The Magar

The swamps are not a place for everyone.  Wet, smelly, dangerous, and dark, the marshes of Atlazan hold many secrets and few know how to navigate their way through these places like the magari.  An ancient race who hold reverence over the spirits of nature.  Long have they held themselves as a simple, but proud race.  While not advanced in technology, they view themselves as traditional and close to the way things were originally meant to be.  For centuries, this has been difficult as the magari were long ago enslaved by the Temtektaggre Empire.  While the status of slave is no longer used, serf is still an appropriate term and they are the lowest caste within all of the Empire.


The Spirits Are Everywhere
The magari have ever been an animistic and ritualistic people.  They feel that, when possible, nature’s bounty should be utilized.  If magic or technology can provide food, water, and shelter it is all well and good, but the reward of hunting, finding, or building your own is better.  If some other way is used, a symbolic ritual is always performed to thank the spirits for providing permission to take the easy way out.
Hunting animals and utilizing all of the parts is not the limit of the magari reverence of nature.  Primal elemental spirits hold within the deep places of the world as well providing the means to create tools and weapons.  Deep within certain marshes of Atlazan are rocky outcrops where the magari mine out metals, stone, obsidian.  They create large, stinking forges from the swamp gases and create some of the best equipment throughout the continent.  All with thanks from the Loa spirits.


Stubborn, Persistent, Determined
The homelands of a magar provide hardship from the moment they hatch.  They are taught that this is the way of the world.  This is how it was in the beginning and how it will be in the end.  Wealth and luxury are built upon these things, and those with excess forget that fact.  There will be a time when things go wrong and it comes down to powerful determination and the old ways for the magari to survive.
It is not the magari way to question their place in life.  To be of a higher caste and to live the so-called “good-life,” is to forget what is important.  Just as a magar child is taught to resist the oppressive nature of the swamp and avoid the animals seen and unseen, they are taught to stubbornly ignore the lies and temptation of a “better” life.  Nevertheless, some strive to live a better life for their efforts.  Perhaps they will be able to relish the taste of freshly killed prey rather than eating to simply have the energy to continue on.


A Look As Ancient As Tradition
Through a combination of traditional hard-set ways and simple lineage, the magari are a rough-looking people with a frightening countenance.  Like the alligators of the swamps they live in, a magar has thick, plated skin and a long toothed snout.  Stout, thick, and tall the magari look as if they would leap out and devour you regardless of what mood they are in.  Traditional clothings and jewelry only add to this appearance.  Commonly, the magari are expected to be incredibly dumb to match their appearance.  Few make this mistake twice as it is one of the few things to drive a magar to anger more quickly than even disrespect for nature.