Sulyafuj

The Sulyafuj, known also as the sun-spider people and 'those who hide from the sun' are a confederate of tribes who inhabit Sealtland and Meldland. They are the only tribe in Sealtland to successfully implement irrigation and water treatment and live nocturnally to avoid the heat-derived miasma during the day. Due to their priests' abilities to turn lead into silver, they were able to create silver pipes for irrigation and their systems are highly sought out but complex and expensive to implement.

They are fiercely competitive and have very strict societal laws. When the miasma is low they hold a night market of hunted and foraged goods, being one of the most proficient trappers in the Sealtland as well as using metal detectors to find valuables. 

Who are they and what do they look like?

• The Sulyafuj are a confederation of Kubeleya peoples who live in underground kingdoms, both to hide from the sun and miasma, but also to access underground water reserves
• They range in height and build depending on the tribe and where they live/what they consume, as they live in an arid and inhospitable area of petrified garbage and heavily acidic aboveground water, which they make into wine and sweeten with lead
• Some of them interbreed with the Gvaneti, who are one of the most widespread, and so they have multiple eyes - most have two or four with two atrophied ones
• Their hair is usually thick and bushy, ranging from orange, dark reddish to black, some have albinism and their hair is white
• Skin colour is not genetic and the amount of melanin depends on how protected they are from the sun, their body hair is thick and helps protect them from that, and their melanin content can slowly change over time, unless they have albinism
• Their canine teeth are sharper and stronger than some other Kubeleya but not in a noticeable way, their jaws are also stronger

What are their senses or perceptions?

• They have poor eyesight but detect light/shadow and movement very well, they often don’t remember facial details of people but they’ll remember the details of how they move in terms of recognition
• Because of their exposure to Heavy Metal, especially lead, they have a high tolerance to its neurotoxic effects and for that reason it is easy to keep outsiders out if they need to
• They are photosensitive, really sensitive to sun, and it can permanently blind them or carbonize their skin if they’re out in it too long. So they often use special umbrellas made from petrified fibers or wear veils
• They tend to be hydrophobic because their hair doesn’t trap water very well, aquaculture is usually handled by their client tribes
• They are carnivorous which is a hard thing to be in a place with little organic matter, so they often eat their defeated enemies in war, and their jellow is made from marrow more often than redweed

Where are they in your setting?

• They mostly live in Sealtland, which is a giant desert of petrified garbage with a large river (Tamesas) that runs through it and brings in more trash from the sea as well as harmful algae blooms (which are a substitute for meat sometimes).
• There were communities in Meldland but when the Coriniaid became difficult to predict, and hunting them for food proved difficult, they retreated underground and stopped using rock oil

How do they survive in their environment?

• They are extremely resourceful hunters and have tolerance to a lot of forever chemicals and garbage
• They have strong jaws and can easily tear through tough things
• They have good night vision and hunting abilities
• Excellent Heavy Metal magicians who can build advanced civilizations
• Some have settled in Eskern because the tree canopy keeps them from the sun and there is also better food in Eskern (food being other people like Locii and Myacoris… they are enablers of infanticide, and also eat galls, stealing them from Vespula trees)

What is their general attitude?

• They have very strict social castes and laws on gender/sex roles, and castrate infecund members, which changes their pheremones and allows fecund members to ignore those potential partners
• Basically they have a huge, draconian fertility cult and are a matriarchy
• Their infecund females often become warriors and serve as “handmaidens” to the Queen, children are communally raised by scholars and teachers and they are caste based with strict gender roles, having at least six genders
• They tend to get along with other members of their species but in times of drought or recession, will hold war games to cull members of their client tribes for food

How do they feel about the other peoples?

• They see most tribes aside from powerful Kubeleya like the Gvaneti as lesser than them
• They don’t engage in parasitism but do engage in cannibalism and infanticide
• They are eternal territory/food rivals with the Herdstalkers, whose poison they are not immune to, and in fact, more susceptible to. In war games, Sulyafuj who lose to a Herdstalker in battle will be poisoned and made docile or enslaved, as the Herdstalkers do take the children of their defeated enemies and raise them