Vulture society
Vultures (ikhano, pl. ikhanne) are a coterie of trained irregular warriors of any gender who fight in the high hills and steep valleys of the Khurorgos Mountains such as the Ravre, in parts of Khutu, Taizi, and Daligash. They have a special relationship with the raptors and scavenging birds of the hills from which they take their name.
The Ombesh word for bearded vulture is ikhano, and these are the raptors most strongly associated with vultures. Ikhanos are preferential bone-eaters although they scavenge all sorts of carrion, and will eat live prey if necessary. Vultures are happy for there to be confusion between the term ikhano-person and ikhano-bird, as this conflation is fundamental to their belief system. Unlike most other animals, ikhanne are conceived of as having a First Ancestor, a view shared not only by vultures, but also by Corps priests. More generally the term for raptors as a category is lufizi. A group of vultures is known as a hegus (lit. 'vigil, observance'), for which the translation 'wake' will suffice.
Vultures also tend towards religiosity and typically are respectful of the priests of the Corps. There is conflict between the Corps and vultures regarding the ikhano's tendency to feast on bones, but here, the vultures serve as intermediaries with the birds - e.g., asking them to eat enemy bones rather than fallen allies. While vultures are almost universally adherents of the Corps (as are almost all Ravre) they also revere Ushukuna, the legendary giant mother and First Ancestor of all vultures. Almost no humans other than vultures have encountered her and survived, and she is generally regarded as fantastical or as some sort of spirit rather than a physical entity. Vultures themselves do not engage in debate over Ushukuna's existence - they know the truth. It is said that anyone killed by Ushukuna becomes a haunt after death.
Vultures are respectful of their lineages and villages, and owe a primary duty to their family and to their wake. A vulture who is separate from other vultures, and from their family, is considered wild and in need of correction. Within the wake, there is a leadership structure roughly based on age - even extremely adept juveniles are expected to accord respect to elders. But other than that, there are no formal leadership roles. The duty of a vulture to each of the members of their wake is the same. Vultures of more senior years often take on leadership roles such as hengi.
Almost any Ravre child receives at least the elements of training as a vulture - it is part of hillfolk life to learn how to treat vultures with respect, and to live and work in the high hills. Every few years, in a single town or across a group of villages, certain youth are identified around puberty as having potential, and are brought together as a group by the local wake, for further training. Perhaps half of those identified will eventually become vultures. This training period of around a year is the only formal training the vulture will receive.
Upon death, vultures are treated as any other Ancestor. Exceptionally, however, vultures believe in a kind of quasi-reincarnation of the more senior and powerful of their kind (generally, those who are able to wild shape in life) into living vultures. Under this understanding, some part of the spirit (lemu) of the dead vulture lives on in a living vulture, after their death, though it forgets its name and identity. In fact, it is believed that vultures (birds and humans) reincarnate in an eternal cycle - the connection to the wake is never lost, even as the human body takes its new role as an ancestor. This cycle, known as suralai ('dying-repeating'), fits only vaguely with Corps theology.
Vultures have often been used as shock troops, scouts and guerrilla fighters by the Khutuan army, and have generally been organized into their own units. During the Omban Empire, vultures were not sufficiently organized and the Imperial authorities preferred to use sentinels and stoneguards, of course supplemented by bubun. But Khutu's wars with its neighbour Taizi have been of a different sort, and the Khurorgos Mountains have been a frequent site of conflict. Similarly, during the Great Purge of 534-41, vultures were used to identify Hulti hiding out in the high hills. More recently, since the Treaty of Two Emperors, Khutu and Taizi have been in an uneasy peace, and vultures have had less reason to be part of the Khutuan military, but it is still sometimes the case that Eluli Ula calls on His strong relations with the hillfolk to summon a wake of vultures for some cause or expedition. In these formal units, normally there are leadership roles such as lieutenants and captains assigned, but these are not permanent statuses and do not outlive the conflict.
