Just posted first IC! Very excited.

[hider=My long-winded comments on the first post]Originally, I was going to include a whole religious creation story thing, as well as a story of how the tribe came to be (and I still might do some of that), but after roughing it out the whole thing seemed a little bit [i]too[/i] dense, especially for an introduction. So, I'm saving those stories to be revealed later on 

Also, I was unsure for the cultural sophistication/technological sophistication aspect of the takhal. I mainly went off [@Klomster]'s post, where the Sobek have stone-age technology and little higher culture (I figured the takhal would develop that sooner, being more mammalian and weird and superstitious), and sort of extrapolated from that. The reason I didn't start at the [i]very[/i] beginning (as in the first takhal ever magically appearing on the grassland with zero cultural elements) and work up to the current point was simply because after thinking over how I'd do it, I came to the conclusion it would be quite boring and long-winded to describe. In that situation, not a lot of cultural/interesting activity is happening, and I wanted to start off with something a little more engaging. There's still [i]a lot[/i] of room for them to evolve, so I think it's fine.
On the technological side, I stuck with a similar level of technology to the Sobek, that is to say somewhere in the stone age. Putting things in juxtaposition with real-world human history, I imagine they're in the waning years of the Neolithic, about to enter the Copper Age (6-5,000 BCE or so). Of course, this isn't written down, and can certainly be altered as needed. This means they have certain technologies which I didn't at first imagine them having (such as bows), but as they haven't come into contact with any outside groups (takhal or otherwise), their applications to warfare aren't obvious to the takhal, and I don't think it's very unbalanced.

I also took the liberty of creating a new creature, the aad. I thought it was kind of weird that the takhal were just wandering around on the steppe alone, as they'd need to make clothing (among a myriad of other things) somehow. I also tied this into one of their flaw traits (Rigid Bones), in that they require dairy products for their bones to develop to their intended sturdiness, so they're dependent on another creature (not written down either, of course, but let this ramble be record of that). I don't think this is unbalanced either (the agriculture isn't large-scale, just simple herding which any species would have the capacity to do at this time), but that's pending GM's opinion.

Same deal with lözhan (alcohol) and ikt grass. The latter has little nutritious value (and so little potential for cultivation into a food crop), and is utilized almost entirely for its hallucinogenic properties. I imagine there are some brews that are fortified with other grains to be more nutritious, but that's to figure out in later posts. It provides no benefit to the takhal, and is intended as a simple piece of deep lore regarding their culinary and religious culture. It's appropriate to their technological development as well, as the oldest alcoholic beverage in human history dates to [url=https://www.penn.museum/research/project.php?pid=12#:~:text=Chemical%20analyses%20recently%20confirmed%20that,in%20the%20Yellow%20River%20Valley.]7,000 BCE[/url].

I also named some geographic features, like the Yaagkhege Steppe and the Nëju. GM didn't specify what specific regions were called, so I figured the takhal should have unique names for their particular region and geographic features within it. Don't think there's a problem there.

All in all, I think I got things pretty alright.[/hider]

I know that [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oywHftl9oR4]second link[/url] I included for the singing starts out hilariously, they're silly little Bojacks