Created Sunday 23 October 2022
Gesash
The Gesash are felinid and culturally matriarchal, living in small loosely connected bands guided by Wise Grandmothers, a title earned by the most spiritual individuals. They place heavy importance on what they call Motherhood, which is a role of guidance, protection, and nurturing. Motherhood is genderless in concept. Fatherhood is given less importance, but often serves the role of direct physical caretaker while Motherhood often serves a more spiritual and emotional care. Notably however, Gesash women are nearly always naturally physically stronger than Gesash men, and will often be the hunters and defenders for the rest of the community. The community acts as one family, often with each member playing both the Motherhood and Fatherhood roles. At least in traditional Gesash society. The Gesash are also known for being the victims of intense subujation oppression and exploitation by the children of Engadian, the Human God of cities and shields. Gesash under Engadian suppression fight to keep hold to their culture, but this has not always been successful. Their goddess is called the Great Mother, a goddess of the earth, volcanoes, and volcanic springs. She is dead, but notably was the most Soul aligned of all dieties, leading to her ghost remaining to watch over her children. Often she shares what little power she has left with Geshan "saints", figures who gave great sacrifice for their communities. The Gesash have a procephized chosen daughter, a figure who will take up and share the mantle of the Great Mother and become the new goddess of the Gesash. This procephized figure has not manifested yet, though many potentials (often now saints) have appeared. Basically like how in morrowind there are failed nerevarines.
Gesash live in a few discreete communities, with the largest being the Engadic Gesash, made up of descendants of long subjugated people and recently stolen as well. The second largest community is made up of escaped Gesash, often making smaller communities wherever they can find safety from Engadic patrols. The most traditional community lives on yhe Mothers Mountain in the Gesashi Range, the largest peak. It is volcanically active, with many hot springs. No part of it has any snow despite the height, unlike other nearby mountains, as the mountain itself naturally generates heat the higher one goes. The top has the ruins of the mothers temple. Most of the mountain is covered in a temperate rainforest, and many of its rivers and watersources come from the many hot springs of the mountain, known for having strong healing properties.
Gesash traditionally place their dead in the mothers River, but Engadic and Wandering Gesash often take on the tradition of the community that surrounds them.
Humankind
Humankind often call themselves Children of the Father, the Father being a genderless entity known by others as Ajanac. Ajanac is most often referred to by masculine pronouns. Ajanac is also long dead, but like most other dead gods, his soul was too weak to leave any sort of noticeable ghost, even to other gods. Humans are his younger children with the gods that he left to watch over them being called the elder children, despite the fact some are younger than humankind as a whole. Engadian has the largest human community of the elder children, a small empire with a large capital city. This city is the sanctuary of Engadian, and thus the city directly reflects his will and desire. Humankind was supposed to be united and guided by one of Ajanacs sons, but that child refused and instead became a wanderer. This lead to infighting amongst the rest of Ajanacs elder children, leading to humans following specific gods or making out on their own. Because of this and how long ago it was, the Children of Ajanac have the most varied and conflicting cultures.
Humankind tends to bury their dead, however there are exceptions.
Orin
The Orin are the tall mostly hairless blue skinned and mirror eyed children of Orin. Orin still lives, and is the god of wisdom, knowledge, libraries, and magic. Orin has diefiic children, each with their own purview and city state. Each city state has its own culture, but all work together and with Orin and his city state except one, the god Xanjecenazax, god of madness, shadow, and brutal war. His city is a place of chaos and murder, and he chooses to conflict with his father and family instead of work with them.
The Orin tend to emphasize lives of introspection and study. The Orin tend to place their dead in masoleums.
Beastly Folk
The Gesash aren't the only beastly folk, with many smaller communities being ones made up of animal featured peoples. These peoples make up the largest population, and often have their own gods, beliefs, ideals, and languages. The largest of these are the canidform people of the central lands. The only common belief amongst the canidform people is the general trust of human gods and the veneration of dead ancestors. They also hisorically burn their dead. The beastly races and the Gesash are notably different, as the Gesash have a singular point of origin and a physical form that doesn't naturally resemble any beasts. Even amongst beastly folk that look nearly the same, different cultures share wildly different origins. Even amongst the earlier mentioned common cultures of the Canidform peoples. It is theorized they are the descendants of long separated humans, but this has no real evidence.