Kansoro

The Kansoro (sing. kansen) are the longest living and least diverse of each major classes inhabiting the kingdoms.

Physiology
Characterized by soft bodies, and greater longevity, kansoro follow the basic body plan of soft, piercable skin, sporadic body hair, and a recognizable face. Kansoro live anywhere from 300 to 500 years and are more resistant to disease than other peoples.

Physical Diversity
There is not a substantial amount of diversity in terms of physical appearance among Kansoro. There is a change from kingdom to kingdom, but generally look normative in a single kingdom.

Life Cycle
A father and mother generally raise a singular (rarely two, even rarer a multiple) child without help from any other blood relatives. Children transition through adolescents between 30 and 45 and are generally considered adults at 50. Parents can raise up to 3-5 kids in their life time though generally quite spaced out from each other. The Empress is unusual in this regards.

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Individuals come in binary sexual morphs (male and female; he and she), gender and identity is more whatever by actual sexual binaries are quite set and recognised by the jaya in this way.

Family
Family is identified as the direct parents (dam and sire) with their children. This is often referred to as 'first family' in other cultures. Family does not include any siblings of the parents, or their children, or the parents of parents. Language also does not include any of these relations and are sometimes are referred to in long form (ex. Mother's daughter). For this reason, inbreeding has and continues to occur outside of first family as there are no social taboos against it. Given the focus on individual, family is often pushed aside in favour of social connections.

Status
The Kansoro are responsible for the protection and well-being of the jaya, especially via the magic they practice and healing arts.

Naming
Universally speaking, female first names end with some form of vowel sound. Male first names end in bilabial consonants. These are generally traditional names of which everyone has, but not be the names in use universally. Due to the amount of wars fought by and between the Kansoro, orphans (whether of the war or not) are given the name Sandborn (if from the desert), Stoneborn (if from the midlands), or Waterborn (if from the coast). This is usually taken as a formal (last) name, but is often the only name.

Language
Four languages are spoken throughout the world, kansoro can pick up language of their own or jaya but have a tricky time doing so therefore it takes a while to pick it up. The languages are High Jaelor  - only spoken by the royal family (no Lower exists), Caprine, Paverse, and Mabacca.

Money
Units of money are rings that are kept on a chain or rope and can be used for heavy beatings or combat,t he source of several idioms. Units decrease in weight as they increase to give you an incentive to not carry a lot of small denomination. As whips are a common weapon, they are weighted at the end with different bits of money are tied at the end. Thin, very expensive denominations of currency are most expensive and consider a rare honour to be beaten with even though it is very bloody.

Messages
Messages are typically delivered by single occupant balloon, and rarely over land by use of rideable amphidera

Combat and War
Warriors are under a specific system of ranking. People elect to go into that, generally after schooling, but under times of duress, some conscription can occur. They are not so kind in their war, using all manner of gunpowder and fire and magic, though it is still seen as low to hurt children, amphideras, and any other class, it is cared less about.

Food and Diet
Kansoro eat a variety of plant and earth products, as well as sea creatures - fish as well as mammals with few exceptions. This avoids the vegetarian animal conundrum. Food includes buttered flies, skewered dragonflies.

Food among kansoro is much more continental than it used to be - with food from the south and north interchanging between cities. Fish dishes while prepared in similar ways are of course made with the fish local to the area - Rockscaler on the north shores down through little Rednoses towards the border and deep water Holbracks. There are several traditional versions of fish - smoked through the long grass common to the plains, sunbaked on the clay and stuffed with berries, laced and found on the fire in the north or chopped and stewed in all manner of herbs.

Easiest way to go about the insect eating is to do so with sugar - setting down honey to tray things in and using that in mixes, either in salads, or garnish, or as part of grain mixes (think risotto, or rice mixes).

Beliefs
There is no one singular religion but systems of belief passed on by nomads, sometimes called truth speakers or dream walkers, and occasionally the wisdom of oracles. Rulers usually pick the most popular figure to follow but beliefs don't play a major part of their politics. All prophets speak in the degrees of Animism, that spiritual energy is everywhere and often some people are attuned to it. Magic and spiritual energy are independent forces. There are no locations or places of worship or temples, but reading, singing, and chanting specific to each nomad are often performed in groups. The residence of certain nomads are revered but not worshipped. At the time of the Cycle, one of the major nomads is called the Resurrected claiming to be the prophet Cannin. Other nomads of the time include Anna, Mari, and Odmon.

Kansoro are more likely to believe 'that is how things are' and throw off the notion of anyone being above them - they often don't even care for the Empress and see the beliefs of the jaya as strange and more authoritarian than they are used to. Some would say they believe in the Truth laid down by the jaya peoples who recognise it is not meant for them.

Oracles
There are oracles separate from the nomads, in terms of no one follows oracles but they are consulted. They begin as children touched at birth with white hair, fragile, and don't tend to live very long. Even twenty years is considered old. They are never first born. From the moment their white hair appears - about the time they learn speech - they are wholly the charge of their older sibling and dependent on them. There is much ritual around them including prayer, diet, steps they can take, words spoken over them, who can look at them and when. They speak wisdom the older they get, and the better and more potent and direct and truthful their words become. However one wrong step or word and they perish, they expire. Because they utterly vanish, they are fiercely guarded and hidden, their location the deepest of secrets. Pilgrims are tested and food is tested.

No one knows the habits of the Oracle but their guardian - which is mostly ritualised OCD and paranoia but has been woven into a pseudo-delicacy that the younger child is so relient on, they die without out, but it is well built into the routine of the thing. The child, probably hyper-ASD speaks such eloquent truth, it is taken for being in touch with life and the world itself, and oracle of the people.

Magic
Magic of the Kansoro

Medicine
The two main forms of medicine are skull tellers who recommend natural remedies but also provide counseling and a more well rounded emotional and psychological healing. They are strictly for the use of the kansoro only. People also proficient in healing magic exist but do not have a name yet. They attend to all classes of people. Seeing a doctor - dominantly jaya - is very taboo.

Education
Education is in the form of paid institutions, or done in the form of homeschooling or informal other-house schooling. Education often includes field friends.

Literature
Fully literate society, but most of the knowledge and history is locked up. Music and song conveys spirituality, and other literature is used to tell stories, not to get history which it's own class of information. Everyone can read but it is considered great honour to read history.

Entertainment
Sports (recreating croquet/tennis/rugby/badminton), music, drugs and drug parties, lantern and picture shows, Balls/Dances, Sporting Events (Olympics/airship races/shooting tournaments), races (airship style), extreme type events (bungie jumping off airships), puppeting

Architecture
Taller buildings, constantly improved, usually from stone and some wood, but mostly stone. Windows are common, closed if in cold climates, and open if not. Many will have magical functions held together by several people as to not fall down at the death of one. Largest buildings tend to be clock towers, palace, and the academies: these are the highlights of cities, typically. You would not find a religious, business, or family centre. You also wouldn't see a skull teller, justice centre, a fortress, or a coliseum. Water clocks, although now obsolete, are now landmarks and monuments in major cities.

Fashion
Usually in the style of steampunk, if the possibility of being attractive without showing off skin, it is done. A lot of the look is leather, linen, and woven in brass/bronze, especially prevalent in the working class. Upper class can wear brighter colours as opposed to the warm neutrals. You'll see fancier dresses and suit type clothes. Corsets are common, as are gauntlets, belts, and boots.

Jewellery
Due to the large focus on time and how it passes, amber and fossils make up a large component of jeweller, capturing something considered precious and valuable,

Origin
The very ancient peoples of the world are thought to have originated in the woodlands of the First Kingdom (hence their name) and form them, the humanoids arose and gradually