Post by Bunhash on Nov 1, 2010 11:01:29 GMT -8
Race: Mi'firel, self named MaoMao's. (Half-cat people)
Lifespan: 40-50
Physical Descriptions: The MaoMaos are wild-like people. They're unkempt and usually under-dressed. They walk on two legs or on all four if they so choose, are covered in fur like a cat and have whiskers, sharp teeth, claws and a tail. Their fur/hair tones vary from whites to black, red to brown and can be mixed in any amount. Body wise, the MaoMao's range anywhere from 5 feet to 6 foot 5 inches tall. With old age, a MaoMao will get rather chubby, but during youth, most are so active, they stay slim and lean.
Social: The Mi'firel are very social, friendly and outgoing people. They are prone to doing spontaneous things and heading over to the Ashtel's territory, their neighbors, to host parties for them on their own land. They enjoy maintaining a good life and are very religious people. They are not overly intelligent so there isn't much in the way of advancing their ways of life, instead, they prefer to maintain what they already do and have. They're close with their families and friends and enjoy gatherings and bonfires.
The two most notable things about the Mi'firel, however, is their enormous wealth, much larger than the other nations (setting the dwarves and dragons aside) and the fact that despite their wealth, they prefer to live almost at a poverty-like state. With the Mi'firel's love of nature, the Mao's prefer to live in huts of sticks and grass and without much glamor. Their wealth comes from their love of export. Perhaps the funniest thing about it is the Mi'firel would probably do the same thing for free if it was an option.
Since their beginning, The Mi'firel have indulged in their passions for nip, dairy and fishing but were never ambitious enough to look further, into business and trade. It wasn't until they made their first long pilgrimage to the shrine of Genna that they learned there were others out there who enjoyed them like they did.
Finding such, the Mao's decided it was a sign to share their goods and talents with the world, as if it was their holy duty. Having mastered the skill of raising cattle and other mammals for their milks, the Mao's got into the business of exporting different dairy products to the other close-by regions. They specialized in milks, cheeses, yogurts and creams but didn't stop with dairy. They also got into business exporting mass amounts of nip and sea fish. But traveling with fresh goods proved too hard. It was true that fish could be smoked or salted to preserve it on long travels, but the Mi'firel preferred to sell their goods fresh and dairy just didn't hold well, making cheese the only export that made its way to the further nations on the mainland.
Because of such a thing, the Mao's went to their beloved neighbors, the Ashtel, and requested help with solving the issue. They asked if there was a way to magikally do something to assist in their keep good fresh. The Ashtel, always willing to help their neighbors... if the request wasn't too fool-hardy, quickly came up with a few magikal solutions. They came up with a way to imbue metallic boxes with magikal charms that would leave the insides very cold. The only setback was the weight of the boxes was increased with the charms and the outsides were terribly cold to the touch. The Ashtel suggested to find a new offer, but the always too optimistic Mao's informed them that they would find a way and requested for them to think on their price for continuing to imbue charms into metal boxes for them.
In the mean-time, a select few Mi'firel headed to the mainland and to the Dwarf city. They sought out their king and explained their desire to be able to export out goods and that they needed lightweight, but strong, insulated metal containers for the job. They offered to pay the Dwarves a percentage of their sales in addition to free shipments of dairy, nip and fresh fish on a bi-monthly basis. At first the Dwarves were suspicious and requested that they be allowed to see for themselves the goods that were being shipped out were quality and would fetch a good price as the boxes they required would probably need to be made of a strong alloy and would be an expensive product.
The Mi'firel, ever happy, agreed and brought back a group of delegate dwarves. They treated them with immense respect and fed them all sorts of delicious sea fish, ones they had never tasted before and many different dairy products of the likes they could not make. Being more than content, the dwarves returned to their home with a few more Mi'firel where they would be invited to stay for a time and work out the agreements.
In the end, the dwarves agreed to produce the boxes with the free shipments of goods, as arranged and a 25% cut in profits for all sales for fish and a 15% cut in profits for dairy (a wise choice as the fish would bring in the biggest market yet). The boxes would need to be picked up by the Mi'firel once every other month, when they dropped off the free goods.
More pleased than ever, the Mi'firel returned home and sought out the Ashtel. They made them the same deal though the Ashtel would take no more than free goods as payment and soon the Mi'firel market began.
The cold boxes were very light and had wooden panels over the outsides to keep the cold from getting to anything else. Each box could store many bottles of milk and jugs of yogurt at a moderately icy chill that wouldn't freeze the produces but would keep them without spoiling. And their export boomed. Almost overnight it seemed Mi'firel products were the best there were, in regards to dairy and fish anyhow. Quickly, the demand for their products rose to a point that all Mi'firel on the island were invested into the marketing and export business.
The only drawback was the demand was higher than their ability to send out. It was never a matter of goods as they had so much they were never drained. No, it was the lack of shipping vessels to get to and from the land. It was this that brought to the Mao's greatest export of all time; Ship building.
These boats would soon become the finest the world had ever known bringing in the Mi'firel the largest wealth they had ever known.
With the increase of boats, the Mi'firel were able to export far more dairy, nip and specialty fish to the rest of the world.
Moving on, the society of the Mi'firel is a free one. There are no specific leaders, simply elders who supply the youth with wisdom and knowledge. They live within small tribes of families but each tribe is part of the whole. There is almost no fighting that ever happens between the Mao's.
Murder, rape, abuse and homosexuality is looked down upon in Ming. MaoMao's are known to lynch other MaoMao's for such acts. They often sail them out to sea, dump them overboard and leave. One time there was a Mao by the name of Miggle who loved other boy MaoMao's. The kitties found out and brought him out to sea. He was the first to manage to swim back. When he returned, thinking they would see how determined he was to live, the others would spare him a second time. How wrong he was. Instead, the Mao's took him to the Ogre lands and dumped him into a swamp. No one ever heard of poor Miggle again.
Estimated Population: 210,000 individuals.
Standing Army: Yes. They have a rather unorganized rabble for land based warfare but their navy is the pride of the open seas. Their boats are the fastest, most buoyant and skillfully manned. They pretty much invented sea warfare and then they perfected it.
They are all masters of javelin throwing and using their falchion like weapons. A few have mastered the bow and arrow as well but it is more uncommon. They have no cavalry or beast that they ride into battle. But they can recruit the help of any big cats in the area with not much more than a few strange cat noises.
Size: Medium. Estimated around 13,000.
Breeding/Relationships: Mao's all love each other like family but the idea of singular love is foreign to them. There is no such thing as marriage in the Mi'firel society nor is keeping a single partner so its common for them to flit from person to person. There are the small occasions however when a pair finds they care for each other deeply and they remain together for the rest of their lives.
Casual sex is common and looked upon as normal though homosexuality is forbidden. The only time same sex coupling is overlooked is during multiple person sex romps when its a matter of passion rather than a life choice. Also, only those that have come of age may indulge in sexual relations. Underaged partnering is utterly forbidden.
MaoMao's carry for 4 months before birthing and have 2-4 children per litter. They don't usually have more than 2 litters in their lifetimes. Usually, only one of the parents will take the kittens to raise and the other will move on with their lives but often they will remain in contact with their children.
Magic: Very Low to Very High
Speed: Very High, walk 4 mph, run 18 mph.
Strength: Below Average
Skill: Very High
Special Abilities: Boatmaking, Fishing, Dairy.
Export/Craft:
Dairy - Terrastra's finest milk, cheeses, yogurts and creams.
Fish - Large Island fish from around Ming and fish in the deep sea others can't get to.
Nip - A kind of grassy drug that is chewed to cause hyperness in Mi'firel and happiness in other races.
Boats - The finest boats and ships in all of Terrastra.
Territory: Ming
Native Language: Mong. The bulk of the language is a series of mews, meowls, purrs and other such feline sounds. In some rare cases they use a scent from one of their glands to supplement their language. But generally the scents are only used in cases where other languages would emotionalize their enunciations. Like when someone would say, "I HATE you," with deep emotion, a Mi'firel would merely say it in the same fashion as ever but include a scent that tells other Mi'fiels exactly how much hatred they are trying to communicate. This language can be learned by other people than Mi'firel but when spoken to a Mi'firel it sounds monotone. Their written language is primitive and nothing more than series of scratches, generally on stone.
Leader: None
Alignment: Good
Creator: Genna
