The subcontinent of Midija is a land of varied climates, peoples, and even species, though it was not always such. In fact, Midija is not its native name and humans aren’t even the native species. The natives of this land were, of course, the Shem, who’s name meant “kin” or “family” in their ancestral tongue. Their kind inhabited the jungles across south-central and south-eastern Maurtia, though their point of origin was the centrally located subcontinent of Midija. According to their histories these diminutive marsupials collectively called these lands Shem’Vallen Heart of our family.
Evidence of their ancient forefather’s can be difficult to find, for they had no written language, nor did they build cities, towns, nor villages as humans would. They were generally a migratory peoples, moving from one end of the jungle to another, using the branches as their highways, and the trees themselves as their homes. Instead of a written langue they would weave their own thoughts directly into the trees using the latent quintessence within the trees themselves, these memories would play back as a song one could hear with the rustling of the branches. Few of the ancient memory trees still live, shriveled and died by the great cooling, or burned by human hands. Those that do survive can be found in the deepest jungles of Mautria, but the Shem are, rightfully, incredibly protective of these ancient memorials.
The Shem practiced a unique form of magic, one based in nature manipulation. In the early days many of their number could practice this magic, and with it they made homes within the living trees. Manipulating the trunks to grow into grand interconnected communities. They did not develop agriculture like the majority of the civilized races, instead they relied on hungering and gathering well past the agricultural revolution. Instead they used their nature manipulation to ensure that their would be enough food for their people, to allow them to live in tandem with the natural order, but all the same their were lean years where the earth’s bounty brought hardship down upon their lands. They found arrow shafts, bows, and kindling among the branches the trees were willing to part with. They rarely wore clothing beyond ceremonial animal skin cloaks, though increased contact with humans and environmental shifts encouraged many to take up the practice if only to put their neighbors at ease.
Their communities were governed by elders, individuals with powerful magics and long lives. They were charged with ensuring the physical and spiritual well-being of their clan, as well as training the other Shem in the clan with the gift of their magics. An elder would have as many apprentices as their were magic users in the clan, but they could only have a single second, who would take their position upon their death. When a Shem of value to the Clan died they would be interred within the roots of the trees they called home, returned to the Musta Forest. So their essence could live on through them, and so they might strengthen the wood for the Shem at large. There were some of course who were considered unworthy of such treatment, traitors and murderers were barred from becoming one with the wood, as their spirits would weaken the life energy of the Mesta or be rejected by it entirely.
The Shem were not a people without war before humans interfered in their lives. Their hunter gatherer lifestyle was dangerous and often short. Finding the means to feed the tribe’s growing populations could be difficult. Battles were fought between clans and confederations of clans over valuable hunting grounds and prosperous fruit bearing trees. Theirs were generally drawn out indirect wars, fought at a distance between nimble archers. When they did descend to the forest floor to fight their battles were short and fierce, bloody hand to hand combat without formation, where they made use of their feared domesticated beasts the Mimic Raptor. These intelligent beasts were not viewed as subservient however, the Shem viewed such relationships as unnatural, instead these creatures were partners (in war and in the hunt) to their Shem companions and considered the most trusted friends of those who bonded with one.
No one can pinpoint an exact date when the first of these arboreal communities were created. But most scholars agree that it took place at least four thousand years before the advent of settled human societies. These were, however, not permanent places of residence (though the structures themselves remained for as long as the trees they were woven from stood) like human towns and cities. Instead a clan would have many Vallenfore Heart Trees, and their people would rotate between them to ensure the beasts of one patch of the wood were not hunted to depletion nor the fruits of the trees picked clean. Some of these communites were built into single large trees, others were made up of dozens of trees woven together, some were close to the forest floor others reached up toward the sky.
Artistic Representation of a Notable Vallenfore |
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By the time human cities in Midija were giving rise to some of the first empires the Shem had built Vallendu Heart of the World, a massive tree shaped into a city by means of magic. Like the numerous Vallenfore across the jungles it was not a place of continuous habitation, instead it was a place of peace where many clans and confederations of clans in Midija would come to meet and share stories or forge marriages without fear of conflict, but perhaps more importantly a place where they could discuss ways to avoid some of the violence that had grown more frequent as Shem populations increased alongside a rise in human pressure. Many of the clans took part in this effort, gifting their own memories to the there, meeting every few years to keep the peace. But others did not take part, and the countless Shem living beyond Midija knew nothing of the happenings of their distance cousins.
Artistic Representation of the lower reaches of the Ancient Vallendu, before its Destruction | |
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