Mteule
Overview
The Mteule is the tribal society formed in the Great Desert by the immigrating humans. The Mteule social structure is based around a single chieftain that holds his position by power and strength. He is not a tyrant, but in times of crisis, he is a leader. The first of these, the one who led them to their first settlement, was named Riven. He formed the first of the desert Holds, the place called Tagwe. A cliff runs full circle around a chunk of land, cliffs riddles with mazes and caves. Tagwe serves as a returning point for Mteule travelers and packs of scavengers. It is the closest thing they have to a city, but even now, it cannot support a full city's population on its land. They keep a calender based on dark/light -- prior to the Rain of Fire and the blinding of the Eye, a giant sandstorm had traversed the skies, dimming the land for a time. Notation is Period, Cycle. It is measured from the ending of the Wandering and the Founding of Tagwe, so there are some minor instances of negative cycles in notation.
Religion
The Mteule worship the god Akhat, ruler of the desert, and the one who brought them from their original lands to the Great Desert. Their "priests" are the ones called Speakers, who are the voice of Akhat to the people. The Speakers teach the people of their great god, the purpose he has for his people in the land, and the secrets of the desert. They are the primary educational vessels for the Mteule people, and serve perhaps the most important purpose of all the Mteule.
Culture
The Mteule, for the most part, are a migrating, nomadic culture. They traverse the deserts in search of food and other resources, stopping at the occasional Hold, and making a circuit back to Tagwe eventually. Most of their culture is preserved in stories. While any Mteule may be able to tell you their favorite of their stories, there is a layer of their society who preserves the stories through time: the Word Bearers. They view their testing in the desert as the Sraa Kbyr, a struggle against the world to prove themselves.
Heroes
Riven was the first leader of the Mteule people. He was one of the only surviving members of the original expedition to the Desert. It was he who took command and protected the people, leading them to safety, as well as teaching them the ways of the desert. After serving his people valiantly for generation upon generation, he and his wife Celica passed into the sands and transcended to become the first Exemplar.
Vargus is the first of the Bearers and Speakers both. He has passed on the mantle of Bearer for the most part, but still remembers the old stories, and for festival celebrations, will call them out. He now serves exclusively as a conduit between the Mteule people and Akhat.
Divia is a younger woman, born some fifteen cycles before the growth explosion of the Mteule, who has proven to be quick of mind and quick of body. In the wake of the Collision, she was the foremost of the tacticians involved in the militaristic organization of the Mteule. She fought on the front lines with spear and scimitar, and helped to free beleaguered encampments.
Liat is the current leader of the Mteule people. A warrior who studied and fought in the ranks of Divia during the Uprising of the Desert. After that, he vanished from public view for some time. When next he appeared, it was riding a roc; he had somehow tamed this terror of the skies, and came to Tagwe itself to claim the mantle of leadership. He wears around his neck a strange jeweled medallion, known as the Medallion of the Sands.
