Pygmies

[annarti.livejournal.com]

PYGMIES. Just because I suddenly realised that ALL my friends have their own invented species with various characteristics and I've for some reason stuck with plain old humans. Some with magic, granted, but in essence they're just humans.

Enter Pygmies. There are tribes living in the giant unexplored desert off to the east of Llayad and Tsayth, and also deep in the unexplored Kazinian rainforest way up north. As such, nobody in Tsyllaes (except possibly Yan) has ever even heard of them, let alone seen them, so there's no need for me to completely change the continent's attitudes to accommodate for the little guys. That'd be too difficult XD; Maybe a much later story when the Pygmies venture west or something, I dunno.

So far I've only been looking at the desert tribes, which is what you see up there =3 They're the same in essence, 'cept of course the tropical ones don't have the desert-specific adaptations about water conservation and the like.



~ Females are around three-foot-six, males are about three-foot. Female-dominated species, this one.

~ They have humps on their back with fat storage, like camels. This means they can comfortably go for up to two weeks without food or water, and generally only have a meal once every two or three days.

~ Big ears~ that they can fold right down against their heads against sandstorms. Also, loooong eyelashes for the same purpose. Snub noses that they can close the nostrils of.

~ Curly, soft, fawn-coloured hair that's more like long fur, really. Grows as long as you see in the sketch. Dark, reddish-brown skin with no facial or body hair.

~ Pygmies are primarily carnivores, and will kill anything that moves for food, but they'll eat roots or leaves if they're getting desperate. They hunt with bows and arrows, often with poison-tipped arrows if there happens to be a scorpion or snake nearby.

~ They herd camels for eating, mostly so they don't have to resort to eating roots and leaves, and use the hides as blankets to sleep on or under at night. Can't ride them because they're only tall enough to tickle a camel's belly, and that's if they jump =(

~ They don't know how to cook. Rather, they fear fire and run like hell away from it.

~ They have no vocal chords; they communicate entirely by telepathy. As long as the other Pygmy they're communicating with knows telepathy, there are no bounds. They can be a week's journey from each other and be able to talk as though they were face to face. There are three different 'levels' if you like: specific, where only one or two specific Pygmies can hear the words, not necessarily all in the nearby area; general, where everyone within a particular range can hear them; shouting, where EVERYONE who knows telepathy can hear them. Only a select few strong, authoritative Pygmies can shout. (No, Nimay and Yamin can't hear them. Desert magic is something entirely different.)

~ Probably have other, far more explicit magic than what Raykin's desert people have.

~ Extremely community-minded, probably because of the telepathy thing. Unlike the Raykinian desert people, where it's every family for itself, Pygmies will help other tribes out if they need it. If a Pygmy dies and that tribe has someone who can shout, they'll probably announce it to everyone. They'll all mourn, even if they'd never met the deceased Pygmy before. On the flipside, if a tribe finds a particularly good water source, or have more camel than they can eat, they'll shout to let other tribes know where the grub's up.

~ They see heat more clearly than colours. Colours are sort of there, too, but heat is far more apparent.

Any questions, ask away and I'll make up an answer on the spot =D