The Gabebi

The Gabebi are still a work in progress, even more so than the other cultures in my setting. So expect to see changes here.

The Gabebi are a nomadic people who herd horses across a great savannah grassland. The land they occupy is very hot and relatively dry, making life difficult sometimes for these horse herder. They have learned to live almost entirely from their horses and the food their horses can provide, from mare's milk to horse flesh, to game hunted on horseback. They occasionally gather food as well or trade horses, meat, or leather for other kinds of foods.

The Gabebi are a dark skinned people with African features, including think lips, a broad flat nose, and tightly curled hair. Their skin color ranges form medium to dark brown while their eyes and hair are black. They tend to be tall and lean, averaging about 5'10" and 5'5" for men and women respectively. Young Gabebi men tend to shave their heads and their faces, though men of thirty and above usually will allow their beards to grow as a sign of their maturity. Women on the other hand usually put their hair into braids or sometimes a single braid, usually the braids are around shoulder length. Gabebi mystics just let their hair grow naturally, resulting in large afros.

The Gabebi men generally only wear a simple leather loincloth. Women, on the other hand, wear more concealing and ornate clothing such as long linen tunics with a slit of the middle and a belt around the waist. Both sexes wear hard soled sandals that tie around the foot and ankle with a complicated network of leather straps. The Gabebi often dye their clothing red, yellow, and orange - the exception being Gabebi mystics who wear long blue cloaks as a sign of their authority. Because of the heat of the savannah, the wealthy wear jewelry instead of fancy clothing to signify their status. Most Gabebi women wear bracelets on their wrists - leather for the poor, bronze for most, and gold for the wealthiest Gabebi. Gabebi kings and queens wear a golden medallion to signify their position as rulers. Different Gabebi clans have individual clan symbols, these are symbols that are branded onto their horses as well as painted onto the face of warriors with yellow paint in times of conflict.

Gabebi civilization is broken up into kingdoms, each of which is divided into clans. Each clan can contain several hundred to several thousand individuals, all of which travel together with their horses across the savannah. The clan leader, called a Julo, swears his fealty to one of the several Gabebi kings or queens. The monarchs themselves each rule over a number of clans including their own. A Gabebi monarchs, called Tabutu, doesn't have castle or a keep, they lives the nomadic lifestyle with the rest of his people - though their traveling tents are quite a bit more impressive. The group of clans that a Tabutu rules over is called a Taba.

Aside from the Tabutu and Julo, there are no Gabebi nobles. Leadership among the Gabebi is not inherited, but gained through popular opinion and vote by the rest of the clan. Often the most skilled warrior or most charismatic leader is chosen by the clan to lead. The dominant clan of a region choses their Julo who also becomes defacto Tabutu as well. Sometimes the power of a Tabutu fluctuates, since the Julo are not obligated to swear an own of loyalty to a new Tabutu nor are newly elected Julo required to honor their predecessor's oath. This can sometimes even result in new kingdoms being formed as some Julo swear fealty to other Tabutu or even declare themselves an independent ruler. Obeying an oath is taken very seriously though, any Julo who were to break an oath to the Tabutu would likely find themselves stripped of power by the rest of their clan.

Men and women have virtually equal status among the Gabebi. Both ride, both fight, both can become Julo or Tabutu through popular opinion. Women do spend more of their time taking care of infants of course, but once a child reaches a certain age he or she is taken care of by the entire clan and not merely the mother. The Gabebi can a peculiar view of marriage, they practice a form of polygamy which is basically a group marriage between a number of individuals. These groups, called Ugosi, contain both men and women in typically equal amount. Sometimes the men of a Ugosi are brothers or cousins and the women are often sisters or cousins as well. The whole group then considers any children born to any member of the group in any combination to be their children. The Ugosi shares its resources and each child inherits an equal amount. There is usually very little rivalry in the Ugosi, any male can have sex with any female or visa versa without fear of anger, jealousy, or had feelings. Cheating is still frowned upon, as it violates the trust that members of a Ugosi share, though new members can be brought into a Ugosi if all of the current members agree.

There are relatively few laws among the Gabebi aside from basic respect for the life and property of others and to keep one's word. The Gabebi highly value honesty, and to break one's word is one of the most dire crimes - causing the offender to be banished. The Julo of each clan enforces the laws, making sure that damages are repaid or that harms done are punished. There are very few hard and fast rules for punishments for various crimes among the Gabebi, so most of the time punishment is left to the discretion of the Julo. Severe crimes such as murder, rape, oath breaking, and the like are punished by banishment.

The Gabebi worship a number of gods, though they mainly focus on four major gods of their pantheon. Oya is the goddess of the north, goddess of fire, wind, and thunder. Riju is the god of the south, god of rain, water, and oceans. Kosi is the god of the east, god of earth, plants, rocks, and trees. Umbala is the goddess of the west, goddess of the sun and the moon, or life and death, of night and day. The four great gods form the Ugosi Bulu, the great Ugosi and their children are the numerous lesser deities. Each of these great deities has dedicated priests or priestesses who give homage to their patron deity and call upon the blessing of that god to aid the village. There are also Gabebi mystics called humbulu, who are said to be able to talk to spirits. There is no real organized church among the Gabebi, priests are provided for by their clan, often by other Gabebi giving an offering in exchange for a blessing. Each of the four priesthoods have their own secret rituals and way of communicating with the deity, so to become a priest one must be taken under to wing of another priest and taught the special rituals. Humbulu also practice their arts in secret, even more so than the priests do. Some are even believed to call upon evil spirits to do their bidding. For this reason, sometimes the Humbulu are feared or disliked by others in their clan, though they are also often sought out for their spells.

The Gabebi believe in a paradise sort of afterlife called the honey lands, a place where there is no suffering or death and where spirits of the dead spend all of their days frolicking and and playing like children. According to the Gabebi, everybody goes to this place after death regardless of their behavior in life. When a loved one died, the Gabebi funeral resembles a celebration where the deeds of the deceased are recounted by the rest of the clan while the body is ritually burned along with the deceased's most prized possessions which are thought to go with him or her to the afterlife.

The Gabebi have a written alphabet but it is very seldom used, generally only known by Humbulu or priests for passing along their secret knowledge or inscribing wards or enchantments. Because writing is so seldom used and known, individual writing styles and characters can vary from region to region and from priest to priest. Priesthoods of each deity tend to have their own unique writing style, making it difficult for the individual groups to read each other's writing. The symbols themselves are based on pictograms with individual characters representing words or concepts instead of sounds, often these characters bare a vague resemblance to the concept they represent. Sometimes Gabebi weapons, particularly those fine craftsmanship, are inscribed with letters to give them supposed magical characteristics. Sometimes the words sharp, deadly, indestructible, swift, accurate, or similar adjectives appear on weapons. Many Humbulu are also weapon smiths so that they can inscribe mystic symbols upon the weapons they forge.

Despite being a nomadic trading people, the Gabebi are somewhat distrustful of strangers. Honesty is highly valued among the Gabebi and foreigners are seen as liars and cheats who will betray at the drop of a hat. Because of this outlook, the Gabebi only enter into trade relations with others when they can easily see what they are getting and can be sure of not being tricked. Also, because of their low opinion of outsiders, most Gabebi clans have very few reservations about raiding villages or communities outsiders in order to pillage their goods or valuables. Because of the extreme mobility of the Gabebi, its difficult for more settled people to retaliate against these raids because once the Gabebi have escaped they are nearly impossible to catch up with. Often when a Gabebi clan happens upon a sedentary village, they will chose to attack or to trade based on the defensive capabilities of the foreigners. Many people who live on the outskirts of Gabebi territory have had to fortify their communities to prevent raids or at least to mitigate the damage and death caused by them. A few rulers have sought to establish diplomatic ties with the Gabebi Julo or Tabutu, though Gabebi leaders are reluctant to enter into treaties with foreign leaders because they believe that these leaders will betray them while at the same time they would feel bound to honor the agreement - thus putting themselves into a position of weakness.

Warfare

War between rival clans or even rival Tabas is not uncommon among the Gabebi. Generally when fighting among themselves, the Gabebi practice a form of limited warfare where they square off with the enemy force and charge. One army will usually break off the charge and flee, while the other force does not pursue. Sometimes the two forces do engage each other, but such an engagement is usually very brief before one or both sides break off the attack. Because of this, casualties from conflicts between rival clans is usually light, with the commanding Julo or Tabutu apologizing for what ever slight or conflict that might have lead to war. Such mercy is generally not shown to outsiders, who are generally slaughtered by the Gabebi if they are broken or flee. Likewise, when the Gabebi raid foreign settlements they prefer to leave no survivors as to lessen the chances of retribution later. The Gabebi make no distinction between foreign civilians or warriors, as there is no such distinction within their own culture.

Far more violent than the wars between clans are the conflicts within clans. Gabebi society on the small scale can be very cliquish with different Ugosi becoming enemies with each other or even groups of Ugosi forming friendships and alliances against other Ugosi. Sometimes these Ugosi oppose each other over the election of a clan Julo, other times they come into conflict over property or business issues, they even sometimes become enemies over personal slights or perceived insults. These feuds can quickly become violent and often many deaths can result from the different Ugosi clashing with each other. These clashes aren't usually open warfare, but rather a series of escalating retaliatory murders or attacks. Unlike the relatively gentile and humane warfare engaged in between clans, wars within the clans are exceedingly brutal. Its not uncommon for even children to be targeted for murder, mutilation, rape, or torture. Usually the Julo does what he can to stop these feuds or to at least prevent them from getting out of hand, though sometimes the Julo might represent one side of the conflict in which case he'll usually use his position and authority to crush his Ubosi's foe. When a Julo dies and it becomes time for a new one to be elected is a time when these Ugosi based hostilities become the worst.

Among the Gabebi herdsmen, virtually everyone rides and therefore virtually everyone is a warrior. From the Gabebi's earliest days they are taught to ride and they are taught to fight from horseback and on foot. When a Gabebi tribe goes to war, the entire tribe fights aside from the youngest children, the elderly, the infirm, and nursing mothers. The Gabebi ride out together on their horses, carrying minimal armor and supplies so that they can move extremely quickly across the savannah. They let their horses graze and hunt game or subsist off of mare's milk cheese or yogurt, meaning that the extremely mobile Gabebi army requires virtually no support or supply lines and can move faster than any other military force in the known world. The horses the Gabebi use are known for their ruggedness and ability travel for vast distances with little food or water as well as gallop extremely quickly when the need arises.

Most of the Gabebi army consists of light cavalry, horsemen who ride into battle with a kuba lance, several fang throwing irons, and a songye shield. The Gabebi seldom wear armor, they usually just go into battle with with a loin cloth or other minimal clothing. Some Gabebi carry short bows instead of a lance and shield. Both men and women fight in much the same way, though men are more likely to carry a lance and shields while the women are more likely to wield the bow. Usually when facing an opposing force, the Gabebi army will split into several groups and try to maneuver into tactically advantageous positions. While the lancers try to attack from the sides or the rear or attack from multiple sides at once, horse archers pepper the enemy with arrows to distract them and make them vulnerable to the charge. Because Gabebi cavalry are so lightly equipped and their horses so swift and powerful, they are usually able to avoid getting into melee when it is not to their advantage.

Sometimes to add tactical flexibility, some of the strongest and fiercest Gabebi warriors will dismount so they can enter into hand to hand combat. Often this is done so that they can tie up enemy infantry so that the lancers can charge from the flank or the rear. It is also done when they are facing enemy archers who often shoot at their unbarded horses, in which case the dismounted Gabebi form a shield wall so that they become resistant to arrow fire. Occasionally archers will dismount as well, sometimes hiding behind the shield wall to fire at the enemy.

Sometimes when particularly large and important battles must be fought, for the survival of a tribe or to defeat a dangerous foe, some of the bravest and most dedicated men will ingest the yowa. The yowa is a special concoction of herbs, chemicals, and mysterious ingredients that have been combined and enchanted by a Gabebi mystic. When he has taken a draught of the potion the warrior, called a yowali, is partially possessed by terrible spirits and goes into a mad rage. The Humbulu will direct the yowali at the enemy and they will attack ferociously until either they are dead or their enemies are. Usually the yowali are given large bronze cudgels to fight with. If the yowali survives the battle, he is considered blessed by the gods and will be respected by the tribe for the rest of his days.

The great majority of Gabebi weapons are made from bronze, such as their short swords, daggers, spear points, and arrow heads. Iron or steel weapons aren't uncommon, but they are generally obtained through trade or plunder. The Gabebi hardly ever wear armor, not only do they dislike the confining weight and uncomfortable heat of the armor, they see it as cowardly to wear it. Even when a fine suit of army is captured in a raid, it is often destroyed so that the metal can be used to forge weapons.