society notes | Bagavarti
The ancient peoples of Bagavart are known for three things: 1) their famously dark complexion and 2) their particular form of rudimentary thaumaturgy, called the kishi rahangi, and 3) their peculiar but not unexpected social organization. Living in enclosed networks of communities independent on one another (a prakrtantra), the Bhagavarda live a solitary existence, interacting sparsely with the outside world and deeply hostile to unobservant trespassers.
It wasn’t until 1956nae; that a larger window to their socierty was opened with the anthropological expedition of the Wondrous Twelve, thaumatological scientiests devoted to unlocking the secrets of the prehistoric Hyratian world-system. In it revealed a new insight towards the civilizations of the Bridgelands and the Orient.
The Bhagavarda are a deeply religious people, defined by pyrophilic tendencies informed by their religion of Madradaha, which reverse the god Jvalavanara, the Burning Monkey and Vanquisher of Ten Thousand Kings. Fire plays a deep role to the reclusive society, being a central focus among their rites of passage and living sacraments. Youth must pass through a pyre or a path of burning coals before their initiation to adulthood, marriage was made binding through the merging of the bride and groom’s candlefires, and their ubiquitous cremation rituals require different colors of flame depending on the aptitude of their Dharma and their social status.
Dharma defines almost all social relations among the Bhagavarda. Meaning “correctness” and “order”, Dharma in the Bhagavard context is a person’s orderliness and adherence towards the rites, a social capital focused on the maintenance of socio-ritual equilibrium. A person who participates the most and most observant of correct conduct is considered of Mahadharma, ones worthy of great reverence and worthy to rule. The opposite (Nyunadharma) are considered anathema to thesocial order and thus ostracized or banished (the worst case apparently is live cremation, a practice passed on to the Essians whom they historically traded with).
The collective polities within the northern Bridgelands (referred to in modern diplomatic language as the “Bhagavard Kingdoms” have been recently opening up to the wider world, and their recent cultural exports the past 5 decades have been the key for the Conditary World’s good reception of northern Bridgelander culture. The Bhagavard diaspora as of 2105nae; number towards 5 million.