Blood is the Food of the Gods
Cultural practices differ among the mountain peoples, the jungle peoples and the plains peoples, the latter of which were by far the most successful and the unifying, conquering faction.
What is known is that their society is highly tiered and stratified, with the Malku as a living god at the top and noble Qatunax just below, treated in an almost as reverent fashion by those below. Commoner Qatunax occupy roles as pawns of the nobility and Malku, but appear to generally accept their lot in life as the way of the gods.
Below Qatunax are subject peoples, typically arranged by how cooperative and accepting of assimilation they are. They look down upon both Vir Sidians and those in the Civilised West as "steel insects" and unless they submit view any agreements with them as transitory that can be feely broken without any besmirch on the honour of the Qatunax. Thus far, they have not conducted anything but limited trade or local truces with any non-Qatunax, other than those who have submitted to their will.
Slavery predominates in Qatunax society, being used as an instrument of punishment, human sacrifice, free labour as well as assimilation. While the death rate within Qatunax slavery is atrocious, those who survive and prove their worth are often freed and join the ranks of the commoners.
The Qatunax are extremely fond of both execution and human sacrifice and generally hold life in a very low regard. Most notably, they have been known to sacrifice captured noble prisoners in a variety of ways, including the flaying alive of particularly high status individuals and then using their skins as warnings to the populace or as ritual clothing for religious purposes. In any case, excruciating torture almost always precedes killing.
The Qatunax view sorcery as a gift of the gods and encourage its exploration and use in their society. This is especially true of "blood magic", often affected by the aforementioned human sacrifices.
Upper class members of society wear elaborately decorated and extremely colourful clothing, often incorporating elements of various birds and other animals. They appear to be fixated on jade as a status symbol, wearing it both in the form of jewellery and piercings. Ritual scarring and tattooing in various forms and colours is also common. They are also fond of body and face painting besides their tattooing, as well as the use of elaborate masks.
Some of the plains peoples bind their children's heads at a young age, deforming them into a variety of different shapes. All of this serves to give them a terrifying, otherworldly appearance to those they have encountered. This is by no means a widespread practice among the Qatunax but it is occasionally encountered among the higher caste members of society.
Lower class Qatunax use bone rather than jade, and while they are less colourful than their richer counterparts they still put a premium on elaborate dress.
The level of Qatunax metalwork is quite high, and although they are fully capable of smithing steel, which they use for weapons, tools and agricultural implements, they seem to prefer bronze for much of their armour.
The Qatunax Melkete is split into a variety of Malki, which are considered individual kingdoms loosely held together by the High Malku Piyusti-intahala. They hold over half of the former Imperial territory east of the Ergonian mountains, as well as an unclear amount in their homelands to the south east. The High Malku's personal realm is formed around the ruined former Imperial capital of Asterrea, which was brutally destroyed by the Qatunax in 1872, with his own capital city is several miles to the south and being constructed in Qatunax style.
The Malki of Kultepex is the westernmost of the Qatunax realms, being actually within the Civilised West. After destroying several houses in both Aequor and Galenthia at the end of 1872, they were in turn checked by armies from both of these Kingdoms, then an expedition from the Vir Sidus Remnant and have not continued their expansion.
Breaking through the mountains in the late autumn of 1872, the Kultepex destroyed the Galenthian house of Ryker in their opening battle and then appeared to run out of steam. A massive army co-led by Baron Rogers and Baron d'Mollari was formed, along side forces from House d'Melloni. Baron d'Mollari made the decision to try and negotiate with the Kultepex, as his ancestors had allegedly done with other barbarians in the past.
He was thereafter seized by the Qatunax, and along with his bodyguard, Lord and Lady Ryker and all of their captured soldiers were brutally tortured and sacrificed in full view of the allied Aequorian-Galenthian army, with common soldiers dismembered, beheaded or getting their organs chopped out of them and nobility being flayed alive. This was accompanied by some kind of religious ritual which quickly transitioned to sorcery. The great mountain Tharsis, having been dormant since before the time of Darius, suddenly erupted in a stream of thick ash and fire, raining down on the allied army while the mountain snows melted and swept away the greater part of their troops. The Qatunax forces then fell upon them with reckless abandon and slaughtered the remaining forces.
Once the army was cleared away, they proceeded to enslave and exterminate the entirety of the population in the area and set to building their own kingdom. Further attempts to expand out were stopped by the allied forces of County Arkanin (the Duchy's cadet branch) and County d'Korbina, though not before much blood was spilled.
The Qatunax follow a group of gods which they brought with them over the Cloudspine Mountains into civilised lands. Paramount if the Sun, while they also worship Death, both Summer and Winter Moon and War. Notably, the Malku are seen as living gods while their nobility are only a short step below. All other gods are referred to ask weak and pithy compared to their patrons, and though they do not deny their existence they find them unworthy of respect.
The Qatunax hence actively destroy the cults of any other gods that they find, with special contempt for the One, who they refer to as a "dead god", given their rapid advance through Vir Sidus. In territories that have submitted to them but not been conquered, worship of the One is barely tolerated, with priests and temples regularly subject to attack or destruction. In territories they have conquered, all are forced to submit to their gods.
Much of their religion is predicated on human sacrifice, to the horror of those who have encountered them.
The Qatunax are able to raise impressively large, well organised armies. As they do not place a high premium on human life, they are comfortable with sacrificing their lesser troops in frontal assaults designed to wear down the enemy before committing their better quality soldiery.
Many of Qatunax's troops are swift moving light infantry and skirmishers armoured in hardened leather scale jerkins or padded gambesons, armed with clubs, axes or spears and shields. These troops also often carry javelins to pelt the enemy before closing with them.
The Qatunax also use fast pike blocks to fix the enemy. These soldiers are usually equipped with the same armour as the light infantry, though in the case of elites they may have bronze scale hauberks and helmets. They are expected to move swiftly on the battlefield and engage the enemy so that they can be hammered on the flanks. Qatunax pike are very well drilled and tend to show a high level of training.
Their heavy infantry, while small in number, is fearsome. They are equipped with elaborately decorated full scale armour, the most heavily armoured literally from head to toe, often with painted wooden 'wings', mock animal skins and huge headdresses. Their scale armour, though of bronze, is often dyed a variety of colours - sometimes brown, black or even blue and green. This has made more than one terrified enemy believe that they are not facing humans. Two varieties of heavy infantry predominate - those equipped with cleaver swords or axes and shields, and those in polearm units.
For ranged troops they use slingers or javelin-throwers, the latter's equipped with an ingenious device that is loaded with the javelin and then launched, sometimes at a distance of twice or more the typical range of the missile. Bows exist but are encountered in lesser frequency.
Most terrifying and, fortunately, most rare are the "fire troops". Reports are sketchy but appear to indicate that small units of Qatunax are equipped with large bronze tubes that spit tongues of fire. So far, these have only seldom been encountered, but they are terrifying and incredibly dangerous.
The Qatunax are accomplished riders and prefer to use their horses in the light role, harassing the enemy with showers of javelins, as well as attacking rear areas, routing troops and supply lines. There are reports from the Vir Sidus campaigns that the Qatunax also use chariots in much heavier roles, but these have yet to be encountered in the West.
Finally, a note on sorcerers - the Qatunax have embraced the use of magic in all aspects of their society but most especially, the army. This was most evident in the West during the carving out of the new Malki of Kultepex, where sorcerers performed mass blood sacrifice on hundreds of prisoners and were able to induce a long dormant volcano to erupt, causing a firestorm and melting the mountain snows into a torrential river. Their sorcerers are not to be underestimated.
"For a distance of a three days journey I devastated the province of Asterrea. Blood and salt I scattered over them that resisted and made the rest my own… The dust of Henius, the insects' temple and their so called shining jewel I gathered together and took to my capital. The noise of people, the tread of cattle and sheep, the glad shouts of rejoicing, I banished from its fields. Wild asses, goats and all kinds of beasts of the plain I caused to lie down among them, as if at home. None of the insects remain in their capital, but those few that live do now for the glory of our gods."
High Malku Piyusti-intahala, on the conquest of Asterrea.