The Exile
The Exile is an event where the Spirit Valley Tribes have been compelled to flee their homelands by the Spirit Wilds. The event has been highly disruptive to the culture of the tribes and saw many casualties, as well as the beginnings of new culture and religions to understand what had happened to them. Upon entering various established powers, the tribes' presence would lead to violence and discrimination frequently.
Pre-Exile Context
While the location of the original homeland of the tribes is now understood to be the southern banks of the Spawn Lake, outside contact with this area was fairly limited. As a result, we know very little of tribal culture prior to the Exile. "Codices of the Southern Tribes", an attempt to study the tribes by the Church of Fire, cites a "former Othii general" who describes their old way of life as such:
Our people thrived in the homeland we can never return to. The land was bountiful, and we lived in harmony with the trees. We took enough land for crops that we might feed our people, but we knew to leave enough for the trees such that we might hunt. Our warriors were mighty, and our people stood strong. There were many tribes back then - we sometimes warred, we made peace, we married. Nothing is the same.
The same general notes that, while his parents did live in the homeland, he was born during the Exile. In this account, he also states that spirit raids were a regular but minor issue, and that the regular attacks of the Wilds were "once in a generation ... every week, soon every night". We can discern here that there was a hostile relationship between the tribes and wild spirits from this, but one where the tribes were either superior or at least equal.
In the context of the Exile, the Tribes are often split into two groups: East, consisting of the Othii, Carnii, Kaerii, and the now-extinct Senerii; West, consisting of the Toshkii and Galethii. No other tribes are known at this moment, but it should be understood that these were almost certainly not all the tribes that existed pre-Exile, but rather those that managed to survive to the point of leaving their former homeland. Many tribes are presumed to have been wiped out entirely by the spirits.
We were not the only ones forced to flee. We never heard from our cousins to the west, as we were split forever by the spirit hordes. Some tribes elected to stay, whom we never heard from again.
It is clear from the Codex's account that this division did not seem to exist prior to the Exile, being more of a regional identity than a distinct ethnolinguistic group. Most accounts of the Exile seem to state that the Spirit Wilds began their attacks from inside the homeland, pushing outwards. As the sea contained the northern and southern perimeter, this forced tribes to move in one of two directions, East or West. This separation is likely what caused the split.
Eastern Exodus
The Eastern Exodus consisted of at least four tribes: the Carnii, the Kaerii, the Senerii, and the Othii. Their period of exile was marked by an extended period crossing swamps. During this time, multiple events took place which massively shaped the culture and faith of the tribes in the years to come.
Existing sources indicate that the swamps were infested with spirits, but said spirits were influenced by local wildlife and thus were very passive at night time, seeking to preserve energy absorbed from the sun. As a result, night time became a period of calmness and security, while daylight hours represented ferocious conflict. This period played a crucial role in fostering the Cult of the Moon, which is conventionally believed to have originated within the Carnii, who interpreted the security of night as a protection from the seemingly otherworldly light of the moon. This faith soon spread as this principle was true of all other tribes in the crossing. The Cult of the Moon would survive the Exile and be continued once the Eastern tribes exited the swamps, and is still practised in secret to this day in spite of heavy Church of Fire repression.
Contrary to more romantic pan-tribal narratives, the Exile did not represent a period of unity for the Eastern tribes. Indeed, it is unclear if the tribes are not themselves a product of the Exile, as all accounts state that while regions and families were associated, the boundaries between different people's in the homeland was far blurrier than it is now. While this debate continues, it is undoubtable that tribal affiliations were formed during the Exile, as there are numerous reports of conflict between them even while the Exile was ongoing. This was largely believed to be in competition for extremely scarce resources, settling old feuds, scapegoating others for having brought the spirits upon them (primarily directed at the Kaerii), or to consolidate power in a time of crisis.
The Senerii, led by Arkala, were the most successful tribe during this period in seizing control through conflict, having been comparatively less devastated than the other tribes. Rather than fighting pitched battles on canoes with a very limited pool of male warriors, Arkala instead targeted the women of rival tribes with bribes, blackmail, and underhanded means of establishing influence over them and their male relatives. This tactic worked, with the family unit holding particular weight in the midst of so much death, bringing vast numbers of warriors to Arkala's banner. Recognising that threatening his army's mothers was not a strong recruitment tactic, these relationships were largely tributary and extractive in nature rather than hegemonic.
Upon landing on solid ground, the Eastern Tribe's period of exile can be said to have come to an end, with new territories carved out from the land and their former homes abandoned forever. This new status quo would not last long, however, as this disruption of regional power would prompt the War of the Flowers with their northern neighbour, the Fire Nation.
Western Exodus
The Western Exodus consisted of the Toshkii and Galethii, as far as we know. This period of exile was marked by the crossing of the Gale Mountains, which would come to shape the faith and culture of the tribes, but also differed significantly in that the tribes did not find vacant lands to claim as their Eastern cousins had. Rather, these tribes entered directly into Air Nation and Free Territory lands.
Scholarly debate rages as to why the Toshkii and Galethii turned to worshipping mountains over the course of the Western exodus, but no single decisive theory has been established. One argument is that spirits are able to overrun small fortifications via teleportation, which they cannot do through particularly thick walls, thus conferring mountains a certain level of protection through their depth. While this would explain the hesitance of spirits to approach the mountains, which was observed, it does not explain how the tribes came to not identify mountain-dwelling spirits with the mountains themselves. Another theory is that the mountains, enormous and firmly made of rock, were a natural contrast to the spirits and thus to identify with them was in defiance of the invader. This is possible, but the Cult's practises appear to emphasise the mountains as a creator-paternal figure moreso than a protector, obscuring this theory also. The sole consensus in this debate is that, over the course of the Exile, Western tribes began to revere and worship the mountains, defining their culture.
As the two tribes directly entered already-held territory, there was no ability to establish a local powerbase immediately as there had been with the East. As a result, the tribes became an object of suspicion and a threat to the governments in question. In the Free Territory, the Galethii almost immediately encountered tensions with local chiblocker anarchists over land, language barriers, and mutual suspicion. Tensions flared when chiblocking was first used against a Galethii, prompting a riot as the Galethii believed the paralysis to be an act of spirit magic. The Comrade-General would order the Galethii to be interned in camps to keep them away from the majority populace, until such a time that the language barrier was bridged so that they may be repatriated abroad. At the culmination of this language barrier initiative, the Comrade-General's government offered citizenship of the Free Territory to all who wished to stay, and a independent state outside their borders for those who did not. Almost all Galethii accepted the latter offer, leading to the creation of the Galethii Free State, the plane's first independent NPC state.
In the Air Nation, the Toshkii soon moved towards the plains surrounding the Southern Temple and were initially permitted considerable autonomy. The Air Nation had experience of migrants moving into its territory in the past with the Sun People, and initial responses were similar. Empyrean scholars were sent to learn their language, with the Fire Nation offering resources on Othii to assist in a well-meaning but useless effort to assist. After these scholars gained the Toshkii's trust, they were invited to participate in religious ceremonies, along with local Sun People warriors that had reached out independently. The Cult of the Mountain was discovered at this point, sending shockwaves across the Empyrean political order. With the Northern Temple and Eastern Temple forming a majority in the Templemaster's Council, a threat was given to the Grandmaster that a harsh crackdown on the Toshkii was necessary for him to stay in power. The Southern Temple opposed this initiative, as would the Western Temple later, but the majority won out. The Air Nation formulated a complex series of policies to make the Toshkii's religious practises as difficult as possible to carry out:
- Toshkii children were to be separated from their parents and kept in Air Temples, where they would be raised with Air Nation children in Empyrean religion and culture, with their parents only being able to visit upon their own conversion to Empyreanism.
- All Toshkii were to be leveraged with extortionate taxes, with these taxes being lifted upon conversion to Empyreanism.
- Plague-infected food was distributed to remaining adult pagan Toshkii who refused to convert.
Toshkii Empyreans rapidly integrated into all temples except the Eastern Temple, while their pagan cousins suffered in the plains. With the establishment of the Galethii Free State, these pagan Toshkii were invited to join the new state. Impoverished and infected, they began to move towards this new state. Initially, the Air Nation had permitted this move, seeing them as an unsolvable problem that was removing itself, but the realisation that plague-infested Toshkii could infect the Galethii, who may infect the Anarchists of Freeport, and thus the entire world, caused a rapid change in policy. The Toshkii were stopped at Riversway, an Air Nation border town to the Galethii Free State, and were informed that vaccinations against the plague were mandatory before they may pass. Deeply distrustful of the Air Nation government after being poisoned, robbed, and their family members taken away, the Toshkii perceived the vaccination offer as an attempt to poison them once again. Violence broke out, leading to an event known as the Siege of the Wagons, where a vast number of poorly armed Toshkii stationed a perimeter of wagons outside Riversway and refused to surrender. Over time, the siege lost numbers as increasing numbers of starving Toshkii behind the wagons surrendered to the vaccine in the hopes of escaping. Approximately 150 young men maintained the line devotely, however, and held the elderly and children hostage as a means to increase their leverage. The Galethii Free State would end the crisis by offering healers and diplomats to the Air Nation, which was accepted. These figures talked the remaining fighters down, applied the medicine themselves after proving it to be safe, and all remaining pagan Toshkii in the Air Nation left for the Galethii Free State.
Legacy
The Exile has shaped the culture of not only the tribes themselves, but also multiple nations around the world. The tribes of the Eastern Exodus have lost a great deal of their way of life under the thumb of Fire Nation colonization, or have been utterly destroyed in the case of the Senerii, but have largely preserved their language. Cult of the Moon shrines are still practised in secret across the Fire Nation, although these are highly illegal and are stamped out whenever found. The legacy of the war has shaped the culture of the Fire Nation too, with the Duchy of Lightning being founded by nationalists inspired by the campaign that saw the destruction of the Carnii, led by Bigby Branson of Even Newer Mexico.
In the Western Exodus, the Galethii's ability to achieve an independent state has been cited as the polar opposite of the Senerii destruction. The state is small, rural, and poor, but its very existence acts as a diplomatic beacon for the Free Territory, even if it is largely a puppet state rather than a free and independent state. Galethii forces have participated alongside the Anarchists in the Spirit War, fighting at the Battle of the Archipelago. Toshkii identity in the Air Nation is highly nuanced, with the language preserved but the group forming a minority in every part of the nation. Cult of the Mountain is still practised although rarely openly, and there exists an internal division between Traditionalists and Converts - those who believe the Air Nation to be an occupying force over them, and those who have largely accepted Empyrean religion and culture - with a popular insult of "Dushka", meaning "foreigner" but often meaning "collaborator" or "traitor" by traditionalists, often used as a demonstration of this resentment.
The treatment of the Spirit Valley Tribes as a whole has been compared to other NPC groups that have struggled to survive under the influence of major powers, such as the Acacians, the Lirë, and the Pillagers. This cause has sometimes led to major changes in the balance of power, such as the Water Tribe leaving the Quadruple Alliance in protest at the Fire Nation's treatment of the tribes in its territory.