Long Step

by hughpierre

Short Step	Mytenii Short Step	Hajjinis Short Step	Q'an Short Step	Protilla Short Step	White Woman Short Step	Yulyult Short Step
Provincial Capital	Mytenii on the Step	Hajjinis	Chu-Caan	Protilla	White Woman	Yulyult
Industry Focus	Finance	Religious	Government Seat	Cultural Consumption	Law	Leisure
Capital Population Distribution	1,500,000	1,000,000	200,000	500,000	1,000,000	50,000
Sinks	Mytenii by the Light Ityenii	Ailmere under the Falls Tuq by the Springs Crevine on the Ice	Yo-I-Roq in the Vapors Cinder next to Cinders Plaat by the False Water	Tonda	Black Sons: Murn on the Pile Glu by the Glow Sayil Alal Trotunmult	Tromult Colonies: Zulzult Xioxult Witwult
Additional Settlements	Hamlets: Hoyok Birak Niyoli Hili under the hill Toco Towns: Rupik Hili over the hill Huehuitzil Anatzcan	Hamlets: Wark Chueypeca Esnaq Chayta Kuhki Jumps: Purik	Towns: Otonyo Pitzok Ookeeh Wape Calca Jumps: Pisk'Ok	Hamlets: Yoklaak by the lake Zitepan Yaleah Odah Puna Towns: Yoklaak by the roads Tlolcoalca Alcotzoc Cocuaute Tepanocht	Towns: Tumba Ituuk Aweeh Jumps: Yoklaak on the Jump	Hamlets: Hooli Yaloh Sidi Nascha Moseya

Structure

Short Steps

Short Steps have belatedly been attributed to be the smaller alliance organisations that were subsumed into the larger Long Step at the end of the Seductions Period. At the same time, it is the unofficial name given to the smaller municipalities whose areas drape over the Step like multi-patched coverings over furniture. The remaining short steps have their own zonal capitals that exert powers of self-government and jurisdiction as granted by the overall laws to which it is subordinate. In order of north to south, the different short steps are:

Mytenii Short Step
Hajjinis Short Step
Q'an Short Step
Protilla Short Step
White Woman Short Step
Yulyult Short Step

Slope Steps

An administrative branch that manages the hamlets, towns and other market centers that populate the Slopes. There are several Slope Step offices that function under the scope of the individual six Short Steps in collecting and redistributing assets from the Slopes to the Mid-range areas that need it.

Public Agenda

A political and cultural union of smaller alliances that existed in the Bad Step.

To eliminate incessant intercity warfare
To create peace and provide united strength
To create a powerful force of tribes
To safeguard existing territory and defend against invasion
To expand their territories
To establish an elective government with representatives from each of the territories
To ensure fairness and equity
To end the custom of cannibalism

Assets

Peak Snow

Collecting snow is a relatively cheap means of earning a modest income, provided it does not melt on the way to lower markets. In addition, the snow is mixed with three parts snow and one part wood pulp to make peat ice which is a durable building material.

Mountain Ponds and Lakes

In depressions just above the mid range or in it, many ice melt lakes form from the peaks runoff which is an easy source of water for the inhabitants.

History

Seductions

Before they collectively joined in the Triple Alignment; the seductions was a period of wars and series of diplomatic unifications of various organisations and major settlements of the Bad Step, over time.

White case

What has been famously called the White Case; was the fallout of a highly contentious political election between two families for one of the rulerships. It has been termed "white" on account of the belief in the supposed 'white blood' of the true royals who are so ordained to rule the cities. And lay down the precedent of by which the leader are chosen.

First Vanilla War

During this conflict each side more or less stayed within or close enough to their respective city, but laid bare the distances between the Caverns and the Sinks.

War of the Wedges

A range spanning conflict whereby smaller alliances fought each other on a tangle of fronts. It was unfortunately named 'wedges' for the shape the major territories took before and at the end of the war.

Second Vanilla War

From Mytenii to Protilla, caverns had to deal with an allied collection of Sinklings better prepared to fight them the first, but were nevertheless victorious due to the closed connection to the valley markets.

Grund Revolt

A peasant uprising primarily focused on a collection of town, hamlets and smaller cities on the Slopes with the aim of seceding and forming a pseudo-short step separate from the Long Step.

Jump Campaigns

Attempts by Long Step armies to finally secure the isolated settlements by force. These were only partly successful with half still operating independently.

Third Vanilla War

The final war of the Seductions sought to give a common cause to the freshly unified Caverns and Sinks of the Bad Step by conquering regions that grow vanilla.

Alignment Membership

The Step's integration into the Alignment was almost an accident. At the time, step folks had learned to manufacture and deploy wands cheaply in its new commoner armies. They were actually in the early stages of a conflict with the empire, but before the blows could truly fall; an explainable foe begun storming onto Grave. The realization of wights attacking Sangsalgu led to Sang field commanders asking for Step reprieve and assistance. A surprising request. Even more surprising is that they agreed in helping to oust the Tinged from the Sang capital. In return, the Great Speaker Huecui awarded them with an invitation to Alignment membership.

Demography and Population

Step Folk

An umbrella term to describe the mix of peoples who historically emigrated to the heights of the Step.

Elkin

Native mountain people claiming to be descendants of the original giants who lived during the Red Sun.

Mountain Cloud Tribes

A trickle, then a flood of migrating tribes from the mighty cloud country.

Courtiers

Initially expansionist colonizers organised in heavily establishing settlements on the southern tail of the Step.

Gardeners

Periodic adventurers from the basin who slowly overtime moved into vacant areas in the northern tail of the Step.

Territories

Bad Step

Geographic Location | Dec 25, 2020

Cold Swamp

Geographic Location | Jun 26, 2021

Bad Step

Jumps

The isolated echelons that raise between the peak and mid ranges that are often home to the purest of Step Folk.

Peaks

The very tops of the Step's mountains, sparsely populated and more often covered in snow.

Mid range

The middle height range that stretches all across the Bad Step.

Slopes

The very base of the Step where the mountain range merges with the valley floor.

The Cold Swamp

Wet Wilds

Due to the cold sweeping in from the east and the heat emanating from the Step, there exist a strip of wet land hospitable to colonization by the Step Folk.

Military

Conscription

Compulsory enlistment of the lower social class including both free people and serfs, and slaves serving in logistics.

Mercenary Auxiliaries

Toik Terror Riders

Uniquely mobile units equipped for rapid response fighting from the backs of terror birds. Squads are hired with a salary, and depending on their level of experience can be housed and feed at folk expense.

Flower War Veterans

Battle hardened former combatants to the yearly Flower Wars on the valley floor are ideally hired as generals, lieutenants, tutors to young step folk nobles or whole battle groups.

Technological Level

Wands

Technology / Science | Jan 20, 2024

Wands

Invented in the colonies to be used against the caverns; wands concentrate heat energy through its length and onto alternate points.

Mold Medicines

Technology / Science | Jan 20, 2024

Mold Medicines

A large class of mold, fungi and parasites that thrive in the grooves and provide medicinal value in treating diseases, birth control, bodily enhancements, ailments and in fashioning special casts.

Religion

Centzon

Worship of the 800 divided stars in the North and South skies.

Centzon Mīmixcōa

Observation, study and worship of the 400 'Cloud-Serpents'.

Centzon Huītznāuhtin

Observation, study and worship of the 400 'Southerners'.

Serpentism

Worship of the feather dragons as deities

Rainbow Serpentism

Deification of the rainbow lights that wade between the clear and frozen skies.

Viperist

Deification of a living species of snake that leaps from the ground and between tall trees.

Cintēteo

Worship of a divine group of corn siblings: the sons of the goddess Centeōtl and the god Cinteōtl.

Quinametzin

Worship of the ancestor giants so claimed in particular groups.

Foreign Relations

College of Birds

Ally
Fellow Alignment member

Otoerm Coil

Neutral
Fickle with the trade embargo placed by Sangsalgu

Soonous

Peaceable
Technically at war but uncommitted

Agriculture & Industry

Terrace Farming

A method of farming whereby “steps” (terraces) are built onto the slopes of hills and mountains. When it rains, instead of rain carrying away the soil nutrients and plants down the slope, they flow into the next terrace.

Trade & Transport

Warm Facing Side

Eo Trails

Narrow mud and clay, dirt paths primarily made and used by Eo herders.

Valley Steps

Long steps and inclining paths made of gravel and wood, or carved from bedrock to ease the trek on the lower slopes.

Mountain Blood

Walled with oily black stones with white and graying etchings of an undecipherable tone. These are unmapped tunnels craved through soil and bedrock that cross unknown boundaries, but are a rumored path to the valley floor.

Cold Facing Side

Black Roads

Physically, the layered, flattened and polished hot-rocks connecting the many Sinks in Cold Swamp. It also names the overall trade system by which the vanilla flower is traded.

Reed Roads

Between the cold and freezing environment in the Deeper Swamp, are long combed over reeds of a bygone era that remain stable and clear with little maintenance.

Bad Path

A long windy mountain trail that criss crosses over natural plateaus, carved steps and in and out of blood openings.

Infrastructure

Observatories

A great many investments are made in observatories and laboratories for observing terrestrial or celestial events from the cold summits often very far away from the majority of the population centers.

Caverns

Fungal Grooves

Housed in the deepest, reachable depths of the cities' caverns are grown a rich assortment of mushrooms, mosses, molds, certain nuts, creeping figs, sweet worms and other species that grow well in the damp dark for purposes of local consumption.

Gatte Mouth

The open cave maw that was the starting point for many the cavern cities that was easily defensible and provide many resources in the deeper depths.

Sinks

Store Houses

In their early heydays, many Sinks needed a lot of space within the settlement to properly store and preserve its collected earnings. Usually, they were a free standing structure made of purple salt, but other available resources are common such as stone, grass and earth that store more of the same. Otherwise it was an expandable pit dung in the ground and covered with hides or smaller construction.

Workshops

Rather that sending regular supplies to maintain the colony, the mother cities equipped the young territories (at great expense) with materials it would need for a year on its own. The settlers, as a whole, built huge single multi-purpose buildings that acted as sleeping quarters and work stations (to keep warm and kitchens, food storage and eateries (to keep cool). While the little village expanded, the working capacity of these buildings overtook all others, especially those of the conventionally smaller homes that sprung up around them.