Myriad Worlds: Kit

The Kit are a thin avian race. Four-armed and therefore four-winged, their leathery lizard-like faces are sprinkled with feathers of varying shades of effervescent green, blue, and red. Skin is leathery and light.

The Kit are sometimes called the ‘underclass’ of the Myriad Worlds. While many presume this is due to a natural genetic failing on the part of the Kit, it is instead due to a great number of misunderstandings and ignorance of the civilized worlds, especially during the first contact with the Kit.

The Kit are a tribal species, living in small groups of no more than fifty. Impressively nomadic, they have little use for large tools, instead creating harnesses and belts to hold what they carry. Claimed ‘spots’ may have makeshift ovens or standing utilities, but such things are luxuries and generally ignored or overlooked by the average Kit.

The Kit do not value personal ownership as others do. Things belong to the tribe as a whole, and may be taken, used, or gifted as required for the tribe’s survival and prosperity. Because of this, the kit are highly communicative and respectful of others time and efforts.

The Kit language is simple as languages go, using single words to convey large numbers of meanings while relying on context to clarify. For example, the word Kichta is best translated as “delight,” and is used often in conversation. Whether the word means gratitude, congratulations, an emotive expression of enjoyement, a request for enjoyment, or an invitation to a celebration is left for the listener to discern.

The Kit have no concept of money, at least as the majority of the Myriad Worlds understands it. However, they do have an understanding of value and debt, as exemplified in the ’token.’ A token is a stone, carving, or ornament, of which there are usually only a few per tribe. These tokens are a kind of symbol designed to inform any who see it that the bearer has done a great service to the tribe, such that they are unofficial members and may take or use anything the tribe possesses.

This lack of cultural understanding in regards to possessions, money, and ownership, resulted in many years of confused relations, including a great number of stereotypes involving Kits being stupid thieves; both easily parted from their valuables and having no decent respect for personal property.

It is perhaps more accurate to say that Kits neither crave private ownership nor see reason in preventing another from attaining what they need. Share and share alike is the cultural watchword of their economy, meaning that the only people who cannot take what they will are those who refuse to give in turn.

The Token is at once an economic treaty, celebratory dress, and honorary blood-tie. Anyone who wears the token of a specific clan or tribe is considered one of their own, and will be given anything they desire, so long as they wish.

The number of tokens each tribe has is reflective of both their prosperity and the number of connections to outsiders. This also encourages tribes to give away their tokens, as having a large collection of tokens suggests miserliness and suspicion. The greatest tribes on record have no more than five to their name, and few tribes will ever have more than two on hand.

The Kit are remarkably intelligent and creative; their survival depends entirely on scavenging and building what they need at the moment they need it. Without a stable ‘home,’ they create most of their society on an ad hoc basis, and as such are quick to adapt to any changing situation.

These changes happen so fast they can be distracting or disturbing for those unprepared for it. Another stereotype of the Kit is their lack of attention; this is incorrect, as they are remarkably attentive…to everything around them. Minor changes in air-flow or distant sounds are important to note for the Kit, and if you are patient (and in a quiet enough location) the Kit will return its attention to you.

The Unbroken Line

Kit society has a devotion to marks and symbols that are created with a single unbroken line. This is representational of the ongoing path of time, life, and cause and effect.

For the Kit, everything is one thing. The many tribes of Kit are all one Kit. The many races, all one race. The Myriad Worlds all part of a single whole. Much as fingers are part of a hand, and a hand is part of a body, everything is but a part of everything else.

The Unbroken Line is this concept displayed chronologically. It is Aa current of air, water, or similar physical element that drives the individual forward, as it does every other singular piece.

While this is similar to many people’s concept of universal non-duality, the Kit take it to one step further by refusing to believe that anything can happen outside the line. One cannot fight the line, as one is immutably a part of it. The similarities of this philosophy to many of the Primal Religions of the Aeolam suggest that this belief is an offshoot of their interactions with the Aeolam early in their history.

Mark Makers

For the Kit, drawing, writing, magic, and prayer are all one in the same. The art of movement and dance has great spiritual significance, and the art of movement that stays is the art of drawing. As such, marking symbolic images on large rocks, broad trees, or similar canvases is akin to leaving a piece of yourself for another to pick up. This is somewhat similar to the old idea of ‘a piece of one’s mind,’ that an Idea is as much a real living thing as one’s body.

The Kit believe that communication is an act of love and community, and to leave communication for someone else to find is the ultimate act of devotion; both noble and reckless. As such, those who have the talent or ability for drawing are tutored as a Mark-Maker, a kind of Shamin.

Mark-Makers are those who can craft sounds, images, and pictures with a single line. These marks and symbols are both words and images; a pictoral language that is used in both simple communication between tribes, and magical and mystical rituals. Tales are told of ancient and powerful summonings, blessings and miraculous healings, and any number of strange and wondrous events related to these marks.

The First Mark

The legend of the First Mark deserves some mention, as it couples as something of a creation myth for the Kit folk. The First Mark was a curve marked on a skull, placed there by an ancient Kit as an act of mourning.

The story goes: an ancient Kit, bereft of thought and soul, was searching for its lover. It did not understand the term; it knew only that it was searching for familiar comfort, and perhaps one to make children with. When it found the corpse of its lover, long since eaten by scavengers and eroded by the weather, it was filled with such pain that it could do nothing but trace the shape of the skull on its forehead, leaving a curved line with its claw.

In this moment, the pain was trapped in the line, and the Kit were birthed with soul. The Kit returned to its flock to share the news, which it did with the curve. So powerful was the line that the pain was felt by the other Kit, and they too were birthed with soul, and sang and danced their sorrow to the skies until the first Kit was no longer alone.

Note: this is what the Kit are doing when they “cover their eyes.” They are not, as old stories suggest, ‘averting their gaze because if they can’t see it it doesn’t exist.’ They are marking their sorrow, sharing their grief, and so strengthening each other in times of trouble.

All of this is to say, if you have the opportunity to befriend a Kit, you will never find a kinder nor faithful companion. They are a people of remarkable intensity and deep souls.