Note: there is a brief glossary at the bottom of my form!
A
song for you to listen to while you read.
My name is
aoba, and this handsome boy is
Abasi, a traditional
Kenyan name meaning
stoic, or
stern.
Abasi is a
Maasai tribesman.
Likes wrote:✔ hunting
✔ kits
✔ honest people
✔ running
✔ open plains
✔ family and friends
Dislikes wrote:✗ traitors
✗ fire
✗ cold weather
✗ enclosed spaces
✗ irresponsible adults
✗ being cooped up
Serious | Nurturing | Traditional | Loyal | Strict | PTSD | Short-Tempered | Pyrophobic | ClaustrophobicSerious ;; Abasi is a
stoic boy, many of his playful, boyish traits lost in the fire that killed his father.
Abasi is a boy who was forced to grow up far before his time - if it weren't for
tradition, he could have been a warrior by the age of ten, a rank reserved for boys of fourteen and above. He has dedicated himself to becoming a great warrior to honor his father and carry on his legacy.
Nurturing ;; Although
Abasi has no children of his own, he has a soft spot for kits. He has many brothers and sisters, and loves his nieces and nephews more than just about anything in the world. He sometimes spoils them with gifts of candy and handmade toys, but is
stern with them and
fiercely protective - he instills his rules and morals in them in hopes of keeping them safe. A Maasai child's only chore is to have fun, and he loves to contribute. Uncle Abasi is every kit's favorite warrior, and many of them see him as a hero. He is also the village's go-to for the delivery of calves - he has a special touch when it comes to birthing the spindly-legged little animals. Although he is a terrible herder, calves love him and recognize him into adulthood.

Traditional ;; Abasi takes great pride in his heritage and culture, and hopes to, once he becomes an elder, to lead adolescents in the enkipaata ceremony, just like his father planned to before his death.
Loyal ;; Abasi is a complicated man, but if you reduced him to his very essence, his loyalty would shine through like a diamond in the rough. He is limitless in his dedication to enkai, his village, his tribe, and most of all, his father. He is set in his way and truly believes that he can become a better person through tradition and morality.
Strict ;; Abasi can be very strict, especially with kits - not because he is cruel or because of his temper, simply because he hopes above all else that the people around him will stay safe. Despite his decidedly rocky history with his mother, he loves his family deeply, and his friends just as much. He himself adheres closely to rules and morals, and practically forces other to do the same. He never punishes kits (or adults, for that matter) physically - a sharp scolding alone from Abasi is more than enough.
Short-Tempered ;; Like his mother, Abasi is quick to snap and bite. Even as a kit, he had a sharp, quick temper, and spat harsh words at his parents and siblings. His fiery spirit was one of the reasons he was chosen as olobolosi. It is best to stay on this boy's good side - you will regret it deeply if you insult or hurt him, or worse, his family. His harsh attitude does not serve him well - in fact, it only holds him back unless he is hunting. It has lost him friends, potential mates, and most importantly, family. Abasi is estranged from his mother since he gravely injured one of his brothers in what was meant to be a play-fight. While his sibling simply wanted to wrestle, Abasi was genuinely angry and blinded his brother in one eye. This was not the first mistake he made in his mother's eyes - he has botched more than one meeting with chiefs of other tribes, and wasted the life of a cow in a blood-drinking ceremony by allowing it to escape after he punctured its neck. She is, to say the least, ashamed of her son and the dishonor he brought into their home by showing such obvious weakness after his father's death, something his mother coped with silently.

Pyrophobic, PTSD ;; Abasi's pyrophobia and PTSD both stem from the death of his father. In the height of summer, Abasi would follow his father into the plains to watch him hunt, hoping to glean any knowledge he could from watching the adept hunter's every move. Hiding in a stand of trees, he watched as a long tuft of grass caught fire in the distance. Being the playful pup he was, he ran over to the burning grass, swatting at it, the slight burns on his paws not enough to deter him from his playtime until the fire began to spread. Fire spreads extremely quickly in West Africa, faster than you could ever imagine. Once the flames began to lick at the surrounding grass, Abasi's father only had time to drop his weapons and run, holding his seven-year old son in his mouth. The young Abasi panicked, wailing and squirming in his father's mouth, twisting around and seeing a patch of fur on one of his fathers legs that was thick and matted with blood, the fur completely scorched away. His father finally collapsed, setting Abasi down and telling him to run, his father's last words. Abasi, unsure what else to do and loyal to the last fiber of his being, simply did what his father had told him to do and ran to his village, sobbing and telling everyone he could of what had happened. He collapsed in the corner of his boma, screaming, only able to watch as the other warriors ran toward the fire, hoping to recover the man's body to save his pride.
Abasi was the first of his family to see what was left of his father.
The fur on his tail was scorched away, his back legs gaunt and burnt nearly to the bone.
But it was his father.
He ran to him, laying next to his father and nudging his chest, pawing at his face, howling and vainly doing anything and everything he could that might revive his father. The memory of the hours he spent attempting to wake his father haunts him.

favorites wrote:✔ food: uncooked beef and beef blood - the staples of the Maasai diet
✔ drink: milk, or kule - especially fresh, right from the cow
✔ book: homer's the odyssey - Abasi likes lengthy books about adventure
✔ movie: Abasi doesn't like movies, but if he had to pick - any nature documentary
✔ animal: cow, of course - cows are the Maasai livelihood
✔ place: there's no place like home - the west African plains
least favorites wrote:✗ food: raddichio - the bitter vegetable doesn't suit him in the least
✗ drink: anything artificial - Abasi finds artificial flavorings and colors repellant
✗ book: Abasi believes he hasn't read enough books to pick his least favorite
✗ movie: movies with excessive gore - he believes nothing should be destroyed without a purpose
✗ animal: fire ants - not only because of their name, but their annoying, stinging bites
✗ place: the big city - Abasi is uncomfortable and lost in urban areas
Claustrophobic ;; As a boy who was born and raised on the open African plains, Abasi cannot stand small, cramped spaces - especially dark ones.
His Markings ;; Abasi's markings are leftover from his father's burial ceremony, a ritual called a
predator burial, for the deity
Enkai.
Enkai is a being who encompasses all of nature - the realms of
land,
sky, and
water. To the
Maasai, anything natural, from the sun to the smallest blade of grass, is
Enkai. Because they believe human bodies to be harmful to the earth, (
Enkai), the bodies of the deceased are left on the plains to be eaten by
scavengers and
predators. They do not believe in an
afterlife, so the ritual is a great celebration of
life rather than a ceremony of mourning. The body paints, made mostly of red ochre, have permanently stained
Abasi's delicate fur, causing most of the
orange and
red markings on his coat. However, this is not the origin of all of his markings. Some of them are from his father's body. In some cases, bodies are covered with
cattle blood or fat before being left on the plains.
Abasi is not a
squeamish boy, and his father meant the world to him. To
Abasi, his father
was Enkai. The darker marking around his paws are from the cattle blood that coated his father's body -
Abasi made frequent trips to the site of his
burial, lying beside the body for hours on end each day until there was nothing left, seeking
solitude and the familiar, comforting feeling of his father's
presence. He never had the heart to wash of the ochre or the blood, simply letting it stain his pelt in
remembrance of his father. The rest of his markings were acquired when he was a teenager - they are left over from a
Maasai ceremony called
enkipaata, a coming-of-age ritual in which Maasai adolescent males become men (and warriors) by wandering the plains for nearly four months, led by a group of elders. The boy chosen to be the leader of his age group (in this case,
Abasi) is an unlucky man, because this leader (the
olopolosi) must atone for the sins of the entire group. They sleep a night in the wild before the final ceremony -
emuratta, in which the boys finally become
warriors. They must carry a heavy weapon and herd huge groups of cattle for seven days, to prove that he is
worthy to become a man. Afterward, they must stand outside in the cold weather and be soaked completely with cold water while his friends cheer or heckle him, as a cleansing process - as his reward, he receives the gift of a cow (the
Maasai are a herding people). However, it is not as simple as it sounds. If the boy undergoing this part of the ceremony flinches, he will be
outcast from the village. If they do complete it successfully and receive their cow, they must wear all black for four to eight months. Upon completing this ceremony, the boy becomes a warrior. To the delight of his remaining
family,
Abasi flawlessly completed the ritual. As a warrior, he hoped to
honor his father by becoming the greatest warrior of his village, or the entire
Maasai tribe. His father, too, had been the
olobolosi - even though it was a
painful,
unlucky position to be in, he strived for it to
honor his father's
legacy.

Glossary wrote:Doma: A Maasai hut.
Ta Kwenya: Maasai greeting.
Enkai: A Maasai deity of the earth.
Enkipatta: A coming of age ceremony.
Emurrata: Also a coming of age ceremony.
Olopolosi: a young tribesman who is the leader of his age group in the ritual of Enkipaata.
Finished!