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the Mhun, and those who would drive us as animals again will come to learn | the Mhun, and those who would drive us as animals again will come to learn | ||
regret. | regret. | ||
== Mhun Culture and History == | |||
{{Teaser}} | |||
Mhun culture particularly emphasizes group loyalty; in the face of the inhospitable desert, with oppressors and attackers on all sides, the concept of Mhun identity very quickly transcended mere racial affiliation. Mhun who broke with their brethren, or went to serve the enemy, were shunned by the Great Mhunna, and intermarriage was forbidden by one of the first edicts in the early Epochs. This stance, more commonly violated by escapees and adventurers than common Mhun, has gone a long way toward preserving a distinct Mhun culture. | |||
The history of the Mhun is a long, sad tale - oppressed by Dwarves, Rajamala, Goblins, and Humans, freedom has at once been the highest ideal in their minds, and yet the most unattainable. Mysteriously bereft of Divine patronage, they have invented their own form of polytheistic worship, one that seems to derive meaning from the desert heat and the deep stone and only grows stronger in suffering. Their deities number seven in all: | |||
Laasan, the spirit of stone and earth. | |||
Promentesh, the spirit of labor and crafts. | |||
Mheribus, the spirit of hardship, often referred to as 'the endless darkness of underground and death'. | |||
Lokhanni, the spirit of ingenuity. | |||
Haddeneh, the spirit of wealth and bounty. | |||
Cheshehe, the spirit of the cold and the damp. | |||
Mhuinnah, the nurturer spirit. | |||
These deities were, until a few centuries ago, represented materially by the Great Mhunna, a high priest and a leader of the people, who held sole religious and political authority over all Mhun. The death of the last Great Mhunna had no replacement come forward, to the end result that the Mhun mostly manage themselves according to centuries of long, unbroken tradition; there are some actions, like banishment or certain functions of worship, that cannot be performed without a Great Mhunna. Many Mhun await the coming of a new Great Mhunna who will lead the Mhun out of slavery for good. | |||
Curiously, as a result of this close intermingling of religious practice with racial identity, any being who converts to the Mhun faith is considered a member of the race by most other Mhun, and accordingly forsaken by the Gods from then on. One individual who undertook such conversion was [[Dorin Silverbeard]], who lived out the last of his days as a practicing Dwarven Mhun. Mhun who remain loyal to their race, even if they reject the polytheistic faith common in Moghedu, are still considered Mhun; ones who turn against their own kind are considered banished, although there is no Great Mhunna to officially pronounce it so. | |||