100 More Facts About Mother Stole Fire

 Sequel to a post I wrote nearly four years ago on the dot. Been away for far too long.

1. There are seven dogs in the world whose loyalty is so great that death will not claim them. They remain by the graves of their companions, aged but immortal. The eldest of these is a red wolf who, judging by the grave goods found within the cave, has kept his watch for nearly 45,000 years.
2. Lilu cuisine has a culinary tradition of extremely flavorful food in very small portions, born of having to make do with very little.
3. The oldest living mortal being in the world is a tree named Great Tuung, estimated by wizards to be 2.9 million years old. Several other similarly ancient trees are known - Pando, Old Jikko, and Kalavay have all reached a million years.
4. Hespermontane theater loves stock characters and audience interaction. There's a very porous fourth wall and a lot of improvisation involved (since established characters have established behaviors, riffing on those traits is a necessity to keep the audience interested).
5. One of the greatest honors for a storyteller is the adoption of one of their creations into the wider stable of popular stock characters. Sometimes the character will have their creator's family name appended to their own.
6. Abolitionism was not unheard of in the Second Empire, but its supporters never grew beyond controlled opposition in the senate. Some slight restrictions might get passed every few years, enough to mollify them with a functionally-identical status quo.
7. Wheelchair-bound Goa is the patron god of those with physical and mental disabilities, as well as Tubalkhan’s nephew and one of his workshop assistants. “Give a man what aid he needs, hand him his tools, and let him work as he knows best” goes the saying.
8. The proper name for the third gender in the Longhouse Culture literally translates to “they are always running back and forth” - a reference to their original social function as go-betweens for the men and women’s lodges.
9. A common Belt story: A ship is hit by a sudden storm of such intensity that the weatherworker cannot prevent the ship from sinking. But they are able to weave a spell of wave-marching, and the crew proceeds to walk to the nearest island by its power. While clearly exaggerated into folktale (the distance walked, power of the spell, and number of crew are well outside of reality), there is precedent for fishermen whose canoes capsize making their way home by this method. "If the ship sinks, we will walk to shore!" is a common refrain of the 'Belter Spirit'.
10. As there is little economic impetus for sex work in the Hespermont, pornotekton is more accurately treated as a religious vocation
11. The four most renowned of Tubalkhan's named hammers are Thunderer, Ringing Bell, Iron-Shaper, and Chain-Breaker.
12. Lady Rust is the third sister of the Black and White Queens of Tanniclen; she departed for Pelai during the War and hasn’t been seen on this side of the ocean since. Her sisters don’t talk about her and she’s been dropped from the wizards’ historical records, so it’s fair to presume that the parting was on bad terms.
13. The following historical and pseudohistorical personages exist in MSF with only minor alterations of name and circumstance: Boudicca, Hubaba, Zheng Yi Sao / Ching Shih, Gilgamesh & Enkidu, Enheduana, John Brown, Benjamin Lay, Adolphe Sax, Fred Rogers, Emperor Norton.
14. To "throw the book" at someone means to solve a problem, usually one caused by an officious and equivocating person, through unexpectedly direct means; the phrase originates in a popular Pelaian folktale of a cruel magistrate undone by the hero simply beaning him in the head with a law codex hard enough to knock him out.
15. The city of Qhauya hosts a yearly celebration of the ousting of the wizard-king Bahg, wherein young men dressed as the tyrant are released from the cathedral after morning services to be chased down and hauled back by the townsfolk. The last contestant to be returned gets to open the ceremony the following year, and is given Bahg’s actual (if disenchanted) hat as a trophy until then.
16. A Hespermontane meal: rice and beans with corn and greens, smoked cavy, and a pumpkin-based chili sauce.
17. Municipal gadugi (volunteer collective work teams) are the backbone of Hespermont communities; they’re responsible for trash pickup, snow removal, public space maintenance, community events, festival preparation, and so on.
18. The guilt that comes with addiction is prime feeding ground for demons; treatment entails robust ritual support from the community and focused support from friends and family.
19. The many small island and fleet nations of the Belt are tied together by a complex and longstanding series of treaties and agreements. If a party violates these agreements and oversteps what is considered acceptable hubris, it is now one’s appointed duty to invoke the Trickster Wind and divest them of their wealth; this invocation of swashbuckling piracy as spiritual practice Is the driving counterforce to historical invasions of the Belt by continental powers, and the source of the invaders' repeated failures.
20. In Hespermontane languages, "our ancestors" is always used in the inclusive first person, regardless of where the speaker or audience is from.
21. A prayer to Tubalkhan: "Praise to you, Father of All Peoples, for you teach men and women to make things well."
22. "tok-tok" is a filler particle marking a pause in speech to collect one’s thoughts. An onomatopoeia for knocking a smoking pipe against a wooden block to remove the ashes, originating with ceremonial tobacco during lodge meetings. May also be used as a nonspecific measurement of time.
23. Neckties are only really fashionable in Dis, as the image of wearing a noose as a symbol of one's employment is considered a non-starter outside of Hell.
24. A common insult accusing the target of being an unskilled or inconsiderate lover is derived from the name of a mythic hero notorious for declining an Amazon war-queen's flirtations out of fear of emasculation, and has thus become synonymous with cowardice and poor moral character.
25. Preserved corpses are prime targets for malicious spirits, and so there is a common cross-cultural taboo against embalming or mummifying the dead. The body must be returned to the earth through burial or cremation. 
26. Cheap clay vessels are often stamped with “shatter, and return to the earth".
27. The association of cats and witchcraft goes all the way back to Hecate, who is commonly portrayed alongside the nekomata triad of Pangur Ban, Cait Si, and Greymaulkin.
28. Parliament of Birds vs. Magnaclowder is still taught in the legal schools of the Dragon Republics as one of the Five Landmark Cases. While not a full cessation of hostilities, the final ruling of the nine-year-long suit does severely limit the number of birds any given cat might catch per year.
29. The largest heist in modern history involved the theft of 941 tomes from the private library of the wizard Thanagar the Illuminated. The culprits were never identified and the local government declined to investigate, claiming that since the theft took place on the wizard’s property it was outside their jurisdiction. Facsimile copies of the stolen texts, supposedly derived from “newly discovered original manuscripts” began public library circulation the following year.
30. Red Heron is the largest of the  “in-between” / open clans (those that may be joined without marriage or an internal recommendation); the bulk of its members are migrant workers, immigrants, and those who have for whatever reason left their home clans.
31. Competitive pepper eating is a common display of machismo / nonviolent way to settle disputes in the Belt.
32. Nut allergies are rare, thanks to common use of peanut / tree nut paste in baby food.
33. The alchemical quest to turn lead into gold is not undertaken to produce gold, but to destroy lead. Even in distant antiquity it was known as a worthless and dangerous metal, and in several ancient law codes the knowing usage of lead is classified as centumicide - the legal equivalent to the murder of 100 men.
34. Alchemist’s Gold: a dull, mottled, copper-colored metal that retains the softness and low melting point of lead while losing its toxic interactions with living bodies. It’s useful in nearly all the ways gold is useful, though generally considered ugly. Metalworkers specializing in it are called dunsmiths.
35. Always knock before going to the bathroom at night; there might be an akaname in there, and you wouldn’t want to startle them. Scum lickers might be gross, but they’re ecologically important!
36. Communities will sometimes string the year’s weddings together during the spring or summer and stretch out the collective celebration for days.
37. Spells to aid with sleep compose one of the oldest and most common schools of magic. While nearly all of the traditions began as lullabies for infants and small children, they have diversified radically in the ages since and variants exist for the elderly, couples, oneself, the sick and the dying, and so on. The nonsense words used by many of these songs are occasionally believed to be the remnants of archaic languages by scholars who get a kick out of making non-falsifiable claims.
38. The Maid was once asked what she would do after the War. She responded that she would return to the woods behind her family’s farm, find a fallen tree to sit upon, and listen to the birds and insects for a while.
39. Violence is considered wholly against Tubalkhan’s nature. Even in those stories where he participates in a battle against demons, he’ll be depicted as supporting the other gods, overseeing evacuations, protecting mortals, or aiding the wounded.
40. Two popular saints: Ndoni, patron of lost objects and the people who have lost them; Damhnait, patroness of the mentally ill.
41. Monopods are found on a few small islands in the Belt. These sagani are not fond of company, and hide their homes through illusion, weather magic, or thought-clouding.
42. In antiquity, it was believed that the Astomi tribe from the mountains south of Janashkut could live on smells alone. This has never been true, but they have cultivated myrrh trees for as long as they appear in the historical record.
43. Tomás and Tama are extremely popular railway gods, acting as the twin patrons of engineers and stationmasters, respectively.
44. Regardless of region, buildings are immaculately designed for temperature control according to the needs of the local climate. It’s just good architecture.
45. Hippopotami can and will fight, kill, and eat demons. Those that do so regularly gain a pronounced red and black coloration.
46. The city of Gran Laguna, casino-ridden den of sin and vice, is under the de-facto control of the cetacean mob and its kingpin, the  Dauphin. He’s got city government eating right out of his flipper, so take care not to stick your snout where it doesn’t belong when you head down to the marina for a day at the races.
47. Some popular games: chess, hanafuda, tarocchini, tafl, rummy, kōnane, Wizard’s Hand.
48. Lacrosse was used as a way of avoiding conflict in the old days; it would allow the war societies of the opposing tribes to blow off steam while their councils met to hash out the diplomacy while the matches went on.
49. Giant pandas exist, though not in the way you think. Their bumbling, helpless exterior hides one of the most cunning and vicious ambush predators in the known world. The original species is long extinct, and now only the parasitic mimic remains.
50. Red pandas, on the other hand, are clever little bastards much more like their bandit-masked cousins. 
51. Chocolate is predominantly consumed as a sweetened or spiced beverage; its candy form is a luxury.
52. Though the name and exact form differs, Pen and Tam can (and do) go out for pizza and ice cream; the former is any kind of toasted flatbread with toppings, the latter is typically eaten mixed with nuts, fruit, and spices.
53. Hespermontane sign language (“hand-speaking”) originated as an inter-tribal auxiliary language and has been used as the default communication for deaf persons since antiquity. Children are taught it as part of their schooling, and a modified form is used for human-elephant communication. 
54. Everyone knows that lions don’t lick their young into shape (only the shagga-cat does that), but this didn’t stop one philosopher from trying to document the process and getting mauled to death for his trouble.
55. The omnipresence of minor mending spells means that clothing and household objects can last for generations if cared for. Fashion trends tend to move slowly due to this
56. Sea serpents aren’t related to snakes at all, but are actually a surviving archosaur lineage from the age of dragons.
57. Tubalkhan is considered the father of the sciences for his careful observation, attention to detail, and use of direct experimentation.
58. Medicinal magic rarely provides an immediate cure to an affliction, as such a rapid change in bodily condition causes its own problems. Instead, magic is used for prevention, symptoms management, and gradual healing.
59. The traveling circus originates with migrant workers and monster-hunters; busking and talent shows are an easy source of extra cash during the off season.
60. Calico cats practice a unique school of magic among felines; human witches of particularly high experience and skill are often called ‘Old Calico’ accordingly.
61. There are no police, but there are detectives. All of them are absolute weirdos in their own special ways, both because the trade attracts those with unusual ways of looking at the world and because the magics used in evidence collection tend to further reinforce those traits.
62. Most city-states will have a robust civil engineering core in place of a standing military: wars are occasional, but the roads always need fixed.
63. Community fire and emergency aid teams are easily identified by their flame-resistant jackets, which are dyed a deep indigo.
64. Deer are semi-donesticated in the Hespermont, and commonly raised for meat in the place of cattle.
65. Acephavara is an exonym (“land of the headless men”) originating from stories of the Thandatra people, whose typically dark skin will often be broken with patterns of lighter color on the chest or back that resemble a face.
66. “Love potion”: a soup, stew, curry or sauce with no additional magical properties; used as a way to teach lovesick young men a useful skill, as well as the value of good food and pleasant conversation in courtship.
67. “Potion of attraction”: triggers an episode of disassociative self-reflection where the imbiber will see themselves as others see them, highlighting the habits and behaviors that make them so unpalatable as a romantic partner.
68. There are few omens on the sea worse than a thin (and therefore hungry) mermaid, and so sailors across the Mare call hard times “the ribs”.
69. War is an extremely efficient means of mass-producing angry ghosts; part of what makes wizards so dangerous is that they can and will use them to their own ends. 
70. The Ang-Ket trade league connects cities all along the circumference of the Mare Interregnum; it’s named after a type of circular fish trap (“ring” or “enclosure”).
71. There are seven planets visible with the naked eye: the sun and moon are cosmologically grouped with earth and not included in the count.
72. Intelligent life can be found on multiple bodies in the solar system, though sustained meaningful contact between any of them has yet to occur.
73. Blues music emerged during the hardships of the post-War rebuilding period, and has since diversified into several robust regional styles.
74. Nerve-linked prosthetic limbs (autobrachia) were first developed ~15 years ago, with many veterans of the War in the North volunteering as first-run recipients.
75. Saffron is relatively cheap and widely used - not because it’s any easier to harvest, but because of widespread small-scale cultivation. 
76. In cases where the cause is unclear, a low-intensity exorcism ritual may be used to determine if an individual is possessed by an evil spirit or suffering from mental illness.
77. The standardized system of weights and measures is base-12, and peacefully coexists alongside local nonspecific systems.
78. Apes (and similarly intelligent relatives of the other Thinking Peoples) have triggered debates of categorization for centuries: most cultures group them under “they can’t really participate in society, but they’re enough like people that killing them is still murder”.
79. Ngata Long-Tusk is an anomaly in the magical world: an elephant that practices human-style goetic wizardry. Has a tower and sigil tattoos and everything. Has not yet caused an international incident but it’s probably only a matter of time.
80. There is a variety of orca (or an orca-like magical being, the line is fuzzy) capable of changing their shape and taking humanoid or wolflike forms. While primarily associated with the northern amazons, they might be encountered all along the northern coasts and islands and they are regular visitors in the city of Redgate.
81. The whalers of Tin Jacobstown might be better thought of as a decentralized mercenary army, profiting off of the war between the illhevi and the other whales. The practice is sustainable only through staying on Orca’s good side through sacrifice and soul-pledges.
82. Ol’ Dunk: legendary sea monster, described as a gigantic fish with an armored head and fused, beak-like teeth.
83. There is a prehistoric Dayrdani method of exorcism still practiced in the modern day; it requires only a circle drawn in the dirt, the sign of the horns, and a series of prayers in an unknown and otherwise extinct language performed with overtone throat singing.
84. Jails are ideal spawning grounds for demons, and thus tend to be limited to the more tyrannical pockets of the world or the ruins left behind by such. In some instances they will reach a critical mass of suffering and transcend into a demonic genius loci, which will then attempt to lure in and entrap life from the surface to feed upon. If this can be prevented, the dungeon will starve and be rendered inert in two or three generations; if it gathers sufficient population, the demonic locus will become self-sustaining and specialized delvers will have to be called in to destroy its heart. The depths of Kulvakh tower were one such location.
85. Interpretation of languages is another keystone magical tradition with prehistoric origins, developing independently in many cultures across the world. A “talkabout” was the period where the parties’ respective cunning-men would speak to each other before official intertribal negotiations.
86. Without some means of cathartic release,  trauma and self-repression can develop into a form of demonic possession that will rot a person from the inside.
87. The town of Machaggan is famous throughout the Low Country for the giant orb made of lustrous blue-silver metal that floats above the central plaza. Its implications are menacing.
88. It was once thought that the Questing Beast would lead those it thought worthy to an elixir of immortality; in reality, their hunting strategy is to lead unwitting humans back to their den to be ambushed by their hatchlings.
89. The Dadu-Qon of the southeastern deserts say that their ancestors copied down a revelation from an angel; they have yet to decipher it, but believe that it will usher in a new age of peace and prosperity to the world when it is at last translated. A few fragments of the being are housed as relics, but the main crash site has not yet been found.
90. It’s said that killing the white stag is is the true sign of kingship in the Northlands; that no one has ever done it is subsequently the true sign that the Northlands needs no king.
91. All a wizard really needs to kill someone, when you get down to it, is eye contact for just long enough to trigger a fatal blood clot. Everything else is just theatrics.
92. The Megapharmikon was the pre-eminent medical text of antiquity and has remained relevant into the modern day thanks to its detailed anatomical diagrams and surgical procedures. The book’s author, the doctor-philosopher Eutukhos, wrote the text as a reflection on his 20 years serving as the surgeon-necromancer of a mercenary company.
93. In the old Longhouse Culture, a village’s chief served primarily as resource manager; great wealth disparity in one’s community was seen as a shameful display of incompetence, and from this came the modern social staple of the public fund.
94. Illuminated manuscripts look like that monk’s gravestone I saw in Kilkenny.
95. By some horticultural miracle, there is a popular strain of marijuana with a pleasant, woody smell. With the right preparation, it smells like the inside of a barbecue pit.
96. Divinatory practices can’t tell the future, but they do provide a framework for thinking about an event (past, future, or present) from different / previously unconsidered angles. 
97. The valkyries of the far north are said to be beautiful shield-maidens who usher the spirits of warriors up into the heavens. This is technically true, but only if one is looking at the proxy body and ignores the primary, which looks something like eight women fused together inside a gold-and-steel carapace.
98. Attempts to catalog the many types of tutelary spirit that act as playmates and protectors of small children have universally met with failure; there are simply too many of them.
99. One of the early confirmations of the world’s sphericality was by a Jantoo wizard who achieved enough height on his flying carpet while trying to catch a migrating phoenix that he was able to observe the curvature of the planet. The extreme cold and negligible air caused him to fall off and plunge nearly 20 miles: he survived the impact unscathed thanks to a spell enacted before he lost consciousness, with the unintended result of widely-visible and extremely funny physical comedy.
100. The Gray Witch saw the War of the Bull and the emergence of Hell firsthand, and since then has worked in secret towards a grand design: she believes that if Hell cannot be defeated then it must be mastered, and that she alone is the one able to bring all its demons to heel. She is opposed by the King of Wands, though his own motivations are obscure.