The Proto-Sannans

The Proto-Sannans were a historic people and the first cultural group to inhabit the realm. They are the group from which all other current people groups in the realm descended.

Livelihood and diet
The Proto-Sannans lived in migratory, pastoral family units. Families raised, bred and slaughtered yaks for meat and for their wool.

Yak meat is quite lean, and a single family unit could only support a maximum of a dozen or so yaks at a time, so most of the fatty meat in the Proto-Sannan diet came from fatty fish. Near the coastlines, seal meat also provided fatty meat. Tubers, roots, berries, fruit, and herbs were also major parts of diets.

Most cooked Proto-Sannan food was prepared by roasting over an open flame or cinders. Clay pots began to become widespread in the eastern mountains during the late First Age.

The Proto-Sannans also harvested sap from trees around the realm. These were used for sap drinks, including sap mead, which was a staple drink particularly during springtime. Therefore, fairy eggs were also discovered by the Proto-Sannans. At the time, they were just another staple food.

Proto-Sannans had domesticated dogs, and used herding dogs and hunting dogs to assist in daily life.

Trade
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Gender and Marriage
Proto-Sannan family units were mostly egalitarian, but they were heavily matrilineal and patrilocal. The Proto-Sannans viewed women as the carriers of a family's legacy, since they were the ones who carried children and heirlooms.

Upon the meeting of two family units with suitable unmarried offspring of a fitting age, the mother of the bride would perform a ceremony to marry off her daughter. If the bride was her eldest daughter, the mother would pass on her family heirloom, if she had one. Additionally, the family would provide two yaks to the daughter and her new family.

When a child was born to a family, that child would be delivered by the eldest woman - or the second eldest, if the eldest woman was giving birth. Birth was a religious and spiritual event to the Proto-Sannans. See Religion.

Clothing
Proto-Sannan clothing was made largely from yak wool, although occasionally furs would be used, particularly in times of plenitude. Shoes would be made of leather; mostly yak leather.

In the winter, a typical outfit consisted of a warm woven shirt and long skirt, and shoes (and sometimes gloves) made from leather. Additionally, two pieces of yak fur (or other furs) were attached with wooden spokes pierced through two corners and fastened with string. First, a hood made keep the ears and head warm, and second, a piece tied around the shoulders creating a shawl for extra warmth. In the summer, the shawl was typically left out, and sometimes even shirtlessness might be viable, depending on the weather.

Hair would be left free-flowing, particularly above the treeline and in the north, but various braids would later become popular in the forested areas of the realm.

Religion
Proto-Sannan religion - and large parts of culture in general - were focused on impermanence, both of the world at large and of individuals. The preservation of individual souls was tied to physical belongings, particularly ones made of metal, which was seen to be of the earth and therefore the longest-lasting thing in the world. See Heirlooms.

Worship centered around stories of a mother goddess known as the First Mother. She is a creator and a storyteller, busily telling the story of the world. Every sound in the world is her voice- the wind, the sounds of yaks, even human speech. It's for that reason that humans were believed to never be able to shut out sound the way you could simply close your eyes. Deaf individuals were heavily ostracized.

The Proto-Sannans believed that the whole world was a single instance of birth. The First Mother was believed to be in labour as she told the story of the world. Evil and all human suffering, therefore, are the pain the First Mother is experiencing. This lead to a ritualistic practice wherein, during delivery among Proto-Sannan women, the eldest woman delivering the baby would sing a song- either a myth or an improvised story "read" from the birthing woman, as a sort of reenactment of the very world.

The world's exact role in the First Mother's story varies between time periods and places. Sometimes it is simply the First Mother's voice. Sometimes a more physical idea of the world is treated to be either the First Mother's placenta or even her stillborn child.

Arts
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Heirlooms
With no concept of an afterlife, Proto-Sannans took to metal as a symbol of longitude. It was believed that metal could contain fragments of its owner's soul even after the owner died, leaving nothing behind. Parents would aim to preserve their own legacy by passing metal heirlooms on to their children, hoping that parts of their souls would remain alive in the form of the heirloom so long as it was passed down their descendants.

These heirlooms beame more and more ornate and well-crafted over time. In the beginning of the First Age, heirlooms began as nothing more than clumps of ore discovered at opportune times while traveling in the mountains. Over time, easily chipping materials would be fashioned into pendants and brooches. In the absence of metallurgical know-how, heirlooms would never be particularly professionally crafted, at least not among the Proto-Sannan people.