Liway (Karanduun Setting)

[WIP]

Overview

“Remember from whence you came.”

The Ancestral Lands. The Promised Time. The home of the First Bayan. The Birth of Dayawism.

Liway is the Elder Diwatan word for one thing: Dawn. And truly, this is the Land of the Dawn. Situated to the Middle-West of Sanlibutan, to the West of the Thousand Island/Zuhayran Archipelago, it is a land of mostly temperate weather. Snow and ice and dryness is unheard off in the Southern Areas. The climate is more moderate in the middle area, and periods of dryness, hail, and the rare snowfall can be found in the Far Northern Tip.

Liway itself was built upon seven hundred years worth of lakandom and warring. It all began from the great Makkalo, the First Lakan, who created a vast Lakandom that he passed down to his children.

The Makkalan Lakandom was a grand and vast Empire that, for better or for worse, united all of the Lakungdulan Archipelago under one name. They managed to accomplish a great deal of feats, before it crumbled when Makkalo’s Seventh Ancestor launched a grievous assault on their fellow people.

During the time of the Makkalan Lakandom, various religious, architectural, cultural, economical, and warfare feats were accomplished. They created vast stone structures in the inland cities as shrines and temples (which they call dambanas) alongside natural places becoming places of worship. Their organized religion flourished, with various guros teaching the creation myth, mathematics, astrology, and theology within their stone dambanas.

Horses were primarily used for overland travel, although river travel was used even more than overland travel, with the Makkalan River Routes being fully mapped out. Water travel was more utilized than overland travel, especially when carrying large and heavy construction materials like limestone and large woods.

Dambanas made of wood are stationed outside of every forest route dedicated to the deity Uwinan Sana, where they have to place various sacrifices on the dambana for safe passage through that route (it is highly believed that the routes were made thanks to Apung Uwin-sana, Lord of Grasslands, and Apung Okot, helping the early trailblazers of the Time of Malice). This includes food like crushed rice, to flowers like hibiscuses, jungle flames, Sambak jasmines, and jade vines, to used weapons like the kampilan, or the panabat, or bolos.

The Makkalan Lakandom had every island under its control, until the dalaketnon began fighting back, pushing the Makkalan Lakandom out of T’Kapi to The Thousand Islands, and the lipod and tamawo fought back the Makkalan Lakandom out of Tabun. By the time this happened, the Makkalan Lakandom was on its last legs thanks to political disruption and the horrible administration of Makkasa, Makkalo’s latest descendant. When the Al-Kaigian Empire came, they sundered the Makkalan foothold on the Thousand Islands for the Al-Kaigians befriended the islanders that did not like the Makkalan Lakandom as a whole.

Most of the Makkalan Lakandom was promptly pushed back into the island of Liway.

Makkalo’s Seventh Son -- Makkasa -- made a grievous mistake in launching an attack to seize the Northern Liwayan Forests, which have become a haven for the engkanto. This has caused the great Makkalan Lakandom or Bayan, both terms are interchangeable, to fracture into three different Kedatuans, each one led by a different Datu.

Datu Durat is one that was hailed for his physical prowess and his overwhelming charisma. He and his Kedatuan, situated in the forested region of Central Liway, worked together to kill the Legendary Halimaw Boar Gago, after which they managed to establish the Durat Kedatuan. They became vassals to the Makkalan Lakandom afterwards, and are now one of the three Kedatuans trying to seize the power of the Makkalan Throne. Datu Durat was Makkasa’s personal guard, and as thus he believes he is the one that deserves the throne.

Datu Indara is a Dayawan Guro, that is, he teaches the Liwayan religion of Dayawism, the Religion of the a Million Gods. He is well known for being extensively learned, perfectly wise, having summoned yawa from the depths of hell to help his architectural marvels such as the great Dambana Temple of Indara, as well as other such dambana. He has written many seminal works on the topic of Dayawism, and has also learned much about other religions. He has created a natural philosophy known as Halamanan, which is a science of praying to gods within natural items to coax out their best qualities. Mixing two elements together would mix two gods. It is due to Halamanan that the vastly sought after wine, alak lambanog, was made, due to coaxing during the fermentation process. Datu Indara was Makkasa’s personal vizier and planner, and as such he thinks that wisdom should be the main crux for choosing the next Lakan. It just so happens that he is the wisest.

It is under Datu Indara that the great Sayada Dawa Dambana was made.

The greatest of the Dayawan Temples, and it being the largest. It is built out of the side of the Karay Mountain, part of the Serpent’s Ridge Mountain Range, on the 1012th Year of the Masked Moon. Commissioned by Datu Indara, It was partially built by the greatest of the Makkalan Lakandom’s Smiths, Stoneworkers, and Sorcerers, and they were given permission and aid by Dumakulem, God and Guardian of the Mountains, who carved away the hardest rocks with his bare hands. The Sayada Dawa has since become the premiere place of learning and enlightenment, and within its whistling halls they practice mathematics and astrology, and teach literature of both oral and written varieties, and pass down the stories of the past generation to the next.

The Sayada Dawa City situated by the base of the temple is also large, fortified by stone walls, and guarded by Dumakulem’s Guardian Dogs, as well as the various anito (ancestral spirits), some of which are Sorcerers, and are said to have kept their sorcerous prowess even in afterlife.

It is here they also teach of the fabled Bakonawa, who sought to ate the seven moons, but was defeated by Bu-an, his sister Halea, and his husband Sui-Dapa. It is said that even with Bakonawa gone, her Voice still echoes throughout the world…

Finally, Datu Hurusa is a feisty, powerful, rebellious, and utterly charming presence near the eastern coasts. Under her command, she was able to beat back Al-Kaigian warships, Ija Yawan corpse-ships, and even managed to conquer back a small fraction of the Thousand Islands. Datu Hurusa is known as the Warrior Princess of the Dawn, and she carries with her a legendary bow named Wind-Piercer. She was supposedly the bride of Makassa before he died. Now while she doesn’t have any illusions of ruling, she has been convinced by “an Apo in her visions” that she should be the one that should take the throne, lest Liway fall to the Al-Kaigians.

Caste System

Liwayan Society upholds a caste system:

The Ginu Caste

The Nobles of a barangay. The Datu is included here, and in a Lakandom, the Lakan is the Highest of the Maginoo. Maharlika (warriors paying fealty to the Datu) are considered among the Maginoo. This Caste is hereditary as well, with it being impossible to move up to from the timawa or maharlika caste. The Katalonan are decidedly part of the maginoo caste. Those that are part of the Royal Family are part of the Datung Ginu Caste, which is the same thing as the tumao save for the difference that the next Datu can only be a Datung Ginu.

The Timawa Caste

The Timawa are the middle classmen, made of freemen that were educated and were sometimes vassals of the datu, although they cannot marry into the Ginu class, and are still expected to help their datu in land or sea raids. They rendered and paid taxes to the Datu.

The Maharlika Caste

Part of the Timawa class are the Maharlika, military men specifically trained in warfare to fight and defend. Any of the classes can become Maharlika, which enjoy the same amount of rights as a Timawa. They are people with martial and raiding ability who serve alongside their datu. They are trained to be fighters and raiders alongside their Datu. They are technically military freemen, who work for their spoils in war, and splitting it with the Datu.

The Oripon Caste

Traditionally the caste of freemen. The oripun are a complex caste that has both slaves and freemen and warriors working for their masters. The concept of Obligation heads this Caste. This caste is further divided into three subcastes:

• Horohan: Horohan is a hereditary subcaste, wherein instead of serving obligation through labor, they serve their masters as warriors. Unlike the maharlika, they were not considered nobility, but also is obligated to do communal work and pay a vassalage fee to the Datu.
• Tuhay: They are oripun that lived in their own house, which were built on the property of their masters. They were obligated to pay a percentage of their earnings to their masters. They may also buy their way out of debt and obligation and marry freely without consent of their master.
• Alalay: They are the oripun that live with their master and have no house of their own, and can only marry with the consent of their master. If they are allowed to marry, they become Tuhay because the master is not obligated to pay for their house. Most people living within this subcaste are unmarried children of Tuhay or prisoners of wars and raids.

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