquests, slaving raids, and political machinations. There is a rigid hierarchy among the tribes, but there is much movement among those ranks as they fight and politick. Most tribes are nomadic, but the dominant tribe takes over the city in the mountains just beyond the iron gates. The iron gates were built by their enemies and seal away the most powerful emperor of the goemagots. One day he will return and lead them to world domination, it is said. Thus, the emperor lives in a city above the sealed away emperor and tends this unholy ground.

Goemagots use steam-powered machinery in their city, though they eschew it elsewhere. The city is set atop a caldera, which powers their steam engines.

Each tribe celebrates six festivals each year: trading day (new years' day, when the tribes trade slaves peacefully), the emperor's birthday, the first emperor's fall, harvest time (when even slaves eat wel), the night of demons (when the mystics summon their most foul demons to torment the slaves), and a special day for each tribe called founding day. During the life of a goemagot warrior, they celebrate feasts for every special victory, raid, or acquisiton of a wife. Other goemagots do not get feast days.