Underkin

Customs

Greetings

When greeting a fellow underkin, it is common curtesy to touch the palm of their hand to the other’s cheek and produce a clicking sound as a sign of safe greetings. While the major cities of Fureta are well lit, because of the AGE crystal’s light, the darkness lingers and the people never forget. They rely on touch and sound to greet each other out of respect for the darkness.

Food & Drink

Shell Snake

A popular dish in Fureta (Midway) is the shell snake, which lives in damp locations, either in shallow pools of water or dark damp caves. This makes them easy to find. They have the appearance of a shell that has a snake attached to the muscle that opens and closes the shells. The snake can grow to be 2 feet long. Shell snakes only live until they can no longer fit inside their shell. Around the time they outgrow their shell, their mucus hardens, which traps the snake in its shell. Typically, the shell snake falls prey to a predator or dies of starvation.

Catching shell snakes is incredibly easy, as their defensive reaction is to hide in their shell. Once they retract into their shell, it is as simply as picking it up, tying the shell closed and storing it.

Cooking shell snakes is necessary because of the mucus that covers their body and produces a toxin that can cause paralysis on touch. However, boiling or heating the shell causes the toxin to neutralize. It also allows the meat to marinate in the now harmless mucus, giving it a sweet yet slightly tangy taste. When heating the shell up, you can place it in an open flame, just like Tail Root. A small pop from the shell indicates the shell snake is ready to eat. This pop is the snake’s head exploding from the heat and pressure.

Eating a shell snake is simple. Crack open the shell and let the meat and juices slide into your mouth. It has a sweet and tangy taste and when cooked just right; the meat melts in your mouth.

Tail Root

The root plant can grow in nearly all climates, but it is predominantly found growing from the ceiling of caves and underground areas. The root has the appearance of two thick brown roots braided together. It can grow up to five feet long and you can use the entire root in cooking or brewing.

Named for its tail like resemblance when it extrudes out of the dirt, tail root has many practical and nutritional values. For a simple meal, place the root in an open flame and it will cook the insides into a soft nutrient filling meal. Let the root ferment and it creates a mild alcoholic drink. Just make sure you peel the skin off first. The skin is very tough and requires a knife to peel it free from the meat of the root. While the meat has all the nutrients in it, the skin has medical properties. If dried and crushed, the skin can cure mild paralysis. Which is why shell snake farmers grow tail root.

Geography

The area of the world in which the Underkin culture was founded is in Fureta, also called The Midway by the Vras.

Fureta (Midway)

Fureta is the central location for the Underkin culture. It is an extremely massive cavern with an equally massive bridge of earth that runs down the center. In the center of the bridge is a massive chunk of AGE crystal, that resides the famous metropolis Myrrathal, the Mirrored City of Fureta.

The entire underground between the Underside and the Surface Side is composed of Fureta, which is divided into two regions. The outer region known as Fureta Rechi (Dark Ring) and the inner region known as Fureta Cavern. They commonly shortened Fureta Cavern to simply Fureta (or Midway).

Despite being dark and damp, Fureta has a lot of light from the AGE crystals on the cavern walls and bridge, which benefit the people. Even though the Underkin have natural light from the AGE crystals, they still rely on their hearing over sight. Many Underkin go as far to learn how to use night vision but only when absolutely needed to not overuse their essence.

Myrrathal

The Mirrored City of Fureta

In the Ukar Empire's capital, the Vras, who constructed the city, strategically used the gravitational flow. They built the city on two faces in the center of the Fureta Cavern. One surface that faces the Underside and the opposite surface that faces the Surface Side. When walking from one side of the city to the other, you pass through a force shift, which alters what is down. The city is designed so that when walking on one side; you are walking upside down compared to the other side.

The hub location for the Underkin is Myrrathal, a metropolis, and home to many species. Myrrathal is ruled by an ancient tribe family of Vras who can trace their lineage back to the settlement of the city.

Myrrathal is connected to the Underside through multiple cave systems. There are many caves that go up to the surface, but The Great Tunnel is the main way to travel. The Tsumeta and Page Empires built the Great Tunnel hoping to increase trade between each other. The tunnel is so long it has multiple outposts established for resting and to allow for basic trade with nearby clans and tribes. These clans and tribes are mixed throughout the Fureta Rechi.

The Fureta Rechi is the region that surrounds the Fureta Cavern and has no natural sources of light. Creatures that live in these parts are known as Darkkin and live in more uncivilized ways. Even with the Darkkin’s uncivilized culture, many clans and tribes are friendly and open to trade if you keep the trade goods simple. They also don’t particularly care for light.

Religion

Those who live in Fureta follow the beliefs of Mimadimisa (Mimadi for short), also known as The Lightless or One Within The Darkness. They believe that darkness is the foundation of life and all life comes out of it. That without darkness, there cannot be light and that light comes from darkness. It is the circle of life in that the light that is created from darkness will eventually return to darkness to be born again as light.

The truly devout believers known as the Zofutsu or the Shadows go as far as removing their own eyes out of devotion to their god. The Zofutsu use the holy vision to hear their surroundings (sound vision) within the darkness. They believe they are chosen by Mimadimisa to do its bidding and shroud the world in darkness.

Society

Slavery to Heir

While the Fureta and Vras used to have a brutal system of slavery, their culture has evolved and become more civilized. Slaves in the Ukar Empire are treated as members of the family. So much so that they are eventually integrated into the family through marriage or legal adoptions. They become so integrated into the family that only a few know that the family has slaves. It is even common to have families who could not produce a successor will purchase a slave intending to adopt them into the family as their son or daughter.