Junarite

Junar is not an empire, but is a group of four major kingdoms allied together who used to be under the Umi Empire. They function on their own with their own authority and laws. They are known collectively as the Junar Kingdoms.

Since before written history, the Junarite people lived in isolation and solitude. They thrived in their jungle environment, mastering how to survive. This is until the Umi Empire discovered them. Seeing how well the Junarites survived in the deep jungles for so long, they wanted to learn more about their ways. This curiosity lead to a war between Umi and the kingdoms of the jungle.

Customs

Customary Greeting

Because of the intense heat and humidity, Junarites greet each other with small bows to avoid physical contact.

No Touchy, Touchy

It is a standard and heavily practiced custom for the Junarite people to not have any physical contact.

Fashion

The Junarites do not care to wear clothing, as it only intensifies the heat of the jungle. It is common to see people either with no clothing or just enough to cover sensitive areas, as it is normal within their settlements.

People wear very light and flowing clothing in the rare cases where it is worn. It is never tight to the body and always loose and breathable. People wear clothing as simple as a light sash or loincloth.

Food & Drink

Coco Fruit

The coco fruit is a unique fruit found in tropical climates, mostly in Junarite. The coco fruit has an exterior casing that is hard and durable. It must be broken open to reveal the fruit inside, which also has a hard shell. The fibers in the exterior casing and the fruit’s flesh can be used in crafting apothecary items.

It is also the center point of cooking, as its juices and soft flesh provide excellent flavor and nutrients. The Junarite people have learned to process the flesh and juices of the coco fruit for many culinary creations. From a sweet paste dip eaten with thin hard bread called coci to shaving the flesh for a sweet flavor with meats and other dishes.

Ector

A small flying insect that creates their hives in dirt mounds. The insects produce an ector that is spread to mark their territory and keep predators at bay. However, humanoids harvest the hive ector and create ector honey.

Hive Ector

A thick, dark orange, semitransparent, slimy, gelatinous liquid is produced by the queen to feed the hive. The ector is used to mark the hives territory and is spread over everything. The larger the hive grows, the more ector is spread.

To humanoids, the hive ector is poisonous if consumed. It creates sores in the stomach which cause bloody vomiting which, if not cured, will cause the victim to vomit to death. The first two days, the victim suffers from an upset stomach, bloating, and rancid gas. The vomiting starts after 1d4+1 days of feeling ill. Once it takes effect, the victim vomits every minute for 1d20+5 minutes. Sustaining 1d4 damage because of blood loss. After the duration, the victim convulses as blood pours out of every orifice dealing 2d8 damage every ten seconds.

A stamina check DR 8 prevents vomiting for the day, but each success increases the difficulty rating by one to a maximum of 26. Every two points, the difficulty rating increases, so does the poison’s class. Curing the poison requires either the cure spell or an antitoxin equal to its class (until class 10).

Hive Ector starts off as a poison but quickly turns into a disease. Once the poison class reaches 10, it becomes a disease and can no longer be cured by antitoxins.

A standard poison vial sized amount (4 doses) of hive ector must be consumed within a 24hr period for the poison to take effect.

Ector Honey

Collected carefully from the edges of the ector hive territory, ector honey is a delicacy in the Junar Kingdoms and has an earthy sweet favor.

The hive ector is boiled to separate the gelatinous liquid and the orange sticky syrup, which is the Ector Honey. Because of the separation process, the poison remains in the gelatinous liquid, leaving the syrup safe to consume. However, because of the separation, the gelatin becomes extremely potent. Instead of four doses causing the poison/disease, it only requires one dose and the base difficulty rating increases to DR 14. Typically, families who separate the Ector destroy the gelatin to prevent it from being accidentally consumed.

Ector Bun

A sweet bun made by wrapping dough into spirals with cinnamon between the layers. They bake it and apply a small, thin layer of Ector Honey on top by brushing.

Geography

Gravity Pass

A large cave system in the Junarite Kingdoms connects directly to the Midway on the far edges of Jeros, the capital city. The two nations had an easy trade route, which let Junarites rely on their underground trade partner for most imports while remaining isolated.

Merchants crowded the pass after introducing AGE crystals. However, the busy tunnels lead to the invention of gravity lifts. Before these new lifts, traders had to wait for manual steam lifts with limited capacity, often requiring multiple trips. The gravity lift quickly replaced all steam lifts in the pass because they have a huge capacity because of the compensation from the AGE crystals. It also has an increased speed without a decrease in stability, which made it so traders only required one lift for their entire load.

Laws & Regulations

People within the Junarite territories simply don't engage in physical contact. To contact someone is to show either affection or hostility. People in Junarite territories usually show affection in private because it is against the law to show it in public.

Religion

Junarites worship the six saints of Esotor (Element), the god of the elements. There is one saint for each type of element: air, earth, fire, frost, water, lightning.

Society

AGE Vessels Origin

The midway and Junarite empires have the largest combined production of AGE Vessels. Junarites’ jungles have lots of wood and shipyards, while Midway has AGE crystals and other metals. People discovered the AGE crystal long before they invented flying ships. They originally used it on smaller basic devices such as an AGE belt that let you jump higher and fall slower. Or used to lighten heavy loads as to not tax the animals but still haul loads heavier than their capacity.

It wasn’t until a Vras by the name of Grugmar ShinyStone, a successful AGE inventory, discovered a massive crystal that was too big for any practical use. It sat in the Grugmar’s laboratory for years until an earthquake caused a sink hole under the laboratory. The only thing that kept his laboratory from falling was the massive crystal, which was held in a bolted down steel capsule intended to be used for study.

Standing at his doorway, staring down into the newly formed abyss, Grugmar had an epiphany about how to use the massive crystal.

With the help from his surface side business partners in the Junarite Kingdoms, he built the first of its kind, an airship, later renamed to AGE Vessels. Grugmar and his business partner, Bota Silvertail, saved an old ship from being scrapped and made history by successfully flying it with a massive crystal.

The first airships caused the Umi Empire to accept the Junarites’ terms to be a free, independent nation, no longer ruled by the Umi Empire. This was the second war between the Umi Empire and the Junarite Kingdoms known as The War of 1282.

The War of 1282

The Umi Empire ruled over the lands of the Junarite but did not strictly control or dominate over them. The Junarites continued to live as they had before, except for having to submit to being Umi citizens (see Umite culture, Umi Citizenship). All that belonged to the Junarite belonged to the Umi Empire. That is, until the war of 1282.

The Junarite Kingdoms became independent from the Umi Empire after The War of 1282, also known as The Bloodless War, which lasted only one month and had no casualties.

The Umi Empire was surprised to find airships floating above the harbor of Avac. They sent a message through the Thought (global psionic message system) to the Empire of Umi, demanding Junarite's independence. Umi’s reply was answered with the harbor being bombarded by steam bombs dropped from the airships. The ships that were bombed has either no crew present or the few that were jumped overboard and survived with only cuts and bruises.

With limited transportation, Umi was forced to defend as they were being relentlessly bombed. The Junarite airships only targeted farms and other resources outside the city, hoping to cut off Umi’s supplies and get them to surrender. Cities went into lockdown. They rushed farmers and other citizens living outside the city walls into the city. This again prevented any casualties during the bombings.

This went on for about a month before Umi sent a message of peace granting Junarite their freedom.

This was the dawn of a new age for transportation. For 75 years, rich merchants preferred the AGE Vessel to transport their goods. Every empire manufactured their own AGE vessels for imperial defense if necessary, because of the growth in trade and the global economy.

City Life

Junarite cities have tree houses of varying sizes based on the people's wealth and social standing. Those who don’t care to live in the canopy build homes in the ground. Digging into the ground, the houses are lowered a few feet, requiring a ramp or steps to enter the dwelling.

Those who are wealthier build their dwellings in the canopy to show off their wealth while those without dig dwellings in the dirt.