Jogo

The Jogo are a people found chiefly in Koumbasi, Tessere, and the Gilded Plain of western and central Idiri. Although presumably they or their ancestors once had homelands and communities of their own, the Jogo have for long centuries made up the hereditary slave caste of both the Bissenke and Tessouare peoples. In the desert they often live in their own small villages beside oases or other permanent water sources, where they grow crops or tend livestock for their Tessouare masters -- a semi-feudal lifestyle not far different from that of peasants in central Ruvera. Among the Bissenke they tend to function more as domestic servants or to perform various tasks considered menial or spiritually dangerous. Domestic servants usually live at least part-time with their masters, while other Jogo live and work in their own enclaves within large cities such as Koumbasat.

Appearance

The Jogo tend to be shorter and slighter than the people they serve, with a middle range of skin tones from dark chestnut to lighter copper and caramel. They have kinky to nubby hair, softly wooly to coarse wiry, and uniformly deep brown to black in color. Their eyes are mostly darker shades of brown, though very occasionally deep jewel-like shades appear as well. Despite their build they possess a tough wiry strength and the capacity to endure great hardship.

Although no one is quite sure, and only a few are especially interested in speculating, it seems likely that the Jogo were not originally a separate people. Rather, it is probable that the caste was established from a mix of enslaved or low-ranking individuals drawn from the Tessouare, Milombo, and Kiliku peoples of the region, and perhaps others as well. It is even now the case that on rare occasions a Tessouare or Bissenke individual may be "made into" a Jogo as punishment for the most desperate breaches of honor, and their own children and their children's children will continue to be born into the caste until the point where their descendants only dimly remember they once were free.

Culture

The Jogo are generally accounted a somber and joyless people, a temperament unnatural for free people but well suited to unstinting labor and servitude. Few pause to think that perhaps their temperament in fact resulted from their servitude, or that they might behave differently when out from the under the eye of their masters.

Notes

Although still fairly common among the Tessouare of Koumbasat, the Jogo slave caste is no longer widespread in Tessere since the event some few hundred years ago known as the Great Possession, when in the space of a few months the Jogo simply laid down their tools, abandoned their homes, and trekked en masse across the desert to the city of Noura. Although no one knows the reason for this strange and sudden occurrence, it is well known that the Jogo have transferred their servitude and now serve the rulers of Noura instead, where they are reported to behave with obedience and deference to their new masters but to be quite insolent to any and all other peoples visiting or dwelling in the city. This insolence is presumably conveyed through expression and demeanor, however, as the Jogo of Noura are never heard to speak a single word and are said to have given up the power of speech in exchange for fearful powers.