The Hanyadi are a Nepleslian cultural group native to the continent of Hanya on Planet Nepleslia. Descended from the original Hanyan Amazons and Human settlers, the Hanyadi are a small but stable population that for a large portion of their history were forced to contend with their traditional semi-nomadic way of life being gradually pushed aside by the tide of modernity. Quintessential highlanders, the Hanyadi live alongside the rest of the Nepleslian population, economically and politically integrated but with a social distinction that erodes away just a bit more each day.

In short, the people of the Hanyan continent, who are mostly clustered around La Hanya, who are partially descended from the Hanyan Amazons, are generally religious, drink Coffee and have lots of traditions around that, and tend to be tall with dark skin and thick, afrotextured hair Not exactly xenophobic, but the forests and mountain highlands that they used to depend on and herd animals in are gone, with their main traditional industry that remains being mining.

The Hanyadi claim that their lineage goes back to before the first settlers arrived on Nepleslia, that their descent through the Amazons makes them the natives of the planet- nobody quite takes this seriously, but it does shine a light on a bit of Hanyadi history: like the mountains they call home, they endure.

Originally, as far as most histories can agree on, the Hanyadi were semi-nomadic pastoralists who lived in the highlands of Hanya, building lives on their herds of goats, sheep, and cattle. Villages were built on top of flat topped mountains called Amba, as were secluded monasteries were monks and nuns worshipped in peace, and hilltop fortresses. Cities, as they were, were built near springs or sources of fresh water.

The Hanyadi were content to trade with he outside world and be part of it, but gradually that outside world moved in. The forests, in which men once hunted game in, where women once foraged for herbs, were clearcut to make way for industry. The plains were paved over with urban sprawl. The mountains which once housed villages and monasteries were leveled and tiered to make way for roads and industrial farms. Only one realm remained for the Hanyadi: Mining.

For all that their land hosted monasteries and great temples, the Hanyadi had always been miners. The march of technology didn't change that: the Hanyadi beg, borrowed, purchased, or stole every mining advance they could. While other groups fought wars or retreated into isolation, the Hanyadi mined and smeltered, producing the best metal.

They became soldiers, too, when pressed into it or called for it. The Hanyadi have never abhorred violence, but never embraced violence for the sake of it, like their siblings elsewhere in Nepleslia might have. For a Hanyadi, soldiering is just another job, to be done like mining: professionally, with excellence, but not arrogance.

The Hanyadi are a reserved and honest people, with a tendency towards modesty and humility. They are highly religious, but see no reason to force this religion on others; they are welcoming to strangers if wary of their intentions. Generations of mining along with a further distant cultural memory of nomadism makes them almost stubbornly open: new ideas, new ways of thinking can bring new profits and save lives, but rushing ahead into something untested can see just as many lives lost. Still, the Hanyadi aren't ones to back down, and will give anything a swing. Carefully.

The Hanyadi family life revolves around two sets of family: the immediate family, and the greater Zemith¹⁾. The immediate family grouping is based on the household, generally a father and wife accompanied by their children, with the parents of the head of the household living with the family to help raise the children. There are three kinds of marriages recognized by the Hanyadi: Semanya, or eighty-bond marriage, which is common and allows for divorce; Qurban, which is a more religious marriage solemnized in church that explicitly does not allow for divorce; and temporary Damoz marriage, which is temporary and generally lasts for anywhere from an hour to 24 hours. Inheritance and descent in Hanyadi culture is patrilineal.

Zemith are groupings of Hanyadi families related through kinship, descent from a common ancestor, and traditional trades and societal class. A Zemith generally consists of a leading family which claims direct patrilineal descent from the Clan's ancestor, and secondary families who are related either by blood or adoption to the leading family. The patriarch of a Zemith is referred to as a Mesafint, or Judge. It is permitted to marry a spouse from another Zemith, but doing so generally causes the wife to join the clain of their husband, not the other way around.

Generally, Zemithiid serve a social purpose in modern Hanyadi society, serving to keep family ties and cultural traditions alive through social gatherings and events. Some Mesafint, however, have leveraged their social role in the Zemith to obtain local political power.

There are currently 6 Zemithiid that make up 79% of the Hanyadi population: Gadi, Aseri, Minase, Simionni, Yeyisakori, and the Efiremi.

Hanyadi society is very traditionally patriarchal but also very egalitarian as well. While some jobs are expected to be done by men²⁾ and some by women³⁾, it is only those specific jobs which are locked by custom to a single gender. To the Hanyadi, every other job and function in society can be filled by anyone, regardless of gender.

For a combination of religious⁴⁾, social trauma⁵⁾, and simple humility, the Hanyadi generally do not approve of and do not receive ostentatious and physically obvious cybernetics. The Hanyadi are as fond of cybernetics and human enhancement as any other group of Nepleslians- they would simply prefer to make their cybernetic enhancements and replacements look as close to the real thing as possible. They also show a fondness for nanomachine and chemical based human enhancement; the last of these is becoming a major societal issue for Hanyadi culture, as many youths overdose on these drugs.

The Hanyadi have an interesting relationship with their neighbors, baseline Nepleslians. While they would prefer to be left alone and have their home the way it was, that's long since passed, so the Hanyadi are trying to make the best of it.

That means that the Hanyadi have a proud highland spirit and take pride in their culture distinction and history. They take the time to learn about it and preserve it in the place of the numerous pressures facing them, and still have it despite the best efforts of the Greens, Reds, IPG, Blacks, and anyone else who would have a go at wiping them out.

The normal Hanyadi aversion to violence and excesses goes out the window in about three situations. The first is in the event of a community wide disaster, such as a mine collapse or rockslide: every single Hanyadi in the area, even neighboring communities that have rivalries with the afflicted community, will drop everything to come and help with everything they can even if it means moving boulders by hand.

The second is when the Hanyadi community as a whole, organized by community leaders and religious officials, see and note some kind of great evil or injustice being done in the world; something so great and monstrous that it has reached the ears and eyes of the Hanyadi people. In this situation, Hanyadi of fighting age will do whatever they can to sign up to fight against it to stop it, even arming themselves to go out and do it if larger organizations are unwilling.

The third is the one that used to be far too common in the past, when the way of life of the Hanyadi was threatened itself. The highlanders would unite and take up arms to defend themselves, unafraid of the consequences or how powerful the enemy was. The Hanyadi, who claim to hate fighting, are always ready and willing to defend themselves and their people from attacks.

This sort of highland spirit is present even in the unofficial motto of the Hanyadi communities around La Hanya- “Manimi Bek’it’ati Ayikesenyimi!”⁶⁾

The Hanyadi as a culture face a number of systemic health issues relating to their cultural preference for mining, a lack of labor, and genetic predispositions.

The Hanyadi have a major youth problem, with much of their youth unable to find jobs in traditional fields. Thus, many of them turn to crime, which pays but naturally has problems, and drugs. Drugs are commonly used and abused, such as performance enhancers and stimulants. Alcohol is not a major issue among the Hanyadi, due to their cultural norms around drinking having already built in cultural limiters to prevent the kind of society destroying chronic alcoholism that can happy when alcohol is introduced to cultures that have not previously had access to it.

The Hanyadi also have higher obesity rates than the standard Nepleslian population, and the corresponding increase in rates of heart disease and other illnesses.

Death is treated solemnly by the Hanyadi. A deceased person's body is recovered, if possible, and cremated before being laid to rest according to their wishes. Funerals are generally held as soon as possible after the person has died, officiated by a minister of some kind. Most often, funerals will occur on a Friday, if possible.

When the body cannot be recovered or identified, such as a mine collapse or loss at war, a treasured possession of the deceased is cremated in their place and laid to rest as a fetish of the lost body.

Unlike mainstream Nepleslians, Hanyadi do not exclusively eat meat and potatoes. Their religion has a number of days of fasting, during which they can not eat any animal products, so vegetable dishes are common. Hanyadi cuisine generally consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes. This is usually in the form of wat, a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, made out of the fermented flour of a wheat like plant grown on Hanya, Teff. Hanyadi tend to eat with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of food.

Common food and drink are:

• Wat is the word for stew in Hanyadi, and is built on a base of chopped red onions to which ingredients are added
• Niter Kibbeh is a form of clarified butter common in Hanyadi cooking, where the butter is simmered with a number of spices⁷⁾. A version is available made using vegetable oil instead of butter for fasting, called Yeqimem Zeyet.
• Berbere is a key spice mixture, a combination of chilli powder and other spices.
• Injera is the standard Bread of Hanyadi cuisine, made from fermented teff flour and made into a sourdough like pancake. Another common staple Bread is qocho, made from the ensete plant. The roots of ensente can be boiled and strained to make a drink that allegedly cures fatigue and illness.
• Pork is not eaten by the Hanyadi, who find it unclean
• Tibs is a dish served on special occassions, made up of meat grilled or sauteed along with vegetables.
• Kinche is a common breakfest dish, similar to oatmeal. it is made from grains which are pulverized and boiled in milk or water, and flavored Niter Kebbeh.
• Kitfo is a somewhat popular dish, made up of minced or ground beef marinated in berbere and served raw. Another version of this, Gored Gored, uses cubed beef instead.
• Ayibe is a common cheese in Hanyadi dishes, a cottage cheese with a mild and crumbly texture similar to crumbled feta. It is normally served to help soften the burn of spicy foods, or mixed with a variety of mild to hot spices.
• Breakfast foods include fit-fit, Injera or qocho shredded and and stir fried with spices and wat; fatira, a large egg covered pancake eaten with honey; and ful, a fava bean stew served with baked rolls.

One cultural trait of the Hanyadi is the importance they give to Coffee, which grew wild and was re-domesticated on Hanya. The Hanyadi treat the drink like other cultures do tea, or alcohols. There is even a special Coffee ceremony which is performed after large meals or formal occasions in one's home. It involves the use of a jebena, a clay Coffee pot in which the Coffee is boiled. The preparer, often the head of the hosting household, roasts the beans in front of guests before wafting the smoke throughout the room so the participants may sample the cent. The beans are then ground in a traditional tool called a mokecha before it is put into the jebena and boiled. The Coffee is serve in small cups call si'ni, and served with a variety of options: most common being sugar, salt, or niter kibbeh.

Snacks are often served with the Coffee; in most homes there is a dedicated Coffee area surrounded by fresh, fragrant grass and special furniture for participants to recline on. A complete ceremony has three rounds of Coffee accompanied by the burning of aromatic herbs: abol, tona, and bereka.

Other important Hanyadi drinks include:

• Tella is an alcoholic drink, brewed using teff and other similar grains, flavored with gesho⁸⁾ and fermented in smoked wood containers that give it an almost smoky flavor. Tella is often brewed in individual homes, rather than industrially
• Tej is the second most important drink to the Hanyadi, after Coffee. Maybe more important than Coffee. It is a honey wine, flavored with gesho, and intensely popular. It is also, despite its sweet taste, intensely alcoholic.
• Atmet is a hot drink, made from a mixture of barley and oat flour that is cooked with water, sugar, and niter kibbeh until the ingredients have combined into a thicker than egg-nog consistency. Sweet and flavorful, Atmet is often given to prgnant women, children, and people who enjoy it.

While the Hanyadi have their own language with its own script⁹⁾, descended from the language of the Amazons, this language is used purely for liturgical purposes. At this point they speak their own local dialect of Trade¹⁰⁾, distinguished for its drawling nature.

Hanyadi use their own traditional¹¹⁾, western style naming scheme, with a few differences from their unique pastoralist background. The surname of every Hanyadi is their father's given name, except in cases where the child's father is unknown, whereupon the child is given his maternal grandfather's name as a surname. Their names are very distinct, with some links to the names of the Kuznyetski.

Some commonly used names for boys are:

• Abebe
• Bayissa
• Biniam
• Caleb
• Dawit
• Eyasu
• Fassil
• Getachew
• Iskinder
• Solomon
• Yohannes

Some commonly used names for girls are:

• Adanech
• Beshadu
• Deborah
• Eddel
• Gadise
• Jalene
• Kidist
• Makda
• Naomi
• Rediet
• Zahra

Generally, the Hanyadi dress in a practical style influenced by tradition and a longing for their lost environment. Men tend to wear pants with a knee length white collared shirt, sometimes sweaters when the weather gets cold; men also wear knee length Socks. Women tend towards dresses, again white, with color just above the lower hem; bracelets and necklaces of precious metals are common.

Both genders wear shawls, though the style varies depending on the occasion and gender of the wearer. Women cover their hair during religious occasions, while men wear the shawl around their neck.

Modern clothes are popular for Hanyadi in general, with traditional clothes commonly worn when not at formal or religious ceremonies. Even when wearing modern clothes, Hanyadi prefer the humble and understated.

The Hanyadi have one major, notable, cultural musical instrument. That instrument is the Bagpipe, or more specifically, the Great Hanyan Bagpipe. Often accompanied by drums and singing, the Bagpipe is one of the symbols of Hanya.

While the Hanyadi openly claim to only see weapons as a tool, and not honored ones at that, they're still Nepleslian- and there are two weapons that almost every Hanyadi family owns at least two of, even if they're ceremonial and kept only for display. These are the Shotel, and the Jezail.

The Shotel is a traditional Hanyadi sickle sword, forward curved and with a wicked point. Traditionally made of steel and used with a shield or with one in each hand, the Shotel features in many Hanyadi martial arts.

Jezails are a type of long rifle, typically with four shared traits: a Jezail is handmade and passed down from parent to child through the generation; they are single shot, breechloading rifles; the barrel of a Jezail is extremely long; and the stock of a Jezail is elegantly curved, to fit underneath the arm when fired.

Both of these weapons are outdated, but hold cultural importance for the Hanyadi. They are symbols of their determination to protect their family, communities, and way of life.

Hanyadi tend towards being tall, like most Nepleslians. They're heavily built, inherited from their amazon ancestors along with their height: most Hanyadi tend towards larger weight classes, with obesity being a large problem in the community due to lack of work and easy access to food.

The best way to describe the color palette of the Hanyadi is 'dark'. Their skin tends towards the darker colors naturally. Their hair is generally a dark black or brown, with a certain texture that makes haircare unique for them. Thus, most Hanyadi choose to braid their hair or wear it in cornrows, decorating their hair with colorful beads, ribbons, and other objects to bring some color to it. Traditionally, Hanyadi warriors and soldiers would refuse to cut their hair and wear it in dreadlocks, a religious observance meant to honor and bring to mind a story in their holy book of a warrior who refused to cut his hair out of a pledge to their god.

Firebrand created this article on 2019/08/21 19:50.

Approved by Wes on 2019/10/19