Mexûk

Height: 5’7” (male & female)

Build: Stocky

Hair: Coarse & bristly, black, reds brown, dark-blue

Eyes: Black, brown

Lifespan: 45-50

Decoration: Tattoos and body scarring (using foreign objects to make raised shapes beneath their thick hide) are both common, as well as piercings and tusk carvings.

WeaponPreferences: Gladius, falchion, javelin, mace. Tend toward short heavy melee weapons.

Language: Mexûs

Currency: Dedert - 1/20th ounce gold the standard

Religion: The Fortunes

ReligiousTolerance: Tolerant

Skill Bonuses: 

A powerfully built human-like people which seem to have a boar heritage, as they have dangerous tusks (up to 6 inches in length) protruding from their jaws and short, bristly hair, thickest on the head but covering much of the body. They tend to have heavily sloped foreheads, broad flat noses and thin, slitted eyes. The Mexûk’s skin is very thick and protective, but if penetrated is prone to infection due to its own thickness, thus in warfare all Mexûk tend to carry herbs to fight infection. This risk of infection makes their body scarring practices perhaps a bit counterintuitive, as warriors and priests slice the outer layers of hide and stick dirt or even gemstones beneath their skin to form symbols and shapes to honor the Fortunes. During these ceremonies fire is often used to seal the wound against infection.

In Mexûk society the most honored role is that of the mother, but once born and a few weeks old, the rearing of the children becomes nearly as much a responsibility of the tribe as it is to the individual mother and father. Ultimate responsibility still falls to the biological parents, but a common saying is that the Mexûk have a mother and many fathers. Tribal responsibilities vary little between men and women: hunting, gathering, cooking, farming, warfare and the position of chieftain see little to no difference between the treatment of male and female, the primary exception being that of the pregnant woman, who is expected not to engage in battle or other risky endeavor.

The Fortunes Pantheon is broken in two, the Seven Fortunes of Life and the Seven Fortunes of Death. Each aspect of Life has a Reflection of sorts in death, and an examination of them can reveal much about the culture and how it perceives life and death. The first to look at is the last listed below, the Work-Rest dichotomy. If you look at the previous Reflections, Health-Disease for example, you see a presumed positive versus negative, but here at the end is Work-Rest, where many people would assume rest to be a good thing. This is not the case in Mexûk culture. Work is seen as the ultimate expression of being alive, to rest is to be ill, injured or old… or worse, lazy. Mexûk Chieftains hunt and farm alongside everyone else, putting in the same long hours necessary to survive as the rest of his people, and once so old as to not be able to keep up, a new chieftain is chosen. 

In the lives of all Mexûk it is expected that each of the Fourteen Fortunes will make a visit, and how each addresses the Fortunes of Life and Death are anticipated to carry over into the afterlife, a realm called Meyît (which roughly translated is the same as Death). Each of the Fortunes of Death when encountered in the afterlife are said to no longer be Fortunes, but Terrors or Tortures. The more you embrace the Fortunes of Life and overcome the Fortunes of Death while alive, the more these positives will carry with the soul in to Meyît with the potential of a sort of eternal paradise.

Life: Health, Wealth, Fertility, Victory, Joy, Peace, Work

Death: Disease, Poverty, Famine, Defeat, Sorrow, Agony, Rest  

On a humorous note, the phrase “There will be plenty of time to rest when you are dead” would be anathema to the Mexûk.