Highstrung Harlequin

 lore

General

Mirn are living plants made animate by magic that demigods (that's you, the player!) don’t yet understand. They can grow their bodies into any shape they desire, though they prefer humanoid shapes to mimic the demigods they see in their dreams. There are three thus-far-catalogued types based on their tails; needletail, tailmouth, and glowtail. These tails grow from the base of the skull like a second spine, vary wildly in length and appearance within their categories, and are almost always heavily decorated. Needletails and tailmouths can connect with host trees of similar type to the individual mirn to gain sustenance when starving or aid in healing when ill or wounded.

Tail Types

• NEEDLETAIL

Needletails are the most common of the tail types and are less destructive than tailmouths when connecting to the roots of a host tree. However, needletail mirn are more susceptible to illness if the host tree harbors an illness of its own. At birth, the needle is small and rather dull, making it difficult for younger children to connect until the needle lengthens and sharpens. Over time, a hard, conical shell grows over the needle to protect it from snapping that the needle can extend from and retract into. Shells are often permanently carved with intricate designs as mirn grow into adulthood.

• TAILMOUTH

Tailmouths, on the other hand, almost always destroy the host tree and are considered the “garbage disposals” of mirnic tribes. They’re often tasked with clearing dead and dying trees around villages. There’s some speculation to the intelligence of the tail, as they can be trained in very simple tasks (often combat-related, as most tailmouths end up in protector and warrior professions), but most tailmouths insist they’re dumb as rocks when not being actively controlled by the host mirn. They have an insatiable instinct to bite whatever is directly in front of them, which definitely leads to accidents.

• GLOWTAIL

Glowtails are the rarest of the tail types by far. They’re also the most fragile due to their inability to connect to host trees when in crisis and their resistance to light therapy when ill. Old glowtails are particularly revered for their fortitude and health. That said, because their tails are most often filled with white light, they’re perfect for nurturing other plantlife and mirn, making them very valuable assets in their tribes. As glowtails age, a shell similar to the one that needletails grow slowly encompases the light globe, but like needletails, the shells are intricately carved to allow light to show through.

Gender Expression

Mirn are biologically monogender, as all mirn can produce viable seedlings, but culturally polygender to match the demigod appearances they see in their dreams. Due to their astounding ability to morph body shape and skin patterning over time as desired, body types and markings are extremely diverse. Body type “trends” flow through tribes much like clothing fashion, and gender stereotypes don’t really exist (tail type stereotypes do, though).

Birth

Due to the difficulty on primary parents and heavy community involvement, births are rare and precious events. The primary parent will connect their tails to the largest, healthiest, strongest tree they can find nearby, called the birthing tree, as they will be sustained by the tree to grow a sapling in a birthing pot that will gain consciousness over time. When multiple parents wish to be involved in the genetics of a child, parent mirn will cut off parts of their own bodies to graft onto the seedling, which is not a painless process. The primary parent goes into a trancelike state for seven months and receives all nutrition from the birthing tree, which is maintained by the community to ensure the survival of parent and child. Often, communities organize births in batches, called copses, so children have peers to grow up with. Copses often stick together into old age and treat one another like extended family. Infants live in their birthing pots, which are heavily decorated and often kept for life, until their legs are thick enough to support their weight. Once they're around toddler age, they detach from the birth sapling and continue to grow in a manner similar to demigods (rough adolescence included). It’s not uncommon for children to grow themselves into weird shapes as they age and explore what they can do with their bodies. These phases are often drawn by artists in the family for later embarrassment purposes, as is to be expected.

Death

When mirn begin to have trouble consuming meat, it’s a sign that the end is near. A death ceremony is held to celebrate the life of the mirn and the dying is taken either to the local bank, which very often doubles as the local grave grove due to the dangerous nature of the job, or a secret familial grove to take root and grow into a true tree. Loss of consciousness usually take a month, so the grove will often serve as a second home until the dying mirn is no longer responsive to outside stimuli. Grave grove trees, both mirnic and regular, are extensively carved and decorated to celebrate the life of those who have come before, but since they’re usually off the beaten path and fairly dangerous to travel to alone, they aren’t often stumbled across.

Diet and Light

The mirn are omnivorous so they can meet the energy requirements for demigod-like movement. Meat makes up a significant portion of their physically eaten diet, and the inability to properly consume it anymore is a sign that death looms on the horizon. However, they are still plants, so synthesized light is a hugely important part of a healthy mirnic diet. In addition, different color wavelengths can induce different things, much like consuming various substances can affect demigods in various ways.

• NUTRITIONAL

Nutritional lights fall in the yellow and orange spectrums, as well as encompassing pure white light. Glim seed plants emit light in these spectrums and are colloquially called “snack lamps.” They’re common in restaurants and households alike to promote good health and mood. They also produce the coveted glim seeds used as currency across mirnic tribes, though care must be taken by those who tend these groves of glim seed plants, as an overabundance of nutritional light can lead to sudden death.

• MEDICINAL

Medicinal lights fall in the green and ultraviolet spectrums, as well as encompassing pure white light. Light therapy is used to promote self-healing and avoid tree attachment to heal, which comes with its own risks, but the benefits of light therapy diminish as wounds and illnesses get more severe. Glowtails are particularly resistant to light therapy, most likely because they’re immersed in the light of their tails much more often than other mirn.

• RECREATIONAL

Recreational hues fall in the red, violet, and blue spectrums and are used to influence mood, usually worn as glowing jewelry. Glowtails with tails in these hues are very rare, but when it happens, they almost always cover their tails with veils out of respect to those around them. Red rays are stimulants, blue rays are depressants, and violet rays are euphorics.

Economics

Glim seeds are the currency of choice of mirnic tribes across the valley. These small, jelly-like golden orbs are nigh indestructible and grow wild in seed pods deep in the swamps, surrounded by truly gargantuan predators and who knows what else, as well as high on cliffsides, drawing daredevils to attempt reaching them before choking on the deadly air high above the treetops. They give off nutritional light waves except for the weeks immediately following glim seed harvest every year, and whole plants are just as, if not more, valuable as the seeds they produce.

Mirn have discovered, using the limited plant magic that most of them possess, how to simulate the humid jungle environment that is optimal for glim seed growth, and thus have set up glim seed “banks” in most tribes. A vast portion of the plants grown in the local bank are owned by the tribe and managed by the Temple of the Sun. These plants and their seeds are used to grow the bank reserves and pay workers who do jobs for the benefit of the whole community, the Temple, or jobs approved by the Temple. In addition, banks also make sure every family is supplied with one snack lamp to promote good health and nutrition to everyone in the household free of charge.

Individual mirn who bring back seeds are logged with the local bankers and given their own section in the bank, and at annual harvest are given the glim seeds to use for whatever purpose the owning mirn deems necessary. Due to the danger of adventuring, this is fairly rare, though all children dream of hitting it big. Most mirn who have their own sections of the bank end up becoming reclusive to protect their precious troves of glim seeds, so wealth is a double-edged sword.

The very large caveat to all this is that growing glim seed plants is an extremely hazardous job. The sheer amount of nutritional light waves emanating from the abundance of plants can and does cause mirn to spontaneously lose consciousness and take root, i.e. suddenly die, which means that banks often double as local grave groves and are heavily protected both as economic hubs and beloved cemeteries. This means that bankers hold very revered roles in the community and want for nothing. Housing, food, absolutely anything they wish for is provided by the community free of cost in exchange for offering their lives for commerce and care of loved ones. Banking usually follows family lines and is seen as more of a life calling than a profession, and to turn a banker down for anything within reason is nigh on taboo.

Day-to-day economic transactions between middle and lower-class mirn are usually carried out with more practical barter systems or with single glim seeds earned from household snack lamps. It’s rare for a mirn to be completely destitute given the small size of tribes and the social nature of the species, so those who live without are usually doing so either by choice or have been shunned for some reason or another.

Religion

All mirn worship light to some extent, with some going so far as to dedicate themselves to certain spectrums. Most simply worship the sun with small shrines and offerings at crossroads or specially dedicated areas in the household. All tribes also have a Temple of the Sun populated by varying numbers of Priestesses of the Sun and their attendants to carry out day-to-day religious duties.

All mirn also at least believe in, if not necessarily worship, the nameless and countless demigods that they see in their dreams. Visual culture is greatly influenced by these shared visions, right down to fashion trends and body types. Mirn wishing for more out of life can pledge themselves to the demigods by offering themselves to the local Priestesses, who are all pledged to the demigods as part of their rites and act as a conduit between demigods and mirn due to their born ability to directly hear the voices of their pledged demigod. Because of this, Priestesses of the Sun take a vow of silence to protect demigod secrets. Though the presence of demigods is imperceptible in the waking world, it’s possible to track their influence through mirnic history, as pledged mirn, while often having lives of hardship, more often accomplish truly extraordinary things.

the great basin

The mirn are settled in the aptly named Great Basin, surrounded by sheer cliff faces and mountainsides that support a massive forest with astonishing biodiversity, which is likely encouraged by the existence of the mirn themselves. Though they've technologically and magically developed far enough to scale the cliffs, the air above the mountains is extremely toxic and quick to kill mirn who dare to venture too high. It's thought that the extreme biodiversity of the forests below act as a basin-wide filter that removes the toxins, making the basin itself habitable. The rare mirn who has multiple tree types grafted into their bodies during their birth, called amalgam mirn, tend to fair better at higher altitudes, supporting the theory. Efforts continue to construct artificial filters so the mirn can explore beyond the Great Basin's boundaries, but it's a slow-moving process and will likely be some time before any real progress is made.

thunderfall

General

Thunderfall is pretty representative of the Great Basin as a whole and one of the more appealing regions to live in due to the abundance of water provided by the storms frequently passing over Thunder Point to the north. It covers the whole southwestern region of the Great Basin, including Sunrise nestled in the southwest corner. High concentrations of crystal and mineral deposits in the area lead to an unusually high proliferation of crystal integration into newborn mirn. In recent years, the wildlife has gotten a lot more amiable and oddly partial to pastry.

Areas Of Interest

• SUNRISE

Because tribes are so isolated from one another, cultures can vary from tribe to tribe outside of the generalities. Sunrise is a little more isolated than most because of their unique connection with the fauna surrounding the village and most tribes' unwillingness to test that connection. No one but Solette is entirely sure what creatures are guardians and what creatures are just general wildlife, and she’s certainly not telling. That combined with being deeper in the forest than many tribes dare venture and having their backs to the mountains puts them in an easily defensible position, so her village isn’t a popular target in inter-tribal squabbling.Speaking of wildlife, ever since Solette returned with a host of pets of her own from her adventures, adoption of local wildlife became wildly popular. She enacted laws on care and ownership once she realized that the trend wasn’t going away, and fauna quickly worked its way into daily life. With infusions of magic from Solette, the growth of creatures could be influenced, and many menial, common tasks could be delegated to the new members of the tribe. Though none of the surrounding animals could ever play a game of chess with a mirn, some could harbor surprising intelligence, making many breeds of creature popular as household pets, adventuring companions, or battle mounts.Another quirk of the tribe is the abundance of crystal limbs. Many strong and healthy trees exist near a local mineral deposit, making the area a popular location for birthing copses. Sometimes, minerals in the soil build up in the seedling, leading to an interesting mutation where limbs are made of oddly mobile crystal instead of skin and bone. While rare, it doesn’t seem to harm the resulting children any, so the area hasn’t been forbidden as a birthing location.

• THUNDER POINT

Named for the near-constant storms that roll overhead, Thunder Point is a majestic spur of cliff that juts out into the Great Basin and divides the Thunderfall region from the hazards of the Deep Swamps to the north.

• STORM LAKE

Fed by cascading water from the near-constant storms over Thunder Point, Storm Lake sits at the bottom of a handful of waterfalls. It’s a safe area well-suited to fishing, boating, and otherwise relaxing within a day’s journey of the village, and some mirn choose to make their homes on the shore and travel frequently between there and Sunrise proper.

The Southern Forests

General

The Southern Forests are wide stretch of unbroken woodland with precious little in the way of established paths or settlements. As the lovepeep flies, from Sunrise in the west to the Shelf in the east, it would take several days’ walk to cross, but the thickness and general unpredictability of the undergrowth make straightforward travel a treacherous endeavor. Forest denizens abound, some hungrier and larger than others.

Areas Of Interest

• BLACKGLASS LAKE

A moderately sized lake in the approximate center of the region. Don’t think it’s a safe haven, as it’s quite deep and may hide any number of things in its depths! There’s rumored to be a wild stand of glim trees somewhere nearby.

the shelf

General

The fittingly named Shelf is a plateau elevated significantly above the rest of the Great Basin, though not high enough for the air to be hazardous to those who live there on a regular basis. Nevertheless, travelers may find the elevation a little unsettling. There’s a sweeping view from the edge that lets you look out over most of the basin’s treetops, and more areas of sunny open grassland than are typically found lower in the basin. Access is difficult except via a narrow switchback path painstakingly carved into the rock by past generations of mirn, and as a result the area is quite safe and controlled with few large natural predators.... except those that blow in on the semi-frequent storms.

Areas Of Interest

• SKYTOUCHED HEIGHTS

The mirn of the Heights enjoy a relatively high standard of living thanks to the security of their plateau, but pay the consequences of having to adapt to the slightly toxic air and can find the basin’s floor overwhelming as a result. Bold individuals often make a living climbing dangerously high on the cliff faces in pursuit of the wild glim trees that grow there.

hollow lake

General

Located in the approximate center of the basin, Hollow Lake is considered a hub for travelers and a relatively easy landmark to locate due to its lack of tall trees. The shallower waters of the lake are considered fairly safe, but the depths remain unexplored. To the east of the lake, there are relatively safe forests followed by a wide area of grasslands that slopes up to the basin’s edge.

Areas Of Interest

• HOLLOW VILLAGE

Hollow Village is located on a small island at the southern end of the lake, well-protected from the creatures of the deep forests around it and accessible by boat. Due to the regular traffic passing through from all corners of the Great Basin, the population here is diverse and tends to stay neutral in inter-community conflicts. You can find all sorts of rare and unusual trade goods here, and the market has a little bit of everything.

• STUMPHOLLOW

Near the middle of the lake, the ancient remains of a long-dead giant tree protrude from the water. New trees have taken root here, making the place verdant and green, and it’s seen as a symbol of the sun’s restorative and life-giving power in the face of death. There’s been a small enclave of Priestesses of the Sun living in the upper reaches of the stump since the ancient days, and visitors are rarely allowed.

the delta

General

Considered more or less safe for wild forest, the Delta is a loosely defined region to the northwest of Hollow Lake. There’s little of note here save for the rare wild glim tree, making it a popular spot for newer adventurers to cut their teeth on exploring trackless land. However, wander too far west and the Delta transitions quickly into the dangerous Deep Swamps.

highriver canyon

General

The origin point of the large river system that feeds the Delta and the Deep Swamps, Highriver Canyon is an elevated canyon area rising from Sundance Falls north of Deepwoods. It’s heavily isolated and thought to be the sheltered ancestral home of the ancient mirn. Trees here are still thick, but don’t reach the same immense sizes as those deeper in the basin.

Areas Of Interest

• SUNDANCE FALLS

A broad, majestic waterfall across the mouth of Highriver Canyon. An immense amount of water flows through here every hour, throwing up constant spray and creating neverending rainbows. Wild adult lovepeeps like to roost and hunt in the surrounding cliffs and are a spectacular (if potentially hazardous) sight.

• DEEPWOODS

Deeply isolated and very traditional in their way of life, the inhabitants of Deepwoods don’t particularly like outsiders and may spend their whole lives without travelling the rest of the basin. They’re deeply proud of their heritage and history and tend to look down their nose at mirn from elsewhere, though they still show great respect to members of the priestesshood.

• DEEPWOODS DEPTHS

A small lake providing water, recreation, and food for the village on its bank.

the deep swamps

General

The Deep Swamps are universally (and rightfully) considered the most dangerous region of the Great Basin. They’re extremely wild and difficult to navigate, with next to nothing in the way of established routes traversing the area. The further west you go, the deeper, colder, and darker the forest becomes, with the ground rapidly growing swampy and treacherous. Large predators are common and difficult to spot. However, the presence of wild glim stands in the deepest depths of the swamp is a known fact and provides a lure that some adventurers find irresistible.

Areas Of Interest

• CRYSTAL HAVEN

A small village on the far northern edge of the Deep Swamps, isolated and hard to reach except via a road that skirts the region’s perimeter. The inhabitants are hardened and wary of the swamps’ dangers. Crystal Haven largely exists as a mining community due to rich mineral deposits, and is the only place besides Sunrise that has an abundance of mirn with crystal limbs.

• ROUGHSHOD RUN

A small village located a short distance inside the southern border of the swamp. Originally an outpost on the most widely used pilgrimage route for Priestesses of the Sun, a small settlement has grown up and caters to travelers and adventurers. The people here can be a bit rough and mercenary, but the constant dangers of the swamp (and the potential for profit) usually keeps everyone in cooperation.

• THE MIRE

A wide shallow muck with few trees that could generously be called a lake. All sorts of monsters may lurk below the surface.

• SUNFALL: GROVE OF THE SUN

A magnificent grove of semi-wild, ancient glim trees deep in the wilds that serves as the final resting place for Priestesses of the Sun. Its actual location is loosely a secret, but the mere idea of somehow desecrating the sacred grove is the highest taboo among the mirn. All priestesses make a final pilgrimage here to die when they feel their time coming, seen as a last act of carrying the sun into the darkness.

• DEEPGLOW RIDGE

At the deepest recesses of the basin, bordering the western cliffs, the general trend towards cold and dark abruptly reverses and becomes a thin band of intensely bioluminescent growth, fed by the heat of volcanic activity underground. Crystal formations and enormous, bizarre plants and fungi abound. This area is highly toxic to mirn due to the clashing light sources, but is also home to stands of wild glim trees that have adapted to the strange but hospitable conditions. There are creatures here found nowhere else in the Great Basin.

sunrise

• solette

Solette knew she was destined for greatness when she heard her first whisper from her demigod at a very young age. She was groomed early for priestesshood, but when her teenage years hit and her demigod began her own years of wildness, Solette mysteriously vanished from the tribe. Search parties were sent out and her tribe was frantic, for without her leadership, there was no one else to take over the duties as Priestess of the Sun. The current Priestess was an elderly woman ready to make her final journey to the Priestess grave grove and no one else exhibited the ability to speak directly to the demigods.

The night before the Priestess of the Sun was making ready to leave for the grave grove, Solette came home with several questionable creatures she had befriended during her travels and a huge sack of glim seeds. The village had been struggling economically, and she was determined to start her leadership in a position of strength. She donated all the glim seeds to the brand new village banker, Booker, her best friend, and was given her final rites that night.

In the years that followed, the fiery Priestess of the Sun almost singlehandedly turned her village into a fortress protected by wildlife. No one knew where she learned the magic to tame and grow the various animals that populated the basin, and frankly many of her followers were initially terrified of what their Priestess had unleashed, but over time, everyone grew rather fond of the protective monsters that guarded the village. Nobody dared attack the tribe for fear of what lurked in the shadows of the forest, truly wild predators steered clear, and the keeping of pets caught on quickly. Today, many are quick to admit that Solette is far from a conventional priestess, but she is much beloved and loathe to any who dare say a bad word about her in public.

• Hestian

Hestian, like most tailmouths, was shepherded into a warrior role early on in life, but was quickly relegated to the kitchen when his tailmouth proved to be absolutely untrainably stupid. Hestian didn’t mind this much since he never really had a fighter’s spirit anyway, and he threw himself into cooking for his battlemates. He proved to have a hell of a knack for it and opened a restaurant as soon as he was released from duty. The food was phenomenal, but Hestian didn’t have any head at all for the business side of it and was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of business he was getting. The poor man suffered a nervous breakdown within a year and moved back in with his parents to recover.

While he was there, his parents convinced him to pledge to a demigod to find some purpose, and within a fortnight, he dreamed of his first pastry. He resisted, wanting to stay away from food for eternity after the restaurant debacle, but then a silent little priestess-in-training and the banker’s son, both of whom he was enormously fond of, brought him a picture of the same pastry for him to make as a snack. He never looked back.

Nowadays, he runs a successful but small-order bakery just inside the village limits protected by various creatures Solette sends his way. He tries to guide Solette and Booker down the smoothest path, but since they’re usually already deep in trouble by the time they get to him for advice, it’s a real struggle. His tailmouth remains the dumbest creature in the village, much to his chagrin, but he refuses to muzzle the poor beast, choosing instead to keep feeding it treats in hopes of teaching it literally any single thing. The process is...ongoing.

• booker

Booker was born into banking, so it was never really a question what he was going to do with his life. Solette was in his copse, so he pledged himself to the demigods shortly after she had to take her vow of silence as a show of support. His parents weren’t happy, since bankers pledged to the demigods usually lived significantly shorter lives than those who didn’t, but Booker was adamant about the decision.

That said, he’s not adamant about much else, and has a reputation as a bit of a meathead around the village. Extremely laid back and easygoing (if a little vain about his appearance), he makes an interesting foil to the ambitious and fiery Solette, but it’s rare to see one without the other around the village proper. Rumors flew about whether or not they’d end up together romantically in their youth, but as they aged and their friendship grew, it became clear that they considered each other family, not romantic partners.

These days, seeing the two of them together raises suspicion among the village folk, as it usually means one of them got into trouble and the other got dragged into it. Like all bankers, Booker has free rein in the community in terms of getting anything he needs, but he’s so quick to offer to help anyone else that nobody begrudges him absolutely anything. He’s rarely seen without his lovepeep, Beau, who tries very hard to get him a romantic partner wherever they go and can only be distracted from this goal with food, which Booker always keeps on hand for just such occasions.

• wanderer

An extremely questionable dealer of pets, the strange mirn known as the Wanderer runs a half-overgrown shop at the edge of Sunrise and is known for bringing back all sorts of new and unknown creatures from the depths of the forest. Solette unofficially sanctions his trade since the creatures he ‘sells’ seem to be quite content with his selection of owners; the general understanding is that if Wanderer's wards don't want to go home with you, you're not leaving with one. It’s said that he can get you just about anything for a price, but since he seems to have little interest in glim seeds, nobody’s quite sure what that price might be.

Other than his role as shopkeeper, not much is known about who the Wanderer is or where he comes from. He seems to spend as much time delving the wilds of the Great Basin as he does in civilization, and rumor says that he's an old friend of Solette's from her adventuring days. Whatever the truth is, most of the village treats him with a sort of vaguely uneasy tolerance. He's a little odd, a little wild, and tends to give the impression that there's something about him that's just something a little... off.

While the details of his past are hazy, one thing that's immediately apparent is his relationship with the wild creatures of the Basin. If Wanderer is around, something large and toothy is probably not far away. He's constantly surrounded by creatures, from the glowmice and flashbats that infest the tangled root ceiling of his shop to the bed of hungrily grinning sunflowers planted outside. He's the only one in Sunrise who seems more at ease with its array of critters than Solette, and seems much too enthusiastic about giving others the chance to share his delight.