User:IceFireWarden/Echmeri Ethnicities Volume V
In my previous notes I discussed the Loiocho, the machine-skeptics of Moruii who live within the abandoned Kítapoe ruins on the island and prefer to live their lives riding the waves alongside their Hyu-Ket neighbors. Now I shall focus on the Cak’kaan of Al’saia―a perpetually irritant, secular folk who live harsh lives on the Yneslean Fringe.
Although the Al’saians are sworn citizens of the Yneslean Directorate, the Cak’kaan have a fearsome (almost superstitious, even!) reputation amongst the Exul and Omali for being devious barbarians prone to rebellious violence and banditry. And while this cultural stigma may have some historical weight behind that stems as far back as the ancient Echmeri gerency, it is wise for the Western traveler to realize that this stigma is based around traditions utterly foreign to them and is likely to lend itself to over exaggeration; generally speaking, the Cak’kaan (outside of some minor, militant groups) keep to themselves in order to avoid the potential interference of their more ‘respectable’ cousins living across the blue in their daily lives.
This odd but understandable behavior originated around the same time the Cak’kaan minority itself entered the annals of history, as the Cak’kaan are the descendants of the ancient Cakaphons who ruled the Second Gerency of Yneslea, and who were ousted and subsequently hunted down by Hanzu E’ga-Zi in what became known as the Li’kaan Crusades. Hanzu was surprisingly merciful of the bloodline who had publicly suffered from corruption and malicious rulers for centuries, and allowed the younger Cakaphon sect-members to flee to the then deserted and hostile Al’saia alongside dozens of their retainers and loyal followers. Sadly enough, however, this benevolent act would be ignored by Hanzu’s great-great grandson Gamion E’ga-Zi, who noticed that the Cak’kaan had successfully transformed what had once been a dehydrated wasteland into a livable place capable of agriculture and trade, and took an abnormal amount of offense to it. The Gerent forcibly brought the Al’saian Freeland to heel to prevent what many modern historians believe to have been paranoia regarding the return of the Cakaphon Dynasty, and installed several laws that made it nearly impossible for the Cak’kaan to thrive independently (laws that took several centuries to abolish).
In what can only be described as an ironic twist of fate, Gamion’s paranoid behavior is what led to the birth and rise of Hannar Almost-King, who was born more than four centuries later. Known by the titles of He-of-the-Chained-Neck and the Son of Gralmoghal (an Echmeri god that borrows traits from the daedric god Molag Bal), Hannar spurred his fellow Cak’kan, the enslaved Hyu-Ket, and several other impoverished and mistreated bat elves clans to rise up against the Council of Dull Chimes (note:the concept of a Gerency had long-since fallen out of favor amongst the Ynesleans due to disturbing rumors concerning the Rhetoric Throne, the Divine Mandate, and Hrahndeyl’s Ascension). The Almost-King was nearly successful in completely revolutionizing the archipelago-continent in its entirety, but ultimately failed in his (begrudgingly) honorable quest.
All was not in vain, however, as the Council of Dull Chimes realized that Hannar’s Wars for Contrition only happened due to societal prejudice instituted by their predecessors, and formally apologized to their citizenry for the centuries of unfair and archaic laws harming them all. Al’saia, for the first time in many years, was finally given proper recognition and respect that culminated in the Cak’kaan k'haogun (lord) being granted a seat on the Council.
Culturally speaking, the Cak’kaans are a society of fishermen, miners, and herders of strangely mammalian reptiles known as bruorl that are used for mounts and sustenance (perhaps these creatures are related to the Tamrielic durzog…). Because the Al’saians ignored the Divine Mandate that made it a criminal act to worship, summon, or pray to deities without proper precautions and/or safe methods, their religion is much more reminiscent of the Nemeri worship of old just like the previously discussed A’zukyii ascetics. But unlike their nomadic cousins, the Cak’kan place a much higher emphasis on sea-gods and wilderness-gods due to the brutal nature of their homeland, and since dragons are conflated with water in the Nemeri/Echmeri mythohistory, so too do the Cak’kaans respect dragons and dragonkyn more than any other bat elf tribal group. This more benevolent view on dragons is another reason why the other Echmer groups distance themselves from the Cak’kaan, as dragons and dragon-gods are…complicated entities in their faith, to say the least (but to a people already judged constantly, what is the harm of additional judgement?).
It is widely believed (and somewhat reinforced due to their own accounts) that the Cak'kaans aided Uriel Septim V with his early infiltrations into Yneslea during his Expeditionary Conquests, due to a then-recent spat with the Council that regressed the strong relationship built between Al’saia and the rest of Lapis Lazuli in the past near-millennium.
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