Anak Kaoh (ʔa.naʔ kaː.oh)

The Anak Kaoh are an ethnic group found only on the island of Kaoh in the Southern Region. They are among the stranger peoples of the Great Ring - a divinely assisted hybrid of Human and Kikipua. Every one of them is born with the memory of a future empire that will rise from The Dream to dominate the world - an empire woven entirely from the dreams of Kaoh Piphop Soben, the Worlddreamer who sleeps at the bottom of the sea.

Recent Origins

A century ago, a Telmun man and a Naga fell in love, defying the wishes of both their peoples. Beyond breaking custom, their union was forbidden by the laws of the Malikate of Saba - though those laws had never before been tested. Pursued by agents of the Malikate, the lovers fled under cover of night and put to sea in a stolen boat.

A storm overtook them, and the tiny boat was tossed far from Saba. For three days and nights they drifted upon open waters, until at last they glimpsed a dark arrowhead on the eastern horizon, cleaving the rising sun in two. This was the island of Kaoh, rising from the sea.

They made for shore, where the islet steamed in the morning light. The rocks burned beneath their hands, but as they stepped from the boat a spring burst forth from a crevice. They drank, and in that moment came to know the god Kaoh Piphop Soben.

Children of the Worlddreamer

Kaoh Piphop Soben is one of the Numina, created and sustained by the beliefs of mortals - though in his case, it is unknown who first dreamt of him. Some suggest that he was brought into being retroactively by the Anak Kaoh. If so, he would be the only known case of a contratemporal manifestation, a being who played a direct role in his own creation. While it is not inconceivable that such an ouroboros might exist, the idea strains the credulity of most scholars who consider the matter.

According to the Anak Kaoh, Kaoh Piphop Soben was bound to a great mountain beneath the sea, asleep and dreaming of the world to come. He heard the dreams of the doomed lovers and raised his mountain from the depths to grant them safe harbor. For several days after their arrival, the islet continued to rise, revealing more land until it was ten times the size of the rocky outcrop first glimpsed on the horizon. Kaoh Piphop Soben then reached into The Dream and drew forth the plants and creatures that could endure upon the newborn summit, to provide food and shelter for the people he had adopted. And then he did more.

In the night, Kaoh Piphop Soben came to the lovers, joining with them in dream and in body. He used his power to make their union fruitful - a thing never before seen. The Naga bore a single egg, from which hatched two children: the first of the Anak Kaoh.

The children were twins, male and female, who named themselves Rithin and Sreyleap. Each bore the traits of their mixed parentage, Human and Kikipua alike. Yet there was more woven into their being. They grew swiftly, and when they first spoke, it was in a language never before heard outside the dreams of Kaoh Piphop Soben. They named this tongue Phasah Kaoh, and taught it to their parents - along with many other things besides.

Memories of the Future

The twins marked the beginning of a new people. They were the children of three parents - mother, father, and god - woven in equal measure from each. Kaoh Piphop Soben had long dreamt of a people who would one day rise to form a great empire, and in these children his vision first took flesh.

Thus began the Anak Kaoh. Rithin and Sreyleap bore four children, each conceived with the aid of Kaoh Piphop Soben. With every birth, the island lifted a little higher from the sea, expanding its shores and granting more room for its growing people.

The Anak Kaoh are not a prolific folk, and each generation is small. Even so, the island continues to rise, little by little, with every new life. Each child carries a fragment of Kaoh Piphop Soben's dream, giving rise to the strange paradox of a newborn culture already rich with memory and history.

They speak of the great land that will one day rise, and of the cities destined to crown it. Creatures unknown to the present age will emerge from its wild places, and new plants will spring from soils where no seed has ever grown. The Anak Kaoh can even recount the tales of their future history - of kings and leaders yet unborn, of battles yet unfought, of golden ages yet to come. According to them, every day of the world's future has already been dreamt by the Worlddreamer, and their descendants are fated to see a glory unknown to any age before.