Re: OOC thread
I don't know how cannon this Rule one stuff is but it came up when I looked up Oho-Wahano
The Yassa
The Yassa is the Law of Waha. It defines
the basic parameters of Praxian life. It deter- mines how men deal with women, with ani- mals, and with those outside their own tent.
It is not a moral guide, but a guide to proper procedure and ritual. It explains how people are to survive, both technically (what plants and animals can be eaten, how an animal is to be butchered), magically (what living be- ings eat plants and what living beings eat animals, what living beings are people) and interpersonally (how strangers are treated, when and where violence is acceptable). It defines crime and punishment, funeral cus- toms, and clothing styles, among other things.
The Yassa defines four categories of be- ings: the Wahano, the “People of Waha”; the Eirithana the “Children of Eiritha”; the Oho-
Wahano, the “Not-People of Waha”; and the Vrakanga, the “things of Chaos”. The Yassa is binding on the Wahano and the Eirithana. The Oho-Wahano are those who do not abide by the Yassa and who are therefore not considered Praxians; this includes both for- eigners (a category that includes River Folk, Oasis Folk, and Pavisites, as well as those coming into Prax from elsewhere) and the Gagarthi, those who have been banished for violating the Yassa. The Oho-Wahano can be treated in any way the Wahano choose, and cannot claim any sort of protection under the Yassa. The Vrakanga are not to be tolerated but must be directly opposed and destroyed.
Praxian society itself is divided into the Wah- ano and the Eirithana (essentially, people and animals), and they are bound by the Yassa. For the most part, people are two-legged and animals are four-legged. However, the Moro-
kanth tribe invert this; the people are four- legged and the ani- mals are two-legged. The Morokanth herd humanoid beasts known as gern (herd- men). The gern have the intelligence and in- stincts of beasts, while the Morokanth speak and interact as people. Despite the occasional insults of the other tribes, the Morokanth do not eat people, only gern; when other tribes capture gern, they are treated as herd beasts and may be eaten (although there is often some discomfort about doing so). The two- legged/four-legged division also breaks down among the Bolo Lizard and Ostrich riders, whose mounts are two-legged animals. The people of Waha are bound to treat the beasts of Eiritha according to proscribed forms that include how to herd them, where to graze them, and how to kill and eat them.
Those outside the Yassa are always, at all times, legitimate targets of violence. The only considerations applied in normal cir- cumstances are whether it is prudent and useful to attack them or trade with them at a particular moment. Outsiders are seen as a resource to be exploited; their property can be taken to enrich the individual or the sept, they themselves can be killed or enslaved, and they can be bargained with for things that the Praxians cannot produce themselves. They can be lied to, cheated, and stolen from. About the only restrictions are that they cannot be killed on sacred ground (because Praxians are forbidden to engage in violence there) and they cannot be eaten (because they are not food, although the Morokanth have a way around that). Praxians have no concept of ‘giving their word’ to non-Praxians; such a concept only applies to interactions between Praxians. Indeed, Praxian culture celebrates clever trickery of non-Praxians, who are normally understood to be stupid, ar- rogant, and useless.
