Eternal Glory: Creating a Fantasy Empire in 55 Votes

AKuz · May 23, 2023

Well, it's an idea that's stuck in my head and won't leave until I've run it.

More clearly, I had an idea for a pair of matched quests. The second takes an Empire at its height and tasks players with throwing it into decline by getting two votes: one regular vote to run the empire and one riot vote to throw problems at it until eventually it collapses.

However, the first quest is this quest: the goal to build a single hegemonic empire and the fantasy subcontinent it controls from the very basic building blocks and giving the region and the empire a history guided by the hand of the players. The players represent the various supernatural spirits and natural forces that are variously called "chance", "fate", "providence," "zeitgeist", "material forces" and so on.

Building this world will happen over 55 votes, which will be in the main riot voting. (All players get a vote and all votes happen, with more votes for something meaning the vote's effects are stronger)

Vote 1 will be the creation and positioning of distinct species across the map below:

Which is region of the following world, and chosen for it's relative isolation:

Vote 2 will be the creation and assigning of familial structures to the previously created peoples.

Vote 3 will be the creation of religions which will be assigned to the map and various cultural groups

Vote 4 will be the creation of urban settlements, environmental details, and mythic locations that determine local demographics

Vote 5 will be the creation of different states, organizations, and polities based on the previous votes.

Votes 6 to 55 will be the history of these groups at twenty year intervals, until finally at the end a single Empire has come to reign undisputed as the hegemon of this subcontinent.

When the quest is completed, afterwards I will run the sequel: The Empire Must Die!

VOTE 1:

Billions of years ago the universe was created, a vast material realm expanding everywhere containing everything under forces of the newly codified laws of physics. And just as long ago the forces of magic came into being spreading everywhere and everywhen.

Stranger and more wondrous than the mortal conceptions of "Order" and "Chaos" the deterministic forces of physics and the indeterministic forces of magic have mingled, separated, danced, harmonised, fought, and birthed uncountable worlds and wonders.

Operating on a logic ineffable even to gods, the universe is a place where the clockwork regularity of physics can be substituted, bent, or subverted by the force of magic which has not laws and logic but ideals and dreams.

These forces are incompatible and inseparable.

They have also produced innumerable star systems, planets, continents, and peoples.

Here, orbiting a sun in the far reaches of a spiral galaxy, on the subcontinent of a lush and fertile world, is where the story of an Empire will unfold. Its rise, its rule, its fall, and its legacy.

All Empires are composed of mortal beings, rulers and ruled. Today we begin the process of peopling the future empire by establishing the species that will inhabit this subcontinent…

-

For the following vote, please format it as a single plan vote named for the species.

Each vote made by a player will be counted.

For each vote select a "Frame", a "Genus", and then select traits for that species. Depending on your combination of Frame and Genus you will have a certain number of trait points to spend as well as a cap on the number of traits you can select (Positive AND Negative). Selecting a negative trait will provide extra points that may be spent on positive traits.

Finally, please select a Hex on the following map in which the species will be present. If you have excess trait points, for each point you can select an additional Hex. If multiple people have the same vote, adjacent tiles will be populated.

From South to North, the following colours are the following biomes with an example Hex
-Ice Cap (477)
-Tundra (470)
-Boreal (420)
-Oceanic (361)
-Steppe (Cool) (337)
-Temperate Rainforest (341)
-Mediterranean (295)
-Subtropical (245)
-Desert (Cool) (311)
-Alpine (279)
-Desert (Hot) (149)
-Steppe (Hot) (169)
-Tropical Savanna (144)
-Tropical Monsoon (88)
-Tropical Rainforest (54)

-

Frame:

-[ ] Humanoid.

The classic, inspired by Homo Sapiens Sapiens. One head, one torso, two legs, two arms

Gives Four Trait Maximum. Gives 3 Trait Points to Spend.

-[ ] Centauroid.

Self-Explanatory, part humanoid from torso to head, part something else below. (Classic centaurs, mermaids, and lamias would fall under this for example)

Gives Six Trait Maximum. Much higher calorie requirement for calories. Gives 3 Trait Points to Spend.

-

Genus:

-[ ] Mammalian

Mammalian Features. You can specify details or I'll do it for you based on traits.

Trait Maximum Increased by One.

-[ ] Avian

Avian Features. You can specify details or I'll do it for you based on traits.

Gain [Winged] trait for free, this does not count towards your Trait maximum.

-[ ] Homo Sapiens

Features close to those of Homo Sapiens Sapiens. You can specify details of I'll do it for you based on traits.

Gain one free Trait Point.

-[ ] Draconic

Lizardly features, but Draconic sounds cooler. You can specify details or I'll do it for you based on traits

Take the [Warm Adapted] or [Cold Adapted] trait for free, this does not count towards your Trait maximum.

-[ ] Aquatic

Have some ocean dweller features. You can specify details or I'll do it for you based on traits

Gain the [Water Breathing] trait for free, this does not count towards your trait maximum. Can only be placed in coastal, lake, or riverine hexes. Species gain optimum use of water resources.

-

Traits:

-[ ] Keen Senses

On average members of this species have better senses than other species.

Costs 1 Trait Point.

-[ ] Giant

Members of this species are on average proportionally 25% larger than baseline species, and are stronger than other species and require a higher caloric intake

Costs 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Small.

-[ ] Small

Members of this species are on average proportionally 25% smaller than other baseline species and are both weaker than other species but have a reduced calorie requirement.

Costs 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Giant.

-[ ] Hermaphroditic

This species is one where all individuals produce both male and female gametes. (Feel free to specify if sequential or simultaneous)

Costs 1 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Eusocial

-[ ] Parthenogenetic

Members of this species reproduce asexually (Feel free to specify if this is the primary means of reproduction or if asexual reproduction is in addition to sexual reproduction)

Costs 1 Trait Point.

-[ ] Nocturnal

This species prefers to operate during the night, and has slightly better senses to facilitate life in situations of reduced light.

Costs 1 Trait Point.

-[ ] Magnetoreceptive

Members of this species are able to sense magnetic fields and are capable of navigating via the instinctive use of an internal compass.

Costs 1 Trait Point.

-[ ] Prehensile Tail

Members of this species have a tail which can be used to manipulate objects independent of their limbs.

Costs 1 Trait Point.

-[ ] Strong Constitution

Members of this species are harder to kill via poison or physical trauma, and can consume a wider selection of foodstuffs

Costs 2 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Weak Constitution.

-[ ] Long Lived

On average members of this species live 50% longer than baseline and senescence sets in much closer to death.

Costs 2 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Short Lives.

-[ ] Muscular

Members of this species naturally find it easier to build and maintain muscle, though the species also has slightly higher caloric requirements.

Costs 2 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Delicate.

-[ ] Magically Sensitive

On average members of this species have a natural affinity to the forces of magic and the supernatural.

Costs 2 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Magically Inert.

-[ ] Intuitive

On average members of this species make leaps of logic and creativity more readily than other species.

Costs 2 Trait Points.

-[ ] Prolific

On average members of this species have more offspring and have easier childbirth.

Costs 2 Trait Points.

-[ ] Spiritual Senses

Members of this species have senses beyond the natural, and are more perceptive of the forces of magic and the supernatural.

Costs 2 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Magically Inert.

-[ ] Efficient Metabolism

Members of this species are able to get greater nutrition out of less food.

Costs 2 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Inefficient Metabolism.

-[ ] Cold Adapted

This species is adapted to thrive in much colder climes than the average.

Costs 2 Trait Points.

-[ ] Heat Adapted

This species is adapted to thrive in much hotter climes than the average.

Costs 2 Trait Points.

-[ ] Autotrophic

Members of this species can supplement or replace much of their nutritional needs via the absorption of ambient energy in their environment (Such as sunlight or magic) that converts atmospheric carbon into useful products. They will still need to consume rarer materials however.

Costs 3 Trait Points.

-[ ] Water Breathing

Via some magical or mundane method, members of this species are capable of breathing in water.

Costs 3 Trait Points.

-[ ] Winged

Members of this species possess wings that allow them to be airborne or glide for brief periods.

Costs 3 Trait Points.

-[ ] Telepathic

Members of this species can communicate with other members of their Species or Genus who are aware of their presence via direct mind to mind communication over short distances

Costs 3 Trait Points.

-[ ] Chosen People

I assign traits at random from this list. (This means all can be negative, or all can be positive, or break rules regarding trait maximum or trait costs) These people also have a powerful supernatural patreon.

Costs 4 Trait Points.

-[ ] Eusocial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality

Costs 4 Trait Points. Cannot be taken along with Hermaphroditic.

-[ ] Short Lives

On average members of this species live 50% shorter than baseline and senescence sets in much closer to death.

Gives 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Long Lived.

-[ ] Delicate

On average members of this species have weaker bones and find it harder to build and maintain muscle mass.

Gives 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Delicate.

-[ ] Weak Constitution

Members of this species die more easily to illness, and are allergic to a wide variety of foodstuff.

Gives 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Strong Constitution.

-[ ] Magically Inert

Almost all members of this species are unable to use magic, no matter the circumstance. They do however, possess a slight resistance to supernatural forces.

Gives 1 Trait Point, Cannot be taken along with Magically Sensitive.

-[ ] Obligate Carnivore

This species requires the consumption of over animals to survive, reducing food sources. Otherwise the default assumption is that a species is omnivorous.

Gives 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Herbivorous.

-[ ] Herbivorous

This species primarily digests plant matter, reducing food sources. Otherwise the default assumption is that a species is omnivorous.

Gives 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Obligate Carnivore.

-[ ] Inefficient Metabolism

Members of this get less nutrition out of the food they eat.

Gives 1 Trait Point. Cannot be taken along with Efficient Metabolism.

-

Example Vote:

[x] Catgirls Orcs
-Frame: Humanoid
-Genus: Mammalian (Catgirls)
-Trait 1: Keen senses
-Trait 2: Strong Constitution
-Trait 3: Muscular
-Trait 4: Obligate Carnivore
-Trait 5: Magically Inert
-Hex: 169

These ferocious predators with feline features hunt on the northern steppes, their high calorie requirements keeping their numbers low, and requires them to always be on the move, moving from hunting ground to hunting ground. Though their strong constitutions, keen senses, and muscular anatomy also means that they make excellent scavengers being able to locate animals that have been brought down and driving off anything else that wants to eat the corpse.

In this case the combination of Humanoid and Mammalian leaves me with 3 Trait Points and a Trait Maximum of Five.

Taking Obligate Carnivore and Magically Inert, while taking up two slots from my trait cap allow me to spend five points to purchase Muscular, Strong Constitution, and Keen Senses. This spends all my points and brings me up to the cap. Then I decide where I want them to start and put that hex in the vote. Finally I throw in a little detail to flesh out where I'm going with the idea and voila! I'm done

AKuz · May 23, 2023

Species as of Vote 1 Completion

AKuz · May 23, 2023

oh just as a heads up:

I'm not checking the viability of each vote right now. I'm only checking if votes are properly formatted after the vote closes.

If your vote isn't viable, I'll count it as a vote towards a viable vote in the same Frame/Genus with the most similar Trait suite and location.

The only exception is that if you don't put a Hex in your vote, I'll just put them somewhere that feels appropriate.

AKuz · May 23, 2023

Just to like, clarify, it's fully intended that you vote for a species you like.

You don't always have to create your own people

AKuz · May 25, 2023

Scheduled vote count started by AKuz on May 23, 2023 at 4:00 PM, finished with 191 posts and 84 votes.

6 people have voted
[X] An Invasive species of Large Fast Breeding Geese
- AMTurtle
- Furrybacon
- triumph8w
- Taricus
- NSchwerte
- Cetashwayo
4 people have voted
[X]- Multicellular Life Was A Mistake, RVTRN TO CORAL
3 people have voted
[X] Ferronids (Iron Kobolds)
-[X] Frame: Humanoid
-[X] Genus: Draconic (Heat Adapted)
-[X] Trait 1: Small
-[X] Trait 2: Magnetoreceptive
-[X] Trait 3: Strong Constitution
-[X] Trait 4: Magically Inert
-[X] Hex: 111
- Etranger
- grimely
- Miriam
2 people have voted
[x] Catgirls Orcs
- AKuz
- Clockmosis
2 people have voted
[x] Boundless Kobolds
- Vylinius
- HeWhoAdds
2 people have voted
[X] Chirek
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Mammalian (Vaguely rodentine, with wrinkled and squished faces, large ears, and a symbiosis with mildly bioluminescent flora giving mottled patches of skin that seems to faintly glow in low light)
-[X] Nocturnal
-[X] Spiritual Senses
-[X] Obligate Carnivore
-[X] Inefficient Metabolism
-[X] Strong Constitution
-[X] Hex: 384
- DocSpooky
- winters_eve
2 people have voted
[X] Plan An Unkindness Can Be Kind
- KnightDisciple
- Dessard
1 people have voted
[X] Potterace
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Avian (Fluffy feathery wings on an HSS frame)
-[X] Giant
-[X] Muscular
-[X] Parthenogenesis
-[X] Winged (Free)
-[X] Obligate Carnivore
-[X] Hex: 295
- Astra Myst
1 people have voted
[x] Striga (Magic Parrots)
- LilyWitch
1 people have voted
[X] Sensing Turtles
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Daconic (Turtles)
-[X] Heat Adapted
-[X] Magnetoreceptive
-[X] Small
-[X] Spiritual Senses
-[X] Herbivorous
-[X] Hex:78
- SteelWriter77
1 people have voted
[X] Gurvel (Mongol Lizards/Au Ra)
- [X] Humanoid (4 traits total, 3 trait points)
- [X] Draconic (Free trait, Cool Adapted)
- [X] Small (1)
- [X] Muscular (2)
- [X] Keen Senses (1)
- [X] Magically Inert (-1)
- [X] Hex: 335-336
- Scrivener
1 people have voted
[X] Plan Scaric Cymbol
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Homo Sapiens
-[X] Chosen People
-[X] Intuitive
-[X] Magically Inert
-[X] Hex 419
- Cassiemouse
1 people have voted
[X] Icy Magik Lizards
-[X] Frame: Humanoid
-[x] Genus: Draconic
-[x] Trait 1: Cold Adapted
-[x] Trait 2: Obligate Carnivore
-[x] Trait 3: Magically Sensitive
-[x] Trait 4: Spiritual Senses
-[x] Hex: 398
- DkArthas
1 people have voted
[X] Icemen
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Homo Sapiens
-[X] Magically Sensitive
-[X] Intuitive
-[X] Hex: 480
- Anchises
1 people have voted
[X] Magic Bird People
- CobaltCloyster
1 people have voted
[X] Not Wooly Mammoths
-[X] Centauroid.
-[X] Mammalian
-[X] Giant
-[X] Prehensile Trunk
-[X] Efficient Metabolism
-[X] Cold Adapted
-[X] Magically Inert
-[X] Herbivorous
-[X] Keen Senses
-[X] Hex: 435
- Woltaire
1 people have voted
[X] Sensing Turtles
- yrsillar
1 people have voted
[X] Wise Old Snakes
-[X] Centauroid (3 Points, 6 Traits Max)
-[X] Draconic (along the lines of the XCOM 2 snakes)
-[X] Cold Adapted (Free)
-[X] Intuitive
-[X] Long Lived
-[X] Prehensile Tail
-[X] Obligate Carnivore
-[X] Magically Inert
-[X] Hex: 429
- 7th Hex
1 people have voted
[X] Curious Explorers
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Winged
-[X] Keen Senses
-[X] Inefficient Metabolism
-[X] Hex: 246
- MordredRaal
1 people have voted
[X] What if orcas were sapient?
-[X] Centauroid.
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Keen Senses
-[X] Intuitive
-[X] Efficient Metabolism
-[X] Obligate Carnivore
-[X] Short Lives
-[X] Hex: 476
- flotter
1 people have voted
[X] Lindwyrm
-[X] Centauroid.
-[X] Giant
-[X] Draconic
-[X] Heat Adapted
-[X] Obligate Carnivore
-[X] Inefficient Metabolism
-[X] Magically Sensitive
-[X] Long Lived
-[X] Hex 52
- mynameisyouQQQ
1 people have voted
[x] Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Worm?
- Graf Tzarogy
1 people have voted
[x] Stranger Danger Noodle
-[x] Frame: Centauroid
-[x] Genus: Draconic (snek)
-[x] Free Trait: Heat Adapted
-[x] Trait 1: Giant
-[x] Trait 2: Muscular
-[x] Trait 3: Obligate Carnivore
-[x] Trait 4: Prehensile Tail
-[x] Hex: 28
- Torgamous
1 people have voted
[x] Lamia
- Princess_Hex
1 people have voted
[X] The Cooler Lamia
-[X] Centauroid.
-[X] Draconic (Feminine upper body, Serpent lower body)
-[X] Cold Adapted (Free)
-[X] Magically Inert (Gives 1)
-[X] Parthenogenetic (Costs 1) (Reproduces Asexually, laying eggs tended by a caretaker caste)
-[X] Magnetoreceptice (Costs 1)
-[X] Strong Constitution (Costs 2)
-[X] Hex: 470
- Another Amoeba
1 people have voted
[X] Medusans
- [X] Centauroid(6, 3 trait points)
- [X] Aquatic (Free water breathing)
- [x] Parthenogenetic (-1)
- [x] Prolific (-2)
- [X] Telepathic (-3)
- [X] Short Lives (+1)
- [X] Delicate (+1)
- [X]Herbivorous (+1)
- [X] Hex: 481
- 10ebbor10
1 people have voted
[X] Chusaites
- natruska
1 people have voted
[X] the Fish Hive
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Eusocial
-[X] Parthenogenetic
-[X] Delicate
-[X] Inefficient Metabolism
-[X] Hex 342
- Ultrackius
1 people have voted
[X]Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Wû'mé R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Hermaphroditic
-[X] Magically Sensitive
-[X] Water Breathing (Free)
-[X] Hex: 119
- Squidfam
1 people have voted
[X] Out of Place Otters
- Blackgold211
1 people have voted
[X] Lizard Men
- _Plague Doctor_
1 people have voted
[X] the Hive(or: those giant leafcutter ants, to outsiders)
-[X] frame: Tauroid (+3)
-[X] Genus: Insectod(Eusocial costs two less)
-[X] Eusocial (-2)
- [x] Prolific (-2)
- [X] Small (1)
- [X] Short Lives (+1)
- [X]Herbivorous (+1)
-[X] Low Magic (+1)
-[X] Hex 12, 13
- patrickmm1
1 people have voted
[X] The Herculeans
-[X] Hex: 296
- dex10awesome
1 people have voted
[X] Plan Frog Shrek
-[X] Humanoid (+3)
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Giant (-1)
-[X] Strong Constitution (-2)
- [X] Magically Inert (-1)
-[X] Hex: 2 Hexes, location up to the QM (-1)
- Karnax626
1 people have voted
[X] Saurus Lizardfolk
-[X] Humanoid (4 traits, 3 points)
-[X] Draconic (theropod/lizard)
-[X] Warm Adapted (Free)
-[X] Parthenogenetic (-1) (Asexual in addition to sexual reproduction)
-[X] Giant (-1)
-[X] Strong Constitution (-2)
- [X] Magically Inert (-1)
-[X] Hex: 87
- Fission Battery
1 people have voted
[X] The Vacla (Wolfwomen)
-[X] Humanoid (4 trait max, 3 trait points)
-[X] Homo Sapiens (+1 trait point)
-[X] Giant (-1)
- [x] Prolific (-2)
-[X] Intuitive (2)
-[X] Obligate Carnivore (-1)
-[X] Hex: 315
- maelstrom.seeker
1 people have voted
[X] Dredged Ones (Draut)
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Giant
-[X] Magically Sensitive
-[X] Water Breathing (Free)
-[X] Hex 342
- <o>U<o>
1 people have voted
[X] Generic-Ass Magic People
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Homo Sapiens (+1) (Humans but pointed ears.)
-[X] Magically Sensitive (-2)
-[X] Spiritual Senses (-2)
-[X] Hex Maps Are Confusing, Sorry
- Derpmind
1 people have voted
[X] Generic-Ass Magic People
- Shard
1 people have voted
[X] Children of The Coast
- Maxin_inc
1 people have voted
[X] Anime Brainrot ACTIVATE (or, more seriously: Catgirl Archmages Of The West Coast)
-[X] Frame: Humanoid
- [X] Genus: Homo Sapiens (Catgirl)
- [X] Trait 1: Keen senses
- [X] Trait 2: Inefficient Metabolism
-[x] Trait 3: Magically Sensitive
- [X] Trait 4: Intuitive
- [X] Hex: 298
- That-Random-Guy
1 people have voted
[X] From Mount Aris (Hippogriffs)
-[x] Centauroids
-[x] Avian (upper half of an avian, lower half of a horse) (+3)
-[x] TRAIT 1: Magically Sensitive (-2)
-[x] TRAIT 2: Magnetoreceptive (-1)
-[x] TRAIT 3: Keen Senses (-1)
-[x] TRAIT 4: Delicate (+1)
- [X] Hex: 298
- ArvisPresley
1 people have voted
[X] Crab People, Crab People!
-[X] Centauroid.
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] Giant
-[X] Prolific
-[X] Telepathic
-[X] Short Lives
-[X] Herbivorous
-[X] Inefficient Metabolism
-[X] Hex 134
- N39TUN3
1 people have voted
[X] Anime Brainrot ACTIVATE (or, more seriously: Catgirl Archmages Of The West Coast)
-[x] Hex 250
- goable
1 people have voted
[X] Generic-Ass Magic People
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Homo Sapiens (+1) (Humans but pointed ears.)
-[X] Magically Sensitive (-2)
-[X] Spiritual Senses (-2)
-[X] 310
- BOTcommander
1 people have voted
[X] the Hive(or: those giant leafcutter ants, to outsiders)
- WGDragoon
1 people have voted
[X] Generic-Ass Magic People
-[X] Humanoid
-[X] Homo Sapiens (+1) (Humans but pointed ears.)
-[X] Magically Sensitive (-2)
-[X] Spiritual Senses (-2)
- VaguelyLeft
1 people have voted
[X] Typical Centaurs (The Tycerians)
-[x] Frame: Centauroid
-[X] Genus: Mammalian (Centaurs/Half-Horse-Human)
- [X] Trait 1: Keen senses
-[X] Trait 2: Efficient Metabolism
-[X] Hex: 341
- DiscordOxymoron
1 people have voted
[X] Downy Mountain Lizards
-[X] Humanoid (4 traits, 3 points)
-[X] Draconic
-[X] Cold Adapted
-[X] Keen Senses (-1P)
-[X] Magnetoreceptive (-1P)
-[X] Spiritual Senses (-2P)
-[X] Inefficient Metabolism (+1P)
-[X] Hex: 305
- Pyro Hawk
1 people have voted
[X] Neor-Pavo (aka stabbing Akuz)
-[X] Humanoid (4 traits, 3 points)
-[X] Aquatic
-[X] [FREE] Water breathing
-[X] Hermaphroditic (-1P)
-[X] Small (+1P)
-[X] Delicate (+ 1P)
-[X] Prolific (-1P)
-[X] Hex: 460
- clockworkchaos
See more…

AKuz · May 26, 2023

1. Catgirl Orcs

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian (Catgirls)

Traits: Keen senses, Strong Constitution, Muscular, Obligate Carnivores, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 169 (Small), 195 (Small) and 170 (Small)

These ferocious predators with feline features hunt on the northern steppes, their high calorie requirements keeping their numbers low, and requires them to always be on the move, moving from hunting ground to hunting ground. Though their strong constitutions, keen senses, and muscular anatomy also means that they make excellent scavengers, being able to locate animals that have been brought down and driving off anything else that wants to eat the corpse.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/akuz.18/

-

2. Potterace

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traits: Winged, Giant, Muscular, Parthenogenesis, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 295 (Small)

An all female species of humanoids with fluffy feathery wings that reproduce asexually when no suitable partner is found. A meat eating species, they make use of their size and strength to track down and strike big game from above and devastate their prey with their sheer mass as they descend in packs from the skies above.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/astra-myst.23757/

-

3. Striga

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traits: Small, Keen Senses, Obligate Carnivores, Magically Sensitive

Located in Hex: 29 (Small)

Large (roughly Albatross sized) Carnivorous Psittacines who have evolved tool use, language and full sociality. Appearance varies somewhat based on location, genetics, magical alteration and a communities favoured prey species but is usually vivid contrasting colours that nevertheless provide some camouflage in their area. They use magic to both assist in prey capture and to self-modify via magical epigenetics to better catch prey, deep forest ones being better at manoeuvring through trees while seaside dwelling communities are superior at cracking open shells and catching fish for example. Due to their arms being dedicated wings they must use their beaks and feet as manipulators.

Based on these "Dragons" by Jay Eaton.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/lilywitch.2146/

-

4. Sensing Turles

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic (Turtles)

Traits: Heat Adapted, Magnetoreceptive, Small, Spiritual Senses, Herbivorous

Present in Hexes: 78 (Small), and 79 (Small)

The Magic of the world was often a fascinating force, with many species able to feel it to an extent, one of the ones with the most skill in this sense is a small Turtle like race dwelling in the sands of the north eastern section of the suspected area where life began, using this sense the Turtles would begin to create the basics of society following what the magic and supernatural of the world showed them. Natural wanderers in this day and age, they live a nomadic style of living, endlessly following the signs of what Magic and the world tell them.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/steelwriter77.27448/

-

5. Gurvel

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cool Adapted, Small, Muscular, Keen Senses, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 335 (Small) and 313 (Small)

Living on the edge of civilization on the desert steppe, these lizardkin embrace a nomadic pastoral lifestyle. Despite their small stature (their average height is around 5'2), and their widespread inability to utilize magic directly, they have a hardy, muscular, scaly constitution, one needed to survive in their environment. Reptilian in biology yet almost human in appearance, the Gurvel are a unique species ready to take on the world ahead of them and conquer a vast matriarchal empire for themselves.

Based on the Au Ra from Final Fantasy 14

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/scrivener.74260/

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6. Scaric Cymbol

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Chosen People, Winged, Cold Adaptation, Heat Adaptation, Intuitive, Magically Inert

Present in Hex: 419 (Small)

Chosen by a divine being and destined for something great, these creative yet magically disinclined people were granted resistance to extreme climates of all types and angelic wings that sprout from their backs.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/cassiemouse.5529/

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7. Icy Magik Lizards

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Obligate Carnivore, Magically Sensitive, Spiritual Senses

Present in Hexes: 398 (Small)

These carnivorous draconic beings live near the boreal coasts, relying on fishing and hunting to sustain themselves,. Their adaptation to the icy environment and use of primitive magic allows them to thrive in a usually hostile environment. Their sense for the arcane and the spiritual has given them a deeply religious outlook in life.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/dkarthas.14834/

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8. Icemen

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Magically Sensitive, Intuitive

Present in Hexes: 480

This species of thick bodied humanoids use their natural and creative grasp of magic to survive in an environment they are not well suited for.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/anchises.26043/

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9. Magic Bird People

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traits: Winged, Delicate, Herbivorous, Autotrophic, Magically Sensitive

Present in Hexes: 87 (Small)

These people resemble humans in many regards, but with feathery hair and lighter frames. Though physically frail, they are naturally skilled with the mysterious forces of magic which permeate the world, even being capable of naturally absorbing these forces as a source of energy in lieu of food, to an extent. Their wings allow them to travel long distances in search of sources of magic, natural and otherwise.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/cobaltcloyster.23145/

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10. (Not) Woolly Mammoths

Frame: Centauroid.
Genus: Mammalian (Elephant)

Traits: Giant, Prehensile Trunk, Efficient Metabolism, Cold Adapted, Magically Inert, Herbivorous, Keen Senses

Present in Hexes: 435 (Small)

A species of huge elephantine creatures with thick shaggy coats of fur. While they are restricted to a herbivorous diet, their stomachs can make the most out of what they eat. Their lack of magical potential is made up for with keen senses and fine motor manipulation ability with their trunks.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/woltaire.45997/

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11. Wise Old Snakes

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Intuitive, Long Lived, Prehensile Tail, Obligate Carnivore, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 429 (Small)

Found primarily around the eastern boreal clime, these armed snakes have come out rather unlucky from an evolutionary standpoint: being obligate carnivores with high caloric requirements yet lacking strong muscles to strike with, keen senses to track with, a hardy constitution to scavenge, or any magical sensitivity to bend the laws of the world. Necessity, then, pushed their ancestors into the role of ambush hunters, launching surprise strikes in hopes of making their first attack the last. It was not long before they were crafting and wielding primitive tools to make their hunts more successful, and then rapidly advanced as their long lives gave those elders who had managed to thrive ample time to teach the next generation.

Based on Vipers from XCOM 2

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/7th-hex.73981/

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12. Curious Explorers

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water Breathing, Winged, Keen Senses, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 246 (Small)

These lithe Explorers have developed the ability to range freely through both the sky and the sea. Their batlike/raylike wings propel them through the sea and over the nearby coastline. They usually live in medium-sized groups, which split into smaller Hunting/Gathering parties for weeks at a time to secure sufficient food for the whole gathering. Though they are capable of tool use, they almost always travel light and only settle down long enough for more heavyweight developments in times and places of huge plenty.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/mordredraal.30525/

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13. Sapient Orcas

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Keen Senses, Intuitive, Efficient Metabolism, Obligate Carnivore, Short Lives

Present in Hexes: 476 (Small)

The oceans; vital to trade, to travel, and life itself, it is also home to something few have reason to encounter. These predatory creatures are intelligent in the extreme, with highly tuned senses and an efficient digestive track to compensate for their voracious appetites. Though their lives might be short, they always burn brightly.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/flotter.59303/

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14. Lindwyrm

Frame: Centauroid.
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Giant, Heat Adapted, Obligate Carnivore, Inefficient Metabolism, Magically Sensitive, Long Lived

Present in Hexes: 52 (Small)

Wingless Dragons with the lower body of a snake that spend most of their live as jaguar sized ambush predator with powerful natural magic like fire breath or electric fangs before having a massive growth spurt at sexual maturity and ravenging the countryside collecting bones or treasure to attract a mate

While most don't survive this stage either depleting the countryside or being slain, those that do produce enough offspring to compensate and accumulate great magical power through trial by combat. Over their long lives they prove as willing to bargain with their Magic as they are to take with it.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/mynameisyouqqq.53391/

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15. Desert Worms

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic (Caecilian)

Traits: Heat-Adapted, Autotrophic, Parthenogenetic, Short-Lived

Present in Hexes: 148 (Small)

Camouflaged caecilians that live under the desert sands, presumably with some variety of prehensile tentacle limbs. These creatures live off sunlight and air, consuming over trace minerals while they burrow for water. They grow longer all their lives and reproduce when approaching a certain length by literally splitting in half, creating two new worm-persons.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/graf-tzarogy.60806/

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16. Jungle Angler Snakes

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic (snek)

Traits: Heat Adapted, Giant, Muscular, Obligate Carnivore, Prehensile Tail

Present in Hexes: 28 (Small)

A humanoid body attached at the waist to a snake. Not a snake tail, a snake. It's like a unicorn if the horn was the upper half of a humanoid body and the horse was a snake. Unlike most Centauroid beings, this humanoid body is a decoy, and from a strictly cladistic standpoint they may not qualify as Centauroid at all. Their primary hunting strategy is to hide the snake underwater or in the underbrush and use the humanoid to lure humanoids or other animals that eat humanoids, though they also supplement their diet with fish. Needing to convincingly imitate humanoids has left them surprisingly social, and they're perfectly capable of communicating and cooperating with their nominal prey provided they don't get hungry enough to reconsider the arrangement. They are, however, still mostly solitary by default and only rarely form anything that could be considered a community by more than the loosest definitions. Finding enough food for a group can be a considerable challenge.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/torgamous.236

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17. Steppe Lamia

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Heat Adapted, Parthenogenetic, Strong Constitution, Magnetoreceptive, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 136

Natives to the warm steppe, Lamia are boisterous and social to a fault. They vary in exactly how reptilian their upper bodies are, with some being covered entirely in scales and some being very nearly human. The tail is a constant though, with a great variety of scale colours.

Lamia tend to form tight-knit lineages based on shared interests in place of a traditional family unit, but these groups can be solitary and tend to organize only chaotically at higher levels. Lamia are "born from the stone" and raised in nurseries that form the centre of any given lamia community.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/princess_hex.69345/

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18. Arctic Lamia

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Parthenogenetic, Strong Constitution, Magnetoreceptive, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 470 (Small)

Having created the Desert Lamia, The Great Being That Created The Snakes noticed one glaring flaw in their snake-creation plan. They didn't live far enough south. Thus, these creatures were created, and given dominion of all the places of cold the earth where less perfect serpents feared to slither. Thus it is written.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/another-amoeba.24008/

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19. Boundless Kobolds

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Small, Prolific, Short Lives, Parthenogenetic

Present in Hexes: 279 (Small) and 256 (Small)

These small reptiles with shiny scales and cozy manes of fuzzy down scamper in teeming squirming hosts across deep valleys and atop frigid heights. Bundled together, tails entwined, even in the cool lands that sustain them so well. Their numbers grow in waves as every Kobold can lay their own self-fertilized egg. Protecting these clutches each season and providing for their broods and themselves often consume the short lives they live. Yet, they never lack for company and in such numbers find their cooperation in hunting, gathering, and all other tasks can bridge any gap in their individual abilities.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/vylinius.32896/

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20. Medusans

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Parthenogenetic, Prolific, Telepathic, Short Lives, Delicate, Herbivorous

Present in Hexes: 481 (Small)

Noted primarily for their unusual lifecycle, Medusans reproduce both sexually and asexually. The offspring of sexual reproduction becomes a sessile, filter feeding monolith, which in turn spends its entire lifespan releasing mobile Medusans.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/10ebbor10.13022/

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21. Chusaites

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian

Traits: Giant, Muscular, Strong Constitution, Inefficient Metabolism, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 214 (Small)

These large thickset and thick furred ursine creatures may not be able to use magic, and may not get the most out of their food, but their strength and constitution means that they can eat nearly everything they come across.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/natruska.21687/

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22. Fish Hive

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water Breathing, Eusocial, Parthenogenetic, Delicate, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 342 (Small) and 320 (Small)

This species of fish operate as a eusocial hive which reproduces asexually. Their instinctive organization makes up for their fragility and poor metabolisms which require a constant intake of food.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/ultrackius.33390/

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23. Cephalopodians

Frame: Humanoid.
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Hermaphroditic, Magically Sensitive, Water Breathing

Present in Hexes: 119 (Small)

A strange cephalopodian people risen from the darkest depths of the oceans to inhabit the surface-world, residing in the warm and water-choked tropics to which their molluscoid forms are most suited.

Clad in colour-shifting skin as a reminder of their deep-sea ancestors and bestowed with heads of writhing tentacles and terrible pointed teeth, these creatures are attuned by birth to the strange Magicks of the world and are more than happy to work its influence through bacchanalian rituals, elaborate games and the construction of mysterious sites of worship. Unlike many other species they are not beholden to the strictures of dimorphism, marking no distinctions between individuals save those of dress and status.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/squidfam.35318/

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24. Otters

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Magically Sensitive, Heat Adapted, Water Breathing, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 386

These unassuming mammals are extremely deadly, being killer predators among their favoured habitat, though the days of being an apex predator have long since passed. Adapted for the heat yet located in a subarctic climate due to an unknown phenomena in the distant past, every day is a struggle for these small humanoids against the climate itself.

If not for their magical talent this species would have died off long ago, needing a mixture of instinctive magics to merely survive most crucially among them water breathing and supernaturally insulating their aquatic homes to survive the long and harsh winters. With the failure of either of these crucial magics resulting in a swift death of hypothermia this has pressured the remaining population towards magic and a hibernation-like lifestyle.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/blackgold211.48217/

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25. Arctic Lizard Men

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Keen senses, Strong Constitution, Cold-Adapted

Present in Hexes: 477 (Small)

Sharp of senses, heavy on endurance, and strong of stomach, these cold adapted lizard people live to the far south. Their distinctive blue and white scales protect them from cold and strife alike and their powerful eyesight enables them to detect prey from great distances, a help in the sparse environment of their arctic homelands.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/_plague-doctor_.93234/

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26. The Hive

Frame: Tauroid
Genus: Insectoid

Traits: Eusocial, Prolific, Small, Short Lives, Herbivorous, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 11 (Small), 12 (Small), 13 (Small), and 41 (Small)

There is something to be said for building down as well as up, and there is something to be said about highly controlled agriculture, and there is something to be said about building a functioning society in which all members help out all others within the same 'tribe', and it is that Insects did it first. these insects, granted greater minds, greater size, opposable thumbs, and an internal skeleton in addition to their external one by the magic that saturates these lands, now seek to expand out and forge an empire, just like their ancestors did in the undergrowth and treetops for the past several million years; and this time? they're building more tools with which to reshape their world.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/patrickmm1.20395/

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27. Siren Dolphintails

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Eusocial, Water Breathing, Obligate Carnivore, Short Lives, Weak Constitution, Magically Sensitive

Present in Hexes: 364 (Small) and 363 (Small)

With the top of a beautiful human woman and the bottom half of a dolphin, the Sirens have been known to sailors and traders for a long time as a fae and mysterious people, known to be open and friendly to those who are friendly and cooperative with them and magically vicious to those who have malicious intent. They are a mix of sedentary and nomadic, with the prior hives known to settle within coral reefs and the latter hives travelling and herding schools of fish. Despite living short lives, the sirens have a rich magical tradition that is passed down generation to generation.

Submitted by: Harley Quinn on discord.

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28. Herculeans

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Giant, Hermaphroditic, Muscular

Present in Hexes: 296 (Small)

A race of all male-presenting hermaphrodites, they appear to be like normal human men albeit very hairy and with consistently exaggeratedly masculine facial features, along with being far larger and more muscular than any man could ever realistically hope to be.

They however have a complex system of gender, with their sex shifting throughout their lives in response to stimuli and necessity. While they are always capable of producing children either through impregnating others or being impregnated themselves, their bodies shift and change in order to make certain roles easier such as wider hips to bear children. A Herculean can stay in a single role for much of their life, it is impossible for it to be their entire lifespan unless they die quickly. These roles only begin to become apparent during puberty and develop as well as mercurially change throughout it.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/dex10awesome.27605/

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29. Amphibious Ogres

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Giant, Strong Constitution, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 145 (Small) and 143 (Small)

This large species of amphibians makes up for their lack of magical talent with their size and resistance to poison and harm. Living in the mangrove swamps that sit on the eastern edge of the continent they use their size and ability to eat a wide variety of foodstuffs to dominate their territories. Territories that they guard ferociously and regularly travel around in a semi-nomadic lifestyle.

Based on: They're literally Shreks

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/karnax626.14406/

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30. Saurus

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Heat Adaptation, Parthenogenetic, Giant, Strong Constitution, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 87 (Small)

This species of large, tough, lizardfolk can survive comfortably in warm climes despite their lack of magical talents.

Based on: Saurus from Warhammer

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/fission-battery.6050/

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31. Vacla

The Vacla (Wolfwomen)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Giant, Prolific, Intuitive, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 315 (Small) and 316 (Small)

This clever race of rapidly breeding large meat eating humanoids with lupine features have minimal sexual dimorphism and live in the comfortable fields and forests of the southern continent.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/maelstrom-seeker.90653/

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32. Muscular Geese

Frame: Centaur
Genius: Avian

Present in Hexes: 63 (Small), 93 (Small), 432 (Small), 454 (Small), 237 (Small) and 238

Traits: Giant, Prolific, Muscular, Magical Inert, Inefficient Metabolism

Powerful, large, ornery, fast breeding, and possessed of an endless appetite, their weakness is their utter lack of magical talent.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/amturtle.2177/

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33. Draut

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Giant, Magically Sensitive, Water Breathing

Present in Hexes: 342 (Small)

The churning depths have gifted their haunting wonder to land: the Draut. Dredged surfaceward by primordial forces, these giants defy preconceptions with billowing bodies of silklike consistency. To some, the Draut boggle the mind with their impossibility, defiant of basic biology. This sense is reinforced further with the Drauts' magic. These beauties are unprecedented in their form and that may be their undoing.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/o-u-o.80983/

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34. Magicians

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Magically Sensitive, Spiritual Senses

Present in Hexes: 310 (Small), 379 (Small), 380 (Small), and 402 (Small)

These pointy eared humanoids have a deep affinity for the magical forces of the world, to the point that their mundane senses reach into the ineffable allowing them to experience magical forces in the same way that they experience the mundane world.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/derpmind.19617/

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35. Children of The Coast

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Magically Inert, Efficient Metabolism, Intuitive, Keen Senses

Present in Hexes: 370 (Small)

Curious creatures lacking fur or feather and the grace of attunement with the forces of the universe around them, their average stature and odd hooping and grunting and hearty diet of everything from the marrow scraped clean from the bones of the animals they hunt to roots dug from under the dirt betraying their greatest strength of their brain. Every generation sees slow, almost gradual, advancements allowing greater tool usage and increasingly complex problem solving. Where before single family units fought bloodily for simple hunting rights small groupings of clans have begun to form at the mouth of a great river feeding into a cold oceanic bay. The most numerous of these familial clans bear bright scarlet hair like the setting sun.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/maxin_inc.27170/

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36. Catgirl Archmages

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Keen senses, Inefficient Metabolism, Magically Sensitive, Intuitive

Present in Hexes: 251 (Small), 250 (Small), 202 (Small), 226 (Tiny)

These Humanoids with feline features make up for their overactive metabolisms with their natural grasp of magic, sharp senses, curiosity, and cleverness.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/that-random-guy.12637/

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37. Hippogriffs

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Avian (upper half of an avian, lower half of a horse) (+3)

Traits: Winged, Magically Sensitive, Magnetoreceptive, Keen Senses, Delicate

Present in Hexes: 298 (Small)

The upper half of an avianoid humanoid, and the lower half of a horse with wings, this people's keen senses extend into the realm of the magnetic fields. While they are delicate beings, this is made up for by the strength of their magical connection to the world.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/arvispresley.34408/

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38. Telepathic Crab People

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water Breathing, Giant, Prolific, Telepathic, Short Lives, Herbivorous, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 134 (Small)

This iridescently purple Able to expand their population rapidly, and communicate directly mind to mind, this species of short lived herbivores live short lives. While the armour that covers their humanoid and arthropod halves looks formidable, the need to maintain this shell forces this species

Based on: Insulamon Palawanense crabs from Real Life

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/n39tun3.79843/

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39. Chirek

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian

Traits: Nocturnal, Spiritual Senses, Obligate Carnivore, Inefficient Metabolism, Strong Constitution

Present in Hexes: 384 (Small), and 363 (Small)

Rodentine with wrinkled skin and squished faces and large ears, these nocturnal predators that stalk cold and moist riverine lowlands. A symbiosis with mildly bioluminescent flora give their skin mottled patches which glow faintly.

Relying on an uncanny sixth sense to guide them to prey in the dark, they exist in small villages hidden in valleys, groves, and near cave systems. Their strong constitutions provide them with a wide variety of potential sources of nourishment, a necessity considering their ravenous appetites, and allow them to store whatever leftovers they have to be stored well after they would become toxic to another species.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/mr-breaksit.1309/

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40. Tycerians

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Mammalian (Centaurs/Half-Horse-Human)

Traits:Keen Senses, Efficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 341 (Small)

The upper half of a Humanoid, and the lower half of a horse, these people have keen senses and an efficient metabolism. Their speed, size, and keen senses give these people the ability to feed from the higher reaches of the forests they live in, while also being able to detect, hunt down, and kill prey species.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/discordoxymoron.98750/

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41. Downy Mountain Lizards

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Keen Senses, Magnetoreceptive, Spiritual Senses, Inefficient Metabolism.

Present in Hexes: 305 (Small)

The ancient oral traditions suggest that the ancestors of these people were creatures called 'dragons', magically potent reptilian predators that dominate the territories around their lairs. If so, it's been some time since then. However they still possess many of the reptilian features of their supposed ancestors, though it may be hard to see the scales under the odd feathers that cover most of their skin. That said whilst the magical strength may have been lost, the senses of those supposed Dragons are seemingly fully present. Which is fortunate for their hunting efforts due to how problematic gaining sufficient food from plants is for them, something that is usually blamed on only adapting to consume vegetation comparatively recently in their species history.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/pyro-hawk.4864/

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42. Corvus

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traist: Winged, Spiritual Senses, Magnetoreceptive

Present in Hexes: 245 (Small) and 244 (Small)

The dark black plumage of this corvidae species tends to stick close to their bodies, which are surprisingly hardy for an avian people. Many of them seem to possess an almost "second sight" for the things beyond the natural of their world, on top of their natural sense of direction. They tend to eat whatever is available, though while they will scavenge they tend to prefer fresh plant matter or meat for at least half their diet. Their strong familial and community bonds mean that even if they aren't as powerful as others in the world, it is rare that they fight alone.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/knightdisciple.923/

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43. Neor-Pavo

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water breathing, Hermaphroditic, Small, Delicate, Prolific.

Present in Hexes: 460 (Small) and 444 (Small)

These small mischievous, friendly, and playful yet fragile aquatic beings live in the waters around the central southern portion of the continent.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/clockworkchaos.756/

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44. Dragonic Arctic Barbarians

Frame: Humanoid.
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Muscular, Strong Constitution, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 478 (Small)

This species of apex predators rule the arctic with their strength and endurance. Their strong constitution allows them to eat a wide variety of creatures, even once they've begun to decay, a handy trait in such unforgiving climes.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/masterofmadness.8815/

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45. Ferronids

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Heat Adapted, Small, Magnetoreceptive, Strong Constitution, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 111 (Small), 110 (Small), 79 (Small), and 80 (Small)

These industrious, difficult-to-kill small lizards have high iron content in their scales, giving them a metallic sheen that gets rusty when overexposed to salt air. They do however lack the mentally flexibility required for magical or spiritual thought.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/etranger.7245/

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46. Sanguine Monsoons

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Parthenogenetic, Magnetoreceptive, Muscular,

Present in Hexes: 88

Naturally strong humanoids that have jet-black skin starting down from their neck. Perhaps if their differences from other species were limited to this, they could be called generic. However, their method of procreation is rather exotic. New individuals spawn from the blood of other members of this species. The more blood there is, the healthier the resulting children. The more individuals contribute their blood, the more genetic diversity there is. For these reasons, members of this race ritualize reproduction, coming down into caves specifically prepared for this (navigating with their magnetoreception) in great numbers and spilling blood in a very violent display of love and passion. Further details of the ritual may vary. Sometimes only the strongest survives this bloodshed, and sometimes the worst one can suffer is anaemia.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/ralakesh.79258/

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47. Schmeckles

Frame: Humanoid.
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Small, Parthenogenetic, Long Lived, Magically Sensitive, Delicate, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 242 (Small)

A small simple folk with a love for pointy hats, which match their pointy ears, who live in arboreal communities made from large hollowed out trees. They make up for their insatiable appetites by a talent for cooking and baking learned over their long life spans.

Naturally cheerful, these people can often be found singing happily as they go about their day. Their reproductive process is somewhat unusual, as due to their magical nature instinctive magical rituals are part of a reproductive process that requires only a single individual, though often others from the community will participate in the process.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/donald-darf.88933/

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48. Inquisitive Vulpines

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian

Traits: Keen Senses, Intuitive, Spiritual Senses, Short Lives, Delicate

Present in Hexes: 365 (Small)

These short lived and delicately built vulpine people have a deep curiosity about the world, possibly driven by their clever minds and powerful senses that extend into the realm of the supernatural.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/random-member.11378/

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49. Starlight Chosen

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Chosen People, Strong Constitution, Nocturnal, Long Lived

This species has been granted gifts from a divine patron that make them so hardy that even their lives are extended. These gifts have also made them a nocturnal people who operate most effectively at night and whose senses reflect this.

Present in Hexes: 189 (Small)

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/just-some-guy.25550/

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50. Eusocial Octopi

Frame: Centauroids
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Intuitive, Eusocial, Short Lives, Magically Inert, Inefficient Metabolism, Weak Constitution, Water Breathing (Free)

Present in Hexes: 133 (Small), 105 (Small), 431 (Small) and 408 (Small)

These people, whose name is largely unpronounceable to non-aquatic people, have an upper humanoid half and a lower octopodal half. These aquatic dwelling people make up for a weak constitution, short lives, difficulty processing many foods, and lack of magical ability and with eusocial organization and clever minds.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/aliya.15345/

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51. Chosen Arcane Telepaths

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Chosen People, Telepathic, Strong Constitution, Magically Sensitive

Present in Hexes: 404 (Small)

This species of humanoid has been granted strong bodies and strong wills that grant them not just magical acuity but telepathy.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/bylba.62508/

-

52. Harmonyans

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Herbivorous, Delicate, Telepathic, Intuitive

Present in Hexes: 265 (Small)

This species of delicate plant eaters live life at a relaxed pace and seek to avoid damaging their environment. Capable of telepathy, they are also a curious and clever people who are known to be drawn towards colourful accessories which they use for personal decoration.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/seareader.63846/

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53. Serpentine Skypeople

Frame: Centauroid (Upper avian, serpentine bottom.)
Genus: Avian

Traits: Short Lives, Weak Constitution, Efficient Metabolism, Prolific, Small

Present in Hexes: 385 (Small)

The feathery head, arms and wings of an eagle avian person attached to a serpentine tubular body. These serpentine people have managed to survive by way of a very intricate digestive system and quickened maturation at the expense of their general health. They fear the dark, either living atop trees where the skies are clear, atop other geological features, or in communities that keep fires lit until dawn.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/starman.77017/

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54. Dwarren

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Parthenogenetic, Prolific, Small, Nocturnal, Short Lives

Present in Hexes: 204 (Small)

The Dwarren are a short and short lived species that lives primarily underground, in caverns they themselves carve.

They have fur across their body, and a bushy beard. Dedicated and industrious, Dwarren spend all of their lives working for the betterment of the Clan. A matriarchal society, they are born from "Brood-Mothers," who are so enlarged by constant pregnancy they cannot easily move.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/dragonofelder.78363/

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55. Vigilant Elves

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Keen Senses, Long Lived, Strong Constitution, Herbivorous

Present in Hexes: 142

Like many herbivorous species this species revels in up close and personal violence when threatened, and since they have sturdy forms and sharp senses they are plenty effective at it. Their long lives enable them to build up a deep reservoir of skills that makes their communities a difficult target for more conventionally violent peoples.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/alucard-bellsing.24317/

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56. Placid Jellyfish

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water breathing, Delicate, Weak Constitution, Autotrophic, Long lived,

Present in Hexes: 224 (Small)

A peaceful aquatic people ill suited for violent endeavours. While humanoid in body plan, they aesthetically resemble jellyfish, with bulbous heads and streamers of flesh like filigree drifting after them in the water. Their colouration and poisonous flesh help to dissuade predators who would otherwise find it easy to rip them apart. This does not help against opponents whose desires are malicious rather than ravenous however.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/wrecksalot.23807/

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57. Parasitic Wasps

Frame: Tauroid
Genus: Insectoid

Traits: Small, Telepathic, Winged, Magically Inert, Short Lives, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 217 (Small) and 191 (Small)

This species are intelligent parasitoid wasps that sting living animals to deposit their eggs inside of them. The eggs burrow deep into the host and when they hatch, the larvae feast upon the creature from the inside out until the wasps are ready to emerge and continue their reproduction cycle.

Able to communicate with each other via telepathy, often all their neighbours know of them is their terrifying buzzing as they approach on the hunt.

Sometimes, the wasps will deliberately avoid killing their hosts, provided they continue being useful. These wasps are aware of how weak and despised they are, and as such, they do everything in their power to increase their numbers, so that the species may avoid extinction.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/digital2.82672/

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58. Children of the Light

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Intuitive, Delicate, Long Lived, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 292 (Small), 265 (Small), and 268 (Small)

Humanoids whose most striking feature is a lack of face, for they have wandering lights on a mask like magical structure insead. Although they are capable of producing sounds not very different from dolphins, and can form pictures with light on their masks. This is perhaps the only magic this species is blessed with, although it doesn't help them much. Beside it, this species has skin the colour of charcoal and hair of ripe barley, though both may be lighter the more south one goes.

Another peculiar quality of theirs is their weakness. Although very nimble, they still will lose in a pure match of strength. Their most notable strength is to see in something or someone what others can not see. Where others see simply a leaf , they see an adornment, a serenity of nature, and a beauty. This applies to most things, including people. The Children may overthink things, but they also tend to create items unheard of.

-

NOTES:

1) "We're all we've got" and CORAL votes were invalid and their votes were transfered semi randomly. Coral between other eusocial aquatic species and the last randomly to the Octopi. All we've got went randomly to a homo sapiens species, Vacla.

2) I do like the concepts though, so they will still exist elsewhere in the world, but will not be part of the game.

3) The population of the subcontinent is roughly 3 million.

4) All populations in Hexes are currently "Small", which is more than enough to be a viable gene pool even if half the population is killed.

5) Each hex has an unmarked "Tiny" population around it. And beyond that an unmarked "Negligible" population. Keep this in mind for later.

6) Exact numbers are not available to you right now.

7) No new map for now because I'm worn out from this.

8) Next vote later tonight. (I had the first 5 mostly pre-written)

AKuz · May 26, 2023

Vote 2:

Next, I'll be using my half-an-anthropology-degree to talk about Kinship Structures and lay out a related vote where we decide how their families are structured which will inform their culture and politics.

-

While most people are probably familiar with the Neolocal Nuclear families considered "traditional" in the west, other kinds of structures exist, and while these are all nuanced and complex, I'm going to be playing fast and loose with some academic terms for simplicity as I don't have the time or inclination to teach a college level course on anthropology.

For each people we must answer each of the following three questions:

How is ancestry and inheritance reckoned?
Where do new couples wind up?
Who decides on the use of property?

The first of these refers to "Lineal Descent", as in how you trace as your ancestors. Examples include:
-Matrilineal (Lineage via the mother's side of the family)
-Patrilineal (Lineage via the father's side of the family)
-Ambilineal (Lineage via either sides of the family, chosen voluntarily)
-Fictive (Found Family basically, a voluntary non-blood relation kinship association)
-And more!

The second is basically 'what happens to the new couple after marriage', examples include:
-Matrilocal (Family moves in or near the wife's family residence)
-Patrilocal (Family moves in or near the husband's family residence)
-Neolocality (Family moves into a new residence.)
-And more!

The last is the "-archy" question, as in who decides what happens with the property in the family, and often has legal power over the family members. The two big examples are:
-Patriarchy (Family is directed by a senior male figure or figures)
-Matriarchy (Family is directed by a senior female figure or figures)
-And more!
But feel free to vibe and write new ideas.

When you write the name of your people out, if you want, you can write what that name meant to the ancestors of the current people. (Though most endonyms mean "The People", lol) This name will give me the vibe of what kinds of sounds to draw from for names and words.

Afterwards, feel free to specify a sex ratio other than the usual 50/50 split we are familiar with (Not doing so will default to regular 50/50 in most cases). This is especially important for Eusocial species where they will be specifying castes instead.

Feel free to describe other traits, or make up new ones, including differing genders, poly-gyny/andry, clan or house structures, and so forth.

The votes should indicate which people they are applying to, vote by number or name. If different votes are applied to the same species, that will indicate cultural or ethnic divisions within the species.

If there are no votes for one of the 58 species, I will assign traits based on what I think best.

A valid vote can look like this:

[ ] 1. Catgirl Orcs
Name: Myresh
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Patrilocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 50/50

Or much more unique like this (I'm giving you a more extreme example so that you know what's possible, based on lions and some thoughts I had on LoZ's Gerudo):

[X] 1. Catgirl Orcs
Name: Myresh (Those who Hunt Prey)
lineal: Patrilineal
local: Matrillocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio 95% Female, 5% Male

Known to themselves as the "Myresh", or "Those who hunt prey", this species is most notable for their lopsided sex ratio which sees fifty females for every male. In order to preserve and perpetuate the species, all males are raised to be priests of their people, where their most important duty is a form of temple prostitution that funds the priesthoods and perpetuates the species.

The Myresh trace their descent via the priesthood and specific priest which fathered them. As part of this Myreshi priesthoods keep an exacting family tree of all their clientele to ensure genetic diversity as much as possible. These priesthoods also have memorized the histories of Myreshi civilizations in a noteworthy oral tradition. Fully trained priests can remember in exacting detail histories dating back uncountable millenia. These Priests have developed increasingly exacting methods of recordkeeping and archival which they jealously guard from the Matriarchs.

These priesthoods are the most enduring institutions in Myreshi society, raising all male children themselves. Despite being subject to the whims of female members of the species, the Priesthoods maintain influence as not even the most power hungry Matriarch would seek to destroy positions so vital to the survival of the species.

The various Priesthoods have different specialities, and many of them combine their various duties as storytellers and prostitutes to provide varied entertainment services to the Myreshi Households. While female Myreshi are primarily raised by their mothers and "aunts", lessons on history and religious topics are taught by priests who are invited into the households as the general rule of thumb is that women are not allowed into male spaces excepting for the purpose of perpetuating the species.

The bulk of Myreshi communities are ruled by powerful Household Matriarchs who establish themselves by being able to lead households that bring in food and resources and protect the children who are raised communally. Being a powerful huntress, warrior, or explorer is a common route to becoming a House Matriarch.

These Matriarchs control the access to males, as only they have the wealth to reliably purchase the services of priests from the male priesthoods and then provide safe spaces to raise children afterwards. Inside households, many of a Matriarch's "daughters" will be unrelated to their "Mother" or her other "sisters", as House membership is determined by matters of wealth, prestige, loyalty, romance, affinity, or a variety of other issues.

While the structure of Myreshi society means that the idea of marriage for the purpose of procreation and childrearing is alien, Priesthoods will often have jointly held offices for intimate pairs of older priests who take on additional responsibilities in exchange for no longer having to be available for reproductive duties. A similar romantic bond exists within many of the all female Households for groups of two to four "Spear Sisters".

In the rare cases of males raised within female Households they will be allowed to take administrative positions within the priesthoods, and rarer cases of female Myreshi raised within the priesthoods are expected to serve as armed protectors of her brothers, though she is still allowed to leave male spaces and travel freely.

A Matriarch who is unable to provide for her House could be deposed by her Daughters moving en masse to a different household, or deciding to oust her in favour of a different woman. That being said, the most powerful households engender a great deal of loyalty and have endured across uncountable generations, dead Matriarchs being replaced by a daughter via will or elected acclaim.

Established Households will have multiple generations of Myreshi women under one roof, or one group of roofs as the case may be. Newly formed Households often only contain one or two younger generations, and are expected to grow as their Matriarch provides access to males in cooperation with the male priesthoods.

Many Houses have their own ancient traditions that have endured the test of time, while others don't even last the lifetimes of a single Matriarch. Though at times some Houses aren't expected to last, such is the case of "War Houses" which are gathered under War Matriarchs for the purpose of war alone and then dissolved back into their component Households after the threat has passed or raid is over.

Donald Darf · May 26, 2023

Drew some Schmeckles

AKuz · May 27, 2023

Scheduled vote count started by AKuz on May 26, 2023 at 2:53 AM, finished with 66 posts and 50 votes.

3 people have voted
[x] 15. Desert Worms
2 people have voted
[X] 45. Ferronids
-[X] Name: Evare (We Who Are)
-[x] lineal: Matrilineal
-[X] local: Matrilocal
-[X] archy: Matriarchal
-[X] Sex ratio 90% Female, 10% Male
- Etranger
- grimely
1 people have voted
[X] 49. Starlight Chosen
-[x] Name: Asteriskos (Little Star)
-[x] lineal: Patrilineal
-[x] local: Neolocality
-[x] archy: Patriarchy
-[x] Sex ratio: 60% Female, 40% Male
- Just Some Guy
1 people have voted
[x] Placid Jellyfish
-[x] Cnidariae
-[x] fictive
-[x]paleolocal
-[x]gerontarchal
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- wrecksalot
1 people have voted
[X] Schmeckles
- [X]Name: Schmeckles (When deciding the name for their species they pulled suggestions from a big pointy hat, this won)
- [X] Lineal: Fictive
-[x] local: Neolocality
- [X] Archy: Egalitarian
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- Donald Darf
1 people have voted
[X] 51. Chosen Arcane Telepaths
-[x] Name: Ardat Lilial (False Moonlight)
-[x] lineal: Matrilineal
-[x] local: Neolocality
-[x] archy: Patriarchy
-[x] Sex ratio: 40% Female, 60% Male
- Bylba
1 people have voted
[X] 19. Boundless Kobolds
- Vylinius
1 people have voted
[X] 41. Downy Mountain Lizards
-[X] Name: Peak Drakonofs
-[X] Lineal: Female are strictly Matrilineal. Male are both, with importance placed on the father. (Aka sister would be Sisteal of Modark, with her brother being Bro'Man of He'Man bi-Modark)
-[X] Local: Proximal Neolocality, claiming new dens though staying in proximity to a parental den.
-[X] Archy: Prestige-archy, with the most prestigious from honour, wealth or glory of the family ruling
-[X] Sex Ration: Biologically averages 40/60 Male/Female, current environmental conditions make it average 20/80 male/female with genetic locks preventing worse than 5/95 either way
- Pyro Hawk
1 people have voted
[X] 5. Gurvel
-[X] Name: Gürvel (The Heirs/Worldly Heirs)
-[X] Ambilineal (Matrilineal-biased)
-[X] Neolocal
-[X] Matriarchal
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- Scrivener
1 people have voted
[X] 48. Inquisitive Vulpines
-[X] Name: Dahóyánígíí ("the clever ones")
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[x] local: Neolocality
-[X] archy: Egalitarian Quasi-Anarchy (With Gerontocratic Tendencies)
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- Random Member
1 people have voted
[X] 28. Herculeans
-[X] Name: Thebeans (Of The Band)
- [X] Lineal: Fictive
-[X] Local: Neolocal
-[X] Archy: Ambiarchal
-[X] Sex Ratio: Highly Variable
- dex10awesome
1 people have voted
[X] 4. Sensing Turtles
-[X] Name: Tor-Tua
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[X] Local: Neolocal
-[X] archy: Agearchy (Power goes to the eldest of the familiy)
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- SteelWriter77
1 people have voted
[X] Dwarren
-[x] lineal: Matrilineal
- [X] Local: A clan can have multiple Brood Mothers, although the Queen Mother also rules. Once a Brood Mother reaches a certain number of children, they will leave the Clan Hall to found their own clan. The closeness between the original clan and it's derivative depends on the Mothers
- [X] archy: Matriarchy
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- Dragonofelder
1 people have voted
[X] 33. Draut
- [X] Name: Damer
- [X] Matrilineal
- [X] Matrilocal
- [X] Matriarchy
- [X] Sex Ratio: 30 male/70 female
- <o>U<o>
1 people have voted
[X] 40. Typical Centaurs (The Tycerians)
-[X] Name: Tycerian (Ty-pical Ce-ntaurs + rians)
--[X] It was said that the Tycerians were named as such by the first Tycerian who goes by the same name, who helped shaped the society of the Tycerians of today.
---[X] The Tycerians are composed of families, usually referred to as the Clans, and said Clan usually have 'caste' or similar to them.
----[X] The Warrior Caste, those who focus on battle and fighting and usually task with hunting or proecting the Clans. The Crafter Caste, those who focus on productions of crafts that aid their Clans, ranging from making said tools and preparing said tools by gathering the resources for it. (Should Magic or Spiritual Stuff become common enough, it is very likely another Caste will be made but these two Caste are the current ones in the Tycerian Clans. Each Caste have sub-Castes of their own (E.G. Axemen and Rangers of the Warrior Caste, Herbalists (Medicinemen/women) and Tenders [Farmer/Animal Husbandry] of the Crafter Caste).
-----[X] An individual may be part of both the current Castes: E.G. a Tycerian Axeman of the Warrior Caste can also be a Tycerian Woodcutter of the Gatherer sub-Caste of the Crafter Caste, a Tycerian Ranger (either bow or throwing spears/axes) can be a Tycerian Huntsman/Hunter (those that hunt a prey species for their meat / capture said prey species to be tended by the Tenders for produce).
------[X] A Tycerian may be referred to by their given sub-caste, usually by their own introduction to show as to their preference if they happen to be part of more than one Caste.
-------[X] E.G. Axeman Male 0, Male 0 of the Axeman Warrior Caste. -OR- Woodcuter Male 0, Male 0 of the Woodcutter Crafter Caste. -OR- simply below.
-[X] Lineal 1: Ambilineal (Lineage via either sides of the family, chosen voluntarily)
--[X] The males to their father's side of the lineage, the females to their mother's side of the lineage.
---[X] E.G. Male 1, the Son of Male 1's Father's Name of Clan X. Female 1, the Daughter of Female 1's Mother's Name of Clan Y.
----[X] The naming of the Tycerian are typically the individual's first name followed by their clan's name. Or by their deed/title if it is they are renowned enough.
------[X] E.G. Alforak Swifthoof, Alforak "The Healer" of the Swifthoof Clan. "The Healer" of the Swifthoof Clan.
-[X] Lineal 2 : Fictive
--[X] When the individual in question does not have any ties to their parents, either an orphan who does not know their parents origins or those disowned due to circumstances. Said individuals may find themselves being adopted to a Tycerian Clan.
---[X] E.G. Male 2, the Son of Clan X. Female 2, Daughter of Clan Y.
----[X] Then there are those who decide to be unaffiliated to any of the clans, in which case they are simply referred to as being Clanless which is derived/noted by simply being referred to their first names followed by their place of 'origin' usually. Or by their deed/title if they are renowned enough.
-----[X] Berute of the Windbraced Plains, Berute "The Vagrant" of the Windbraced Plains, "The Vagrant" of the Windbraced Plains.
-[x] local: Neolocality
--[X] Marriage matters of the Tycerians are usually simple if not quite hectic in tradition: a certain process so to speak is observed. It is usually the male/groom that 'proposes' (lays claim) to their bride to be. And then simple 'trials' are done by the groom against other grooms going for the affection of the same bride. Typically due to them being 'part' horse, it usually involves fighting off other grooms for the affection of the bride -and- making sure to be able to provide for their bride as is gaining the latter's affection/favor somehow: all three 'trials' must be passed else the 'courting' is not successful at all (if you're not strong enough, you probably can't protect your wife. If you can't provide for yourself or even your soon-to-be wife, how are you going to bear children? And lastly, if the bride doesn't even like you, unless you force yourself on her [which is frowned upon and earning the ire of the bride's family and relatives], how are you going to bear children then?: yes, Tycerian society seems to focus more on being self-sufficient and having children). Polygamy is rather common in Tycerian society though there are the rare few of the Tycerian clans who mostly practice monogamy. (Something-something to do with 'horse' species something-something).
-[X] Archy : ??? (I've no clue on the proper word...)
--[X] It is usually directed by both the 'Patriach' and 'Matriach' of a Tycerian Clan, and one or the either if one is missing or deceased.
---[X] In the event that both are missing or have already died (for some reason, if the guiding role hasn't been passed down to their eldest son/daughter), then it is towards the relative/sibling next in line of the Patriach, then that of the Matriach's if otherwise unavailable. Said new Patriach and/or Matriach needs to be approved (which usually happens) by the Elders (the uncles/aunts/grandfather/grandmothers) if there are any still alive, otherwise gaining the approval of most, if not all, of the Clan.
----[X] In the event some of the Clan disagrees on the new Patriach and/or Matriach and leave, then they either retain the same Clan 'name' or attain a new one. If the former, it'll be a matter of being referred to by 'numbering' or from the location or whom headed said Clan before their eventual leave.
-----[X] E.G. Male 3, the Son of of Male 3's Father from the first Clan Z, Male 3 from the first Clan Z, Male 3 from Clan Z headed by the Former Patriach Male 4, Male 3 from Clan Z of the Verdant Steppes.
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- DiscordOxymoron
1 people have voted
[X] 7. Icy Magik Lizards
-[X] Name: Darahowr (Those Born of the Dragons)
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[X] Local: Limited Neolocality
-[X] Archy: Ambiarchal
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- DkArthas
1 people have voted
[X]]32.Muscular Geese
- AMTurtle
1 people have voted
[X] Chirek
- DocSpooky
1 people have voted
[X] 45. Ferronids
-[X] Name: Ferrevar (Plural: Ferrevarii, Descriptive: Ferrevarae)
-[X] Lineal: Tribal/Clan Association (Possibly Ambilineal/Fictive?)
-[X] Local: Limited Neolocality/Communal
-[X] Archy: Communal/Tribal Leader
- Taricus
1 people have voted
[X]32.Muscular Geese
- NSchwerte
1 people have voted
[X] 31. Vacla
-[X] Name: Vacla (regular old "People")
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal/Fictive
-[X] local: Neolocal (nomadic)
- [X] Archy: Egalitarian
-[X] Sex ratio: 1/2 Female, 1/2 Male (no social gender)
- maelstrom.seeker
1 people have voted
[X] 3. Striga
-[x] Name: Striga (Can mean 'Screaming/Talking Ones' or 'Blooddrinkers' refering to their unique crop milk and hypercarnivorous diet. In both cases the word refers to traits that set the Striga apart from the many smaller species of parrot which they share the jungle with.)
-[x] lineal: Nestlinel (What Nest a Striga was incubated, hatched and raised in is what matters rather than the strict parentage of the egg.)
-[x] local: Neolocality (New breeding groups are socially expected to find, take and/or make their own nest site or even move to another colony rather than move into any of their parental nests)
-[x] archy: Gerontarchy (Rule by Elders)
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- LilyWitch
1 people have voted
[X] 12. Curious Explorers
-[X] Name: Althedar (People of Freedom)
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[X] local: Ambilocality
-[X] archy: Consensus-based
-[X] Sex ratio: 50% Female, 50% Male
- MordredRaal
1 people have voted
[X] 50. Eusocial Octopi
- Aliya
1 people have voted
[X] Telepathic Crab People
- N39TUN3
1 people have voted
[X] 16. Jungle Angler Snakes
-[X] Name: Issash (whole people, as distinguished from centauroids as "faceless" and humanoids as "foreheads")
-[X] lineal: Is that what foreheads get up to when left alone? Figuring out whose head they wandered off from?
-[X] local: Marriage? Uh, the mom makes a nest when she wants to have eggs?
-[X] archy: an
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- Torgamous
1 people have voted
[X] 2. Potterace
-[X] Name: Geodae ("The Tremendous Above Ground")
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[X] Neolocal
- [X] archy: Matriarchy
-[X] Sex Ratio: 100% Female
- Astra Myst
1 people have voted
[X] 35. Children of the Coast
- Maxin_inc
1 people have voted
[X] 6. Scaric Cymbol
- Cassiemouse
1 people have voted
[X] 13. Sapient Orcas
-[X] Name: People in the water (Species name tbd)
-[x] lineal: Matrilineal
-[X] local: Matrillocal
-[X] archy: Matriarchal (Egalitarian Magic Users)
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- flotter
1 people have voted
[X] 25. Arctic Lizard Men
- [X]Name: Dinok Spaan (Death Shields or Shields against death)
- [X] Lineal: Fictive
-[x] local: Neolocality
- [X] Archy: Egalitarian
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- _Plague Doctor_
1 people have voted
[X] 21. Chusaites
- natruska
1 people have voted
[X] Lindwyrm
-[x] lineal: Matrilineal
-[X] local: Matrillocal
-[X] Archy: Kratocracy
-[X] Sex ratio: 70% Female, 30% Male
- mynameisyouQQQ
1 people have voted
[X] 26. The Hive
- patrickmm1
1 people have voted
[X] 9. Magic Bird People
- CobaltCloyster
1 people have voted
[X] 57. Parasitic Wasps
- digital2
1 people have voted
[X] 30. Saurus
-[X] Name: K'law (Clawed Ones)
-[X] Lineal: Ambilineal, leaning Matrilineal
-[X] local: Matrillocal
- [X] archy: Matriarchy
-[X] Sex ratio: 55% Female, 45% Male
- Fission Battery
1 people have voted
[X] 24. Otters
-[X] Name: Minskane'wil (People of The Will)
-[X] Lineal: Double Unilineal
-[X] Local: Arcanolocalality (The family/clan move to the location chosen by whichever mate has the most perceived magical talent.)
-[X] Archy: Parriarchal (Not a typo, apparently the gender-neutral term of Patri/Matriarch is Parriarch.)
-[X] Sex Ratio: 50-50 Standard
- Blackgold211
1 people have voted
[X] 11. Wise Old Snakes
-[X] Name: Ssa'shou'laak (Those who seek knowledge/truth/survival*) *There is not an exact translation for the concept, but it comes from their pre-history: the idea that with a lack of other options, a greater understanding of how the world worked and why prey species acted the way they did was the way to improve the chances of a successful hunt, and keep oneself from starving.
- [X] Lineal: Fictive
-[X] Local: Geronlocal (the younger of the pair traditionally moves into the residence of the elder for a time, as they are likely to be of higher standing and ability meaning more capability to accommodate the pair and offspring)
-[X] Archy: Gerontarchy
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- 7th Hex
1 people have voted
[x] 18. Arctic Lamia
-[x] Name: Ehkis Kryos
-[x] Lineal: Double Unilineal Descent when applicable, otherwise Matrilineal
-[X] local: Matrilocal
- [X] archy: Matriarchy
-[x] Sex Ratio: 80/20, Female/Male
- Anya Homura
1 people have voted
[X] 51. Sanguine Monsoons
-[X] Name: Nhek Rhuin/Nheki (Bloodfolk/People)
- [X] Lineal: Fictive
-[x] local: Neolocality
- [X] Archy: Egalitarian
-[X] Sex ratio: 100% Nheki
- Ralakesh
1 people have voted
[X] 55. Vigilant elves
- [X]Name: The Ynnar ''the livings/the ones still alive''
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[x] local: Neolocality
- [X] Archy: Egalitarian
-[x] sex ratio 50/50
- Alucard Bellsing
1 people have voted
[X] 58. Children of the Light
- FatLeek
1 people have voted
[x] 18. Arctic Lamia
-[X] Name: Lamia
- [X] Lineal: Fictive
-[x] local: Neolocality
-[X] archy: Collaborative Matriarchy
-[X] Sex ratio: All Female
- Another Amoeba
1 people have voted
[X] 53. Serpentine Skypeople
-[X] Name: Narnar (people people)
-[X] lineal: Ambilineal
-[X] Local: Matrilocal / Neolocal
-[X] archy: Matriarchal
-[X] Sex ratio: 70% Male, 30% Female
- Starman
1 people have voted
[X] 29 Amphibious Ogres
-[X] Garshum
-[X] Ambilineal
-[X] Neolocality
-[X] Kratocracy/Ambiarchy
-[X] 50/50
- Karnax626
1 people have voted
[X] 36. Catgirl Archmages
-[X] Name: [let's get back to this later/very tentatively felictus]
-[X] Lineal: Matrilineal/Fictive (Multi-Generational Polycules Go Brrrrrrrrr)
-[X] Local: Patrilocal (Non-Absolute)
-[X] Archy: Matriarchy (Situational Exceptions)
-[x] Sex ratio: 60% Female, 40% Male
- That-Random-Guy

AKuz · May 29, 2023

Thanks to @Mr.Norm on discord for the most up to date version of the map. (Which I am about to render outdated, oops!)

1. Catgirl Orcs (Myresh)

Frame: Humanoid

Genus: Mammalian (Catgirls)

Traits: Keen senses, Strong Constitution, Muscular, Obligate Carnivores, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 169 (Small), 195 (Small) and 170 (Small)

These ferocious predators with feline features hunt on the northern steppes, their high calorie requirements keeping their numbers low, and requires them to always be on the move, moving from hunting ground to hunting ground. Though their strong constitutions, keen senses, and muscular anatomy also means that they make excellent scavengers, being able to locate animals that have been brought down and driving off anything else that wants to eat the corpse.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/akuz.18/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Catgirl Orcs, Myresh

Name: Myresh (Those who Hunt Prey)
lineal: Patrilineal
local: Matrillocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio 96% Female, 4% Male

Known to themselves as the "Myresh", or "Those who hunt prey", this species is most notable for their lopsided sex ratio which sees twenty females for every male. In order to preserve and perpetuate the species, all males are raised to be priests of their people, where their most important duty is a form of temple prostitution that funds the priesthoods and perpetuates the species.

The Myresh trace their descent via the priesthood and specific priest which fathered them. As part of this Myreshi priesthoods keep an exacting family tree of all their clientele to ensure genetic diversity as much as possible. These priesthoods also have memorized the histories of Myreshi civilizations in a noteworthy oral tradition. Fully trained priests can remember in exacting detail histories dating back uncountable millenia. These Priests have developed increasingly exacting methods of recordkeeping and archival which they jealously guard from the Matriarchs.

These priesthoods are the most enduring institutions in Myreshi society, raising all male children themselves. Despite being subject to the whims of female members of the species, the Priesthoods maintain influence as not even the most power hungry Matriarch would seek to destroy positions so vital to the survival of the species.

The various Priesthoods have different specialities, and many of them combine their various duties as storytellers and prostitutes to provide varied entertainment services to the Myreshi Households. While female Myreshi are primarily raised by their mothers and "aunts", lessons on history and religious topics are taught by priests who are invited into the households as the general rule of thumb is that women are not allowed into male spaces excepting for the purpose of perpetuating the species.

The bulk of Myreshi communities are ruled by powerful Household Matriarchs who establish themselves by being able to lead households that bring in food and resources and protect the children who are raised communally. Being a powerful huntress, warrior, or explorer is a common route to becoming a House Matriarch.

These Matriarchs control the access to males, as only they have the wealth to reliably purchase the services of priests from the male priesthoods and then provide safe spaces to raise children afterwards. Inside households, many of a Matriarch's "daughters" will be unrelated to their "Mother" or her other "sisters", as House membership is determined by matters of wealth, prestige, loyalty, romance, affinity, or a variety of other issues.

While the structure of Myreshi society means that the idea of marriage for the purpose of procreation and childrearing is alien, Priesthoods will often have jointly held offices for intimate pairs of older priests who take on additional responsibilities in exchange for no longer having to be available for reproductive duties. A similar romantic bond exists within many of the all female Households for groups of two to four "Spear Sisters".

In the rare cases of males raised within female Households they will be allowed to take administrative positions within the priesthoods, and rarer cases of female Myreshi raised within the priesthoods are expected to serve as armed protectors of the priesthoods.

A Matriarch who is unable to provide for her House could be deposed by her Daughters moving en masse to a different household, or deciding to oust her in favour of a different woman. That being said, the most powerful households engender a great deal of loyalty and have endured across uncountable generations, dead Matriarchs being replaced by a daughter via will or elected acclaim.

Established Households will have multiple generations of Myreshi women under one roof, or one group of roofs as the case may be. Newly formed Households often only contain one or two younger generations, and are expected to grow as their Matriarch provides access to males in cooperation with the male priesthoods.

Many Houses have their own ancient traditions that have endured the test of time, while others don't even last the lifetimes of a single Matriarch. Though at times some Houses aren't expected to last, such is the case of "War Houses" which are gathered under War Matriarchs for the purpose of war alone and then dissolved back into their component Households after the threat has passed or raid is over.

-

2. Sanguine Angels (Geodae)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traits: Winged, Giant, Muscular, Parthenogenesis, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 295 (Small)

An all female species of humanoids with fluffy feathery wings sprouting from their backs that reproduce asexually when no suitable partner is found. A meat eating species, they make use of their size and strength to track down and strike big game from above and devastate their prey with their sheer mass as they descend in packs from the skies above.

The Geodae's forms resemble that of female Homo sapiens sapiens, although the chief difference being the large powerful wings and fluffy wings that take up their broad and powerful backs, and another, more vestigial set of feathers along their heads, with the head plume being one of the qualifiers of mating.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/astra-myst.23757/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Sanguine Angels, Geodae

Name: Geodae ("The Tremendous Above Ground")
Lineal: Ambilineal
Neolocal
archy: Matriarchy
Sex Ratio: 100% Female

Due to their Parthenogenetic nature, virtually any Geodae are able to gestate eggs on their own. Although it is a rare occurrence as many would much rather prefer to raise children as a family unit considering its burden, and such a thing is considered fairly gauche. Genetic diversity is maintained by blood, as a set of hollow fangs in their mouths that is usually reserved for sucking out marrow also serves the function of reproduction. A Geodae couple would pierce each others veins with them as they sample specialised cells within their blood that contains genetic material that are then memorised and recombined to create children at the Geodae's choosing.

With hunting such an important part of a Geodae's life, strength is also highly valued by the Geodae, along with all else that supports it. Muscles are desirable, yes, but a strong fool is still a fool who would not survive for long.

The Geodae are a flying people, always on the move and making refuge in naturally high places such as treetops and mountainsides, yet preferring plains for their long ranges of sight for the big game that make up most of their diet. Such places that qualify for dwelling are far and can only support so many Geodae, leading Geodae family units to be made up of small-to-medium sized packs that have set migration patterns around places that are maintained by any who uses it. Hospitality, then, is among the most important virtues of the Geodae, every visiting family is one that would take care of the nest, as long as they would take care of them in turn.

-

3. Dragon Parrots (Striga)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traits: Small, Keen Senses, Obligate Carnivores, Magically Sensitive

Located in Hex: 29 (Small)

Large (roughly Albatross sized) Carnivorous Psittacines who have evolved tool use, language and full sociality. Appearance varies somewhat based on location, genetics, magical alteration and a communities favoured prey species but is usually vivid contrasting colours that nevertheless provide some camouflage in their area. They use magic to both assist in prey capture and to self-modify via magical epigenetics to better catch prey, deep forest ones being better at manoeuvring through trees while seaside dwelling communities are superior at cracking open shells and catching fish for example. Due to their arms being dedicated wings they must use their beaks and feet as manipulators.

All morphs of striga are hypercarnivores who have to eat meat as roughly 75% of their diet. The rest of their diet is made up of nuts, fruits and spices which they often turn into jams and sauces to add to their meat to improve its flavour. Females lay only one egg each yearly breeding season, which contributes to their small hips and low sexual dimorphism, and only if successfully inseminated. otherwise the protoegg is reabsorbed by the other. A female can store the sperm of a mate, or several mates, for several years after copulation, a relic of a time in Striga evolution when regular access to mates was much less secure. Chicks hatch in a highly altricial state: blind, featherless and barely able to move their limbs. For the first two years of their life chicks rely on their mothers and fathers crop milk, which due to unique pigments has the colour of freshly oxygenated blood, and incubation for warmth. During their third year they learn to walk and climb with their claws and beaks as well as begin to be able to eat pre-digested food, either regurgitated directly from their parents mouths or cooked and mashed with tools. They spend their fourth and fifth years flightless as their muscles and brains develop before finally developing their flight feathers during their sixth year. By this time they can eat the same food as adults and they begin to learn to hunt and fly. At 16 years old they are considered adolescents rather than children and begin their vocational training within the nest. They still have much growing to do however and don't reach sexual or mental maturity until roughly 30 years of age.

Based on these "Dragons" by Jay Eaton.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/lilywitch.2146/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Dragon Parrots, Striga

Name: Striga (Can mean 'Screaming/Talking Ones' or 'Blooddrinkers' refering to their unique crop milk and hypercarnivorous diet. In both cases the word refers to traits that set the Striga apart from the many smaller species of parrot which they share the jungle with.)
lineal: Nestlinel (What Nest a Striga was incubated, hatched and raised in is what matters rather than the strict parentage of the egg.)
local: Neolocality (New breeding groups are socially expected to find, take and/or make their own nest site or even move to another colony rather than move into any of their parental nests)
archy: Gerontarchy (Rule by Elders)
Sex ratio: 50/50

The striga evolved from seasonal breeding colonial parrots and have kept a preference for safety in numbers and gregarious close living conditions. The basic unit of striga society is a family group, called a Nest, which will construct the most impressive dwelling they can from their pooled possessions and labour. In addition to the need for shelter each dwelling is also a show of the nest's wealth, defensive and architectural prowess come breeding season as a signal to prospective temporary mates or expecting mothers who do not want to raise a chick that year that they would be a safe place to lay an egg and raise a chick. Nests usually have a single word name which encompasses a concept or object which the founders wished to emulate or which held some kind of significance to them. Sometimes the names are chosen purely for their aesthetic value however.

The balance of power between a nest and an interested outside striga can vary based on relative wealth and social station. Sometimes the nest will be trying to attract the attention of social superiors to improve their own brood and other times social inferiors will try to "lay up" so that their children will be born to a higher social station than themselves. Generally any planned mating outside the nest or adopting of unwanted eggs will come with an exchange of wealth, labour or displays of physical excellence as a way of "balancing the scales" between the parties. A poor roaming Striga may pledge their labour to a rich and powerful nest for the length of the breeding season for the privilege of fathering or mothering some of the eggs that year for example.

The structure of nests is varied but generally consists of at least two adults born from different nests who have formed a deep emotional bond and decided to join their fortunes for good or ill. It is not required that a nest have sexual relationships among its members or for them to have a mix of sexes but it is common. Some nests never partake in breeding at all and rely solely upon their trades to sustain themselves and grow their wealth, many of these asexual nests still adopt unwanted eggs but just as many avoid children altogether. The largest nests consist of about 20 adults while the average is 5-7 adults at any one time accounting for new entrants and exile or death.

Once the breeding season ends then the temporary mates do not stick around. It is the resident members of the nest who perform all incubation, hatching and chick rearing duties for the children. As they grow the children of a nest will stay at home as Helpers but once they are fully grown are expected to strike out on their own after a year or two of learning how to function as adults. By custom each child that leaves the nest is given a portion of the nest's wealth to set themselves up as independent roamers, join an existing unrelated nest or to start a new nest with their new chosen family. At any given time a nest will have about 1.5 times as many adolescent and young adult helpers as they will have member adults. Each nest is usually specialised in one trade or skill, such as carpentry or masonry, with each member also having some secondary skills or specialising in housework, childcare or maintenance of the nest's dwelling.

While nests are generally democratic, and function by collective decision making of the member adults, the oldest/longest membership members of a nest have the most influence over decision making by custom. Their age is held to give them wisdom and their time with the nest's investment in its collective health and success. For the oldest Striga who are no longer fertile due to age (between 80 and 120) their lack of a mating drive also supposedly makes their decision making more calm and rational. As children are expected to obey their parents even as adults and since the nest as a whole is considered the parent rather than individuals within it the elders of an old and powerful nest also command the loyalty of the nests formed by their children and their children's children and so on. Resulting in large kinship networks called Gens which can stretch across multiple colonies and are named for their leading nest.

Since new nests are formed of the offspring of multiple previous nests almost all nests hold some loyalty to multiple elders which can get very messy in times of war where gens and colony allegiances create impossible situations of nests owing loyalty to multiple sides at once. As younger adults can join nests after they form, some nests last for many generations of Striga and amass huge amounts of wealth and power. The Elder(s) of the head nest of a Gens may well be younger than and genetically unrelated to the elders of their subordinate nests. When a nest dies out its remaining wealth is divided either among its children's nest or among the rest of the colony. There is no formal structure to inheritance which can lead to a great deal of bloodshed over who gets which share. Most nests do die out and redistribute their wealth through inheritance before their influence network expands enough to form a gens.

Not all striga are members of nests. Either due to introversion, poverty, exile or social exclusion some end up as solitary and nomadic Roamers. These roamers suffer a great deal of prejudice in Striga society, with no nest to share their burdens with they lack any form of social safety net and since they cannot share their wealth with a nest they are seen as greedy or even stereotyped as thieves. A reputation as a roamer can follow a striga for years even after they have formed or joined a nest. Reducing their opportunities and leaving them open to social abuse. Nevertheless roamers are essential to striga society as traders and messengers between colonies and as sources of fresh genetics for isolated colonies. Their reputation as exciting adventures with tall stories from the unexplored beyond combined with their exotic wealth often allowing them to join, mate with or lay at the dwellings of down on their luck or curious nests. Some roamers cut themselves off from their birth nest (and gens if applicable) but just as many stay in contact and serve as their families eyes and ears (or sometimes talons) away from home.

Some roamers group together into nomadic or semi-nomadic Flocks. These have an even more complicated relationship with the settled nests and colonies as they represent a large enough concentration of force to take territory from settled groups for their own. In the other claw a flock is able to transport more goods further distances than singular roamers and some flocks have stablised and become multi-generational in the same way as the oldest nests, gens and colonies. These "civilised" flocks are a key part of the emerging community between the striga colonies. A key distinction between flocks and nests is that a flock, due to being near constantly on the wing, cannot raise children. Any eggs laid will be given to a nest to incubate and raise while the flock moves on. If a flock settles down somewhere to lay eggs and raise chicks then socially it has become a nest.

Almost no nest lives on their own. An isolated nest can only rely on the occasional roamer for news, trade and new mates and is very vulnerable to the large predators and eusocial insect swarms of the jungle and ocean. Instead most nests group up into large groups called Colonies. These can often trace their history back to one or two pioneer nests which gradually split off new nests who settled nearby and then later united for mutual defence or as a way to manage and divide local resources. Each colony controls a large hinterland around their fortified nesting site where the striga farm and manage the land to provide food to the herbivores which are their main prey and to keep out other predators which threaten the Striga themselves or their food sources. A colony will generally be named after a prominent local terrain feature such as a hill, river or endemic flora/fauna.

Each colony will generally specialise in a particular style of hunting and ecological husbandry which influence the Striga's adaptable morphology. With the Striga's magically influenced epigenetics meaning that regardless of their parentage chicks raised into a lifestyle will adopt that morph. The four broad styles so far are:

Silva (Forest) Striga, coloured green and pink with a moveable crest, these largest of striga nest in the high cavities and branches of large trees. They are the most manoeuvrable of the Strigas and the best braciators, swinging from branch to branch to save energy or to stalk their prey. Their food rich environment allows them to grow to massive sizes (for a Striga) but also exposes them to many predators which is part of what pushed the development of advanced tool use and fortification architecture among them. They carefully tend their food forests, making sure that they stay as healthy as possible to provide them a rich harvest of herbivores to hunt.

Then there is the Mare (Sea) Striga, coloured mainly blue with lines of black, grey and white breaking up their silhouette; they are excellent long distance soarers and diving fishers. They mainly eat shellfish and carrion from the intertidal zones but also supplement that with fish caught from diving or on the wing. They mainly roost on seaside or island cliffs, their architecture prioritising defence from the sea winds and flooding rather than predators. They undertake geoengineering to create tidal pools and other systems of maximising the productivity of their intertidal feeding grounds.

Latere (Lair) Striga are coloured dark brown with red highlights and are the only morph with notable sexual dimorphism. The males' highlights are bright and attention drawing both as a sexual display but also to be easily seen by prey to scare it back into its burrow where the cryptically coloured female has already snuck in and lies in wait. While they retain the ability to fly, burrowers mainly live and hunt on the jungle floor where they form deep and complex warrens from their own digging efforts and the captured burrows of their prey. They mainly eat small fossorial vertebrates and large invertebrates and encourage the growth of tuber-bearing plants, a healthy leaf litter and detritivores in their territory accordingly. Latere and Silva territory is often shared, with the Latere controlling the forest floor and underground of the jungle while the Silva control the canopy and emergent layers. The two groups meeting in the understory layer for trade, mating agreements and occasional conflict during lean times.

Finally the currently rarest morph is the Pratum (Prairie) Striga who occupy a precarious place on the coastal plains between the jungle and the ocean. They are coloured gold with green and red highlights with a moveable crest. They have the most varied nesting sites, functionally anywhere they can fortify against other predators and large herbivores. They act as carrion feeders and also perform large multi-nest hunts to take down large herbivores too large for a single nest of striga. They practise charcoal smoking and sun drying strips of meat from their prey which they cannot eat right away to preserve it as a store for lean times.

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4. Sensing Turles (Tor-Tua)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic (Turtles)

Traits: Heat Adapted, Magnetoreceptive, Small, Spiritual Senses, Herbivorous

Present in Hexes: 78 (Small), and 79 (Small)

The Magic of the world was often a fascinating force, with many species able to feel it to an extent, one of the ones with the most skill in this sense is a small Turtle like race dwelling in the sands of the north eastern section of the suspected area where life began, using this sense the Turtles would begin to create the basics of society following what the magic and supernatural of the world showed them. Natural wanderers in this day and age, they live a nomadic style of living, endlessly following the signs of what Magic and the world tell them.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/steelwriter77.27448/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Sensing Turtles, Tor-Tua

lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Neolocal
archy: Gerontocracy
Sex ratio: 50/50

The Sensing Turtles, or as they call themselves the Tor-Tua, are a practical species with little care on the prospects of biological gender aside from mating purposes, their society being more focused on more spiritual aspects then other species. This is mostly seen in how their familial structure is handled with large groupings of their families deferring to the guidance of the eldest amongst them, who are often the most experienced and often grandparent to the many members of the extended family.

When a new pair becomes bonded in marriage or mating, it is often common to see them migrate to a location determined to be close enough to both spouses' respective parents and families, but still far enough away to raise the young without interference for the first formative years.

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5. Lizardfolk Steppe Nomads (Gurvel)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cool Adapted, Small, Muscular, Keen Senses, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 335 (Small) and 313 (Small)

Living on the edge of civilization on the desert steppe, these lizardkin embrace a nomadic pastoral lifestyle. Despite their small stature (their average height is around 5'2), and their widespread inability to utilize magic directly, they have a hardy, muscular, scaly constitution, one needed to survive in their environment. Reptilian in biology yet almost human in appearance, the Gurvel are a unique species ready to take on the world ahead of them and conquer a vast matriarchal empire for themselves.

Based on the Au Ra from Final Fantasy 14

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/scrivener.74260/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Steppe Lizardfolk, Gurvel

Gürvel (The Heirs/Worldly Heirs)
Ambilineal (Matrilineal-biased)
Neolocal
Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 50/50

The Gurvel (meaning "worldly heirs"/"heirs to the world") are a nomadic species living on the steppe, tending to their livestock. Their society, although traditional and hierarchical, is also heavily fluidic. The ambilineal method of tracing one's descent allows the average Gurvel to choose which side of their family to associate with or claim descendant from, which surprisingly hasn't made aristocratic family trees all that complicated (not that they were simple to begin with).

Much of Gurvel society is ruled by women, who are the head of the average Gurvel family and the usual inheritor of their parent's belongings (typically a portion of their herds) thanks to primogeniture. After the family came the subclan and clan, which usually claimed their names and descent from a single common ancestor, and were lead by chieftains (also usually female). These chieftains came from the elite bloodlines of their clans, and managed affairs such as hunting and moving their settlements.

Males, despite the matriarchal system, often hold immense importance as religious shamans or warriors, often gaining significant power as administrators or war heroes. Ironically this has made male chieftains some of the most iconic historical figures in Gurvel society thanks to their relative rarity compared to the majority of female chieftains- the average Gurvel is far more likely to remember Ogani the Restorer rather than Khan Borte.

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6. Winged Chosen (Scailoh)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Chosen People, Winged, Cold Adaptation, Heat Adaptation, Intuitive, Magically Inert

Present in Hex: 419 (Small)

Chosen by a divine being and destined for something great, these angelic looking winged humanoids were granted resistance to extreme climates of all types and angelic wings that sprout from their backs in order to make up for their naturally magically devoid nature.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/cassiemouse.5529/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Winged Chosen (Scailoh)

Name: Scailoh (The symbol emblazoned on dead trees to mark their territory)
lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Neolocality
archy: Matriarchy
Sex ratio: 30% Male, 70% Female

The name Scailoh comes from the spiral pattern representing their patron, a symbol they burn into dead trees to mark their territory.

The Scailoh tend to settle near sources of water deep within the Boreal forests where they build hidden camps on the ground and many nests made of rope and fabric among the trees.

A family unit typically consists of one male and several females where the females live in the camps doing crafts, caring for children and governing while the males live in the nests above them hunting, gathering and defending the camps. These families are led by powerful Matriarchs, who trace their descent from ancestors who were said to have been personally blessed by their god.

When a camp becomes too large new families are formed to find a place to set up their camp, and the cycle repeats.

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7. Icy Magik Lizards (Darahowr)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Obligate Carnivore, Magically Sensitive, Spiritual Senses

Present in Hexes: 398 (Small)

These carnivorous draconic beings live near the boreal coasts, relying on fishing and hunting to sustain themselves. Their adaptation to the icy environment and use of primitive magic allows them to thrive in a usually hostile environment. Their sense for the arcane and the spiritual has given them a deeply religious outlook in life.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/dkarthas.14834/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Icy Magik Lizards, Darahowr

Darahowr (Those Born of the Dragons)
Lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Limited Neolocality
Archy: Ambiarchal
Sex Ratio: 50:50

Living in loose communities of families, centred around a highly influential priesthood, inhabiting the cold coasts and icy rivers of the South, the Darahowr make a curious lot. A semi organized priesthood forms the nucleus of each community, and acts as the keeper of oral lore and higher mysteries. It is they who help arbitrate disputes between families to ensure harmony among the headstrong people and communally educate the children on how to understand the unknowable forces that lay beyond the seemingly mundane skein of reality.

The average household is relatively compact. When a few or sometimes small groups of Darahowr wish to form their own households, they join together in lifelong unions, with the head of household decided by a highly ritualised mystical struggle for dominance. This new family generally moves close to the residence of the family of the dominant partner and traces descent through them but just as often strikes off on their own when necessary as there's often need to migrate to new fishing and hunting grounds. There remain other numerous short lived relationships during the courting period, with any resulting clutch given to the priests to be raised as one of their own.

The positions of leadership in the wider clans are decided through similar ritualised contests and spiritual trials, supervised by priests, which can vary in form and are meant to win the favour of the mysterious forces that inhabit the world, that can be felt by many amongst the draconic race.

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8. Icemen (Neander)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Magically Sensitive, Intuitive

Present in Hexes: 480 (Small)

This species of thick bodied humanoids use their natural and creative grasp of magic to survive in an environment they are not well suited for.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/anchises.26043/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Icemen, Neander

Name: Neander
lineal: patrilineal
Local: matrilocal
archy: patrilineal
Sex ratio: 50% Male, 50% Female

This species' families are ruled by powerful elder Patriarchs who have acquired vast wisdom and supernatural knowledge over their lives, and lineage is reckoned from the male side to track these powerful bloodlines.

On marriage the groom moves into the bride's House, and a dowry is paid to the groom's family for the loss of their valuable son. It is considered prestigious for a Patriarch to have many sons and sons-in-law in his House, and they compete to be selected to succeed a patriarch on his death with only magical talent (and political skullduggery) being considered by the Patriarch when selecting his Heir.

Groups of patriarchs gather into an assembly known as a "senate" (meaning a collection of old men) and they adjudicate disputes between Houses.

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9. Magic Bird People (Sihahna)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traits: Winged, Delicate, Herbivorous, Autotrophic, Magically Sensitive

Present in Hexes: 87 (Small)

These people resemble humans in many regards, but with feathery hair and lighter frames. Though physically frail, they are naturally skilled with the mysterious forces of magic which permeate the world, even being capable of naturally absorbing these forces as a source of energy in lieu of food, to an extent. Their wings allow them to travel long distances in search of sources of magic, natural and otherwise.

One of the first things many outsiders notice about the Sihahna is their general androgyny. While they resemble humans, albeit with brightly feathered wings, clawed, bird-like feet, and pointed ears which stand horizontally from their heads, the Sihahna have virtually no secondary sexual characteristics. Both males and females of the species are small and slender, with low musculature compared to many other species of a similar size. As egg-layers, the Sihahna do not have mammalian breasts, and their arcanosynthetic abilities allow their young to be born quite small, limiting differences in pelvic shape between sexes. The only notable difference in appearance come in the plumage of a Sihahna's wings. The primary, secondary, and greater covert feathers of a Sihahna fade from their primary coloration to a black, white, or grey monochrome closer to the tips. Males tend towards darker shades, and females towards white. This is, however, the typical coloration. There exists a very literal grey area, as well as a significant number of exceptions within the population, so even this can not be used as a sure marker of sex. Even Sihahna are not capable of consistently identifying their own kind's physical sex.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/cobaltcloyster.23145/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Magic Bird People, Sihahna

Name: Sihahna (Winged Folk)
lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Clan-based locality
archy: Gerontarchal
Sex ratio: 50% male, 50% female

The name "Sihahna," which translates to "Winged Folk," comes about due to comparisons made by the Sihahna to the non-winged peoples found near their homelands.

While the ambiguity and androgyny influences Sihahna views of gender, the Sihahna are not a genderless species. The Sihahna experience and recognize gender, even if it has relatively little influence on society on a broader level. Gender is instead viewed as a primarily personal matter and is not considered to be tied intrinsically to sex. This view on gender as something personal can be observed in their language, which has gendered first person pronouns, but is ungendered in the third person.

The basic familial unit within the Sihahna is the clan. Sihahna clans are large, and individuals tend to live in close proximity with the rest of their clan, often in the same extensive familial compounds, though branches of clans are known to occasionally establish their own separate living spaces, even if they are still considered part of the larger clan they stem from.

Each clan is led by a "Tolat," or "High Elder." This figure is the most respected, typically older, member of the clan. They are selected upon the death of the previous Tolat by the clan as a whole and are the ultimate authority regarding intra-clan matters and disputes.

When two or more Sihahna marry, both the lineage of their offspring and their dwelling place are typically determined by which of their clans is the most prestigious, though there are exceptions to this. These typically come about either due to personal reasons, such a dispute between an individual and their clan elders, or because of an agreement among the elders of the clans involved in the marriage, likely stemming from a need to continue a smaller clan or to settle disputes deciding which clan is more prestigious.

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10. (Not) Woolly Mammoths (Mammut)

Frame: Centauroid.
Genus: Mammalian (Elephant)

Traits: Giant, Prehensile Trunk, Efficient Metabolism, Cold Adapted, Magically Inert, Herbivorous, Keen Senses

Present in Hexes: 435 (Small)

A species of huge elephantine creatures with thick shaggy coats of fur. While they are restricted to a herbivorous diet, their stomachs can make the most out of what they eat. Their lack of magical potential is made up for with keen senses and fine motor manipulation ability with their trunks.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/woltaire.45997/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

(Not) Woolly Mammoths, Mammut

Name: Mammut
lineal: ambilineal
Local: matrilocal
archy: patrilineal
Sex ratio: 50% Male, 50% Female

Members of this species live in extended family groups known as Herds which are ruled by elderly Patriarchs whose memories hold the stories and knowledge of his ancestors.

These Patriarchs pass down their knowledge to chosen apprentices, one of whom will succeed him.

Male Mammut trace descent from his father's line, and female Mammut from her mother's side.

When Mammut form a new family, the male moves to join the female's Herd as it is believed she will be better able to protect and raise her child in a familiar Herd.

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11. Wise Old Snakes (Ssa'shou'laak)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Intuitive, Long Lived, Prehensile Tail, Obligate Carnivore, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 429 (Small)

Found primarily around the eastern boreal clime, these armed snakes have come out rather unlucky from an evolutionary standpoint: being obligate carnivores with high caloric requirements yet lacking strong muscles to strike with, keen senses to track with, a hardy constitution to scavenge, or any magical sensitivity to bend the laws of the world. Necessity, then, pushed their ancestors into the role of ambush hunters, launching surprise strikes in hopes of making their first attack the last. It was not long before they were crafting and wielding primitive tools to make their hunts more successful, and then rapidly advanced as their long lives gave those elders who had managed to thrive ample time to teach the next generation.

Based on Vipers from XCOM 2

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/7th-hex.73981/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Wise Old Snakes, Ssa'shou'laak

Name: Ssa'shou'laak (Those who seek knowledge/truth/survival)
Lineal: Fictive
Local: Geronlocal (the younger of the pair traditionally moves into the residence of the elder for a time, as they are likely to be of higher standing and ability meaning more capability to accommodate the pair and offspring)
Archy: Gerontarchy
Sex Ratio: 50% Female, 50% Male

Ssa'shou'laak society has consolidated around a system of Clans, ranging anywhere from the low tens to over a hundred individuals, and consist of an internal hierarchy where the younger generations pay deference to the older generations which have gained greater wisdom over their longer lives, all the way up to the Clan Elders at the top.

The Clans as a whole are united in a very exclusionary democracy where only the oldest, and as such supposedly the wisest, get a vote, with even them requiring a sponsor or three to join this senate. Much of the public inter-Clan strife takes place in the form of raging debates here, covering everything from politics and war, to the gods and the nature of the world. It is not made any better by the fact that as they are the wisest of all the Clans, many of those debating have no qualms about using themselves as an authoritative source.

The Ssa'shou'laak esteem of knowledge and wisdom combined with their lack of permanent breeding pairs is something that needs to be kept in mind in order to understand their naming tradition. Upon a clutch hatching it is the elder of the breeding pair that takes on the role of raising the young and teaching them about the world they live in, as the elder member has lived longer and as such has greater knowledge to be passed down. This is the first parent, and children will stay with them for most if not all of their adolescence.

Once the young have reached maturity then, individually they go out and present themselves to older individuals in hope that they are found worthy and taken in. This is the second parent, and historically in exchange for labour and other assistance the second parents would be the ones to teach those they accepted the practical skills of how to hunt and navigate the rest of Ssa'shou'laak society, now that they had fully grown and could be expected to cause a failed hunt from adolescent impulsiveness or weakness.

Shortly after the offspring leave, the breeding pair usually separates and goes back to whichever relationship they had before. While one is almost always able to find a second parent in the Clan of their first parent, and many do, being accepted into a different Clan is fairly common as well, though it can carry somewhat different political messages depending on the relations of the two Clans at the time.

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12. Curious Explorers (Althedar)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water Breathing, Winged, Keen Senses, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 246 (Small)

These lithe Explorers have developed the ability to range freely through both the sky and the sea. Their batlike/raylike wings propel them through the sea and over the nearby coastline. They usually live in medium-sized groups, which split into smaller Hunting/Gathering parties for weeks at a time to secure sufficient food for the whole gathering. Though they are capable of tool use, they almost always travel light and only settle down long enough for more heavyweight developments in times and places of huge plenty.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/mordredraal.30525/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Curious Explorers, Althedar

Name: Althedar (People of Freedom)
lineal: Ambilineal
local: Ambilocality
archy: Consensus-based
Sex ratio: 50% Female, 50% Male

The Althedar live in family units called kiths. Kiths are not based on blood-relations, though kids are usually raised in the kith of their parents. They represent a chosen group of people who are tightly bound together through social bonds. These bonds can be romantic, but can also be platonic or work based, or hobby-based, or vibes-based. The reasons that Kiths are formed, joined and left are as varied as people's reasons to be close with one another.

A Kith is the primary social group of an Altheda. Importantly they are the group with which one hunts and explores. Often an Altheda spends weeks travelling with only their kith as companions.

A Kith is usually part of a Gathering (Leah), in which multiple kiths regularly come together to meet and share. Most shifts between Kiths (Young Adults excepted) happen within a Leah, as the kiths within your Leah are the ones you are in contact with the most.

Upon coming of Age young Altheda are often expected to band together with others of similar age, to form a young kith, which sets out into the wider world in search of a new home and, usually, partners for themselves. They then journey to other Leahr and try to integrate themselves into their kiths, either by romantically pursuing one of their members, or through more normal means. Usually a young Kith slowly dissolves as it's members are absorbed into other kiths, with the last few young Althedar often joining a kith together rather than risking to be entirely without a kith.

While these young kiths are culturally important and quite romanticized they are by no means the only, or even dominant, method of finding a partner. Indeed it is quite common that an Althedar does not stick with the partner they make in their youth for their whole lives. Love is quite unpredictable in that sense.

Additionally, while the young kiths are the most common journeys of discovery and romance, even older Althedar often form into kiths for the explicit purpose of wandering far from their Leahr. Whether because of wanderlust, social friction or lingering romanticism, these groups travel far from their Gatherings and only sometimes return.

Beyond Kiths and Leahr the Althedar also meet in Gatherings-of-Gatherings (Leahleahr). Meeting places for Altheda from multiple Leahr these Leahrleahr are usually not permanent, instead happening on culturally or spiritually important days.

There are no restrictions on how big a kith or Leah can be, but usually a kith is made up of 3-24 Members, with 3-6 considered rather small and 18-24 considered rather large.

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13. Sapient Orcas (Gispwudwada)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Keen Senses, Intuitive, Efficient Metabolism, Obligate Carnivore, Short Lives

Present in Hexes: 476 (Small)

The oceans; vital to trade, to travel, and life itself, it is also home to something few have reason to encounter. These predatory creatures are intelligent in the extreme, with highly tuned senses and an efficient digestive track to compensate for their voracious appetites. Though their lives might be short, they always burn brightly.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/flotter.59303/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Sapient Orcas, Gispwudwada

Name: People in the water (Species name tbd)
lineal: Matrilineal
local: Matrillocal
archy: Matriarchal (Egalitarian Magic Users)
Sex ratio: 50% female, 50% male

This nomadically inclined species are female dominated as longer lived females were more able transmit learned knowledge across the generations (including spiritual and magical teachings), often via mother-daughter apprenticeships.

While in the past authority revolved around the crude measure of food procurement, modern Gispwudwada Matriarchs wield their knowledge as authority, their learning enabling a greater ability to obtain food than raw power, including the invention of forms of aquaculture and prey herd management and conservation.

While most Gispwudwada communities are based around extended family structures that split when it becomes hard to feed every mouth, highly influential Matriarchs often find themselves the de facto leader of dozens of pods, adjudicating conflicts over territory. In these larger territories the daughters of lesser matriarchs will send her daughters to learn at the fins of the senior Matriarch. This strengthens ties, spreads knowledge, and reduces inter-Orca conflict.

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14. Wingless Wyrms (Lindwyrm)

Frame: Centauroid.
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Giant, Heat Adapted, Obligate Carnivore, Inefficient Metabolism, Magically Sensitive, Long Lived

Present in Hexes: 52 (Small)

Wingless Dragons with the lower body of a snake that spend most of their live as jaguar sized ambush predator with powerful natural magic like fire breath or electric fangs before having a massive growth spurt at sexual maturity and ravenging the countryside collecting bones or treasure to attract a mate

While most don't survive this stage either depleting the countryside or being slain, those that do produce enough offspring to compensate and accumulate great magical power through trial by combat. Over their long lives they prove as willing to bargain with their Magic as they are to take with it.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/mynameisyouqqq.53391/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Wingless Wyrms, Lindwyrm

Lindwyrm
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Matrillocal
Archy: Kratocracy
Sex ratio: 70% Female, 30% Male

Lindwyrm have very little society to speak of, The strongest Lindwyrms in an area simply dominate the local ecology chasing off any rivals and killing any creatures that might be a threat to its offspring.

Usually though not always, this individual is male as they're generally of a larger size. Lindwyrms continue growing throughout their entire long life so generally the tyrant of an area is the oldest though some wind worms are born with stronger magic which allow them to overcome this. Occasionally a Lindwyrm tyrant will take a more active role using magic to enslave the weaker wyrms in their area.

This pseudo-society is enabled by the Lindwyrm life cycle starting off not so different from snakes with small nubs. When an Alpha male dominates the local ecology these children are protected by their mothers and follow and scavenge the remains of her kills. When an area dominated by an Alpha female they are simply released to spread into other environments.

A Lindwyrm slowly grows larger until they reach roughly the size of a tiger their arms having fully developed and they are capable of tool use. However, they generally see no purpose in tools, preferring their natural magic. At this point they've reached maturity and spend the next century mating with and under the smei-protection of the Alpha in their area.

At this point their size has increased and their magic has developed enough that they set out to find their own territory hunting and picking fights along the way.

Because of this unique lifestyle and fast metabolisms Lindwyrm populations generally exist in a boom bust cycle exploding in population and spreading out when times are good and collapsing in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy during lean times

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15. Desert Worms (Wormen, Rtubasch)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic (Caecilian)

Traits: Heat-Adapted, Autotrophic, Parthenogenetic, Short-Lived

Present in Hexes: 148 (Small)

Camouflaged caecilians that live under the desert sands, presumably with some variety of prehensile tentacle limbs. These creatures live off sunlight and air, consuming over trace minerals while they burrow for water. They grow longer all their lives and reproduce when approaching a certain length by literally splitting in half, creating two new worm-persons.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/graf-tzarogy.60806/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Interestingly for such a geographically and numerically limited species, the Desert Worms are split into two distinct ethnicities:

Desert Worms, Wormen:

lineal: Unilineal
Local: segmentary
archy: demosarchy
Sex ratio: Wormen 97%, Worun 3%

When a Worman reaches exactly twelve feet, its middle goes white, sticky and "loose", and they split into two equal halves, each six feet long. The Worman brain is not located at the "top" of their body, but along the whole of their form, so this segmentation splits the consciousness of the dividing creature – after a few weeks of infancy, where the bottom half regenerates a head and the top half a tail – into two distinct individuals. Each of the descendants of the original Worman has some memories of its sire – though approximately 75% are lost in the transfer, and what is kept by one half is not necessarily recalled by the other.

All Wormen consider themselves descended from the first of their kind, the Auspicious Worm, as splits of splits of splits. Therefore, all Wormen consider themselves part of one large, extended "family" (or even as one large individual, albeit scattered in many bodies and forms). Each Wormen has a one syllable personal name; they append this to the one-syllable name of their sire, and their sire's sire, and so on. Most stop at approximately eight generations, though some attempt to trace descent back to twenty or thirty splits. For example, a Worman's name would be UnVeldSheScoScriOi; colloquially, however, they would be known as Un, and UnVeld to those who knew their sire.

While most Desert Worms are Wormen, approximately three percent of their population are Wormun, descendents of a divergent line of Wormen. Wormun are a subspecies of Wormen with the ability to split the memories 45-45 between offspring at the cost of most other functions. They collectively function as keepers of oral history as well as spiritual leaders. They make poor leaders as they aren't particularly intelligent or strategic, and are poor magic users as they lack quick thinking and creativity. They are relatively few in number compared to Wormen with only one or two at most per segment, often less.

Wormen society is organized by "segments". An average segment consists of approximately 32 to 64 individuals, usually tracing common descent from a single great-great-great-great-great-great-great sire. Nomadic, the segment travels through the desert, seasonally shifting from oasis to spring-cave to oasis (with nothing else necessary, since the Wormen live mostly off the sun). Infant splits, for the few weeks they are unable to care for themselves while regenerating, are looked after by their sire-kin. When a group grows too large and poses a risk of exhausting the water and mineral sources the group relies on – above 64 is the traditional number - the segment splits in half. Each inherits half of the old "route" of the previous united segment and is tasked with establishing a new half path to novel wells and caves. Within a segment, all property is held in common – they are one family, after all. In the case of inter-segmental disputes that cannot be resolved by the parties involved, resolutions are reached (traditionally) by a majority vote. If an intractable conflict emerges, the segment may split "early". Despite these divisions, throughout the year there are lesser Durbars where those descendants of certain sire-lineages meet and trade, and the Grand Durbar held only once every decade, where all segments meet and make merry at one titanic family reunion.

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Desert Worms, Rtubasch

Name: Rtubasch
lineal: Patrilineal.
local: Matrilocal
archy: Toparchy
sex ratio: 52 Bottom: 48 Top (Anomalous splittings happen and in doubt people are assigned bottom at birth)

Deeply Influenced by their neighbouring cultures they ascribe profound meaning to the binary of whether someone's life started as top or bottom half of their mother. Traits associated with Tops are vaguely recognizable as male-ish by other species. Bottoms are thus mapped to femininity by default despite being their own unique thing.

Similarly they invented a version of fatherhood for themselves after declaring the person mortally sacrificing themselves in each birth must be the mother. The father is freely declared by the mother in preparation of the act from among the significant influences of their own life. They do not consider there to be any link between parental role and gender.

This does not require the father to be another Rtubasch, alive, have actually met the mother at any point or be non-fictional. Declaring, say, a pet or abstract things like 'The Desert Wind' to be the soon-to-be father of one's children is considered a faux pas, however.

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16. Jungle Angler Snakes (Issash)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic (snek)

Traits: Heat Adapted, Giant, Muscular, Obligate Carnivore, Prehensile Tail

Present in Hexes: 28 (Small)

A humanoid body attached at the waist to a snake. Not a snake tail, a snake. It's like a unicorn if the horn was the upper half of a humanoid body and the horse was a snake. Unlike most Centauroid beings, this humanoid body is a decoy, and from a strictly cladistic standpoint they may not qualify as Centauroid at all. Their primary hunting strategy is to hide the snake underwater or in the underbrush and use the humanoid to lure humanoids or other animals that eat humanoids, though they also supplement their diet with fish. Needing to convincingly imitate humanoids has left them surprisingly social, and they're perfectly capable of communicating and cooperating with their nominal prey provided they don't get hungry enough to reconsider the arrangement. They are, however, still mostly solitary by default and only rarely form anything that could be considered a community by more than the loosest definitions. Finding enough food for a group can be a considerable challenge.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/torgamous.236

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Jungle Angler Snakes, Issash

Name: Issash (whole people, as distinguished from centauroids as "faceless" and humanoids as "foreheads")
lineal: N/A
local: Marrilocal
archy: an
Sex ratio: 50/50

Issash are mostly solitary by default and only rarely form anything that could be considered a community by more than the loosest definitions. While an exception is made for children, it remains true for the parents. The father sticks near the mother's nest to help out before the kids hatch, but they do not generally cohabit. When the kids hatch, the father wanders off with whichever kids follow him and the mother keeps the remaining children, this varies based on the gender ratio of the clutch but usually about half and half. Particularly plentiful areas sometimes see Issash cooperating to raise their children, but even there it's not the norm and whatever roles exist in such relationships are very ad hoc.

Ancestral lineage is not a priority. While parents will tell their children stories that originated with their ancestors, nobody's really keeping track of who begat who, and they are dismissive of the obsession that other peoples' hold for lineage and descent.

Property, family or otherwise, is also not a thing the Issash practice. They have nests, which are temporary and built for a specific purpose, and home ranges, which are neither fixed nor exclusive. Issash with overlapping ranges often talk to each other when their paths cross, with only a small chance of cannibalism when food has been especially hard to come by.

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17. Steppe Lamia (Ehkis Thermos)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Heat Adapted, Parthenogenetic, Strong Constitution, Magnetoreceptive, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 136 (Small)

Natives to the warm steppe, Lamia are boisterous and social to a fault. They vary in exactly how reptilian their upper bodies are, with some being covered entirely in scales and some being very nearly human. The tail is a constant though, with a great variety of scale colours.

Lamia tend to form tight-knit lineages based on shared interests in place of a traditional family unit, but these groups can be solitary and tend to organize only chaotically at higher levels. Lamia are "born from the stone" and raised in nurseries that form the centre of any given lamia community.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/princess_hex.69345/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Steppe Lamia, Ehkis Thermos

Name: Ehkis Thermos
lineal: Fictive
local: Neolocality
archy: Collaborative Matriarchy
Sex ratio: 100% Female

All Lamia are capable of bearing eggs, but they are not genetic clones. Only a few dedicated denkeepers wise in the nature of the universe understand the process by which both statements are true, and they are the ones that oversee creches full of future hatchlings.

Lamia family groups, known as Lineages, are "replenished" by recruitment out of the local den-structures, where Lineages will either woo the fledgelings in the hopes of convincing them to join, young Lamia will set off to adventure for a time to find their place, or occasionally a group of young Lamia will collectively found a new Lineage and set off.

Lineages will often exchange members. For instance: a more predatory Lamia who winds up with a Lineage inclined towards craftwork may drift from their orbit and into the local foresters. A successful Lineage is a self-perpetuating social structure that generally exercises authority over some property, social role, resources, et cetera. If a new Lineage is created, it generally moves into an area where the resources are not monopolized by other lineages or forms an agreement with established groups for trade or exchange.

An individual Lineage is small enough that decisions will be made by collective consensus with the natural bias towards large personalities. However, every Lineage coalesces around a single Matron who is more than a "first among equals." Through political cleverness, impressive skill, charisma, or the ability to headbutt a larger rock into oblivion than anyone else, this Lamia is recognized as the theoretically-uncontested leader of the Lineage, though they will be quickly forced from power or watch their Lineage melt away if they too frequently go against the general will.

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18. Arctic Lamia (Ehkis Kryos)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Parthenogenetic, Strong Constitution, Magnetoreceptive, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 470 (Small)

Having created the Desert Lamia, The Great Being That Created The Snakes noticed one glaring flaw in their snake-creation plan. They didn't live far enough south. Thus, these creatures were created, and given dominion of all the places of the cold earth where less perfect serpents feared to slither. Thus it is written.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/another-amoeba.24008/

Kinship and Social Structure:

Arctic Lamia, Ehkis Kryos

Name: Ehkis Kryos (People of the Cold)
Lineal: Double Unilineal Descent when applicable, otherwise Matrilineal
Local: Matrilocal
Archy: Matriarchy
Sex Ratio: 80/20, Female/Male

The Ehkis Kryos form maternally-led groups known as Hibernakis, usually made up of 3 families at a time. The eldest Ehkia of each family is responsible for the general leadership of the Hibernakis, while their eldest daughters manage the families themselves.

Ehkis enter sexual maturity around 17 years of age. After that, Ehkia only enters a state ready to reproduce every two years. This, of course, makes managing reproductive matters important, especially with the two different types of procreation. The more common of the two is Parthenogenesis, and the process of laying physical eggs in clutches that comes with it.

The Ehkia in estrus seeking somewhere for her clutch is encouraged to find a location reasonably distant from her Hibernakis' territory, as it bolsters the likelihood that more unique traits will manifest within her clutch. This journey is usually taken with a single, slightly older companion, who is responsible for keeping the younger safe and fed. The egg-laying process takes up approximately two days, while the incubation process takes a month. There are usually a range of 5 to 8 eggs in a clutch. When the eggs are almost wholly incubated, they are brought back to the Hibernakis, so that the young can be properly raised in the Nursery.

There is a 1/5 chance that an egg will hatch male instead of female. These young Ehkos spend the first few years of their life reared by the Hibernakis, before being picked up by a wandering band known as a Ophio. These bands are composed entirely of Ehkos, and are a nomadic group of migrators who spend two years at a time in a Hibernakis before moving onto the next one. The Ophio typically serve the Hibernakis in two ways; first being their service as additional workers for the good of the Hibernakis, second being their helpfulness in the secondary birthing process of the Ehkis.

The sexual reproduction method has its own benefits and drawbacks. As there are automatically two parties involved to create genetic diversity, the pilgrimage and approximate month of social isolation are no longer necessary. Similarly, the young from this relationship have slight benefits to their overall health and physical ability. However, there are far fewer births at a time (usually only one, with a very rare chance of two), and they are delivered through live birth instead of an egg clutch.

This split in ways of birth are denoted through names; as while all Ehkis have the name of their Hibernakis/Ophio, and their own personal name, only those delivered through sexual production have the name of a father to carry.

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19. Boundless Kobolds (Vranik Ekess Isk)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Small, Prolific, Short Lives, Parthenogenetic

Present in Hexes: 279 (Small) and 256 (Small)

These small reptiles with shiny scales and cozy manes of fuzzy down scamper in teeming squirming hosts across deep valleys and atop frigid heights. Bundled together, tails entwined, even in the cool lands that sustain them so well. Their numbers grow in waves as every Kobold can lay their own self-fertilized egg. Protecting these clutches each season and providing for their broods and themselves often consume the short lives they live. Yet, they never lack for company and in such numbers find their cooperation in hunting, gathering, and all other tasks can bridge any gap in their individual abilities.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/vylinius.32896/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Boundless Kobolds, Vranik Ekess Isk

Vranik Ekess Isk (Children of the Egg)
Lineal: Ambilineal/Fictive
Local: Neolocality/Trade-locality
Archy: Gerontarchal
Sex ratio: 100% Agender (They/Them)

This species of parthenogenically reproducing small lizardfolk, trace their lineage back to "The Great Egg", which is a term used for their species' entire ancestral line in aggregate. This lack of distinction extends to their practice of lovingly maintained communal hatcheries at the centre of their settlements where all the eggs are gathered.

While individual Vran instinctively know the identity of their sire, this lineage is not considered especially important to one's identity. Instead social position is based on past accomplishments and the Vran's current occupation within the community.

Newly hatched Vran are raised by the caretakers of the communal hatchery from which they and the rest of their seasonal brood hatched, but later they are moved to a juvenile household.

While the caretakers sometimes interfere in these households as part of the continued education of the young Vranik who dwell there, the Vranik are expected to learn and apply the socialization they receive elsewhere to the management of their shared household.

During their time in these households the Vranik are educated primarily through working alongside adults in a wide variety of tasks and crafts, most often being passed from adult to adult along lines of personal relationships or necessity. By learning the preexisting roles of the community young Vran come to understand existing or new niches that could be filled by a dedicated household. When a Vran comes of age so as to become an adult they are expected to leave their youth dwelling to join an existing one or form a new one with other youths.

Each household of adults is dedicated to a specific task, and the property of the household is considered to be held in common by those dedicated to that task or craft rather than to any single individual.

Property in a larger sense from the smallest tool to the largest structure is considered to belong collectively to the community, and a responsibility is held as to keeping this property for the benefit of future generations. The head of the household is commonly the eldest, as they often are the most experienced and longest serving member of the Household,

In long established households the choosing of leader tends to be based around performance in competitions within the household or by a process of popular acclamation, but in most cases an informal seniority is enough to proscribe the position to its holder. In cases of conflict within a household the leader (Or Lexkar) is often called on to mediate, though in cases of disputes between the leader household, outsiders are called in to mediate. In some cases this fails and either the household is dissolved or the Lexkar forced out.

While some households come and go entirely, some even reorganizing on a seasonal basis, there are those which remain consistent and are commonly found in all Vranik communities. Those specialized in hunting and gathering and later developments from them such as herding and farming households are always maintained and usually large enough to accommodate multiple structures. Tool production is another critical household, but often becomes split and specialized into further numbers of households for the production of particular tools usually separated based on the primary material they work with, though in larger communities households dedicated to the production of very precise tools or just the refinement of certain raw materials also appear.

Another critical household is that of es Vortrasik (the Record Keepers) they are charged with the tabulation of all property within the community keeping a census of the community's households and their members. This information is maintained through both manners of physical storage and mnemonic methods, the latter of which being a long standing tradition of the Vranik ekess Isk. As part of these duties a Vortras is present for exchanges of members and property between households, the establishment of new households, and the hatching of new broods; in addition, they also make routine outings to keep track of the property of the various households, the full accounting of what the community as whole holds.

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20. Medusans (Medusans)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Parthenogenetic, Prolific, Telepathic, Short Lives, Delicate, Herbivorous

Present in Hexes: 481 (Small)

Noted primarily for their unusual lifecycle, Medusans reproduce both sexually and asexually. The offspring of sexual reproduction becomes a sessile, filter feeding monolith, which in turn spends its entire lifespan releasing mobile Medusans.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/10ebbor10.13022/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Medusans. Medusans

Name: Medusans
lineal: matrilocal
Local: neolocal
archy: sessilocracy
Sex ratio: N/A

This unusual species is ruled by sessile filter feeding monoliths attached to the ocean floor who create more of their kind via parthenogenesis.

Newly spawned Medusans expand into new territories, remove predators, and conduct most of the work of civilization.

Naturally most Medusans trace their ancestry through the Matriarch Monoliths that spawn them.

At times the environment will be right and the Medusans will use sexual reproduction to create a new Matriarch who will anchor the Medusans to a new location.

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21. Bear People (Easabirnir)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian

Traits: Giant, Muscular, Strong Constitution, Inefficient Metabolism, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 214 (Small)

These large thickset and thick furred ursine creatures may not be able to use magic, and may not get the most out of their food, but their strength and constitution means that they can eat nearly everything they come across.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/natruska.21687/

Kinship Structure and Social Organizations:

Bear People, Easabirnir

Name: Easabirnir (Waterfall Children)
Lineal: Patrilineal
Local: Patrilocal
Archy: Patriarchal
Sex ratio: 50/50

Easabirn society is defined by two attributes, the quasi-feudal tyranny of family life at the household level and the extreme fluidity of alliances between those households. The dominant social class is the freeholding farmer, hosting dozens of family members and servants in his fortified longhouse. This patriarch feeds them, protects them, and in turn they work his land and support him in his disputes. To the death, if necessary.

But while these petty lords have obtained great power over their inferiors, they have not managed to subjugate each other. Larger and larger familial structures have cohered - related freeholders joining forces in a Cynnd, Cynndar banding together to form Septs - but they have not built true feudalism. A Sept chief, called a 'Dhiar', has a hereditary title. But its power is ephemeral. He has no right of geographic exclusivity or claim to the land of his supporters, no leverage. The contract between him and them is entirely at-will. A freeholder is allowed to walk away from his Dhiar, supposedly his kin and his second father, for any reason at all. It's a buyer's market. Some go through a dozen 'second fathers' in a lifetime.

That's not to say that the Easabirnir have no loyalty to their Septs. It's common enough to stick with one for years, even generations. Families will often 'circle back' to their original Sept after departing for a while. And even frequent flip-floppers take their obligations seriously, raising an unholy racket in the assemblies and spilling blood in feuds. But when a better deal comes along...can you really blame them for taking it?

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22. Fish Hive (The School)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water Breathing, Eusocial, Parthenogenetic, Delicate, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 342 (Small) and 320 (Small)

This species of fish operate as a eusocial hive which reproduces asexually. Their instinctive organization makes up for their fragility and poor metabolisms which require a constant intake of food.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/ultrackius.33390/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Fish Hive, The School

Name: The School
lineal: matrilineal
Local: neolocal
archy: patriarchy
Sex ratio: 1% Queenfish, 4% Kingfish, 35% Warriors, 60% Labourers

This species is organized around a rare Queen caste, but ruled by the Kings who are closest to her, controlling mating, and directing the administration of any single smaller School within the larger School.

The remainder of the species are either warriors who protect the school and secure new territories, or labourers who conduct the rest of the work required to keep the School functional.

When a School approaches the local carrying capacity, a handful of the School's secondary Queens and their Kings gather Warriors and Labourers and split off to form a new school.

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23. Cephalopodians (Wû'mé)

Frame: Humanoid.
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Hermaphroditic, Magically Sensitive, Water Breathing

Present in Hexes: 119 (Small)

A strange cephalopodian people risen from the darkest depths of the oceans to inhabit the surface-world, residing in the warm and water-choked tropics to which their molluscoid forms are most suited.

Clad in colour-shifting skin as a reminder of their deep-sea ancestors and bestowed with heads of writhing tentacles and terrible pointed teeth, these creatures are attuned by birth to the strange Magicks of the world and are more than happy to work its influence through bacchanalian rituals, elaborate games and the construction of mysterious sites of worship. Unlike many other species they are not beholden to the strictures of dimorphism, marking no distinctions between individuals save those of dress and status.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/squidfam.35318/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Cephalopodians, Wû'mé

Name: Wû'mé (Deep People)
lineal: ambilineal
Local: proxilocal
archy: magocracy
Sex ratio: N/A

This species oranizes under family units where the most magically powerful elder rules. New families tend to stay close to existing ones, and due to the species' hermaphroditism most issues of gender or sex are merely a matter of self expression.

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24. Otters (Minskane'wil)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Magically Sensitive, Heat Adapted, Water Breathing, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 386 (Small)

These unassuming mammals are extremely deadly, being killer predators among their favoured habitat, though the days of being an apex predator have long since passed. Adapted for the heat yet located in a subarctic climate due to an unknown phenomena in the distant past, every day is a struggle for these small humanoids against the climate itself.

If not for their magical talent this species would have died off long ago, needing a mixture of instinctive magics to merely survive most crucially among them water breathing and supernaturally insulating their aquatic homes to survive the long and harsh winters. With the failure of either of these crucial magics resulting in a swift death of hypothermia this has pressured the remaining population towards magic and a hibernation-like lifestyle.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/blackgold211.48217/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Otters, Minskane'wil

Name: Minskane'wil (People of The Will)
Lineal: Double Unilineal
local: Arcanolocalality (The family/clan move to the location chosen by whichever mate has the most perceived magical talent.)
Archy: Parriarchal (Not a typo, apparently the gender-neutral term of Patri/Matriarch is Parriarch.)
Sex Ratio: 50% Female, 50% Male Standard

For the Minskane'wil their roles, expectations and structures are almost entirely decided by their magic. In the cold fringes where the Minskane'wil are located magic is the difference between life and death meaning that those with it hold significant power. All clan heads are someone who holds magical abilities.

Each clan is relatively small, with rarely more than a few dozen members at the most and almost always those within the clan are related making it more akin to a familial structure. Due to the rarity of magic and the magical talent needed to hold back the elements and protect their clan the Parriarch is whoever holds the strongest magical talent though often this is the only magical user within the clan. Though other magical users can co-exist within the same clan they are distinctly second fiddle, no matter how close their actual talent with the Parriarch may be.

Due to the harshness of the climate only the Parriarch is allowed to have children and never within the clan itself. When the clan deems itself that it is in a sufficiently decent position a scouting party is sent out in the summer months to look for another clan and thereby their Parriarch, though scouting is considerably dangerous, too dangerous to risk the Parriarch, it is incredibly prestigious position and the closest one a non-magical user's standing can get to one of magic, though tangible rewards beyond social standing are little. Once a clan has been found a series of tests and rituals will begin, suitability will be appraised by the scouting party for things such as the right gender, magical talent, the personality of the Parriarch and the capabilities of the other clan.

If both clans approve a swap will be conducted between each clan's scouting parties, with each scouting party living with the other clan until the next summer. As each clan's scouting parties are often made up of the best and brightest of the clan this is a display of significant trust. If this goes well the next summer and almost two years after the courtship trials have begun is when the two Parriarchs finally meet. When the forest is at its hottest in the peak of summer both clans make the trek to a neutral location where a series of rituals and magical performances are conducted, this is to ascertain which of the Parriarchs is the most magically powerful which is typically decided by majority vote but different systems have been used when a clan is numerically inferior. When a new High Parriarch has been selected both clans merge and the High Parriarch chooses a new location for the enlarged clan, which depending on the situation could mean moving to the lesser Parriarch's territory or moving to a new location altogether.

Because of magic's crucialness for the clan's future survival the only two in the newly enlarged clan allowed to have children are the Lesser and High Parriarch's. As the offspring of two Parriarchs, both the most powerful magic users in their clan, are much more likely to produce a magically talented child than any other potential couple. Of course, magic is still very rare even with the makeshift genetic engineering and most magically untalented children are raised by volunteers with some examples of one parent volunteer raising multiple children or four parents raising one. This process continues until at least two children of sufficient magical talent are born to be raised by the Parriarchs. After this, if the Parriarchs allow it, children born outside of the Parriarchs are allowed if the clan has enough resources to support it. Indeed, it is from these non-Parriarch children that most weaker magic users are born, being those who are too weak to support a clan but enough to be significant.

The issue of the extremely small breeding pool among the Parriarchs is solved by the complex clan names of the Minskane'wil. When a new pair is formed between Parriarchs the name of the clan is changed, or more accurately added to. Each clan name is extremely long, with each syllable relating to a different ancestry, though with each new clan formed the last syllables are culled for brevity and for losing their purpose.

When courtship begins between two Parriarchs the clan names are consulted and if any syllables or words are found to be of too similar origin then the courtship is called off early.

When the Parriarchs grow old and weak and their children begin to replace them in their duties does the clan once again split. Those capable of supporting a clan collect their followers from among the clan and make their way to a new location, to begin the cycle anew with both the old Parriarchs stepping down and splitting up to serve as advisors for their children. With the difficulties of travel this split is almost always the last time that either of both new clans see each other. Though of course it is entirely common that too few Parriarch level magic users are born and in such a situation the clan disperses into other nearby clans to level out the burden on their new Parriarchs.

The clan's day to day is run somewhat typically of hunter gatherers. Everything but a few personal trinkets being owned communally any trade for tangible goods almost never conducted and only between clans. Socially wise, the Parriarch at the top of the heap followed by magic users, scouts, hunters and then artisans. However, this social standing is worth very little tangibly, people may defer to you and if you request a trinket from an artisan you have a higher chance of acceptance but little beyond that. And while some Parriarchs have been inclined towards petty tyrannies in the past the Parriarchs are almost entirely dependent on their clan with Parriarchal magic specialised almost entirely towards fending off the environment and any war magics limited to the weaker magic users. Any would be tyrants are incredibly short lived as they are just as dependent or perhaps even more so on the clan than the clan is on them.

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25. Arctic Lizard Men (Dinok Spaan)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Keen senses, Strong Constitution, Cold-Adapted

Present in Hexes: 477 (Small)

Sharp of senses, heavy on endurance, and strong of stomach, these cold adapted lizard people live to the far south. Their distinctive blue and white scales protect them from cold and strife alike and their powerful eyesight enables them to detect prey from great distances, a help in the sparse environment of their arctic homelands.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/_plague-doctor_.93234/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Arctic Lizard Men, Dinok Spaan

Name: Dinok Spaan (Death Shields or Shields against death)
Lineal: Fictive
Local: Neolocality
Archy: Egalitarian
Sex Ratio: 50/50

Forged by their harsh environment, the Dinok Spaan are divided into "troops" or no more than a few hundred people that stalk the cold lands of their territory.

Consummate hunters, troops are organized in a militaristic fashion, with the election of leaders based on their ability to lead hunts and raids, and command others. This is not purely based on strength, but cunning, discipline, and charisma.

During the height of winter, multiple troops will congregate in shared dens, either cities built from ice and snow overnight, villages built from easily disassembleable and portable wooden planks, or caves deep beneath the earth. This allows them to share resources and trade knowledge and goods. It is also at these gatherings where higher level agreements between troops on territory are made and voted on by the assembled Dinok Spaan.

These periods are often when children are conceived and hatched. Due to the harsh nature of their environment, newly hatched children are often named for their parents and then raised by other troops who have the spare capacity for raising children. However raising a child in one's own troops is still preferable.

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26. Ant People (The Hive)

Frame: Tauroid
Genus: Insectoid

Traits: Eusocial, Prolific, Small, Short Lives, Herbivorous, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 11 (Small), 12 (Small), 13 (Small), and 41 (Small)

There is something to be said for building down as well as up, and there is something to be said about highly controlled agriculture, and there is something to be said about building a functioning society in which all members help out all others within the same 'tribe', and it is that Insects did it first. these insects, granted greater minds, greater size, opposable thumbs, and an internal skeleton in addition to their external one by the magic that saturates these lands, now seek to expand out and forge an empire, just like their ancestors did in the undergrowth and treetops for the past several million years; and this time? they're building more tools with which to reshape their world.

Biologically speaking, on average, 95% of their population is (at least outwardly) female and completely infertile, with the remaining 5% being made out of fertile males and females (who could then 'choose' to become Hive broodmares/queens down the line, or decide to remain as 'princesses'). The females, both fertile and infertile, possess organs on their chest which, along with their abdomen, can store partially-to-mostly processed food for later trophallaxis. conveniently, when storing said nutritious liquid(literally somewhere between milk and honey in taste and consistency) said organs resemble breasts from the outside. The organ in their abdomen can store a lot more, but that's more for long term use and storage, although the fertile members of their species lack that other storage space. note that most members of the hive cannot gain very large amounts of fat, as in the infertile females exes food is converted into said nutritious liquid (which they themselves can 'eat' later if they need to, or feed it to others), while in the fertile females any excess food goes to gestating more young (assuming that they have mated in the past). It is only the males that can actually get fat, and thus it is those males that are the first to be thrown out if/when a famine comes around, as they lack the ability to share any food beyond the amount required to survive that they eat.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/patrickmm1.20395/

Kinship Structures and Social Organziation:

Ant People, The Hive

Name: ʘeǂ!ψ (The people of the hives)
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Matrilocal(see below for exceptions)
archy: Matriarchal
Caste Ratio: 50% Drone (Female infertile), 45% workers, 3% males, and 2% Females (Fertile) on average

When producing young, the Queen (a fertilized fertile female) may pick whether or not they wish to produce fertile offspring. If She chooses to do so, 10% of their young produced during said time period will be fertile, split 60-40 between males and fertile females, who are referred to as 'princesses' in the time between them reaching maturity and choosing to be fertilized. otherwise, and for the remaining 90% of their young produced even during the times when they choose to produce fertile offspring, they may, before laying, choose whether the resulting offspring is a Worker or a Drone.

Workers are the default- female, infertile, and fully sapient, this is the caste that does almost all of the more complex labour- ranging from foraging for additional food outside of the hive itself, to preserving and weaving the silk from the pupa's cocoons(after they either fully mature or something goes wrong and they die) into assorted items, to recording and passing down historical records(first through song and dance, and later through the written word), to carefully cultivating medical plants and fungi, to actively practising and performing medicine, to teaching, to woodworking, to making tools, to cooking and preserving food, to ensuring that the dead and biological waste are properly disposed of, to scouting, and to simply managing the Drones as they go about their tasks- in the process practising everything from careful botany, to architecture, to what to outsiders could be called 'parenting'.

Drones are much simpler, requiring less food to produce and actively less time to mature, in return for not being more sapient than a very smart dog at best. programmed with shockingly complex instincts, these drones are surprisingly capable of tasks that to outsiders could take entire lifetimes to learn, with an extreme level of precision and seemingly impossible eye for the smallest of details, and a work ethic that if not properly handled could lead to them working themselves to death. while Drones are not capable of a wide range of activities- being incapable of truly complex thought and being, at best, extremely slow to adapt to new innovations, what they are good at is a series of vital niches; although their abilities in the areas outside of that which they are assigned upon maturation tend to atrophy to the point of being counterproductive without an extensive period of retraining.

These niches filled by drones are:
-Childcare: experts at tending to the needs of the eggs, larvae, and pupae, and ensuring that conditions are optimal for them reaching maturity; although they cannot teach things not already semi-programmed into the assorted drones, and they cannot deal with sudden catastrophes that might threaten the young by themselves, and cannot administer anything beyond the most basic of medical aid without prompting.
-Diggers and Builders: from mining, to construction work, to building massive underground farms, these drones seem to have a shockingly large amount of knowledge on architecture- building supporting structures when there is none, ensuring proper airflow, ensuring proper conditions in a given area for its given role, dealing with both solid stone and the water table, and ensuring that no part of the resulting work collapses or otherwise interferes with the wider hive, for a sub-sapient creature; although they are only good at working with stone and dirt, need direction if you don't want the end-result to end up resembling a confusing warren, and will not produce anything aesthetically pleasing without outside aid.
-Fungus farmers: who will do everything required for ensuring that the fungus farms(details on which will come in a later post) remain productive and do not deteriorate, short of supplying said fungi with the required sources of nutrition that cannot be found within the hive itself, although they are only really good at tending to the fungus varieties that have practically co-evolved with The Hive, and might actively get rid of other fungus varieties if not carefully told not to.
-Foragers: their goal is to gather the proper materials, mainly the leaves of certain plants, but also whatever else might be in demand by the fungus farmers, to ensure that the fungus farms remain fully operational and healthy, and do so without harming the future supply of said materials; although they won't promote the spread of/actively cultivate said plants without careful prompting.
-Guards: whose job it is to protect the nest from wild animals, alert the rest of the local people in the case of a full on hostile incursion, and sell their lives at a high price to hold off said attack if necessary; but they will not do tactics beyond 'stand in good position and poke with pointy end' without careful direction.

Males are simultaneously both the lowest and second highest caste in whatever hive they might be living in, as there is nothing expected of them beyond to be available for mating when the season comes around, although in turn they are the first to be left to starve if there is not enough food available, and the first to be thrown out if there is not enough living space.

When times are good, these males tend to become some of the most learned members of the hive, as they have no serious obligations most of the time; thus they often become avid artists, musicians, poets, philosophers, and storytellers, as they find ways to occupy their time and ensure that they have value even when it isn't breeding season. When times are bad males either need to hope that the queens have found some other value in keeping them around, or find somewhere else to live.

This has led a few males to never really settle down again, becoming wide ranging traders, storytellers, scouts, and messengers when they do not simply become a hermit living out their remaining time on the edges of society; although even if tossed aside in their hive of birth they will often be gladly accepted into any other settlement, as new genetic diversity is always welcome, and the information and knowledge that they bring with them can often be of use. The males who do more with their lives than either die off or live a life of relative decadence in the hive of their birth often become some of the most far-travelling individuals amongst the ʘeǂ!ψ, making them a welcome addition to any hive that is willing to house, feed, and clothe them.

However you might spin it, it is the fertile females who reign at the top of ʘeǂ!ψ society, as it is them who hold all of the political power, for they tend to live over twice as long as any of the other castes upon reaching maturity, and it is from them that new life arises. Reaching sexual maturity six months after reaching physical maturity, it is the time between physical maturity and choosing to be fertilized that they are called princesses, and are even more spoiled than the males- given the freedom to learn whatever they want to, do whatever they want to (short of anything considered suicidal), and play almost as big of a role in hive politics as the aged matrons if they so wish to. In particularly large and prosperous hives some of these fertile females might technically never leave this stage, spending their entire lives enjoying the freedoms that comes with their position without ever actually performing the duties that come with it. Most of the time though, that is not the case, and within a year of reaching sexual maturity the vast majority of princesses have transitioned to their next stage in life- as a Queen. during this stage, the Queen, if provided with enough food, will lay one egg per week, which will then go on to develop and mature into the future members of the hive over the course of five (three for Drones) years, first as a developing egg, then as a larvae- equally as ravenous for food and knowledge (or just food, in the case of the future drones), then as a pupae, before hatching from their silk cocoon as a fully grown adult.
The queens remain in this stage for 25 (assuming the maximum rate of egg laying) to 40 years, before going on to become a matron, spending the remainder of their life leading the hive that they helped to build. It is these matrons that lead the assorted hives, and ensure that cooperation occurs instead of competition between them and their neighbours whenever possible.

While food(and other natural resources) are plentiful, fertile females, both princesses and queens, remain with their birth hive, contributing to its growth, prestige, and furthering their own lineage; but when time gets tough, be it due to drought, plague, blight, or heated debates that threaten to turn into major internal conflicts, up to 75% of the non-direct lineage (firstborn of the firstborn of the firstborn of the eldest matron in the have) princesses and queens might pick up and move elsewhere, taking a proportional share of the brood(young) and drones with them. These bands then travel elsewhere, being hastened through the territory of other, still healthy, hives if/when they come across them; as their goal is usually to establish new hives in new, hopefully more prosperous, lands, not to make the situation worse for others of their kind.

Other times, the reason why a given princess/queen might leave might not be as nice, for the best way to very swiftly acquire political power is to replace the woman in charge, and the best way to build up a brand new hive is to acquire more brood- and they need not be from yourself or any of the other present/future queens that came with you; and both of these actions can have repercussions, repercussions that can sometimes last long, long after the original perpetrator is dead; repercussions that have greatly slowed the growth and spread of the hive for thousands of years, a series of grudges that have only recently been resolved.

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27. Eusocial Dolphintails (Sirens)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Eusocial, Water Breathing, Obligate Carnivore, Short Lives, Weak Constitution, Magically Sensitive

Present in Hexes: 364 (Small) and 363 (Small)

With the top of a beautiful human woman and the bottom half of a dolphin, the Sirens have been known to sailors and traders for a long time as a fae and mysterious people, known to be open and friendly to those who are friendly and cooperative with them and magically vicious to those who have malicious intent. They are a mix of sedentary and nomadic, with the prior hives known to settle within coral reefs and the latter hives travelling and herding schools of fish. Despite living short lives, the sirens have a rich magical tradition that is passed down generation to generation.

Submitted by: Harley Quinn on discord.

Kinship Structures and Social Structures:

Eusocial Dolphintails, Sirens

Name: Sirens
Lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Neolocal
Archy: Matriarchy
Caste Ratio: 1% Queen, 9% Attendants, 30% Mage Warriors, 60% Workers

A eusocial people, the Sirens are made up of "pods" built around a single fertile Queen, who is served by a group of attendants. These attendants personally see to the needs of the Queen, the delivery and initial stages of raising children, and also often act as the lorekeepers and administrators of a pod. The rest of the pod is made up of soldiers and workers.

The soldiers practise a handful of ancient martial traditions that feature heavy use of magical techniques, traditions that are as focused on teaching philosophy as they are about weapons use. Siren soldiers are respected as philosopher-warriors as much as they are as battlemages. These soldiers protect the pod and will fight to the death to protect the queen and the pod's children.

Workers will also fight to the death to protect their queen, but are not expected to, and instead busy themselves with the many tasks that are required of civilization: resource gathering, feeding the pod, crafting tools, and exploring while accompanied by soldiers.

All Sirens trace their descent via their Queen, and the Queen who birthed her, far back into ante-deluvian history.

When the environment is right, the current Queen will birth a successor. This "Princess" is either raised to replace the current Queen as a secondary queen, or is intended to take a handful of attendants, soldiers, and workers to found her own pod.

While in the past pods of unrelated Sirens would often find themselves in conflict, the slow growth of administrative technologies made by attendants and the pressures of other species mean that in modern times most Siren pods are loosely allied.

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28. Muscular Giants (Thebans)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Giant, Hermaphroditic, Muscular

Present in Hexes: 296 (Small)

A race of all male-presenting hermaphrodites, they appear to be like normal human men albeit very hairy and with consistently exaggeratedly masculine facial features, along with being far larger and more muscular than any man could ever realistically hope to be.

They however have a complex system of gender, with their sex shifting throughout their lives in response to stimuli and necessity. While they are always capable of producing children either through impregnating others or being impregnated themselves, their bodies shift and change in order to make certain roles easier such as wider hips to bear children. A Herculean can stay in a single role for much of their life, it is impossible for it to be their entire lifespan unless they die quickly. These roles only begin to become apparent during puberty and develop as well as mercurially change throughout it.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/dex10awesome.27605/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Muscular Giants, Thebans

Thebeans (Of The Band)
Lineal: Fictive
Local: Neolocal
Archy: Ambiarchal
Sex Ratio: Highly Variable

The Thebeans are tightly knit through the bonds of love, lust and loyalty, their society has never quite truly been divided by gender as one might think. Sure, they have their specializations in reproduction, but those change as life goes on and often they can take contradicting parts. A warrior cannot simply stop being a warrior just because they are now expected to be a mother, just as a caretaker cannot simply stop being a caretaker just because they now desire to father children. Similarly, leadership roles are not dictated by this, though they are dictated by seniority.

Upon reaching the age of majority, Thebeans are expected to form a Band with their peers and establish a Fraternity or join a different one in either their own community or one outside. Oftentimes they will have similar 'roles', but it is not unexpected for mixed-role Fraternities to form, and it is downright expected that one's role will change thus forcing the issue. Regardless, children are raised within the households they come from and within the community that the houses are in, developing friendships, romances and bonds that will serve them well when they are to form a Fraternity. Fraternities frequently adopt newer members and members of the Band may come and go as time moves on, thus older Fraternities still live on. Some Fraternities are composed of merely just friends while others form polyamorous couplings, but Fraternities are a highly varied institution.

Mentorship is a large part of Thebean life, as one will have many mentors and mentees throughout their lives. Even Fraternities are mentored by other Fraternities, with the complex politics and arguments over seniority, expertise and legitimacy often being fraught as who decides to mentor who is a sign of prestige, honour and obligation. Of course, these arguments and politics can also be covers for feuds and grudges over the various affairs and hidden romances that a species as hormonal as Thebeans have. But regardless, for one's mentee to fail is dishonourable, but to only choose mentees that one views as safe is viewed as cowardly and abandoning one's duty.

Overall, they are highly masculine in appearance, with their dimorphism being relatively little as they are attracted to those similar in nature. This can also mean that they might go after males of other species, though there is a discriminated against minority of Thebeans who are attracted to those of a feminine nature.

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29. Amphibious Ogres (Garshum)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Giant, Strong Constitution, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 145 (Small) and 143 (Small)

This large species of amphibians makes up for their lack of magical talent with their size and resistance to poison and harm. Living in the mangrove swamps that sit on the eastern edge of the continent they use their size and ability to eat a wide variety of foodstuffs to dominate their territories. Territories that they guard ferociously and regularly travel around in a semi-nomadic lifestyle.

Based on: They're literally Shreks

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/karnax626.14406/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Amphibious Ogres, Garshum

Name: Garshum (People of the swamp)
Lineage: Fictive
Locality: Neolocality
Archy: Kratocracy/Assembly
Sex Ratio: 50% Female, 50% Male

Garshum tend towards sink and swim for their kids. Children are spawned in vast quantities as tadpoles, but only a relative few will grow to reach their more mature state. In most circumstances, as adults they prefer not to spend time around large numbers of others of their kind, with the majority spending their time in small groups either in small settlements or roaming their territories.

The pecking order among these groups tends to be determined by the rule of the strong. Challenges happen often, with the loser either submitting or being allowed to leave to find another group.

Assemblies (Things) have been becoming more common to deal with issues that cannot be dealt with in person. The first one was said to have been called by a particularly ornery Garshum born during a time when due to chance significantly higher numbers of Garshum made it to the adult stage, leading to increasingly vicious battles for territory. After a campaign to stop the downward spiral ended in them beating the leaders of one hundred groups in successive challenges over 2 straight weeks, they called the first Thing, and eventually it was decided that the worst offending groups would be sent inland away from their ancestral territory by the coast, with a buffer territory in the middle.

This practice continued, though no Things so far have matched the size of the first, with specific Garshum marked out as 'heralds' to spread the word of the decisions come to during said meetings, to inform those Garshum antisocial enough to refuse to meet such large groups even as infrequently as that.

The encampments would not function without farms, as they ensure enough food is provided for such a large group without decimating the surrounding area. Within the camp, interactions are often surprisingly formalised, to reduce the chances of a fight starting or tempers flaring. Meeting another Garshum at their home is often planned in advance, with turning up without warning being reserved either for those who were particularly close to begin with, for emergencies, or simply for those looking to start a fight.

For those Garshum roaming, territorial infractions are avoided by taking the Paths. These are routes passed down from generation to generation, and staggered along their length with large marker stones moved into position. The Paths ensure different groups of Garshum don't accidentally cross over into another's territory. Even when a group changes leader via challenge, these routes will still be followed.

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30. Saurus (K'Law)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Heat Adaptation, Parthenogenetic, Giant, Strong Constitution, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 87 (Small)

This species of large, tough, lizardfolk can survive comfortably in warm climes despite their lack of magical talents.

K'law are a large people that have carved their homes out of the surrounding jungle along the river delta and coast. Their strong constitution grants them an advantage in possessing a large, varied diet. They are unbothered by potential tropical diseases and toxic plants that can be found in their homes. Instead it is a bountiful land which they readily find food.

Based on: Saurus from Warhammer

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/fission-battery.6050/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Saurus, K'law

Name: K'law (Clawed Ones)
Lineal: Ambilineal, leaning Matrilineal
Local: Matrillocal
Archy: Matriarchy
Sex ratio: 55% Female, 45% Male

K'law society is semi-sedentary, often spending much of their lives in one location with a few exceptions. The tropics keep the weather fairly consistent year round, meaning it is often only the migration of animals and major fish spawns that require moves to take advantage of. Villages on the edge of floodplains often move during the heavy rains of the monsoon season, returning once waters have receded. Otherwise housing in such areas is considered temporary given the risk of flooding.

While their large size means they are quite adept hunters, it is not their only source of food. The heavy rains of the area often leach nutrients from the soil, making it poor for certain types of agriculture. K'law villages grow their food among well stewarded forests which encourage edible species to grow without overburdening the land with massive fields and orchards. The gardens and food forests grow a variety of food, some of which may be difficult for other species to eat. Fishing as well provides a great source of food, both river and coastal fish are found in great abundance in the region. The K'laws' large size gives them surer footing along the shores, allowing them to wade into deeper and stronger waters without fear.

Land usage is considered communal. It is difficult to claim exclusive ownership by any one person or family. It is owned by the entire community. The extended families which make up the K'laws have long since come to arrangements in which resources will be shared and disputes settled as amicably as possible. The parthenogenetic ability for females to self impregnate means lineage is often traced through the mother's side of the family, as a notable percentage of the population has only a single parent. It is by no means exclusive, as individuals may draw descent from both sides of their family, should they have more than a single parent. Often the most important male figure in a k'laws' life is their mother's brother or father (should the mother have a father).

Leadership of K'law society falls upon select K'law women, amazons, drawn from each village that can trace their lineage solely through mothers. They are seen as an unbroken line that can trace itself back to the oldest known K'law families, granting them particular importance. They're trained to be historians, priestesses, and warriors in one. Only the daughters may be trained in this role, as they are capable of conceiving children without fathers and carrying on the family line.

Amazons may allow women from other families to join them as apprentices, while sons of amazons are often trained as apprentices before being married off to other families. Thus tying amazons into the wider community, and allowing families to claim a shared ancestry through marriage.

The differences between sex are often lost on outside observers. K'law women on average tend to have slightly larger hips, however their already large size and small egg clutches meant there was little evolutionary pressure towards larger hips. Women often lay three to five eggs, which take sixteen or so years to raise to adulthood, though societally young adults are often taught by their families and extended community for much of their life. Their large size, natural strength, and dangerous environment means both men and women are trained to defend themselves, even from a young age. Often mock battles are held to test the youth's mettle in fake combat, using sticks in place of weapons which can safely impact the hardened scales of the K'law. It also keeps the youth busy. Otherwise spears and bows are common weapons of choice as they are also tools used for hunting and fishing.

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31. Nomadic Wolfwomen (Vacla)

The Vacla (Wolfwomen)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Giant, Prolific, Intuitive, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 315 (Small) and 315 (Small)

This clever race of rapidly breeding large meat eating humanoids with lupine features have minimal sexual dimorphism and live in the comfortable fields and forests of the southern continent.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/maelstrom-seeker.90653/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Wolfwomen, Vacla

Name: Vacla (regular old "People")
lineal: Ambilineal/Fictive
local: Neolocal (nomadic)
archy: Egalitarian
Sex ratio: 50% Male, 50% Female

Vacla have little-to-no sexual dimorphism, so perhaps it is unsurprising that their society does not treat sex as a basis for differentiated gender roles, though their neighbours tend to use female descriptions for all Vacla. Except for the extremely old or otherwise unhealthy, all Vacla are capable of self-inducing lactation, an important ability to make raising large numbers of offspring more manageable. Female Vacla are understood as facing a special burden in reproduction, and deserving of extra support during mid-to-late pregnancy, childbirth, and the short recovery period afterwards, but beyond this Vacla society makes few special distinctions by sex and lacks gender per se.

Vacla marriages are most often male-female couples, but same-sex couples are also common, and marriages of three or more people are rare but not unheard of. Magic to enable the aforementioned to have biological children exists, but is rarely performed due to being difficult, time-consuming, and resource-expensive even for skilled Vacla mages. Adoption or surrogacy are more common methods for same-sex marriages to have children.

Marriages do not have a "head of family" who can unilaterally wield authority over her wife, children, and family property, as Vacla marriages are understood as free associations in which equal partners make important decisions together, and which one can choose to leave through divorce at any time. (There is rarely a great deal of family property to begin with, as the Vacla are nomadic, and their most valuable property are livestock, owned by the tribe in common, and immovable property, particularly sacred sites, belonging to the Vacla nation as a whole.)

The Vacla are neolocal, though as nomads this refers to newlyweds moving into a new tent together. This does not imply that Vacla always sleep in their parents' tents before marriage - even as infants and young children, Vacla are frequently cared for and sleep in the tents of other relatives and tribe members, and adolescents may leave the family tent "early" for small personal tents or larger youth communal tents, and sometimes leave their birth tribe behind for a different tribe. Newlyweds from different tribes may join either spouse's tribe, or rarely may join a different tribe entirely.

While blood lineage is tracked (especially to prevent inbreeding), Vacla culture considers a person's "true" lineage to be the sum of her blood and, more importantly, the care and teachings of all her caretaker and mentor figures, especially as Vacla children are raised with heavy involvement by extended family and broader tribal community. Upon birth, names are structured as "[Given Name], child of [Parents' Names]", but as Vacla grow older, they decide for themselves which older Vacla they want to be understood as most closely descended from. The names of older sisters, cousins, aunts, other relatives, or important unrelated mentors may be added before or after parents' names, and, rarely, parents' names may even be removed if the personal bond with them is weak or broken.

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32. Muscular Geese (Honko)

Frame: Centaur
Genius: Avian

Present in Hexes: 63 (Small), 93 (Small), 432 (Small), 454 (Small), 237 (Small) and 238

Traits: Giant, Prolific, Muscular, Magical Inert, Inefficient Metabolism

Powerful, large, ornery, fast breeding, and possessed of an endless appetite, their weakness is their utter lack of magical talent.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/amturtle.2177/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Muscular Geese, Honko

Name: Honko (Honkers)
lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Neolocality
archy: Honkarchial:
Sex ratio: 50/50

Honko decides the leadership of their communities and family groups in raucous contests to determine strength, aggression, persistence, willpower, and endurance by quite literally shouting down and driving away all other contestants in a battle of voices. Losers will usually fall in line with the victorious Honko Honkiarch, though in some cases families will split.

Descent is reckoned via both of an individual's lines, Honkos often choosing the most prestigious members of their ancestry to choose descent from. While this often results in archival chaos, the existence of the Honkiarch system means that while disagreements and arguments are common, they are low stakes.

Most Honko families last as coherent and solid entities only as long as a Honkiarch is able to maintain control, or a new Honkiarch is able to keep the old members of the group in line.

It is common for families to split if a Honkiarch dies or loses influence and when that happens a new contest is held with the losers moving to a new location where they seek to establish dominance, whether or not the territory is already inhabited.

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33. Draut (Damer)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Giant, Magically Sensitive, Water Breathing

Present in Hexes: 342 (Small)

The churning depths have gifted their haunting wonder to land: the Draut. Dredged surfaceward by primordial forces, these giants defy preconceptions with billowing bodies of silklike consistency. To some, the Draut boggle the mind with their impossibility, defiant of basic biology. This sense is reinforced further with the Drauts' magic. These beauties are unprecedented in their form and that may be their undoing.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/o-u-o.80983/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Draut, Damer

Damer
lineal: Matrilineal
local: Matrilocal
archy: Matriarchy
Sex Ratio: 30% male, 70% female

The Draut, or Damer as they dub themselves, trace their wonder back to the Great Mother. This mythicized matron serves as the role model for the Damer and her image is sacred. With such reverence towards the Great Mother, it is no surprise that matriarchs have power among the Damer.

All strength is held by these Matriarchs and society is bent to their whims. Fathers, though necessary for the Damer, have little sway. They are soldiers, fighting for the glory of an idol they'll never match. In the meantime, mothers paint civilization in their Mother's image. The youth are trained in her arts, manners and appearance. Though the Mother's blood may drift further away with each generation, the zeal of her spawn keeps everything pumping.

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34. Magicians (Tierre, Kiarsha)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Magically Sensitive, Spiritual Senses

Present in Hexes: 310 (Small), 379 (Small), 380 (Small), and 402 (Small)

These pointy eared humanoids have a deep affinity for the magical forces of the world, to the point that their mundane senses reach into the ineffable allowing them to experience magical forces in the same way that they experience the mundane world.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/derpmind.19617/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Magicians, Tierre

Name: Tierre (Those who stayed)
lineal: Patrilineal
Local: Patrilineal
archy: Patriarchal
Sex ratio: 30% Male, 70% Female

A robust bodied and stubborn people who obsessively trace their descent for hundreds of generations, and have maintained their traditions even in the face of the harsh sands and a curse or disease that causes the miscarriage of every third boychild.

Polygamy is common and the nomadic Tierre clans which travel the deserts are ruled by proud Patriarchs supported by his various wives. Most of these clans can trace their ancestry back into the dim mists of pre-history, their oral histories tell tales of times when their environs were lush grasslands and green valleys rather than rolling seas of sand.

While the Patriarchs rule the clans, the ancient institutions of magic, war, religion, and trade that connect the clans are female exclusive sororities ruled by cliques or covens of women. And while some of these women join these institutions to travel the world and find a clan with fine sons to wed, many others join for life, taking romantic partners exclusively within these sororities.

As the Clans are strictly exogamous, if a son of a clan does not find a wife in the wandering sororities, he will meet her at one of the semi-annual gatherings of clans around one of the desert oases. All sons are expected to become fathers. And while some sons are expected to succeed their fathers, the future of most is to run some aspect of the clan's life with a wife brought in from a sorority or another clan.

In some cases where a Clan grows large, or when times are tough ambitious sons will be granted leave to form their own clans, and are granted their own territories to roam. However as long as the new Clan Patriarch's father lives he is still beholden to the older man.

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Magicians, Kiarsha

Name: Kiarsha
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Patrilocal
archy: Matrilocal
Sex ratio: 50% Male, 50% Female

A slight of build, somewhat androgynous, and typically arrogant people, the Kiarsha are organized into rigidly defined houses of hundreds of related families. These Houses reckon lineage based on a matrilineal descent tracks their distance from the bloodline of the Queen of Queens. This Queen of Queens herself must be a direct maternal line descendant of the Royal House, possessing a Royal bloodline which claims to trace direct descent from the Queen of the Gods herself.

Each of these houses has a well defined territory over which they have been granted dominion. All the resources and geographic features under Kiarsha control have been divided between the houses by a current or past Queen of Queens. Newly acquired territories are ruled by newly created houses -ones subordinate to the existing houses who are themselves subordinate to the Queen.

With the female bloodline being considered the most important, houses compete to bring powerful new blood into their house. Marrying within a house is considered taboo, due to a rigidly practised exogamy, meaning that when a woman marries into a family she takes on the family name of her groom's mother.

Each house is ruled by their own Queen, her magic expected to be strong due to her closeness to the divine bloodline. In cases where a Queen's natural heir is weak in magical ability, her mother is expected to produce a strong replacement either by birthing another heir or appointing a magically strong woman from within her house to succeed her. In fact there are several less prestigious houses whose Queens are determined entirely by adoption, as they seek out powerful daughters from disadvantaged families and elevate them into rulership without the need for marriage and childbirth.

In order to track these complicated bloodlines the Queen of Queens, who rules the largest house of all, has a dedicated cadre of oral historians who are expected to remember the bloodlines of each house. However, in more recent times, the memories of these men and women have been augmented by markings in literal stone after several scandals involving historians artificially inflating the closeness of a bloodline to that of the Queen of Queens'.

Outside of the Houses, and operating across House territories, are dozens of fraternities and sororities which are wholly dedicated to matters of war, magic, religion, and trade. Members of these organizations give up their bloodline status and must swear individual loyalty oaths to the Queen of Queens herself. The Queen of Queens then grants these institutions Royal resources in return for their loyalty.

In addition to the power of her Royal bloodline, the loyalty of the Sororities and Fraternities are what enables the Queen of Queens to maintain her power.

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35. Children of The Coast (Rottekin)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Magically Inert, Efficient Metabolism, Intuitive, Keen Senses

Present in Hexes: 370 (Small)

Curious creatures lacking fur or feather and the grace of attunement with the forces of the universe around them, their average stature and odd hooping and grunting and hearty diet of everything from the marrow scraped clean from the bones of the animals they hunt to roots dug from under the dirt betraying their greatest strength of their brain. Every generation sees slow, almost gradual, advancements allowing greater tool usage and increasingly complex problem solving. Where before single family units fought bloodily for simple hunting rights small groupings of clans have begun to form at the mouth of a great river feeding into a cold oceanic bay. The most numerous of these familial clans bear bright scarlet hair like the setting sun.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/maxin_inc.27170/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Children of the Coast, Rottekin

Name: Rottekin (Red Children/Family)
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Patrilocal
archy: Patriarchy
Sex ratio: 50/50

Out of all the menfolk tribes that dot the South-West Oceanic Coast it was the children of Rotte that grew to dominance in the region. Fed by plentiful fishing and fair hunting they quickly grew to outcompete the other familial units of the region. Unlike the other menfolk the Rottekin trace their lineage from a shared ancestor Rotte, who's name also described the bright red hair that adorned her head. While many generations removed from her the tradition of carrying on their familial descent from the mother to child.

When a child is born to the Rottekin they are traditionally named by the mother and father, with the mother's name being used to identify lineage, a third name is also added after the the surname denoting the founding mother of the family group a child is born into known as the founder name, an example would be "Erilz Aernson Renekin" or "Erilz, Son of Aern, Kin of Rene" with names continuously added on tracing back to Rotte herself for many families, though only the first three names are typically used in common situations.

While lineage is gifted by the mother the line of ruling is held by the male. Typically the firstborn son of the eldest female member of family becomes the family patriarch in a newly formed Family Group, after his death one of the eldest male children of each family is selected to become the next patriarch until his passing, and so on. It is not uncommon for couples who produce large families of their own to form new groups, typically replacing their founder name with that of their new common descendant in the couple that split off from the main group.

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36. Catgirl Archmages (Nyorra)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Keen senses, Inefficient Metabolism, Magically Sensitive, Intuitive

Present in Hexes: 251 (Small), 250 (Small), 202 (Small), 226 (Tiny)

These Humanoids with feline features make up for their overactive metabolisms with their natural grasp of magic, sharp senses, curiosity, and cleverness.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/that-random-guy.12637/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Catgirl Archmages, Nyorra

Name: Nyorra
Lineal: Fictive/Matrilineal(Multi-Generational Polycules Go Brrrrrrrrr)
Local: Patrilocal (Non-Absolute)
Archy: Matriarchy (Situational Exceptions)
Sex ratio: 60% Female, 40% Male

Nyorra families tend to initially form as polycules, from triads to extended collections of romantic partners of various configurations of sexes. These households tend to hold property communally, and defer to the head of household for the dispensation of property. The main cause for the creation of a household as a distinct entity rather than a group of individuals is for the care and raising of children.

These households typically adopt their own new household names after the household of their birth. In most cases these names are not familial but rather descriptive or aspirational. These households will inevitably be part of a larger federation or clan of related households. While households usually only last a single generation a clan is an enduring institution.

Due to the cultural expectation that women are travellers, doers, and the more active segment in society while men are the more sedentary and passive sex new households almost always join the Clan federation of a male member of the new family.

While lineage is exclusively traced via the maternal line, exogamy is the rule with a taboo covering heterosexual relationships within a Clan. Thus are the daughters of households expected to travel into the world and create households with the men of other clans, ensuring a robust exchange of genetics across the entire species.

With the head of household expected to be the individual with the most life experience the vast majority of household leaders are female. This is due cultural expectation that women be better travelled, have more life experience, in general be the less passive sex. This combined with the fact that there simply being more female Nyorra in general means that most households fall under the authority of a matriarch.

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37. Hippogriffs (Arisians)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Avian (upper half of an avian, lower half of a horse) (+3)

Traits: Winged, Magically Sensitive, Magnetoreceptive, Keen Senses, Delicate

Present in Hexes: 298 (Small)

The upper half of an avianoid humanoid, and the lower half of a horse with wings, this people's keen senses extend into the realm of the magnetic fields. While they are delicate beings, this is made up for by the strength of their magical connection to the world.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/arvispresley.34408/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Hippogriffs, Arisians

Name: Arisians (Those of Aris)
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Matrillocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 60% Female, 40% Male

The need to protect their young led the Arisian familial units to settle within the upper clouds and caves of the Mount Aris Range, where their natural magical abilities allowed them to create safe areas where the cold of the mountainside failed to penetrate or in some cases to settle on the very clouds themselves. In either case they were protected from their natural predators and had begun to create a society centred around both flight and the familial unit, the first Flocks.

Centred around Matriarchs, a collection of smaller familial units called Clutches make up the Flocks. Usually the strongest or the most favoured of a Matriarch's daughters will succeed their mother. The other daughters would either be forced to submit and recognize their new Matriarch or be forced out of the Flock and into exile, becoming Adrift.

Those Adrift would either marry into or subordinate themselves to other Flocks or establish Flocks of their own with other Adrift assuming sufficient magical capability.

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38. Telepathic Crab People (Chata)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water Breathing, Giant, Prolific, Telepathic, Short Lives, Herbivorous, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 134 (Small)

This iridescently purple Able to expand their population rapidly, and communicate directly mind to mind, this species of short lived herbivores live short lives. While the armour that covers their humanoid and arthropod halves looks formidable, the need to maintain this shell forces this species to put much of their nutrition towards maintaining it leaving them with large and varied dietary needs.

Females of the species tend to be slightly larger, with stronger limbs and bigger claws, while males have slightly longer limbs and more fine motor control

Based on: Insulamon Palawanense crabs from Real Life

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/n39tun3.79843/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Telepathic Crab People (Chata)

Name: Chata
lineal: double unilineal
Local: Neolocal
archy: Ambiarchal
Sex ratio: 60% Female, 40% male

Chata families tend to live around a singular source of some natural resource, with new families moving to find a source of something different in the local area to avoid overtaxing a region's carrying capacity.

Chata society is heavily focused around one's skill in trade work, particularly craftwork, with apprenticeships being the primary method of teaching. It is not unusual for a Chata to learn multiple trades over their lifetime, it being generally accepted for a Chata to stop working to learn a new job at any point in their life.

Females tend to lead on matters of the physical, such as militarily, base industry -like mining farming and frame construction- and exploration whereas males lead on matters of spirituality, diplomacy and more intricate craft work. Overall leadership usually involves a council composed of a selection of workers from the settlement's most common trades, weighted for how much of the population is involved in each.

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39. Nocturnal Rodent People (Chirek)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian

Traits: Nocturnal, Spiritual Senses, Obligate Carnivore, Inefficient Metabolism, Strong Constitution

Present in Hexes: 384 (Small), and 363 (Small)

Rodentine with wrinkled skin and squished faces and large ears, these nocturnal predators that stalk cold and moist riverine lowlands. A symbiosis with mildly bioluminescent flora give their skin mottled patches which glow faintly.

Relying on an uncanny sixth sense to guide them to prey in the dark, they exist in small villages hidden in valleys, groves, and near cave systems. Their strong constitutions provide them with a wide variety of potential sources of nourishment, a necessity considering their ravenous appetites, and allow them to store whatever leftovers they have to be stored well after they would become toxic to another species.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/mr-breaksit.1309/

Kinfolk Structure and Social Organization:

Nocturnal Rodent People, Chirek

Name: Chirek
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Ambilocal
archy: Primo-Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 50/50

Chirek society is largely based around the care and trade of livestock. For meat-eaters with metabolic requirements like the Chirek, the steady supply of food provided by a strong herd is vital. Cattle are considered property of an entire family in general, and thus in practice their use and trade is overseen by each family's Hag.

As the eldest surviving matrilineal antecedent of a family, often with limited ability to continue fieldwork, Hags perform administrative duties around a homestead. When courtship occurs, the Hags of the affected families will negotiate the movement of cattle and family members to ensure that labour, resources, and livestock are equalised across the transition.

When a Hag dies, her daughters become the new Hags of their own families. Stewardship of family holdings is split theoretically evenly between them, though this can be a highly chaotic time depending on the family in question. If this is the case, and a partner of the previous Hag remains alive, they will often take temporary ownership of the role of Hag until succession can be sorted out. This new Hag will still be considered the mother of the family, and their reign may even last longer than their departed mate if the family's political situation is fraught enough.

If the Hag had no lovers or none remain alive, daughters will often find themselves marrying into larger families, bringing their resources with them as their own dowry. There is no expectation of monogamy among Chirek, and situations such as these can lead to complicated family nets where it is unclear who is the true Hag of any given individual. In such circumstances, Hags may form groups known as Covens in order to settle Hagley duties as a council. Such arrangements may last for generations, and are often the cause of the foundation of larger Chirek settlements, as individual homesteads grow into each other as their family trees entangle.

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40. Typical Centaurs (Tycerians)

Frame: Centauroid
Genus: Mammalian (Centaurs/Half-Horse-Human)

Traits:Keen Senses, Efficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 341 (Small)

The upper half of a Humanoid, and the lower half of a horse, these people have keen senses and an efficient metabolism. Their speed, size, and keen senses give these people the ability to feed from the higher reaches of the forests they live in, while also being able to detect, hunt down, and kill prey species.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/discordoxymoron.98750/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Typical Centaurs, Tycerians

Tycerians
Lineal 1: Ambilineal
Local: Ambilocal
Archy : Gerontocracy
Sex Ratio: 50/50.

The Tycerians are composed of families, usually referred to as the Clans, said Clans usually having a defined social role such as the Warrior, Crafter, and Foraging Clans. These being those who focus on battle and fighting and usually task with hunting or protecting the other Clans, those who focus on productions of crafts that aid their Clans, and those who feed the Clans.

Within Clans, lineage is reckoned via males to their father's side of the lineage, the females to their mother's side. When an individual in question does not have any ties to their parents, either an orphan who does not know their parents origins or those disowned due to circumstances, they may find themselves being adopted by a Clan and trace their descent via that clan. Those who decide to be unaffiliated to any of the clans, are simply referred to as being Clanless.

Multiple clans will live together in mobile communities called "Herds", and these herds will often meet to trade and allow singles to look for potential partners.

Marriage matters of the Tycerians are usually simple if fairly energetic. It is usually a male that 'proposes' to their bride to be. The prospective groom will then have to pass three trials: a feat of strength or physical prowess, proof of being able to provide materially, and acquiring a token of the bride-to-be's affections. If multiple males are courting the same female the conflict is resolved by competitive trials to determine the most suitable groom. A groom has to prove themselves in all three areas before he can lay claim to a bride.

Once married the new family will typically join either the bride or groom's household (often depending on need), though in some cases the new family will choose to join a new Clan or found their own. As well, Polygamy is rather common in Tyceran society, and in some cases some herds practise polygyny, and in some Clans monogamy is a requirement.

Each Clan is usually jointly directed by both a Patriarch and a Matriarch. Either will continue to rule alone in the even of other other's death, and only in the event that both are missing or have already died then leadership is passed down to the closest living relative (Sibling, then child, Matriarch's reckoning matrilineally and Patriarch's patrilineally). However the new ruling pair needs to be approved by the clan Elders who are comprised of the eldest members of the clan.

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41. Downy Mountain Lizards (Peak Drakonofs)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Keen Senses, Magnetoreceptive, Spiritual Senses, Inefficient Metabolism.

Present in Hexes: 305 (Small)

The ancient oral traditions suggest that the ancestors of these people were creatures called 'dragons', magically potent reptilian predators that dominate the territories around their lairs. If so, it's been some time since then. However they still possess many of the reptilian features of their supposed ancestors, though it may be hard to see the scales under the odd feathers that cover most of their skin. That said whilst the magical strength may have been lost, the senses of those supposed Dragons are seemingly fully present. Which is fortunate for their hunting efforts due to how problematic gaining sufficient food from plants is for them, something that is usually blamed on only adapting to consume vegetation comparatively recently in their species history.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/pyro-hawk.4864/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Downy Mountain Lizards, Peak Drakonofs

Lineal: Females are strictly Matrilineal. Male are both, with importance placed on the father.
Local: Proximal Ambilocality
Archy: Big men
Sex Ratio: Averages 40% Male, 60% Female, environmentally influenced

Peak Drakonorf women trace their descent purely matrilineally. However, perhaps due to their sex ratio leaving male in the minority, the men have a mutated version of a patrilineal tradition where the name of their mother is strictly placed following their father's name. Those orphans with no known parentage or the few lost eggs which successfully hatch bearing the name of their 'mother' Winter and, for the rare males, their 'father' Fatend'oom.

In the usual way of things, whenever a new family is formed by young Drakonofs they will settle nearby at least one of their parental dens. They will not stay within said parental den longer than is necessary for the construction of their new den, for doing so will impose on the prestige of both families too much outside of a significant difficulty which demands said compromise. Though there is no set time period that is held to be 'too long', most communities will state that one winter is the minimum that should be expected, with three being problematic though not disastrous as all are aware that sometimes Winter is a harsh and demanding mother.

As for said family structure of the Peak Drakonofs, what often arises is typically a group of between three and six women who have banded together around one man, with the head of family being the one which holds claim to the most prestige. Said prestige can be gained from many sources such as glorious hunts, raids and other honourable martial activities; great wealth whether than be through their own efforts, those of their ancestors or gifts from respectful and loyal descendants; or deep knowledge and skill in a subject with emphasis placed on their few mages or more common shamans.

It is commonly held that how said family structure arose is due to a quirk in the reproduction of the Peak Drakonofs. For unlike other races, once a child has been conceived by the parents, their sex is not set. Indeed, it is not set even after the mother has laid their egg. In fact, the first two months after their egg has been laid can be said to be the most crucial months of their lives for it is these months which determine whether they shall be born male or female. And this decision is solely determined by heat. For if an egg is exposed to enough heat, then at least one of the three eggs laid by the mother in each clutch shall be male and if they are left to the cold then they shall be female. Hence the importance of prestige in the family, for a prestigious mother or father is much more able to acquire sufficient fuel or naturally warm locations to ensure that they shall have a male child, if not multiple, from a given hatching.

Over generations those lineages which inherited the species spiritual sight more often than not, along with a few other lineages which were merely unusually dedicated to the spiritual, have accumulated vast hordes of knowledge about how to use the world, spiritual beings and creatures possessing their own magics, to perform magnificent acts of magic themselves. Such families become known as Shamans, who are universally believed to possess great prestige. Even if some lineages are held in equal fear due to the nature of the bargains and acts their ancestral trove of knowledge requires they commit to achieve said magic.

Peak Drakonofs communities are usually composed of several dozen families that have settled in a given valley or stretch of river. With most communities usually laying claim to all territory within a solid day's march of the Elder's Lair found at the centre of said community. Though this is a minimum, with longer distances not uncommon and even then, all communities within a week's travel will tend to have solid relations with each other. Even if there are the occasional raid on each other for glory, honour, a prestigious male or less commonly woman, and similar matters.

The mentioned Elder's Lair is both the geographical centre of the community, their centre of trade, faith and leadership. For every week or two, the community will come together to discuss, celebrate and bargain with each other as well as any guests from other communities currently visiting. And as part of this, the three eldest members of the Community, the three most prestigious members and the most knowledgeable members apart from these in matters martial, magical and historical will come together in a Council of Nine to make judgements for the Community, create plans for the future ambitions of the community.

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42. Crow People (Corvus)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Avian

Traist: Winged, Spiritual Senses, Magnetoreceptive

Present in Hexes: 245 (Small) and 244 (Small)

The dark black plumage of this corvidae species tends to stick close to their bodies, which are surprisingly hardy for an avian people. Many of them seem to possess an almost "second sight" for the things beyond the natural of their world, on top of their natural sense of direction. They tend to eat whatever is available, though while they will scavenge they tend to prefer fresh plant matter or meat for at least half their diet. Their strong familial and community bonds mean that even if they aren't as powerful as others in the world, it is rare that they fight alone.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/knightdisciple.923/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Crow People, Corvus

Name: Corvus
Lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Matrilocal
Archy: Patriarchal
Sex ratio: 50% male, 50% female

The Corvus are a species with both "core family" and "large family" traits. Their Clans are made up of complex sets of individual family units. And while new couples most often join the the wife's family unit,, this is not universal, as Corvus have an understanding that at times practical matters override traditions.

As well, while the male is typically seen as the "head" of the family, this is a very nominal relationship (the most common joke being that the female is the "neck", without which the head can't turn). However, they are also fiercely monogamous, and unless one of the pair is widowed very young (before middle age), they will not remarry and will instead focus on children, family, and community.

Both males and females take on any jobs and roles in society, though more males tend to be hunters and fighters due to natural sexual dimorphism that leaves them with slightly denser muscles (though the females tend to be a bit taller).

Clans are made up of at least 6 individual family units (parents and children), though a clan of that size would be considered a "new founding" Clan that is moving to a new area. Once a Clan settles, it will stay in that area; if the Clan grows too large for the resources of one area, it helps set up a new founding for a new Clan and sends them off. The largest clan on record, that of the nominal "capital" of their people, consists of, at this point, over 500 individual Family Units, and is almost constantly sending out new Foundings.

Corvus will protect their Family first, then their Clan, then the Clans most closely related to them, and then ultimately their people/land above "outsiders". Clans often have now-formalized "wars" that consist of non-lethal games and mock battles, typically now to simply gain prestige, or a minor bit of resources desired by the others. It is not entirely taboo for these to be lethal, but heavily frowned upon, just as murder between Corvus is intensely disliked.

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43. Oceanic Nomads (Neor-Pavo)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water breathing, Hermaphroditic, Small, Delicate, Prolific.

Present in Hexes: 460 (Small) and 444 (Small)

These small mischievous, friendly, and playful yet fragile aquatic beings live in the waters around the central southern portion of the continent.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/clockworkchaos.756/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Oceanic Nomads, Neor-Pavo

Name:
lineal: matriarchal
Local: neolocal
archy: Gerontocracy
Sex ratio: N/A

Neor-Pavo are split into familial packs led by a breeding pair of mature Neor-Pavo (Alphas) and their children. These packs are part of larger Clans led by a single Elder elected by a council of all pack Alphas at an annual springtime gathering attended by all packs within a Clan.

Naturally nomadic packs from different clans will often cross paths with each other, often during summer gatherings planned out by Clan elders communicating with each other. While children from packs are forbidden from marrying within their Clan, they are encouraged to form couples with children from other packs, thus becoming the Alphas of their own nascent packs.

These new packs will then decide of their own accord which clan to follow the lead of, often deciding purely on which Clan's territory will be closer to theirs.

Neor-Pavo who live on or near coasts are less nomadic than oceanic Clans, some even creating permanent settlements supported by agriculture instead of hunting, gathering, or herding.

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44. Dragonic Arctic Barbarians (Adara)

Frame: Humanoid.
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Cold Adapted, Muscular, Strong Constitution, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 478 (Small)

This species of apex predators rule the arctic with their strength and endurance. Their strong constitution allows them to eat a wide variety of creatures, even once they've begun to decay, a handy trait in such unforgiving climes.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/masterofmadness.8815/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Dragonic Arctic Barbarians, Adara

Name: Adara
lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Matrilocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 50/50

The Adara function as a matriarchy. Households are governed by a single matriarch, and her children; Adara children live in their parents' household for their entire lives. Matriarchal succession passes via seniority, though it is not unheard of for matriarchs to designate a younger successor, and for that individual to take up family leadership upon their mentor's death.

Sex and relationships function through "night-meetings". Once the sun goes down, Adara males (who ordinarily live with their parents) are permitted entry into other families' households. There is a tradition of "sneaking in" though this is more or less a game; it would be a grave faux pas to actually visit a child of a matriarch without receiving implicit permission through prior family-family arrangement. The males, having "snuck" into the bedroom of their choice, have sexual and/or romantic relations with whom they wish.

There is no expectation of long-term relationships arising from a "night-meeting". Monogamy is rare, there is no stigma with multiple relationships, and often not even any public acknowledgement of them. Raising children remains the responsibility of the woman's family; child-rearing duties are not shared.

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45. Metallic Kobolds (Evare, Ferrevar)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Draconic

Traits: Heat Adapted, Small, Magnetoreceptive, Strong Constitution, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 111 (Small), 110 (Small), 79 (Small), and 80 (Small)

These industrious, difficult-to-kill small lizards have high iron content in their scales, giving them a metallic sheen that gets rusty when overexposed to salt air. They do however lack the mentally flexibility required for magical or spiritual thought.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/etranger.7245/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Metallic Kobolds, Evare

Evare, (We Who Are)
lineal: Matrilineal
local: Matrilocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio 10% Female (Fertile), 10% Male, 80% Female (Infertile)

The Evare are organized into sprawling clans led by the fertile females of the species, who exercise a monopoly over tending to eggs and whelps, as well as serving as judges, priests, and other leadership roles. Non-fertile females, who make up the overwhelming majority of the species (perhaps 80%), serve as workers, soldiers, and perform various other physical or dangerous tasks. Males, virtually all of whom are fertile, are kept cloistered from the outside world and routinely cycled between clans; they often take up roles as scribes or lorekeepers, spreading stories and information wherever they go.

While all Evare clans are organized by female descent, careful records are kept of which egg came from which male, and a patronym is appended to the clan name. Those who hatch at roughly the same time are known as clutchmates. Members of the same clutch and those who share patronyms often stick together or form rivalries with other clutches and lines of male descent.

Metallic Kobolds, Ferrevar

Ferrevar (Plural: Ferrevarii, Descriptive: Ferrevarae)
Lineal: Tribal/Clan Association (Possibly Ambilineal/Fictive?)
Local: Limited Neolocality/Communal
Archy: Communal/Tribal Leader
Sex ratio: 50% Male, 50% Female

The Ferravar are organised into communal tribes, Ferrevar biology rendering it impractical and mostly irrelevant to track individual lineages and heritages; The tribe is all and the tribe is for all. Reproduction tends to occur instinctually; mating is seen as something separate from romantic relationships, and children are raised in a communal environment in which one's teachers and instructors take the place of parents in terms of role models as young Ferrevar learn early on to contribute to the tribe as a whole (Though what the Ferrevarae consider to be work tends to differ from others; the Ferrevarae definition tends to be broader than others)

The leader of a Ferravar tribe, a "Ferrakrix", is typically more more organiser, coordinator and accountant than ruler of a tribe, who indeed needs to work for their position much like any other Ferrevar in the tribe. Responsible for ensuring the tribe's work goes smoothly, meting out punishments against rulebreakers and managing the tribe's supplies for long-term survival. Generally aided by three to four adjutants, who make up the pool of future Ferrakrixes, the Ferrakrix typically takes the position with the consent of their peer adjutants on the death or retirement of the previous Ferrakrix.

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46. Sanguine Monsoons (Nhek Rhuin)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Parthenogenetic, Magnetoreceptive, Muscular,

Present in Hexes: 88

Naturally strong humanoids that have jet-black skin starting down from their neck. Perhaps if their differences from other species were limited to this, they could be called generic. However, their method of procreation is rather exotic. New individuals spawn from the blood of other members of this species. The more blood there is, the healthier the resulting children. The more individuals contribute their blood, the more genetic diversity there is. For these reasons, members of this race ritualize reproduction, coming down into caves specifically prepared for this (navigating with their magnetoreception) in great numbers and spilling blood in a very violent display of love and passion. Further details of the ritual may vary. Sometimes only the strongest survives this bloodshed, and sometimes the worst one can suffer is anaemia.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/ralakesh.79258/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Sanguine Monsoons, Nhek Rhuin

Name: Nhek Rhuin/Nheki (Bloodfolk/People)
lineal: Fictive
local: Neolocality
archy: Egalitarian
Sex ratio: 100% Nheki

The nature of interpersonal connections within Nhek Rhuin society deviates substantially from how alien cultures understand love, affection, and kinship. While their closest analogues reside within tightly knit social structures, such ties stem predominantly from familiarity and practical concerns rather than sentimental attachments.

The origins of these divergent inclinations can be traced back to their evolutionary past, where survival necessitated quick adaptability and self-sufficiency. Despite the lack of intimate bonds, Nhek Rhuin maintains coherent networks via alternate means, often coalescing around communal projects, resources, sacred sites, or geographical advantages. These interconnected associations, referred to as Doan Rhuin (Blood Comradeship), represent crucial components in sustaining individual welfare amidst challenging environments and other pressures.

Although emotionally detached, Nhek Rhuin display warmth towards one another, exhibiting compassion, concern, and loyalty towards members of their close-knit assemblies. By merging under a common purpose, they form cohesive entities that defy traditional expectations concerning parenthood, filiation, and romance.

Because of the absence of romantic affection and traditional familial bonds in Nheki, many responsibilities typically held by families are carried out by elders and teachers of Nhek Rhuin society – known collectively as the Savants – who contribute significantly to education and cultural growth. This group of intellectually gifted individuals dedicates their lives to studying diverse subjects and fostering intellectual curiosity among youthful generations. Savants act as repositories of knowledge about Nhek heritage, history, traditions, and belief systems.

Their role in educating future generations is considered essential to ensuring progress and stability in Nhek Rhuin culture. Each member of the Savant class serves as a guide and teacher, guiding lessons through stories, discussions, hands-on learning, and excursions.

Many young Nheki feel a deep bond with their tutors, regarding them almost as parents for providing structure, guidance, and emotional support in the absence of traditional biological relationships. As trusted figures in Nhek Rhuin communities, Savants occupy positions of respect and influence through their contributions to science, philosophy, artistry, and education.

Anyone can choose to become a Savant, seeking greater purpose and personal fulfilment by devoting themselves to scholarship and enlightenment. Though anyone might adopt this vocation, few possess true aptitude for it, and those who do must contend with potential sanctions if their counsel leads others astray. Such accountability tempers overconfidence, reminding of humility. Should a mistake result in tragedy, fellow Savants judge that person.

Punishment might entail exile, loss of privileges, or execution if their mistake results in harm severe enough.

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47. Arboreal Smallfolk (Schmeckles)

Frame: Humanoid.
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Small, Parthenogenetic, Long Lived, Magically Sensitive, Delicate, Inefficient Metabolism

Present in Hexes: 242 (Small)

A small simple folk with a love for pointy hats, which match their pointy ears, who live in arboreal communities made from large hollowed out trees. They make up for their insatiable appetites by a talent for cooking and baking learned over their long life spans.

Naturally cheerful, these people can often be found singing happily as they go about their day. Their reproductive process is somewhat unusual, as due to their magical nature instinctive magical rituals are part of a reproductive process that requires only a single individual, though often others from the community will participate in the process.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/donald-darf.88933/

Kinship Structures, and Social Organization:

Arboreal Smallfold, Schmeckles

Lineal: Fictive
Local: Neolocality
Archy: Gerontocracy
Sex Ratio: N/A

Due to their unique procreation method, this species has little biological need for sex or gender, and their adoption of a loose understanding of gender roles is due to exposure to other cultures.

The familial structures of this species are a bit of a mess, needing scholars called Family-Tree Schmeckles to trace back who was summoned via who, who adopted who, and to tell if someone was just an actual relative or just some family friend who was so incredibly close they were considered akin to a relative.

This is made even more difficult due to the reproductive processes magical nature meaning many children do not resemble their "parents". This uncertainty means that wills are incredibly specific and must list every relatives' name plus a detailed description to ensure accuracy.

The institution of marriage itself is uncommon since the vast majority of their species solely share platonic or familial relationships, but when unrelated Schmeckles become so close they consider each other honorary relatives, they may decide to convince their families to perform a joining, where the families come together, bond, and share whatever assets they have, becoming a single family. Who moves into whose house is up to the specific families to decide and depends on their financial situations, but Schmeckles of equal financial standing prefer to just go with games of chance.

Some Schmeckles have very strange last names due to this, with compound surnames "Bangleroot-Feathershort" made from combinations of familial names.

Schmeckle families usually have the oldest and wisest as head of household, a position known as a "Papa" or "Mama", for non-binary old wise ones they just go between the gendered titles when referring to them or just call them Pama or Mapa. Though this individual is not necessarily the eldest Schmekle, but is instead an elder who is considered to be wise. Some families after a joining have multiple elders and a new one is not acclaimed until all have died or stepped down.

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48. Inquisitive Vulpines (Dahóyánígíí)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Mammalian

Traits: Keen Senses, Intuitive, Spiritual Senses, Short Lives, Delicate

Present in Hexes: 365 (Small)

These short lived and delicately built vulpine people have a deep curiosity about the world, possibly driven by their clever minds and powerful senses that extend into the realm of the supernatural.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/random-member.11378/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Inquisitive Vulpines, Dahóyánígíí

Dahóyánígíí ("the clever ones")
lineal: Ambilineal
local: Neolocality
archy: Egalitarian Quasi-Anarchy (With Gerontocratic Tendencies)
Sex ratio: 50/50

Their curious nature has led the Dahóyánígíí to create a very loose society, where individuals are left free to experience many new things and decide for themselves how they want to live. From choosing which parent's lineage they want to adopt, to deciding how many others they want to be in a relationship with regardless of sex. All Dahóyánígíí are considered to be equal and expected to move out of their parents' home once they become adults, so they can discover new things and find their own way in life.

Reaching adulthood is celebrated by letting kits choose a second name for themselves; Dahóyánígíí can be referred to either by their full name, that is with both their childhood and adult name, or only their adult name. It depends on whether they consider their childhood name to be a source of embarrassment or not. Only the rare Dahóyánígíí ends up regretting their choice of adult name. The ones who pick weird or ostentatious ones usually decide they'll try to live up to them.

Though many would call this an extremely free society, some Dahóyánígíí believe that they still aren't free enough. They argue that kinship should be entirely voluntary rather than still being based on blood, that marriage, no matter how free it is made, is still restrictive, and that while all are nominally equal, the old folks are always chosen to lead the Dahóyánígíí because they're considered to be "smarter, wiser and better", thus they aren't truly equal. Such grumblings are still uncommon though.

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49. Starlight Chosen (Asteriskos)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Chosen People, Strong Constitution, Nocturnal, Long Lived

This species has been granted gifts from a divine patron that make them so hardy that even their lives are extended. These gifts have also made them a nocturnal people who operate most effectively at night and whose senses reflect this.

Present in Hexes: 189 (Small)

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/just-some-guy.25550/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Starlight Chosen, Asteriskos

Asteriskos (Little Star)
lineal: Patrilineal
local: Neolocality
archy: Patriarchy
Sex ratio: 60% Female, 40% Male

Theorised as due to the smaller number of men, lineage is reckoned through the male line.
Moreover, when a marriage is concluded, a man is considered the Guardian of the family and has "public power" and "domestic power" as the Patriarch of his household.

Inheritance issues are driven by the will of the Patriarch with the expectation that the first the firstborn inherit control over family property. However some Patriarchs will eschew their firstborn if they are not considered up to the task of managing the property. Those who do not inherit the family properties will be granted a patrimony which is intended to be enough to survive. This hint of uncertainty means that a Patriarch's children will compete with each other. This means that until the death of the family Patriarch, the inheritance of the firstborn is assumed but uncertain. Additionally Due to their long lives, anyone under fifteen years of age is considered a child

Inside the households, while it is true that the family Patriarch has the final say on the use and dispensation of property, management responsibilities are usually delegated to his wife or wives (as, perhaps due to the skewed sex ratio, polygamy is common) . Outside of the home there is a fairly egalitarian spirit towards work, with little gender based discrimination being made about social roles outside the home.

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50. Eusocial Octopi (Qtivsmdes)

Frame: Centauroids
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Intuitive, Eusocial, Short Lives, Magically Inert, Inefficient Metabolism, Weak Constitution, Water Breathing (Free)

Present in Hexes: 133 (Small), 105 (Small), 431 (Small) and 408 (Small)

These people, whose name is largely unpronounceable to non-aquatic people, have an upper humanoid half and a lower octopodal half. These aquatic dwelling people make up for a weak constitution, short lives, difficulty processing many foods, and lack of magical ability and with eusocial organization and clever minds.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/aliya.15345/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Eusocial Octopi, Qtivsmdes

Name: Qtivsmdes, meaning "People Who Build". Also go by Desqti (Building People).
Lineal: Fictive (For working "caste", Crtqti, Working People); Ambilineal and Fictive (For reproducing "caste", Prtqti, Creating People).
Locality: Neolocality
Archy: Democratic
Caste Ratios: 80% Crtqti (Female, Infertile), 6% Prtqti (Male, Fertile), 14% Prtqti (Female, Fertile)

Biggest social and cultural feature is separation of their society into two "castes": Crtqti and Prtqti. Crtqti represent the vast majority of the population, and cannot reproduce, meanwhile Prtqti are the reproducing "caste", composed mostly of female members, with only a small minority of males. Crtqti tend to be smaller than female Prtqti (and larger than male Prtqti) and possess very plain colouring compared to wild colours and patterns of Prtqti. Among Prtqti, males tend to be smaller than females and have more intricate patterns, often augmented by makeup and jewellery, while females usually have even brighter and more varied colours, also often augmented. Crtqti also used such decorations, for both aesthetic and pragmatic purposes, such as designating profession. From the point of view of mammalian species, Qtivsmdes would appear androgynous in general.

Crtqti generally organize themselves by their work, apprenticeship and friend groups, not really caring for their biological lineage. Meanwhile, Prtqti organize themselves in polycules according to sexual and romantic attraction. Due to the way they reproduce, a female Prtqti can have children with several male Prtqti, and vice versa, which results in the need to track lineage across both maternal and paternal lines in order to deal with interbreeding.

Dealing with interbreeding is the reason why, once a settlement reaches the local carrying capacity, a group of Prtqti and Crtqti set out to build a new settlement. Generally, new settlements are built sufficiently far away that they can't accidentally overspend resources of an area where other Desqti already live, though in cases where they have to pass another settlement on their way, it is culturally expected that the passed village will help the travelling group.

Child rearing is done communally, with Crtqti children being done entirely by Crtqti nannies, while in case of Prtqti, nannies are also helped by members of Prtqti who are not otherwise occupied. It is also the nannies who teach all that is considered fundamental by Desqti society, while more specialized education is done through a system of apprenticeships.

A major part of life of all Desqti is art, which most of them pursue in their spare time from their jobs. While preferred art forms may differ between Crtqti and Prtqti, or between Crtqti of different professions, there is one which is common between all: songs. In them, they sing of history, of tragedies and of victories; they often have a more pragmatic purpose: nannies use them to teach children, teachers who took on apprentices use work songs to share the intricacies of their work. And of course, songs are, along with dances, part of courtship rituals between young Prtqti, with both males and females engaging in such rituals to impress their potential future partners and entice them to join their polycule. Songs are judged not only by quality of vocals, but also their lyrical structure; though what any individual Prtqti is looking for in lyrics varies wildly, some prefer short and punchy, while others like long angsty ballads.

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51. Chosen Arcane Telepaths (Ardat Lilial)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Chosen People, Telepathic, Strong Constitution, Magically Sensitive

Present in Hexes: 404 (Small)

This species of humanoid has been granted strong bodies and strong wills that grant them not just magical acuity but telepathy.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/bylba.62508/

Kinship Structures, and Social Organization:

Chosen Arcane Telepaths, Ardat Lilial

Ardat Lilial (False Moonlight)
lineal: Matrilineal
local: Neolocality
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 40% Female, 60% Male

Due to the smaller number of women, the lineage is reckoned via the female line. Moreover, when a marriage is concluded, a man is considered the Guardian of the family and has "public power", "domestic power" and control over property belonging to the wife.

Inheritance issues mean that only the firstborn child inherits the land and house of the family. The rest of the family are either forced to rely entirely on their elder sibling, or are forced to form their own houses in a new place.

Culturally, there are prejudices about the differentiation of professions depending on gender. It is believed that men are not capable of truly caring for someone. At the same time, women are prohibited from using weapons, except in the defence of children. There are, however, no prohibitions on learning magic and martial arts, though "dangerous" magic is reserved for men. Though it is known for women to also pursue the study of "dangerous" magics as this is not an absolute taboo.

Accordingly, women are often found engaged in household chores, animal husbandry and a significant part of agriculture, as well as travel and trade. Men's professions are associated with crafts, war, hunting and fishing.

However this division has not yet settled for new forms of labour that emerge over time, which causes heated discussions among the priests over whether an occupation is men's or women's work. Whenever one argument is settled another one appears. (As an example: planting and caring for plants is considered a woman's business, while digging and harvesting a crop is a man's, since at this stage the care of a woman is not necessary. At the same time, men are not allowed near pets, except for killing and haymaking.)

The upbringing of children is the responsibility of women, with the age of majority being at 12 years of age. Though men have the right to teach skills to children, care and raising of the child is not in their hands. They are only able to give advice, the final decision is always with the woman.

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52. Delicate Telepaths (Harmonyans)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Herbivorous, Delicate, Telepathic, Intuitive

Present in Hexes: 265 (Small)

This species of delicate plant eaters live life at a relaxed pace and seek to avoid damaging their environment. Capable of telepathy, they are also a curious and clever people who are known to be drawn towards colourful accessories which they use for personal decoration.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/seareader.63846/

Delicate Telepaths, Harmonyans

Harmonyans
Lineal: Communal
Local: local
Archy: Sympathy-archy
Sex ratio: N/A

Harmonyan children are born into the world without a predetermined gender. They remain biologically androgynous until they reach physical maturity, at which point they must guide their body development using diet and ritual to choose the body that aligns with their inner desires, allowing their bodies to complete the delayed development. In rare cases, some Harmonyans postpone this process for decades before their biology takes its own choice.

Harmonyans trace their lineage through the communal spaces where they are raised and educated. These creches significantly influence the development of their individual personalities. After reaching maturity Harmonyans tend to stay close to home, though they have the freedom to live anywhere as long as there are several hundred other Harmonyans in their vicinity.

These communities are governed via the use of their telepathic abilities to understand the emotions, needs, and desires of every member of their communities. This empathic connection serves as the foundation for making harmonious decisions that consider the well-being and aspirations of all.

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53. Serpentine Skypeople (Narnar)

Frame: Centauroid (Upper avian, serpentine bottom.)
Genus: Avian

Traits: Short Lives, Weak Constitution, Efficient Metabolism, Prolific, Small

Present in Hexes: 385 (Small)

The feathery head, arms and wings of an eagle avian person attached to a serpentine tubular body. These serpentine people have managed to survive by way of a very intricate digestive system and quickened maturation at the expense of their general health. They fear the dark, either living atop trees where the skies are clear, atop other geological features, or in communities that keep fires lit until dawn.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/starman.77017/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Serpentine Skypeople, Narnar

Serpentine Skypeople
Name: Narnar (The People)
lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Matrilocal / Neolocal
archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 70% Male, 30% Female

At this point in time, Narnar society is focused around a handful of large matriarch-led households and their subject houses, most usually less than a dozen in population and without a female Narnar. Relationships are generally polyandrous in nature, and their offspring raised communally within the central household.

Annually and concurrent to their mating season, the matriarch led households and their subjects congregate around the highest geographical point in a day's flight. These gatherings see trading, gaming, mating, and more occur during their time.

Ownership over property for the Narnar is mostly dictated by whichever Matriarch it falls under and is usually given with obligations to tie them with the central household. In death, whatever a Narnar owns will be passed over to whoever they designate as heir, a matriarch's approval legitimizing the transactions. In the event of a matriarch's death, this also happens although a house may split apart when multiple heirs are chosen or competing to be named sole heir. Whoever is least capable of convincing the subject houses to support her are either killed or exiled with their followers to someplace else.

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54. Subterranean Dwellers (Dwarren)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Parthenogenetic, Prolific, Small, Nocturnal, Short Lives

Present in Hexes: 204 (Small)

The Dwarren are a short and short lived species that lives primarily underground, in caverns they themselves carve.

They have fur across their body, and a bushy beard. Dedicated and industrious, Dwarren spend all of their lives working for the betterment of the Clan. A matriarchal society, they are born from "Brood-Mothers," who are so enlarged by constant pregnancy they cannot easily move.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/dragonofelder.78363/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Subterranean Dwellers, Dwarren

lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Neolocal
archy: Matriarchy
Sex ratio: 50% Male, 49% Female (Infertile) 1% Female (Fertile)

While the Dwarren race has a typical gender ratio - it's just hard to tell, they all have beards - only a bare handful of females shall go on to produce young. The process of becoming a Brood Mother is a highly ritualised one, and the choice must ultimately be made by the female. If she agrees, she will be fed vast quantities of food, as well as specific cave growing herbs and mushrooms by the Dwarren priest known as Seekers. After ten days, the female will be engorged, and will start producing young. At no point is a male necessary to the process.

A clan can have multiple Brood Mothers, although the Queen Mother also rules. Once a Brood Mother reaches a certain number of children, they will leave the Clan Hall to found their own clan. The closeness between the original clan and it's derivative depends on the Mothers attitudes.

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55. Vigilant Elves (Ynnar)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Keen Senses, Long Lived, Strong Constitution, Herbivorous

Present in Hexes: 142 (Small)

Like many herbivorous species this species revels in up close and personal violence when threatened, and since they have sturdy forms and sharp senses they are plenty effective at it. Their long lives enable them to build up a deep reservoir of skills that makes their communities a difficult target for more conventionally violent peoples.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/alucard-bellsing.24317/

Kinship Structure and Social Organization:

Vigilant Elves, Ynnar

Name: The Ynnar ''the livings/the ones still alive''
Lineal: Ambilineal
Local: Neolocality
Archy: Egalitarian
Sex Ratio: 50% Female, 50% Male

The Ynnar live in households of multiple related families, all participating in day to day housekeeping and maintenance.

As a species they do not favour one gender over another, and membership in a household does not require being married or born into it, with membership being often determined by consensus agreement of existing members.

While children are automatically part of the household, recently matured adults can choose to leave for a different household, remain in the household of their birth, or set out to found a new household. New households are formed by different members of different groups deciding to move to a new territory and setting down roots. As a settlement develops the members of a household might be divided by need across multiple settlements never meeting each other but still part of the same household structure and answering to the same authority.

Most personal property is inherited by the household entirely upon an individual's death. Some private objects with great personal importance are ritually destroyed so that their owner will carry the item(s) with them after death.

The society is rather equalitarian and most households often fall under the influence of Big Men who rely on the general approval of the rest of the household to rule. It is considered important that the decision maker works for the good of the household. Most household leaders are rapidly replaced if proof emerges that their decisions are harmful to the household.

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56. Placid Jellyfish (Cnidariae)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Aquatic

Traits: Water breathing, Delicate, Weak Constitution, Autotrophic, Long lived,

Present in Hexes: 224 (Small)

A peaceful aquatic people ill suited for violent endeavours. While humanoid in body plan, they aesthetically resemble jellyfish, with bulbous heads and streamers of flesh like filigree drifting after them in the water. Their colouration and poisonous flesh help to dissuade predators who would otherwise find it easy to rip them apart. This does not help against opponents whose desires are malicious rather than ravenous however.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/wrecksalot.23807/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Placid Jellyfish, Cnidariae

lineal: fictive
local: paleolocal
archy: gerontarchal
Sex ratio 50/50

Being rather androgynous in appearance, sex matters little to most Cnidariae, they are organized into self selecting large family units, chosen when a youth comes of age and ruled by the eldest members.

If a group of youth finds no existing band appealing, they tend to form their own band in the region, receiving little respect from the other local bands until they have grown established enough to have elders of their own.

When resources or space grow scarce among local bands, they all tend to contribute members for large migrations to found new dwellings. Youth are generally raised by volunteers rather than biological parents, with the average such volunteer raising between six and twelve young at a time, all from a number of different biological parents.

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57. Parasitic Wasps (The Swarm)

Frame: Tauroid
Genus: Insectoid

Traits: Small, Telepathic, Winged, Magically Inert, Short Lives, Obligate Carnivore

Present in Hexes: 161 (Small) and 191 (Small)

This species are intelligent parasitoid wasps that sting living animals to deposit their eggs inside of them. The eggs burrow deep into the host and when they hatch, the larvae feast upon the creature from the inside out until the wasps are ready to emerge and continue their reproduction cycle.

Able to communicate with each other via telepathy, often all their neighbours know of them is their terrifying buzzing as they approach on the hunt.

Sometimes, the wasps will deliberately avoid killing their hosts, provided they continue being useful. These wasps are aware of how weak and despised they are, and as such, they do everything in their power to increase their numbers, so that the species may avoid extinction.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/digital2.82672/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Parasitic Wasps, The Swarm

Name: Incubators / The Swarm
Lineal: Matrilineal
Local: Matrilocal
Archy: Matriarchal
Sex ratio: 70% Female, 30% Male

Incubators are run by a matriarchy as while males are generally stronger, females live relatively much longer than males and are given considerable respect since they are the ones that lay the eggs that continue to perpetuate the species and are thus seen as bringers of life.

The telepathic abilities of the Incubators allow them to share knowledge and even memories with one another. As such, parents often pass on their memories and the memories of their ancestors to their children, so that some part of them may continue to live on long after they are dead. However, there is a limit to much knowledge an individual Incubator can store, which encourages parents to have as many children as possible.

About 1 out of every 200 female Incubators is born as a Knowledge Keeper, a special wasp born with distinctive markings and the ability to store up to ten times the knowledge of a normal Incubator. It is possible for male Knowledge Keepers to be born, but they are far rarer, about 1 out of 1,000 males. Because of the vast knowledge of the Knowledge Keepers, they are often considered to be the wisest and are heavily guarded. Most Knowledge Keepers usually serve in some kind of leadership position in a Nest.

These Nests are constructed in hidden places that are not easily accessible and usually contain thousands of Swarm wasps, though there are exceptions. Once a Nest's population becomes too large, a Knowledge Keeper will set out with her loyal retainers and look for a new hidden place to build a Nest. Important vital knowledge is delivered between Nests by Messengers, who are chosen for the job based on how fast and how well they can travel in secret.

Because the Incubators are very aware of how vulnerable they are, an attitude of heavy paranoia whenever they are outside is encouraged, so that outsiders do not end up following Incubators back to their Nests. If need be, Incubators are encouraged to kill themselves rather than put the Nests in mortal danger. The life of an individual does not matter compared to the survival of the Swarm as a whole.

When it comes to the Incubators' attitude toward other species, in the early days of the Swarm, other creatures were seen as either only food to be consumed or threats to eliminate. However, as they accumulated knowledge, a growing portion of the population expressed interest in finding a way to enslave other races as they were deeply envious of the strength that other species possessed and wished to have that power for themselves. However, they did not have much luck in that regard due to their small size and their inability to communicate with non-insectile species.

Thus, for the time being, these would be enslavers are forced to resort to passing down their wishes and knowledge to future generations in the hopes that their descendants will eventually figure out a way to communicate with their prey or perhaps even figure out a way to puppeteer them by interfering with their nervous systems.

There is a small minority of Incubators that talk about the possibility of a peaceful symbiotic coexistence with other species, but they are generally dismissed as naive idealists.

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58. Children of the Light (Lidalle)

Frame: Humanoid
Genus: Homo Sapiens

Traits: Intuitive, Delicate, Long Lived, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 292 (Small), 265 (Small), and 268 (Small)

Humanoids whose most striking feature is a lack of face, for they have wandering lights on a mask like magical structure insead. Although they are capable of producing sounds not very different from dolphins, and can form pictures with light on their masks. This is perhaps the only magic this species is blessed with, although it doesn't help them much. Beside it, this species has skin the colour of charcoal and hair of ripe barley, though both may be lighter the more south one goes.

Another peculiar quality of theirs is their weakness. Although very nimble, they still will lose in a pure match of strength. Their most notable strength is to see in something or someone what others can not see. Where others see simply a leaf , they see an adornment, a serenity of nature, and a beauty. This applies to most things, including people. The Children may overthink things, but they also tend to create items unheard of.

Submitted by: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/fatleek.104556/

Kinship Structures and Social Organization:

Children of the Light, Lidalle

Name: Lidalle (Ones by River)
lineal: Patrilineal
local: Nuclear
archy: Diarchy
Sex ratio 50% Female, 50% Male

Lidali (males) are meant for great things. As the ones being associated with dynamic and change, they are expected to commit deeds. Therefore, they are encouraged to do them. Be it warfare, trade or politics, each Lidelli strives to do things. For great accomplishments, they receive epithets, usually ones taken from remembered and forgotten heroes of the past. They live with their parents all the way to the marriage.

Lidalo (Females) are meant for great things. As the ones being associated with static and peace of matters, they are expected to maintain the state of things, be it as stewards or dutiful wives. For it, she gets a surname during her marriage ceremony, where her hair is cut, and then woven into the cloak of her husband.

Both spouses combine their wealth, and depart their parents' houses. The Husband shares his surname with his wife, though only his male offspring also receive this surname. In marriage both parties are considered equal, though in reality depends on how much each party involved brings to the table. There may be a rich Lidello who marries her husband for love, and vice versa. Of course most of these cases are scandals. Extended families are usually supportive of each other, but most often compete for resources of their long lived sires.

The marriages are monogamous, though families may ally through the ritual matrimonies, which can happen between any sexes. This usually is just a symbol of alliance, and most often a promise of engagement between offspring of both parties involved. This happens in all strata of society.

Notes:

1) Due to two votes for Arctic Lamia, and no votes for the Steppe Lamia, I moved a vote from Arctic Lamia over to the Steppe Lamie

2) Several species did not get votes so I gave brief descritpions on my own

3) Several votes had elaborate write ups where I was sadly forced to cut much for consiceness and to keep on topic. Love the effort, keep a hold on the stuff and use it later.

4) A couple of locations have had slight modifications

5) There are probably some other small adjustments I made that I lost track of at some point, sorry.

6) I went through some stuff pretty ruthlessly, so if you feel I've made a mistake feel free to @ me about it.

Eternal Glory: Creating a Fantasy Empire in 55 Votes

Been Better

Frame:

Genus:

Traits:

Been Better

Been Better

Been Better

Been Better

Been Better

1. Catgirl Orcs

2. Potterace

3. Striga

4. Sensing Turles

5. Gurvel

6. Scaric Cymbol

7. Icy Magik Lizards

8. Icemen

9. Magic Bird People

10. (Not) Woolly Mammoths

11. Wise Old Snakes

12. Curious Explorers

13. Sapient Orcas

14. Lindwyrm

15. Desert Worms

16. Jungle Angler Snakes

17. Steppe Lamia

18. Arctic Lamia

19. Boundless Kobolds

20. Medusans

21. Chusaites

22. Fish Hive

23. Cephalopodians

24. Otters

25. Arctic Lizard Men

26. The Hive

27. Siren Dolphintails

28. Herculeans

29. Amphibious Ogres

30. Saurus

31. Vacla

32. Muscular Geese

33. Draut

34. Magicians

35. Children of The Coast

36. Catgirl Archmages

37. Hippogriffs

38. Telepathic Crab People

39. Chirek

40. Tycerians

41. Downy Mountain Lizards

42. Corvus

43. Neor-Pavo

44. Dragonic Arctic Barbarians

45. Ferronids

46. Sanguine Monsoons

47. Schmeckles

48. Inquisitive Vulpines

49. Starlight Chosen

50. Eusocial Octopi

51. Chosen Arcane Telepaths

52. Harmonyans

53. Serpentine Skypeople

54. Dwarren

55. Vigilant Elves

56. Placid Jellyfish

57. Parasitic Wasps

58. Children of the Light

Been Better

Vote 2:

Been Better

Been Better

1. Catgirl Orcs (Myresh)

Frame: Humanoid

Genus: Mammalian (Catgirls)

Traits: Keen senses, Strong Constitution, Muscular, Obligate Carnivores, Magically Inert

Present in Hexes: 169 (Small), 195 (Small) and 170 (Small)

Catgirl Orcs, Myresh

2. Sanguine Angels (Geodae)

Sanguine Angels, Geodae