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 Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:58 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 12:26 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:24 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:25 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:26 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:30 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:31 pm
Clothing Garments :: Serisen are slightly limited in what they can wear due to their physiology. The average garb for both genders is the loincloth, which wraps between the legs and is camouflaged by a long strip of fabric hanging down in the front. The richer Dumyr have chains made of gold or silver to keep their loincloths on, but many Dumyr simply have iron chains.
The richer Dumyr also rarely wear loincloths. Instead, they wear robes or dresses or loose, long pants. The robes and dresses have long, draping dips in the back to accommodate their wings, and all garments have either a hole for the tail, secure below the tail, or allow for the tail to be concealed within.
Common colors are earth tones and, occasionally, brighter shades of red, white, blue, and green. The brighter the color, the more expensive the garment - dyes are rare and costly. Also, clothing made up of more than one color, such as those possessing designs woven into the cloth, are very expensive due to the labor that goes in to each piece.
The cloth used is usually coarse cotton. Some finer, lighter cloths have been developed from other plants, but these are not generally worn by the lower class.
Due to their scales, Dumyr women feel no need to cover their chests on a regular basis.
Jewelry :: If it can be afforded, many Dumyr (of all ages) purchase some form of jewelry, whether it be an arm cuff, an earring, or something of more state, such as a full collar.
Jewelry is commonly made of gold, silver, or blackened iron. Jewels readily available in the mines are ruby, sapphire, and jade.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:32 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:33 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:35 pm
Apprenticeships Nearly all Dumyr children apprentice with somebody or another. Those who do not have a much harder time in life. A child, however, or their parents, cannot seek out a mentor. They can conveniently put their child in the path of a mentor, but the mentor must choose the child.
A mentor will choose his or her apprentice based on any number of things - intelligence, raw talent, charisma, personality. There is no set standard of what is required to become an apprentice.
As an apprentice, a Dumyr learns their trade, whether that is farming, mining, or herbal medicine.
The apprentices of officials, however, have a different role - they learn history, rituals, and magic, if they have the aptitude for it. Their training is much more rigorous. To progress, they must complete certain ceremonies and assist their mentors in all that they can.
Parents can choose to mentor their own children. However, this is rarely done - traditionally, a parent raises their children only in their youngest stage of development. As soon as possible, they hopefully become apprentices.
Parents maintain contact with their children, if possible, and are there as support if the apprentices need it. However, the mentor and his or her family swiftly become surrogate parents.
An apprenticeship is hard and demanding, but ultimately allows a Dumyr to become a functioning adult who can support themselves in society.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:35 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:36 pm
Magic Elemental :: A Dumyr specializing in Elemental magic has control over one of the following:
+ Fire
+ Water
+ Wind
+ Ground
+ Ice (rare)
This control extends mostly to manipulation of existing amounts of the element. However, this does provide a great deal of freedom - for instance, an ice mage may freeze existing water to form the ice. She may even be able to condense errant moisture in the air and freeze it, though this takes a good deal more energy.
In some very rare cases, the mage may be able to create their element in relatively minor qualities out of nothing - for instance, lighting candles or fabricating stones.
Illusory :: Mages that deal with illusions work in three main areas:
+ Light and Shadow
+ Mental
+ Sound
Mages cannot manipulate more than one with any deal of skill, as all take different methods of concentration and manipulation. Illusory mages can, for instance, darken a room, give the illusion or suggestion of another person, cloak somebody from sight, or conjure up conversations that don't really exist.
Mental illusory mages are very rare and usually do not live long... or sanely. They have the ability to send a mind into a state of full hallucination and can, if they try hard enough, drive a man insane. Many are, themselves, fairly off-kilter due to their intimate knowledge of the workings of the brain. A mage will go into their target's mind, finding themselves in a world constructed by that person's psyche. Skill can allow deft manipulation of thoughts and perceptions.
Musical :: Musical magic is just as it sounds - a mage can manipulate song for his own purposes, such as hypnosis or calming. Dance magic also falls into this category, loosely, but many mages can, with practice, perform this with ease.
A musical mage can either manipulate music played by another, play an instrument himself, or sing.
Healing :: Healing magic is a bit complicated. It involves a great deal of concentration and knowledge of anatomy, because the healer must know how to fix something to fix it. It isn't enough to pump healing energy into the person - it must be directed and guided.
A healer can purge a body of poison or illness, can mend broken bones and ruptured organs, and can keep a heart beating. This is very exhausting, though, even more so than normal magic. A healer's lifespan is also usually very short - they age quickly and die at less than a century old, on average.
Limitations :: Magic of any sort is very stressful on the body. It shortens lifespan by a decade or more, it causes immense fatigue when used without any sort of restraint, and can even exhaust unto death if a mage is not careful.
Magic also cannot bring people back from the dead, change the past, or anything of the sort.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:40 pm
Healing and Healthcare Among those employed in the hospital are healers and doctors. The doctors are mainly herbalists - herbs can be used to soothe pain, reduce fevers, stop convulsions, and lessen the effects of viral infections. Herbs are used mainly in cases where a healer is not needed or is unavailable. The hospitals tend to restrict the use of healers as much as possible, to prolong their lifespan and keep them ready to respond to serious calls.
The hospital houses the ill, the injured, and the elderly. Those close to death are welcomed in and cared for until they pass into the next life.
Because of this, the hospital is often crowded and noisy. They do not possess high-tech lab facilities or operating procedures. Anesthesia is only beginning to be understood. If surgery is necessary, it is often painful and is always dangerous.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:41 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:42 pm
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