On a faraway world, humanity is thriving. Across the surface of this planet, thousands of tribes have been born and strive to become something greater – a true civilisation. They struggle with one another for this privilege, for the opportunity to leave their mark on the world for evermore.

We are following one of these tribes, who call themselves the <span class="mu-s">Protavic</span> – the <span class="mu-i">beast-bringers</span>, in their own tongue.

They belong to the <span class="mu-s">Scavic</span>, a race of people with soft faces, fair hair and blue-grey skin. Like the rest of their kind, they inhabit the <span class="mu-s">Grascan</span>, a vast oceanic forest filled with dangerous beasts and towering trees.
The Protavic people have settled by the <span class="mu-s">Croglatol</span>, a great freshwater lake. The forest thins out along its shore, which allows the native tribes to prosper without fear of predation.

Most of the beast-bringers are sedentary pastoralists, who rear herds of swine along the shore of the Croglatol. They earned their name thanks to their tradition of exchanging their livestick with each other and with other tribes, typically for the purpose of diplomacy and commerce.
The Protavic are also fond of honey bees and tend to many hives across their land. They revere the industrious and dutiful nature of the humble bee and they make great use of the goods that these insects produce – honey, beeswax and <span class="mu-s">butol</span>, a primitive form of mead.

Over time, the beast-bringers have developed religious beliefs that revolve around the sacred cycle of consumption – the idea that all living things harbour a mystical energy called <span class="mu-s">Drocrom</span> that is transferred through the acts of breeding and eating.
The source of this essence is <span class="mu-s">An</span> the Allmother, a fertility and harvest goddess who serves as the personification of the planet itself. She is served by faithful priestesses known <span class="mu-s">drobac</span>, who are responsible for the production of butol and the health of the tribe.

The Protavic people are best described as gregarious xenophobes. Centuries of attacking other tribes and assimilating them has led to them viewing their own culture as supreme, yet they gladly trade with other clans for goods and resources that they would otherwise lack.
This pragmatic behaviour is common throughout the society of the beast-bringers. They prize intelligence and constantly test it with riddles, rebuses and a primitive board game called <span class="mu-s">Blocrum</span>, which is used to assess the worthiness of their leaders.

Yet there is one tribe that the Protavic have allowed to join them, instead of outright assimilating. The <span class="mu-s">Vuvovic</span> now serve as the blood-drinking warrior caste of the beast-bringers, who serve the tribe as soldiers in exchange for liberty from labour.
There are also the other clans that surround the Croglatol – the boatmen of the <span class="mu-s">Toprocravic</span>, the <span class="mu-s">Scagravic</span> tree-dwellers, the <span class="mu-s">Drocravic</span> and <span class="mu-s">Bodravic</span> fire-worshippers and the stone men of the <span class="mu-s">Rodac</span>.