The land is Kaphtor, (KAFF-tor). The people are called Kaphtori (kaff-TOR-ee). They are settlers from Khem, and speak Kheman. They are landlocked.

This is the only pure matriarchy remaining in the world. They are ruled by a hereditary Queen, who has a Council of Elders (all female) to advise her.

People of military age are expected to exercise to keep fit, and people of all ages routinely go to the public gymnasiums. Young male nobles are the most assiduous, since every few years one of them is chosen by lot to be the King, when his life will depend on his fitness, and skill at Bull-dancing.

The King is chosen by lot from among the nobles, and the Queen is elected from among them. Apart from the way all Kaphtori despise foreigners, there is little class consciousness. Noble children heard boasting of their rank will be told, "Hush, the bulls don’t know whose child you are."

The King must offer his life to the Goddess Varna each year as the sun wanes, by dancing with the bulls. If after the dance he cannot walk out of the ring on his own feet, he is left to die in the dust, and a new King is chosen. In times of great disaster, the King takes upon himself all the sins of the people, and goes to dance with the bulls. If he lives, the sins are purged. If he dies, he takes the sins with him.

Bulls are sacred. Oxen are used as beasts of burden, and cows for milk, meat and hide, but it is forbidden to use weapons on a bull. Speaking ill of bulls is regarded as very unlucky. When a bull dies, it is burned, as a sacrifice to Varna.

A man is theoretically the property of his mother, and she can do as she likes with him. It is the duty of kindred to defend each other against outsiders who would injure one of them, and to solve their own family disputes.

Fathers are not regarded highly: the mother’s eldest brother stands to her children as a father does in most nations.

Foreigners are Mud People, innately inferior: Promethians are an exception, they are accepted as also being True Folk, children of Varna. Any nation whose chief God is Varna (under any of her thousand names) is regarded more highly than most Mud People.

There are foreigners living in Kaphtor: the native people who owned the land before the invaders from Khem arrived. They are treated as serfs, derided and oppressed.

Foreigners’ religions are tolerated; they even have a Temple to All the Gods in Tirrhus. Any worship involving human sacrifice or mutilation (especially castration) is regarded with abhorrence, and forbidden.

Varna’s daughter Auka (OW-ker), in her aspects of Dead Auka, Young Auka, and Full Auka is also worshipped. Dead Auka, or the Dark Moon as she is sometimes called, is greatly feared and respected.

Criminals are shaved, and then required to have their True Name magically removed. It is conventional that Shaved Ones be ignored, as if they were not there. If they use this ‘invisibility’ to perform criminal acts, they will not be given permission to sleep in any of the temples: people may ignore them, but will go to the Temple of the Dark Moon to report, for instance, that "Nobody stole my money today." The priestesses inform other temples of accusations. Nameless people are a magnet for creatures from the spirit world, and sleeping is often fatal, except on sanctified ground.

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