Limjiang

The Limjiang are a numerous race that domiantes the North-Western part of the Orient. Whilst they are Human-like - and distantly related to them and their Elven relatives - the Limjiang have several characteristics that set them apart from the Elves and Humans: their yellowish-white or (light) golden-brown skin tones, squinty or almond-shaped eyes, small noses, rounded faces, and several eye colours and hair colours that are unusual among other species.

Brown and blond hair are unheard of among the Limjiang: most of them have either raven-black, dark vermilion, or greyish-cyan hair, although raven-black is far the most frequent. Their eye colours include the traditional brown, hazel, blue, green, but also some more unusual ones, such as vermilion, cyan, amber and greyish-purple. Their average height is around 155-165 cenitmetres, their average weight is 60 kilograms. Their supposed maximal lifespan is approximant 200 years (Limjiang equivalent of 100-120 human years), but most Limjiang only life up to 130 years on average (Limjiang equivalent of 70 human years).

The Limjiang people are split into two main ethnic groups: the Shár and the Sak. The earlier is much more numerous, numbering around 28 million people, while the latter happens to only have a population of half a million.

The name "Limjiang" literally means "our race" in the Shár language - the Sak cognate is "Rimgyäng".

Shár Limjiang
The most numerous segment of the Limjiang race, the Shár are a settled people of farmers and city-builders who have built up the Shár civilization. While for long periods of their history, they have been divided, now they stand together as a nation united under one dynasty, dominating over the other two Limjiang subgroups,

Sak Rimgyäng
The Sak are the subgroup of the Limjiang people who live in the steppes enclosed by the Sakkang Mountains as equestrian nomads. Their lifestyle and religion are highly distinct from that of the Shár. While the Shár are a sedentary people who make their living as farmers, fishers and sedentary animal herders, the Sak are yurt-dwelling equestrian nomads who feed their families via hunting, foraging, animal herding and semi-nomadic farming. Their religion, Sak Shamanism is optimized for their nomadic and clannish lifestyle.

Jao Limkyang
The third subgroup of the Limjiang race are the Jao, which is short for "Fúyújaokyang" (People of the Fúyú Mountains). They speak a langauge that broke off from Old Shár, and have a phenotype more or less identical to that of the Northern Shár. The Jao are further subdivided into Nomadic Jao and Sedentary Jao, who speak the same language and adhere to the same religion, but nevertheless are highly distinct in lifestyle.

Nomadic Jao
Who are the Nomadic Jao?

If one were to write about them with a pro-Jao bias, then the person would describe them as a nomadic group of musicians, poets, jugglers, fortune-tellers, artisans and merchants, who travel from town to town to bring entertainment and exotic goods and brighten up the mood from the monotony of the arduous work that has to be done to operate a rice farm.

If one were to write about them from an anti-Jao bias, the person would describe the Jao as a nomadic group of thieves, burglars, swindlers, forgers, bootleggers and beggars who travel from town to town in a desperate attempt to beg for money, sell cheap imitations of highly expensive exotic goods, earn money with lies (phoney fortune-telling), steal horses, food and money while some of them keep the population distracted with low-quality entertainment.

The truth is somewhere in the middle: they are a group of nomadic travellers, who travel from town to town to bring entertainment, bootlegged goods, and occasionally overstay their welcome and bring something with them that does not belong to them.

According to their religion, each and every Jao should make the pilgrimage to the Fúyú mountains at least once in their life, or if not possible in life, then in death: burial in that region.

Sedentary Jao
This group of Jao speak the same language and practice the same religion as their nomadic cousins, but live a fundamentally different lifestyle: they live in the Fúyú mountains, lack nomadic characteristics. They gain their food from goat-herding, farming, foraging and hunting. Part of their sacred duty is to accomodate their nomadic cousins when they come to the mountains during the pilgrimage. They are also the ones who burry the dead Jao and maintain the graveyards.