First of all:

Baskar = the name of the people; the noun form.
Baskari = the adjective form. I.e. Baskari cheese, a Baskari woman.
Baska = the name of their language.
Endikai = the tribe led by Warlord Endika sem'Edur
Zerui = the tribe led by Warlord Zeru sem'Zigor
da'Endika = the lands ruled by Warlord Endika
da'Zeru = the lands ruled by Warlord Zeru
da'Eguzki = the large island on which both tribes of Baskar live, and have lived since the creation of the world (as legend has it).
Tribe (capitalized) = one of the two main tribes, either the Zerui or the Endikai.
tribe (lowercase) = one of what we will in this documentation refer to as 'subtribes.'




Long ago, the Baskar split into two tribes.

The tribes are known by the name of their leader, with an -i suffix at the end, because they believe that their leader is divinely appointed and thus value him highly. Thus the tribe of Zeru sem'Zigor is the Zerui. The tribe of Endika sem'Edur is the Endikai. Up until quite recently, with the death of the Warlord Ekain (Endika's brother), they were known as the Ekaini, but this has changed. All, however, are Baskar, part of the same people. They are easily able to tell each other apart by their different styles of face-painting.

The Baskar all believe that they were born of the sun, and all worship it as a god, called Eguzki. They know the island not as Thiasa--a name brought by the interlopers--but as da'Eguzki, the true home of the Sungod.

However, the Zerui believe that there is only one true God, the Sungod Eguzki, and no Spirits or Spirit World apart from the all-encompassing Sun. They have build a tall mound, with steps cut into the sides, up with only the Warlord, leader of the tribe, can ascend each morning to speak these words to Eguzki:

Eguzki, You are great, who feeds and nourishes the land and our people. You are the only God and the All-Powerful. May Your light shine down upon another generation.

Every Midsummer's Day when the sun is at its highest point in the sky, the Zerui celebrate the Midsummer Ritual. The Warlord takes a captive--the one of the highest rank they can manage--to the top of the mound, and sacrifices him to Eguzki, reciting this words:

Let return to You the warmth of life which You bestowed upon us, Eguzki. You are Great. You are the Only. Grant us a bountiful harvest.

After he is sacrificed and his blood drained, the body is doused with wine, covered with brush, and lit on fire with a special crystal used to focus Eguzki's rays. The ensuing feast and celebration lasts until the remains have finished burning, and mandatorily so; no one can go to sleep until the process is complete.

Of course, now that the Zerui at peace with the Endikai, they may have difficulty obtaining the necessary sacrifice. Always in the past it was one of the Endikai. Now, however, if they sacrifice an Endikai they risk breaking the peace, particularly if they look for one with a high rank. If they sacrifice an Interloper, they risk full-out war, perhaps without the help of the Endikai, who believe this custom is ridiculous.

Each person among the Zerui performs these rituals in miniature, in their own homes; every morning they get up and, exiting from the east-facing flaps of their tents (the entrances to Zerui dwelling must always face east), they offer a private prayer to Eguzki. Every midsummer, they spill a little of their own blood on the earth when the sun it at its highest.

The Endikai, on the other hand, have an animistic religion: they believe in natural spirits, such as the animating spirit of the Horse, spirit of the Oak, spirit of the Olive Tree, spirit of the River, etc. The Spirit of the Sun is for them synonymous with the Creator God Eguzki, and they believe He rules or even encompasses (theology is vague) all the other Spirits. For them each horse shares a spirit in common, as does each oak tree and each river--it isn't particular to the individual animal, plant, or body of water. They also send their children, male and female, on Spirit Quests to discover what spirit inhabits their body along with their human soul.

Those with the Spirit of the Horse are most highly prized, because all of the Baskar live and die by their horses. Often the Endikai will carry around a small carving of their Spirit (which may be an animal, a plant, or even the Sky, Cloud, River or Sea). The personality depends upon the spirit, or the spirit upon the personality: a Sky spirit, for example, will usually be open and idealistic, a Cloud spirit will be troubled, an Oak spirit will be strong, an Olive spirit will be fertile, a Horse spirit will be headstrong, a Raven spirit will be wise, etc. But no one knows their spirit, though they may guess, before embarking on a week of fasting alone in the wilderness to find it. This Spirit Quest takes place for every member of the Endikai in their thirteenth year of life, at which point they are considered adults and may marry and, in the case of males, become full-fledged warriors.

The Endikai have Shamans and Shamanesses, men and women whose job it is to speak to the Spirit World. The Zerui do not; their Warlord is their only Shaman, because only he has the Ear of Eguzki.

The Zerui also have a different ritual that brings them into maturity. They are considered adult at 15 in the case of the men and 13 in the case of women. The men go through a form of initiation/torture known as the Sun Dance, after which they are declared full warriors. The women are automatically adult upon reaching 13 winters.

The two tribes also disagree about homosexuality. The Zerui don't tolerate it, because they believe it is against Eguzki's harmonious nature. The Endikai do, because of their belief in spirits; they believe that a man may have the spirit of a woman, or vice versa, and that in rare cases someone may have both spirits in one body.

Both cultures have the same cremation custom, though the prayers differ. Both burn their dead; they don't bury them, but believe that the flame that consumes their body will send their soul (or spirit, in the case of the Endikai) to Eguzki. It is up to the family of the deceased to arrange the pyre. Shamans perform the funerary rites for the Endikai, while the subtribal chieftains, and sometimes the Warlord, perform them for the Zerui.

These differences of religion aside, the Baskar share many customs in common.

They both use bronze weapons. They favor longbows and axes for close combat, or thick, short swords. Their shields are made of animal skin and bronze. Men and women dress in either woven cotton or, for rougher weather, animal skin tunics and leggings, though the women's tunics are longer, and in summer women may go without leggings. In summer men too may go without leggings, and both sexes will often be found wearing nothing but a loincloth on hotter days.

Marriages may be performed by the Shamans (in the case of the Endikai) or the Subtribal Chieftains or even the Warlord himself in the case of the Zerui. The Endikai also recognize marriage performed by Chieftains or the Warlord, though these are less common. Warlords take many wives--up to 20--and one of their wives is always their eldest sister, if they have one, so as to keep the bloodline 'pure.' Chieftains may take up to 3 wives if their tribe can support it. The rest of the Baskar are monogamous.

The Baskar have dark skin, ranging from a light tan to nearly brown, dark eyes, and long, straight black hair; very occasionally there will be a Baskar with curly hair, or light-colored eyes, but that's unusual.

They make their living by their horses. They live on horse meat and horse milk, which they make into cheese to keep, drink fresh, or ferment into yoghurt. They also make liquors from the grapes native to the island. They fish, and they do grow crops--chiefly barley, which the make into a kind of flat bread which they call ogi--in the fields around their tents and longhouses, though they are careful to fence in growing-ground from grazing-ground, so that the horses don't eat their crops. Their economic system is one of barter, though they do use gold as a trade item--just not in the form of coins. Instead they will trade golden ornaments for food, horses, clothing, etc. Weaponry also has great value in trade.

They are very displeased with the interlopers onto their land, which they believe was granted to them as a birthright by Eguzki. In great irony, they know the war fought with the invaders as the Barbarian Wars, too--only to them, they are not the barbarians--the Thiasans are.

The Baskar speak a language called Baska; in fact 'Baskar' derives from the word for their language, which they believe is central to their identity. A few Baskar, captured during the Barbarian Wars or exposed to the Thiasans, have learned the Thiasan language, and if they absolutely must bargain with a Thiasan on the border they use sign language. There isn't enough contact between the two groups for a linguistic mix.

The women of the Baskar are not allowed to be warriors, but they may be hunters, and many use a knife and a bow with great skill. They ride horses as well as the men, but it is their job to tend to hearth and home. The Baskar are monogamous apart from the Warlord and the Chieftains, whose lineage they believe was appointed by Eguzki. The Warlord receives up to twenty wives to ensure that the lineage will continue. Inheritance for the Baskar passes to the first male child of a leader. Women are treated as secondary to men and always eat after him when they have meals. The multiple wives of the Warlords each prepare a meal for their husbands, who come to sample each of their wives' cuisine. The choice of food becomes the choice of whose bed he will warm later.

Though the Baskar are monogamous, they may keep concubines captured in war. When the Zerui and the Endikai were at war this was more common, since few would dare to capture (or would want) an interloper woman. Concubines, also called murroi-emaztes, don't have the status of real wives; they're essentially kept whores in that their children, like the children of whores, do not inherit any status from the father. The chidren of concubines take the name of their mother as their last name, not the name of their father.

The Baskar live in either small tents made of animal skins, if they are traveling or part of a small subtribe, or large longhouses made of animal hides over a wooden frame. These longhouses may hold up to 100 families, separated by animal skin dividers that keep each living space private.

Baskari names are all Basque, and names may be found here (male), here (female), and here. To create a full name for your Baskar character, men need to create a surname by putting 'sem'' (the word indicating 'son of') before the name of his father, and women, 'alab'' (the word indicating 'daughter of') before the name of her father.

To make an image signature for a Baskari character, we suggest you pick a playby of Asian/African/Indian (as Nekane puts it, 'dots, not feathers') descent, or preferably Native American. Here's a handy site for finding playbys, though you will have to google them to get images.

If you have any more ideas for Baskari culture, feel free to embellish on what I have here. After all, it's your site. PM me with any ideas.