Tappahani (Patreon)

So June's been a slog for life in general.  Trying to find a job, but my 13 year old dog is used to me being home all the time due to Covid-19.  Now when I leave her, she howls.  Not good for me.  But I'm starting to work on dialogue for Faultlines so I haven't been completely idle.  Still struggling with Homelands...

Someone recently asked me about one of the tribes, so I decided it'd be good to do a full write up on them.

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The first round of departures from the great migration was lead by the Propoli, who set up villages all along ideal locations of settlement along the migration route.  Close behind them were the Tappahani.  'Tappas' being 'one walking silently' and 'hanas' being 'one who serves'.  Unlike the Propoli, the Tappahani tended to be servants and staff to Propoli builders and engineers.

However, the Tappahani found identity in service.  Tappahani learned that good service would be valued and rewarded when the Great Migration passed through and by the Propoli they cohabitated with.  Thus while the Propoli can be credited with inventing civilization for zebrakind, the Tappahani are the reason anyone wanted to live there in the first place.

Tappahani are generally smaller in frame than most zebra, and their stripes have a distinctive wavy pattern that falls down along their bodies like vines.  Tappahani are one of the few zebra tribes with stripes that fork.  Tappahani are notorious for bursts of energy and listless enuui.  The tribe's alchemists worked out means of changing their stripe coloration, and thus while red is generally reserved for Proditors, seeing Tappahani with purple, pink, green, or yellow stripes was quite common before the war.

The history of the Tappahani has been one of struggle between respect for their service and exploitation by other tribes.  Tappahani provide service, not labor, and expect compensation for their work.  Frequently, the Tappahani find themselves cheated or undervalued, or occasionally so valued they were enslaved by their owners.  Debt was frequently employed to keep them locked into passionless work.  Because of the emphasis on good service and performing, many Tappahani would be exploited for years to a thankless boss.  Other occurrences would have Tappahani discarded from employ for less than perfect work.

Because the tribe is often connected to others, it possesses a fluidity other tribes lack.  A Tappahani may move a dozen times in a year, pursuing service that is of interest to them and a master worth serving.  As a result, Tappahani are extremely sexually flexible.  Marriages are made of convivence rather than passion.  The Tappahani staff of an employer may form a living unit while employed.  Children go with whatever adult wants to keep them, and thus may have dozens of 'aunties' and 'uncles'.  Adults teach the young skills and trades, and a young Tappahani will apprentice multiple masters before learning the service that appeals best to them.

Incidentally, while highly intercompatible with each other, Tappahani generally do not provide sexual favors to others outside their tribe unless that is their service.  Tappahani see prostitution as any other trade; to be done well and valued.  Only Tappahani who enter into that service regularly have sex outside the tribe.  This has lead some to observe that the Tappahani are as promiscuous as the Carnillians, yet exclusive to only their own tribe.  Tappahani, as a result, see marriage outside the tribe as complicated and such relationships are the stuff of high drama.  A 'Tappahani wife / husband' is generally seen as a difficult, neurotic mare or stallion.

Tappahani villages were originally located on the outskirts of other settlements, and then were slowly encapsulated by the growth of those settlements.  Thus the creation of 'Tappahani Town' neighborhoods.  While the Tappahani live to serve, they do not serve where they live.  Thus the Tappahani learned a way to ensure outsiders generally don't want to cohabitate: peppers.  Tappahani are notoriously resistant to spicy foods, and thus Tappahani cuisine tended towards extremely hot recipes.  This encouraged other tribes to eat more palatable food elsewhere and preserved some autonomy for the Tappahani.  Tappahani towns are also notable for their open houses.  A Tappahani can arrive in town, walk into almost any home, and find food, shelter, companionship, and employment instantly.  Outsiders who try to do the same will be served a bowel scorchingly hot bowl of food and sent on their way.

In fact, the Tappahani have largely perfected the art of passive aggressiveness.  When Tappahani villages were invaded, the food would be almost inedible, the social fabric constantly shifting and unexploitable, and the populace unmanageable.  Oh, the Tappahani would serve, but you didn't want to know what they'd do your soup.

The largest populations of Tappahani are in the rainy southeast of the continent.  The constant warmth and variety of agricultural goods allowed for exciting ingredients to try, but the tribe's mobility and fluidity established them in multiple places around the continent.  While Tappahani are almost stereotypically cooks and house staff, they can be found in all services including law enforcement and teaching.  Tappahani youth are put to work in childhood with chores and learn to find a service that appeals to them, then trying to perfect that service.

While Tappahani have no kings, they do have princes and princesses.  These are mythic figures of service.  Prince Happihan is the most notorious of these characters, who has served Caesars, kings, and two literal gods.  He is noted as the Happihani who has done everything to everyone, and there are multiple tales of his foibles as he gets into trouble works hard, and haplessly falls out of trouble again.  Other notable Tappahani characters are Prince Saharahan, a leader who serves his people even onto his eventual death, warning of the burden of leadership.  Princess Piko Pijo is a compassionate character of a prostitute who brings joy into the lives of everyone she services (Though calling a Tappahani mare a 'Piko' or 'Pijo' is a pejorative).  Princess Ababjao heroically saved an entire kingdom from famine by making disgusting food palatable. 

Politically, leading up to the Last War, the Tappahani were closely aligned with the Propoli and Carnillians.  However, in the election of the last Caesar, an outlier Tappahani ran as Caesar.  Jao had little chance of winning the seat, but he was a reformer addressing worker abuses by the Propoli at the time and ran as a protest campaign.  The Mendi and Orah tribes supported him, giving him three votes to tie with the Propoli/Carnillian/Roamani block.  He had hoped to cut a deal with their candidate to address Tappahani servicer rights (a common practice), but they instead accepted the Starkatteri vote.

During the war, the tribe was torn apart by the question: is being a soldier service?  The tribe ultimately decided no.  One served to better the customer, not kill them.  However, countless Tappahani worked to support soldiers deployed and in the field, even if they never picked up a weapon.  Tappahani saw service on the front to be a special calling.  Prince Grubbi was rumored to be a Tappahani so skilled he could make iron horseshoes palatable in the midst of a battlefield.  Tragically, the Tappahani spent five years planning the peace banquet before the Day of Doom struck.

As the empire fell apart, the Tappahani were hit hard.  Serving the legions in war was noble, but serving them in peace was enslavement.  Many Tappahani died, caught in conflicts.  Others starved as food supplies collapsed.  Only in the south east protected by thick foliage and able to hide from murderous aggression, the Tappihani remain in large numbers.  Though still present in most settlements, their numbers are severely cut back.  Many Tappahani succumbed to a particular mental illness: idle hooves and mania.  Isolated Tappahani with no one to serve would enter into a catatonic state, only to explode into activity when the opportunity presented itself.

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What tribe do people want to hear more about?  Writing about Homelands helps me write homelands, and it will help me from 'idle hooves' myself.