excerpt from 'For Those Not of the Wold'

       "After the devastation left in the wake of Albin's Folly, the few surviving humans found themselves in a Wold irrevocably altered; not only where there entire species of animals wiped out and/or replaced by chimeral mutations, but the two races they had shared the Wold with (the sylvan and the delvers) were completely eradicated.  The human flotsam were also faced with another change wrought by the chimeral plague; that of a number of new sentient races that had come into being due to its transgenic properties.
     Please note that while there are arguments concerning what constitutes a chimeral race and what a chimeral species (due to such examples as the sentient, highly intelligent arboreal gryph at one pole of the issue  and the completely savage, vile manticore at the other), for the Council of Prophets and Sagi's purposes a chimeral race is defined as 'any chimeral species having some human physical characteristics, sentience and a culture or traditions specifically their own.' This definition includes the sentry, the tsatari, the taurs, and the seafolk in all their various ilks and tribes.
       It has been noted by scholars for sescenta that most, but by no means all, chimerals that survive as extant species are amalgamations of creatures having some relationship previous to the chimeral plague; this holds true for the chimeral races as well. The three known land-bound chimeral races (the sentry, tsatari, and taurs) were spawned from pre-chimeral plague human cultures that focused on the herding and husbandry of domesticated or semi-domesticated animals.
       Take the tsatari, by way of example: originally a goat-herding people in the hills surrounding the northern end of the Golemspine mountain range. When the chimeral plague swept through the Wold, the survivors of this area found themselves changed into goat-legged humanoids with course heads of hair and horns. With all their domesticated stock either dead or fled and no one in evidence left  to trade with, the first tsatari struggled to survive and  re-found their flocks from the remaining wild goats higher in the mountains. After the first sestade or two  (during which Omil's Theocracy began to take hold in the south) the tsatari culture began to thrive, and still exists relatively unchanged over seven sescenta later.
       Tsatari society is completely based on the goat, or more specifically the herding and harvesting of goats. The major ruling body is the Council of Beards, which consists of the heads of the six major Houses and one representative elected by the minor Houses. Each House has its own herds is passed down through the male line. However the difference between major and minor Houses is decided by the number of wives the beard, or head of a particular House, has. The wives are actually the ones that run the Houses; seeing to the tending of the herds, and the harvesting, processing and trade of the wool, milk, meat and stock as well as the day-to-day functions of the actual family residence. The beards of smaller Houses may have as few as one wife to as many as three, while more prestigious and successful beards have been known to have as many a eight to ten.
       Wives, in tsatari culture, are not merely courted for their beauty and family heritage. Tsatari girls are schooled in reading and cyphers and apprentice from an early age in any of a number of skills and trades involving their heard animals;  from shearing, spinning, weaving and dying to husbandry, butchery, cheese-making and tanning. Around the age of eight-and-ten a girl is deemed of age to be offered a marriage contract..."

from a series of essays titled "For Those Not of the Wold", written by the Scribe Praytell Doolin at the behest of the Council of Prophets and Sagi