I drew this just because I wanted to see what Palev and Sergei would look like if they'd stayed with their tribe and actually followed the rules of tradition. (Sergei without a beard is bizarrely feminine)
The Moon Children (Palev and Sergei's tribe) is stratified into two groups based on size: the домё and the охотё*. The домё are the small people, who have the home-keeping roles: cooking, cleaning, sewing, building tents. The охотё are the big people who have all the going-out-into-the-wild-and-doing-dangerous-shit roles: hunting, fishing,...i dunno, bear-wrestling.
Basically the difference between men and women is barely recognized (Palev would probably look exactly the same whether he called himself a man or not, just in case anyone's curious) but the difference between big and small determines everything from how you dress  to what you'll grow up doing.
(домё wear long tunics to keep them warm since most of their work is done sitting still, and охотё wear short tunics so they don't overheat and start sweating while they're out running around (you do not want to sweat in the arctic, that shit freezes and kills you)
Palev and Sergei are actually outsiders and as such have strayed away from a lot of the rules to varying degrees. Things like shaving their heads and beards *coughs and looks at Sergei* and acting like a домё  *coughs and looks at Palev* Their roles ended up getting reversed because Palev is the oldest, and Sergei was like 6 when they went out into the wilderness, and Palev would be damned if he'd let his little brother go out into the wild and do dangerous shit just because he was an охотё.
*Note: These words are supposed to be made up variations of Russian words, but due to my beginner Russian skills, they may be actual words. If they are or are wrong in any other way, I'm sure someone will point it out sooner or later. The Internet always seems to spot my language errors.
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