Makkal

The Makkal were a mining-focused society that emerged in Region C nearby to the Sabwaid Culture, during the early local Chalcolithic.

Description
The Makkal are a settled, mountain-dwelling people native to the copper-rich highlands of Region C. Dependant upon trading their exquisite metalwork to their neighbours in order to supplement their diet of wild peas, chanterelle and rock pigeon, the hardy Makkal eke out a sometimes perilous existence atop their sacred mountains. Makkal settlements typically consist of between thirty and fifty families, living close together in large dry-stone huts called kuticai, with villages arrayed around a central copper production centre to form clusters of between five and ten.

In Makkal society labour is divided on the basis of gender; whilst the women of the Makkal gather peas and mushrooms, hunt fowl and wild goat, and care for the young, the entire male population decamps during the day to mining sites on the mountainside. Fire is applied to the rocks which are then cooled with water, the rapid change in temperature causing cracks to form that can then be widened with stone axes and goat-horn picks to break apart the rock. At the end of each day the unprocessed copper mass is hauled the short distance back to the villages, to be stored before the womenfolk take it on to the central production hub where they work it into fine jewelry and weapons. These worked goods are then exchanged with passing traders for salted fish, game and grains.

A deeply religious people, with a strict system of laws and taboos, the Makkal believe in a God of three aspects; Curiyan the Day God, Iravu the Night God, and Makan the God to Come. Whilst the Day and Night aspects of God are in constant struggle, the Makkal believe that if they keep the law and make proper sacrifice then one day the messianic aspect of God will walk the earth as a man before ending the struggle between Night and Day and reuniting the living with the dead. The Makkal consider the only proper sacrifice to be human.

Human sacrifice is the Makkal's most important religious rite and several times a year every person within a cluster of villages will gather together at a high sacred peak to witness the sacrifice of a single victim, usually an elderly or infirm man. The elder women of the village oversee the selection and killing of the victim via axe-blow, and the corpse is left exposed on the mountain top to be picked apart by birds. This is not only an important act of religious devotion, but also fulfills a practical function; the large-scale gathering reinforcing community ties and allowing for the arrangement of marriages.