Azuposi

The Azuposi are a group of humans living in the Pasocada Basin in Maztica. Their existence is built upon agriculture and cultivating the harsh land of the basin, but they revere sophisticated culture.

Society

Azuposi society is matrilineal meaning that the female is the owner of property and it is passed down through the females in the family. Men work the land but act as caretakers rather than owners. Myths dictate that this system may have originated from a decree of one of the War Twins or may have come about because Sus'sistinako (the Spider Woman) was instrumental in the creation of the Azuposi.

Tribes

The Azuposi live in six separate tribal societies. Each tribe is named after one of six directions significant to the Azuposi due to the solstices. These directions are up, down, northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. The respective tribes are eagle, shrew, mountain lion, badger, bear and wolf.

Spirituality

There is no concept of the afterlife in Azuposi culture and they do not believe that they will be reincarnated or continue to exist after death. This means that they see their deities as figures to be bargained with, rather than to impress or appease. They are not a materialistic people, since they believe that material wealth should be shared so that everyone can benefit in the current life, rather than hoarding things for individual benefit in the next life.

In daily life, the Azuposi regard many personal ceremonies that they believe will bring them good will from the spirits they worship. In addition to this, there are major festivals at the winter and summer solstices, although the winter solstice (Soyal) is more important. The gods of the sun are worshiped here, in an attempt to bring about longer days and warmer weather. During the festivals on the solstices, a pipe is lit at dawn and passed around the various community members, where secret rituals are performed in the kivas, consisting of exercises in concentration and meditation. When the pipe has finished being passed around, the entire community gathers together to place offerings of mayz to the gods, to pray and sing, and to create a procession. Music and dance continues on into the night around large open fires. Ceremonial herbs used regularly include black cohosh, cedar, cornmeal, gourd, horsetail, mallow, mesquite, ragweed, sagebrush and wild jalap.

Diet

Bread is the staple food in the Azuposi diet. It is made by hand from corn flour, and is usually made into piki bread, which is created by placing very thin sheets of corn dough on heated rocks, folding them over, and then cooking them further. The Azuposi enjoy meat in the form of birds, bison, deer, gopher, mountain sheep, prairie dog, pronghorn antelope, rabbits or turkey (these are sometimes domesticated), and fruits and vegetables such as beans, beeweed, calabashes, goosefoot, juniper, mayz, melon, pigweed, pinyon pine, prickly pear and squashes. Turkey eggs are also harvested from the domesticated turkeys and eaten.

The farming conditions in the lands occupied by the Azuposi are tough, and Azuposi farmers often plant more than they need, in the knowledge that some crops will simply not make it. They will also store certain foods like mayz in the event of some years not producing any crops at all. Farmers use tools like shovels and hoes made from bone, stone or wood.

Clothing

The Azuposi dress in cloths and hides that have been dyed in bright colours and adorned with beads or intricate embroidery. Males wear only loincloths in warm weather, but also blankets in the cold. Women wear cotton shirts and long loose skirts, covered in blankets, held into place at the waist with an embroidered belt. They usually embellish their hair and tie it in braids or buns. Shoes are worn by both genders and these consist of buffalo skin soles and deer skin.

Pottery

Pottery is an important part of Azuposi society and the products make useful everyday items. The pottery skill is held by the females and is passed from generation to generation. This leads to slight variations in style emerging between households, and larger regional variations. It is possible to tell where a pot was made by examining its style.

Settlement

The Azuposi have settled in the Pasocada Basin. The City of Gold, Michaca, sits at the centre of their civilization. Numerous other settlements surround it, such as Nozoma and Mitzlato, and their infrastructure branches out from this one central hub. Their roads are sturdy stone constructions, which is uncommon even on Faerûn. Signal towers are laid out along the roads so that they are all connected by line of sight, and can be lit and used to transmit smoke messages quickly across the land.

Architecture

For everyday buildings like homes, usually wood, earth and mud will suffice. For more permanent or significant buildings like ceremonial buildings, stone is used. Stone might also be used for simpler buildings in areas closer to a quarry, because the transportation of the materials is not too difficult. Thin slabs of stone are raised as walls, between which rubble is placed to bulk out the structure. Mortar might be used to seal the stone, and plaster made from crushed stone might be applied to the outside of buildings to form a whitewash. Logs are laid horizontally for upper floors and roofs, and on top of these, a lattice of branches is placed. The branches are set with stone to form a solid structure. The wood for this task is usually sourced from the Dunobo Springs.

Many Azuposi settlements are pueblos, which consist of just one building split into many rooms for different families, and expanded upon when more room is needed. Doorways between individual houses are trapdoors in the floor or ceiling, so as to make it possible to join these buildings into one, sharing walls and saving on building costs. This also has the benefit of being more easily defensible. The habitation rooms typically contain a cooking fire and are where food is prepared and eaten, and also where the family sleeps. Occasionally, adult males will eat their food in the kiva instead. Kivas serve as rooms of ceremony and ritual function, and are normally round. They also act as social centres for men while they weave or create weapons. There are usually a few kivas in each pueblo. Storage rooms are also frequently found in pueblos, where the Azuposi preserve dried corn, beans in ceramic pots, squashes sliced and dried, and meats that have been cured. Hunting and farming items might also be stored here.

History

Due to their illiteracy, the Azuposi have no written history. Their history is passed down the generations by word of mouth, and this has lead to some factual inaccuracies creeping in, where details have been changed to better favour the Azuposi, or even to create better rhymes in poetry or song.

Mythical origins

The Azuposi believe that the world's land was created by Sus'sistinako (the Spider Woman) and the Sun, two spirits who were somehow parents of one another, by pulling it from the ocean. Sus'sistinako then created Alosaka and Iyatiku by singing them into existence, and they in turn created living beings. Humans were brought into existence underground, but their lives were filled with chaos and corruption and they were unhappy, so they sent the bird Motsni to find them a better place to live. Motsni flew out of the underground at Shipapu, an exit point, and found Masauwu (the Skeleton Man). Masauwu informed Motsni that life was hard on the surface but that a bearable humble existence was possible. The Azuposi decided that this would be a better life, and left the underground at Shipapu to begin their lives on the surface. Masauwu remains their patron deity.

True origins

Although not a certainty due to their lack of written history, it is likely that the Azuposi are ancestors of the inhabitants of Kara-Tur because of the similarities in their appearance and their language, especially that of the Wu-haltai people.

War with the Metahel

At some point during their past, the Azuposi and the Metahel were at war with one another.