Din
From the volcanic waters in the center of our continent, in roasting jungle and barren desert isles, the first of the Demiorgos , the Brass Demiurge ,father of creation, and the Glass Demiurge, mother of wisdom, wove the pious and canny Din. Stout, and bruise-colored by their sanguine lineage and richest in the divine fire, Numena.
However, what would become the Ingenious Isles , their home, was nonetheless forbidding for small, clumsy creatures as the Din were-- at least compared to the shark or the panther: Some isles were roasting, suffocating jungles, some, swathes of desert, others were swept with lava, or were nothing more than a jetty of humourless stone, and all with aught but expanses of still water between them. Some floated in the sky. The Din, so they decided amongst themselves, wanted to see all of them. And thus, the wrought boats to explore, bows to hunt, clay for shelter, tools to build, and and machines to speed their way.
They developed quickly and swiftly became the Demorgos' most favored children, not least the Brass Demiurge, who settled his throne in what would become the intellectual and religious capital of Dis. We later broke it, but the city and island's still there because the Din built it, and the Din are very good with machines, and when they are told to make it perfect, it comes out perfect. As tarnished as it is today, the infrastructure that keeps Breach from collapsing onto the seafloor is nothing short of an entire population's collective genius, incarnated. Any city that big takes a lot of work to maintain.
Evolving in such a crossroads of ley lines have had extensive effects on their body, and the Demiorgos have interceded with the Din more than any other , making them theocrats. While they also dominated domestic religious roles, Din were often dispatched abroad in the name of the Demiorgos-- as priests to parishes or attendant sages or advisors to rulers. Some many served them as slaves, both internally and externally. Such a practice is now nominally banned.
Enlightened by the divine, they set to work with the little they had to curry their favor, crafting tools and ornaments, each object precious in what it represented: a work that must be aught less than perfect, for it was useful, beautiful, or impassioned. It was proof of civilization and thoughts of higher things.
Their prayers were answered, from whom they learned taught the secrets of navigation by star, sailing atop the waters, and how to embalm their righteous dead, burn the unclean, and pray for the forgiveness of both.
In time, the Din would foster guilds, universities, and become not only a center for trade, but for higher learning, philosophy, theology and civility. Everyone on Dis speaks a little Ingenue, if not by necessity, perhaps by virtue of the abundance of loanwords they introduced to other civilizations. After the Severing, the Din, who had considered no one ruler but the Demiorgos, still have not managed to form anything resembling a unified state. They are ruled by a combination of guilds, robber-barons, magnates and pirate-warlords who have found an uneasy detente in the exchange of wealth, favors, debts, and information: their new god is found in whatever they can build.
Those who are not rich are assuredly poor, and most Din are born into debt, and the ultimate authority rests in a series of plutocrats known as The Board.
Their prayers were answered, from whom they learned taught the secrets of navigation by star, sailing atop the waters, and how to embalm their righteous dead, burn the unclean, and pray for the forgiveness of both.
In time, the Din would foster guilds, universities, and become not only a center for trade, but for higher learning, philosophy, theology and civility. Everyone on Dis speaks a little Ingenue, if not by necessity, perhaps by virtue of the abundance of loanwords they introduced to other civilizations. After the Severing, the Din, who had considered no one ruler but the Demiorgos, still have not managed to form anything resembling a unified state. They are ruled by a combination of guilds, robber-barons, magnates and pirate-warlords who have found an uneasy detente in the exchange of wealth, favors, debts, and information: their new god is found in whatever they can build.
Those who are not rich are assuredly poor, and most Din are born into debt, and the ultimate authority rests in a series of plutocrats known as The Board.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
The Din are short, stocky humanoids that can vary widely in height, but are usually fall between 4 and 5 feet, and possess ‘bruise-colored’ skin: A large number of blood vessels in the head and ‘dorsal’ parts of their arms, legs, and chest give the Din an uneven skin tone, generally being paler on the chest, underside of the limbs, and face. Din’s pigmentation has a a hue varying from red, to blue, to purple with varying levels of vibrancy that all unerringly grow richer from physical exertion and darken when exposed to the sun.
Many have horns (about 80% of males and 50% of females).
Din are a little shorter than humans,, and tend towards the chubby. Men wear elaborate, cylindrically braided beards on their face.
It's traditional for those born without horns to instead keep their hair long, like the Ifritim, who typically wrap the hair on their head in a decorated scarf, hat or turban.
Meanwhile, Women typically wear their hair down or under a veil or other headgear, exposed locks of hair typically organized in elaborate braids. Most Din women have their faces exposed, and covered with makeup to show status when practical. Rebels of both genders shave themselves bald, illustrating their rejection of the seniority and wisdom that long hair is supposed to represent. Even with the gods dead, the Din still love their hair.
Just as other Heavened races occasionally experience dwarfism, the Din periodically experience gigantism. Huge Din, called “Throwbacks”, are speculated to be a result of the Din’s former cohabitation with the Slag Men, before the Slag Men were banished in the Age of Towers (like, 2500 years ago).
Genetics and Reproduction
Din reproduce just like humans do, and generally have one child, with twins or triplets being uncommon. Their birth rate is lower than Humanity and far lower than the Fey due to both economic stress and their concerns about overpopulation in the Ingenious isles.
Outside of the Ingenious Isles, pioneering Din tend to have large families and form family businesses.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Din originated in the Ingenious Isles, but can now be found anywhere. Aongside their original roles attending sorcerers, then missionary work, and now merchantry, the Dinnish disaspora has seen them travel far and wide throughout history.
Average Intelligence
Din have nearly identical brains to humans. In the absence of disability, they have the same capacity to reason intellectually or morally as anyone else.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Din possess a monomial nomenclature, meaning they’re given a single name at birth, sometimes a long or compound one, which, combined with a descriptor, is used to construct Ingenue's long, inflective personal names.
and are often append titles to their names, owing to their various accolades, stations, or traits to help differentiate each other. For instance, A Din named Ensi-Ea might be “Ensi,-Ea Smith of Kuruth Company” to his colleagues, “Ensi-Ea of Shaldi-Ram (his mother)” to his family, and “Fat Ensi” to his friends. These titles are extremely fluid.
Beauty Ideals
Big horns are considered beautiful, but they only grow if the rest of your body is fed: it’s a sign of good health. This has obvious connotations with virility to men, but they aren’t seen as butch on women. That said a huge rack (of horns) can cause neck problems later in life, so some will cut or file them down for that reason.
Capitalism obviously exploits the hell out of Dinkind’s love affair with their horns. Nice horn wax and a horn filing kit are luxury goods and hugely popular, along with various methods of adding jewelry or veils, but you should never trust something insisting it can grow your horns “naturally”: those are Dinkind’s gas station dick pills and will not fix your situation.
Gender Ideals
Gender roles are fairly relaxed, and Ingenue, a din language, has a tense for referring to a person who is neither male nor female (-Fe). But unlike Fey and some humans, Din generally don't talk much about sex or gender. Curiosity about one's relation to it is generally considered deeply forward abd usually uncomfortable for anyone involved.
Some don’t want to think about it, many simply do not care, but a select few are curious and probing about both both Din and Non-Din conceptions of biology, especially in Maridia, where the co.
Relationship Ideals
Perhaps due to their stern demarcation between personal and professional life, Din are typically quite private about their romantic and sexual endeavors, and Dinnish society is surprisingly conservative regarding sex considering how much it's sold to them.
Din love and marry just like Humans do and sometimes even intermarry. Divorce is legal and unstigmatized for both parties.
The Din have historically been fairly ambivalent towards sexuality, and same-sex couples are can marry and adopt children-- often the orphans of deceased family members, and the domestically inclined have historically acted as babysitters for parents who have moved into the cities or work grueling hours.
More questionably, polyamory and polyandry are also practiced, which the wealthiest among the Din practice to great delight.
Inheritances are dictated by merit, and Din patriarchs and matriarchs are famously capricious regarding heirs; ‘winning’ the inheritance is essentially a contest of savvy, and not always a bloodless one.
On the upside, Din weddings are uncontested as the wildest ragers regularly thrown by mortals.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Under the Demiorgos, the Din were theocratic, united by the Brass Demiurge, god of the ‘ordering spirit’, and the Din swiftly developed literacy, technology, and philosophy. They learned to build ships to take the word of their god and the glory of Proper Civilization across the inner sea, the Mare Temenos, and to the other cultures of the world.
When they turned on their divine patron, the removal of religion shook the Isles to the core, and they still haven’t managed to form any united government of note. Instead, the Din are now controlled by the plentiful great trading companies that arose from the chaos, and the gap between the rich and poor has become appalling as a rule.
Din generally live with their extended families, traditionally in large houses passed down and expanded across generations, but the rise of more complex economies and steam power has caused many of them to move into tenements that crop up in droves around any major industrial center. Din drink-- usually rum-- but generally prefer coffee and tobacco. Both of which are delightfully suited to the rich soil of certain regions in the Ingenious Isles, and are famous and beloved Isle exports for junkies all across the continent.
Hookah Bars are common, and the more upscale ones are the preferred location for business meetings between peers. boozing is mostly seen as a thing that randy sailors do, but when a Din drinks, they drink to either forget or to win.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Din who can no longer work usually shear their horns off flat to indicate their status as a revered elder. Sometimes disabled Din-- common, given how much machinery they fuck with--, will do will the same to spare themselves accusations of slacking, but Din are also immensely private people and thus many disabled racks are kept intact.
Din neighborhoods take care of their sick and injured as best they can as since the Severing, they cannot rely on others to do it. However, wealth disparity is appalling, and that reflects on who gets the attention and care.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Genetic Descendants
Scientific Name
Homo Ingeneus Cornus
Origin/Ancestry
Heavened Race
Lifespan
75-100 years
Average Height
1.2-1.5 Meters | 4-5 Feet
Average Weight
40-70 Kg | 90-150 Lbs
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Din have a "sanguine" pigment, meaning they come in red and blue, ranging to white or almost black, varying by their geographic distribution. They can get a tan.
Some Din (about 1 in 50) have "bruiselike" coloration: stripes or spots over large parts of their body. Some superstition claims this derives from the Demiorgos' methods of marking their faithful, but with modern Numenological study can find no lasting evidence to this claim. It's more common in Shaitani in any case.
Shaitani are darker to almost clay red, Janni lighter to pastel or near-white, Ifritim brighter, red Maridim are rare, but some are nearly green. The Ingenue's Darklander brothers up north come in dark purples.
