The Ixa (Race and Culture)

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The Ixa

(Note on vowels with accent marks: Vowels with a grave (à) are pronounced with a high-to-low tone, and vowels with a diacritic (á) are pronounced with a low-to-high tone.)

Racial Description
The term "Ixa" (pronounced like "ee-kha"), translated simply as "People" is not so much the name of a single race, but an umbrella term for a set of closely-related, co-habitating lizardfolk species that dwell in the western Kishahn Jungle. They can be divided up as-follows:

• Liyéxa (Lit. "Star Ixa")
  
  
  
  • The largest and bulkiest of the three Peoples. These hulking creatures resemble bipedal, muscular crocodilian folk and are ten feet tall on average. Their thick, tough hide is covered in armored scutes and they typically appear in shades of blue, ranging from sky blue to nearly black.
    
• Màkuixa (Lit. "Soul Ixa")
  
  
  
  • The Màkuixa are a saurian species, possessing scales, scutes, head crests and sometimes even small horns. They range in heights of seven to eight feet, and are much leaner than their larger cousins, but still possess a substantial amount of muscle. Their armored hides also appear in similar colorations to the Liyéxa.
    
• Ngeuixa (Lit. "Spirit Ixa")
  
  
  
  • The smallest of the three Peoples, the Ngewixa are are nimble people that are much leaner and significantly less armored than their larger cousins. The Ngewixa are also the shortest, ranging between four and five feet tall. They are also the only species of the three to grow fin-like appendages; though these are often used for communication or appeal as well.
    

Society
Fashion
The Ixa do not wear much unless they have to, such as when visiting a colder climate. Their fashion typically consists of brightly-pigmented body paint, decorative jewelry, or bones from sentimental creatures such as past pets or prizes from a hunt. It is also common to decorate oneself in colorful feathers.

Age
The Ixa have extremely long natural lives, with some of the oldest and most venerable among them reaching a thousand years and counting. However, it is worth noting that many of them do not reach such an age, as the life of living in a jungle filled with large, dangerous predators and the ever-present threat of disease and natural disaster can often cut an Ixa's life short.


Language
The Ixa language makes heavy use of stops, fricatives, and glides. It consists of fifteen consonants and four vowels, two of which have high and low tones. When speaking, the primary stress of the word falls on the second-to-last syllable.

Ixa grammar is, in general: Subject-Verb-Object-Oblique

• Word-Initial Consonants: j, k, kw, l, m, n, ng, s, sh, ts, tsh, tl, w, x
  
• Mid-Word Consonants: j, k, kw, l, m, n, ng, s, sh, ts, tsh, tl, w, x 
  
• Word-Final Consonants: k, l, m, n, ng, tsh, x
  

Note: "w" is written as "ui" or "ue" or "ua," depending on the vowel that follows it.


Names
The Ixa name hatchlings based on aspirations, guesses of the future, or certain physical traits. Ixa do not have male-or-female specific names, though some names may refer to reproduction (such as "Will-Bear-Many-Eggs"). Names can sometimes (or often times) get long-winded, and are often shortened in casual conversation.

Example names are:

Tà-liye-huitlèmi (Shortened to "Tàhuitlè" or "Studier") - "One who studies the stars," a name for a seer or astronomer.

Tá-tlità-chuiká-kèmá-shokuà (Shortened to "Tátilità," meaning something like "Never gives up.") - "One who never submits to evil," a name for a particularly brave person.

Huohà-yè-huolá (Shortened to "Huohà" meaning "One," or Huolá" meaning "Love") - "One of Love," a name given to a hatchling conceived by two very in-love partners.

Gender and Sexuality
The Ixa do not care much for gender roles. While courtship rituals do exist, there is no predetermined "gender role" or "place in society" depending on if one can lay eggs or not.

Diet
Lots and -lots- of meat and fish. Ixa lack the proper teeth to grind leafy foods, but they are still capable of eating it, though it is with some amount of difficulty. Spices and sauces are extremely common and a part of everyday meals.


Technology
The Ixa do indeed possess advanced metallurgy techniques, though it appears to have taken a slightly different route than what one might expect. The Ixa's natural armored hides are capable of shrugging off attacks from most things their own size that would do them harm, and hence Ixa "armor" is primarily for protecting the head or augmenting talons or teeth.

They possess metal weapons, however many folk still carry clubs and spears with obsidian teeth. They never forgot their Old Reliables.


Views on Magic
To the Ixa, it is considered a great honor to be born with the gift of magic. Though some take to it more easily than others, the Ixa also believe that any of their species can learn how to wield it to some degree.

Primal Magic
The Ixa utilize the primal forces of the planet for tasks such as agriculture, construction, and defense.


Divination
Through a combination of astronomy and dreams, the Ixa have been able to map out possible futures and adjust the actions/course of their culture by keeping these prophecies in mind. Their scrying is... Difficult to interpret at times, but it has kept their culture on its toes.


Blood Magic
Blood magic and rituals are performed by way of sacrifice. Willing subjects can "sacrifice" their blood in the rituals of mage-priests to cause magical effects otherwise unable to obtain with a single spellcaster. While sacrifices of lives (by way of draining the body of blood and using the organs as spellcasting reagents) are heard of, a sacrifice of that kind has not been carried out for at least 200 years, as citizens giving up a little bit of their blood each can achieve a similar effect.

Effects include vigor in battle, with warriors' wounds healing unnaturally quick, or possessing unparalleled strength. Less war-focused effects include boosting the yield of a harvest, or influencing the weather to cause more rainfall in a year of drought.


Religion
The Ixa believe that all life was born of the elements. The sun, wind, and rain combined with the earth to create the Great Jungle and all things within it. In the Ixa religion there are four main elements are Sun, Wind, Water, and Earth. While each has a powerful role to play, they revere the Sun above all others, as they believe that without it, all things will freeze, wither, and die. While the Ixa worship these things, they do not believe that they are necessarily "gods," but rather they are supernatural forces of nature to be revered and respected.

The stars and astronomy are also important to their spirituality, as they use such beliefs to fuel their Divination magic.

Songéuà-yè-tsélèliyé-yékè, Journey of the Sun's Smile
Journey-of-the-Sun's-Smile, or simply "Songéuà" ("Journey") is an ancient prophetess of the Ixa culture, as well as the most powerful mage in their written history. In an era long passed, the Ixa experienced what they call "The Time of Trials." Through a combination of natural disaster, in-fighting, and external threats, the Ixa were nearly pushed to the brink of extinction. But then, from the blood of the fallen, appeared a Màkuixa, wreathed in the golden rays of the Sun itself and the Wind carrying her voice and word, she single-handedly ended the Time of Trials. Whether that be through violence, diplomacy, magic, or some combination of the three is unknown. However, it was the building of the Ixa's temple-city Iuè-yè-Máliyé ("Shrine of Stars") that marked the end of the Time of Trials.

Songéuà looked to the combined Ixa people and declared that she would traverse the world, seek new knowledge and magics, and return to teach them to her people. And that she did; according to the Ixa's written word Jouney-of-the-Sun's-Smile ventured forth with a retinue of Ixa for five hundred years, returning periodically with the knowledge of writing, alchemy, technology, and powerful magics. With these things, the Ixa prospered.

Unsatisfied, Songéuà looked to the stars and declared to her people that she would use her magic to seek out a paradise for the Ixa, where they could cast off the shackles of a world soaked in blood and rest forever in a peaceful land. She dressed herself in her ritual gold adornments, ventured beneath the Shrine of Star's central temple pyramid, and entered a deep slumber as her mind projected out across the Planes.

The Ixa have watched over her resting body ever since. It has not mummified, rotted, or even shown signs of death. Journey-of-the-Sun's-Smile simply... Sleeps.

But as she has slept, her writings and treasures have become lost to time, be they stolen or simply having never made it back while she was abroad. The Ixa have sent a small army of individuals out across Le'Raana searching for them, they are known as the Seekers of the Sun.


Settlements

Iuè-yè-Máliyé, the Shrine of Stars
The main capital and cultural hub of the Ixa. The Shrine of Stars is a city of temple complexes and market plazas, surrounded by hunting grounds and roads that wind through the dense jungle. Here the Ixa number to roughly three hundred thousand, all told.

Tsà-Ngéngikimá, or "Stretch Your Fins"
The settlement of Stretch-your-fins is a trade hub on a small island between the main continent of Le'Raana and the Yoreiqi isles. Here Ixa sailors and traders resupply before heading farther north or out to Yoreiq. The island's population is only a few hundred in number, but the people are welcoming and accommodating to those who enter their port. The settlement's name comes from the local folk's love of swimming, and often times it is said to travelers to "stretch their fins" before heading out on their long voyages.