A relatively cheap and common form of indoor lighting in Twowi households are slime lanterns; strains of bioluminescent microbes native to certain freshwater wetland environments. Centuries of cultivation have given rise to cultures that will glow brightly for many hours on relatively little feed (a mix of powdered pond scum and clay minerals). Many strains are unique to individual clans, and a clan’s reserve of ‘moonblood’ is regarded as a treasured family heirloom.
Care of slime lanterns is fairly simple: when light is needed, measure the needed ration of feed, mix it into the culture, and wait a few minutes. More feed will favor a brighter light over time as the microbes rapidly reproduce, but will ultimately dim as the original batch dies and clouds the water faster than their nutrients can be recycled. Good upkeep requires keeping the jar topped off with water and regular water changes.
In summer, when the light from the sun is almost constant and ship’s prism type indoor lights are more reliable, larger slime lanterns are emptied and a reserve of the mother culture is put into cold storage to save on feed.
This is an old post from my Patreon, decided to switch it to public and share here because it’s one of my favorite tidbits I’ve come up with in the last few years.
An introductory primer to a new birg culture under the cut. Project done in collaboration with @iguanodont
Across the lashing grey waves of the Messenian strait, and south of the great equatorial ice belt lies a land once thought as little more than myth. Suhurmv vi Hmascah, or as it is known by people of the West, The Cold Islands. Despite the name of the archipelago, the Islands are just as affected by Hyperborea's extreme seasonality as the rest of the planet.
Inland temperatures during summer on larger Islands will often soar to 45C°, while winter temperatures plunge to -64C°. The fauna, and flora (inso much as such terms are applicable, on Hyperborea Adult Sedentary vs Adult Motile are more useful) native to the archipelago are adapted to these extremes. Currents flowing from the ice belts in conjunction with warmer waters from the East keep oceanic temperatures in a range from 12C° to 5C°. The nutrient rich upwellings mean the waters surrounding the Islands are particularly fertile, and home to some of Hyperborea's largest marine life. Inland likewise represents high endemism, the rugged topography somewhat reminiscent of Earth's Aotearoa- including several large flightless distant relatives of the velocifalcons. In the mind of outsiders The Cold Islands are, perhaps not undeservedly, a Burroughsesque primordial lost world.
(Rest of entry under cut)
Suhurmv vi Hmascah is not a land without people. Indeed, the largest island of Ksmah susc (lit; Honored Sma's toe bones) supports a population of almost five million across seventeen distinct polities, and over sixty spoken languages. As a people, every Shvuumh culture has ties to the sea, being the only region on Hyperborea to successfully domesticated fully semiaquatic predators as a kind of damp hunting hound. The attached image of a Shvihiim canoe depicts the less glamorous above water aspects of a hunt.
The Shvuumh (Most common blanket term for the Cold Islanders, taken from the Susmahk language word for "people". All Northwestern Ksmah group languages use a derivative of a common root for this word) are generally considered the most isolated population of on Hyperborea. Historically this had them interpreted as almost mythical, a race of sea wizards during the early days of infrequent Ss'wassoum contacts. Modern science has confirmed their isolation, if provided no clarification on their collective wizarding capacity. Shvuumh are characterized by several cold resistant adaptations found in no other Hyperborean people, including ice belt nomads. Their peleage is dense, but the outer layers rapidly detach in summer heat. Similarly, their facial ruffs are famously expansive. The only true beards on the planet, and are styled a dizzying number of ways. They also exhibit extensive feathering on their limbs, though during the warm season this is often trimmed to fit inside traditionally leather leggings. Their physical colors tend towards paleness, with some piebaldism present in specific ethnicities.
Perhaps the most interesting trait found in indigenous islanders is their incredible internal filtration system. The Cold Islands are the site of Hyperborea's longest ongoing chemical arms race. Nearly every native plant being minimally unpalatable to outsiders, to abjectly toxic. Perhaps curiously, this has also resulted in a society for which hard narcotics are roughly as damaging as tea or coffee in their preferred dosages. Most Twowi heartland street drugs (especially dream stings) would be metabolized by a Shvuumh before any effects set in. Conversely a mild smoke on the Cold Islands would have the most hardened Ss'wassoum glimmerbeak fiend convulsing on the ground within a single hit.
All peoples of the islands practice aquaculture to an exceptionally sophisticated degree, though only cultures on the larger islands have a dedicated land based agricultural system. These land crops are the result of independent plant domestication disconnected from any other agrarian development. Some can be seen in the above illustration, such as the tuberous looking kskhid, which has both rhizome and leaf focused cultivars. Several cultures on the main island are also seminomadic pastoralists who migrate seasonally from different villages (see Kikram long house for the most common form of multi-family summer home) who graze a mixture of indigenous livestock mixed in with introduced animals from both East and West. Shvuumh notably lack the sex segregation which is the norm for most of their world's cultures. Rather large fusional family groups work with almost no separation of roles beyond some ritual acts in various religious events. Even in the more Sedentary cultures, the notion of a gifter or receiver exclusive town is bizarre to say the least- that would be akin to only using one specific color of feathervane log to build a long house.
It is generally believed the ancestors of the Shvuumh arrived to their homeland via island hopping roughly 45k years ago during an unusual warm era (out of the normal long cycle). Their ancestors were from a Southwestern population referred to as Paleo-Masakkid people, who left no genetic trace on any modern ethnicity of the Eastern Continent. For roughly half of their history, they have hugged the coasts, only establishing static inland populations approximately 10k years ago (based off of archeological evidence). Their histories and diversity have been vast, and only began contacting the outside world some 700 years before the present day with global current shifts allowed for outside sailors to visit them.
By 300 years ago, these interactions increased. Some even resulting in interested Shvuumh spending years away from home as itinerate specialists, or in more sinister cases victims of the slave trade akin to the scourge of Pacific blackbirding. 200 years ago, the spectre of colonialism began to rear is head over Suhurmv vi Hmascah. Suddenly every nascent empire found itself interested in a land full of mineral wealth, virgin forests, and valuable botanicals populated by a people without firearms. In most cases, this would mark the beginning of a tragedy- the first act in a sordid drama of subjugation and genocide.
Curiously, it was drugs which saved the day. The very same compounds which attracted attention to their home also gave the Shvuumh an incredible collective bargaining chip against invaders, as early exports of what were to the islanders mild stimulants resulted in an explosion of addicts. This massive demand combined with invaluable pharmaceuticals have safeguarded Suhurmv vi Hmascah from being truly invaded beyond a handful of port towns. Well, that and the fact that it would take roughly fifteen minutes to poison the entire food supply of colonial armies with crushed leaves. Or just leave them alone for the high summer biting gnat swarms. Truly, living in what most of Hyperborea considers a hell has worked out wonderfully for the Shvuumh.
-Excerpt from Bulakul's Reference Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Cultures, 20 year anniversary edition, volume three
If literally anyone is wondering where I've been, it's because I'm procrastinating and have fallen into the rabbit hole of speculative biology. Honorable mentions are Arrival, All Tomorrows, Snaiad, Nijin-Konai, and Rust and Humus!
Just wanted to share the birg patch I embroidered on my hoodie! I feel like the fully completed photo dosent do it justice because some of the threads have swayed a bit since it’s been washed
