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[micelus]

The poles of the world hold great power. While the rest of the surface is barren due to the four suns that orbit the planet, the poles are far worse with nearly every particle being radioactive. At the centre of each pole is a gigantic mountain reaching several kilometres into the sky and atop those two mountains are two vast palaces composed of solid noble gases. In a long gone age, the gods themselves used to preside over the world from these two abodes and ancient legends still speak of them, although very few really believe in them anymore.

If anyone were to actually survive the journey into either of the palaces, they would discover vast libraries and workshops that could shape reality or make a god anew.

[Ardent Debater]

The Race is divided into several dozen Castes depending on an Individual's Color, the Smoothness of their Skin-Fibers, and their Musical Talent.

((This is awesome, PTW. How do the Sock People reproduce?))

[micelus]

The caste system is more prominent in city-states than in tribal societies, with those closer to the surface not even having a notion of castes. The exact rank of each color, skin smoothness and musical talent is subjective and each society has their own definition of high and low castes. Some societies are odder still with there being no animosity between castes, with each individual accepting their lot in life.

[FallacyofUrist]

For some societies, what caste an individual fits in is fixed. In others, musical talent and skill can change one's caste...

[Harry Baldman]

In many cases the nature of caste is deeply associated with what music a person is expected to make, so that they may better achieve harmony within the tribe and avoid any displeasing dissonance. Examples include, for instance, flutist castes, lyric castes, tympanic castes all dependent on regional varieties of instrument. Over time these have come to signify more than mere roles in music and grown to be associated with certain social responsibilities. For instance, vocal castes also serve as messengers, criers, heralds traditionally, and have also come to be increasingly associated with poetry where a specific poet caste has not been formed.

[micelus]

Not all organisms feed on sound as the Race does. Many organisms must take their sustenance from other organisms, a fact that may occasionally baffle a city-dweller. Some of these organisms are quite capable of quickly killing and devouring a person before he can even utter a word. These predators, while deadly, are usually little more than a nuisance. Even though the Race may fight one another with word and song, they are still fully capable of creating bows and spears.

However, some times a creature may emerge from the tunnels, far greater than anything most will ever see. Giant creatures nearly as large as the tunnels themselves lumber through all that block their way, devouring all in their path. With many mouths and many ears, these great leviathans are seemingly impervious to all the Race can muster. More than one unlucky civilisation has been brought to ruin by the appearance of even a single creature. In desperation, some even worship the monsters, believing them to be gods or demons. Usually, their prayers go unheeded and are soon consumed.

Devastating and implacable, these leviathans in fact tend to live near the planet's core, rarely straying from their territories. What causes their great migrations is a mystery to the Race and most have concocted a myth or two to explain their rampages. In truth, the creatures migrate as part of their reproductive cycle. When food is rich, a leviathan will go into pregnancy, soon nurturing a tiny juvenile within it. Now needing food for both it and its child, the leviathan will emerge from the depths and devour all it can find. Interestingly, those consumed by the creature pass on their genes to the offspring. In this way, the asexual leviathans are able to ensure sufficient genetic variability in their child. In some cases, the resulting offspring may seem more like an individual of the Race than a leviathan. If it is able to survive its mother, the individual could possibly integrate into society. Supposing that the runt can reproduce, its descendants usually appear to be somewhat larger member of the Race. Within each of these descendants is enough genetic information to stimulate extreme growth if the immediate vicinity has enough food (i.e, a decently sized city). This growth will eventually result in the individual becoming another leviathan. Interestingly, leviathans created this way are just as non-intelligent as any other leviathan.

[FallacyofUrist]

Whenever a leviathan dies, its husk is left behind as food for other leviathans.
However, what also happens is that some of its internal organs get compressed together and end up forming a relatively small sphere.
This sphere has been harvested a few times in the history of the world, and has been found to be an incredible material for making... everything, really.

[NJW2000]

The Race reproduce in a process akin to mitosis, but requiring three participants. Two donate genetic material in a nutrient slime through growths resembling shoots and runners, while the third absorbs this material before undergoing a process akin to explosive decompression.

The new individual is formed almost immediately from the ruptured body of the third parent. Some weeks later it sacrifices around half of its mass to expel a reformed version of the parent, the mind of which has been stored in a protein shell, once it has accumulated sufficient biomass for the both of them.

In this way, the children of this species can be said to give birth to the parent. Some individuals attempt immortality through repetitions of this process, but the likelihood of a sucessful second birth decreases with each cycle, the risk of the dissolution of the parent increasing.

[FallacyofUrist]

A failure of a second birth usually has no other side effects, but in rare cases it can cause... homicidal rage.

[Harry Baldman]

Provision of wonderful sound for the developing individual is of paramount importance, and many of the more primitive societies require organized efforts by the local community to keep the offspring inundated in musical harmonies. This may in fact have served as one of the great advantages of communal living, allowing for much greater population growth in the face of well-developed parent preservation infrastructure.

This is all especially apparent in the states built on the legacy of the 33 Tribes, where self-playing musical creches have allowed for unprecedented levels of population and persistence of valued elders and thus the birth of the modern acoustic city and its associated society.

[NJW2000]

Certain areas of the caverns particularly prone to whimsical cave arrangedments and high winds are particularly valued by the acoustic urban. The largest and most tube-infested complex is inhabited by a group of outsize members of the race, named after the Yellow-blue mottling of the rocks of their home.

They attempt to dig tunnels to the surface in order to supplement the cavern winds with the mighty storms of the planet's surface. So far, all of such schemes have been unsuccessful, some resulting in flooding.

[Lermfish]

((PTW))

[micelus]

Every 243 years, those close to the surface can sometimes hear loud sounds coming from the surface as well as what seems to be music. All who have heard usually go into severe depression after the music stops. Those of the Race who have heard the music more than once in their lifetime usually go insane, writing and speaking about wonders and dreams that seemingly make no sense.

[MoonyTheHuman]

Often the race makes this face after causing (problem?)
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[NJW2000]

Some of the wind-tubes are hollowed from rock, others made from the limited forges of the Race. The vast majority are biological in origin, though particularly valued and nutritious instruments are ceramic.

The use of the Race's equivalent of bones, the dessicated carcasses of an individual who inevitable succumbed to age and deafness, as a wind-tube, is highly taboo, and forbidden in many societies, though the ruling classes often take a perverse pleasure in indulging in it. This is a source of class conflict.