Agyon

= Your conculture Ethnographical Questionnaire =

Dr. Zahar’s Ethnographical Questionnaire was compiled by David Zahir to help in the description of concultures, and can be found in the files section of the Conculture group at Yahoo.

Questions of Place

Describe the geography of where your society calls home.

On the island of Meradion, to the north of the continent of Nyeltore. The island is approximately 70,000 square miles in size, covered by mountains, forests of firs, and glaciers.

Describe the climate your society deals with. How severe are their seasons?

Cold. In the summers it raises to a lovely 15 F where in winters it can drop as low as -70 F. Average temperatures are between -30 and -10 F. It snows year-round on the southern half, while the northern edge is actually too dry for snow to occur.

What kinds of natural disasters has this society gotten used to?

Blizzards, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes. The regular earthquakes and eruptions often reach their nearest neighbors, the Coarghydh. Thus they call the island of Meradion "Dreoghendr" - The Door to Hell.

What are the most commonly-grown foods?

A fruit called Burode. It's soft like a peach but it grows to the size of your head. It only grows natively in the tropics (native name Bhoqa). The Agyon grow it by incubation, though not for their own consumption.

What are the most commonly-eaten meats?

The Agyon are obligate carnivores, so the plants grown and harvested are not for their own consumption. Instead they are used to feed the Rondetsunda (Coarghydh: Ygmakl) which is a giant polar-bear like creature that terrorizes human settlements on the main continent, but the variant kept by the Agyon has been bred into more of a giant digestion machine. Sea food is also common, as well as the occasional whale or seal.

What foods are considered exotic or expensive?

Peppers used for seasoning. The Agyon's incubation methods do not grow them well so the good ones have to be imported.

What forms of alcohol are common? Rare?

Agyon do not generally drink alcohol. More common are teas. The most popular is Damodhen, rich with an earthy, fiery flavor. Sugary cocoa from the south is rarer but also generally enjoyed, while the most expensive drink available is called Somen, similar to Absinthe.

Is there usually enough food and water for the population?

Yes. The Agyon's food industry is the most sophisticated and capital-rich on Dinyoran.

What is this place's most abundant resource?

Gold, Silver, and Iron. The crust is also especially aluminum-rich however there are problems with extracting it.

What is its most valuable resource?

A black, lustrous metal they call Zande. It is popular for decorative uses and it also is important catalyst in the incubation process.

What resource is it most lacking?

Usable land. The Agyon's population is very small but even so it is pretty crowded. The majority of their homeland is covered in ice sheets. They also have problems with regulating their body temperature as their internal metabolisms produce too much heat: They need to be in a cold environment to cool off. This makes it a problem to expand southward.

How do people travel from one place to another?

Flying. Agyon can fly at a top speed of 150 mph.

Are the borders secure? In what way?

Cold climate + Treacherous waters separating it from the mainland = Natural defenses. There's also the fact that the Agyon are huge (but quite peaceful and gentle unless provoked) "beasts" who could rip you in half quite easily, To top it all off, the neighbors believe the place is the entrance to the underworld so they're scared shitless of it. To sum it all up, you'd have to be completely insane, if not outright suicidal, to try to invade this place.

Not to say nobody has ever tried: General Dozenuioc Imacthua Gareth, having accomplished no major military victories and on the eve of being rotated out of office, decided that launching a successful attack on hell itself would win him a favorable spot in the history books. After (understandably) having problems with getting troops on board with this, he managed to fill up 5 ships and set off. One hit an iceberg. One went down in a storm. The remaining 3 all wrecked upon the rocks of the southern coast (Meradion has no suitable harbors) and were stranded. Two days later the wreckage was found by a small group of 3 Agyon. Gareth and a small group of men decided to attack the "demons." They were slaughtered within minutes. Some others fled for their lives and dove into the water (where they presumably froze to death). The rest surrendered and expected the worst. They were forgiven and taken home.

About 20 years later, one of Gareth's successors and subordinates (who was smart enough not to come along the first time), General Zuantykh Moakteang Reaost, decided he'd try again. (Where his previous good judgment went I guess we'll never know!) This time he brought 20 ships and lost not a single one in the journey over. Unfortunately due to a navigation problem they landed on the North side of the island and all froze to death. *sigh*

How many people live here?

'Bout 60,000.

Where in this place to they congregate?

Several population centers (though they aren't quite "cities")

What part of this place do they avoid? Why?

The northern ice sheets for obvious reasons as there's really nothing out there. The volcanoes and hot earthquake zones are rarely built on but are popularly traveled to for the hot springs.

What are the most common domesticated animals here? And what are they domesticated for?

Rondetsunda for food, as well as small penguins and snow leopards (Tsandaion and Tyosone) as pets.

What are the most common wild animals?

Not many animals out there on the tundra. You see elk, wild horses, as well as wild variants of the Rondetsunda, penguins, snow leopards, and arctic foxes kept as pets. You also see walruses come up onto the beaches from time to time. There are also wild Drakes out and about though not as many as there are on the mainland. The Agyon consider drakes pests.

(Drakes are basically smaller dragons, though aside from the basic shape their physical forms hold a lot of differences between the Agyon, such as frills and odd colors and designs the Agyon lack. Drakes are also non-sentient and lack the ability to transform.)

Which animals are likely to be pets? Which ones won't be?

Penguins, Snow Leopards, and occasionally Arctic Foxes. Also, once in a great while an Agyon may keep a "pet" human. The designation of "pet" isn't how the human or the "owner" view it but it is how the relationship is viewed by the other Agyon.

Questions of Faith

What superstitions are common? What kinds of supernatural

events/beings do people fear?