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Old age is revered among morkon tribes. Old males are considered with great awe. An old warrior who can cut the mustard against his younger stronger rivals must have something awe inspiring about him that keeps him ahead of the pack. The term Elder is used to denote status and deference to that status, as in "Elder Uncle," the term used to address a male of higher status. The Elder Tribe (the term used to denote the collection of the souls of all Morkons who have ever lived) is worshipped as deities.
Males have higher mortality rates than females.
All things permanent are "female" and things transient are "male." One of the root causes for this is the bearing of children. The best place to bear and raise children is in a village where there are permanent fixtures that make the task easier. Between this and the higher mortality rate of males comes the idea that all things permanent are the domain of women. This includes land, crops, huts, magic, villages, etc. - anything that is not normally found on a male as he hunts and wanders belongs to either a woman or the women of the tribe collectively.
Males are afflicted (genetically) with wanderlust to varying degrees. This is encouraged among young males. Older males far from their ancestral home are bothered by it much less. In fact, part of the ceremonies of coming of age triggers this most strongly. In addition to the direct trigger, the coming of age ceremony also awakens a latent ability to detect one's own blood relatives. Blood relatives are unattractive sexually - the excitement just doesn't seem to be there. Local boys get lonely and strangers have trouble getting to sleep at night.
Only a few of the activities are so strongly typed as to be exclusive. Lethal warfare is a male activity. Magic is almost always female. Everything else tends to be shared to varying degrees. Every villager is expected to help out with the village children (those that live). While it might be a woman's field, the man/men helping work it could easily be her mate(s). Many trades cross over; tool making often has a wandering part and a permanent stay-at-home part. The flint in the villages' (hence female property) axe was probably quarried by a wandering male and worked by men and women to become the village firewood axe.
There are few rules about relationships among adults. The trend is that permanent relationships develop slowly. Permanent groupings are usually between older members of the village. While the men, especially young ones wander, being irresponsible is frowned upon. Winter is damn cold up there and the women own all of the huts, villages, most of the cut firewood and all of the land. A bad reputation makes for a cold and lonely morkon - a condition that often means a dead one too. Social success usually implies genetic success. Males that live to middle age tend to settle in one village.
The urge to wander tends to keep peace amongst different groups; everybody is related to their neighbors since that's where son's go to find companionship and a place to live. It also keeps all of the varied genetic traits of the morkons in circulation. Things like greenness (the marker for regen is greenness of skin tone), magic ability, teleport via shadows, giant size, infravision, and small size all keep popping up rather than dying out. Many of those traits require other precursors. This means that certain traits show up in family lines now and then. Siblings and cousins may have similar traits but it is rare for a family line to keep specific traits, even when both parents have them.
It's not a surprise that the birthrate is high.
The varied morkon biology occasionally goes haywire. There are a number of morkon specific diseases and conditions. Regen is a touchy thing. It has two serious failure modes; the first is when it stops. This is usually seen in ancient morkons. It's usually fatal since the morkon has usually built up a lifestyle based on regeneration and they do something risky that gets themselves killed. The second is when it won't stop. Radical regeneration can, for example, grow another fore-arm in response to hitting the funny bone. The Rage is a common temporary condition. When in great physical danger, or when very angry, The Rage comes over a morkon. It requires great strength of will to stay coherent when The Rage calls. The Rage floods the system with adrenalin and other powerful compounds. The morkon simply goes berserk. Pain sense goes away. The Rage is powerful enough to kick in the regeneration reflex to try and repair the damage. Strength goes way up, and endurance is up for a short time - there's hell to pay when it wears off. Thinking often tends to the very shortest of short term. While not just instinctive, it does not allow for long involved cool headed thinking and fancy stuff. Shadow morkons don't get The Rage, besides, they are almost always too concerned about the integrity of their own skin.
Fire and fire magic is universally feared. Fire damage doesn't regenerate very well. The very naughtiest of little boys get threatened with the village mystic burning them to ash with magic fire. It causes nightmares in children. On the rare occasion when an Outlaw is torched by a fire using mystic, it gives whole tribes nightmares.
The status of a morkon can often be told by what they wear on the totem strings about their neck. Marks of status and great deeds (often the two are indistinguishable) are place on sacred strings tied with holy knots. Most are conferred by mystics or tribal leaders. It is said that a mystic can see at a glance any faked totem, and so such deceptions are rare.
Children are named at one week, but until they become adult, they are addressed as children. Ask a child her name and she will say something like, "I will be known as Ma'Kt." As an adult, she'd have just given her name. There are numerous forms of address and speech modes in morkon speech. The tongue is an offshoot of elven, and the oldest forms of both are very close. Most of the modes and forms relate to status and age and the like.
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