Human Population of Tschaï

the Cycle of Tschaï (original title Planet off Adventure ) is a novel of Science-fiction in four volumes, written by the American author Jack Vance between 1968 and 1970. The cycle is composed of four following volumes: Chasch, Wankh, Dirdir, Pnume.

Population of Tschaï

The population of Tschaï is divided into two: the races aliens on the one hand and humanoïdes on the other hand. Each race alien took with its service humanoïdes which, by changes and genetic engineering, ended up more or less resembling to them. Their least level of civilization makes than the Men are always called “submen” during the account. Adam Reith, according to the explanations of his Anacho companion, is persuaded that the Men were brought back on Tschaï by Dirdirs and that all the races humanoïdes of Tschaï go down from these first torn off men to the planet Ground.

For a detailed description of the races aliens of Tschaï, to see the dedicated article: Races aliens of Tschaï.

Men-Chasch

The Men-Chasch are humanoïdes controlled by Chaschs. They small, squat, are almost deprived of chin. They have a gray and wrinkled face. They carry pointed false craniums forming a peak to resemble Chaschs and their pourpoints and breeches are encrusted with scales. Blue men-Chasch and Chaschs are unaware of completely.

Men-Wankh

The Men-Wankh are humanoïdes with the skin smooth and white, their cranium is flat and roughcasts black hairs. They carry a made dark tunic of only one part decorated with a broad black belt. They are rich and hold so that nothing changes in their privileged relations with Wankh. They communicate with Wankhs thanks to small machines which compose of the harmonics.

Men-Dirdir

The Men-Dirdir are humanoïdes with the surmounted spindly chest of a lengthened face, they have a cranium bald person and carry artificial brushes which simulate the nimbus of Dirdirs. They raise clothing as complicated as those of Dirdirs. The Men-Dirdir call Dirdirs the “Premium Race” or the “Radiant ones”. They are divided into 4 different and hierarchical castes, with by decreasing order of prestige, the “Immaculate ones”, the “Intensives”, the “Estranes” and the “Clutes”. The Immaculate ones are the purest Men-Dirdirs and are authorized to take part in the meetings of hunting of Dirdirs. To resemble Dirdirs, the Immaculate ones modify their genitals even surgically to give them a complexity close to that of the Dirdirs bodies. The Immaculate Men-Dirdirs reach the “secrecies thus” and are authorized to carry the colors blue and pink. They are the Men-Dirdirs who invented the myth of paramount egg by which they reject their human origins and think to be lower brothers of Dirdirs. The Men-Dirdir, just like their Masters, are anthropophagous.

Pnumekin

The Pnumekins are at the origin of human which sought refuge in the undergrounds of Tschaï to flee the slavery which reigned on its surface. Pnumes collected them and controlled. They are emmitouflés in broad houppelandes black and carry hoods of the same color. Pnumekins live in underground bowels and go barefeet. They call their undergrounds the “Shelters”, think that the sun makes people insane and that surface is a wild and cruel world. The Pnumekins children are educated in underground schools where one learns to them before all the propriety and the good mannerss with the Pnume mode. When for example Pnume passes in a corridor, Pnumekin must be turned over, face against the wall, by respect for the creature. Pnumekins drink a light beer, eat dried grasses with pilgrim and named cookies “diko”. These cookies have faculty to maintain Pnumekins in a state of semi-conscious tender, to block the physiological evolution of their body and to deaden their libido. Pnumekins, men and women, are distinguished very little from/to each other and do not have sexuality. In the world of Pnumekins, the right to procreate is reserved to the only “Woman-mothers”, of the women to the hips and the bulky chests especially chosen by Pnumes to fulfill this function. But on the 12 children whom they put at the world, less than half survives. When of Pnumekins cross, they divert all the glance and let appear only one indifference of propriety. Pnumekins are calm and subjected, they go lowered head, do not agitate the arms, chatter little, never put themselves in anger and do their work in silence. Pnumekins call Pnumes the “Masters of the charts” or the “ Zuzhma Katschaï ” (the old one and secret people of the original world). According to the level of their education and their experiment, Pnumekins belong at various “levels” which give them access to various networks of underground galleries. Pnumekin of level 4 will thus have knowledge of the galleries, access and passages of level 4. Pnumekins do not have names, they are simply distinguished by the name from their group, the name of their surface, the name of their zone and by a number. Thus a Pnumekin young woman born in the gourpe of Zith, the surface of Athan, the zone of Pagaz and carrying number 210 will be: “Zith Athan Pagaz 210”. The Pnumekins women deal with the children and cultivate the crystals. For Pnumekins, it is malséant of speaking in Pnumekin about the other sex.

Ghzindra

The Gzhindras are of Pnumekins outcast which do not have any more the right to life in the undergrounds of Pnumes. They grind on the surface of Tschaï and achieve the missions which are given to them by Pnumes or other agents. One generally calls them in their making light signals with fallen the night. They are always draped of their houppelandes dark and their black hoods. Accustomed to live in the basements of planet, the hood of Gzhindras is used to them to hide the sky to them.

Man-emblems or Kruthes

The Man-Emblems appeared on Tschaï 20.000 years ago. They have the hard and powerful features, the fair hair and of thick falling moustache. They are equipped with broad striped pants of black and chestnut, of blue shirts or dark red, waistcoats of black cape and coats of mail short. They carry surmounted cover-chiefs of black leather of a money emblem. They control to perfection the art of the camouflage and communicate by hululements when they hide in the vegetation. They move with foot, out of carriages or the electric motor cycles and lay out to fight of a rapière, a catapult and one ecu triangular. At Kruthes, or Man-Emblems, the man is subjected to the emblem which it carries. The emblem confers on its owner his statute, its name, its reputation and its role within the tribe. The most eminent emblem is “Onmale”: that which it door is de facto the chief of the tribe. One can either inherit an emblem, or to adapt it after having occis his former owner, or to manufacture some for his own use. In this last case, only the exploits of its carrier confer its value to him. Certain antagonistic emblems make their owners of the enemies. Certain emblems are old several thousands of years. Without its emblem, Kruthe is a being without face, prestige and function. Kruthes are nomads which plunder the caravans to survive and raise curious animals of which they eat the internal legs and bodies.

Yaos

The people Yao are proud people, exalté, very refined, but submitted to a very strict label. Each gesture, each pronounced word, each clothing answers a cultural code which indicates the social “place” of a invidu. With the academy, the Yao young people learn suitabilities, the greetings, the flowers of rhetoric, the ability with the sword, the principles of the duel, the genealogy, heraldic and subtleties of the costumes. Each Yao has several names which determine their degree of intimacy with their interlocutor: they have a name of child, a name of friend, a secret name, a name of court, a name of flower and a name of lover. Yaos are divided into often concurrent “Houses”. Yaos regard themselves as declining, frivolous and pessimistic people. They do not support shame and are condemned spontaneously to the awaïle in the event of humiliation. L' Awaïle consists in killing the greatest number of possible people before giving itself death tragically. Yaos do not have laws, only habits what leads them to tolerate the crime like an activity with whole share. The “company Assassination and Safety” undertake contracts of assassinations on order, regulated in advance. Engineers Yao privilege the esthetics of their inventions rather than their technical prowesses. It is the Yao people which sent, 150 years earlier, the message collected by the land vessel of Adam Reith. After the sending of this message, two their prestigious cities, Settra and Balisidre, were partly destroyed by shootings of missiles sent by the Men-Wankhs, but allotted to Dirdirs. The message was transmitted by the “Sect of the Burning Wait and see advocator” which postulates that there exists a remote planet which would be the true cradle of humanity. This worship was introduced into the country of Cath by driven out Men-Dirdirs of their native world.

The secondary Communities

Tschaï is populated of a multitude of races “baroques”, sometimes simply evoked:

the Kites combatants , Insane Axes , Totems de Berl , the Black-Yellows , tribes human.

the Blacks , Crimsons , the Gray .

the Ilanths are lustful beings with yellow skin and the black hair corbel. They often assemble horse-jumpers to escort the convoys of caravans.

the priestesses of the Female Mystery remove young men and a virgin beautiful young girl to devote them the day of the ceremony of the Clarification. While the men are tortured, their cries of anguish train an infernal choral society. The young girl is sacrificed to a lascif monster and the priestesses attend the scene in a advanced state of fright which purges them their emotions. The priestesses constitute a very closed community and dedicate an infinite hatred with the men. The woman-priestesses are made emputer most of the time the centres.

the inhabitants of the island of Gozed live in huts fixed on the trees. They have the pale dye and of long hair. They live naked, if one excludes their sandals and a bond to stick the hair.

the Hoch Hars live at the edge of the lake of the Black Mountain, on the Jinga river, in houses on pile. It is people of fishermen which hate Yaos.

the Hommes of the marshes are small yellow beings with the white, cruel and malignant eyes.

the inhabitants of Kabasas have quite strange manners in love. A man, when it are in love, striking the woman which it likes and the martyrise to prove its virility to him. When the woman returns to find this man for in redemdander, it is given up with him when he prepares with the rosser.

the Khors are beings brutal and being wary, with the yellow skin mustard. They are vêtus capes black and capped high bonnets. They live in the area of Carabas. Khors are formal, silent and consider that chattering is a crime against nature. They meet in a wood crowned to proceed to the sexual ritual of the “exchange of the hearts”. The women and the men are characterized neither by their aspect, nor by their clothes. Khors live in made huts of capped brownish bricks of a conical iron roof. It is said that their heart changes at dawn and laying down sun, so that Kohr would have two personalities. Khors fear the fates which one could throw to them and the evil eye.

the Lokhars come from the septentrional plates of the lake Falas, in central Kilovan. In fact brilliances mechanics propose their services in Wankhs. Their skin color is artificial: they fade the hair and blacken the skin. Their wives are on the other hand of white skin and carry black hair. Certains Lokhars knows the rudiments of the language of Wankhs when they worked a long time in their workshops astronautics. Lokhars have funny in manner of making oaths: each participant gives one of his hair. Then, the hair given by the participants is tied, then flarings. Lokahrs then swear aloud to respect their oath and to give death to whoever would not respect it.

the Niss are great persons of more than two meters, wrapped in long black dresses and which work to great strides.

the Thangs are humanoïdes which prefer the punishable activities with work and make very to swindle the foreigners who visit their cities. They prefer to mislead rather than to be faithful to the word given. The money that they prefer is the stolen money.

the Zanths have small horns on the side of cranium.

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