[Dork] Shokkals

Shokkals
The last enemy the empire ever had and the only ones they were not able to defeat.  The Shokkals live in the Shokkal Mountains, which dominate most of the north and some of the west of the Provinces.  They never bowed to the empire, their land was too difficult to invade and control and their numbers and resources impossible to determine.  The Shokkals live in the high places, farming terraced fields; a lot of their numbers live in massive, semi-subterranean cities called septs.  They drink water laced with silver to turn their skin blue and mark themselves with a bright red mixture that is faintly luminescent.  The Shokkal reckoning of cosmology is the basis for the understanding of the Three Kingdoms in the Provinces, and the Shokkals seem to have suffered little from the decades of war with the empire or the rise of Dahan-nen.  They would and should be the strongest power on the continent, but they have also experienced a recent internal shake-up that bordered on full-scale civil war.  The Shokkals, until very recently, raided the surrounding countryside, capturing people as chattel slaves.  In the last 10 years or so, one faction of the Shokkal authority made all-out war on the slavers, eventually leading to their destruction as a political force and the emancipation of all Shokkal-held slaves.  Something of a backlash followed that, and in the last few years things have been especially unstable.  The rise of two competing cults to fill in the vacuum created by the destruction of the slavers has not helped matters.
Shokkals are easy to distinguish from other folks in the Provinces by their deliberately induced argyria, a condition that makes their skin light blue.  Shokkals have two languages, one which is tonal and the other which is actually pitched and sung.  Shokkal garments and tools are usually a little distinct from those worn or used by most Provincials and their markings and iconography are very distinct.  Shokkals do not recognize Malus, let alone follow his church.  Their religion is a combination of theism and animism and has a lot of aspects of haruspicy.
Shokkals have access to the sacred water and the red paint (which works as well as a Horned Mask in regards to the servants of the Gloom), as well as other Shokkal gear suitable to their role and the time period.  Shokkals are technologically equivalent to the empire.
The Traits listed below are not the only Shokkal Traits there are, and you can feel free to alter, make up ones, mix and match them as suits your character.
·         You are a Freeman, an ancestor escaped from Shokkal slavery and your family has never forgotten what that ancestor endured and that you may have many kin that suffered and died in those mountains.
·         You are an Emancipated Slave, most of whom were expelled from their homes and communities by the Shokkals and sent to the lowlands.  You or your parents remember what it is like to have lived under the yoke, and how it felt to be sent away with only the things they could carry.
·         You are a Mountain Legionnaire, the remnants of those who fought against the Shokkals, or the next couple of generations, still brought up in fighting the mountain people as a kind of family trade.
·         You are Hill Folk, with Shokkal and Provincial heritage in one family.  Your people live in the foothills of the Shokkal mountains and fit in almost nowhere.
·         You are a Political Exile; many families fled the mountains in the purge of the slavers and then the backlash against those who led the purge.  The mountains are as dangerous for you as for any Provincial.
·         You are a Father Cultist, who understands the Father who is Water that is Chaos, knows the secrets of the strange lights and the changing things, and seeks wisdom in the low places where the water lies. 
·         You are a Mountain Trader, who does business down the mountain, knows how to trade and do business with the Provincials, avoid the Bandits and keep the supply lines open.
·         You are a Blue Kacia, who left your own people to follow Sylfie, whether due to necessity or conviction.  Sylfie’s children are content to let some questions go unanswered until one is ready to answer them.
·         You are a Blue Raider, taken in by the Masked Bandits.  Some organizations took in a number of fugitive Shokkal slavers, particularly those who had been raiders. Some organizations try to kill them on sight.  It’s tricky.
·         You are a Mother Cultist, who serves the Sandrisas, seeks the perfection of the Mother who is Earth that is Perfected and seeks to destroy the Father and all his minions and devices.  Mother Cultists come to the Provinces at times on missions, many of which are not very nice.