Project Lemuria

[Civ'ed]

Lemurian Sloth Bear/Melursus ursinus lemurii

Habitat: Sloth bears can be found across most, if not all, climates of lemuria.
Description: The Lemurian Sloth Bear is the smallest of all sloth bear subspecies. It is assumed to have diverged from the other sloth bears sometime after the distinct formation of the species. As of yet it is not known how the Lemurian Sloth Bear managed to make its way to Lemuria, but several theories persist, including a land bridge or even "floating over".

 

[Robert Can't]

Spoiler Old animals not currently in use - here for posterity :

Name: Lemurian Filed Mouse (Aphodemus Meganus)
Habitat: Pretty much all of the non-rainforest areas of Lemuria
Description: A small mouse that feeds on seeds, berries and other plant matter. It makes small and shallow burrows with a single chamber for its raising its young and it hibernates through the wet seasons. It get eaten by things a lot.

Name: Grass Mouse(Aphodemus Tyoia)
Habitat: Any place where grass grows in Lemuria
Description: In many ways it is like its cousin the Lemurian Filed Mouse however it tends not to make a nest in a burrow but rather builds it out of dry grass during the dry seasons. It also does not hibernate and during the wetter seasons it is known to switch up its diet between insects and plant matter depending on what is more easily available at the time.

Name: Cannibal Mouse (Aphodemus Reusus)
Habitat: Restricted to the two semi-arid peninsulas in the west of the island
Description: As the name suggests the Cannibal mouse is known to practice cannibalism. Though the same size as its cousins in the field mouse genus it has a much more advanced social structure with its members living in large family groups. Personal combat determines the group leader and after the one mouse has emerged victorious it eats the carcass of the mouse it defeated. This gory spectacle is carried out on the plain as opposed to in the burrows that they live in and thus it has often been observed by the peoples living in the area giving the mice a ferocious reputation.

Name: Miot (Marmota Miota)

Habitat: The Southern Region of Alpine Highlands

Description: The Miots are medium sized rodents that live in alpine burrows. Each burrow will house a single family unit and the burrows are often found in groupings of 6 to 12. Miots are quite social and there exist observable hierarchies within these burrow groups. In general each family will have a leader and each grouping of burrows will have a further leader.
The Miot diet consists mostly of young plants though insects are also often consumed. During the warmer times Miots can usually be found underground or finding some other way to get out of the heat though they are well suited to the alpine climate and are very resistant to any cold periods.

Name: Big Rat (Rattus Rous)

Habitat: The subtropical rainforests of the southern shore

Description: This unusually sized rodent has established itself as a dangerous predator on the rainforest floor. They are bigger than normal rats some reaching up to 1.6 meters in length. They are known to travel and hunt in packs and their diet consistently contains the meat of the animals that they manage to catch. They have a pack like social structure and are hostile towards any other species encountered. They have been known to get into fights with murder birds over particularly enticing targets.

Name: Sonito Marmot (Marmota Chata)

Habitat: The northern region of alpine highlands

Description: A close relative of the Miot but often much bulkier and preferring to live in rockier habitats. Often the burrows made by the Sonito Marmot are found in rock piles in craggy areas.

Name: Broom mouse (Mus Cytisusisus)

Location: Anywhere where dense shrubs can be found

Description: The broom mouse is a small mouse that makes its nests in the dense shrubbery of the Lemurian Broom and other dense shrubs. Its nest is formed of dried grasses and twigs and is usually suspended above the ground. It is common for mice to build a new nest for each new litter in thier breeding cycle. They eat mostly plant matter they they find out in the shrubland that they inhabit. Interestingly they are one of the few species to which the Hypericum Lemuria is not poisonous.

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.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

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 ecoystem 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 Anguis)
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 Dulcis)
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.

Spoiler :

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

Spoiler :

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.

Spoiler :

 

[Robert Can't]

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.

 

[SouthernKing]

Thanks everyone! I will sort through everything that has been posted through the coming days.

For organisation's sake, I'm going to tentatively set a deadline for wildlife submissions for Tuesday, 12 December (as in 4 days from now) - but culture submissions will be open for a few more days after that.

 

[Robert Can't]

Culture Name
The name they give themselves: Herachel (The Flower People)
The Name they are referred to by outsiders: The Hut People
Location: The mountainous region to the west of the western lake

Spoiler :

Values: Family, connection with nature, mobility and a sense of location

Society: The Herachel are a migrating people living in the higher parts of the alpine regions. They gained their name as the hut people through the drystone huts that they inhabit on the mountain tops. Though the people move around the huts do not and those who ascend from the basin to the east up into the mountains for whatever reason have often noted the stone dwellings lying empty and looking like they are abandoned. However they are not abandoned and each season when a tribe of Herachel people returns to a location their first task is always to see about repairs to the huts. Through this continual cycle the huts that the tribespeople dwell in are known to have stood in the same place for generations. The Huts themselves form the basis for the societal hierarchy. Every family has their own hut and if a new family emerges then it moves into an abandoned one or builds a new one. From this the oldest huts take on more central positions in society with the idea that its dwellers can trace back their family roots further than the others in that particular group. This oldest family will take on the leadership position and delegate tasks to other members of the tribe. When there are meetings of more than one tribe the tribe with the family who has an older claim takes precedence, however in practice since family records go back too far to be in memory and their is no written word this precedence is usually decided by size of tribe or size of the central hut.

Outside of the family hierarchical structure are the Irn - the Storytellers and guides of the tribe. A tribe's Irn live in a separate hut often as old or perhaps older than that of the leading family. Due to the importance of storytelling to the migrational traditions of the Herachel the Irn are treated with a great deal of reverence and respect.

Lifestyle: Living a migrating life the Herachel find most of their food from hunting and gathering. As such there is a significant gender divide between the women whose primary job is the gathering and the men who perform the hunting. Most hunting is confined to the alpine regions looking for the populations of Sonito Marmot or larger mountain rodent although there are sometimes expeditions further into the valleys and planes below.

The drystone dwellings that the Herachel occupy are not usually decorated but mats are often laid out to perform duty as a floor. Traditionally light is gained through the open door by day and then at night when a blanket is thrown over the opening a small fire is often lit using dry broom in stone basins.

An important element in both ritual and recreation is a Soure infusion which is prepared by those wise enough to be able to differentiate between the Soure and the Seroji. The infusion is made by boiling the water and adding the petals of the Soure plant to it. It has an initially bitter taste but a lingering sweet aftertaste and the ritualistic drinking of it forms an important part of Herachel culture.

Another key part of the ritualistic tea drinking is the recitation of the oral history of that particular tribe. The tales of past exploits are often imbued with a strong sense of place as the story serve not only as an oral history and entertainment but also as a guide for the migrational routes of that particular tribe. It is very common for the stories to be embellished with very minute details for the benefit of describing a particular valley or peak which is on the migration path.

Religion: The deities of the Herachel people are woven into their oral histories as characters that appear to aid the tribes in times of need. They are often associated with a particular natural object or place and reinforce the culture's belief in the importance of place to the extend that some places are viewed as particularly holy. For example in one story a certain valley may have been the site in which the tribe was almost wiped out by an especially cold season and their survival is attributed to the appearance of one of their gods bringing dry firewood or such. Since this place is recorded in such detail in the story it becomes a well known site of collective trauma and divine salvation and so is the perceived as a place of significant closeness to their gods.

Economy: They have a hunter gatherer economy making tools and other objects mostly out of stone and wood. They are particularity adept at the use of dry stone techniques in construction and the huts for which they get there name are this way constructed.

History: The various tribes have lived in the huts for longer than remembered and though the oral histories of the families stretches back generations there is no record in their culture of their arrival to the mountains. Since their arrival there has also been little interaction with the lowlanders by virtue of their nomadic lifestyle and the hard to reach location in which they reside. Due to this fact there has been little intermingling of their culture with their neighbours and their language and society has continued to develop independently to the surrounding lowland cultures.

Language: Though also reaching back to the root language that encompasses most Lemurian languages due to the isolated nature of Herachel society the language spoken by the Herachel remains similarly isolated. With very few interactions with lowlander culture it has developed significantly on its own and though there may be deep level grammatical similarities it would not be easy for Herachel and lowlanders to understand each other.

Person Names: In the Herachel culture there are three important parts of a name the family name, the given name, the earned name. Family names are carried down through the families and are recorded in the oral histories. Children are traditional brought into the family of their mothers as the mothers are considered the primary factor in looking after the child so the child will reside in the mother's hut. This the children are also raised by the men of the mother's family.
A given name is chosen by the tribe's chief Irn - the most high ranked of the storytellers. As the child grown into adolescence they can begin to work towards a particular role in the society in something like an apprenticeship. Upon reaching their 17th year they are given the name of their profession.

Given names are usually made of two syllables with a soft ending and gender can not determined by name. Examples include:
Hena, Kallu, Jamir, Frolleh, Maswer, Lamber, Matti, Ahgo, Barly

Family names are often much more varied ranging from single syllable to multisyllabic names:
Ava, Bresyr, Harwyd, Brandwyse, Roiwyn, Kardyl, Crayven, Quernwyr, Wolliwil, Far, Cloya, Daryd, Yll

The earned names are very uniform across and are derived solely from the job which the youth devoted themselves to:
et Irn - the storyteller
et Wyn - the builder
et Por - the gatherer
et Gnal - the hunter
et Dosum - the tracker
et Vayl - the Firestarter
and there are many others related to various other specialised professions that are required by the tribe

In an informal setting often just the given name is used or the given name and earned name if differenitation is needed. When talking to someone of a higher position in the hierarchy in a formal setting it is customary to use their full name in the order of given-earned-family fore example Manswer et Por a Nyll (Manswer the gatherer of Nyill). If speaking down the hierarchy in a formal setting the family name is normally omitted for example Kallu et Vayl. One exception to the rules is those tribespeople who earned the title of et Irn. Such people should always be referred to be their given and earned names regardless of formality or hierarchical concerns as the Irn are viewed with a reverence due to their position as tellers of the stories and keepers of the knowledge of the migrational routes.

City/Nation Names: The various tribes of the Herachel culture take their names from the name of the leader of the family highest up in the hierarchy.

Geographical Names: WILL DO THIS LATER

 

[thomas.berubeg]

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 fruit bats 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 flying insects, including and especially mosquitos.

 

[inthesomeday]

I would like to reserve a nomadic plains culture in the western bit of the continent

 

[Civ'ed]

Spoiler :

PROTO-LEMURIANS

Location: on the map, the dark circle-ish

Values: It is unknown what values were cherished by the Proto-Lemurians. Although mostly conjecture, the Proto-Lemurians appear to have been fascinated by the cycle of life and death and have worshipped it at every opportunity.

Society: Proto-Lemurian government seems to have been a form of democratic theocracy, which elected a high priest and tender of the hypogeum as a leader. Other major roles are unknown. Proto-Lemurian society seems to not have been highly warlike, but recent discoveries of pits full of human bones seem to dispute this.

Lifestyle: Other than the burial practises of Proto-Lemurians, which appear to have been elaborate burials involving metalworking and agriculture, very little is known of the people themselves. What is more known is their construction: the central burial/temple complex being the largest building, with various houses established in circles around it. It is believed dirt walls made up the earliest form of defences for Proto-Lemurian settlements.

Religion: Proto-Lemurian religion organized itself around the concept of ancestor worship - few settlements have been found without what appears to be a meticulously organized hypogeum - as well as what seems to be some form of either fertility or water god.

Economy: The barter economy of the Proto-Lemurians seems to have been based heavily around hunting. Some agriculture has been found, however it seems very little agricultural material was eaten - most of it was meant for the purpose of ritual.

History: Proto-Lemurians were far from the first hominids on the island. It is assumed that they arrived on the island around 50000BC. The culture so typically Proto-Lemurian is dated back at its earliest to 3000BC, however.

Language: Proto-Lemurians speak, as can be insinuated from the name, Proto-Lemurian, or at least a language very similar to it. However, there seems to be some discussion as to whether this is truly Proto-Lemurian - some have instead suggested the language be called “Choely”, after the primary settlement of this culture that has been discovered.

Person Names: If Proto-Lemurian names were anything like the names we have eventually learned of for other Riverine Lemurian settlements, then they are for the most part gender neutral names.

Some names established include: Khoes, Jywoel, Ychatyl, Pys, and Wotpyp.

City Names: So far, 6 major settlements have been discovered within the area controlled by the Proto-Lemurians:

Choely, meaning “Red”

Lop, meaning “Orange”

Wakhych, meaning “Yellow”

Sosto, meaning “Green”

Lykhu, meaning “Blue”

Wopokhys, meaning “Purple”

Nation Names: It isn’t known whether any established nations existed, and if they did, they were most likely named after the chief settlement.

Geographical Names: Only one thing remains known of Proto-Lemurian when it comes to geography, and that is the name of the river they settled called “Chalu Sysoej”, or “White River.”

 

[SouthernKing]

Going to pop in and say that, generally, the sort of thing in Cived's submission is perfect for people who want to start as something outside the cradles but still semi-developed.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

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 (Neoindris Gorilla)
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.

 

[Robert Can't]

Edit: see earlier post for the mice that were here

 

[Radagandruman]

Killer ant (Titanomyrma Lemuriadae)
Habitat: Northern rainforests
Description: Members of the species Titanomyrma Giganteum which migrated to Lemuria about 50 MYA. They build gigantic colonies in the rainforests, which can contain upwards of one million ants, and swarm any vertebrates that cross their path.They can grow to up to 3-4 centimeters long, with queens upwards of 6 centimeters.

Edit: Removed error

 

[thomas.berubeg]

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.

 

[Omega124]

Killer ant (Titanomyrma Lemuriadae)
Habitat: Northern rainforests
Description: Members of the species Titanomyrma Giganteum which migrated to Lemuria about 50 MYA. They build gigantic colonies in the rainforests, which can contain upwards of one million ants, and swarm any vertebrates that cross their path, up to and including dwarf elephants. They can grow to up to 3-4 centimeters long, with queens upwards of 6 centimeters.

Dwarf Elephants live on the literal other side of the continent though....

 

[Radagandruman]

Dwarf Elephants live on the literal other side of the continent though....

Didn’t really think about that...

Removing.

 

[inthesomeday]

The Eidan culture

Location: The alpine at the conflagration of the green and red cradles

Values: The Eidan, forged by their harsh environment, value those skills that contribute to physical survival: strength, endurance, and cunning. Steadfast loyalty and honesty are seen as foolish traits, and the most fierce or rough-edged are elevated socially above the rest. However, devotion to one's family is important, and larger factions can develop from the family; generally, tribalistic and militaristic, but honorable to the extent of reason within their clans.

Society: Not much social organization yet, no clans or factions exceeding the size of a few hundred people. Within each clan is a tyrannical hierarchy that places the strongest or most cunning in charge. Meritocratic rather than hereditary.

Lifestyle: People live in family groups within larger clans or tribes, which are gradually growing larger as the continent thaws. The day-to-day lifestyle is dominated by foraging or, sometimes, hunting or herding. They sleep long hours in the cold, bundled up with one another in valuable animal skins. They have a strong competitive spirit, and when idle or in periods of recreation they might be found playing simple games or competing athletically. There are some occasional celebrations or ceremonies, mostly related to very successful hunts, and mostly involving mass... fertilization, in which the strongest males and females, or most successful in food gathering, mate with one another publicly. Modesty is material, forced by the cold conditions, and when the conditions enable the creation of warm environments or some level of excess, they are exploited and celebrated.

Religion: The Eidan are a materialistic culture, and apply spirituality to what they can see in a very practical way. That being said, there are some early roots of polytheistic nature worship, and the cultural thought generally separates the world structurally through direct physical observations. In the future, there may be a god of stone, or a god of the tree, or dirt, or the stars.

Economy: As noted, the Eidan still live a mostly nomadic life, and as such lack any serious agricultural development.The most valuable or useful materials available to the Eidan are obsidian, which is relatively easy to find in many areas of their native region, and animal skin, which is rare and used for many things, from tenting to clothing. There is a developing base of herded animals; they have long since domesticated and selectively bred a species of wolf-dogs, but as far as food animals are still in the process of bringing certain species of mountain goat and deer under their control. They are advanced in terms of trade, with some of the more diverse mineral wealth in all of Lemuria allowing the different tribes primitive forms of bartering and proto-currency. Shiny stones and minerals, such as gold and gemstones, are becoming more and more valuable as the cultural ideas about the material world advance. Finally, their access to mineral wealth, as well as proto-ovens developed from the stone walls needed to protect fires from the harsh winds, creates the proper conditions to create primitive metal alloys and molds.

History: The Eidan are not the type to ponder the past, but their origin is that they came to settle in their native region during the Ice Age, very early in the history of humanity on Lemuria. They migrated towards the alpine as the tall peaks and dark, warm caves were a place of refuge and hosted a diverse set of animal and plant life, with some of the densest nutrients on the continent before the thawing. Since then they have begun to gradually spread out from the highest peaks, and are just starting to turn their eyes outwards from the mountains.

Language: (There doesn't appear to be a language in this area, the closest is fairly far south) The Eidan language is relatively complex for the period, enriched by the diversity of their surroundings in structure. In keeping with the categorization-central form of their spirituality and lifestyle, the language's rapidly developing grammatical and dictionary conventions construct vocabulary as a series of increasingly specific sounds that identify nouns, adjectives, or (more and more as time goes on) ideas.
For example:
Eidan (Ei-dan): from "ei" (people) and "dan" (mountain). People of the mountain-- distinguishable from people in general as those that come from or live in the mountains.
Verbs are primitive yet, as are prepositions or articles, and so there are no conventions for their tense. This will probably come from synthesis with more developed languages.

Person Names: Family names do not yet exist; each tribe has not yet developed a distinct identity, and the classes and occupations change too much to be reliably assigned to families. Specific naming conventions are developing wherein each individual has two personal names, one describing the place of their birth and one describing the environmental and astrological conditions of their birth. Someone born near a tree may be named "Nakura" (from "na", for start/birth, and "kura" for tree, which itself comes from "tall leaf"-- "ku" for leaf and "ra" for tall) as their first personal name, and as a second personal name "Nahalodistira" ("halo" (rain) from "ha", wind, and "lo", water; and "distira" (the house of a particular star) from "Disti", one star in the sky, and "ra", tall, or in this case elevated.)
Naturally, "Nakura Nahalodistira" is a very wordy phrase, and generally full names are only used in formal settings or to identify people outside of one's family or tribe, with diminutives and nicknames used in intimate relationships. What nicknames are used in particular varies, sometimes shortened from someone's full name and sometimes based on some physical or personal aspect about them that is noteworthy. Additionally, "na" is being dropped more and more from the naming custom, instead being used more and more as a prefix reserved for children and young people. In the future, Nakura might only be referred to as Nakura in their youth, and once they become older as "Kura Halodistira" or with some professional or honorific prefix.

City Names: No cities yet.

Nation Names: Tribe names will come when tribes develop unique cultural identities, and may be the basis of nation names later.

Geographical Names: Specific tall peaks may be named similarly to stars, with sentimental rather than dictionary meaning, but the mountains from which the Eidan originate are coming to be known as the Idonia/Edunia/Edonia (from "Dunnea", for home mountains). Individual tribes and clans are starting to name other places around them, such as rivers and plains, but so far these places have too many names to give one for each.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

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.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

So at thomas' recommendation, I've written a bit about some of the suggestions that people have made, to give some biological context. I'm also working on a post to talk about all of the families of animals that might be native to Lemuria, even before overseas invasions begin.

How did Titanomyrma get from North America to the Indian Ocean? It has to cross two oceans to do that, without touching any lands in between. If you want a giant ant, why not have it be a novel ant that evolved independently on Lemuria, or be a descendant of an undiscovered ant originally native to multiple continents in the southern hemisphere.

Elephants are very unlikely species to raft to Lemuria, unless we are only a very, very short distance away from the African or Indian mainlands. Instead of an elephant, why not work with, say, a relative of a trunked ungulate like Macrauchenia, or adapt something like a Pyrotherium? You've got loads of cool elephant-like mammals to work with here!

Having two distinct species of bear is similarly unlikely to arrive here, but if it did happen, they would probably wipe out a lot of the unique animals that live on Lemuria. Bears are strong, very effective competitors, and eat just about anything- ecologically they act a lot like human beings in many respects. If we have bears, we are going to lose sloths and most of our large native grazers. Instead of bears, why don't we try to make something bear-like, such as a giant predatory ground sloth, or a marsupial bear, or something of the sort?

And yes, I can confirm that I am possessed of a deep and abiding love for ground-sloths, so you can count that against me if you really want Eurasian bears in Lemuria.

Robert Can't has posted a ton of mice and rats, and their rafting to Lemuria is plausible, but I would like to plead for you to reconsider bringing in these Eurasian rodents! If we have these abrupt invasions of rats and mice, we will have huge losses of ground-nesting birds and a few of the really cool things that could conceivably have existed on Lemuria before their arrival. Basically, once you have mice and rats in an ecosystem, it starts being a lot like every other ecosystem in North America and Eurasia, which would be a bit boring because we're doing this to make something strange and unique. So instead, of bringing in rats, why not follow up on your treeshrew idea? I think it would be really cool if the whole rodent niche on Lemuria was filled by an adaptive radiation of treeshrews! I think you could take the basic ideas of the species you've designed, and just 'reskin' them as treeshrew-descendants who've evolved into the same niche! Alternatively, maybe have the rodents be a more recent arrival. Perhaps they showed up after the treeshrews had monopolized the small roles, and ended up evolving into larger animals, like capybaras or beaver-equivalents.

 

[Radagandruman]

Actually, only Titanomyrma Lubei was native to North America. Titanomyrma Giganteum, which is what these ants are descended from, was originally discovered in Germany.