Pachtres

The Pachtres followed a two-leader system. The Great Sky-Shaman led the tribe on spiritual and magical matters, while the Learned Khagan led the tribe on everything else. Becoming a shaman or a khagan required passing tests of wisdom, knowledge, and leadership. In the case of shamans, they had to commune with the totem Sky and gain his permission before they could be chosen as a leader.

The culture of the Pachtres was heavily influenced by one of its founding members, one Artysh Salchak, an historian whose field of study was Turkic peoples. He taught his fellow tribe members the religion and philosophy of Tengrism, and of respecting the natural world they lived in. And while the specifics of Tengrism didn’t stick around for long, the reverence for the natural world and the half-remembered legends of the Turkic peoples were adopted into Pachtres cultural identity. Over the centuries, known history and mythology blended together in the Pachtres oral tradition.   The Pachtres did not have surnames, instead differentiating each other by their given name. In the event of two people having the same name or too similar of name, the person’s parent would be named after their given name; this was only done to specify who was being spoken about or to in a conversation if necessary. Individuals in positions of importance such as an elder, a shaman, or a scientist gained a title to add to their name; the title was typically a trait, descriptor, or just the name of their position.   The Pachtres worshipped Tengr, God of the Eternal Sky. In their religion, Tengr watched over all living things and urged them to lead virtuous, kind lives in harmony with the natural world. Tengr did not care if people worshipped him or followed a different religion altogether--he only cared that people live virtuous and harmonious lives. The tribe acknowledged a few other vaguely defined gods as well, but Tengr was the most important. The tribal shamans would lead rituals and appeal to the spirits for bountiful harvests and protection from danger. They also were responsible for delivering and blessing children, and for healing the tribal members with magic.

Vast expanses of land suitable for growing crops and herding cattle were the greatest assets the Pachtres had. Much of this land is now a part of the more rural areas of Octant Demeter. Another great asset was their knowledge of agriculture and medicine. They gladly shared this knowledge with outsiders if asked. To the Pachtres, knowledge was the greatest and most important gift a person can be given. As such, the free sharing of knowledge was seen as a fundamental right of all living people.   The Pachtres were one of the few tribes known to have raised and ridden horses. This equestrian tradition kept local horses from going extinct entirely in the region. They also became skilled blacksmiths, often scavenging and recycling raw metals from city ruins to turn them into useful tools and supplies.

In the absence of a society, a society will be created. When history is half-forgotten, what is remembered will be embraced. The history of the Ancients is a dimly remembered thing, with only fragments of texts or stories of times long gone remaining. Some of the Ancients’ advancements lived on in isolated communities, but by and large most was lost during the Wasteland Period until the discovery of the Olympian Ark. Among the tribe that came to be known as the Pachtres, the secrets of agricultural science, farming, and ranching were preserved. Its earliest founding members were intellectuals, learned scientists, farmers, and engineers who recorded their knowledge of agriculture so that future generations would prosper when the world was safe to explore again.   During their earliest days after leaving the cryopods in their bunker below, the families established a tribe and the beginnings of an agrarian society. The scientists and farmers had an historian in their midst, an immigrant from afar named Artysh Salchak who specialized in the ancient history of the Turkic peoples from central Asia. He told his tribesfolk the histories, mythologies, and beliefs of those ancient peoples to entertain and educate his fellows of at least some remnant of Ancient history. Salchak was respected for his wisdom, empathy, and musical talent. He told them of the nearly forgotten religion of Tengrism, a belief that the Pachtres eventually came to adopt. Half-remembered history was embraced, and even though few of the Pachtres were of Turkic descent, they chose that heritage to identify with. They adopted the legend of Asena the she-wolf who, along with one young man, came to be the ancestral progenitors of the Turkic peoples--now, the wolf and man were also the ancestors of the Pachtres.   A shamanic tradition emerged over the centuries, worshipping Tengr, God of the Eternal Sky, who watched over all living things and encouraged every person to live a virtuous life in harmony with the natural world. Tengr did not appreciate dogmatism or encourage religious conversion of others, and so the Pachtres never tried to spread their religion to anyone who was not already interested in it, nor did they insist that the worship of Tengr was a sole religious truth. In the community, the scientists and farmers cultivated the land and kept the tribe alive and fed and the shamans navigated the tribe through the new, unfamiliar world now infused with magic. They communed with the spirits of land and sky, and defended the tribe from Horrors and Raiders with their powerful magic. Science and magic coexisted, and the Pachtres were stronger for it.   The Pachtres thrived, having an abundance of food, livestock that were taken in from the wilds, and a healthy populace. In time, they sent horse-mounted scouts to explore the world around them and found the great Ikea that the Krogs tribe had settled in. A prosperous economic relationship was formed between the two tribes, trading food in exchange for furniture and home goods. Over the years, the trade relationship became a close alliance. When the Pachtres eventually met the Emory tribe, they embraced each other as fellow scholars and intellectuals. They eagerly exchanged knowledge with one another and quickly formed an alliance. The Emory were happy to add the knowledge of agricultural science and the history of the Turkic people (despite however distorted it may have been through centuries of oral tradition), and the Pachtres were happy to access the Emory libraries. Pachtres families sent their children to study at Emory schools, and Emory families sent their children to learn the ways of farming and ranching.   When the Coa began to unite the tribes in the region, the Pachtres gladly joined early on. They shared their bountiful harvests and worked the land that would become Octant Demeter when Olympia was finally founded. As Olympia grew and tribal identity faded into history, they still held to their spiritual beliefs. Though it is very rarely practiced anymore, there are some shamans in Octant Demeter that can trace their lineage all the way back to the Pachtres and still make pacts with the spirits of the Sky. The name Tengr is remembered in records and Pachtres cultural heritage is preserved in a small museum in the Barrens of Octant Demeter.