Author's Notes:
I wrote 'The Fall of Clan Nama' in a single day, 9/07/01, as a study into the hero cycle for my English course at the time. Originally I'd planned to write in grandiose biblical style, but as the story progressed the style gradually eroded into my baseline, most comfortable writing flow. As a function of the English assignment it probably suffers - gasp! The story drifts from the tried and true! - but I'd lost the struggle before I'd realized the change, and in the end the story is probably better off for it.
One thing that made me choose the setting and people I did was the narrow terms I found people thinking of mythology in. When people heard of the assignments their suggestions and assumptions were the same: the events of some feudal Indo-European culture in a nebulously past age. No one thought to ask where or when in terms of realities or planets, and so I wrote them a human myth set in an alien world.
Coincidentally, the Hrasi are old friends of mine; I dreamt them up long ago (they are a bit… derivative of another alien culture, because I created them before I had a handle on developing worlds myself, but if you can't find the connection, then hey, great! It means I'm getting better at covering up my mistakes), and so if their culture seems superficial, it's my fault for assuming too much knowledge of my audience. Although I would not presume to contradict any person's personal conception of a story (the differences in the images that we conceive from reading the same words are what in my opinion makes the written word superior to film), I picture the Hrasi culture at this time as a human medley. It is something like a mix of the Japanese in the days of the samurai and Arabia in the days of the first Umayyads (an old Islamic dynasty). The connections are fairly obvious: in the story the sher'amn actually possess the romanticized powers of the ninja, but have the loyal sensibilities of the dutiful samurai warriors, and the desert nomads borrow very heavily from the fierce Arabian Bedouin tribes.
Also, many of the names have Arabic or oriental roots: for example, Yoichi is Japanese, Alman'queda is a permutation of Al Queda ('the base'; a notorious terrorist group around the time this was written), and Sasako is a variant on another Japanese name. Why borrow? The -au, -ie, and -uo sounds are fairly alien to my American ears but common in their cultures, so those are easy sources for 'alien' names. As an aside: apostrophes are every namer's friend. Adding random apostrophes to break up syllables helps make new sounds and pronunciations, most of which are great for those unusual names. That's pretty much my only contribution to the literary world.
I've included a small glossary of terms for clarification because I suspect that my poor writing skills won't be sufficient to clue everyone in on certain things just from context.
Glossary
Sher'amn - Something between assassin, personal servant, bodyguard, and soldier. Translates literally as a noun form of 'indispensable'. Are all female, and are usually only found attached to a group's highest male leader figure. Prefer to operate in small groups, which they refer to as 'sisterhoods', and whose members are considered sisters-in-law. All exhibit superb loyalty and a strong sense of personal duty, but do not necessarily follow orders from anyone except their sher'amn leader, who is typically the eldest. They have a very short life expectancy simply because of the nature of their occupation, but have unsurpassed skills at infiltrating and fighting - they can jump and climb exceptionally, fall great depths, run faster, etc. The sher'amn are, with only three historical exceptions, the only people who have ever been focused and disciplined enough to use the lleiri, which is therefore their identifying mark among a house's servants and its family's women.
Lleiri - The traditional weapon of the Sher'amn. Possibly the single greatest metallurgical achievement of the Hrasi people. It is a tall blade anywhere from five to six feet in length ("Then how do two fit in a longsword scabbard, Vincent?" Ah, quit your incessant whining and suspend me some belief here. I did say longsword scabbard), slightly curved, with a single edged blade between one and two inches wide that is at the edge less than a millimeter thick. The lleiri is made only from high-grade metals, preferably from the rich deposits in the northern mountain ranges. Beside being soundly constructed it is also sharp beyond comparison, so much so that it moves through anything except another lleiri - including wayward hands - with very little pressure, and it is for this reason that the lleiri is typically restricted to the responsible, cautious sher'amn.
Clan / Province Relationship - A clan is a large family unit that includes between two and four generations with associated cousins, in-laws, etceteras, all arrayed around a single clan head figure, usually the eldest couple or widow/widower still able to lead. A province is a collection of clans under the instruction of a single ruling clan. Culturally they are like US states, with language and customs bleeding between borders, but economically and militarily they interact like modern human nations. While there aren't arranged marriages per se, ideally the ruling clan is married into by the peasant and serf classes. This not only furthers the ruling clan's heritage, it creates a stabilizing middle class of merchants and artisans who make up the majority of a province's skilled labor and lessen tensions between the royalty and the downtrodden. It should come as no surprise, then, that Nama's disdain for the peasant clans caused their fall from power.
Re'jha - The Desert of Exiles. A large desert expanse surrounded on all sides but a small northeastern corner by mountains. Has black sands from the black igneous mountain rocks. The rain shadow effect of the mountain ranges keeps water from entering the desert basin, but also makes the coast-facing sides of each mountain verdant, rich, wet, and fertile. A large aquifer under the desert supports small lakes on the desert's edges, but deeper in the Re'jha there is absolutely no water, and thus dust bowl like conditions. Unfortunately for the Hrasi, the Re'jha is a huge geographical barrier to trade between Kydra's coasts, and so we see the rise of armed traders and guard caravans such as the Alman'queda to protect traveling merchants from wandering desert raiders, pariahs, outcasts, and other similarly low-lifed exiles.
Alman'queda - Wandering desert nomads of the Re'jha. Sometimes act as guards to those who would travel across the dunes. With the possible exception of Hrasi history's few large, regimented sher'amn armies, they were the fiercest warriors of the ancient worlds. Formed from the original northern clans who were driven into the desert in one of the great exoduses as plains clans invaded and 're-colonized' the mountain regions. Grew and diversified as they took in the lost who appeared at the desert's edges.
Mah'sur - The hulking beasts used for mounts by the Hrasi. Living siege machines bred over millennia by the Hrasi to be massive and powerful. Resemble lizards, birds, and prairie dogs at the same time: how they would fit into Earth's ecological taxonomy is very unclear. About three times the size of an adult female Clydesdale. Docile, but also awfully stupid. They have very thick hides, having been bred to endure their riders' claws.
Chuffing - Refers to the quasi-purr sound called a 'chuff' made by content, affectionate pumas. Synonymous with laughter. A decent chuff can be performed by purring (done by rolling an 'r' with a closed mouth) while blowing air through your cheeks and making a kind of 'oww' sound. What can I say? I used to work at a zoo.
And that was the sound of a whole world's chuffing.