Ichyti - An extremely personal weapon, crafted as a rite of passage into adulthood they are the same height as their wielders.  They have a barbed spearhead on one end and an axe head on the other, the whole thing mad of the bones of great hunters.  The shaft is formed out of the rib bones of the great futti beast of the southern mountains, a beast that even the dwarves fear.  The barbs and spear head are formed from the teeth of the small chichubi (which haunt the savannahs to the north), and the axe is made from the shoulder bone of the kukuri (the raptor-like beasts that stalk the desert wastes).  A group of Kazi ranging from 14-16 will go out during the journey to hunt for these various beasts with nothing but their unfinished ichyti and their plyias.

To make the shafts two ribs are fused together, using complex breaks and various different materials to fuse them.  The barbs are sharpened and bound on, a warrior will often carry 50 or so extra barbs because they tend to break off in the wounds that they make, creating vicious scars and infections.  The Axe head is the hardest part, for finding a pack of kukuri is a difficult business, often taking a whole season, due to their ability to camouflage themselves into their environment (like the octopus, but with a much more limited color changing ability).

The personalization beyond that is incredible.  Some Kazi have the dwarves write runes of strength and power on theirs, will others draw complex mosaics to show others how many kills they have.  A lesson on the heraldry of the axe heads would take a lifetime, and differs from tribe to tribe.

Plyias - Often times the only metal you’ll see on a Kazi.  It’s a single bladed dagger put into a jawbone.  The blade is little over 4”, and for 3.5” one side is inset into the bone.  The last 1/2 inch extends out to form a point.  The bone is carved down to take up as little space as possible and actually allows the knife to be throust into something.  These are given to children when they’re young and are often buried with them when they die.  The bone often takes on a light red color after years of service, with the grooves taking on an even darker color, almost sanguine, where the owner carved his personal sign into it.

On combat - They’re fighting style is almost dance-like.  Using all of their body, as well as their weapons, and with little or no regard to their personal safety.  They view warfare and the hunt as extensions of their worship, in fact, they think that the only way to truly understand someone’s true self is to see them in combat.  As such their martial arts are extensions of these thoughts; caring little about simply wounding their opponents they seek to maim and kill.  Their fights are brutal, fast, and, in their simplicity, beautiful.  They use their claws to their full advantage, often following a slash with their ichyti with a rake of their claws.  They also hold none of the taboos that more ‘civilized’ peoples have about chivilry, this is why they are called barbarians.  They simply have no belief that a fight can ever be fair, and so don’t care one way or the other.  If you fall and fail to get up immediatly they will show you no mercy, you’re too weak to survive anyway.

However, they don’t believe in the use of long range weaponry.  They view it as cowardly, a sin in the eyes of Yr, to not be able to look in your enemy’s eyes as he dies.  They are often offended by the mere mention of archers, and woe onto the fool who walks into a Kazi camp with a bow on his back.

So too they treat backstabbers.  If it is done in combat, the person turned his back to you, then it is fine.  Yr congratulates you on your victory.  But, if it is done from the shadows, like a coward, then it is one of the lowest crimes that the Kazi know of.

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