Whatever it is that creates a Blessed, it appears to be a recessive trait on one gene coupled with a dominant trait on a second one, two Blessed parents no assurance that their progeny will be equally empowered. But some groups have realized this genetic potential, intentionally breeding children with a higher chance of being Blessed.

 

The Dobra

A culture from the Auld Lands without a home country to call their own, the Dobra tribes are an insular bunch with a higher chance (20%) for an extra Breath in the Mind. Mostly Listeners, the Dobra have also learned how to transmit their thoughts along the ley, any Dobra along the same line able to hear the missive.

 

The Dobra believe in Sol but do not seek to do his will like the Renders and Weavers, who in turn believe the Dobra gained their unnatural abilities through a deal with Waer. Due to this understanding, the Dobra face many prejudices wherever they travel, immediately blamed if anything goes wrong. Though they have ten distinct tribes with their own eccentricities, the Dobra can be broken into two main types:

 

The WANDERERS are a nomadic bunch, traveling along the ley and setting up a temporary camp outside of an existing community. In this way they are similar to Gypsies in that they are not trusted by the new community yet bring with them news and goods from far off lands. Their appearance also presents the possibility for citizens in the community to communicate with the outside world, making the wandering Dobra guests, albeit untrusted ones.

 

Wander tribes include the Kaad, Charmor, Rax, Koli, Gacu, Sham and Ikus.

 

The COUSINS on the other hand set up long standing communities in urban populations, creating a communications nexus with their wandering brethren. The Cousins take part in the municipality, but remain a culture in and of to themselves, receiving a certain backlash from the society due to their aloofness. Despite this, the Cousins are considered a necessary evil, a means of sending messages along the ley.

 

Cousin tribes include the Hammat, Levin and Naphat

 

Both Cousins and Wanderers readily sell their communicative services to any takers, handling the information but taking no part in the content thereof. Using their own language, their messages cannot be deciphered except by another Dobra. As such, they can be considered absolutely neutral in the matters of state, simply a vessel on which the messages are sent.

 

The Cildra Clan

Unlike the Dobra and their insular interbreeding among their own tribes to gain their abilities, the Cildra actively seek out Blessed with strong abilities from the general populous to breed with and initiate them into the clan. As such, the Cildra have a much higher chance of being Blessed (80%), Shapers, Whisperers and Listeners among their ranks in equal percentages.

 

Also considering themselves a culture in and of to themselves, the Cildra instead infiltrate the dominate civilization of their area, insinuating themselves into the highest echelons of society. But while they may appear as aristocrats, the Cildra do not seek to rule. Instead they seek out information in any form, an entire cadre of spies instilled in every government in every continent with an agenda all their own.

 

The Cildra are groomed from birth in the art of subterfuge, gathering information to report back to their parents to decide how to act upon it, unquestioning loyalty the first and foremost lesson. Though they are invisible to the general populous, governments often employ the Cildra as spies, never quite sure if the Cildra are doing their bidding or if they are unwittingly doing that of the Cildra.

 

Glassmen

By far the rarest of the factions, the Glassmen are considered atrocities by both Renders and Weavers alike and killed on sight. Born normal humans without being Blessed by Sol, Glassmen are capable of gaining great powers at a great cost: By sacrificing their own child, the fledgling Glassman absorbs their own progeny’s fleeting Breath. Through this abhorrent sin against Sol, the Glassman gains the ability to steal Breath from other living beings at will, the stolen Breath fueling great feats of strength, psychic ability and healing.

 

This theft of life makes the Glassmen equivalent to vampires, effectively immortal so long as they keep stealing new Breath since the fragments finally escape their bodies after about a month. Said to be the children of demonic emet Vradra and Waer, Glassmen usually travel in pairs, a mentor teaching the novice how to hide from Renders and Weavers both. While their name may denote that their ranks are mainly male, the Glassmen are composed of an equal mix of men and women.

 

While Glassmen are mostly extinct in the Auld Lands, the people of the eastern Mynan nations worship a much more bloodthirsty version of Sol, YERAK, and participate in human sacrifice. Worshiping emets, their rulers are made up entirely of Glassmen which are considered a blessing rather than an abomination as in Newfield. As the state of Lacus used to belong to the Mynan nation of Tlaplain, the practice of becoming a Glassman still exists somewhat in the eastern states of Newfield as a bit of Myna cultural drift and has not been entirely stamped out.  

 

Ingios

The indigenous people to the Solteran lands, the Ingios are more akin to the nomadic Mongolian people rather than Native Americans. Subsisting off the land and their herds of sheep and goats, the Ingios are broken into several tribes though they consider themselves one People.

 

Ingios believe that the ley and surrounding areas belong to emets, considering them equal inheritors of Ayr. As such, they leave these areas be and prefer to stay far away from the ley. The arrival of the Acwealt colonists confounded them somewhat, considering them invaders of the emets’ lands. They were sure the emets would extract their own revenge for the invasion, but instead the colonists caused the ley to grow stronger on the continent and decreasing their own holdings.

 

Without an understanding of Sol in the Auld Lands religious sense and eschewing both lines of ley and nodi, the Ingios are considered savages by the Acwealt colonists and are often derogatorily referred to as “boors.” This fact does not bother the Ingios in the least, keeping to themselves and avoiding the colonists. When these new people arrived, the Ingios simply broke camp and headed east and southward to remain separate. But the constant influx of Auld World colonists has lately become too much to bear, pushing all the Ingios further from their homes. Though not a violent people by nature, it is possible the Ingios have finally been pushed too far.

 

Many locations in Newfield still bear the names of the original indigenous Ingios tribes, which include, but are not limited to the Nahu, Meskonagon, Lnut, Haysla, Walsvan and Havant.