MigratioNES: The Grandest Tale Ever Told

We're probably too early for dugout canoes, though we could definitely have rafts!

I'd like to also take a moment to talk about climate and ice ages. So far, we have gone in and out of easily half a dozen ice ages. This has been an implicit thing, but not a point I devoted much attention to the cycle of warm and wet periods to cold and dry periods. So far, there have been a little over a dozen ice ages since this NES began. When an ice age happens, the climate bands shift (for us, they move north), the deserts expand, and the mountainous areas become glaciated. Polar ice sheets advance up to the edge of the mountain range that separates the Mkyaph from the Temekyap. On the Gero Coastlinee, from the mouth of the Akger River to north of the Abhwal, the ocean retreats, revealing up to 2000 kilometers of previously-submerged continental shelf. People migrate out onto these lands as they dry, and then steadily migrate back to higher land as they flood again. The change is almost imperceptible, and certainly not cataclysmic.

When the ice ages end, the seas rise again, the glaciers retreat, and climate bands shift back southwards. The deserts retract deeper inland and to the west, while temperate zones spread.

For the most part, people are able to adapt to these conditions by migrating back and forth of the generations. Less mobile people tend to adapt by altering their practices to deal with the changed conditions. If anyone has some specific questions about our world and its climate, I'd be happy to answer!

How fertile is the soil/How long until agriculture would be anthropologically viable?

Hundreds of thousands of years. A Million, even.

In OTL terms, we're at, approximately, somewhere between the Achuelian and Clactonian tool packages. That means our tools are characterized by large chipped stone handaxes and choppers, and not much else. This is something like a million years BP. We're all still homo erectus, and all that that implies.

According to Iggy, though, we're on the cusp of anatomically modern humans (Which means we're about to exist the lower paleolithic and enter the middle paleolithic... though anatomically modern human doesn't necessarily mean a human on the same intellectual level as your or me, or even physical. There are "anatomically modern human" remains out there with crazy archaic features, such as sloping brain cases, large brow ridges, and an occipital bulge.)

There's still a hella long time to go before agriculture. The Neolithic, agriculture, starts, at the earliest, about 10,000 years BP.

Edit, I'd imagine we're going to progress into the Mousterian lithic package fairly soon, though, and that's what neanderthals and many early humans in the levant were using (Approximately 600,000 years ago - Mousterian tools are my favorite. Nice boat shaped handaxes, lavallois points, and all kinds of fun things... as well as jabbing spears. Neanderthals had trouble throwing things.)

So at least a couple of turns, if we continue at our current rate? That's actually pretty soon considering there are near daily updates here so far (great job with that btw Iggy).

here's a mousterian style handax as well as an indeterminate point (really more useful as a scraper than anything) and a Caribou bone.

Dakayo the Apalo Hero and Lafael the Coeh Mermaid Princess

Dakayo was great strong Apalo chief. Fast light feet. Eagle eyes. Dakayo smart, remember old days. Days when tribe was many. Now tribe is one. Yes Dakayo is chief, but no one no more. Dakayo was alone.

He sings the songs of the Apalo. He sings the songs of the Gero. He sings the song of the Itaro. But he has no home. And slowly, Dakayo heart slumbers, and he walks on, alive, but dead on feet.

Dakayo hunt near Itaro. Reeds tricky, but Dakayo light on feet. But Dakayo stop, for Dakayo see most beautiful Mermaid EVER.

Dakayo hear story of Mermaid live at Itaro. Kuku and Cao and Coeh and Kudo. Strange they say, with bug fish eyes and big grasp hands. But no, says Dakayo brain, she beautiful. Dakayo heart then wakes from slumber.

Dakayo steps forth, but she hears and leaps into the waves, and disappears.

And so Dakayo sought out the elusive Mermaid. And begun to sing, in all the tongues he has learned, with all the heart he can muster. And so Dakayo courts the Mermaid.

Lafael was a beautiful smart Coeh princess. Her father was Ruomak Chief of Reed Shore Coeh, and leads the Good Future for Reed Shore Fumo. Lafael future of tribe. But Lafael felt trapped. Fafael see far land but too weak to walk there. Lafael felt trapped. Lafael see no Good Future.

But now Lafael hear song. Of Great Sea. Of Gero. Of Plains Wide. Of Mountains Tall. Lafael watch strange Not Fumo Man. Not Fumo Man strong. Light on feet. Brave. Humble. For she hears His story many of himself, even if he not say so. One night, Lafael sings too. She sings of lonliness, for her father kept her from other people. She sings of the Fumo. She sings of the Coeh. She sings of seeing The Great Sea.

Finally, Lafael and Dakayo meet and they get together.

But Lafael know that her time is short. For there is a Curse. Death at birth is bad future. And she sings to Dakayo to take her to the Great Sea.

And so Dakayo begins his great journey, retracing his steps but now with his wife upon his back. Through many lands they traveled, and through many peoples. Lafael and Dakayo sing as they walked, and embrace and their child grew.

Lafael felt her time growing short. She cries with pain and asks Dakayo to walk faster. To jog. To run. To see the Sea. Where the waters know no bounds. Her son kicks in anticipation, to swim in the great sea.

Finally… they reach the sea. Dakayo places the sleeping Lafael in the shallow water. She wakes drozily as he smiles.

“Is this sea?” She asks, cupping the water and drinking it before he can stop her, “Sea water salty? Why Sea cry?”

“Because you so pretty” says Dakayo.

Lafael feels the water with one hand and her stomach the other and smiles, and looks up at Dakayo and smiles sadly.

“You so strong. I weak.” She says.

“What’s wrong?”

“There is curse. I die soon.” She cries.

“Oh…” He embraces her.

There they sat for some time.

“Your son?”

“Our son. Our song.”

“He will be pretty like you.”

“He will be strong like you.”

They smile. They sing.

(if they form a new people, they will be known as the Akayo. They have a ritual where the male of a mating pair caries the female for an entire day once a year. Also, awkward grammar on purpose EDIT: Felt I need to clarify: Dakayo invents singing due to loneliness.)

The Amalyafv, feeling encroached upon in the already low carrying capacity forests of the south, turn violent on the Taryab and Tiryat. Whether or not their small, tight-knit groups can handle this new era of violence is unknown. Aggressive interaction likely leads to more active interbreeding than prior generations were capable of, being more reclusive in their groupings. So, roll the genetic dice!

- A particularly strong fluctuation of solar cycles, combined with a few positive feedback loops, pushes the world into a remarkably warm (and wet) period, expanding available energy sources, caloric and otherwise.

The robust Mukta people have taken further to the mountains following the great natural disaster, with the high cliffs and colder winter temperatures often isolating groups of people - Sometimes lethally, sometimes not. Some groups stay in their area of the mountains for generations, not experiencing the outside world. At the edges of the mountain range, some small groups sometimes explore the desert, occasionally following what looks like water in the distance, but these are less common than before. Primitive paintings appear in some caves around this time, but nothing particularly complex. Some Mukta start to have epicanthal folds, as well as more body hair, in response to the high winds, aridity, and, especially in the lower regions, large variations in temperature.

Update 4: 500 000 Years
After a protracted cold period, the world's climate has made a change for the warmer. The rainforests have expanded, and the deserts retreated. Human populations are on the rise, leading to more complex social organizations, and intensified competition.

The Wabahas and Wabahos, of the far northern jungles, have thrived off of the bounties of river and sea. Wabahas, the more aggressive and easterly of the two, have expanded over a vast stretch of coastline that has been comparatively underpopulated ever since the cataclysm. The more primitive Apa'nuk have been pushed back inland, and the southern expansion of the Wabahas did not slow until they encountered the coastal Abhwals, who were engaged in a minor expansion of their own.

While this was a setback for the Apa'nuk, they have simply retreated into the less tightly contested lands, and spread to the point of ubiquity throughout the continent's interior jungles.

The Wabahos, for their part, have expanded southwards, though they ran into much stiffer resistance in the Oebhwaho people. In the overlap between these two people are the Webwayos, sharing heritage from both sides.

The southernmost Oebhwahos have come into contact with the furthest Myakap. While few of the people present were able to comprehend the momentousness of the occasion, their encounter marked the first human circumnavigation of the continent: two branches of mankind who had migrated across the southern limits of human habitation,and to the northern tip of land, finally to meet up at the far side of the world.

The population of the Geros has exploded, as they have come to live in great density on the lower reaches of the river that bears their name. Shamanic rituals and greater levels of social organization have marked this people, as has a regular exchange of material technology and population: with Apalo and Apa'al nomads to the west and east, and Amalyaps to the south, the Gero Valley is a major site of exchange between all three corners of the world. Ultimately, population pressures pushed the Geros back out of their lands, triggering waves of migration to nearby temperate rivers, as well as upriver into the lands of the Amalyos.

The Apa'al and Amalyap cultures all maintain a more nomadic existence between the Gero Valley and the Eastern Rifts, with the mixed-heritage Ampata arising between them. At the edge of the Yakgu Rifts, the Kikpal occupy the Kogan highlands as they have for hundreds of thousands of years, some migrating down to the lowland streams the drain their rocky home. The Agpal spread across the remainder of the far eastern temperate zone, in their unending pursuit of the ungulate herds who roam the region. On the other side of the rough lands, squeezed between the two, are the Mnayakgu, the stone-crawlers, the rift-men. Supremely confident among the treacherous rocks and sheer cliffs of the region, the Mnayakgus live an existence that is simple even in comparison to their neighbours. Further to the south, their Mnalyaba cousins continue to multiply, but are regularly beset by the attacks of the Tharyav, who have recently taken to raiding by raft, accessing areas which had previously been immune to the land-based skull-men. The Southern Mnalyabas and coastal Nyamabas have all suffered heavily at the hands of the Tharyavs, though the struggle has not been one-sided: the stout natives of the cleft of the world have slaughtered many Tharyav clans in kind.

The Amalyafvs, now well at home in the boreal region, have turned the metaphorical tables on their erstwhile foes in the Taryab and Tharyav cultures. Now, the raids move the other way, emerging from the cold forests of the southlands.

Deep in the south, Amalyafvs and Tiryats fight a turf war, though neither is able to gain a major advantage over the other. Howevre, the Tiryats are able to sustain a steady southwesterly migration, moving into new territories as the ice sheets retreat, until at last forbidding mountains and brutally cold temperatures forestall any further migrations.

To the north, the eastern Myakap diversify into the Nekra, while the Temekyap settle into a stable position in the southern temperate region. One branch, known as the Hemicep move into and across the southern mountains, finding the Mkyaph on the other side. Hemmed in on either side, the Hemiceps opt to remain in the mountains, where they eke out a rough existence in the postglacial landscape. The Mkyaph themselves spread north and south, becoming the Ikyp at the desert's edge, and the Makyerfin the boreal south, respectively. Beyond the Mkyaph, the Myakaps finish populating the western coast of the continent.

On the rivers and salty lake at the south end of the great desert, the Timika are now well-established. Across the great sand ocean, the Apfals live a parallel existence around a salty basin of their own. The Mukta spread further across their mountain range, leading to exchanges with the relatively advanced Ikzils. Vomma culture remains largely static, while the Apalos spread across the broad plains between the Gero Valley and Itar Sea.

The western Itar Sea is dominated by the Tyumru and Diryaj, the Tyumru being much more mixed with the Fumos, and the Diryaj being much closer to their highland Tiryap cousins. The Diryaj, after exterminating the last of the Fumori and taking their lands for their own. Aggression toward the Cao was less successful than the Diryaj may have anticipated, as the associated Fumos and Kuku put up surprisingly stiff resistance. Meanwhile, the Tyumru and Diryaj remain in a state of incessant conflict.

All of this warfare has done nothing but enrich the Ikzil, who have been able to raid heavily into the Tyumru. The Fumos of the north also multiply in this time, recovering to an extent in this more pleasant climate.

To a casual observer, the world may seem to be in developmental stagnation: despite some territorial expansion, humanity is not recognizably more advanced than it was half a million years prior. However, the pieces are gradually easing into place for a sudden burst of development. Human cranial capacities, on average, are enlarged, particularly among the Wabaho and Wabaha of the north, the Geros of the southeast, and the Ikzils in the interior. Cultural outputs, as much as they exist at this time, are growing more common: Ikzil cave images, Tiryap fetishism, and Itar sea beliefs are all examples of this, as is the widespread myth about the doomed love of an Apalo Wanderer and his Cao Bride. Meanwhile, material technology is most advanced in the southeast between the Kogan range and Gero Valley. The Gero Valley itself is a nexus of humanity, a meeting place between the southwest, the northern jungles, and the interior. Advances in material technology, wherever they may arise, are swift to spread to the peoples in and around the great forked river.

For now, humanity's potential rests.

The coastal Wabaha (and The Wabaho) react to the population pressures put on them. Like the distant Cao , they have developed adaptions well suited for water. Unlike them, these adaptions are not for living IN water, but for the long trips over water that the Wabaha take. Large rafts, loaded with family groups and trade goods of all kinds (Lithics, fish, animals, 'slaves') travel incredible distances. These adaptions include a greater ability to store fats and burn them effectively, greater liquid retention, and tougher skin, resistant to the dehydrating salt water. Most importantly, though, upper body strength and joints well adapted to pushing/rowing a raft for long periods of time.

For that is the true strength of the Waba. They are gregarious and communicative, and crave and thrive on social contact. Goods produced in one of the end world can find themselves carried all the way to the other, passing through countless hands, and lugged across incredible distances by the Wabas

Apa'al Orders:
Ampata
These are the wanderers of the plains in the southeast area. The plains come to be known as Ki'cca or Kiča. The wanderers continue to do just that-- wander. However, because of their ability to travel so effectively, they become the vessels of cultural exchange between the Gero Valley, the Akger River Apa'al, and the general Yakgu region. This spreads common language, cultural/spiritual concepts, and stories across the entire southeastern region.
Apa'al
The Apa'al wanderers north of the Ampata who are less inclined to mesh into the culture find themselves pushed northwards by the growing nomad group, and many roam in the general Akger region, but just as many come to gather around the Akger River, where the warmer temperatures make sedentary life quite easy. The region becomes a high-density river valley, though nowhere near the level of the Gero Valley. This cultural group are often called by the name of their river.
Gero
The genetic diversity of this group continues to increase, and as a result, they are physically possessive of many beneficial traits that allow the population to boom hugely. Intelligence, strength, health, and endurance give Gero the upper hand, and the increase in availability and diversity of food greatly increases Gero intelligence. Additionally, toolmaking and hunting/gathering techniques from around the world contribute to Gero social complexity. Gero culture is rich and ripe, and spreads around the southeast thanks to the Ampata.
Kikpal
The earliest cave art in the Kogan Mountains dates to around this period, a bit later than most mountain dwellers, where stories brought to the area by the Ampato from Gero and even Itaro sources provide cultural focal points. Local culture develops as a result of this stimulus; Za'ak, the contemporary word for Sa'akh, is professed as in the mountains by the developing shamans of the region. Tools continue to improve, and the Kogan River's montane areas also become more central to the population.
Agpal
Not as much affected by the Ampata diffusion, due to relative regional isolation, the Agpal are not as developed in almost way, from culturally to materially to physically, except for their affinity for the animals of the region. Of course, physically and mentally they are roughly close enough to most contemporary humans, but the only particularly remarkable development of Agpal culture is their effect on the evolution of the regional wildlife, who adapt to outrun the Agpal.

I'd like to ask that people try to apply their orders to 5 or fewer groups, otherwise, this is going to start bogging down my updates quite a bit. Also, I really do appreciate it when your orders for each group are nicely separated and labeled, like what inthesomeday just did: I can easily see what's going on with each group and update more quickly.

tl;dr

Fumos -> Fumme -> Vomma advanced larynx gets play.

The Vomma become beatboxers and some become Oregon Trail esque wanderers. Communal religion maintains cohesion. Others stay relatively sedentary. Simple instruments. Rock on! ADDIT: This develops due to emulating natural sounds, not those of animals. So that of the thunder, or the rain, or the gurgling brooks.

The Apa'nuk become chirpers and tree people. Tree houses. Wild passionate dances. Some low light/night adaptation. ADDIT: This develops due to emulating animal sounds. They also invest into their treetop niche to stay safe from ground pounders.

Development of communal music/story telling times. Story of Dakayo and Lafael among others. Organized music mean stronger community bonds, better inter-community empathy.

EDIT: I’m tired tonight. I lost also an orderset to CFC. Sorry for not more detailed orders.

EDITEDIT:

Double trouble!

The Ku people, on their islands, begin building homes with underwater entrances. Like beavers do. These let them spend less effort and more time in the shallows and waters, as well as hide their homes.

The Amalyafv continue their efforts to oust the invasion Taryab, pushing them back toward the Ypta Mountains, then move westward to force the farther migration of Tiryaps. They adapt fishing and hunting techniques along the shorelines mimicked or perhaps integrated from other peoples. Fish and sea mammal bone jewelry become coveted items. Improved hunting, and the use of animal byproducts, leads to a de-hairing in favor of clothing options, as they continue toward stoutness. They are already rather shorter than their northern neighbors.

Their vocal cords follow the trend, shrinking and altering in ways that enable higher pitches, including chirps and whistles, to become the norm in their vocalization.

Tiryap 5: The Moose Dangerous Game, or, I Adzed You a Question (and I Expect an Adzer)

"We hear Cao princess soft. We eat Cao, make soft princess." -Diryaj Chieftain, Obvious Genius

The Diryaj Explosion:

Further expanding their brain cases from the fierce local competition for food sources and prestige, and concurrent exposure to many ideas, the brutalist Diryaj will hit on a new technique: Setting controlled fires to flush out game, and also rival humans. This may end up getting out of control and burning all of the forest cover south of the sea, but damned if we won't be the only survivors once it's done. Additionally, the Diryaj will begin to focus on refining their traditional hand axes into a variety of specialized tools, including a powerful adze bound with animal sinew, and sharp stone points for throwing spears. With their more sophisticated toolset, organized hierarchy and advanced weapory, the Diryaj will expand in all directions: On rafts to exterminate the Ku, Coeh, and other peoples of the Itar Sea, spilling out of the region into the eastern river valley, then even further, to attack the Myukyap and even establish colonies in the upper Gero Valley, pushing back the less advanced Amalyo.

The Tharyav will eventually come into contact with the Diryaj as they flood into the Upper Gero, and will adopt some of their advanced technology. Once they pick up on how adzes work from the Diryaj, they will use the adzes to make more advanced boats, and will use these more advanced boats to advance their boating. With better boating and tools, they will continue to force the Mnalyaba back and become the dominant ethnicity in the coastal Rift region.

A splinter band of Diryaj, the Ziag, will attempt to climb the cliffs of the Ikzil/Mukta mountain lands to wrest them from the heights. In doing so, they will gradually spread west, and end up exposing the Timika to the Diryaj tool package. The Timika will begin to make small reed coracles with which to traverse their river network, spearing fish with their spears. They will in turn pass the usage of fire breaks and diversified stoneworking techniques to their nomadic neighbors, Mkyaph, Ikyp, etc. Mkyaph will become assimilated into Timika.

The Hemicep will emerge dominant over the Makyerf, having received better technology due to better links to the Timika-Diryaj axis, and Hemicep groups will begin to migrate west to the more fertile lowlands of Myakap territory, beginning the traditional genocide. Drawn by distant bird migrations, groups of Ikyp will begin crosssing the desert to the north to attack the Apfal.

The Tiryat begin to hunt bigger game like moose, mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses towards the end of the period with the aid of their throwing spears gained from the Hemicep -> Timika -> Ziag -> Diryaj diffusion axis. They continue to compete closely with wolves, pushing them towards proto-domestication as human and wolf populations begin to associate more closely.

Random fact:

Piles of hollow bird bones possibly blown through to form a haunting whistling noise may technically represent some of the earliest musical instruments. They are often found in Diryaj campsites during this period.

[Tiryap National Ideas: Deerus Vult - Control +2 Cultural Clades]

The Ikzil continue to develop their methods for raiding, implementing pit traps and other sneaky methods to deceive and misguide those who watch for them. This requires greater communication and coordination between groups, through visual signals and spoken word. Newer cave art shows crude plans in addition to crude stories. Ikzil culture begins to show influences from those they have raided.

Some of the coastal Myakap in the west and Webwayo in the north begin to venture further out to sea in rafts, seeking larger prey. They begin to understand the currents in their immediate vicinity. The Webwayo have greater success, with a variety of soft and hard woods and plentiful options for lashings at their disposal. They eat well and their populations boom.

Update 5: 200 000 Years

With their population steadily building, the Wabaho and Wabaha cultures grow increasingly mobile, spreading further and further across the world's coasts. The Wabahas, in specific, spread across the entirety of the continent's eastern coast. Long-distance indirect trade grows steadily, accelerating the exchange of ideas, technologies, and genetics between the north and south. People with close relations to the gregarious 'raft people' are found from the southern slopes of the Akgan Range, to the tip of the continent, to the boreal forests of the far southwest.

The Wabahos, in addition to expanding widely down the eastern coastline of the continent (influencing the development of the Makapos, coastal Myakaps who have adopted many Wabaho practices and tools for their own), also established a farflung population on a the coast of a new land. These people find themselves isolated from the technological exchange on the old continent, but manage to use their pre-existing cultural toolkit to expand broadly. The people living in the arid and temperate zones come to know themselves as the Wabao, while the southerners, who have come to reside in a coastal rainforst, call themselves the Wabahn.

The Oebhwaho and Webwayo, by comparison, are relatively more reserved and less mobile, simply growing more densely populated within their own regions. The Webwayos, in specific, are particularly bold in their ventures out to sea, especially as their population begins to deplete the fisheries of their native bay.

The Gero Valley remains a dense centre of human population. Heavy interbreeding and influence from and to the Wabaha leads to the development of the Querhua, who have come to dominate the lower valley, while more rustic Geros gradually withdraw further inland. A diverse array of stone tools are now used by the peoples of the valley. Cooking is widespread, and social organization helps to sustain the dense populations. Partially due to the influence of the gracile Wabaha, and partly due to the different requirements of living in the region than were found in other parts of the world, Querhua have smaller teeth, less robust skeletons, and less prominently projected jaws than many of their contemporaries.

The Ampatas come to be very heavily influenced by the Geros, ultimately leading to the formation of the Ambaro culture. The Ambaros facilitate a great deal of technological exchange between the Gero Valley and the southeast, across the northern plains of Kicca.

To their north, the Apa'al are generally less influenced, having a generally more hostile relationship with the Geros. The bulk of their population comes to be concentrated around the Akger river, where the people increasingly refer to themselves as Aka'al: the Akger Apa'al.

The Kikpals of the Kogan range begin to produce simple art around this time, and with the gradual diffusion of new technologies into their land, their population expands as well. Meanwhile, the Agpals continue the same herd-pursuing ways that they have lived by for hundreds of thousands of years. The arrival of Wabahas on their coastlines leads to the development of a simple trade, slightly enriching what are otherwise a rather poor and backwards people.

In the Yakgu Rifts, the reclusive Mnayakgu live as they always have, crawling up and down the deadly cliffs that no other humans dare scale, living in great isolation from the rest of the world.

The Mnalyaba are steadily overwhelmed by the successive waves of Tharyavs. The Daryava, as this new, mixed-heritage wave call themselves, establish themselves as the dominant people of the southern coast of the rifts, pushing the remaining Mnalyaba inland. The more isolated Nyamaba remain at the edge of Daryava and Tharyav reach.

In the far south of the world, the Amalyafvs fight an unending struggle against the various Tiryaps that surround them. The Tharyavs are steadily pushed north (ironically into the distant relatives of the Amlyafvs, the Mnalyaba), while the last remnants of the Taryabs withdraw into the eastern Ypta Mountains. In the south, the cultural fronts fall into a stalemate, as the Great River of the Tiryats remains outside of Amalyafv reach.

The Tiryats grow steadily more proficient at hunting large mammals, particularly moose, which are moderately less likely to kill them than woolly mammoths and rhinos.

North of the Tiryats live the Nekra and Temekyap, the former generally growing at the expense of the latter. If we follow the populations westward, we come to a land where Timika culture dominates. With simple rafts, Timika can traverse much of their shallow, inland sea and the gentle rivers which flow into it. Further into the desert live the Ikyp. Adapting more and more for life in the harsh dunes, they have penetrated as far into these unforgiving lands as they can, with a few isolated groups living around life-giving oases.

The Hemicep, Mkyaph and Makyerf live in the colder lands to the south, with only the Mkyaph having a significant presence on the southernmost tributary to the Timika Sea. Broadly speaking, the Hemicep are the people of the eastern mountains, the Mkyaph the lowlands and river vale, while the Makyerf make their homes among the southern forests. The Makyerf have grown the most of all three, expanding far to the south and west, even coming into contact with some of the furthest Tiryats.

In the far southwest, the Myakaps have moved steadily towards the milder, more temperate zones. Some of the coastal Myakaps, particularly influenced by the presence of the Wabaho, have even come to adopt the ways of the rafting-men. Thus does their technology begin to slowly percolate back into the interior from the west.

At the continent's heart, the Itar Sea remains as it has been for longer than the spoken record can recall: violent. The Diryaj have developed a practice of burning away brush, to aid in foraging and hunting, often terrifying their neighbours in the process. Flames often precede these lowland Tiryaps, who have expanded broadly across the southern Itar Sea, ultimately exterminating the southern Cao, though the swimmers are succeeded by their northern relatives. The Diryaj eastward migration proceeded to overflow into the lands of the Myukyap, who were overwhelmed and driven to extinction. However, the Diryaj at last ran into solid resistance upon entering the Gero Basin. Here, they found people far more numerous and well-armed (if somewhat less masterfully-versed in the arts of violence) than themselves. While they were able to disperse and drive off some Apalo tribes, the settled Amalyos resisted strongly against the intruders.

Back in the Itar Sea, a secondary conflict raged at the western end of the sea, as Tyumrus, Ziag (western Diryaj) and Ikzils vied for dominance over the rich area. Ultimately, unending generations of warfare failed to generate a lasting winner. Ikzils resisted the intrusions of the Diryaj into their highland homes, Ziag and Diryaj fought each other just as fiercely as they fought the others, and the Tyumru... simply were, keeping their feet firmly planted in the heart of the rich, blood-spattered region.

Further west, the Muktas largely avoided the conflict, though they continued to enjoy a relatively cordial relationship with the Ikzil.

North of the desert, the Vommas, moving further away from their sedentary heritage, become more mobile across the arid belt between the northern jungles and the southern desert. Unique vocal adaptations to the Vommas allow them to produce a wider variety of vocalizations. The Apfals remain relatively more static.

Certain southern Apa'nuks, interbreeding with northern Vommas, acquire the same new vocal capabilities. These Avenecs, partially in response to the expansion of Abhwals and Wabahas into their territories, generally opt to retreat and hide, rather than confronting the more advanced invaders. Their tribes live in hidden villages in the trees, free from the depredations of the river-men.

Biologically, several important things have happened during this period. The Mnayakgu people have diverged as a functionally different species from the rest of humanity, Homo reptatus. Short and hairy, with abnormally long arms and gripping hands and feet, the Mnayakgu are native to the rifts, great tectonic valleys, caves and chasms separating the long sea from the great outer ocean. They live in areas too treacherous for any other humans to safely follow, where they hunt and gather with little need for technology, safe and isolated from the depredations of other humans.

At the same time, the Gero valley has given rise to humans with signs of self-domestication, including smaller, receded dentition and a lighter, less robust skeleton. Elsewhere, humans continue to diversify, from the Wabahas of the north, whose posture, musculature and fat retention make them excellent and hardy travelers, to the Amalyafvs, whose dense, stocky build and lighter skin adapts them well to the necessities of life on the cold southern shores of the continent.

Across the world, the rate of accumulation of technology is accelerating. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the eastern coast, particularly the densely-populated lands between the Gero Valley and the great delta of the Wabaha. The high mobility of the Wabahas and Wabahos has helped to spread technologies across all coasts, but these pathways do not extend into the continent's inland basins. As a result, these regions are beginning to lag behind.

Cutting edge technologies at this time include hafted weapons and tools, and prepared-core stoneworking. Major strides are also being made culturally and socially. Music has appeared in several regions, and religious beliefs are growing steadily more complex over time. Social organization, partularly in the eastern river basins, is growing increasingly elabourate, as large groups cooperate to ensure greater chances of group survival. The most advanced parts of humanity are currently in the middle paleolithic, and if trends continue, we might project that humanity will very soon enter the upper paleolithic.

Orders:

The new continent proves to be fertile ground for humanity, even as the glaciers rolled in.

Many thousands of Wobaoh and Waban continue the lifestyle of their ancestors and continue to form the nexus of an impressive trade network. As the founding population was pretty minute, we see a dramatic increase and concentration of their respective traits ( Long, straight, mottled, brindled hair, Increased fat retention, and longer and stronger limbs and musculature, as well as showing neotany to one degree or another. There is also evidence that a vomma (or more unlikely, an avanec) might have been one of the founding population members, as the Wab people show a highly increased communicative ability in their vocal cords, very similar to that of the aforementioned people.)

However, the Wab people are unwilling to let the fertile inner lands lie fallow, and they have colonized far inland to one degree or another, first along the rivers, as the traditional rafts of their ancestors worked just well inland, and then, adapting to the needs of expanding populations, inland, far from any of the water their ancestors once depended upon. Even there, though, the various traits of their ancestors came in handy: The Fat of the Wab people served the Ap in the far north very well as insulation, as they wandered the boreal plains hunting mammoth and the increasingly rare deinotherium, while in the southern jungles, many of the Bana people live lives similar to their distant mainland cousins. In all cases, though, the ancient yearning for socialization will cause goods produced in the south to be found far to the north, and vice versa. This has pushed many of the tribes and family groups here to find ways to both differentiate each other, and to recognize each other, whether it be the tattoo traditions of some inland groups, the piercings of others, or simply jewelry adornments favored by some cultures.