Humans

Overview

Humans are the same, physiologically, as real-world ones. They evolved in conjunction with other mammalian humanoids, far more basal than ungulates, but stemming from the same ancestor.

Culture

Human culture is particularly concerned with perserverence, especially after death. For most, this continuation is not personal, but rather, of the family. Humans are more concerned with lineage than any other species, and even on small scales, the preservation of family, especially in the form of the name, is present.

Succession

Naming occurs down a matrilineal line without change. Any person keeps their surname for the entirety of their life- no party takes a surname upon marrying, moving, or any other life events- but children are named for their mother. The father keeps his own surname but does not pass it on. This is, in part, why there is so much emphasis on the marrying of daughters- in order for the name to perservere, the daughters must have children of their own.

Men, therefore, secure their continuation after death through notoriety. As they cannot pass on their names, their perserverence must be of the self, by way of renown and reputation. In the past, this renown was sought in the way of kings, knights, and powerful lords. Post-cataclysm, the practice has settled somewhat into an emphasis on reputation. Humans value intricate rules of etiquette and civility, and remain very concerned with public image. Women, by passing their names, must concern themselves both with their own image and that of their children, in order to control the reputation of her family. Men, lacking the ability to bequeath a name, have a tighter control over their own legacy, while simultaneously having a harder time securing it.

This isn't to say men pay no mind to the actions of their children, but women have more personal stakes in them.

Because of the matrilineal nature of succession, women hold a complicated place in human-dominated societies. They are respected by nature of the fact that they are the line-bearers, but for that same fact, they are expected to- whether they want to or not- bear the line. Women are very much directed to proceed from daughter to wife to mother, all with intent to continue the name in her stead. A woman who does not want, or worse yet, refuses to form, a family (re: have children), has failed in her duty to her line.

Marriage

Sisters are married in order of eldest to youngest, with no room for rearrangement. This is not optional. Younger sisters cannot marry until their elder does. Brothers do not abide by this rule, as their marriages are ordered by their wives-to-be, to follow her family's structure.

This arrangement is to allow the eldest sister to have her children before the younger, a way to keep the balance of the family. Having a child is an honor and a celebration, a token of maturity: it's only fair that the eldest get that chance before her younger sisters. Of course, it is possible for an older daughter to be married and not have children before her younger sister does the same and does, but in that case she was given the chance, and just didn't quite take it. The severity of which this is percieved as a failure depends on location, family, and context.

The cruelest game an eldest daughter can play on her mother and sisters alike is to refuse to marry and refuse to have a child, as that means their bloodline and their name ends with her.

Women can take multiple husbands, though this is more common with upper-class, wealthier women and families. Lower-class women usually only have one or two husbands. Men can only have one wife. Usually, husbands are taken one at a time, not married at once in a group wedding, though in rare cases this does happen.

Women own the home and manage finances. Men own the livelihood (farmland, livestock, trade gear¹, etc). Both work the livelihood, but there is a tendency for women to spend more time with children once they have them than men, for the mother has a greater investment in the child, as it carries her name and thus it's behavior reflects on her very directly. Men, upon marrying, are entitled to a portion of their father's livelihood: the father keeps 50%, and the remaining half is split evently among sons. This gives a financial incentive for women to take multiple husbands.

When a man dies, his livelihood is split among his sons as per a will. If he has no sons, it falls under the control of his wife. It is customary for the youngest daughter to stay in her mother's home after marrying. She is expected to care for her aging parents, and in the event her father dies before her mother, the mother is supported financially by the livelihood of the youngest daughter's husband(s). Any unmarried sons also remain in the house, and any livelihood they are left, if any, helps support the household.

When a married woman dies, her home is left to her husbands equally, so it is often the case that they all continue to live there in her absence, especially if they have children. This can lead to speculations of homosexuality if too much time passes with neither man seeking a new wife. Gay men are emasculated for their relation to widowers and widowers are emasculated for their relation to gay men in a vicious circle.

There is, actually, a long underground history of gay men taking advantage of this system of marriage to seek lives together. There are fairly common, but not spoken of, marriages referred to as 'clover marriages'², in which queer men both marry the same (often queer herself) woman, enabling all three (sometimes more) to live their lives in peace. Clovers, thusly, have become a subtle symbol of homosexuality among humans.

Men, when courting a wife, are expected to provide the home in which they will live. The wife is gifted ownership of the home he builds or buys as a dowry. Often, very poor men will court women who are already married as a way to avoid having to provide this, as the woman will already have a house from her first husband. The funds and/or materials for building/buying this house are provided by the man's mother, as such, she is all but required to approve of the marriage.

It is considered polite to have both mothers' approval of any marriage. The man's mother, as stated, must approve for him to provide a home, but this can be circumvented if he is marrying a woman who already has a husband and a home. The woman's mother does not provide any finances or assets to the marriage, and so can be undermined (a wedding can go through without the woman's mother's approval), but it is considered a significant insult, both from the daughter to the mother, and from the husband to his wife's mother, for a marriage to go through without her permission.

Human's marriage color is green. It symbolizes new beginnings, birth, and growth. Both bride and groom wear primarily green clothing for the ceremony, and weddings are often held in spring. Evergreen trees are associated with love, weddings, and marriage to humans.

Burial

Humans are buried in the fetal position, seated upright with their head resting on their knees, facing downward. Their hands are placed in the space between their chests and legs, and are often buried holding something. This can be something of personal significance, but is more often either a token of travel or a small statue/shrine of Favofh, who is believed to guide humans to the afterlife. Since he resides deep beneath the surface of the planet, it is believed that by positioning humans' heads to face downward, they will see him coming to collect them, and not be afraid when he starts to carry them upward. Somewhere in the skies, they are handed to Ikilthod, who keeps hold of them in the form of stars. Human coffins are usually barrel-shaped, to accomodate for the position they are buried in.

Fashion Norms

Humans historically wore strictly gendered dress: layered skirts, sub-bust belts and ties, and long, ornamented hair on women; split-leg pants, waist-height belts and ties, and short hair on men. Both genders' fashion was marked by wide-sleeve shirts and coats, and shoes- typically boot-like (tall, protective, and usually hard leather) or sandal-like (open, tied, usually wooden).

Dresses were actually not considered appropriate for everyday dress until satyr-human relations took off. Before then, dresses were for special occassions only: for common folk, this meant weddings, while leaders and members of important families wore dresses to political events or parties. Women's everyday dress consisted of a shirt styled similarly to that of the men's, with a belt³ fastened under the bust, and layered skirts of which the shirt was tucked into. Often, the skirts were worn at the bustline instead of the waist or hips, and so women's shirts were cut shorter than men's.

Women's hair is the most defined of humans' modern fashion conventions, as the loss of extreme formality and extravegance dissolved much of the gender norms from before the cataclysm that were no longer viable after it. Now, what remains of this culture is the significance of women's hair. It is kept long, the length of her hair a marker of femininity and maturity, as such it is maintained in pursuit of performing womanhood correctly. Ideally, a woman's hair should reach her mid-back, and even longer hair is more desireable, more svelte. Girls below around 14 rarely have hair as long as a woman's should be, as they are still children and therefore don't encompass the maturity that long hair implies. Until then, all children usually have hair about shoulder-length, though there are places (family preference or location-specific norms) that keep children's hair closer to the length it is expected to be in adulthood.

Women and girls have certain hairstyles that they are expected to wear that correspond with their 'status', especially as it pertains to marriage.

• Children under 14 sometimes wear their hair down, untied or braided, but only if it is shorter than their shoulders, otherwise it is too similar to unmarried young women. Children with longer hair wear it braided in two equal plaits.
• Girls 14-20 wear their hair in a single, long braid. It's around this time that they are expected to keep their hair longer, and that they should braid it themselves, while younger children's hair is done by a parent, usually the mother.
• Women 20 or over who are unmarried should wear their hair loose. They may decorate and style themselves with head coverings, ribbons, beads, ties, etc if they wish to keep it out of their face, but they no longer wear any braid, and do not wear it tied up.
• Married women return to braiding their hair, but draw the top portion into a small bun at the backs of their heads, secured with a pin. These pins are common wedding gifs, and range from simple, utile shapes to elaborate, decorative ones. The braided portion is done differently depending on how many husbands they've taken. Women with a single husband braid their hair in a typical three-strand style. Women with two husbands braid with four strands, women with three husbands, five strands, and so on. Complex braiding is a symbol of wealth because it is connected to high-status women who can take many husbands.
• Widows wear their hair completely up, tied rather than pinned. Women are only considered widows if all of their husbands have died- a women who had multiple husbands and lost one, but another remains alive and well, will only change her braiding style to reflect this. Some widows wear very small individual three-strand braids for each child she has, but it is not inherent to the widows' style.

There is no equivalant to this practice followed by men. As they cannot pass on their names to children, their place in the family, and thus their relationship to marriage and fatherhood, is not as important or watched as women's.

The exception is in widowers. Widowers wear their hair long- style doesn't matter, because the length is what identifies them as a widower. It is often a source of shame for these men, as with the loss of their wife and the growth of their hair, they are often seen as having failed in some way, losing a portion of their masculinity.

During weddings, women wear their hair covered by an opaque veil-like shroud, similiar to an enlongated gargush cap, often made out of silk. They are often woven with intricate patterns and passed down through matrilineal lines. The bride's hair is done in the married women's style beneath the covering- if she is already married, her braid is woven with the number of strands indicative of the number of husbands her new one will make. The covering functions as an in-between of states- not yet married, no longer unmarried (or a change of number of husbands). Part of the wedding ritual is the new husband's removal of the shroud to reveal her hair.

Cross-Cultural Exchange

Humans and satyrs have a long history of very close relations. Their cultures are very similar in their values and methods, making interspecific diplomacy occur smoothly and naturally. As a result of this, there is a widespread, unique blend of human and satyr aspects in both cultures that is not seen to the same extent in any other cross-species exchanges.

Human-satyr relations, however, brought fashion norms together, such that modern humans and satyrs dress almost the same. From satyrs, humans adopted longer dress: tunics and robes became common among both genders. Humans change these fashions slightly to fit their needs and wants, especially by way of laces, buttons and other ties that satyrs did not use in their dress. Human-style robes often had the aforementioned bell sleeves that satyr-style ones lacked, and are often worn with additional layers, especially of the skirts or coat, that satyr fashions omitted.

Another norm humans adopted from satyrs was that of the crest. Satyrs' crests usually dictated loyalty to a city or king, while humans adopted it with the importance of the family name. Usually worn on a strip of cloth hung from a belt or sewn into skirts, humans display a symbol indicative of a guild membership, family, or other important signifier of the wearer. Some humans may wear multiple at a time, each connecting them to a different piece of their community, usually ordered from most to least personal, proximal to distal⁴. These crests largely function as declaration of loyalty, origin, or skill.

Humans and fauns, while originating from nearby areas, historically have had little diplomatic relations with each other due to their differences in culture. From the very first prolonged contacts between the two, their differences in clothing and hair drew immediate misunderstandings. Fauns assumed human men were cruel and violent, judging by their short hair, and would often not even attempt communication between them because of this. Humans viewed fauns as disorderly or inappropriate, and their rams as emasculate, for their nudity and long hair. These initial negative interactions, while long behind both peoples, remains as a relative distance that isn't seen between other species.

Mythology

Humans, like many other species, have a small pantheon of gods. Unlike other species, they have a centerpiece.

The Mothergod

The mothergod is known as the beginning of all things and, as her title would suggest, the mother of humanity. She created the world, gave it depth, gave it life. She made too much to take care of it all herself, and so bore other gods, smaller than herself, more specialized, to care for the pieces she assigns them. They are children, workers, and tools to her⁵.

Through millennia, she grows old and tired. She seeks to leave, but, in giving all her creations to her lesser gods, she has nothing for herself to leave behind, no legacy of her own aside from everything. So she creates humanity, and in birthing them, dies.

Her legacy is humanity, they all carry her 'name.' The matter of her being sustains them even in her death, but they are the one thing that isn't overseen. They run free in absence of a surveyor like that of the lesser gods, unsurveiled, for better or worse. The mothergod is the only god without a proper name: 'Mothergod' is her title, but she predates the concept of names, so humanity carries her name for her. All of humanity is the mothergod's line.

Favofh, The God of the Land

He is the most commonly worshipped minor god, favored especially by farmers and livestock cultivators. Travelers may pray to him for easy trails and quick progress. Shrines are often found on well-trod paths to protect them and those that walk them. Valleys and rifts are ideal places for temples: the further below sea level, the closer to the core of Favofh. There are stories of devout monks who dig tunnels and holes to try to find their way closer to him, to better their worship.

In some regions, there is a scism between those who worship Favofh and those who worship Ikilthod, because there is argument over who was responsible for the cataclysm. Some say the land: the mountain erupted. Some say they sky: it rained from above. Only in very niche sects do the two war, but where they do there is unbalance, as the two were never meant to be at odds, and work best in tandem.

Ikilthod, The God of the Sky

He is favored by farmers- in tandem with the land- and by sailors- in tandem with the sea. Mountains are ideal places for temples, some even built up as high as they can to be closer to him. He is responsible for the dead, carried upward by Favofh, who then entrusts them permanantly to Ikilthod.

Most humans consider the sky responsible for the cataclysm, but many don't hold this in resentment. It is generally believed that something about the old way of living angered him, resulting in the eruption. This is used to preach new teachings and ways of living: simpler, more traditional lives, far from the ornate cities that saw the cataclysm. Followers of Ikilthod value quiet, orderly lives- little trouble for the price of little excitement, staying small to avoid his wrath awakened once more.

Wapoia, The Goddess of the Sea

She's labile, tricksy, untrustworthy. She doesn't hold much reverence for the mothergod's line and doesn't hold herself to the obligation to protect them that the land and the sky do. Most humans fear rather than love her. Sailors usually fall in one of two categories: devout worshippers, or cynical non-actors. The worshippers believe they can garner her favor and gain her protection. The cynics believe that there is nothing they can do to make her protect them, and that they can only hope to be lucky enough to avoid her meaningless wrath. Both surrender themselves completely to her power.

Death at sea is a cruel fate- without Favofh to guide the dead to the afterlife, they are left to fend for themselves, as Wapoia is unlikely to bother herself with the dead. The bodies that wash up onshore are buried as quickly as possible in the hopes that Favofh will find them and protect them. Those that don't can only hope to make their way to the Ikilthod on their own, or be stuck in a limbo-like state, tied to the physical world but unable to truly exist in it. The sea is full of ghosts, in this way.