[center][h1][b][color=DEB887]Gannor[/color][/b][/h1][/center]

[b]Day ???, Week ???, Cycle ???
Gannor Mountainside
Springtime, 21 C°, Sunny[/b]

From the mountainside, it was easy to see where the morning sun arose. Its gentle shining rays pierced into the caves, where some had crammed in their own spaces within divided using wood and stone, through the doorways of the perfectly-fitted stone-laid homes that sat securely upon the mountainside, which had taken much time and labor to build and secure, and so forth. Indeed, the light itself would expose the array of Gannorian homes that sat about, taking on different styles as the large Gannor families had sought out their own living spaces and crafted them with the help of relatives. Over time this had expanded quite a bit on this side of the southern part of the mountains, and beyond the caves and the fitted-stone homes that were most common there was one other type of home farther down the mountainside. These were a few dug into the hillside, where the stone gave way to dirt, mostly shored up with stones from the front and on the inside and inhabited periodically by hunters during the occasional long treks down to hunt and gather further game and resources to supplement what they could gather and use from the mountains.

"Beeeeehhhhhhh!!!"

Among the Ganorian homes where pens had been set up in areas of greenery nearby, the mighty Ramnor let out a bleating cry as the sun rose up. It was a common morning call for those who had only a few generations ago begun to keep herds of the species. Ramnor were a type of mountain goat that the Gannor had long before hunted on the slopes and near the peaks of the mountains and so forth, each bearing two sets of dense bone-hard horns, thick, fluffy fur that made for good pelts, and two sets of eyes which sharply kept a look out for danger. The females had one less set of horns, which was smaller, but that was about the only difference. Long had these creatures been prey, but in truth the idea of keeping them had eventually caught on and now the Gannor would not be the same without them. Hardy creatures that had high stamina and could provide meat and milk and wool aplenty, through much trial and error the shorter race of humanoids had found out how to herd and move them for feeding...as well as how to set up pens to take advantage of the spots of mountain greenery dotted about the landscape they lived upon. 

Animal horn had provided handles for weapons, simple wrought shafts upon which blades of stone and flint could be tied using animal sinews to make stone knives. Alongside these to the Gannor used clubs of heavy rocks bound together with plant fibers and animal sinews to crush the skulls of smaller prey or smack meat from larger animals until it was more tender, stone axes with which to cut down trees and harvest the wood for various uses, and even used wood to form the shafts for spears tipped in sharp stone, simple bone (the rarest), or jagged-cut horn spear-tips. More than others tools that could hunt at range, however, more Gannor were more and more using a small pouch of animal hide with two strings attached, spinning them to fling stones (which were all over the place) at great distances and speeds. Some even used two of these 'Kfings' (Gannor for 'slings') to shoot at closer or farther targets and protect herd and practice and so forth. 

More so, the meat of the animals was good to taste...even if older Ramnor meat needed a club taken to it for a bit to make it easier to eat over the fire. Even the animal bones, filled with succulent marrow, would be cooked or charred or frankly ground up into powder and used on meat to give it more flavor and seemingly make it even more tender sometimes. The Gannor loved their food and feasts and grand meals, and their inherent curiosity about the world drove them to toy about with things once in a while. Some of these things stuck and became more popular, such as the uses for animal bones and harvesting certain kinds of tasty berries from the mountains at certain times of year, but others, such as using a Ramnor skull as a helmet to headbutt someone else with whilst wearing it, didn't exactly catch on for more obvious and practical reasons. Still, the milk of the Ramnor was something also rather useful, somewhat better for Gannor young and able to be used in a few ways (at least thus far) to provide food for adults as well. 

Still, the rumbles of waking females, the light of cooking fires, the hurried movement of males waking the children to assist them, and the rather standard smell of cooking meats and berries and even some plants gathered from the mountains and lower areas trailing through the air were signs that the Gannor were rousing from their slumber. Soon the entire great village would begin to see activity pick up normally as females ate with their families and began to go about their business, though unlike the others today would be a...special one. Indeed, as the females began to assemble and talk and prepare for the day's tasks of guarding, hunting, harvesting, and so forth, a piercing noise rang out over the village alongside the piercing call of a hollowed-out Ramnor horn being blown into. Soon after, many of the females would rush over to where the village chief's home was...where they knew the origin of that hollowed-out horn being blown was.

Standing there, cloaked in a dried and prepared hide from a rare albino Ramnor, was the chief. She stood there at about a 4'11 height, on the taller end of things for a Gannor indeed, a smaller Ramnor skull sitting atop her head ceremonially after having been painted with blackened soot and water mixtures until the bone turned pitch black permanently years ago. In her left hand was held a staff of carved wood, topped in a white rounded stone tied to it and the staves before it after being found in an alcove up in the mountains generations ago. Even so the chief's ruby red eyes would scan over the crowd, ensuring enough of the females had arrived that could before she spoke.

[color=DEB887]"Long have we lived here, hunting these mountains, traveling its peaks, taking its game, and we have grown much in this time! Yet with the use of the Ramnor, we have begun to need to hunt less so than in times before! Our people have continued to flourish, and now we must place our eyes elsewhere!"[/color]

There was a general murmur among the crowd, but before it could rise the chief put a hand up and the crowd of females went silent. 

[color=DEB887]"Long ago I dreamt a dream that our people would cover the world, every mountain, every forest, and even places we have not yet seen for ourselves! Even so, our people will one day grow beyond where we currently are. This cannot be denied, for we have seen it in the world about us for so very long. 

Have you not seen how the beasts of the mountain split apart when their pack is too big? Have these groups not gone about where food is best found? So too in time, I feel, we shall be the same. Even if those here can keep us rooted, keep us fed, and keep us well, we must be prepared that our families and young might prosper. We must be ready that these lands are not so alien to us that we cannot survive should the need to go away come. 

It is such that I call forth the bravest of hunters, the most clever of our people, and the most wise of our ranks forward! We shall prepare them, and after a great feast send them off to explore to the west and to the east of us! Then let the rest return to hunting and protecting and so forth as the village and its families need, but let one female from each of the houses come forward to serve as we prepare for our people to know the lands beyond this one of our birth!"[/color]

Quickly the murmuring returned, then turned to a general sense of agreement as the chief spoke, then after the mention of these great missions to the west and east and the sending off of those going on it with a great feast it turned into a cheering crowd. Sure the idea of a feast was something big, and gained the crowd's approval outright, but at the same time the chief did have a point in the end that the vast majority could agree with. The great village they had was large, populous, and even if they were becoming more rooted to the land they  like the animals of the world would not be able to sustain such growth indefinitely. 

Already the signs of some crowding were showing, and to look beyond would be a reasonable enough way to find good land to place some of their people on. A second village, as it were, and a third as well at that! Things that would start small, yet grow as they had here. It was simply a practical thing. 

And so the females would disperse in a hurry, a portion staying with the chief as myriad others went to spread the news to their families and others who had not been at the meeting. A great hunt would be undertaken, a great gathering would be initiated, and tonight...they would feast to celebrate the growth of their people! Tonight, they would celebrate the trek of their brave ones to scour the land to the east and west! 

Only time would tell, however, what the results and [b]consequences[/b] of this would be...

[Hider=Events]

Summed up Gannor tech and their very big main village in a nutshell. Introduced the Ramnor species. And the Gannor woke up to the chief basically telling them they'd be sending a couple of parties of hunters and wiser folk out to see the world. One is going to the east, and naturally the other to the west. 

(OOC trying to run into others to get some interactions started, etc, so if we timeskip between turns I could fast forward this to when I run into some other peeps. XD)

[/hider]


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[center][h1][b][color=FA8072]Thugal[/color][/b][/h1][/center]

[b]Day ???, Week ???, Cycle ???
Along the River, Thugal Village (Wetlands/Forest/Grasslands)
Springtime, 30 C°, Sunny[/b]

Standing above the water of the wetlands were homes wrought of wood, standing on rather thick and strong legs that held them up and away from the murky waters on the southern side of the river. Between these homes were bridges of wood, cut and prepared and secured and wedged into place where even the mighty winds would not shake them loose, with great wooden platforms secured upon great pillars of wood stuck down deep into the waters and ground being interspersed about between every so many homes. This that individuals might meet and speak and talk and move between their homes safely, and move supplies to build their homes that the community would assist with and attach to the ever-growing above-water living space that kept them safe from even the mighty floods the rivers would occasionally dump into these wetlands. 

Away from these was also another great wooden platform, yet one that was unlike all the others. It was one with Thugal guard standing beside it with spears wrought of the best wood, stone, bone, and so forth. Upon it was dirt hauled in from the murky waters and land beyond the wetlands, with a great shelter built about it. Yea, even upon this dirt itself was also arrayed something special...growing spores, thick stalks topped in a mushroom cap, and other various stages of the latter half of the long gestation Thugal young underwent before emerging and being 'born'. A sacred and safe place where the community cared for young who could not be seeded and grown the rest of the way in their own homes as said homes were either being built and prepared still or otherwise were absent. 

This was the second of two great villages, the other being the first and built just a ways away north into where grasslands and forest met. They had been the second village, diving the large population into two that there would be room to build homes. And here they had built homes, working on them and learning from the mistakes of building them too close to the water. Platforms of river/wetland reeds and wood and bound by plant fibers had been used to get the supplies out there and get them into place, before more could be built up from them and secured. It was work that had taken a long time to stabilize, work on, and build, and accidents and collapses had occurred along the way. Yet this height and advantage was theirs, and at the center of this second village was the Head's large home where the village's meetings were held in front of each day. 

Guards protected the communal area where young were grown, as well as the edges of the village, whilst hunters and gatherers set out to search for food to the north, south, and even within the river itself near the edges and within the wetlands. Spears were the most common tool for them to use to stab and piece creatures and beasts and so forth that were being hunted or menaced the village, though handheld tools for throwing spears at a greater distance were commonly in use to hit targets at a range (atlatl/spear throwing tool) and had become common for their ease of use and the great mastery of which one could gain in using them in both villages. Lesser so weapons of hewn and bent wood (bows), with a string of the best animal sinews, were used to fire smaller and more nimble shafts of wood and bone tipped with small spear-tips and feathers from birds of the trees attached to the back of them (arrows). Such weapons were easier to make projectiles for, and had been catching on more in both villages to kill smaller prey items and creatures and more nimble targets, though the spear-thrower was still in use at the same time for larger prey, big threats, and hitting targets harder and so forth. In other words, each tool/weapon had their place and had taken a role and niche among the Thugal. 

And having such weapons seemed more important lately than they had been before. There were reports from hunters who ventured out a bit farther that great beasts with two hoofed legs and more were running about the grasslands. It had been knowledge for some time, leading to the second village being built a long time ago over the wetlands and river. Things could not run well in this, that much they knew from experience, and so it seemed 'safer' in a sense. Even the main village, however, had already been sticking many a log of wood into the ground to surround the village, sharpening the tips and securing them and shoring them up with earth on both sides to keep them in-place to keep out beasts. Still, since there had been no run-ins there was nothing to fear, and save for preparing safety ahead of time the fungal species had been rather relaxed about it all. Life, in truth, had continued on as normal in both of the villages and homes within. Yet today, of all days, a sort of change could be smelled as it wafted in upon the morning breeze...

"Village Head, Village Head!"

A worried voice shouted into the home of the Village Head, who after a light grumble stood up and came to the door. 

The Village Head, with her white-spotted red cap and all, was donned in a scaly animal pelt over some of herself, clothing not much of herself as was the case with all Thugal clothing being [i]very[/i] barebones and simple, and likewise a stone-head spear decorated in designs on its shaft and feathers secured near the tip designated the Village Head from others...and as always ready to fight for her people as well as to lead them. Still, her clay-red eyes looked upon the worried messenger before her. The yellow-capped black-striped Thugal before her was huffing and puffing, notable haste and worry in her eyes. 

The chief's eyes narrowed.

[color=FA8072]"What is the matter? Are we in danger?"[/color]

"There is a messenger from the other village, who has run all the way here! They bear an urgent message from the other Village Head!"

An urgent message from the other village? This could be very important as such hasty messages were not sent lightly among the Thugal. Never. It had been agreed upon when the second village was founded even.

Thus giving a nod and gesture for the villager to lead the way, the Village Head followed her over the bridges and past the meeting-places until she reached the rather large wooden ramp-bridge that led into the village from the far bank of the grasslands. It would be here that the chief would see a plain tan-capped Thugal standing there, huffing and puffing as about four of the villagers were trying to help her cool off and giving her some water. She looked horrendously exhausted, though as the Village Head approached she tried to stand back up...only to sit back on the ground at the insistence of the villagers with her. 

[color=FA8072]"Sit, you have traveled a long way in such haste. If you need food, we will provide you a meal and shelter to rest before you return. 

Now speak. I am the Head of this village, and I have bene told you bring a message."[/color]

The tan-capped messenger nodded slowly, letting out a deep breath and summing up some energy before beginning to speak between ragged breaths.

[color=yellow]"Our Village Head...wants to inform you...that we have seen the Iht'mal (hoof-legs) wander closer....to our village than ever before. We desire....you send representatrives...so we can....investigate them....lest we expose...all to a potential danger. That is my message..."[/color]

The messenger coughed hard after speaking, though the Village Head simply motioned into the village with her spear as she addressed the guards and few villagers there.  

[color=FA8072]"Take her into the village, give her rest and her meal. Then send word about the village for our Ki'tae (hunters-of-land) to assemble before my home, but not the Ki'toh (hunters-of-water) or Ki'tohra (hunters-of-water's-edge). Make it known this is an important matter, and they must come [i]at once[/i] so we may prepare for the morrow'. 

So I have said, so make it be."[/color]

Nodding, the villagers (including the one who led the Village Head there) began to pick up the messenger to carry as two of the guards took off running deeper into the village. Soon there would be a flurry of activity as the hunters assembled and such, and yet...the Village Head found herself taking a second to look out at the grassland plains beyond for a moment. The breeze blew past her face and rustled the hardy grasses, yet after looking out into nothing she simply sighed again and turned to go back into the village.

[u]Hopefully[/u] things would not go bad with this endeavor. 

[Hider=Events]

Gave a brief look at the second of two Thugal Villages, this one built over water, as well as some of their tech in a sense and how they get food and so forth. 

Had a messenger from the first village arrive at the second one, bringing a message that the "hoofed-legs" (Takhal) have been noticed from afar wandering closer to where the first Thugal village is. Not wanting to risk anything too much, the first Village Head has invited the second to send help so they can form a party to investigate the "hoofed-legs" in final to see why they wander closer and if there's a worrisome reason for it and so forth. Thugal have no idea yet the Takhal are a sentient species and not just beasts wandering the grasslands near the first Thugal village. 

[/hider]