The Kemes speak the Kemes language, although both tribes speak slightly different dialogues. Use Croatian with German additions for this language.

N.B.: when the PCs meet the Kemes may well be shedding skins, which leaves them very irritable. The armour takes about three weeks to reform. At this point the neighbourhood tribe may well launch some raids for cattle and so forth. They may need to avoid strong sunlight or they may be scarredand weakened for the year.

The Serak Kemes trade for things with the Pagoth especially at Miskin and Bijih Cerocock. They are much more agricultural than many of their brothers and even worship a Kemes form of Krethara and Krenee called Pancaran Air (Fountain) ad Kendinginan (Frost). They do pay some homage to Ksenkano the Avenger and Faveros the Terrible, but both are regarded as berseks, useful in a battle but not to be relied on to thing of feeding the tribe. The main responsibilities for that are held by Pancaran Air, and the summer is her holy time (Kendinginan rules the winter and is regarded as basically a hostile old hag who must be placated if the tribe isn’t to starve- or freeze- in winter).

Serak Kemes live in small villages typically numbering a hundred or so. They all live in long wooden barns roofed with woven branches laid over with fresh pine branches. They raise metakeenos; the metakeenos are quite small and share the huts with the villagers. The village is typically arranged around an open grass square with all the huts facing in. They are usually sited by a well. Most villages are barely above the stone age: though most have traded for bronze, few have any skilled craftsmen. Many of their tools are of flint or obsidian. They wear metakeenos hides and their own shed skins. Most villages have a leatherworker and a fletcher; both are usually well respected. The village elders usually rule, with the eldest female who still retains her senses having the final word on matters involving diplomacy. The strongest warrior hasthe final say on mattrs involving war and there is a ritual for challenging the commander involving an elaborate formal duel.

Disputes betwen neighbouring villages are not uncommon but are typically resolved by counting coup- no Kemes likes being made to look a fool and practical jokes are one of the most common coups.

The Kemes need to trade for practical things- bronze tools (especially ploughs) and weapons (especially spear heads which can also be used for hunting), new metakeenos, maybe some hunting orthos. They do not ride Kavala but do eat them if they can catch them wild. Generally the men hunt and women grow things and tend to the metakeenos. Each family will have two or three metakeenos; they eat the eggs. Mushrooms from the forest are a great delicacy and eaten whenever possible.

Some of the goods they trade in include ivory, bone and horns from hunted beasts (especially Kejang), skins and leather goods. Some furs even make it down the river from the far northern tribes; these are greatly valued in the south for their eotic appeal. They make some very fine items from carved horn, bone, ivry, wood, etc. especially in the winter when the snows come and the families are confined to the village. They make pots but they are generally fairly crude earthenware. Only a rare village has anyone who knows how to make good glazes. They do know how to make wicked beer and spirits, though!

The neighbouring tribes usually get together at autumn festivals after the harvest to trade for things- if one tribe has a bumper crop of one sort of produce they can swap it for things with others less fortunate for example. The economy is purely barter. Crops are stored in large barns, raised to prevent small critters devouring the stores. They use two-wheeled carts to move things around. These are usually pulled y bull metakeenos. Most of the autumn fairs happen in larger, more central villages- like Pasar (which is also the tribal centra, where the most important religious artefacts are stored), Masak, and Ketala. Large numbers of tribespeople often go to these gatherings and as it can be several weeks journey there is traditionally a truce in the middle moon of autumn so that everyone can go to the autumn fairs without having to worry overmuch about guarding his village. Violation of the truce is a religious offence and the offender will be persecuted by Ksenkano the Avenger. Even the Zuran Kemes stick to this truce, which is said to have been ordained by the goddess at the first ever harvest so that her children may prosper and share their wealth to make sure that none starves when he has something to trade. The Kemes regard the obligation to trade quite seriously in this month- it is a religious offence to refuse someone a trade on reasonable terms if it will mean he starves. Assessing this is one of the prime duties of the tribal priests. (There is usllay one priest per village but he or she is far from a full-time cleric- no room for unproductive mouths in the Kemes tribes).

The Kemes burn their dead together with grave goods and offerings. They believe that The Burning Man of Fire (a Kemes in this version of course) takes the dead Kemes away to judgement, but the stories about what happens after that vary ribe by tribe or even family by family.

The Kemes legal system is very simple and is administered by the tribal elders of each village. Disputes between two villages are usually settled by counting coup or war, although in principle it should go to adjudication by a priest in a third, neutral village, this rarely happens and bloodshed is by far the more usual solution. By religious law a blood fued is not allowed to be pursued past the autumn truce but this law is often breached; Kemes can be exiled for it if the elders so wish. The elders have the power to demand restitution for crimes but the only punishments they can decree are enslavedment until the next autumn truce to work off a debt, or banishment from the village.

The Kemes generally are a fractious, rambunctious, noisy and argumentative lot, but have considerable gusto and enthusiasm.

The Zuran Kemes are more primitive and less organised. Their villages are more like winter camps, with most of the tribe being hunter-gatherers for the majority of the year, with a few permanent reidents of the villages growing some modest crops. They worship Zuran the Devourer, who is supposed to be two-headed, having swallowed his twin at birth but his tin’s head burst forth from Zuran’s shoulder. The two fight constantly and each rises and falls in power like Ksenkano and Faveros, who are not separately worshipped here but are part of the amalgamated Zuran cult. Zuran is the warrior and devourer; his female earth-mother counterpart is Hrana (which just means food). She is not worshipped per se, but is regarded as a cruel bitch who must be tricked and forced into giving in to the warriors’ lusts.

Their technology is very poor, with no ceramics and little agriculture. It is pure stone age.

The Zuran are head hunters and they wear the severed and shrunken heads of their foes on outlandish leather shoulderpads stretched over wooden frames, to make it look as though they have many heads. Part of this worship is to acknowlege the power of the Yilani, who still dwell yet deeper in the woods; part is to imitate their god who is said to have a thousand heads because each of his victims is consumed by him and the head sprouts on Zuran’s shoulders (Zuran is giant and has very big shoulders and only his and his twin’s head are giant sized). The most fanatic cheifs devour their vicitims hoping to emulate this.

Names

Naprije

Prikaz

Upasen

Variti

Zarez

Trag

Trgati

Svladati

Satrti

Razara

Povlacti

Pakost

Ostrugati

Nesanica

Mucnina

Mladenci

Lumpati

Kvasac

Kratkovidan

Karakteran

Jahac

Izglodati

Gusar

Drzaest

Docek

Cuven

Cviljeti

Bakrorez