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The Ātanārta were a people who came to Laredhidan as part of the Great Migration. Little is known of their origins, though the legendry of the Selaminæans states that they were not from the Old Homeland. They are more commonly known as the Langaher, that name meaning the 'Long Heads' or 'Tall Heads', in reference to their noblemen having elongated skulls from binding their heads as infants. The meaning behind the name of 'Ātanārta' is variously given as 'Human', 'Sacrificer', or 'Speech-maker'. According to the Grey Book, the Ātanārta were exiled from their homeland of 'Antamé' for having supported a usurper against that land's god-king.
The majority of the Ātanārta chose to settle elsewhere in the world, primarily in the lands of Phoroskalat and Dūrabar, and their descendants dwell there still. The Ātanārta who settled in Dūrabar became the Nagthāra, while those who dwelt in Phoroskalat are known now as the Menulsār. These two descendant populations have maintained some of the customs that the Ātanārta brought with them, most chiefly that of head binding.
Religion
Ātanārta worshiped Yāthag, the Demon-Elephant, as the greatest of all gods. They brought with them many strange gods and goddesses, many of whom were like animals, and most of whom were demoniacal in nature. These demoniac gods exulted the Ātanārta to sacrifice Men, which they did by removing the ribs and exposing the victim's organs to the world. They then left the corpses on specially erected pillars made of clay, stone, or wood, to be consumed by the carrion birds.
A god named Yōtagāsun was worshiped as the brother of Yāthag, though little is known of him. Both gods share a wife named Nāta, who is said to be 'double-bodied' and is depicted as two female bodies linked by a cord. Through this union were born the twins Yithunāg and Yothunāg, who each had a separate father. Another god whose name survives to this day is Ulyotha, who was the father of Yāthag and Yōtagāsun and who was deposed and ritually consumed by his sons. His wife, Ilyta, was split in half and made into Nāta.
Worship of these gods survived the Ātanārta in Laredhidan. Yāthag is worshiped in some parts of Anuromé as Yethón, and it is by this name, or variations of that name, that he is known throughout Selaminæ. The twins Yithunāg and Yothunāg are remembered as Athó and Oth, who taught Mankind how to ride elephants. The gods of the Ātanārta were always distant to their worshipers, and have grown more so after the Ātanārta died out.
Culture
Though every culture of Man in ancient times was alien in its own right, the Ātanārta - much like the Tsūo-tsūo - were considered nonhuman and though they were permitted to join the Great Migration, Men naturally distrusted them. Unlike the Tsūo-tsūo, this belief that the Ātanārta were not Human was most certainly false, as they intermarried with Men and gave them offspring who looked no different from how a Man ought to look.
Ātanārta were said to be 'brutal', 'savage', and 'ferocious', qualities that were spoken of with praise in the Grey Book, as the Selæ considered these traits to be virtuous. They famously bound the heads of their nobles and of the sons of great warriors so as to emulate Yōtagāsun, the 'Tall-headed God', whose head was elongated. It was because of this practice that other Men considered them nonhuman, and it seems to have been wholly unheard of in the Old Homeland.
Like many of the cultures that journeyed West, the Ātanārta held women to be in a place of subservience to men. They pointed to the 'Three Treacheries' that Nāta committed as justification, stating that as woman was born from the blood of Ilyta, so would she inherit the treachery of that goddess. Men, meanwhile, were considered to be inclined toward right action, for it was from Yōtagāsun's thought that they were created, and man, being a creature of thought and not of blood, could control his impulses.
Battle-prowess was considered to be the measure by which a man ought to be judged; each Ātanārta was required by custom to equip himself with a knife, a spear, and an axe, and to train himself to be competent with each weapon. Each nobleman was expected to wield a sword, a dagger, and a nail-like blade called an ayāth, which had the purpose of killing rampaging elephants.
It is tradition to consider the Ātanārta to have been bound by ritualism. The Grey Book stated that their kings and highest nobles could do nothing in their daily lives that was not foreordained by Yōtagāsun, and so each action they undertook was surrounded by ritual; the opening of doors, the consumption of food, and the manner of speech which they could use were all determined by esoteric rituals whose meanings were unfathomable to the Selæ. It was for this reason that the Grey Book describes the Ātanārta kings as 'servile'.
Because of the ritualized lives of their kings and high nobles, it has been supposed that those of lower ranks followed after them, either in emulation of their betters or in observance to sacred law. However, there exists no reason to accept this as having been fact, for there is no mention in any legend or history - except that which postdates the Ātanārta - that mentions this practice as having been widespread. Indeed, it seems that to have spread it to so many people would have lessened the importance of these rituals; in order to possess the power of a divine monarch, or of a divine noble, the Ātanārta believed that one had to be bound by divine principles. If those of no rank or of lesser rank were to emulate these rituals, it would profane them, and contaminate the divine with the mundane.
Ātanārta Elephantry
The Ātanārta, being worshipers of Yāthag, had a preternatural attachment to a certain breed of carnivorous elephant called a 'yāthagāvath', or more commonly, a demon-elephant. These beasts were brought with them from Antamé to Laredhidan, and possession of these creatures and the rituals to tame them permitted the Ātanārta to join the Great Migration, as they would have otherwise been rejected for the reasons of 'inhumanity'.
Demon-elephants were of immense importance to the Ātanārta, who believed them to be sacred and direct descendants of Yāthag. Each one had a public name and a secret name, one considered sacred and too holy to speak aloud. These elephants had their own quarters and attendant slaves, and they were reputed to have been intelligent and sorcerous.
The immense effort required to feed such beasts meant that Ātanārta society was built in part around their needs, particularly during the Great Migration. When the Ātanārta settled in Selaminæ, they introduced the demon-elephant into the wilderness and drove many kindreds of beast into the House of Death.
There existed several other elephant peoples in the Migration, foremost among them being the Unorsaptha, and the Ātanārta soon feuded with them, as their demon-elephants predated on those of the Unorsatha and the other elephant peoples.