Turan

Turan comes from a long-dead tongue and means 'endless desert'. The name has long been used for the Great Desert of Turan and, more loosely, the whole Turanian subcontinent, but today it refers specifically to the desert that none of the surrounding nations claims. Its edges are vague, but Joktan lies southwest, the Red Sea and a sliver of Qaddan west, the Wilderness of Zin northwest, Sheba to the east and southeast, and a northern inlet of the Baku sea. It is a bleak land of dry sand and brutal temperatures, and only tough people survive in the Deep Desert.

Turanians are lean, with dark skin and black hair, kin to the people of Zin and unlike the Shebans and Joktanians, who carry Atlantean and Hesperian blood. They wear turbans and loose layers (pantaloons, blouse, cloak) to stay cool, handle camels expertly, and wander between oases with small flocks, pitching bright tents in a new camp every few days.

They are fierce, independent and hot-tempered, resent outsiders and fight at the smallest provocation; Joktan, Sheba, Qaddan and the Tribes of Zin have all suffered their raids, and they fight each other nearly as often, their tempers seeming to rise with the size of any gathering. Scholars think they would be unstoppable if some fanatical cause ever united them, but none has.

Scores of bands, each under a sheik, roam freely, occasionally joining for a venture before quarreling and splitting, and pursue old feuds with shocking ruthlessness. Each band belongs to one of seven Tribes said to descend from seven Founders, led by caliphs who are the Founders' heirs and are consulted for their wisdom only voluntarily; caliphs who tried to impose authority have often been killed.

Above them is the sultan, always the eldest surviving male in direct descent from the First Sultan, a hero said to have united the Seven Tribes against the Women of the West, most likely Hesperia's Amazons; this is the single occasion, even in legend, when the tribes worked together. The sultan takes a seventh of all raid plunder and taxes tribes that seek his help. He or a wazir hears cases daily and pronounces judgments on the seventh day; rulings are final, though six of the seven caliphs together can overturn one. Sultans and wazirs must treat caliphs and sheiks as equals and judge fairly, and though angry tribesmen have occasionally murdered them, the throne's prestige usually protects the sultan, and royal rulings have cooled many feuds. The tribes are named for their territories, Tamayah, Jabal, Sasan, Ibrah, Suti, Arawan and Shamar, while Arabea around Ispahan belongs to all.

Every man is a warrior first, as fierce as the Scythian horse-nomads though somewhat more civilized, with no blood-drinking, scalping, skinning or murderous funerals, and they menace passing caravans. They believe killing foes and taking their goods, especially women, children, livestock and treasures, earns merit in the afterlife; the families of the slain join the victor's household, and killing another Turanian invites vengeance from his kin. No nomad refuses a fight, but they organize poorly, rarely in groups beyond 20-200. They fight mounted on camel or horse as superb archers but cannot coordinate, some charging headlong while others stop to loot, so they are hired only as cheap mercenaries when nothing better is available. An oath, rarely given, is sacred until death or fulfillment; without one, no betrayal is too great if it pays.

Society ranks a Royal Class of sultans, caliphs, sheiks, their families and a few heroes named by the sultan; then the Warrior Class of all other men, who also herd and trade and must master every survival skill, with prestige counted in enemies slain; then all women, who must obey men (a few royal women gain influence through magic, and a man may take as many wives as he is able to support, royals keeping large harems of concubines); and at the bottom foreign slaves taken in raids or bought, harshly treated and much prized as marks of wealth. Scholars, including all wizards and famed sages, often serve as wazirs and are honored almost like their masters.

Their faith is a witch-cult of the Old Gods in which Eloah is supreme; its all-male warlock priests, the Muftis, rank with sheiks, grow rich and powerful on offerings proportioned to the favors sought, and have little hierarchy above them. The oasis camps are always occupied, though their people constantly come and go, and they serve for meeting and trade: raiders hand over plunder there, caravans arrive from as far as Qaddan, Sheba and Joktan, and slave auctions are chaotic. The main ones are Ispahan and the brightly tented villages of Madaan, Sabaan, Tamaan, Salaan and Nebetaan.