The Tribal Hra'vakh are two groups of people, with one being the Nomads, but the term "Tribal" refers to the other one in particular. The Tribals live in the water, relying on their gills for oxygen and telepathy for communication. Many of them go most of their lives without taking a single breath.
The most common hierarchical classification is clan, despite the referential name "Tribal". There are only three tribes, whereas there are dozens of independent clans.
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The Tribal nation is organized into three major factions, the tribes: the Baroa, the Saito, and the Zukhed. The Baroa is the largest by far, made up of two dozen smaller clans. It has the greatest military prowess of the three, and seeks to grow by absorbing smaller clans. It even absorbed smaller tribes for a time, until there were no other tribes small enough for it to absorb. The Saito is the second-largest tribe, made up of sixteen clans. It has a strong enough military that the Baroa don't bother it, but it chooses to remain neutral in conflicts. The third tribe, the Zukhed, is the tribe that spawned the Ores Nation, a sovereign clan whose members include the famous Chf family. The Zukhed tribe is unique in that it contains no more and no less than ten clans; they annex another clan only when they lose a clan to independence. The Zukhed tribe is noted for the origination of the now common practice of intra-clan marriage, as well as the perfection of identifying tattoos, which most clans use.
Tribes are governed by a single overlord, who oversees the clan leaders. This position is purely dynastic, and the ancestry of each can be traced back to the clan for which the tribe is named. The overlord shapes culture, language, and other aspects of the lives of his or her subjects.
Clans range in size from seven people (the immigrant Daka clan, consisting of a single nuclear family) to seven thousand people (the Baroa clan).
A handful of clans discourage marriage from outside the clan, most notably the Ores. These clans practice what hra'vakh anthropologists refer to as intra-clan marriage. In most cases, this is plain and simple incest