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Description
Geographics

The Bohnunian settlements are located at the middle part of Ushaenor in the great savannah of Asyaa. Their origin lies in the west, past the Eveestian mountain range that also makes their western border. The east is bordered by a small range of coastal area, inhabited by non-Bohnunian people, called the Markeesians, who are well known for their navigation and trading with Zarhuy and Aelsian people, as well as the vanolose.

History

The Bohnun derived from early humans that were driven out of their motherlands to the east by other humans tribes that fought with them over living grounds. The travelled past the Eveestian mountains, stepping into elven territory but stayed unnoticed until they started to build more and more settlements, closing in to their elven neighbors.

Their heritage was nomadic, but some – mostly women – decided to form settlements while the more active males went on with their travels. The lack of men, due to their nomadic nature and the men lost in the fights and wars that drove them away, led to conflict between the women of the settlements and soon, the elders of the first settlements, decided, that only a clear regulation could stop the aggressions: They decided to prohibit marriage and fixated partners and invented the Chant of Heritage to make sure no women could claim a man for their own forever.

Culture

The Bohnun are a nation of rather peaceful and humble beings. They beleive in the five big gods of hunt, fertilization, seasons, death and rebirth. The most common days are the feast of death and rebirth at the end of every year, the month of fertilization held after every Chant of Heritage and the feast of seasons right before winter.

Markings
Every Bohnun has a tattoo at their forehead consisting of two marks: A big one, representing their settlement and a small one that represents their father. Every new settlement creates their own mark, usually a small alteration of settlement they came from. Likewise every alpha creates his own personal mark, usually an alteration of their own.
The marks play an important role in society, as only children that have been born in the settlements receive one and are considered real Bohnun. Having a mark is an essential requirement for becoming an alpha or giving birth to children, as only real Bohnun are allowed to mate with each other. Mating between two Bohnun that have a mark that’s equal in some way (smaller or bigger one) are also forbidden from mating with each other, as the goddess of fertility looks down on such matings.
The marks also allow Bohnun to certainly identifiy their brothers and sisters, either by origin or birith, and form family bonds between Bohnun that may never have met before.

The “Chant of heritage“:
The Chant of heritage is a selection ceremony, to determine the only male of a settlement. It starts anew whenever the majority of women above the age of 14 agree on the need of a new man.
After the women agreed on their need, they kick out the alpha and start a smoke-heavy bonfire for one week straight, that will lead all nearby male groups to the settlement.
After the arrival of at least two groups of males, the “Chant of heritage” starts. Depending on the settlement it can vary, but usually it is a competition between all males that plan on becoming the alpha of the settlement that includes physical, intellectual and characteristical challenges such as: archery, wrestling, hunting, dexterity games, strength competitions, endurance competitions, interviews, singing contests or else.
Males who have been beneficial for the settlement in the past can have significant advantages over their challengers. Acts that improve their status at the settlement could be: selling their goods for low prices to the settlement or even giving them for free, hunting wild animals that threaten the women or tracking down bandits, invaders or killing mislead males that attacked women or raped them.
Another important part are the marks of the males: Having many matching marks with the women of a settlement are a great disadvantage, as almost every women with a matching mark will vote for someone else, due to their inability to mate with someone with a matching mark. On the other hand having a mark that doesn’t match with anyone in the settlement is a great advantage.

The life of an alpha is filled with luxury and joy, since the women of the settlement will do anything to keep their alpha in good shape. The only thing the alpha has to do, is keeping up with the growing number of women who want to have children. A good alpha has at least to be able to satisfy 3 or more women per day if he doesn’t want to upset the women, leading to his expulsion.
Besides his obligations he is almost free to do whatever he wants, except for leaving the settlement or endangering himself. Successful men who stay for more than a year in a settlement or return to one they have been the alpha before can even enjoy fatherhood of their children.

At the end of the Chant of Heritage the women gather and put the selection of their new alpha to a vote. Therefore, it could very well be, that being successful in all parts of the competition doesn’t necessarily make someone the new alpha, if the women simple like someone else more due to looks, character or a very divergent mark.

Population

The civilians of the Bohnun are separated in two branches: The male nomad groups and female settlements. The land of the Bohnun had ten “original” settlements (nowadays down to eight) and around 75 newly formed settlements as well as 100-150 roaming groups of males giving a whole population of around 90.000 Bohnun.

Female settlements:
All settlements of the Bohnun consist of around 300 individuals, rarely more, sometimes less. They are put together of around 100 women in the age of 15-35, 80-100 children at the age of 14 or less, the elderly women and one man.
The man for every settlement is decided by the „Chant of heritage“.

Male groups:
They consist usually of 40-60 men at the age of 14-50. The groups grow when fathers take in their sons out of settlements they were once the alpha of or when the leader of a group decides to take in some children of a settlement to improve his status there in hope of soon becoming their alpha.
When the groups grow too big they usually split, as only one of a group can become the alpha of a settlement. Being in a smaller group can be advantageous in order to become an alpha, while hunting, trading and life is usually easier in a bigger group, so different kinds of males working on different goals strongly influence the structure of a group.

Lifestyle:
Women:
A Bohnunian woman is supposed to grow up, live and die in the settlement they were born. They usually pick up the profession of their mother, are selected as a priestess or do labour work for the settlement if they can’t pick up a profession. When they reach the age of fertility, the goal of every Bohnunian woman is to get as many children as possible, but with only one man in the settlement, they have to achieve at least a decent social status to be allowed to accompany him. Choosing a healthy, young and strong man during the Chant of Heritage, who can accompany many women, is therefore very important to the women, increasing their chances of giving birth to children.

Men:
All newborn males stay in the settlement they have been born until they reach puberty. Whenever a boy starts to show interest in the females, the settlement will quickly look for a group of males that takes him in. Sometimes the former alpha of a settlement comes for a visit when his sons start to reach the right age and takes all or at least some of them in and cares for them, but most boys are expelled before that happens or are too young when their father arrives. After they became part of a male group, the goal of most Bohnunian men is to become alpha of a settlement. For that goal they usually pick a settlement within the territory of their group and try to increase their standing with the women there, try to become the leader of a male group and travel further away from their hometown with the group or on their own, since a severe distance to their home secures, that their mark is very divergent, increasing their chances of becoming alpha.
Men who lost faith in their chance of becoming alpha or are too old search for a different lifestyle: They become horse breeders, traders or hunters and trade their goods with travelling merchants or the other males to improve their lifestyle.
Some of the young men even travel towards other lands with a different culture where they can marry and become children without passing the difficult task of becoming an alpha, but these are rare.

Heroes:

Boghun the Fertile:
Boghun the fertile is said to be the most successful male in history of the Bohnun. It is said, he succeeded in being the alpha of every ten original settlements and even some of the newer settlements. Most Bohnun are able to derive their ancestry to him. He plays an important role in many songs and stories of the Bohnun, mostly for his clever tricks to win the hearts of the women of the original settlements, that also lead to his expulsion shortly afterwards, but not after impregnating most of the women.

Merlhun the Hunter:
Merlhun was an unparalleled hunter that successfully hunted down every animal in the Bohnunian lands like the black lion, the great bison, harpies, a manticore and even a dragon that destroyed two of the original settlements. His tremendous trophys and the defeat of the dragon made him the second most successful man in Bohnunian history.

Arrivaad the Warrior:
In a time of war, where invaders from the outside raided the Bohnunian lands to enslave the women and children of of the Bohnun, Arrivaad managed to gather most of the male groups to fight the invaders and drove them back, rescuing most of the enslaved women and children in the process. The freed slaves formed new settlements and he became alpha of every single one of them with ease.

Politics:
Each settlement has their own politics, usually a democratic one, where issues of the settlement are located by the elders and solutions are suggested upon which the whole settlement decides, which actions are to take.
The male groups however are usually lead by a dominant male, who decides the course the group will take. If males don’t agree with him, they are free to go, but usually they tend to stay together with a strong and experienced leader to learn from him and try to overcome him in some way.

Justice
The Bohnun don’t have clear laws. Whenever someone does something considered to be a crime, the whole settlement (or group) comes together and decides the punishment. Usually the elders suggest two or three forms of punishment that are fitting for the misdeed and the group votes on one of them.
Punishments vary from working for the public good, physical punishments like a certain amount of hits with a stick or club, running the gauntlet or – in case of severe crimes – punishments as expulsion, the removal of their marks of even death. The last are usually only applied on murderers, rapists and thieves.

Economy

The economy oft he Bohnun stands on two great pillars: Horse breeding and agriculture.

Horse breeding:
For the last several centuries, horses were the most important trading good for the men and therefore their quality was one of the most important issues for the men. Their horse breeds are renown on all countries around Bohnun and exceed the common prices for horses by a factor of 1,5 in average. The men trade their horses usually for weaponry, jewelry or dyes.

Agriculture:
The Bohnun inhabit a country with a vast countryside and a rather mild climate, which aids and abets agriculture. Wheat and corn are the most common goods, but also yeast, grapes and several fruits grow well in parts of the country.
The civillians either trade their goods in raw form or refine them to beer, wine, mead and other alcohols. The typcial Bohnun beer is known for its high amount of alcohol and thick consistency.

Other sidebranches of their economy are weaving, leatherworks, trading of hunting goods like pelts, teeth, claws, bones etc.

Traffic and trades
The land of the Bohnun is frequented by travelling merchants which trade both with the male groups and the female settlements. They sell metal weapons as well as luxury items to the males that they can offer to the women of the settlements and usually more practical items such as plows, tools and clothing to the settlements.
Due to the lack of money and manufacturing facilities in the Bohnunian culture, clever traders can get goods that are up to twice the worth of those they gave. The trading routes are also very safe, since the male groups tend to drive out all kinds of bandits and monsters that may threaten the settlements to improve their standing with the women and take good care for the traders to get a good reputation as well out of them.

Science:

The Bohnun didn‘t strive much in science, their most outstanding achievements are in horse breeding, improvements of weaving techniques and agricultural advances like the three-headed plow, the use of honeybees and different kinds of fertilizers, improving their harvests and rare selfmade goods.

Description
Geographics

The Bohnunian settlements are located at the middle part of Ushaenor in the great savannah of Asyaa. Their origin lies in the west, past the Eveestian mountain range that also makes their western border. The east is bordered by a small range of coastal area, inhabited by non-Bohnunian people, called the Markeesians, who are well known for their navigation and trading with Zarhuy and Aelsian people, as well as the vanolose.

History

The Bohnun derived from early humans that were driven out of their motherlands to the east by other humans tribes that fought with them over living grounds. The travelled past the Eveestian mountains, stepping into elven territory but stayed unnoticed until they started to build more and more settlements, closing in to their elven neighbors.

Their heritage was nomadic, but some – mostly women – decided to form settlements while the more active males went on with their travels. The lack of men, due to their nomadic nature and the men lost in the fights and wars that drove them away, led to conflict between the women of the settlements and soon, the elders of the first settlements, decided, that only a clear regulation could stop the aggressions: They decided to prohibit marriage and fixated partners and invented the Chant of Heritage to make sure no women could claim a man for their own forever.

Culture

The Bohnun are a nation of rather peaceful and humble beings. They beleive in the five big gods of hunt, fertilization, seasons, death and rebirth. The most common days are the feast of death and rebirth at the end of every year, the month of fertilization held after every Chant of Heritage and the feast of seasons right before winter.

Markings
Every Bohnun has a tattoo at their forehead consisting of two marks: A big one, representing their settlement and a small one that represents their father. Every new settlement creates their own mark, usually a small alteration of settlement they came from. Likewise every alpha creates his own personal mark, usually an alteration of their own.
The marks play an important role in society, as only children that have been born in the settlements receive one and are considered real Bohnun. Having a mark is an essential requirement for becoming an alpha or giving birth to children, as only real Bohnun are allowed to mate with each other. Mating between two Bohnun that have a mark that’s equal in some way (smaller or bigger one) are also forbidden from mating with each other, as the goddess of fertility looks down on such matings.
The marks also allow Bohnun to certainly identifiy their brothers and sisters, either by origin or birith, and form family bonds between Bohnun that may never have met before.

The “Chant of heritage“:
The Chant of heritage is a selection ceremony, to determine the only male of a settlement. It starts anew whenever the majority of women above the age of 14 agree on the need of a new man.
After the women agreed on their need, they kick out the alpha and start a smoke-heavy bonfire for one week straight, that will lead all nearby male groups to the settlement.
After the arrival of at least two groups of males, the “Chant of heritage” starts. Depending on the settlement it can vary, but usually it is a competition between all males that plan on becoming the alpha of the settlement that includes physical, intellectual and characteristical challenges such as: archery, wrestling, hunting, dexterity games, strength competitions, endurance competitions, interviews, singing contests or else.
Males who have been beneficial for the settlement in the past can have significant advantages over their challengers. Acts that improve their status at the settlement could be: selling their goods for low prices to the settlement or even giving them for free, hunting wild animals that threaten the women or tracking down bandits, invaders or killing mislead males that attacked women or raped them.
Another important part are the marks of the males: Having many matching marks with the women of a settlement are a great disadvantage, as almost every women with a matching mark will vote for someone else, due to their inability to mate with someone with a matching mark. On the other hand having a mark that doesn’t match with anyone in the settlement is a great advantage.

The life of an alpha is filled with luxury and joy, since the women of the settlement will do anything to keep their alpha in good shape. The only thing the alpha has to do, is keeping up with the growing number of women who want to have children. A good alpha has at least to be able to satisfy 3 or more women per day if he doesn’t want to upset the women, leading to his expulsion.
Besides his obligations he is almost free to do whatever he wants, except for leaving the settlement or endangering himself. Successful men who stay for more than a year in a settlement or return to one they have been the alpha before can even enjoy fatherhood of their children.

At the end of the Chant of Heritage the women gather and put the selection of their new alpha to a vote. Therefore, it could very well be, that being successful in all parts of the competition doesn’t necessarily make someone the new alpha, if the women simple like someone else more due to looks, character or a very divergent mark.

Population

The civilians of the Bohnun are separated in two branches: The male nomad groups and female settlements. The land of the Bohnun had ten “original” settlements (nowadays down to eight) and around 75 newly formed settlements as well as 100-150 roaming groups of males giving a whole population of around 90.000 Bohnun.

Female settlements:
All settlements of the Bohnun consist of around 300 individuals, rarely more, sometimes less. They are put together of around 100 women in the age of 15-35, 80-100 children at the age of 14 or less, the elderly women and one man.
The man for every settlement is decided by the „Chant of heritage“.

Male groups:
They consist usually of 40-60 men at the age of 14-50. The groups grow when fathers take in their sons out of settlements they were once the alpha of or when the leader of a group decides to take in some children of a settlement to improve his status there in hope of soon becoming their alpha.
When the groups grow too big they usually split, as only one of a group can become the alpha of a settlement. Being in a smaller group can be advantageous in order to become an alpha, while hunting, trading and life is usually easier in a bigger group, so different kinds of males working on different goals strongly influence the structure of a group.

Lifestyle:
Women:
A Bohnunian woman is supposed to grow up, live and die in the settlement they were born. They usually pick up the profession of their mother, are selected as a priestess or do labour work for the settlement if they can’t pick up a profession. When they reach the age of fertility, the goal of every Bohnunian woman is to get as many children as possible, but with only one man in the settlement, they have to achieve at least a decent social status to be allowed to accompany him. Choosing a healthy, young and strong man during the Chant of Heritage, who can accompany many women, is therefore very important to the women, increasing their chances of giving birth to children.

Men:
All newborn males stay in the settlement they have been born until they reach puberty. Whenever a boy starts to show interest in the females, the settlement will quickly look for a group of males that takes him in. Sometimes the former alpha of a settlement comes for a visit when his sons start to reach the right age and takes all or at least some of them in and cares for them, but most boys are expelled before that happens or are too young when their father arrives. After they became part of a male group, the goal of most Bohnunian men is to become alpha of a settlement. For that goal they usually pick a settlement within the territory of their group and try to increase their standing with the women there, try to become the leader of a male group and travel further away from their hometown with the group or on their own, since a severe distance to their home secures, that their mark is very divergent, increasing their chances of becoming alpha.
Men who lost faith in their chance of becoming alpha or are too old search for a different lifestyle: They become horse breeders, traders or hunters and trade their goods with travelling merchants or the other males to improve their lifestyle.
Some of the young men even travel towards other lands with a different culture where they can marry and become children without passing the difficult task of becoming an alpha, but these are rare.

Heroes:

Boghun the Fertile:
Boghun the fertile is said to be the most successful male in history of the Bohnun. It is said, he succeeded in being the alpha of every ten original settlements and even some of the newer settlements. Most Bohnun are able to derive their ancestry to him. He plays an important role in many songs and stories of the Bohnun, mostly for his clever tricks to win the hearts of the women of the original settlements, that also lead to his expulsion shortly afterwards, but not after impregnating most of the women.

Merlhun the Hunter:
Merlhun was an unparalleled hunter that successfully hunted down every animal in the Bohnunian lands like the black lion, the great bison, harpies, a manticore and even a dragon that destroyed two of the original settlements. His tremendous trophys and the defeat of the dragon made him the second most successful man in Bohnunian history.

Arrivaad the Warrior:
In a time of war, where invaders from the outside raided the Bohnunian lands to enslave the women and children of of the Bohnun, Arrivaad managed to gather most of the male groups to fight the invaders and drove them back, rescuing most of the enslaved women and children in the process. The freed slaves formed new settlements and he became alpha of every single one of them with ease.

Politics:
Each settlement has their own politics, usually a democratic one, where issues of the settlement are located by the elders and solutions are suggested upon which the whole settlement decides, which actions are to take.
The male groups however are usually lead by a dominant male, who decides the course the group will take. If males don’t agree with him, they are free to go, but usually they tend to stay together with a strong and experienced leader to learn from him and try to overcome him in some way.

Justice
The Bohnun don’t have clear laws. Whenever someone does something considered to be a crime, the whole settlement (or group) comes together and decides the punishment. Usually the elders suggest two or three forms of punishment that are fitting for the misdeed and the group votes on one of them.
Punishments vary from working for the public good, physical punishments like a certain amount of hits with a stick or club, running the gauntlet or – in case of severe crimes – punishments as expulsion, the removal of their marks of even death. The last are usually only applied on murderers, rapists and thieves.

Economy

The economy oft he Bohnun stands on two great pillars: Horse breeding and agriculture.

Horse breeding:
For the last several centuries, horses were the most important trading good for the men and therefore their quality was one of the most important issues for the men. Their horse breeds are renown on all countries around Bohnun and exceed the common prices for horses by a factor of 1,5 in average. The men trade their horses usually for weaponry, jewelry or dyes.

Agriculture:
The Bohnun inhabit a country with a vast countryside and a rather mild climate, which aids and abets agriculture. Wheat and corn are the most common goods, but also yeast, grapes and several fruits grow well in parts of the country.
The civillians either trade their goods in raw form or refine them to beer, wine, mead and other alcohols. The typcial Bohnun beer is known for its high amount of alcohol and thick consistency.

Other sidebranches of their economy are weaving, leatherworks, trading of hunting goods like pelts, teeth, claws, bones etc.

Traffic and trades
The land of the Bohnun is frequented by travelling merchants which trade both with the male groups and the female settlements. They sell metal weapons as well as luxury items to the males that they can offer to the women of the settlements and usually more practical items such as plows, tools and clothing to the settlements.
Due to the lack of money and manufacturing facilities in the Bohnunian culture, clever traders can get goods that are up to twice the worth of those they gave. The trading routes are also very safe, since the male groups tend to drive out all kinds of bandits and monsters that may threaten the settlements to improve their standing with the women and take good care for the traders to get a good reputation as well out of them.

Science:

The Bohnun didn‘t strive much in science, their most outstanding achievements are in horse breeding, improvements of weaving techniques and agricultural advances like the three-headed plow, the use of honeybees and different kinds of fertilizers, improving their harvests and rare selfmade goods.