As we build up to the release of Tears for the Moon God in January, it's time for another character spotlight. This time, we're focusing on Xirakura: a katuwiti medicine man with a peculiar, and largely lost, ability. But first, some context.
Uncontacted Tribes
In developing the katuwiti tribe, I found myself turning to what I knew of uncontacted tribes, and fleshed out much of their way of life based on those found in and around the Amazon. While the katuwiti are not precisely hostile to outsiders, they nonetheless are aware of peoples in the outside world and choose to remain isolated from them. Geographical barriers and local spirits make this self imposed isolation easier on them, and though they have no relationship with the other peoples around them, they do nonetheless share ties with other peoples across the globe who share a purpose in common with them.
Uncontacted tribes in our world deal with unique struggles that impact their ability to live autonomously in the lands they inhabit. Much of this is tied to cattle ranching in South America, which comes with broad scale deforestation in a place that we desperately need to conserve. The Amazon Rainforest is often referred to as the world's lungs, as it produces massive amounts of oxygen and absorbs proportionately massive amounts of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. Deforestation in that region contributes to global warming, which impacts not just those communities who inhabit the Amazon and surrounding areas, but the planet as a whole.
While the global implications of deforestation in the area are something many of us are acutely aware of (particularly as we feel the impact of global warming more and more every year), the implications for these tribes are likely much more personal. Contact with outsiders tends to bring diseases they have no immunity to into their communities, which may be lethal to them. Ranchers also often kill them outright in order to secure more land for their cattle. These problems afflict them in ways most of us will never fully comprehend, yet we can conceive of them as stewards of the land.
This is the critical point of commonality between uncontacted tribes in our world, and the way of life the katuwiti ascribe to.
Katuwiti Culture
The katuwiti tribe are conservationists who view themselves as allied with and subordinate to the spirits they live alongside. They inhabit Sufa Salein, a jungle in southeastern Gora, and the spirit of the forest is critical to their way of life. The katuwiti do not cut down the trees in the forest, and they are not an agrarian society. They grow their homes inside the boles of those trees, which provides them with shelter while also preventing them from running afoul of the spirit, who is a jealous guard over his lands. They are not unsophisticated, either, as they have a long tradition of creating dugout canoes using fallen trees, hunting and gathering within the forest, and fishing. They are also capable of producing textiles and performing smithing activities which allow them to produce tools such as hunting knifes and arrowheads.
Central to their way of life are the Spirit Callers, medicine men or shamans who are born with the capacity to house spirits within their bodies for short periods of time. These Spirit Callers may use their talents to heal illnesses, facilitate safe childbirths, and act as intermediaries through which the spirits can communicate directly with the katuwiti people, or exert their power directly through the Spirit Caller hosting them.
Notable, in regard to their culture, is that their dress is highly utilitarian, and would be considered indecent outside of their tribe. They are almost always nearly naked, and this is directly related to the source of inspiration that facilitated the creation of this people for the purpose of these works. What pictures exist of uncontacted tribes across the world depict them in similar dress. I did also stumble across several sources explaining that at least some of those we know a little about engage in various, complex forms of polyamory. That is also reflected in the katuwiti way of life.
Xirakura's Conservationism
Xirakura is bisexual, and has two spouses. One man (Katuwan), and one woman (Lura). This choice is not presented for its sexual value, but rather as an early compromise in the courting stages that eventually developed into a deep and harmonious bond forged out of love between the three of them.
Xirakura's primary role in his village is serving as an intermediary between the spirits in the region and his people, acting as an advocate for his people where it concerns spiritual matters, as well as a healer. He is among the most powerful of his kind currently living, having the ability to house ancient and powerful spirits within him, but he is rather young, and thus perhaps not as influential as the older spirit callers among them. When he is afflicted with an ailment he doesn't understand, it becomes his task to leave them in pursuit of healing. This is the basis behind his arc.
What I found so fascinating about exploring this culture was the varous opportunities to present a culture harmonious with nature, and the juxtaposition of them against a world so often concerned with bending nature to their will and lacking empathy for the spirits they seek to subjugate. This juxtaposition provided me with ample opportunity to explore what it means to live in balance with nature, use what you need and give back what you can. Seeing this through Xirakura's eyes took me out of my own mindset often. In writing his story, I was able to see opportunities for growth within myself, while also highlighting some of my own values as a person who was raised in rural Minnesota.
Stewards of the Mississippi
You might wonder what Minnesota has to do with this concept. After all, we have been focusing on uncontacted tribes and their way of life. But Minnesota's culture is centered around the idea of conservation. We view ourselves as the Stewards of the Mississippi. The Boundary Waters in the northern reach of the state are also one of the last truly untouched expanses of wilderness in the United States, a status which may soon be jeopardized by the Trump Administration's insistence on opening national and state park lands for industrial use. The idea of development and industrialization for its own sake runs counter to the Minnesota viewpoint, as while we do enjoy a robust industrial landscape with many manufacturing plants and fortune 500 companies headquartered there, we also value our forests, plains, lakes and rivers, and our government policy over the last several decades reflects that. Even the use of Round Up for weed control in our fields is met by people of all stripes with derision, because of its inability to break down and habit of getting into the watershed, and its proven capacity to cause cancer. The things we find ourselves wanting often center on balance. It's the concept that we can have industry, while also preserving nature. More than most things, this concept is something I wanted to explore in my written works, and ultimately ended up informing much of what Xirakura stands for.
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