Tales of a Grimdark World Notepad 1

Deep under rock, Peacekeeper Guards, bulkheads, mag-locks and purity seals is the The Hall of the Forgotten. This is Sub-Z of the Undercoft. In this vast 20 x 5km x 20 km Gothic hall, there is an Stone Age society of 11.75 million Feral Gamemakers. Here, the Order casts out those with Gamemaker Derangement Syndrome. The Mad / Psy chotic Phase Gamemakers sit tapping their holograms while the Feral Gamemakers crawl, nest and war around them.

These "feral" Gamemakers have primitive social and technological behaviors such as tribal social organization, kin-band group living, territorial behavior and scavenging for tools and objects. Walls are often marked with simplified glyph markings, with totems built from bones while the ferals sign and tap to each other. The ferals may be primitive, but they are as smart as any other Gamemaker and have developed a complex stone age society and multiple regional languages.

There are beliefs and cultural aspects related to hair color along with other things. For a society with only Gamemaker body parts, and stone to work with they have advanced surprisingly far with complex tools and weapons and even Cold Digestion and prosthetic limbs.

I. I. I. Clan-Kin Languages:

Given that they have lost their mind-link, you may ask "How do they talk?" The answer is that there is are many dialects of Gamemaker sign of the Hall of the Forgotten, along with tap-codes. There are many parallels to Avox languages, and like Avox langues, they are hyper-localized and diverse. A Mirror-Hair from Pillar-532 is unlikely to understand the signs of a Ember-Hair 2 km away.

The 117,500 Rare Variants, being the shamans of the Hall, are also the translators and diplomats of the Hall, knowing an Universal Trade-Sign, they are able to bridge the gaps between tribes. This common sign-tongue is simple, having signs such as "Bait Location," "Guards," and "Hydrogen.". These ferals often visit several tribes as to be able to coordinate a massive hunt.

This leads to them being polyglots, able to sign and tap many languages. Some have been known to know over ten languages. Some signs have survived decades such as: "The-Fade" (GDS), a hand passing over the eyes and then opening into an empty palm and "Clawed Circle" (representing the Capitol ceiling seal).

Known Feral Gamemaker Language Families:

Hand-Signs:

Most tribes have hand sign languages, with specific signs for different types of Moon-Silver bones, Gamemaker hair and other common items and verbs. A hooked finger represents a "Rib-Hook" for climbing and a flat palm represents a "Shovel-Blade" for moving dust.

Tactile-codes:

Many hives use languages of pressure, heat, and percussion, where a sharp squeeze on a shoulder-blade may tell about the next Avox maintenance shift or a specific rhythmic thrumming of the fingers against another'sskin talks about the news from a few pillars across. Along touching Gamemakers, messages can pass quickly.

Long-Light:

In the high vaults, the Mirror-Hairs and Glass-Hairs use the light, their hands and their hair to send messages. Using their hands and hair, the Gamemaker catches and clips the light into pulses. This language is of flashes and optical physics, allowing a far away Gamemaker to see from even many pillars across.

Rock-Sign:

These are signs that use the Acoustic Resonance of the Hall’s metal skeleton and the different pipes having different pitches to use a Low-Frequency map. By tapping with their claws, they can send messages. Two long taps can be "I am safe." and three short taps can mean "White-Ones coming, run.".

Fade-Sign:

Some of the new ferals use their old dialects from the time as sane Gamemakers, such as the graceful, academic hand-gestures of the High Nobility or the tap codes of the Low Nobility. Ferals tend to ignore those using Fade-Sign, and it is rarely understood. Some tribes have even been known to attack them.

Gamemaker hair colors among the Clan-Kin.

99% of the Clan-Kin Gamemakers are of the common hair colors, but 9% are uncommon colors and 1% are of the rare hair colors. Clan-Kin Gamemakers of particular hair colors tend to prefer different environments, leading towards tribes in different regions as tending towards having a fixed range of hair colors.

A new Clan-Kin is often clueless, and wandering for a while. The tribe they join is determined by their hair color, often the first fitting tribe that they come across. Instinct drives them to the correct environment, eg a glass-hair will set up on a long path up a pillar towards the top.

Geography of the hall of the Forgotten:

Fusion-Roots:

0-100 meters up. In the very hot sectors are the base of the 2-kilometer pillars that contain the primary cold-fusion conduits. In these areas, the temperature is above 50 C / 122 F. Common Gamemaker colors here are red, metallic gold, metallic copper, orange. Anomalous colors found here are Ember-Hair and Glow-Heart Gamemakers.

Mirage-Rain:

500-800 meters up. In the hot sectors the Industrial Rain mixes with leaking hydraulic fluids and ozone near the mid-section of the hall. Common Gamemaker colors here are yellows, red-purples, and warm yellow-greens.. Anomalous colors found here are Mirage-Strand and Oxidation Bloom Gamemakers.

Mid-Zones:

800-1400 meters up. In the Fluctuating Mid-Zones, the hot air from the floor meets the freezing air from the ceiling. The 100 meter wide fans create thermal tides. Common Gamemaker colors here are balanced greens, pinks and purples. Anomalous colors found here are Color-Shift and Layer-hair.

Dust-Slicks

1500-1800 meters up. In the cold sectors, the air is freezing as the Precambrian rock absorbs all heat and the pillars are slick with frozen moon-silver dust. Common Gamemaker colors here are blue, blue-purples, blue-greens, white, silver. Anomalous colors found here are Light-Change and Cracked-Hair.

Arch-Peaks:

1800-2000 meters up. In the very cold sectors, the oily industrial rain freezes here into a slippery frost onto to the very peak of the Gothic arches. Common Gamemaker colors here are ice blues, deep blue-violet, metallic silver, white with a frosted look. Anomalous colors found here are Mirror-Hair and Glass-Hair.

Clan-Kin Culture:

The Clan-Kin tribes are divided into color-tribes, (all one shades of hair color), the rare-tribes (all one rare hair color), the band-tribes (those uncommon colors who's hair shares a temperature band, the mismatch-tribes (uncommon colors who do not share a temperature band and the shade-tribes (outcasts of color-tribes who band together by shade)

Mainline Tribes

The bulk of the Hall's population belongs to the color-tribes such as the Scurrying-Hands-In-The-Dark tribe, an orange hair tribe or the Bringers-of-the-End, yellow-hair tribe. In these tribes, pastel-colored Gamemakers are often the base-keepers), bright-colored Gamemakers as the warriors and dark-colored as the hunters. The pastel-colored Gamemakers are considered to be soft/gentle and, the bright colors as aggressive/war-like and dark colors as "sneaky/cunning"

For tribes breaking tribe law, assuming the Gamemaker was not killed, leads to them being cast out. Such Gamemakers are considered person non gratra along the color-tribes. Such Gamemakers flee to join outcast shade-tribes.

Rare-tribes:

Tribes made from Clan-Kin sharing a rare hair color, each of the rare colors has a sacred role in the feral society of the Hall. The Ember-Hairs are seen as "living fires" and so are used as a social space. The Glow-Hearts are the "light-bearers" and who's light is as a beacon. The Oxidation Bloom Gamemakers are seen as masters of ambush (as they blend into the metal), and often lead hunts.

The Mirage-Strands are considered Light-Benders, able to control light. The Light-Change Gamemakers are believed to be warriors who's hair blends with their environment and lead wars. The Mirror-Hairs are the Tribe-Talkers who's mirrored hair reflects flash-code talk across the Hall. And the Glass-Hairs are the "ghosts" of the Hall of the Forgotten, who are hard to see until it is too late.

Band-tribes

For Gamemakers who share an uncommon hair color, and an temperature band, the band-tribes await. They are welcome along a temperature band, of the Hall, but not along a color-tribe as their hair is multiple colors. Such tribes include the Arch-Peaks Clingers-On-High-Arches, a tribe of color-shifts and the Crawlers-Along-The-Bones, a tribe of layer-hairs in the Fusion-Roots.

Mismatch-tribes

For Gamemakers who do not share a temperature band, but do share an uncommon morph, they end up joining a mismatch-tribe. These tribes are welcome nowhere, as they do not match a temperature band, and so are nomadic traders or raiders. They wander the entire hall, not bound to one temperature band. Mismatch Gamemakers are less then 1% of the Hall's population.

Shade-Tribes

For the outcasts of the color-tribes, they group together by their shade of their hair color. Eg there are the Diggers-Along-The-Bones, who have sunflower-yellow hair, and the Crawlers-On-The-Pillars, who have blush-pink hair. These tribes are treated as outlaws by clan-kin and and so are nomadic within an temperature band, to avoid death.

Clan-Kin Food

Gamemakers in the Hall eat bio-Synthetic Hybrids, fungi that can feed on the radiation and heavy metals of the Gamemaker environment. These mushrooms flow in the zones under the primary cooling ribs. Using Gamemaker bone mortars, they turn the cultivated mushrooms into a fine, grey powder. This goes into an hollowed-out structural joint or a discarded reactor casing and is mixed with industrial enzymes leaked from the pipes, and harvested "Soft Meat.".

Over a few days, the Cold Digestion chemically turns it into a grey, watery fluid. When an Avox is captured, they are also added to the pot. The skin is stripped for leather, the bones are turned into tools, and the hair is used to feed mushrooms. Nothing is wasted. Often, heat is used to speed up fermentation and old and injured Gamemakers often stir the vats and grow the mushrooms. Often, older warrior-Gamemakers are assigned as guards.

The food is stored in vials of hollowed out bone sealed with Avox fat wax and is used as a mobile food source.

Clan-Kin Prosthetic limbs

Clan-Kin Gamemakers have skilled crafters along their ranks who are able to make Prosthetic limbs using their Gamemaker engineering knowledge and the bones, hair and other Gamemaker body parts around them. Using these parts, they can make articulated hardware to near perfectly replace limbs. If a Clan-Kin Gamemaker looses a hand, they use the delicate, lightweight finger-bones of a Gamemaker as a frame, with the hair of a Gamemaker threaded though the hollowed-out marrow of the bones as "tendons."

These tendons are attached to the muscles in the feral's forearm, so that when the feral flexes, the hair pulls and the fingers snap shut. If a Clan-Kin Gamemaker looses a leg, they use bone rubes filled with rendered Human-Fluid. This creates a primitive but effective shock-absorber. Like with arms, the tendons are made of Gamemaker hair, braided to make it stronger. The foot is made of bones with crampons of claws to allow climbing.

These prosthetic limbs are made by the Crafters, who use bio-electric hair to create a "sensory" prosthetic. The bio-electric hair is woven into the metal to allow the Feral to feel the vibrations made by others using their artificial limb. The Mirage-Strand hair can be used to make hard to see prosthetic that warp light. The Crafters are paid in flesh or mushroom slurry and live near the ground where the bones and hair are.

Such prosthetic are status symbols along their kind, often marked with markings carved into the bone about the Gamemaker's history such as hunts or former rank.