Ekujae

This page contains spoilers for the following products: River into Darkness and the Age of Ashes Adventure Path.
You can disable this banner in your personal preferences.

Ekujae

(Nation)

Land

Mwangi Expanse

Government

Democracy

Demonym

Ekujae elves

Adjective

Ekujae

Languages

Elven

Religions

Elven pantheon (especially Yuelral)

Images of Ekujae

Source: Cult of Cinders, pg(s). 65 (1E)
The Mwangi Expanse, pg(s). 42–51 (2E)

The Ekujae are a militant subgroup of Mualijae elves who dwell in the western Mwangi Expanse. Cold, fearsome, and isolationist, the Ekujae have dedicated their lives to defending the Expanse from whatever demonic, draconic, or other threats that may rise to threaten it.

Government

The Ekujae are a united nation consisting of numerous clans, who maintain strong relationships but are so self-sufficient that many outsiders mistakenly believe that they are entirely separate from each other. Clan leaders and advisers are chosen democratically, with all adults allowed to vote; in contentious elections, the new leader might have to prove their worth by fulfilling a task demanded by the people. The clan leaders elect a king or queen among themselves, but this position only takes charge when a central authority is needed in times of emergency. Their advisors, negotiators, and translators—whom Ekujae refer to as linguists—are typically aiuvarins due to the cultural view that people with shorter lifespans can better adapt to changing times and urgent situations.

History

When Earthfall was imminent, the Ekujae (then known as the Mualijae) chose to remain on Golarion, despite the incoming calamity, instead of returning to Sovyrian with the rest of their race. In the wake of Earthfall, they came into conflict with a manifestation of Dahak (known to them as the "Great Darkness"), who saw the chance to wreak havoc in Golarion without drawing the attention of his father and archenemy Apsu. Many elven heroes gave their lives to bolster the strength of their comrades and to allow them to defeat Dahak. They spilled Dahak's blood across their lands and broke a horn and two fangs from his head, before driving his manifestation into one of the aiudara that makes up Alseta's Ring, trapping him in a space between realities. To this day, the Ekujae consider this battle their greatest victory and defeat: they managed to defeat a living aspect of a deity, something which many others would never attempt, and yet they failed to finish off their enemy.

The elves see their failure to finish off Dahak's avatar with great shame. With their heroes having burned their very souls to slay the dragon-god and thousands of elven lives lost, the victory was a hollow one to the Mualijae elves. Following this, the Mualijae splintered into three tribes who disagreed on the best way to protect Golarion from future threats: the militant Ekujae, the monastic Kallijae, and the inquisitive Alijae. The Ekujae now see it as their sacred duty to repay the courage and sacrifices of their ancestors by training to one day strike Dahak with a killing blow when the dragon-god returns.

Recent history

In 4708 AR, angered by how the Aspis Consortium employed Ekujae as slave labour, they massacred the personnel at Whitebridge Station and laid siege to Nightfall Station.

People

Ekujae elves patrol near a Ydersian ruin.

Ekujae have the jet-black eyes of elves and the black hair and dark brown skin of their Mwangi human neighbours. On average, they are more muscular than other elves but still lanky by human standards. Ekujae traditionally adorn themselves with white paint, which represents the individual's most essential aspects: family, clan, personal history, accomplishments, profession, or even mood. Those who change their symbols too frequently are considered flighty.

Ekujae often wear green and brown clothing, which make for practical jungle camouflage. They usually make their clothing from wood, leaves, leather, fur, and bone, and enhance their quality through the use of woodwarping magic. They have several customs and taboos related to jewelry and accessories, as follows: gems are worn only by Ekujae that can cast spells, and only ever uncut out of respect for Yuelral. Brass accessories are worn only by Ekujae aiuvarin, to signify the connection between their two ancestries through the alloy. Gold is extremely taboo, as they believe that it is cursed with the aspect of their ancient foe. No Ekujae ever wears gold willingly, with the lone exception being the keledi.

Ekujae invented a method of using the fangs of sevencoat serpents as unique tattoo pens to replace a more mundane quill.

Religion

Yuelral is the Ekujae nation's patron deity, and they believe that their role as guardians and scholars pays homage to her. They also worship the rest of the elven pantheon: Ketephys, Findeladlara, Desna, and Calistria. Worship of other deities is also frequent, as Ekujae believe that it is common for a deity to task a follower to worship them and enact their agenda.

Culture

Ekujae life is deeply rooted in traditions and customs that stretch back to the time of Earthfall. They consider it their sacred duty to guard and defend their lands against anyone that would cause harm, be they demons, dragons, or even the Great Darkness himself. Because of this, Ekujae children are raised with the expectation that they will see violent conflict within their lifetimes. Ekujae view it as their sacred duty to train and prepare for Dahak's return to honour their ancestors' sacrifice, but also out of their pride as hunters who have injured a beast and are duty-bound to deal the killing blow. To this end, a select few have sworn to sacrifice their own lives to fight against Dahak in the event of his return. They are known as keledi, and they wear ritually purified gold as a symbol of their vow.

Ekujae place much importance on art and knowledge, though it is difficult for them to share their lore with outsiders due to their methods of record keeping. They primarily rely on a strong oral and musical tradition, but they also create "record trees," trees carefully cultivated to form specific patterns in their trunks and branches, to serve as semi-permanent records of important information and events, or to notate musical notes and physical movements. This three-dimensional language is difficult for non-Ekujae scholars to grasp, though Ekujae themselves are taught to read and "write" in it from a young age.

Ekujae half-elves

Fola Barun, Ekujae half-elf shaman and Pathfinder.

Ekujae half-elves, sometimes called wildborn, are aiuvarins whose elven ancestry is derived from Ekujae elves. Many Ekujae ritualistically send their half-elven children to be raised in fully half-elven clans, believing that half-elves will thrive amongst their own kind due to the two ancestries' different lifespans. While most half-elves are happy with these arrangements, some see it as an unfair exclusion and advocate for further integration between elves and half-elves.

Ekujae half-elves also traditionally serve elven rulers in the role of linguists, who work as diplomats, translators, and negotiators to facilitate cultural exchange with other peoples of the Expanse, also on the belief that shorter-lived half-elves better understand the needs of peoples with shorter lifespans.

Items

The poisonous thistle arrow is an item associated with the Ekujae.

References

Paizo published a major article titled "Ways of the Ekujae" in Cult of Cinders and a major section on the Ekujae in The Mwangi Expanse.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.