Lesser-Known Peoples of Tamriel VII: The Aldjamiir or True Khajiit

The natives of Elsweyr are famous for their many forms and tribes. When a Khajiit is born two dice are rolled: one for their tribe of birth and one for their moonsign, which defines their anatomy and even their relative sapience. Despite this variety- even, perhaps, because of it- their society is chaotic but tolerant, exuberant but harmonious. As always, however, there are exceptions to the rule. Such are the Aldjamiir, who style themselves the ‘True Khajiit’.

The Aldjamiir inhabit a series of villages south of Torval, between the coast and the Tenmar Forest. They farm a little, and trade a little, and brew an unpleasantly greasy wine using root vegetables. Their settlements lack the vibrant faded grandeur of the mainstream Khajiit cities, being more purely functional and often visibly impoverished. Despite this they hold themselves with a certain haughtiness, because they consider themselves the only pure stock of their race.

All Aldjamiir embody the Ohmes morphology of the Khajiit. They resemble their near neighbours the Bosmer in appearance and their distant cousins the Altmer in temperament. They consciously reject the feline aspect of their race as a curse inflicted by the devil Azurah, and practice strict reproductive discipline in order to prevent the birth of ‘mutant’ breeds. As birth is locked into the cycles of the moons, they revere the moon ‘Jone’ as the good aspect of Lorkhaj, the creative and well intentioned deity. The larger moon ‘Jode’ is Lorkhaj’s dark half, the trickster and corrupter of gods. Azurah is allied with the latter, and the good spirits Nirni and Y’ffer with the former.

Offspring born in the wrong form are purged mercilessly by this society, and they are loath to allow their non-Ohmes kin into their territory. They also refuse to conduct business with wider Khajiit society, which is why they remain so poor. They are a fatalistic people, and say that as long as Jode overshadows Jone they will be outcasts in their own land. Many leave for Valenwood, merging completely with the Bosmer population. Others occasionally form murderous cults that attack Khajiit travellers in the jungle, earning them the contempt of the normally easy-going Elsweyr population.

Perhaps surprisingly the Aldjamiir remain reverent of the more esoteric traditions of the Khajiit, including the gathering of Moon Sugar. They also hold wild festivals in honour of the Mane. They believe that under the great mound of tithed fur that the Mane wears, he or she is an Aldjamiir like them. It is not wise to try to disabuse them of this notion.