Kudurru

Kudurru
Capital	Duzagash
Ruler	Multiple
Government	Monarchies
Demonym	Kudurran
Adjective	Kudurran
Languages	Asharan, Orcish, Common, Telan, others
Religions	Kirnashal pantheon; Orcish pantheon; other pantheons and faiths

Kudurru (pronounced koo-DOO-roo) is an orcish-ruled nation located between Amshan and the Shields. Since migrating south many hundreds of years ago, the orcs of Kudurru have developed a unique culture by fusing their traditional practices with those of Amshan and their other neighbors. From their castles clad in iron, the orcish princes of Kudurru watch over their surrounding villages. Kudurru is a vassal of Amshan, and social, cultural, and political ties between the two nations are close and well-established.

Geography, flora, and fauna

Kudurru is a largely wild land of arid hills and plains where the mountains of the Shields meet the Taizzan Expanse. Despite the difficulty of living in these dry shrublands for animals and people alike, many have managed to thrive in the region nonetheless, finding adaptations to life in a landscape where it rarely rains. In the south, closer to Ramashal, conditions become somewhat more temperate. Across Kudurru dangerous creatures can be found, magical and mundane alike, including giant scorpions, hadhayosh, manticores, and others - the region's reputation for being fierce and inhospitable is not only due to its climate.

Several rivers cross Kudurru, most notably the Isturraka and its tributaries. The level of water in these rivers is quite low for most of the year, only increasing when the winter snow of the highest peaks of the Shields melts in the spring. Agreements between the Kudurran orcs and the Amshani dynasts limit the amount of water that can be used from these rivers for irrigation and the like in Kudurru, as their continued and consistent flow are critical for the survival of Amshani cities downriver.

Kudurru is warm to hot year-round, though there is some seasonal variation. Summers especially can be scorching with temperatures consistently reaching above 100 degrees.

History

Migration south

The ancestors of the Kudurran orcs once lived in eastern Thadria, in what is today southern Erenon. As Viridia expanded eastward and human settlements in the area consolidated and grew, however, these orcs and many of their kin began to be pushed out of territory in which they had lived for generations. By the late eighth millennium, after decades of fighting against the Dominion, the orcs of eastern Thadria had come to the conclusion that their position was untenable. Large migrations began out of the region; over the next four centuries, the majority of orcish clans departed, leaving their homelands behind. While most ventured to the northeast, into modern day Druzda, some went other directions. Of these groups the Kudurran clans made it the farthest, venturing through Dalbanu and the territory of the Eastern Chaskan city-states, around the Arrajan Wilds, and across the Taizzan Expanse.

Conflicts with Amshan and establishment of modern Kudurru

The arrival of the orcs in the Amshani hinterlands was not without troubles. Conflicts between the orcish clans, the likewise recently-arrived Duravi, and the existing clans of northern Amshan soon reached the ears of Amshani dynasts, who were quick to see opportunity in the situation. The settlements in their borderlands to the south had long been poorly defended against the various ferocious creatures that dwelled there, with their military stretched too thin to be effective in the chaotic frontier. In this context, they began negotiating treaties with the orcs, and by Y8020^* most had agreed to settle in the south in the foothills of the Shields, where they were guaranteed land and a new status as beholden to none but the Amshani monarchs and themselves.

Demographics

Though the region is best-known for its orcish population, they are in reality a minority within Kudurru, albeit a highly influential one due to their privileged status as the ruling class. Most Kudurrans are human, half-orc, or catfolk, with some gnolls as well. The number of inhabitants of Kudurru is overall relatively low - there are no settlements of more than five thousand individuals.

Culture

Religion

Like in Amshan, Kudurran religion centers around the Kirnashal pantheon. Joint worship of Sraosheh and Mihr is common throughout the region, with clergy appointed by the Amshani state. Owing largely to the remoteness of many Kudurran communities, however, the worship of this pantheon takes on a somewhat unique form in the region, less tethered to organized and authoritative clergy than is typical. Unlike in Amshan, where even small outlying villages possess state-funded temples, many isolated communities in Kudurru have no such luxury, and instead are either forced to rely on their own religious interpretations or travel to temples in larger settlements far away. This has resulted in an explosion in variety of religion, with many fusing the Kirnashal beliefs with those of other pantheons, especially the traditional faith of the orcs. A typical form this takes is to place other deities in subservient roles to Sraosheh and Mihr, but more uncommonly may involve integrating them as equals. While syncretism is not a particularly unusual trait in the worship of the Kirnashal pantheon, the more divergent of these faiths nonetheless cause some consternation for the centralized Amshani clergy.

Society

After two thousand years of contact Kudurran culture has come to strongly resemble that of Amshan. Traditions, arts, values, and so on are quite similar between the peoples of the two lands. Still, the orcs and non-orcs alike of Kudurru are proud of their own distinct identities, forged in the hazards of life on the frontier. Kudurrans have a reputation for their hardiness and indefatigable attitudes, never giving up in the face of even the toughest challenges.

Languages

Asharan is by far the most spoken language in Kudurru, though Common and Orcish are also widely known. Orcish in particular retains a high status as a language of governance and court. Some in Kudurru also know other regional languages, particularly Telan.

Food and cuisine

While Kudurran food is broadly similar to that of Amshan, heavily spiced with bold flavors, the rough and dry terrain means that agriculture ranges from difficult to untenable. Instead of farming, the people of Kudurru make heavy use of pastoralism, tending to herds of sheep and goats that can graze in the shrublands. Their diets, therefore, are heavily based in meats, cheeses, and other dairy products, although they retain a taste for the foods of Amshan, with merchants selling foodstuffs from abroad able to do quite well for themselves.

Dogs, kept either as pets or as working animals, are very common in Kudurru. Certain breeds are considered status symbols by the orcish elites.

Architecture and urbanization

The architecture of Kudurran buildings, like that of Amshan, is designed to keep those living within comfortable in the harsh climate. Yakhchals and windcatchers are widely used across Kudurru, methods of keeping both food and dwellings cool in the hot and arid climate. Communities within the Taizzan frequently make use of vertical windmills with reed sails, which are relied upon to pull water out of very deep wells below. While Kudurran architects and builders still value the aesthetics they have inherited from Amshan, they generally place less emphasis upon them, for the materials and expertise necessary can be more difficult to come by.

There are no settlements in Kudurru with more than five thousand inhabitants. Most of the population of the region lives in villages of several hundred each.

The Kudurran orcs are well-known for their castles, fortified structures used as homes, capitals, and centers of social life for nearby villages. These are almost always built in highly defensible positions, most typically atop a cliff or upon a tall hill. Their sandstone outer walls are rarely particularly tall, usually only rising about thirty feet up, but their elevated positions has historically proven this to be sufficient. Inside, most structures are semi-subterranean, often with gardens, waterworks, and the like on top both for aesthetics and to keep the buildings cool. The wealthiest of the princes cover the outside of their castle walls with sheets of iron, a practice that was once functional but long ago became purely about displaying wealth and power. This metal cladding means that the castles are visible from quite a distance as they reflect the light of the sun.

Art

There is a long and storied tradition of poetry in Kudurru, and many of the most renowned philosopher-poets of the Amshani courts originally hailed from the region.

Government

The social structure of Kudurru is an unusual fusing of the traditional ways of the orcs with those of their subjects of Amshani descent. The orcish deference to the strongest and most capable individuals remained, but their struggles in eastern Thadria and in their migrations south drastically shifted their cultural views around fighting amongst themselves to establish a social hierarchy. Instead, they refocused their practices around proving themselves in relation to their subjects and in the hostile terrain of Kudurru. Kudurran princes, as their leaders are known, derive their legitimacy from their ability to protect the villages they control from the dangerous beasts of the region, and any who fail in this duty are liable to quickly find themselves deposed by their own courtiers or by neighboring princes.

Though monarchical in nature, the role of a prince in Kudurru is not necessarily hereditary. Rather, each prince appoints their own successor from those in their courts who have demonstrated great prowess, whether that be a member of their family, a friend, or a wandering sword-champion who had chosen to remain in their lands. Sword-champions are members of the orcish ruling class who wander Kudurru in hopes of finding ways of proving themselves, typically through dispatching monsters and defending the villages of the region. In doing so they seek to attract the attention of the princes of lands through which they pass, gaining an invite to remain if their deeds are significant enough. Non-orcish sword-champions are exceedingly rare yet not completely unknown.

The Kudurran princes are beholden to the Amshani dynasts in matters of diplomacy but are otherwise free to govern themselves. While their rule is quite decentralized, the city of Duzagash serves as a capital of sorts, as that is where representatives of the dynast dwell and call summits should the need arise.

Kudurran orcs pay taxes to their princes in the form of military service, while non-orcs pay through materially supporting the princes with food and resources or, increasingly commonly, through corvee labor.