Tribal Himelian

Overview
Ghulistan is a mountainous area between Vendhya and Turan, a buffer that actually protects Vendhya from Turan. The Ghulistani and the other hillmen are too fast and too savage for the Turanian, Hyrkanian, or Vendhyan armies to flush out and destroy. In a sense, the haunted hills of the Himelians are the ultimate peace-keepers, maintaining distance between the three powerful kingdoms of Turan, Hyrkania, and Vendhya. Vendhya has the worst of it. With few natural ports along its ocean borders to the east, west and south and the largest mountains in the world on the northern border, Vendhya trades only in difficulty with the other nations of the world.

Northern Ghulistan is peopled by urban populations. A number of small tribes inhabit the colossal hills and mountains of the south. These southern inhabitants of the Himelians are divided into many different tribes or clans of tall, hairy hill-men who are both strong and fierce. These hill-tribes have their own barbaric code of honour, disdaining civilized behaviours, while making fun of the weak and foolish. Above all, they seem to hate traitors despite being bandits themselves. Like the Hyrkanians they prize horses and like the Vendhyans they prize customs and traditions. Like both, they fear mesmerism and sorcery. They are a fatalistic, superstitious lot but are easily enthused, especially at the prospect of slaughter and loot. They are of the east and bound by long traditions or ancient ideas. The survivalist hillmen have adapted well to their surroundings.

The Himelian Mountains are separated into different regions. The southern portion of the range, which faces Vendhya, is called Ghulistan. The south-western portion of Ghulistan is called Afghulistan.

Honour
The Ghulistani have their own barbaric code of honour that teaches bravery, steadfastness, persistence, and hospitality. The hillmen tribes believe strongly in this code, nearly to the point of fanaticism. Every action they take either enhances or weakens their honour and the honour of their clan. Hospitality toward their guests extends even to the protection of those guests. The hillmen will also offer refuge to a fugitive of another tribe or nation if he makes a sincere offer of peace.

Hillmen will defend their property, land, and women as well as their honour. The right of revenge is also granted by their code of honour. There is no concept of ‘turning the other cheek’ here. Any slight against a hillman’s honour must be met and avenged. This right of revenge is called the blood-feud. To kill someone in an act of justified revenge is not a crime, nor is it dishonourable to the avenger or to the kin of either party. Unfortunately, one side often disagrees as to whether a killing was justifiable or not and this results in a vicious cycle of revenge and death that goes on for generation after generation – a true blood feud.

Clothes and Armor
The men of the Himelian tribes tend to be hairy and ragged. On their heads sit wide turbans. Their curly hair is long and they are bearded. Their faces are cragged and wizened from the harsh Himelian winds. They are tall and boast broad, hairy shoulders. The men wear sturdy sheep- or yak-skin tunics, belted cloaks and soft leather boots. When traversing the higher slopes they wear huge fur greatcoats with sleeves long enough to envelop cold hands. They gird themselves with Bakhariot belts that hold their ivory-and-gold hilted tulwars. They squat or sit crosslegged in the Eastern fashion when resting and are superb guerrilla fighters. They fight with javelins, stones, arrows, yard-long knives, scimitars or tulwars. They have no taboos against wearing armour and may well have Ghulistan Mountain Men Ghulistan captured Turanian or Kshatriyan armours available to them. The tribesmen are also aware of the superior bows made by the Hyrkanians and those weapons are especially prized among the hillmen.

The women of the Himelian culture dress in embroidered vests, wide-sleeved shirts and baggy, wide trousers. Some tribes prefer long dresses in bright patterns over their leggings. Women wear sandals to protect their feet from the razor-like crags of the mountains.They tend to have soft faces, but stern. They tend to be shorter then the men. Young girls go without head coverings but mature women cover their heads with long coloured headscarves. The colour of a headscarf depends on the tribe a woman belongs to. The scarves are usually tied around the head with a long trail hanging down the back. A prominent amount of white along with the tribal colour in a headscarf indicates that a woman is married. Ghulistani women do the cooking and household chores and are expected to perform these duties no matter what. Failure leads to a whipping. The women tend to be slim, practical people and many are characterized as ‘she-wolves.’ They have no taboos against public nudity and in the summer often dispense with the shirt and even the vest.

Trade and Economy
In the south, the hill tribes raid for their sustenance. They raid the Vendhyans. They raid the Turanians. They raid each other. Other than a bit of subsistence farming and herding, their economy is primarily one of banditry.

Miltiary
The hill tribes of Ghulistan do not have an organised army. Instead, each village mounts its own fighting and raiding force. Their primary interest is raiding one another. Occasionally someone will come along, organise them into a good size horde and send them out into Vendhya to gather gold and women.

The Ghulistani are brave, steadfast, persistent and hospitable. They are also fearsomely violent. They are guerrilla fighters of noted ferocity. Ghulistani prefer stealth and raids to open combat. Ghulistani warriors are among the most dangerous and barbaric combatants around.

The Ghulistani of the cities have probably organised themselves into some form of military; this is likely to be Iranistani or Hyrkanian in format and technique.

Religion
It's most likely that the hillmen subscribe to shamanistic beliefs, considering that their lifestyle is so entirely dominated by the ecology around them. However, the influence of Vendhyan religion has probably created a more complex and elaborate form of shamanism than would be found in Hyrkania. With such irreverent places as Yimsha and Raktavashi, where black magic and diabolism are practiced, shamanism in the Himelians probably centres around the destruction of evil spirits and spiritual battles with demons and sorcerers. These battles are grave indeed and the shaman does not enter such a combat unafraid; in a battle with a sorcerer either the sorcerer or the shaman dies. Fortunately, the hillmen believe a shaman can be killed three times before ordinary death can take his soul.

Hillmen cosmology is layered, with the earth at the base and the rest of the cosmos held up by the Himelian Mountains. The realm of the dead can be visited by travelling underground; the ways are protected by narrow passages to crush the weak and, of course, demons or monsters. The dead aor any shamans travelling there to do battle must fight grim battles against cannibals, wild animals, devils, and ordeals beyond the naming.

Hillmen shamans are highly charismatic figures, as they must be. The success or failure of any rite depends totally on the shaman’s ability to maintain the mood and atmosphere necessary for belief in his abilities. His performance must transcend normal reality and bring the tribesmen with him in total belief of the new reality promised and shown by the shaman.

Additional religions may exist in the area. Grey apes lurk in the hills, so cults of Hanuman may exist, as might other animalistic religions. Hillmen may also have picked up Vendhyan beliefs, worshipping Asura and the Vendhyan pantheon. Unlike most of the peoples of the Hyborian Age, the hillmen of the Himelians do not seem to use their gods’ names as curses. Perhaps this is a barbaric taboo of theirs. Perhaps they have no gods, or perhaps their gods have no names.

Government
The central government of Ghulistan can be found in the capital of Khorbhul. The king of Ghulistan rules here but the tribes rarely acknowledge his rule. The northern clans and urban dwellers follow him. In areas occupied by Turan, the King of Turan is followed.

There are hundreds of tribes in the southern mountains, each following charismatic warriors called hetmen. These leaders rule by might; as barbarians, the hillmen have no compunction about killing an ineffective, traitorous or weak leader. Unlike the civilised people to the south, they do not teach that their kings are holy, divine or special in any way, so the chiefs must defend their right to rule by force of arms. These leaders settle intertribal disputes in an arbitrary fashion. Disputes between tribes are settled via war and feuding. Tribes probably raid each other for wives, as well, to prevent too much in-breeding among the closeknit clans. Open conflict is rare. The hillmen are guerrillas and fight as such – they commit stealthy assassinations by night and quick raids under cover of darkness in explosive bursts of violence.

The southern tribes of Ghulistan, Afghulistan and other Himelian ethnic groups are generally governed by groups of elders called Jirga. Hetmen are the war chiefs of the tribes. A tribe is divided into Khels (clans), which are divided into Pllarina. A Pllarina is a group of multiple Kahols (extended families). It is a complex system and Himelian tribesmen may see themselves as belonging to various parts of these groups depending on the situation.