Cradle of the Snake

[SouthernKing]

Hello, and welcome!

Cradle of the Snake is set on a world that is quite similar to Earth, almost identical in all aspects. The exception is where we are playing: a landmass that I will refer to out-of-character as Lemuria. Lemuria is a lush, tropical land, located in the heart of what we would call the central Indian Ocean. The map will be limited to our sole little continent; it resembles a "cradle" game in that respect, only that the map is unlikely to ever expand.

This game is about trying to create the story of Lemuria from near the dawn. We will start at the end of the last ice age, with the arrival of anatomically modern humans on our continent, and we will hopefully progress through eras as states rise and fall, as cultures flourish and shift, as knowledges progress and decay. (My ultimate goal is to reach some equivalent to the twentieth century.) Since this is in a world much like ours, and since the history of the world outside Lemuria will unfold identically to real life (unless, of course, you change that), we may find ourselves facing the entrance of familiar peoples and things - or, possibly, not so familiar peoples and things. The setting will drastically change with the passage of time.

This game is inspired partly by Caveman2Cosmos, and especially by certain wonderful things run over in the Never Ending Stories subforum--such as Daftpanzer’s Alternate Timeline Building Experiment, Lord_Iggy’s MigratioNES, and NESLife--and will run along the same lines as those. This not a game about empires or nations or kings or presidents or petty politics. Rather, it is a game about people and cultures, and how they change and regenerate over time. This is not a competitive game; if it becomes competitive, I will have failed. Rather, it is an experiment in attempting to tell a history.

If all this somehow seems familiar, that’s because it is. Some time ago, I tried running a rather more complex fresh-start game with a vaguely identical, only to vastly underestimate just how much effort and/or work that was going to be. Aside from some of Iggy’s ideas (which were too good not to reuse), I’m not going to link that because I don’t particularly want this to be judged on that stillbirth.

However, I realised that I could very well rework that into something I could run with relatively minimal upkeep: something I can do with just writing and a few maps, while my computer situation (and life) are both too messy to deal with The Web of Fear (which I will most certainly return to, once everything settles in.)

Thanks to Lord_Iggy, Double A, and thomas.berubeg (either with this game or with its last iteration)

Anyway, here goes:

Rules

We begin with the arrival of the first group of anatomically modern humans in Lemuria: in 9500 BCE, about 11,500 years before the present. The first few updates will encompass centuries, if not millennia, in one go, as people spread across the continent--although we will gradually slow down as we leave the Paleolithic behind, as agriculture and sedentary life develops.

Orders are simple, posted publicly in-thread, and are broad-strokes. Pick one particular group, and tell me the directions you’d like to take them in. As long as you have the tools and conditions to do so, the possibilities are open-ended: you can migrate; you split off and create someone new; you can go to war; you could even stay in place and build and develop.

For many things, a short few sentences to a paragraph should suffice. You can, of course, go into detail about language, sociology, cultural practises, religions, material culture, knowledge, technological advances, et cetera. I encourage it, and I’ll try to include such things in the update.

You can stay with one lineage of people, or you can bounce around and influence things all over the place. Remember, this is a world of ephemerals, and nothing will last; your goal is to leave something behind, to be remembered. There will be plagues and cataclysms from time to time, and I may even announce them in the updates. You can even create acts of god yourself, within reason, if you like.

Very basic sample orders for the era we’re currently in:
A group called the Reusians will break off from the Proto-Lemurians and migrate southwards, into the foothills of the mountains. Scarcity of resources means that the Reusians will start developing a system of ritual cannibalism. They will also start developing a tradition of cave-painting.

I do reserve the right of final judgment, though I hope to use it as little as possible, and I’ll try to talk to you about this.

There is a world outside Lemuria; we are, after all, on Earth. The rest of the world’s history will unfold as per our own familiar history--unless you directly influence it. Occasionally, as history evolves, such outsiders will arrive on the island as well: as lost souls, as traders bringing foreign things, as migrants bringing new people and new cultures--even as invaders. We will deal with these as they come.

Please don't bring external drama or forum politics into this. I have extremely little tolerance for such things, and will have you fed to the reptiles.

There are no stats. If you’ve seen any of the games I mentioned in the above post this should be familiar to you.

If you are intimidated, or have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me--I'm always happy to help!

 

[SouthernKing]

Credit to North King/Thlayli(?) for the original map this was taken from

Map:

Spoiler :

Each pixel on the full-size map is about 3 km (1.9 mi) to a side, and thus 9 km^2 (3.5 mi^2) in area. This means that the continent, at its maximum, is about 3790 km (2350 mi) long (east-west), and 2350 km (1460 mi) wide (north-south). Lemuria is approximately the size of Brazil.

Climate Map:

Spoiler :

Darkest green: Equatorial tropical rainforest
Slightly less dark green: Cloud forest
Darker medium green: Seasonal tropical rainforest
Lighter medium green: Tropical savanna
Lime green: Subtropical rainforest
Turquoise: Subtropical highlands
Blue: Alpine
Orange: Semi-arid
Tan: Arid

Description:
Thanks Double A

Spoiler :

Let’s go on a little tour, shall we?

Brushing the equator, the northern rainforest-laden coast and its adjoining mountains are tropical and extremely wet, northerly winds carrying heavy rain the whole year round. Those mountains, about the height of the Appalachians, are home to lush and spectacular cloud forests, seemingly impenetrable to those in the flatlands. Some of the more inland highlands are cooler and more subtropical. Moving east, the northeast coast and flatlands are equally wet and forested, the prevailing winds becoming more easterly.

Now, as we turn south, meandering further from the equator, the forest becomes thinner and its seasons more pronounced. Eventually, the forest breaks and gives way to vast grasslands, made very fertile by the rivers. The southern peninsula has a more subtropical tip to the southeast and mangrove-ornamented coast and islands to the southwest. This entire region’s weather is defined by a monsoon cycle; during the wet season, heavy rain comes from the southeast. The monsoon is even more pronounced in the drier, savanna-like regions.

Moving northwest, we come to the shores of an inland sea, somewhat like a smaller version of our world’s Caspian. While warmer than most mountain valleys, it is still slightly cooler than its tropical latitude might suggest. The same monsoon cycle that defines the southeast’s weather defines this region’s weather also, creating an environment ideal for growing crops.

Another basin lies to the west, a semi-arid plateau. The rivers here are fed partly by the snow-capped volcanic peaks to the west and partly by the same monsoon from the southeast. It is not nearly as pronounced as elsewhere in Lemuria; still, it swells the rivers enough to create seasonal flooding, constantly replenishing lush and fertile soil.

Crossing those western peaks, the highest in Lemuria, we come to the vast, gentle plains of the west. A separate monsoon cycle defines this region’s weather, bringing rains in from the north. Across the western mountains, we reach an extremely arid coast - shielded from both monsoon and prevailing trade winds, this is what passes for a desert in Lemuria. Moving through the shores of the southwestern bay, we cross the slightly dry but grassy coast of the western plains to reach some arid peninsulae, rugged and created by volcanism.

Finally, we reach the flat, south-central coastal region. Largely covered by a somewhat damp subtropical forest, there are few major surface bodies of water; this is because the ground is karst, made of porous limestone. As a result--much like the Yucatan Peninsula elsewhere on Earth--the landscape here is dotted by watery sinkholes and carved by underground streams.

Lemuria is surrounded entirely by a counter-clockwise, fast-paced gyre, fed by other ocean currents originating from around the Indian Ocean. This means that, especially after storms elsewhere, a lot of detritus from beyond the horizon--from East Africa, Arabia, India, Indonesia, Australia--washes up on Lemurian shores.

On an OOC note, I am very well aware that Lemuria’s position would drastically affect ocean currents, weather/climate patterns elsewhere, and certain human events (for instance, the Austronesian migration to Madagascar) but for the sake of my sanity and for most everyone else’s sanity, we are going to collectively ignore and handwave all that.

 

[SouthernKing]

Reserved

 

[SouthernKing]

Reserved

 

[SouthernKing]

Update 0: The Mesolithic (~9500 BCE)

Elsewhere in the world, the glaciers have retreated, and sea levels have risen. Meanwhile, in Lemuria, the Proto-Lemurians have arrived along the northwestern coast. There is ample evidence for even earlier habitation, but no continuity until now. The Proto-Lemurians’ origins are uncertain, but they resemble other Australo-Melanesian people (such as Sri Lankan Veddas, Melanesians, or Indigenous Australians), with dark skin and curly hair, usually black but occasionally blonde.

With the warming and humidifying climate increasing the bounty of the riverine savannah they live on, the Proto-Lemurians have taken to a simple hunter-gatherer lifestyle, complete with relatively sophisticated stone tools and simple earthenware pottery. Their religious beliefs are also unknown, but animal figurines may have held significance.

Of course, this cannot last forever...

Spoiler :

The next update will take ~1500 years, up to ~8000 BCE. If you want a general focus, the Proto-Lemurians will split apart and populate the continent. Because of the long timeframe, long-distance movements are possible.

Extra: Wildlife

Lemuria obviously did not arise a virgin from the ocean of milk once anatomically modern humans showed up on the island. So, for a certain time while we are still in prehistory, I’d like your help with populating Lemuria with flora and fauna.

The reason I am doing this is to allow for certain fantastical wildlife that does not exist in our world: surviving terror birds or megafauna, for instance, or even something like a chocobo. Please, however, be reasonable; I'm not going to accept overly absurd things like dinosaurs or fire-breathing dragons. Anything that died in the K-T mass extinction 65 million years ago is out, but anything that lived after that is fair game.

If you want inspiration, look for wildlife that lives in surrounding countries of the Indian Ocean rim. Lemuria would have broken from Gondwanaland (much like India) sometime during the Cretaceous period. I'm also going to link to Iggy’s extremely detailed and wonderful post from last game, which I'll be using a baseline if all else fails.

Feel free to submit as many wildlife ideas as you wish. I probably will not accept all of them, but the more the merrier.

Name/(A scientific name would be nice too, but not absolutely necessary)
Habitat: Where does your wildlife live? Not just which climates, but where, exactly, on the continent? Marine life, either in rivers/lakes or around the coast, is fine.
Description:

 

[Ailedhoo]

A group focus on fishing and river mouth farming, known as the Bretnish, will head north-east to help secure the riverbank north-est of the Proto-Lemurians' initial river. May they establish a basket of farms and fish!

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Plants

Mango (Mangifera Lemuria)
Habitat: Most of Lemuria
Description: Very similar to the Mangifera Indica, and probably a direct cousin of that particular Mango, the Lemurian Mango has a more cylindrical seed, and a bright purple color when ripe.


Cloud Mango (Mangifera Nebulae)
Habitat: The Cloud forests
Description: The Cloud Mango boasts long, rigid, cuplike leaves that, together, form numerous “cups” that catch water that condenses from the clouds on the leaves. This creates a vibrant insect, small mammal, and amphibian ecosystem on the trees themselves. The Fruit of the Cloud Mango are bright Red and Yellow.


Salt Mango (Mangifera Submersi)
Habitat: There are two variants, one which has colonized the sinkholes of the South, the other which exists along the coasts.
Description: The large taproots and supporting root structure of the Mango tree has evolved a similar mechanism to most mangroves, allowing them to excrete salt absorbed from the ocean in which they live into old leaves, almost ready to die, and somewhat into fruit, which makes them very attractive to be eaten, since they provide both complex sugars and salt. (Presumably, this is gonna be a good hangover cure when humans get here.) The Ripe Fruit is a mottled red, yellow, and blue.


Snake Vanilla/(Vanilla Lemuria)
Habitat: Most of the Tropical regions, both Rainforest and not.
Description: A vine of the Orchid Family, the Vanilla plant has small white flowers and produces seed pods with a strong aroma. It’s leaves have shrunk to appear like scales, and most of the photosynthesis is done by the stem itself, which uses the scale-leaves to grip to the trunk of trees to reach the canopy. Air-roots anchor the stem and allow it to bridge otherwise impassable distances.


Sugar Lily /( Lilium)
Habitat: the western regions of the continent.
Description: A large lilly with a sweet, water filled bulb and stem. The 3-4 foot Stem can be harvested and pressed, producing a liquid that can crystalize into a fragrant, perfumed sugar. This lily’s flowers are a red-orange gradiant.


PLANT FAMILIES:


Orchids/(Genus orchis)
Habitat: Widespread
Description: An extremely widespread Genus, the Orchis family bears as a common trait a tuberous root, a single erect stem, with flowers in a cylindrical to globular cluster near the top. The flowers tend towards the reds and blues, with whites and yellows occasionally present.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/27/97/39/279739474c6fdcbddd6cd0dc13456e2a.jpg


Lilies/(Genus Lilium)
Habitat: Everywhere.
Description: A herbaceous flowering plant with prominent and fragrant flowers, and growing from a bulb.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Lilium_Cappuccino.jpg


Cedars /(Cedrus Lemuria)
Habitat: The Drier Western Regions and the drier Alpine areas.
Description: Tall coniferous trees with evergreen needles arranged in spirals on branches. They seed pods tend towards a barrel shape, though some alpine species have developed globular seed pods. The wood tends towards a distinctive resinous, spicy smell, and both the seed pods and the wood itself produce varying intensities of odorous resins, depending on the species, thought to be a defense against seed eating animals.

https://images.fineartamerica.com/i...-cedar-cedrus-golden-horizon-archie-young.jpg





Animals

NOTE: MOST NONE-APE Primates share common ancestors with the modern Colobus monkeys of Africa. Modern primate biologists assume that they all descend from a colony that rafted over from Africa on a fallen tree.


Name: Cloud People (Homo Nebulae)
Habitat: The Cloud Mountains
Description: The only survivors of the the Homo-erectus population that colonized Lemuria hundreds of thousands of years prior to the Advent of AMH to the continent, the Cloud People live in the relatively inaccessible cloud mountains, very well suited to the area in a way modern humans find hardpressed to match. Diverging through isolation both from Homo Sapiens AND from Homo Erectus, the average Cloud person stands at 4 feet tall. They possess long, dextrous fingers and toes, allowing them to perform complex manual tasks, an ability that makes them favored slaves of Human societies.


Intelligence wise, Cloud People are not quite on par with humans, though an exceptional Cloud-person would match an average human on most cognitive tests.

The material culture of the Cloud people limits itself to relatively simple lithics, though they do have a mastery of fire, and build their own shelters. They have very simple ornamentation, a pretty pebble, perhaps, or a feather woven into hair.

Mating between a Cloud Person and an AMH is exceedingly rare, and a viable child produced by these unions is even rarer.


Name: Cloud-Monkey (Colobus Nubea)
Habitat: The Cloud Forests
Description: The Cloud-Monkey is an omnivorous primate, recognizable by its mottled pale-grey fur and similarly colored eyes. The live in colonies of 9-10, but are social creatures, with different colonies often coming together to mate. The rarely adopt a territory, but travel in groups.


Name: Trumpetter Monkey (Colobus raucisonum )
Habitat: The rainforests
Description: The rainforests often echo with the clarion-like call of this ape, which has developed methods of conflict resolution that center on powerful lungs instead of physical conflict, since the tse-tse fly likes to lay it’s eggs in open wounds. They live in colonies of 50+, and are rigidly territorial, only exchanging mates on occasion.


Name: Standing Ape (Colobus Vir) - NOT ACTUALLY AN APE!
Habitat: The Savannahs of the west
Description: Unlike the vast majority of other primates, the Standing-Ape has adapted to the vast savannahs, able to run at long distances to escape predators on two legs, and even stand upright, using it’s short tail to balance a still awkward gait. The live in colonies of 50+, and often engage in “warfare” stealing mates from rival colonies.


Name: Drowned-Monkey (Colobus Neptuni )
Habitat: On the coast and many of the waterways
Description: The Drowned-Monkey has very slick, short fur, similar to that of the otter, and a developed subcutaneous fat layer providing insulation. It lives in and around waterways and coasts of most of lemuria, especially the sinkholes of the south, in colonies consisting of a large family group. Generally speaking, they make their homes in cliff side caves or trees, and live off of shellfish and fish which they catch through relatively complex tool use.


Cloud Glider /(Rousettus Nebulae)
Habitat: Cloud forests
Description: A species of fruit bats, or flying fox, with a wingspan of nearly two feet, the Cloud Glider feeds on fruit, nectars, and small insects, hunting in the gloom of the cloud forests through a variant on click echolocation. Unlike most bats, the Cloud Glider is a diurnal creature, retreating to tall tree colonies to sleep at night.


Fisherbat /(Rousettus Piscatoris)
Habitat: The southern coasts and the shores of the inland sea.
Description: This is a large “megabat,” with a wingspan of nearly four feet. Unlike nearly every other fruit bat, the Fisherbat is carnivorous, subsisting primarily on fish and shellfish, supplementing that diet with the occasional small rodent or bird, as well as “Salt Mangoes.”


Lemurian Flying Fox/(Rousettus Lemuria)
Habitat: Most of the continent sees some variant of this flying fox.
Description: A large, nocturnal sociable creature, the Lemurian flying Fox is a megabat, and, like most other fruitbats does not possess echolocation. They subsist primarily on fruit, especially the juicy flesh of the mango.


Flittermouse/(Rhinopoma Aedes)
Habitat: The karsts
Description: A tiny bat species, with a wingspan of only 4-5 inches, but with a long, mouselike tail, Flittermice tend to make their homes in the nooks and crannies of the karst sinkholes of the south. Existing in colonies of thousands, and, on occasion hundreds of thousands, the flittermice swarm out of the sinkholes at night, consuming the flying insects, including mosquitos.



Nico /(Thylogale Ingens)
Habitat: Basically anywhere that’s NOT rainforest
Description: This marsupial species is a consummate grazer. Growing to a shoulder height of anywhere between 1-1.7 meters, the Nico lives in herds of up to thousands of individuals, migrating across the plains. Their young develop in pouches on their stomachs until old enough to graze on their own. They have a reddish fur color, with a cream colored belly. Their build looks a bit awkward to humans used to most other type of four legged grazers, as they have thick, powerful back legs and rather thin front ones, though they are unable to stand bipedally. When scared, the whole herd bounds away on great leaps.


Lesket/(Lagostrophus Inquisitorus)
Habitat: Western Rainforest
Description: So named for its habits of looking under every leaf and rock, as if it were investigating something, the Leskat is a nocturnal omnivorous marsupial that inhabits the western rainforests. It’s fur has a banded pattern between a reddish color and a more golden one. It’s eyes are large, adapted to its nocturnal habits, and has a distinctive golden hue.


Lemurian Gorilla/ (Gorilla Lemuria)
Location: Widespread in the western portions of the continent, with isolates in the east.
Description: The Lemurian Gorilla, despite the name, is a large, semi-quadrepedal browsing Lemur, similar in size and appearance to the African Gorilla. Well adapted to most climates in Lemuria, the Lemurian Gorilla is left relatively untouched by most predators, as, one on one, a gorilla is a strength match for most other creatures, and a fight with a gorilla is rarely one on one, but rather a whole troop of gorillas coming to the defence of any being attacked. They are relatively nomadic, travelling in troops of multiple males and females (unlike their mainland counterparts) and children, subordinate to a patriarch. They browse as they wander, eating stems and leaves and shoots of all kinds of plants.


Crostos (Gigantopithecus cessabit)
Location: Eastern Forests
Description: A great Ape Species that bears the distinction of being the largest great-ape on the planet (standing upright at more than 3m), this gentle-giant exists in a relatively solitary existence, troops spreading out during the day to forage alone, and only reconvening at night to sleep in communal “nests.” Their diet consists primarily of bamboo shoots supplemented by fruit.


Stared Seal (Neophoca inlustris)
Habitat: Both Inland Seas and many of the rivers.
Description: Subsisting on a diet of fish and shellfish, and the occasional unlucky rodent or bird, the Star Sea Lion inhabits the freshwater network of Lemuria. A mottled grey color, with a distinctive yellow star patterning on their heads and back, these seals are relatively small, with a full grown adult at only about a meter long.


Lemurian Fur Seal (Arctocephalus Lemuria)
Habitat: Southern coastline
Description: The Lemurian Fur seal has thick coat with two distinct layers, the undercoat a rusty brown color, while the guard hairs veer to grey. The Lemurian Fur seal gathers on the southern shores of Lemuria in rookeries of thousands, where males compete over harems of females. They are able to move about on all fours on land, though not gracefully, as they are larger than most Fur Seals, with pronounced sexual dimorphism. Adult Males can reach nearly 2.5-3 meters long, while females generally are 1-1.5 meters.


Chisel Seal (Neomonachus vectis)
Habitat: Most of the coastlines
Description: The Chisel seal is a true seal, and is endemic to most of the salt-water coastlines, though some colonies have been spotted in the rivers and inland seas of the continent. It is named for the odd shape of its snout, the tip of which has hard, protective outgrowths and powerful muscles, which it uses to pry open shellfish.



Lemurian Sea Lion (Neophoca lemuria)
Habitat: The coastline of that network of islands in the south.
Description: One of the smaller Sea-Lion Species, the Lemurian Sea Lion subsists on the islands to the south of lemuria, with the occasional mainland colony (though, generally speaking, mainland colonies make their offspring vulnerable to predators.) Their coats tend towards a pale grey, almost blue color on their backs, and a pale white stomach, allowing them to stay hidden in the waters they hunt.


Regent Penguin/(Aptenodytes lemuria)
Habitat: The Southern Coasts of Lemuria
Description: This penguin is very similar to the King penguin of the sub-antarctic regions, adapted to warmer climates.


Brigadier Penguin/(Aptenodytes tropicalis)
Habitat: Northern Coasts of Lemuria, and perhaps even Sri Lanka
Description: Even larger than its cousin, the Emperor penguin of antarctica, the Lemurian brigadier penguin’s orange coloring has spread to cover it’s stomach, relegating white to a series of splotches on its shoulders. They subsists on a diet of fish and shellfish, and live in smaller colonies than most other penguins.


Gloworm (Selenochlamys ignisfatuus)
Range: Various subspecies exist throughout the continent, including the rainforests and dark caves
Description: the Glowworm is a species of carnivorous slug that hunts through a lure. Glowworms congregate in dark places, like the roof of caves, or the underside of leaves or branches at night, and secrete a paralytic and bioluminescent mucus, which dribbles down into a long glowing strand. When insects, attracted by the light, touch the mucus, the paralytic agent prevents it from struggling as it is slowly reeled upwards into the slug’s waiting mouth. Some animals, including humans, have come to enjoy the narcotic buzz caused by the mucus or the slug, and some shamanistic rituals include smearing glowing patterns of the stuff on skin.

 

[Red_Spy]

The Red Turtle Culture

An offshoot of the Proto-Lemurians found on the mouth of the [original river name here] River, the Red Turtle Culture is named so for its distinctive pottery paintings which resemble turtles, made with red dye. In addition members are found buried with fish-bone necklaces, further cementing their dependence upon the local aquatic life.

Name: Redback Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta lemuria)
Habitat: Coasts of South India and Northern Lemuria
Description: A larger offshoot of the already large Loggerhead sea turtles, making them the largest hard-shelled turtles prior to their extinction, the Redback Loggerheads are so named for the reddish tint to their shells. While once found in waters to the south of the Indian subcontinent, they are thought to have only nested on the beaches of northern Lemuria, a factor which led to their demise. They earned a special place in the diet of early Lemurian arrivals causing them to die out shortly before the dawn of civilization in Lemuria.

 

[jackelgull]

Name: Indian Auroch (Bos primigenius namadicus)
habitat: grassy plains in Northern half of lemuria
Description:
The Indian aurochs is known from fossil and subfossil remains. These show relatively slight differences to the Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius).[2] The Indian aurochs was probably smaller than its Eurasian counterpart but had proportionally larger horns.[3] Because the range of the aurochs probably was continuous from Portugal to India, it is uncertain whether there was a clear distinction or a continuum between the Eurasian and Indian subspecies.[3]
The Indian aurochs diverged from the Eurasian aurochs (B. p. primigenius) about 100,000 - 200,000 years ago. This has been shown by comparison of DNA from zebus and taurine cattle breeds, the living descendants of these two aurochs forms.[4] The Indian aurochs is sometimes regarded as a distinct species.[5] Zebu cattle are phenotypically distinguished from taurine cattle by the presence of a prominent shoulder hump.[6]

The description is from wikipedia of course

 

[Danwar]

The Lei-Lei

The Lei-Lei were a group unique from many of the other proto-cultures in Lemuria due to a combination of rough hills separating them from the bulk of the Proto-Lemurian populace and a unique species of flora native to the inland sea - the Sugar Lilly. This culture, whilst minor at the time, established a lasting cultural impact on the continent that would last up until the present day.

They migrated from the west in what would become an exodus from the main cultures there for reasons unknown. They eventually became a tightly-knit community, with the several Proto-Lei-Lei tribes coexisting alongside and even often helping eachother in times of crisis and famine during the migration. This migrating culture soon came upon a mountain pass, and this is where the group fragmented: the majority of the Proto-Lei-Lei peoples would continue to march east (only to be wiped out by a sudden famine), whereas a small splinter group would traverse the barren pass and find the semiarid lands on the other side. These Lei-Lei would be the first culture on Lemuria to discover the existence of Sugar Lillies, an (at the time) small species of plant native to the southmost inland sea. This culture is where the plant's name would eventually derive from (with foreign peoples simply loaning the native word for the plant). At first, these Lei-Lei would remain hunter-gatherers, warring with eachother in the basin and occasionally working together to drive out or assimilate foreign groups who entered it, but eventually, a few of these groups would come to realize the worth of the Sugar Lilies as a source of sustenance. Their bulbs would often grow back by the next year, getting good amounts of use out of each plant, and these groups gradually began to base their culture around them, beginning to revere these Lilies above the totems of other tribal cultures as the only universal constant - not even the Sun was as reliable as the Lilies, as the groups found out during a solar eclipse.

This soon led to groups preferring to stay near these 'sacred' plants and soon after it was discovered the sugar-water from the bulbs could be stored in bowls, allowing these groups to settle near areas that had these plants and bringing them to grow more of them. This is the most common historical date for the end of the Mesolithic period: the development of Lily-based agriculture. While its spread was slow at first and would take a very long time to perfect and breed crops into modern variants, the effects these plants - and by extension, the culture that later introduced them to other Proto-Lemurian groups - would leave their mark on Lemuria forever.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

The Lei-Lei

This soon led to groups preferring to stay near these 'sacred' plants and soon after it was discovered the sugar-water from the bulbs could be stored in bowls, allowing these groups to settle near areas that had these plants and bringing them to grow more of them.

Interestingly, you MAY have just discovered alcohol.

(Which is actually a good thing. Some archaeologists argue that large scale agriculture in the neolithic was driven by the creation of beer.)

 

[Robert Can't]

The Herachel or Flower People, now know best for their distinctive prehistorical architectural remains, are thought to have initially found their way to the alpine regions of Lemuria in pursuit of the Greater Lemurian Shrew, a large alpine version of the continent's most distinctive arboreal fauna, the treeshrew. Current thought is that some of the rich oral traditions of the Herachel would develop until during this migration and it some ways their alpine detachment from the rest of Lemuria's troubled history means their culture and language as we have recorded might be the closest thing we have to understanding what life was like for the Proto-Lemurians.

 

[Robert Can't]

Porting some old Plants/Animals

Spoiler :

Name: Lesser Treeshrew (Tupaia Smallus)
Habitat: Throughout the seasonal forests of the East of the island
Description: Small and nimble these omniverous tree dwelling mammals are found in family units of up to 20 Treeshrews at a time. They are around 9cm long including the tail and are very light. They are often a source of prey for large birds and other treetop predators.

Name: Greater Treeshrew (Tupaia Bigus)
Habitat: Throughout the seasonal forests of the East of the island
Description: Like their smaller cousins the Greater Treeshrew lives in the trees of the seasonal rainforests in Lemuria. It feeds of mostly plants and insects and lives in family groups. It grows to much more significant sizes than the lesser treeshrew and has been recorded reaching up to 34cm in length.

Name: Grassland Shrew (Tupaia Flooria)
Habitat: The central savanna stretching from the basin around the inland sea to the southern shore
Description: A close cousin of the treeshrews of the east of the island the Grassland Shrew is different in that it lives in the savanna where trees are less frequent. This species is adapted to live on the ground as well as in the trees. Like its arboreal cousins it still nests in trees however unlike them its hunts and forages on the ground. As such it is faster on the ground and its diet contains a different mix of plant and insect - its front paws are developed to be able to dig a bit into the ground to pull up insects or young roots.

Name: Lemurian Broom (Cytisus Lemuria)

Location: Across the Highlands and lower lying shrublands

Description: Woody perennial shrub with yellow flowers and evergreen leaves. Its seeds grow in a pod which is excitingly white and fluffy. It probably doesn't really have any agricultural uses but it is the dominant shrub in the region and is found almost everywhere in the regions where it grows. Its large shrubby areas are commonly used by small rodents and birds as cover from potential predators and some small animals form their nests within its bushy embrace.

Name: Hypericum Lemuria

Location: Across the Highlands and lower lying shrublands

Description: A very poisonous and dangerous plant. Often mistaken for the closely related, rather tasty and not poisonous Hypericum Safeium which which it unfortunately shares the same habitat. It is a small semi-evergreen perennial shrub with bright yellow flowers.

Name: Hypericum Safeium

Location: Across the Highlands and lower lying shrublands

Description: If people one day learn to make tea then the flowers of this plant will undoubtedly be used to flavour it. Unlike its cousin Hypericum Lemuria it is not poisonous but otherwise is a very similar shrub.

Name: Giant Treeshrew (Tupaia Even Biggerus)
Habitat: Alpine regions
Description: Unlike its forest dwelling ancestors the Giant Treesherw dwells in the alpine regions of Lemuria. It is much larger and can grow to up to 120cm long. It has a very large amount of intelligence and has been known to be trainable when domesticated. It has a similar diet to its cousins below but tends to focus more on plant based foods. They live in stationary families and create large nest complexes that can be quite large an intricate structures (like a beaver).

 

[Omega124]

Name: Lemurian Coelacanth (Latimeria lemuria)
Habitat: They live in the deep ocean, about 150 meters away from the coastline, and prefer to live in rocky canyons and caves where they can easily find shelter in natural labyrinths
Description: The Lemurian Coelacanth is a living fossil, having undergone relatively little evolutionary processes in 400 million years. Because of this, they have extremely unique physological properties that set them apart from not just other fish, but all living vertebrae. For example, they have a "rostal organ" in their snout which is connected to their electrosensory system, and a hinge in their skull which literally allows them to lift up their skull, allowing their mouth to truly reach a wide gape. Their spinal fins are uniquely hollow (thus leading to their name; literally translates to hollow spine), while their bones are supported by a tube filled with oils, known as a "Notochord". They are also unique among fish its size and shape for having live birth, rather than laying eggs.

These fish are solitary predators, perfecting to feast on cephalopods such as octopus and squid. They are nocturnal, and due to their unique biology, they are extremely fast swimmers that can turn at a moment's notice. Their blistering speed is, in fact, their main form of avoiding their predators

Name: Lemurian honeybee (Apis aculei)
Habitat: Found practically across all of Lemuria's tropical and subtropical areas. Wherever there is ample supply of flowering plants, the honeybees will follow
Description: The Lemurian honeybee is hypothesised to be an offshoot of the Eastern Honeybee, and physically quite resembles it. Like most bees of the Apis genus, the Lemurian honeybee is extremely eusocial, organizing themselves into hives that have one fertile queen, a few males, and a vast majority of unfertile female "workers". They create hives out of wax, and collect pollen to create honey.

The most fascinating feature of the Apis aculei, and what gives it its name, is that its stinger is quite different from all other known honeybees. Given the prevalence of large mammalian fauna on Lemuria, that often hunts for its honey, barbed stingers are often more of a liability than an asset. While useful to signal the hive to attack a particular threat, colonies would often lose a large portion of its workers simply due to the suicidal nature of a honeybee sting on mammals. Therefore, there was evolutionary pressure towards mutations in which the barbs on the honeybee became less pronounced, thus making it more stable and less likely to tear off after an attack on a mammal. Therefore, a Lemurian honeybee can sting mammals multiple times without dooming itself. The ability for the stinger to deattach from a bee is still there, but the bee is more readily able to control herself to only deattach if she finds its nessecary to alert her hive (or, in more unfortunate cases, if she merely stings at a poor angle and the barb gets caught)

Name: Brown junglefowl (Gallus ingens)
Habitat: The jungle/tropical rainforest found in the north of Lemuria
Description: The Brown junglefowl, like most junglefowl species, named after the primary color of its plumage, which is a browish color not entirely dissimilar to a female Grey Junglefowl in mainland India. For this, they are typical regarded as being less colorful than the average Junglefowl, which is a genus known for its male's colorful plumage. The selection towards less colorful plumage may be linked to an overall larger size of the bird (in which its taxanomical name comes from), where a male junglefowl in the prime of its life can grow to the size of a small child! The larger size of the junglefowl means the less colorful plumage allows it to remain better hidden from predators, allowing them to continue to benefit from camouflage while enjoying the ability to grow to larger sizes.

Like all junglefowl, the Brown junglefowl is an omnivore; it prefers a plant-based diet of seeds, but can and will eat insects to supplement its diet. The Brown junglefowl is extremely territorial; male junglefowl, as part of their courting rituals, will often engage in lethal combat with their spurs. Very rarely will both birds walk away alive. The brown junglefowl in general are extremely feisty and aggressive, and the population of humans on Lemuria would likely want to leave them alone, if their meat and eggs weren't so goddamn delicious

Name: Dwarf Elephant (Elephas Pumillo)
Habitat: Off the coast of Lemuria, on the south/southeast islands
Description: Dwarf Elephants are a prime example of the island effect. Their once large, majestic ancestors wandered onto areas of land, which were eventually cut off due to the rising sea levels from the glacial retreat. With the supply of food low, the trapped elephants recieved a major evolutionary push to favor smaller elephants, who required less caloric intake in order to survive. Now roughly the size of a horse, these extremly intelligent herbivores are not much different socially from their mainland Lemurian counterparts; even with their reduced size, they don't have much predators around that could take advantage of their smaller size, and the average herd may even be larger due to individual elephants requiring less food.

Southern Red Panda (Ailurus meridionali)
Habitat: The Subtropical forests of Lemuria, particularly in the more hilly, even mountainous regions
Description: Recent arrivals from India, the Red Panda has rafted over to find itself in an important niche in the Lemurian ecosystem. They are primarily herbivorious, but are known to eat small animals such as tree shrews and small birds whenever the opportunity arises. Red Pandas will raid bird nests, but considering their prime habitat is generally away from ground-laying birds, there is not as much pressure from the Southern Red Panda on these native populations as one would expect. A mutation endemic to Lemuria has caused the red panda on the island to develop fur that is a lighter shade of red than on Eurasia, particularly prevalent on cubs.

Porting my animals over

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Lemurian Otter/Lutra Familiaris
Habitat: The river complexes of Lemuria, most notably those of western Lemuria
Description: The Lemurian Otter has short, sandy-blonde fur, and a maximum length of approximately a meter. Related to the Eurasian Otter, the lemurian species lives in close proximity to many human settlements, often competing for fish.



The Aurelley
The Aurelley cultural complex is characterized by a few different distinct traits. Most of the groups that fall under this cultural complex are highly dependant on maritime resources, with fish and shellfish forming the vast majority of their protein intake. Most groups shamanistic, and sociable, trading and communicating between tribes and semi-nomadic settlements as far as miles away, freely exchanging members and ideas. Most of these groups seemed to have a devotion to idols of various water species, with ground stone idols of Otters, Fish, Ducks, and other water animals planted along the edge of villages. Some of these groups have taken to feeding the local otter populations, either because they’re cute, or for some religious purpose, despite the fact that, ostensibly, the otters are competitors for resources. In return, some otters have taken up residence in and around some of the Stilt-villages, raising their young near the protection offered by humans.

 

[SouthernKing]

Going to update Friday, it won't take me very long to do so that's a deadline.

 

[SouthernKing]

I lied, I'm probably going to update within 24 hours. I'd like to move this along quickly so we can get 2 updates a week.

 

[SouthernKing]

Update 1: The Mesolithic, Part 2 (~8000 BCE)

In the hazy centuries that followed the arrival of the proto-Lemurians, the continent’s first humans began to fragment and fan out. Perhaps the lush riverine plains of the west could only field so many hunters in the same place; perhaps it was just a simple matter of wandering. The peopling of Lemuria appears to nevertheless have been a sluggish process; evidence suggests that even a millennium and a half after the fact, barely a quarter of the continent had been touched at all.

One group wandered east: deep, deep, deeper up into the highlands, in search of new quarry. Far removed, the Herachel would develop in isolation. Their distinctive archaeological remains, even from this early period, seem to demonstrate the roots of a rich oral tradition. Importantly, the Herachel’s new homes would bring them in close proximity to Lemuria’s alpine giant treeshrews. At first, the treeshrews must have been primarily used as food, but there is evidence that some were already living in close contact with Herachel sites.

A second group seemed to have found a way through mountain passes and into the flood plains of Lemuria’s interior valley, becoming the Lei-Lei, the roots of another isolated cultural lineage. More has been said about the Lei-Lei than any other early Lemurian culture; namely, it was around this period that they seemed to have begun taking as a food source the bulbs of the sugar-lilies native to this valley. With the valley more arid than the west and therefore less ideal for savannah-style hunting, the Lei-Lei grew more settled, increasingly relying on the sugar lily as a food source. Some even believe the sugar was fermented into the first alcohol known to exist on Lemuria. The importance of the sugar lily was such that it even appears in rudimentary art and totems found in Lei-Lei sites.

Those Proto-Lemurians that remained in the western plains evolved into a network of distinct cultural complexes. All of these overlap in both time and space, causing considerable confusion to future archaeologists trying to discern how they were related. What all these did have in common was their increasingly semi-nomadic nature, in opposition to their more Mesolithic predecessors, and their affinity for fishing and the water. The cause of this turn is unknown. It has been suggested that the game of the plains was overhunted, or suffered some other population catastrophe, during the ninth millennium BCE.

The Proto-Lemurians’ original shore became the home to the highly aquatic Red Turtle culture, named for their extremely distinctive pottery tradition: heavily featuring red pigment and motifs of the redback loggerhead sea turtle, an animal that appears to have been regularly eaten, rather than worshiped. Red Turtle sites are also known for their relatively advanced graves, some of which have yielded impressive amounts of fish-bone jewelry.

Somewhat further upriver lay the Aurelley complex, known for their distinctive sites with dwellings raised on stilts. The Aurelley too have developed artistic motifs of local aquatic life--especially otters, fish, and ducks--although these mostly take the form of stone idols, and their pottery is not as advanced as that of the Red Turtle culture. The otter is what the Aurelley complex is most associated with; by the end of this period, otters are known to coexist closely to Aurelley sites, although most are hesitant to label this early phase as domestication.

The riverbank to the east, down to the more forested areas along the coast, became home to the Bretnish culture. Less is known about them than their western neighbours, but it is known that they also formed small settlements, and they seem to have made local plants--such as the coastal salt mango--a large part of their diet.

Map:

Spoiler :

***

I’m not an archaeologist, I hope that made sense to everyone.

If this early archaeological cultural complex stuff turns you off, don’t worry--I’m going to try to get through this. You don’t have to faff around with pottery or diet either--you can develop cultural details, or religion, or something, and I can fill in the details.

Ailedhoo: We’re still about two or three turns early for proper farming, so I tried to modify yours to fit.

Next update will be again 1500 years, from ~8000 BCE to ~6500 BCE. I’ll also allow everyone to make two orders per person.

 

[Danwar]

The Lei-Lei - The Growth of Settlements and Faith

As time progressed, the Lei-Lei peoples continued to spread throughout their semiarid basin, selectively breeding certain species of sugar lilies for the largest amount of sustenance in each bulb. This noticeably improved the already-high yields of said water lilies, and soon their sugary substances allowed for further population growth among the Lei-Lei. While they still hunted, fished and gathered to supplement their Lily-based diet, they were leaning more and more on the latter, and this is where evidence of the first semi-permanent Lei-Lei settlements began to pop up. While walled cities would not come until later, these settlements appeared to be another step towards 'civilization'. These settlements remained only so long as the crops were plentiful and the hunts were bountiful, and in times of famine, these settlements would be abandoned as the tribe would move to another, more abundant area - and, when said areas began to grow plenty again, a new tribe would move into the settlement erected by the old. In this way, Lei-Lei settlements were usually inhabited more often than not, although rarely by the same tribe for more than a generation at best.

The Lei-Lei's semi-sedentary lifestyle gave them much more free time than most other cultures. When they were not moving, they could grow crops, and even with the necessity of hunters collecting meat and fruit for the tribe, there were still a great many people in each tribe that could afford not to get food. Most of these people began to form into craftsmen, forming a livelihood on the making of tools and pottery, while a select few began to think of religion. The 'Lilly Cult', as modern historians often called early Lei-Lei religion, began to gradually coalesce into something more and more coherent, organizing the previously mystic belief in the supernatural capacity of Sugar Lilies into something more - they were the manifestations of a Goddess, who had forged Humanity and led Her chosen people - the Lei-Lei - to Her holy plants and sought to forge society in Her image. While this was far from a proper, organized religion, it was still leauges ahead of the totemic spirits of other peoples, and soon it began to spread throughout the Lei-Lei culture. By the end of the Mesolithic period, the old Lily Cult was all but extinct - in its place was the cult of the Goddess of the Lillies and the Beasts. Even in future eras, where foreign gods attempted to infiltrate Lei-Lei society, this Goddess would remain within the Lei-Lei culture for a very long time.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Increasing population densities along the Great Aurelley river pushed the various cultural complexes together, forcing a sort homogenization. Middens and burial sites excavated show the existence of trade networks that span the length of the river, with goods that bear characteristics of many of the different groups. It can be presumed that the various cultures spoke interrelated languages, and that religious practices were fairly uniform, as shamanistic remains were rather uniform. Two traits in particular, as different as the rest of the material cultural remains are, have caused later archaeologists to refer to the whole complex as the Weir culture. The first is the appearance of otter bones interspersed throughout the human remains. Unlike their wild counterparts, these bones bear clear signs of neotany, indicating true domestication. The second is the appearance of the eponymous weirs throughout the region. Presumably used to control the flow of water to assist in fishing and aquaculture, these wiers were wood, mud, and stone structures that spanned many of the side creeks and waterways of the river complex.