This is listing of hill tribes in the series Chronicles of the Kencyrath.
For the main character index, go here.
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Hillmen in general
- Barbarian Tribe: They have varying shades of this.
- Ghibli Hills: The tribes live in the hills on either side of the Riverland.
- Holy Ground: The hill tribes hold the Anarchies as sacred.Marc: All the clans consider the south bank to be sacred ground. As I understand it, some three thousand years ago, not long before our kind came to Rathillien, someone or something suddenly barred them from the Anarchies. Before that, they believed that their dead crossed the river to a new life, and that the soul of the tribe itself had its roots on the far bank. Their shamen still take turns crossing the Ever-quick to perform secret rites on the far side, which they hope will eventually get them back into the Anarchies.
- The Natives Are Restless: The hillmen aren't happy about how Hathir and Bashti gave the Riverland to the Kencyrath 1,000 years ago, pushing them out of the river valley. The Kencyrath and tribes have an uneasy semi-peace, with plenty of bad episodes, like the Kithorn massacre business with the Merikit, and the thing with Grisharki.
the Merikit
As a tribe
A tribe living north of the Riverland
- Dreadlock Warrior: A Merikit wears one braid on the left side of their head for every person they've killed in battle.
- Exotic Extended Marriage: The Merikit are polygamous—having more than one housebond is the one we hear about most, but there's mention that men can have more than one wyf too. It's definitely pretty exotic to the Kencyr.
- Facial Markings: They do face tattoos.
- Lottery of Doom: In the Merikit feast at the Spring Equinox in honor of the Eaten One, a fish carved out of rock crystal is added to the fish stew served to the residents of the Maidens' Lodge. The unlucky girl who finds it in her stew is the chosen sacrifice to the Eaten One that year. If the sacrifice is accepted, she never returns; whether that means death or another fate is uncertain.
- Virgin Sacrifice: She's supposed to be a virgin, so when the Eaten One rejects Prid, it calls her virginity into question.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Merikit paternity is based solely on who the mother claims the father is, and she can pick anyone—even a women. Even a woman she never actually slept with.Jame: So, with all these housebonds running in and out, who owns the children?
Prid and Hatch: Why, the wyf who bore them, of course. And she names the father as it pleases her. - Matriarchy: Part Patriarchy Flip, part Enlightened Matriarchy, part Original Matriarchy.
- Noble Savage: There's a little of this in the depiction of the Merikit in Bound in Blood.
- Proud Warrior Race: Definitely a lot of this in the Merikit makeup. In fact, it's largely the fact that both they and the Kencyr are this that has caused much bloodshed over the years.
- Women's Mysteries: Like much of Merikit culture, it's Gender Flipped, making religious ceremonies Men's Mysteries.Jame: Come to think of it, I've never seen any Merikit women [at the ceremonies] at all.
Hatch: That's because those are men's mysteries.
Prid: [snort] Men playing fools, more like. Gran Cyd says they have to find some way to make themselves feel important between wars, hunts, and bedtime. We women have more sense.
Gran Cyd
Gran Cyd
Queen of the Merikit
- "No one else can beat Chingetai at arm wrestling," Prid whispered.
Regarding that broad, white forehead and those smoky green eyes, Jame suspected that here was a woman who bested her man in more ways than he knew.
- Dual Wielding: Gran Cyd fights with two long knives.
- Fiery Redhead: She has both the hair color and the temperament.
- The High Queen: Although a down-to-earth example, Gran Cyd is very impressive and regal indeed.
- Lady of War: Gran Cyd is a "war-wyf" who leads her people in battle. The men do raiding, but the women are in charge of war.Prid: If we go to war, Gran Cyd leads us, the way it's always been, or one of her daughters after her. Or granddaughters.
- The Masochism Tango: Cyd and Chingetai, as lampshaded by Jame:Jame: Cyd, if you mistrust the man so much, why don’t you divorce him?
Cyd: [smiles sadly] He is not always so... unpleasing. Perhaps one day you will understand. - Pregnant Badass: She gets pregnant during Jame's year as the Earth Wife's Favorite, and says it's Jame's.
- Requisite Royal Regalia: Tunic and mantle of royal purple with silver decoration, lots of gold chains, and gilded sandals.
- Seat Of Power: She sits on a nice golden throne.
Chingetai
Chingetai
Chief of the Merikit
- Heir-In-Law: He's chief because he's Gran Cyd's first husband. She still rules, but he has some duties, like in the ceremonies, which women are forbidden to watch.Jame: I'm confused. Isn't Chingetai the chief of the Merikit?
Prid: He's Gran's first housebond, but there's talk that she's thinking of divorcing him after the mess he's made of things. - The Masochism Tango: Cyd and Chingetai, as lampshaded by Jame:Jame: Cyd, if you mistrust the man so much, why don’t you divorce him?
Cyd: [smiles sadly] He is not always so... unpleasing. Perhaps one day you will understand.
Prid
Prid
- Anku: Ah, but who among the Kencyr is closer to being a war maid than you, and such a one as to have fought the River Snake and won! Prid envies what she sees as our free life.
Jame: It's hardly that.
Anku: So you and I know full well. But Prid remembers her mother, who died in child-bed. For her, the village lodges stink of duty and death. A pity for that nice boy Hatch, now that she is almost of an age to make her choice.
- Bonding over Missing Parents: On their wedding night, Jame and Prid share about their mothers' horrible deaths
- The Chief's Daughter (Somewhere between Averted and Inverted): Prid is the chief's (grand)daughter who marries the foreign protagonist, yet she's not that trope at all. Firstly, the Merikit are a northern tribe, with fair phenotypes, the same as Kencyr. Second, while she does marry the protagonist, Jame isn't attracted to her and doesn't want to marry her.
- Hero-Worshipper: Of JameAnku: I hear that you have cast your glamour over my grandniece Prid. She talks of no one else.
- Love Triangle: Type 5—Hatch likes Prid, who we think kind of like him back, but also seems to like Jame, who's her first housebond, though she's not interested in Prid. To Prid, Hatch is the Betty and Jame the Veronica.
- Rebellious Princess: Prid's not a princess per se, but she is Gran Cyd's granddaughter. Otherwise she fits the trope to a T—she doesn't want to get married, and rages against her family telling her to do so. She wants to have a "free" and "adventurous" life. Deconstructed in the end.Prid: Sorry, Gran, but you know that I only want to run free as a war maid.
Gran Cyd: But you don't like to fight or to shed blood, even on the hunt. Moreover, ask your great-aunt Anku what she and the other so-called free women do day by day. Theirs is a job like any other, not an excuse never to grow up. - Slut Shamed: The Merikit aren't prudish about sex or anything—but Prid was supposed to be a Virgin Sacrifice, and the god rejected her. This failed ceremony has big implications for her whole community, so they're not pleased with her.Gran Cyd: To my mind, she did all that was asked of her, but the refusal of the Eaten One to accept her has raised questions, not least about her chastity. Why was she found unworthy? The other girls made her so miserable that she left their lodge—
- Shotgun Wedding: Jame and Prid, though not for the normal reasons; Prid isn't pregnant, but she is rumored to not be a virgin. The wedding is to save Prid from dishonor until Hatch finishes his year as the Earth Wife's Favorite and can marry her. Prid is an Unwanted Spouse to Jame, and suggests that they just get divorced, but Prid says no.
- Also an Arranged Marriage, with Prid's grandparents Chingetai and Gran Cyd arranging it.
Hatch
Hatch
The Earth Wife's Favorite
Gran Cyd's grandson, and Prid's cousin- Patient Childhood Love Interest/Dogged Nice Guy: He has long been in love with Prid. We think she might kind of like him back, but definitely not as much as he likes her.Jame: Now that you've come of age, what will you do?
Hatch: The same thing I've always done: wait for Prid. - Kissing Cousins: He's in love with his cousin.
- Rebel Prince (Downplayed): He's not really a prince, but Hatch is the grandson of the chief, and is supposed to be the Earth Wife's Favorite—but ducks out of his responsibility by passing the role off to Jame.
- Two Aliases, One Character: He first appears in Seeker's Mask, where he's just called "the Challenger". When Jame meets him again, she doesn't initially realize it's the same guy.
Anku
Anku
Gran Cyd's sister, and leader of the war maids- Amazon Brigade: She leads one
- Cool Aunt: To her grandniece Prid
Tirresian
Tirresian
- Sex Shifter: Tirresian is a Tirre, which seems to mean that her sex changes, although it might also mean something like intersex.Jame: I was startled that I couldn’t tell if she was a boy or a girl.
Gran Cyd: I still have my doubts and an opinion that alters from day to day—yes, even I, her mother. I call her "she" because I have always wanted a daughter. Such changelings are sometimes born to us. We call them Tirres and value them highly.
Tungit
Tungit
Ma & Da
Ma & Da
The parents of two friends of Prid's.- Butch Lesbian: Da fulfills the role of a man in Merikit culture
- High-School Sweethearts: Well, not high school, but they've been together since they were in a cultural institution for teenagers
- Non-Heteronormative Society: They have twin daughters. In Merikit culture, the mother names the child's father, and even if you name another woman as the father, everyone just goes with it.
- Single-Target Sexuality: They flirt with Jame, and invite her to have a threesome, but their daughters assure Jame they're just teasing, and that this trope is play.Their daughter: Ma and Da have only wanted each other since they were in the maidens' lodge together.
the Grindarks
As a tribe
A tribe living south of the Riverland
- Signed Up for the Dental: Back in the day, they joined up with the Builders because they were offered rewards—namely secret knowledge, and sole access to their holy land.Scrollsman: It seems that once the Grindarks were like any other hill tribe, if poorer than most. Then the Builders came. They offered the Grindarks rewards and secret knowledge if they would work for them. Of course, the Grindarks agreed, especially since their first job was to seal off the Anarchies from the other rival tribes.
Grisharki
Grisharki
Warlord of the Grindarks
- "I have an arrangement with the local warlord, one Grisharki. If he were a Grindark like his followers, I would trust him more, but he comes from the Ebonbane and boasts that he was the lieutenant of some famous brigand there named Bortis."—Torisen
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Grisharki isn't even a Grindark, but he rules them anyways.
the Noyat
As a tribe
A tribe living north of the Merikit
- Evil Counterpart: Of the Merikit
- Flat-Earth Atheist: They don't worship the Four
- Grim Up North: They live way up north, next to the Barrier.
Nidling
Nidling
Chief of the Noyat
- Politically Incorrect VillainTrinity-triple-dammit, never trust a man who won't deal with women as equals, much less who sanctions the mutilation of horses.
