Utu (Mortals)
Utu tribes inhabited the fertile jungle valley of the Utulu Vale in times long gone.
Utu faced the natural predators of the jungle, the dangers of the environment, and often harsh weather, giving rise to cults of superstition and of sacrifice. Though their developing civilisation was crude, they learned craft wooden tools, spin plant-fibre rope, track and trap animals, fish for shellfish, and track the passing of the seasons.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Utu did not have a sophisticated verbal language, conveying knowledge through actions enforcing social guidelines with hostility.
Shared customary codes and values
Stealth and security above all were the goals of the Utu, followed closely by unity.
Average technological level
Major technologies of the Utu include weaving wood and plant fibres, crab pots, simple ecology, wooden spears, and traps, including poisonous plants, pits and wooden spikes.
Common Dress code
Males tended to be dressed in crude lashings of corded plant fibre and local foliage, while females tended to wear the hides of local predators.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Utu were superstitious of many things they did not understand, from weather to predators, sickness to land management.
Overcrowding of a population was synonymous with tempting misfortune, preventing Utu tribes from reaching large numbers. This superstition extended to their environment too - they fished in areas crabs were plentiful and found them easy to catch, they gathered too frequently at a stretch of river and found that predators followed them to lie in ambush. This effected some strange behaviours - when anthills grew too large, the Utu scattered fern seeds over the mounds, as they thought the tiny black specks were exiled insects. In time, the seeds would sprout, their roots and bodies would damage the anthill and the hive would disperse.
Larger Utu tribes tended to expel other Utu from their borders with great hostility and little discretion to prevent the malign effects of gathering in numbers too great.
Utu considered sickness to be a sign of weakness and vulnerability. An ailing Utu, male or female, would be sent into the wilds for several days to hunt and kill a worthy beast to demonstrate their strength, or forage uncommon plants to demonstrate their care and resourcefulness. Sickness or predation would almost always claim these suffering hunters, but if they lived, they were welcomed back into the tribe without question.
Offerings of food were frequently made to stave off particularly bad weather, to acknowledge the change of seasons, to lure animals into hunting grounds,
Funerary and Memorial customs
Very elderly Utu chose to wander the jungle, drawing as many predators away from the tribal lands as possible before finally succumbing to the beasts of the wilds.
Utu who could not perform this service took to hiding in pit traps as bait for predators, ensuring that with their sacrifice, one more danger was removed from the tribe's lands.
Common Taboos
Groups of more than 40 or so were considered to be dangerous, potentially deadly, by Utu.
Sexual violence was also considered to be unforgivable, with offenders beaten near to death by the women of a tribe before being dragged into the jungle and abandoned.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Beauty among the Utu was synonymous with strength and plenty as the tribes sought food as the only source of life (water was abundant in the rainforest).
For this reason, females were adorned with furs, scalehide and bone to represent the strength of their partners, while males were adorned with plants and foliage to represent the fertile land they inhabited and to provide additional camouflage.
Gender Ideals
Primitive Utu held firm beliefs about gender roles. Female Utu raised, trained and protected the young, while foraging and crafting such items as were needed by the tribe. Male Utu were hunters, trappers and wayfinders, who were expected to fiercely monitor hunting grounds for any dangerous animals, killing and butchering them before they posed a threat to the tribe.
Courtship Ideals
Utu relationships were open and brief - females would mate with any male who could impress upon them their role in keeping the tribe safe and well fed. Gifts of hide, bone and meat were commonplace, and males often wore floral bouquets that would reduce their effective stealth to demonstrate the confidence they had in their mastery of their hunting grounds.
Relationship Ideals
Utu did not consider monogamous relationships; Utu chose worthy partners and maintained relationships as large as was convenient, with large enough family units leaving crowded tribal lands to settle in a new location.
Unity and family were seen as part of survival, though groups larger than fifty or so were considered to be prone to misfortune as they would be unable to effectively forage for or conceal such large numbers.
Diverged ethnicities
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