Sakaya

This article is a stub and still in the process of being completed.

The Sakaya are a group of people from many different tribes who live countless small villages in the Akai Mountains, regarding each others all as equals, regardless of their birth. They are lead by mystics who preserve and spread the teachings of their founders, which emphazise equality, humility, self-sufficiency, and excelling at ones talents. They have no nobles and no slaves and also do not worship any gods or spirits, but they make regular sacrifices to the local spirits as tribute for beeing allowed to live and work on their land. Most of the Sakaya are yao, but they also include many Keyren, Sanven, and some Brakai and Kota.

Though the Sakaya regard each other as equals and all their villages and monasteries are forbidden from fighting among themselves, each community has its own warriors to defend against raiders and stealing of their land by other clans. Some communities consists entirely of warriors and were founded to come to the aid of villages under attack by superior foes. These warriors often take work as mercenaries for other clans, as fighting is their profession and it is not appropriate for them to seek other work when their talents are not needed by the Sakaya. Sixty years ago a giant commanding one such comoany brought many of these groups together to fight not for some foreign lord, but for their own glory and to capture wealth for the Sakaya. Since then the Sakaya mercenaries have become one of the strongest and most feared armies in the Ancient Lands. Usually they are spread out as individual companies doing mercenary work, but will often come together as groups of many hundreds or thousands for a raid against a wealthy city before dispersing again. These mercenary companies often include great numbers of non-yao and have Neshanen and even Takari among their ranks.