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Kannagara is home to a thriving indigenous population that has lived in Kannagara for thousands of years. Unlike your characters who are soul imprints that are spirited away from their home world, the indigenous population were not merely spirited away by the gods, but physically brought here long ago to reside within Kannagara and follow the path of the gods. Their presence in this world empowers the gods through god worship, offerings, and rituals that much of the population practices, passed down from generation to generation.
However, not everyone in this world follows the path the heavenly gods created for them. Some made the conscious choice to reject the beliefs and the traditions that the dominant population practices; others had their choice taken away from them. As a result, three distinct races of people reside in this world.
All of them bear a genetically occurring birthmark that manifests on their foreheads. What color that birthmark happens to be gives away how the individual is categorized.
The Celestials
The Celestials are, by all appearances, a rather happy, harmonious race who religiously practice god worship and perform the rituals, rites, and traditions expected of them by the heavenly gods. They all have a golden birthmark on their foreheads, known as "ajna," that rises to the skin seven days after birth. The Celestials consider themselves to be a superior race, as they consider themselves the people chosen by the gods. They are very careful to live in accordance with divine law, giving offerings to the gods daily, praying to the gods, and making sure to practice harmony with one another, with nature, and with the divine spirits of the world. They dislike engaging in violence against other Celestials, as violence is against the divine laws of harmony of the world, but have no problem exercising violence against Yomites, with whom they are at spiritual war.
In order to maintain spiritual cleanliness and purity, the Celestials have a rather complicated set of rituals that they perform in order to maintain the golden shine of their birthmarks. Celestials who do not complete the rituals, provide offerings to appease the gods, or who do not practice the traditions find themselves with a darkening birthmark. Those who lose their divine purity and do not appease the gods in time are stuck with a permanently blackened birthmark. Unfortunately, the Celestials discriminate against those with darkened birthmarks, as they consider them to have "fallen from grace." Those who have lost divine purity are cast out of the Celestial villages and forced to live in Yomi or become Nomads.
There is nothing more shameful or hated by the Celestials than one who does not possess divine purity. They are considered incapable of salvation, spiritually diseased, and many fear those with darkened birthmarks. Unfortunately, some children are naturally born with darkened birthmarks. No one knows why they are, but infants with such "deformities" are frequently abandoned by their mothers.
The Yomites
The Yomites are mostly comprised of former Celestials who have either rejected the rituals and beliefs practiced by the Celestials, were thrown out by Celestials for falling from grace, or were abandoned at birth. All Yomites possess a black or near-black birthmark on their foreheads. While there are plenty of Yomites who are criminals -- murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers, and other low-life scum -- there are also plenty of Yomites who simply have nowhere else to go and try their best to live as well as they can in the dangerous village of Yomisato. Some Yomites attempt to continue practicing god worship, but due to their location in Yomisato, the heavenly gods frequently ignore them or simply don't hear their prayers. In Yomisato, many worship the fallen gods, and give offerings and prayer to them, often receiving strange and unnatural rewards in return.
For many Yomites who were cast out by their families against their will, the longer they stay in Yomisato, the more they lose their faith in the heavenly gods. Few Yomites continue to worship the heavenly gods after six months of living in Yomisato -- adaptation is the key to survival in this village, after all.
Many Yomites despise the Celestials for thinking themselves to be the chosen race by the gods, and even more Yomites resent the heavenly gods for what they consider to be unrealistic and problematic traditions and expectations of harmony and purity. They disagree with the way the heavenly gods do things in Kannagara, and do not want to follow the path the gods want them to follow.
The Nomads
The Nomads are an indigenous race that never did truly follow the path of the gods from the very beginning of Kannagara. Since they were brought to Kannagara, they have wandered, traveling in the wilderness and setting up camp from country to country. They are a relatively peaceful race of people who have their own beliefs of harmony and spirituality; some worship the heavenly gods but do not practice the extreme rituals and traditions that the Celestials follow, others have created their own traditions. But all Nomads possess a reddish-brown birthmark. Many are born with this birthmark; some are formerly Celestials who were thrown out before their birthmarks could darken to black. Some accept Yomites into their tribes, and over time, the black Yomite birthmark lightens to the reddish-brown birthmark of the Nomads.
The Nomads spend most of their time in Kannagara herding animals, hunting and gathering, farming, and living peacefully with nature. They derive their spirituality from nature, and spend more time worshiping nature than they do the gods. Nature to the Nomads, is the most important thing in their lives, as it is what will determine whether or not they will have successful harvests that will feed their families. Many Nomad tribes band together, traveling well-worn ancestral seasonal trails.
Some are said to have strange and powerful healing powers, which is why they are frequently sought after when there is a strange and incurable disease that the gods don't help cure. But despite this power, they are still discriminated against by the Celestials because they are not considered spiritually pure. The Yomites don't care for them much either, because they refuse to take a stance in the war between the gods.
The Other-Worlders
Your characters will be considered as "special" because of the lack of a birthmark that denotes where your character falls within Kannagara. Many Celestials may be intrigued by the Other-Worlders, especially because the gods have brought them into this world. They may be surprised to hear that the Other-Worlders have been living in Kannagara for some time, which is even more evidence of divine interest in this new race of people whom many will not know what to think of. Some Celestials may be overly friendly and welcoming of your characters; others may be a little more cautious, or even downright scared to interact with them -- afraid that divine interest in the Celestials is being displaced to a new group of people.
The Yomites will treat your character the way they would treat any other -- depending on who your character runs into in Yomisato, it might not exactly be the warmest welcome. To the Yomites, your characters are not really all that special. With or without a birthmark, your character is no different to them than any other person in Yomisato, though they might not discriminate against your character or show as much resentment towards them as they would towards a Celestial. But be warned that many Yomites are a "rougher" variety of people -- some might not have any problem roughing your character up or trying to steal from your character.
The Nomads will regard your characters rather warmly. They are a friendly race of people, and they will not reject or deny your characters anything, unless you give them trouble or reason to fear your character in some way. They are a rather inquisitive group of people, so be prepared to have a lot of questions asked and even a bit of prodding.
The Birthmark
The birthmark, which the indigenous population call "ajna," is considered to be the spiritual eye of the individual in the world, or their third eye. The Celestials believe that the ajna is what allows the world to see into the person's soul. The Yomites believe the ajna means nothing at all -- some even consider it a curse. And the Nomads can't be bothered to have an opinion on the matter.
Kannagara Culture
Kannagara's culture largely reflects real world ancient Eastern cultures, such as ancient Japanese and Chinese cultures. Much of the cultural values, ways of social interaction, and traditions are derived from these ancient cultures -- particularly Shintoism, in the case of the Celestials. As such, there really won't be any characters who will possess overtly Western values, ways of thinking, or social interaction; while many characters are different across the board, as this is a predominately Asian-influenced culture, the majority of the world's inhabitants will possess values shaped by the social norms and traditions of ancient Asia.
Interaction with NPCs
While the moderators may control some pre-established NPCs with fleshed out profiles in this world, the players ultimately have creative freedom in their interactions with NPCs in Kannagara. Though we don't recommend writing extensive logs with NPCs, your character is allowed to have interactions with much of the world's population. If you want to make up a shop owner or coworkers for your character, or a farmer or even a sleazy drug lord, feel free to do so -- as long as you don't play that NPC too extensively. If you wish to name the NPC, you may want to run it by the moderators first. If you would like to have a moderator play NPCs for you, we are more than happy to do so.
Simply contact any of the mods and we'll definitely accommodate you. If you have questions in terms of how to properly characterize a Celestial, a Yomite, or Nomad, you might want to ask a moderator in advance as well! We would be happy to talk to you about any questions in regards to the NPC population. We suggest talking to us in advance if you have some kind of a storyline that may heavily involve NPCs. We also ask that if you want to kill a bunch of NPCs that you let us know in advance, especially if it is occurring in a Celestial village -- this way we can include this news in Kannagara's newsletter.
NPC Death and Powers
Be advised that killing an NPC will result in consequences for your character if it occurs in the Celestial territories. In contrast, nothing will happen to your character if they kill someone in Yomi territories. In fact, they might even be rewarded, depending on who it is that they kill.
Unlike your characters, when NPCs die, they stay permanently dead. They also do not have the power to travel quickly between villages like your characters -- travel for them from village to village may take days, or even weeks, depending on where they are traveling to. While NPCs do possess a number of super powers -- some, even frightening powers that may rival even the strongest shounen characters -- many are powerless. As a general rule of thumb, those with powers in Kannagara are universally considered to possess divine gifts from the gods.
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