Morellic Culture

Last updated Feb 27, 2023

• Culture

The Morellic Culture is ultimately one of the most widespread cultures of the southern half of the Western Continent.

The earliest morellic groups inhabited the Saarnic peninsula northwest of the Morellic gulf. Here, the widespread language was Proto-Morellic. Due to the mountainous nature of the peninsula, many communities would be isolated from another - resulting in intense dialectal variation and divergence into separate languages.

Having descended from an equatorial nomadic tree-dwelling tribe titled ’the people who will be strong,’ or ‘Uinh Sayamitu Mozelyen,’ a lot of the groups inherit their name from the title - hence the term ‘Morellic,’ from Sarvaran ‘Oin Arayamith Morellę.’

One group lived above the river Salanh, meaning ‘Green.’ This was because of the lush green foliage along the river’s bank. This foliage, out of place for a mountainous environment, was actually caused by a baby meadow - one whose sludge flowed down river, enhancing the soil along it for the growth of algae, flora, and fauna.

However, eventually this group migrated from the peninsula. Due to soil depletion and increased natural disasters, a famine struck the land about 7,000 YA. This event was termed ’the terrible era,’ or ‘Uinh Osvelu Makvenil.’

The migration spanned a decade, or its equivalent. Led by a woman known as ‘Mumo,’ ‘Waterweasel,’ or ‘Oellęlith Mumǫ,’ the group of about 500 people sailed in a fleet of 25 boats of 20 or so people sailed from the peninsula to an area south-west of the Morellic gulf.

The journey was perilous. While the lands were tameable, the seas were uncontrolled - only used for fishing; no Minikin dared to take on the waves but Mumo, and the people knew they had no other option than to follow her.

In fact, Mumo wasn’t the most popular lady. She was known to make little sense, to talk to herself, and to be alone in her tree for the majority of the day. But she, unusual as she was, was willing to break from the mould - to finally take on the ocean where no other minikin was willing to.

The boats of the fleet were bought with Mumo’s food. She, living by herself, was easily able to forage and farm berries, fruits, and nuts without using them up, which she eventually used to buy 100 servants. These servants formerly served the greatest fishermen in the peninsula, and were eventually able to build the boats with wood, reeds, leaves, and linen.

Many myths were formed over the journey - it was said that Mumo was able to split an enormous eel of the abyss down the middle just by screaming at it just before it devoured the entire fleet, that Mumo fed the fleet across its journey with fish that she took from the ocean by levitating them from the surface into the boats. It is likely that these powers of Mumo’s were a result of fine-tuned Alucinarium use, as her powers were not out of the question given Minikin’s ability to use magic.

Sailing south-west over water and then eastward over land, they travelled to what they would eventually call ‘Sarvara,’ or ‘Sarwarą.’ This was the beginning of the Sarvaran Culture, a people group native to the banks of the Sarvaran Lake, where the city-state of Sarvara stood.

Mumo, revered as a Daughter of Stone, was the first queen of Sarvara. Her leadership was the beginning of the matriarchal system that the society and its descendants retained.

Similar to their ancestors from the Saarnic Peninsula, the Sarvaran minikin lived in trees.

While the Saarnic minikin had actually slept on leaf beds atop the branches or in hollowed out tree trunks, the Sarvaran minikin would store mud in their cheeks and build clay shelters out of it. This was caused in part by the fact that the new Sarvaran climate and topography was a lot mushier and less rocky, meaning that mud and clay was easily found at the shore of the Sarvaran lake, and the banks of rivers which drained from the lake into the ocean.

Often, the upper sides of the branches would be filed flat using rocks or other tools, in order to make it harder to slip off. However, in order to make it harder for predators or belligerents to mount the tree, Minikin would commonly dig moats around the base of their trees. They would also build a clay wall surrounding each moat, which eventually sloped outward at the top to make climbing out more difficult; this would also be augmented with slippery substances such as oil or paste.

These clay shelters would often hang from the branches, featuring a hollow teardrop shape with an open entrance hole to the side, and a hole at the top which was often directly wrapped around and attached to the branch. Often, the outer walls of these shelters would feature religious markings, tallies for shelters which stored crops, as well as other shapes etched into the clay.

Some of the richer Minikin opted to adorn their trees with banners which displayed family emblems among other icons. They did this as to scare off theives, display reputation, as well as simply marking a tree as their own.

Sarvaran writing was heavily connected to the art of weaving. The Sarvaran logography developed from sewing mythic scenes into fabric, and was eventually standardised many times for military cartography, accounting, and record keeping.

In fact, many other cultures adopted the Sarvaran logography for their own languages, and it was spread by nomadic cultures who would employ the logography in trade. For example, a nomadic minikin might travel from city to city, each time keeping track of what has been bought and sold, teaching the native merchants the system as they travelled.