Syg

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Syg, or Sygoł ( Plural Sygoły ) are medium-sized monsters. They live in small familial bands and largely hunt larger forest game like deer, boar, and the like. They are notable for eating small goblins, kobolds, and other smaller sapient species, but generally avoid eating dwarves and larger humanoids, unless facing starvation.

Neutral Evil

Variants

Syg variations are based primarily on superficial appearance rather than actual physical and cultural distinctions or heredity. Tribal affiliation based on location and clan affiliation based on extended heredity, kinship claims, and resident community are the more pertinent division to the Sygoły. However the classification of variants tends to matter to other races who assume that Sygoły operate on similar concepts of subrace and nationality as most races adhere to with common language, distinctive traits, long genealogies, and adaptations to geography making distinctive subraces who look different to greater or lesser degree. Sygoły largely do not actually manifest this in Kalom being all descended from a single source and not having stayed anywhere for long enough in Kalom for distinctive adaptations to be prominent. Rather, the differences are largely in fur colour and pattern and have been adopted by Sygoły as distinctions in an artificial way due to them being categorized by other races when having bounties put on them, being captured and sold as slaves, being hunted for pelts, and being killed. In a twisted way, Sygoły have come to view their value based on the value of their pelts on market and establish pecking orders within clans according to this. Syg have five major variants in Kalom, sorted by pelt value:

• Yume-jin ( 雪人 lit. "Snow person" ): Sygoły with a completely white coat, Sygoły with pale grey or silvery pelts are categorized here as well by most.
• Kin-jin ( 金人 lit. "Gold person" ): Sygoły with a lighter blonde or bronzish coat.
• Tetsu-jin ( 鉄人 lit. "Iron person" ) Sygoły with a black, grey, or blue coat. ( Sygoły with a vibrantly indigo coat and may sometimes be called 池人 - "lake person" )
• Sabi-jin ( 錆人 lit. "Rust person" ) Sygoły with a red, reddish brown, or orange coat.( Sygoły with a vibrantly red coat are more valuable and may sometimes be called 血人 - "blood person" )
• Moku-jin (木人 lit. "Wood person" ) Sygoły with a dull brown coat.

They may also be called by the colour of their pelt, i.e. yume-jin = shiro-jin 白人, testu-jin = ao-jin 人, sabi-jin = aka-jin 赤人, kin-jin = ki-jin 黄人, moku-jin are called the same since Sygoły use moku as a colour name for earth tones that aren't categorized as 白 or 黒.

Tribes and Clans

Sygoły are divided into rival "tribes" - a larger super group based largely on geographic range and some legendary claims of distant connectivity and "clans" - local communities which are closely related by blood, marriage, or kinship oaths. Clans travel together in loose groups of smaller subfamilies whereas tribes are a more abstract concept that forms the closest equivalent to the common idea of a nation or kingdom. There is generally no Syg monarch to speak of and any idea of cascading hierarchy is not based on any notion of loyalty or central authority but rather on which clan best dominates its neighbouring clans and which clan alliances dominate the overall tribe. Attempts by the few scholars interested in studying the sociology of the Sygoły have been rather frustrated by attempts to categorize their hierarchy with clearly defined terms.

Biology and Family Structure

Sygoły lack the same level of sexual dimorphism that most generally humanoid creatures have. Male and female Sygoły are generally the same size and relative strength and their external genitalia can be difficult to distinguish due to the female possession of an external clitoral structure that constitutes a sort of pseudopenis, similar to that of a hyena. Unlike the hyena, female Sygoły at least have a distinctive labial structure and discrete vaginal canal used for "birthing" young. Male Sygoły generally do not present with external testes, as the testes only distend in response to excessive heat or sexual arousal.

Female Sygoły give birth to critically underdeveloped young surrounded by a mass of leathery connective tissue that remains from the internally fertilized egg. This tissue remains attached for weeks, potentially months and provides some level of emergency nourishment, but gradually withers and either falls off naturally or is cut off by one of the child's parents after they reach an age at which they can cry on their own. Either parent is capable of vomiting up an oily chyme substance made of partly digested meats, bile, and a fatty oil made from their body's fat stores which the infant can feed on. Nearly half of infant Sygoły die at this stage of life.

Sygoły have a concept of marriage, but it differs from most humanoid species. There is no concept of "husband" or "wife", but only "greater" and "lesser". The Syg with the better social standing or fitness ( physical or intellectual usually as measured by success in gathering food ) is the "greater" partner and determines which clan that the marriage and its offspring will belong to if the couple are from differing clans. The "lesser" partner is the partner who is tasked with rearing young and tending to the wants of the "greater" partner. Some males have a slight advantage due to generally better eyesight and reflexes on average, as well as a more risk-taking attitude due to being considered more expendable, but it's rare for a male to be considerably stronger than the average female and many males are put into the lesser role and a considerable percentage have no access to mates at all.

Additionally these bonds are not guaranteed to be for life. The greater partner may at any time reject and divorce the lesser partner and strip them of access to their children and any status that they wish to strip them of, up to and including their place in the clan if they are not natively born into it. There is also not always an expectation of monogamy while married if the greater partner has sufficient standing in the clan they may engage in polygamy and adultery at will with any unmarried Syg or any Syg whose partner they wish to lay with can be killed or driven off. ( See Abandoment ) In some cases, a lesser partner may divorce the greater partner if they have certain causes: For instance if the lesser partner is being made to care for offspring which do not belong to themselves ( if the lesser partner is male ) or the greater partner ( if the lesser partner is female and the male they had the baby with claims the child. ) Additionally, certain forms of abuse can be a cause for divorce. While the greater partner can typically beat, bite, berate, insult, belittle, sexually abuse and otherwise treat the lesser partner as a slave any injury that causes a loss of sight, loss of limb, loss of a child, or loss of fertility generally is grounds for divorce and can even be grounds for ostracizing the offending party from the clan. ( See Abandoment. )

Sieger

A Sieger ( 野心 - roughly meaning "ambitious", read as yashin in Japanese, but read as シゲル ( shigeru ) in the Syg language, same as 茂 roughly meaning "flourishing" a given name in Japanese ) is a social concept among Sygoły. It is not necessarily a position of authority, but more a position of recognition. The term comes from the same term that gives the species its name and meant "victor" in its original language. A Sieger is equivalent to a hero and are often allowed to get away with much that an ordinary Syg would not. A Syg becomes a Sieger by exceptional displays of martial prowess, slaying incredibly dangerous beasts, acquiring great wealth, successfully repelling enemy attacks, or by saving many Sygoły from death at once. It is difficult, but not impossible for a Sieger to become Abandoned and likewise it is difficult, but not impossible for an Abandoned to become a Sieger and egregious criminal behaviour will lead to such ostracization. Even when an Abandoned becomes a Sieger it is very rare to be a Sieger of the clan that abandoned them and a Sieger who is abandoned is usually given a mark of shame in the form of ritual scarring or branding. If the Sieger is particularly dangerous when they become abandoned, they may not be branded due to the fear of being too strong to subdue.

Abandonment

A mateless male may be driven out of their clan. Such males are known as 放棄 ( "abandoned" ) and tend to take up lives of roving banditry, but usually just the fear of being abandoned is enough to drive a Syg to violent behaviour and banditry, which either leads to their acceptance as a Sieger if they are successful or becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy leading to abandonment. In cases where a female is particularly despised by their clan or considered an embarassment, she may also become abandoned, but this is far rarer and females often avoid it by vicious bullying of any males weaker or less prestigious than themselves.

Sygoły in good standing with their clan can also be abandoned for crimes or tyranny if the a large enough majority of the clan agrees upon doing so. In case of a particularly powerful and dangerous Syg, this is generally done by getting them drunk or magically inducing sleep and then migrating away from them while they are unconscious and refusing to acknowledge them if they manage to show up again. The psychological distress of this is enough to drive most Sygoły who had previously been in good standing to madness and desperation, often leading to suicide by combat. For those that manage to come to terms with their new status, they may try to prove themselves to another clan and join it by marriage or by becoming a Sieger. Most abandoned avoid suicide due to Syg beliefs on the afterlife.

Origins Across the Sea

(( Gotta put this in later based on my notes about the origins of Sygoły in Kalom. I am getting pretty tired though so I'm about ready to finish this for the night. ))

Religion

Syg religion is somewhat simple and animistic. It has a concept of a soul and an afterlife but it is not well developed. Sygoły have no concept of gods. The most consistent theme of Syg religion is the concept of "Crossing the Sea to Home" which is understood both in a literal context of a mass exodus over the sea to their legendary homeland and in a metaphorical concept of the soul passing into a peaceful afterlife and it is believed that one must be valorous, worthy, and good to be taken there. Perspectives on where a Syg's soul goes when they die if they are unworthy to go home differs with some Sygoły believing in a hell or hells of torment, others in various dark and hopeless underworlds, and yet others believing in annihilation. The consistent agreement is that bad things happen to Sygoły who behave badly. However the Syg concept of evil is a lot more lax compared to most races with things like theft, mutilation, slavery, spousal abuse, and war not being considered to be automatically evil. Generally the Abandoned are considered to be barred from the good and peaceful afterlife and are considered to be able to possibly earn their way into it if they die in battle or become a Sieger. Successfully joining or rejoining a clan also sets a Syg's moral status back in good standing, allowing them to go to the good afterlife if they do nothing that Sygoły consider evil. The connection to a clan is vital to achieving the good afterlife as the Sygoły believe that the good afterlife is divided by clan and tribe and that not being a part of a clan means you have no place in that clan's portion of the afterlife which is why abandonment is so harrowing.

Trivia

Sygoły are directly based on Sergals from Vilous, but are not completely identical. ( A major difference is that Sergals are not generally considered evil. ) They serve as the Bomsil equivalent to gnolls, which are not native to the plane and only exist when summoned.

Sygoły can see the same colours as humans, but have an unusual distribution of basic colour terms and ways in they are applied which differs from nearly every civilization in Kalom and from real-life Japanese which their language is based on. "Ao" 青 - Japanese for blue - covers an extremely broad range of colours for the Sygoły, over half of the visible spectrum. On the other hand, Sygoły have a fairly specific amount of basic colour terms on the other half of the visible spectrum.

The full list of basic colour terms ( again, note that these do not directly correspond to their usage in Japanese ):

• 白 ( Shiro ) - White, silver, grey, creme
• 黒 ( Kuro ) - Black ( usually specifically the black of things which have been burned ) dark browns, and in some contexts ( especially pigments ) umber.
• 木 ( Moku ) - Most browns and tans that don't fall into shiro or kuro
• 赤 ( Aka ) - Red and orange ( especially of fruits )
• 紫 ( Mura ) - Pink, Magenta, certain shades of purple, certain shades of red ( especially of flowers )
• 黄 ( Ki ) - Yellow, some shades of orange, and some shades of green
• 青 ( Ao ) - Most shades of green, all shades of blue and indigo, most shades of purple, also in certain cases black ( Especially when describing water or the night's sky. The night's sky is referred to as 夜青 or "night blue", while the day's sky is referred to as 日青 "day blue")