Paru

The Parus or Prugs (from bruk, 'dragon, thunder') were a Sarapean tab. The Parus were one of the 4 Sarapean tribes that initially supported the First Seers on their hierophany and grew into a major aristocratic clan in the Golon Empire, whose members were mainly occupied with posts on the Qutan frontier, and eventually led the First Hierocaust. Those that returned south in the so-called 'Paru Anabasis' had swelled with adopting members from Quta and Serony, and turned into autonomous military formations (numbering in total 19 tribes), serving as mercenaries supporting the darsku, while a much smaller proportion settled in northern Ausarea and became part of the Taimi. While small numbers were readmitted to the ruling elite of the Se Empire, Parus settled into a wandering warrior and mercenary class, practicing this lifestyle as their particular form of Arpalism, and often proved to be a nuisance more than an ally to other authorities, since they insisted on governing and managing their revenue sources themselves. The economic crisis that drove the Se to conduct the Second Hierocaust was also one which rendered rulers unable to keep the Parus compensed, so after a power struggle they were expelled from most of the area, but managed to take power in the Sonmish peninsula, where most of them moved; another proportion went to Saupon or even further into Varasan to offer their services, or formed a second wave of Taimi in Serony.

The animosity with other tabs and authorities had faded by the 9th century, by which point Parus were readmitted to Iscasnia and Quta to serve as a mercenary estate again, while in Sonmough they consolidated exclusive rule over the region. Paru activity drove the Liong Empire to pacify the Arpalic states again in the 11th century. In the meantime, many of the Parus that went to Varasan converted to Pastism: they were integrated into the elite of Anaqocia, enforced the violent conversion of Saupon, and finally began attempts to march back into Sarapea in the 11th century. In Sarapea and Sonmough a conflict between the Pastic 'Red' Parus and the Arpalite 'Blue' Parus raged in the lead-up to the Third Hierocaust. The Red Parus' failure in the Nine Armies War was followed by their purging and assimilation under Perozgarist Varasanian states such as Rasupucha, thereby fading as a distinct Sarapean group in those countries, while the Blue Parus in Sonmough submitted to the Dronma Empire, gave up their self-governing armies (whose numbers had been thinned by the wars anyway), and became regular aristocrats. Individual Parus were still enormously influential community leaders, but the Paru tab structure had disintegrated, and being a Paru became more of possession of an impressive aristocratic pedigree. Paru backgrounds remained common around Sarapea and Sonmough; in Sonmough almost every prominent pollitical figure, even in the modern era, such as Zhu Rignam or Chim Sonamly, has been a Paru.