Tokyau (tok-yaow)

Known History

Beginnings

The Tokyau are a people renowned for not only having built one of history’s greatest democracies, but unflinchingly persevering after its monumental downfall. Undaunted by such calamity, their resilience against the worst of what life can throw at them has garnered an impressive reputation and a fearsome might. To them, they are not a people in decline, but warriors stained by defeat, yearning for renewed glory and redemption.   To understand the tokyau is to take a different perspective from most monsterkind species on Veltrona. A shorter people and one comparatively weaker to their peers, the ancient tokyau were elusive and overly cautious, favoring seclusion and secrecy. Natives to highlands, rolling hills, and the jungles of Etzli Cuauhtla, terrible enemies awaited them in the likes of the Relentless Herds and Packs, the predators and rampant disease of the bloody jungles' therein, and the ever-present threat of conflict over territory with other Monsterkind. When one's competitors included those and the likes muurun or dragonkind, one must devise clever solutions or be crushed.   The tokyau took to the likes of artifice, engineering, and magical arts as their means. With plentiful resources and all the impetus in the world, they voraciously garnered knowledge, experimented with all sorts of machkinery, and crafted esoteric magics that even dragons soon learned to fear. Weakness did not survive in Etzli Cuauhtla for long, and such constant, existential pressures pushed the tokyau to greater heights. More than anything else, they absolutely hated the cruelties of life, the unfairness of circumstance, and the villainy of predetermination. If the world would not provide the prosperity people deserved, then the tokyau would do it themselves.   For everyone else, they would come to share that same vision, or learn to stay out of the tokyau's way.    

Bloody Revolutions

Thousands of years ago, in the deeper and less-remembered eras of the Wild Times, the various tokyau tribes and micro-nations had carved out their own footholds across Etzli Cuauhtla. The largest of which would be found along the divine mountains at the continent’s center, so-named Pasha at the time. Though these tribes acknowledged common bonds of kinship and/or culture and a shared desire for mutual prosperity, the means by which to do so created a century of divisive arguments and flash-conflicts between ruling powers and citizenry alike. From this conflict, however, arose a revolutionary figure that would forever change tokyau history: Ianzia the Uniter.   A farmer dragged into a brief war between her home city and a trusted neighbor, the conflict itself wasn't one spawned from any great grievance or transgression. Rather, it’d been a ploy by which economic rivals could be pushed out, and doubly so line the conspiring nobles’ pockets with all sorts of ill-gotten gains. Ianzia, tenacious and surviving on the frontlines, ascertained the truth of such a fake war through captured officers’ letters. Disgusted by the politicking and greed, Ianzia, humble by profession and life, grew incensed to such heights that fighters on both sides soon rallied under her banner. Marching upon both cities, Ianzia dragged the noble families out from their manors and beheaded in the public squares. Other nobles, fearing a similar fate, sent their guards to crush her, and thus triggered a full-on civil war in two different city-states.   Though it only lasted a year, the bloodiness of the conflict debilitated not only the two cities, but much of the surrounding tribal lands as well. By the end of it, most of the nobility had been killed or stripped of their assets, and even the ruling councils executed as the people took power. Ianzia, knowing people but not governance, was well-aware of the fact she wouldn't become the leader everyone wanted her to be. Instead, she used her clout (and army) to compel the scholars and learned minds of the time to figure out a 'better solution'. Whether cleverly inventive or taking inspiration from other peoples—such as dragons and their lineages—they devised their first honor code of what would later become the precursor to a true republic.   By placing ruling power in the hands of voted-for representatives, who in turn answered to the people, the uncontested reign of tokyau nobility soon ended. Though the noble class remained extant in some form or another, the newly arisen republic would prove its mettle by culling rebellious nobles and systematically stripping those that yet remained of their power, quickly eroding their social class over time. This dramatic change in status quo spread to the neighboring tokyau civilizations, who soon saw their own revolutions ignite as the people, long angered by the inept governance of their own nobles, finally had an outlet. Even those not of the tokyau civilization directly—most notably the mussuba—became inspired by such events. The categorical rejection of the nobility’s divine right, supposedly pure or higher bloodline, and similar mythos became a first on Etzli Cuauhtla, polarizing the entire continent.   By the end of these changing times nearly two centuries later, the foundations for the legendary Pasha Commongood were laid. Ianzia herself would continue to enter and exit public awareness over the course of her life, perpetually torn between her own wishes to remain a farmer and the public's great need for her straight-forward leadership. Though blessed by fortuitous circumstances that gained her a life span exceeding her fellows, by the time the Commongood arose, Ianzia herself was already into advanced age and facing retirement. Her last public appearance was to give a famously well-documented speech, setting the future tone of the Commongood's course: peace, mutual prosperity, and to always be a helping soul when possible.   A few years later, she would pass on in quietude at her farm, which was later turned into a historical site.    

Pan-Species Alliance

In the lands of Etzli Cuauhtla, magnanimity is difficult to maintain, for the constant dangers of the bloody jungles are unending. Yet, led by the tokyau, the Pasha Commongood relentlessly strove to overcome every obstacle in their path, no matter what form it took. The Commongood grew to great sizes relatively quickly, absorbing many neighboring civilizations with remarkable ease. Its core tenets of universal rights, meritocratic evaluation, religious freedom, and well-developed social support meant that they recognized all sapient species, and provided for them, equally. As proof of their commitment to such ideals spread, many wished to adopt their novel style of governance, creating new democracies of their own making. Yet as the Commongood grew and grew, it soon became apparent no army, or even coalition of armies, on Etzli Cuauhtla would have any hope of resisting it.   Within centuries, the Commongood had grown to become Etzli Cuauhtla's eminent superpower. Political independents, such as the Dresxi Enclaves or Dragonkind lineages, did remain, as the Commongood had policies against aggressive expansionism. Promises of mutual prosperity and safety alone were often enough to convince other nations struggling to survive, especially if the proposer proved capable of backing up such claims. Historians often considered the Commongood as the first known civilization to have truly ‘conquered’ Etzli Cuauhtla, and perhaps becoming one of Veltrona's most cohesive superpowers in that era. Draconic scholars, of course, scoff at such notions, but their counter-arguments of their own peoples attaining anything similar in the period generally fall flat, as in those days the dragon lineages weren't as open or cooperative as they would become much, much later in the era of Votyoger.   Of the many species that became part of the Pasha Commongood, harpies are credited the most for helping to maintain the actual logistical needs of the government itself. Entire tribes took on the burden of becoming messengers, political advisors (or representatives proper), and scholars that spread knowledge or maintained communications. Their unending flights across the breadth of the Commongood saw information, votes, and anything else they could carry, spread with incredible ease and speed. For centuries, harpies maintained the Skeleton of the Commongood, and so earned themselves a place of peerless prestige as a result. Some scholars suppose it is the Commongood's harpy-based infrastructure model that other civilizations would later adopt, but given the idea of 'flying person carrying messages' is both ubiquitous and powerful, that is a lofty claim.   Eventually, the Pasha Commongood would spread farther eastward, encroaching upon the desert of Dorvar and the mountainous plains of southern Lophern. The peoples and civilizations of such lands were markedly different and faced entirely new problems, though ones the Commongood considered 'much easier' than life in Etzli Cuauhtla. Nonetheless, the Commongood ran into a veritable wall between it and these foreign nations, and much effort was expended on establishing political boundaries with them for the first time.   Although initially respectful of these foreign cultures, the Commongood soon took umbrage with their political power structures and cultural norms. That is to say, it came to despise the fact that the cultures of Lophern and Dorvar, at the time, relied heavily on slave labour, rigid class systems, and the exploitation of less-fortunate peoples, nomads, and 'outsiders'. Whether to sustain their economies or due to religious views, the atrocities remained all the same.   After a few years of rapidly escalating tensions, no one was surprised when war broke out. The exact specifics are, unfortunately, lost to time, but at least one major enemy of the Commongood, the Ubtunna Queendom—a quasi-religious cult dedicated to an Exalted queen—records survived the most. While their point of view could be tepidly described as ‘condescending’ as they regarded the tokyau as ‘cute fluffy bunnies’ constantly, Ubtunna’s details showed the war itself was a very start-stop affair for many years. The Commongood, though militarily mightier in all ways, couldn’t achieve consensus on how to dismantle its enemies without unnecessarily slaughtering innocents. A fact that was used against them constantly, leading to persistent stalemates in the war.    

Heavenly Notice

Deserving of great renown and study, it suffices to say the Pasha Commongood earned its seat as the pinnacle of tokyau civilization. It took their species to greater and greater heights, achieving levels of technological and magical progress that would become unmatched on Veltrona in that era. With its subsequent victories against its ideological enemies and continual spread, the Commongood may have even gone on to become a planetary superpower. Alas, at the seeming height of its glory, the Commongood and its people—the tokyau especially—would soon face a calamitous downfall.   In the Dark Ocean above Veltrona and its endless mysteries, both Heavenly and otherwise, myriad beings and worlds reside. One type of these beings are the so-called Ouroboros Uplifter, an exonym by tokyau astronomers who studied them. These massive, continent-sized, and ring-like beings were fonts of immeasurable amounts of mana and conductors of magical arts equally unfathomable to veltron-bound minds. Observed and studied for decades, one such being would visit upon Veltrona, and, incredibly enough, upon the Pasha Commongood itself in particular.   It was an uplifter of such size that it eclipsed all others ever recorded, with a diameter purported by documents and stories from the era to exceed 7,700 kilometers, it practically engulfed almost half of Etzli Cuauhtla and casting its shadow across the rest. What was described by survivors as ‘the braying of a mighty horn-like sound’ shook the Heavens and Veltrona, and as the tokyau had ever seen before, the ring-like being began to uplift all beneath it. A mighty, artificial tempest swirled from its enormous inner band, vacuuming everything, even buildings thoroughly built into the ground, into itself. The loosest or free-standing things, like people or animals, went first, followed by everything else as the tempest’s intensity gradually increased. For eight terrible and continual hours the heart of Etzli Cuauhtla was scoured by the uplifter, with no force of arms nor magic seemingly affecting it. When it departed to the Heavens once more, only emptied ruins and devastated jungles remained. The sudden, violent destruction of both land and infrastructure began a ripple-cascade of environmental calamity with the likes of dams and aqueducts crumbling, entire plateaus collapsing, lakes and seas reshaping, and so on.   Thus, the heart of Etzli Cuauhtla, the Pasha Commongood's dozens of species and their populations, and many wonders of nature, were all gone, never to be seen nor heard of again.   Reeling from the devastation of such an unexpected event, what was left of the tokyau and Commongood at large remained in the far eastern fringes. Unfortunately, their long-time enemies had recognized such a moment of weakness, and soon launched terrible invasions against them. Without the support of its core, the Commongood did not have the means to resist nor survive such attacks. The tokyau and their remaining allies fought bitterly, but in the following decades, all that remained were survivors that fled and the enslaved populace taken as trophies.   So ended the Commongood, and so began the tokyau's bitter fall into ignominy.    

Against All Comers

The remnants of the Commongood, chased by their eastern enemies, retreated to the last bastion of their civilization: Jerhegn. A pocket continent itself, Jerhegn and Etzli Cuauhtla were once the same land, but the emergence of Chompy Waters separated the two. The Commongood sought to reunite them, albeit in the much more convenient creation of a bridge rather than moving continents. The Boiling Bridge, as it was called given its sauna-like ambience, was a marvel of engineering in its time and a world wonder. Commongood survivors fled across it, spanning kilometers of sweltering hot expanse to reach Jerhegn. Fearing that their enemies would soon follow them across, the last of them sabotaged the bridge, leading to its ultimate collapse into the roiling waters below.   It is at this point that the tokyau species divides into several distinct branches: the Jerhegn refugees, the enslaved populaces, the hold-outs in the untouched areas of Etzli Cuauhtla, and incidental populations farther aboard.   Of them, the enslaved would face hardship and tribulations as any other, losing most of their heritage from the Commongood, and the immense decline of their technological knowledge. Their magical arts, on the other hand, mostly survived on through folklore and carefully guarded oral traditions, which would invariably play a major hand in their eventual freedom in both small and big ways. However, driven by new cultural ideas and changing generations, these tokyau would be integrated into different civilizations, and hence diverge fully from their mythological roots.   The Jerhegn refugees, on the other hand, had the eminent luxury of a reasonably self-sustaining Commongood outpost to shelter within. Unfortunately for them, if any land on Veltrona might contest Etzli Cuauhtla for the title of 'most dangerous natural environs', Jerhegn would be that land. Rampantly overrun with Relentless, Jerhegn's few sapient species were deeply embroiled in fighting a bloody war against such abominations for countless generations. The Commongood, though having made contact and begun rendering aid in such an effort, hadn't made much progress by the time of its downfall. The refugees' arrival would, nonetheless, be a turning point in Jerhegn's history.   Unfortunately, due to ceaseless conflict and regular destruction of physical documents, historical record keeping at this period is especially lacking, and either absent entirely, or mythologized so much as to be nearly unreliable. The Commongood refugees would face their own issues as disagreements, trauma, and social unrest tore away at their cohesion. Without industries to maintain technologies or libraries of knowledge to remake them, their outpost eventually fell into decay despite the efforts of their most knowledgeable engineers. When combined with constant assaults from Relentless and the changing of generations, what remained of the Commongood changed entirely in order to survive Jerhegn.    

Heavens-defying Rage

To the Jerhegn tokyau, a common cultural perception among the survivors and their descendants was that their present misery and suffering all came at the inexplicable hands of Heavenly powers who destroyed their once-great nation for reasons unknown. The collective rage and trauma from that event permeated every facet of their already anti-hierarchical culture, infusing every following generation with greater and greater hatred towards the Heavens. They scorned the likes of goddesses, spirits, and otherwise, finding such beings useless in their hour of need, or worse, conspirators of the same vile powers that ruined the Commongood. These tokyau came to believe that they only had themselves and their mundane allies as trustworthy, and they would not let the Heavens destroy them for good. Such a view led to frequent and violent collision with other cultures in Jerhegn, particularly ones revolving around goddesses or those exalted by them.   This general time period is noted to have taken place near the end of the Wild Times, before the current era of the Third Dawn proper began. Historians generally agree that while the tokyau survived as a species, the unifying identity of their once-great superpower faded to myth, legend, or vanished entirely. Immortals contemporary with the time period and location offer the greatest insight into the Pasha Commongood, and would serve as inspirational (or reviled) sources of its ancient history.   While the tokyau's inventive spirit would see them rise to prominence in numerous other civilizations, the city-state of Kubuadac would become the most notable. Comprised of necromancers and their faith, Teohcxe, the ancestor-worshiping tokyau of Kubuadac inherited a mythological legacy from the Pasha Commongood, one that viewed mundane peoples as needing to take control of their own destiny rather than consign themselves to heavenly beings. In a broader sense, it was only through empowering themselves could they break free from the cycles of eternal suffering that were life and death, the two greatest jailers of cosmological existence in Kubuadac philosophy.   For whatever merits such ideas deserved, no one could argue against Kubuadac's power as it rose to become the de-facto superpower of Jerhegn through its economic and military dominance. Hampered only by the constant threat of the Relentless of Jerhegn, Kubuadac, much as the Commongood once did, steadily sought to reclaim the lands from such abominations. Yet, their rise would be impeded by a worldwide calamity, and something that would draw the reclusive tokyau from their pocket continent once more.    

The Great Darkness

As a whole, there were no definitive tokyau majorities in the territories conquered or threatened by Imperious and her hated Imperium. What populations that did exist suffered under slavery, oppression, and genocide as much as other 'minority' species, such as the then-unknown baarham, and helunae. Kubuadac and the other tokyau nations of Jerhegn, entirely unaware of The Imperium's existence, were blindsided by the subsequent explosion of the World Gate.   As the planet-thundering blast shook the world, Jerhegn beheld clouds of smoke and debris billowing across the Heavens, choking out all sunlight. Plunged into unending darkness, the tokyau feared that their now-ancient and ill-remembered enemy had, once again, come to devastate their people. The environmental catastrophe spared no ruin upon Jerhegn, in turn enraging the Relentless to heights never seen before. Worse, strange and inexplicable changes to the lands followed: bizarre and alien creatures, topography twisting and churning, entire new regions coming in and out of existence, and other bizarre events as was so typical of the Great Darkness.   Though no dreaded 'sky ring' visited as it did their ancestors, the tokyau nonetheless found plentiful enemies and disasters alike ready to tear them down. The record keeping of such a time period is, unfortunately, quite poor, but it's believed that not only had the tokyau persevered, they grew all the greater from such challenges. Kubuadac in specific not only secured many more allies, but expanded its reach in ways that solidified the expansive powerhouse it would become in the modern era. The most notable effect, however, would be the massive change on tokyau cultural perspective.   As the skies eventually cleared some centuries later, the tokyau's hatred of the Heavens and all who dwelled within it had reached the greatest heights ever known to them. Not only had their ancient ancestors been devastated by a sky ring, an inexplicable catastrophe had now devastated them once more. Most began to believe some malevolent intelligence existed within The Dark Ocean, perversely preying upon their people for its own sadistic ends or cursing them for their prosperity. The perceived threat of such a being galvanized and invigorated them to pursue ever greater heights of power. Not only would they overcome the Relentless as their ancestors did, they would surely overcome such an evil heavenly being as well.    

Our Own Destiny

The Jerhegn tokyau, long familiar with tales of realms beyond their pocket continent, began to much more seriously explore the possibility of expansion, yet Jerhegn's overall position was a difficult one: Chompy Waters to the south prohibitively stopped naval traffic, the western face had to contend with the tempestuous open waters of the Shimmering Ocean, and the northern and eastern approaches were consumed entirely by the night-impassible massive mountain range of Mount Skyreach. It was a unique cauldron of natural forces that'd long isolated Jerhegn, and something the modern tokyau did not have an easy solution for, even with their ancestral Harpy allies.   At the very least, the shermadi, ekurin, and other aquatic species of the Shimmering Ocean offered great trade and assistance in such an endeavor. Through them, the tokyau established trade routes to the western edge of Immensio, the southeastern region of Sa-kemet, and tentative contact with the central-northern coasts of Etzli Cuauhtla. At the same time, the great minds of the tokyau began eyeing Mount Skyreach for means of creating new routes across hundreds of miles of mountainous peaks and valleys. Some proposed overland routes and careful bridge construction, while others thought an underground tunnel was a better approach. Though willing, but obviously lacking the technological means, these desires have pushed tokyau inventiveness to once again surmount such challenges: mana-driven hammer machkines, alchemical reagants for high-explosive mining, revised veltronic construction magics for newer, longer lasting infrastructure, and so on.   Yet, what drove the Jerhegn tokyau to embark on such ambitions was not the idea of an evil heavenly being alone.   Harpies, their eternal allies and friends, eventually brought word from afar, of lands further away yet unreachable, of other tokyau living in these far-flung realms. Smaller, feebler tokyau under the yoke of slavery, oppressed like vermin, and treated as common cattle. Such tales were what truly enraged them with a fury only the Relentless ever received. Worse, anger at their own inability to save their distant kin only incensed them that much more. It provided a clarity of purpose that catalyzed the tokyau's differing views, bringing them together under common cause once more. Though they have their different political and ideological factions, in much the same way, another Commongood was yet forming just as their ancestors had once done.      

Biology

Anatomy and Physiology

A sexually dimorphic species of humanoids, the tokyau have a head, torso, two arms with five fingered hands, two digitigrade legs with three-toed feet, and a short, stubby yet fluffy tail. In general, females are larger, taller, and physically powerful, with enlarged breasts and pronounced hips, while males typically have a leaner or more athletic physique. Both sexes have the same general fur and hair behavior.   As a whole, the tokyau are one of the few monsterkind species that are completely covered in fur from head-to-toe, and so do not have much visible skin except for sensitive locations such as the eyes or lips. This fur is principally short and dense, but specific locations may grow longer and fuller. For most tokyau, this is mainly around the neck/collar region, with larger plumage-like fur cascading down the front and back of their torso. It may extend as far as their navel region or be as short as their shoulders and collarbones.   The head of the tokyau has two eyes, a broad and rabbit-like nose, and a mouth. Their rabbit-like ears are both large and somewhat conical, rising upward and nearly doubling the height of their head proper. These ears are highly articulated, capable of moving and swiveling on their own for optimal sound-detection or as social expression. The head hair of the tokyau is traditionally dense, but may have fine, wavy, straight, or curly textures. Even at its thinnest, it is markedly thicker and more plush than human hair. Their eyebrows are long and pronounced, featuring a quasi-feather structure which they can ambulate independently of their facial expressions.   The teeth of the tokyau are particularly notable as the central incisors themselves, on both top and bottom, are a larger rabbit-tooth like form. The remaining teeth, readjusted around the presence of these larger rabbit-teeth, are otherwise generally the same functionally. One of the most significant ways to identify if a tokyau has inherited their ancient genetics from the Pasha Commongood is through identifying their rabbit-teeth’s growth behavior. Unmodified tokyau continue to grow their teeth constantly, albeit slowly, and thus have to ‘file/shave’ them down occasionally, whereas modified tokyau grow to a specific size and only regrow if there is damage.   The torso region is largely human-like, boasting significant 'chest fluff', which wraps their front and back sides almost like a natural stole. Tokyau arms and hands are essentially human-like as well, but as their hands are also covered in fur, this impacts their grip texture and strength. Part of the reason nearly every tokyau culture develops and uses gloves as commonplace wear is to compensate for this issue; others, however, will shave their palms and fingerpads. Their fingers have relatively thick but short claws ideal for digging dirt, clawing wood apart, most forms of ground-based foraging, and combat. A short tail juts out from their lower spine, extending above the buttocks. Its shapes can vary, but the average is either a spherical puff or triangular tuft.   A tokyau's legs are digitigrade and particularly muscular, emphasizing their traditional strength as a species. Their three-toe feet are both completely covered in fur and well-developed, and combined with their overall leg structure, lends them to a sort of 'hopping', skipping, or otherwise bouncy gait as they move about. As the tokyau are fantastic jumpers, it's not uncommon for them to move by leaps and bounds when running, either. Their toes notably also have thick claws like their fingers, and there is some dexterous flexibility that allows these toes to curl around branches. It is an adaptation ideal for their ancestral living within jungle environments, and one that can make their already devastating kicks even deadlier.    

Appearance

The overall fur and hair colors of the tokyau are extremely veltronic in nature, featuring ranges of browns, blacks, sandy blondes, clay-like reds, sunset oranges, mountainous grays, and chalky whites. Women have a two-tone color scheme, where the limbs and 'colder' regions feature the main fur color, while the torso/face and 'warmer' regions exhibit the second tone color (e.g, brown exterior, white or black interior). Men are distinguished in that they possess a contrasting third tone on their extremities and faces, adding another color into the mixture (e.g, whites, reds, blues, etc). As such, two tones are considered feminine in their cultures, while three tones or more are seen as masculine. Pointed fur is the most common tokyau fur pattern, though spots, brindle stripes, and agouti patterns are also prevalent, with more exotic fur patterns usually attributed to having mixed ancestry with other members of monsterkind.   The head hair and chest fluff of the tokyau have the same coloration link, and may also share similar textures (e.g, red hair means red chest fluff, but torso fur remains the body's primary color).   Tokyau skin itself may have multiple different tones or colors depending on not only their fur patterning, but blood lineage proper. Generally, the skin near the extremities or areas of 'less fur', such as the eyes and mouth, are darker in the browns and blacks, but skin around their densely furred torso is paler or even pinkish beige. As it generally goes unseen unless shaved or from experiencing particular medical conditions, the tokyau do not generally pay it much mind. However, for the likes of anaxials or hybrids, this skin coloration and/or patterning may be inherited, resulting in a variety of appearances from patchwork or vitiligo-like patterning, to entire sections of the body taking a different tone from the rest. This isn't considered a disease or disorder by the tokyau, rather it's just their already natural patterning being made visible due to a lack of corresponding fur. Single-blooded tokyau infants are born with sparse fur, and this is generally the only time that the actual patterns on their skin can be seen. Male tokyau do not generally possess skin markings that match their more exotic third fur colors (e.g, a male tokyau with red splashes on their fur does not have red skin underneath, the pigment is present in their fur only.)   The eyes of the tokyau are often round or triangular, and widely expressive in a way other species can find unnerving. Their round pupils are large and their massive irises bury their white sclera into the edges/corners of their eyes. The iris itself has a simplistic structure, displaying its color or pattern prominently but without a lot of visual depth or clarity, which some have described as 'doll-like' as a result.    

Natural Abilities

Ancient Genetics — The ancient tokyau of the Pasha Commongood re-engineered their species' genome, improving and augmenting them in ways modern science can only dream of achieving. These changes affect everything about the tokyau, but the most visible effect is generally their incredible physical power and stature. Their metabolism, natural healing, cognitive prowess, and adaptability are among the best on Veltrona.   High Jump Physiology — Tokyau legs are their pride as a species and capable of exerting great power far more than their anatomy suggests should be possible. For most, this means their kicks can shatter stone or dent metal, and they can jump up to a dozen times their own height. They can land from such heights just as easily, provided its feet-first and not on their face.    

Diet

Although technically an omnivorous species, the tokyau are heavily biased towards vegetable-heavy diets by their nature and by their cultural mores. Their principle foods are the likes of leafy or hardy vegetables, nutrient-dense tubers, various fruits, practically any grain imaginable, and anything adjacent to such food groups. Breads, in particular, are a favorite of theirs, especially with milk or cheeses. Nuts, seeds, legumes, and similar derived foods are good complimentary items that usually always have a corner on a plate.   In theory the tokyau can even eat raw grasses, tree bark, or other highly indigestible items, but these are considered ceremonial, traditional, or starvation/poverty foods and are not commonly consumed nor preferred as part of their regular diet in the present day. The practice originated from cultures in the oldest jungles in Etzli Cuauhtla where spice-bearing barks and scented grasses are more commonly found and more desirable to eat. Given their dietary variety, cultural habits and available foods influence what they eat more than any particular restriction. Some legends attest tokyau can eat solid rock or broken glass and have no issue whatsoever, but not even they want to test that idea themselves.   Proteins in tokyau cuisines largely come in the form of delectable insects, small critters such as lizards, bushmeat, mussels, large snails, and fish, all of which are either foraged or even cultivated from domestic stock. Larger game, such as cattle or monstrosities, are considered delicacies and good eating for one's physical growth or strength. Too much, however, can make the tokyau exceptionally ill, similar to how too much dairy or carbohydrates can dramatically impact the gut health of other species. As such, meat-based dishes are usually given special regard and tied to significant social events, milestones, or very particular lifestyles (e.g, huntresses or warriors) where it won’t have an adverse effect on those consuming it. It is, however, common to have meaty side dishes or to use meat and animal products as garnish or seasoning to compliment a larger and entirely herbivorous serving.    

Life Cycle

Infancy & Childhood

Tokyau pregnancies can vary between 1-to-5 typically polyzygotic (non-identical) offspring at a time, and are usually considered non-troublesome thanks to their physiology. Their infants themselves are initially noisy and unruly for a few weeks following birth, but as they settle in, they'll become rather docile and unbothered by things. By many comparisons, infant tokyau are quiet, demure, and highly secretive, a behaviour attritubed to instincts adapted for life in a hostile jungle environment filled with predators. The infant’s innate curiosity will motivate them the most, but they won't generally go beyond the dens or play pens orchestrated for them by their parents. As long as one trusted adult is nearby, they're content to take their time with things.   Within a year or two they will become mobile toddlers and adopt a braver demeanor, wanting to explore, cling to their parents, and see more of the world around them. Not long after, they're encouraged to play with their siblings or fellow kin groups, given a wide variety of toys and items to guide their interests, and generally receive an idyllic level of care if at all possible. Because tokyau children are notably quite physically powerful for their ages, cohabitation with other species' offspring can be a troublesome matter until they learn how to control their strength. They require consideration usually reserved for dragonkind, ilansu, onpa, etc, making them complicated for multispecies societies to handle.   The tokyau normally resolve this by either keeping a constant vigil on their children during play sessions or keeping them within family groups until they mature more. While tokyau children are generally difficult to bother in the first place, they are still children, and so not knowing their own strength or controlling themselves is an issue. As they age, they'll be brought more and more into the household's business and the broader family at large. At the same time, tutelage and/or schooling will begin, either internally by the greater family collective or by dedicated social programs (e.g, neighborhood tutors, schools, public lectures, etc).    

Adolescence

Originally a human-like species in maturation and life expectancy, while most tokyau have a two-century average life span, their maturation rate remarkably remains the same. Thus, puberty begins around ages 10-to-12 and a period of dramatic physical growth follows during their adolescence. In credit to their genetic engineering, young tokyau do not experience nearly as much physical discomfort with their growing bodies as many other species do during this time. Their own capabilities can, however, exceed their awareness as adult musculature and bone size sets in. Physical education is considered rather important to the tokyau as a result, and so it will be a priority concern so that these growing youngsters understand fully what they can do and receive the appropriate amount of exercise to exhaust excess energy and guide them to a healthy adulthood.   By this stage in their life, initial education as a whole has hopefully been instilled, and so more advanced courses eventually follow. It is also where tokyau are encouraged to find their interests or proclivities for future careers, and so apprenticeships are a common sight. This usually follows professions related to their family at large, but more well-developed civilizations may offer much greater freedom of choice in that respect. Perhaps in a way similar to harpies, the tokyau are freedom loving people—or rather, hate being forced into doing things. Necessity is one matter they understand well, but necessity and oppressive dictation are rather different things.   For youngsters who do not know better, or who lack the lived experience, this sentiment can lead to what other species would see as defiance and conflict with their parents or other authorities, but what most tokyau cultures see as their children maturing into adults and developing a healthy level of independence. Children are not viewed as the possessions of their parents in most tokyau cultures, and are instead respected as simply being newer and more fragile people to be guided, not controlled. They are taught many life skills from a young age, with learning respect for other people typically being coupled with learning respect for themselves. In many cultures, it isn’t enough for a tokyau child to be well-mannered, they are expected to know how to advocate for themselves.   With other youngsters, particularly among newly forming social groups of peers, it is common for tokyau to start jockeying for position, prestige, or respect. More than anything else, they want a place that is their own in the world, and simultaneously, to live and work with their kin in a way that meshes with their sentiments. How well they learn to navigate this desire is a rite of passage in itself for the tokyau, and what form it takes specifically depends on the particular culture being observed.    

Adulthood

Adult age usually falls upon 22-25 years old, where physical maturation has fully completed and a tokyau enters the prime of their life. By this point, most have an idea of their desired careers and/or have already begun making strides in it as a profession proper. Those pursuing more intellectual paths may depart in order to visit sophisticated centers of learning such as colleges, universities, or a mistress' workshop. There is also the fact that, since most tokyau live in highly dangerous natural environments, training to be a defender of one's home is also an uncompromising requirement expected of every able-bodied citizen. Balancing these needs with that of their parental family, as well as possibly looking at their own romantic lives beginning, can be challenging.   Given their incredible physiology, tokyau can easily excel at almost anything they put their mind to. Their sheer strength ensures they never want for a means to defend themselves or others, while their improved minds chew up intellectual tasks with profound ease. Boredom is, ironically, one of their greatest enemies, and they chase many, many ways in order to alleviate it. Where one's profession no longer satisfies them, the myriad arts suffice as an avenue of exploration and recreation, such as complex theatrical performances, dancing, music, and physically demanding sports. Scholars studying the tokyau usually consider boredom as perhaps the core underlying driver for their inventiveness, as their constant craving for something to do can produce all sorts of curious habits and results at best, or neuroses and self-destructive behaviors at worst.    

Old Age & Death

Tokyau remain in their physical prime far longer than most mortal species' comparative averages, and are physically fit and healthy until the last decade of their potential lifespan. This physiological cliff hits hard and tokyau experience extreme physical decline year-by-year, denoted by hallmarks such as rapidly aging fur, crashing metabolism, lethargy, and faltering organs. In the ancient era of the Pasha Commongood, the tokyau species itself had achieved a state of quasi-immortality: so long as their alchemical medicine and healing arts were present, a tokyau could regenerate centuries of their life span back. With the fall of the Commongood, and the loss of this miraculous technology, modern tokyau have almost no way of resolving the inevitability of their death and must face the ignominy of mortality that their ancestors’ feats of genetic engineering never truly conquered.   The onset of these symptoms is essentially an immediate retirement of any tokyau lucky enough to reach such an age. Given the rapidly increasing physical hardship, it's rare for any to go journeying or adventuring one last time, and most who are able to will spend their final years in the comfort of family. Recording their experiences, passing on tales, and generally creating a legacy by which, if they haven't already, will aid future generations is expected of most tokyau who reach an advanced age. In turn, most tokyau cultures place an inordinate amount of value on the care of their elderly, which is seen not only as a burden for an individual family to bear, but a duty of society as a whole.   Final death typically follows a metabolic cascade failure, and is generally regarded as a peaceful event in itself. Funerary customs are varied among the tokyau, such as entombment within graves or mausoleums, to ritualistic cremation and integration with holy pottery, statues, or architecture. For many, like those in Kubuadac, death is not seen as a final end. Customary pieces of the deceased (e.g, spine pieces) will be sanctified and established within a reliquary of some manner and remain either in a shrine within the family home or placed in a familial tomb, while the remainder of their body will be processed for the city’s infrastructure. That is to say, in Kubuadac, the dead remain among the living, entombed within symbolic statues and architecture, as much a part of the very stone and foundations of the city itself. It is a tradition where customs like the T'hani Coin, a physical vessel for the spirits of deceased children, come from.   To the tokyau at large, their dead are never far from them, and cared for greatly. They, who despise the Heavens and all its evils, refuse to allow their souls to be governed by such beings. It is a task that, instead, is seen as the purview of the spirits of their own deceased ancestors, where they carefully maintain and guard their realms of death from intrusion by outside powers. Together, ancestors and priestesses alike ensure that the newly deceased are guided to the afterlife where their kin will welcome them home. In most cultures, the tokyau see the afterlife not as a distant or foreign realm, but somewhere that sits beside the mortal world, ever close and yet unseen.    

Anaxials, Hybrids, and Variants

Anaxials

Tokyau anaxials are defined by their identical rabbit-like ears, chest fluff around the neck/shoulders, and furry feet as like their sire. Their legs may or may not be digitigrade, and will vary between the tokyau type or a humanoid plantigrade foot with furry characteristics. More rarely, their hands, forearms, and thighs may be covered in fur, but excluding the typical chest fluff, the torso is never covered by fur. Body hair can be abundant in general, and of a thicker and softer quality than most humans.   Because of the variable skin colors and texturing of the tokyau themselves, a tokyau anaxial may experience differing skin color patches and/or patterning, resulting in a patchwork, vitiligo-like, or similar appearance. They're just as likely to have a monotone skin color similar to their human parent, however. For the single-blooded tokyau, this is considered a normal appearance, albeit one rarely seen as it's hidden beneath their fur. As their anaxials have less fur overall, the patterning is more visible.   Inheriting the enhanced physiology of their tokyau parent, the tokyau anaxials are often described as 'superhuman', possessing great natural strength, dexterity, cognition, etc. They're an example of cross-species offspring that meshes very well with human sentiments and lifestyles, making them an easy integration into those cultures. Most human families usually consider it a great blessing to have tokyau blood and/or relations, and the tokyau are among the species most human cultures have no apprehension about whatsoever when it comes to the idea of intermarrying or cohabitation. As a consequence, there is much cultural exchange between most human and tokyau societies.    

Hybrids

Tokyau hybrids are particularly curious because of how well they integrate traits or natural abilities from other species. Whereas most monsterkind usually receive vestigial to minimal benefits (aside from aesthetic appearance) from hybridization, the tokyau distinctively incorporate and display more profound alterations. Some scholars even argue that tokyau hybrids are the most closest of all monsterkind to human anaxials in terms of their genetic adaptivity. This ultimately means features like dragon scales, mussuba or vampyr fangs, Jiuweihu furry fluff and longer tails, etc, appear regularly on such hybrids. However, they do not go into the realms of extra limbs, specific natural abilities, or exotic traits as anaxials proper do.   The tokyau themselves are usually quite delighted with such children and their uniqueness, seeing them as living proof of harmony between the different peoples. Multiculturalism and exogamy are commonplace among the different tokyau cultures, making it vanishingly rare to find a tokyau settlement that only boasts single-blooded tokyau.   Tokyau-harpy hybrids are among the most common due to the close cultural and historical ties the species have held in Etzli since before the days of the Commongood.    

Variants

There is some historical contention over the concept of tokyau variants depending on which scholarly camp one considers from.   Technically speaking, the genetically modified tokyau of the Pasha Commongood themselves are a variant of the main tokyau species. However, as they've come to constitute the vast majority of the species in all literal or practical situations, they've effectively supplanted the original species. For most everyone, they are the tokyau proper. Scholars, anthropologists, and similar such folk however may insist on identifying them as the Tokyau Pasha, indicating their genetic origin. In cases of extreme specificity, the original and unmodified tokyau may be called Tokyau Toslah instead. The terms themselves originate from the Pasha Mountains, initial home of the Commongood, and the Toslah being ‘the lowland jungles/plains’ of the Pasha Mountains. Of the two, Toslah was a more prescribed term but one meant to keep these tokyau close to home.   The Tokyau Toslah are identified by their much smaller height of around (5ft/152cm) and less overall physical mass, demonstrating their species' original diminutive stature. Their overall lifespan is also closer to the human average of 80~ years. There's notably no size difference between the sexes as in the Tokyau Pasha, which is one of many curious results from their genetic modification. As reproduction between these two tokyau variants eventually results in more Tokyau Pasha exclusively, the Tokyau Toslah only come into existence from extremely rare Toslah immortals, produced either by reproducing within their own variant, or interspecies reproduction.   Some intellectual circles argue that this strange arrangement is proof of the Tokyau Pasha committing genetic genocide via erasure of the Toslah, but such sentiments rarely survive for long in the larger scientific community. It is the same sort of arguments usually brought against anaxials and hybrids, and is largely seen as a xenophobic position which only villains entertain. All the more so as the tokyau themselves, both Toslah and Pasha, consider each other as the same collective species in every meaningful way, and generally hate when others attempt to drive a wedge where none has ever existed within any tokyau culture past or present.      

Sociology

Cultural Universals

Tokyau are renowned for their level-headed demeanor, a fact often reflected in their somewhat formal cultures and precise mannerisms. Though attentive, alert, and ready-to-react at a moment's notice thanks to their prey-like heritage, they've cultivated this behavior into a well-exercised situational responsiveness. The karsoru are a loud, abrasive, and action-first sort of people, and to them the tokyau seem far too reserved or even 'cold'. Yet, one must see the tokyau as like a boiler: strong, structured, and enduring great stress, but even they have a point they will explode at. The tokyau do not lose themselves to extreme emotions often, but when they do, it is truly calamitous in scope.   Although there's some debate if the tokyau can be considered a 'naturally egalitarian' species, the fact remains their natural inclination goes heavily in that direction. Nowhere close to the collectivist sentiments of the nebusah, the tokyau are nonetheless concerned by group wellness/fitness, prosperity, and mutual security. So long as the group—for whatever size and scope that group is—has their needs taken care of, it falls upon the individual tokyau to make the most of future opportunities. This sentiment extends to all species they encounter, but those who are belligerent, individualistically prideful, or simply arrogant, tend to be difficult for them to cohabitate with.   Given their herbivorous preferences, tokyau cultures usually prioritize and/or value gardening, farming, and other forms of ecological well-being, with many of their settlements boasting elaborately engineered irrigation systems, waterways, and floating gardens in even the densest jungle environs. As such, they'll beautify their homes and cities, as well as make accommodations for symbiotic forms of wildlife. The tokyau's thick fur and general demeanor means they aren't bothered by insects nearly as much, with the exception of flies, mosquitos, or anything that gets near their faces and ears, or swarms. This can make for cultural friction with other species who may be far more bothered or view such things as pests entirely. That said, it's usually not difficult creating an ecological balance, and the tokyau generally despise heavy industry or toxic waste from magical research.    

Lingual Characteristics

Tokyau vocalizations mostly fall within human-like ranges, with the addition of low-range vocal sounds such as clucking, rivet purring, chuffing, and similar. In moments of great surprise or excitement, they can make high-range squeals and chirps as well. The complexities of these sounds are lost on species without wider ranges of hearing, though they cannot be described as fully lingual in nature. It's believed that part of the reason the tokyau and harpies get along as well as they do is that both sides make and communicate through these sounds.    

Arts and Beauty

An inventive species by nature, the arts as a whole are a playground for the tokyau mind. Music, painting, literature, sculpting, theater, architecture; if there is yet a field of art imaginable, the tokyau have made great strides within it. The fierce competition in such fields, and the far fiercer demand from their audiences, are the tumultuous forces where the tokyau prove themselves. Because of this, the various arts of a given moment or year change with the next, keeping them both fresh and new, or a clever reinvention of something prior.   Some core aspects generally stay, such as heavy percussive instrumentation, simple-yet-bold colors and evocative yet abstract figures, iconic glorification of monumental historical or societal moments, riveting festivals and public celebrations, elaborate theatrical displays, and other similar avenues. As a whole, the tokyau artistic sentiments from their largest cultures tend to value a certain purity of expression over elaborate ornamentation, with one artist often being quoted when it comes to making art: 'it is perfect when nothing else can be removed'. Their greatest works are often highly simplistic, yet so purely capture what their creators wanted that it is difficult for critics to argue that, if nothing else, it sets out what it was intended to achieve.   As history has progressed, tokyau artists have always oscillated between simplicity traditionalists and new experimentalists. As simplicity seeks a holistic ‘nothing can be taken away’, there is a constant downward pressure on what can, ultimately, be present. Those seeking to break this mold—even a little bit—end up creating new artistic eras as a result. This constant back and forth eventually became a measure by which a historian could identify particular creative eras, especially as ideas of ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ continue to shift.   Tokyau beauty standards encapsulates this idea wholly: simplistic perfection of one's beauty. A fit and ‘proper’ body accommodated by only the most necessary clothing to capture a specific mood, energy, or intention for all others to indulge in. Cosmetic choice of the smallest, yet most definitive, applications to draw out the strongest characteristics. Jewelry for as much status and wealth as it is tantalizing allure and accentuation. Tokyau beauty downplays unnecessary additions, yet paradoxically prizes what is added that much more. Thus, there is an extreme value placed on one’s own natural physical form, with all other fashions being seen as ways to enhance and display it. Men in particular adhere to such ideals, as displaying their colorful tertiary fur colors is seen as the height of masculine charm.   It is a sentiment that often collides with cultures where high amounts of decoration and complexity are more desirable, or in cultures which place more emphasis on the spiritual than the physical.  

Magic and Technology

The legacy of the Pasha Commongood, as well as the tokyau's own proclivities, leave their concept of 'magical/technological' progress in a uniquely strange position. Following the downfall of the Commongood, their magics and technologies persisted for some decades and centuries in an increasingly failing state as the necessary infrastructure either vanished or fell apart. For many, no matter who possessed it, they simply lacked the raw industry and skilled personnel needed to maintain such creations. As generations changed, wars waged, culture shifted, and the general erosion of time, the Commongood's incredible creations fell into greater disuse, disarray, and ultimately, scrapped entirely for parts as time marched on and the needs of the people changed.   What functional pieces were maintained throughout history came from either fairly robust and easy-to-maintain designs, or specially cared for by various immortals who knew how, such as deep-well regenerative water pumps, Obliteration-field Water Filters, and Mana Blasters. Magical arts, in particular, fared better as their core knowledge survived the easiest, but implementation was another question entirely—much of it requiring components or techniques themselves lost to time. For the tokyau, keeping what they could proved an ordeal, and even their most treasured and guarded inheritances still changed in some form or another in order to adapt to the world they now lived in. Thousands of years for a mortal species meant, even with the help of immortals, the invariable loss of that legacy was difficult to avoid.   The end result became a curious blend of ancient magics and/or technologies combined with modern creations or approaches. What the tokyau lost, they simply remade either from scratch or from reverse engineering their own decaying legacy. A very patchwork ensemble resulted where magics or technologies the tokyau themselves no longer fully understood were maintained, offering distinct capabilities those among their peers simply didn't have. They, however, did not simply sit on such legacies, but continually sought to learn from them as much as create new marvels that might reach their splendor.   For those of a particularly brave inclination, there is some credibility that a number of dragon inventions may or may not have been sourced from the ancient tokyau. Of particular note is the so-called Grand Armor, a much, much later draconic invention made in response to the emergence of mana-steel. Grand Armor itself is quite a marvel for what it offers its wearer, yet coincidentally matches many of the hallmarks achieved by the Pasha Commongood's legendary Power Armor. While versions of said Power Armor existed throughout their military, the most iconic form was worn by the elite Yuttahkni—a role between leader, heroine, and defender. This form would become the basis, if not stolen from directly, by dragonkind.   Something which dragons themselves hotly contest, especially from their engineers who go to no end of lengths to prove the originality of their designs or ideas.   Then again, it is not as if multiple people cannot reach the same conclusions, but hecklers and malcontents do love to bother dragons over it.    

Religion and Philosophy

The collective trauma from the downfall of the Pasha Commongood is difficult to overstate in its impact on the tokyau species. Even as history transformed into legend and myth, the persistent theme of heavenly punishment upon the tokyau followed them throughout the millennia. Their distrust and hatred of the Heavens ebbed and flowed, but with the likes of tokyau immortals who survived from that era, the 'truth' of such a time remained a wound in their collective psyche. Those in Jerhegn, especially as the direct survivors and descendants of the Commongood, maintained the greatest hatred for the divinities and heavenlies who destroyed their great nation. Others, divorced by time, distance, and circumstance, would eventually differentiate from this common history, particularly as their populations migrated farther eastward toward Aerthen and Nerzin.   With their nigh-collective rejection, the tokyau turned to ancestor worship. Through reverence, respect, and sacrifice, they sought to contribute to their kin who were deceased, ascended, and otherwise, hoping to aid them in their struggles of preserving the tokyau peoples. The exact processes and views varied greatly, and at some points or another, divine beings did take up residence within tokyau religions. These foreigners, however, were treated and regarded under a transactional light, and never entirely welcomed by the tokyau, merely tolerated. These foundations would eventually lead to the rise of religions, like Teohcxe, whose world views sought to put the tokyau in complete control of their own destiny.   It would also lead the majority of tokyau cultures into embracing Cultivation Arts, a somewhat controversial methodology even at the best of times. They, however, who feared and scorned the Heavens, found that the strength, power, and potential cultivation offered fit their desires almost exactly. The very process by which great cultivators could come into existence encapsulated the tokyau's dreams of power over their destinies. Thus, various approaches to cultivation would blossom within their domains, making them havens for those pursuing such paths.   At the same time, however, the tokyau would struggle to reconcile their own views with others. Few species held great disdain for the Heavens as they did, and many more sought cooperation or cohabitation with such beings. This singular matter often created terrible rifts in relationships of all kinds, becoming a constant source of friction and outright conflict between the tokyau and other folks. Even the tokyau themselves struggled to properly define their distaste of the Heavens, and historically has manifested in their cultures ranging anywhere from simple mistrust to xenophobic bigotry.   Their nearest, and most ironic, 'friends' in these circumstances would become dragonkind itself, for dragons did not treat the Heavens as special in the slightest. Dragons, at most, practiced forms of ancestor worship, but their worldview did not view goddesses of any kind as deserving to have inherent authority or reverence. If anything, dragons only conceptualized of themselves as the ones who would hold such positions among their species. While it is hard to say if dragonkind as a whole viewed the tokyau as highly as it did those like the ilansu, the two did have common ground enough in such a matter.    

Science and Spirituality

The harshness of rain forest and jungle living means meticulous caution and care are needed in order to sustain life, and greater amounts of expertise and knowledge are required for civilization to flourish. By necessity, first and foremost, the tokyau took to methodical study to understand their native homelands, identify what was safe to eat, what in their environment was deadly or lethal, and how such things could be utilized or avoided. In the times before their genetic enhancement, their overall smaller stature and general weakness compared to other monsterkind usually meant they were near the bottom of the pecking order. When compounded by the constant threat of Relentless assaults, the tokyau came to prize creativity and invention as their means of survival.   Knowledge itself became a precious legacy, often forged in blood and sweat by those who survived long enough to pass it down. In the deadly jungles of Etzli Cuauhtla, the tokyau often saw their family's collective knowledge as their most precious and prized keepsake. The sharing of it was, in many ways, one of their highest forms of respect and friendship. The more knowledgeable one was, the greater esteem they accrued, and elderly tokyau were deeply respected for their lived experience and having beaten the odds to survive to such an age.   Just as much with the mundane world around them, the tokyau sought understanding of the spiritual and its many ephemeral ways. In the eras before and during the Pasha Commongood, the tokyau accrued great understanding and harmony with the spiritual beings and ways of the world. They were, by decent measure, a spiritually attractive people whose holistic views of life, death, and the order of things made them extraordinarily welcoming to a variety of beings, particularly arete. The collective trauma from the Pasha Abduction Event, however, turned them away from such matters, for they no longer trusted the spiritual as easily—if at all.      

Psychology

Rest and Sleep

Given their ancestry from a prey species, the tokyau are particularly sensitive to their environment and what goes on within it. Such heightened alert is critical to survival, but can also mean their overall stress is much higher than is first obvious. In fact, tokyau would rather appear strong and indifferent even if they're on the verge of passing out than portray anything inviting potential confrontation or danger. It is not quite a natural inclination to stoicism, but rather something akin to an advanced freeze response. One can easily tell how a tokyau feels about a given area by virtue of their behavior: stress and danger trends toward more formal or controlled mannerisms, while wildness or open displays of emotion result from feelings of safety or contentment, with most tokyau fidgeting or even bouncing about when excited.   Thus, for tokyau to achieve meaningful rest and sleep, safety is a paramount concern. In the likes of villages or cities, tokyau homes and inns are built with insulation and protective features such as locking mechanisms that prevent idle intrusion or spying. Features such as clean water and assortments of snacks allow a tokyau, or group thereof, to lounge, recline, and loosen up without much concern with interfacing with the broader world. Such establishments also make use of chutes, two-way delivery hatches, and similar innovations to allow for service personnel to send or receive items particular clients may want. Those seeking a more lively experience may instead head out to common areas where bars, artistic performances, music, etc, may be available.   Sleep itself can be a more involved affair, as the tokyau need areas where there is either low noise or consistent, identifiable noise. New and/or unexpected sounds can trigger them awake much easier than most other species, making them especially sensitive to intrusion in their space. This reinforces familiarity to the tokyau in a rather fundamental way, and a significant sign of trust between them is when tokyau sleep in the same area with one another. That said, having others around does reinforce the sense of safety as well, so the tokyau do like group sleeping where possible.   Tokyau are naturally crepuscular, with a split sleeping period during midday and midnight. Their bedrooms are typically located in the most insulated part of the home, often lacking windows and instead using other methods of ventilation.    

Consciousness and Thought

Tokyau cognition is generally evaluated as greater than human, featuring much faster thought speed, better memory retention and recollection, ease of handling sensory information, sophisticated abstraction and comprehension, etc. It is a rather unique distinction that sets them apart from most other species on Veltrona, and they're only technically out-paced by bieneren bioforms. When combined with their natural instincts as a species, it results in feats like their almost 'precognitive' awareness of their environment and superhuman reflexes. Tokyau warriors are among the few who can legitimately threaten Bieneren zaffa bioforms, the principle warriors of their hives renowned for their unmatched combat prowess.   From another perspective, the often cool and controlled demeanor of the tokyau comes from the fact they can process, cognate, and handle information at speeds other species can't imagine. A surprising or unexpected event still shocks them the same amount, but the lingering effects of that event usually work through them that much quicker. This means events with greater or lasting impact, however, can be even more troublesome for them, and spiraling into overthinking is a frequent problem they encounter. If they're taken by a flight of fancy, they may construct an elaborate delusion from overthinking at a remarkable pace.   Whether or not they snap out of it easily depends on their cognitive techniques, but learning to harness their own mental capabilities is a challenge every tokyau must deal with. It’s led to many tokyau cultures adopting various social behaviors in which individuals are encouraged to be aware of when another tokyau ‘retreats into themselves’ too much and then pull them out of it for the sake of their health. That is, many tokyau cultures have the expectation that some degree of fussing over others is expected as a social courtesy.    

Motivation and Emotion

The community-oriented behavior of the tokyau, born from mutual survival in their harsh homelands, encapsulates their highly empathetic mannerisms. The tokyau hate suffering, misfortune, and tragedy, for they and their ancestors have seen it all in the face of life's unfair hardship and trials. The lesson many tokyau cultures learned from their experiences was not that it ‘weeded out the strong from the weak’, but that no matter who someone was, they were all strong or weak eventually. This realization, combined with common cultural ideals of compassion, are what drive them to reach greater heights, to explore dangerous unknowns, and to find solutions to the problems that plague their loved ones. In this sense, the tokyau are a monsterkind with the same sense of collective empathy and connection to others as Humanity itself.   In fact, feeling too much can be an issue for the tokyau, for their great minds do not rest easily. When faced with wrongs, their hatred grows by magnitudes, and hatred becomes action; whether to good or bad results depends. When drawn in by love, they'll move the Heavens and veltron to make anything possible. When at the brink, their conviction will drive them well-past the point of self-destruction as long as victory can yet be grasped. Many of the ritualistic mannerisms of the tokyau are centered on harnessing this great internal drive, and more importantly, channeling it in constructive ways that don't lead them to recklessness, obsession, or cruelty.    

Sexuality and Love

Because of the importance of family, legacy, and keeping the bloodline going, tokyau cultures traditionally emphasized the importance of child making/rearing. This, in turn, puts a heavier pressure on non-reproductive relationships, especially for single children to whom the family lineage relies upon. Second or onward children may see slightly less pressure as a result, but no one ever truly escapes from it. How a given tokyau tackles this matter is a deeply personal one, and the source of great conflict, particularly for individuals who may not want to have any children at all.   Love, however, is a great and powerful force. Even at some of their worst disagreements, their families will nonetheless stay together no matter how much their heads butt together. At the same time, tokyau will go to extreme lengths for those they care for, well-past the point many others might consider realistic—or sane. They're not a people who shy from their emotions or the power of connection, making them as dangerous as humans to get involved with. As such, the tokyau romantic scene can produce some truly unbelievable stories.   Given the great egalitarian views most tokyau embody, marriage is usually left to an individual’s proclivities, though family and friends will have their opinions. Those of particularly wealthy backgrounds or great families may find greater pressures in selecting appropriate partners, or at worse, some sort of pre-arranged courtship to marriage. Since the tokyau are really most concerned with their family bloodlines continuing, any marriage that facilitates such a thing in a harmonious way is usually quite desirable. However, it’s also not uncommon for children born out of wedlock to be taken in as proper members, either. That can and does lead to conflicts about people claiming parental rights or inheritances and other legal dues, thus familial connection, so it’s contentious.    

Society

Social Mannerisms

Being a cooperative species, the tokyau excel at harmonious social behaviors ranging from seamless shared labors to throwing down for a fist fight on the spot. Everyone has their own priorities, but by tackling these concerns frankly and without shame or pride, and then organizing in ways for mutual benefit, the essence of tokyau social contract becomes apparent. Good behavior, by their standard, is where all those involved benefit more than they ever would've on their own. Ego doesn't have a place in such practical concerns, and with the full belief of good intentions by the other participants, is how the tokyau are able to self-organize and coordinate as they do.   It is a social behavior that can be difficult to capture the essential meaning of in academic record. The many sapient species of Veltrona are all ‘social’ to the extent of having some form of cooperation, but not always very cohesively. The muurun are a good example of a largely tribal, but highly individualistic people who are as likely to work together as tear one another apart. Dragonkind, infamous for its incredible arrogance, would perhaps not have developed as much as it did were such people not natural immortals. The tokyau's seamless connectivity is what is truly remarkable, rivaling even that of humanity and its legendary sociability. Their capacity to reach consensus, overcome personal ego, and understand the other side of the equation lets them achieve a social cohesion that, once upon a time, led them to become a continental superpower.   The tokyau are also, however, mindful of respect, particularly where age or expertise is concerned. For most of their cultures, reaching old age is an accomplishment, and so deserves a measure of respect and recognition. As tokyau themselves do not experience physical decline until the very last years of their lives, these elders are mentally and physically fit just as much as new adults are. This leads to cultural dissonance for the tokyau where other species—like humans—have prolonged periods of physiological decline for their elders.    

Gender

Principally matriarchal, the tokyau concept of gender politics revolves around 'trunk and branch': women are seen as the trunk of civilization, while men are the branch. This approach centralizes power in the hands of women from heads of family to leaders of tribes and nations. Ensuring the stability of their societies, women handle more dangerous tasks such as guarding, hunting, war as a whole, as well as intellectual tasks such as research, religious functions, and governance. Men essentially fill in the cracks of these roles, becoming the oil to the gears of tokyau society that help keep everything moving smoothly and smartly.   That said, men themselves may perform the same roles as women, though for physical tasks they will have to prove they can meet the requirements needed. While men may not exactly go into direct melee with enemy combatants, they've more than proven capable fire support via bows or magic themselves. This, and other methods, captures the heart of tokyau gender politics: maximization of each sex's potential contributions in a cohesive and sensible manner. As tribes grow in size, city-states expand in capability, and similar forms of larger civilization development, the strictness of gender role begins to break down. Modern tokyau city-states, although inheriting traditional perceptions of gender, are much more freeform and fluid than their nomadic predecessors.   From another view, it is a tradition born from functional concerns, shaped by circumstance and necessity from life in the deadly jungles of Etzli Cuauhtla.   Those outside of the gender binary, or transitioning between genders, enjoy a relatively high degree of freedom and/or acceptance in most tokyau cultures. Since the root of tokyau concerns are ‘how well you can do what’s expected of you’, it is more a case to them of someone living up to those expectations—gender is something that one does, rather than something one is or isn’t. If a person performs the labors or rituals of a gender well, then they are that gender in the eyes of their society. Gender merely informs what to, if only initially, expect of someone and their position in society.    

Kinship and Ethnicities

The essential tokyau family is based around the principle matriarch, her spouses, and then her chosen successor. This trunk becomes the core that then intertwines with the matriarch’s matrilineal line, creating a titular clan of tokyau. Depending on the clan's overall business or inclination, the sons will generally branch out and marry to other clans, while the daughters will expand the mother clan's business. The choosing of the matriarch's successor varies given the tokyau's life span and time of child rearing—daughters born or adopted very early in life may die not long after their mother, for example. As a result, primogeniture is not a universally practiced means of succession in the family clans of tokyau cultivators or immortals. In cases of same-sex relationships or marriages, who goes to which side of the family is typically negotiated upon, or some arbitrary distinction like age (thus, seniority) is utilized.   Broader kinship communities result from several clans, nominally 8-to-12, coming together under a singular tribal banner. Depending on location and circumstance, these various tribal groups would often coalesce together under common cause, creating nascent nations or nomadic alliances. The later emergence of the Pasha Commongood would centralize all these different groups under a singular national identity. The mass abduction of most of the Commongood's population also erased many of these ethnic groups, but in the thousands of years since that event, new ones have since filled in the void.   The Jerhegn tokyau are the ones with the clearest, most direct lineage to the Commongood, and some iconography of the era has survived on through them. Tokyau of eastern Etzli Cuauhtla who fell beneath conquerors and slavery saw their numbers dispersed, and ultimately diminished, from those lands. Those who remained in seclusion would, themselves, carry on in part pieces of the Commongood, albeit time and circumstances eroded that legacy much more severely than in Jerhegn. As those conquerors themselves fell and were subsumed by time, the tokyau migrated back as much as away, further spreading their populations across the equator of Veltrona. Because of their global presence, their true population size is difficult to determine, but their ethnic diversity is incredibly high. Aerthen and Nerzin, having similar environments to their home continent, are among their most prodigious locations.    

Governments and Politics

Technically speaking, most tokyau governments may constitute a form of gerontocracy, as older and more experienced people are considered ideal for such civilization-shaping roles. However, similar to immortals themselves, the tokyau are in the prime of their life for so long that physical decline and degradation is not a concern. When it does happen, its intensity is so great that retirement from public service is essentially necessary, but it's a fraction of the tokyau's overall lifespan. As the tokyau themselves also do not strictly lock leadership behind codified age requirements, as what they value most is one’s actual experience and expertise, most sociologists don't consider them a proper gerontocracy, but a sort of blended merito-gerontocracy.   Leadership itself is usually divided up between representatives of clans, special groups or groups with demonstrated political or military power (such as a village’s huntresses, a city’s warrior class, trade guilds, landowners, etc), and powerful political blocks. These quasi-democratic and/or republic governments arrange themselves based on voter consensus or particular, pressing needs. This usually means tokyau governments respond quickly to disasters and danger, but may take quite a while to achieve agreement on more nebulous topics. Factionalism can be quite the norm for them, but convincing orators or topics of great import can make tokyau vote outside of strict party lines or interest groups.   If there is one notable characteristic of tokyau democracies, it is that they hate frivolous nonsense or obvious self-interest maneuvers. Political bribes or intimidation, collusion with special interest groups, and other forms of manipulating governance are what cause great anger among them. In Etzli Cuauhtla and Jerhegn, such politicking can lead to unnecessary deaths and destruction quite easily; there is no room for such foolishness. That said, it's unclear if the environment of such places is what leads to these democratic ideas or a sentiment unique to the tokyau specifically.   While no tokyau-led government in the modern day has ever reached the influence or power of the Pasha Commongood, Kubuadac of Jerhegn is widely considered the most influential tokyau of the modern era.    

Trade and Economics

Bartering is the norm for the tokyau, as things like currencies are only valuable within a much larger civilization, such as their city-states. This means one often trades material goods, their services, and/or their knowledge in order to gain what they need in turn. As the tokyau themselves are not cutthroat by any measure, most of their cultures tend to exhibit some form of social sharing and/or safety net to ensure essentials (food, water, medicine, etc) are distributed among their clans and tribal groups. Donations to such causes are socially expected from every household of means (which can often become a competition among the wealthy as public displays of charity are a means of garnering social clout), and distribution of these goods typically being the responsibility of government or local protectors. Fine or luxury goods, such as textiles, gems, jewelry, decorative feathers or furs, and so on, are where true bartering competitions begin.   Trade with other species and civilizations is not something they're usually opposed to, but it can be tricky when differing views enter the equation. As the tokyau despise the Heavens as they do, cultures who instead venerate it understandably come to butt heads with them, and this in turn greatly affects their economic relations. Whether or not such people are traded with at all is another topic of consideration, but the tokyau will not necessarily abandon even those people to a worse fate, whether out of a sense of compassion or simply because they see it as their moral duty to be the bigger person. They, however, won't be manipulated into betraying their own views, either. Navigating this affair can be tricky, but for the likes of immortals or cultivators, the tokyau usually get on with such people just fine, and many immortals have found great profit in acting as intermediaries in trade between the tokyau and more traditionally religious peoples.   The problem in their cases tend to be the usual issues of immortals trying to trick or deceive the mortal-bound people, which becomes an entirely different issue altogether.    

Interspecies Relations

Of all the peoples on Veltrona, harpies are by far the most favored companions of the tokyau—the two come together with remarkable ease and camaraderie, and have done so since time immemorial. It can be quite a surreal sight for those unfamiliar with the deep history between their peoples, as the normally aggressive harpies adopt a sense of peacefulness with the tokyau that they don't readily do for other folk. In turn, the tokyau's homeliness and sense of cooperation ease the burden to which harpies live by. It is this cooperative relationship that once formed the foundation of the Pasha Commongood, and played a pivotal role in its rise to dominance as the harpies metaphorically—and sometimes literally—carried the tokyau from the jungles of Etzli all across Veltrona. As such, it is vanishingly rare to find a tokyau settlement that lacks any sort of meaningful relationship with harpies.   In fact, tokyau amenability really means its better to judge by what species they do not get along with than do. The muurun, aryauk, and lauraume are front runners in this instance due to their innate aggression and strong sense of individuality that conflicts with group well-being. Ironically, the nebusah can be an issue for the tokyau as they swing too far in the opposite direction by instead prizing collective good over individual concerns. In their case, however, the tokyau become a force that pull back on the nebusah, which causes conflict in their approaches toward group well-being.      

Associated Articles

Notable Civilizations

Kubuadac

Notable Characters

Ioxchen Soulripper, Emissary of the Honored Dead

Ianzia the Uniter

   

Design Notes