Emsh

Clay-infused sentients from Emshol, the lands bordering a collection of lakes. As children, they are soft and can change their shape; they then (except in the case of outcasts) are fired into their adult form, where they are like living statues. If broken, they can be healed by slipwrights. Fire, water and clay are the holy trifecta for them. Land is heavily forested in parts to provide wood for fires.
From birth, children are mutable creatures of wet clay, able to change shape freely and eating a diet of mineral-rich mud supplemented by various herbs and leaves. They must consume a lot of water and stay away from excessive heat.
Once fired, as grownups, they are hardened into living statues that are tough but brittle. They consume a strange diet based around flammable materials - wood-chips, rushes, oil refined from crops (though Kerrid oil imports are highly valued) - to fuel their lingering internal fires. Without water or food, they die and become inanimate statues. cold saps their heat. They do not need to breathe, and their only waste is coughed-up ash and other burnt residue. THIS IS OUT OF DATE.
though a wide range of forms are possible, the social norms strongly endorse a humanoid form. Following on from that, the most common forms are imitative of non-sentient animals or non-humanoid sentients. tend to be attractive by Reldan beauty ideals, but as styles and tastes change older Emsh gradually look old-fashioned. generally easy to age. one common feature on virtually all , a form of stamp or signature marked somewhere on their body (most often the forearm) that allows them to sign contracts and create Sherds (see below).


The only elements of their diets that overlap with outsiders are high-sugar desserts and high-proof alcohols.
If Emsh are physically injured, they crack rather than bleed/bruise etc. They are unable to heal themselves, relying on slipwrights, special adepts in their culture who can heal injuries using fire and Slip, very wet clay mixed with finely ground Emsh corpses. Works best if the remnants are of a relative of the particular person being healed. If it fails, the attached part will work less well or not at all.
Emsh "Plumbing" - use relatively simple techniques to form appropriate reproductive organs, and to make sure a few tubes and holes are connected up properly. Don't go into details on other organs, though they are different from – and simpler than – those of other humans. Can emsh choose to be sterile?
Slipwrights have combined aspects of physician, mortician, and priest (in roughly that order).
Questions:

• are Emsh immune or resistant to The Suppuration?
• Are "living buildings" a thing in many settlements?
• what happens if you mush multiple unfired together?

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Emsh is a Reldan language, closely related to other languages of the region, though with a distinctive phonology and writing system based around using a stylus to write in wet clay.

phonology:

consonants: divided into three groups: t/l/k/p, sh/z/m/n, and l/r.  vowels: divided into two groups: short i/a/e and rounded o/or/u. U is pronounced somewhere between the sounds of "hook" and "boo".  syllables: see table below.

•  ip/pi pu ap/pa ep/pe por op
•  ish shu ash esh shor sho
• it/ti tu at/ta et/te tor ot
• in nu an en mor no
• ik/ki ki ak/ka ek/ke kor ok
• zi zu za ze nor zo
• yi yu ya ye yor yo
• il/li lu al/la el/le lor ol
• ri ru ra re ror ro
• im mu am em mor mo

the following language
Syllabary: 
each syllable above - a total of 72 - is represented by cuneiform marks, each composed (in order to avoid right angles) of the following 3 marks:

Shared customary codes and values

cuisine:

• staple crops are rice, rapeseed, beans, beets & carrots, with wheat grown in dryer areas and rushes in the wetter ones.
• other produce: oil-water-buffalo (imported from Kerrid) used for milk and, more rarely, meat;honey (mostly on upland meadows fish, crayfish, and other river life; bird meat and eggs (mostly caught rather than farmed)
• bulk carbs: puffed-rice, rice noodles
• cooking style: hot-sand cooking (sand turns black), possibly tying into ancient connections to The Srem ; stir-frying; pot-boiling
• drinks: rice-wine and beet-derived spirits

Average technological level

Promissory Notes: Emshol Sherds are a form of debt currency that evolved from a form of contract, impressed into clay tablets along with the name-print to of each participant, which is then broken in half. the name-prints, combined with the complex broken edge of the ceramic, act as protection against fraud. eventually, open-ended debts became common as trading of sherds became more common, but they kept the angular forms of the older forms. in a few places, local lords have issued large numbers of sherds as payment, though their tendency not to respect them (or those of their ancestors), or to dictate the terms of the repayment, has made these currencies fairly unstable.
make widespread use of ceramic oil-lamps.
it is common to carry loads with the head, either in pots/baskets balanced atop the head or on a tumpline.

Common Dress code

• Bulky boots suitable for walking through mud
• Slim-fit pleated trousers with many pleats up the front and back of each leg.
• Plain shirts/jackets
• Teardrop-shaped Skullcap-like headpieces with holes, loops etc which hair is intricately woven through. The main fashion/wealth/status symbols.
• Small Tabards with long tails on front and back from each shoulder, set with metal rings in diamond patterns (a fusion of pangol scale-piercings and Reldan tabards)
• Heavy leather or fur Ponchos in wet or cold weather

Art & Architecture

both fired and unfired clay is used for construction.
houses tend to be either rounded or octagonal; concave corners are considered unhealthy, and right-angles are too close for comfort.

Coming of Age Rites

The firing:
The most important rite of passage in Emsh culture, this is where a child chooses their adult form and is baked into set clay. This takes place at some point in their second decade. In order to do this, they must first demonstrate their self-sufficiency and readiness to be an adult by completing 11 tasks in various essential skills:
Hearth skills:

• Plant management (farming a particular crop)
• Animal management (hunting, ploughing etc)
• Cooking
• Domestic crafts (weaving, pottery, tinkering, tanning, clothes making, medicine, carpentry etc)

Community skills:

• Building (fence-making, thatching, mud-brick construction etc)
• Defence (militia skills)
• Specialist crafts (shipwright, Cartwright, glassblower, smithing, instrument-making etc)
• Testimonial from another member of community

Life skills

• Knowledge/lore (history, religion, general facts)
• Art (painting, music, poetry etc)
• Nature/navigation/wilderness survival

In reality, of course, hardly anyone fails the tests, being assisted by the rest of the community, and especially their family, as required in order to complete the task. However, excessive help is seen as a mark of shame and is the subject of much village gossip.
Adult forms are down to an individual's choice; however, they are often based on a few standard forms and can vary from region to region. An individual's skill with body-shaping is also relevant to the fineness, strength and symmetry of the final form. Often, marks are made on the body to commemorate the skills of the firing. Vehicle, building, and animal shapes are uncommon – Emsh are fundamentally human and mostly prefer a human form.
Firing is a time of communal gathering and celebration, but also danger, for the heat of the fire can shatter or distort the new adult, leaving them permanently crippled or worse. As such, a great deal of superstition is involved in the process.
Staying unfired forever (as long as you keep moist) is a very unusual decision that Marks you as deviant, criminal, exiled, or (at best) someone with a serious medical issue. There's no particular reason you couldn't stay unfired for your whole life, it's just a strong taboo against it.
being Half-baked is generally a sign of social outcast-ness (a self-built or poorly-maintained kiln) - Generally weak flesh, flaky. as far as equipment, Firing just needs a big sustained fire
When the Unfired dry out, they go flaky and eventually crack and crumble.
Firing traditionally happens in the spring, though the actual date varies between communities. Between the ages of 11 and 12, the skills are starting to be developed and demonstrated, and some point in the mid to late teens they are completed and fired.

Historical figures

Queen Etneshka, who united Emshol and compiled legal code.

Ideals

Gender Ideals

Gender, trans, and non-binary Emsh have a unique position within Emsh culture. as Emsh's bodies can be shaped to their desires, they have the capability to match their experience of their gender. However, once the decision is made, it is extremely hard to change - this applies to any case of Emsh changing their preferences with respect to gender, but also other forms of change. In this way they are disadvantaged versus other ethnic groups, because they can't even change their weight via exercise or diet.

• Nonbinary people can have a body that matches their gender identity.

• Gender-fluid or gender-neutral individuals have a "norm" around appearances – a neutral form that can be altered with makeup, prosthetics, and clothing. This doesn't work for all, but is quite common.

• For those who are unhappy with their chosen body for whatever reason – they are pitied to a degree, and still treated as full members of the community. Some snarky people may think they were foolish for not figuring themselves out more quickly. There is (fairly risky, very painful) surgery that can be done by Slipwrights to alter the body's forms.

Relationship Ideals

2 main (and contrary/complimentary) impulses in Emsh culture: self-sufficiency and community.

Parent ethnicities

• Reldan

Related Locations

• Emshol