Muscarian

Muscarians are one of two species living in the mycelium forests, with a bright, social culture and unwavering loyalty to and belief in one another. To the muscarians, if an individual is struggling, it is not their own failing, but the failing of the society around them. They believe that they must uplift one another in order to reach true success. They are at odds with the atramentarians, who are more isolationist and individualist. Muscarians are known for being kind, welcoming, and supportive, both to their own and to outsiders, and hold the strong belief that all individuals are equal.

Anatomy

Muscarians are shorter sapients, typically only reaching up to three feet in height. They have 'caps' atop their heads, wide hat-like domes with a bright red colouring, with small white dots across it. Below this cap is a 'ring', a thin veil-like part of their bodies that ends just above their eyes, though particularly long ones can cover the eyes entirely. The ring can be trimmed without harming the muscarian or causing any pain, and often must be done to prevent it from blocking vision. Muscarians have wide, black eyes that are proportionally larger in comparison to their faces than most other species. They have short limbs emerging from their sides that they can extend or retract, and they have four cone-shaped legs that they use to move.

Civilization and Culture

Gender Ideals

Muscarians, though they do sometimes refer to themselves with gendered terms, have a looser connection to gender than most cultures. To them, gender is simply a method of self-expression, and does not fit into the neat boxes that some like to put them in. They don't put words to their gender experiences, strongly believing that every individual experiences gender their own way. As such, all gender terms in the muscarians' language are loan words from other languages.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Muscarians speak a language known as Agaric, which incorporates both spoken phonemes as well as spores selectively released during speech. They can emit sound from anywhere on their bodies, and are skilled ventriloquists - able to project their voices to sound as though they are coming from different places.

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Lifespan

30-50 years

Average Height

2-3 feet

Geographic Distribution

• Mycelium Forests

Common Etiquette Rules

The conflict between the muscarians and the atramentarians emerged due to conflicts in the core beliefs of each culture. In muscarian culture, it is polite and incredibly important to offer help to anyone who appears to be struggling. To a muscarian, the worst possible thing is to see someone struggling and to then pass by, uncaring for their plight. Whether or not an individual is suited to helping another with their specific problem is irrelevant to them. If they offer help, and it is accepted, they can then move on to finding a way to actually help. Likewise, a muscarian knows never to refuse help. To refuse help is to remove oneself from their community. To insist on doing a monumental task alone is to say that they don't believe in the rest of the community to be able to help them, and as such, is to push away the community that is offering care and support to them.
Furthermore, muscarians believe that every individual has unique potential, but that potential can only be reached with proper support from one's community. All muscarians are equal, and all muscarians have a responsibility to support one another in their endeavours.

Atramentarians, on the other hand, have a culture that values individual accomplishments. A coming-of-age rite of their culture is for a youth to undertake a difficult task or challenge, and then see it through to completion. To offer help to a person undergoing this ritual is to insult them to their face, to say that you don't believe in their ability to complete their task. Atramentarians have no qualms refusing help, and will only accept it in the most extreme circumstances. To accept help means to share your accomplishment with another, which thus means you are devaluing yourself.
In addition, atramentarians separate their communities by accomplishments. Someone who has accomplished more things than another is in higher social standing. Their leaders are those who have many feats across their lifetime, and are seen as wise and great. Those who rely on the rest of their community to function or survive are looked down upon, and independence is a virtue.

When muscarians and atramentarians attempted to co-habitate some of the nicer areas of the forests, these cultural differences, as well as some ideological differences, led to many clashes and much tension between the two cultures. Atramentarians would take it as an insult when a muscarian would offer them help unprompted, and muscarians would be hurt when an atramentarian refused their help. The muscarians also saw the social structures of the atramentarians as elitist and exclusionary, and disagreed with their social heirarchies.