merkabatraindepot

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Cold Islanders/Shvuumh

An introductory primer to a new birg culture under the cut. Project done in collaboration with @iguanodont

Across the lashing grey waves of the Messenian strait, and south of the great equatorial ice belt lies a land once thought as little more than myth. Suhurmv vi Hmascah, or as it is known by people of the West, The Cold Islands. Despite the name of the archipelago, the Islands are just as affected by Hyperborea's extreme seasonality as the rest of the planet.

Inland temperatures during summer on larger Islands will often soar to 45C°, while winter temperatures plunge to -64C°. The fauna, and flora (inso much as such terms are applicable, on Hyperborea Adult Sedentary vs Adult Motile are more useful) native to the archipelago are adapted to these extremes. Currents flowing from the ice belts in conjunction with warmer waters from the East keep oceanic temperatures in a range from 12C° to 5C°. The nutrient rich upwellings mean the waters surrounding the Islands are particularly fertile, and home to some of Hyperborea's largest marine life. Inland likewise represents high endemism, the rugged topography somewhat reminiscent of Earth's Aotearoa- including several large flightless distant relatives of the velocifalcons. In the mind of outsiders The Cold Islands are, perhaps not undeservedly, a Burroughsesque primordial lost world.

(Rest of entry under cut)

Suhurmv vi Hmascah is not a land without people. Indeed, the largest island of Ksmah susc (lit; Honored Sma's toe bones) supports a population of almost five million across seventeen distinct polities, and over sixty spoken languages. As a people, every Shvuumh culture has ties to the sea, being the only region on Hyperborea to successfully domesticated fully semiaquatic predators as a kind of damp hunting hound. The attached image of a Shvihiim canoe depicts the less glamorous above water aspects of a hunt.

The Shvuumh (Most common blanket term for the Cold Islanders, taken from the Susmahk language word for "people". All Northwestern Ksmah group languages use a derivative of a common root for this word) are generally considered the most isolated population of on Hyperborea. Historically this had them interpreted as almost mythical, a race of sea wizards during the early days of infrequent Ss'wassoum contacts. Modern science has confirmed their isolation, if provided no clarification on their collective wizarding capacity. Shvuumh are characterized by several cold resistant adaptations found in no other Hyperborean people, including ice belt nomads. Their peleage is dense, but the outer layers rapidly detach in summer heat. Similarly, their facial ruffs are famously expansive. The only true beards on the planet, and are styled a dizzying number of ways. They also exhibit extensive feathering on their limbs, though during the warm season this is often trimmed to fit inside traditionally leather leggings. Their physical colors tend towards paleness, with some piebaldism present in specific ethnicities.

Perhaps the most interesting trait found in indigenous islanders is their incredible internal filtration system. The Cold Islands are the site of Hyperborea's longest ongoing chemical arms race. Nearly every native plant being minimally unpalatable to outsiders, to abjectly toxic. Perhaps curiously, this has also resulted in a society for which hard narcotics are roughly as damaging as tea or coffee in their preferred dosages. Most Twowi heartland street drugs (especially dream stings) would be metabolized by a Shvuumh before any effects set in. Conversely a mild smoke on the Cold Islands would have the most hardened Ss'wassoum glimmerbeak fiend convulsing on the ground within a single hit.

All peoples of the islands practice aquaculture to an exceptionally sophisticated degree, though only cultures on the larger islands have a dedicated land based agricultural system. These land crops are the result of independent plant domestication disconnected from any other agrarian development. Some can be seen in the above illustration, such as the tuberous looking kskhid, which has both rhizome and leaf focused cultivars. Several cultures on the main island are also seminomadic pastoralists who migrate seasonally from different villages (see Kikram long house for the most common form of multi-family summer home) who graze a mixture of indigenous livestock mixed in with introduced animals from both East and West. Shvuumh notably lack the sex segregation which is the norm for most of their world's cultures. Rather large fusional family groups work with almost no separation of roles beyond some ritual acts in various religious events. Even in the more Sedentary cultures, the notion of a gifter or receiver exclusive town is bizarre to say the least- that would be akin to only using one specific color of feathervane log to build a long house.

It is generally believed the ancestors of the Shvuumh arrived to their homeland via island hopping roughly 45k years ago during an unusual warm era (out of the normal long cycle). Their ancestors were from a Southwestern population referred to as Paleo-Masakkid people, who left no genetic trace on any modern ethnicity of the Eastern Continent. For roughly half of their history, they have hugged the coasts, only establishing static inland populations approximately 10k years ago (based off of archeological evidence). Their histories and diversity have been vast, and only began contacting the outside world some 700 years before the present day with global current shifts allowed for outside sailors to visit them.

By 300 years ago, these interactions increased. Some even resulting in interested Shvuumh spending years away from home as itinerate specialists, or in more sinister cases victims of the slave trade akin to the scourge of Pacific blackbirding. 200 years ago, the spectre of colonialism began to rear is head over Suhurmv vi Hmascah. Suddenly every nascent empire found itself interested in a land full of mineral wealth, virgin forests, and valuable botanicals populated by a people without firearms. In most cases, this would mark the beginning of a tragedy- the first act in a sordid drama of subjugation and genocide.

Curiously, it was drugs which saved the day. The very same compounds which attracted attention to their home also gave the Shvuumh an incredible collective bargaining chip against invaders, as early exports of what were to the islanders mild stimulants resulted in an explosion of addicts. This massive demand combined with invaluable pharmaceuticals have safeguarded Suhurmv vi Hmascah from being truly invaded beyond a handful of port towns. Well, that and the fact that it would take roughly fifteen minutes to poison the entire food supply of colonial armies with crushed leaves. Or just leave them alone for the high summer biting gnat swarms. Truly, living in what most of Hyperborea considers a hell has worked out wonderfully for the Shvuumh.

-Excerpt from Bulakul's Reference Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Cultures, 20 year anniversary edition, volume three

[merkabatraindepot]

Midday on the Tharsis steppe brings cool, dry winds which blow in from the flanks of Pavonis Mons, dislodging a faint haze of dust into the air. Chewing placidly on rusty knotgrass stands a solitary Stilt-rhino, a rare visitor to this region of Mars from Ceraunius Fossae. It's shaggy bulk stands out in the treeless expanse, even if the cow is on the smaller side for Martian megafauna. Unlike many of the Rhinocerotidae descended from original stock brought planetside, all seven species are even more solitary than their terrestrial ancestors, meeting exclusively to mate on a three year cycle. Their incredible height, only possible under the lower gravity of their home, provides a high vantage point from which to catch scents.

Incredible as it may seem, this animal is actually taller than a bull African elephant of old Earth. Her fur, shorter on those namesake stilt legs, was ancestrally the result of genetic tampering. After determining a full climactic mimic of Earth was impossible, many late stage alterations to imported biota were hastily made in a vague mimicry of pleistocene species. In this case, both rhinoceros and elephants brought to the red planet were quickly furnished with serviceable coats. This trait is now universal among their descendants now found across the planet. Even equatorial species keep short, bristly coats.

Standing in the shadow of this colossus are members of a highly diverse family of deer-like rabbits, the cervoleporids. While low gravity and human bias left a perfect environment for larger mammals to firmly occupy megafaunal roles, these mostly forgotten rodents and lagomorphs, now free of medium sized animals, expanded immensely under lower gravity to capture every niche in size between dikdik to eland. Vast herds of never before seen rodents suspended eerily on wire-thin legs dance across the red plains, harried on occasion by packs of wolf sized rats or newly predatory cavies.

Had Linnean nomenclature, or indeed any zoologists survived to the modern day, these animals might have been Schreiber's Hartslaup. However, the bones of the last human scientist on Mars have long since been reduced to little more than mineralized shards. Thus they are simply Lesser Occidental Tharsis Hare-Antelopes. Physically, they're roughly the size of a Red Deer, with does sporting larger mustaches than bucks. Their reddened teeth (very few animals who did not receive an ancient tailored gene package to allow for skeletal iron sequestration have lasted long after the cities fell) are usually hidden except during threat displays. Like all Cervoleporids, they still retain four toes on all digits. The central pair have become hooves, while the outer two have shrunken and lost their nails entirely. They're hidden by hock feathering in this species.

These animals form opportunistic small groups, unlike their greater, or indeed much smaller kin. During the dry season, such as now, they fission off into pairs or quartets to reduce resource strain. The pair accosting our cow are taking advantage of a basic calculation; none of their normal predators would be stupid enough to attack near a stilt-rhino. For the most part, they're correct. The rhinoceros is not threatened by their presence either. She grazes on a wide variety of grasses, while Hare-Antelopes are selective browsers of shrubbery, and lower lying tuft grass.

During this snapshot in time, all three are at peace, something to be cherished on the Tharsis steppe. The vagrant cow will stand unmolested by her visitors, nudging them out of the way on occasion. The pair will alternate between keeping watch and lounging or eating until they part ways. So it goes, with life on Mars.