“Pod People” is a convenient rendering of apopiapoiopidiappididiapipob, the name they use among themselves roughly signifying “master gardeners who live in bulging plants.” They love laughter, feasting and music. Podlings are lively creatures that live in tight-knit communities.
Short and jovial. The Podlings were diminutive bipeds, who were a full head shorter than Gelfling, and sported small beady eyes, wide smiles and potato-shaped heads. Their hands and feet were tridactyle, and they lacked external ears.
Podlings do not have room in their lives for sadness and introspection or baths for that matter. They are too busy planting crops, communing with their animal friends, and building the rudimentary musical instruments that they use to celebrate life itself.
Their voices were alto in their natural state, though skekTek the Scientist experimented on captured Pod slaves over hundreds of trine in order to create baritones for the Pod choir.
They are not as close to Thra as the Gelfling are, thus their essence lacked long-lasting rejuvenating effects when consumed.
Culture
The Podlings are social creatures that live in tight-knit communities. Most Podling villages lack any real political structure. They do, however, occasionally nominate a particularly venerated elder as chief, whom they call "The Father" and consult in times of difficulty. The Podling village of Noy was exceptional, as it had a hereditary clan-based society like the Gelfling, though gender was not a factor in deciding leadership. Their economic system was based on bartering.
Podlings are an agricultural people, whose rural lifestyle make them revel in their lack of cleanliness. Among their dishes are cheese and vegetables, katyaken-egg flans, gourd mush, dyillorkin seeds, river roots, berries, and bellow bread loaves. Typical Podling drinks included milk, juice, and intoxicating beverages. While Podlings are mostly vegetarian, they would consume Nebrie flesh if the animal died of natural causes. They are pacifists by nature, and will not kill anything other than Crystal Bats, which they dispatched with bolas. They have formed a symbiotic relationship with Pod plants, in whose seeds they make their homes. Podling architecture is entirely functional, with little in way of decoration. Their furniture and utensils are all made from wood.
Their concept of time is so deeply rooted to the immutable cycle of the seasons that they find change, and the hunger for it, to be incomprehensible. Thus, unlike the Gelfling, their way of life changed little during the rule of the Skeksis. They are, furthermore, largely ignorant of anything outside their provincial lives, knowing nothing of the urRu or the significance of the Shard of the Division. Some Podlings, however, aspired to more, with some seeking to explore and colonize new territories or become paladins.
The Podlings are skilled musicians, who use a variety of different instruments, including reed pipes and gourd drums. Being a jovial race, the Podlings frequently held banquets and celebrations, even outside important events, as, according to them, song was not subject to drought.
Animals
Instinctively able to communicate with a vast number of Thra's animal species. Podlings are masters of domestication, an ability stemming from their gift of Animal Soul Speaking. The Nebrie was of particular importance to them, as it was their totem animal and provided them with milk and hide. When a Nebrie died, its skin was used for making drums, and the fur around its ears and face was used to fashion clothes for young Podlings. They had also domesticated the Fizzgig, which served to guard the Podlings' plant tendrils. Podlings living in plains areas domesticated Mounders for their fur.
Beliefs
While the Podlings lacked a religious structure, they were superstitious, and would offer newly arrived guests leaves, twigs, roots and fruit to hold and drop on the floor, with the resulting patterns being examined for auguries. They also closely examined the behavior of their Nebries for omens.
According to Podling folklore, the Three Suns were brothers who once fought over the daughter of the moon. When she drowned herself out of grief, the three brothers would do battle every thousand trine.
They viewed the personification of death as a creature dressed in bone-white, with eyes as bright as the Silver Sea.
History
The Podlings originated in the Endless Forest, and first made contact with the Gelfling during the Age of Harmony. They later expanded their range and lived in peace with the Gelfling for centuries, with both races knowing each other's languages. They formed a particularly close bond with the Spriton in Sami Thicket, building their homes between Gelfling habitations, working side by side in the fields and raising their young in shared nurseries.
At one point, an expedition of Podling pioneers sought to colonize land beyond the Silver Sea, but were swallowed by the Mondo Levidian, in whose intestinal tract they developed into a new race called Boblings.
After the Great Division, the shockwaves caused by the cracking of the Crystal destroyed the great Podling village of Noy, and many Podlings were displaced from their homes during the ensuing Makrak crisis. They subsequently became subjects of the Skeksis Empire, with a few of them being enslaved either as cooks or as court musicians.
Later on, the Podlings came to be seen as uncivilized and uncultured by the Gelfling, particularly the Vapra Clan, who considered them the filthiest creatures of Thra. In some areas, there was a tolerance for Podlings but it often came from a sense of pity, particularly in the eyes of the Order of Lesser Service who used the forceful cleaning of Podlings as an act of atonement.
In the chaos following the collapse of the Alliance of the Crystal, the Podling slaves in the Castle of the Crystal were initially spared from being drained of their essence by their Skeksis masters. By the end of the Garthim War and the near extinction of the Gelfling, Podlings became the main targets of Garthim raids, being taken to the Castle to be drained of their essence and turned into mindless slaves. After exposure to the rays of the Crystal, the lively Podlings became feeble, listless and obedient. Podlings still living in freedom remained ignorant of their captive counterparts' ultimate fate, but managed to protect themselves by dispatching Crystal Bats with bolas, thus preventing the Garthim from locating them.
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