Mrrrumkaro

[zabbarot]

Mrrrumkaro

Ruler: Bellower Zharrrumiah7 - Diplomacy
9 - Military
3 - Industry
3 - Faith
1 - Intrigue

Regions: 117

Religion: The Guiding Hand

Technologies: Brick and Mortar

Required Resource: Textiles/fibers

Resources: Quicklime

The Zabka

Anatomy

Zabka resemble humanoid frogs in many ways. Though they can vary quite drastically in build, zabka share some general traits. They all have long digitigrade legs, very thin waists, and wide heads with almost no ‘neck’ to speak of. This gives them a very triangular torso, but older zabka tend to be heavy set to the point of having more of a pentagonal torso. Generally an adult zabka will stand nearly eight feet tall, but they tend towards a hunched, squatting posture that makes them appear closer to 5-6 feet and accentuates any fat they might have. Their skin is smooth and ranges from light greens to dark browns. They often have patterns of stripes and or spots.

Zabka go through several phases in life, starting as eggs. Villages are often built around a protected lake or pond where the tadpoles will hatch and live for the first few years of their lives until they begin to metamorphosize and make the transition to breathing air. A zabka tadpole starts roughly 6 inches long and will grow to between 2 and 3 feet before transitioning to land.

During this long infancy the young zabka are not given any special considerations as persons. They are barely sentient and will often cannibalize new eggs or each other if the lake is not well stocked with small fish. Adults do not name them or track parentage. The young legged zabka are not much better. Usually upon leaving the village lake they will go into the wild where they are one of the local apex predators. Groups of young zabka will form gangs, usually led by the eldest or largest, that stick together throughout adolescence, which can last upwards of 30 years.

By about 35 years of age a zabka’s tail has fully receded and their mental faculties have fully developed. Around this age they will rejoin society. Most young adult zabka apprentice to an established adult to learn a trade and find their place in the tribe. Because of their complete disconnect to child rearing zabka have unique cultural understandings on what a family is. Procreation is seasonal and communal. There is very little sexual dimorphism between male and female zabka. Adult zabka will take any number of life partners, often based on shared interests. To humans and other outsiders these relationships often seem platonic, but they can be very loving.

On average zabka live to be 120

Leadership

Zabka are broken up into scattered tribes across Mrrrumkaro. Each tribe has an established regional claim, and any zabka in the region are considered part of the tribe. These regions usually only have a single large village, and the tribe will gather there for seasonal spawning. Tribal leadership is decided according to the customs of each individual tribe, but it is common to either have leadership decided by a council of elders or by combat.

The leadership of Mrrrumkaro as a whole is decided by the tribal council which is made up of the leader of each tribe. The leader is known as the Bellower and serves until they die or the council loses faith in their ability to lead. Rarely a Bellower will step down.

History and Religion

Perhaps because of their long savage adolescence, the zabka do not know how they came to be in the lands they call Mrrrumkaro. The current tribes only formed in the last hundred years and built over much older abandoned settlements. While they do not believe they are the first zabka to build a society in this place, they don't generally worry about the unknown or what may have been.

The zabka who do dwell on these things have formed a mystery cult known as the Guiding Hand. They keep their teachings and beliefs guarded from the uninitiated, but it is widely known that they meet in ancient ruins and bleed blue.

Regions

Mrrrumkaro

Number:117

People: Zabka

Resource: Quicklime

Geography: Mrrrumkaro is a long stretch of wetlands between the western ocean and the Rumbling River. Much of the area is dominated by rolling hills that are effectively islands in flooded fields of marshgrass, especially during the rainy season. Farther south near the mouth of the Rumbling River much of the marshland is brackish. Here the trees are adapted to filter and extrude salt, sometimes forming large crystals in their lower branches.

A wide variety of wildlife is native to Mrrrumkaro, but the most important are the many species of freshwater clams and mussels. They form the backbone of the food chain and are a favorite of many aquatic mammals, fish, birds, and the zabka. Their shells have piled up for centuries leading to the primary export of Mrrumkaro, quicklime. When the zabka learned to cook the shells into quicklime is lost to history, but it is used for both mortar and cement in their architecture.

Edited June 19, 2023 by zabbarot (see edit history)