Poets

Poets are men that devote their life to the binding and using of andats. The goal of all poets is to bind and harness an idea and so learn to have a strong will. Only men may become poets.

The head of them all is the Dai-kvo.

Before the Binding
Poets are rejected sons of the utkhaiem and khaiem. They forsake their names and rights of birth to live a devout life. They are sent to a school in Parthai at around 5 years of age and are taught strict discipline and are harshly punished or humiliated for any mistakes. They learn to read, write, and do numbers but not much else and spend the rest of their time doing manual labor for maintenance of the school. These young boys are supervised by slightly older boys who wear black robes that have passed the first test. The older boys are supervised by two or three teachers that live at the school.

The first test the boys must pass to gain the black robes is to have the strength to stand on their own. Otah passes this test after deciding to leave the school. After a boy gains the black robes they are given slightly better accommodations and start taking lessons with the teachers at the school to start learning about the history of the andat. They are given the duties of supervising and punishing the young boys.

The second test is to show the compassion to turn away from cruelty. Otah passes by crying and hugging Maati and apologizing for his cruel punishment. This is the second vital trait all poets must have and once a boy passes both tests he is invited to go to the Dai-kvo's village to study with the poets there and with the Dai-kvo himself. This is an honor that most boys do not reach. If a boy fails to pass the tests in time or if they choose to leave the school they must accept a brand that denotes they have forfeited their birthright. Most do this willingly because in the kaeim tradition of succession all eligible heirs must hunt each other until there is only one surviving heir.

Once a boy reaches the Dai-kvo's village the brightest ones are set to study how to bind a new andat and the others are evaluated to be sent to an appropriate city where they can inherit the andat from that city's poet.

Most poets spend their lifetime without capturing an andat. But in the past it was more common to bind andats. It seems that each time one is bound, he becomes more difficult to grasp. After a poet proposes a new binding it is deliberated upon by the entire school including the Dai-kvo and shredded for weaknesses over and over until it is considered perfect and a binding is attempted.

If a young man is sent to a city to take over an andat, he will study with the poet of that city how the binding was completed and how he can hold it. For instance, Cehmai inherited Stone Made Soft. Part of Stone Made Soft's binding is a chess like game. It is assumed that Cehmai either had some innate talent that was further trained or studied the strategies of the game deeply in order to avoid Stone Made Soft escaping. A poet's will is also extremely important in the binding of an andat since if the poets will is not strong enough the andat will not be compelled to obey and it might even escape.

After the Binding
They become poet to a city and help use the powers of the andats in order to stimulate the local economy.

In times of war, the poets are so efficient that the cities of the utkhaiem have never had an army, nor do they have true walls for their cities. This made the Galtish invasion extremely effective when the andat were all released.