Vherokior Tribe
The Vherokior is one of the seven tribes of the Minmatar Republic. Originally nomads in Matar's vast and inhospitable desert regions, the Vherokior are among the most diverse individuals of the Minmatar Republic. They can be found in professions ranging from doctors to mystics, scholars to merchants. Their quiet work ethic and widespread family clans allow them unlimited social mobility in the Republic, with access to both the best and worst that society has to offer. While politically underrepresented in the Republic, the Vherokior are more than capable of influencing policy, and have no qualms with using that influence to benefit a relative or associate. The practice is common in the private sector as well, where Vherokior clan-run businesses thrive by avoiding the bureaucratic red tape of official channels.
Tribal Leader: Isardsund Urbrald
Lore
The Vherokior tribe is perhaps the least troubled of the Minmatar tribes, with little aspirations for dominance, content to live on the fringe. Most Vherokiors are shop-keepers or small scale businessmen, seldom venturing into the big boy's league. Mystics of this tribe are the guardians of the Voluval Ritual and travel immense distances.[1] Vherokior are disinclined to engage in great collective efforts, and their various clans are rather loosely grouped under the tribal chief’s authority. Indeed, the clans themselves hold nominal authority in many cases, with the family being by far the most important social unit to the individual Vherokior. These families are traditionally matriarchal in structure, though the aftermath of the Amarrian occupation has disrupted this pattern somewhat, as with so many other aspects of Minmatar tribal culture. Most Vherokior have long-abandoned the ancient nomadism of their tribe but the Vherokior mystics are the guardians of the Voluval Ritual and travel immense distances in this role. The Vherokior Tribe was one of the four founding tribes of Minmatar Republic following the success of the Great Rebellion. [2]
Racial Traits
Vherokior females are renowned for their shrewd minds when it comes to business and trade. Their bartering skills are second to non and they possess exactly the right mixture of sense and intuition to excel in both commerce and industry. The Vherokior have long since abandoned their wandering ways, instead opting for small-scale family-run businesses. These small establishments, often small canteens and bistros, are usually operated by the matriarch of the family.
The Vherokior male is small in stock, but nimble and quick footed. They possess an easy charm and are quite affable. While the tribal tattoo tradition is something shared by all Minmatar, the Vherokior male shamans have taken it to new heights. The mystical nature of the Voluval ritual, where the inner soul and karma of the person is revealed through a body tattoo, is exclusively handled by Vherokior shamans and the secrets of the rituals are only known to them.
Ancestry
Drifters
The wanderlust is still strong with many Vherokior. While most have managed to curb their lust for adventure, there are those that can never settle down in one place for long. Never at rest, the horizon holds a constant fascination for them, for there are places to be seen and riches to be discovered.
Mystics
The Vherokior have always seemed a bit odd to the other Minmatar tribes - doubly so in regard to those Vherokior with mystical inclinations. Vherokior shamans are both revered and feared by the Minmatar. They possess insights that can be of great help to people, but these same insights can also grant them great powers.
Retailers
Walk into any dingy little eatery in Minmatar space and odds are it's owned and operated by a Vherokior. The same goes for any other small business establishment in the Republic. The Vherokior are notorious peddlers, dating back to their caravan days. They usually run a family business and are seldom inclined to create big corporations.
History
The Vherokior tribe is a splinter tribe from the Starkmanir Tribe. Some five thousand years ago a brutal Starkmanir chief was exiled with all his people. The chief led his people into the most inhospitable part of Matar and was never seen again. But several centuries later their ancestors returned to Minmatar society, much changed in appearance and manners. They never revealed the cause for this change, but took to roaming between the other Minmatar tribes in large caravans, living as merchants, healers, scholars and fortune tellers.
Tribe Titan
Shara Osali, known as "Mother Osali" to most Vherokior, is the traditional discoverer of a number of Vherokior herbal and medicinal tea blends. Venerated in a number of mythical tales, Mother Osali's rescue of a Voluval shaman from the jaws of a Jade Coast monitor using a soup ladle is a particularly popular story. Shara "Lizardbane" Osali's legendary "Yetamo Pot Pie" is much discussed but very rarely served.
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The liberty of our people is solely our responsibility. Tempting as it is to foist this burden upon our well-wishers, we must never forget that the onus of our emancipation rests with us and us alone. For too long, our proud people have been subjugated to the whims of enslavers, forced to endure relentless suffering and humiliation at the hands of people whose motivations, masked though they may be by florid religious claptrap, remain as base and despicable as those of the playground bully. If ever there was a time to rise – if ever there was a time to join hands with our brothers – that time is now. At this exact junction in history we have within our grasp the means to loosen our tormentors' hold and win freedom for our kin. Opportunities are there to be taken. Brothers, we must rise. |
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– Maleatu Shakor, Republic Parliament Head, speaking before the Tribal Council, November 27th, YC 107
