Satyrs

Overview

Satyrs are cloven-hooved humanoids with densely furred unguligrade legs, long tails, large, funnel-shaped ears, and two-toned skin. Evolutionarily, they lived in small groups in wooded areas, but in recent history (circa. 750 years) they built large cities and elaborate infrastructure in which to live. Post-cataclysm, they live scattered throughout other species' towns and settlements, unable to reclaim their own for reasons ranging from impossibility of swift rebuilding, to fear of the mountain's shadow over the north.

A male satyr is known as a stag. A female satyr is a doe.

Physiology

Only stags have antlers, which begin growing for the first time at around 11-13 years old. Stags shed their antlers every year in late winter, and the new growth begins significantly in mid-spring. Satyr's fur- which exists in two distinct segments, one covering their legs, and another covering their necks and shoulders- grows thicker in the winter, thinning out once more in summertime. This changing of coat is driven by temperature rather than time, earning satyrs a reputation for being particularly hardy, especially to cold winters.

Satyrs have two-toned skin- typically the lower half of their face, palms, undersides of arms, and front will be a shade or two paler than their foreheads, bridge of the nose, backs of arms/hands, and backs are. Though in satyrs with either very light or very dark skin, this pattern may be less apparent. Some satyr's fur and hair grows darker from the darker skin, while some keep a static hair color. This will depend on genetics and, to an extent, environmental variables.

Satyrs are built for sprinting. They are mostly lean muscle, and their hooves allow them to be quickly manueverable while moving at speed (unlike ipotanes, who are fast, but run like cannons). Satyrs are the fastest humanoid, on average, at short distances- usually under a mile, maybe more if the satyr in question is used to runnning.

Satyr's natural circadian rhythym is crepescular: broken into waking hours at dawn and dusk, with short rests at midday and midnight. Post-cataclysm, however, most satyrs live amongst other humanoids' settlements, and many choose to adopt more diurnal habits to better fit a diurnal world. Some areas are kinder to crepescular habits than others.

Culture

Satyr culture can be considered achievement-based and communal. Much emphasis is placed on personal success (whatever that may mean), but the success of the individual quickly becomes the success of the group. Satyrs concern themselves with building the renown of their city, or family, or community, as well as themselves. This has resulted in fantastic empires of the past, though the cataclysm has since crumbled them to obscurity.

Cataclysm

Post-cataclysm, satyrs are scattered, strewn across the land. Because of their architectural methods (see ), rebuilding was near impossible. They simply could not fix or rebuild their structures quickly enough to be worth it. So instead, they joined other communities, ones who could rebuild quicker. Humans build with stone and wood, fauns with clay and rock. Those grow quicker than satyr's living architecture.

Further, satyrs pre-cataclysm occupied the pine forests in the north- those areas that were hit hardest by the eruption. Their forests burned or were buried in ash, and that far north, the long winters that followed were impossible to endure. Those that stayed, died. The rest fled to wherever they could survive, south and east. Satyrs still have nothing like what they used to, no cities of their own, most too wary of the mountain to even try to return to the north.

Succession

Satyrs are patrilineal- titles are passed down from father to son. In this way, satyrs are also patriarchal. Stags tend to hold more power, as they can inherit it from their fathers. Does are not kept from power, but because they cannot inherit it, it is more difficult to obtain, and it cannot be passed on, not to sons nor daughters. Even so, there is not the expectation of motherhood or wifehood as there is in humans.

Surnames are passed from parent to child of the same gender- daughters inherit the surname of their mothers, sons inherit the surname of their fathers. On occasion, children with a single parent of the opposite gender may inherit their surname, but if the same-gender parent is known, it is more courteous for the child to take their name. Not doing so is usually considered an insult.

Mourning

Satyrs have a designated mourning period that lasts for 10 days after the death of a relative or close friend. During this period, anyone affected should wear an opaque veil that covers their face- usually in black. The veil is made of thin cloth that makes it impossible to see the wearer's face, but leaves the wearer able to see their surroundings. It is hung from the antlers, or, in does and children, from a simple circlet placed on the head. The veil is to provide the grieving with protection from scrutiny, rendering them able to mourn without damaging their image or pride, but allowing them to remain in public while doing so. To mourn openly is to surrender dignity, and to not wear a veil under circumstances when it would be expected, thus proving an absence of mourning, is a callous insult to the deceased.

In the past, the death of a king or queen would require a city-wide mourning period, during which all citizens would be expected to veil, under penalty of treason.

Cross-Cultural Exchange

Satyrs and humans have a long history of trade, political relations, and reciprocal cultural communication. Even pre-cataclysm, humans and satyrs exhibited a unique blend of cultural styles that is rare in other species' relationships, and this trend continues post-cataclysm, most notably in fashions.

Satyr-style clothes- gender-nuetral long robes and tunics- gained popularity among humans around the same time satyrs began to adopt human forms of styling. Skirts as a specifically feminine article gained traction among satyrs as a result of human-satyr relations, and the use of dresses as everyday wear began with satyrs. Use of buttons, ties, and other laces as means of securing clothing has human origins, while satyrs typically wrap their clothes and secure them with a belt, as intricate lacings often catch in satyr's natural fur covering on their necks, shoulders, and upper chests/backs. Satyrs also adopted the wide bell-sleeves that humans wore, though their own, tighter-fitting sleeve styles, as well as robes lacking sleeves at all, remain common. Leather was also widely used by humans and subsequently used by satyrs in place of woolen or silken belts.

The practice of accentuating clothing with dragon hide is a very old satyr tradition that quickly gained traction among humans for its richness and intrigue. Satyrs typically only use dragon hide in hemming and as belts, as it is very expensive, but it is sought for the implication of power and reach it imparts to the wearer. Many old satyr cities traded dragon hide from ipotane herds, as dragons are more abundant in the plains than in the forests.

Stemming from this tradition, and as such, not quite as old, is the use of griffon feathers in clothing. Griffons are easier to find in the forests, and as such their products quickly surpassed dragons' in terms of frequency of use. This practice, too, passed to humans, and, to a lesser extent, ipotanes.