Nanmai

A species cursed to fight against injustice.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Illittum

• Alignment: Celestial

• Energy: Lhair

• Lifespan: 2,000 years

• Diet: Normal mortal fare

• Habitat: Various

Origins

Once, forty great kings and queens engaged in the cruelest reign that could be imagined. They lived for many lifetimes off the suffering of their subjects, becoming less than mortal in their insatiable desire to consume and exploit and dominate. After a thousand years of this, the people were nearly wiped out, and the forty great kings and queens turned to consume each other. Among the sufferers were forty who resisted, forty who refused to die without a fight, and they marched together to where the forty great kings and queens were devouring one another. They looked upon them with disgust, and instead of destroying them as they should have, they instead called upon whatever justice might exist in the universe to give these great kings and queens what they deserved. They laid a curse upon them.

In that moment, all eighty of them were transformed, bound to a purpose. Those with justice in their hearts were given release and freedom, and those great kings and queens were subject to a geas that required they make up for their cruelty by spending the next 2,000 years repairing the world and reparation for their own cruelty. So were born the first nanmai: those who must fight for justice to redeem their past, and those who must fight for justice to live up to their past.

Ages later, they can no longer distinguish who is descended of which group of forty, but it would not matter.

Description

Nanmai are dark-skinned, anthropomorphic figures with eyes made of gold. They smell of flowers when they sweat. They have six arms. They also have three faces, though they only wear one at a time. It is said by some that one face is descended of the liberators, one of the oppressors, and the third unites them, but this is merely a story.

Procreation

Nanmai reproduce sexually with one another, with angels and with coeligians. Outside of their own species, the offspring’s species follows that of the birthing parent. With any other species, reproduction is impossible without supernatural intervention.

Powers

Nanmai all have a geas upon them that drives them to fight for justice, though they were never blessed with the ability to innately sense what justice is. Therefore, they also seek knowledge to understand justice, culturally. They are given, however, powers that may aid in fighting for justice:

• All nanmai can fly, though they do not have wings.

• All nanmai can switch their faces with one of their other two faces at will.

• All nanmai can draw from their own lifeforce to create a weapon of energy - usually some kind of flame or lightning.

Faces

When their first face speaks, it speaks freedom. They uplift those who hear them. When their second face sees, it sees the physical health of those they observe. When their third face smiles, all who see it are stunned, momentarily.

Justice

Nanmai, beings of justice, may evoke justice to the best of their knowledge and inflict a judgment upon someone if and only if they have proven themselves capable to enforcing it. To put it another way, if they fight an evil person and leave them in a vulnerable position, defeat them in a way that convinces the villain they can be beaten, then they may invoke judgment upon them, spreading some of their curse and alleviating the geas upon their species.

Weaknesses

Fusei drives them mad.

Nations

There are said to be forty and forty nations of nanmai, but in truth, there are only four:

• Aumanil: those who dwell in the seas and protect sailors.

• Kitezhi: those who dwell in the high atmosphere and contemplate.

• Patukavalar: those who dwell underground amongst the miners.

• Urthi: those who dwell in Dabusen and fight for the oppressed there. They are the original nation.

Culture

As they are compelled by curse to fight against oppression and injustice, the nanmai are split amongst them into different views on how to do this:

The first is that they must be active members of the oppressed and unite them in battle, protect them from the violence of the state, and lead them in resistance - this is the Urthi of Dabusen. The second is that they must engage the oppressors and infiltrate them, ever-pushing them to alleviate their violence, fighting them from within - this is the Patukavalar in the Low Mines. The third is that they must remove themselves entirely from the systems of oppression and fight from without, to find the moment of weakness and only strike then, otherwise risking escalating the violence - this is the Kitezhi of Gyrah. And the fourth is that they must do what little they can as individuals, to stand against oppression and speakout, independent of the state - this is the Aumanil of the Wyren Ocean.

The Urthi are a severely oppressed nation, hated by rulers and the ruled alike, cast down in the muck and scorned as Undesirables. From this position, they try to unite the oppressed, many of whom think them scum. This is the way of things. This is the way it must be. So they spend their time toiling alongside others who do the worst jobs in society, and they speak of better worlds, and their words fall on ears that only hear whining and laziness, even as they toil harder than any others. So they go to others with their faith in justice, and they speak of the cycle and the way, and they bring messages of a better world, and their words fall on ears that only hear mystic nonsense making false promises, even as they live as proof of what they speak.

And at night, they wear a different face, they take up weapons of energy, and they hunt the most wicked, telling none what they do.

Culturally, they show their primary face to the public, their secondary face only to their family, and their third face to no one for the sake of plausible deniability. Their third face is that of justice, and they wear it when they fight for justice.

They hold onto certain customs, the sources of which are long forgotten, which they practice in their own communities or with their own families:

They practice the holy rituals of body painting; every month, they gather and paint each other with hand marks of many colors. These marks glow when they make love, it is said. These marks allow them to share strength, it is said. These marks are only made between consenting adults if they are done on sensitive parts of the body - children only have them on their foreheads and upper arms. On adults, they are only on parts of the body usually covered, as this would expose them during their nightly acts of vigilantism.

They practice the holy rituals of feasting. After a victory at night, after a good month, after a union of families, after a long year, they feast on lentils and bread, sugary plums and figs, savory pastries and mashes, and a plethora of candied vegetables. They share throughout the community, including to non-nanmai, who rarely join them, and they speak together of good times and kindness. No ill words are allowed at feasts.

And they practice the holy rituals of physical exercise. An hour after breaking fast, they go for a run (if they can). An hour after their evening meal, they go for a swim (if they can). And every three days, they engage in any other form of physical exercise, and they dedicate these hours to their forebears. They do these exercises in groups, if they can, and always say prayers during.

The Urthi love bright colors. They wear yellows and oranges, reds and blues, greens and whites, and they do so no matter the time of year. They are seen as clowns by others, but they wear a riot of color no matter what… except at night, when they wear black and grey, dark brown and green, so they may move with stealth. (Having six arms is a bit of a tricky thing to hide, but not as unusual on Shem as one might expect.)

It is said among them that fighting for justice is their most important task, and therefore, they are taught to do so. The Urthi believe in justice as a collective force, and therefore, they try to work with other oppressed people to fight for it. They teach their children many lessons, such as how to recognize injustice, how to speak to other oppressed people, how to show respect, and how to kill someone quickly and hide their body.

National Cultures

The other nations vary from the Urthi in how they approach justice:

• Aumanil: those who dwell in the seas and protect sailors. They live in communities ranging from islands to cities on the bottom of the sea floor. They spend their days among the oppressed in those places, and their nights, they swim the oceans in groups amidst porpoises and fish, saving sailors from drowning, fighting criminals in port cities, and sinking privateer vessels.

• Kitezhi: those who dwell in the high atmosphere and contemplate. They live in a small cloud-city on their own, study every subject they can find, and try to be a self-sufficient commune of warrior-ascetics. They are viewed by those who know of them as xenophobic jerks, though they welcome anyone who would join them.

• Patukavalar: those who dwell underground amongst the miners. These are the most integrated of nanmai, and they work hard to push for progressive political agendas while joining different parts of society that give them power, such as the police, government, or other institutions, trying to reform them from within and using their power to set an example.

Esoterica

Nanmai are infused with lhair because of the curse on their ancestors, and therefore, they can wield it better than any others if they choose to. They are also commonly wielders of other celestial powers, especially juaih, curacion, and holy virtue. They also sometimes wield aetherial powers when appropriate, and often they wield shebvic powers to help them act as vigilantes. They are also powerful wielders of tahalana, poioumenon, and kor. They never wield infernal powers.

Religion

The cycle and the way is the core of their philosophy. The justice one fights for in life is reborn in their next life; they see themselves as proof of this, for this is how they evolved their powers and forms. Among their communities are the pathapradarshak, or gurus, who teach their faith and guide them to the way, and there are utaviyāḷar who attend the cycle. Among these two groups, some are mukavar, or agents, who are also anveshak (see military). The monks of the Kitezhi are known as bhikshuk.

Gender

Every face of the nanmai is a different gender, or at least referred to differently. They choose which face is which: male, female, or hijra. It is of utmost importance that they respect the gender in use. Most use the hijra at night, to fight for justice, because society does not respect this gender.

Economy

They are part of many economies, usually as an oppressed class.

Military

The Urthi refuse to take part in the military of the countries they dwell in, seeing them as part of the problem. They have their own warriors, the anveshak, who are investigators and vigilantes. The Aumanil are very similar. The Kitezhi are all warrior-monks. And the Patukavalar spend their time in police and military forces trying to be the “good cops”.

Language

Their language is based on Tamil.

Trade

They make excellent colorful vestments which they trade sometimes.

Occupations

Some common occupations include

• Anveshak: investigator and vigilante.

• Atikāri: officers among the anveshaks.

• Bandookaavnevaala: gunsmiths who make guns that only shoot the unjust.

• Bhikshuk: warrior-monks.

• Calanara: rangers of a riding, an anveshak with a bond to the environment.

• Hatyaara: anveshak executioners.

• Jujōkōrā: gamblers who use their skills to punish cheaters.

• Kaṭaṟkoḷḷaiyar: anveshaks among the Aumanil, pirates.

• Koḷḷaikkāraṉ: anveshaks who live in the countryside and resort to justice-by-banditry.

• Mukavar: religious anveshak.

• Mūttavar: community elders.

• Nyaayaadheesh: judges among the community who pronounce sentences on those captured by the anveshaks.

• Pathapradarshak: gurus who guide people to the way.

• Puraṭcikaramāṉa: revolutionary organizers.

• Taṭṭaccu: in technologically advanced eras, they are hackers for justice.

• Tatasth: bhats who recite poetry about the ancestors.

• Utaviyāḷar: attendants of the cycle of justice.

• Vāḷvīraṉ: rare and special sword-wielders of justice.

• Vidooshak: fools who speak truth and justice to the unjust.

Outside View

“Three-faced bastards. Liars, thieves, and killers. They’ll steal your coin, your liver, and your soul as quick as they can, then blame you for it. Spit on them, it’s the only time they get clean.”

Notables

• Mutalkuḻantai, Nanmai Ascendant, Aeonian, first-born of the second generation of nanmi, true hijra

• Mutaltantai, Nanmai Subsequent, Aeonian, Second of the Nanmai, First of the Fallen Kings

• Mutaltāy, Eldest, Nanmai Manifest, Aeonian, First of the Nanmai, First of the Free

Estimated Populations

• Aumanil: 1 million

• Kitezhi: 10,000

• Patukavalar: 100,000

• Urthi: 10 million

• Others: 2 million

Sample Stats

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