The Kalahan (pronounced KAH-lah-han) are a targai tribe within Abanir. They are best known for their devotion to the Chaskan goddess Aduntarri and for their vigilance against the monstrosities that occasionally emerge from planar rifts beneath the Northern Wall.
Location
For the most part, the Kalahan remain near the Great White Lakes in northern Abanir. Sometimes they venture farther south to trade before returning to the cold lands they call home.
Demographics
Most of the Kalahan are human, but they also count half-elves and half-orcs amongst their number.
Culture
Religion
Unusually, the Kalahan follow not the typical Abanir faith but rather worship Aduntarri, a deity within the Chaskan pantheon. Around Y9590* independent missionaries from Viridia began to cross the steppe, proselytizing to any who would listen. They found little interest, in general, but the Kalahan were an attentive audience to clerics of Aduntarri in particular, and within the next decade the tribe had converted.
To the Kalahan, their activities against the monstrosities are a religious calling. They view themselves as protectors of the steppe against the extraplanar creatures that would otherwise threaten it. The tribe does not build temples or have clerics that act as religious leaders; though their war-clerics are quite capable, they serve more as advisors and guides than as authoritative figures. Rather, to the Kalahan their actions alone speak to their faith.
But the religion of the Kalahan is not quite the same as how others might worship Aduntarri. They still acknowledge the gods of the Abanir pantheon, and especially the Nameless One, who they believe to be the the figure who drives the monsters they fight into the world. These deities are rarely worshiped, however, aside from by two clans within the tribe who have clung especially tightly to their previous faith. Similarly, the tribe continues to construct wood and bone horse effigies after successful battles, a practice otherwise associated with the Abanir goddess Uxtama.
Society
When not patrolling the foothills of the Northern Wall on horseback, the clans of the Kalahan spend most of their time near the more bountiful lands around the Great White Lakes. There they have small, semi-permanent villages, most typically clusters of yurts set up in a disorganized fashion.
The Kalahan have generally good relations with other targai and gatai tribes of Abanir. Dedicated to their cause, they rarely involve themselves in the broader struggles of the steppe. This is not to say they are impartial, however. They still have their alliances and rivalries, as do any other Abaniri tribe, but they simply rarely act upon them, preferring to bide their time for the right opportunity to put themselves and their friends in advantageous situations.
Languages
Effectively all of the Kalahan speak Targai as a first, and usually only, language.
Art
It is common for the Kalahan to etch petroglyphs into rock faces near locations where they were victorious in battle. These commemorations of their triumphs are very often larger than life, imagery twenty to thirty feet tall depicting both their defeated foes and their fallen comrades. The petroglyphs sometimes serve as sites for contemplation and prayer as well, especially for funerals before the dead are interred in their ancestral tombs hidden beneath the steppe.
Horses kept by the Kalahan, and especially those they ride into battle or during hunts, are often painted purple and blue in Aduntarri's holy colors.