kut’cho CULTURE — A rite of passage. The kut’cho was a → Quiddick → cumatu (coming-of-age rite) specific to the region surrounding the Quid village of → Kar. Being one of the most remote areas of → Mor-Thandak, located in the upper corner of → the Great North, Kar often has erratic weather conditions. Because of this, the kut’cho is believed to have been created to prepare Quid warriors of any gender against the natural elements. The kut’cho required endurance of physical exertion and exposure to the elements for extended periods of time stretching over a period of  three years. Participants were any child turning eight years old, their kut’cho culminating on their eleventh birthday. Many did not survive. Because the Quid include writing, in particular the recording of histories, as part of their sacred duties, it is known a Quid Chieftain and → Skree → Kal—during this period, it was common for shared leadership between the Skree and Quid, who have shared lineage—named Drack initiated the kut’cho. The cumatu continued for many generations until the Quiddick people rejected the rite as being a vestige of the barbaric Skree, of whom the Quid had distanced themselves, and not reflective of the more peaceful aspirations of the Quid, having found new purpose in worship of and service to → Quiddly-Jool. The result was a war between the Skree and the Quid, known as the → Storm of Blood. The Quid drove the Skree out of the Great North, from which the Skree have remained exclusive since, and only a tenuous peace between the people groups exists to the present time. Of all people groups in Mor-Thandak, the Quid are alone in being unchallenged by Skree raids.