Zamari

The Zamari are a Lora ethnic group that have inhabited the area of the Arzidan Plateau since written and known history began. According to their own myth, they originated as a group from outside the Ramul Ta region, who came to Ramul Ta, drove out the native inhabitants of the underground, and then subjugated the native Lora of Ramul Ta - the Durkigal into their Empire. They once created and maintained a continent-spanning Empire, until the upstart Silnarian defeated and eclipsed them.

Historians believe the Zamari were the culture that created the Ardent and Titan race, and their magical mastery was second to none for their time. However, an unknown catastrophe apparently rendered their continent uninhabitable and led to a mass underground exodus. Eventually they arrived in the cavern “below” Ramul Ta, where they conquered and destroyed most of the Quahive, shocking a large amount of them to come to the surface and become free, where they became enslaved and assimilated. The Zamari would then found the Arzidan / Zamari Empire, calling their new land Arzida - The sacred Mountain Refuge.

Although the Durkigal - original Lora who lived before the Zamari arrived, have a different culture, by this point in history their cultural traits have melded enough that they are similar enough to be included in the same culture article.

General Information

• Primary Faith: Kejomujism (PENDING REWORK)
• Language: Zamarian / Durkigalian
• Locations: Arzida + Holds / The Cavern
• Minority: Scattered across the world.
• Races: Lora only.
• Inheritance Law: Male-Preference / Female-preference Primogeniture.
• Slavery: They dislikes slavery and consider it immoral, but indentured servitude are fine by their standards. Those who have indentured servants are expected to be generous to them.
• Name Generation: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/sumerian-names.php - Ea-Nasir is specifically banned. https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/akkadian-names.php Or just use plain English and a plain normal Dwarven name or any other language (Yes, German / French / Irish allowed) due to their unique traditions.

Cultural Traits

• Born to Forge: Blacksmiths, carpenters and craftsmen in general are highly respected and encouraged professions, and Lora are known for their skills with them in general.
• Shrooms: The discovery of the safe and hallucinogenic Seer’s Cap - along with the influence of Third Age Kejomujism led to widespread usage of Seer’s Cap as a recreational drug in Zamari society, outside of work time, of course. It is also used as a way to enhance religious experience.
• Undergrounder: Zamari are fine with small spaces shared with family and smaller housings in general, and are fine with spending extended time underground.
• Geomancy Preference: Zamari values studying magic, but has a high bend toward studying Geomancy in general.
• Homebrew: Zamari creativity with their alcohol are unmatched and every city and village may have their own unique brew with varying degrees of alcohol ranging from nearly none to medical-grade, and varying degrees of flavor profile and hallucinogenic property. They take homebrew very seriously. Mass-produced alcohols are common, but there’s a flourishing culture of appreciating and drinking local and craft alcohol. Undiluted of course.
• Rampant Alcoholism: Zamari has been drinking heavily since history was recorded, and abstinence is nearly unheard of. Besides, unlike other races, Lora is practically immune to negative effects from alcohol, so why not? It’s just tasty water.
• Generous Helping: Zamari are very generous toward strangers and hospitable, and often serve large helping of food to guests.
• Defensive Militarism: Zamari has a mentality of preparing for war and defending themselves and homeland, but war of aggressions are greatly discouraged and disliked - preferring to stay to defend their homeland themselves.
• Sun & Shadow Names: Zamari, and Durkigal in general uses the system of "two names". A native name in their own original language, which many call the "Shadow" name - for it is the name they uses amongst their kins, and Sun name, for those who trade with outsiders or go out for adventure. The Sun name is the outsider name, but many Loran consider both to be their natural name and gravitate toward one or the other. A Sun Name is often adopted from surrounding language or translated directly from their language. Thus a Lora's name could be "Coppermulcher" and stereotypically "dwarven" while having a different native name.
• Hold Construction: Lora constructs multiple large city-states which they often call "Holds" - a hold can be entirely underground or a surface hold - meaning with a connection to the surface. Whereas an underground hold is usually just a simple fortified city similar to that of any other surface-dweller, a surface hold is a fortified impressive trading outpost - often with unregulated unfortified or less fortified city outside (if there's enough trade to justify it) that connects to an underground settlement. A Hold is often constructed near any large economic center underground when an appropriate entrance / exit is found.

Subgroups

Durkigal

The Durkigali were native Lora, who likely originated in the cavern and were the native Lora culture to this part of the world. They independently developed metalworking and a flourishing culture where they traded with surrounding civilizations, and blended into their societies. They were known for constructing large holds which surrounded entry to the cavern, and served as trading outposts. Often called the “Mountain Kings” by surrounding humans and elves, as they developed sophisticated trading networks and palace economy around their fortified citadels. Durkigal’s culture declined in the wake of the underground being taken over by the Quahive’s Great Awakening, and the Zamari’s arrival led to most of them becoming assimilated. However, they retain their own unique languages and customs, and chiefly live in several quasi independent hold on the outskirts of Greater Silnaria and Mentia.

• Matrilineal Lineage: The Durkigalese believes in matrilineal lineage and family names and inherited along female line rather than male line as with the Zamari. They also believes that their original creator goddess was a female - which no doubt influenced their choice of lineage.
• Elective City-States: Durkigalese predominantly have elective city-states or holds rather than the monarchial style of the Zamari - often seeing kings as tyrannical. Suffrage is not universal and definition of "Citizen" varies from hold to hold. This is not universal however and many a Durkigal hold are oligarchic or dictatorial - there simply is a trend to dislike of central authority.

Cuisine

Zamari cuisine is split into two, with the underground cuisine being very distinctive. Above ground, the diet is largely based on barley, with chicken and goat cheese and meat featuring as the primary protein source. Underground, the diet is based on mudroot that are cooked into mushy soup or baked into bread, with fried edible redworms and mudroot beetles.

The prominence of cave chile pepper - and the humidity of the underground leads to underground diet being extremely spicy, with Zamari vocabulary often grading spiciness on four scales from low to highest - None, Silnari, Aboveground and underground, with the latter being of mouth-burning tongue-numbing intensity. Other than cave chile pepper, the Arzidan Pepper is also used, which is similar to the Sichuan pepper in flavor profile, giving it a distinctive numbing taste.

Diet tends to be full of hearty soups and stewy dishes, with noodles and barley cooked in it. They are often cooked in large volumes and meant to serve a large family. Goat milk is also prominent if they can be acquired, often to cool down the palate. Sauces and seasoning tends to be simple and savory, often balancing a salty profile with spiciness designed to enhance the tastes of the food - for Zamari, anyway.

Drinks wise, Zamari mostly drink mudroot beer or barley beer usually flavored with different kinds of mushrooms imported from the underground. Zamari does not include seer’s cap in their diet - preferring to take them separately instead.

Famous regional dish includes:

• Wegi - Fermented mudroot with a texture like tempeh made for export.
• Spiced Alcohol - Alcohol spiced with exotic underground spices are a major export of Arzida. Mudroot Beer and Mudroot Spirit are commonly drunk.
• Mudroot Syrup - Boiled juice of mudroot that is used as the base for many Zamarian sauce.

Zamari cuisine are not based on any extant IRL cuisine.

Naming Languages

The naming languages of the Zamari is based on attempting to mimic to some extent the stereotypical dwarven language in most fantasy. The naming languages is a mixture of Sumerian and East Semitic (Akkadian) reference, picked by GM as appropriate - with a leaning toward Sumerian names for Durkigal and Akkadian for Zamari. Given that names from these sources can be somewhat difficult to find other sources can and should be substituted and modified as needed.

Prefixes	Suffixes	Naming Words
Ar - Mountain (Zamari) Nahar / Idu / Arnan - River	- Gal (great, Durkigal only) - Tabir (Zamari) / Tir (Durkigal) -Pash (Workshop) -Ashara (Sacred Place - Zamari) -Ki - Generic suffix -Kar / Uru / Ur - City -Harsag - Mountain (Durkigal) -Zida - Sacred Place (Shared)	Utilize Sumerian / East Semitic words mixed with prefix / suffixes etc.

• Important Words:
  • Arzida - Native name for their Empire, standing for sacred / mountain refuge.
  • Durukadash - Internal name used to refer to the Cavern, which they see as a promised and sacred land for their clade to thrive in for eternity

Warfare & Tactics

Zamari warfare is very infantry centric, with heavy employment of heavy infantry defending narrow chokepoints, usually armed with shields and sidearms, or with short polearms - pikes only occasionally used to defend narrow chokepoints. Underground tactics shift almost entirely to one based on massive shield walls.

Crossbows are used extensively while bows are not, as Lora’s short frame disadvantages them slightly when it comes to using a bow. There’s extensive usage of giant crossbows, and Zamari also takes great care to use both mundane and magical methods to waterproof and protect their crossbows against humid weather. Firearms are slowly adopted and hand cannons are popular.