Umbaru

The umbaru race lives in the Teganze region of the Torajan Jungles, centrally on Sanctuary's world map.

The umbaru race is a jungle-living people, made up by many different clans in the Teganze region of the huge Torajan Jungles, south west of Kurast.

Known Tribes

Three clans are known from Abd al-Hazir's thirteenth entry of his Writings:

• Tribe of the Five Hills
• Clan of the Seven Stones
• Tribe of the Clouded Valley

In the Tribe of the Five Hills, which he visited, fearsome Witch Doctors lead and fought for the tribe.

The Khazra used to be five distinct umbaru tribes, but their names have long been forgotten.

Clan Backgrounds

When Abd al-Hazir travelled the Teganze region in search of the umbaru, he came across the Tribe of the Five Hills, which has fearsome Witch Doctors leading and fighting for the tribe. They conduct ritual warfare against their two neighbours (the Clan of the Seven Stones and Tribe of the Clouded Valley). The tribes use these wars to replenish their supply of human sacrifices their civilization revolves around. Only those taken in battle are considered worthy of the ritual sacrifice according to the code of heroism and honour of the tribes.

The tribes define themselves by their belief in the Mbwiru Eikura, which roughly translates to "The Unformed Land". Their belief holds that the true, sacred reality is veiled behind the physical one we normally experience. Their vitally important public ceremonies are centred upon sacrifices to the life force that flows from their gods, who inhabit the Unformed Land, into this lesser physical realm.

Witch Doctors are finely attuned to this Unformed Land and are able to train their minds to perceive it through a combination of rituals and the use of selected roots and herbs found in the jungles. They call the state in which they interact with this other world the Ghost Trance.

The second most sacred belief of the tribes is their philosophy of self-sacrifice and non-individuality, of suppressing one's self-interest for the good of the tribe.

Their most current war created an intense social upheaval among the tribes due to an incident, of which details are lacking, but might be the reason Witch Doctors has travelled west to Tristram.

Abd al-Hazir did not leave enough information to properly describe if only the Tribe of the Five Hills have Witch Doctors, or if all umbaru tribes do. It's assumed each tribe has one or more Witch Doctors.

Goatmen

Five additional tribes were used by the mage clan known as Vizjerei, and transformed as beasts of war for the Mage Clan War. They sold their souls to the demon Zagraal to get feral power and to defeat their Vizjerei oppressors, but in the end they lost the last of their humanity, now called "Khazra", roughly translating to "demon". The new names of the tribes are believed to be:

• Moon Clan
• Night Clan
• Blood Clan
• Death Clan
• Hell Clan

The umbaru Witch Doctors have spent much energy to more or less eradicate the "goatmen".

Trivia

The D3 Team might have taken inspiration from the Indian town Umbar Pada Nandade, the Star Wars race Umbaran or the aboriginal elder Umbarra of the Djirringanj/Yuin people of the Bermagui area on the South Coast of New South Wales.

Resources

• Witch Doctor
• Khazra
• Tribe of the Five Hills
• Clan of the Seven Stones
• Tribe of the Clouded Valley
• Torajan Jungles
• Teganze

References

• Witch Doctor
• Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0008 - Goatmen
• Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0013 - Witch Doctor