The Espirillano

See also: Espirillano The Espirillano live in what was once the United States of America. It was decimated in an event known as The Silence, thousands of years ago. The radiation half-life has only recently died off to habitable levels (arguably), and most of the country is now ravaged desert and scrubland. Some precious few forests grow, and water is still collectible via catchment tanks as it is not a true desert climate, only dead land. Rain-catchment is a common thing, along with solar water boilers and composting. Espirillano communes are cobbled-together earthberm homes by necessity, with so many destroyed cars and structural materials left from the old civilization. Espirillano place heavy value in the sun, wind, and rain, as weather has become a vital part of daily life. There is also great value in salvage, because more tires means more homes, more solar panels & lightning rods means more power, and more fuel means more heat and night life. As such, the tire has become a symbol of homes and community, with different clans often using specific tread patterns to represent themselves as the backdrop for their sigils. The few cars that can be brought to working order are retrofitted with solar panels and battery engines, using combustion fuel only to start and boost the vehicles. Even still, the use of mechanical vehicles is rare enough, both for the resource consumption and the risk it brings to have such a noisy prize making itself known to rival clans. Instead, the Espirillano have a rich history of working with the massive bovine creatures known as Uroks . Though also a prize possession to their clans, uroks are common enough that there is little reason to begin a turf war over their ownership. The sun and lightning are then seen as energy from one source - the sky. The Draugrlander's prime deity is, like many other cultures, a lord of the sky. This one, however, features a split aspect for the clear days and the storms. Fuel and fire are symbols of fun, freedom, and prosperity. The more fuel you have to spare, the later your clan's nights can become, for more work and more play. Since wood is such a precious resource, the idea of burning wood rather than gasoline is taboo - deeply frowned upon in the best instances, and grounds for murder in others. The Draugrlands have a high propensity for lightning storms. While rain can be elusive during the dry seasons, the razed wastelands and agitated sky quickly build up the polar electric charge required for lightning strikes. "Dry Storms" are intense things, with powerful winds and an overloaded charge to the air. The skies darken and animals seek shelter as far underground as they can get. Even birds attempt to hide in the low brush. The soil of the Draugrlands is patchy - places where clans or more resilient herd animals have dwelt exhibit enriched nitrogen content in the soil, while places left untouched since the Silence remain sun-baked and cracked to deadly uselessness. It is therefore that places of forest are coveted by local fauna, and species have adapted to live there and take water from the trees themselves if none else is readily available. Lightning rods of various designs are obvious power-grabbers for most clans. The more industrious apply theirs to a grid, to store a greater amount of power for the entire commune rather than just a few rods per house. When Dry Storms come through, larger rods are raised to help build more power, as well as protect the forests, farms, and homes. Espirillano farming is slow, methodical work, and the niceties of fuel-powered farm tools are laughably expensive here. Uroks are frequently used to plow fields and irrigation systems. Also important are the wind-cooled underground storage facilities which house a clan's collected seeds and grains. Agriculture is key, and a certain degree of farm animals are kept within the confines of a forest to provide both game and (mostly) domesticated animals that take care of their own sustenance while providing manure for farming. Livestock as we know it is simply impossible to manage without the tech to go with it, and food stores are too precious in the harsh environment to warrant feeding such amounts to animals. But as the Espirillano say, "The Wode provides." It is common for Espirillano to carry "wet-bags" on their person - specialized organs of uroks, made specifically to hold water and filter it for long periods of drought. Larger uroks bulls' wet-bags are used to store greater amounts for the community in dry seasons. Smaller ones are used for travel and everyday use, and many Espirillano customize theirs as a point of fashion. When a wet-bag is coated in oil and flash-roasted in a fire, the exterior hardens into a surprisingly tough shell, while the interior remains a soft, living material. Since this interior is mostly comprised of harmless algae and bacteria that feed only on the particulates in water, this system sustains itself for quite a long time. Foreigners who have seen the inside of a wet-bag usually don't accept another drink, but Espirillano are quite used to the notion of a living sponge-organ supplementing their water supply. When it comes to seeds, Espirillano know of little else so precious. Each one is a chance at another forest - more trees, more seeds, more trees, more seeds. As such, they are coveted more than any other resource, save one that is an immediate need such as water when dying of thirst. Even then, some Espirillano have been known to die rather than give their clan's seeds to an outsider. Seeds then have their own, separate economy. Trade begins with surplus, and only with other seeds that exchanging clans both can offer something new to the other. Only in extremely rare instances of lesser resource poverty will a clan bring seeds to a Gathering, to offer in exchange for their share of goods brought to the meeting when they can offer little or nothing else. Seeds are likewise a prominent symbol in Espirillano culture - of life, of riches, of good fortune. Only those both extremely wealthy and some balance of foolish or powerful will dare to wear seeds as personal ornamentation. It is viewed as gaudy by most, though it does give an impression of extreme authority whether it is from respect or fear.