Half Titans

Appearance
The Half Titan are the tallest and most physically impressive race in Entheria; but do not let that fool you they are also the only non-violent race.

In the most southern lands, Half Titans have a fair skin; in the very northern reaches the skin tones are more olive, bronze, and black.

Hair colors seems to vary from pale blondes, to fiery reds, to browns and black. They wear them in all different styles, from shaved to long. There is no one particular style.

They tend to have a common trait of almond shaped eyes (colors range from gold, silver, to hues of blue, green, purples, brown, and black).

They have flawless features, they are almost statuesque. Males can be seen with and without beards.

Half Titans are the tallest and most physically dominating race with the males being taller than females. The average male is 9 feet tall (2.74 meters) and the average female 8 feet tall (2.438 meters). Males weigh around 250 LBS (113.3 kilos); females usually weigh around 185 LBS (83.9 kilos).

Half Titans use the abundance of nature for their clothing, their clothing produced from the vegetation the land provides. Styles will vary due to climate. Note though they use no furs, leathers, or scales of a hunted animal. Only if they determine it failed of natural causes will they harvest the bone and hide. Most often sending them to their tribes in the south who are most affected by the elements. Additionally, it is not uncommon to see Half Titans with tribal tattoos and body adornments.

Aging and Life Expectancy
The Half Titans aged much slower than humans. Because of this slow aging process it is hard for them to reproduce. The gestation of a pregnancy is two years. They can reach up to 75 years of age which is equivalent to 375 human years. Thus, a Half Titan would take five years to reach the same maturity level a human would need one year to reach. Due to this elongated life span and low birth rate their numbers are small.

Personality
The Half Titans want to make their part of Entheira an inclusive, harmonious, and conflict-free place to live in. They like being peaceful, calm, and ordered, and they prefer to go with the flow. They see no need to push the river, recognizing that its flowing fine by itself. They are vegetarians and do not believe in harming any living being.

The Half Titans use basic tools which are made of stone and wood. These tools included digging sticks, weed beaters, baskets, bows and flint knives, matates and manos for food preparation. They trade with the various travelers from time to time for pottery to use for food and water storage and transport. They became very skilled at basket weaving, making coiled containers sealed with pitch for water storage. As expert gathers they used all parts of the vegetation around them. The grassed rugs and clothing of the Half Titans are prized and a sought after trade items. The Half Titan women became known for their beautiful quill work, which decorated their baskets, dresses, leggings, moccasins, and cradleboards (all made of plant life).

Late in the fall, family units would begin to move out of the mountains into sheltered areas for the cold winter. Generally, the family units of a particular Half Titans band would live close together. The family units could acquire more wood for heating and cooking. The increased family units would also allow for a better line of defense from the harsh winter weather.

Winter was a time of rejuvenation and the Half Titans would gather around their evening fires visiting and exchanging stories about their travels, social, and religious events. This was a time to reinforce tribal custom, as well as repairing tools and making new garments for the summer.

The Chief would announce plans for major events. A primary event that marked the beginning of spring was the annual Life Dance. The Life Dance is considered a time of rejuvenation by the tribe. It is in essence, the Tribes’ New Year, when Mother Entheria begins a new cycle, plants begin to blossom, animals come out of their dens after a long cold winter.

The Life awakens from his winter’s sleep and celebrates by dancing to welcome the spring. This dance was given to the Half Titans people by the creator. The Life Dance is the most ancient dance of the Half Titans people and continues to be observed by all Half Titans. When many of the various bands gathered for the Life Dance it allowed relatives to socialize, while at the same time providing an opportunity for the young people to meet and for marriages to be negotiated. On the last day of the Life Dance, the Chief would announce dates of the coming Sundance.

Society
The Half Titan people live in harmony with their environment. They travel throughout Entheria on familiar trails that crisscross the mountain ranges. They have come to know not only the terrain but the plants and animals that inhabited the lands. The Half Titans developed a unique relationship with the environment learning to give and take from Entheria.

They obtained soap from the root of the yucca plant. The yucca was used to make rope, baskets, shoes, sleeping mats, and a variety of household items. The three leaf sumac and willow were used to weave baskets for food and water storage. They learned how to apply pitch to ensure their containers were water-tight. They made baskets, plates, cups, and other domestic tools, and reinforcements for shade houses.

Chokecherry, wild raspberry, gooseberry, and buffalo berry were gathered and eaten raw. Occasionally juice was extracted to drink and the pulp was made into cakes or added to dried seed meal and eaten as a paste or cooked into a mush. Half Titans women would use seeds from various flowers or grasses and add them to soup. The three leaf sumac would be used in tea for special events.

The people would harvest roots with a tool called a digging stick. The digging stick was pointed and about three to four feet long. Roots collected were the sego lily, yellow pond lily, yampa or jurt carrot. The amaranth plant was gathered and the seeds were obtained with a tool called a seed beater, similar to winnowing. Amaranth seeds were often eaten raw, the giant potato (orogema linear folia) and wild onion were used in soups or eaten raw. They could be dried for later use or ground into a flour to make stews thicker. Half Titans would use earthen ovens to cook food. They would prepare the food items and place them into a four-foot deep hole lined with stones. A fire was built on top of the stones and the food was placed in layers of damp grass and heated rocks. These items would then be covered with dirt to cook overnight. The prickly pear cactus was another food source. The flower and fruit were either eaten raw or boiled or roasted.

The Half Titans are mostly found inhabiting the mountains and vast areas of plains. According to their own history handed down from generation to generation, their people lived here since the beginning of time as Entheria knows it.

The Half Titans live off the land establishing a unique relationship with the ecosystem. They travel and camp in familiar sites and use well established trails.

The language of the Half Titans is Shoshonean, a dialect of a forgotten language. It is believed that anyone outside their own people who speak Shoshonean are blessed by the gods.

Half Titans possess a set of central values, and have a highly developed society. The Half Titans civilization holds its roots, shared values, observe the same social and political practices, in addition to inhabiting and holding peace communes.

As the Half Titans traveled the vast area of Entheria, large bands would breakup into smaller family units that were much more mobile. Camps could be broken down faster making travel from one location to another a more efficient process. Because food gathering was an immense task, the people learned that by alternating food gathering sites the environment would have time to replenish. They only took what they required, never over harvesting wild plants. These principles were closely adhered to in order for the people to survive.

In early spring and into the late fall the tribe gathers wild berries and fruits. Wild plants such as the amaranth, wild onion, rice grass, and dandelion supplemented their diet. Some Half Titans bands specialized in the medicinal properties of plants and became expert in their use, none ever planted domestic plants. They were nomads. And believe Entheria gives them all they would require.

An example for them take the inner bark of the very tree is very nutritious and was yet another food source for the people. The Half Titans harvest the inner bark of the ponderosa pine for making healing compresses, tea and for healing. The healing trees are evidence of the Half Titans early presence in the land and their close relationship to their ecosystem.

A medicinal plant used by the Half Titans is Ligu root (Ligusticum portieri) also commonly known as osha. Ligu Bear root grows throughout the Mountains, in elevations over 7,000 feet. The plant has antibacterial and antiviral powers and is used to treat colds and upper respiratory ailments. It can be chewed or brewed into teas. It can be used topically, in baths, compresses, and ointments to treat indigestion, infections, wounds and arthritis. Some tribes use it before going into the desert areas to deter rattlesnakes. The Half Titans have a special relationship with the plant and treat it with great respect, harvesting only what they need and always giving prayers before they harvest.

Half Titans elders know which plants should be gathered and which plants are dangerous. One has to be very careful when harvesting wild plants as many toxic plants can be mistaken for wild onion or Ligu root. Poison hemlock (Conium macalatum) appears much the same as the Ligu root but is dangerous. Peppermint and wild tobacco were collected and used in many important ceremonies.

Economy
Half Titans did not put a lot of value into material items. There was little in the way of possessions and ownership. People, Elves, nor beasts own the land. They had no use for gold or silver. They valued intangible things like respect, honor, and status within their own peaceful environment.

Half Titans economies largely functioned on reciprocity, which is an economic term meaning non-market economies. They are a pure barter society, reciprocity simply means exchanging one thing of value for another thing of equal value. I'll give you a yucca root if you give me three rolls of thread. That's simple reciprocity and it is what they would do in times that barter was needed.

Government
The Half Titan Tribal Chieftaincy is the governing body of all Half Titans

Chieftaincies are the structure among Half Titans. A chieftaincy included more than one kinship group and often more than one local settlement or tribe. The principal role of the chief was to resolve conflicts among groups; there developed beneath the chief an entire hierarchy of decision-making. The roles of the chief was the highest honor and not taken likely within tribe. The chief is the arbiter of disputes, he is the sole military leader (as they believed in peace and didn’t even have weapons). He is a religious leader, the day to day decision making in the settlements, however, he did surround himself with a council.

Authority is vested in a chief either through a descent line or through individual achievements. No matter what there is only a single individual chieftaincy at a time. A new one might be the next eldest son but doesn’t always have to be, but it is always a male.

Warfare
None they denounce all violence

Religion
Sinawav, the Creator

Half Titans believe in the Creator, Sinawav and that there was another world before this one. But the people of that world did not behave themselves. Displeased, the Creating Power set out to make a new world. He sang several songs to bring rain, which poured stronger with each song. As he sang the fourth song, and Entheria split apart and water gushed up through the many cracks, causing a flood. By the time the rain stopped, all of the people and nearly all of the animals had drowned. Only Chelan the Coyote survived by floating on a single piece of yucca bark.

Chelan pleaded with the Creating Power to make him a new place to rest. So the Creating Power decided the time had come to make his new world. From his huge pipe bag, which contained all types of animals and birds, the Creating Power selected four animals known for their ability to remain underwater for a long time.

He sent each in turn to retrieve a lump of mud from beneath the floodwaters. First the beautiful loon dove deep into the dark waters, but it was unable to reach the bottom. The hub-otter, even with its strong webbed feet, also failed. Next, the joot-beaver used its large flat tail to propel itself deep under the water, but it too brought nothing back. Finally, the Creating Power took the simple hard shell moth turtle from his pipe bag and urged it to bring back some mud.

The turtle stayed under the water for so long that everyone was sure it had drowned. Then, with a splash, the turtle broke the water's surface! Mud filled its feet and claws and the cracks between its upper and lower shells. Singing, the Creating Power shaped the mud in his hands and spread it on the water, where it was just big enough for himself and Chelan. He then shook two long loon wing feathers over the mud until earth spread wide and varied, overcoming the waters. Feeling sadness for the dry land, the Creating Power cried tears that became oceans, streams, and lakes. He named the new land Entheria, the name of the honored turtle who provided the mud from which it was formed.

The Creating Power then took many animals and birds from his great pipe bag and spread them across the Earth. From red, white, black, and yellow earth, he made people and placed them back into his bag carefully. The Creating Power gave the people his sacred pipe and told them to live by it until the time came he would have Chelan release them. He warned them about the fate of the people who came before them. He promised all would be well if all living things learned to live in harmony. But the world would be destroyed again if they made it bad and ugly.

This is why the Half Titans maintain a peaceful existence.

Education
The Half Titian children are taught by their elders. They were taught how to do errands, how to distinguish, how to cook, how to heal, and how to take care of the kids. But in each tribe there were different roles for each gender. As the kids grew up they helped their parents. The boys went with the men and the girls went with the women. They watched their parents work and learned from them. They were told legends and folktales by their elders.

The newborn children were taken in different ways. Some of them were carried on their backs. Others were carried in a small woven carriage. Usually the mothers took them around with them. Once they got older the girls were given permission to use a symbol to announce that they were now ready for marriage. When the boys got older they went with the other men and learned the ways of the land. Upon reaching the appropriate age they would pick out a mate.

History
Tribal History goes as follows:

In the ancient times only Sinawav, the Creator and Coyote lived on Entheira. They had come out of the ice so long ago, that no one remembered when or how. Entheria was young and the time had come to increase the people. Sinawav gave a bag of sticks to Coyote and said “Carry these over the far hills to the valleys beyond.”  He gave specific directions Coyote was to follow and told him what to do when he got there. “You must remember, this is a great responsibility. The bag must not be opened under any circumstances until you reach the sacred grounds.”

“What is this I carry?” asked Coyote

“I will say no more. Now be about your task”  Sinawav answered.

The soyote was young and foolish, consumed with curiosity. “What is this I carry?” he kept asking himself.

As soon as he was over the first hill and out of sight, he stopped. He was just going to peek in the bag. “That could hurt nothing.”  He thought. Just as he untied the bag and opened a small slit they rushed for the opening. They were people. These people yelled and hollered in strange languages of all kinds. He tried to catch them and get them back into the bag. But they ran away in all different directions. From how full the bag was after he had gotten it closed he could tell there was only a fraction of what he had started out with. He went to the sacred valley and dumped them out there. There was a small number of these people. But those few ones were the Half Titans.

The coyote then returned and told Sinawav that he had completed the task. Sinawav searched Coyote’s face. “I know,” Sinawav sighed. “You foolish thing, you do not know what a fearful thing you have done.”

Coyote finally confessed. “I tried to catch them. I was frightened. They spoke in strange tongues that I could not understand.”

“Those you let escape will forever war with the chosen ones, they will be the tribes which will always be a thorn in the sides of the Half Titans,” said Sinawav.

“The Half Titans, even though they are few in number, will be the most valiant of heart.”

Sinawav then cursed the Coyote “You are an irresponsible meddler. From this time on you are doomed to wander this earth on all fours forever as a night crawler.”

Homeland
Nomadic, there are half titan caravans all over Entheria.