Dararl

"Trust no outsider, our traditions have kept us strong for centuries and they shall continue to do so" -Inian Elcar, High Priestess of the Snake.

Dararl is a jungle nation located on the southern end of the North-easter Continent, it stretchs from the mountain range that keep the plains and deserts away, to nearly the sourthern tip of the continent were the jungle instead becomes Suncaxli territory; following their odd cults, ancient ceremonies and rituals the people of Dararl refuse to accept the changes that time brings and are particulary wary around outsiders.

They are nearly universally disliked in the rest of the world due several of their ancient rituals and traditions that are seen as barbaric and nearly demonic, furthermore in the odd cases were they don't kill outsiders they are known to take them prisoner and turn them into slaves in their cities.

The People of Dararl
As people highly wary of outsiders and their nearly blind zeal on their religion, the people of Dararl are very set on their old ways and changing their mind is nearly impossible, sInce nearly their births the citizens of Dararl are herded into groups of 3 to 5 individuals, they are taught to rely on each other and make up for their weakness as a team while only accepting help from their instructors, priests or people in positions of power; they cultivate a nearly ritual fear for outsiders and that the only good outsider is either one that is dead or one that is put into the slave camps of the city.

Slavery is very common in Dararl, as most of their workforce consists of people that were taken as slave from their raids or fools that venture too deep into their lands; still they aren't without mercy, at the beginning a slave is kept at a slave camp, drugged to keep more passive and prevent reproduction between slaves and then put to work in the most back breaking jobs like construction or gladiatorial combat; eventually after working and surviving for long enough the drugs are reemplaced by a simple collar that can explode on the command of the slave keepers or other high ranking people, then they are moved into a different subsection of the city than the slave camps known as the slave town, in here they are treated much better and put to tasks that are far less likely to cause death; they are still below the real citizens but at least above a newly brought in slave.

Of course like many things in life exceptions to the rules exists, there are tales of particulary good slaves becoming full fledged citizens with a very important ceremony given in their honor; and then there are the exiles, those that were pushed out from their very own homeland due fear that they might bring the much unwanted change.

The Snake
The leader of Dararl is merely known as The Snake, a mysterious beign that is never seen by anyone but the High Priests who then relay its wishes and orders into the general populace; the priesthood of the snake constantly carries out rituals and ceremonies to appease their master, these often take the form of gladiatorial combat between slaves, either against each other or trapped beast, ritual sacrifices in santified altars or merely contructing more temples and altars in its honor.

The Temple-Cities
Following their great focus in their religion, an entire Dararli city can be considered a massive temple in honor of The Snake, the temples are built with massive rocks brought over by countless slaves and then set into place before getting covered in a layer of dirt before vegetation is planted, thus most cities are an amalgamation of rock and growing trees that help fortify its position; the cities are divided into several tiers which in turn are divided in sectors that serve a different purpose, the lowest and most rotten of these is always the slave town, with the slave camps being a close second but usually set in the opposite of the tier than the town.

The upper most portion of the city is were the temple, living space of the priesthood and the sacrifical altars are held; at the center of the city, covered by the ceiling of the upper tier lays the coliseum, were the entire citizens can easily attend to watch the battles that are carried inside of it.

Despite the grand territory they occupy Dararli cities are few and far between, built on the hardest to reach places of their realm far away from the influence of outsiders; thanks to the fear built into them from a young age the Dararli are far more likely to avoid contact with outsiders than actually getting near and killing them in honor of their god, this has allowed several trade routes to develop and remain unhindered for the most part.