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Language
Name
The Megi. Megi megi u tila in their language means “the people of home,” which is what they began calling themselves when they discovered there was a world beyond Sumil Kai. Megi actually just means person, but it is short for people of home, since they would also call other races people from elsewhere.
Epithets
Some call them the Megi. Others call them The Forest People.
Spoken Language
The Megi speak a language called Megi. Megi is a fairly simple language, with an abundance of vowels and a relative paucity of consonants. It is spoken fairly quickly in casual conversation, but they may speak more slowly for religious occasions, for emphasis, and when speaking to non-Megi. Megi sounds fluid and melodic. Plurals are formed by repeating the word (megi megi would be more than one megi).
Written Language
The Megi have a written language. The Megi are scholars, and accomplished in science and mathematics.
Scientific, medical, and other mundane matters are conveyed in the more modern phonetic language. Religious and astronomical matters are usually portrayed using the older pictographic language, although occasionally both are used.
Foreign Languages
The Megi do speak other languages. The Megi are interested in knowledge, and often learn other languages just for the fun of it. Games involving words sung (badly) using different languages are common for children and young adults. Foreigners are not discouraged from speaking their languages.
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Appearance
Physical Appearance
There is a marked difference between the sexes. Females stand between 6’ and 6”4” tall. Males are taller, ranging from 6’10” to 7’4” tall. Their build is similar to humans, except that they are slender for their height and have extremely long arms. The Megi have an ape-like face, with a round head, round, intelligent eyes, and a flattened nose that is almost not a protuberance. They have a rather prominent brow ridge, and ears that stick out relatively far from their skulls.
Their bodies are covered with thick hair, with the exception of the faces, ears, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. The color of the hair appears in a range of buff, gold, dark umber, silver, and dark gray. Females tend to have lighter and blonder coats than males, generally being in the range of buff to gold. Males tend to have darker and grayer coats, being in the range of silver to dark gray. The skin is a pale tan to dark yellowish or grayish brown.
Megi are born with only light peach fuzz and as life proceeds, they grow more and more hair. Coats with full coverage start to develop around puberty (age 9-10 for females, 11-12 for males). Compliments are often derived from the texture and thickness of ones hair. A thick coat is generally considered to be a sign of wisdom and maturity. Males often grow long mustaches and beards. The mustache of a mature male Megi is often so long it can be thrown back over his shoulder, and they often have full beards reaching down to their chests.
The Megi walk upright like people, and do not lumber like apes.
The Megi can travel easily through the trees, using their long arms and feet with opposable thumbs for grasping branches and vines. The Megi have the highest natural inclination for climbing. They can use their hands and feet to climb, and have adapted special leather glove-type shoes to protect their feet and allow climbing. Normal shoes may not fit, and even if they did, they would hinder climbing.
Males have a pouch of skin at their throat, which can be used to produce a high whistling call.
Environmental Adaptation
The Megi hair is for protection, and allows them to stay in treetops through the rains, and travel in the cooler montane climates of Sumil Kai when necessary. The coloration of the hair allows them to blend in with the tree trunks, and a Megi grasping the trunk of a tree, staying very still, can be very easy to miss.
Their height allows them to see great distances, and to pick fruit and nuts from high on trees.
Their long, strong arms and opposable toes are adaptations to make it easier to climb trees, and are a relic of their former arboreal lifestyle. Any Megi can move nearly as easily hand over hand, swinging along branches, as they can on foot. They also use their feet nearly as much as their hands, so someone might hold one end of a loom with their toes, for instance, or hold something steady with a well-placed foot.
The whistle pouch probably developed as a way for lookouts to warn family members of approaching predators and Sumil. It is now used for medium to long-range communication, and occasionally during moments of intense emotion.
Lifespan
Megi live to approximately 60 years of age.
Home Environment
The Megi live in the jungles and forests on the highlands and mountains of Sumil Kai. The Megi formerly lived in sprawling cities on the coast, but these have been abandoned due to Sumil raids in favor of more heavily fortified, defensible settlements in the mountainous inlands.
Views on Nature
When away from their homes, they usually build nests high in the trees to sleep in. It is said that once, long ago, the Megi lived a completely arboreal lifestyle, and they are still at home in the trees. The Megi often prefer travelling, or resting in the trees, to resting at ground level.
Megi scholars are deeply interested in the natural world, and spend much time studying the sky, the forest, and the sea, and all the natural phenomena of Sumil Kai. Their scientist-priests may be generalists, or concentrate in medicine, astronomy, geology, zoology, or other natural sciences.
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Home Life
Dwellings
Houses tend to be tall and narrow, and may be built with one room atop another. Spiral structures are often common. For a large circular building, the shape of the rooms and their placements mimics a spiral staircase with rather tall and wide steps, so several wedge-shaped rooms are placed at graduated intervals around a central column.
Smaller ladders or steps lead between the rooms in this case. In general, ladders are favored more than stairways, as the Megi practice of going barefoot and their opposable-thumb toes makes it an easy matter to negotiate a ladder, even carrying a burden. Spiral staircases themselves are favored more than straight staircases.
A very open design, with many sliding or shuttered windows, sliding doors and screens, and even louvered walls, is used to provide ventilation for the hotter months.
Houses are built mainly of wood, though stone may be used for support. It is not uncommon to raise a house off the ground, creating a space underneath as a kind of covered courtyard. This is rarely used for storage, but instead provides a cool, ventilated place for the family to sit and enjoy the breezes without the need to sit in the sun or take up space that might otherwise be built upon. Work may often be brought home from the temple or craft houses to be practiced in this area during the hot afternoons.
Graceful, spiraling supports of wood and stone are often used for these raised structures.
The shape of a megi house is usually circular or triangular. They rise from a minimum of three stories to a height of eight or ten stories. Roofs are usually curved, steeply slanted, and pointed in the front, as in the prow of a boat.
Picture of a megi house
Family Homes
Dwellings housing one to several Megi are usually arranged in family groupings around central courtyards, called tamanga. The houses are single-family, but more than one family may live in the same tamanga. Food is usually shared between all the houses in a yard, as adolescents, young adults, and the elderly, who may live alone, usually eat food with their family living in the tamanga.
Family Organization
Megi usually mate for life. A couple lives with their young children. Adolescent and single adult children, parents, and siblings of the couple often live in other houses in the same tamanga. It is not unusual for small groups of two to four like-aged young Megi to share a home. More often than not, Megi couples have two children, though one or three children are not rare. Having more than three children is extremely uncommon. This is partially because Megi are not terribly fertile, and partially because while having two or three children is socially acceptable; having more is considered a bit selfish. After three children, most couples do not conceive again.
Attitude Towards Children
Children are cherished, treated very tolerantly and almost never punished. They live in the same house as their parents until they pass puberty, at which point they usually move into a smaller house in the same tamanga. Adolescents and young adults have almost total freedom from rules, except that they are expected to study and work and contribute to the livelihood of the family and the city.
Attitude Towards the Elderly
The elderly are revered for their wisdom. They usually stay in a separate house, but sharing a tamanga with one of their grown children or relatives.
Kinship Ties
The extended family is important, inasmuch as they often live in the same tamanga and gather together for festive occasions. Care is taken for young Megi to choose mates not too closely tied to their own family, and it is quite common for them to marry someone from another city. Beyond the importance of tracing genealogy for mating, and living within the tamanga grouping, Megi do not particularly pay attention to kinship. Each individual in the society is valued, and a family often adopts widowed, childless elders or orphaned young persons to live in their tamanga and take part in the shared cooking and other chores.
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Nourishment
Food
The Megi are mostly vegetarians, eating fruit, parts of trees, raw roots, and bird eggs. This is sometimes supplemented, in times when food is scarce, by insects, small mammals, and reptile eggs.
Food Production
The Megi have farms where they cultivate orchards of fruit and nut trees and grow vegetable patches. Other foods are gathered from the surrounding forests. They keep buffalo and goats for their milk and hair, bees for their honey and wax, and kera beetles for their silk.
Special Dishes
A traditional weekly feast is made and shared with the extended family, called Kalawati, because it is made to resemble the mountain. Mount Kalawatai is the tallest volcano on Sumil Kai, and is located on the southern side of the central body of the island, some distance west and just barely south of the Repa Sea. For further clarification, refer to the map of Sumil Kai, Kalawati is arranged in layers with various vegetables, fruits, eggs, and roots, some raw and some cooked. A hollow in the top of the pile, the crater, holds a sweet and spicy red dressing, made of sesame and peanut oil, chilies and other seasonings, coconut milk, and fruit juice.
Unpalatable Dishes
The Megi do not ordinarily eat meat, and rarely hunt game for food or sport. They do occasionally kill carnivores like tigers and dangerous animals like rhinoceroses for safety’s sake, but do not consume the meat.
Tool Use in Eating
They use plates and bowls to hold single servings of food. Food may be eaten with the hands, with long, slender wooden spoons, metal forks which are shortened versions of their fork-like tine weapons, and cut with the daggers that all adult Megi carry with them, depending on the type of food. Food can be served on wooden or pottery platters, and often is arranged on leaves or within hollowed out fruits and vegetables.
Family Dinners
They usually eat along with the other individuals in the tamanga. When an individual is occupied, or plans to be occupied, at mealtime, he eats alone if necessary.
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Personal Adornment
Clothing
The Megi are known for their bold, contrasting colors, and batik, ikat, weaving, and embroidery.
The fabrics, materials, and dyes they use are mostly vegetable in origin. However, they do use some buffalo and goat hair, bird feathers and seashells.
Most of their clothing is made out of cotton, hemp, and ramie. They do not harvest silk from silkworms because they will not kill the worms. However, they do buy silk thread or silk cloth and use it. They also harvest silk spun by Sumil Kai’s native kera beetles. Kerasilk makes an extraordinarily soft, light, and strong cloth. The sting of a kera beetle is extremely poisonous, and kera beetles eat mostly insects native to Sumil Kai, although their diets can be supplemented with red meat. Because of the difficulty of feeding them, it is nearly impossible to keep kera beetles outside Sumil Kai, so this is a Megi specialty.
Megi do wear solid colored clothing, usually of any bright color or black. White has ceremonial uses and is usually not worn every day. Green is also ceremonial, but is often used as a contrast or trim color. Some city-states prefer particular color combinations. The Megi town of Balang Kang is known for combining blue, black, and purple. Ulara Kang is known for combining green, yellow, and red. New Kalara is known for combining white, gray, green, and blue.
Several dye-resist techniques are used to produce colorful patterns. In batik, the fabric is first painted with a pattern in wax, then dyed, then boiled to remove the wax. The area painted with wax does not retain the color. This process is repeated several times to make patterns of different colors. Tritik is a dye-resist pattern produced by tightly stitching the material together before dying it. Plangi is a dye-resist pattern produced by knotting the material before dying it.
In ikat, individual threads are bound with banana stems, then dyed, and sometimes bound and dyed up to two more times before they are woven into fabric. Many complex and beautiful patterns are produced. In warp ikat, the warp threads are dyed, in weft ikat, the weft threads are dyed, and in double ikat both the warp and weft threads are dyed. Double ikat is a very complicated method and difficult to learn, and double ikat is the most expensive kind of ikat.
Other decorative weaving methods, such as supplementary-thread pattern weaving and tapestry weaving, provide additional ways of producing detail and relief in the fabric. The Megi also love to embroider their clothes. As well as standard embroidery, using cotton, or silk thread to produce a decorative design, small and large seeds are often incorporated into the embroidery.
The Megi have several basic pieces of clothing.
The sarong, which is a long piece of rectangular cloth, is traditionally worn as a skirt for both men and women. Men often wear two sarongs: an older, faded one underneath as a slip, and a nicer one on top. The nicer one can be removed if necessary. Women often sew their sarong into a tube, which makes it easier to wear without pleating. Otherwise, the fabric is pleated together at the front and either fastened by itself or worn with a sash. The sarong can also be folded up into the waistband to form a kind of loincloth if necessary for modesty’s sake.
Both men and women usually wear a blouse or tunic, although men also wear unfastened vests, and both may wear a vest over a blouse. Blouses, tunics, and vests are often elaborately embroidered. Sometimes seeds, seashells, and other materials are attached to blouses and tunics as decoration. Fastenings are usually of seashells, seeds, or tied thread frog closures.
In colder weather, and for ceremonies, a jacket is often added to the outfit. The selendang is a scarf or shawl, which is draped over the shoulder. A headscarf or headdress is sometimes added.
Megi prefer going barefoot to wearing shoes. When worn, shoes are either simple thong sandals made of rattan, other vegetable material, or metal, or their special leather glove boots, which do not hinder climbing.
Symbolic Clothing
Families make their own clothing, and clothing with elaborate embroidery worn for festivals is a sign of the maker’s ability.
Members of the scientist-priest caste, the Sparks, wear special garments at the temple, and particular metal charms. While Sparks can normally dress however they like, for ceremonies they wear one-piece, long-sleeved, ankle-length, solid-colored robes, with colors reflecting their concentration (i.e., blue robes for the Blue Sparks), and cloths tied around their heads. Embroidery and other ornamentation is kept to a minimum, although the spiral amulet or charm worn at the breast of a Spark is made of metal, while members of the warrior class, the Spears, and members of the artisan-farmer caste, the Spinners, wear charms of wood or other materials.
Clothing Reflecting Status
Given the natural source of the materials used and fairly cooperative nature of Megi society, anyone can make themselves a nice outfit given the right skill and amount of time. It is a source of social status, but not indicative of economic status.
Social Status
The Megi do not really have wealthy and important families. While they are fond of beautiful things, one’s behavior and work is more important for status than lineage or possessions. Each Megi becomes a member of one of the three castes (Spears, Spinners, and Sparks) at adolescence and usually continues in this caste for the rest of his adult life. Each caste is separate, but none are considered superior to the others. While the castes generally do not have a formal organization, those who excel at what they do (for example, the Spark particularly knowledgeable in astronomy, the Spinner who produces beautiful stone carvings, and the Spear who regularly outperforms the others in his group at gymnastics competitions) are highly respected in society, sought after as mates, cultivated as friends, and pointed out to children as good examples. Well-respected members of each caste usually serve one or two terms as Speaker.
Social Stratification
There are three Megi Castes: the Spears; the Spinners; and the Sparks.
The Spears are the warriors and guards. They hunt for the defense of the tribe, fish by spear, patrol the cities, and accompany travelers for protection. They fight with wavy kris knives, machetes, wooden sticks of various lengths, long bows, and trisulas (long metal fork-like spikes), as well as various other devices, and also train to fight with bare fists and feet. In any situation where the city is threatened, Megi Spears swarm out of the gates, weapons in hand, and stand on the walls shooting bows for defense.
The Spears play several sports or games to keep themselves fit and agile. The most popular sport is sepak takraw, in which a small rattan ball is hit with heads, shoulders, knees and feet (but no hands) back and forth across a net. They also fight with spears and have battles between large elaborate kites, which take several people each to control. They practice martial arts and a rigorous form of gymnastics, building elaborate structures out of wood and rope to swing, climb, and balance on. A special ball game, banti, can be played on these gymnastic structures and in trees. The players swing by their arms and hold and toss the balls with their feet, and occasionally flip up to hang from their feet and throw the ball with their hands. This is a very fast-paced and acrobatic sport.
They occasionally help with manual labor as needed.
The Spinners are the farmers, artisans, and merchants, concentrating on farming, domestic arts, and trade. They raise vegetables and fruit trees, tend to buffalo, goats, pigs, bees, kera beetles, and birds. A large portion devotes time to textile production, including spinning, weaving, sewing, dying, and embroidery. Other important arts and crafts included basketry, woodworking, pottery, and stone carving, as well as painting and drawing.
Spinners also run commercial establishments like stores, bars, and restaurants, or specialize in food preparation or make wine and other alcoholic drinks. Traders also come from this caste. It is not uncommon for a Spinner to travel the islands, bringing Megi textiles and other export goods away, and returning laden with metals, glass, and specialties from other islands. The Spinner does the actual trading, while he or she is usually accompanied by one or more Spears to provide defense if necessary. A Spark who needs to travel to study on another island often joins up with a group of Spinners and Spears.
The Sparks devote their time to wisdom, knowledge, and higher learning. A combination of scientist and priest, this group studies the spirits and the natural world. They study all kinds of natural sciences, including chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, geology, and oceanography, as well as mathematics and architecture. As a group, they are concerned with the skies, the seas, the forests, and the health of the Megi and the other creatures on Sumil Kai.
The Blue (or Sky) Sparks, centered in Balang Kang, are extremely concerned with astronomy and mathematics. The Green (or Forest) Sparks, centered in Ulara Kang, are largely concerned with biology, zoology, and botany. The Gray (or Ocean) Sparks, centered in New Kalara, study the weather and the ocean. The Yellow Sparks are distributed in all three cities, and study herbs and medicine. The Purple Sparks are the performers of the Megi, similarly distributed, and study dance, music, and puppetry.
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Men and Women
Primary Caregiver
Both men and women share the responsibility of caring for children. Before weaning, a child spends a good deal of time with its mother, but after six months it is weaned and spends time with either parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts or uncles, as is most convenient.
Up until the age of three, a child is somewhat free, although she is usually required to perform small tasks for workers who are watching her. After this, children begin to be educated.
Gender Relations
The relationship between men and women is fairly equivalent. Men tend to be more interested in religious affairs and science, and are more numerous among the Sparks, but women tend to wield more domestic and political power, and are more numerous among the Spinners. Spears are divided more or less equally between men and women. Speakers tend to be women more than men.
Roles of Men
Men fulfill any role open to a member of their caste. Male Sparks tend to be more interested in research in their area than teaching. Male Purple Sparks are more likely to be musicians or puppeteers than dancers. Male Spinners often work at the early stage of textile production and tend to animals. Spears show no real differentiation in gender roles.Role of Family Patriarch
Roles of Women
Women fulfill any role open to a member of their caste. Women Sparks tend to be more interested in teaching and recording than research. There are a higher proportion of females among the Yellow Sparks (healers). Female Spinners often work at the end stage of textile production and grow crops. Spears show no real differentiation in gender roles.Role of Family Matriarch
Marriage
Megi are monogamous. It is usual for a couple, once married, to stay together for life. However, it is also expected that they undergo a trial period of living together before marriage.
Adolescents, from the age of puberty (age 9-10 for females, 11-12 for males), move out of their parents’ houses and into separate houses, often in the same tamanga, usually along with at least one other sibling, cousins, or friends. At this age a youth never lives with another of the opposite sex until they are pledged. Pledging consists of several exchanges of gifts, a discussion among the couple, their friends and relatives, and a feast at which the pledge words are recited before seven witnesses. After the various steps are finished, the couple moves into the same house (apart from other friends or relatives) for one year. At the conclusion of six months, if the pledge is not broken, the couple is married.
Breaking a pledge consists of three symbolic acts of severance (destruction of a pledge gift or personal property, four meals and two nights spent at the house of a member of the opposite sex, and defeat of the other partner at a game or competition), and the speaking of the words of severance before seven witnesses. Once a pledge is broken, each partner moves into a different house along with his or her possessions.
Divorce is much less common than breaking a pledge, but the process is similar. In addition, divorcing couples usually need to discuss the matter with the Speakers.
Marriage Ceremonies
Marriage is a three-day ritual. Great care is usually chosen to pick the most auspicious day and time of the month.
Preparation
The first day, which is most often a Friday, is spent in preparing for the ceremony. The young couple spends the day apart, with theirs and each other’s friends and relatives, and only meet in the evening.
In the morning, the girl is fed a symbolic breakfast of milk, honey, and bananas. Afterwards, she is bathed in fragrant oils, and her fur is carefully groomed. Older females and married women, the bride’s friends and relatives, attend the bathing and grooming, instructing the girl in how to please her husband, and how to be a good wife.
In the afternoon, a large lunch is served. Female relatives of the groom, and younger friends and relatives of the bride, arrive to join the party. The groom’s mother and aunts place a basket containing fruit and other trinkets on the bride’s lap, to symbolize their accepting her into their family. The bride’s best friend or sister presents her with a gold ring, which is used as the wedding ring. The groom’s sisters and younger cousins anoint her with perfume and adorn her with garlands of flowers, to reflect their affection for her.
The bride’s face, hands, and feet are painted with designs using mehndi, a paste made of henna, oil, lemon juice and tea. The application takes about four hours, and the design may last for several weeks. The bride should not do any work while she is wearing the henna. The other ladies at the party also paint each other’s hands with mehndi.
In the meantime, the groom is also fed a breakfast of milk, honey, and bananas. He plays sports and has mock battles with the younger male friends and relatives from both his family and the bride’s. He fights each member of the party with kris knife, trisula, spear, or barehanded. It is considered good luck for the groom to win every battle, and anyone that defeats him is said to be entitled to spend that night with the bride in his place. It would be extremely rare for anyone to actually defeat the groom at one of these battles, because most males do not want to interfere with the first night of the wedding, and if someone wanted the bride in his place, he ought to have convinced her to break her pledge.
In the afternoon, the groom repairs to the couple’s new house (they usually switch residences from the house they lived in during their pledge), where he is carefully bathed and groomed. A late lunch is served, and elder male friends and relatives, both his and the brides, attend the bathing to discuss how to be a good husband and keep his wife happy. The relatives of the bride drape him with flower garlands, and present him with a basket of fruit. His brother or best friend presents him with the wedding ring.
In the evening male friends and young male relatives of the groom depart the house, and travel to the bride’s party. They escort the bride, still decorated in henna and flowers, and all the women who wish to come, to her new house. That evening they exchange rings, and the assembled friends and relatives drink toasts to their happiness before departing to leave them, supposedly to consummate their marriage.
The Exchange of Gifts
On the morning of the following day, the bride returns to her family’s house. Many friends and relatives of the bride are waiting when she returns, and she is soundly teased about her ring ceremony, and the consummation of the marriage. More arrive shortly, and then the groom arrives, dressed as humbly and poorly as possible, with as many friends and relatives in tow as possible, bearing gifts. Traditional gifts at this time include a feast of Jarawatai, a basket full of fruit, a bowl of spiced nuts, a cask of wine, a jar of honey, a set of dishes and baskets, a weapon, and the finest textiles the family can produce. It is considered lucky to bring the finest bride gifts possible, and many such visit is augmented with gifts of goats, buffalo, cheese, eggs, kerasilk, ikat wall hangings, and carved wooden figures.
The bride’s family then pretends to be unsure that the groom deserves the bride. The older relatives of the bride and groom pretend to argue about the worth of the bride. The female’s family goes on and on about what a fine girl she is, and belittles the groom. The groom’s family begins by offering small trinkets, saying things like “clearly, she is worth no more than this jar of honey.” It is considered good luck for the groom’s relatives to insult the bride as much as possible. At some point the bride pretends to be upset and goes off to change into old clothes. The bride’s family pretends to be extremely offended in the beginning, but becomes more mollified with each gift, as they increase in value. It is considered impolite to argue about the match for less than an hour, but during a good wedding the gifts for the bride’s family might be presented for several hours.
At some point, the relatives usually begin to laugh and joke, and the bride’s family pretends that they have received enough gifts (this is usually when the number of gifts that the groom’s retinue has is obviously quite low). At this point the gifts of food are consumed, and then the bride’s family remembers that they just happen to have some food set aside in the kitchen, and begin bringing it out to feed the guests. Once a good deal of alcohol has been consumed, the bride’s family begins to praise the worth of the groom, and pretends to feel guilty about the number of gifts they have received and the fuss they made earlier. Useful household items from the gifts brought by the groom’s family, like baskets and dishes, are turned over to the young couple, and then the bride’s family begins bringing out gifts that they just happen to have lying around in the next room. Traditionally, these gifts include wooden carvings, wine, and textiles.
Quite often these feasts last late at night, with gifts changing hands several times in the meantime.
When everyone is good and drunk, the male guests pick up the bride, and the female guests pick up the groom. Each party sets of separately to the new house, making ribald jokes and tearing at their old, ugly clothes. The bride and the groom usually arrive on the threshold completely naked; or the last bits are torn off as they reach the doorway. They are thrown in bed by the guests, who leave them to consummate their marriage (again).
The Temple and Final Feast
On the following day, as much of the city as possible gathers at the temple for the ceremony. There are several aspects to the ceremony.
The first takes place in the observatory/sky temple, and is officiated by the Blue Sparks. Ten of these Sparks, representing the ten gods and goddesses, with the exception of Amausia, each blesses a pot of honey and feeds it to the couple. Prayers are recited to the gods, asking them to extend their positive aspects to the union.
The second takes place in the fields in the outer part of the city, and is officiated by the Green Sparks. The bride and the groom each walks around the other eleven times, and sprinkles eleven kinds of foods and spices, representing the eleven virtues of Megi religion. A Spark says prayers and asks the gods to bless the union. Afterwards, the couple swings on a giant swing draped with flower garlands, while the guests play instruments and whistle along.
The third aspect takes place back in the temple, and is officiated by the Gray Sparks. The couple is disrobed, and bathed in ritual pools of water, while prayers are spoken. Then they are anointed with milk and oil, and dressed again in new clothes, symbolizing the beginning of their new life together.
The fourth part of the ceremony is officiated by the Yellow Sparks. The hands of the couple are bound together with a sash that has been blessed. This symbolizes them being tied by a bond that will last forever. The couple then prays to the gods and asks for a happy marriage.
This is followed by a feast, usually attended by the entire city. Members of the Purple Sparks perform a dance, puppet show, music piece, or sometimes all three. Everyone drinks to the couple’s health, and then the bride and groom return to their new home, to consummate the marriage.
Visible Signs of Marital Status
A There are often subtle differences in dress for unmarried versus married people. These vary from city to city. For every day wear the exact outfit is not as important, but for feasts and festivals, most young people trot out their finest clothing, made in the traditional outfits for their stations.
In Balang Kang, unmarried girls traditionally wear black blouses and pale blue sarongs. They are known for their love of ornaments, and often wear dozens of metal bracelets and anklets on each arm and leg, and pendants dangling down their backs. Married girls and women may wear any combination of colors, but usually black or blue is combined with purple. In Ulang Kang, unmarried girls usually wear green-and-yellow striped vests with seed embroidery around the bottom hem. Married women switch this for a red vest. In New Kalara, unmarried girls typically wear dark blue blouses, bright green sarongs, and strings of pink pearls. Married women wear white or gray, or a combination of the two, often with blue and green accents.
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Education
Education
From the ages of three to ten children rotate between studying reading, writing, science and mathematics with the Sparks in the temple in the mornings, visiting various Spinners as they work in the fields and craft houses and studying their trades in the afternoons, and playing games and patrolling with the Spears at night and on weekends.
The years between ten and thirteen are spent in apprenticeships with each group (each child spends a year with each, in whichever order is agreeable to the child and the group he is studying with. Obviously third-year apprentices are taken before first-year).
An adolescent of thirteen years is more or less grown and chooses her caste. She becomes a chela, the Megi term for a discipline or novice at this advanced stage of training, for two years, entering the caste as a full member at fifteen.
There is no gender differentiation for education.
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The Arts
Art
The Megi love to decorate their homes and clothing. Art is also produced for ritual purposes within the temple. Giant stone statues of the gods usually stand around the city.
Artisans
Artisans are Spinners, and are valued if they are good at what they do. The Megi believe that everyone has a place within their society, and artisans are valued no more or less than other Spinners, or than Spears or Sparks.
Music
The Megi enjoy music, but are not very good at singing. They play instruments, and the males whistle along. Music, and especially dancing, often has a religious aspect.
Crafts
The Megi are mostly famed for their textiles. They are also good at producing woven baskets of materials such as bamboo, rattan, and wicker, often with colorful designs produced by dying the cane before weaving, or decorated with seashells and seeds. They also produce thrown pottery, decorated with fanciful relief design and/or painted with glaze (often celadon). Woodcarvers produce small household decorations and furniture, as well as decorative pieces to be incorporated in buildings. These carvings often depict animals, plants, the Megi, or religious symbols. Stone carvers produce the giant stone figures that decorate the outside of every Megi city. The Megi are also gifted in architecture, building fanciful spiraling structures.
Commodities
While the Megi enjoy pretty things, their love of learning is the most important thing in their society. Everyone studies with the Sparks, and it is considered important for everyone to understand how the world works.
The production of textiles is also extremely important, and Megi usually take great pride in their clothing.
The Megi do treasure certain commodities though – gems, metal goods, special mushrooms, snow cress, wool and yak hair material and rugs from Adu, glass and zinq from Qaroo, and cacao and pottery from K’tumal.
Wealth
The Megi are not particularly interested in wealth as a culture. Some individuals may pursue wealth if they wish, but it is not something that is prized in their society.
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Social Issues
Physical Impediments
Physical impediments are not desirable, but not a cause for regret. The Megi believes that each individual has a path or function within society, and each belongs within a caste and can perform some useful task or another. If any individual is not useful, it is the fault of the city, not the individual, and every effort is made to integrate them into society. The young, the old, the lame, and the feeble are all cared for, and all have their uses.
Mental Disease
The Megi feel that mental illness is a disease to be cured, or the symptoms alleviated, like any other.
Slavery
The Megi do not believe in harming or making other animals or people serve them. Their attitude towards their domesticated animals is that the Megi care for the animals, and they would be lost without them. They love their animals and consider them part of the family. Dangerous animals are killed, if necessary to protect the city.
Murder
Murder is forbidden. Most Megi would never be able to commit a murder.
Infanticide
Megi feel that infanticide is murder.
War
War is waged by the Spears, and is considered a necessary and important task if the defense of the city or individual lives are threatened. The various Megi city-states are at peace with each other, and seldom disagree. Any disagreements are resolved through negotiation, rather than force. The Megi are constantly at war with the Sumil, and this is considered a necessary evil of their existence with their little distant cousins. The Megi seldom fight with other races, but they will if it is necessary to defend their cities. They are not aggressive or expansionist in nature, though.
Taboos
Bringing harm to other animals. Laziness is frowned upon, but not punished, particularly in the middle of the day.
Punishment
Anyone behaving against the will of the community is brought before the Speakers. Punishment and rehabilitation is agreed upon by all three Speakers and decided on a case-by-case basis. The worst punishment is exile from Megi society.r
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Politics
Political Organization
The basic political unit is the city-state. There are three great Megi cities.
The city of Balang Kang is the center of the Blue (or Sky) Sparks. The Spinners here are also specialized, keeping bees and goats, and producing beautiful embroidery and batik.
The city of Ulara Kang is the center of the Green (or Forest) Sparks. This city is famed for the giant kera beetles they keep, who produce a silk-like filament, which can be woven into soft, strong fabric (kerasilk). This is also the center of buffalo domestication, as well as seed embroidery and ikat.
The city of New Kalara is the center of the Gray (or Ocean) Sparks. Megi in this city tend to eat more fish than other Megi, practicing aquaculture, diving for pearls and other treasures from the sea. The Spinners of Kalara are famed for their plangi, tritik, and tapestry weaves.
Political Figures
Each city-state is run by a group of three Speakers. There is a Speaker of the Sparks, a Speaker of the Spinners, and a Speaker of the Spears. Each caste usually chooses its leader by consensus of the full members, but in difficult cases a vote may be called.
Speakers serve for a term of three years. The terms of the Speakers are staggered, so that each year an election is held and a new Speaker is chosen, while two incumbents continue to serve. A Speaker may not serve consecutive terms of office. Women tend to be Speakers more often than men.
The Speakers as a group decide most matters of government. Each Speaker is thought to speak for the will of her caste, but to also consider matters fairly and with wisdom. The Speakers operate mostly on consensus, although if they cannot come to a satisfactory agreement about a matter a solution will be found that two out of the three Speakers can agree on.
Religion in Politics
The Sparks have a Speaker, but otherwise religion does not affect politics.
Wealth in Politics
Wealth is not really important for politics. Speakers are chosen for their skill at what they do, their wisdom, and partially their popularity.
Kinship in Politics
It is said that a good mother has good daughters. Often the love, wisdom, and honor of elder members of the family can be passed down to the children. No person serves only because of political power, though; Speakers must each be popular and liked in their own right.
Caste
The Megi do have a caste system, but not in the way people usually think. The castes are Spinners, Spears, and Sparks. Each child chooses his caste after apprenticeship with all three groups, and no one is required to follow the path of their parents.
Attitude Towards Other Races
The Megi are curious of and friendly towards strangers. In safe places they tend to be gregarious and accepting of others who are peaceful.
Megi touch each other frequently, and groom each other as a means of relaxing and keeping clean. Grooming involves picking through the hair of other individuals and removing any impurities and insects. Megi may groom people of other races if they like them, and especially enjoy running their fingers through the silky hair of other races, particularly those with long hair. They may, however, be shy about strangers touching them.
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Cities and Towns
Cities
The Megi build their cities on cleared areas of highland plateaus.
The city is constructed in the shape of a circle. A stone wall surrounds the outermost perimeter of the city. The wall is usually three to eight feet thick at the base and fifteen to thirty feet high. The wall is surmounted by a walk, from which Spears may patrol and look out. The top of the wall usually has a fanciful design of curving stone. There are ordinarily two exits in the outer wall, one at due north, and one at due south. A moat at least six feet wide surrounds this wall, and bridges are of wood, and never permanent. The bridges may be removed and stored inside the wall if necessary.
Inside this outer wall is a large area of cleared and cultivated lands. This is the city's agrarian and crafts district. Here may be planted fields of cotton, grain, vegetable crops, and orchards, along with pens for goats and buffalo, aviaries, and beehives. Small boat- and dome-shaped buildings of wood and earth are interspersed throughout; these are places dedicated to food and textile production, pottery, and other domestic and craft activities. Each city should also has several playing fields and jungle gyms and swings in this area.
In order to increase available space, there may be structures raised up off the ground, above animal pens, sports fields, or other buildings that do not require too much light. Inside these would be places to keep bees, aviaries, etc.
Another wall is found some distance inside the outer wall. This median wall is some ten to twenty feet taller than the exterior wall. This median wall is also surmounted by a walk, from which guards may patrol, though patrols are not ordinarily mounted on this wall.
Inside this wall is found the city's residential and commercial districts. Megi buildings in this area are usually fairly tall -- three to eight stories. While trees are common, and buildings may be built around and between them, open space for gardens is not. The more open space within a city, the more space needs to be walled in, and the greater labor required to do so.
Houses in this district are mainly of wood, though stone may be used for commercial establishments.
Narrow walkways often connect commercial establishments several stories up, and there are usually several wooden "roads" which run through the city more at treetop level than at ground level. Ramps connect these to the surrounding buildings. These are usually steeply curving, and may be daunting to non-Megi.
The shape of a Megi building is usually circular or triangular. Roofs are often curved, steeply slanted, and pointed in the front, as in the prow of a boat.
A large building/complex takes up the center of the city. This is the center of city life, the temple, which encompasses science labs, hospital, meeting rooms, government halls, temple, and astronomical observatory. Generally, the rooms within this building are of sufficient size to house the entire population. This building is always made of stone.
Public Works
The moat, walls and temple of a city are its most important part, for they provide safety from predators, including the Sumil. All castes take part in the building and maintenance of these structures, as well as building and maintaining the elevated roadways. Every city has several stone statues of the gods, produced by Megi Spinners.
It is felt to be the duty of every Megi to volunteer and contribute to the good of the city.
The works are truly public. Any Megi is allowed to enter the temple and use its rooms. Children train with the Spears on the wall, and climb on the stone statues. The walls and moat are there to protect everyone.
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