Jatala

No true person strode, no jaguar stalked, no macaw flew, no gharial sprawled. [All was] only greenness, insect-buzz, mighty thrum: unknowing, unseeing, all knowing, all seeing, the strange mind of Bug. As [there were] only insects, gods [came into being] of [the insect] kind. Worshipful, adored gods by us. Many-eyed Charistis, creator, devourer. Segmented Dvaris, egglayer, Adav-mother. And so forth and so on. Bug [existed before] true people; as it was, so shall it be [i.e., they shall exist after us]. True people [rank above others] in this mayfly moment, but [exist] on [their, the Bugs'] sufferance.

-- Temple Rituals of the Jatalans, trans. Sra. Maura Galadrão, Stochastic House, Resiudad, 6 IV Age

Ruler's Title: Beloved of Charistis
National Hero: naDvaris
National Wizard: Pontifex Kalaklator
Military Units: Ant-Lion, Wasp Riders, Stone Swords, Cockroach Cavalry
Starting Forces: naDvaris, The Pontifex Kalaklator, 2 Wasp Riders, 3 Stone Swords, 3 Cockroach Cavalry
Starting Treasury: 20
Continent: Faikana

History: Dwarves: mountain dwellers, technological sophisticates, workers of metal. Right?

Alas, the Jat Mountain Dwarves of the Second Age! They were hounded from their homes by orcs and forced to wander across the world to the fabled mountains of the distant south -- which were wiped from the face of the earth during the Klingit War that threatened to destroy the southern continent entirely, subsiding into swamps and jungles as if they had never stood.

What do you do if you find yourself, impoverished, in a jungle with poor soil, scant metal, no mountains for a thousand miles?

You adapt.

The Jatalans are technological sophisticates, still, but the materials they have to work with are wicker, stone, bone, wood.

They have tamed the insects of the jungle; some they have bred to enormous size. The work that horses and oxen do in other cultures is done here by bugs.

Much of their culture was lost in the long, arduous years of wandering and the painful adaptations that followed. The ancient dwarven gods have taken on insect avatars; altars and ziggurats are built to them deep in the jungles. Jade, one of the few precious stones available to the Jatalans, has taken on religious overtones.

Although the Jatalans are by some standards primitive -- their weapons are largely obsidian and wood, their shields of wicker and insect chitin -- their knowledge of the principles of mechanics are far beyond that of any other culture. They should not be underestimated.