polymorphikos
Scrofulous Fig-Merchant
Location: The jungles situated in Terras on the west side of the mountains which form a rain-shadow across the narrower eastern strip.
The Crohet and Losaa are two separate species that share a symbiotic relationship wherein the two function as breeding partners. The Crohet are leather-skinned, crab-like creatures, with a fifty centimetre body span and eight legs that are each tipped by three opposable digits. They are fully arboreal, and live in wicker huts suspended from the undersides of enormous evergreen trees. The Crohet have developed the art of training vines to grown between boles as natural highways, and as a result entire forests are easily traversable. The Crohet subsist on a diet of fruit and occasional small game. They have a simplistic religion in which the entire world is actually a tree, and souls travel to the great branch that leads to heaven when they die, after having climbed up from the underworld at the start of life. They have few tools, making use of their multi-segmented mandibles for most tasks, and warring using clubs and packs of trained bombardier beetles.
The Losaa are baboon-like, non-mammalian creatures, standing two feet at the shoulder, and a tawny brown with chocolate dappling and ochre stripes across the forehead and lower limbs. They live in lean-tos on the forest floor and hunt and forage using bone axes, digging sticks and light wooden spears. They have yet to discover the means of making fire, and instead capture the embers from brushfires and carry them inside of hollow sticks, sustaining the flames with the pitch-like inner rind of the khwoli fruit. The Losaa are territorial nomads, each tribe moving within a small area that is also a part of the greater territory of the parent clan. Clans are united by region and usually named after the predominant plant life of the area, with the tribes adding an adjective. They are organised on a hierarchy of strength.
Reproduction between the two species works by means of the Losaa dung, which the Crohet collect and consume to obtain certain minerals and enzymes excreted by the mature Losaa. Within the dung are contained the parasitic larvae of Losaa, which takes root in the Crohet intestinal track and eventually passes out with the stool, taking to the trees in the first years of their life as small, predatory possum-like animals. These Losaa infants in turn have been infested with Crohet parasites whilst gestating, and will vomit-up small egg sacks at the age of one year and bury them at the bases of trees. The sack casing hardens rapidly, but dissolves when the Crohet young, ready to hatch, excrete a solvent enzyme. The Crohet then crawl up into the trees and, eventually, reach the villages of adults and are integrated into society, being welcomed by an annual festival. Impregnation within individual species occurs whilst still immature, inside the intestinal tract in the case of the Losaa, and in the egg-sacs beneath the trees in the case of the Crohets.
The Losaa, when they reach adolescence, have taken-on most of the physical and mental characteristics of the typical Losaa, and will approach a tribe and reassert a place within it.
Due to the nature of their reproductive cycles, Crohet are entirely ignorant of concepts such as sex and parenthood, and sex is a purely-recreational act amongst the Losaa.
The Crohet and Losaa are two separate species that share a symbiotic relationship wherein the two function as breeding partners. The Crohet are leather-skinned, crab-like creatures, with a fifty centimetre body span and eight legs that are each tipped by three opposable digits. They are fully arboreal, and live in wicker huts suspended from the undersides of enormous evergreen trees. The Crohet have developed the art of training vines to grown between boles as natural highways, and as a result entire forests are easily traversable. The Crohet subsist on a diet of fruit and occasional small game. They have a simplistic religion in which the entire world is actually a tree, and souls travel to the great branch that leads to heaven when they die, after having climbed up from the underworld at the start of life. They have few tools, making use of their multi-segmented mandibles for most tasks, and warring using clubs and packs of trained bombardier beetles.
The Losaa are baboon-like, non-mammalian creatures, standing two feet at the shoulder, and a tawny brown with chocolate dappling and ochre stripes across the forehead and lower limbs. They live in lean-tos on the forest floor and hunt and forage using bone axes, digging sticks and light wooden spears. They have yet to discover the means of making fire, and instead capture the embers from brushfires and carry them inside of hollow sticks, sustaining the flames with the pitch-like inner rind of the khwoli fruit. The Losaa are territorial nomads, each tribe moving within a small area that is also a part of the greater territory of the parent clan. Clans are united by region and usually named after the predominant plant life of the area, with the tribes adding an adjective. They are organised on a hierarchy of strength.
Reproduction between the two species works by means of the Losaa dung, which the Crohet collect and consume to obtain certain minerals and enzymes excreted by the mature Losaa. Within the dung are contained the parasitic larvae of Losaa, which takes root in the Crohet intestinal track and eventually passes out with the stool, taking to the trees in the first years of their life as small, predatory possum-like animals. These Losaa infants in turn have been infested with Crohet parasites whilst gestating, and will vomit-up small egg sacks at the age of one year and bury them at the bases of trees. The sack casing hardens rapidly, but dissolves when the Crohet young, ready to hatch, excrete a solvent enzyme. The Crohet then crawl up into the trees and, eventually, reach the villages of adults and are integrated into society, being welcomed by an annual festival. Impregnation within individual species occurs whilst still immature, inside the intestinal tract in the case of the Losaa, and in the egg-sacs beneath the trees in the case of the Crohets.
The Losaa, when they reach adolescence, have taken-on most of the physical and mental characteristics of the typical Losaa, and will approach a tribe and reassert a place within it.
Due to the nature of their reproductive cycles, Crohet are entirely ignorant of concepts such as sex and parenthood, and sex is a purely-recreational act amongst the Losaa.
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