#uluu

Wedding of two giants. (And some lore regarding this character’s and giant culture).

In most giant communities marriage isn’t a stablished institution and the conditions and dynamic between the two parts depend a lot on the agreement between their respective clan’s mothers.

In this case Uluu (right), a young giant male is going to be spend the next five years with Bor’s (left) clan. Bor is an older female giant from a related clan that Uluu has met and developed a crush on during this year’s Salt festival. Bor is a woman, but not a mother (explained here) and if she doesn’t concieve during the next five years, they will renew or revoke their vows. This is a very common agreement for a marriage between a young male and female.

The Salt festival takes place at the end of the wet season and nomadic giant clans (and some human) gather next to a very salty inner sea to gather salt (important for food preservation), trade, form alliances with other clans and plan how they will manage their herds and use the pastures further north during the dry season. Athletic games, such as races or wrestlin, cattle competitions and general socializing take place during this festival.

Giants often spend several days at a time standing up and can even sleep like that (though many prefer to rest on a cane or against a partner). Their height makes it so that getting up from the sitting position takes a bit and can cause dizziness or even to pass out if done too quickly. This makes it so that sitting or laying on the ground is a very vulnerable position for giants and simbolizees great trust. The festival is also the time for resolving any fights or disagreements that have occured during the rest of the year between clans or individuals. In these “trials”, which are more like discussions moderated by third parties, the two parties usually meet sitting down, as a show of good disposition to resolve the disagreement in a peaceful way. The party that proposes the discussion has to sacrifice a head of cattle (usually a cow) and provide a whole hide that they use to sit on during the discussion (this makes it so that not everyone can afford these formal discussions and that even richer clans will think twice before accusing someone). After an agreement is reached, the “winner” gets to keep the hide, signed by both parties, as a guarantee. This method is not exclusive of trials, and is used in any kind of formal agreement. In this case, it was Uluu’s clan that provided the hide but will also keep it in case he is not treated properly by Bor’s clan.

Uluu and Yandod smoking and getting to know each other + Tail being a freak.

I already introduced Uluu the Summerfolk in an earlier post. He's a lowlands Summerfolk that got in trouble with Osdu da Lag's bandit band in Alwaysummer and is now fleeing to the Sun Empire, where he will join a wandering group of entertainers as a wrestler and later work as a bodyguard, soldier and eventually die. This poor man's life has always centered around violence but his dream was to be a shepherd and spend his days alone in the wild.

During his voyage to the Empire by boat he met Yandod, a crewmate of the unregistered/illegal fleet that Uluu used. This is the only time that Uluu had been at sea and he hated it.

Yandod is native to the northern coast of Alwaysummer and his culture is one of the most hateful towards Summerfolk but during his voyages to the western coast of Alwaysummer he met plenty of Summerfolk and his prejudices lessened so in the current day he has no problem befriending Uluu.

Tail is an old, female talking monkey that was given that name because she lost most of her tail in an unknown accident. In this picture she's trying to give smoking a go, but is very displeased. She's an alcoholic though. Talking monkeys are native to the deep forest that surround the central mountain range, but can also be seen in some cities, where they are often considered vermin and in ships all around the sea, where they are valued because of their ability to climb ropes and sails and to obey specific orders in exchange for some food/liquor. Tail, bc of her injury and age, is no longer able to climb that much and is kept in the ship because the crew mates have become fond of her and they find her funny.

A continental nobleman and his expensive and exotic bodyguards.

These bodyguards belong to the summerfolk species. (Although they go by many names such as wildmen or grass peepers).

They are very closely related to humans and my idea for them was: What if human evolution kept going? (Taller, more terrestrial and more efficient savannah pursuit predators)

They live in a vast warm grassland and were know by the peoples of the continent a long while ago but only semi-recently has considerable contact occurred.

They are as distant to humans as neanderthals were (kinda) and interbreeding can rarely occur although the offspring is mostly sterile.

These two ones in particular have traveled from their homeland to the continent and the right one is going to be a recurring character called Uluu.

In the continent they mainly work as travelling wrestlers and bodyguards. Their size makes them very intimidating, wich is an advantage but also a curse.

Uluu is not specially violent but his stature attracts lots of atention and just regularly ends up in fights.

Have you guys ever heard about that study that said that like 30% of men think they can defeat a lion in a fight? Thats kinda his problem. Many people want to prove themselves against him for self steem reasons.

The summerfolk are very athletic and have great vision. They are also melanistic humans so their skin, hair and even bones are pitch black.

Intelligence-wise they seem to be as complex as humans, but often suffer from claustrophobia and distress when surrounded by a lot of people, but its hard to tell if thats instinct or just that they are as individuals used to life in the plains.

They live longer than humans on average, although their risky lifestile often prevents them from doing so. They also reproduce slower and take a bit longer to reach sexual maturity (20 years perhaps?)

They require more meat in their diet, wich led to agriculture and full sedentarism not occurring naturally in them. (They would starve before the harvest).

Hope you like this concept and tell me what you think! Questions and ideas are always appreciated.

Here are some more sketches and WIPs abt these guys.