Tah OOC : World Information and Signups

[obfuscobble]

Hello Everyone, and welcome to Tah!
There's a wall of text coming below, and I apologise for that. Everything covered in those posts is this world's canon. Everything not covered? Up to you, the players. Despite all the wordswordswords, the essence of this RP is supposed to be entertaining to the players. Also: It's okay to take time in posting!
The IC thread will start up in about a week, by which time character sheets should have accumulated.


A list of the terms unique to this RP, concentrated here on the top for convenience.

Countries
Tah The planet upon which the RP takes place.
Kal Twil Âï Tah area trying to become a country, currently under the control of Zhilmuhl. Main RP setting.
Kapet Run by the military but still largely rural and agricultural.
Kumoto Dictatorship and timescape hub, an offshoot of Mii culture.
Mii Technologically advanced and class conscious timescape hub.
Pulu Sule Politically neutral and trade-oriented.
Zhilmuhl Technologically advanced rapidly industrialised nation. Partial RP setting.

Races
Dan A group of3-7 individuals who work and live together.
Black Builder Genetically engineered slime moulds.
Julhuuid Intelligent cuttlefish.
Orla Flying hermaphroditic therapsids.
Space Bee Hive structured insect-like fungus.

Timescape
Timescape The continuum of universes and timelines. The Dreamlands is a realm of the extra-dimensional beings which exists beyond the timescape as the source of magic.
Deep Math A stranger and grander arithmetic that defines, controls, and comprises other arithmetical systems, like the one we know. Constitutes magic.
Slide Rule A harnessed piece of an extra-dimensional being outfitted to allow its user to cast controlled spells. People who use slide rules are slide rule sorcerors.
Toenail Clippings / Gods' Tears Pieces of extra-dimension al beings that can control universes with deep math.

[obfuscobble]

Tah is a planet much like Earth whose land masses exist in the late Jurassic era, but whose life forms are mostly Cretaceous, with a few notable exceptions. Tah has two natural satellites : one is the moon we are familiar with, and the second is a large asteroid trapped by our moon, which orbits the moon. Global temperatures are a few degrees warmer than our Earth, and the atmosphere has a higher level of oxygen.


Trilobites had a comeback on Tah, and largely replaced fish in the oceans and rivers with bottom dwelling and free swimming variations. Some live on land, and a few species can fly, having adapted their leg coverings. Plesiosaurs and sea scorpions, as well as the ever present molluscs and crustaceans, prey on the trilobites. Most land dinosaurs are appropriate for the mid-late Cretaceous period in South America, Africa, and Antarctica, but a few hadrosaurs have migrated from North America southward. Pterosaurs are nearly extinct because of the flourishing birds. Mammals are rare opossum or shrew-like monotremes, out-competed by the therocephalians. Therocephalian therapsids evolved into a few groups of feather-furred hermaphroditic creatures, some capable of flight.

Flowering plants are a relatively new phenomenon. Antarctica still has none, and there the pines, cycads, cycadeoids, and ferns still rein supreme. Ferns, horsetails, worts, and club mosses still make up the underbrush of most forests and fields. Grass, in the form of rice and bamboo, has evolved in Patagonia. Other flowering plants, mostly found in the north : barberry, bay leaf, beech, cherry, ephedra, elm, fig, grape, iris, laurel, magnolia, maple, oak, palm trees, poppy, rose, sassafras, sycamore, willow. Unless stated here, found in the Viisyal dictionary, or attested by scientific literature, a flowering plant does not exist. All types of pines and ginkgo thrive. (Also, my knowledge of the spread of angiosperms by the Cretacous period is incomplete, so if you can name some more families or species that were extant by then, please share!)


The action in this RP takes place in the southern continents of Tah, which are South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India on modern day Earth. North America and Eurasia exist, but are sparsely populated with mining and logging towns, and heavily populated with hungry animals. There are four countries on the southern continents. While this may seem to be too few, they are all empires after an age of expansion. Also, the dominant land race tends to live in spread-out communities, with flight allowing for quicker travel.

Life in all countries is centred around the "dan" to some extent. A dan (said like "don", plural dan) is made up of 3 to 6 unrelated individuals who live and work together. Often, marriages happen inside the dan, so it doesn't stay unrelated for long. A dan gets together due to a shared purpose between members, such as scientific research, a farm, a political party, the local post office, etc. Dan evolved socially from the ancient dan which were hunting parties. Many dan still meet up due to hunting together after school.



Country: Kapet (kah-pet)
Descriptor: Kapetian
Climates: Grassland, savannah, temperate broadleaf forest, rain forest, desert.
Language: Jedy ("Kapetian"), sounds like Arabic.
Government: Military

General
Kapet is the grain basket of the north. (The north of the southern hemisphere.) Most of its population lives along the "river" that runs down the middle of the northern continent. This river which behaves illogically for a river is actually the beginnings of an inland sea. There are two deserts in Kapet, one on each side of the river in the south, while the north is taken up by savannah and grasslands. Kapet also owns many islands as part of its old trading empire. The islands are laid back places to live, but business is still brisk. Kapet has the largest population of titanic and "classic" dinosaurs, which are considered a tourist attraction.
Most people in Kapet are still farmers or even hunter gatherers out in the bush. The state is run by the military, and military service is both compulsory and a good way to rise in social status. Kapet is in a state of cold war against Zhilmuhl which occasionally breaks out into skirmishes along Zhilmuhl's west coast. Kapet devotes squadrons to Mii for timescape enforcement. Outside of the nobility/high ranking officers, there isn't much timescape interaction in Kapet. The country has its eye on some interplanetary expansion.
Kapetian civilians have a very laid back attitude in general, not just on the islands. They are open with other people, and more accepting of other cultures than the other countries. They are honestly community oriented, used to different tribes coming together on the trade routes. In the military, life is more structured. Kapet supports the west coast pirates.

Names
Children are often named after animals and mythic heroes/spirits. Animals are especially popular because the essential traits of the animal are thought to pass onto the child. Eggs are named right after birth. Once they reach adulthood, a person may take on a title, like bone-crusher, or beloved-petal, or wall-builder. Children take their mother's name as their last name with a matronymic par: Akh par Mehej, Akh (ibis) son of Mehej (lambeosaurus).
Clothing
Loose robes and saris drape over plaid pants held up with thick belts. Head scarves are popular for outside work, decked out in checkers, plaids, hound's-tooth and polka dot patterns. Most people wear roman sandals without socks. Along the Gifu river and Nounai mountains, silk padded dominoes with high collars are popular. More formal clothing has fringes, bangles, and mirrors sewn into the topmost draped cloth. Informal clothing sticks to black colours, white the most popular, with red or navy blue plain underneath.


Towns
name (alternate spelling) ; English pronunciation ; X-SAMPA ;

ʔa Parwa ('a Parwa) ; ah par-wah ; ?a."par.wa: ;
Main city of Parwa, and hub of the spice trade. Many plants on Parwa are nearly exclusive to the island, having migrated there from the Northern Continent. Almost absent of conifers and cycads, Parwa has the richest assortment of broadleaf flowering plants in the South. 'a Parwa is hot and humid, and life is fast paced due to the constant export ships that fly in and out of the harbour.

ʔebet ('ebet) ; eh-bet; "?E.bEt ;
rich farming city on a pseudo-island between two forks of the Gifu. Life in 'ebet is very laid back compared to Ynebhed, rich in local worship and traditions with a reduced military presence outside of harvest time. As the Gifu rises each year, the vast farming plots of 'ebet become engorged with water to feed the coming crops and river creatures to hunt for traditional seasonal foods. 'ebet holds the temple of the crocodile, and to kill a crocodile within city limits is a crime punishable by death. Most of the free roaming reptiles in the city are hand fed and semi-tame.

Ahety Majut ; ah-het-ee mah-joot ; a."hEt.i:.ma."dZUt ;
large plains hunting and tourism city. Ahety Majut still retains the frontier feel despite its size. More cosmopolitan by far than bush villages, this city attracts workers from the bush on its huge hunting expeditions to provide food for Gifu trade that can be caught no where else. Also a popular tourist destination, the sauropods and hadrosaurs of the wide plains and short-forest savannahs provide the city's life blood. Unique amoung orla cultures, some Ahety Majut natives can saddle and ride large dinosaurs kept by their families.

Akhu ; ah-khoo; a."xu ;
military outpost upholding the controversial three-way border between Kapet, Pulu Sule, and Mii. Akhu is almost exclusively a military town, with only general stores and a quiet black market outside its walls being tended by civilians.

Akty ; ahk-tee; "ak.ti: ;
the emerald of the horizon is a far off island nearer to Kumoto than Kapet. All the same, for a few centuries it has been occupied exclusively by kapetian descendants speaking their own kapetian language, and acts as a trade and military outpost. Akty is best known with timescape travellers, serving as a vacation destination for timescape academy students when school is on break. It has one of the most stable timescape portals. Most people on Akty are polyglots in Orla or off-world languages, with tourism and timescape trade as the main occupations.

Gifu ; gii-foo; "gi.fu ;
border city, part Kapet and part Mii. See the entry in Mii.

Hapet ; hah-pet; ha:."pEt ;
port city and mainland port for the Parwa spice trade. Hapet is the main exporter of goods to Parwa, but is also a large Navy port. Hapet seems regimented and stiff to outsiders, but it is the home of many classical dances and was once famous for its extravagant balls. Hapet still holds onto its tradition of big bands and lavish parties, most kept in period dress. Hapet was a decisive city in the first kapetian unification wars, and has a strong historical-reënactment tradition.

Kaʔa (Ka'a) ; kah-ah; "ka.?a: ;
desert outpost and mining city. Life is hard in Ka'a, but its citizens are famous for their open hearts and generosity. Citizens of Ka'a are exempt from the national draft due to their isolated position and the need for their metals and coal by the military itself. A railroad connects Ka'a to Mananu Daru in Kapet and Oumotu in Mii.

Mananu Daru ; mah-nah-noo dah-roo ; ma."na.nu."da.ru ;
lies on very high ground at the source of one of the Gifu tributaries. It is home to the Kapetian library and university, vital in training the educated officers, governors, and scientists of Kapet. Its climate is warm but dry, subject to the same yearly flooding as in 'ebet and Ynebhed. Because of the floods, the library itself is kept at the highest point, partially cut out of a plateau.

Wady ; wah-dee ; "wa.di: ;
important logging city, the hub of non-farming plant trade. surrounded by the lush rainforest that lies sheltered by the Hedet mountains. Its name means green, and the city itself is famous for its horticulture and cultivated exotic plants. Wady has a university, one of the few cntres of learning in Kapet.

Ynebhed ; ee-neb-hed ; "i:.nEb.hEd ;
the cosmopolitan capital of Kapet at the northern mouth of the Gifu river. The centre of government and the three military branches, Ynebhed is sprawling and densely populated. Many people live in Ynebhed itself instead of travelling in from the countryside, and its language and culture differ from other cities, becoming uncharacteristically insular. A trade as well as a governmental centre, Ynebhed suffers from a high crime rate in its outlying ghettos.



Country: Mii (meee)
Climates: Temperate broadleaf forest, rainforest, cold pine forest, swamp.
Language: Viisyal, sounds like Japanese mixed with Zulu.
Government: Emperor and noble parliament.

Mii is a highly cultured and technologically advanced nation. Mii has a temperate climate, full of forests, swamps, and mountain valleys. Technically ruled by an emperor, actual power rests in the hands of the Prime Minister's cabinet. Life in Mii is centred around one's duties to one's family, one's dan, other people, and the state. Civic service, entered into through government exams, is a good life. Mii still has a nobility and a class of hereditary warrior-poets. Class mobility is rare outside of arranged marriage, but any citizen can become very wealthy as a merchant, entertainment icon, or duellist.
Mii is a hotbed of timescape action, since the first Timescape portals were opened there. Mii is still in a state of cold war with Zhilmuhl, and is expanding its empire with embassies across the timescape. On the home front, biotech is in a boom, and timescape trade has opened up a bevy of opportunities. Although there's a healthy middle class, at least one third of citizens in Mii are still farmers or raw-material producers of some sort. Merchants and soldiers alike travel between worlds to trade with or subjugate locals, often at the same time. Mii is famous for its cultural icons and technology, setting the standard for fashion and high-tech. Thanks to the black builders' actual consumption of waste, the lands and waters in Mii, Kapet, Pulu Sule, and Kumoto are clean and fertile.
Mii is not a perfect country. Mii people are highly class conscious, and although polite to another person's face, they aren't very accepting of other timescape races behind closed doors. Mii people think they are superior to everyone else, although they also think that Kumoto people are Mii people. Their culture is full of arts and celebrations, with a rich tradition of myth, literature, and sciences. Their culture is also full of ritual cannibalism of the dead. Highly organised and competitive gangs thrive by the country's nature, and small scale warfare between "businesses" is common.

Names
Children are named after verbs, animals, and plants. Names usually reflect the child's appearance or behaviour. Last names have a high incidence of referring to colours or places. First names are given at a child's third birthday; before that, they are nameless, and given an often insulting dummy-name to ward off evil. (No one would want to take my child, Stupid-Head, right?) Everyone takes on the last name of the mother and the father, the mother's name having precedence.

Clothing
Clothing in Mii reflects the wearer's class, status, and social availability. Sumptuary laws restrict some fabrics and dyes from lower classes. In general, the higher a person's class, the more likely they are to wear silk or velvet dyed with rare animal dyes from ground shells or spittle. Lower classes wear coarse low-grade silks or cotton made from downy horsetails. The nobility use the subtle colours and patterns of their clothing to signal their mood or social attachments, but lower classes aren't as picky.
In general, bright colours are for young or unmarried folk, while older people wear dark or drab shades. Floral and animal patterns printed or painted onto fabric are popular, but they resemble pictures more than repeating patterns. Embroidery is highly sought after for clothing. The general design aesthetic is to capture a sense of the ephemeral, like clouds, smoke, falling petals, and the fluttering of wings, and combine it with elegant curves and bold colour blocks.

An undershirt tucks into either skirt, pants, or oxo (wide pleated skirt-like pants resembling hakama without the side holes, may also be called a skant). Over this, overshirts, jackets, and dominoes layer, sometimes backless, and sometimes draping over the wings. Most over-shirts have a kimono sleeve for storing items, but some do not, and arm covers or long gloves can be worn separately. A belt or waistband ties the outfit together. Formal ensembles do away with pants, wearing layers of overcoats, trains, and butterfly-dominoes held together with a thick belt or wrap tied in ornate and complex bows. Courtly garb is near impossible to fly in.
There are three styles of collar, each made to accommodate wings. The turtleneck wraps around the neck fully, the kimono collar loops in back but crosses in front, and the boat neck bypasses the neck, tucking in over the arm-shoulders. People wear underwear of the tailored or loincloth variety.
The footwear of choice is either zori (like thong sandals), geta (platform sandals), two toed boots, or western shoes; all can be worn with tabi (two toed socks). ((Previous words not italicised because they are Japanese words used for convenience.)) Footwear can extend into a boot up to or over the knee.
Elaborate crowns in the shape of tentacles and tendrils of smoke, shellacked or jewelled trilobite shells with pinching comb-legs, and strings of beads and feathers can all festoon the hair. hair is often kept long and flowing straight or in a ponytail, but complex braided and folded buns are the norm for married women of high standing. Buns and ponytails are often held in place by trilobite combs, but elaborate hairstyles also employ ribbons and hair-pins, often gigantic.


Towns
name ; English pronunciation ; X-SAMPA ;

Gifu ; gii-foo ; gi.p\M ;
border city, part Kapet and part Mii. Gifu is a city that never sleeps. The day is filled with the raucous rhythms of the shipyard, the incessant calls of merchants and traders, the braying of dinosaurs, and a hundred tongues and dances from all over Tah converging in the palatial market squares. Built of cyclopean stone like Pelun and Leusi, the old sector of Gifu gives testament to the timeless history of Gifu as a trade centre for the entire northern continent. Situated on an island inside a wide stretch of the rushing river-sea, Gifu has since broadened into a living dam spanning the Gifu river, running the cranes and lifts of the shipping docks on hydraulic power. Gifu itself is at any time prepared to return to its past as a sovereign city-state, able to run its sewers and large equipment without the black builders. Although technically under control of Mii, Gifu is largely left alone ; it pays no taxes to Mii or Kapet, and governs itself. Everyone in Gifu speaks two or more languages, and all official edicts issue with Jedy Kapetian to the right and Viisyal to the left. Gifu Natives in the lower classes code-switch between languages or speak a local patois with Viisyal grammar and Kapetian loanwords. Natives of Gifu appear half Kapetian and half Mii ; though Mii is more likely to accept them as members of the Mii "race" since they're too hairless to be true-blue Kapetians as far as Kapet is concerned.

Heub ; heh-oov ; hEMB ;
new capital of Mii, home of the Emperor and centre of the non-imperial government. In olden days, members of the powerful noble and merchant families were kept as political prisoners by the Emperor's court in Heub to ensure continued fidelity and tax-payment from the other provinces. Nowadays, Heub is a sprawling city, but its stays on the east bank of the wide southern Gifu mouth apart from some noble country residences on the west bank. A centre of technology and industry, and now the seat o the modern government, Heub is a busy capital city crowded with more people than it can handle. Its streets fill with fad fashion and disorganised gangs. After numerous fires destroyed much of old Heub, the city is almost completely made of black builder constructed coral apartments. Only the emperor's palace remains, an ancient wood and tile building reminiscent of the shrines that still stand in Leusi. The emperor and his family are scarcely seen, hidden behind the palace's thick walls and vast gardens.

Inelda ; ee-nel-dah ; i.nEl.da ;
large farming and hunting centre with a traditional and more slow-paced lifestyle. Inelda is one of the oldest cities in Mii, and also the most resistant to modernisation. Life continues here the same way it always has, hunting and farming, but now alongside modern technology. Not considered hicks like the folks from Oumotu or Larcima, Inelda people have a slight accent and a reputation for friendliness and tradition. Famous for its autumn fields, Inelda blooms into a canvas of colour in the fall, from the fiery maple forests to fields of red cycad fruit, with cloudlike willows and the local rainbow mosses. Most impressive are the endless miles of poppies, imported centuries ago and now cultivated into every shade of red, yellow, and blue. Inelda hosts the largest medicinal opiate factory on Tah, and the second largest production of other drugs.

Larcima ; lar-chee-mah; l\aR.ts\i.ma ;
island city, with an undercurrent of piracy behind its clean trade exterior. Larcima was originally famous for its stunning yellow fields of mustard and its complex rope and basket weaving industries. Larcima is the local centre of the southern numaye island towns and peninsula, speaking a distinct dialect. Larcima has long been a loyal southern state of the old Mii Zeppon culture, and the three forts on Larcima Island, Toxiim island, and the Caguni peninsula still stand majestic and beautiful with deeply hued and sweet scented cedar interiors and indigo roof tiles. Technically, the Larcima fort is a reconsctruction : the city was fire bombed and then hit with a black hole bomb during the Great War. The fort itself has a giant stone egg in the centre with various "spells" and magnetic mechanisms trying to keep the black hole under control. So far, the black hole seems to be dormant. Not allowing itself to mourn over its loss, Larcima and the entire Caguni province have sprung back from the Great War as an industrial and trade powerhouse.

Leusi ; leh-oo-see ; l\EM.si ;
old capital of Mii, economic capital of Modern Mii, and seat of traditional Zeppon culture. In the old Empire, Leusi was the centre of arts, culture, and trade. It still retains its noble heritage as the second largest city of Mii, full of historic monuments, parks, gardens, and palaces. The standard dialect of Viisyal originated in Leusi, and it still retains many peculiar slang features not found in Heub standard. Towering over Leusi is its ancient cyclopean castle, like the work in Pelun and Gifu, seamless and dazzling white with cinnabar roof tiles. The entire city is spotted with historical stone and wood buildings from before the arrival of black builders, with sprawling castles, shrines, walls, and pagodas. Traditional dress and ornamentation weave together with the latest styles on the street, giving the city an otherworldly and anachronistic feel. Everyday life in Leusi is still controlled by the old families, each of which run a kaolu (a gang made up of cooperating dan). Police and government agents from Heub don't dare interfere with the Leusi kaolu. Yet Leusi has a much smaller crime rate than the capital. The general consensus is that it simply exports its crime by being the kaolu power hub, controlling kaolu dan in other cities. After the near extinction of the hereditary warrior-noble class, the oni, during the Great War Leusi was the only city to preserve these traditions and allow for the oni's return two decades later. Leusi is also famous for producing many of the most influential scientists, musicians, and duelists of the past century. Leusi has the second opened and largest timescape portal on Tah, still tended to by the Xutswi space bees. (The first opened portal orbits below the moon.)

Obeis ; oh-beysh ; 7.beis\ ;
former military barracks, now the largest city in Mii control on Antarctica. Obeis speaks the Kumoto dialect but is staunchly loyal to Mii. Obeis is still a largely military town, the rally point for Mii troops sent to the Zhilmuhl border. On the outskirts of the city lie many resorts for tourists going to see the plants and animals exclusive to Antarctica. Most citizens simply consider crisp and windy Obeis to be a lovely place to visit on holidays. Towns north of Obeis export the wood of the Azuzuu forest's ancient pines. For a brief time, Kumoto controlled Obeis.

Oumotu ; oh-moats ; o:.m7.tsM_0;
a quiet trade city in the sparsely populated but warm Yeib mountain region. Oumotu is famous for its ancient towering fir trees, and has an old shrine to their spirits and that of the Yeib mountains high above the city itself in the mountain's foot. Oumotu is centre of the eastern mining region, connected to Ka'a in Kapet. Its climate is colder and milder than its sister city, and its mines became empty long ago, leaving the shrine of the trees as a financial centre for the other mining towns. A long time ago, Oumotu (locally known as Wægdu) was its own country, and the visual and musical themes of the more remote islands are still identical to the ancient ones, including horn-based music and Celtic motifs of interwoven figures and knots. Oumotu province has the highest population of bicycling and motorcycling, where Zhilmuhl-style gas motors have caught the imagination of the youth. Even non-Mii mock the Oumotu accent for its Elmer Fudd quality, unable to say either r's or l's as anything but w's ; although r is in many cases actually said as a g, this doesn't stop comedians.

Tepejmoto ; teh-pethl-moh-toh; tE.pEK.m7.t7 ;
the centre of rice and bamboo production. Tepejmoto strives to be modern, latching onto Heub fads, but still remains a largely agricultural and mining city. the most striking feature of tepejmoto are its countless terrace ricefields cut into the base of the Nounai mountains. Rich in rains, Tepejmoto produces some of the highest yield crops on Tah. Rice first evolved in Patagonia, and Tepejmoto still has the largest variety of rice varieties,m including a monopoly on the purple-coloured "Emperor's rice." Unfortunately, due to their agricultural heritage, most large dinosaurs have been killed off in the area, leaving very little meat to hunt. In response, Tepejmoto is largely vegetarian : people from Tepejmoto have a higher incidence of anaemia and nutritional deficiencies. (Orlas are primarily carnivorous, not omnivorous like humans.)

Other towns: See description in the Our Story Thus Far post.



Country: Pulu Sule (poo-loo soo-ley)
Climates: Temperate broadleaf forest, temperate pine forest, scrubland.
Language: Pa Taka, sounds like Māori.
Government: Tribal, with a parliament of sorts.

Pulu Sule is the Switzerland of Tah. Famous for its banks, luxury merchants, mercenaries, and political neutrality, Pulu Sule is a fertile land of mountain valleys and a long sloping coast. Its climate is Peruvian, with changes in temperature and humidity varying by altitude, not latitude. Pulu Sule is ruled by a council of elders culled from the tribes of the nation. Pulu Sule is a small, plucky country that thinks its best off taking care of its own people.
Pulu Sule is even more xenophobic than Mii, but it has deep ties with that nation, accepting Mii's tourism and allowing more relaxed trade with the country. There are many Pulu Sule expatriates in Mii. Pulu Sule merchants sometimes join Mii merchants in timescape trade, especially the jewel and precious metals trade where they are the experts. Pulu Sule is also famous for its export of luxury goods. Pulu Sule has very rich cultural traditions and ceremonies, but few are shared with outsiders.

Names
Children are named after places, mythical heroes/spirits, or the parent's wishes for the child's future. A good share of first names come with devotional prefixes, attaching the child to the place or spirit. pa = child of ; oi = beloved of ; teo = consecrated to ; ati = servant to. The prefixes stand apart from the mythical names : Pa Sapua, Oi Lutu, Teo Lapa, Ati Peo. Unlike Mii and Kumoto, Pulu Sule only passes on the name of the mother's tribe to the child. Children are named a few days after they hatch.
Heroes / Spirits
Hasutuulu, guardian and patron spirit of Pulu Sule
Sapua, the first Pulu Sule man and beloved of Hasutuulu
Lapa, wife of Sapua originally from Kapet
Kiatia, patron spirit of Pelun
Lanti, patron spirit of Tii Kaalu
Sipuatua, holy book of Pulu Sule holding the words of Hasutuulu and the history of the Pulu Sule people
The ten first children of Sapua and Lapa who were born of a miracle:
An spirit of Sioi, faith and purity
Tee spirit of Tene, charity and sacrifice
Sen spirit of Yasi, hard work
Sie spirit of Lema, kindness and love
Kaa spirit of Peo, patience and wisdom
Lutu spirit of Eeki, bravery
Sine the spirit of Nipu, moderation and thrift
Patu spirit of Hiahi, knowledge
Paseti spirit of Wila, humility
Mati spirit of Ako, peace
(Feel free to add your own.)

Clothing
People from pulu sule tuck heavily embroidered and beaded shirts into skirts. Slim pants are foreign, but skants from Mii have gained in popularity. All adults wear headbands or hairclips with feathers, spangles, or other expensive or symbolic objects attached. Unmarried adults of courting age wear bead-string or loose-weave silk veils over their faces attached to the headband. These become especially elaborate and cover the entire head for the veil of a pregnant or roosting person, or the veils of official village and tribe elders. In recent generations, use of the veil or even the headband have fallen out of favour except on ceremonial occasions, especially in people of mixed Pulu Sule heritage. Everyone in Pulu Sule wears shoes, not sandals.

Towns
name ; English pronunciation ; X-SAMPA ;

Pelun ; pey-loon; pe.lun ;
the capital of Pulu Sule, holds the great meeting hall of the tribes and the grand temple of Hasutuulu. Every year, people come to give devotion to their ancestors and patron spirits here, and the city dances to the sounds of its bustling marketplace. The An tribe controls Pelun. Pelun is a high mountain city, often rainy and always cool. The large stone structures of the city mount were constructed generations ago in the style of Machu-Picchu : mortarless, cyclopean, buttressed by terrace fields, and perfectly draining off the rainwater.

Tii Kaalu ; tee kah-loo; ti:.ka:.lu ;
is the second largest and busiest city in Pulu Sule. A hot and humid bustling coast city, Tii Kaalu is famous for its shipyards and botanical garden. The Paseti tribe controls the city's administration, but many people from the Sen tribe live there as influential merchants, especially in the gem trade.

Kuekue ; koo-ey-koo-ey ; ku.e.ku.e ;
(not pictured) lies to the southeast of Tii Kalu, found further up the mountains where the weather close to the desert is cool but dry. Kuekue, fed by mountain streams, produces some of the finest luxury items. Controlled by the Tee tribe, the businesses of Kuekue still work on an exclusive family-style business model.



Country: Kumoto (koo-moh-toh)
Climates: Cold pine forest, taiga, swamp.
Language: Viisyal, Kumoto dialect.
Government: Dictatorship

Kumoto is a fairly new dictatorship. Carving its lands out of Mii and Zhilmuhl, Kumoto is inhabited by a green-haired race of people who have long held their own cultural traditions under the rule of other kingdoms. Kumoto was liberated at the same time the timescape was opened, and is ruled by an aging dan under an iron fist and a silver heel. Culturally similar to Mii and speaking a dialect of the language, Kumoto is distinguished mostly by clothing, food, and its mythical and literary traditions. Kumoto has allied with Mii in the war against Zhilmuhl, and has heavily fortified its border, one often hot with battles. Away from the Zhilmuhl border, the prosperous dictatorship manages to be at peace with Mii and Kapet. The general consensus in Mii is to continue to believe that Kumoto is only a province of their empire, but be glad that the complainers are quiet now. Kumoto, very active in timescape trade and politics, administrates the timescape academy Rulye. Currently, Kumoto's string of extremely strange dictators continues with rulership by the adopted human-ghoul son of the previous dictator, who was himself married to a black builder.

Names
Children are named after verbs, animals, and plants. Names usually reflect the child's appearance or behaviour. Last names have a high incidence of referring to colours or places. First names are given at a child's third birthday; before that, they are nameless, and given an often insulting dummy-name to ward off evil. (No one would want to take my child, Endless-Wailing, right?) Unlike in Mii where the tradition is done for vague reasons, Kumoto people believe that the names specifically ward off evil spirits who steal children in the night. Everyone takes on the last name of the mother and the father, the mother's name having precedence.

Clothing
Clothes are worn much as in Mii, but local fashion opts for large out-turned kimono collars, resembling suit collars, and a fondness for pinstripe or chalkstripe patterns. Polka dots are popular amoung the youth. Belts tend to be thinner.

Towns
name ; English pronunciation ; X-SAMPA ;

Garabi ; gah-grah-bee; ga.Ra.bi ;
sitting outside the crater of an ancient impact and a line of volcanic hotspots, Garabi is a city known for its glass, salts, and rich soils for growing pine-seeds. Its climate is wet and warmed by a southeastern current. Garabi is a wealthy city quickly industrialising while trying to retain its traditional ways. Garabi cuisine is particular for using fish in combination with its thick cakes of pine flour and rich sauces.

Koxu ; koh-shoo; k7.s\M ;
a city famous for its cinnabar deposits and hotsprings. Although hotsprings also exist in west Mii, the hotsprings of Koxu are famous worldwide for their size and variety. A line of volcanoes and lava flows connect koxu with the far off coast. Cinnabar is the main ingredient in encasing and lacquering deep math slide rules (see the deep math section). Cinnabar mining causes mercury poisoning in orlas and black builders alike, although protective clothing and tools are used. Yet Koxu is best known as a resort town, most tourists not even paying attention to the mining and tanning sectors.

Ohala ; oh-hah-lah; 7.ha.l\a ;
the heavily built fortress city of Ohala is visible from miles around, still expanding and budding off stone-coral appendages. As much of it exists underground as above, and the city itself is like a breathing mountain. A cold and windy city, Ohala houses a large part of Kumoto's population, as well as its government. Consciously constructed as a maze, following the shifting plans of Rulye, no one outside of the core government truly knows what's hidden inside its variegated shell. Primarily and military and bureaucratic city, Ohala also possesses one of the stable timescape portals, used for trade and communication with Rulye. Rumours fly that the previous two dictators of kumoto and their black builder spouses still live deep in the bowels of the city, controlling the country through its current ghoulish leader as a puppet. But in a world where very few people live to 80, no one can live for a century, right? Never mind the story that they became gods. (Obfuscobble's note: The former dictators of Kumoto might show up in the RP if I need to enforce rules with some falling rocks. Everyone at FOG is nice and grown up, though, so I doubt this will happen.)

Rulye ; grul-yeh; RM_0l\.je ;
fully named timescape academy Rulye ; it exists outside of time and space but is by legal definition a city in Kumoto since the entire city is the egg of the first dictator's unborn child conceived through a black builder in the Dreamlands. (...Long story.) Rulye can be accessed from many planets with open timescape portals by sailing or walking to a point which is off the southwest coast of South America on Earth. Other less convenient portals to Rulye open into empty space but still revolve following their local planet. The school itself resembles a large white stone cube with its top torn off violently in arching stairways and towers left behind like scraps of paper. The cube and its insides have no seams ; the stone grows of its own accord. Any part of the spherical campus may be breached through the timescape, from the school, to its vast crescent shaped lawn of ferns, to the water underneath it. Very little in Rulye makes sense, from its e=MCEscher floorplan, to its occasional bouts of dreamlike nonlinear time, to its inability to decide if it's filled with breathable water or breathable air. Every slide rule sorcerer (see deep math section), and most non-Tah ambassadors, have attended Rulye. Recently, the child inside Rulye almost hatched, but the crisis that would have torn a hole in the timescape was averted.



Country: Zhilmuhl (zhil-mool)
Descriptor: Zhilmuhlish
Climates: Cold pine forest, swamp, taiga, steppe, tundra.
Language: Rotenmuhl (Zhilmuhlish), sounds like Cantonese mixed with Welsh.
Government: Oligarchy, supposed communism.

Zhilmuhl is a rough country, struggling to industrialise and care for its people in spite of its ruling class. Ruled by the military and a greedy oligarchy, Zhilmuhl keeps its people trapped in cities and slums to feed its technological development. Zhilmuhl is also the country with a culture the most similar to what a player would be used to: people live primarily in cities, all technology is based on metals, electricity, and plastics, automobiles are everywhere, and it has an undercurrent of Victorian values. About a century ago, Zhilmuhl was able to conquer its neighboring countries and nomadic tribes through superior military strategy, advanced weaponry, and a monopoly on high-yield grains after a continent-wide draught.
Before the world war, there was bio-tech in Zhilmuhl, but during the war, all bio-tech was abandoned and destroyed, along with all black builders. Thus, all technology had to start from the ground up using metal and electricity, unlike the standard everywhere else in the world. Some very old people still remember the black builders, and look back on those days fondly. However, most sympathisers were killed during the initial cultural revolution and subsequent political pogroms. Social advancement can only be had legally through military or civil service, and the cities are kept as government-dependant welfare states where everything is rationed.
Zhilmuhl manages to feed itself, and still has a large nomadic population on the plains and tundra. The southernmost country, it can get very cold, but is still covered in ferns. Zhilmuhl claims to be a union of equal states, but many ethnic groups still agitate for independence. The largest political problem comes from the west coast pirates. Zhilmuhl envies the timescape trade in the north and just across the Kumoto border, but it doesn't control any portals. Of course, the west coast pirates and the east coast black market travel east and north regularly to do trade with Pulu Sule, Kapet, and Kumoto.
Zhilmuhl people in the city are quick witted and as wary of their government as they are dependant upon it. The nomads out on the tundra still largely enjoy their bucolic life, but with the cities taking out most of the dinosaur population for its own use, it's getting hard to follow the herds. Zhilmuhl is coming up on an oil crisis, and its land and waters suffer from pollution. The police force in Zhilmuhl is separate from the military and government, but subordinate to them. All the same, the police try to uphold law and order in the cities, and are more trustworthy than any other organisation. Some say they're even planning a coup.

Names
Children are given a one-syllable name that combines with the two-syllable tribe name taken from their father. Names are chosen mostly to sound pretty. Some regions have a tradition of naming children after their grandparents or great-grandparents ; this is unique to Zhilmuhl. Eggs are named after birth.

Clothes
A heavy insulated poncho with a high collar falls over armbands, pants, a wide belt, and thick boots. Most clothing is made of leather, a felt material made of plant fibres, and down. If at all possible, feathered dinosaur hides line clothing, the feathers carefully sealed in place. Furs from timescape trade are a best seller on the black market of the Kumoto border. All clothing under the poncho is tied in place. The poncho itself can fall to any length, so long as there are slits in the sides to allow the wings to extend. The poncho is often studded with decorative metal plates, thread or quill-embroidered scenes, and post-mortem tattoos in the leather itself. Decorative motifs of herds and yurts on the tundra or the open sky predominate, specked with impossibly colourful birds.
Everyone keeps their hair in dreadlocks or tight braids capped with metal clasps, but over this often sit thick hats with earflaps. People in the city are often lighter-dressed than country-dwellers, to the latter's disdain. Higher up in the government, socialites have even begun to wear "suits" like Kumoto fashion ; they even show off their arms and legs. (The scandal!)


Towns
name (alternate spelling) ; English pronunciation ; X-SAMPA

Daf ; daf; d{f_M ;
A research centre surrounded by open plains and farmlands. Daf locals speak the Pipshudz city dialect, and long term residents of its research facilities and university often begin to pick up the local patois. For decades, local farmers have had to put up with both the science geeks that lurk in the labs and the college students that swarm the universities. Sitting on high ground near the source of a Pip river tributary, Daff has constantly windy weather without the warmth of the east coast. With tales of the timescape riches accrued by the north, one of Daf's major priorities is to open Zhilmuhl's first timescape portal.

Lätsring (Latsring); LOTS-gring; l\ats_H.RiN_M ;
surrounded by a thinning forest of pine trees, a city with a temperate climate and friendly atmosphere (unless you're a tree hugger). Trains connect Lätsring with Pipshuff and Mïthuj, but the city itself likes to maintain a less industrialised common life. The older generation bemoans the loss of the Hëkë forest, but with the increased demand for wood in construction and energy, Lätsring finally has a way to pull its population out of hand to mouth existence. Yet the old people still say that living off of the forest was a better way of life ; increasing numbers of young people from all over Zhilmuhl agree with them, starting Tah's first hippie movement. Lätsring hates its hippies, and regularly ships them off to forced communes on the large island of Tömuhl. The Tömuhl islanders don't like the immigrant influx, and have secondarily shifted the hippies to their largest outlying island. Lätsring is also known for its wickerwork and fancy papercrafts, including delicate origami.

Lhëmmäj (Lhemmaj) ; lllem-mothl; 5em_R.maK_H;
a tundra outpost by the Lhëm (or Vņ) lake serving mostly as a convergent place for the migratory tundra tribes. Each tribe is required to travel to Lhëmmäj to pay their taxes, complete the census, and in return have their complaints heard and attended to. It's a love-hate relationship. Lhëmmäj "locals" are almost entirely shipped in from other provinces of Zhilmuhl, although one nomadic tribe, calling itself Vņ after the lake, makes its circuits regularly in the general area. The nomads speak a different language from the civil servants, who themselves aren't always trained in the nomad languages. Officials who come from nomad families consequently get the most work done, while everyone else pushes paper. The city is cold, but surrounded by forest, and its lake is relatively clean. It's not the worst place for a civil servant to be sent after he's pissed off someone in management.

Mïthuj (Mithuj); MEET-hoothl; mit_H.huK_M;
mining town, fishingport, and industrial city. Mïthuj lies at the foot of the Lhohl mountains in a sheltered harbour. Most of its population are miners or fishers, and the city shares the sleepless lights of Pipshuff. On the border of the Kalsh zone, Mïthuj has a lot to worry about. Tensions rise in the city with the increasing military presence, and war is on every tongue. Mïthuj wants to stay out of war, but it has had to defend itself in the past, and it will stand up to both the Kalsh pirates and its own Zhilmuhl government if it must. Mïthuj refines and ships a lion's share of Zhilmuhl's metals, from steel to zinc. The people are tough, and don't take anything lying down. About 40% of natives speak Kalsh as well as Zhilmuhlish.

Mļt (Mlt) ; mult; M5=t ;
The local capital for a group of tundra-welling fishing tribes. Sedentary, unlike the other tundra tribes, the natives of Mļt and sister island Snui readily cooperate with the Zhilmuhl government in exchange for subsidies. In addition to fishing, the Mļt natives also house a secret submarine base and are sought after as spies. Classes on the island are sharply divided between the fishers, the submariners, and the upper class bureaucrats and spies, but the general feeling on these cold islands is that the natives are getting one over on Zhilmuhl, not the other way around. Only a few people in Mļt speak Zhilmuhl, and these people usually speak a third language as well.

Pipshuff ; peep-shoofff; pip_M.Suf:_M ;
Locals call it Pipshudz. pip-shoodz ; pIp_M.SUdz_M ;
a concrete wasteland of blinking lights that never sleeps. The capitol of the Zhilmuhl State of United Republics, Pipshuff (Pipshudz to locals) heaves itself onto the Pip river, sweating steel and oil. Outside of the government, Pipshudz speaks its own dialect, a local outgrowth of the area's sound change combined with the mingling slang of other nomad and west coast languages. Although usually mutually comprehensible with the Daf dialect, some Pipshudz slums are incomprehensible to outsiders. The city is largely taken over by factories and treatment plants, working hard to deal with the garbage, sewage, and industrial waste produced by the city. Ultimately, a lot still goes into the Pip river, but it shouldn't be assumed that the place is a toxic seep : people are trying to keep things clean and healthy. Still, the populace has yet to come to grips with the heavy metals and air pollution caused by Zhilmuhl's rapid industrialisation, and the city is more than willing to overlook the garbage dumps that sit just out of sight, even if they can't ignore some of the new diseases that have cropped up. The buildings in this and most other Zhilmuhl cities are of the apartment or skyscraper type, including the "golden palace," a giant termite-hill complex made of boxes and towers encased in a copper-gold alloy that houses the government.

P'ÿê Cho, Long Cho, and Tweng Âï Cho : See Kal Twîl Âï




Country: Kal Twîl Âï (call-twill-eye)
Descriptor: Kalsh
Climates: Taiga, steppe, tundra.
Language: Wai'yung, sounds like Cantonese.
Government: Under the control of Zhilmuhl, but still loyal to the old monarchy.


General
Kal Twîl Âï was an independent country under a king before the Zhilmuhl expansion. The Kalsh fought hardest against the Zhilmuhl, and have always been a hotbed for revolution. Two large-scale revolts have been squashed in the past, and the region now lives under a strict martial law. Zhilmuhl wants to maintain control over the region for its rich ore and mineral deposits.
Kal Twîl Âï is most famous for its pirates. Dashing from port to port just ahead of the navy and army, stealing from the rich supply ships and trains in Zhilmuhl, fostering black market trade with the north, and enjoying near universal popular Kalsh support, the pirates pose a gigantic problem for Zhilmuhl. The pirates are linked directly to funding the revolutionary groups and talk a good game about redistribution of wealth and adherence to the true ideals of Zhilmuhl unity, but they are still pirates who steal and destroy for a living. Kalsh pirates stay unmolested by most northern ships, but when they occasionally try to plunder these ships, the pirates are never given free reign to loot even if it is "for the cause." In fact, they're most often given deadly force in return for their collection calls. All the same, Pulu Sule traders and many Mii kaolu support the pirates, either by hiding their trade routes, giving port, or sending military backup. In the eyes of many, the line between a Kal Twîl Âï pirate and a Kalsh revolutionary is a fine one. For good or for bad.
The Kalsh speak a different language in the southern tonal family, and their tight flashy clothes shock most easterners. Their cuisine relies more heavily on seafood, and rice is becoming a popular grain, imported on the sly from Mii to replace seed ferns and pine nuts. Kal Twîl Âï has a rich history of metallurgy and carpentry, and its historic kingdom had quickly expanded from the mountains into the far west coast and tundra. When Zhilmuhl invaded, Kalsh society was already in decline. The cities had become decadent, decorated in baroque motifs and ruled by a dangerously expanding ruling class and its unworking children. Now, the royal family has been obliterated by mass executions and the dilution of royal blood through intermarriage. Multiple heirs vie for the revolutionary throne.

Names
Children are given a one-syllable name that combines with the two-syllable family name taken from their mother. Children are named at their hatching. Names are chosen to sound pretty, but anything that happens around a child's hatching will be incorporated into the name. For example, being named after a bird that was singing, or a bright flash in the sky, or the fishermen returning home in the evening.

Clothing
The Kalsh enjoy showing off their legs despite (or perhaps because of) the cold climate. Instead of the long bottoms worn by northerners and westerners, they often wear short skits and pants over leggings or kneesocks. Their ponchos are either light and ruffled, or replaced with turtleneck style tops like those in Mii. Audacious colours and fabrics are popular, with spandex, nylon, and vinyl joining leather.


Towns

Tweng Âï Cho, tweng aww-EE cho; tweN_M.ai_F_R.ts\7_M ;
the capital city of the Kal Twîl Âï region sitting on the Ngai river. Seed ferns wash over the horizon studded by browsing iguanodonts. The river is vast and millennia deep, its sides steep in places and heading for the grand falls a mile away. The city is crowded with wood and brick houses but spread out over both banks of the river. Every day, more troops arrive as pirate activity increases, but all easterners are easily paid off to overlook the docks, even if they find it hard to ignore the strange fluting black builder calls that come from the unnaturally light-dappled river on moonless nights. Every time a house is searched, a boat is quarantined, or the river is dredged, the military finds nothing. The local joke holds that the entire city has a trap door. Legally, Tweng Âï Cho is a trade city that brings together the goods of the west coast. Illegally, especially in the minds of the officials in Pipshuff, it's a hive of scum and villainy.

Maoʔ Cho : an even worse hive of scum and villainy.
Assumed Pirate HQ. (not pictured; to the north of Tweng Âï Cho)

P'ÿê Cho, PEE-ey cho ; p_>ie_R_F.ts\7_M ;
a port city sheltered in the coastal bristlecone pines of sickle bay. P'ÿê Cho provides Zhilmuhl with the resources normally monopolised by Kumoto and Mii. Inland, the terrain quickly turns to tundra, and with the depletion of the forests themselves, invasive scrub from the southeast creeps in year after year. Old irrigation channels left by the previous generations sit dry, their ornately carved black builder bowls long ago stripped of precious metals and jewels. The city can still remember when it turned the tundra a bright green with towering ferns and trees, a story told by the mosaics blanketing the bottoms of the stone-floor forums and bath houses. The weather is hot and dry.

Long Cho, lung cho; l7N_M.ts\7_M ;
a mining city near the source of the Ngai river, and one of the oldest Kal Twîl Âï settlements. Long Cho has the richest deposits of iron, phosphorous, and aluminium in Antarctica. The city has had to move around the mountain a few times over the centuries as it depleted the ore veins in the local vicinity, and around the modern city sit the ruins and gaping mineshafts of generations past.

Other towns: See description in the Our Story Thus Far post.

[obfuscobble]

There are four "native" races on Tah. Below I have information on these races, but anyone is free to play another race that has come through the timescape portals. For that, see the end of this post.


Flying hermaphroditic therapsids, orlas are found all over the lands of Tah.
This section may have way too much information.

Body
Orlas stand between 3 to 4 feet tall with wingspans of 8.6 to 11.5 ft. That's 100 to 122 centimetres tall, with 262 to 350 centimetre wingspans. They're pretty tiny. Their bodies are proportionately longer than humans', with hollow birdlike bones and a three-hole cranial structure.
The weight of an orla by height: 3ft 26lb, 4.5ft 36lb, 4ft 46lb. 100cm 12kg, 107cm 16kg, 122cm 21kg. Exact wingspan is calculated as height x 2.88 .

Orlas lost their tails, the legs taking over for balance and holding onto trees. Orlas can walk upright, and after their ancestors left the trees this became their primary mode, but they are still at home climbing things in any direction, their cities covered in ladders, railless exterior stairs, and branchlike clambouring structures instead of interior stairwells.


Orla wings fit into a socket with a second set of shoulder blades overlapping those of the arms. The manubrium and sternum are strengthened and enlarged, but not to the size of proper birdlike breastbones. The structure of the wing is similar to that of the arm and hand, with webbing between the fingers. the thumb is separate from the other fingers, bearing a claw for defence. The membrane of a wing usually attaches to the back above the navel, leaving a small strip above the hips. The area of the wing nearest to the torso is stretchy with many folds. The membrane further out and between the phalanges is more taut and thin, letting through some light. The blood vessels nearer to the palm of the wing's hand can stain the wing purple. The phalanges of the wing can bend just like in a hand. Wings fold up behind the orla's body when not in use.

When flying, an orla flaps its wings to gain altitude and speed, or one glides. Wings are powered by massive muscles on the back and torso as well as the wing-arms. To take off, an orla runs and jumps from the ground while flapping its wings; or it will launch itself off of a tree, building, or launching post, and then flap. In both cases, the long muscular legs are a key to the initial upward propulsion. In flight, bending or spreading the legs can steer or slow an orla like a rudder or tail.

Orlas usually have five fingers: four phalanges and an opposable thumb. Orlas from the southern plains and tundra have six fingers. Orla fingernails are thick, flat, and grow slowly. Orla feet have two "toes". The four or five toes other than the big toe are partially merged and encased in the same fleshy outer toe with a merged nail on top. This nail is flat, thick, and slow growing like fingernails. The big toe has a large talon used for hunting, defence, and tree climbing. The powerful muscles of the orla leg can send the foot talon into prey with fairly thick skins. When using the talon to attack from a swooping dive, the legs will be brought up just before contact during the upturn of the swoop, then crashed down into the prey. Because legs are also used to take off for flight, a jumping kick is also a viable option. Often, the wing claws come down secondarily to further pin the prey or deliver a more accurate strike, while the orla's hands hold on.

Skull

Orla skulls have two more openings than the human skull, left over as weight-decreasing measures from their long-snouted ancestors. The skull bones are slightly denser and harder than the other bones in an orla skeleton. Because of their many neck vertebrae and the neck's S-shape, orlas can turn their heads almost 180 degrees in either direction. In the above picture, the orla head and human head appear the same size for comparison purposes, but in reality the orla head is smaller.
Although orlas have eye-rings, their eyes can move independently of the head. Eyes are forward facing with binocular vision and good depth perception and movement detection. Orlas can see colour, and are particularly sensitive to violet and blue. Pupils are round.

Orla ears have external skin folds with an extended tragus. Although this assists in collecting sound in general and detecting sounds from behind, it is also a trait purely from sexual selection. Some orla ears point straight up, some up at 45 degrees, and some have their longest part bent over to give the appearance of a right angle. Having ears straight back at 90 degrees is rare, and an ugly trait. All ears have a flat ending.
Kapetians have fur on their ears, giving the ears a pointed appearance. Some kapetians have lynxlike tufts. Since the advent of modern surgery, orlas with 90 degree ears often have the ear bent down. A slice of the ear is taken out of the bottom, with the top cartilage broken and bent over.


Orlas have 50 teeth. The upper teeth have four incisors, and six serrated fangs. The lower teeth have six incisors, and four non serrated canines. The rest of the teeth are fangs that have been turned over and interlocked with one another to create a molar-like surface. All six fangs can be seen when an orla smiles wide.

Internal Organs
Orla lungs are exceptional for having ancillary air sacs that extend into nearby bones, as in birds. The airway is separate from the digestive system, and orlas possess a soft palate.
The orla vocal chords are large, allowing them to speak in human tones, surprising for their size. Depth of a voice varies by orla and the orla's mood. When happy or pleading, the voice tends to soar into young-female ranges, while anger and sadness dip into adult-male ranges. The femininity or masculinity of an orla's face has nothing to do with the timbre of one's voice.
The orla uvula is stiffer and flatter than a humans', like a little door, and can be immediately contracted to stop up the nasal opening. It acts more like a valve than the fleshy dangling human form. Orlas can purr with their mouths closed because of this, but it's only a fun trick, not a physiological or psychological response as in cats. It's more like how many humans can roll their tongue into a tube or make a clover shape with it ; neither of which an orla can do. Orlas are also unable to make an exaggerated gulping noise.

The orla digestive tract begins with the throat, followed by a crop, then stomach, then intestine. The crop is filled with stones and other hard objects swallowed during life to initially break up food. The crop can be emptied at will. The lining of the crop can be sloughed to produce crop milk for babies.
Intestines have only one tract, and the resulting waste is a combination or faeces and urine, in a whitish paste or powder of uric acid around black chunks. Orlas are no more efficient at processing food than humans, but producing uric acid as a powder like birds helps retain water at the price of being energy-consumptive compared to human urine production.
Orlas have kidneys and livers like humans. There is nothing different about the stomach, although it is not as good at digesting un-ground food as a human's. Three ducts link the gall bladder and intestine. They have two pancreases, one for hormones, and the other for digestive enzymes. Although tightly adjacent like lobes of the brain, the pancreases each have multiple separate ducts.

While bones may not produce as many red blood cells as those of humans', the large orla spleen holds up that job marvellously. The endocrine and lymphatic systems or orlas are similar to humans in most other respects. Orla blood appears purple when oxidised, blue otherwise. Although orlas use haemoglobin like humans do, they have a vividly blue tinged antifreeze in their blood. This was evolved to fight the cold of Antarctica, where they evolved, along with the cold of flying in high altitudes.

Reproduction
This RP will definitely not be about orla sex. All the same, an understanding of the reproductive system may be important for realising a character. I'll treat the subject gently.
Orlas are simultaneous hermaphrodites with one reproductive tract. Stiff muscles in the tract as well as specialised hormones prevent self-fertilization. Any orla can at any time sire or bear a child, except for the two years while crop feeding an infant.
After fertilization, the orla egg grows and forms its white and blue-speckled calcified shell. This gestation lasts for 10 days. The egg is birthed and then roosted for 160 days (about 4 months). A roosting mother orla curls around her egg in the foetal position, wings covering her sides. She relies on her mate for food. The mother will instinctually dig a dip in the earth for roosting and line it with leaves and soft or warm objects, making a pit-nest. In more modern societies, this leads to the cultural invention of roosting bowers, often lined in silks and downs, with beaded and sequined canopies. Pulu Sule and West Coast Zhilmuhl are known for the utter segregation of roosting mothers in their rich bowers, the layers of fabric and bead chains as beautiful as they are impenetrable.


An orla hatches by kicking its shell open, foot talons already sharp and strong. After hatching, it takes two years to wean an orla baby. Initially, the baby is fed crop milk, the sloughed nutrient-rich interior walls of the mother's crop grown during roosting. Repeated crop stimulation after initial crop feeding allows for a somewhat reliable natural birth control, but doesn't work unless the mother has crop fed recently. The crop milk is at first supplemented and then replaced with milklike secretions from an orla's areolas, like the milk glands of monotremes. The areola milk has few nutrients unlike crop milk, but is rich in enzymes, hormones, and immune cells to set up the baby's immune and endocrine systems, as well as initiate its growth.
When they hatch, orla babies are still immature, even more so than human babies. Their wings are stunted flaps that do not fully develop until they are 5. By 7, an orla can fly. Orlas mature slowly and require a lot of parental involvement.
Orlas reach sexual maturity between 19 and 21 years of age. 21 is almost universally the cultural year of adulthood. During puberty, the sexual organs fully develop, and hormones initiate awareness of a different type of intimacy possible between non-related orlas. Puberty begins at 15-16.

Courtship is strange. Across cultures, orlas exchange gifts or displays representing their fitness as fathers. For example: hunting and presenting large or rare game, performing elaborate flying hunting manoeuvres, giving expensive items, beating up another orla, singing love songs, being successful in one's field, building a proper roosting nest bower. Fitness as a mother depends on beauty or sexiness, which vary by culture or personal taste. Most intriguing is the universal gesture for "I really like you" : a slap to the face.
TMI The slap stems from the fights that always precede procreation. Subconsciously, neither orla wants to be the mother, having to expend extra resources. Every few months, fertility is chosen in a fight, whether or not fertilization happens. I won't go into further details, but suffice to say flatworms are intriguing. /TMI

Appearance
Orla faces come in a variety of shapes. Here are three orlas with human colouration.

Oh hey, those are some perfectly fine looking elve…

OH GOD SKIN DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
Capslock over, we see that faces can be anything from female looking, to male looking, to court mandated therapy. Although hermaphrodites, face shape is more controlled by what a local group finds sexy. Preferences vary by region, with each country having different provinces where one or another face shape is common, and cities having a milieu of all three.


Orla hair is not like human hair. It's closer in structure to bird down, but is long and thin. Orlas have no body hair, but they do have eyelashes, eyebrows, and small hairs in the nose and ear.
Most of these hair-feathers have a light-scattering structure that gives them a blue hue. If the hair is crushed or damaged, the blue hue is lost, and the red or yellow pigments underneath come out. Yellow hair is therefore a very ugly trait. Purple and blue are the most common colours.
Green (technically grue) hair has a yellow carotenid pigment. It is found almost exclusively in orlas with a Kumoto heritage living in Mii and Kumoto.
The reddest red at the bottom of the chart is only found in orlas with the horned morph. Or orlas that dye or crush their hair. The morph is a regular mutation that is hard to pass on to offspring.
Hair is uniformly straight except in orlas with the green skin mutation, below. Hair otherwise curled always forms sleek banana curls.

Eye colours tend towards reptilian and avian colours. Eye colour is usually dominated by the mother's genes. There are no true blue eyes, only a light grey formed by mutual expression of the other colours. White, yellow, and orange eyes are very dilute brown eyes.

The skin colour chart shows different levels of shading for the violet blood on the skin.

Orla skin is uniformly of a yellowish chalky tone due to a layer of anti-UV fatty tissue. Darkness varies by region. In port cities, any skin tone is possible. Green skin happens because of a recessive mutation. The mutation can be passed on to children. It produces a copper green pigment in the skin and hair in addition to the skin's pigmentation, and curls hair. The curly hair is fluffy and fuzzy because of the feather-down structure of orla hair.

Phenotypes
Orlas do not distinguish race primarily by colouration. Rather, the main differences in orla "race" have to do with body hair.
Kapetian orlas have the most body hair. Their hair extends all over the top of their wings, onto their arms, and some have chest hair. Kapetian hair also grows on the cheeks and outer ears. There are no green or blue haired kapetians, and their skin tends to be tanned.
Orlas from Mii, Pulu Sule, and Kumoto have hair that extends down their neck, then forks to cover the arms, the thumb, and first digit of the wings. Their actual arms are hairless. Mii are famous for having very light skin. Orlas from Kumoto have the highest incidence of green hair, a national trait, and may be very dark.
Southern orlas only have hair on their head and nape. They are always dark skinned, from dark tan to mahogany. Southern orlas native to the plains and tundra have six fingers on their hands and wings.

Horned orlas are a recurring mutation. The mutation is difficult to pass onto children. Horned orlas grow square cross-section horns that arc upward. The horns line up with the eyes and start about an inch or 3cm behind the hairline. Horned orlas are shorter than average, and have a large incidence of pure red or pink hair. Green hair overrides the red colouration. There are no horned orlas who are also green-skinned. Most horned orlas are left handed. The closest relative of the orla, the salawa, has horns of this type, so having horns is a sort of primitive feature.

Green skinned orlas are a recessive mutation. About 12 percent of orlas are green skinned, so it's not uncommon to find one. All green skinned orlas have soft curly or wavy hair. The green pigmentation is copper based, but not deleterious to health. Green skin is passed down to children if both parents have the gene. The same mutation occurs in some salawas, so it appears to be a standard mutation in the therapsid line.
Wingless orlas are unfortunate. They are looked upon with pity, and have to work to be accepted into society as fully hardy individuals instead of being locked away in gilded cages due to their "delicate" nature. They have a high incidence of lacking the epicanthal fold characteristic of other orla eyes, and tend to be quite tall. Wingless orlas use gliders to travel.


The cuttlefish people, julhuuid, mostly keep to the seas since they can't breathe air, but in bigger cities they'll have tank enclaves. Since the julhuuid initially developed most of the biotechnology, they're great choices for that Oracle or Penelope Cruz character. Also, they're far more advanced in their underwater cities, rationing what advancements the surface world gets. In response, the surface world works on its own advancements.


Biology
Julhuuid are not much different from cuttlefish as we know them on Earth. Their mantles (the length without the tentacles) are just under a foot and a half long; 42 cm. They weigh about 11 pounds; 5 kg. Julhuuid do not vary in size as much as orlas. The main variation in size occurs due to age, so most adult julhuuid are the same size.

Julhuuid come in a standard mottled sepiatone. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sepiapharaonis.jpg ] Here's a good wikipedia picture.[/url] (I'm linking to these open source wikipedia pictures because my cuttle-fu in art isn't good enough to match nature, and because frankly they look just like cuttlefish.) Julhuuid can change each of their chromatophores independently with a wide range of colours, patterns, and textures. They can see polarised and ultraviolet light.

Life Cycle
Julhuuid hatch from standard cuttlefish egg cases, tended to by their mother. Once they hatch, the mother looks after the breed for a few days, then leaves. Young julhuuid must fend for themselves, catching food and avoiding predators like any other ocean animal. They reach sexual maturity in three years, then find other julhuuid for breeding. This is when they stop acting like normal cuttlefish.
After breeding and laying eggs, neither parent dies. The mother will tend to her young until they hatch, but then follows the father to the second stage of the julhuuid life cycle. Continuing to live, julhuuid intelligence continues to develop. Eventually, the individual adult post-breeding julhuuid will find others of their kind living in vast cities beneath the waves. Here, the cuttlefish work together loosely.


Society
Julhuuid treat one another with deference, but their society has little true group cohesion. Think of it as a wiki society: a bunch of individuals work towards a goal, correcting the work of one another, but never do the twain meet. Julhuuid cities are large and sprawling, and each house or manor belongs to only one cuttlefish. Julhuuid form friendships, but seldom live together. They never mate in the second life-stage, since they lay all of their eggs after their first and only mating. Each julhuuid is attended to by at least one non-sentient black builder.

The cuttlefish are very good at herding and breeding underwater creatures, with vast farms of trilobites, shrimp, crabs, corals, sea cucumbers, sponges, and flat worms. Fire is unknown to julhuuid, but they can use the heat of underwater vents to create electric power and melt ores. They are obsessed with gold. Julhuuid first created black builders, the root, and most other biology-based technology, which they exported to the surface in exchange for gold.

Julhuuid do not wear clothing, and do not speak a language. They communicate with a tentacle-based sign language in conjuction with the colours and patterns of their tentacles and mantle. They originally used a type of pitted braille writing etched into bone or stone, but since the advent of chromatophore screens and the root, they have a system of logogram characters. The Braille is still used for ceremonial occasions, but the characters are the everyday writing.
Julhuuid law is based on communal consensus. Different city groups have their own laws, and the cuttlefish regularly choose "admins" to act as police and judges. Admins are usually older cuttlefish. Age holds rank for julhuuid, but not by total years lived. The longer a julhuuid has lived and worked in a specific location gives him or her more status. If he or she moves to a new city, his or her status once again becomes low unless their clout can manage to precede them.

Interaction with the Surface
Few julhuuid live on tanks on the land, but those that do are merchants, black builder programmers, or ambassadors. The julhuuid that work on the surface can read and write surface languages, but don't understand the spoken word. Each julhuuid or small group thereof works independently. There is a general julhuuid agenda, but it only exists in the eyes of outsiders who see the cuttlefish all working and reacting in the same foreign manner.
Many julhuuid have a big presence on the root systems of other races and countries. The society of forums and posting boards is familiar to them. Combined with their unparalleled expertise in biotechnology and programming, julhuuid make very good root gurus. They also enjoy playing games and sharing artwork. One can even be best friends with a julhuuid "on the root" and not even know it.


Bees. My god. Space bees have a colony or two in Mii, but they can fly anywhere else on business. These colonies are getting pretty old. Also, a new space bee could land on a continent at any time, from space, trying to establish a new colony. But why do they collect brains in cans?

The touching love story of space bee and space bee.

Biology
Space bees are an alien organism closest in cell structure to a fungus. They evolved to be space-faring a long, long time ago and have since spread through the galaxy.
Like animals, space bees consume other animals and plants for food ; like fungus, they don't particularly care what they consume but require lots of water and minerals. Their internal organs are insect-like with a simple digestive, circulatory, reproductive and respiratory system. Their organs are mostly kept inside a leathery but hard exoskeleton, soft near joints and on the membranes of their wings and neck. The exoskeleton has a pinkish colour in most colonies. The exoskeleton plates can shift to expand for abdominal "breathing". Space bees have five sets of legs that can tightly fold up against their bodies. Each leg has a sensitive and dextrous pincer in a ball socket joint.

Space bee brains are highly complex, and they do not sense like animals at all. Antennae on their heads give off light from all over the spectrum, from infrared to visible light to ultraviolet, and a complex organ behind that sends out and translates radio signals. The head can sense light from almost every direction, but in a diffuse way. Antennae must pool together in convex dish shapes to focus light for more accurate vision. The antennae pick up vibrations from sound waves, and their hardy stalks can rub against each other to create modulated buzzing sounds. The actual brain is housed safely in the chest cavity.
The radio organ is most sensitive to "short wave" signals from within a few thousand miles sent from one member of a hive to another and the powerful "very long wave" signals from other space bees across the galaxy. Space bees use radio to communicate with each other, but supplement close range communication with a series of clicks from their pincers and joints. Long range space radio is used for coördinating meet ups between queens, and queens retain the highest sensitivity to these wavelengths. Queens can keep track of their position in galactic space by creating their own star maps. They relate their positions to one another by exchanging star maps with the stars' brightness, colour, radio activity, and other qualities coördinated with their distance from the galactic centre. Long range discussion can also delve into science and mathematics, or any subject that can be properly conveyed within the limited scope of their built-in language of numbers, stellar objects, and vague personal feelings. Short range radio encodes information like human radio, and every planet develops its own patois for communication between members of a hive.

Baby space bee queens are raised by their mother for a few months, being taught everything the mother knows in addition to its instinct imprinting. The baby queen then constructs a very large spherical spaceship to launch itself into space with the help of its mother's hive. The queen itself is very small, about the size of a cat. Once in space, the baby queen enters a state of hibernation until it reaches another solar system suitably far away from its mother. Along the way, if it passes unfertilised queens who have claimed a planet or moon, it will land to mate. Most queens mate with about four other queens before beginning a hive.
Once a baby space bee has found an uninhabited solar system, it must look for a planet which can culture life. Many space bees keep going until they find life already extant. A minority will look for other colonies to cuckoo, but such takeover moves are risky. A space bee's instinct tells it to look for a species that will nurture them. In the case of a large mobile species, the space bee will construct its first shell.
Every space bee is capable of constructing a biomechanical shell to imitate a species. The shells are complex, but vary in sophistication and ability to truly mimic the flesh of their host species. Space bee queens born to mothers who have had experience blending in with other life forms will be taught better construction techniques after birth, and thus fare better on populated planets. However, these bees do not do so well on unpopulated planets where space-resistant mining shells are better called for. Each type of space bee queen will mate with the other : a shell's complexity and utility is a purely cultural artefact.

If a space bee queen lands on a planet with intelligent life, it will blend in and use its shell to be adopted. The shell will give the space bee the motility and general specialised senses of the species. This is all done subconsciously, so until its own sexual maturity the space bee queen thinks it is a member of its host species. Perhaps a few strange dreams may persist from its space-faring days. The ability to blend into the culture of their host species' gives space bees a reproductive advantage if they can then convince the species to take care of them, or even to take care of their young. Sexual maturity refers to a space bee queen's first egg-laying. Upon laying her first egg, the space bee queen's instinct starts to kick in, and she and her hive will quickly figure out what they are meant to do.

Castes
A fully developed colony has worker-forager-builders, soldiers, nurses, scholar-administrators, and the queen. Each caste has its own morphology.
After giving birth to her first clutch of workers, the queen leaves her mobile stage (pictured at the beginning) and becomes permanently gravid within five years. She will no longer fit in a constructed body. Her abdomen swells, and she produces one or two new eggs a day. If a colony starts to collapse due to local conditions, a queen can revert to her mobile stage to move the colony. In rare cases, a queen will move her depleted colony to a new planet.
Worker bees resemble the queen bee during her mobile stage. They carry out most tasks in a colony.
Nurses are specialised workers with long abdomens, organs at the back of the abdomen produce a honeydew for feeding newly hatched infants. Nurses also tend to the nesting chambers where the eggs develop.

Scholar bees have heads and claws exactly like their sisters, but then veer off into the weird. Most of their body resembles a wrinkled leathery cone spotted irregularly with plates, the remnants of a distended lower torso. The brain of the torso has become giant, and much of its space is devoted to storing the information gathered by other hive members. They are, in effect, hard drives. Two or four of their claws survive for manipulating objects, but their sensing antennae have disconnected from their radar organ. The radar sits on a neck like a golden orb, while the antennae sit in a trumpet-like shape on a separate neck which can be either focused or unfurled. Scholars are protected fiercely by other bees to protect the hive's means of survival. New workers are easy to churn out, but the death of a scholar could be the difference between the bronze and silicon age in space bee society.

Soldiers are rare in any colony, since space bees prefer to avoid conflict with one another and use swarm tactics on other species. Soldiers have even longer abdomens than nurses, which they can bend over or under their torso. The glands in the back produce the rocket fuel used in baby queen ships, which the soldiers can expel to irritate an opponent, or let burst out in flame like a bombardier beetle. The fifth and longest pair of claws in a soldier are fused into spikes for striking.

Workers on Tah invariably go around in shells resembling orlas. Each hive has a standard orla body it uses, with varying hairstyles, piercings, tattoos, and clothing choices from individual to individual. The shells are reusable, so when one worker dies, its shell is passed onto the next bee that fancies the style of that body. Even within their shell body, space bees use their antennae to create sounds, giving their voices a computerised buzzy quality. The buzzing modulation is most apparent in sustained vowels or musical notes, and otherwise could be waved-off as having a nasal voice ; practice makes perfect for each space bee in a hive. Freshly hatched space bees learning to speak resemble lyrebirds in their eagerness to copy any sound, unable to tell whether it is part of speech or not.

Culture
A hive's true sentience comes alive in its interaction with its planet. Different individual bees have their own life experiences and variations on what they like or how they'll react to a situation, but they all share each other's lives and know the basics of what everyone else is thinking. Each individual bee can gain information or even skills that can then be shared with the rest of the hive. Space bees are collectively more intelligent than humans in terms of raw information. Together, the hive can become both erudite and rich in practical knowledge, every member able to benefit from the knowledge gained by its peers. In practice, most research is undertaken by the sheltered scholar caste of bees.

On Tah, the two space bee colonies live as members of the Mii nation. The first space bee to land on Tah started the planet's space program and opened the timescape portals. Space bees are central to the administration of the timescape and use of other planets for mining. Both current colonies are treated as individuals, each actually married to an orla. The first colony, Xutswi, is old and on its last legs. The second colony, Daidaj, is Xutswi's first queen daughter, but is more active in interdimensional space, having only token individuals kept on Tah as radio operators.
Space bees can speak and write in any language the hive has had time to learn. On Tah, the hives prefer using the julhuuid language for keeping records. Space bees do not learn any faster than humans or orlas, and a bee whose radio contact is cut off from its hive becomes disoriented.


Black builders are found all over the northern continent and seas, but there aren't any on the southern continent. Black builders are polymorphous, semi-intelligent, genetically engineered slime moulds that can mimic or reproduce structures in other animals. They were engineered by the cuttlefish people to build things underwater, a notoriously difficult place to build. They can take any form that they have learned, and combine it with any other.

A sentient black builder showing off some of the many forms it can take.

Biology
Black builders are programmed and controlled by music. A black builder technician writes and performs programs for the black builder, as well as tending to its health and well being. Interestingly, the cuttlefish don't appreciate music beyond being a mathematically pleasing series of wave forms. Music appreciation at a human level is rare in nature.

In their natural form, black builders appear as a black tarry mass. From this mass, they can protrude tentacles, mouths, simple eyes, and bioluminescent patches. Any new form they learn to take will by default still be made up of their black "flesh." Taking on new colours and tissue types takes more effort. Most black builders photosynthesise to supplement their energy intake. They use a combination of pigments to leech all the energy they can from light, so their photosynthesising surfaces appear just as black as the rest of them. This energy can be used in a pinch, but is mostly routed to digestion and other routine purposes, instead of the flashier shapeshifting. Individuals used in everyday utilities and homes often have large root systems. Trains and sentient individuals often rely solely on capturing food, and have no permanent roots and little photosynthesis. Even in an unformed natural state, black builders can become very massive, and there are stories of sea-dwelling black builders that reach the size of villages, still in their black amoebic mass.

Most life systems in a black builder are generalised, and any cell can change its function after reverting to its stem form. Nutrients and oxygen can be absorbed through the skin in simple individuals. Larger and more sophisticated black builders tend to form organ systems that mimic their masters. The more specialised a black builder's job, the more complex its internal systems need to be. Black builder "blood" is black, and actually a flow of cells and proteins that transfer nutrients, energy, and oxygen to other cells freely. This blood is not contained in veins, and the best way to think about a the insides of a black builder in its natural state is like cottage cheese, where curds float around in whey.
A piece of black builder cut from the body can only survive as long as its cells live. A black builder's cells require the proto-brain to coordinate their replication and specialisation. Although these cut-off cells can divide and thrive in a nutrient-rich environment, they cannot form a proto-brain, and act as a primitive slime mould once again. Most, being undifferentiated stem cells kept around for later specialisation, lack the ability to metabolise for the other cells in the cut off piece.

The only system that holds a constant form is the nervous system. Black builders store information in specialised cells that form a proto-brain. Any cell can get new information, and pieces of a black builder can retain their own "memories" and skills, like in flatworms. Since any memory retained in an unspecialised cell can be lost, a black builder will change the structure of cells it wishes to keep around, adding them to the growing proto-brain. The proto-brain is mutable, and has no lobes. Although areas may have specialised areas of knowledge, the structure of the brain's cells is not important. The brain can exist in any area of a black builder, in any shape. Older and more experienced black builders have larger brains. Black builders can only choose to forget things, reverting the proto-brain cells to their stem form and losing the stored information. The proto-brain cells in sentient black builders are structurally different from their parents. The actual mechanism is unclear, but because of their improved communication systems, these cells have the ability to "think about thinking."

Black builders can reproduce by budding, creating a clone of themselves with its own proto-brain, or by horizontal gene transfer. Lacking gametes, the horizontal gene transfer takes place between multiple cells provided by two or three parents through spirucles connecting the dividing nuclei, like in some bacteria. The cells with their shuffled genes then divide and vie for resources within their parents until one or more new individuals manage to create a proto-brain and thrive. Often, this involves sibling-cannibalism. The winning individuals then bud off of their parents. No black builder has a gender.

Intelligence
Very few black builders are sentient, and those that are like to shape shift into forms that will let them pass as not being what they are. Examples include one that actually pretended to be a black builder technician (where it was the technician for itself), and one that became a "weather girl" on a local weather channel. Sentience is not gained with age. It crops up every so often in new individuals, a general trend in the new generation but still completely random in its appearance. Children of sentient individuals are guaranteed to be sentient themselves, but there aren't many at the moment.
The advantage to being a sentient black builder is the ability to mimic and learn new forms independently of a programmer. As well as that whole "sentience" thing. All black builders are protected from abuse by law, and sentient black builders are recognised as citizens. A way to tell the difference is to play some of the very basic program-test songs (roll into a ball, enter this container, don't rip my head off, etc) : a sentient black builder will be able to resist the programming to some extent.

Many black builders can talk, sentient or not. The extent of communication in most black builders is like asking a computer how it's running, or how much memory / milk / eggs it has left. In between sentience and automated response are the black builders that have the ability to feel and report pain, discomfort, confusion, and happiness. As opposed to : the west wing of the apartment is on fire ; there is not enough water in my system ; I don't know what you're asking me, please rephrase ; and no happiness response whatsoever.

Mentally and emotionally, black builders are far from human. They were created to serve, and will always have that in the back of their "mind." Black builders have absolutely no fear or drive for survival. This isn't to say they're all suicidal, but rather that when assessing their response to a situation, "will I die" isn't an important factor. Partially this is because they were initially created as tools that could well die by accident or be ordered into a fatal situation, and partially this is because they are shape shifting slime moulds who can survive quite a lot. Their bodily integrity is of no importance to them, although they'll regret losing the resources if their body gets damaged.
Black builders don't experience the same emotions as other animals, and have the uncanny ability to evaluate and analyse their own feelings. Sentience has given some of them the ability to experience loss, regret, schadenfreude, shame, even a sort of love. While part of their mind experiences these feelings very strongly, another part is able to simultaneously step back and decide if these feelings are rational or even a good response to a situation. The rational mind is left over from the black builder's self-diagnostic programming. However, the decision of the rational mind has little bearing on the black builder's feelings or continued emotional response. This actually confuses them, and many don't really like feeling emotions. Imagine knowing what it's like to have no shame or regret for your automated actions, and then one day you develop the ability to control your own life as you see fit but it comes with this annoying conscience thing. Then, no matter how much the old days start to seem like a golden age, you can't ever go back. Black builders are fully capable of feeling and saying out loud : "I like you ; you are beneficial to my interests, and I enjoy your choice in clothing." But "I like you but I don't really know why?" Not so much.

Of course, with sentience came the ability to lie, and they just adore that ability. Non sentient black builders are incapable of lying. In fact, the ability to lie or deceive is what kept most of them alive in the days when they had to hide the fact they were black builders in order to interact with society as anything but a slave.
Lying doesn't come naturally to black builders, however. If a human breaks a vase when no one is looking, a human's first instinct when confronted about it is to say "I didn't do it." The first instinct of a black builder is to admit "I did it." The instinct for truth is so strong in them, that often instead of fabricating a falsehood, they'll take the path of saying things that are technically true but add up to a lie. Ala "I wasn't over near the vase a minute ago. (He was over there TWO minutes ago) It just fell. It was a pretty top heavy vase, anyway, and I've seen the pet salawas playing near it a lot recently." Admittedly, this is where a lot of human lies go, but keep in mind that black builders are just about incapable of doing the flat-denial lies, and will always lose to the lawyer's "yes or no" trick.
(You'd think it would just be easy to ask "Are you or are you not a black builder." to someone you suspect is a black builder in disguise, but most do have the ability to say "No : I'm an orla / cuttlefish / whatever." because they are currently in that form.)

Impact on Society
When not sentient, black builders can be found just about anywhere in the north and in the seas, acting as living buildings, utilities, and trains. Black builders form the backbone of Northern and Sea-based life. They build cities and items. They produce or store medicines and some foodstuffs. More expensive houses are black builders, responsive to their occupants and able to control the climate inside themselves. Black builders eat and recycle waste of all kinds, and make up the entire sewer and garbage utilities across the northern countries and seas. Black builders are absent only from forges and certain chemical plants.

Generally, non-sentient black builders are forgotten or taken for granted like we on Earth can take electricity for granted. Black builder homes and stores that interact with other species are treated with the kindness one would show to a pet. Sentient black builders are still a touchy subject. Although recognized as citizens in Mii and Kumoto, the global attitude toward the increasing numbers of thinking individuals is one of unrest. If the black builders were to mobilise and turn against their masters, it would be the end of civilization as orlas and julhuuid know it. Luckily, the sentient black builders themselves have no animosity toward their former masters. Although the sentient are more sympathetic toward their non-sentient kin,

Limitations
Sentient black builders tend to stay in small forms. Every shapeshift requires metabolic energy, so if you're going to shape shift a lot, be ready to be hungry fast. A black builder can only move around the mass it already has. Eating adds to that mass, but only the actual cells of a black builder can be shape shifted, and the food item must be fully digested and metabolised into useful cells before its mass can be used. Being slime moulds, they don't take well to acids, including vinegar, but bleach has little effect. Also, black builders absolutely hate milk and other animal-based runny fatty substances. Until the timescape opened to universes with cow-milking humans, they were blissfully unaware of milk's existence.


Humans, Ghouls, and Bigs
The only humans on Tah come from timescape portals. Humans never evolved on Tah, and never could have. I guess you could call orlas humanoid, but the only thing the two species have in common is a coïncidental set of face and hands. There are human merchants on Tah, along with their families. The children may attend school with orlas, or be tutored at home by space bees or their own family. Either way, most are bilingual in their human language and orla language, and know about local customs. Human children can use gliders to get around like wingless orlas, but after about 5'5"feet or 165cm tall, they become too heavy and the gliders too large to fly.

Bigs are humans or other species from other planets who are connected to individuals from Tah, sort of doppelgangers or alternate selves. A Big and little often look like each other (the "he looks like you" that dogs and owners sometimes have) and share life experiences, but some are completely different. Bigs and littles are linked by having similar resonances in the dreamlands. They are compatible with each other in the "magic" of deep math, and work well together for casting more powerful "spells." On Tah, Bigs go by "Big X" where X is the name of their counterpart. Whatever name a Big originally had on their home planet is ignored, since outsiders consider them a mere extension of the Tah individual. The littles of Bigs see their big as a separate person, but others are not as discriminate.


Ghouls are a combination of orla and human using Deep Math. Most serve the Dictator of Kumoto, but a small packet are controlled by pirates. To make a ghoul, a human corpse is selected, then jerry-rigged to run on orla bodily fluids and muscles more and more through a series of surgeries. This requires finding an orla and human who are compatible ; a big-little pair often works. A ghoul must eat human flesh and drink human blood in order to survive and replenish itself since its human parts are being sustained by magic. If a ghoul doesn't at human flesh, the orla parts will take over and eventually destroy the corpse as it decays. Ghouls are technically undead. Ghouls have orlalike long proportions, and the same chalky skin and purple blood. As long as they consume humans, they will not age.
The actions of a ghoul can be controlled with a Book of Names. The master of the ghoul writes what he wants the ghoul to do like a story. The ghoul has no choice but to comply, his actions being written for him. Unless being directly controlled, the ghoul has full autonomy, and while performing actions, it is fully aware that they are not truly its own choices, although they feel like urges. From his large collection of ghouls, and the fact that he even made one out of his own Big, it should be noted that the Dictator of Kumoto is a total dick.

Original Races
If you wish to play an original race in Tah, your character will have come in, like humans, through timescape portals. You should decide if your race has previous trade trelations with Tah, or if they have only just now popped through a portal. Please keep in mind that any magic for your race will be subject to the rules of Deep Math. (see post below)

[obfuscobble]

It's been many decades since Tah opened up into the Timescape. The timescape is a web of universes, a sort of über-universe where all the other universes reside like stars. The timescape is more cramped than our universe, with the constituent universes packed in with their infinite flows and budding children like molecules of water. In some spots, the timescape's universes are more active, like "liquid", while on others, they are closer packed and less reactive like "ice."
A place exists above or around or through the timescape called the dreamlands. The dreamlands acts more like a universe than the plane of pure math above it, although it is technically an expression of that more abstract sphere. The "gods" use the dreamlands as an in-between staging arena for their interactions with individual universes ; it is the first place where they manifest physical forms.


The universe as we know it is an expression of mathematical formulae. Now imagine that there is a number hidden between three and four. Not something like 3.5, or 17/5, or the log of 5162 ; an actual integer that no one has noticed. It's just been sitting there all this time, hidden beneath our math, deeper. And this integer itself controls so much of the numbers we know, not just our mathematics, but their expression in the physical constants of our universe. This is a taste of "deep math." Sure, what I just described makes no logical sense, but it was rather a way to get the mind in the mood of what deep math is, and how fundamentally unsettling it can be.

Deep math is the mathematical system that describes, constitutes, and controls other mathematical systems. It is a "truth" made of numbers more fundamental then even the very basics of the universe we have begun to conceive. Deep math itself is "alive" in that it acts sort of like DNA when it forms the laws of the universes of the timescape, being in essence the universes themselves. A person who could tap into deep math and use it to control the expressions of the constituent universal mathematical formulae would be a sorcerer. The problem is that people are products of their universes and are bound by the mathematics of their own universe. They are no more able to appreciate or change deep math than a chip of granite could run an international trade organisation. But there are "people" who can work with deep math and change all of the mathematical systems and universes it produces. These people are themselves made of deep math, and are called by men "gods."

Older than time itself, the gods or great old ones are bits of sentient deep math. They act like transposons within the "DNA" of deep math: little bits of the deep math code that can move along the code itself and reproduce there. Although fairly basic forms of life on the deep math level, the ways that their "lives" get interpreted in the sub-universes of the dreamlands and timescape is infinitely more complex, as extrapolations of deep math always are. Stray pieces of the old ones that fall or break off into universes in the timescape allow their wielder to play around with deep math and make magical effects in their universe. These pieces are known as "toenail clippings" or "gods' tears" depending on the culture. Without proper binding, a toenail clipping acts as an incredibly powerful and diverse power source, but also one that is uncontrollable and capricious in its magic. Encased in a special semi-mechanical shell of mercury, cinnabar, and lacquer, the magic can be controlled and takes on a new life as a slide-rule.

Slide rule sorcerers use slide rules and their years of study into deep math to cast magic. Most magic controllable by a slide rule alters the constants of a universe within a limited area, like altering gravity or magnetism. Low power spells can also move large swaths of matter, turn matter into energy, transmute a little bit of one element to another, and conduct electricity. More classically "magic" spells, like turning someone into a toad or reading a person's mind, are the province of much more powerful magicians. Magic mostly plays around with the building blocks of matter, and spells don't act in a vacuum. For example, turning lead into gold requires removing and even reforming parts of the lead atoms, all of which costs energy, either drawn from the toenail clipping itself or from the environment. Toenail clippings get replenished with energy on a steady basis, and tend to interfere with electronics.

To use a slide rule, the sorcerer writes a temporary equation on the slide rule itself and inputs the variables, then sings a note so that the slide rule with resonate with the intended effect. Being a pitch-perfect sorcerer is a plus for detail-oriented work, but not a requirement for magic itself. After the spell is successfully cast, the sliderule resets for a second use. Depending on the shape or size of the slide rule and its toenail clipping, two or five spells can be stored in its mechanical memory. Most slide rules have small toenail clippings, and take a stick form the resembles a flue mixed with Chinese lacquerware carving. Rare and expensive slide rules take the disc-shape with complex carvings and grooves like a Mayan calendar.

The great olde ones themselves are above messing directly in mortal affairs. This doesn't stop the parts of them that manifest in the timescape universes form screwing things up royally just for fun. The form that the gods take is infinitely faceted and of impossible dimensions unappreciable by humans. Smaller parts of them as intransient as thoughts manifest in the timescape in a myriad of forms and beings. These manifestations and incarnations can seem to act independently, even living out mortal lives without knowing any better. Timescape interaction can "wake up" an incarnation of a god, and allow it to apotheosise during the body's lifetime while still retaining its mortal attachments. All gods are essentially fancy space monsters, and their intentions are unknowable.

It is possible for "magical" creatures to exist in other universes, whether universes simply have laws that allow magic, or the universe is a "trashworld" where a lot of divine detritus washes up. Once the creature travels to another universe in the timescape, its magical powers will be lost. On the other hand, powers could be gained from crossing into a universe with different physical laws or constants via the superman principle. Heat vision and ice breath are pretty unlikely, but super strength or magnetic attractiveness? Possible. Of course, a super-strong creature would already be adapted to the high-gravity world it came from, probably stumpy, flat, and heavy boned. Keep this in mind if you want to go that route.

A slide rule sorcerer can only cast magic in his, her, or its home-universe. Through unknown means, their essence only resonates with their own universe. A sorcerer may still set up a slide rule and give it to a local to actually cast the spell. These rules don't apply to gods, who come from outside the timescape, but no god characters or potential god characters are allowed. Because of this, if you're looking at creating a magic-using character, having a Tah native is probably the way to go. Most slide rule sorcerers have attended the timescape academy at Rulye.


Timescape portals connect one or more universes. People can travel between universes in set timeframes. So if you travel from X to Y on X's Wednesday, you can't then travel from Y to X back in time to X's Monday.

There are a few more-or-less stable gates between universes. New gates are being tested, but most of them open up into interstellar space, which is less than helpful. Timescape portals follow the movement of the gods between and through universes. Travellers through these portals are essentially catching the bow-wave of the god-ship as an unknowable appendage slices through the water of the timescape.

On Tah, the major timescape portals exist in Leusi, Ohala, Akty, Gifu, and above Leusi near the moon's orbit. There are less stable portals in Heub, Ynebhed, Wady, Koxu, and Haikutepej. Less stable portals are not always open, and may transport the traveller either off-course or to a new destination altogether if the travel is unattended by slide rule sorcerers. Stable timescape prtals are always open. Less stable portals or occasional portals will close after use, potentially stranding a traveller.


People your character has probably heard of:

Admiral Nekhnam par Khannu ; General Sane'a par Sarqet, the Grinder ; and Secretary Ymy Bedet par Rad, the Grain Giver The rulers of Kapet. All three are old men, married with children, though Secretary Ymy Bedet's spouse died last year of cancer. Admiral Nekhnam is the youngest of the three, and the most politically active. He has gone on record in support of the Kal Twil Âï pirates as a resistance organisation, but has sunk four, one without provocation. In response to growing unrest over taxation of the North American trade companies in the Gifu sector, General Sane'a has been pushing a non-interference agenda to deal with local riots at home.

Amber Rarely seen, Amber is the head of the timescape black market. In and out of jail for fraud earlier in his life, Amber is now the head of a very powerful kaolu, and owner of his own ghouls. He has connexions to the pirates, once being their slave trader back in the day. Impossibly old, word on the street says Amber is about to leave his trading empire to a younger successor.

The Dictators of Kumoto Kumoto's previous two dictators, twin brothers. They may or may not still be alive and controlling the country through ghouls. The elder brother was known for his machiavellian plans and sharp temper, while the younger was more subdued but stronger physically. Both married black builders and left no decendants. Popular opinion tends to believe their claims to have ascended to godhood as the eternal judges of the dead. Mostly because they never actually died, or even aged.

The Eternally Ineffable Minister of the Interior He's been dead for over 50 years, but the Eternally Ineffable Minister of the Interior from Mii's ruling "Dilligence" Dan of the 2680's is still considered one of the best public officials. The first person in recent Tah history to apotheosise, he was the mortal incarnation of the Gentle God, who according to myth is stuck in a cycle of sacrifice and reincarnation. He spent his short mortal life helping others and spreading joy wherever he went, as well as instituting important legislation on personal freedoms, inter-racial equality, medical reform, and financial regulation issues. He left no descendants.

The Golden Leaders The semi-communist founders of modern Zhilmuhl. The Golden leaders are near mythical, famous for spreading the word of equality and solidarity amoung the Antarctic's peoples. Supposedly, they professed a union of states where the people had the say, not a small group of leaders, and where a utopian society of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" could flourish. Whatever their intentions, the actual military conquests and oligarchic state of Zhilmuhl botched it.

Hanma dan The dan currently ruling Mii. An old "well bred" dan made up of individuals descended from other previously ruling or popular dan. They recently took office from a previous ineffective dan, Fiixi. Fiixi were popular, and good at foreign policy, but let the legislation and domestic affairs of Mii slip. Hanma were once popular when they were younger, but now take office under an experience-based campaign to middling support. They're being counted on to straighten out the country's problems or be sacked. Xuub Youg Hanma himself leads the dan, a black builder with encyclopaedic knowledge and deep compassion. He is the first black builder to hold the office of prime minister in Mii, but he rarely slips out of his assumed orla form. He is also one of the few officials to be referred to by his first name. Prime Minister Hanma is married to Minister of the Interior Xanpu Teisla Lio, an orla who has retained the sense of adventure and snark from his youth. They have no children.

Hueidoli Nid Ghoul and current dictator of Kumoto. Hueidoli Nid's actual provenance is uncertain. Everyone knows the timescape and a lot of magic was involved, since the man has a wingless but tall humanlike body with orla features, but few want to know any more. Most disturbingly, Nid has the features of his "parents' " faces, even though they couldn't ever breed, and the one parent didn't actually have a face beyond a mask it preferred. By law, he is an adopted son. Hueidoli Nid rules Kumoto effectively and decisively. He has a quick tactical mind combined with an unsleeping sense of humour and a liver of steel.

Kaxuu / Cashew Leader of the Kal Twil Âï pirates. He makes no secret about his identity, or his plans to liberate his country and reëstablish the monarchy. Under himself, of course. Technically, there are two Cashews : the second is Big Cashew, a human who looks identical to Cashew other than having black hair and a short beard. Little Cashew uses Big Cashew and his sheer human mass and strength to fight. Big Cashew's amount of independence and/or mind control is suspect, since the two seem to share one mind or at least one accord. On the other hand, Kaxuu did name himself after the human farmer : his name is literally derived from the English word for a nut. A wannabe Robin Hood and Zorro, Kaxuu's tactical prowess should not be underestimated. He's been pirating for twenty years, and he's very good at it.
Kaxuu is attended by his seconds in command, Peanut, Pistachio, and their ghouls. Yes, they consciously went for a theme.

Xutswi Sen and Xutswi Daidaj Xutswi Sen is the space bee hive which first opened the timescape. Xutswi Daidaj is the hive formed from Sen's first queen. Both hives still exist, tending to the timescape portals. When in orla bodies, Sen has dark skin, a long jowly face with slit eyes, and blue hair, while Daidaj prefers light skin, smaller jowls and wider eyes, and red hair. Both were once married, but both orla spouses are now dead. They have a dozen or so descendants, spread out across the timescape looking for their own planets to colonise. Sen and Daidaj are very peculiar amoung space bees for having stayed close to each other on the same planet, even adopting something resembling a father-son bond. Neither of them feel attached to their other descendants, save for Bivut, Daidaj's first queen, a grand daughter of sorts.

[obfuscobble]

PART ONE

This section will deal with a lot of worldbuilding information, dealt in the Zompist style of "You know you're an X if…" Each subheading will be divided into three parts, one for Kapet and its island protectorates, one for the middle countries of Mii, Pulu Sule, and Kumoto, and one for Zhilmuhl.
If I haven't covered something of interest to your character, either post in this thread or PM me, and It will get added to this post. Don't think that this world is iron-clad though! In the interests of free-flowing fun, and not having to go "Ugh, I have to ask the DM if this is canon," the player should feel free to expand on anything written here. After all, who knows what traditions are alive in your character's hometown?

Before we start, some general statements on technology:

The Root Everyone loves the root. The root is a very pernicious internet that was developed before TV or telephone, and serves almost all instant communication needs. The root is also literally a series of roots connected to special redwoods. People access the root on root nodes, with screen and keyboard. Every screen has a matrix of chromatophores to display an image. High end screens also come with luminant cells for working at night. The keyboard is a pressure sensitive area that is often connected directly to the screen on a foldable flap. All "clicking" is done by touch with a finger or stylus on the screen, or action on a separate trackpad. There are also portable root nodes that can do their computing when not attached to the root, but still require an attachment to exchange information. Information on the root moves at the speed of thought, but not the speed of light, so delays between far away points are to be expected.
Portable root nodes and personal nodes are more popular in the middle countries. In Kapet, there is always a root-café nearby in a city or town. Information is stored on one's account, not a hard drive. (Technically it is stored in a redwood's "hard drive" somewhere.)
Radio is common and used. Radiodramas are popular across all continents. Although part of the spectrum is reserved for space bee communication, getting buzzing on a station from a stray message happens every so often. Since it's faster than the root, short wave radio sets are used for most local communication.
Also, there is mail, used for package delivery and sending heartfelt messages in the way only paper and ink can properly relay.
Zhilmuhl does not have the root, but it has TV and telephone. Zhilmuhl has computers and robotic electronics, but no internet. Information transfer between computers is still in the floppy disk and direct-connect stage. Computer technology is a quickly growing field.

Lighting The races know about electric power, but the northern countries don't use it for much outside of pure science. That said, they love them some tesla coils. Electricity is used for electroplating and other industry applications, but it is conspicuously absent from everyday lighting. Neon signs are in vogue, though. Most folks either sleep when the sun goes down, or use fire. You can read from or play games on a root node screen after dark. The northern continents supplement home and city lighting with bioluminescent fungus and algae.
Zhilmuhl has fully embraced electric power, and their cities never sleep.
Tah has two moons, which are both closer to the planet than ours is. Their larger moon is in fact our moon. This moon has its own satellite, a trapped asteroid. The asteroid has a negligible effect on tides since its mass accompanies the larger moon. Since the moons are closer, they appear larger and brighter.

Weapons and Tools Weaponry until very recently was still in the dropping-weight / sword stage. Guns are extremely recent, and only common in Kumoto because one of the dictators likes them aesthetically. Most people still use swords, daggers, spears, maces, etc. and the ubiquitous hunting stone dropping-weights. Hunting stones can be smooth or spiked, rock or metal, or even wooden. They are often as ornamented and revered as swords, and more widely used since swords are restricted to the rich. Opposed to these iron are weapons is sophisticated rocketry. The cuttlefish had no use for developing stuff that required fire, and the orlas never really connected fireworks with firing pellets ; their rockets are based around explosions more than projectiles. They have napalm. The most potent weapon is a black builder trained for war. Imagine this tentacled, roiling, thousand-clawed thing as big as a train barreling at you or shooting up an arm to snatch you from the sky. Now imagine that any moment it can implode into a black hole. Only a handful can do the latter, but the very suggestion leads to some good cold war tactics. Zhilmuhl is working on nuclear power.
To answer the inevitable question: Yes, the black holes created to test if they could be created are still around, but due to the paucity of mass involved, are rather tiny and harmless at this point. In addition to minefields, old battlefields have large stone structures surrounding the black holes just far away enough so that they don't feed the singularities. Some of them glow at night. With the advent of deep math magic, some black holes have been stabilised or conveniently moved, but this is an undertaking that takes understandably enormous amounts of power.
Many tools are forged and carved, but power-tools are unknown. Steel exists in use for tools, protection, weapons, utensils, and decoration. In the north, most metallurgy is used for household objects, but not building. In Zhilmuhl, metals are used for housing and technology, and complex alloys are still being discovered.

Transportation There are pretty much two choices: foot or train. Since all races can either fly or swin at a good clip, moving "by foot" is perfectly natural to them. Trains connect the distant settlements, and trolleys, subways, and moving walkways are commonin the cities. All this large scale transportation is inside or on top of black builders, and powered by organic trash and the occasional hapless animal. The trains have membrane windows and comfy warmed seats, and appear for all the world like a rounded and somewhat overgrown version of an Earth train.
Except if you live in Zhilmuhl, which has personal automobiles and a bus sytem. Most people still fly or walk, but the rich do love to show off. Since Zhilmuhl has no black builders, everything runs on gasoline. The look is rather steampunk and inefficient. Zhilmuhl's technology is close to Victorian age, still in an industrial revolution.





Mii
Environment
You live in glorious Zeppon, the best country, with the best climate in the world. The west numa is swampy and covered in forest, the gifu wetlands run down the centre, Pulusule and yeib in the north are hilly and dry, and the east in xintats and Kumoto is more wet forest. Luckily there's mountains to keep everyone else out.
You're used to four seasons : a foggy spring, a hot summer, a rainy fall, and a winter with snow. The new year starts after the birthday of the mythic hero Set the Gentle, during 5-6 dead days (depending on leap year) consecrated to Azathoth.

Housing
If you're a child or retired, you live with your family. If you're an adult, you live with your «dan» (3-8 unrelated orlas who work, live, and hunt together), or alone. If you're unlucky, you live in an apartment, surrounded by other orlas. At boarding school, you roomed with a senior student.
Cheap homes are constructed with coral, roots, and stone by black builders (polymorphous, semi-intelligent, genetically engineered slime moulds that can mimic or reproduce structures in other animals). The best homes ARE black builders. Some people in the mountains live in stone houses, and the rich can live in wooden tiered palaces. All homes have plumbing and heating provided by the black builder of your local company.
You probably grew up in a living black builder house or apartment, and it's still like family to you. You don't have a dirt floor.

Bathrooms and Bathing
The bathroom never has a toilet in it; how unsanitary! Only the rich have their own private bath. You probably bathe communally in your family bath or public baths. If you're lucky, your local bath will be connected to one of the numerous hot springs. But hot water is for soaking, not washing. You bathe every day, and wash your hair every two or three days.
It's natural to bathe naked with other people in bath houses, hotsprings, and on the beach. But unless you're in the water, keep your robe on.
If you live in a black builder, you can have it do your laundry. Otherwise, you'll have to wash it yourself, or pay someone else to do it.
Utilities and Companies All utilities and companies are privately owned. The government has no place there. One central dan controls other dan to provide root service, and it's like that for some other local services, but if you didn't invent it, you can't expect to control it. Plumbing and power are provided by your local utility dan, or your family's black builder. Many companies are run by «kaolu», the local organised crime outfits. Kaolu are dependable so long as you're loyal and keep up your payments. You just wish they'd scale back their illegal activities.

Transport
You fly everywhere, under your own power. You'll use carts and trailing gliders to move items, but gliders for personal use are for cripples. Engines were invented in the renaissance of the 2200's, but they are only used in mining and industrial applications. If you want to get something somewhere fast, you'll get some friends to help you fly it or just take a train.
Trains, black builders running in deep ditches like black worms, are reliable and punctual. Some are even government owned. Train travel is good if you need to take a lot with you or need to get somewhere farther away than two day's flight. Each passenger gets his own compartment during a long trip, or one with up to only six people on shorter drives.

Vacations
There isn't really vacation time, per se. You'll work until you break, and then take time off, usually one week. Schools take short breaks during the winter before school starts in spring, and then again in the hot of summer. Many parents time their vacations for this period as well.
You work for 7 out of ten days a week. You get to take off all the birthdays of the mythic heroes, that's 19 days plus the dead days of winter.
You love going to Pulu Sule during the summer. They still have snow on the mountains, and even if you can't ski, it's nice and cool. For tourists, visiting old tombs and cultural spots are popular, often along a well defined path for pilgrims of old. The province of Kumoto is a nice cruise away, filled with exotic wildlife. The locals sure are uppity though.
You'd rather stay at an inn than a hotel. The innkeepers will treat you and feed you well, and some have private baths. Hotels have no baths; you'll have to use the nearest bath house; and their rooms are pretty small.


Kapet
Environment
The weather's too hot. Always. Only crazy people live in the desert, but plenty of people live in the bush. The bush is dry with seasonal rains. Most cities lie along the gifu river, where the climate is wetter and cooler. Parwan island is nice, but still too hot. If you're lucky, you were born on the island colony of Akty, with its temperate climate.
There are only two seasons: hot and dry, and hot and flooding. The new year starts at the first gifu flood to cover the altar of the crocodile at Maseh. You may have visited it one year. Some people also celebrate the Mii new year, a good excuse to get drunk.
You still use a lunar calendar.

Housing
If you're a child or retired, you live with your family. If you're an adult, you live with your dan or alone. If you went to boarding school, you roomed with a senior student. During your years of compulsory military service, you roomed with your unit.
If you're unlucky, you live in the brush, in a reed and stone hut with a dirt floor. If you're really unlucky, you live in a city apartment, made with coral and roots by black builders, surrounded by other orlas. The best homes ARE black builders. In the city, plumbing and heating are provided by black builders from the government.
You probably grew up in the brush, and moved to the city.

Bathrooms and Bathing
In the bush, bathrooms have toilets in them, but here in civilization, you like to separate the two. Some people still bathe in the river, but you probably prefer a bath house. City bathhouses have hot water. Only the rich have their own private bath. You wash your body every day, but wash your hair irregularly; usually, you cover it with scented oils.
It's natural to bathe naked with others, be naked on the beach, and be naked or near naked in the summer. It's too hot, and you, of all races, had to be covered in hair.
Rich people use Zhilmuhl washing machines, but you have to wash your own clothes, or pay someone else to do it.

Utilities and Companies
The government provides utilities in the cities. On private family compounds and out in the bush, a local pah provides them. Or rather, in the bush, you MIGHT have them. All companies are privately owned, although some contract to the military.

Transport
You fly everywhere, under your own power. You'll use carts and trailing gliders to move items, but gliders for personal use are for cripples. Engines are only used in mining and industrial applications. If you want to get something somewhere fast, you'll get some friends to help you fly it or just take a train.
Trains are reliable and punctual, and vitally connect different towns in the bush. Some are even government owned. Train travel is good if you need to take a lot with you or need to get somewhere farther away than two day's flight. Each passenger gets his own compartment during a long trip, or one with up to only six people on shorter drives.

Vacations
You'll get between 5 and seven weeks of vacation time per year. Schools take short breaks during the winter before school starts in spring, and then again in the hot of summer. Many parents time their vacations for this period as well.
You work for 7 out of ten days a week. You get to take off all the birthdays of the mythic heroes, that's 23 days plus the dead days of winter.
During vacations, the city goes out on safari into the bush, and the bush comes into the city to live the high life. Both sides treat the other okay, although it's a fish out of water experience for those who've never travelled back and forth. You might sail to Parwan or Akty to get some beach time in. Akty is nice and cool, but the people there talk weird.
When travelling, you'd best stay with relatives. There are hotels out in the bush, but they're really more way-stations, stopover points for travellers, and trading hubs. The hotels in the city are usually near a bath house.


Zhilmuhl
Environment
You don't notice the cold of the southern continent, but you sure hate the wind. Some days, you can't fly in it, and others blow you away if you take off your poncho. Tundra to the south is dry, the northwest is covered in dry forest, and the east gets a lot of rain, although Mii stole most of the good land.
The rainy season starts at newyears, which starts at the rainy season. The government's imposed a solar calendar, but you and your parents still think by the lunar calendar and the movement of herds.

Housing
Before the war, your family lived in a yurt on the plains or tundra. Some people still live this way, the lucky ones. You live in a large concrete and steel apartment, or a tin roof house with a dirt floor.
You spend most of your time outside the house, either in the fields, or banging around the city : anything to get away from the cramped conditions. You don't have your own room, only a mattress and a chest. You may sleep with your dan, but the government wants everyone to be part of the dan of the state. Oh well, you can live alongside more people then.
There are no black builders. Anywhere. Your parents remember them, and you might, but now they're outlawed.

Bathrooms and Bathing
The bathroom always has a toilet in it. It's simpler to handle the piping that way since you use metal pipes, not roots like those decadent Mii. Easterners will bathe every day, but you know how scarce water is. Hot water of any kind is a luxury and heated over a fire. You probably have a private bathtub. With your dreadlocks, you have to be careful about washing your hair.
You either have your own washing machine, or use a communal one. All laundry is washed cold, and usually alongside other items.
You'd only bathe naked with your spouse, possibly your dan. You stay clothed at beaches, and disapprove of those who dress scantily in any season.

Utilities and Companies The government controls all utilities and companies. You don't know what you'd do without electric power, although with practice you can generate enough yourself for small electronics. All dan are monitored by the government, with specific guidelines and expected outcomes. More and more now, in the cities, the government is assigning orlas to artificial dan groups once they graduate boarding school.

Transport You fly everywhere, under your own power. You'll use carts and trailing gliders to move items, but gliders for personal use are for cripples.
You wonder how the northerners get by without using engines for transport, though. Your country is crisscrossed with steam trains and roads for taxis. Mii may have first distilled gasoline, but they used it for napalm; you use it to power things, which is much more civilised. There's talk that there may not be enough gasoline or coal to keep things up forever, but people who say this are usually enemy sympathisers.
The government runs the trains, and they're usually on time, although you're squeezed in next to people in rows of seats.
You'll hire a taxi or use your friend's to transport your goods. It sure beats herding dinosaur pack animals like they still do in the country.

Vacations
You get four weeks vacation maximum, and are encouraged to work through that, too. You work for 7 out of ten days a week. You get to take off the birthdays of the golden leaders as well as unification day, new year's, and the pinecone moon harvest festival. That's seven days.
For vacation, you'll visit your family in the tundra. For many, it's a return home, but some people just tag along with friends to get out of the city. In the west, there's monuments to see not far from the city, but westerners are crazy. Easterners will try to cross the militarised border to Kumoto every winter, but it never ends well.
You don't travel to other cities much, but there are hotels if you do. Each room has at least a bathtub. The pricier rooms might have hot water. On the tundra, people travel all the time and just take their yurt with them.





Mii
Money and Cards
Everyone has an I.D. card that doubles as a debit card. Physical money is still made of metal or ceramic, so for large purchases, the card is the way to go. You can always request to have your payment in precious metals or rice. If the payer can't cough up the goods, his bank will. You are a cash hoarder.
1 reis = 2 cents
1 rin = 100 reis = 2 dollar, 1.7 euro
1 hiim = 100 rin = 220 dollar, 182 euro
1 vahi = 100 rin = 2200 dollar, 1820 euro

Taxes
The government is allowed to tax you for public works and the military, and you don't mind paying a tithe so long as the work gets done. Then, of course, you have to pay your local kaolu for their protection and services.

Inheritance
Inheritance is legally split between the children, but the eldest child is expected to uphold the family name, household, and assets. Due to this, he often gets a little more inheritance than the others.

Inflation, Haggling, and Unemployment
Inflation means the government is DOIN IT RONG. Unless, of course, they've found more precious metals. With stable prices, you don't need to barter, but you will try to haggle. Of course, barter is still easier than money, and working for room and board is common. You expect the unemployed to use their bootstraps. A failure to find a dan or self employment is pitiful, but increasingly you hear stories of people who lock themselves away in their parents' homes.

Tardiness
It's a good idea to be early for an appointment. If you're five minutes late, you apologise, if ten minutes late, you apologise profusely. An hour late is incomprehensible.

Number System
You have a base 10 number system. You have separate words for hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million, hundred million. You write the numbers ten, hundred, and thousand as their own glyphs, but after that switch to decimal points. Your country invented zero.

Measures
You have a metric system in place. The basic unit of length is about half an inch or 1.25 cm long. The next standard step up is 10 of these, about 8 inches or 12.5 cm; then 100 of these, about four feet or 125 cm. You can call these three steps inches, feet, and yards for convenience.
1 myo / inch = .5in, 1.25cm
1 tet / foot = 10 myo = 5in, 12.5cm
1 tendei] / yard = 10 tei = 4ft, 125cm
The basic measure of weight is about the weight of a pencil (a little over 1 ounce, or 30 grams). The next weight up is about 7 pounds or 3 kilograms. Your basic unit of volume is the size of a cicada; next size up a boombox. You separately weigh very small objects and gems by a grain measurement, starting with a grain of sand.

Dates
Dates go year, month name, weekday. Each month is named after a mythic spirit or hero, and had 4 weeks of ten days. There are ten months and 5-6 dead days that make up for leap years. You count off the days of the month with their own subset of mythic names, repeating up to four times. You'll never forget 2688 setgats haoszei1, the death of the latest incarnation of Set.
On government forms, you have to think to replace these with numbers. Your grandparents still think of years in terms of the emperor's name, and you need modern indexes for old history books.


Kapet
Money and Cards
ou use paper money and a national I.D. / debit card. You can't expect the government to redeem your money for precious metals, but you can ask for wages in rice or pulp. For you, money is easy come, easy go, even though you're always looking for the lowest price. It's the principle of the thing. You probably have some debt.

Taxes
You pay a third of your assets in tax. Most of this goes to the military, but also pays for housing, unemployment, roads, education, and utilities.

Inheritance
The eldest child inherits all of his parents' land and wealth. He is expected to uphold the family name, and will represent his family in local meetings. Often, this means he'll stay on the family farm while his younger siblings go to the city.

Inflation, Haggling, and Unemployment
Inflation followed by deflation is par for the course in the economy. You don't know where your money comes from. In the military, everything is rationed, but in civilian life, you haggle for everything. Only the poor barter. The government collects a tax for welfare, but you don't see why the unemployed didn't stay in, or rejoin, the military.

Tardiness
If you're five minutes late to an appointment, it isn't a big deal. Ten minutes, and you'll apologise. After an hour, no one's waiting for you. In the military, though, you're always on time, or else.

Number System
You have a base 10 number system. You have separate words for multiples of ten. You have separate words for hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, and million; you write these with their own glyphs, but then switch to decimal points.

Measures
Your parents may still use the old king's measurements, but it's easier just to use the Mii system.

Dates
You use the standard calendar for forms and higher learning, and use the lunar calendar for daily life. You know 2505 yah murmu, haru nudan 4, when the reed kingdom unified Kapet. You better know the third full moon after the new year, the sugar festival. You still think in terms of the king's reign.


Zhilmuhl
Money and Cards
You're issued paper money, but it's pretty worthless. You have a national I.D. card, or two, but they don't work as debit cards. Plenty of loan sharks in the city will give you a cheque or barter goods, at high interest.

Taxes
You don't even have a tax, you just expect the government to take all your money and hand out rations and maybe a small stipend.

Inheritance
Inheritance is split evenly between all children.

Inflation, Haggling, and Unemployment
The government sets prices for goods, but with all the inflation, barter is a good first choice. The government gives a lot of things away by ration, including jobs. Out in the country, the barter economy is more lively.

Tardiness
Everyone is late. Appointments are like suggestions, perhaps you'll come tomorrow after midday. Ten minutes is unremarkable, twenty maybe you'll mutter an apology. Make it there an hour late, and you might still have a chance. Business runs slow, and you probably just show up at someone's place to make a deal anyway.
Things run tighter in the city, where they have clocks.

Number System
You have a base 12 number system. You have separate words for the teen numbers before and after twelve (in your case, extending to 24). You have separate words for hundred, thousand, million, and billion. You write everything with decimal points.

MeasuresYou use a completely different set of standard measurements compared to Mii, all counted in base 12. Unless you have to though, you don't really pay attention to them. You measure stuff my handful and arm length. Never buy cloth from a short tailor.

Dates
You use the standard calendar in government forms, but think in terms of the lunar cycle and herd movement. For birthdays, you round off to the nearest full or new moon, and celebrate it in groups.





Mii
Hunting and Meats Everyone hunts. You require meat to live. You or your dan have at least one «kei» (domesticated troödontid; doglike) or «salawa» (flying therapsid, horned, long snout; catlike) to help you hunt and keep you company.
You can buy sauropod, ankylosaur, hadrosaur, and plesiosaur meat at the market. These animals are too large to be taken down by the average dan, so skilled hunters with packs of kei and salawa hunt them to sell. Markets also hold trilobites. You hunt for anything else, and gather your own eggs. You might keep egg-fowl. Not to hunt for your own meat is disgraceful. The farther you are from water, the less disgraceful it is not to hunt for trilobites.
Large insects are a normal part of your diet, especially domestic cockroaches.

Farming
You're probably not a farmer, but you have farming relatives.
Mii developed rice from its marshy ancestor. Rice is grown everywhere but the high country. Seed ferns are also eaten raw or processed for a flour with a barley-like flavour. Elm and oak grow on the outskirts of the redwood forests, and both are tended for their nuts. Figs, berries, and grapes are cultivated for fruit. Maples grow everywhere, and are great for sugar. Cycadeoids are beautiful things that produce chocolate.
Bamboo grows in the numa, but only locals eat it. Better to export it for furniture. Cycad fruit is a traditional food, but no one eats that tasteless stalk pulp.

Taboo Foods
You won't eat dromaeosaurs, carnosaurs, or winged therapsids out of respect. You think turtles, crocodiles, small birds, and some insects are too cute to eat. Mammals and fish, those rare smelly things, are unclean.

Meals
You eat with chopsticks and a spoon. If your food can't be eaten by those two means, you have a long two-pronged fork, usually used for dipping-stews. Everything is cut down to size before cooking, but it's not impolite to eat fruit or a bone of meat with your bare hands, especially on a picnic. It's fine to drink soup from the bowl.
You can't bear to eat in large groups, although eating with the dan is acceptable. The biggest meal of the day is dinner.
You'll go to a restaurant to eat ethnic cuisine, but wouldn't consider going to one to eat food from your own culture. Cafés are different, of course. The rich have famous chefs cook for them though, and you'd love to try some of that food.

Spices, Liquids, and Fruit
Spices come in jars, usually as a powder, sometimes whole for bay leaves and cloves. You can buy blood, separate from meat, and fruit juices at the market, either in a carton or a bag. Some dan will deliver and decant fluid into glass containers. Fruit comes in reusable net bags for refilling at market.

Cannibalism, Adult
Cannibalism is a sacred ritual.
You eat your dead relatives. If a member of your dan dies without family, you'll eat him. Famine leads to cannibalism : old people and babies first, the youngest and the oldest first. Everyone expects this to happen. Leftovers and inedible parts are cremated after the death meal as part of the rituals of death. You expect an autopsy to be completed before the body rots. You won't eat someone who died of disease.
Feeding your own blood to your beloved is part of courtship. You know someone loves you if they feed you orla meat. You worry about dying without anyone who cares enough to eat you; it's the only way to live on in another person.
It is illegal to kill someone in order to eat them outside of a cannibalistic duel. Duels must be agreed upon by both parties in front of others. You eat whoever you defeat in a cannibalistic duel to the death. Not all duels allow the winner to eat the defeated. A simple duel to the death returns the body of the loser to his family to be eaten.

Cannibalism, Child
Seriously deformed babies are sold to be eaten: the armless, the headless, conjoined twins, and those who die before their first birthday of congenital disease. Babies who die of an infection are cremated. After one year old, the family eats the baby.

Cannibalism, Avoidance
The only way not to be eaten is to announce your wish to "die finding the way." You fly straight ahead until you die of exhaustion and hunger. A scavenger will eat you soon enough. The diseased or penitent usually do this, considered unclean. Sometimes, lovers take it as a romantic death so that in death, their flesh will only be with each other. It is also the only way for the emperor to die, since no one is worthy of his flesh. Technically, this is a form of suicide, often preceded with song.

Life Expectancy
You expect to live past 80. You don't expect a mother to die in childbirth. Most babies live past 5, although the seriously deformed are eaten. You don't expect to die of disease. Death by wild animal is still a possibility though. All life is transient though, and beauty moreso, so there's a real acceptance of death.

Medicines
Healthcare is first rate and effective. Hospitals are run privately and frequently ask for donations to cover emergency care. There is national health insurance made up of local companies working to government standard.
The best painkiller is heroine, although your grandparents might still distil their own opium. Ibuprofen is better for muscle pains, and available as a powder. You'll chew willow bark for a headache, and chinchona for malaria. Some people prefer their aspirin as a pure powder. You are vaccinated against most common diseases.
Most diseases are cured by phage, but penicillin is still prescribed for skin diseases. Both are easily grown in a black builder. Cancer is a problem, but can be beaten with thalidomide. Roundworms are used to help transplanted organs be accepted. Leeches are used to take blood, and maggots are used to clean wounds, both raised by your local doctor or nurse. Needles are made of plastic, vials of glass.
Healthcare is first rate and effective if you can make it to a hospital. All hospitals are run

Suicide
Suicide is acceptable under certain circumstances, especially to retain your honour. Just don't off yourself in a way that will inconvenience others. Points for creativity, though. If you're going to die anyway, usually of old age, you want to die in the most awesome and artistic way possible.

Doctors
You can trust a doctor to treat you. Doctors accept payment by the insurance charts, which keep prices low, but thank-you gifts to your doctor are par for the course. Some doctors train longer than others to be specialists. Doctors know their way around the body, and are great diagnosticians, a must for treating with a species-specific phage. Nurses are highly skilled, like mini-doctors, and you'll go to one for an everyday problem.


Kapet
Hunting and Meats
Eeryone hunts. You require meat to live. You or your pah have at least one kei or «salawa» to help you hunt and keep you company. Kei were domesticated near where you live (of course), and you can point to the local breed to prove it.
You can buy sauropod, ankylosaur, hadrosaur, and plesiosaur meat at the market. Markets also hold trilobites. You hunt for anything else, and gather your own eggs. You probably keep egg-fowl. Not to hunt for your own meat is disgraceful. The farther you are from water, the less disgraceful it is not to hunt for trilobites.
Insects are a normal part of your diet, especially termites.

Farming
You either are or were a farmer. Lots of people send their younger children to the cities while the older ones stay on the farm.
Seed ferns are the only cereal, but cycads produce a rich pulp after distillation, along with their fleshy roots. Figs and berries are cultivated for fruit.
The gifu grows rice, providing grain for the entire country. You'd never admit that your country didn't invent rice. Maples and dates along the gifu produce sugar. You import chocolate from Mii.

Taboo Foods
You won't eat dromaeosaurs, carnosaurs, crocodiles, or winged therapsids out of respect. You think turtles, and small birds are too cute to eat. Mammals and fish, those rare smelly things, are unclean.

Meals
You eat with chopsticks, a knife and a spoon. You have to cut your food down to size, or carve off a piece to yourself during a meal. Eating anything with your hands is acceptable, so long as you wipe them afterward. It's fine to drink soup from the bowl.
You can't bear to eat in large groups, although eating with the pah is acceptable. The biggest meal of the day is a mid-afternoon meal, eaten inside during the hottest hours, followed by a siesta.
You eat at restaurants often for ethnic and local food. You don't think highly of people who have their own private chef. You spend a lot of time at cafés, not only eating, but studying, talking, going on the root, and doing business.

Spices, Liquids, and Fruit
Spices come whole in packets or as a paste in jars. You grind your own. You probably get your own blood from a kill, or buy it alongside meat at the market. Fruit juices are a treat, and come in cartons. Fruit comes in boxes

Cannibalism, Adult
Cannibalism is part of nature.
The dead are redistributed communally as a stew. Each large family, village, or precinct in a city has its own stew. Famine leads to cannibalism : old people and babies first in order of age. Everyone expects this to happen, and the meat is added to the local stew. The inedible parts of each body are returned to its family or pah to be buried at their funeral. You expect an autopsy to be completed before the body rots. You won't eat someone who died of disease.
You don't worry about not being eaten after your death, you just hope that it's another orla, not an animal that does it. Some people will feed themselves to wild animals on purpose. This is a leftover from primitive practices hoping to appease the animal gods, but it's gone from true civilisation. You hope.
It is illegal to kill someone in order to eat them. There are no cannibalistic duels, because it is selfish to keep the body to yourself. A duel to the death adds the loser's body to the stew.

Cannibalism, Child
Deformed babies, and only the seriously deformed, are added to the stew after birth. Babies who die of an infection are buried.

Cannibalism, Avoidance
The only way not to be eaten is to announce your wish to "die on the horizon." You fly straight ahead until you die of exhaustion and hunger. A scavenger will eat you soon enough. The diseased or penitent usually do this, considered unclean. Sometimes, lovers take it as a romantic death so that in death, their flesh will only be with each other. It is also the only way for the king to die, since no one is worthy of his flesh. Likewise, you could just walk out into the bush and pester a carnosaur, but that's just stupid.

Life Expectancy
You expect to live past 70. A mother might die of childbirth in the bush. Most babies live past 5, although the seriously deformed are eaten. You don't expect to die of disease. Death by wild animal is a possibility, especially in the bush. You deeply mourn death, but you accept it as part of the circle of life.

Medicines
All hospitals are kept to a standard but the best are military hospitals. There is no national healthcare.
The best painkiller is opium, and everyone makes their own. In the cities, in the big hospitals, they'll use morphine or heroin, and you can get ibuprofen and aspirin pills. There's a big trade in imported chinchona, but malaria isn't so common outside of the gifu. You are vaccinated for polio, pox, and whooping cough by travelling nurses who give you a black bracelet to mark you covered.
Most diseases are cured by phage, but penicillin is still prescribed for skin diseases and can be grown in beer pots in the bush. Hospitals provide thalidomide for cancers, and they can transplant organs with roundworms. Leeches are used to take blood, and maggots are used to clean wounds, both raised by your local nurse. Needles and vials are made of glass.

Suicide
Only a fool kills himself or puts himself in a situation that will get him killed. Suicide is cowardly, though not illegal. You think the Mii suicides are both too numerous and too over the top, even silly. Some of them are very clever, though, especially the traps, and some of the death scenes are pretty.

Doctors
You can trust a doctor to treat you, but you'll only find one in a large town or a city. Some people pretend to be doctors, but only the stupid are fooled by them. Nurses are highly skilled, like mini-doctors, and you'll go to one for any problem since they're probably your local practicioner.


Zhilmuhl
Hunting and Meats
Everyone claims to hunt. You require meat to live. You have at least one «ffu» (see: salawa) to help you hunt and keep you company.
You can buy sauropod, ankylosaur, iguanodon, and plesiosaur meat at the market. Markets also hold trilobites, hypsilophodon, and eggs. You hunt for anything else. Not to hunt for your own meat is unfortunate, but most people don't hunt nowadays.
Large insects and spiders are delectable. You eat grubs and termites, and probably carry a grub-pick with you. If you can find a fish or mammal, you can eat it.

Farming
You either are or were a farmer.
Cycads are your main crop. Their poisonous pulp can be distilled to make a starchy paste, their nutritious roots can be eaten after cooking, and their fruit is good fresh. People in the east grow seed ferns. You also eat pine seeds and leafy ferns.
Cycadeoids are beautiful things that produce chocolate. You make your own, and chocolate is everywhere. The best chocolate is sweetened with black market sugar, but you'd never eat that low quality imported chocolate. Gotta have standards for one food.
On the Kumoto border, you can get rice, berries, sugar, and spices. Everyone uses the black market, but no one admits it.

Taboo Foods
You won't eat carnosaurs or winged therapsids out of respect. You think small birds and insects are too cute to eat.

Meals
You eat with a three-pronged fork, a knife, spoon, and your grub-pick. Food is cooked whole, to be cut down to size by the eater, or rolled into finger-edible balls. You eat a lot of food raw or fermented. It is impolite to drink soup from the bowl.
You hate eating in large groups, but it happens. You eat hastily, or skip meals and snack on whatever you can catch. The biggest meal of the day is breakfast.
Restaurants are for the rich. Food halls are for everyone else. Line up at the table, cut off your portion, eat.

Spices, Liquids, and Fruit
Spices are bought under the table as powders in bags. Maple sugar from the north is bought under the table in jars. Blood is taken from a kill, or provided from ration in a carton. Anything related to tree fruit is a black market luxury, although in the spring you will go out to pick your own cycad fruit.

Cannibalism, Adult
Cannibalism is a dread necessity.
Usually, you bury your dead. Famine leads to cannibalism, where people draw lots to be eaten by the community. Duels are illegal because every worker is needed. Every so often though, the government declares a national or local famine, and it decides who should die. Usually it's political dissidents who somehow draw the short straw. And usually it's the higher up in the government who get to eat them.
Your grandparents tell you that cannibalism used to be more common, and you hear tales of people on the tundra, but not your tribe of course, who act like northerners. Easterners near Kumoto seem to have adopted some of those customs through osmosis. And the poor, of course, people who are poorer than you, in the cities and the dark alleys, they'll eat each other. You admit that orla flesh is delicious, but many sins are quite pleasurable.

Cannibalism, Child
Babies are never eaten.

Cannibalism, Avoidance
You don't expect to be cannibalised. What is wrong with Mii and Kapet? Decadence, it must be decadence and evil.

Life Expectancy
You expect to live past 40. A mother might die in childbirth. A third of all babies don't live past 5. You might die of disease after being cramped in the city. You don't expect to be eaten by a wild animal. You fear death and are disturbed by it.

Medicines
Healthcare is good for the rich, not so much for everyone else. The best painkiller is black market heroin, but you have to make do with ibuprofen since poppies don't grow in Zhilmuhl.
Without black builders, phage production is near impossible, but some labs are trying to grow their own in petri dishes. Penicillin is easily fermented, but there are penicillin-resistant bugs popping up. Many diseases have chemical cures now.
Malaria is common near the coast, but there's not much you can do about it. Except move to the tundra. You are vaccinated against polio, pox, whooping cough, and yellow fever, paid for by the government. There's a high rejection rate for transplanted organs, but some drugs help, if you can get either. You wouldn't let a leech or maggot anywhere near you. All blood is taken with needles, and wounds are cleaned by nurses. Needles and vials are made of plastic.

Suicide
Suicide is taboo, although a lot of people turn to it. It's technically illegal to kill yourself, although hard to enforce. It's illegal to help someone else commit suicide. Anyone who commits suicide has brought shame onto his community.

Doctors
Doctors mean well, but they often don't know what they're doing. Procedures are risky, and drugs don't always work. Old doctors are more reliable, because they know tricks from before the bio-purge. New ones only know how to treat diseases with drugs. Nurses are only for wrapping bandages and changing bedpans.

[obfuscobble]

PART TWO




Mii
Leaders
The Emperor is the sacred head of state. The actual head of state is the prime minister. The prime minister and his cabinet are all part of one dan. When an election changes the government positions, the people elect a dan instead of separate individuals. Each dan runs for office by displaying its effectiveness in any field, from administration, to science, to music. Electing celebrities is not a bad choice, though it should be noted that celebrities are less starry eyed pampered princesses and more cutthroat political minded entertainers.
Under the prime minister and his cabinet sit the legislative and executive parliaments. The parliaments are elected directly by the people in their local wards. Legislative parliament travels to the capital to pass the budget and act as the supreme court. Executive parliament stays in the local electorate area for tax collecting and local lawmaking, although the courts are controlled only by the local judges. All of parliament gather twice a year for national lawmaking or elections.
Only nobles can be elected to office, but the prime minister's dan can appoint commoners directly to the military or parliaments. Good scores on government exams or a good military record can confer nobility to a commoner.

Military
The military has two sections, the commonfolk and the nobility. The nobility of the military are all «oni», the hereditary warrior class. The oni can form their own squads in the army, or act as commanding officers for the common soldiers. The military has a Navy and Army. Both have flying troops.
It is possible for a common soldier to attain a noble rank through distinguished military service, which is how officers are made. This nobility does not confer land, nor does it pass on to the soldier's children unless they join the military or marry well.

Police and Courts
The police are a separate branch of the military. Police soldiers are versed in law, and the commanding officer of each unit acts as the prosecutor for serious cases. Most offences are prosecuted by the arresting officers. The police employ non-military personnel for their forensics teams.
A criminal is considered guilty until proven innocent. On the other hand, there must be evidence or witnesses already at hand to prove guilt before a judge.
The courts are one of the few things the government is responsible for. You trust them to prosecute criminals, and each other, but won't use them to sue. You could sue someone, but it's too much trouble.
All lawyers have passed a government exam. If you're trying a civil suit, this is fine, but if you're trying to defend yourself from a criminal charge, there is little sympathy form either side of the bench.
When it comes to settling your everyday disputes, the best course of action is to go to your local kaolu. The kaolu act as de-facto policemen in their neighbourhoods, and you can trust them to keep you safe and fight for your interests so long as you pay the protection money.

Legislature
You're very active when it comes time to vote for representatives and propose laws. The government is supposed to listen to you, and if it doesn't, there will be peasant riots. These are rare, and usually have to do with economic, not social laws.

Bribes
Of course your officials don't take bribes. But taking him out for lunch or sending a nice gift is something different.
If an official marries a foreigner, it's understandable as a holdover from the times of political alliance through marriage. If an official marries a black builder, he might be crazy. Of course, you won't find out until the black builder's orla disguise slips up.

Weapons
Only nobles and warriors can own swords, part of the elegant and cultured tradition of nobleman sword masters, the «oni». Kaolu own them illegally, but no one challenges that. Anyone can own a wooden sword, bow, or hunting stone (dropping weight, sometimes spiked). Guns are foreign, and Kumoto loves them, but you don't get the chic.
Some hand axes are made of stone, but most weapons and tools are forged out of steel. You have experience in rocketry, and the military has many, many bombs. Bombs are focused on blowing things up or starting raging fires, not being heavy projectiles. If you want the latter, just use a hunting stone, and fly up real high.

Freedom of Speech
You take your freedom of speech for granted. You can't imagine not having the right to say what you want to. Of course, you wouldn't even consider talking badly about the Emperor, and it's best to be nice about the Prime Minister's dan. But anyone can be mocked.


Kapet
Leaders
The military is the most powerful organization in Kapet. Military service is the key to rising in power and government positions. The military is the government. Military service is a civic duty, and only those who live way out in the bush can escape the draft. Bush villages are expected to send their of-age children to the nearest military centre. In exchange, the village will get protection and prestige. Advancing in the military requires staying in it for longer than the 2-3 year draft period. Working hard in battle, police work, administration, or espionage will land you a good life for yourself and a promising life for your children.
The government is headed by the Admiral of the Navy, the General of the Army, and the Secretary of the State. The Admiral is in charge of the navy, secret service, and trade, whether on water, land, or through the timescape. The General is in charge of the army, public works, farming, and housing. The Secretary is in charge of lawmaking, the police, courts, and public relations.
Within the military, individuals form dan. Each dan can be promoted instead of an individual, and group cohesion is the backbone of the military. Each dan is expected to work together with other dan in concentric rings of togetherness.

Military See above.

Police and Courts
Each soldier is expected to be versed in law to varying extents. Since every citizen in the city has to join the military when he comes of age, the majority are funnelled into a 2-3 year term as police officers. These temporary officers deal with day to day crime. Higher ranks in the military have better knowledge of the laws, and police the state as permanent soldiers. A suspect is presumed guilty.
In a civil case, both sides will hire a non-military attorney. The attorneys will argue their clients' cases before a military judge. In a criminal case, the suspect may hire an attorney to defend himself.
The police actively fight against any gangs or black market traders. You find the persistence of kaolu in Mii to be unlawful and a sign of societal collapse. Turning to the black market is a sign of desperation and greed, and you'll be damned if your children get mixed up in it.

Legislature
You trust the military to police itself, The basic code of laws first established by the Hawk kingdom have help up quite well over the centuries, thank you. The most legislative action is taken to update laws in response to new technology. When it comes to such updates, the wisdom of elders and high ranking officers is taken as good enough to guide future generations. Revolt is unheard of, and mutiny is the ultimate shame.

Bribes
You'd be scandalised to find out there was bribery going on.
If an official marries a foreigner, it's no big deal. If an official marries a black builder, he might be crazy. Of course, you won't find out until the black builder's orla disguise slips up. But when you do, he's fired.

Weapons
Everyone gets a mace when they join the military. Swords are for higher ranking officers. Anyone can own a bow, regular mace, or hunting stone. A few army units use guns, but unlike the Kumoto versions, your blunderbusses are inaccurate and unwieldy.
Many weapons are still made of stone. Unlike those prissy Mii with their talk of the grace of the sword, you revel in having the strength to wield real weapons. You use rockets like southerners do, but you won't touch napalm, even though most of the raw stuff used to make it comes from Kapet's Parwa island.

Freedom of Speech
Outside of the military, you are free to say whatever you want, whenever. Inside the military, you have to speak when spoken to, and accept the rules laid down by your commanding officer. If you wish to counter your commanding officer, you must submit a complaint.


Zhilmuhl
Leaders
You aren't really sure who is in control of the government, other than "them." Pictures of the golden race are plastered over the cities, and they're still technically in charge, at least in a spiritual sense. You know that their children and the children of major generals from the revolution are in charge, but when pledging your allegiance to the state, to pledge to the golden leaders. You still trust them more than you trust the current upper class, and just with that the upper class would remember the golden leaders' promises of equality, unity, and prosperity more often. After all, during Zhilmuhl's fights for independence, throwing off the yoke of Mii and uniting the southern states, you were supposed to come up on top as the world rulers.
If you want power, you'll join the bureaucracy and try to work your way up. in realistic terms, a life in crime or work for the black market is a good choice. But you'd never consider joining those separatist pirates. After all, even a life of crime in Zhilmuhl is a life of crime for Zhilmuhl.
No one seems to be in an official dan anymore. The government doesn't recognise dan, although people still form them. You'll have your exclusive group of family and friends, and you'll act like a dan, but according to the government, there is only the dan of the state. In civil service, expect to be broken away from your dan.

Military
The military has an Army, a Navy, and a Tank Corps. The army is mostly stocked with guns for ground troops and dropping weight for fliers, and its artillery corps is constantly improving. The navy is mostly concerned with the pirates right now, and you hear a lot about the new faster or more powerful ships they're developing. The tank corps is mostly centred around the Kumoto border, and it shares the artillery developments of the army. At the slightest provocation, they are ready to defend their homeland. The tank corps has recently sent a few squads to attack the pirates' land bases on the west coast of Kal Twîl Âï.

Police and Courts
The police are completely separate form the military, and the two often clash. The police are a bright eyed and often naïve bunch. You respect that they want to do things the legal way, but when the laws keep changing, how can they? The police were formed by a private non-governmental group initially, during the beginning days of Zhilmuhl, and they have managed to stay uncorrupted. You don't always think they're effective, but you would trust the police before you trust anyone from the government or military. There are rumours of the police preparing for a revolution to overthrow the government and reinstitute the golden leaders' vision... but those are probably just rumours.
The police will assume you're innocent until proven guilty. The army will assume otherwise, and shoot you on the spot. The police don't care for the black market, but they'll often favour its members in comparison to the military in turf wars. So long as the black market isn't getting anyone killed. The black market in Zhilmuhl doesn't have the same organization as the kaolu in Mii, but it has a more universal presence. You could be a black marketeer yourself, just passing on some goods to the next guy.
Once the police hand you over to the official courts, your time is up. No one comes back from jail. You'd much rather ask for the police themselves to give you a "petty court" trial, paying a fine or doing community service.

Legislature
You have no idea how laws are passed. Laws are posted outside official houses, but they change so often that you take them more as guidelines until you're brought to court on one you've never heard of. You're pretty sure that the laws exist to persecute the enemies of the state.
Everyone talks about revolution, but those that act on it quickly end up dead. You wish one of the patriot parties would gain power and reinstitute the golden leaders' original laws and social programmes. Everything you've learned about the foundation of Zhilmuhl seems like it was a good idea.
As much as you'll complain about the upper class, though, you love your country.

Bribes
If an official didn't take bribes, you'd wonder how else he was planning to extort you. Bribes are dependable and effective.
It's illegal to marry a foreigner, official or not. Yet plenty officials try to smuggle their children off to marry foreigners.

Weapons
In order to own a gun, you have to have a permit. To get a permit, you have to complete a background check and submit papers with the processing fee, then wait five months or more. Then, bribe some more officials and wait. In effect, the upper class can get guns whenever they want, but you? Never.
The best guns come from Zhilmuhl, of course! No one uses swords, or bows, or maces anymore. The hunting stone is still an everyday item, but people with guns are starting to hunt with them. Of course, you hear about people getting efficient guns from the Kumoto black market. You know that the west coast still uses swords, especially those pirates. If you ever see a pirate, you'll shoot one... with the gun you're probably seeing them to get. Hmm.

Freedom of Speech
The government controls what can be officially printed or said. people mutter illegal things under their breath, but you'd better hope no one hears what you really think. For the most part, though, you don't see anything wrong with the government controlling information. You understand that there are national secrets that have to be protected.





Mii
School Levels
You went to a local primary school until you were 15, and then went to boarding school. At boarding school, you studied higher subjects, corresponding to high school and the freshman or sophomore year of college. Your family pays for your education.
Many people take government exams after boarding school. Civil service is a good life. Some people go on to college to specialise. Those who don't go to boarding school either remain on the farm, or go to a trade school. Some people drop out of boarding school to make a living in the city, usually in a kaolu.

Core Subjects
You learned about ancient Mii, the rise and rules of the emperors, and notable inventors and warriors as well as the basic history of Pulusule, Kapet, and Zhilmuhl. You also learned the history of Kumoto, but since that's just a province of the Mii empire... not that that fact stops those annoying separatists. You learned math, civics, the various sciences, the classics and writing, an art, and probably an instrument.

Extracurricular
Your family and school worked together to teach you the ancient traditions, rites, and festivals. It's not so much learned at school as reinforced there. If you come from a noble family, you learned the warrior arts.
Schools are full of clubs and festivals to promote student solidarity. You were part of a club in boarding school, maybe two if you have a fine art and a martial art, and may stick with part of the club as your dan. Your senior student roommate remains a friend, and may even me in your dan.

Attitudes toward Other Countries
Kapetians are hairy, ugly, and like to breach your personal space, but despite their lack of manners, they're loyal, brave, and like to have a good time. Akty islanders play at civilisation, but they're loveable anyway, and have very laid back attitudes.
People from Pulu Sule are warmhearted, sometimes quaint, and have great food, but they're very exclusive, and have a reputation for being greedy. This is why you trust them.
People from Kumoto all have a stick up their butts about some sort of supposed national and racial oppression, plus they tend to be dusky. They all have green hair. They're still definitely Mii though, not too different from you.
Zhilmuhl people are like your opposites; you don't understand them or their weird bloated government, or why they hate biotechnology so much. They're dark skinned, slit-eyed, have freaky hairless wings, and their dreadlocks are yucky.
Kal Twîl Âï are being oppressed by Zhilmuhl, and though they're also freaky looking, you don't mind accepting the refugees temporarily. Their pirates are exotic.

The War
Zhilmuhl started annexing its neighbours, beginning a war where they killed all their black builders and irradiated the countryside. During the subsequent cold war and famine, a charismatic dictatorship arose, followed by pogroms. Mii won the war and reclaimed their ancestral Kumoto lands, with some help from Kapet.

Language
You think the languages of the Viisyal family are all just dialects of Viisyal. Even if you can't understand them. You probably know one other language, especially Pataka (of Pulu Sule) or Jade (of Kapet). Some people on the southern tips can speak Wai'yung or Zhilmuhl, and the secret service loves them.
You speak Viisyal.


Kapet
School Levels
You went to primary school until you were 15, but probably went to a trade school after that. Boarding schools are for the rich or doctors. The government pays for your education. If you live out in the bush, you may not have gone to any school at all.
At 21, you have to join the military for two or three years. Your unit in the army usually sticks with you when you get out, and probably become your pah. Afterward, you and your unit come back together for training reinforcement days, though you never really let your skills slip. The military is a great way to advance socially, just about the only social advancement you're likely to get outside of crime.

Core Subjects
You learned about ancient Kapet, the wars between the bee, reed, and hawk kingdoms, and the expansion of the trading empire. You learned about notable warriors, explorers, and traders, and a little on the history of other countries, especially as they figure in the wars and trades. You learned math, civics, some science, the classics and writing, maybe some fine art or instrument, and the beginning of a trade.

Extracurricular
You've been trained in fighting from a young age, although the nobles tend to be very artsy and smartsy. That's why they get to be tactical commanders. The school is big on reinforcing government doctrine, but you're always up to date on current events and motions up before congress. You wonder how Mii and Zhilmuhl people get about not knowing all the details of the world right now and what their government is doing.

Attitudes toward Other Countries
Mii are frigid snobs who think they're the best people in the world, but they produce wonderful art and food, and you can warm some of them up to be normal people.
People from Pulu Sule have a big superiority streak calling themselves the chosen people, but they're like little siblings to you, and absolutely trustworthy.
You don't understand what the people from Kumoto have against the Mii. They all look the same to you : hairless and stringy.
Akty islanders are quirky, and speak funny, and some of them have the strange idea that they're their own nation, but it's not like they'll do anything about it. They talk a lot about peace and love for all.
Zhilmuhl people confuse you, but you understand the importance of their strong government. They're butt-ugly though. Also, they keep attacking you, and it's annoying swatting at flies.
Kal Twîl Âï are being oppressed by Zhilmuhl, and though they're also freaky looking, you don't mind accepting the refugees. Their pirates are a pain, but can be easily bought off and hey, kids like 'em.

The War
Zhilmuhl started annexing its neighbours, beginning a war where they killed all their black builders. Zhilmuhl irradiated the countryside, and Mii used napalm in civilian bombing after invading Kumoto. During the subsequent cold war and famine, Zhilmuhl fostered a charismatic dictatorship and pogroms. Kapet won the war with its numerous soldiers, and played fair.

Language
In the bush, you don't see a reason to learn another language, but in the city you probably learned another Kapetian language and Viisyal. Most gifu river traders learn Viisyal. Most ocean traders learn Jedbyt.
You speak Jede or Jedbyt.


Zhilmuhl
School Levels
You went to a local primary school until you were 15, and then went to boarding school. At boarding school, you studied higher subjects, corresponding to high school and the freshman or sophomore year of college. The government pays for your education.
Boarding school is generally a first step toward government exams, the military officer's league, or a degree in science. You can join the military at 15 though, and that's a good life. There used to be a draft at18, but the government's recent initiatives for more technology mean that more kids are going on to get a government-subsidised electronics degree, which is an even better life if you have the mind for it. You want your children to go for this.

Core Subjects
You learned about the glorious past of the Zhilmuhl nation, the rise of the confederacy of equal states, and the great war of independence to throw off the yoke of Mii and its black builders. You won the war. You learned about the life of the golden leaders, and their miraculous deeds. You learned math, science, the classics and writing, and some fine art or instrument.
Extracurricular The only way to advance socially is through military achievement, becoming a cog in the government, or joining the scientists. But it seems like the cities are filled with disorganised gangs and people making a living doing nothing. Well, at least there's still the idols. Maybe you could become one if someone from the arts department saw you...
Attitudes toward Other Countries Kapetians are hairy, extremely ugly, and the enemy. They poisoned your people with gas and killed your ancestors. They're pretty exotic, and maybe if they stopped keeping their military on the Kumoto border, allying with the Mii, and boycotting you, you'd forgive them. Akty islanders are Kapetian.
Pulu Sule people are stuck up like the Mii, but at least they still trade with you. Even if they are partly responsible for the black market. You dislike their food, and don't trust them one bit.
Mii are evil, ugly, and the enemy. They poisoned your people with radiation, raped your land, and burned everything. You are secretly jealous of their standard of living.
The people of Kumoto are rightly Zhilmuhl citizens, and you'll fight those Mii bastards to the death to get that land back. Kumoto separatists were deluded by Mii propaganda.
The Kal Twîl Âï pirates are the number one security problem. They're heartless, have strange occultic customs, and fuel the black market. The mainlanders are untrustworthy separatists.
The tundra people are quaint and talk funny. You idealise their nomadic life.

The War
The golden leaders fought the great war of independence to beat back the invading Mii and reclaim ancestral lands. The black builders were purged after Kapet used them and corrosive gas on innocent civilians. Mii bombed civilians with napalm. Despite the numerous hardships, Zhilmuhl bravely rose as a world power and leader in science. Zhilmuhl won the war.

Language
You probably don't know another language. Your country is ethnically and linguistically diverse, so you know your mother tongue, and maybe a neighbour's. People go to college to learn other languages, usually to join the secret service, or in preparation to escape. What language you learn depends on where the government or your family wants to send you.





Mii
Names
When addressing someone, you use polite speech. Politeness in speech has multiple levels.
Names go: mother's-last-name, father's-last-name, given-name. Like: Dagawa Cuce Wakara. You'll by default address others by their last name and the correct politeness marker. Only good friends or fictional characters go by their first names.

Personal Space
You will stay a good ways away from someone when speaking, such that you can't touch them if you reach out. Touching other people or touching their belongings is really rude. Family and close friends can touch each other.
The standard greeting and token of respect is the bow, anything from a nod of the head to floor-prostration. Some polite bows are combined with hands held in an S shape, or one curved hand held up near the heart.

Marriage
Marriage and love are separate things. Nobles are expected to marry and produce children in arranged marriages. The couple will be placed in the same dan, and it often works out for the best.
You can be very attached to and in love with someone you're not married to, often another member of your dan. There is no societal shame in this love, a non-sexual bond. Friends-like-family in and out of a dan are a powerful force in society. When not in an arranged marriage, a friend-like-family is often the number one candidate for spouse.
Family background is extremely important when choosing a dan and a spouse. Your parents are more picky than you are, and they'll also have a bigger say in marriage. If you marry into a bad family, don't expect anyone to be happy for you.

Beauty
Beautiful people have light skin, delicate faces, and silky dark hair that shines with vivid colours. You wear dark and dramatic makeup over white flour-based face powder to look sexy. You preen your hair to make sure it doesn't get crushed and dull. A mate's voice is very important, whether speaking or singing.

Sexuality
Kissing has a special cultural importance and is not at all casual. To steal a first kiss, or to kiss a lot in public, is an offence. You expect to keep your private actions private, and find people who talk about such things in public to be crass. On the other hand, hugging and touching friends in public has no social stigma.
People who fall in love with foreigners are weird, not to mention other species. You'll treat mixed couples with acceptance, but you wouldn't want your children to marry that way.

Family Structure
The family is held together by bonds of duty. The parents have a duty to raise their children. The children have a duty to take care of their younger siblings and elderly parents. The family itself can be very formal, and each member is aware of its place in the power structure, in order of age and motherhood. Duty expresses itself through love. Anything shame brought by the children in a family reflects onto the parents more than the child.


Kapet
Names
Names go: given-name, par (son-of), mother's-last-name, title. Like: Har par Isit, Crusher of Skulls. The last name of a mother can be either a family name or the mother's title. When you meet a stranger, the genealogy of their name can extend to their great grandmother if titles are used: Mahes par Sekhmet, par Ra, par Atum ; Mahes, son of the lion, son of the sun, son of the womb. If a person has a title, they are most often referred to in conversation by that title.

Personal Space
You like to get close to another person when speaking, and touching other people is fine, even if they're strangers. You probably wouldn't touch another person's belongings without asking.
The standard greeting is to clasp another person on the shoulder. Close friends will get a kiss on the cheek. Around the southern Gifu river, though, the bowing culture of Mii has seeped in. You're aware that the people down there don't like to be touched.

Marriage
Most marriages are arranged. The elders of a village or your superiors in the military know better than you who will work as a mate, spouse, and parent for your children. They'll take into consideration who you like, but you respect their decisions even if they put you with someone weird. Marriages are all about the children anyway.
You may fool around with someone who is not your spouse, but it usually doesn't go very far. After all, if the partner lays an egg, you'll have to take care of it. You don't even think about romance when you're on the battlefield.

Beauty
Beautiful people have light skin and green eyes, but you probably don't. Stockier faces are the beauty standard, with dark, especially black hair kept short to accentuate your ears. You never wear much more makeup than kohl, but people with sun-lightened hair will wear wigs. Scent is very important in a mate, and perfume is big business.

Sexuality
Kissing isn't special, and you'll kiss friends and family all the time, on the cheek or on the mouth. People will display a lot of romantic affection in public. In the bush, couples will often go out of the village's sight for alone time.
In the bush, marrying foreigners is frowned upon, but in the cities and communities along the gifu, it is commonplace. Marrying another species is beyond the pale, immoral and dirty. You'll ostracise any mixed species couples, and you think that marrying another species should be illegal.

Family Structure
Families are large and loose. Respect is paid to elders and mothers. A family is held together by love and need. Each member relies on the other, but each is responsible for his own actions. Families are seen in a cyclical light, with parents giving way to children who become parents themselves in the ancient communal houses of the bush.


Zhilmuhl
Names
Names go: father's-family-name, given-name. The family name is always two syllables, the given name always one. Like: Xudzwï Sen. You refer to people by their full name, including their office: Governor Panguk Mihl; Assistant secretary Ttsuqgadj Bâ. Only friends go by a first name.

Personal Space
You stand about two foot-lengths away from another person when talking. It's okay to touch a person if you know them, but not strangers. You touch other people's stuff, or even take it, all the time.
The standard greeting is a hand wave, even if you're right next to someone. To show politeness, it's important to always have your hands visible, even held away from your body. Also, you should never show your back to someone. Northerners never get this right.

Marriage
You marry for love, and can't understand how anyone else could not do so. The government is good about letting couples stay together, especially if they have children. You'll feel deep friendship for other people, but are afraid of seeming too much like a mated or courting pair with someone who isn't your spouse.

Beauty
Beautiful people have dark skin, round faces, yellow eyes, and long dreadlocks. You tend to your own dreads carefully, weaving and crushing them as they grow. Each lock has a metal cap at its end, and fancy caps are all the rage. You'd like a tall mate.

Sexuality
When showing affection to your spouse, you will go all out in public. Toward anyone else, even a close friend, you are strictly hands off, and even a little paranoid about having a stray touch taken the wrong way. When it comes to sex itself, you get uncomfortable. You think that sex is for procreation, and if you've lived in the city all your life, you look down on the bohemian tundra-dwellers.
You're aware that other species exist, but you're afraid of them, and would certainly never marry one.

Family Structure
Nuclear families are more likely to stick together than extended families or even dan. You love your parents, and know they'd do anything for you, including letting you crash at their place indefinitely. Your parents are the two tings in this world you can really count on. If only you didn't have so many siblings.

[obfuscobble]

Use of languages is totally optional!
I'm presenting the outlines of selected languages here. The phoneme charts below are written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a way to type up speech sounds. Hopefully, this'll help in reading some of the character and place names. I'll have dictionaries up soon ; until then, ask via comment, PM, or AIM (obfuscobble) if you need anything translated.

Short version of the post below : Assume /x/ is an sh, and /j/ is a thl unless it's Kapetian. Umlauts are high tones; circumflex accents are low tones. /q/ is always a click at the beginning of a syllable and ng at the end.


Spoken In: Kapet, Akty, and Gifu
Sentence Order: VSO, isolating, noun>number>adjective
Special Features: 3 or 4 consonant verbs conjugated by vowel change. Possession marked by juxtaposition. Very few prepositions. Some words have dual forms.



Viisyal Family Languages

Spoken In: Mii, Kumoto, and Gifu ; default diplomacy language
Sentence Order: SOV, agglunating, number>adjective>noun
Special Features: Five levels of politeness reflected in verbs, pronouns, and word choice. Adjectives conjugable like verbs. Avoidance of pronouns. Has a core set of versatile particles.




Spoken In: Pulu Sule and many local ports
Sentence Order: SOV, agglunating, number>noun>adjective
Special Features: Uses articles, and has isolating words used for tense, instead of the suffixes in Viisyal. Has many standard kennings used to replace taboo words for short periods.



Rötënmuhl Family Languages
(In these phonetic charts, /`/ stands for phonemes that are ejective or aspirated, depending on the dialect.)


Also called: Zhimuhlish
Spoken In: Zhilmuhl and Kal Twil Âï
Sentence Order: SVO, inflecting, noun>adjective>number
Special Features: Three grammatical genders. Many prepositions have merged with a large set of mandatory conjugating articles. Separate copulas used for "to be" and negation. Base-12 numbers.




Also called: Kalsh
Spoken In: Kal Twil Âï
Sentence Order: SVO, isolating
Special Features: Extensive use of idioms, with reduplication for emphasis. Base-12 numbers.

[obfuscobble]

This post reserved for any information that will not fit in the above sections. This post may stay reserved for a while after play opens..

[obfuscobble]

To add a character to the RP, please fill out the character sheets below. If you have any questions about a character, or just want to discuss ideas, feel free to PM, AIM, or e-mail me. After you fuill out the sheets, post them in this thread for review. Once your character is approved, I'll post the approval and add your character's Short Form sheet to the Characters post!

Code:

[b]. : Name and Age : .[/b]
[i]Full Name[/i]: Your character's full name, including titles.  If you have any questions about names, just ask.
[i]Other Name[/i]: Depending on where your character is, they will be referred to differently.  northerners will usually call you by your last name, and southerners by your first.  However, if your character goes universally by a nickname or an alias, put it here.
[i]Age:[/i] Your character's age.  Please keep in mind that this RP has a war/espionage setting, so kids might not do so well.
[i]Played By[/i]: Your FOG username goes here.

[b]. : Appearance : .[/b]
[i]Race[/i]: Your character's race.  See the race post.  If you are going to play an original race, please PM or AIM me; e-mail's fine too.
[i]Height and Build[/i]: You're character's height and general body type.  OR If your character is a cuttlefish or other longer-than-it-is-high race, use [i]Length and Build[/i].
[i]Description[/i]:  What does your character look like?  Include colouring, a general sense of facial features, any unique markings, and remarkable posture or comportment.
[i]Clothing[/i]: Describe what your character will be wearing at the start of the RP, and any important alternate outfits, like a suit of armour, or a formal outfit they'd bring along.  I figure that the description of more specific things about clothes will fit into the early character posts, but if you want to put it here as well, that's all right.
[i]Items[/i]: Large or important items that your character has in his or her possession should be noted here.  Usually this covers items your character is carrying, but if your character also has a bazooka back in the hotel room, you might want to share that.  If your character is carrying weapons or a slide rule, please note them here.  And if you give them D&D attack dice, I will giggle in glee. (But it won't affect how they're used in the RP.) 

[b]Background[/b]
[i]Family[/i]: Family members, including notable dead ones.  Well, notable live ones too.  Include spouses and fiancés.
[i]Hometown[/i]: From whence hails your character, be it Tah or elsewhere.  I wrote way too much about towns in Countries above, but you should feel free to embellish on those or create your own hometown.
[i]Biography[/i]: Describe the important shaping events of your character's life.
[i]Goal[/i]: What is your character trying to achieve, especially as it relates to this RP?
[i]Life Snapshot[/i]: A shortened form of the biography covering the most salient points. 

[b]Affect and Effect[/b]
[i]Personality[/i]: A general sense of how your character behaves.
[i]Strengths[/i]: Describe your character's talents, personal strengths, and moral fortitude (if any).
[i]Weaknesses[/i]: Describe your character's personal weaknesses, regular failings, or the cross-eyed bear they bear.
[i]Other[/i]: Anything else you'd like to mention about your character.  IF there's nothing to put here, you can leave it off.

Declaration of War, Short Form:
Name: Full character name
Player: FOG player name
Present: 3-5 sentences ; your character's appearance, comportment, and personality.
Past: 3-5 sentences ; your character's background.
Prime Directive: One sentence : your character's goal or motivation summed up.
(Feel free to change "name" to "pseudonym" if you're feeling alliterative.)

Remember : have fun!

[obfuscobble]

No, we're not doing this. Ziun, get away from the projector. Plus, making Star Wars riffs has been done to death, even on Tah. I didn’t even know you could write English. And who decided to spell ta with an h? Takkkkkhhhhh? *cough*



It is indeed a time of civil war.
The bloated Zhilmuhl Republic of Unified States, the late stage of the Zhimuhl Empire, has trouble administering its vassal states. An especial thorn in Zhilmuhl's side is the former Kingdom of Kal Twil Âï. The Kalsh restlessly complain and rebel against the soldiers sent to their province, as the ordinary populace hides its revolutionaries and, most importantly, its pirates. Striking terror in the southern tradeways, the pirates claim to steal in order to better the Kalsh people. One of the most powerful groups hopes to do so by placing their pirate king Kaxuu, a man of questionable royal heritage, on the throne of the palace of ten-thousand columns. One thing is for certain : each pirate group's aim of disrupting the Zhilmuhl empire is effective and fulfilled.

Across the border, the dictatorship of Kumoto sits prosperously, enriched by peaceful trade with Mii, Pulu Sule, and its timescape acquisitions. Although the border has always been a simmering battle zone, emboldened Zhilmuhl troops now reinforce their side, seeming to prepare for war with their strange steel weapons. The majority of Zhilmuhl troops are now split between the western and eastern borders, leaving their manufacturing centres open to attack apart from incessant aerial surveillance.

Kalsh terrorists have been bombing bunkers and supply stations. Trade by sea has become untenable. It resources dwindling, its government facing severe civil unrest, and radical parties backed by the police pushing for legal reform, Zhilmuhl must deal with its pirate problem.

The south is not alone. Northern governments have also taken a vested interest in dealing with the pirates, literally or figuratively. Small neutral country Pulu Sule continues to offer up its ports for legal supply stops. The Mii Empire Hopes to become suzerain to a free established Kal Twil Âï to avoid paying the trade taxes on the same minerals it currently receives from dissatisfying sister state Kumoto. In the long run, Mii plans to turn its two "dependant states" against Zhilmuhl, and then incorporate them into itself in post-war treaties. Kapet also wants control of the Kalsh resources, but is itself opposed to their pirates, who have been interfering with Kapetian merchant ships. Too long it has sat as the silent giant, living with small attacks and writing off the losses as negligible, a strategy the pirates have been counting on ; no longer. Kumoto has the most complex relationship with Kal Twil Âï : on the face of it, the dictator ship doesn't actually care if the Kalsh gain independence, but it very much likes antagonising Zhilmuhl, especially when that would move troops away from the Kumoto border, ripe for expansion ; on the other hand, Kumoto has a deep personal grudge against one of the Kalsh royal candidates, Aïgï the Second, sone of Aïgï the first who was a young Kumoto's greatest traitor, and the dictatorship wishes no more than the total and thorough annihilation of the boy and his memory.
(All orlas are dicks. The Hueidoli family of Kumoto are the biggest dicks of all.)

On the night of the festival of Gorgo, a night of love and peace during the stirring lights of spring, the world can wait no longer. A massive pirate and rebel attack will occur in four days. The target is uncertain. Spies already in place have been rendered silent, seditious, or dead. A recent immense influx of magic through the Larcima timescape portal uncomfortably implies that great old ones may be involved. The first white blossoms of spring have not yet unfurled. In a month's time they may yet cast the white cloak of death over urns returning from Kal Twil Âï...






Hiʔ Kai Jo is a tundra city close to the Zhilmuhlish fishing and espionage centre of Mļt. Hiʔ Kai Jo has a large local tundra-dweller and ex- Mļt population, itself a religious centre for the various tundra tribes. The city is based around the Two-Way Mountain (English words), where the tribes believe souls go to reincarnate. The mountain was not originally very high, more of a glorified hill leftover from an ancient volcano, but has since been built up with rocks brought by pilgrims over countless centuries. The larger the stone brought, with more elaborate carvings, the greater blessings a soul will have in the next life or bring to the supplicant as a ghost. Generally, solid stones are for reincarnation, while ones with holes in the middle are supplications to the local spirits or witches. By now, the mountain looks like a baroque clockwork of stones. The ground near Hiʔ Kai Jo is still roiling and steaming with volcanic gasses and hot pools, supposedly with healing powers. Hiʔ Kai Jo itself is home to many self-styled witches, experienced in traditional medicine, spiritual rites, and a good deal of cold-reading skills for their fortune-telling. Zhilmuhl doesn't like the witches, but doesn't bother to do much about them since they're a local tundra-culture phenomenon. Hiʔ Kai Jo does not currently support a candidate.

Kal Kong and Gonlâye are port cities, one on the sea and the other on the river that creates the main boundary between primarily Kalsh and primarily Zhilmuhlish speaking populations. Sister cities, their local traditions and peculiar festivals are similar, and they share a common patois that mixes their two languages. Both cities support Aïgï, although Gonlâye is less fervent in its support. Gonlâye is currently pressured by Mïthuj to join in a city alliance to fend off both Zhilmuhl and the pirates. Kal Kong was recently the site of a Zhilmuhlish government raid, where collateral damage destroyed part of a local-government building and the local school.

Lâp Jo is a strategically placed river trading city. Just downstream from the Ngai river's largest tributary convergence, the city has imposed a river-wall, like the one in Gifu but smaller, between Long Cho and Tweng Âï Cho. Kept afloat primarily on its trade taxes as a toll-city, Lâp Jo is also home ti a suspect local brand of "river pirates" patrolling around all sides of the city to ensure no one makes it past without paying. The pirates do leave alone any caravan carrying that week's official trade-pass from the city, signifying recent payment. Lâp Jo speaks a peculiar local dialect that sounds "low" (as in musical tone) to outsiders and uses voiced consonants. Lâp Jo supports independent candidate Heijwong Baʔ (Heijwong Ba).
Fifty seven years old, Heijwong Ba was formerly the mayor of Lâp Jo. Descended from the illegitimate child of a dishonoured prince, Ba is a four generations away from the throne. However, his rule as mayor was effective, and he is known for making private deals with the Zhilmuhl government. Ba has a courageous but understated temperament, and is fond of quoting from philosophers past, encouraging others to live up to high ideals of love, compassion, piety, and order. He is just as sure that Kal Twil Âï should be an independent state as all the other candidates, but Ba is willing to go about creating a state the honourable way. His group has never been linked to terrorist attacks, and their rebels more resemble lobbyists, with representatives in the Zhilmuhlish capital of Pipshuff. Ba himself travels between his home city and the capitol to campaign for this people's sovereign rights in the national assembly. The assembly itself may be powerless, but following Zhilmuhl laws has brought non-Kalsh support and donations to Ba's Lâp Jo group. Unfortunately because of his involvement with the government, Ba is at risk for becoming an easily captured and executed scapegoat for all the rebels.

Met Yuk is a port far removed from other cities. Protected by a restless western sea and the driest patch of tundra to the east, it is mostly an independent port producing many of the dry-seed spices unique to its peninsula. The city was a popular tourist destination in years past, but Zhilmuhl's clamp down on Kal Twil Âï has meant financial trouble for the city. Met Yuk does not support the Kaxuu pirates, but rather independent royal candidate Taomu "Godtoy" Fim.
Descended from the royal cook of the last standing Kalsh king, Taomu Fim claims the throne on the evidence that the cook and king were close friends, so much so that the king famously wrote in his memoirs that "Taomu Kkoï [the cook] is a king in his own right. Seeing the mess I've made, he could rule this country better than I." Although most famous for being the only viable pirate rival to the Kaxuu pirates, Fim also upholds the family tradition as a cook. Thirty years old, and without a family, the secrets of Kalsh royal cuisine could die with him and his restaurant. Fim's greatest probability to win the royal candidacy is his own dumb luck. Weather, animals, even far away government decisions : all seem to go right or wrong to benefit him with alarming frequency. This has given him the nickname "Godtoy," following the Kalsh tradition that lucky people are just the temporarily-favoured toys of the gods and local spirits.

Muk Chông is a small city on a tributary of the Ngai river. Always a strategic military outpost, the town is now a weapons manufacture centre for Zhilmuhl and the terrorists. The local area is cold and dry, with a lot of scrub in the surrounding countryside beyond the river. Muk Chông speaks the Lâp Jo dialect, but supports Chanuo Jing (see below).

Long Cho is the main mining city. Long Cho supports Aïgï II, a nineteen year old.
Aïgï II was born to a Kalsh Noble and Aïgï the first, himself the son of a Kumoto man and the last Kalsh Prince while the latter was living in Kumoto, then a province of Mii, under asylum. This gives Aïgï the purest bloodline out of all the royal candidates. Aïgï I was killed by the first dictator of Kumoto as punishment (or rather revenge) for high treason ; Aïgï II survived only due to the compassion and effective headlock of the dictator's spouse. The child had only just hatched from his egg.
Like his father, Aïgï is selfish and thoughtless, obsessed with gadgetry and socialising. He rather likes the idea of having a court, composed of his best friends and people who uncomplainingly serve him or flatter him of course, but he has never really taken his lessons in actual ruling to heart. He tends to paw off all disputes to other people, especially his wet nurse who effectively rules the Pÿê Cho resistance as dowager.
Aïgï's best traits are his willingness to forget the past, support others genuinely, and, as saccharine as it is, believe in the power of friendship. He honestly believe that if everyone wanted to, they could simply stop fighting. Then he gets frustrated when it doesn't happen, at about the same level of frustration (sizeable) that he acts upon when he doesn't get his way. Ultimately, his angry moods are fleeting, attended by no more than shouting, hitting furniture, and pulling at his own clothes to make a scene.
Aïgï's wet nurse, Hueidoli Ito, is a cousin of the ruling Kumoto Hueidoli family, but wants nothing to do with that country. Ito cares deeply for his ward, being soft to the prince even as he's famous for being a bastard to everyone else. Everyone knows that Ito is a bit of an idealist and a romantic at heart. He can always be counted on to show compassion toward his adopted people, and to try to do the moral and honourable course of action first. Although he's ready to use piracy, terrorism, and backdoor deals to make it a reality, he only wants to re-establish the Kal Twil Kingdom and make Aïgï happy.
Spoiler not using spoiler tags: HAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH Oh but I lie. Or rather he lies. Well. Hueidoli is an agent for Kumoto. No one has caught on, mostly because he's been at it for nineteen years. Your character probably believes he's a genuine supporter of Aïgï as well : this spoiler is provided for insight into writing him as an NPC.

Mïthuj wants nothing to do with the Kal Twil Âï versus Zhilmuhl rivalry. It hosts no royal candidate, and plans to hunker down independently during the upcoming war.

Maoʔ Cho (Mao' Cho) is a fishing and trade city. It has an open, almost flagrant pirate history, hosting the headquarters of Kaxuu's pirates. Mao' Cho, predictably, supports Kaxuu as a royal candidate. The city has long been known as the glorious city, and its houses and shops are bedecked in the luxury and artistry of generations, a gilded rococo forest. It attracts tourists year round.
Leader of the largest group of Kal Twil Âï pirates, Kaxuu makes no secret about his identity, or his plans to liberate his country and reëstablish the monarchy. Kaxuu uses Big Cashew, a ghoul, to fight ; the two share a personality or even a mind. A wannabe Robin Hood and Zorro, Kaxuu's tactical prowess should not be underestimated. He's been pirating for twenty years, and he's very good at it. Kaxuu can speak Viisyal, Kalsh, passing Kapetian, English (from trading with an alternate British Empire), and two pidgin trading languages. As a person, Kaxuu can be intimidating and a hard task master, but most of his nagging and "dictatorial" commands come from his dedication to the cause. He's devoted to team work, knowing he can't do anything alone, and would probably be lost without his inner circle who he treats as family.
Kaxuu is attended by his seconds in command : Peanut, Pistachio, and their ghouls.
Peanut (locally, Piinat) is an upbeat man, balancing a love of luxury items and cute toys with his need to maintain a "cool" image. Fiercely loyal to Kaxuu, Peanut can drive any vehicle he comes across and is an expert at navigation. He smokes way too much catnip, and may be developing a tumour, as evidenced by his coughing. Peanut's ghoul is almost always sick with something, being absurdly prone to catching orla-based flus across the species barrier, and is only an asset as a sharp shooter and bookkeep.
Pistachio is a doctor whose delicate beauty belies his fighting prowess. As strong as any human (quite a feat for an orla), Pistachio is in many ways a gentle giant who loves, and has a natural rapport with, animals. Both Pistachio and his ghoul Big Pistachio treat each other like pets, leading to a rather unique relationship.
Kaxuu's pirates are not the only Kalsh pirates. They have the largest group with the best prganisation, but no monopoly on trade routes. Recently, Kaxuus pirates have been warring with or absorbing smaller Kalsh pirate groups.

Pÿê Cho[/] deals in salts and sulphates, as well as being a former centre of agriculture. Pÿê Cho supports 36 year old Chaʔnuo Jing.
[b]Chaʔnuo Jing (Chanuo Jing) was recently a general in the Zhilmuhl army. His troop were stationed on the Kumoto border, made up entirely of west coast natives, and often in direct fire with heavy losses to spare the central-province troops. Having defected with his troop, Jing now lives in the far west tundra in a moving camp. Jing's group perform most large scale bombings and raids against Zhilmuhl troops, but their attacks are never covert like other rebel groups. Rather, they are an army that can be evaded which uses guerrilla tactics in combination with traditional ordered battles.
Fiery in spirit, and fond of rich food, Jing is a bear of a man by orla standards. He is well respected by his troops, but can make tactical mistakes when he doesn't listen to his advisors, including his delicate but clever spouse Kkunmei Häô . Häô, a Tweng Âï Cho native, was trained as an accountant and still uses various tricks to cover up the rebels finances, as well as acting as a prime tactician. Jing loves Häô dearly. Just as he honestly does love his country.
Jing is descended directly from the high-ranking Chanuo nobles, who have served the Kalsh king alternatively as officials and generals for generations. Jing does not recognise the legitimacy of any other candidate. Ba is not only the descendant of a dishonoured prince, but he works with the Zhilmuhlish. Aïgï's family line started with a pansy prince who decided to run with his tail between his legs to Mii, and ended with a traitor; Jing jokes that he could well try to be ruler of Mii, since that's where his ancestors loyalties lie. Kaxuu isn't even remotely Kalsh, despite claiming royal heritage from dubious sources. As for Fim... descendant of the royal cook? Really? From his perspective, Jing is the candidate most loyal to his country, since he's never left Antarctica, and has never complied with any enemy other than Zhilmuhl, and then only "at force."

Tweng Âï Cho is the capital of Kal Twil Âï, see Countries above. Tweng Âï Cho supports both Kaxuu, Chaʔnuo Jing, and Heijwong Ba.

Ung Nei is a more respectable port city than Mao' Cho as far as Zhilmuhl is concerned, but it still supports Kaxuu's pirates. The city itself is twofold, with one side onland and the other just offshore on a heavily fortified tidal. Like Mont Saint Michel in France, the drastic tides around Ung Nei cut off its island city. Ung Nei's part time island is the more practical pirate base of operations for defence, and its walls are open to students of martial arts who benefit from its legendary training. (And then presumably join the pirates.)

Yaop is a hardscrabble city along the main land trade route connecting P'ÿê Cho and Tweng Âï Cho. Yaop supports Chaʔnuo Jing. The land behind the city is rich in caves, a popular hiding spot for rebel troops.

Zhongkïum ("former enemy island"), known locally as Meutilo (land of the river mouth), is notable for having largely "pure" trade, free of pirates in its main ports. However, due to archaic laws accepted during the city's invasion treaty when it was conquered by Zhilmuhl, Meutilo is allowed to trade with its settlement city New Meutilo. New Meutilo sits just outside of Garabi in Kumoto on a series of volcanic islands. Because of the loophole presented by this law, Meutilo legally trades with Kumoto. was an incredibly hard island for Zhilmuhl to capture, having held a strong and defiant population grown rich on trade, and managed to surrender in return for quite a few concessions from Zhilmuhl. Mïthuj was once a Meutilo colony, but modern Zhongkïum remains loyal to Zhilmuhl because the city itself has been free of the troubles besetting the rest of Zhilmuhl due to its special laws. Zhongkïum / Meutilo citizens are bilingual in Mïthuj Zhilmuhlish and Kumoto Viisyal. Zhongkïum does not support a royal candidate. If Zhilmuhl continues to pressure the city and fill it with troops to take advantage of its strategic placement along the trade routes, Meutilo may rebel or join Mïthuj in the alliance.


Yes... yes, I think it is.

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Player-Characters will have their "short form" character sheets posted here!

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Play and character creation are open! Below here is the first day setting, describing what's going on in the world of Tah "right now." They'll appear whenever a day has passed in RP, in a serif font.

The year is 2741. It is late winter, turning to spring.

The great hadrosaur and sauropod herds are beginning their migration to their mating climes. Smaller birds fill the air with their song and fluttering dances. Fields sit ripe and ready, and the rivers rush through their courses. The trees prepare to blossom, and the ferns have grown lush with a green brighter than perception. Couples still huddle together under winter blankets as they promenade, and the skies are filled with roiling clouds cut with the confetti of bright coloured commuters in their gay spring attire. This is the planting season. Festivals are scarce, school will soon be out to change grades over the short spring break, and everyone is expected to work hard in order to harvest their own rewards later.

Today is the feast of Gorgo in the central states, a romantic day where couples who received gifts on the feast of Mormo must now return their affections. The moon hangs big and bright in the sky, and the second moon is in full view, as if cuddling. Stormclouds roil over the Nounai mountains, promising a torrent in the near future. The festival of Hastur is five weeks away.

[Guest]

Cool. This is going to be fun

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Raptorman, you being all over this is making me grin SO wide. PM or AIM me about your original race, please, just so we can get that taken care of.

[Guest]

I will do so.

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