Charlotte Turn #0: NARRARATIVES

Area Overview
This is an overview of what you, the goddess, know about your area as of turn zero. It is made up of a series of impressions and historical/mythological information gathered from your people, plus some residual information left over from a long period of your own pre conscious self watching the people of the area. This information isn't meant to be complete, your area is huge and much of it isn't yet inhabited by humanity, and some of it may be outdated or even false, but it is a start.

On three sides coastline, marsh, and small islands make up the world of the Fischer people. It is the realm of the crane, the flamingo, the crocodile, and the hippo. Reptiles, insects, fish, and small deer also inhabit the marshy shoreline as do many varieties of shellfish, arthropod, and insect. Moving inward the people sometimes sight drier grasslands filled with unknown beasts stretching inland towards the horizon. Sometimes mountains or hills can be seen in the distance, other times the grass and sand stretch onwards forever. To the north the marshlands give way to dry shorelines, rock, and eventually sandbanks with scattered palm trees and cactus.

Elsewhere the Trockentreck people inhabit an area that couldn't be more different. Their world is dry mountain, scorching rock and sand stretching away forever. Here and there water wells up from the ground to form oasis' where palm trees and cactus bloom, and around the oasis dry scrubs support camel and gazelle. Dates, figs, and acacia plants add to their diet whenever they hit an oasis but most of the world can be described as hellish. Often sparse grasses grow above rocky sand dunes prone to sandstorm and the only water that can be had is found below the surface in narrow limestone caves, dark, dank and dangerous.

More distant and distinct still are the lands of the Statleute. These people inhabit a hilly region filled with snow capped mountains and dotted with frequent oasis'. Every year rain and snowmelt turn dry riverbeds into lush streams of clear blue water and the fertile soil supports lush growths of figs, dates, and acacia trees. Gazelle are common, as are rabbit, various birds, and mountain goats. With mountains to the east, north, and south, the land drops down in a series of sheer cliffs and steep hills to the west, ending in dry, rocky desert where nothing lives.

You get the impression of a world that is mostly wasteland. Stark mountains, dark gravel, endless sands, wet marshes, and horrid swamps. The sandstorm and the thunderstorm alike bring death to the people, and only a few areas of safety exist separated by endless miles of hellish terrain. The trockentreck and Statleute have distorted memories of fleeing an unknown danger to the northwest that was turning fertile land into something dark and scary. The Fischer people seem to have lived happily in their boats, spreading north east and north west along endless shorelines forever. There is no telling where they came from except that they are quite different in origin from the other two races inhabiting your lands.

Culture Overview: The Fischers
This is a cultural overview of one of the three races currently living in your area. It is meant to give you a broad, brief, idea of their personality and lifestyle.

Every fischer family lives in an oval woven papyrus raft made watertight with tar gathered along the marshy shoreline. Half of this shell is open to the air, while the other half is enclosed in a rounded shell, like a gigantic basket. These boats are steered along the shore and inland through the marshes using large sticks to push against the bottom of the shoreline, or muddy marshland; a method of propulsion that limits the people to staying in shallow waters.

All life centers on the boat and the family. A typical fischer band includes a man, several women, and their children. They may also take in older people who can no longer run their own ships, or the severely injured. Life for these people is relatively easy and happy. They gather fish using nets, and spend time swimming and diving for clams and other shellfish, or gathering reeds to weave into pots which they use to store their fish after letting them dry in the sun. When two boats meet it is time to socialize, trade, and for the young to seek mates and consider beginning to weave their own boat.

A typical meal for the people includes raw dried fish, dried kelp, crab, clams, and edible reeds mixed into a salad. Fischers have no knowledge of clothing and are most active in the morning, evening, and early night when the suns rays are least likely to burn. They also smear themselves with mud for protection when not in the water or safely hidden under the canopy of their boat, preferably in the shade of tall inland reeds.

Culture Overview: The Trockentreck
This is a cultural overview of one of the three races currently living in your area. It is meant to give you a broad, brief, idea of their personality and lifestyle.

A hard vicious people shaped by a land that is unforgiving and cruel. They roam over harsh desert rock and sand at night using the moon and stars not only to guide them from one place to the next, but also to time their journey. Each small band of ten to fifteen people wear belts with pouches containing food, water, and tools. Sharp knives are tucked into the belt, and spears tipped with oryx horn are used as walking sticks. Otherwise they are naked.

From birth the people are tested by the environment and by each other. Success is rewarded with status in the band, failure may lead to challenge and loss of rank if your lucky, and to loss of life for yourself, or the entire group if your not. Food and water are shared based on what you think you can get in return for what you've hunted or gathered. Help in a future hunt, sex, a well carved knife, guidance and wisdom. The most respected person for a given skill has a lot of power, and the most respected skills are related to hunting, gathering, timing the journey, and locating the destination.

These are a lean, conservative people. They don't have a lot of leeway for mistakes or for trying something new that might not work and could get them all killed. They shiver at night without fire, keeping warm with constant motion, and bury themselves in the sand during the day, or in dank wet caves to avoid being burnt or baked by the harsh desert sun. They time their journeys against what they think other bands are doing trying not to all show up in the same spot at the same time. If a few arrive at once trade, competition, and mating happen, if TOO many show up they must fight for scant supplies. Nothing is wasted. If your too old and sick are killed as a mercy and to ensure the survival of the group. The dead are eaten. Better to be eaten by a friend they say than to be eaten by the fox, hyena, jackal, or sand cat.

Culture Overview: The Statleute
This is a cultural overview of one of the three races currently living in your area. It is meant to give you a broad, brief, idea of their personality and lifestyle.

The Statleute live in a world of perfect rhythm and harmony. Everything has it's proper place and everything is in it's proper place. When that harmony is broken the desert moves in and the people die. Men live above the desert, and below the mountains. They hunt gazelle, oryx, and mountain goats. They build protective courtyards to keep their families safe at night from sand cats, hyena, and other predators. Warm fires keep away the night chill and ward the open doorways to their compounds. Women tend and bear the children, and spend their days gathering dates, figs, and acacia nuts. Children learn how to become men and women.

Everyone has their place in society. Men rule over women, and the old rule over the young. Under this strict hierarchy the people live together in villages of related clans who share food, water, and status with one another. When a village grows too large it splits into two villages and builds new structures nearby. Yet eventually this generations cousins become the next generations distant relatives, and the generation after that are hated enemies. This is because every village competes with the others for resources, and if a village grows to large it needs space to settle it's own children in, often space claimed by someone else.

The only point of peace between villages are the compounds built between them to house the very old who can no longer fight, hunt, or gather. In these villages of sacred truce the people come together to trade, arrange marriages between villages, learn from the elders, and settle disputes. All villages feed the elders for if it becomes clear that any village in the area shirks it's duties the elders can amass the forces of all others against them, these are the living ancestors, and their words tell the people how things have always been. Without them you do not know where the dry riverbeds are, how the rains come, or where the snow melts are, which oasis' are steady and which ones shift their locations over time.

Typical meals amongst the people are cooked meat and fruit dishes. Cooking is very primitive, to the point of not even being included as a science yet, and often the cooked meat is raw inside and charred outside, but the people get by. They store food in clay jars to preserve it, and it works to some extent.

A typical statleut compound is a square structure made of blue and black glazed bricks set in attractive patterns. Square pillars of clay brick support palm frond roofs which don't go very far in because the people have no real roofing technology beyond simply covering over the top with sticks and fronds. The center of the structure has the fire, and trash and refuse surround that central meeting area. Near the walls lay pots filled with food stuffs, the personal possessions of the villagers, and the clear sand that serves as their bedding.

Both men and women go naked at all times and sport dark tans from constant exposure to the desert sun and scouring sandstorms. Women tend to travel in groups carrying heavy clay pots to hold the fruits and nuts they gather, men tend to use stone tipped spears as walking sticks. Both men and women braid their hair to keep it out of their faces.