Excellent points to begin with, thanks, Mayhem. I'll take one of the things you mention (will address others separately) and speak to it.
The lore says they're curious and love learning, so I'm assuming they'd learn certain trade skills (carving, leatherworking are the two major ones I'm thinking) and other skills (storytelling, perhaps?) which they'd learn from slaves, traders, or be passed down perhaps?
Indeed they love to learn new things, adapt, change and ultimately evolve. It is a left over fragment of humanity that they once possessed. Their attention span isn't great enough to focus on any one thing for very long so zith would have a number of different skills at low to middle levels (talking primarily NPCs here). Skills like carving and leatherworking would, even at higher levels, look quite different from the same level of skill held by those living in other cities. This is mainly seen in the style. Zith leatherworking, while being just as effective regardless of how it is practiced, would look more primitive (mainly cosmetically). Leather items such as clothing, armor, items, would sport fur, bone, died in blood, that sort of thing. It would all look more wild. Carving would also take on a more bestial theme minus solid lines and angles. It would be influenced by the things that interest the zith; hunting, killing, sex, that sort of thing. Now learning these types of trade skills along with other related skills and lore would be reserved for particular zith and not a universal thing among the colony itself.
Zith, like all other humanoid races, have individuals who excel at different things. While all zith have a hunger for learning, many choose to learn new ways of improving the hunt or learning new ways to strike fear into their prey so as to better flavor the meat and put them at a disadvantage. Some would learn new ways of love-making in order to get the most pleasure out of the process. Others may, and these are more rare, want to learn more about other humanoids for purposes other than aiding in the hunt, enslavement and such. Still others would indulge in the learning of before mentioned trade skills. What the zith are interested in learning of course depends on the day and on their mood but their overall status within the colony would dictate quite a bit as well.
Zith have their own form of social class system. It is rather simple when compared to other civilized, non-zith societies and helps influence what they wish to learn. There are the Alphas of the families making up the colony. These are the strongest, most cunning zith who have participated in numerous successful hunts, are potent mates, have sought-after slaves and have built a name for themselves in general. These zith would choose different paths of learning than say for example, betas. The betas would be those in supportive roles within a family. This would be a brother or sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, etc., who hasn't gone on to start their own family. These individuals would likely indulge in the trade skills or social skills related to non-zith visitors to the castle and colony. Then come the young who often do a little of everything in their search for the right niche within the family and colony. Old and infirm don't last long enough to do much more learning past what they have already attained (old age is considered between 40-50 years of age while young are 1-5).
Skills may be passed down from parent to child but most of those would be skills related to the hunt as all zith must learn to hunt from an early age. One who cant hunt is left to wolves so to speak. Due to the short lifespan of the the zith combined with short attention span and motivations based on primal urges, there isn't a passed on history or teaching of advanced skills from parent to child. This is where the slaves become invaluable as they hold the history and skills of the past. Since non-zith often live far longer than their direct masters, they are able to pass on knowledge and skill from one zith generation to another. This is another reason why the zith give their slaves a good amount of freedom (within reason) and help maintain a relatively good life (keep in mind these are zith we are talking about even if they are a bit more civilized than most).
Generally, what one may considered more advanced skills such as blacksmithing, metalsmithing, architecture, locksmithing, carpentry, those sorts of things are not common among any zith, even those in Xy. It is not unheard of, it's just that most zith wouldn't have the patience and attention span to advance high enough in these types of skills to really stand out.
Touching a bit on what Saej and Aventis mentioned, I hope to have a well fleshed out cavern system while keeping some mystery and unknown to it all. There should be quite a bit more unique flora and fauna exclusive to Xy. The zith are the primary inhabitants of the city and castle but not the only ones to be sure. Aside from outsider visitors, there are going to be the unique animals as well as a monster or two or three, etc. I'm am really wanting to go with the whole idea of Castle Xy having, ages ago, been a containment facility of sorts where terrible things were held that could otherwise not be destroyed for one reason or another. This leaves things open for exploration, quests, discovery, expansion, etc. Look at it compared to Sahova. Sahova was a pre-Valterrian magical research facility. Xy was a pre-pre-Valterrian prison. The things held within would be unimaginable to modern day inhabitants of Mizahar. Some of those things remain.
There is the digging of new tunnels along with maintenance, upkeep and modification of old and existing ones. It is nowhere near on par with say the isur but it is still an active project. The tunnel complex branching off of the pit is extensive and even with so many zith living there, much of it is unexplored even after a few centuries of existence (remember, the zith are not industrious and don't have the attention span to keep up long term projects).
The only thing that would make areas off limits to non-zith would be one's own skill to survive. If a non-zith wishes to enter the colony or another part of the castle, they are free to do so. There aren't locks, at least not used by zith, there aren't regular guards (although there are always zith watching at some time or another). I'm thinking it is all basically the ultimate freedom and extreme form of survival. Do what you want, when you want it and if you can hold onto it as your own, its all yours. If you want to lay claim to a location, perhaps a chamber in the castle or a cave in the colony (I advise against the latter) go for it. If you can hold it, it's yours.
Of course there will be places that outsiders will just not want to go. Certain parts of the castle will likely be too dangerous while certain parts of the colony would just leave a person being the greatest moron in existence if they were to enter (don't just walk into a cave where a family's young sleeps). Common sense will likely create the divisions and barriers within Xy which eliminates the need for guards, locks, laws, etc.
More to come from me soon, in the meantime keep the discussion, ideas, suggestions going. |
by Saej on November 23rd, 2014, 3:02 pm 
