Caravan Culture in the Canary Desert
The Canary Desert is a harsh place to live. But people do live there,
the proud Shamalis people. There are a few established cities, but many
'tribes' instead travel between the oases. These tribes are called
caravans and are made up of different families, often closely related
with each other. A caravan can consist of all from 2 families to 20.
Wealth is not measured in gold and jewels, but in the water and the cattle that the caravan have.
The
caravans often raid each other to steal the others cattle, though they
leave enough cattle for the other caravan to be able to survive. During
these raids the concept of desert honour means that they rarely kill
anyone, instead simply fighting with blunt weapons, knocking each other
out. This rule is broken only in the most extreme circumstances, and
unless justified in some manner can lead to a coalition of caravans
exacting punishment on the transgressors.
Most caravans are lead
by a single "leader", either a man or a woman, and a council under him
or her. The leader is elected by the members of the caravan, while the
council is self-proclaimed and often consists of elder women.
There
are two ways to expand the caravans’ population. One is through
marriage, the other is to challenge the leader of another caravan to a
duel. Only the leaders can challenge each other to gain control over
another caravan. When they fight, they do it when the sun is highest in
the sky. They get to wear no clothing on their upper body, no armour at
all and nothing covering their feet. They also fight with fine
gold-trimmed daggers that are used during religious rites.
Traditionally duels were to the death, and after the battle the loser’s
blood was drained and drunk by the winner both to save water and to
gain part of the loser’s strength. As Angelic religion takes firmer
route in the Canary desert, however, this tradition is dying out as the
caravans have been "enlightened" with the more "civilised" ways.