The Rutar are the least numerous of Shdustu’s four major peoples, and in many ways the least approachable. While the Kharal range deep into the hills and mountains of the Bahab homelands when summer clears them of snow, they generally enter the swamps only in the depths of winter and then only briefly to collect tribute. Though the Rutar are generally content to pay the khagans, their tribute is primarily gold which is panned from the lower reaches of the rivers, relations are kept formal, and encounters are short and tense. These people want little to do with outsiders. They have wrenched lives free of a deeply challenging land and now simply desire to live in peace.
Rutar skin is dark compared to other peoples of Shdustu and has a distinctly earthen shade. In summer they may grow very tanned, for the sun is stronger in the south and the glare from the water is relentless. Their black hair is straight and generally worn swept back from the forehead and ears to form a single wave to the back. This is often worn long in both men and women, but men of fighting age will cut their hair at the base of the neck. Rutar ladies generally endeavor to cut their hair only once every twenty years. This is done by careful shearing down to the roots so that the long strands can be used in the production of human hair rope. Successfully achieving such growth is difficult as hair may be lost due to burns, entanglement, illness, or other dangers. A woman who has donated her hair four times is considered a blessed matriarch.
Rutar shamans are the primary exception to this practice. They shave their scalps and instead tattoo them with the triangle mark of the Divines. Tattooing is extremely common among the Rutar, and all adults sport at least one tattoo that is placed on the left shoulder blade as part of the coming-of-age ceremony. This is always a bird, usually some form of waterfowl but sometimes a gull or grouse, which the individual then swears to never eat. This is called the Judgment Pledge, which is meant to prove their steadfast nature to Ukit by being kept throughout life. I doubt the Lord of Death is much impressed by such demonstrations, but it seems an otherwise harmless practice.
The dress of the Rutar resembles that of impoverished Nikkad. It features split tunics and loose baggy pants tied just below the knee. Instead of the sandals or soft moccasins favored by the Nikkad, they wear stout boots preferably proofed against water using wax and covered in snake or turtle skin, though many must make do with fish scale coverings instead. As they do little weaving of their own, their garments are often formed from treated furs or the tanned hide of boar and deer. They trade extensively for woolen clothing, which serve well in the waterlogged environment, and this is their primary means of exchange with the Kharal. Such clothing is either left to retain its natural gray or brown shades or dyed a deep green in order to blend into the backdrop of the reeds.
Splashes of color are provided by brightly dyed armbands, hats, or helmets. Warriors often brightly paint their armor and shields. Rutar woman indicate their status through wide-brimmed hats with high cones in the center. Elites raise this cone to extremes and cover it with feathers. Orange and red accents, which are found in the furs of mystic foxes and giant boars, are highly sought after, but are most often duplicated using mashed flowers. The little fabric they make for themselves is sourced to wild-harvested ramie, a nettle-like plant that grows well on the edges of the swamps and produces a fiber similar to that of flax. Garments made this way are always bleached white and are used to make white trim for ceremonial outfits, especially wedding dresses and funeral shrouds. The amount produced in this way is very modest, but ramie is durable and with light use can endure for multiple generations. Many Rutar women are married in the same dress their great-grandmothers wore.
Rutar have distinctly flattened faces with rounded chins, which separates them from the other peoples of Shdustu. At the same time, their manner of dress and their preference for closely compacted settlements points to some commonality with the Nikkad. Their hair, though worn differently, has a very similar shape and feel as well. Stories related by these people claim they have always lived in the marshlands. This is obviously ridiculous, no one would settle such terrain by choice. Their forebears were almost certainly forced here through exterior aggression. Physically, they bear some resemblance to the people from the distant east who lived in Shdustu prior to the coming of the Kharal, and it is possible that they represent survivors of those wizard-dominated kingdoms of ancient times who found shelter from the herders in the swamps. A distinct tolerance for wizardry, their shamans incorporate its most basic methods when producing tattoos as a means of stabilizing the image and preventing infection at the site, also suggest that they once lived under wizard rule. However, the profound influence of Nikkad elements in their culture and language, their speech includes many words borrowed from that tongue, suggests at least a shared origin. Possibly the initial swamp settlers later absorbed a second wave of Nikkad driven out of their early river settlements. This is not entirely surprising. The Rutar certainly do not fill the marshlands and their population is periodically ravaged by plague, so at times new arrivals would be welcomed, though there does not seem to have been any significant immigration for centuries.
The Rutar live in small villages in houses raised up upon pilings to allow them to endure spring flooding unharmed. These homes have wooden beams, but are primarily walled using wicker, grass, and mud, and are roofed using thatch. This method seems crude, but it is highly effective. Rain is rare, and the loose fashion allows for the exit of smoke and passage of cooling air. Plank walkways are used to connect these buildings. Storehouses, treated to keep out vermin, and open platforms for outdoor work are also made. Numerous small boats are a feature of Rutar villages. These are made from woven reeds using willow frames. Both circular and tapered designs are used, and paddles or poles may be utilized for control. These are usually small, but I have seen versions that can hold two men lying down head-to-head across the bottom. Though slow, and unable to push against hard currents, they are sturdy, easily repaired, and can carry surprisingly heavy loads. The reed-based design spares valuable timbers, which are important for construction. Villages and boat docks are necessarily relocated periodically as season flooding causes the courses of the rivers to change. If sited with care this is a problem on a timescale of decades rather than years.
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Lack of significant dry ground means the villages are compact and houses are kept small. Most sleeping chambers barely have sufficient space to fit their residents, and greater space is allotted to food storage, or the processing areas shared by the community. Similar practices hold regarding boats and certain specialized tools, and community wide effort is extended in raising children, something accepted as most members of any village are part of a complex web of relationships. Space is highly valued among the Rutar, but rarely available at any price. These are, for the most part, a poor people, with limited supplies of metal and little ability to work it.
Rutar men serve mostly as fishers, hunters, loggers, trappers, and warriors. Women gather foods and herbs, tend gardens, make and repair clothing, and weave endless constructions out of reeds. They also watch the children as the men spend most of their days outside of the villages. These divisions in labor effort are very strong, far more than in any other people in Shdustu. Possibly this has to do with the vulnerable nature of the villages. Raised houses are difficult to defend, as an attacker can cut the piles and kill anyone sheltering within. The Rutar skirmish among themselves in river fights and engage in deadly ambushes by stalking through the reeds. Their women do not fight. Instead, they are often treated as prizes in conflict, being kidnapped in raids and forced to serve as slaves and concubines. This is a cruel practice, one that leaves many children to be raised by relatives not their parents, but it seems to be widely accepted.
Food is widely varied. Rutar will eat almost anything they can find. Boar meat is favored, but bird meat and fish are far more common components of the diet. They will eat turtles, snakes, and even bats as well, and the eggs of any creature that lays them. I found turtle eggs to be surprisingly palatable, when boiled and seasoned. Fruits are consumed ravenously when seasonally available, including a number of berries and several tree-borne fruits. One of these, an orange-colored fruit called the persimmon, which I had never previously encountered, has a very good flavor and grows well in wet soils, and I secured a small supply of seeds of this tree to bring back to the Sanid Empire. They grow a variety of vegetables in gardens, including beans and peas, but also harvest wild growth. These are predominantly roots including water chestnut, lotus root, and a sedge known as the tiger nut. These are rather bland and tasteless but fill the belly. Though the Rutar do not properly farm, they will take measures to encourage growth, including using fire to burn away thick reed growth from prime cultivation pools. These methods are also done to promote the growth of valuable herbs such as iris.
Fruit is generally eaten raw, but vegetables and meat are usually finely chopped and then stewed in large pots. Salt is the primary preservative, used to cure meat and also to pickle vegetables in jars. The Rutar prefer to make their own pottery rather than import it. They do not use dedicated kilns, but instead fire stoneware in charcoal pits. The results are simple but sturdy containers that suffice for food storage and bowls.
Food supplies may be abundant but are subject to both constraints in time and high variability. The Rutar are anchored to a pattern that stands in reverse to the cycles of suffering that afflict the other peoples of Shdustu. Brutal winters with heavy and late snow bring prolonged high water to the marshes, which produces a bounty, while mild dry winters leave their lands parched and depleted. This alternating pattern makes them an ideal target for raiding in hard years on the steppe, as we were to learn. Even when food is available, the lack of proper farms or livestock means that gathering it up takes a great deal of effort, something that limits the size and number of Rutar settlements. Cleared and converted to Nikkad cultivation, these lands could support a far greater population. Though such a massive disruption of the landscape would surely be a great offense against the Divines and doubtless doom any such effort. The lifestyle adopted by the Rutar is better suited to this space.
Marshlands are not without iron, I saw the telltale red streaks in certain shallow pools, but the Rutar do not work this metal. They will work gold, which can be obtained through panning. They further utilize lead for fishing weights and modest amounts of copper and silver for decoration. Generally, they produce little metal and rely upon trade to acquire bronze and iron, preferring the former because it is better suited to working in such a damp place. Much of their metal is bound up in polearms and axe heads. Other items are made from stone or heavy wood, including a wide range of tools, fishing spears, and hunting bows. Bone is also used to make barbed spearpoints and arrowheads for hunting purposes, allowing metal points to be saved for warfare. These compromises work well enough for Rutar needs, though it leaves them unable to produce large boats and thereby expand outward into the full expanse of the salt sea.
Shamans govern the religious practices of the Rutar. These are mostly in accordance with the Enlightened Revelation, though there are some curious variations. They believe Ukit’s realm lies at the bottom of a deep and dark sea as opposed to the depths of the world in stone. As such, they weigh their dead down with stones that the predators of the sea might consume them. While I found this initially very strange, upon later consultation with priests I learned that sea burials of this kind are deemed perfectly effective in restoring the body to the cycle of the world, and ocean sailors utilize this method as well. They also exalt tigers, holding them to be agents of Ukit embodied by the legendary heroes of the past and empowered to chose those who must die. It is utterly forbidden among them to harm one of these animals or to heal or treat one who has been mauled by them. Though Rutar art is filled with images of tigers, these animals are very rare in the marshes. They have been heavily hunted by the Kharal as prized trophies and by the Nikkad as a source of alchemical ingredients and I believe less than fifty now survive in the entirety of the region. The persecution of such majestic animals is deeply regrettable, and I am disappointed that I was never blessed to see one.