Prajalu Royalty In Abeyance Alas, in more than a century, no royal family has ruled over the tribes since the Great Reprisals killed the last ruler and the next 40 members in succession as well as hundreds of other innocent citizens and family members • Nayak: The Nayak is the ruling monarch, be he a king or she a queen Nayaks have no crown but wear the Nayakahin, a sash of woven silver and inset gems allegedly made by the Daragkark Arjaloras for the first nayak more than three centuries in the past • Pujan: The Pujan are any royal children directly born of or adopted by the nayak • Upanya: The Upanya are related sub-nobility of any stripe, more often relatives from previous generations long distanced from any succession to the Nayakahin arts of poison crafting as ways to bulwark their abilities in battle when vying with other tribes for lands or power For centuries, many said the Prajalu were lazy and idle, doing the least work of any of the Khitan peoples This insult has not been uttered in at least twelve generations now, since the Night of Nine Dark Feasts Distant but never forgotten, that massacre saw the deaths by poison of more than five hundred Attites and Makadan who had insulted the Nayak Ualor IX, his daughters, and repeatedly disparaged their Prajan ways Of course, the fallout from those assassinations saw multi-pronged attacks against the Prajalu by many other tribes The Great Reprisals decimated the tribe’s numbers and slew their ruling family before the last remaining Prajalu Dragon King ended the wars Arjaloras protected the few Prajalu from further vengeance for nearly 20 years, often by invoking the Rite of Vindicta to spare lives, and then the Argentalon disappeared without warning, like so many other Daragkarik Most remaining tribal chieftains are mid- or lowerranked upanya seeking to claim the Nayakahin While all have claims to it, all connections to succession are tenuous and distant by more than twelve generations Also, with their populations so destroyed for a time, the chieftains could little more than talk, bluster, and remain busy rebuilding their individual tribes and their settlements While maneuvering gambits to seize power have yet to risk lives in combat, that time may be coming soon, as the Prajalu again match the Chindi and Nordor for 72 sheer numbers In the past decade, at least two chieftains and their heirs have died via vargam poisons just before they were to stake a claim for the Nayakahin Since the Reprisals and the disappearance of the Dragon King Arjaloras, the closest thing Prajalu have had to a unifying tribal government or force is their Unnata, the Council of First Sons As they have for more than two generations, the sons of the tribal chieftains gather thrice annually to settle disputes, arrange marriages, and forge trade and other alliances Hardly a governing body, they are sometimes looked to as such during desperate times, such as those that befall Khitus today The Unnata has produced some stability, since those chieftains’ heirs build alliances and understandings over years of working together Such relations are rarely tossed aside lightly in mad scrambles for power, especially since the others among the Unnata can better predict how each of their fellows will react to such actions Ranks & Types All governmental and social hierarchies once followed their common Prajalu familial roots, though these structures have been disrupted (see “Prajalu Royalty in Abeyance”) While there are other higher-ranked individuals among the Prajalu (noted above), the majority of Prajalu follow the old lines of social power Aside from the military notes immediately below, the relative ranking of these types of Prajalu are in order of influence from highest to lowest Military ranking comes from personal ability, experience and victories Champions and successful veterans lead those skilled in their primary weapons; thus, those most experienced or skilled with each weapon lead troops of like-armed soldiers into battle Prajan-crafted weapons include the sajnika (war club), shurudu (poison dart), and phatar (flexible javelin), though they can field other companies with champions and warriors wielding most weapons available on Khitus • Rumu are the famous professional Prajan poisoners who operate quite openly as an accepted part of everyday commerce They brew, sell, and advise on all sorts of concoctions, from something to make someone vaguely ill to that which will leave them dead as a stone These “assassin’s assistants” are above reproach, their services available to any who can pay They commonly keep lu’urat ghost snakes and harvest their venom They wear the social air of appreciation like apothecaries in other cultures, for their many poisons also have wide varieties of beneficial uses • Ruchi, on the other hand, are highly paid professional food tasters, a necessity in Prajalu culture for