Myriad Worlds: Yattrinti

Originating in the icy mountains of the Shadow-seas, the Yattrinti are perhaps the most aggressively bizarre people among the Myriad Worlds. Though many profess to know the subtle and intricate details of Yattrinti ettiquite, the most common experience among any of the races of the Myriad Worlds when dealing with Yattrinti is one of cold and callous disregard.

The biology of the Yattrinti is distinctly unique. Much of what we might consider integral to a species nature is belied by the differences between individual Yattrin. For immediate example, the number of tentacles posessed by any Yattrin varies between twelve to twenty. While most Yattrin have a singular row of tentacles around their body, almost twenty percent of Yattrinti possess multiple rows, up to three. Width and angle of tentacle tapering is also highly variable, while length is remarkably consistent.

Skin color ranges from pale green to deep purple, burnt red, or even effervescent blue. There appear to be no colors or patterns more common than any other. However, size and shape of a Yattrin’s central trunk is uniform across individuals. Beak length is likewise consistant, while curvature is not.

Far more reliable is a Yattrin’s behavior. The intricacies of the Yattrinti language still elludes most linguists, as even when speaking another language, the Yattrinti are incapable of speaking in anything but the most poetic and metaphorical words.

Culturally, the Yattrinti appear to view life and the usual behaviors of the living as either inconsequential or distractions from more important matters. Rare is the Yattrin who will speak in any detail about any living individual. They appear to view all of live as one gigantic puzzle with individual pieces moving in accordance to some grand design.

This makes conversing with the Yattrinti quite unpleasant. Any discussion about a concrete or actionable fact will likely be met with scorn, derision, or abuse. Theories, philosophies, and ephemeral concepts are the Yattrinti’s bread-and-butter, and speaking only about such things appears to be the only way to make any conversational headway.

This is not to say that Yattrinti never involve themselves in immediate or practical concerns, only that they are pragmatically the consummate deontologists. If you want to make a Yattrinti stand aside, you had best be prepared to discuss the means, situations, and advantages of anyone ever moving aside, and the reasoning behind them. This may make a Yattrinti stand aside, or it might make them quite cross with the argument, and either continue to debate the finer points of your discussion, or perhaps just tear your throat out with its beak.

The Yattrinti see consciousness, awareness, and individuality as — at best — an accident to be ignored, at worst a mistake to be corrected. Societal taboos around murder, torture, and similar immoralities simply do not exist among the Yattrinti, and as such they have no compunction with inflicting suffering or death upon another. It is at best a cold comfort that no Yattrinti will ever do so without reason, though their reasoning is certainly alien to all other species among the Myraid Worlds.

Recently, it appears the Yattrinti have learned — if not accepted — that other lifeforms do not have this same attitude towards the world, and have managed to temper their more callous tendancies. The folk of the Myriad Worlds need no longer worry at being abducted and dissected or experimented on by random Yattrinti.

Cuisine

Yattrinti cuisine is an enigma for other cultures, primarily because Yattrinti “cooking” is largely a passive activity. This is best explained through one of their cultural staple foods: Gurcake.

Gurcake — a somewhat literal translation of the Yattrinti word, Gur’tkack — is a fish-meat patty that has been left in a vat of low acidity alcohol for at least two days. It is then covered with ground nuts and allowed to sit in the open air for another day. This combination of marination, fermentation, and decomposition is what passes for cooking in Yattrinti cuisine.

Heating the food using oven or stove-like equipment is largely unknown in Yattrinti cuisine, with most meals consisting of raw (and sometimes still living) ingredients. The one exception to this is the making of sauces and fermentations, either for drinking or marinading.

Yattrinti brew only one kind of drinking alcohol, called Ptaq. It is incredibly sour and bitter to non-Yattrinti tongues, and most folk would do well to stay far away from any Yattrinti bars or brewers they happen to come across.

Yattrascano

The capital city of the Yattrinti is gargantuan in size, towering high over the swampy plains that are its surroundings. No matter how far afield you might find a Yattrinti, their very essence is somehow tied to Yattrascano, like a homing pigeon. They are always able to point to Yattrascano, even if they have verifiably never visited.

I was perhaps fortunate to have visited Yattrascano on a scholarly tour given by the resident sages and scientists of the third advent-arm. The journey was not long, but the experience was indeed a unique one.

Yattrinti architecture is well known for its monochromatic style, since Yattrinti eyes see different colors than most other folk of the Myraid Worlds. Texture, however, is highly prized as a decorative technique in Yattrinti architecture, and so the walls and celings are always covered with great expanses of curving indents, speckled patches, and strange patterns that can cause the head to ache if studied too closely.

The city itself was filled with looping walkways and twisting halls. I found myself constantly uncertain where certain rooms began and ended. Windows looked like they had been melted into place, while the balconies reminded me of the remains of broken walls. Beacon fires burned constantly, shedding greenish yellow light and crafting shadows of horrific intent.

I did not stay long in Yattrascano, and my hosts were not sorry to see me leave.

I did not learn much of Yattrinti culture, nor did I seek the finest inns or hotels for travelers. What little conversation I had on the subject was met with confusion; the Yattrinti see no reason in expecting visitors.

Indeed, the Yattrinti are ambivalent on the concept of other species as a whole. Their culture seems to divide living beings into Yattrinti and non-Yattrinti, and non-Yattrinti beings are either dangers, food, or things to ignore.

Thankfully, a shift has begun in Yattrinti culture to view the folk of the Myriad Worlds as a new kind of being, Klik’kim: one that is not dangerous, food, or worth ignoring. While many have tried to translate the word into “friend,” Yattrinti scholars have suggested the more accurate word might be either “enigma” or “pet.”

Over the years, many Yattrinti who have left their home to travel the Myriad Worlds have become valuable members of their chosen societies, though the Huukmagi publicly maintain that these are sick and troubled Yattrinti who have no place in their own society.

Huukmagi

The Huukmagi are a secretive group of masters of both the technological and magical. They are highly respected in Yattrinti society and operate both as a social police force and as a group of philosophers and advice givers.

Huukmagi are known to have a mutilated or malformed shape, whether by intent or accident of birth. This most often takes the form of several broken or atrophied tentacles, though there have been several recorded instances of blindness, a broken float-sack, or burned lungs. Whether these mutilations are necessary to wield the strange magical technology of the Yattrinti is largely up to speculation. It has been suggested that the mutilations are to ensure anyone who attempts to join the Huukmagi are not able to take part in any other kind of job or office.

Huukmagic has largely been described as an amalgamation of scientific technology and the mysterious magics of the Shadow-seas. As a result, Huukmagi are some of the most powerful and dangerous magicians in the Velvet. Were it not for their paranoid cultivation of their secrets, Huukmagic could easily turn the Yattrinti people into a Velvet-spanning Empire within years.

The Huukmagi have hinted that they are aware of this fact, though have not yet revealed if they see this as a desirable result or not.