Tokyau (tok-yaow)
Summary
History is never kind to the defeated, and the tokyau's once glory stand as a solemn reminder of that. Thousands of years ago, their people spread from Etzli Cuauhtla, through Lophern, and into the lower reaches of Immensio. Their different nations formed a cooperative league, democratic in nature before democracy was a widespread idea. However, the tokyau spread more as a lack of conflict than aggressive expansionism. Few other nations were in reach to compete with them, and fewer still cared for the harsh environments they chiefly dwelled within. None, however, could ignore the wealth that flowed from the tokyau. Vast veltrony wealth, unbelievable artwork, cultural plays and song that enraptured the soul, and so much more made them the height of talk. Their great craftswomen and magical artisans caught the attention of dragons, and by proxy, those who watched them. So came the great outsiders, seeking trade, then tribute, then finally waging wars to take. Those who survived were ravaged by diseases and famine, and the tokyau's many nations came crumbling down. The free survivors scattered to the winds, retreating into dark corners that none dared follow. Those taken into slavery or otherwise were absorbed by other cultures, spreading their bloodlines thinner and thinner over the years. For many scholars, this is the dividing point between the main species and the various tokyau races. These divergent tokyau as such are known by different names. Yet they are a resilient people, and though many other histories forgot theirs, they never did. The surviving tokyau retreated across the range of Mount Skyreach, venturing into the wildly untamed lands of Jerhegn. Those that managed the journey sought about building their new nation, in one of the most Relentless infested places on Veltrona. Struggle and bloodshed became the norm, the tokyau pitted against nature's unnatural predators in an unending, bloody war. With overwhelming odds they built their cities, blood more than mortar keeping the bricks together. They fashioned new weapons, and devised some of the most potent blood magic seen outside of the baarham and vampyr. In that crucible, the tokyau became as mighty warriors, generations of trained excellence and engineered supremacy all passed down. Of all the peoples in the bloody crucible, they stood above them all, and so many flocked beneath their banner. Being where they were, the ages of the Imperium and the baarham's Dominion all passed them by. Those who did discover them rather didn't care to make the effort. Even if the tokyau were subjugated again, Jerhegn is a living nightmare to contend with. It would only be many millennia later, with booming technological innovations, would the metaphorical bridge be built. Air ships from across Chompy Waters caught the tokyau's collective attention. A method of tamed sky flight, without relying upon wyverns or harpies. In spending great effort making their skyports, the tokyau found a shocking amount of foreign visitors coming. Few seemingly understood the dangers of Jerhegn, naive or trusting in their strength. Either way, with them came even more foreign knowledge, and a glimpse at the world outside. Such things opened up very lateral doorways to the tokyau, ushering in different innovations that they could use. So it came to be, it accelerated their already growing domination over Jerhegn. Although much of the continent is uninhabited still, the areas lived in by people became that much safer by comparison. With safety came foreign investors seeking wealth, and so trading began exploding in size. While the other peoples and nations benefited, the tokyau regarded it with great suspicion. Such was the first step on the road to their downfall before, after all. Still, there is no denying that Jerhegn is changing greatly. A locked continent long shrouded from the world, now opened for the first time in the last century. Vast material wealth and the greatness of the tokyau especially draw attention from their nearby neighbors. Not to mention the virtually untapped side of Mount Skyreach no one is known to have mined out. Despite the dangers involved, business is steadily booming, much to their leery, scrutinizing gaze.Basic Information
Anatomy
Bipedal humanoids that generations of struggle and careful genetic manipulation have left them hyper-adapted to the struggles of Jerhegn. Comparing averages, a tokyau is a dangerous powerhouse next to a human. No one can deny their awesome physique, and it is often the most notable thing about them outside of their ears.
Jutting up from the sides of their heads, their ears are large, tear-dropped shaped flaps of flesh covered in fine fur. Some who met the vampyr first even misbelieved them to be an off-shoot, not unlike the cold wind vampyr. These ears can swivel, fold, and expand with great dexterity, giving them a sophisticated hearing capability. In fact, a good deal of their social expressions are done through the ears, leaving their faces more stoic seeming.
Fur grows on their shoulders and collar bone, cascading down the fronts of their chests and the middle of their backs. On the backside, it is a darker, thicker, and more monotone colored arrangement. It covers more of the back, ostensibly as a protective coat. Their chest side is often fluffier and wilder, and trails down the sternum between the breasts for both sexes. For some this continues to the pubic region, but it largely ends at around the belly. A short tail comes out of their buttocks, triangular shaped for males but a fluffy, rounded looking ball for females.
While their arms and hands are the same as humans, their legs are different. Thickly muscular thighs work along with furred, digitigrade lower legs, which end in board feet with three large, knuckle-like toes. These toes have broad, hooked claws that serve equally as weapons as anchor hooks for holding onto something.
When at rest or walking very slowly they can become plantigrades, however they usually have a bouncing motion to their gait. At full speed they do short, weighty hops, and can easily jump several times their own height when pushed to do so. Their hips are unusually prominent to accommodate their lower leg locomotion methodology as a result.
Their fur/hair color ranges are chiefly within veltrony browns, whites, with smatterings of dusty reds and oranges. Their skin is brown toward dark brown, with some examples of deeper solid black. Rare cases of recessive genes can produce an ashen tone.
Eye colors are quite varied, predominantly blues, greens, and some mix of the two. Warmer honey yellows and fire reds constitute their uncommon eye colors; the rarest is a starkly crystalline pink. The sclera itself is a solid black color, and their pupils tend to be widely round.
They are sexually dimorphic to a significant degree, with the females being lower end of large in height, and the males a comfortable medium. Of the two, the females are physically robust and broad, while the males emphasize a lean, athletic trim. Their fur is mostly the same between them, minus the differences in their tails. Females also have wider hips and enlarged breasts.
Biological Traits
Engineered Physical Excellency – With their blood magic arts, the tokyau changed themselves greatly. Tokyau are, as a norm, at the peak of most physical concepts. They're fit, enduring, and absurdly strong. They're high maintenance, however, and need to eat great amounts to fuel their incredible physiques. While they fall short of dragons or other fantastically strong beings, compared to the human baseline they're far ahead.
High Jump – They can jump far higher than basic physical ratios should allow for. The tokyau use this to their great advantage in the immense tree jungles of Jerhegn.
High-Cost Magic – With most of their mana taken up by their physiology, the tokyau cannot really use mana-heavy magic. They subvert this limit through technology, and is considered the core reason they went heavily into artifice.
Tokyau have a notable sensitivity around their ears, tail, and feet. Of the three, the first two are essentially erogenous, and so touching them has many taboos associated. Their feet are more sensitive for the sake of understanding the ground they're on, or whatever branch they're latched onto.
They could be considered a distinct subrace, having diverged from the original tokyau lineage many centuries ago. However, there is no real cultural identity left from the "original" tokyau before their nations fell. So, the Jerhegn tokyau are a subrace that have come to stand in for the main species as a whole. It is technically incorrect in terms of blood lines, but no one but scholars keep track of that pedantic distinction.
Genetics and Reproduction
Hybrids are predominantly smaller than their mothers, usually more to the size of the father's species. Scale-based species also tend to replace their fur or land in an awkward in between state, so it features prominently. Those with horns or keratin growths also feature with some regularity, but the hybrids may be more asymmetrical/malformed looking compared to the father species.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Dominantly matriarchal, the tokyau women are the "trunk and branches", while men are the "leaves and fruit". Together it is a functional system, one does not explicitly live without the other. It is easy to see, however, that tokyau women do much of the heavier lifting, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Being the ones to do most of the hard labor, fighting, and engineering, they're the frontlines of their civilizations.
It is the men who follow in, greasing the gears so that everything can continue to function at its best. The size differences between the two, also, incur rather unique niches they can fill. Men's smaller stature allow them to work in much more cramped conditions, for open space is a premium in Jerhegn. Similarly, they specialize in skirmisher tactics that support the hard hitting women.
Property is usually passed through the women's line, along with the bulk of familial responsibilities. Men act in support of this system, but also serve as an interconnection point with other families. That being said, it's not uncommon for a man to act as the 'functional' family head, if the wife is too busy elsewhere or passes off on the responsibility.
The best relationships tend to show a balancing act, and so the gender dichotomy is not as extreme as a scholarly report might indicate. Children once weaned are bounced between the parents as needed, and are chiefly kept in places that are safe from danger. The greater tokyau ecosystem is one of large-scale cooperation.
Bands of women come together more on functional cohesion than power dynamics. Good leaders are measured by the ability to communicate ideas, gather others to follow them, and generally provide an understandable workflow. Dominance spats are unusual for them and is in fact quite detrimental to their social structures.
It is one matter to find another leader if one is useless, but another entirely to force them out of their position single-handedly. If the group cannot determine the leader should be removed, then it doesn't fall to an individual to do so. These fundamentals shape much of their social dynamics in a non-violent manner, in stark contrast to some of their nearest neighbors.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Personal names are given by parents or taken by individuals, and some have multiple personal names used for specific purposes. A smith, for example, will have a name attached to their smithy so as to be easier to find for that purpose. Family names are passed down principally to daughters; sons keep theirs until maturity. At which point they can continue to hold the family name, or take on another family's name through marriage.
Generally, this structure ensures families have strict lineages, and many have lines carrying on for centuries. A line is only truly gone when all its women are killed or the name is erased for some reason. Same-sex marriages produce some problematic quarrels over this issue where the women are concerned. Some entirely new families have resulted, born out of a fusion of both names or a new name being chosen.
Those who achieve great feats can adopt a new word identifying that feat into their name. Great feats are measured by acts that affect many tokyau, if not the entirety of a civilization. Some come to be defined entirely by these names, and so lose their personal names from disuse over time.
Relationship Ideals
Survivalism has long shaped the tokyau cultural minds, and so have their relationships reflected this. Capability is very important, and handling the responsibility of the family is a necessary hurdle. Everyone must pull their weight, in some form or another. The exact specifics are hashed out by the couple, as 'what should be handled' is a wildly varied idea.
While traditional gender roles exist, practical concerns means frequent crossing over happens. Unlike other societies where these roles are much more strict, it serves as a vehicle to see 'who can handle what as fast as possible'. People who are otherwise incompatible may come together as a functional working family, rather than one born out of deep attraction or love. Although, in some ways, that is a form of love.
This has created some polarizing ideas, such as the "love you go home to" and the "love you drink with your heart". Great is the one who can manage both of these in the same place, but for many that is not the case. Infidelity is a rampant issue, restrained by the deadly bonds of familial responsibility. How this manifests does differ; men may be exiled from the family, either for doing so or because the wife is replacing him. Women, on the other hand, continue to keep hold of the family unless overruled by an older related matriarch of some kind. Honor and integrity, thusly, mean very different things in this sort of context.
Ultimately, like so many others, they want security, love, and wondrous meaning to their lives. What charms can be given in their hostile environment are deeply cherished. Perhaps as Jerhegn is put under control and danger recedes, they'll have greater luxuries for personal choices.
Lifespan
400 years
Average Height
Female: Large
Male: Medium
Male: Medium
Average Weight
Female: Heavy
Male: Moderate
Male: Moderate
Geographic Distribution
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