Darklings (Hypogeum)

 

A Darkling I encountered, who distinguished himself with a stately Tricorn. Unsettling, but amiable.

Darklings are inhabitants of the Hypogeum. They are, as I have previously said, seemingly related to Folk, and many possess carapace-like skin, or else are vaguely insectoid. They are generally more serious, dour, and skillful than the folk, though there are, of course, myriad exceptions. They possess a cultural inclination towards concealing clothing. This, and their already exterior, lends them the general appearance of two eyes on a spindly-limbed silhouette. But this is all common knowledge.

Where Folk are at their height of civilization with a town, Darklings have Cities. It is unknown whether the Darklings built their cities, or whether they were part of the Hypogeum from the start, but they are certainly fantastic. Most theories say that it was an original part of the Hypogeum, since the materials used to make them don't seem to have been mined or scavenged from the maze around them. They are gothic structures, very pointy and solemn. They are expansive, with many skyways and underground (well, "sky" and "ground") passages. Many Darklings never go outside in their lives.

Darklings are able to sustain themselves mostly without farming by, ironically, hunting and pastoralism. Darklings only inhabit sections (called "Stasarae", "Dwells", or "Abiders") of the city at a time, cycling through the whole city slowly while the rest are overrun by shadowbeasts and other creatures, which they hunt. As well, they herd herbivorous creatures through the Stasara to eat the moss that accumulated there since it was last inhabited. This almost exclusively carnivorous diet, as well as the skill needed to hunt shadowbeasts, has given them a fearsome reputation. Some folk even believe that Darklings became all dark and carapaced because they relied so much on darkbeasts for food.

While some darklings herd and hunt, many are more scholarly. Scholars study the notes left by previous generations on the walls of the the Stasara. They are in the process of continual archaeology: they come to a Stasara, study the murals and artifacts, write their findings as well as new developments down in the form of murals and artifacts, and move on. Darklings are secretive to one another, and very cryptic, so by the time that the tribe returns to the same place, the information written there was likely lost, and becomes new information. Every piece of writing on every wall becomes a fragmentary history of the entire civilization told by hundreds of authors.

Darklings similarly are as opaque as possible about their romance, though I do believe they have one. To them, seemingly, all romance is equally taboo, but all of them break that taboo as quietly as possible. Knowledge of both parents is rare. Depending on the community, either the mother raises them in conjunction with all the men (and others) of the community, a child is taken in by a mentor figure (who might or might not be their parents), a single communal parent or parental group raises all children, or the community as a whole raises them. The most brazen Darkling might leave a note as their tribe migrates to the next Stasara, and the child might find it when they are older or if they range far.

Like Folk, they work for the most part on a barter system, with every treasure approximately worth the same as every other treasure, and food mostly shared. However, Darklings are much more likely to have specific and obvious preferences. A certain Darkling might collect swords, while another collects hats, while still another collects artifacts of human culture, or skeleton bones! Though, perhaps he only wants to inter them. Even Darklings who are not relicseekers collect, though obviously relicseekers are more common among them. They won't trade the things they collect things away, but they'd give you a treasure for things that might otherwise be trash, or several treasures for one otherwise valuable.

This tendency for collection, and as well, for creation (for darklings like to make fine things), means that their tombs often contain goods important to them in life. While most treasures will be redistributed to the community, the most important treasure to a certain darkling will often be left with them in a Stasara. They believe that it takes until the tribe cycles back to the Stasara for all the life and magic in the body to dissipate, and to reclaim it before hand is disrespectful and dangerous.

If it wasn't apparent, Darklings do not bury their dead. They allow scavengers, mold, and moss to overtake it, leaving the body in the stasara but otherwise in the open. When they return to the stasara, they might clean up the remains (bone and carapace), putting it in a neat pile, if it is already fully clean. If moss lingers on it, they allow the creatures they herd to eat the moss and any remaining flesh, before cleaning it up the same. Or they might throw out the bones, or use them for divination, or use the carapace as further armor (which does not help their reputations). 

As stated elsewhere, the religions of Darklings are apparently more complex than their Folk counterparts. While they revere much the same natural forces, they more often personify them, or worship their servants and great ancestors. For instance, a cult of the Moss I encountered venerated the Great Teacher, whose words brought forth lush spores on an otherwise barren city, as well as his disciple, the First Shepherd. They do not, as a whole, believe in an afterlife, but they might believe that their force might be honored or placated by reminding it of the good relations they have had with it. They tend to pick a statue present in a certain Stasara and

The majority of Darklings are at least henotheistic. They are more aware than their Folk counterparts of the existence of others devoted to other Forces, whether or not those Forces are real or worthy. Notable groups are those that venerate all the forces, called the Arites, and those who reject them all, the Tergites (both pronounced with the e on the end). The Arites are known for their decoration of the cities in which they live, with many-colored prayer flags and many statues festooned with decorations and offerings. The Tergites are known for their iconoclasm and for their music and games, which, divorced from their religious context, have developed in ways both good and bad.

(The statues found in the Hypogeum only sometimes depict certain races. Just as often, they are abstract. Some cults favor statues of certain races. Its not known why.)