A teahean has supernatural strength even as a youth, but they gain much more strength after their Rite of Blood. As children, they can withstand piercing and cutting attacks and have a high resistance to the cold.

After their rite, teaheans have a major growth spurt, eating intensely for six months and growing quickly. Building muscle is easier during this period. They are empowered by acts of malice, which causes an intense spike in hormones that increases their strength, endurance, pain tolerance, speed, and primal instincts for violence. They become more focused during this and do not lose control of themselves the way thyr do. Instead, they risk glutting themselves on blood, which they drink for strength.

Ancient teaheans can steal souls by ripping out the hearts of their enemies and eating them. This gives them not only bloodstrength but also the souls of their enemies.

Teaheans can see in the dark and can speak to night wolves, serpents, crows, black dogs, perytons, and spiders. They have sharp fangs and claws.

Teaheans have many special weapons and armors they craft:

• Blood-ax: more battle ax than hatchet, a teaheanic blood-ax is made from bloodmetal infused with infernum, night wolf bones and fur, bonded with infernal energies.
• Fang-dagger: a night wolf fang shaped into a dagger, drenched in the blood of an innocent, and merged with a demonsteel handle.
• Fang-spear: made with the fang of a teahean or a night wolf (or both), the wood of a zaqqum tree, and bound with peryton leather thongs, a fang-spear is imbued with malice resonance and blood energy.
• Bloodcoil: a whip made from the skin of a black dog, soaked in dogsblood, and ritually empowered by whipping enslaved enemies of the maker. It causes freezing of the blood when it strikes.
• Night-shield: a shield made from zaqqum wood and serpentskin, a night-shield is much stronger at night and empowered by shadow and blood energies.
• Hell-club: a zaqqum club wrapped in gossamer and teahean hide, studded with blackiron spikes, imbued with infernum, gossamer light, blood energy, and imperium.
• Nightleather: leather made from a teahean's hide, crafted into armor, and ornamented with crow feathers, teahean fangs, and night wolf fur. Empowered by malice resonance and infernum.
• Crowstaff: a staff made from zaqqum wood, ornamented with crow feathers, peryton feathers, teahean and night wolf fangs, black dog fur, and spiderwebs.
• Blood-drum: a drum made from teahean hide and zaqqum wood.

Teaheans live in cold mountains in dense forests where the light rarely reaches even during the day. They call themselves the Night Horde, and they are led by a powerful warlord called a stechsramol. The strechsramol is a maleficer (one who has mastered every infernal energy in some form) and warrior who has stolen thousands of souls in order to attain inmortality. She has commanded the Horde for many Ages, and none have ever bested her. She is advised by a council of priests of the Serpent Mother, whose death they reject. These priests, called bauchapsa, have no clan.

Below the strechsramol are the lokamcheasa, or lords, who rule the clans, and then the ptachkar and the medoek, who are the heads of families (ptachkar being heads of large, powerful families, and medoek of smaller ones--medoek answer to the ptachkar). These make up the ruling class, along with the bauchapsa. Members of this class are allowed to own more slaves than others, as ordered by the strechsramol.

In every clan, there is a class equal to the ruling class made up of esotericists. Each clan has its own subset of esoteric arts that they favor. Some are shadowweavers and twirlers, others are plague-bearers and demonologists. Each clan will have at least one infernal or shadow art. Every clan sends 13 of their esotericists to the stechsramol's family to be trained as part of her maleficer cabal. Most do not survive this, but those who do become powerful, clanless leaders called akrak. They have their own hierarchy, but collectively answer to the strechsramol directly.

After the ruling class is the warrior class. Every clan has its own warriors, called davakrak. They serve the clan leaders and enjoy great privileges within the clans, including being allowed to own many slaves, but less than the ruling class. Like the esotericists of the clans, the davakrak also send 13 of their own to the strechsramol's family to be part of her elite warriors, the norokpou, who serve her directly as guards, enforcers, and military.

The underclasses are the workers and slaves. Workers cannot own slaves, and slaves can only free themselves through either showing esoteric talent or by killing enemies of the clan. No child is born a slave, even if they are born unto two slaves. Children of slaves are workers. A clan will never enslave one of its own; slaves are always taken from other clans or non-teaheans in war.

Each clan has a symbol that they use as their banner. The strechsramol's symbol is a black banner with a white skeletal serpent. The largest, most powerful clans have the symbols of the three-headed crow, black dog, night wolf's head, and spider web. There are a total of 169 clans, though most of them are very small and subservient to larger clans.

Gender is generally treated as a lesser facet of each individual teahean. Power derives from the ability to harm or control others, and everything else is secondary. The economy is slave-based, and trade with others is done by the ruling class--it is forbidden for the workers or slaves to trade outside their own clan without permission from their leaders. The rulers do everything they can to limit their workers' and slaves' exposure to the world outside the clans.

Blood is used in teahean art, food, and crafts. Even clothing is washed in blood. Slaves' blood is harvested for this purpose. This began as a sacrificial tradition, used to honor their Divines, but it evolved into a brutal practice as their pre-class culture shifted into a slave-economy.

Some teaheans leave behind their national culture, escaping with great danger. Those who reject their society usually do not take a more peaceful path, instead seeking power in whatever contest they come to. Some few, however, reject the conditioning of their oppressive culture and become cunning merchants, soldiers, esotericists, or community organizers. Those with esoteric talents who escape are often among those sent to the strechsramol's cabal who do not wish to become maleficers, choosing some non-infernal art to pursue.