Jaya

The Jaya (sing. jayan) are the shorter lived, perhaps more adaptable of the major classes inhabiting the kingdoms. They make up a large part of the Third Kingdom - and indeed other kingdoms of the world, though this page will focus primarily on the jaya that inhabit the Third Kingdom.

Physiology
Thicker skinned and with thick keratin, bone like-plated skin, they have a much similar build to the kansoro than the majority of the ixaj. Inspiration for them came from several sources including Aayla Seura (Star Wars Clone Wars) and the Silurians (Dr Who). As such, they have a very human face, however where you'd find hair, spines like hedgehog quills though thicker and all in the directions off the face - the spines suffer from the shiver reflex, stand on end in anger. These spines have natural colouring but are most often dyed, painted, or styled in a way that reflects the people they come from. They are very hard to cut and do not grow back like hair. Except in the most extreme circumstance would you see a spineless jaya - exile and war does not even go this far. Sometimes  these spines can be used to tell the future. Jaya are taller than kensoro on average, and walk on their toes (think Tumnus the fawn). Their skin is thick and tough, but otherwise their internal anatomy is near identical - which is why Kansen can train as doctors very effecitvely. I seem to remember that someone eye colour showed something about inheritance, but I can't find it anywhere yet. All jaya can live suitably without clothing and that wouldn't be seen as inappropriate, but all wear something important to them culturally and would not feel good without such covering, especially not amongst jaya. They are sexually hemphroditic, such that there's no problem with any variety of pairing (see below about trimorphs)

Life Cycle
With a much shorter life span than their distant cousins, the average life expectancy is 75 years. Kansen but comparison like more like 300 years, which is how they seem so godlike to the jaya who can live and die easily within their life.

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Triple sexual morphs (denoted SS, Ss, and ss; fen, turfen, and fell; di, demi, and de), with a fluid idea of gender which is irrelevant to sex. Masculine fens and feminines are totally fine. Fens are the physically largest, broad shoulders, with turfens being a bit more rectangular in body shape, and fells beiing the most lithe. Any of these morphs can carry and produce children, which is just bizarre for both Ix and Kansen alike, though arguably only the Kansen seem to care.

Family
They are closely family knit so while they are independent and often adventure in their middle years, they don't do so much and usually return home. They have words for cross-cousins and all manner of relatives, and people close to them are given names of this sort to denote closeness.

Families means slightly different thiings depending on the people group, and the ideas of partners also can differ. Ideas differe from the broad Kansen ideas.

Parents have between one and three children at a time, parenting them as part of a group effort - children do know their ancestry but are considered part of the community. Care is taken to ensure cousins don't intermingle genetically but same parts of the world - governed by language - dictates pairing, as well as the Bright and Shade.

Status
Jaya are responsible for the well-being and protection of the ixaj, which means ensuring people aren't interfering with them or building there or destroying sanctuaries. Sometimes, they act as mediators as the major Jayan skill is speaking to all animals. They stay out of the way in terms of wolves killing deer, for instance, but will intervene in a war between wolves perhaps if it would prove detrimental in the dance of life.

Naming
Names belong to a family member and are tied to people and place, usually. They have a short form for a long name. The longer, spiritual name, is...( my brain has forgotten.Is it just known to family, or to spirits, or to a partner?). This would be like Nax (common name) being short for Naxalia (spiritual name). The name also comes with a longer / third name - such as 'wolf who chases his enemies'.

Language
With the gift language, jaya can speak to and understand any ix and when putting their minds to it, speak any other native jaya language (there are 21) as well as the major kansoro language (there are four). (from the top of the June 2018 map) One of the greetings are 'see you in twilight' or 'see you on the dawn' which is respectful to both the bright and the Shade and where they meet in the middle. It would be a subtle dig to wish someone a good bright.

For more information on the dividual culture and languages of the 21 peoples, see the Jaya Peoples

Culture
Many ceremonies exist connecting the ixaj to the nature they came from. Ceremonies includ birth, death, joining, maturity, first spines. these differe across peoples though there are some things that are common to all cultures - see below.

Because Jaya have massive underground dwellings that differ from following trees to shallow single floors to huge caverns below, the network spreads out across the land and there are some paths which are considered common walking ground though ti is seen as polite to travel abvoe ground except for gravest need - weather, food, the need for secrecy as these tunnels while strong are not often maintained.

Jayan pairs would have private quarters / rooms of their own underground, while there are rooms for children, singles, and the rooms can be constantly in flux as long as they belong to that particular group of the family. Cooking, for good reason, done with fire is done above ground, while bathing is done in the lowest parts of the system. Despite the vast network, lots of time is spent above ground tending to the world, the external parts of the tribe, and the ix who live amongst them,

Justice and Law
The kansoro have an unspoken code and used to have law but law has largely devolved to wahtever the Empress says - mobs and gangs rule cities, and so long as the Empress is left alone and in ultiamte power, the mobs can do what they like.

Combat and War
War is more common due to territorial disputes and sometimes ritual differences, but there is much honour in the way they fight: Warriors are chosen, usually the second born children of an individual or couple or family, sex regardless. Weapons do vary across the nations, and include gun powder that the kansen have.
 * 1) Peace must be broken in offical declaration of war.
 * 2) If the sides agree to war, they may agree on date and acceptable numbers - which may or may not be even
 * 3) Children are not allowed to fight or to be harmed at any expense, either in the war or any following punishment.
 * 4) Opponents must not be killed if another method will suit.
 * 5) No ixaj or kansen can be involved in fair, jaya fights unless they are fighting other ixaj .They can if peace is not called for, or the fight involves others, more can be involved.

Diet
No jaya consume the flesh of any of the three people - instead eating anything they forage, grow themselves, insects, or seafood. Not all jaya eat all of these things. Neither do the Kansen, for that matter.

There are jaya that participate in cannibalism, as part of the death rites, while others find this repulsive.

Beliefs
All Jaya believe in the 'Great Spirit' or 'The Truth' or 'Intercessor' which is a dualistic entity in nature, being both  Bright and Shade. Two factions have broadly surfaced, favouring either the Bright or the Shade, on which war has broken out. This crosses over when perhaps sacred rituals are done at the wrong times, or people clash over land. There is no separation of sexism or sexuality. The loose religious tenants are kindness to all creatures, respect for the world in, and a recognition that nothing is pemenant. Every tribe has a spiritual leader, the Truth-teller, who although no higher than any of the other members, communes with the Great Spirit and heralds all the rituals of that tribe. General rituals include the spiritual naming of a child, banishment of members acting against the spirit, communing with the Truth, and the Dusk and Dawn (acknowleding the change from Bright to Shade). A Truth-teller is elected out of each nation to represent the nation/people a the Gathing of the People of the Earth - where at Sunrise at the height of the summer, unclothed and unpainted Truth-tellers of the nations ritualistically meet on the sacred ground. Then the peoples join them. This is repeated at sunset with the elected leaders of the Nations, equally as unpainted and barren. The week spent there in celebration, in communication, in singing and dancing, in sharing food. No war is to go at this point, ever, nor attacks on those left behind. All life comes from and returns to the Truth, including the Jaya and the ix who borrow for a little time. Different creatures from the mythos are higher beings because their spirit is permanently borrowed, a gift given from the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit is represented as just a simple circle, meaning all circular or spherical objects have spiritual call back. Religious myth would have it that the ixaj were brought out of the water, the jaya raised up from the land, and the kansoro down from the sky which is considerd a universal truth. There are no strict concepts of good and evil (shade is not evil) and represent two different mindsets of people. Jaya whom follow similar beliefs within families and tribes and following the opposite of the duo can rip families apart. Often there is a person chosen or appoint in a city as a leader of spiritual beliefs, guidelines, or morals. Since life is spent underground in tunnels, some of the earth spirituality is in the earth. There are rituals of the tunnel walking - even from one end of the kingdom to the rest - that is steeped in long tradition and religion. Pilgrimages and wars have been ravaged in the tunnels are unearthly (pardon the pun).

Kansoro are not typically permitted to the sacred places and rituals of the jaya - indeed it rare they are invited. On the off times they have been - as is in the traditional of the jaya - they must present themselves naked and without clothe. The jaya believe that the Spirit presides over all life and sees the Kansen as guardian spirits (different but not more than) to the jayan peoples and are thuse worthy to be in the sight. The Kansoro don't share this beliefe, but among those allowed in the ritual tunnels, whoe have seen the namings, who have watched the dances, say there is something moving and earthen they cannot put their finger on. Perhaps it is the movement of magic in the peoples that exists but is not used by them.

Magic
Strictly speaking, jaya are not said to have any magic of their own, but arguably their ability to speak and converse with all manner of ixaj is magic, however it is not treated so. They also pick up other language with remarkable ease, understanding the basics of all Jayan languages and quickly picking up the specialisms between them.

Medicine
Doctors are the main form of medicine, a trained profession passed down through families, thought down from the kansoro. They fix all things physical and are generally more proficient in their knowledge, on a technical scale. Each tribe has their own plants and remedies and skill, each very effective. They do trade skills sometimes at the Gather. Doctors and physicians in the jaya are very skilled at all types of animal wounds and their treatment of the soft ix bodies has carry over into the kansoro way of the world. They are beholden to treat whom they can and so every jaya has a little of this knowledge and can be found cradling a bird or some other animal - from preadtor down to smallest prey knowing it is their duty, and that such people are soon to die but it is the nature of the world that the Jaya care for the ix.

Education
Passed on via recessive parent (ss type) or only parent, strong tradition of carrying on family work when appropriate. Keld remarks that jaya typically travel but live and die near their family and place of birth. These traditions change based on tribe.

Literature
Fully literate, even more so than the kansoro, they keep detailed and full access records of history and stories, though there is a strong oral culture for story telling and beliefs and the sharing of poetry. Often the jaya know more than the common kansoro regarding their past.

Entertainment
Includes a lot of trick riding and highlighting partnerships with the ixaj, dinner parties, group games and sports, weaving, embroidery, dancing, singing, and many types of music. There is overlap between kansoro, but these would be considered classically jaya.

Forms of Art
Food and its creation, any piece of textile involved with 'riding', their fabric is masterful, bronze statues, also good work in woven jewellery. Art is generally a side project from a job / role.

Architecture
Flatter, not tall, generally better built but also rebuilt multiple times, would feature a meeting place, a religious centre, a war place, and crowding together of family houses. Where there are natural tunnels, these are homes built into these and where athere are not, tunnels are often built into mountains, down into the earth. People might  compare their methods of family and home making to congregatoinal insects like wasps or ants. Doorposts become more intricate carvings of nature as time goes on. When houses collapse or burn down, they are rebuilt in the same location. Despite the fact jaya look 'primitive', they have better medicine, story telling, war, and diplomacy than the kansoro.

Fashion
More cloth based and generally reserved for sleeve less and open sides, sometimes cloaks and capes, better made material usually, no gender discretion in clothing. Clothing is not required and more clothing choice has to do with the style of the people