Uniima Culture - Tumblr Posts

Which one of your creatures tastes best when cooked?

I was planning to do a bit more than this but sadly my mind is not doing the thing (the focus). Also- the "tastes the best" here only applies to some people of a single species.

This is a parasitic fruit (it does not aid in reproduction of the plant) you only really see once a year. It's often hard to spot and even harder to harvest at the right time as it's one of the few mobile fruits that changes its host plant regularly. (And when ripe it explodes and rots away very fast.)

However, because of its size, rarity, and traits, it's considered a delicacy. If you were to compare it to human foods, this fruit is fatty, very sweet and the bottom part can taste quite meatlike.

It's best served steamed or 'grilled' with raw eggsseeds. No seasoning added. Don't overcook it or it becomes mushy inside.

Can be made into gourmand alcohol.

Foru flora fruit reproduction - for context: The fruit of Foru trees is alive. Small flying animals, sometimes difficult to see with a naked eye, spread 'pollen' (sometimes also spores/seeds) of plants and later some of them attach themselves to a new plant. There they begin injecting the plant with signals that make it start feeding them. As the small organism matures it loses its eyes, legs and stops producing wastes. The plant, now connected firmly to the animal grows it's seeds inside the animal, using it as protection and 'incubator' of those seeds. In the meanwhile the fruit also gets fertilized and produces eggs in its top layer. While it depends on species, most often a ripe fruit dies and opens its back to release hundreds of small frying creatures. The remaining fruit might get eaten by another animal or fall on a comfy spot where seeds can start growing.

These designs might not be final. Still working out Foru flora.

On the left, an older caretaker from some island culture. Sleepy babies get to hold on the adult's piercings. The ones too young get a ride in the basket.

On the right, an egg arch (a reproductive leader) of a coastal culture. The babies on their neck don't have the balance to walk but might not be so sleepy. Unlike the caretaker the arch carries their own children. They make great accessories but being your parent's keychains is also a good exercise, experts say.

Climbing on big uniimas is natural to a baby. Since uniima are evolved to be arboreal, it's better they can climb and grip as soon as possible. Their giant heads make it easy to hold their full weight on their jaws.

Before becoming a parent or a caretaker, one needs to realize they will also become a tree, a mountain, and a hanger.

bigger Central religion post

Journey of the lost souls by an unknown pilgrim

A scene from the story of the "crystal Head".

With the help of a "harpy", the great sinner crosses the bridge to the new land as their sea-born crystal body cracks under the weight of a thousand souls.

If they were to fail, the sky may become richer, but the Uniima will end.

This is a bigger central Foru uniima religion post. All the information here is about the central religion's beliefs, not the world's biology or physics.

Now let's get the context for the painting.

To leave the Physical, one must die at a ripe age so that their wisdom can be put to the test. The glowing triangles are the souls of uniima. They resemble a larva/white and are parasite-like in behavior. After a soul is released out of a body by premature death (or created) it holds onto someone (soul-binds) until it's passed into a new body. Soul bonded can be anything with a soul but uniima souls are picky in what they cling onto and usually pick a parental figure, a friend, or pupil. When the soul senses an empty unii-body, it moves in. Twins/triplets are considered 'one-soul' with special powers.

The one depicted to carry this soul mass is the uniiman spiritual leader/s (their historical body and events), sometimes called the Heads, but there's definitely a better name in the native language (slomen and O.s use this name). The Head/s existed for most of the religion's history and is the one to name the 'uniima' (translates "own-one-mind". It's the name of the central people. Because of historical events, it caught on between aliens as the species name). Head/s is immortal because of a "curse" set on them for breaching into the spiritual world thousands of years ago. Since this event, they have been changing bodies and fixing their sins until today. Nowadays, they are considered the wisest, mentally strongest, and morally cleanest soul - an inspiration for everyone (which keeps them in power over Central Foru among other things).

More about the current Heads.

This art comes from an early chapter, only a few hundred years after the creation of people. After the Head dooms the uniima by peaking into the Spiritual, society starts falling faster than it did ever before, finally resulting in the 'death of creature people'. This society was one of constant sin and destruction since no holy parts were remaining (too complicated, let's leave that for another time), so this scene is something of a strange bitter-sweet moment. With both the land and the people gone (yes, land too), the Head is once more reincarnated - being put into a body of melted sand and rock. They collect all the wandering souls unable to ascend and travel to a new land with the help of a half-uniima-half-animal who feels sorry for the people it shares a soul with. This journey is the first major lesson and soul-cleaning of the Head. Now, what is the thing in their jaws?

This motive is common in images with the Head, but it's not very realistic for the time period. These "flesh lists" worn on the lower tongue-hand are a modern-ish invention. People wear these on special occasions. They show all the past lives on a uniima and can get very long in high mortality areas (soul moves until a body reaches the desired age to be final-judged). The significance and uses of these in status get very complicated, but I will keep it simple. A short scarf/list makes one seem strong, with potential, being naturally gifted, and wealthy. A long scarf shows weakness, and a tendency to sin, but also patience, and a wise mind (which in many cases is the most important feature of a person).

In religious art, "scarfs" help mark chapters, but in "Journey of the lost souls" it's to depict the scale of the tragedy.

Lastly, the Heads' stomach. It shows them moving a large "hole" out of their body. This is symbolism for shedding a sin. It's said a mind and body should be able to naturally "regurgitate" any "object" out of their stomach, clean of the evil within it.

Bad nature - sins, bad thoughts (even physical stuff such as poison and drugs), is stored in the stomach. The "hungrier" you are the more evil you have to shed and the more you are controlled by this "evil hunger". Being flagged as a "stomach-thinker" is not calling you a food enjoyer but rather an insane/deranged person. However, some regions consider the stomach the default thinking center (what's a brain?), so it's more like a scale of good to bad stomach.

If anything needs more explaining or isn't explained properly, please inform me in the replies or send me an ask for a dedicated post. Thank you for reading this far <3

An elder master performing one of many forms of a silent wing dance. The goal of this show is to appeal to the eyes alone, using movement and colors - making too much sound is seen as a failure in this specific style.

Some of the silent dances might try to confuse the watcher with fabric appearing as other body parts or wing flags that cover most of the performer. With uniiman arts, there are really too many variants to cover as their whole deal is to compete and innovate (but most often can still be categorized).

To some, the silent dance is more artistic than the loud one while others find it lazy not to play music with the body. It really is a question of taste.

Based on the crest drawings of this uniima it seems their show's purpose is to find 3 partners and create three lives. This however isn't because their dance or outfit is sexual, it is simply a show of skill with an additional message.

What about uniima/Fueem’s religion causes them to see Neal as a sloman?

This ask is probably a reaction to this post where I share some of Fueems thoughts if anyone wants to read it.

Here's a post about small aspect of the wider ueemic religion here.

But shrimply! Fueem's regional variant of this faith is pretty close to the one considered the "base" ueemic type. They are a follower of the heads and their rules and are knowledgeable in the ways of soul right.

In more recent years (like 30) the Eye has declared a soul right for every alien (any sophont found in the world so far) with some distinct rules for each but still similar to how uniima souls work.

Because this addition to the base religion is pretty recent, there are many versions of how this works for different people-species but nothing is fully agreed on. There's also the problem of most uniima never seeing a live sloman or knowing their biology/reproduction. So lot of the existing interpretations are based on accounts of a few ueema. Now if those guys weren't good drawers, someone else had to visually interpret their interpretation and welp. The farther from the Heads (the religion central) the weirder looking and weirder working other aliens are in art and literature.

So a recap. When a uniima dies (according to ueema belief) they release a soul. This soul in some way (depending on subculture etc.) gets attached to a person who was close to the dead person. At a point, the soul will jump to a baby at the right point in its development. This baby can be the new child of the soul wearer or just close to them. Usually, the wearer has to meet the "body" at least once. There are a lot more rules and stuff but this is long enough!

So anyway, this is probably what Fueem imagines happened to Neal spiritually.

Making Neal have the soul of once-sloman and thus being one too.