#western maanul

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Outdated posture, the rest is canon

maanul botanists will wear "heavy" gear compared to what maanuls usually wear, as they go into territory that is mostly foreign to them. They venture further than most maanuls ever will just for collecting plants, fruits, if not flowers. Botanists are closer to gardeners than scientists.

Stüstümali was known for having a wide variety of plants collected throughout the years. Having various terrariums in a closeted room, collecting some bugs to go with it too. With excellent pottery knowledge, she would sculpt her own pots and place them all around the house.

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refsheet from june 2023, old art old posture, skinny legend maanuls

another refsheet for artfight execpt this one isn't finished but its enough for ppl to understand, i cant complete it due to my tablet acting crazy and that its the 20TH I NEED TO DO OTHER CHARACTERS, wish i had sooo much moretime i wanted to do more intricate patterns. one day one day ill do complicated patterns like the ones you can find on tiles from Maghreb

also, a western hat! like i mentioned western maanuls took example on the normal shell hats of eastern, this is a sneak peak of an example before i draw a sheet of them in a part 2 post about hats

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i slapped a hypothetical look of an altuyur map but since im beyond stupid i fucked it up and it looks like shit on a globe, but whatever ill fix it one day. While ice caps are smaller than on Earth, it wasn't meant to be invisible on a globe

note that southern maanuls don't even actually live in south but just down to what western populations are settled, the two overlap a lot, maanuls kind of got it all wrong. That light hole is just where kyhuine come from, they are "locked" in by the mountain range and deep red biomes.

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northern winter uniform of GA soldiers, explanation on the history behind it under ->

21-06-23 edit:

Since GA is the first and last war altuyur had, well maanuls and kyhuines didn't know how to even battle properly. Many things related to that age have a sort of clumsy beginning, and so do uniforms. Firstly they used modified versions of the decorative armor that were originally used in theatrical plays, religious performances, and even sports. The modified versions had fewer metal pieces, and no decorations, but were completely inconvenient as they were not thought out for battle. Combined with the crazy temperature recorded in the battlegrounds (mostly in the southern desert) armors were just terrible! a literal oven. So quickly they abandoned the armor to just tissue, but uniforms stand out so much from how their clothing normally looks that looking back at them, it just feels alien to them. lifeless even. an example of an early armored uniform can be found here.

Now back to the northern uniform, when a small part of the north joined the red troupes by believing in their aggressive propaganda campaigns. They then had to make special uniforms for the recruits and soldiers, as in the north there are seasons when the temperatures get quite low. Much like what you have in western/central Europe, which makes the far north of altuyur stand out as the rest is hot with only 2 distinct seasons.

When making the northern winter uniforms they based it on already existing pieces of clothing (in this case basic northern winter hunting clothes with some pieces taken from dancing garments), but striping them off from any decoration, simplifying them to the bare minimum. Moving the ventilation holes to the side of the torso to protect the opperculums more, tho it makes them quite uncomfortable but recruits and soldiers just get used to it. The most "unique" thing about the uniforms is the patch on the arm with the person's name, and yet that piece is easily rippable, in case the owner dies so they can just rip it off and recycle it for new naive recruits that aren't even aware someone died in these clothes before.

They lack any creativity to them, for maanuls as well as a kyhuine these are soulless, as they highly value the art of crafting. There's no passion, no real purpose but a nonsensical war in these uniforms. Nothing to make them truly worthy in their culture. These are just morbid for them to look at during the silver age.

The maanul featured in this drawing is Qua'tuli, which easily translates to "one'whisker". He's a northeast maanul which explains his dark pelt, he has a singular whisker with a mole and is born without tahofahs which is a birth defect and also means he can't smell anything. Like many young influenceable people, he was tricked to join the red troupes thinking it would make him a hero for his people forever, that the war would just last a week, that they'll easily reach kaar'kchir in a week. And that after his service he will be granted special permissions (ex: being able to build his own fisherman's house, building permissions is a law that appeared in GA to force people to join the ranks). Although he started his service in the west as he was living there. When the north joined the war his division was then sent to the north.

here's a silly drawing to show the 3 layers

Fun fact, Monmartre and Qua'tuli meet as young recruits in the west. Enjoy monmartre that caught a cold.

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maanul colony, a rough idea of how the build against the cliff parts looks like, the rest of the village is on top of the cliff. These are flexible plant fiber that creates platforms/structures, and there are also tunnel systems. also, black sand! More text and information under ->

this is a western colony (maak'thao), other colonies have that same similar structure but have regional differences in architecture/ the way of making certain things. This is just one side, id imagines it expanding widely on the side cliffs. Maybe kilometers long for the largest colony of each wind? (west, north, south, and East all have a "main colony" which is just the biggest of the region. Cardinal directions are called "the 4 winds" for maanuls.)

while a portion is on the side of the cliff, build against roots or just on the top of the cliffs as regular houses, a part of the structures is hidden. And is directly carved into the rock, as tunnel systems to access some specific parts easier. Carved storage rooms, small gathering places, rooms for religious practices like wall painting, and so on. this is roughly how the tunnel stuff would look like ->

id also imagine some tunnels being decorated with shells, sadly the examples I found are not the exact color I imagined because i think they would pick stupidly colorful ones since they are very fond of shiny things with color(like a magpie!). And once they start losing their color for x reason they would repaint the shells. A main tunnel leading to an important place would be highly decorated, while smaller narrow tunnels would have just a little bit of shells on the sides if none.

now with specific details id like to point out from the bottom part!

First, the statues (in yellow). The statues are placed all around in front of the habitations, they are deeply set in-ground and are lightly carved in, enough to tell a specific shape but still retain a square figure. here's a closer look at them, with additional text!

Now onto the roots (red) and the bottom platforms (white), these root-like structures are actually a sort of tree that grows down to the cliffs, not every colony has that these are mostly found in west and south. Colonies that don't have these growing around will have bottom platforms made out of wood and will be raised up from the sand floor.

The bottom platforms here are also made out of somewhat flexible but strong plant fiber. These large platforms are not made to live but more for some community gatherings. like for example teaching young ones about sea navigation! Down there is used to store some fishing equipment and boats. And when I say boats you should think of canoe-like ones, used for fishing.

And last is that large fish-net decoration in blue, that thing is used to attach many things, like sand down glass pieces that with the light give a fun colorful reflection effect around. But that fishnet thing can also be used to mourn. By that, I mean in the West if they lost a loved one to the ocean they can take a personal shiny belonging and attach it there. So they will always be remembered by everyone even if they didn't have a body and couldn't do the usual way of mourning.

now for the middle section, starting with these "flags"

the enormous "flag", takes decades to make and are a thing you find in each "main colony" of the 4 winds, the immense rope will harbor at least 3 of those and the things represented in it can sometimes be related to a local folkloric tale, symbolic drawings that each bring a good thing to the colony. Like for example one drawing of fish and waves to bring good luck to fishermen! these are much more like tapestries than flags.

extra images about the nest-like structures, id think of them being made out of leather, various plant fiber, and a bit of wood for support.

and a bit about the top layer, which extends much more but on this drawing you only see the beginning of it.

now with the high tide, there it does not get high enough to swim but still enough to take off to the sea with a canoe, id say it arrives at waist level for an adult maanul. Not every village/large colony have the tide flooding around like this, sometimes it might stops where the statues are placed. since altuyur has 2 moons (maanuls and kyhuines say 3 moons but in really the third, or also called "the infant" is an asteroid caught in the first moon, also called "night mother") i was thinking it would affect the tide cycle tho im not sure yet how it does that since im not that good at astrology.

thank you for reading!

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sorry if you already answered this, but how do the specific colors for each species work when in different regions? are there any specific colors that are more common in one place than the other???

old art and outdated ethnicities, very skinny maanuls/kyhuines up ahead

yes, each region has a group/ethnicity that sports colors that are exclusive to them, even feather type for the mane of maanul divers from one region to another. For kyhuines every group has the same feather types, BUT it is possible to have an individual with curly feather genes like a frillback pigeon. that said gene is a mutation so it's not common but it can be passed down

now im sincerely sorry I don't have a really clean good chart yet, ill use these shitty drawings I once made to explain the color to a friend. while they suck and are not good references to look at when it comes to anatomy you still understand color variation with them at least. I'll start with maanuls!

Western maanuls

while on the maanul drawings they don't have size dif, if this was done seriously the females would be bigger than males across every group. Western maanuls are ""the basic ones"" if you had to put it bluntly. id imagine that ancient maanuls before they diversified in colors probably looked a bit like a tone-down modern Western maanul.

the examples ill use for each groups are the most basic individuals you could ever think of. Because with dye and modification, an individual from one group could end up widely different from the base look. For example, Morang is a western maanul but she doesn't look like the example shown here, she cut down feathers for a straight-end look and she bleached herself to be a unified white. another we

Eastern maanuls

now with these guys, i do have a good render of them which you can see here, like western maanuls they got a mane with flexible feathers. the best irl example i can give for you to visualize that type of feathers would be to look at a Japanese roosters's tails. males have a greenish turquoise end some of their feathers. Which is a color exclusive to them. If i ever post an image of yarey'lu ( a male eastern maanul) and you see his yellow feather tips be aware that its not natural, and these are done with dyes. so would be the yellow marks around the eyes, these are also done by paint. another character that is an eastern maanul is ak'laam who doesn't look like the examples because she's melanistic.

Eastern males are the most colorful of all, they've also got iridescent feathers but so do eastern females which is also unique to them. The sea they live next to is a bright blue and within that sea, they have many coral barriers and "exotic" wildlife, even the flora around their region is bright and varied so, i had to make them fancy to go with their place.

Southern maanuls

now they've got their perks too, maanuls and kyhuines after being an ugly hatchlings they become what they call a fledging, which is a state where they're fully covered in a yellowish coat of feathers with brown stripes. Now every maanul and every kyhuine shed that coat at some point, so they lose the stripes except southern maanuls. Southern maanuls even as full adults still have some reminiscences of their stripes from when they were a fledgling.

The mane of easterns are quite particular too, they've got a mix of the two variants. a top layer with hard shafts that move for emoting or just to dance, and a bottom layer of soft shaft feathers. my only southern maanul character is nau'stikah

North-east maanuls

northeast are not that far in the north honestly on the map that population just sits on top of keezeh behind mountain ranges where the nice weather shifts into more temperate ones, like a normal winter you'd find in central Europe (i wish snow was still a thing here), their feather mane is usually quite short compared to other maanul groups and it is fully composed of hard shaft feathers that moves unintentionally with emotions or can be controlled at will.

They are quite dark due to the place they live at, which are cliffs that have been tinted black because of ancient volcanic activities. There arent many north east maanuls, they're the rarest of the 5 maanul groups. A character that is a north east maanul to mention would be qua'tuli

Central north maanuls

and for last with maanuls, central north maanuls which are "real northern" maanuls because they truly inhabit the real north compared to north east. Like north east their mane is fully made out of hard shaft feathers that can move, but unlike them their mane isn't short. you may have noticed but they're more covered too! ears are covered, most of the hand except palms, and the same for feet, except feet can actually be fully covered in feathers in some cold periods of the year.

Compared to other maanuls, central north go out in the land much more often to find food because during cold seasons they cannot always easily rely on the ocean. Their life is harsher than other groups so it sometimes reflects in folklore, like, for example, the way northern maanuls draw haanu (maanul's all mighty mother deity, a sort of Venus of willendorf equivalent) is lets say much scarier than the way other part of the world do it. i dont have any central north characters!

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i should also mention that all maanuls have yellow eyes by default, mixing groups can create mutations tho, like orange, red or even brown (monmartre for example, western+central north it has red eyes cause mutation, and while it just looks like a western with neglected feathers it starts to look closer to a central north when it ages in late GA), other mutations can affect eye color too, ak'laam has black/brown eyes because of melanism, and an albino maanul would have red eyes.

kyhuines, commonly have yellow eyes too tho it is plausible but rare to have red, grey and brown eyes without being mixed. These traits can become hereditary too, same goes for maanuls with mutated eye colors they can also be passed down (example with monmartre's litter, but also that was done so its litter would stand out and be recognisable)

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Now with kyhuines, there are only 4 groups/ethnicity compared to the 5 of maanuls, and theirs are quite close to one another so claims like "south, west, east, north" is a bit of a stretch but they still use it anyways for communication.

Southern kyhuines

the most common kyhuine are southern! now with kyhuines the color dimorphism is much more present compared to maanuls. Even talons in females if often darker, southern females can have dark brown talons to just the light pinkish that males have. gular skin is usually less bright too. Like eastern maanuls, i have a proper render of that group that you can see here. notable characters that are southern kyhuines would be satmuh, kapone, oto, and bantam. These 4 are all siblings so they can also be shortened to "southern litter" in literature

Western kyhuines

body wise, identical to southern. The difference is that they're much lighter. between males and females colorwise it's not that different most of the time. But they still got their quirk, their gular skin is a blue color. first contact maanuls mistaken western and southern to just be the same group variants but not, they are distinct ethnicity despite looking similar. i don't have any character that belongs to this group!

Salt desert kyhuines (or salt rock)

calling them north is a stretch, while on old kyhuine maps, they are situated up to other groups, on a world map they're just in the center of the mega continent like other kyhuines its just that they live in the salt desert. the talons of a female salt kyhuine can almost be black, to just greyish tones like the example, same goes for gular skin it can go from this tone to a full black one. Then the males sport these blue cool tones and also have iridescent feathers, irredescent feathers in kyhuines is only found in male salt desert individuals.

now the "wings) these drawings suck because while you get the base idea for colors its not good when it comes to accurate anatomy, the feather of salt male kyhuines are long, very long, almost like a Microraptor (on the drawing the leg feathers are not right, not large/wide enough). While they cant glide because they're too heavy and not made for that either way. it does help readjust a fall or jump, you'd usually see males flap their "arm wing" a little when jumping to something high. notable characters of that group are Ame, kaasim, and the egg twin sisters

Eastern kyhuines

So for eastern kyhuines, i do have a clean render of them but its also outdated when it comes to spine posture. While ill still link it because you get a better look at their face beware that the kyhuine don't stand like that anymore (as you can literally see here). You can go view it here.

They're the only kyhuine that can have green-ish tones (for males), their face is also different its more curved, their face have a more "chubby" look. by the way, a healthy kyhuine from any region will have fat cheeks, best example to look at ig, are these shibas with fat cheeks. Their "wings" and overall look is a usually smoother than other kyhuines, they also have shorter "ears"

My favorite kyhuines honestly, i love their face a lot it's shameful that i didn't make any eastern oc atm.

all done, if you've reached down there then thank you for reading/looking! means a lot to me

[t34-mt]

Because there is animals for herding the fish, is there another type of animal that’s like a livestock guardian?

No, because tepueh pu already does that, they're the equivalent of Shepherd dogs so maanuls do not need another animal to protect them, either way maanuls are here if needed.

combine this with how cattle are kept in shallow safe zones there isn't much for them to fight off except little parasites that may try to latch on.

If a population doesn't have available safe zones (central north are a good example, as a lot of them have to migrate to their second colony settlement at a time of year) to raise cattle then they'd have breeds of tepueh pu that are bulkier to fight off larger threats. breeds who are more prone to fighting off danger would be given "collars" to protect them, said predators are aware that the animals have protective gear so they cannot bite them without heavily injuring themselves in the process, they end up avoiding tackling cattle.

Some species of predators, called kubhaa, a smart animals that transmit knowledge to their youngs and live in pods, know to not mess with cattle because they know it means said Shepherd animal (tepueh pu) will harass them off. But maanuls might end up shooting them with their harpoons too (mainly done to scare off animal rather than killing them). You'll see some adult with a scar or even the whole harpon still here in their advanced age, meaning they tried to kill a cattle once, may or not succeeded but ended up being shot by a maanul in the process. A mistake made as a teenager or young adult, since then the predator probably didn't try again.

Since kubhaa transmits knowledge down, individuals who got shot by harpoons will communicate to younger to stay away from the maanul shallow zones/ cattle in general. Kubhaa found in southern and western seas, there's no images available of them yet

rough size comparison, since they are much larger they cannot be carried as 4 per maanul like shown in the tepueh pu post, instead it might just be 2, or just one (on the back)

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hiya!! I absolutely love your stuff, I was just curious is there more info on morang and kapone’s relationship? Just small facts or anything, I think they are a sweet pair to see :^D like em a lot

thank you!! i like them too :] I could mention about how they meet first

morang and kapone meet as adults in GA time period, during organised events between kyhuine and maanuls colonies. Where the goal is to exchange several willing members of respective colony with the other. Essentially at opposite species colony the exchanged members just learns the others culture and the way of living of their bigger/smaller cousins. One of the several tactics colonies agreed upon to introduce one another, exchanged members would be taken in charge by chosen community "teachers" from the colony they're staying at (person who takes in charge is fluent in the language of opposite species).

You could almost say its like summer camps, they'd stay there for a month or more, come back home to talk about how pleasant it was and how different they are. Some would sometimes come back to give news to family but still travel back because they've fallen in love with the practices, culture, all the differences and so on. Or because they've found a partner there, and they decided to live at the other's place. Because, yes while GA starts with war and ends with it, not every colony were under the two war faction controls and others were lucky to be able to function the way they wanted, and said colonies who were free would then do stuff like the colony member exchanges i mentioned, to learn and understand this new species they've learned about at the end of AOS. BUT im babbling now, back to morang kapone, this was for context

Morang and ak'laam, whos previously studied kyhuine language volunteered to be part of the group that will welcome and guide exchanged kyhuine members coming to their colony, morang was in charge of kapone and that's how they first meet. While the person in charge of 1-3 people does most of the work, welcoming kyhuines/maanuls into colony is something every members should take part on, offering gifts and being overall nice. But yeah, morang teacher her culture (western maanul in this case), her food, her language, showed ceremonies,shared songs, thought her the animals, the way maanuls preach the ocean and the religious myths surrounding it and how the weather is vastly different. Essentially they bond and get closer during this moments, and while she would've loved to teach kapone how to swim so she could show her the wonders of the reefs near home, kapone is a kyhuine, and they hate the feeling of being wet and plus they dont have an oil gland that they can coat their feathers with, so when wet kyhuines are soaking and heavy. they're from desert so they never experienced being in water before.

In return kapone would help her with accent when speaking in her language, cause yes fun fact morang's language when speaking kyhuine language sucks a bit, but ak'laam quite fluent. She'd describe how home was like for her, eventually when kapone goes back to home colony morang goes with her because she wants to see kyhuine life and habitats. Like morang did, kapone nows the one who teach her and bring her to ceremonies and events in colony to show her.

They end up visiting each other's place frequently, usually staying several weeks or months at one's colony. Firstly for expanding their knowledge and view of world, then they'd do it just because they wanted to see each other's. I'd say, 2 or 3 years after they've meet is when they became romantic mates, but yeah that's in short how they meet.

Did one move out to the other's place permanently? Not really, morang says her heart belongs at sea so she never permanently moved to be where kapone originates from. Both just spend time at each other's place alot but they never move out forever, tho kapone stays at morang's place the most but she regularly visits her home family.

Even on the discussion of burial they won't be togheter at death (first off cause kyhuines live longer) and because they agreed that morang will have the traditional maanul burial at sea (about burials, I'd suggest to not go read the old ask answer because I'd like to publish an updated text about it soon), and kapone will be burned after death. They agreed on having memorial wall paintings of them togheter to celebrate the time they had with those temporary vessels, while death can be scary it's not the end to them since they believe that they'll find each other's in every next lives, every time their respective diety will give them a new vessel to explore the world again, whenever that would be as a plant or any animal, they'll find each other's each time without even knowing.

Fun fact, since maanul and kyhuine size differences is quite big, in the home of kapone (which is quite narrow) morang's head would rub against the ceiling so she'd move around all crunched down head low

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Text about the meaning behind symbolism:

ctheriks

Those are "ctherik", or "familial charms" for lack of better terms, they are long wooden rectangle slabs. Sometimes they're so long they get segmented and tied together with ropes so they flow better in the wind/easier to pass through. They are a thing in southern valley, and may vary in how they're displayed and made depending on the ethnic group. but that's another story. The first one is the piece his family gave to Tamtam before he immigrated to kaar’kchir. on it, is carved his generation. which includes the litter of his sisters and himself at the bottom. It's an important gift, taken from a long strand it used to be tied to, a token so he always remembers who he is and where he comes from. That he is always welcome back home.

It can also act as a protective symbol to give, as if he dies out there, that his body cant be send back to his family, they cannot do their traditional burial. Thus in mirih culture (southern valley group), this means he cannot rejoin the cycle. the token can act as a guidance for his soul. It is said that if you're far away from home the ctherik, your soul won't wander away and get lost, because the ctherik will make it remember to come back home. You cannot rejoin the cycle, however now you're acting as a protective spirit of the home to watch over your people. Kapone, (second eldest sister) while giving it as protection out of genuine care, also just hoped that this thing will make tamtam remember the culture he's from because she's aware of how kaar'kchir is notorious for making immigrants "lose their identity" to conform to the place better. Funnily enough, kaar'kchir is a huge mix of various kyhuine cultures, and now more recently some maanul ones too. The second ctherik (which does not exist in world) is a small ctherik, with only 1 member on it and the bottom having a crack. This one just represents when Tamtam slowly isolated himself from his own family, giving them radio silence for extended periods of time. not answering any letters anymore, not visiting them. In his world there's only him. The crack is for when he cut ties completely. After years of just making the worst decisions over and over.

The crack is about how he can never come back to them. He is not welcome home anymore. (He could be if he worked on himself a lot, but in his brain, it's over) He feels immense shame whenever he looked at the ctherik he was gifted, so much so he hides it in a container under where he sleeps. It used to be hung in his dorm near the window at all time.

The closest thing to a family he has after is kaahmir's, which he gets invited to spend holidays at. But even then he feels like a disgusting parasite among them, the cultural difference doesn't help in terms of making him feel out of place.

bronze talons maanul

Maanul part and why its half stylized to western knaan'tak art proportions, the individual who was wounded was a western maanul of knaan'tak ethnic group. Tamtam visited these coasts years later. Despite it being under red troupes control he still went. The art found there impacted him.

This is a sort of call back/flashback to him using gunpowder invention for the first time. Tamtam created naahrun prototype (which looked like a bâton à feu back then) and kunsip (gunpowder). The person he shot was from bronze talons (previous name before red troupes). He was a mere front messenger back then for section 4.

Looking back at it he's not proud, even in the moment right after he was in shock. "i just hurt someone with this thing I never used on a living being prior".

there's forever the guilt of it that follows him everywhere. it doesn't help that his inventions was picked up by kaar'kchir, that section 4 weaponry sector lived a huge resurgence because of it, that what he invented led to the death of so many people. Naahrun was made when he was around 16-17 for human age equivalent.

fun fact, maanuls and kyhuines, cry by secreting a bunch of mucus from the tahofah holes and their mouth. tears from eyes are not natural behavior and are associated with certain sicknesses.

The dolls

They're little toys tamtam had. But they're a little modified to be a couple. He yearns to interact and seek physical comfort, however, he can't because of the mental barriers he made.

A lot of relationships he had in his adult life were bad, and sometimes violent towards him. But the dolls are gentle with each others, contrasting with the violence of the rest of the piece. They're idealized figures of what he wish for, if that sounds clear.

They're also made out of ceramic because all his current relationships are so fragile.

burnt paper

its burned paper for self destructive habits, and the blood of the maanul is smeared on it for how the guilt follows him around.

writings

In temples of kaar'kchir, you can write down things you feel guilty about, stuff that haunts you, and mistakes you've done. They're hung in a special room and burned at the end of the first lunar year during a holiday for symbolism.

While tamtam isn't that religious, he still went there to write a bunch because just writing it down his thoughts would help sometimes. He wrote them in south valley conlang (at least in how it should look like cause I'm not doing conlang ever im scared) so no one can understand reading unless they know. Kaar'kchir uses their own modified calligraphy for info.

the hanging charms

Little charms they make in kaar'kchir new years, tamtam and kaah made a few together when he lived at his family's home. The thing with those is while making them, you make a wish for your loved ones ,but you don't say it, if you do it says that your wish will not happen. doing the final ties seals the wish. They're made with the family, while they sit around and chatter about things that happened this first moon lunar year.

misc things:

no interesting meaning apart from me wanting to mention it

kaar'kchir currency the equivalent of alot of coins for us, they're as long as your thumb for reference. Money is not universal, but kaar'kchir is one of the places that works with this system. The more decorated the more the metal tube cost. fun fact tamtam is broke financially

metal ball where you put tea in it then into the outer, its from kaah's family

He had a pet of it, they're notoriously known to bite and be snappy by waving their tail flags. Which does fit tamtam, as he's snappy because he doesn't know how to express distress apart from pushing people away. It was a pet as a child, he doesn't have it as an adult because these guys live 3 years.

i want to write more but im shy now, goodbye thank you for reading

You will overlook the distant edge of spring

symbolic art of the character Tamtam

maanul is meant to look wonky because its based on knaan'tak traditional art proportions, lalala

top corner left kyhuine was based on human front mri

this is how the wip looked like on paint before going on rebelle

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A maak'thao sub-adult is using a lure to attract certain types of fishes. Lures can be used to attract a prey but in this case it is to play around and gaze at the wildlife.

edit: outdated anatomy

[t34-mt]

should mention that when maanul "manes" look hair-like it's because it's composed of long floppy feathers that are identical to those of Japanese rooster's tails

tho it concerns mainly west and eastern maanuls, northern have multiple layers of flight-like feathers which they have control of and can puff up. southern maanuls have a layer of flight feathers they have control over, then they have those soggy long strands under.

kyhuines manes are like northern maanuls, a bunch of layers of that type of feathers, they generally have much more control over their manes than east+western maanuls. they can stylize them by applying sort of bandages for a period of time, to forcefully make them grow or bend a certain way, its a tedious harmless time-consuming procedure that if done right, let them have "hairstyles"

but "braids" and putting jewelry, beads, or any kind of accessory is common in maanuls with soggy mane feathers as it's much easier to manipulate, kyhuines cannot do the same. "Braiding" is when they pick strands from both sides to tie them together in the front. Not everyone can do that as it reserved for a certain status

[t34-mt]

ooh is there a calender of sorts? i was wondering how everyone would gather for the festivals in the south if they didnt know what time they occurred!

yes, the south has its own calendar that is also the most sophisticated of the 4 regional colonies of maanuls! while some might keep track of time with flora blooming at certain times of the year, wildlife reproduction, moon cycles, and even types of megalithic structures. the southern maanuls wrote down each moon into a calendar with events in it.

The biggest colony of the south where everything happens (which is called Knà'yark, literally meaning south), has a sort of circular calendar carved into stone in the middle of the surface village. Because yes in the biggest colonies, half will be carved into the cliff and built against it, while the other half might be built on the surface of the cliff. But I'm going off-topic right now, architecture is a whole other big subject I won't be going into now

The circular calendar is divided by each first moon cycle and when a month has a special event, the box will have a decorative drawing signifying x festival or smaller stuff like a colony banquet.

Since they know that other colonies are fond of their most important events, they send travelers months prior to the festival. Maanuls do not have domesticated flying animals like kyhuines, so they will travel by foot which can take a while. tho they only send travelers (also called huak'ahbe) to the biggest colony of the west (maak'thao) since it's the closest. Huak'ahbes are dressed up in bright tissue with scenery patterns, and large colored rings around the neck made out of plant fiber to show that they're special. When small colonies of the west see one pass by, they know it's to announce maak'thao of its southern event.

Keezeh the biggest colony of the east, has a southern calendar written onto a sort of paper that resembles papyrus to keep track and travel in advance, they receive a new calendar for the next event each time they go to the south. Same for the north (Yàarïk), tho northern maanuls show up less at these festivals. Typically, there will be more western maanuls, then there's some eastern and the less common will be northerners. Because traveling down to the south for the north is quite hard, northerners also might use traveling boats but it is surely not as complex as a huge galleon. But the north has boats that are considered to be some of the best in that task.

Tho in the silver age, when kyhuines and maanuls mixed together, southern maanuls start to use the domesticated animals of kyhuines for sending the invites. The job of huak'ahbe becomes obnoxious, but the clothing gets preserved for the sake of remembering history before the two species were together.

[freedominmoonlight]

Nice! Is heavy equipment like that hard to put on does it reuire multiple people helping to properly equip oneself for such an expedition?

maanul botanists will wear "heavy" gear compared to what maanuls usually wear, as they go into territory that is mostly foreign to them. They venture further than most maanuls ever will just for collecting plants, fruits, if not flowers. Botanists are closer to gardeners than scientists.

Stüstümali was known for having a wide variety of plants collected throughout the years. Having various terrariums in a closeted room, collecting some bugs to go with it too. With excellent pottery knowledge, she would sculpt her own pots and place them all around the house.