Talpehlari

The Talpehlari are a cultural grouping of orcs native to Ærellion, and are also known as hill or southern orcs. The Talpehlari have for many years been the dominant culture in the west of Sui'akim Raharim, east of Arndzvord, and most of Nivasimam. Naturally, as an orcish culture group, they have a complex societal system built around personal strength and clan ties, thus making their division into clear-cut ethnicities difficult and often in flux. However, by working outwards from clan ties, the Talpehlari can be divided into roughly ten separate ethnic groups, of which seven are pure orcish, these being the Tug'hugaan, Shoma, Neshpara, Savardalon, Solvshilar, Bardehgolan, and Amzidob.
Of these groups, the Tug'hugaan are the most prominent and powerful. Lording over the savanna from their rich hills and plateaus, they have long controlled three of the most important goods for savanna-dwellers: water, weapons, and slaves. Despite being rather low, with only a few peaks high enough to be considered mountains, their hills are generally able to retain water far better than much of the open savanna, especially considering they stand roughly around 20-30 degrees north of the equator, and therefore straddle both the tropics and subtropics. This has allowed powerful seasonal rains with a clear wet and dry season like most of the surrounding areas, but without the dry season making water dangerously sparse. Therefore, with a year-round source of water and irrigated hill farms, the Tug'hugaan have been able to reliably farm a more diverse range of crops than is grown elsewhere, facilitating settlement growth. Their second key resource is the rich deposits of iron which they have reliably mined for many years and which is found beneath their hills. Such mines allowed the growth of a natural weapons industry in most of the Tug'hugaan statelets which has allowed them to project power effectively. Control of these mines is ever shifting as border conflicts often center on their acquistion and exploitation. Finally, being in a position of power, the Tug'hugaan have always been able to send out slave raids into the surrounding savanna. For many years these slaves have been shipped down the [tbd] river and sold to the dark elven merchants at its mouth. This has had the dual affect of improving the wealth of the Tug'hugaans themselves while weakening that of their competitors. Such barges and caravans have often been at risk of raids from both anemoi and goblins in the regions. Due to their relative power, the Tug'hugaans have long considered themselves the Talpehlari nobility, and see it as their destiny to unify and conquer all of the Talpehlari. Though there have been several attempts by various Tug'hugaan kingdoms, they have always collapsed back into tribal feuding before completing this. Often, these Empires have been crushed by the Ursumar defending tributaries and trade routes from their incursions, so the current state of disorder has led many to believe that now is the best time to take advantage of the siutation. Now, if only they could decide which clan is best placed to do so...
North of the Tug'hugaan, generally residing in the borderlands between hilly and flatland terrain and orcish/human control dwell the Shoma. These crafty orcs are somewhat out of the way compared to the centrally dwelling Tug'hugaan, and have long subject to southwards colonization by the Jungyu. Indeed, much of southern Junyeong was originally part of the Shoma domain. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the power of the Shoma has been on the decline for centuries, though they were once more powerful than the Tug'hugaan. They have suffered greatly from slaving by both the Jungyu and the Tug'hugaan, leaving their population low and not much of a threat to either group. This is probably what has prevented the southwards pushing by the Jungyu in recent years, since internal issues have been more pressing. The Shoma recently recieved quite an unexpected boon when the cenatur invasions of the region shattered the Jungyu Kingdom of Habagyeo, their main threat (as mentioned, the other Jungyu had been occupied with infighting). This has meant pressure against sedentary lifestyles, encouraging them to remain mobile.
West of the Shoma, and still north of the Tug'hugaan, the Neshpara are the main inhabitants of the northern plains, which lay within Arndzvord as opposed to Sui'akim Raharim, where the preceding two ethnicities reside. A mix between steppe, savanna, and dryland, the northern plains can be a harsh and unforgiving place as well as a remarkably productive region, depending on the year, This is because they rely primarily on seasonal rainfall from storms as far south as Sevel Del'tyrd, and unlike Arndzvord's mountains and highlands, storms don't tend to linger. The Neshpara are therefore mostly migratory big-game hunters, as relying on agriculture can be dangerous, which is compunded by the poor soil. The Neshpara (and Shoma) generally migrate within set bounds, with the entire clan or tribe only being present in part of this range, and various tribes skirmishing over the best hunting grounds. This system means that the population of the Neshpara, like the Shoma, is rather low. Further compounding this issue, the majority of Shoma lands have been taken over by centaur invaders, who have damaged their clan ties as well as settling the lands and dsirupting the balance of the region. The remaining Neshpara have banded together in a confederation to overthrow these horse-lords, but have yet to see success due to the disparity in strength.
Similar to the Neshpara, the Savardalon live to the west (concentrated southwest) of the Tug'hugaan, in the savanna of the Nivazimam region. Although wetter than the Arndzvord drylands, the Nivazimam savanna has many of the same structures as the drylands, so the Neshpara and Savardalon are quite similar. The Savardalon have never had to deal with centaur invaders, though their lands have come under threat by the recent invasions by Minotaur merceneries restoring order to former lands of the Divinity of Bēlqūašdu. With the Savardalon living to the east of the [tbd] river, the eastern border of Bēlqūašdu, most of their clans were tributaries, not directly owned lands, though this did not stop the Minotaurs from conquering them to secure both banks. This has shaken up the Savardalon political structure greatly, to the delight of the Tug'hugaan, as it has made them easier to capture and enslave.
To the south of the Savardalon, the Solvshilar are by far the smallest group of orcs. Originally living in the monsoon forests and jungles along the coastline of Sevel Del'tyrd, centered around the mouth of the [tbd], they were conquered and enslaved by the Dark Elves when they originally settled the region after the Great Calamity. Therefore, the majority of their population is enslaved in the plantations of the multicultural nation of [tbd]. This is not analagous to the enslaved population of orcs present in the more southward dark elven states of the region, as the Solvshilar are natives to the region while the slaves there are shipped by the Tug'hugaan. These slaves, the Bardehgolan, are a less natural culture, shaped by the varying subgroups sent down the river by the Tug'hugaan. Though similar to the Solvshilar, the two rarely come into contact with one another due to the distance between where they reside, though they occasionally are traded into one another's 'zones'.
The final pure orcs within the Talpehlari grouping, the Amzidob are known as the more civilized counterpart to the Savardalon. Originating from Savardalon tribes, they were later conquered by the Divinity of Bēlqūašdu following the collapse of the last Tug'hugaan empire. They were heavily influenced by Bēlqūašdu culture, adapting their writing system and a number of their practices, including limited religious conversion. They were later given an autonomous region after their 'civilization' was complete, mostly to guard the border. Naturally, they have gone on to produce a number of urukai, which was promoted by the government as a way to bring them closer to the Ursumar. These Urukai are known as the Abrāshi, and are tightly interwined with Ursumar society, so they are discussed on the Ursumar page.
However, not all Urukai are tightly integrated with the Ursumar, as following the collapse of Bēlqūašdu, many seized the opportunity to become warlords. These urukai are known as the Kinasl, and they come from the marriage of the Savardalon, westernmost Neshpara, and varying human Blay'uran. Such urukai have long been powerful figures in the tribal kingdoms of the southern Blay'uran, and were longtime tributaries Bēlqūašdu, with some having paid even as far back as Ashēryku. Some live to the west of the [tbd] and were direct subjects of Bēlqūašdu, but for the most part they were left alone as long as they provided ample tribute. Following the collapse of Bēlqūašdu, many of them saw an opportunity to expand their minitary prowess and forge truly independent states. They invaded the Abrāshi autonomy and largely conquered it, but a succession of attempts by varying Kinasl meant they spent more time fighting one another than pacifying the region. This made it easy for minotaur mercenaries, paid by the dark elves and gnomes of [tbd], who were motivated by the commercial disruption of such conquest, to sweep in and conquer the region. They pushed north and causing the Kinasl warlords to collapse back into their smaller statelets, leaving the Kinasl in disarray for the past decade as the warlords fight over their scraps. The Kinasl aren't just warlords, however, and they are actually valued more as shamans in the nations ruled by Blay'urans.
In contrast to the Kinasl, who are generally treated as good if not better than the humans they live among, the Yarzalat are often discriminated against. Urukai largely born from violence as the Jungyu marched south, they have been persecuted by the Jungyu for being orcs and the Neshpara for being Jungyu. However, they have managed to form small, out-of-the-way communities in the borderlands, where they are usually left alone, though they are vulnerable to slave raids from the Tug'hugaan, Jungyu mobs, and Neshpara attacks. Enslaved Yarzalat are usually sent downriver, where their genetic trace disappears after a few generations. It seems unlikey for any sort of Yarzalat statelet to emerged, especially considering they form the majority in no known provinces or areas.
The final Talpehlari ethnic group are the Hashogabat, who are bugbears. Half-goblins, they are often looked down upon by other Talpehlari for their smaller size, but their combination of orcish strength with goblin ingenuity makes them a force to be reckoned with. Often ruling over goblin clans on the border between them and the Talpehlari, the Hashogabat are nonetheless closer to orc than goblin, mostly due to their more favorable view by the Neshpara. In contrast, the Tug'hugaan view them as distinctly lesser.