Bat People of Wasteland

There are small communities of bat people living in many places of the world, but none of them are quite like the bat people of wasteland. They live in a series of small towns scattered around Wasteland of T@Ö#Ä3, near Graveyard and Haunted Forest and their biggest settlement here is Victorian Secret.

Vampires, Victorian Era, Death and other spooky and macabre stuff

They live quite far away from the rest of the world, closer to the world of the dead than the world of the living. It’s no surprise that they have a strange obsession with creepy and macabre stuff, just the kind of thing you’d expect to come across in areas such as Graveyard and Haunted Forest. With all the dead and undead roaming around these parts they obviously have to try to fit in, and this is actually pretty easy for them. As bat people, they got fixated on the ancient tales of vampires who were bat people as well. Of course, they were vampire bats while the modern bat people are fruit bats, but they don’t let a silly thing like this hold them back. They will have anyone who encounters them believe that they are in fact actual real vampires.

What aesthetic would better fit vampires than ancient Victorian one? Hm? That’s right, none. Of course, thousand of years later and influenced by many other cultures, subcultures and trend that came and went meanwhile, not to mention general misconceptions of the ancient times people today have, their idea of victorian may differ greatly from what live was like in 1800s, but victorians seem to have had strange obsession with death and creepy stuff, which is something very relatable to bat people. Of course, where they are, they are closer to the dead then to the world of living, and here you’re more likely to meet a new friend among the dead than among the living. You see, people living in far more technologically advanced T@Ö#Ä3 and Ä+*4~ might meet new friends online, but here where there is no internet people are more likely to meet a new ghost friend through a senace.

Technology

Living so far away from the rest of the world means being cut off from people’s modern technology as well. People here don’t have electricity, and plumbing isn’t exactly ideal either. They could get a bit more technologically advanced if they wanted to, but they just don’t want to. It’s really all for aesthetics. But don’t worry, they do pretty well, they focus more on hard work, manual labor and wholesome calm activities.

Lifestyle

As already said, people here value hard work. Men in particular for the most part chop wood in Haunted Forest and produce everything from darkwood planks, furniture and other wooden items, and make black tree bark Leather. Women on the other hand focus more on taking care of the home and the animals they may have, such as peacocks and geep (goat-sheep). They make geep wool and items made from it. These are the main items they export, and they happen to be extremely rare and valuable. In their free time, they all like to engage in activities such as reading, writing, playing board games, playing music, performing plays, creating art and similar. Bat people are also the ones in charge of Graveyard Hideout where they like to go to socialize with other bat people from other settlements and the dead. Performing seances to communicate with the souls of the dead trapped in Haunted Forest is all the rage.

They are actually quite artistic, and most of their art revolves around death, vampires, ghosts, Blackbirds and Satan. They do tend to worship Satan here more than Glitter God, but they are very religious.

Apart from Satan (and Glitter God), they are also very fond of the black sun present in these areas. Pretty much all bat people living here are also heavily involved in the Black Sun cult, the one that specifically focuses on appreciating the black sun.

They value their loved ones very much and are especially close with their families. Since they live in pretty small settlements, they do tend to be close with everyone living in their town.

The ~Aesthetic~

While bat people do like to have their reckless fun, they usually like to appear serious and dignified in front of others. Their dialect is very verbose and eloquent and they can be quite melodramatic. If you ask one of them about their button that fell off their shirt, expect a lengthy speech about how all of this is some overly complicated metaphor for the afterlife. They’re like that cringy kid in your class in middle school who had a phase of talking exclusively in Edgar Allan Poe quotes, except that’s their entire culture.

Of course, they also dress accordingly. There’s no such thing as jeans and a t-shirt here, they like to wear really fancy outfits and put a lot of effort in their appearance. Sure, for house work and chopping wood they’ll wear more casual and lowkey clothing, but for going out to run errands or for fun, they’ll always put on their best clothes. They mostly wear dark clothes, black, red, purple, blue with some grey or occasionally white.

They like ornate things, even their furniture looks like it’s made of lace. It’s not though, it’s more likely to be made out of human remains. And I mean “human”; not mole people, but remains of ancient humans that can be found buried in the ground all across Wasteland. Sometimes these human remains are found in sort of wooden boxes, and many bat people like to make their beds look similar to those and pretend they are dead anytime they go to sleep.

They also make some pretty extraordinary jewelry made of hair and teeth. In this case, it’s their own hair and teeth, or hair and teeth traded through Wasteland Capital.

Speaking of teeth, they will often get their teeth modified to look like vampire fangs, but you gotta keep in mind that we live here in the era of barber-surgeons and no anesthetics so this is a pretty brutal procedure. No matter though, putting yourself through this will earn you almost as much respect as if you managed to domesticate a blackbird.

They don’t need those teeth to, you know, actually drink blood from people though, as it’s already been established they are fruit bats and drink primarily red fruit juice - strawberry juice in particular looks like blood so they drink abnormal amounts of it. They do eat a lot of fruit imported from other parts of thw world as well, but it's improper to eat in polite company. They only eat in privacy of their own homes and around family.

Of course, they are all genuinely interested in living like this to some extent, otherwise they wouldn’t do it, but at the end of the day the most important thing is to appear a certain way in front of others. They live their whole lives like it’s some melodramatic theater play.

Relations with outside world

Bat people don’t like to communicate with the outside world too much. They rarely travel directly to T@Ö#Ä3 or Wasteland Capital, and people from there rarely travel directly to those settlements. They have communities of their own kind living in or near these areas, and communicate with the outside world through them. Similar to Wasteland Capital, they will let in traders and archeologists who come here to explore the ancient artifacts hidden in the area. They treat them much better than people of Wasteland, they are very hospitable and respectful, though they won’t let them forget that there’s a real chance they might drink their blood.

Bat people also do enjoy a good freak show, so they are particularly welcoming to the freaks who come here to perform their shows.

The kind of fancy clothing bat people here would wear: