The Nation of Zhem

[Nait]

The Social Make-up of Zhem

Zhem is a nation dominated by the presence of the inhiminen and maahinen, earthlings and dwarves. The third largest ethnic entity is the mehtänen, elves, followed by the santanen, sand-people.
Through inter-breeding, though the population has grown, the strength of the two less numerous races has been diminished, while at the same time culturally their bases are on par with other cultural entities. The average person on Zhem has blood from all four races, and shares with her kin on Ahma a surreal pool of hereditary traits fighting each other for supremacy, and the even more surreal fact that no trait seems to be winning – minority traits continuously nibble on the supremacy of the majority traits. Over the years this has meant that the general landscape of the people of Zhem has been mottled with blue skin and hair colors from the dwarves and the separation of these colors from the elves, so that the colors and amounts do not die, but survive and are found in the lineage, leading to such an possibility where parents of dark or blue skin can have children with yellow or a lighter shaded skin, or vice versa. The sand people have left their mark as a set of prominent canines, their peculiar, almost cat-like, eyes, and toughness, while from the humans come green eyes, freckles and the ability to roll their tongue.

Since the Rift, Ahma also has been a battle-ground of cultures. Over the years, languages and customs collided and conquered, and were defeated by other cultures, giving birth to the collection of ways of living in Zhem. In the end, a few cultures rose as dominant, lead, peculiarly, by the small and neutral Semmilä culture from Earth. Following Semmilä came the numerous Nihonko culture, who spoke Nihonko, and the dwarven Khazaad, Emialin and Zhambaresh cultures, all speaking between them two families of languages and twelve mutually incomprehensible languages, the Wò culture, with its numerous languages, the Eldari, Ilkori and Therendi cultures of the elves and the splintered Arraba culture. From these cultures, tradition and custom were rooted and planted, leading to the amalgamation culture which is the public way of life in Zhem.

After the Rift, the cultures rallied around Clans of different power. Though after hundreds of years the clans have lost much of their power, they still serve as the extended family, suku of most Zhemeans. Today's clans have surprisingly little in common with their predecessors, mixing within them a myriad of races and languages.

List of all the major clans of Zhem

Rissi
Aava
Wòng
Sigintaraag
Kheledbaraak
Jakokawa
Mirime
Hinotejama
Polde
Gabilbaraak
Alwalid
Armas
Zigiltaraag
Targuun