The Ilmar (plural) or Ilmarin (singular, descriptive) go by many names: savages, barbarians, wildlings. Given their total lack of clothing and their propensity for living in forests, hills, and river valleys, they are viewed by most other races as a lesser developed human subspecies closer to animals than a civilized people. This view is perpetuated by the little that is known of their culture. Ilmar are often forced into wars and labor camps or, ostracized by society, become beggars and prostitutes. Believed to be sexually promiscuous, Ilmarin women are raped or taken as sex slaves. A lucky few become wives, adopting local customs, while keeping their heritage secret.
PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:
Isolated from the rest of Aenya by the subtropical forests/temperate forests/plains of the Wildwood to the south and the Ukko Mountains to the north, Ilmarin society has remained unchanged for millennia. With food supply often scarce, the Ilmar have developed lean, muscular physiques. Subsumed into other cultures, they can be difficult to distinguish from other races aside from their coppery complexion and lightly colored, almost translucent eyes. While their homeland is known for its idyllic climate, the Ilmar are more resilient to climate variations. The soles of their feet are as tough as boiled leather and can more easily endure physical hazards like knobby roots, thorns, and rocks. Beyond the most extreme conditions, the Ilmar abstain from clothing, finding the sensation of textiles nearly unbearable. This is attributed to their hyper-delicate, highly attuned sense of touch.
HISTORY:
The Ilmar harken to the days of the proto-human, when technology was limited to building fires and simple tool-making of wood, stone, and ivory. According to an inscription found within a Septheran ruin, the earliest word for human was ‘ilma,’ which the Ilmar use to denote their species, as they do not identify themselves separately from other human societies.
For 100,000 to 1 million years, the proto-human lived peaceably, subsisting on hunting, gathering, and basic agriculture. During this epoch, humans of Aenya lived as the Ilmar. With the arrival of the Septhera c. 10,000 BGM (Before the Greater Moon), human subjugation and, later, technological advancement followed. Finding the dominant surface-dwelling species defenseless, the reptilian invaders conquered the planet with ease, enslaving all humanity, save for a small population nestled within the Braid River Valley of Ilmarinen. There, the proto-human continued to thrive, oblivious to the changes occurring beyond its borders. It was not until 5 BGM that the people of the Ukko Mountains were discovered by Kjus, a Zo researcher. Kjus became enamored by the Ilmarin way of life, abandoning civilization to live as a native. He named the land Ilmarinen, and the flower of orange and violet that grew in abundance there, the ilm. For the remainder of his life, Kjus taught the Ilmar what he knew of science, history, philosophy, and medicine, but made certain to keep secret the excesses of his doomed civilization. To protect the knowledge of the Zo, he built a monastery high in the Ukko Mountains, and before his death, founded the Order of Alashiya, colloquially known as the Keepers.
CULTURE AND SOCIETY:
Knowing nothing of war, crime, or government, the Ilmar live a simple agrarian life. Since everything in their community is shared, they have no concept of property. As is said of the Ilmar, “No man is poor who wants for nothing.” Much of their day is spent farming and gathering, but they will hunt during famine. In their leisure time, they enjoy singing, dancing, and telling stories. All of this is used to relate and preserve their myth and history, which are passed down through the generations in verse.
The Ilmar are skilled wood-smiths and clay workers. Their artifacts include elaborately carved farming tools, throwing spears, atlatls, bows, farming utensils, jewelry, and pottery. They produce bracelets, necklaces, and other ornaments from jade, ivory, and seashell. They excel at shaping trees into homes, hollowing the boles of giant camphor and oak to make living spaces, though most activities, including cooking, eating, grooming, and sleeping, are practiced outdoors. Since there is no crime, the Ilmar rarely use doors; instead, they partition rooms with curtains of shell and bone.
SEX AND MARRIAGE:
On the longest night of the year, when the turquoise moon sits highest in the sky, the Rite of Solstice begins, the most important holiday in the Ilmarin year. Families gather from across the land to join in eating, drinking, singing, and dancing, and unwed couples pair off to jump the sacred bonfire. Having developed hair about the loins signifies a readiness for the flames, as does menstruation in girls and frequent erections in boys. Signs of sexual maturity are seen as gifts from the Goddess.
The bonfire represents the primordial energy that existed when the universe first formed. All members of the family, from the eldest to those old enough to walk, join hands to form rings about the fire in recognition of the Elder Gods. Eru and Anu are said to sing and dance through the cosmos, making love continually and birthing new worlds. Among their countless children is Aenya, personified by the Goddess, the spirit of nature, who also goes by Alashiya and Zoë.
According to Ilmarin lore, Alashiya first created mankind without genitals, though they closely resembled the Goddess’s own female form. But Alashiya’s firstborn, Wizzeria, a giantess associated with trickery and the lesser moon, hated her new siblings. Seeking to ruin her mother’s creation, Wizzeria tore a piece from the first human, Wo, forming the vagina, and gave it to the second human, Man, forming the penis. In this way, Wizzeria created male and female. While women are considered the more perfectly formed and “fairer” of the sexes, they remain with a part of themselves removed, which they must seek from the male. The penis, by contrast, is the physical manifestation of Wizzeria’s joke, a detail made more evident when the man is well-endowed or semi-erect. Without any sense of shame, the Ilmar perceive these differences with good-natured humor, and it is not uncommon for a fully erect boy to strut around proudly, displaying his emerging manhood to friends and family.
To undo Wizzera’s trickery, Alashiya invented intercourse, through which Wo and Man could re-merge into a single, perfect being. During the Solstice Night, sex becomes a symbolic act of creation. In honor of Eru and Anu, a boy and a girl join hands to leap the sacred flame before the joining of their bodies. Lovers do not choose one another, it is believed, but find one another again, having mated in a previous life. Withdrawing to a tree under which their ancestors are laid to rest, their souls become one before everyone in attendance. The ceremony binds the two for life, and the reuniting of lovers separated by death is celebrated as a triumph over death.
The High Priestess, adorned with henna stars, ordains the coupling with the Hoop of Eternity, symbolizing the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Tethered to this hoop are pods filled with kindling and the petals of the Ilm flower, which, when burnt, give off an aromatic scent and a hallucinogenic effect.
Mating before the joining ceremony is largely considered taboo. This is enforced, in part, to curb incest, since the Ilmar are small in number and sparsely populate their land, living in familial groups far from other families. According to myth, the first brother and sister to fornicate gave rise to bogrens, and subsequent acts of incest serve to continue that monstrous lineage.
When the Solstice Night ends, those who do not find a partner may engage sexually with the High Priestess. This helps ease tension and jealousy as the newlyweds move into the male’s household. Bringing life into the world is the highest honor an Ilmarin can achieve, and for this reason, the mother, emulating the Goddess from whom all life originates, is afforded greater status than the father.
While monogamy remains customary, it is not uncommon for husbands to share their wives with other men (or women, as the case may be). This is no more cause for jealousy than when couples swap dance partners. For the Ilmar, love and sex are distinct in this regard, with the former representing the bonding of the spirit, and the latter existing for pleasure and producing young. Since the Ilmar belong to a largely matriarchal society, husband sharing is far less practiced. During times of low fertility, monogamy is abandoned, and sex sharing becomes the norm. Offspring produced this way are celebrated, with little to no regard for paternity, and the children are raised within the wife’s household.
A small fraction of the population, however, remains chaste. When this happens, the individual’s soul mate is believed not to have been born into the current generation, as the two life cycles are thought to be misaligned. Those who do not find romantic love by a certain age are then led into the mountains to become Keepers of the Forbidden Knowledge. Among the Keepers, the High Priestesses are chosen.
Homosexuality, rarely seen in sparse populations, is celebrated in Ilmarinen. In the homosexual, the souls of past lovers, the male and the female, reside in a single body, and in this way, the conjoined soul moves closer to oneness with the Goddess. Unable to reproduce on their own, gay men and women typically become Keepers, though they may also adopt orphaned children.
LANGUAGE AND CUSTOM:
For the Ilmar, personal identity extends beyond the physical body to encompass family, friends, other living creatures, and their environment. Anything one touches or affects through their actions becomes part of what it means to exist. Consequently, shame is incomprehensible to the Ilmar. Clothing is entirely unknown to them, and there is no word in their language for nude or naked. They also lack terms for secret, lie (deception), greed, jealousy, and honesty.
During their menstrual cycles, women travel to a secret alcove by the Braid River, where they offer their blood to the gods. The Ilmar are not, however, without a sense of individuality, and will decorate their bodies with flowers, bones, henna tattoos, or semi-precious stones like jade and lapis lazuli. Neither sex cuts its hair. Women wear a single braid that can reach to their ankles, while men wear locks to the middle of the back, either loose or in multiple braids.
To foreign ears, the Ilmarin language may sound hard and clipped, as vowel sounds are often unused. Common names include Xandr, Baldr, Heimdl, and Borz. Female names typically avoid the conjoined consonant, ending in ‘a’. Examples are Thelana, Aliaa, and Anja. Wedded women traditionally drop the last vowel in their names, so Anja becomes Anj.
RELIGION:
All life is sacred to the Ilmar, from the smallest insect to the greatest camphor tree. They make no distinction between human or sentient life and animal or non-sentient (plant) life. Everything is part of a singular essence known as the Mother Goddess, Alashiya, or Zoë. The goddess exists in all things, even in non-living matter such as the wind, sunlight, and the earth. Alashiya is never seen or heard, but can be sensed through the skin. She may also appear in the form of an avatar, a creature embodying her spirit, like the unicorn, phoenix, or archenelk. On rare occasions, the Goddess chooses a human to serve as their avatar.
The Ilmar do not consider dreams separate from reality. Each and every dream is a literal experience. By grinding the ilm flower into a fine powder and drinking it, the High Priestess, as well as other seekers, embark upon dream journeys, traversing time, space, other dimensions, and realms beyond death.
In death, the Ilmar become one with Alashiya, as they were before birth. The body is marked by a cairn close to home, typically under a tree, which is absorbed into the soil to sprout new life. Due to limited nutrition and a lack of medicine, the average lifespan for the Ilmar is forty years.
The Art of Storytelling 
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