The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

[lurker]

Yet another possibly non-canon post.

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A Bachelor's Mantle is an anatomical display structure present in male tree-dwellers who have reached adulthood but have yet to lay an egg. It's a mane of long, flowing hair that starts on the top of the head just ahead of the ears and continues down to the middle of the back, also draping over the shoulders and ending at the chest, giving the appearance of a cape or mantle.

Like display structures on Earth animals, it's used to communicate fitness to potential fellow sires and dams.

While very rare, a male yinrih can develop a bachelor's mantle. It's most commonly seen in monks who have forgone entering into a childermoot due to religious vows. Lodestar may or may not have one. It may be a sought-after trait among the Atavists. If the male ends up hatching pups, he sheds the mantle over time and it does not return.

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If I end up making this canon, this means that spiky anime hair is indeed possible for at least some yinrih.

[Arayaz]

If I end up making this canon, this means that spiky anime hair is indeed possible for at least some yinrih.

YESSSSSSSS

(↑ not even an anime fan but still)

I've been thinking about hairstyles in a conworld of mine lately too, actually. I can't share my work, though, since it's for Tyuns and must remain confidential.

[lurker]

I've been thinking about hairstyles in a conworld of mine lately too, actually. I can't share my work, though, since it's for Tyuns and must remain confidential.

I got the idea from male geladas. Still not sure about it because it would detract from the more canine appearance I'm going for, but that mane sure looks cool. Maybe I could have it be a feature of a specific ethnic group, like how Hearthsiders have larger ears and different colored bandpass membranes.

[Visions1]

It could work if it just looks like the ruff on, say, a Pomeranian.

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As an aside, I've been wondering about ethnic distinctions actually. I'm also still thinking about the whole clan and kinship system thing from before, since their reproduction just begs for kinship system(s), at least in early years. (You don't see Hmong Americans or modern-day Jews care much about tribal affiliation, but you would see their great great grandparents care a lot. Modernization breaks down these old familial boundries. But then again, in the Arab world, last I checked clan ties remain very important.)
The two ideas would go nicely together.

[lurker]

It could work if it just looks like the ruff on, say, a Pomeranian.

----

As an aside, I've been wondering about ethnic distinctions actually. I'm also still thinking about the whole clan and kinship system thing from before, since their reproduction just begs for kinship system(s), at least in early years. (You don't see Hmong Americans or modern-day Jews care much about tribal affiliation, but you would see their great great grandparents care a lot. Modernization breaks down these old familial boundries. But then again, in the Arab world, last I checked clan ties remain very important.)
The two ideas would go nicely together.

I should really research how clan systems work. My original idea was that, in a state of nature, the childermoot is the basic unit of society, and acts similar to a small village. Nearby childermoots group together to claim a geographical area. The role of shaman originally passed down to the oldest female in this larger group. It's all very messy still.

I said earlier that if young adults have their litter soon after reaching sexual maturity than they'll be alive for many generations down the road. Perhaps a clan pivots around a group of patriarchs. These patriarchs are responsible for implementing practical rules within the clan, but they're supposed to base those rules on the spiritual guidance of the shamans, so there's a power dynamic between the male secular leaders who are directly implementing policies and the female shamans who the leaders answer to on spiritual matters. Eventually the male leaders become mere mouthpieces for the will of the shamans (and eventually hearthkeepers, which sets up the Bright Way's control over society.

This is all just me thinking out loud.

[lurker]

Tod was hatched into a family on one of the moons of Welkinstead. His sires and dams were representative of most Allied Worlds citizens in that they weren't particularly religious. Despite this, his dams insisted they at least go to the local lighthouse on the Feast of the Kindling of the Fire of Understanding every year.

As a pup he was teased constantly thanks to his red coat and black ears. In school he was the favorite target of a notorious bully. The teasing fueled in him a thirst to prove that he wasn't a luckless airhead, and his abuse at the paws of the bully gave him a thirst for revenge. These two driving forces are what lead him to join the Welkinstead military upon coming of age.

While in training he exceled at melee combat, but ended up as a pilot ferrying troops and supplies between Welkinstead and a base at Moonlitter.

The day of reckoning would come while he was at Moonlitter on yet another routine resupply mission. He entered a public bathroom, and there, just finishing up washing his paws was his childhood bully.

The bully turned and noticed his former victim loping toward him with a look in his eye that could melt a cube of tungsten.

"I'm--" and that's all he got out before Tod wordlessly struck him across the muzzle with his tail.

"I'm--" he tried again, but Tod shoved him against the wall and issued the merciless drubbing he had been imagining since puppyhood. The bully offered no resistance, limply accepting each blow as it came.

Tod eventually exhausted himself, and as he stood over his former tormenter he noticed red lacrimal fluid had matted the dusty gray fur of the bully's muzzle and neck. He was weeping.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Yeah, I bet." Tod spat. "I'm not the scrawny whelp you shoved around in school anymore. You're only 'sorry' because I'm a threat to you now."

But the bully continued, "I don't expect you to forgive me. I deserve every one of these lumps." The bully tearfully recounted his intervening years, how he had found faith as an adolescent, and had signed up with the peacekeepers, risking his life helping refugees fleeing Partisan border conflicts.

"So you're one of those hearth lickers now, eh?" Tod growled, then turned and left without waiting for a response.

Tod spent the next few hours restlessly pacing around his quarters. His head a swirling maelstrom of conflicting emotions. He was surprised to run into the bully at this little outpost so far from Welkinstead. He was a bit nervous about the inevitable dressing down he'd get once his superiors got word of his little dustup, but most of all he was... unsatisfied. Getting roughed up in a bathroom was a nearly weekly occurrence for him while in school. No, that little tussle wasn't even a taste of what he had to go through. They weren't even, not even close. But how was he going to find the guy again without attracting unwanted attention.

Then it hit him--the lightouse! He had been blathering on about seeing The Light and other such nonsense. Tomorrow morning was when most of the faithful attended their weekly liturgy. Tod would wait for him to leave, and then... he didn't know what, but honestly he didn't care.

[Visions1]

As for health issues relating to microgravity, right now I have chemicals in the water supply that counteract bone and muscle atrophy, like how we put fluoride in the water to help dental health. Yeah it's a hand wave, or a flick of the tail as they'd say in Commonthroat.

Why not have the spacers put their eggs into an "incubator," that will allow them to develop properly?

[Visions1]

I should really research how clan systems work. My original idea was that, in a state of nature, the childermoot is the basic unit of society, and acts similar to a small village. Nearby childermoots group together to claim a geographical area.

I think that's the right path. I'd add other things to the kinship system: How do we determine the clan name? Is it Patrilinneal? Matrilinneal? Maybe it's matrilineal and matrilocal (female lineage, and men moves to where the women live), but patriarchal (run by men). The Iroquois were something like this I think - female hearthkeepers (yes, that's what they were called) with male warriors.
Consider as well what clan relations might look like. What are "marriages" like - in the sense of sending off a Yinrih to join a clan, or accepting a new one? Forming a new clan? Adopting? What if the lineage is mixed? What if your clan goes to war? If you have extra pups, now what? So on and so on...

I'd recommend looking into PNW cultures, the Hmong, China, Ancient Hebrews, the Iroquois confederacy, Australian natives (so many kinship systems...), Arabs, so on... In particular, maybe look into the Hmong and the Iroquois, and at least something Australian.

Just leave you with a picture of clan mentality, remember the Bedouin adage: I am against my brother. My brother and I are against my cousin. My cousin and I are against my clan. My clan and I are against my tribe. My tribe and I are against the world.

I can only imagine clan relations remain somewhat important for a while. Even today, success in business and politics is often more who you know (and have some connection to) that what you do. Go to Albania or Arabia and it's just clans running the government. (Again, last I checked.)

[lurker]

female hearthkeepers (yes, that's what they were called)

Seriously? I had no idea. I based the hearthkeepers on the Vestal Virgins which is why they're all female.

Why not have the spacers put their eggs into an "incubator," that will allow them to develop properly?

They put their eggs in an incubator regardless of whether they're planetside or in space.

[lurker]

Tod made his way to a row of greenery facing the steps leading up to the lighthouse just as Focus spread its distant feeble rays over the ground. He hid out of sight until the front doors burst open, soldiers and locals alike pouring out and chatting amongst themselves. Then he saw him, hanging back as the crowd dispersed, talking with the hearthkeeper.

"You think you can hide behind your stupid little religion!" Tod barked. He didn't care who was watching now. "I lived every day in fear because of you!" He emerged from the bushes and began striding toward the two yinrih standing in the doorway. He was too blinded by rage to notice the fresh lacrimal fluid dripping from the corners of the bully's mouth.

The bully turned to face him, ears wilted in resignation, muzzle pointed earthward in silent anticipation of another well-deserved beating. Tod readied his tail for another blow across the bully's nose. The bully flinched but didn't move.

Till the end of his days, Tod would reckon his life as what came before this moment and what came after. A tiny voice stirred in Tod's soul. "I guess you're the bully now, huh?" He froze. "That used to be you, you know, cowering helpless in the corner."

But Tod wasn't going to let his conscience get in the way of his revenge. "Shut up! I'm only giving what I got. He made my life miserable."

"Is causing more pain going to make your own pain go away?"

"It's not about me feeling better. It's about him feeling worse."

"Then you're no better than he was."

Tod deflated, the flames of vengeance were quenched. The bully looked up, bewildered. It was as though a storm looming on the horizon, crackling with fury, had just dissipated before it could reach him.

But Tod's little epiphany wasn't over yet. "Young man!" hissed a voice from inside the lighthouse. The hearthkeeper emerged and wrapped her tail around Tod's foreleg, pulling him inside like a dam scolding her pup. Tod followed her sheepishly into the empty nave. She stopped at an empty perch and gestured with her muzzle for him to take a seat. "Wait here," she said, then disappeared into the sacristy.

Tod perched alone for the next few minutes. It had been decades since he had entered a lighthouse. The warm glow of the star hearth shone through the sheer sanctuary curtain, casting a soft yellow light on the skulls covering the walls. He felt surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, silently being judged by those who passed before him.

Then a sharp sound broke the quiet. Tod had only heard it once before, when he was a pup, receiving his first, last, and hitherto only absolution. The hearthkeeper struck the ground thrice with a long aspergillum wrapped in her tail. "Little one, give me the burdens that weigh down your soul."

Fear, anger, hatred, pride, they all spewed forth like spiritual emesis. The confessor sat silently as Tod recounted the bitter years of his puppyhood and the burning rage that propelled him forward up to that moment. Yet he still felt the need to justify his actions against the bully

"So should I just forgive and forget? Don't tell me that he had a hard life at home, or that his actions were a 'cry for help' or whatever. I don't care why he did what he did, nothing gave him the right to treat me that way. And where do you get off telling me I should just let him go because he found religion."

"You're right," she said. "He doesn't deserve forgiveness, but none of us do. Even the holiest among us reflect the Light only imperfectly. But think of it this way, does your anger make you feel good?"

"Of course not. It makes me miserable," Tod admitted.

"So why hold onto it then?"

Tod was silent.

"Healing takes time," she said, "and nobody's asking you to make up and be friends." She hopped down from her perch and coiled her tail around the aspergillum again. "I'll be here if you want to talk." She flicked her tail, sprinkling blessed milk on Tod's face. "Go, little one, may this milk nourish your soul for the journey ahead."

Tod re-emerged from the lighthouse and plodded back to his quarters. His superiors never did find out about his altercation from the previous night. Over the next several months he made several trips back and forth between Welkinstead and the outpost at Moonlitter, turning over the words of the hearthkeeper in his mind all the while. Occasionally he saw his former bully out and about, and it took a long time before he felt anything other than hatred at the sight of him. Eventually he decided to take up the hearthkeeper's offer and began talking with her. At first he would enter the lighthouse only after the liturgy had ended, but soon enough he found himself perched in the back, passively observing. As the hurt in his soul began to heal, passive observation grew to active participation.

Then the time finally came. Tod was ready to face his bully again. He approached him, once again on the steps of the lighthouse.

The bully spoke first. "I'm sorry. Nothing I can do or say will give you your puppyhood back."

Tod bounded forward and pressed the top of his head against his chest, greeting him like an old friend.

The two grew closer over the next few years, and as Tod's initial period of enlistment was nearing an end, his new friend suggested he join the peacekeepers. The Partisans had been threatening to capture, or "reclaim" as they put it, a small dwarf planet just this side of their border with Moonlitter, and troop movements made it clear that it wasn't just saber-rattling.

Tod agreed, enlisting just in time to help evacuate the population before the Partisans arrived. During the evacuation, Tod met and befriended some of the refugees, a hearthkeeper and a monk, both litter mates, as well as a black-pelted farspeaker. They all seemed in high spirits given the fact their home was despoiled by a hostile foreign invader.

He decided to settle down with his friends in their new home in the Inner Belt. When he heard that they were volunteering to go on a mission, he followed suit, eventually finding himself making history as one of the first yinrih to make first contact with other sophonts.

At first he was pleasantly surprised that the humans thought he was sly and clever rather than a clumsy idiot, but eventually he tired of that, too, and whenever people found out he had been a pilot, they would inevitably ask him if he could "do a barrel roll" whatever that meant.

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This little write-up kind of turned into a story in the middle there. I realized as I was writing that Tod would probably have a lot of emotional baggage thanks to being teased and bullied because of how he looks. It reminds me of an article I read about women named Alexa. Bullying is also a sensitive topic, and I wanted to get across that forgiveness doesn't come easy, but that nursing a grudge is also destructive.

[lurker]

This is another post open to suggestions and critique.

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The childermoot is the basic reproductive unit in society. It consists of between 2 to 12 breeding individuals. That number must be equally divided among males and females for a viable womb-nest to form. The childermoot is itself a member of a larger troop/pack/skulk/IDK what the proper collective noun for monkey foxes should be.

The responsibility of raising pups is largely confined to the childermoot they were hatched into, but pups gradually gain more presence in the wider community as they get older. Upon reaching sexual maturity, adolescents are ejected from their childermoot as an inbreeding prevention mechanism. They join an interstitial "teenage wasteland" of maids and bachelors that receives little to no help from the established community in order to encourage them to establish a childermoot of their own. They compete and cooperate amongst themselves as the situation dictates. This second layer of uncommitted but sexually mature adults flows more seamlessly between adjacent territories, although things stay largely "in house".

Adolescent males engage in activities that are considered taboo for established males, such as raiding rival territories and, at least among tree dwellers, killing and cannibalizing their members.

New childermoots form out of this more nomadic layer of society. The new moot will attempt to join an established territory, usually the one that the majority of parents come from. This is done by currying favor with the patriarchs, a group of the oldest males in the territory.

Once the pups are raised, the moot disperses but the individuals remain part of the wider territory, acting as mentors for younger members. The oldest males among these empty-nesters become patriarchs.

The role of shaman is completely absent among tree dwellers, and shows up among the yinrih along with the transition from territory marking to true written language as the yinrih cross the threshold of reflection. Shamans form a female counterpart to male patriarchs. Tree dwellers do not have control over fire, which also shows up alongside writing among the yinrih. Evidence suggests that males may not have known, or been allowed to, start or tend fires, meaning the roots of the Bright Way's monopolies run very deep indeed.

Females, especially empty-nesters, among both tree dwellers and pre-sapient yinrih are responsible for foraging. Zoopharmacognosy behavior is found here, which is how the healers get started. It's likely that the greater knowledge of plant life among females is what allowed them to discover how to control fire as well.

Male empty nesters go on defense against attacking adolescent males from other territories. Sires with developing womb-nests are responsible for guarding their gestating offspring from both ovoraptors and rival males from other groups.

So in summary, you can divide primitive monkey fox society into two groups: a sedentary society of childermoots and empty-nesters, and a nomadic society of newly mature males and females seeking to establish a childermoot of their own.

[Visions1]

I've been waiting a long time for someone to make a world like yours - animal characters, but something... spiritual. These Catholic space doggos are just what I've been missing. I've meant to tell this to you for a long time, and I felt now was right. So, thank you.
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and whenever people found out he had been a pilot, they would inevitably ask him if he could "do a barrel roll" whatever that meant.

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Where does the aspergillum come from for the Yinrih?
I think that for people, it comes from what looks like a cross between holy water/baptism stuff, and purification rituals (i.e. for "leprosy" in Levit. and human impurity in Num.) - namely focusing on the whole idea of being cleansed from sin.
But where does this come from for Yinrih? They have the idea of nobody being really innocent - but where does that come from? It looks like the idea that the Light is perfect and everything else is just less than it (a popular idea for Sufis).
It seems connected to motherhood (what with the milk). What's up with that? Why milk?
And what is aspergillum in Yinrih? And Star Fox for that matter?

[lurker]

I've been waiting a long time for someone to make a world like yours - animal characters, but something... spiritual. These Catholic space doggos are just what I've been missing. I've meant to tell this to you for a long time, and I felt now was right. So, thank you.

One of the seeds for this project was planted like 10 years ago when I was waiting at the gate for a flight. There was a SETI scientist being interviewed on the TV and she said something like "If we found aliens we wouldn't need to ask priests and philosophers about the meaning of life." Aside from being a non sequitur, I thought it would be interesting if the aliens were religious, and that they specifically sought out other sophonts to fulfill a commandment of some kind. How would this scientist react?

Aesthetically I'm also into combining high tech stuff with religion. Stuff like the Adeptus Mechanicus from 40K. They're like worldbuilding chocolate and peanut butter for me.

As for why the yinrih are canine, I had another more fantasy oriented project where there were only two actual "races" with the typical Men, dwarves and elves being human subspecies, which is why they could intermarry. The other race was based on dogs with their own subraces based on different dog breeds. They were inspired by the original canine kobolds from older D&D./ They already reproduced via womb nests at this point, but I don't think the writing claw or the lactating palms were in place yet. They were also fully bipedal and lacked tails, but their feet were prehensile like the yinrih.

The yinrih are quadrupedal and incapable of uttering human speech mostly because I wanted to differentiate them from the typical talking animals you see in other fiction. Then I had to think about how they approached hygiene if their hands were also their feet, and that led me down the rabbit hole of xenoergonomics, which really resonated with me because I'm surrounded by things that weren't made with me in mind.

Where does the aspergillum come from for the Yinrih?
I think that for people, it comes from what looks like a cross between holy water/baptism stuff, and purification rituals (i.e. for "leprosy" in Levit. and human impurity in Num.) - namely focusing on the whole idea of being cleansed from sin.

Honestly I didn't really have a good in-universe explanation for it other than the uniqueness of using milk as a holy water analog. I tried to avoid using kinship metaphors in the Bright Way for the longest time, but once I started describing the congregation as a "litter" it became unavoidable. So the hearthkeeper is a spiritual dam to her congregation, and nourishes their souls with her milk.

I sometimes take a very "George Lucas" approach to worldbuilding, where I think of a cool sounding concept first and then try to work it in logically after mulling it over for a while. (Lucas has said that he often let the art department dictate the direction of the star wars films. They'd come up with something first, and he would work it into the story after.) So I had this image in my head of a mother yinrih holding her cupped forepaws outward as though offering something to her pups. But what could she be holding? Then it hit me that 1. monotremes sweat milk. 2. dogs sweat through their paws. 3. The yinrih are canid monotremes, ergo they sweat milk through their paws.

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I was hoping you could comment on the sketch of primitive society I put up yesterday as you've been asking about family structure. I decided to start at the beginning and lay out how tree dwellers and the pre-sapient yinrih operate, since that would give a foundation for their civilization.

[lurker]

And what is aspergillum in Yinrih? And Star Fox for that matter?

In Commonthroat, aspergillum is <FDrcdrg> /long high strengthening whine, chuff, short rising weakening whine, chuff, short low weak growl/ from <FDr> (to sprinkle) + <-cdr> (a suffix indicating a tool, usually small enough to be held in the paw).

Commonthroat doesn't have a word for "fox" since it's a Terran animal. The closest they can manage is a general word for "canid", which is <qgKqqbcg> /huff early falling weakening growl, huff, huff, short low strengthening whine, short low weak growl/ from <qgKq> (yinrih) + <qbc> (false), literally "pseudoyinrih". So "Star Fox" would be "qgKqqbcp b scrp>.

This brings up the concept of the usual space combat like in Star Fox. I don't think the yinrih have your typical "fighter jets but their in space". Even if they did, Tod was part of the logistics network, piloting a big ferry carrying personnel and cargo. But given his propensity for showboating, I bet he'd try and pull off a barrel roll in one anyway if someone dared him.

[Visions1]

I'm still thinking of what to comment on the soc. thing. I haven't had the chance to mull over my thoughts, so I can't write anything in full yet, but for now, I'll say it reminds me of the kóryos, or in animals, real life crow lifecycles. I'll post soon.

[lurker]

Yinrih are not accustomed to wearing shoes. They find the loss of tactile information unpleasant. Yinrih that have to walk while wearing something that covers the palms of their paws initially react about how you'd expect a dog to react when wearing boots for the first time. This includes donning paw gauntlets when wearing powered armor.

[Visions1]

The childermoot ... monkey foxes should be.

I am not into metal (at. all.) but man that is a metal title.

---

Several questions:
1 - can Yinrih reproduce more than once?
If not, then: 1.1 - what happens if a Yinrih lays an "egg"... and then finds out they can have another? Is it viewed positively (like Sarah) or negatively (like some evil business)? Does s/he stay in the group or does s/he leave? Is s/he allowed to have another?
1.2 - how exactly can the Yinrih species survive if the moot only makes as many as its parents? Do they generally produce more than their parents' number (an easy solve)? Always the same amount (say 8 or 12), whether there's few or many parents? If they have extra, how do they react? If they have too few?

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2 - if you're looking for group names, first consider the difference between a lineage grouping (tribe etc.), and just a plain old barrel of monkey foxes. (Maybe that could be a name? lol.) Secondly, also consider if you want more animal-like names (pride, flock, pack, burrow etc), or more human ones (team, tribe, village, house, etc.) I think something of a mix would be best.

The responsibility of ... their members.

3 - I assume this also lowers the population a drop, eh?
4 - Since they break a lot of taboos, how does this affect others' perceptions of them? Their own self perception?
5 - Is this why Wayfarers have to take on jobs as teens - as a continuation of this practice, or maybe even a choice move away from it? Or is this a completely independent development? (This makes me wonder how the Light Way developed post-commandment, but y'know.)

New childermoots ... become patriarchs.

6 - what does starting a moot entail?
7 - what does currying favor entail?
8 - mentioning the patriarchs, this would be a good time to look into what hunter-gatherer economies look like. I'd look at some Australian things for this - lots of interesting stuff there.
9 - why don't they live together? Wouldn't things be easier that way? I'd imagine they stay together like old couples do.

The role of shaman is ... a childermoot of their own.

10 - I like the development of gender roles here.
11 - what are oviraptors and what do they look like? Are they like evil hummingbirds? Arboreal dinosaurs?

All in all, I like the system. It makes sense to me (it would require large territories and space that's not as population-dense). What I imagine would now be paw-in-paw to work on for this would be naming conventions.

[lurker]

I am not into metal (at. all.) but man that is a metal title.

Referring to childermoot or the post title Teenage Wastland? The post tile is a reference to This trope entry on TVtropes which is itself a reference to a song. The idea is that the adolescents are left to fend for themselves until they form a childermoot.

In any case, all great questions that I'll have to mull over. One thing I forgot to point out in the writup on primitive society is that the men are responsible for hunting. Like with the female foragers, it's mostly empty nesters since sires are expected to help look after their pups. As the pups get older, the male pups go off with their sires to learn how to hunt, and the female pups forage with their dams.

[lurker]

human zoologists eventually have to tackle the taxonomy of life on Yih. The first thing to do is give the yinrih a scientific name. Tree dwellers are in the same genus as yinrih, so they share the first scientific name.

For the genus, several names have been put forward.
Vulpithecus (latin vulpes (fox) + latinized greek pithecus (ape) seems to roll off the tongue the best, but other names are proposed such as alopecopithecus and vulpisimius. All of these are allusions to the yinrih's "monkey fox" nickname.

The yinrih's species name also has several candidates. Sapiens is the most obvious, but others are put forward as well. fidelis (faithful), pius (pious), and adorans (one who worships) are references to the missionaries who first discover Earth. The Partisans object to these overtly religious names for obvious reasons. Other candidates are ignifex (fire maker), astutus (cunning), and sagax (keen, shrewd).

The tree dwellers also get a species name, with ferox (fierce) and horribilis (horrible) being put forward in an (ultimately fruitless) attempt to discourage capturing pups for the pet trade on Earth*. silvestris (wild/of the forest) is also a candidate.

For now, the genus is Vulpithecus. The yinrih are V. fidelis and the tree dwellers are V. ferox.

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* Yes that's right, humans try to keep a creature that lives ten times as long as them as a pet. The logic goes like this: if you get one as a new pup, they're in that more affectionate, docile youngster phase for basically the entire life of the original owner. By the time the tree dweller turns into an aggressive adult, the original owner has died and this animal that will live longer than the Western Roman Empire is now someone else's problem.

[lurker]

The childermoot ... monkey foxes should be.

I am not into metal (at. all.) but man that is a metal title.

---

Several questions:
1 - can Yinrih reproduce more than once?
If not, then: 1.1 - what happens if a Yinrih lays an "egg"... and then finds out they can have another? Is it viewed positively (like Sarah) or negatively (like some evil business)? Does s/he stay in the group or does s/he leave? Is s/he allowed to have another?
1.2 - how exactly can the Yinrih species survive if the moot only makes as many as its parents? Do they generally produce more than their parents' number (an easy solve)? Always the same amount (say 8 or 12), whether there's few or many parents? If they have extra, how do they react? If they have too few?

---

2 - if you're looking for group names, first consider the difference between a lineage grouping (tribe etc.), and just a plain old barrel of monkey foxes. (Maybe that could be a name? lol.) Secondly, also consider if you want more animal-like names (pride, flock, pack, burrow etc), or more human ones (team, tribe, village, house, etc.) I think something of a mix would be best.

The responsibility of ... their members.

3 - I assume this also lowers the population a drop, eh?
4 - Since they break a lot of taboos, how does this affect others' perceptions of them? Their own self perception?
5 - Is this why Wayfarers have to take on jobs as teens - as a continuation of this practice, or maybe even a choice move away from it? Or is this a completely independent development? (This makes me wonder how the Light Way developed post-commandment, but y'know.)

New childermoots ... become patriarchs.

6 - what does starting a moot entail?
7 - what does currying favor entail?
8 - mentioning the patriarchs, this would be a good time to look into what hunter-gatherer economies look like. I'd look at some Australian things for this - lots of interesting stuff there.
9 - why don't they live together? Wouldn't things be easier that way? I'd imagine they stay together like old couples do.

The role of shaman is ... a childermoot of their own.

10 - I like the development of gender roles here.
11 - what are oviraptors and what do they look like? Are they like evil hummingbirds? Arboreal dinosaurs?

All in all, I like the system. It makes sense to me (it would require large territories and space that's not as population-dense). What I imagine would now be paw-in-paw to work on for this would be naming conventions.

1. For now I say they can only lay once. The idea is that if times are tough, they can delay entering the nomadic phase (or delay forming a childermoot and re-entering the sedentary society) until conditions improve.

1.1/1.2. Honestly that's not something I've thought of. I've described litter size qualitatively as being proportional to the number of contributing parents, with replacement rate taken into account. What I envisioned is that individual moots end up with around the same number of kits as there are parents. Some have more, some less, but it works out to satisfy replacement rate (or allow for growth) when you take the whole territory into account. I imagine their environment as being a lush jungle with lots of biomass to serve as potential food, so the major barriers to reproduction are internal politics and predation.

2. "Barrel" is now the official collective term for a group of monkey foxes. I'm leaning toward "shire" for the name of the larger territory to keep with my Anglish translation convention. So a number of childermoots and the resulting empty nesters group into a shire, and a shire controls a defined territory and is lead by a group of elders (patriarchs).

3. Yes, although cannibalism and infanticide are much rarer in pre-sapient yinrih compared to tree dwellers. The southern bank of the river where the yinrih evolved has much more food (plants, smaller prey animals.) In particular, steadtrees and their fruit only appear on the southern bank because they rely on the yinrih to disperse seeds. (compare chimpanzees vs bonobos.)

4. I'll have to get back to you on that, but that's an interesting question. It's only a question for post-sapient yinrih as tree dwellers aren't capable of self-reflection.

5. I hadn't connected the two ideas, but I don't think so. The mandatory retail job thing is a unique cultural quirk of parts of Moonlitter. Considering the customers there are rude enough to cause someone to have a crisis of faith and become a genocidal tyrant, I'd say they could stand to have some empathy for retail workers.

6./7. Starting a moot involves forming alliances with peers to secure resources. "Currying favor" involves serving as "hirelings" for the patriarchs of nearby shires, like helping to gather more food or, especially, raiding neighboring shires.This one's a little messy still, but so far I'm imagining that teens are attracted to the shire with the most resources (best land, most food, water access, etc.) and focus on doing favors for the elders of those shires. Alternatively, teens who are well liked in their puppyhood shire might attract other teens to join into a moot with them in hopes of a guaranteed spot in that shire.

8. I'll have to do that.

9. Yes. How close the empty nesters are depends on culture (both in primitive society and in modern times), but I imagine the default behavior is to stay together, at least at the beginning of yinrih history.

10. Thanks. This is also helping me solidify both how the hearthkeepers eventually take over society, and how the male patriarchs eventually reassert themselves around the war of dissolution.

11. "Evil Hummingbird" reminds me of this image I've had kicking around my head. it's unrelated to this project, but imagine a giant mosquito that drank people's innards until they were a wrinkled husk, like they were Capri-Sun pouches *shudder*. I don't plan to go into detail here, other than to note that there are creatures who prey on womb nests, and that's why the sires guard them. It's not a pleasant topic. I will, however, note that the loss of a womb nest is what prompted the first extant example of written language, which is a dam lamenting the loss of her kits.