Midoan Fun Facts: Goggles Edition or How These Idiot Monkeys Manage Life Without Plastics

So typically, when you see someone wearing goggles you can safely assume they're like, a pilot, or they ride a motorcycle, or they otherwise engage in an activity that involves a strong desire to keep from going blind by means of flying insects, road debris, or bird strikes. But even as a tree-dwelling people, goggles are one of the most important parts of a woodland Midoan's toolkit.

Except for older individuals who tend to stay home to tend to the kids or keep house, most woodland Midoans hold down occupations that involve climbing. Lots. And lots. Of climbing. And in the early days when more enterprising folk were just starting to venture further from their homes to gather resources, more than one career was ended prematurely by a nasty hit to the face from a branch loaded with needles.

A need for protection had people looking to some of the local fauna for ideas. The earliest goggles were made from literal lenses; specifically, the eye lenses of lantern bees, whose valuable wax was the very reason most anyone ventured out in the first place if they weren't gathering food. Both crystal clear and gigantic (the average lantern bee is only slightly smaller than the average Midoan), they made for perfect protection from most any hazard one could encounter in the course of a gathering trip.

Concerns of sustainability arose after a while. After all, it was the wax people were after, and if they were killing off the source of that wax then it sort of made the eye protection something of a moot point. Luckily, it was discovered fairly early on that while just melting lantern bee wax to the point where it was pliable made for a pretty nice, long-lasting candle, if one kept on cooking the it until it reached a liquid state, it underwent a chemical change that gave it properties closer to a clear, ultra-durable resin once it cooled. With the added benefit of being able to take the shape of whatever mold or vessel it was poured into, it soon replaced the practice of hunting bees for lenses.

As with any new material, people tried to do just about everything with lantern resin. For a while it was popular to try and keep food and water in containers made of the stuff, but this was rejected in favor of the more traditional use of gourds since the resin was found to leech a bitter taste into its contents after only a couple of hours of contact. Ever since, it was relegated to applications such as windows, weather shielding, and of course, eyewear.

"The sea always brings me back to you, Magellan; I hear your voice on the waves, feel your touch in the sea spray."

A bold and tenacious astronomer and navigator, Ida was kept from the life of adventure she sought during her youth by a long illness. The frailty caused by the malaise lingered long enough that she began to despair that she would ever experience life on the sea for herself, instead being forever doomed to pour over her books, dreaming the secondhand adventures of the ones who wrote them. The illness lifted eventually, however, and the call of the sea was so strong that Ida went to the docks the moment she was well enough to walk. It was there she met Magellan for the first time. Desperately handsome and an utter rake, Ida was quite taken aback by the swarthy sailor; he was so unlike the quiet men who visited from time to time when she had been ill. Naturally, she fell almost immediately in love.

a blow-in

No one is sure what to make of her. There's crow's feet at her eyes and the beginnings of grey working through her impressive mane. Her voice cracks like thunder, or a whip, and her eyes are harder still - until she laughs. She laughs often, especially after intimidating some younger dragon into darting from her path, head dipped in subservience. Her airship turned heads - a small sloop o' war, converted; her masts chopped roughly off at half their heights, great cables woven from gods-only-know what lashed beneath the ship's keel and over, to hold a great brown-and-olive balloon. 

The other captains eye the monstrosity with thinly-veiled suspicion and more than a little distaste. They had nothing against airships; their friends at the Bastion had proven time and time again that zephyrs and their like could make fine vessels. But this was not that. This was the corpse of some poor, abused ship, pulled from her watery grave and paraded about by magic that none of them approved of. Worse yet, the grisly thing was moored above the great ships of the clan. Khaegris detests it; should the Wilful Thought fall and damage the Defiant, Avarice or Ranger, she'd skin Tempest herself, string what remained of her up from the bow of her ridiculous vessel and happily have that be the end of it. Tempest is not bothered by the pirate captains, their bravado, or their hostility. She was here now, and she meant to stay. She’d weather the storm of their resentment, as she had weathered every storm in her rough and blustery life. She would make herself useful, and make herself known, and that is all there was to it. 

ASSORTED LORE QUESTIONS { here } 

1: How to outsiders know when they’ve crossed you clan’s border? Marks painted or carved into trees or rocks? Glowing runes marking the edge?

Clan Windfall’s borders are largely water - unless one is venturing to the Respite or one of the newer island territories. The borders of the territory are not marked by any physical or magical means, but by word of mouth and threat of trouble. For the pirate crews that operate out of Windfall’s territories are careful to ensure that their deeds are well known, and so sea charts are marked by merchant sailors. An indistinct border simply notated to avoid. 

14: Talk about the clan’s social organization. It doesn’t have to all be about social classes!

The clan started as a collection of pirate crews, and as the company grew and expanded to take the Respite, their leaders displacing the lawful governor and government of the island of Kismet. 

Pirate crews are democratic, captains and quartermasters elected by a common vote amongst the hands that serve on the vessel. Every dragon on a crew gets a vote, and a share in the proceeds of that vessel. They also receive injury and bereavement payments, when the need arises. 

On land, the captains have no official influence over the goings on, though of course in reality these individuals are respected (and oftentimes feared) above all others. They have a large influence over decisions made on land, and the pirates that serve under them are usually keen to support their ventures.

Aside from pirates, there are land-bound dragons who operate in a series of tenuous agreements, bound by what is profitable far more than any rule of law. Currently Aleru, as trade boss and owner/manager of the clan’s tavern, is the closest thing the clan has to a leader aside from the captains. Certainly, she does her best to force herself to the forefront of all negotiation between these elected officers, and through the force of her will and her skill in securing profitable prices for pirated goods, she has been largely successful. The captains are not entirely trustful of her, but she has made enough powerful friends to ensure that those who do not like her cannot cast her out.

Other notable individuals are craftsdragons and business owners. From time to time, the pirates get too lawless, too rowdy, and they can cause damage to businesses and property in their drunken revelry when they return to shore. In times such as this, a temporary council of these businesspeople is formed, lately with Aleru at its head, and the committee develops plans for action. Of course, they could attempt to cast out the pirates, but the last time that was attempted, it didn’t end well. And they all agree; the pirates provide a rich and relatively steady income that they could not expect to enjoy if they were gone. 

19: What are your clan’s values? What’s considered “good” and what’s considered “bad”?

In a den of thieves, morality is a fluid concept. Even here, outright murder is frowned upon, though the definition of what constitutes murder is a little more fast and loose than it is in other areas of sornieth. A dispute settled by blood is respected by all, and if the outcome of a brawl is one party in a casket, so be it. In Windfall, the weak and the dead are one and the same. The strong and smart survive and thrive, and the weak of will or muscle quickly wither and die. While there is no official rule of law, the crews each sign a list of articles by which they agree to be bound, and the penalty for disregarding many of the items on these articles is death. These laws are overseen by the quartermasters, and enforced by the captains. 

On land, Aleru has a small militia of… well, they’re really not police, but they do her bidding when she asks, and a lot of what she asks them to do is keep the peace (with cudgels). She has also been known to seek assistance from captains or certain individuals with particularly dark strengths, from time to time. 

21: What are the luxury items? Why are they so expensive/rare?

In the bleak south lands, fresh food is unfortunately a luxury. Meat that hasn’t been salted and preserved is a rare and sumptuous feast, as are fresh, juicy fruits and hearty vegetables. All too often the crews and citizens of Windfall subsist on long-lasting hard-baked foods like hard tack and jerked meat, and so fresh food is a precious and sought-after treat.

They also highly value things which are small and easily stolen smuggled traded: herbs; spices; silks; pearls; gems. 

Books are difficult to come by - damp is rampant on the ships, and can easily destroy the tomes that some so prize. Due to the difficulty of their transport and capture, unblemished books carry a high price.

Many of the dragons that make up Windfall’s population are, unsurprisingly, masters at martial arts, and as a result a finely wrought weapon is a highly valued thing. These dragons can tell quality from a mile off, and will pay a princely sum for a trustworthy weapon.

Guns are also highly prized, cannon that can fire heavy shot are constantly in demand for the ships and the fort. 

           HOW UNLUCKY THAT THIS SHOULD HAPPEN TO ME. but not at all. for I was not broken by what has happened.

                                                                                                              - Marcus Aurelius, meditations

In Clan Windfall, it is a dragon's merit by which they are judged. Not their parents, or their past, or their standing in the outside world. Every one of the residents in this place is here because for one reason or another, they were strong enough to survive. Ellaria is one such dragon; she was born the lowest among dragons, below any station. A guardian without a charge, without family, without honour. But she did have her wits, and her strength, and an undiminished hunger to shine, to succeed, to prove everyone who had ever doubted her wrong. To lay claim to her place in this world, to stand unbent and unbroken over the ruin of her old life, using the pieces as a bridge to the new. Notes:

Came to the clan on a slave ship when she was a fledgling. Aleru was of an age with her, and had been taken under the wing of the clan's current trade boss as his "daughter." The clan still traded in spaces then, but even at that tender age Aleru was making waves, and stole Ellaria away in the night, the tiny spiral curling around the guardian's already substantial neck.

This was a friendship that endured to adulthood, and Ellaria knows she feels more for Aleru, though she knows too Aleru would never believe such to be true.

Wants out of her guardian skin, desperately. Was always told she was born to serve, that her charge should be whomever owned her, the land she worked or the house she tended. She longs to be a Skydancer, airy and free and beautiful for beauty's sake (she had often been told she was beautiful, but a plain kind of beauty like creatures of the beast clans had, good only for looking at for a time). She now knows better, but still the way her heart aches to begin her search unsettles her, and the sooner she can be rid of it, the better.

Smart and ambitious, she has befriended many a pirate and sailor since adulthood. Something about her compels them to trust her, to divulge their secrets - though perhaps they ought not. While she never endangers them, she will often sell information from one pirate to another. Occasionally this results in feuds, but more often a more competent captain takes a prize, and the clan is better off for her subtle manipulations.

           THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT             IS THICKER THAN THE WATER OF THE WOMB

Raypheridan is placid where Nerex is wild, calm as shadow under the canopies of the Behemoth. Bookish by nature, Ray nevertheless follows Nerex near and far, defending his chosen brother from any who may mean him harm, rare though it is that Nerex has a need of protection. 

Together they are wit and force, the two great imperials possessed of complimentary talents and a fierce, unyielding loyalty to one another.