Any erlany will certainly change in the course of his/her life. So do nations of Ragnesis: having gone through age of their childhood and youth, they have lost naivety and ingenuousness of the First Days when they had just been created by Celestials. In return, they became wiser, stronger and more experienced. Of course, Celestials have been helping their offspring on their way to wisdom: they taught them the best they could.

Unfortunately, one of the creators named Shargan didn’t care for His nation’ destiny so much: he devoted Himself to them just enough for the energy flow to keep running from them to Him. Shargan was rough and straightforward in repairing mistakes which caused amount of energy flow to reduce: He punished the guilty very severely. Depending on the degree of his/her fault, a guilty person might have been mutilated, or deprived of his house or family... As a rule, the Celestial would leave the poor thing alive – to serve as an illustrative example for those to whom it might occur to commit the same mistakes.

No wonder then, that Bushtargs’ religion is based on worshiping power: above all, it is physical strength and brute force which produce instant visible results. According to Bushtargs, “the best” means “the strongest”.

From ancient times this nation has been famed for its roughness, intolerance and hot temper. They are militant – probably, more militant then other Ragnesis erlanies are – but, luckily enough, they are not too disciplined, so any military campaign (be it domestic or foreign) will sooner or later turn into sharing the loot and sorting out who was more valiant and who killed more enemies. After they bust up with each other, chiefs start fighting without concord and lose battles as a result.

At the same time, Bushtargs are not exceptionally wicked creatures full of hate: they can be magnanimous and generous. Their sense of dignity and confidence that “Bushtargs are the best in Ragnesis” make them tackle and complete jobs which seemed to be impossible.

Determined but somewhat rough Bushtargs prefer to act high-handedly. Unlike Faldorts they are driven by emotions rather than by reason. Sometimes, when they set up an object, they achieve it with incredible persistence. But when the same persistence turns into stubbornness, Bushtargs may keep holding their ground even though they have already realized they had been wrong.

In general, Bushtargs do not favor subtle intellect, tact and complaisance: they do admit that these merits may exist, but they consider it easier and more correct (from the “divine” viewpoint as well) to change the world and their own lives by force. All the other options are for dweebs, they suppose.

Such a world view is partly caused by the areas Bushtargs populate: being forced out from other regions of Ragnesis, they have settled in the world’s most unfertile areas – in deserts and savannahs divided by mountains, oftentimes – with geysers and active volcanoes. Severe nature of these areas left its imprint on Bushtargs way of life, morals and manners.

The same characteristic features are apparent in Bushtargian wizardry which is aimed at achieving quick and obvious results. The main elements used by wizards are fire and wind. Spells are aimed at suppressing opponents’ will, taking their power, and subduing them. Wizardry of Bushtargs is distinguished by pressure and affecting deep “brutal” features of erlanies psyches, or influencing their physical bodies. And although wizards of other Ragnesis nations often “press” the same “levers”, the difference between their magic and that of Bushtargs is like the difference between an arrow stroke (“hitting the mark!”), and a heavy club blow (“for certain”).

But in general practicing magic is not really encouraged – in certain cities it is permitted just to a restricted circle (of course, members of these circles are protected by local chiefs). Anyone who dares breaking the prohibition and does not acknowledge authority of this “circle” will quickly find him/her self harshly and “fairly” punished.

The same concerns any new clan: the clan must acknowledge power of the chief whose lands they are on; otherwise it is considered that the chief has been thrown a challenge. The result will follow shortly and will be very sad for the impudent guys.

Bushtargian mechanisms of state affairs management are as “transparent” and predictable – provided that Gharren-d’khadr can be regarded a state at all. At different times authority of ehrdun-hahll (“the strongest chief”, as translated from Bushtargian) can be stronger or weaker, but he never controls all the lands. And if the Council of Chiefs considers his actions to be wrong, the ehrdun-hahll may quickly lose all his rights, sometimes – along with his life. In this case he will be sent a highly courteous invitation “for the glory of Shargan”. As a rule, this will be a duel with one of the most dangerous beasts of prey that inhabit Bushtargian lands, and an ehrdun-hahll has nearly no chances to win. No denial from such a duel is possible. But luckily, calling ehrdun-hahll out is allowed not more than only once a year.

In the first place, usually an ehrdun-hahll deals with the matters concerned with arranging raids to lands of other Ragnesis nations. Any clan may set off for such raids; the only condition is to acknowledge the authority of a commander and to swear implicit obedience to him for the period of war campaign. Such oaths are given as easily as they are broken. “Words are just dust in the wind”, so whenever a clan finds the situation unhappy, it may betray the ehrdun-hahll and even desert to the enemy (if those discover how to entice the Bushtargs). In a different situation though, these erlanies can even turn their weapon against those who hired them. For this reason it is very rarely that other nations hire Bushtargian mercenaries.

Ideas of “mine” and “me” are above all for Bushtargs. They simply don’t realize what “for the benefit of common cause”, “for the sake of the homeland”, or “for the glory of your nation” means, unless this concurs with their personal interests. Just single instances are known in the history of this nation, when after an erlany had taken the position of an ehrdun-hahll, he gathered all his nationals under the banners and attempted to strengthen the state, to expand its borders circumspectly, etc. Besides, such scarcest attempts never succeeded in a long-term prospective.

It is not common for Bushtargs to be friendly with other nations. They remember that in the old days other erlanies banished them from more hospitable lands; however, they don’t like to recall that they (Bushtargs) were the cause. For centuries Bushtargs have been living detached from others and they encounter no special friendly feelings when they find themselves in other countries, even for quite peaceful purposes. They know they are disdained and considered to be retrograde, foolish and not deserving any attention. And, although Bushtargs respond something like “well, so what about it?”, at heart they long for being recognized, of course. A Bushtarg who, for whatever reason moves to settle in other nations’ lands, may be a real crack jack, but he will always feel scowls behind his back and hear people whisper: “Well, what could you expect from him – he is a Bushtarg, you know”, or speaking indulgently: “Well, not bad for a Bushtarg”...

That is why Bushtargs are not really friendly to strangers. Foreigners would be often imposed with larger taxes; they would be reluctantly admitted into local guilds, they are reminded in every possible way that such dweebs have nothing to do in a country of strong independent Bushtargs!

It is also difficult for strangers to live among Bushtargs because this nation’s way of life is not the best whatsoever. Bushtargs live in houses that strangers find ugly, awkward and pressed down against the ground – like a beast of prey ready to leap. There are few windows; actually, each house resembles a small fortress. They tend to be either too florid, or, to the contrary – too dull, made of faded materials. Besides, Bushtargs use bones and bone trees as one of the major construction elements; so the exterior of such houses makes many strangers think of death – furthermore, about violent death.

There is a temple of Shargan in each large city. Small settlements must have Shargan’s altars. Shargan’s priests are always young and energetic Bushtargs; with their own example they can convince any doubting person how prayers ought to be offered to Shargan. It is rather common that priests take part in political life of the area under their authority; along with ordinary Bushtargs they may be involved in raids and in large-scale battles: they handle arms well too.

Attempts to propagate faith in Shargan within other nations’ lands are carried out unsystematically and follow the mentioned principle of a hitting club (“for certain”). Bushtargs are not interested in becoming nomadic preachers – it is very seldom that some of them determine to go to other lands to spread faith in Shargan over there. This will rather be done by some excessively active priest who would join just another raid (or who would even provoke this raid by his ardent sermons).

As far as gentiles are concerned – formally they are not forbidden to offer prayers and sacrifices to other Celestials, but they will often find their altars destroyed. Who did this and when? Limbs of the law just demonstrate their surprise, and grin: like they can’t figure it out...

To summarize the above, we should note that just as any other nation of Ragnesis, Bushtargs have both positive and negative traits. Depending on how life of any particular Bushtarg develops, some of these traits will progress more than others. But, however that may be, it is a mistake to think Bushtargs are primitive and lop-sided: many people have made this mistake and suffered for it.