Peleg: Dragontooth Clan

The Dragontooth Clan is a massive nation-tribe of Ogres on Peleg, who's origin there dates back to the First Colonial Revolution. The founding families of this tribe were Ogres from Monopolis who survived the successful uprising, and were either stranded on Peleg, abandoned by the Monopolis Corporation, (who had temporarily lost in interest Peleg,) or were themselves rebels with no interest in returning to Monopolis. On Peleg, the Dragontooth Clan has permanent settlements throughout dozens of island chains.

In the Dragontooth Clan's beginnings, they were heavily influenced by their relatively friendly Blackbird Clan neighbors, adopting their basic simple survival technologies. Not mastering the Blackbird Clan's specialized technologies, the Dragontooth Clan developed specializations of their own.

One problem the Dragontooth Clan ran into it's early history was being large prey, vulnerable to giant dragon attacks. Another problem was getting enough food, especially vegetable protein, to feed their population. As a direct result, the tribe developed martial arts for defending against dragons, and for avoiding malnutrition through the hunting of dragons.

There are two important sports in the Dragontooth Clan's martial arts system, and they both are focused on the use of a long weapon, such as a boat oar or harpoon, referred to as a "lance." (Lance is also the word for the bone daggers the tribe uses for eating utensils.) One sport is the act of dragon hunting it's self, and the other is a type of wrestling called "Lancing."

Lancing requires the use of three important pieces of equipment per wrestler: two pieces of armor and a boat oar (called the "Lance.") The armor is a large, fearsome-looking chest-plate and face-mask, which together guard the abdomen, chest, back, neck, and head of the wrestler. A wrester wins when making a loud sound by smacking the large end of the Lance into the other wrestler's armor, or by throwing his opponent off balance so that he touches the ground with some part of his body other than his feet and tail. Most moves are allowed, including striking with other parts of the boat oar, (though a win by striking can only be scored with the large end connecting with the armor,) striking unarmored areas of the body, striking without the oar, and most grappling techniques. Throwing the Lance in a match is not unheard of, but it is considered an unorthodox strategy. (The word for loosing a Lancing match is "cooked," when a wrester wins, he is said to have "cooked" his opponent.) This sport is performed in large tournaments, that consist of a few days to a weeks of matches, with a single victor. These tournaments happen regularly and often, and are the primary way to publicly demonstrate martial arts prowess in the tribe.

Dragon hunting is usually done from large dual hauled boats that often have sails but always have oars. Massive harpoons (also called Lances,) are used to catch the dragons. However, once the dragon is "hooked", the hunters kill it using any means available, beating it with oars or slicing and hacking at it with "Warrior Lances" (long weapons resembling oars, the blade of which is typically serrated, the edges often in bedded with small dragon teeth.) It is common to see small boulders hurled by way of massive Ogre-sized slings. Once the dragon is dead, if it is small enough, they hoist it up onto the "deck" of their boat, (which connects the two hulls,) and take it back home. Otherwise they may drag it through the water, or strip it down to it's most valuable meats, hide and teeth. (Dragon bones are also valued construction materials.)

The Dragontooth Clan uses Dragon teeth for money. Generally speaking, the bigger the tooth, the more valuable it is. By tribal law, when a dragon is slain, if it's teeth are collected, half of the teeth, the largest half, must be given to the local Council of Elders.

Dragontooth Clan communities are ruled by their Council of Elders. A minimum age limit and resident family size, (both depending on the size of the individual community,) is needed to be a candidate for serving on the council. By tribal law, council members are chosen based on what they have contributed to their families and communities, and excessive amounts of private property disqualifies potential candidates.

The hunter, warrior, and guard is a single specialization in the Dragontooth Clan, and is called a "Butcher." Besides being a Elder in the Council, other specializations include Water Filterers, Craftsman (who construct the boats and massive long houses used by the tribe,) Gardeners (who focus on growing high-calorie roots, grains and fruit,) Packers (who specialize in preserving and storing food,) Chefs (who specialize in cooking food,) and Scholars (who are used mainly as historians, interpreters, recording recipes, and for other important communication tasks.)

Though the Dragontooth Clan has never had any xenophobic tenancies, outsiders find participating in the tribe's culture difficult. Families of non-Ogre intelligent species living in Dragontooth Clan communities usually fill specialized niches based on comfort and community need.