The Kabu, more sentient elephants
Posted: 17 Jul 2021 22:50
A few threads on this board, in particular the one about the Tembo, have made me want to revisit my own sentient elephants.
A quick contextualization: this world is a smaller rocky planet called Suenu, inhabited by humans, slon and a bunch of other animals. I don't know if there are more sentients in the planet yet. This planet is somewhat less massive and its sun a bit more orange. Standing on this world, the first thing you'd notice is that things weight a third less than you're used to, and that the day keeps dragging on and on: you'll have to wait about a month for the night, and when it comes the sky will be a remarkable light show: there is no milky way but there is a few really really bright stars, and a lot of the sky is dim swirls of colour, as the solar system in question is smack dab in the middle of a planetary nebula. There's more clouds in the sky too, and some of them seem to be fantastically high up.
The region where the Kabu live is near the center of a very large continent which has a large sort of olympus mons kind of thing: the air is thinner and cooler than in other places, and the landscape is dominated by gently-sloped mountains and sparsely wooded savannas. pale golden grasses swing in the winds by the road, which is to you looks like a broad avenue which cuts through the rolling hills in a remarkably straight path. to your right there is a Slon: a large elephant with short tusks and a thick, muscular trunk, not a lot in the way of ears and an overall less chunky constitution than the elephants you're used to. he's wearing a colorful headdress that covers his neck and wooden shoes on his broad elephant feet. his voice is deep and slow, and his eyes move around intelligently inside his large head which is as tall as your entire body. He's pulling a simple two-wheeled cart, as big as your bedroom, full of all sorts of large odds and ends: you can distinguish bags of grains and nuts, barrels, a crooked and thick spear, a giant pickaxe with a relatively short handle and a very strong chest which probably has valuables in it. he greets you casually as he passes you by on his way, his footsteps thumping rhythmically.
The Slon are a species of proboscidean mammal, the order of mammals to which elephants, mammoth and mastodons belong to. They are notable in Suenu for being a sentient species, having developed various languages, sophisticated cultures and technological traditions. The slon are similar to elephants in the way that humans are similar to orangutans and gorillas: the same basic body plan of four flat feet on thick legs, a thick and large torso, large head with ears, tusks and a trunk: compared to terrestrial elephants, however, they’re longer-limbed and more muscular and they're alsoo covered in a thick coat of wool. Slon are also just larger than many other types of elephant, at 5-8 tons and 4-6 meters tall, though they’re not the largest elephant-related mammal on the planet.
Perhaps on account of their body size these wooly sentient elephants are also very longevous. It is common for elders to reach 180 years: they just don't get cancer, and age rather late in their life. Unlike some humans, the Slon never fully went for sedentarism: it’s possible that their adaptation to subsist on a wide range of vegetation makes it easier for them to just walk away and find food, though they themselves will often claim that to sleep under the stars and to roam the world is a psychological need that is inherent to their kind. It is very common for Slon societies to normalize or even prescribe a lifestyle of moving around, changing occupations or territories or families or cities every couple of decades, and living thusly seems more common amongst them than humans, whom not infrequently live their entire lives in a single settlement and occupation.
Slon are also, as a rule, kind of matriarchal: at least moreso than their human neighbours. they have, as has been elsewhere metioned, very low population densities even amongst the most productive farmers because they need to eat 30.000 kilocal per day or so. For humans, that’d be around 10 weight kilos of nuts, 20 kilos of grain, or 50 kilos of parsnips. lucky for the slon, they make better use of food than humans, especially of the parsnips, being able to digest all sorts of tough plant tissues that we humans cannot. In addition, they can eat foods we cannot, including shrubs, grass, most leaves twigs and bark. They tend to enjoy fatty, sugary and starchy foods, as does everyone, but they consider various types of bark delicacies, and will happily eat hay the way we eat simple raw carrots or a hard landbrot. these tougher foods are less delishus but an important source of protein and minerals for them: Slon mothers often cajole their kids to eat their bales of alfalfa. (is that a word in eng? wikipedia says it's also referred to as lucerne)
The Kabu are a specific group of Slon which live in this region: they're relatively sedentary farmers who build vast works of engineering, and their lands tend to be sprinkled with roads, canals, dams and tunnels. They live in small villages of six to a hundred people, hamlets really. These are made up of houses, warehouses, and various other industrial buildings (you know, kilns, mills, forges, places where you turn trees into planks, workshops, etcetera). the buildings are generally of wood and brick construction: they will put up thick beams of shaved lumber and build a truss on top of it, or if they’re feeling fancy a vaulted arch made of brick. add some waterproofing, and throw earth a layer of earth on top of the whole thing: the earth helps with thermal insulation and is also kind of an aesthetic thing for them. waterproofing is generally various layers of tar, wax and clay laid out in overlapping patterns. the resulting buildings remind one of barns, though even bigger and quite prettily decorated. Kabu tend to cover their walls in things: tools, decorations, and all sort of things hang from their walls.
The interior of a Kabu home will consist of, at least, a fireplace, hearth or chimney -generally placed in a corner of the dwelling, bedding (which takes up a lot of room, obviously), and a place to store valuables, generally a sort of closet well stocked with shelves and boxes of various types. Kabu will not keep a lot of food in their homes, as it provides a place for insects and mice to live, but they will always have a few tightly packed bales of dry hay, a crate of nuts or a barrel of honey nearby if they get peckish: as a rule, the Slon don't have a strong concept of meals, and will eat or not eat based on if they're hungry rather than if it's tea time or lunchtime or whatever. Additionally there will be a few raised daises that function much like our tables (the Slon don't need tables because their trunks, unlike their hands, are good at operating near the ground: we, by comparison, must raise the ground up if we want to manipulate many things at once). The walls will be lined with paper, and the windows made of waxy paper too, which lets in some light. The ground is often just dirt with some stabilizing agent like wax or tar, but fancier dwellings are floored with brick or shale. wooden floors are expensive and therefore rare, but they're worth it in colder climates.
The Kabu's attitudes towards gender are both kind of egalitarian and restrictive: they have this idea that gender is very important and that it is the place of women to do this and that, and the place of men to do these other things (I don't use 'bull' for male and 'cow' for female or anything like that cause these are, well, people: elephant people, but people nonetheless). However the particular division of labour their culture prescribes is a lot more egalitarian, perhaps even lopsided towards matriarchalism. In Kabu society the role of women is, as in many human cultures, to take care of the family, rear children, cook and clean, but also, crucially, to farm. this was less relevant in the mostly hunter-gatherer times of the Kabu nation, but these days most of the food they get comes from farming and, so, the status of women as risen alongside agricuturalism. some old grandmothers tell stories of culture hero women who in various ways persuaded the menfolk that farming is good, actually. Crucially, this means for the Kabu that land belongs to women and is inherited from mother to eldest daughter (or sometimes split amongst daughters). The menfolk themselves, on the other hand, are supposed to concern themselves with war, politics, culture and crafts: the manliest thing is to be a father to many children, satisfy one's woman, ready oneself for war should it come and be a master of two or three crafts: for example training as a carpenter, builder and businessman (or, say, a scribe, advisor to a chieftain and ranger).
A quick contextualization: this world is a smaller rocky planet called Suenu, inhabited by humans, slon and a bunch of other animals. I don't know if there are more sentients in the planet yet. This planet is somewhat less massive and its sun a bit more orange. Standing on this world, the first thing you'd notice is that things weight a third less than you're used to, and that the day keeps dragging on and on: you'll have to wait about a month for the night, and when it comes the sky will be a remarkable light show: there is no milky way but there is a few really really bright stars, and a lot of the sky is dim swirls of colour, as the solar system in question is smack dab in the middle of a planetary nebula. There's more clouds in the sky too, and some of them seem to be fantastically high up.
The region where the Kabu live is near the center of a very large continent which has a large sort of olympus mons kind of thing: the air is thinner and cooler than in other places, and the landscape is dominated by gently-sloped mountains and sparsely wooded savannas. pale golden grasses swing in the winds by the road, which is to you looks like a broad avenue which cuts through the rolling hills in a remarkably straight path. to your right there is a Slon: a large elephant with short tusks and a thick, muscular trunk, not a lot in the way of ears and an overall less chunky constitution than the elephants you're used to. he's wearing a colorful headdress that covers his neck and wooden shoes on his broad elephant feet. his voice is deep and slow, and his eyes move around intelligently inside his large head which is as tall as your entire body. He's pulling a simple two-wheeled cart, as big as your bedroom, full of all sorts of large odds and ends: you can distinguish bags of grains and nuts, barrels, a crooked and thick spear, a giant pickaxe with a relatively short handle and a very strong chest which probably has valuables in it. he greets you casually as he passes you by on his way, his footsteps thumping rhythmically.
The Slon are a species of proboscidean mammal, the order of mammals to which elephants, mammoth and mastodons belong to. They are notable in Suenu for being a sentient species, having developed various languages, sophisticated cultures and technological traditions. The slon are similar to elephants in the way that humans are similar to orangutans and gorillas: the same basic body plan of four flat feet on thick legs, a thick and large torso, large head with ears, tusks and a trunk: compared to terrestrial elephants, however, they’re longer-limbed and more muscular and they're alsoo covered in a thick coat of wool. Slon are also just larger than many other types of elephant, at 5-8 tons and 4-6 meters tall, though they’re not the largest elephant-related mammal on the planet.
Perhaps on account of their body size these wooly sentient elephants are also very longevous. It is common for elders to reach 180 years: they just don't get cancer, and age rather late in their life. Unlike some humans, the Slon never fully went for sedentarism: it’s possible that their adaptation to subsist on a wide range of vegetation makes it easier for them to just walk away and find food, though they themselves will often claim that to sleep under the stars and to roam the world is a psychological need that is inherent to their kind. It is very common for Slon societies to normalize or even prescribe a lifestyle of moving around, changing occupations or territories or families or cities every couple of decades, and living thusly seems more common amongst them than humans, whom not infrequently live their entire lives in a single settlement and occupation.
Slon are also, as a rule, kind of matriarchal: at least moreso than their human neighbours. they have, as has been elsewhere metioned, very low population densities even amongst the most productive farmers because they need to eat 30.000 kilocal per day or so. For humans, that’d be around 10 weight kilos of nuts, 20 kilos of grain, or 50 kilos of parsnips. lucky for the slon, they make better use of food than humans, especially of the parsnips, being able to digest all sorts of tough plant tissues that we humans cannot. In addition, they can eat foods we cannot, including shrubs, grass, most leaves twigs and bark. They tend to enjoy fatty, sugary and starchy foods, as does everyone, but they consider various types of bark delicacies, and will happily eat hay the way we eat simple raw carrots or a hard landbrot. these tougher foods are less delishus but an important source of protein and minerals for them: Slon mothers often cajole their kids to eat their bales of alfalfa. (is that a word in eng? wikipedia says it's also referred to as lucerne)
The Kabu are a specific group of Slon which live in this region: they're relatively sedentary farmers who build vast works of engineering, and their lands tend to be sprinkled with roads, canals, dams and tunnels. They live in small villages of six to a hundred people, hamlets really. These are made up of houses, warehouses, and various other industrial buildings (you know, kilns, mills, forges, places where you turn trees into planks, workshops, etcetera). the buildings are generally of wood and brick construction: they will put up thick beams of shaved lumber and build a truss on top of it, or if they’re feeling fancy a vaulted arch made of brick. add some waterproofing, and throw earth a layer of earth on top of the whole thing: the earth helps with thermal insulation and is also kind of an aesthetic thing for them. waterproofing is generally various layers of tar, wax and clay laid out in overlapping patterns. the resulting buildings remind one of barns, though even bigger and quite prettily decorated. Kabu tend to cover their walls in things: tools, decorations, and all sort of things hang from their walls.
The interior of a Kabu home will consist of, at least, a fireplace, hearth or chimney -generally placed in a corner of the dwelling, bedding (which takes up a lot of room, obviously), and a place to store valuables, generally a sort of closet well stocked with shelves and boxes of various types. Kabu will not keep a lot of food in their homes, as it provides a place for insects and mice to live, but they will always have a few tightly packed bales of dry hay, a crate of nuts or a barrel of honey nearby if they get peckish: as a rule, the Slon don't have a strong concept of meals, and will eat or not eat based on if they're hungry rather than if it's tea time or lunchtime or whatever. Additionally there will be a few raised daises that function much like our tables (the Slon don't need tables because their trunks, unlike their hands, are good at operating near the ground: we, by comparison, must raise the ground up if we want to manipulate many things at once). The walls will be lined with paper, and the windows made of waxy paper too, which lets in some light. The ground is often just dirt with some stabilizing agent like wax or tar, but fancier dwellings are floored with brick or shale. wooden floors are expensive and therefore rare, but they're worth it in colder climates.
The Kabu's attitudes towards gender are both kind of egalitarian and restrictive: they have this idea that gender is very important and that it is the place of women to do this and that, and the place of men to do these other things (I don't use 'bull' for male and 'cow' for female or anything like that cause these are, well, people: elephant people, but people nonetheless). However the particular division of labour their culture prescribes is a lot more egalitarian, perhaps even lopsided towards matriarchalism. In Kabu society the role of women is, as in many human cultures, to take care of the family, rear children, cook and clean, but also, crucially, to farm. this was less relevant in the mostly hunter-gatherer times of the Kabu nation, but these days most of the food they get comes from farming and, so, the status of women as risen alongside agricuturalism. some old grandmothers tell stories of culture hero women who in various ways persuaded the menfolk that farming is good, actually. Crucially, this means for the Kabu that land belongs to women and is inherited from mother to eldest daughter (or sometimes split amongst daughters). The menfolk themselves, on the other hand, are supposed to concern themselves with war, politics, culture and crafts: the manliest thing is to be a father to many children, satisfy one's woman, ready oneself for war should it come and be a master of two or three crafts: for example training as a carpenter, builder and businessman (or, say, a scribe, advisor to a chieftain and ranger).