Unmau
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Unmau are a race of beings that have long fur covered bodies and tall, pronounced ears, and a long, bushy tail. They come in earthy colours with stripes up their backs, sides and their tails, typically they have lightly coloured chests, thighs, and stomach regions. They stand at approximately 5ft in height, though their tall ears can make them appear to be taller. They are fleet of foot and agile climbers, of lean build and flighty disposition. Unmau also have a particular scent, a slightly musky smell that tends to linger where they go, much to the displeasure of some.
Genetics and Reproduction
Unmau are monogamous and mate for life with a single partner, they give birth to live young and typically will do 3 to 5 times in a lifetime, bearing 2 or 3 children each time. Typically an Unmau female will separate herself from the immediate family to give birth, an instinctual holdover from a more primitive time when it was necessary for the female to find a safe and secure place to give birth. With the advent of civilisation however this is not a requirement, but a tradition that many opt into, where the female will segregate herself for three days as part of an act of cultural heritage known as 'the mother's choir'. A period where the mother will sing with the cries of her children to ward off the dark spirits of the world.
Growth Rate & Stages
Unmau young spend roughly 5 years with their immediate family learning how to survive and of their culture. Their parents will teach them how to survive in the world whilst surviving elder relatives will teach them the way of the world. Should the family have it's own shaman, he or she will teach the children of the Othersands, a land of snow and darkness illuminated by a pallid moon instead of a searing sun, this is what they believe is the spirit world.
At this age young Unmau's fur starts to develop into a more adult pattern, at a very young age their fur is dark brown to black, but at this time it starts to develop the characteristic stripes and colours they are known for.
By a child's 8th birthday they begin learning how to hunt and ride the traditional mounts of the Unmau, the Ribbondeer, At age 14 they are considered of age and are already fully contributing members to the family. A significant event in the lives of a young Unmau is their first successful hunt, wherein which the blood of the slain quarry is let out onto the floor (usually it would be saved so as not to be wasteful, but this one time is an exception) and the tail of the new hunter/huntress is dipped into it. The Unmau believe that this 'roots' the newly adult Umau into the spirit world, the Othersands, where the deceased animal has now travelled to, to ensure that the thread of life and death isn't broken and that when the Unmau dies the first animal it hunted can help them find their way across.
At this age young Unmau's fur starts to develop into a more adult pattern, at a very young age their fur is dark brown to black, but at this time it starts to develop the characteristic stripes and colours they are known for.
By a child's 8th birthday they begin learning how to hunt and ride the traditional mounts of the Unmau, the Ribbondeer, At age 14 they are considered of age and are already fully contributing members to the family. A significant event in the lives of a young Unmau is their first successful hunt, wherein which the blood of the slain quarry is let out onto the floor (usually it would be saved so as not to be wasteful, but this one time is an exception) and the tail of the new hunter/huntress is dipped into it. The Unmau believe that this 'roots' the newly adult Umau into the spirit world, the Othersands, where the deceased animal has now travelled to, to ensure that the thread of life and death isn't broken and that when the Unmau dies the first animal it hunted can help them find their way across.
Ecology and Habitats
The Unmau live almost solely amongst the upper city, preferring to live where there is balance to the world as they believe that this is the finest point between our world and the Othersands and that crossing between the two sides is easiest there, allowing them to more easily communicate with the dead and their ancestors, or, the Gods.
The Unmau evolved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and settling down into a more permanent way of life in one location has been harder for them than it has for the humans or even the carnivorous Iaressi. That being the case. Unmau huntsmen are often the finest in their settlements and are typically responsible for the majority of the meats and rarer herbs that are brought into towns and in return they can rest easy knowing their young are better protected than in tents and crevices out in the ruins.
Perhaps moreso than any other race the Unmau have an affinity for the natural world, they tend to treat natural phenomena with respect or even revenance, seeing the more permanent ones as gateways to the Othersands. They are however pragmatic and will bend their environment to their needs much in the same way as Humans. It is speculated by academics that had Humans and the Ashan not created the first settlements, that the Umau would have eventually been the ones to do so.
The Unmau evolved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and settling down into a more permanent way of life in one location has been harder for them than it has for the humans or even the carnivorous Iaressi. That being the case. Unmau huntsmen are often the finest in their settlements and are typically responsible for the majority of the meats and rarer herbs that are brought into towns and in return they can rest easy knowing their young are better protected than in tents and crevices out in the ruins.
Perhaps moreso than any other race the Unmau have an affinity for the natural world, they tend to treat natural phenomena with respect or even revenance, seeing the more permanent ones as gateways to the Othersands. They are however pragmatic and will bend their environment to their needs much in the same way as Humans. It is speculated by academics that had Humans and the Ashan not created the first settlements, that the Umau would have eventually been the ones to do so.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The Unmau are omnivores, scavengers at that, and one of the few races other than humans to have an appetite for cooking and gastronomy. Whilst Humans are known for their more nuanced and subdued flavours to their food, the Unmau like bold, often pungent flavours in theirs, a commonly held joke is that this is where the Unmau's particular scent comes from and that it can be altered with the consumption of different food, a hitherto unsubstantiated trend amongst the young of the species. Others say that this preference for strong flavour and spice is to cover up the taste of spoiled or decaying carcasses that they have been known to eat from.
For the Unmau it is customary to eat everything they are given regardless of what it is, as their culture of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle means they never know when they may next eat, to not eat all of the food provided to oneself is seen as a grave insult and a sign that the individual's food is not necessary for your continued survival.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Unmau have excellent hearing and have long put it to use amongst the ruins of the upper city, keeping alert to the sounds of approaching predators or hidden dangers. Their other senses are no better nor worse than any other.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
The Unmau tend to have two names, a given name and a familial name. The familial name is one that they receive from the family they are born into and the given name is assigned to them by their elders upon completion of their first successful hunt. There will also typically be an intermediary preposition between the two names, [given name] of/from [family name]. All names are considered unisex to the Unmau.
Family names for the Unmau are often derived from the topology that the family traditionally called their ancestral homeland.
Family names for the Unmau are often derived from the topology that the family traditionally called their ancestral homeland.
- Tamatox (Great Gate)
- Scytharan (Treacherous Place)
- Ouronoxites (Blood Fell)
- Pentamanon (Water Rest)
- Seleuxita (Earth Fall)
- Shera (Love)
- Tutemala (Courage)
- Eratinox (Shrewdness)
- Ama (Kindness)
- Pera (Wit)
- Eotoxi (Charming)
- ta (of)
- san (from)
- erata (child of)
Major Organizations
The Tomotoxotes 'Wayfarers', are an unofficial organisation of hunters, scouts, and messengers, who have banded together in recent centuries in the aftermath of the Iaressi and Vathmus campaigns to help patrol and keep clear creatures near the traditional Unmau homelands in the region.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
The primary language of the Unmau is their own native tongue, Mauan. The language is notable for lacking any sounds that one would produce at the back of the throat, such as 'k' or a hard 'c'.
Given that many Unmau are raised in or interact with the settlements of the world they often speak common as a second language, or Ashanti if they are more academically inclined.
Given that many Unmau are raised in or interact with the settlements of the world they often speak common as a second language, or Ashanti if they are more academically inclined.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Unamu are a proud people who hold tradition and family in the highest ideals. In Unmau culture one's close family is the most important part of one's life. The Unmau word for family is 'Mitanos' which means 'Bedrock' or 'Foundation'. It is incredibly rare for an Unmau to abandon their family or be cut off from them.
Being a people with a strong hunter / gatherer tradition, this is reflected in their worldviews. All creatures have spirits that when they die must make their way to the Othersands, the spirit world. The Unmau believe that those who fail to do so become the monsters that inhabit the ruins. A lot of their customs and traditions (such as the coming of age hunt) are tied to this in some way. Similarly, they take efforts to remind themselves of their transient nature in the world, often wearing the colour red somewhere on their person as a constant reminder of the blood they have spilt and are tied to.
Being a people with a strong hunter / gatherer tradition, this is reflected in their worldviews. All creatures have spirits that when they die must make their way to the Othersands, the spirit world. The Unmau believe that those who fail to do so become the monsters that inhabit the ruins. A lot of their customs and traditions (such as the coming of age hunt) are tied to this in some way. Similarly, they take efforts to remind themselves of their transient nature in the world, often wearing the colour red somewhere on their person as a constant reminder of the blood they have spilt and are tied to.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
The Unmau are the only race to practice this particular form of burial, known as 'Sky Burials'. In which the deceased is laid to rest atop a high point and their body exposed to nature. Animals, insects and the sun, air and sands themselves may take what they need from the body. When it has been reduced down to a skeleton it remains there for a year, before being retrieved. The bleached, dry and brittle bones are then ground up and scattered into one of the large rifts between plateaus, allowing the deceased to return to the Etaramanatos 'River of Souls' that the Unmau believe flow through all the canyons in the Othersands.
Common Taboos
The waste of food and the refusal to eat what is prepared for you is seen as the gravest taboo amongst the Unmau. Generally, they see 'waste' as the greatest sin that any species can commit and take a dim view of it from others, but it is punished amongst their own quite harshly. A continually wasteful Unmau may find themselves ostracised or cut off from their family, something that is akin to the severing of a spiritual connection to them.
History
The origins of the Unmau are passed down through their extensive oral tradition, but like much in their culture much is intertwined with legend and myth. The Unmau first found their place in the world amongst the ruins of the upper city, small families migrating around following the animals that they hunted, only rarely coming into contact with others to arrange marriages, exchange gifts, and trade. Many points of Unmau history are told by their shamans, who tell of a migration from a distant land to the north, to seek a better life here for their people. Why the Unmau migrated, or if they even did at all, is lost to memory and the passage of time.
Unmau encountered the Human-Ashan civilisation well over a thousand years ago, during this time, the Unmau were existing on the periphery of their settlements, the two groups keeping their distance from one another. Slowly, over time, trade between the two cultures introduced cross cultural pollination between them, and Unmau began moving into the settlements. This was not total however, and there are still Unmau to this day that live beyond the settlements, keeping to their traditional territories in the ruins.
What eventually sealed the involvement of the Unmau with the settlements slowly growing around the upper city was their involvement in two regional wars, that of the Iaressi Punitive war and the Vathmusi War. These two conflicts showed that the combined forces would stand a greater chance of survival in the world than if they stayed apart. Unmau scouts and shamans providing much needed intelligence and support for the human forces. Economic links also strengthened during this period, with Unmau traders bringing invaluable sources of metals, food, and ointments to the towns.
In later centuries, during the Vathmus cold war period, Unmau Tomotoxotes 'Wayfarers', would be responsible for the initiative to keep routes between settlements somewhat clear of creatures of the Upper City, a crucial step in the beginning of Diplomatic efforts to secure closer ties amongst the towns of the League. This would further extend to the lower city where far enough away from Vathmus settlements, to facilitate the extraction of relics and artefacts from the ruins below.
In the past century however, the Unmau have become aware of the gradual loss of several of their treasured plant and animal species in their new ancestral homes. Whilst these species are still present, the loss of them forever is in the foreseeable future.
Unmau encountered the Human-Ashan civilisation well over a thousand years ago, during this time, the Unmau were existing on the periphery of their settlements, the two groups keeping their distance from one another. Slowly, over time, trade between the two cultures introduced cross cultural pollination between them, and Unmau began moving into the settlements. This was not total however, and there are still Unmau to this day that live beyond the settlements, keeping to their traditional territories in the ruins.
What eventually sealed the involvement of the Unmau with the settlements slowly growing around the upper city was their involvement in two regional wars, that of the Iaressi Punitive war and the Vathmusi War. These two conflicts showed that the combined forces would stand a greater chance of survival in the world than if they stayed apart. Unmau scouts and shamans providing much needed intelligence and support for the human forces. Economic links also strengthened during this period, with Unmau traders bringing invaluable sources of metals, food, and ointments to the towns.
In later centuries, during the Vathmus cold war period, Unmau Tomotoxotes 'Wayfarers', would be responsible for the initiative to keep routes between settlements somewhat clear of creatures of the Upper City, a crucial step in the beginning of Diplomatic efforts to secure closer ties amongst the towns of the League. This would further extend to the lower city where far enough away from Vathmus settlements, to facilitate the extraction of relics and artefacts from the ruins below.
In the past century however, the Unmau have become aware of the gradual loss of several of their treasured plant and animal species in their new ancestral homes. Whilst these species are still present, the loss of them forever is in the foreseeable future.
Common Myths and Legends
Unmau folklore tells of a creature that stalks the ruins of the endless city, the 'Saphet ta Eramat', a creature that brings bad luck to those who come into contact with it. Different families of Unmau from different areas describe it differently, basing it on one creature or another, with no clear consensus on what it looks like. The only commonality being that it is a creature that died in the ruins but was trapped halfway in and halfway out of it's journey to the Othersands, so that it has a semi corporeal form bearing the appearance of the animal that died, wrapped in a ghostly ether. The legend says that those who come into contact with the creature should avert their gaze until it passes or be faced with bad luck.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
The Unmau get along with most other races in the Endless City, particularly with the Humans, with whom they have developed a shared culture of cooking and cuisine, and when the need arises with the matriarchs of the Iaressi, who are more than happy to lend some protection to Unmau families in exchange for a continued supply of Dustboar or Rockettes hunted from the ruins.
It has to be noted that they often have issue with the Vathmus, whilst they do not come into contact very often, the distrustful nature of the Vathmus and the proud nature of the Unmau often lead to misunderstandings and perceived threats and insults. One would think that given both species put a high value on practicality and pragmatism that they would see eye to eye, but similarities can often be blinding.
It has to be noted that they often have issue with the Vathmus, whilst they do not come into contact very often, the distrustful nature of the Vathmus and the proud nature of the Unmau often lead to misunderstandings and perceived threats and insults. One would think that given both species put a high value on practicality and pragmatism that they would see eye to eye, but similarities can often be blinding.
Geographic Distribution
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