Traditionally, women were the spiritual leaders of a lot of groups, which iirc is the real reason why men were the hunters and women weren’t--it was less of a concern to lose a man than it was to lose a woman, so I think I want to include that in most, if not all, of the Marked cultures, maybe even to the extent where men are barred from having too much power in society?

Which probably leads to a level of sexism against men, at least in some places (and I think the Tuhinga Keys very much have that), so I have to kinda mm. Think out how that manifests?  Because men aren’t going to be discriminated against in the same ways that women are.

So I have to think about how these stereotypes and misconceptions manifest, what facts they stem from, so basically...what are men’s role in society?  The muscle, so maybe they’re viewed as less intelligent, just workers.  Expendable; one man can impregnate several women.  Those are the biggest ones, the ones that kinda extend from real facts despite being patently untrue.

If men are unintelligent, expendable, then they aren’t the war leaders, they’re the soldiers, the pawns.  Anyone of rank is going to be a woman..  They’re barred from health fields for “being brutish” and forced into jobs that call for physical labour.  Many people have a view of there being “too many men” because they’re seen as relatively unnecessary, even though the man to woman ratio is, well, equal.  In stories, women are occasionally outnumbered by their male companions, but even when they are they’re still the most intelligent and capable people in the stories, and if you’re writing a story that calls for capable people, it’s going to be all women.

Men are dim and goofy, kind of adorable at times.  They’re rarely taken seriously.  Because deeper voices are harder to understand than higher voices, men are regularly accused of speaking too deeply, mumbling, sounding unintelligible.

I think Tane’s favourite colour is green?  Also, his wings are based on a parrot’s so he’s not quite the same breed of Wing as Shei is.  Instead of being nomadic, like a lot of Wing tribes are, his family lived in the Tuhinga jungles.

Anyways he’s not an orphan anymore?  The Humans living in the Tuhinga Keys have made “pacts” with the neighbouring tribes of Wings to take their children and immerse them in Human culture.  What really happens is these children get turned into servants (not slaves because they can still cash in the credit that build up from working when they’re of age) and get their culture sorta just beaten out of them.  In Tane’s case, literally.  All in all it’s a nasty ploy to basically convert the Wings over to Wawe’s Order instead of worshipping their own god, Kapuri, and speaking their own language and all that.

What else can I say?  Oh, Tane is trans!  Unable to transition but he deals with it (can’t wear a binder so compression sports bras are his best friend).  His family tribe believes that transmen and women occur when Kapuri accidentally puts a male or female soul into the wrong body.  The Humans have similar beliefs about resurrection, but instead believe that Takin, the god of Chaos, occasional messes with Wawewe’s otherwise perfect system, causing all sorts of “defects” in the children.  Some circles are still tolerant of transgender people because it’s not their fault they’ve been touched by Takin, other circles are completely hostile (and as a result tend to be quite ableist as well).

Now back on track with Marked content with one of my favourite things to do: make maps.  In my head the Marked world was always fairly restricted and isolated; it wasn’t just endless seas.  That said, the Basin is a lot bigger than this map probably makes it seem, but it’s still surrounded on all sides by impenetrable cliffs and mountains, cut off from the rest of the world.

The setting in general is tropical, with lots of reefs and mangrove forests, heavily based on the Polynesian islands with long stretches of water between archipelagos and islands.  The entire basin is super shallow and rocky except in the Deep, which makes it hard to impossible to use big ships and restricts the residents to using skiffs and sloops and other small ships instead.  It also means that the Basin has never seen full scale war, because no nation has been able to rally and attack in force.

Some information about the locations mentioned here will go under the cut.  If you have questions, feel free to send them my way!

I’m glad you like them!!  And you’re right they all arein dire need of hugs haha. I’m actually gonna use this opportunity to talkabout runes in general, if you don’t mind.

Marks and Blessing and Runes are basically like the magicsystem of this universe, wherein magic is a (poorly understood) writtenlanguage that can apply passive effects to the person or object they’re placedupon.  They’re more like buffs and curses than like...casting fireball orsomething, though.  In fact I don’t think they can really deal any sort ofeffects to anything outside of the object they’re placed on, so you can’t likeuse them to set traps or anything either.

So yeah they’re diamond shaped symbols that are placed onobjects and people to give them certain buffs or curses.  It takes a lotof skill to do that though because A) you need to make sure the rune is cutdeep enough that outward damage doesn’t deactivate it and B) you need to beprecise as hell, or it just straight up isn’t going to work.  People whoetch runes are called Weavers because they’ve developed a technique to weave thesymbol of the runes deep into the object or person they’re working with.

You can pretty much divide runes into two categories: Marks,which cause negatives effects, and Blessing, which have positive effects.

You’ll see a lot of this world’s nobility using Blessings,either to buff themselves or give themselves cool shit or what have you.  They’re pretty much the only ones who caneven afford having a Weaver put a Blessing on something or someone (puttingBlessings on people is WAY more expensive by the way) because it just costs aludicrous amount of money.  A prettycommon Blessing in this world (Tora’rui in particular) is putting it on a petto give them speech, reason, and lifespan so you got yourself a lifelong companion!  This is what happened to Tilem.

You’re actually more likely to see Marks, though, which aregiven to criminals.  The world doesn’tbelieve in killing (unless you’re a Serpent but Serpents aren’t “people”),because it takes away that person’s fate and just in general goes against thewill of Wawewe, the main goddess.  Marksare free game, though, and there’s a lot of different ones to give depending onthe punishment.

The worst Mark is arguably the one that the Marked (the OChaha) had put on her.  It’s actually avery controversial Mark because it’s about as good as death; you’re rippingaway that person’s identity and along with that their fate and place thatWawewe has weaved for them.  There arealso obedience Marks, which is the type of Mark Evahl has on his shoulder/backthat make you obey a certain person/group/family, and then there are Marks thatcan keep a Wing’s feathers permanently clipped, which is the type of Mark thatShei has.  There’s a lot more than thatthough.

On top of all that, Marks burn (Blessings, in comparison,are pleasantly cool) and will actually eat through any clothing you try to puton top of it, forcing the person to constantly expose their Mark.  And that’s just asking to be harassed.  Society doesn’t look kindly on the Marked.

Unfortunately it’s not easy to get rid of or deactivate aMark.  Weavers can do it, but it’s evenmore expensive than getting it and leaves a lot more room for messing up.  The other option is disrupting the Mark, butMarks are placed so deep on people that an injury like that is bound to killyou, or at least leave you permanently disfigured.

Little less drawing today, I have more of a writing bug (might do some drabbles with these guys?) but I did sketch out a concept for the goddess of the main religion, who I called Wawewe, who is a goddess of fate.  A couple of buildings for a famous watchtower on the border of the Deep, the Crooked Finger size comparisons, Shei making a nasty gesture, and Evahl and the Marked being kinda lovey.

Aaaaaand I put the Marked in colour, because I thought of a pose for her and I just HAD to do it.

Anyways let’s talk about that Mark, and how I’m going to excuse it not being on her face because she’s a criminal.  Because I REALLY don’t want to put it on her face.

Marks burn.  The skin, sure, but clothing as well.  You can’t leave anything over it in long term without it burning away, and the material doesn’t matter.  So not only are you Marked, but you’re literally forced to keep the Mark exposed or else it’ll kill your clothes.  It can make sleeping a bit of a chore sometimes, which really just adds onto the shittiness.  You never escape the pain, either.

As of right now, I don’t really know if Marks can be removed.  Signs point to no, though, short of, I guess, removed the limb it’s on or a significant portion of flesh (they’re burned deep, though, which prevents easy disruption).

Are they temperature and moisture sensitive? Do they absorb environmental toxins through their skin?

ALMOST forgot to respond to this.

Okay so they DO need moist environments to survive (I’m just tickled by the idea that a race with fire magic needs wet environments to live).  They’re also sensitive to the cold, but highly resistant to the heat.  Since the Shallow Seas don’t get any colder than about 10-15 degrees Celsius, they aren’t too worried about freezing to death.

Toxins I’m not so sure.  I think THEY might be toxic, but I don’t think they’re as susceptible to environmental toxins as actual salamanders.  Really, they’re more based off of newts, so their skin isn’t as wet and slimy and it’s a bit, I guess, tougher.

Tagging the squad under the cut cus this is kinda relevant info.

That’s really interesting and well thought out :) Your designs are awesome! I’m not certain, but I think flamingoes are typically found in areas around volcanoes with high sulfur levels in the water Thanks for answering ^_^