#moonfall steppe

[serpentface]

A young drake and new bride of the Moonfall Steppe Horselords (a pastoralist people with great wealth in trade) at the Great Shrine of the Earthmother, where they may pray for the fertility of their union and of their horses.

The Moonfall Steppe is a region of grassland in southern Cynozepal, whose peoples are culturally distinct from the northwestern Singing Steppe. It is home to the Great Shrine of the Earthmother, an unusual and out of place rock carved in the form of the World-Serpent and the egg of the earth. 

The World-Serpent takes on a venerated role in the religion of the Moonfall Steppes, (while she is cast in a more antagonistic role in Crown and Singing Steppe Cynozepali Dualism). Here she is the god of death, decay, rebirth, fertility, the waters, the grass, and the underworld.  She is known by the epithet Earthmother in addition to World-Serpent, as she is honored for laying the egg that is the earth and hatched all living beings.

Most peoples of the Moonfall Steppe bury their dead in great barrows, thus committing their dead to the Earthmother (instead of the Sun-Dragon's distant lunar lands, as is custom to the Crowns and the Singing Shepherds). The spirits of the buried dead rest in the underworld, where they are close to the living world and can continue to interact with their relatives. People here experience a landscape filled with the spirits of ancestors and legendary figures, who may help or hinder the living and must be honored and appeased.

The giant stone that forms the Shrine is highly unusual amid the flat grasslands. Tales of its origin varies, with some stories claiming it was carried there by giants, others claiming it is a piece of the Broken Moon (the smallest of the moons and asymmetrical in shape) having been torn apart in a fight between the deities.

Either way, no one knows for sure who first carved the stone, nor its cousins, the monuments of serpents marking the Five Daughters of the World-Serpent (five great rivers of the steppe). Master stonecarvers are periodically dispatched to retouch details worn away by the erosion of wind and time.

Summary of Cynozepali Cosmic Dualism + the story of the moon theft here 

[serpentface]

Examples of clothing and jewelry worn by the Horselords of the Moonfall Steppe

the Horselords (their actual name translates literally to 'Those whose wealth lies in their horses') are semi-nomadic pastoralists and traders of the Moonfall steppe. They primarily herd horses, and are the progenitors of a unique shaggy breed that can be sheared for its wool. This wool is considered a valuable commodity both at home and in foreign lands, making the Horselords some of the wealthiest peoples of the steppe.

Most of their clothing is made from this horsewool, woven and dyed into distinctive geometric designs. Almost all clothing contains eyespot motifs, which ward away bad luck. Most clothing is considered gender neutral, while certain jewelry is highly gendered.  

Adult drakes who have at least one wife wear thick coils around their necks and curled headdresses over their horns (usually brass, sometimes copper or bronze, occasionally gold). These are signifiers of virility, wealth, and the security of a big lek. A drake with a long coil is certain to have many horses for wool and many wives to weave and trade it for metals and other goods- a highly attractive outlook for a prospective bride. 

It is considered un-manly for drakes to gather in large numbers, as this implies childishness and lack of virility (this sort of taboo is relatively common in both caelin and delkhin cultures, a byproduct of ancestral harem mating system). Thus, hens control the wealth of the lek and congregate at trading hubs, while drakes do much of the childrearing and tending to their home territory (with the help of their older children).