Savisqa is not what Irnans mean when they say settlement. There are no permanent structures, no cobblestone streets, no walls. There is a cluster of teepees and longhouses organized around a central Sacred Fire, the layout shifting with each seasonal relocation. The twin hills — Fat Older Sister and Thin Older Sister — are the permanent coordinates; everything else moves around them.

The approach to Savisqa's base camp across open plains has a particular quality: the sky is dominant, weather moves fast and visibly, and the camp appears gradually rather than emerging suddenly from behind walls or forest cover. What strikes visitors is the absence of noise they would expect — no hammers, no grinding wheels — and the presence of noise they wouldn't: drums, voices, the sound of a community that expresses itself through performance rather than construction.

The fire at the center burns regardless of season or circumstance. It is the first thing lit when the tribe arrives and the last thing managed when they leave.

Savisqa's base camp occupies the ground between the two distinctive hill formations that serve as its navigational and spiritual anchors. TSAH-kwoo Ah-JEE (Fat Older Sister) rises to the west, broader and gentler in slope. Gi-LEE Ah-JEE (Thin Older Sister) rises to the east, taller and sharper. The water well to the northeast supports a small permanent farming plot — the only fixed infrastructure Savisqa maintains — where staple crops are grown between the tribe's migrations. The surrounding plains are vast grassland: good hunting, minimal shelter from weather, and visibility in all directions.

The Pomo tribe is the cultural core — primarily human, with elven integration that has occurred gradually across generations through individuals who proved compatible with the nomadic life and were absorbed. The tribe's reputation among settled Irnans as "uncivilized" has had the practical effect of ensuring that those who arrive here have already rejected the settled world's opinion of them, which makes for a coherent community.

The hunt defines the economy. The Pomo follow migratory herds across the plains: bison, elk, and smaller game, whose meat, hide, and bone provide food, clothing, tools, and trade goods. The permanent farming plot provides staple crop supplements. Woven goods and carved objects — the tribe's primary crafts — are traded at seasonal markets and with passing merchants; the work is practical and distinctive enough to have developed a small collector following in the settled towns.

Plains hunting yields game meat preserved by smoking and drying for transport — the Pomo's food technology is optimized for mobility. The permanent farming plot at the well produces root vegetables and grain in modest quantities. Gathered herbs supplement both diet and medicine. Communal meals are the norm; food is shared according to need before individual preference. Fermented drinks from local plants are kept for ceremony. A visitor who eats with the tribe is being observed, and how they participate in the communal meal is the first assessment.

Mobility, adaptability, and communal obligation are the Pomo's foundational values. Individual accumulation of goods beyond what can be carried is understood as both impractical and a character indicator. Oral tradition preserves the tribe's history, law, and spiritual knowledge — there is no written record. Decisions are made through communal discussion; the chief facilitates rather than dictates, and the elder council's weight in significant decisions is real rather than ceremonial.

Hospitality to genuine strangers is practiced with care developed through experience of exploitation. The tribe has learned, over generations, to distinguish travelers from those sent to understand them for others' benefit. The distinction takes time.

The annual ceremony held at the twin hill formations — the entire tribe assembles here even in years of wide-ranging migration. Ceremonies honor ancestors, renew tribal commitments, and formally welcome any new members accepted during the year. The ceremony also includes the oral transmission of the previous year's significant events — a formal act of archiving.

The formal recognition of a young Pomo as a full adult member of the tribe. Determined by demonstrated competence, not age. Timing varies by individual; the ceremony is the community's acknowledgment, not a calendar event.

Oral tradition is the dominant art form — songs, stories, and chants that carry history, law, and spiritual meaning simultaneously. The Pomo do not write; their library is their people's memory, tested constantly by the mortality of the members who carry it. Woven goods carry a visual symbolic language that functions as a parallel record system, readable to those who know the code. Instruments are portable: drums, bone flutes, reed pipes.

Savisqa's elder women keep the camp's faith practical and woven into survival. Echo is honored as fairness-in-motion: mutual obligation while traveling and resettling. Jula is kept at domestic shrines for peace and protection of life.

Kraut is honored at the permanent farming plot, and Zopha is invoked during oral-tradition ceremonies where memory is treated as sacred work. Jusannia is honored through midwives and the protection of women in a life-on-the-move community. Nyxollox's rites are welcomed when the camp's losses are heavy. Damballa is acknowledged in the physical work of endings—burial, sickness, and the hard truths that follow hunger.

The camp integrates outsiders rather than hiding them; organized forbidden worship rarely survives the elders' attention.

The Pomo's founding story is preserved in oral form and mythologized to the extent that its specific historical core is unclear. What is consistent: a group of families chose the plains over the settled towns of early Irna, and the choice was made with enough conviction to become the framework for everything that followed. The nomadic life was not an accident; it was a decision that required ongoing recommitment.

Water sources failed, herds scattered, and the tribe's unity was tested more severely than any external conflict had managed. Elder Tala Moonwhisper led the spiritual response; her vision guided the community to the water source that became the permanent well. The resolution is the community's most cited example of spiritual practice producing practical results.

Jaqui's initial election was contested specifically because of his half-elven heritage — the concern was cultural identity rather than competence. His continued leadership is not contested. He leads hunting expeditions personally, takes counsel from the elder council before major decisions, and has expanded the tribe's trade relationships with settled towns in ways that have improved material conditions without compromising the nomadic model. The private meetings with representatives from neighboring settled towns that the council has not been told about are a more recent development.

Savisqa is cohesive and functioning. The unresolved matters are: what the private meetings with settled town representatives concern; what Boro Thunderclap encountered during the three days he was late returning from the last major hunt; and what lies beneath the twin hills, which is not a question the tribe asks publicly but which the most recent external inquiry about the hills' structure has put back into private circulation.

Chieftainship is earned through demonstrated capability and elected by tribal consensus, with the understanding that poor performance will not be endured. The elder council's authority is not subordinate to the chief's in matters of significant consequence; the two operate in consultation.

Half-Elf, Male — appears mid-thirties, likely older

Direct, capable, and more patient than he looks. His dual heritage makes him culturally fluent in ways that a fully human or fully elven chief would not be, which has produced both his election controversy and his most practically useful governance capabilities. His children Tara Swiftfoot and Eron Gentle Stream are already visible in the community's future — Tara as a leader, Eron as the tribe's next primary oral historian.

Human (Pomo), Female — forties

Jaqui's mate and the most reliable practical intelligence source in the settlement. Her ability to read weather patterns and interpret environmental signals is the kind of skill that keeps plains communities alive. Her counsel carries weight with both the chief and the elder council independently.

Human (Pomo), Female — elderly — the tribe's spiritual anchor

The community's oldest living member and the resolution of the Great Drought's primary credit. Her authority in spiritual matters is complete. Her knowledge of the tribe's oral history extends further back than anyone else living. What she said to Chief Jaqui during the Drought's resolution — the specific content of her vision — has not been repeated by either of them.

Human (Pomo), Male — forties

Coordinates the seasonal hunt expeditions. Returned from the last major hunt three days late and in better condition than expected, with more game than the party's size should have produced. He has not explained the discrepancy. He is not being directly asked.

Elf (integrated), Female — appears middle-aged

Jaqui's primary elder counsel and the most senior elven member of the community. Her integration spans generations — she is the community's connection to elven cultural memory that complements the Pomo oral tradition.

Human (Pomo), Female — thirties

The community member whose specific responsibility is the Sacred Fire. The fire is re-established as first priority at each relocation; Sela manages this with the thoroughness that the spiritual and practical importance of the Fire requires.

Human (Pomo), Male — thirties
The tribe's most skilled hunter. His mentorship of younger hunters is the community's primary vocational education. Not related to Jaqui's daughter Tara despite the shared name.