#Cannibalism:WB

[marlowethelibrarian]

🕳️- Talk about a research rabbit hole you fell down!

I did a bunch of research into the geology of salt plains for Project Cannibalism. As it turns out, they're usually the result of arid areas where water carrying salt and sediment to an area will evaporate, accumulating salt.

Salt ridges can form when sediment moves over salt plains. Salt is like, less dense than rock I believe, so it rises in the mountains and eventually pokes its way out.

Saline in the soil can be washed out by rain, which pokes some holes in the intentions of my geology honestly.

The idea was that magic was necessary to desalinate the land, but they live in a place with a lot of rainfall.... but maybe the salt run off from the mountain is just exceptionally salty or something. X)

I might end up using something else in the end.

[marlowethelibrarian]

Worldbuilding for Project Cannibalism: The Pantheon

Project Cannibalism takes place on this peninsula, in this trio of states, in primarily the Suyan theocracy, the Nori Queendom and the Muloyu Federation.

These three states share a pantheon though they have some varied ways of interpreting it. All three of these states run on a matriarchal clan basis, with inheritance going to the youngest daughter as the mother sees fit.

The lowlands are the Nori in the north and the Muloyu in the south, with Suya on the highlands.

The founding myth of their pantheon is the death of the founding earth goddess, who gave birth to the sun and moon, and the winds, and then, died in violent, volcanic childbirth to give birth to the twins Suyo and Napeki.

Suyo, the elder twin took charge of their mother's body and returns it to the earth, beginning a cycle of life and death, raising the forests and all that grows on the peninsula. She's a god of composting, death, rebirth, life.

Napeki, the younger twin, and the youngest daughter, inherits her mother's legacy of fire and flame. She becomes the first alchemist, and from her cauldron springs the boars and the birds and all the creatures that populate her sister's forests. Her favorite, of course, are the humans, gifting them with fire and alchemy and control over the forests.

There are a smattering of other gods as well. The sea god is a primordial god who was probably the father of the twins- they don't track paternity here so it very much doesn't matter. There's an intersex god who has domain over light and truth and oracles, a lightning goddess, a music god, a bunch of other minor little things.

We never get any confirmation that any of these gods are real.

[marlowethelibrarian]

What does the social hierarchy look like?

Hi! And welcome to SPLITE NITE, a series of posts about worldbuilding based off of @hyba's post on their SPLITE model post

For this series, I will be making one post per question that they present about Project Cannibalism as I do my best to prepare this project for the first draft and I'll try and get these up at least once a week, for WBW. I know it's not wednesday, shh I got busy.

So. What does the social hierarchy look like in the nation of Suya?

Suyan hierachy is based in matriarchal clans rooted in land ownership and agriculture. Clan often have different ways of organizing themselves, and they can differ, but usually there is a matriarch at the head of a clan.

Suya is somewhat of a confederacy, wherein clans are the primary landowners where, on their property, they have first say on how things go. However, they are all beholden to the first clan, the Daseri who are the keepers of magic and representatives of Suyo. The head house of the Daseri clan mediates inter-clan conflicts, represents Suyan interests to foreign parties, and controls the use of magic.

The Daseri are enormously powerful. The clan doubles as the main body of Suyan religion- to become a priest means joining the Daseri clan, and only Suyan priests can work magic. The Daseri will hold tryouts for young children to see if they have the potential for magic- and if they do, then those children get adopted into the clan. The highest status people in Suya are definitely the women priests in the Daseri clan.

Other than that, clans can expand their power by acquiring more land and more food, taking on and completing difficult work and projects and gaining status within a particular sohae.

A sohae is kind of like a state, but instead of being drawn by boundaries, it is an agreement by the clans who already exist in that area to work cooperatively. Not all clans exist in every sohae- some clans like each other more than others and are therefore more willing to work with each other. Large clans might have small presences in other sohaes, and therefore less influence.

Within a clan, there's usually a matriarch who distributes power and tasks. Inheritances generally run down to the youngest daughter. Land ownership doesn't go to the individual but to that branch of the clan, where the products of that land is theoretically owned collectively by clan members. Older siblings are expected to support the youngest daughter as she learns from them about their lives, the work they do, so she can lead appropriately in the future.

Clans often also sometimes have more than one bloodline that forms the clan. These are called houses. Some clans rank one house higher than other houses, but usually that's internal clan politics that people from outside those clans won't really grok to. You can be adopted to another clan, but you keep your house name. You don't marry people within your same clan, and you don't marry people with your same house name.

The people without a doubt who are the lowest status in the land are the Okono, those without a clan. These are usually exiles of some sort, people who have been driven out of their families. The Okono are regarded with suspicion, because it usually means they have done something criminal and have been removed from the family lists.

Second generation Okono can either be adopted into another clan, should a clan be willing to accept them, or, if they can gather up enough Okono together, they can form a new clan.

[marlowethelibrarian]

How are Family Relationships Represented?

Is it a Matriarchy or a patriarchy?

How are gender roles and relationships presented?

Hi! And welcome to SPLITE NITE, a series of posts about worldbuilding based off of @hyba's post on their SPLITE model post

For this series, I will be making one post per question that they present about Project Cannibalism as I do my best to prepare this project for the first draft and I'll try and get these up at least once a week, for WBW.

Suya is a clan based matriarchal theocracy.

Clans aren't all organized the same way, especially at the highest levels, but generally your local clan compound will be a communal living space for everyone in the clan. This is where childcare takes place, usually by teenaged boys and nursing mothers.

Within the clan, generally property is held in common, but private affects and leadership are passed down hereditarily through the mother and the concept of fatherhood is nearly non-existent. Instead, men are expected to look after the children of their sisters and become coparents that way.

Not everyone who belongs to one clan has to live under the same roof. An adult from a clan can move out from the clan house and find another living space, but once children are born, the child, at least, gets raised in the clan house.

Women and men both take on the role of farmer but it's the women who make the decisions and act as leaders. They are expected as caretakers to make the decisions when it comes to harvest, planting, irrigation etc. Men play a more itinerant role in society, often asking permission from the local matriarch to travel to other places. Often times this is how a clan will obtain valuable skills to pass on to the household.

Men also sometimes form guilds in order to exchange trade secrets and combine economic power. It is expected that their loyalty remains with their clan though.

Marriage can be romantic, but it is primarily an economic decision. It is not expected for people to remain monogamous and it's even encouraged for higher ranking women to take on multiple husbands. A marriage is a business arrangement where the woman brings a man's labor into the clan, for which he will be properly compensated for. It is a long term contract. If, for example, the husband refuses to provide goods, or the bride refuses to use them, then that is like cheating levels of scandal.

Women marrying women isn't unheard of but it is quite unusual in that it may involve joining of whole clan inheritances and sometimes means the two split off to form a whole new clan.

Men don't generally marry other men, because they don't tend to have the money to make it worthwhile, but them having sex isn't at all stigmatized.

Love matches between anyone of any gender can be recognized with a handfasting, but isn't legally binding- it's just a nice thing to do.

The Laeyat clan is a clan of genderqueer people who don't fit the gender binary. They are the Seers, the historians, the musicians and the spies, carving out their own little place in society. Generally trans and nonbinary people in our parlance aren't quite so accepted within a more gender essentialist clan structure, so usually they are heavily encouraged to go get adopted into the Laeyat clan instead. Of course this isn't always the case, but that's often on a clan by clan basis.