The Obrenaj aren't too spiritual a people. They do have an old religious tradition about an ever-young Goddess of Life named Mali, but nowadays the old texts are sinking into myth, more and more regarded as colourful metaphors and allegories. Contemporary Obrenje belief is pretty much centered around social spirit and ethics, comparable to Humanism.
However, the notion that the Obrenje people have always lived amongst the wind, the sun and the open spaces for centuries uncounted, and are therefore suffused with the "spirit of the land", sharing a bond with its other inhabitants such as the antelopes and the windhounds, is wide-spread and generally accepted.
Recently, the teachings of Manrupashnar and other Empire sages have found an ever-growing community of readers.
Obrenaja seems to lie in a magically "dead" zone. No-one is sure whether the powers of Concordance are unusually high here, or whether there is some sort of localised magic ebb, but magic is difficult to perform in Obrenaja, and produces weak effects when it produces anything at all. Because of this, the Obrenaj use methods that approach science. The Obrenaj are a people fond of security, having dedicated the greater part of their sciences, including marginally magical ones, to defense and healing.
Medicine
Obrenje medicine includes methods to heal heavy wounds and traumas that border on magic, known as "stasis surgery". A wounded patent is suspended in a field of Concordance that slows his metabolism down to a trickle and practically locks him and his surroundings in stasis. In this suspended state, the doctors can perform incisions that hardly bleed, have little chance of contamination and seal up nicely after the operation.
The actual repair work is still mostly manual, e.g. when rearranging fractured bones or stitching together torn tissue, though the process is aided with carefully controlled influxes of Concordance (to bring order into messed-up areas) and Chaos (to stimulate tissue regrowth).
Since the Obrenaj tend to have rather small-scale magical powers, a surgeon might rely on a group of supporters who have no other duty than to supply "mana" to the surgeon. Worried relatives or friends of the patient are usually both overflowing with emotional energies and more than willing to help, but there might also be professional "mana nurses" trained in providing this kind of assistance.
Voice Arts
The Armored Voice is a form of non-physical semi-magical defensive martial art. Its practicioners are able to use intense, finely tuned and colored shouts to momentarily dazzle or even stun an opponent. The effect can be aimed pretty well at close distances, but disperses quickly after about half a dozen meters. After a dozen meters, the shout is no longer effective.
Dazzle shouts are easier to perform and less exhausting than stun shouts.
The latter are also slightly more difficult to aim because they do collateral dazzle damage near the target. Stun shouts become dazzle shouts after half a dozen meters.
These shouts work less efficiently on hearing impaired opponents. There are other, more potent Obrenje voice arts, such as the Gilt Voice, Bladed Voice and United Voice, though they take much more time to master, and are usually reserved to specialists of the Obrenje defense force.
