The jungle Trade Network village with which Black Steel has interacted more than with any other is known as Rielahren, a name usually translated as "Fire Dance." It is concealed partly as a series of tunnels underground, but mostly within the hollow boles of enormous Grat'han trees - strangler figs or others filling a similar niche, whose gigantic hosts have rotted away. It lies along a small, unnamed branch of the Azarin river system (not visible on the large-scale regional map) that flows into the Broken Sea some miles north of Kaiimar Bay.
Population: Approximately 1,200 Grat'han humans. There is often a small group of serpentfolk present from the trade network, but according to Telaeri, they are regarded more as visiting dignitaries - or rulers, priests, or gods - than citizens of the village itself.
Government: In theory, the Reilahren tribe is ruled by its tribal chief, with the advice of the village elders and guidance from its spiritual leader, like many Grat'han tribes along the coastal plains and in other jungle villages like the Lacrethah. The tribe even uses elaborate dance-rituals through whose subleties the community at large may participate in tribal decision-making. In practice however, Telaeri has found that the Reilahren people's decisions are influenced -- or even dictated -- by the serpentfolk who visit them ... and those in turn by some other, more distant authority. In Reilahren, the serpentfolk are not regarded as merely traders, but as objects of authority, terror, and awe: Demi-gods of a serpent cult that Herring and Theril have now encountered in various forms throughout the southern reaches of their jungle explorations. In Telaeri's assessment, it is by these serpentfolk that the Reilahren people are truly governed.
National Affiliation: The Grat'han Jungle Trade Network ... or whatever form it takes in this part of the jungles.
Chief Exports: To trade partners from outside the jungles, such as (and apparently presently limited to) Black Steel, Reilahren trades goods that they received from the larger jungle trade network, including everything imaginable from within the Grat'han jungles, and even worked metal jewelry of purely Grat'han design from somewhere in the interior. What they export to other tribes in the network itself is not enitrely clear, though like most Grat'han jungle tribes they do their share of hunting, gathering, tree-harvesting, and limited jungle cultivation. It appears to Telaeri however that they actually trade away young members of their tribe -- especially young women -- who seem to be raised and trained in a particular style of mute dance. Their numbers are bolstered however by immigrant children -- especially girls -- from other tribes, many of whom go on to become dancers of the type who are regularly sent away.
History
The Reilahren village has always been a highly tactile and visual society, its rituals all revolving around dance, physical contact, and a variety of facial and bodily paint designs -- including the rituals associated with community-building, communication, self-expression, and directing the course of the tribe as a whole. In recent times however - certainly within the lifetimes of older members of the tribe, and perhaps within little more than a generation - the village made contact with the Grat'han trade network, and changes to many aspects of their tribe's culture, traditions, and governance appear to have followed rapidly. Even limited use of written records did not begin until significant changes had been made by the trade network, and tribal writings remain extremely rare in comparison with those used by (for instance) Llaesira, and the tribe's extant oral and written histories are both suspect not only for the usual reasons of legend conflated with history, but because the influence of the serpent cult -- and according to Telaeri, the fear in which the serpent people are secretly held by many within the tribe -- affect the range of things about which the villagers are willing to speak even in private. The village's visible wealth is greater than that expected of an isolated jungle tribe, certainly, and may even compare favorably with the Lacrethah, though that may be a function of the latter's relatively short history as a center of trade, and this bears out their official history of abundance following their association with the trade network. Apart from that lone, broad fact however, the history of the Reilahren tribe is shrouded in mystery and doubt. The tribe's people do not relate stories of their tribe to outsiders often, and those they do are of uncertain origin -- Telaeri believes that some originated elsewhere in the trade network, and were carried to the tribe along with metal work, goods from distant parts of the jungles and -- apparently -- the children of other tribes coming to study with them.
Key Tribal Figures
Chief Rabtragu: The aged tribal chieftain of the Reilahren people -- in Telaeri's assessment, aged perhaps still more with cares than with years -- officially speaks for his village and makes its final decisions for them, but Telaeri found him so terrified of the serpent people -- too much so even to speak of them or to make significant decisions without their consultation -- as to be completely ineffective as a source of authority. He serves, if she is correct, as a figurehead or puppet for the tribe's true rulers, whom she has never met.
Turolgid: The spiritual leader of Reilahren village leads most of the tribal dances, issues blessings on important occasions, and appears to privately advise members of his tribe; if he plays any of the other roles normally associated with priests or shamen in the jungles, they have yet to be seen by Black Steel personnel. He is difficult to read behind his painted-on ritual mask, but appears to have adapted successfully as the tribe transitioned from its previous style of worship to that of the serpent cult it currently appears to follow -- and about which he has refused to speak directly. He is young enough that it is just possible he may have grown up during or even shortly after the transition, and replaced the previous shaman or priest. He is presently training his eldest daughter to join or replace him in his present role -- and though now an adult in her own right by the reckoning of the tribe, still young and unmarried, playing the part of the devoted daughter and spiritual-leader-to-be, she has been no more forthcoming than her father.
Szankrasst: The trade network leader who most often visits Reilahren village is a tall and powerful Grat'han man who delights in his chosen sibilant name, and in revealing the long serpent fangs supposedly granted to him by the serpent gods for his service to them. Llaesira referred to him as her equivalent in the trade network for the portion of the jungles surrounding Reilahren -- which would make him a regional leader of the network with broad authority within the region, answerable to no one except under negotiated terms with the tribes with which he works and his fellow regional leaders -- but in Telaeri's interactions with him, she has found that he does not truly fill this role: Szancrast defers to and, she believes, is subservient to, other serpent people who have visited the village, and answers to someone or someones with far greater authority over him and the nearby villages than he wields himself. All of this information comes from inference however; in his dealings with Black Steel, he pretends to be precisely what Llaesira believes he is.
Fraegan: Though not of course himself a member of the tribe, Black Steel's "ambassador" to the trade network is hoping to assume a position of some importance there, simply by serving as the point of contact between Black Steel and the village -- and through it, the trade network as a whole. He also hopes to continue Telaeri's work of learning more about the Reilahren people and the trade network in general, and though he is not nearly so qualified in this regard as she, he has done his best to learn from her. Originally joining Black Steel as a member of the navy, Fraegan came to Foreign Minister Matrix's attention during a clandestine operation in Shalaton, and after he expressed an interest in the diplomatic service to her, she assigned him to this post. Initially disappointed that he would not be given a place in a civilized country, he quickly became reconciled to the need to prove himself and the importance of relations with the trade network, and after discussing the post with Telaeri at some length, he has grown deeply invested in his duties here and eager to perform them to the best of his abilities.
