Dasuwattar

The Dasuwattar (pronounced dah-soo-WAH-tar) are a centaur people and a confederation of tribes who live in the Dasuwattan Passage that connects Abanir and the Three Great Seas with the northern steppes of the Land of the Sun and Moon. Neither targai nor utnin, the Dasuwattar are instead a cultural fusion of the two.

Location

Effectively all Dasuwattar live in the Dasuwattan Passage between the Northern Wall and the Cage. Some occasionally travel elsewhere across the steppes to their east and west, but this is atypical.

Culture

Society

The Dasuwattar tribes consider themselves to be the protectors of the Passage, and carefully watch all who travel through it, though most often from a distance and passively. The rare few they determine to be a threat, however, are invariably met with a thunderous stampede of spear-wielding centaurs - the Dasuwattar are masters of tactics of shock and fear, which they attempt first before resorting to violence.

Traditions

A highly martial culture, even in death the Dasuwattar diligently guard their lands. The deceased are buried standing in a ready position, always facing towards one entrance to the Passage and with spear raised. These burial spears are long enough that they breach the surface even when the individual is fully entombed, and as a result Dasuwattar cemeteries are quite visible from the surface by the lines of weapons.

Clothing

Most tribes wear a form of barkcloth clothing made from trees that grow in the southern reaches of the Passage, in the foothills of the Cage.

Languages

Dasuwattar centaurs speak a language that is derived from, but not quite mutually intelligible with, Targai. It takes much of its vocabulary from the language of the Utnin as well as from that of the Lunar centaurs far to the east.