The Mother is the universe, she is what is and all that is is her creation. The earth is her womb, fertile and giving. The earth roils like a child inside, fitful, yet she holds it close as only a mother can. The moons she wields with care, giving light in the dark and guidance to the lost. And the sun sits high, the fountain of her thought and passion, pouring warmth, light, and love on the world as it turns. She does not watch, she only feels, for she knows we are good when she hears our prayers- the day when she must gaze at us we have failed her and her patience is at its end. May that day never come when we exhaust our Mother.

Wordflood ahead.

The Ŋóšt live on an island that is somewhat rocky and covered in sparse shrub vegetation. Because of its lack of high elevations and scant precipitation it has very few rivers or streams; most of the water available to the population is from springs and underground sources. Needless to say this can make farming rather difficult. The Ŋóšt learned long ago that over population can be deadly so they strictly control their numbers. Due to their islands relatively small size they also have low genetic diversity and as a result the population is mostly male.

Females are considered a sacred gift from the Mother, a direct avatar of her on the earth and all biological females are priestesses. They live in secluded temples away from the male population and are self-sufficient. Males have as a result adopted a society that does not include females. Some males are chosen during childhood, or choose later in life, to become a third gender of biological males filling the roles females usually fill (basically, a whole other gender of accepted trans males that are considered female). Some families castrate young boys that they want to be “female,” but this practice is left over from a more archaic time and is mostly frowned upon in the present day society.

Males and trans females will marry one another and basically function as they would if those trans females were biologically female. If they want children they have to go through a strict process with the priestesses firstly, to judge if they are worthy of children, and secondly, they go through genealogies to make sure there is no close relation between a priestess and the prospective father. If the child produced of a union is male, once they are weaned they go to live with their fathers (throughout their infancy they are constantly exposed to their fathers as well so the transition is easier), if the child is female she remains with her mother to also become a priestess. Producing a daughter is an immense honor to a family even though the fathers will not know her very well. But it is common to send gifts and keep in touch with a daughter through letters even though visiting is generally discouraged.

I’ll have to do some more development on the rest of their society, but so far these are the odd little details that separate them from any other race on Qîélá.

As far as the art goes this is a rough draft for a two color etching I’ll be doing for printmaking class. My teacher said her boobs were weird in the messy prescetch. Excuse you, not all boobs are the same. scoff scoff
This will all look much better when it's all done I hope.