Doresh

Doresh  (pronounced door-esh, plural doresh) are one of two mother races established in prehistory that have survived to modernity though have begun suffering a recent decline as humans gradually rise to power. A cosmopolitan species, the doresh have come to live in most habitats, quickly adapting thanks to their incredible resilience and relatively quick reproduction, though have been most successful on the Amarantine Coast, dominating the population with sheer numbers.

Though widely spread, the doresh tend to share common cultural traits, including a strange fearlessness and propensity toward the stretching of personal boundaries, as well as a natural restlessness and desire for adventure. Though highly creative and adept at utilizing methods of communication (including music and other expressive forms of art), doresh lack common organizational skills, proving to be incapable of sustaining dense populations (such as cities) for any large amount of time without breaking apart into families and loners to wander or settle elsewhere. Despite this, their social structure is highly complex, composed largely of cooperating groups, sometimes related, sometimes not. These units are small, typically composed of one to twenty families and any number of loners, though come together periodically to face some great problem or menace before breaking apart to go their own separate ways, this restlessness theorized to be an evolutionary trait that ensures the continuation of the strong and varied genetic pool as well as ensure sustainment of the environment. Due to their cooperative nature, doresh populations, however varied and wide flung, are often compared to one large family. Populations are divided by natural elements, such as seas and mountain ranges, and are typically counted from specific areas.

Recently, the large, dominant population of the doresh on the Amarantine Coast has been challenged by the immigration of humans. The gradual decline of traditional of families and groups is thought to largely be caused by the introduction of Vesna and a boom in doresh-human hybrids signaling an end to the common values and culture of the people as many customs, including the rejection of city life, has come to be viewed as barbaric and even threatening to the advancement of civilization. This violent rejection of traditional doresh culture has taken a bloody turn in the way of "turf wars" as humans vie to assimilate all species under the kingdom of man and families continue to resist.

Anatomy
Being closely related to their more modern cousins, humans, it's not unusual that the doresh are highly similar in build and trait to the younger species, sharing substantial variation of body type and expressed traits as determined by diet, exercise and genetics, though as a species they are typically smaller with an average height of five foot seven for both males and females.

Naturally, doresh express dark hair (ranging from black with reddish undertones to jet) and eyes (most often dark brown, indistinguishable from black) with olive to reddish brown skin with the capacity to darken with sun exposure. The hair of the doresh does not gray or go white as they grow older. Somewhat physically stronger than the average human, female doresh are capable of matching male humans in way of strength and prove to exceed human capabilities as distance runners.

Doresh palates are somewhat longer than those of humans with more prominent canines and more uniform incisors, though appearance-wise the difference is often negligible in terms of jaw length. The wisdom teeth that crowd the human jaw fits easily among the characteristically crowded teeth of the doresh.

Other notable traits include pointed, slightly elongated ears with limited mobility and a wider range of movement in the joints.

Diet
<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Doresh are omnivorous, proving capable of consuming a wide variety of plant and animal products, including the recent adaption of being able to consume grains safely and the ability to digest lactose in most adults with the introduction of agriculture by humans on the Old Coast, though much of the population remains hunter-gatherer with some herd keeping and animal husbandry to supplement dietary needs. While larger energy demands keep the typical doresh at a healthy weight, those in settled areas (such as Vesna and Fauwain ) have the rare opportunity to exceed calorie maintenance for the day, managing to exceed the 120-180 pound average, exhibiting the limited, often localized examples of obesity rarely found outside of these situations.

Life Cycle
<p style="margin-top:4.8pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Doresh development is not dissimilar to that of humans, though infants develop somewhat smaller, permitting easier, less dangerous labors though the young are fragile and highly dependent on their mother for survival and nourishment due to low birth weights and their helpless nature after birth - both of these traits contribute to the unusually high infant mortality rates, leading to the doresh being particularly prolific and producing multiple children. Aided by the cooperative nature of the species' community, malnutrition is rarely the cause of death, though young are highly susceptible to illness and communal disease.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Doresh reach sexual maturity at roughly twelve years of age, though continue to develop up until around their mid-twenties. Once they've reach mobility and some higher-level cognition (typically at five to seven years of age), mortality rates drop dramatically. Being highly "elastic", so to speak, during their developmental stages, individuals can take quite a beating and still bounce back, though this lessens as the window gradually closes and they near maturity. The rearing of children is typically undertaken by a community or family. Female doresh do not undergo menopause.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">The typical doresh life expectancy is sixty-two, though individuals may live well into their eighties with cases of centenarians being reported though undocumented.

Iskra
<p style="margin-top:4.8pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">The high level of iskra resistance that the Amarantine population of doresh exhibit developed during and after the Impact and Crater Age making the trait unique to the doresh living on the Amarantine Coast. Doresh that emigrate from the Old Coast prove to have roughly the same level of resistance as the vaarentee and humans.

Society and Culture
<p style="margin-top:4.8pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">A social species, the doresh live cooperatively in groups of one to twenty families with any number of loners. Rather than competing with others, they are known for working toward a common goal though lack the ability or interest to maintain dense populations, usually becoming very restless in city-like situations before wandering off on their own. Highly creative, the doresh prove adept at utilizing many methods of communication, including expressive art forms, especially music and dance, making Vesna a popular birthplace for most modern forms of art.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Having come to live on the Amarantine Coast nearly 20,000 years ago, the doresh not only survived the Crater Age but adapted a close relationship with iskra for it, making it an important part of the Amarantine population's culture that, up until now, has gone unchallenged.

Coming of Age
<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">The coming of age ceremony (also known as <span style="border-top-style:none;border-right-style:none;border-bottom-style:none;border-left-style:none;border-top-color:windowtext;border-right-color:windowtext;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-left-color:windowtext;border-top-width:1pt;border-right-width:1pt;border-bottom-width:1pt;border-left-width:1pt;padding-top:0in;padding-right:0in;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:0in;">Roste Ti ) is perhaps the most iconic item of Amarantine doresh culture, making the population one of the most dramatically varied in appearance and strength. A dangerous and harrowing experience, partaking in the ceremony is considered among much of the Coastal population to be entry into adulthood, a proving, of sorts, that the individual is capable, strong, and finally mature. Those that do not participate in the ceremony are viewed as children and often lose many opportunities to mate or hold positions of power and are most often identified by the persistence of their dark hair and eyes.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">The process traditionally consists of the ingestion of iskra during the third trimester (known to increase the rate of spontaneous abortion or stillbirth by 20% typically caused by defect), with constant, albeit low levels of exposure throughout childhood, typically by close contact with the mother's and other family members' personal totems and cores. Shortly after puberty, up until the age of twenty-three, the window of opportunity to partake in the ceremony opens as it is considered potentially damaging to reproductive abilities before puberty and pointless and perhaps even deadly once the individual has completed development. The ceremony begins by the participant drinking a tea made of several hallucinogenic and suppressive herbs, rendering them in a deep, trance-like state for anywhere from one to two days. Slipping in and out of consciousness, the individual is entirely dependent on their family or caretaker as they visualize their totem before coming down. When coming out of the catatonic state, individuals are often emotional and physically drained, being in a state of high suggestibility and manipulation. At this point, they will be given their first piece of iskra, something typically small and worn close to the body.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">After a short period of recuperation (anywhere from a couple hours to half a day), the participant is sent to seek their totem alone. Totems are living things and range anywhere from the most humble of fungus or plant, to the mightiest of beasts. It is even possible for a totem to be a person, though instances of this are incredibly rare and are considered taboo. The participant is expected to claim some sort of trophy from their totem, either by gathering dropped articles (such as feathers, scales, fur, etc) or actively hunting their totem, depending on ability - the process of gathering a trophy may take anywhere from a few minutes and only a foot or two of travel, to a lifetime of searching.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">With time, a trophy and iskra article will work to warp an individual, often gradually changing the participant's hair and eye color first. More features may become apparent as time wears on, including, but not limited to, the development of fangs, claws, scales, feathers, fur or even the manipulation of joints. With time, focus, and the taking of additional trophies and articles full-shifts into one's totem may be possible though this is a hard-won skill and require much strength of mind to attain and come back from as in addition to physical traits, participants also often pick up personality quirks and mannerisms of their totem - those that complete a full-shift and cannot maintain grasp on what they are may never return from their shift or might only be capable of and incomplete reversal.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">While unusual, reports of non-doresh taking part in the ceremony have been reported though with varying degrees of success. These individuals are often well received and many of these ceremonies are honorary, welcoming the stranger into that particular family if they can survive the process. Depending on the individual, the ceremony may be modified to reduce the danger posed to the individual.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Recently the kingdom of man has declared this process to be barbaric, illegalizing the ingestion of iskra during pregnancy and creating gentler guide-lines for the ceremony that render weaker shifters and less powerful cores though even this is highly regulated and ill-received, creating a new generation of doresh in which less than 60% have taken part in even the limited version of the Roste Ti and have even denounced the old culture.

<p style="margin-top:12pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Trade of these totems is highly profitable as oftentimes by the end of their lives the totem's owner has managed to mature at least one of their iskra articles into a fully-fledge core which can be used to create more powerful charms and weapons. The morality of doing this is highly debated and should be approached on an individual basis. That said, grave robbing and illegal trade has recently boomed with the growing hostilities between the kingdom of man and those doresh that maintain their old culture yet.

Religion and Spirituality
<p style="margin-top:4.8pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Culturally, the doresh are atheistic though the more recent generation has assimilated more easily into the kingdom of man, adopting the Pantheon of the Sun. Despite this, most doresh (even those that claim to be religious) are highly skeptical and curious. Those that claim to believe in the Pantheon often indicate suspicion and rejection of the claim that there are higher beings with a high rate of conversion to atheism later in life.

Clothing, Body Modification and Material Culture
<p style="margin-top:4.8pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">An expressive people, the doresh vary wildly in manner of dress, hair care, and body modification - most enjoy collecting jewelry and other trinkets while others are strongly utilitarian in their appearance. Tattoos and other modifications may hold individual meaning and value though are not easily generalized as a cultural norm.

Gender Roles
<p style="margin-top:4.8pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">With the division of childcare among the community, males and females share similar responsibilities and opportunities, including nurturing young, hunting, and positions of power and varies very little from family to family, unit to unit with no given value being placed on gender. Though males and females may dress differently, dimorphism between the sexes is often blurred and malleable.