The Brightest Shadow: Corans

(This is the second in my series of worldbuilding posts for The Brightest Shadow.)

Few groups are native to the vast grasslands of the Chorhan Expanse, but many cultures live on its edges. One of the largest is the Corans, who hail from a broken kingdom to the south but live in the Expanse in large numbers.

Many Corans struggle to eke out an existence in semi-arid parts of the continent, but they are also very common as travelers and merchants. Coran culture generally believes that women should be in the home or the fields, but they don't ignore anyone with talent for sein. There are few social mores that won't bend if someone has enough strength or money.

Corans living on the Expanse have relatively primitive levels of technology, and they're much poorer than those living in their home nation of Corah. Though broken into three nations for generations, they still view their homeland as unified.

East and West Corah possess some of the only fortification and siegecraft technology in central Breilin. South Corah is the strongest economic power, though they usually trade with the nations to the south instead of in the Expanse.

Corans forge the majority of the steel found in the Expanse, though it isn't as high quality as steel from northern Breilin or other continents. They are also one of the only groups in the region to fight with heavy armor, though the raw heat prevents them from engaging in extended campaigns to the north.

Coran food is heavy on starches, and meat for those who can afford it. Their cuisine is not well-regarded by many other cultures in the region, while Corans are known to refuse to eat unfamiliar foods.

Though most Coran warriors favor the spear or sword and shield, they use a wide variety of weapons in many styles.

Corans refer to sein as simply "strength" in their language. Though some outsiders view them as brutish, those who have fought them know how dangerous their strength and offensive power can be. In addition to a tradition of wrestling, many Corans train by carrying heavy stone rings for set distances.

The tradition harkens back to a legend about one of the founders of Corah, who allegedly carried all the stones for his castle himself. Some Corans still train with stones or crudely carved rings, but many use formal rings crafted from rarer and heavier stone. In the southern kingdoms, they have similar training goals but more elaborate methods, such as stone bangles. Since these need to be fitted, they are beyond the means of most poor Corans.

Though Corans are known to play a wide variety of games, one that's characteristic of them is Jabble. The pieces and form are actually adapted from a different game in the Nol region, where it is a more complex strategy game.

By contrast, Coran Jabble is a hand-based gambling game. Players place tiles into the central region in an effort to complete patterns. The highest scoring pattern wins the money for a given round, then the next round begins without clearing the board, allowing for new patterns to be built on top of previous ones. As such, each hand is increasingly likely to contain surprises and high-scoring patterns. Play requires four people, so the game can end when one player gives up, runs out of money, or becomes too drunk to continue.

Jabble is commonly played in bars and gambling houses that rent out a set of tiles, since the full set is unwieldy to carry. Cheaper sets are made of stone or sometimes wood, while more expensive sets are crafted from ivory or marble.