Xariiō
The Xariiō refers to two distinct concepts in Northian cultural canon in the Bronze Age: it may refer to a group of boys whose duty is to procure materials for a certain kind of sacrament, or it may refer to a type of hymn sung at the Introit portion of Galic ceremony. Whether there is any connection between these two identities is a matter of discussion amongst researchers.
Xariiō bands
The term Xariiō is, etymologically, a directly descendant of the Erani-Eracuran term *Koryos, which is typically reconstructed to mean a group of adolescent, unmarried males who band together and seasonally participate in raids on neighbouring settlements and livestock; the activity is considered to have a liminal or coming-of-age quality for such adolescents. Based on cognate cultures, the *Koryos has additional reconstructed attributes like lawlessness, identification with wild animals, and association with the colour black or a general darkness.
In Northian canon, Xariiō are also groups of boys, but their duties are to collect a certain kind of sacrament, whose exact nature is not given in the Gales or in the Didaskalic Material. It can be inferred, however, that these sacraments are found in the wilderness and can be physically put into vessels. Before collecting the sacraments, the Xariiō undergo an interval of fasting and purgation. The idea that sacraments need to meet strict ritualistic requirements of purity and holiness agrees well with Galic themes.
Xariiō are mentioned 14 times in the Gales, in passages like G.Nr. 1401: up.aHās.petō.taiio.kežarə.šariiō, "but the Xariiō are under your wing and hand" (the "x" has changed to "š" in sandhi).
Though some scholars have argued that the Galic Xariiō are not related to the pan-Erani-Eracuran *Koryos and instead only a chance similarity in words, it has been pointed out that a further connection can be made in the term referring to the *Koryos band's leader, the *Koryonos, which surfaces in the Didaskalic Material as Xariianō. Though the Didaskalic Material is considerably younger than Galic, it refers to the Gales and contains information accepted as ancient. In it, Xariianō is indeed a leader, or at least an officer, of a Xariiō band. Given this, most hold that a complete chance similarity is unlikely and that a historical connection between them should be accepted and developed.
Northian culture is often billed the "bad boy" amongst the Erani-Eracurans, agreeing with cognate cultures in some respects but starkly irreconciliable in others. As exemplified in the Xariiō problem, all the other descendents of the *Koryos point towards a militarized youth group, except in Northian culture where a religious one is described.
Martha Tanner has argued that it is unwise to rework the concept of *Koryos based on Northian evidence, because the Gales ultimately permit only a highly limited and oblique glimpse at the society behind their composers. On the contrary, the concept of *Koryos has been reconstructed based on societies that are well-described in history. Tanner concludes that nothing in the Gales actually contradicts the traditional reconstruction of the *Koryos as a militarized youth group, even though they don't support this reconstruction, "and it is possible that Xariiō were doing the same fighting and pillaging that all the other *Koryo-related groups were doing, when the Galic camera was off, so to say".
Schnider takes the opposite view that Xariiō, as given in the Gales, should be given primacy in reconstructing the Erani-Eracuran *Koryos, simply based on the age of the Gales. He notes that all other evidence for the traditional reconstruction of *Koryos date to at least 1,000 years later than the Gales, and some are not even mentioned by a name cognate with *Koryos. He further argues from a linguistic perspective that Northians lived in an environment with much less contact with other cultures during the Galic period and are much more likely than Tennites and Syarans, upon whose culture the *Koryos is traditionally reconstructed, to have preserved what an Erani-Eracuran *Koryos looked like. This point has not achieved broad acceptance because linguistic conservatism has not been accepted as an indicator of cultural conservatism.
Xariiō hymns
The Xariiō hymns are traditionally sung at the point in the ritual where priests have consumed the sacraments and approach the altar to being thanksgiving. The singers of the Xariiō hymns are called Xariuuaṯ.