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 And then Life brought rise the Shashnimyn. She built their bodies of stone, earth and silt, filled their heart with the warmth of the sun and the water gave them souls. She made them all over the planet, from the materials where they stood, and thus they became extensions of the world.
She gave the mountain folk strong legs and lungs for climbing, and fur to keep them warm. She gave the peoples of the lakes gills to help them breathe, and stamina to help them swim. She gave the forest folk good eyes to see in the understory, and a feeling to find the plants they needed. She gave the desert folk tough skin and a lack of thirst, so that pilgrimage was a way of life, and gave them magic of the stars to preserve their insights. And
She said unto them all:
"This is you Shashnia, from it I make you in your lands. Keep them well as you would your own body, for you are them and they are you. All myn are your brother and together you are keepers of all Our children. If any should threaten their future you must act, for it is aeons of love and life that brought you here, and you shall join the ancestors to bring it to others."
 And since, we have travelled this globe, but always know our origins and our responsibilities to our homeland. We are a race of so many faces. There is no denying our place, for that is where we are at home.
-Origins, Book I, First Era
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Ecosystem-type based Tribes/Races/Subspecies
Major Civilizations
Jungle Adventurers
- climbing, open ended, chaotic
- many good things can happen all at once
Desert Adventurers
- a management gameplay; survival is based upon resource allocation
- trading routes
- the algal farmers need outposts in the desert to drop off a season's crop in
- small groups nomadism for riches uncovered by the moving sands
- nomadic ranching, large herds of behemoth animals that live in a mutualist community
Mountain Adventurers
- monks, wanderers, powerful in physical magic
- lots of dungeon crawls and strongholds to jump between
- movement is a matter of survival outside, so it becomes the distance you can withstand being how far you can travel.
Minor Civilizations
Algae Farmers - Inhabitants of the sky, living in great ships that sail the clouds, and drift the globe on the currents of the winds. They farm a floating algae that grows on ambient magic, and trade it to the landfolk at mooring towers as a major food source.
Forest Dwellers - Permaculture farmers and nomadic ranchers that inhabit the temperate transitions between Jungles, Deserts and Mountains. These include the temperate forests as well as the gradations of savannahs they sometimes share with desert folk
Gen-chi mydians - lumberjack fellows and those who wear plaid, build big things out of logs and swagger about through boreal forests. They are friends with beavers and moose and also ride the rivers. Most of their wares are floated en masse as rafts.
River Dwellers
- Gen-chi mydians
- free passage downstream
- trade routes
- forage low density off the land
Divers
Canyon Dwellers
- stilt-beachers. they reincforce the embankments where they live
- wanderers; able to live off the land amply to be able to spend a while alone
- some of the best astronomers
City Dwellers
Mecenasnuro/Gumar
- Technologically advanced but genetically disadvantaged, they were banished after the Evolution war to their own island
Subspecies
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Aristocrats-
Characterized best by the word “Gothic”, these are maily folk who dress themselves in dark, renaissance-style glitz and look something in between vampires and dark elves. They are tall and thin frail of body but strong of mind. They have natural aptitudes towards math and speechcraft, but generally shun the light of day. They riddle administration departments of cities, walking through dark archives in their spectacles and robes. They prefer formality and eloquence.
Stoneskins-
These folk live and look like mountains. They are incredibly hardy and can withstand almost any environmental condition, from cold and musty caverns, to blowing dry gales, to the oppressive humid heat near volcanoes. They are thick and heavy, be them tall or short. They are of stout personality, affection is shown through hearty thumps (which they often have to restrain in the presence of the ‘frailer’ folk).
Treefolk-
Forest folk, they range in height, have a natural aptitude for the arts incorporating the living creature (plants and animals). They are also either excellent climbers or runners. They are typically like the faerie folk of old, fond of tricks and riddles, ever in jest and always a very happy bunch.
Swimmers-
Live in oceans, lakes, underwater cities, floating cities, or on boat communities. Can swim well, hold their breath for a long time and an innate sense of direction (not disadvantaged by the complete absence of navigational reference). Many have somewhat lizard-like or aquatic features and there skin is tolerant of immersion.
Nomads-
These are desert people, they live in portable camps and are fiercely independent. They have natural water conservation systems and can also fast for long periods of time. With stasis spells, they can almost survive indefinitely. They are some of the boldest hunters, since they work alone and many desert beasts are stupidly big and can see them coming. They were also the first peoples into space, which they said was “cold and awe-inspiring, but not worth living there”
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Tunnellers-
These Shashnimyn are the vestige of the clans that decided not to enforce such strict selection policies and were thus driven to areas where they could thrive without the competition to other Shashnimyn. That period was not sufficiently long enough to create a reproductively incompatible species, and they have somewhat rejoined the culture since. They have well developed night-vision and large upper bodies (perfect for operating their various digging/tunneling tools). They are economically very important due to the metals that they are able to extract from underground. Physically they look kinda creepy, like naked mole rat people. Although they are treated with reverence for both their value to society and the way they rejoined society after separation. Their tools and amount of technology allowed them to wage quite a guerilla war, which was guided by a power-hungry orator. The people eventually overthrew him, primarily due to a few couples of ‘forbidden love’. He was lynched and the Tunnelled gave about half of their accumulated resource and openly shared all its knowledge to the above-ground peoples. This was quite significant and could’ve crippled the Tunnelled, but the rest of the Shashnimyn recognized them as brothers and returned the favor. Technological advancements and anything to do with metal jumped ahead quickly as a result.
Snowspeakers-
These people are like the Inuit, only more extreme. They are a very mystical bunch, with the highest proportion of divination in the world. Some think that this is a result of living directly opposite from the Demon Gate. There is a minor invasion that occurs at this pole due to portal spells that use the axis of the world as a mirror, and these folk are excellent demon hunters, with a natural sense of their presence. They are generally fury, but this varies from an almost transparent silk fuzz to shaggy manes. They have traveled widely and the fur although believed to have originated in their areas, has since spread to nearly everywhere.
Plainsfolk-
Live in the plains, the “average” character, they begin with a few more points overall, but no specific aptitudes. Hybrids of the above races appear to be plainsfolk, who have the highest variation in form of any race.
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Determined by Genetic diversity
The wide variety of characteristics of Shashnimyn can be attributed to a very high genetic diversity relative to the human race. The whole planet has a bit higher diversity due to slightly increased mutation rates, but this was also augmented culturally by NERP (new evolutionary reproductive biology practices), and physically by geographic isolations of tribes in early Shashnimyn civilization.
Additionally, this genetic diversity has been maintained due to the local adaptation of ecosystems against pathogens. Shashnimyn are not isolated in their defense against viruses and plagues. The whole ecosystem in which they exist affects their health and protection. A group of symbiotic microbes, fungi and counter-viruses have life cycle stages within the Shashnimyn, but also within plants or animals specific to local regions. So, the diseases that typically survive in these regions are mediated by the health of the biodiversity in that region. This makes travel and life for foreigners to an area more difficult.
Once leaving the ecosystem your body is adapted to, you are also at risk to diseases that the locals harbour but do not suffer from. As such, travellers and those living in foreign lands are at a higher risk to disease. In terms of reproduction, this has also decreased the amount of successful hybrid offspring between different ecotypes of people. Inter-breeding between different tribes results in outbreeding depression and the offspring gain disadvantages of both peoples.
Uncommon Phenotypes
Goblinoid Feral Shashnimyn - small and ferocious, gave rise to the Tonkin
Gigantoids - huge, strong, but usually not smart
Mutants - Retention of ancestral characteristics through freak genetic expression. Rare, a character upgrade option for appropriate SAPTIS category concentration by chance to ~0.01% or by expensive. The three variants here represent the expression of the median limb set which was lost nearly a million years ago by the Shashnimyn evolutionary lineage. Note that these mutants can be produced through conversion using Beast-type bionics as well.
- Centaur - Animal
- Lower two limbsets are designed for running
- Ape - Physical
- Uppermost limbs heavily muscled and not as sensitive to delicate tasks. Good for smashing things though. Ape mutants use these upper limbs when running.
- Spider - Technical
- Median limbs thin, elongate and almost vestigal. The hands have been reduced to a single thumb and two fingers. These reduced arms are good for fine manipulatory work but have little physical strength
Far Future
Mecenasnuro aka Gumar
After the evolution war, there was an exile nation that excelled in technical productions. Their reliance on technology eventually came at the expense of their physical forms. An exploration of transhumanism taken to the extreme, no myn-machine boundary. Some say this was in response to the effects of many regions of people interbreeding and being put onto a single island. However, this is contentiously debated. As with most islands, there was a variety of ecosystems. Groups interbred more readily though, as they did not subscribe to the doctrines resulting form the Evolution War. The reliance on technology cannot be discounted, so the degree to which biology and culture interacted to create their history is an emotional issue.
The test-tubers. They are those that rely on artificial support exo-skeletons. Minor players in the present day campaign since they are limited to their own island for the most part. They would be relevant for an oceans campaign since they have big battleships, but most relevant to far future campaigns, since they were a major player in the space race.
Skydrifters-
Able to tolerate and work in thin atmospheres, characterized by barrel chests and fairly short stature. A natural aptitude for acrobatics and meditation. They are known by many to be a very silly, whimsical bunch, fond of elaborate ridiculousness.
Modes of transportation in between areas
- caravans over the desert
- trains through jungles, mountains (they come out deep below the mountains though)
- river travel; boats
- walking
- hitching on an air ship; algae farmers move relatively slowly
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