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--- tirades:2019-06-12 [2021/11/10 20:34] – ↷ Links adapted because of a move operation shyriath
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 In a way, it's a little hard writing about this. The [[xtauh:|xtauh]] - or the [[takma:|takmar]] or [[orghysh:|orghysh]], for that matter - are a whole species, not a homogenous mass, any more than humans are. They have their different cultures and languages and customs, and numerous individuals within each one, and nearly any general rule one might propose for their behavior, there's almost certain to be an exception, if not many of them, somewhere. So when I write about each the mindset and behaviors of a species as a whole, as I'll be doing here, it's important to understand that what I'm describing are generally tendencies rather than universal traits.
-Also, a note about names. The first thing to understand about the xtauh is that, while that is the most neutral word the [[language:imperial:start|Imperial language]] has for referring to them, it's not what they call themselves. It originated as the name of a tribe known to the [[avishraa:community:empire:|Sixfold Empire]] in its early days of expansion into xtauh territory, and came to be applied to the whole species; the tribe in question is now long extinct, though the word remains in cognates and borrowings (ex. [əɕːˈu] 'hard, durable'). Many xtauh in a position to be addressed by that particular form of the word, however neutral it may seem to takmar, believe it to be a slur, considering how often it is paired with insulting words.
+Also, a note about names. The first thing to understand about the xtauh is that, while that is the most neutral word the [[language:imperial:start|Imperial language]] has for referring to them, it's not what they call themselves. It originated as the name of a tribe known to the [[geopolitical:empire:|Sixfold Empire]] in its early days of expansion into xtauh territory, and came to be applied to the whole species; the tribe in question is now long extinct, though the word remains in cognates and borrowings (ex. [əɕːˈu] 'hard, durable'). Many xtauh in a position to be addressed by that particular form of the word, however neutral it may seem to takmar, believe it to be a slur, considering how often it is paired with insulting words.
 Regardless, I use this term, rather than a native one, for two reasons. Firstly, many xtauh languages lack a word that is used purely to refer to the species as a whole, the nearest term - equivalent to "people" - also being used as a self-designation by the tribe, with everyone else being called by a variety of separate names, or, in the best cases, collectively as "other people". The second is that the xtauh have a large number of languages with relatively few speakers each. Out of the regional trade languages, [[language:poradric|Poradric]] has the widest spread, but is far from universally known; the Poradric term for all xtauh collectively is //hudrilao// (singular //hudrai//, plural //hudril//), but most xtauh would not recognize it.
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 The settlements of both takmar and xtauh tend to be less compact than those of humans; partly this is because of high caloric requirements - they need more food, and therefore more land, per individual to survive -  and partly because of the [[takma:behaviors#territoriality|territorial instincts of females]], which results in social conflict when compressed into too small an area. However, xtauh settlements are generally even less dense than those of takmar; they are smaller and require less food, but while takmar, like humans, will readily build governments and other institutions with the authority to mediate and defuse social tensions, the xtauh generally don't.
-For the next Tirade, as an illustration, we'll consider the xtauh city-state of [[avishraa:community:poradrin:|Poradrin]], the home city of the Poradric language mentioned earlier. It's one of the richest and most developed xtauh settlements, and serves as one of the best examples of what a xtauh would consider civilization.
+For the next Tirade, as an illustration, we'll consider the xtauh city-state of [[geopolitical:poradrin:|Poradrin]], the home city of the Poradric language mentioned earlier. It's one of the richest and most developed xtauh settlements, and serves as one of the best examples of what a xtauh would consider civilization.