Tuura Adam

The Tuura Adam are an insular people. According to the Immortal Bard (who wrote the only treatise on these people), there are two disparate subcultures. The pastoral Koi Ehl follow the sheep in tribes and families, wandering through the high valleys during the summer and returning to the cities during the harsh winters. The cities house the Uruu Ehl, the stationary people. While the Koi Ehl are almost entirely goliaths by race (with an occasional hill giant tagging along), the Uruu Ehl have many more of the other true giants in their midst. The Uruu are by far the more prestigious of the two people; they demand deference from the Koi, who seem to accept them as the rightful masters. The Uruu are organized regionally, with neighborhoods acting as pseudo-tribal organizations (selecting elders, practicing exogamy, etc). Families rarely move between neighborhoods unless they have a major change in standing.

Both groups are intensely competitive and driven--laziness or complacency is not tolerated. Those who will not work for their living are shunned and exiled. Life is quite orderly and hierarchical--each person knows where they belong and stays there until they can challenge for higher status. The nature of this challenge depends on the occupation of the individuals--craftsmen show off creations, warriors engage in mock combat, sages hold debates. The winner takes (or keeps) the higher status; the loser is relegated to lower ranks. Each craft and each neighborhood has their own hierarchies. This competition extends to the family level--jazuu are recognized as adults when they can overcome the Initiation Trials of their apprenticed trade or craft. Fair play is central to this--everyone must compete by the established rules. Cheating is a serious crime; "innovation" is discouraged.

The set of all rules is compiled in a set of volumes known collectively as "the Code". Memorization of this code is a requirement for Initiation and adulthood. Changes are made only very slowly after much deliberation at all levels.

Families are centered around the mothers. The fathers may or may not be in the picture, as women rarely bond monogamously. A Tuura woman with 4 children might have had them with 4 different men and be living with a fifth (or with another woman and her family). Mates are chosen primarily based on status, which forms another avenue of competition (both among women for strong Ata, or child-fathers, and among men for the right to have children). The unchosen men live in communal buildings (or tents for the Koi). Strangely, jealousy is not a common vice of the Tuura. Being beaten out for a mate is a sign that one needs to work harder or smarter, not a cause for bitterness. Overall, the Tuura are a very practical, down-to-earth, level-headed people.

The Koi are led by a chief and a council of elders who serve as sages and advisers. There is no gender preference here--men or women can be chosen as chief or elder; the choosing is done by acclimation of the tribe (usually after besting the former chief or elder in a competition of some sort). One primary job of the chief is to keep the records of the tribe. This is done in formal Too-til runes carved into bone. These records include the parentage of every child and the transfiguration of any giants from the tribe, as well as in-marriages and out-marriages and other notable events.

The Uruu (and thus the Koi as well, more tenuously) are led by the cloud giant Bulut Boron (titled "High Regent"). He rules from the mountain citadel of Too Tekterin (High Rock) that surmounts and is built into Skypiercer Peak, the highest mountain in the Giant Spine Mountains as well as the highest point on the continent. Underneath the citadel is the capital city of Kozhuyn, home of the only known full Titanwall on the Noefran continent.