Kupasua

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Insinsi

• Alignment: Poioumenonic

• Energy: Uchambuzi

• Lifespan: 1,000 years

• Diet: Common mortal fare

• Habitat: Grassland plateaus

Origins

Evolved from shemir who began using the energy of uchambuzi to study the narrative flow around them.

Description

Cephalans appear to be anthropomorphic beings with high foreheads and a variety of color skin hues (dark grey, rich green, or shimmering pink). They have fingers that are proportionately longer than one might expect from the size of their hands. They have hair on the fringes of their heads but not on top.

Procreation

Kupasuas reproduce sexually with one another. They sometimes reproduce with other insinsi, where the species of the offspring follows that of the mother. Reproduction with any other species requires supernatural intervention.

Powers

Kupasuas have the ability to analyze the story of a person, place, or thing by focusing on it for a day without rest, thus knowing the important events of a person, place, or thing over the last half of its existence. The larger the area of and/or older a place, the older a person, or the older and larger a thing, the harder this is.

Taunting

Kupasuas have the power to skewer a person verbally in a way that will cause them emotional damage if they have spent a day without rest analyzing them. This taunt will usually take the form of a deeply personal insult or critique.

Weaknesses

If a kupasua is ignored for long enough, they wither away.

Nations

There is one nation of kupasuas in deep southeastern Taggarus. They are called the Watu.

Culture

The Watu dwell in a small city atop a grassy plateau in southeastern Taggarus where they live in dried mud-domes that cover an underground warren of chambers that are filled with their archives, libraries, and classrooms.

The city is run by a council selected by various committees who vet the candidates thoroughly. Candidates are selected from the twelve guilds. Each guild is dedicated to analytical and critical practices in terms of the works in the archives. They control different territories within the vast subterranean warren. Everyone in the city who is not part of the guild is either a non-voting citizen or a child; the former often aspire to join a guild.

Children are raised by their extended families in large cluster houses, which are separate buildings all connected with one another via shared walls, like a sprawling urban venn diagram. The intersecting areas are usually storage spots. Children are taught to read very early and sent to school as soon as they have the basics of reading down. From the time they go to school until they are ten years old, they go home every night to their families, but after the age of ten, they are selected by a guild for a boarding school experience if they test well. If they fail their early tests, they are tested again every year to see if they have improved well enough to go to a guild boarding school. Those who never test into a guild school become non-voting citizens.

Families often have a fierce loyalty to their guild and its school, and there is tremendous pressure on children to get into the right school. However, those who don’t go to the right school are still generally supported by their families, though there is a level of teasing and an expectation that they marry someone from their own guild rather than from the family guild.

Boarding schools each have their own complex traditions. Each school has its own set of sports teams - twelve sports in all, each one designed to compete against the other schools, with one sport being the one most associated with the guild. Each sport has its own season - archery, sprinting, long running, high jump, long jump, javelin, stillness (literally sitting or lying still for hours), rowing, pole vault, dance, and lifting. Those who do not partake in sport are expected to partake in performing arts, writing, research, or trivia teams. Competition between schools is a major part of their culture growing up.

Every school has its own major celebration days. One for each school, one each month. On these days, they invite students from the other schools, including the public schools where non-guild students go, for social events, awards ceremonies (to show off their students), and academic fairs.

At age twenty, students graduate no matter what kind of school they go to. In the weeks before graduation, they take the toughest exams of their lives. If they pass, they are accepted as journeyman guild members if they are in a guild school. In non-guild schools, passing can get them accepted into a guild without attending guild school, though this requires a much higher standard of passing.

Once a journeyman in a guild, they spend five years serving a master basically as a servant. Their master then tests them over the course of the next five years, eventually recommending them for a master’s thesis, which they spend three years working on. At age 28, they become masters in their guilds and full citizens.

Every guild has its own traditions as well, especially their own secret methods and rituals. These are obscure and strange and usually involve magic. Those who do not join guilds work non-academic jobs and are seen as second class citizens, including those serving vital roles in society. They tend to have more informal traditions, family by family, and neighborhood traditions such as small street festivals, feasts, and arts.

Esoterica

Kupasua are beings of uchambuzi, the magic of analysis, the power to dissect and alter narratives of the lore. They are also commonly wielders of other poioumenonic and nommic powers.

Religion

Kuapsuas worship a small pantheon of poioumenonic deities which they call mzungumzaji (speakers). The foremost of these is Mkataji, the Speaker Who Cuts the Lore, whom they honor as their progenitor. The others are Kuona (the Speaker Who Sees the World, wielder of ausa); Asili (the Speaker Who Begins the Tale); Kuvuka (the Speaker at the Crossroads); Kubwa Zaidi (the Speaker Who Grows Larger); Upande (the Speaker Who Steps Sideways); and Kuunganisha (the Speaker Who Merges).

Every guild has its own set of mganga (holy leaders) who are said to speak to the Speakers and relate the tales they tell, which they then interpret, analyze, and even criticize. It is considered a holy rite to criticize the Speakers.

Gender

Every kupasua analyzes themself as sharply and constantly as they analyze stories and the world around them, and thus, they come to understand themselves very well. This leads to a highly individualized understanding of gender. Culturally, some genders are sought after by certain guilds more than others, and there is internal pressure to conform to the genders the guilds want, but nonconformity is not harshly punished. Just frowned on.

Economy

The Watu have an early capitalist economy.

Military

The Watu have thirteen militaries: the twelve guild militaries and the non-citizen conscripted military. The former are small forces designed to protect the guild houses and archives; the latter are a massive force that defends the entire city-state.

The non-citizen force is composed of jeshi, or conscripts, who have officers from the guilds. They wield spears, short blades, and bows. The guild forces are made up of shujaa, who use uchambuzi to analyze their enemies and target their weak spots.

Language

The language of the Watu is based on Swahili.

Occupations

Some common roles include the following:

• Diwani: member of the city council.

• Jeshi: conscripted soldier.

• Kisuluhishi: puzzle solver who studies special magical puzzles.

• Mchezaji: elite dancers.

• Mganga: holy figures who speak to the Speakers.

• Mgawanyiko: guild-sanctioned scholars who use uchambuzi to fill cauldrons full of information and dissect it.

• Mtafutaji: investigators who use uchambuzi.

• Mwalimu: teachers at a school of any kind.

• Mwanakemia: chemists who work for the guilds.

• Mwanasayansi: guild scientist.

• Mwandishi: writers who work in the archives.

• Shujaa: guild warrior.

Outside View

Kupasuas are seen as secretive and isolationist sorcerers and witches who are a threat to colonizer forces. They are hated and persecuted if they leave their homes.

Notables

• Kuzaliwa, Kupasua Manifest, Mother of the Watu

Estimated Populations

• Watu: 48,000

• Other: 10,000

Sample Stats

PRO 8
ATH 8
STR 8
AWA 14
WIL 11
PRS 8
STH 11