Gehurm (/ˈɡɛ hɜːrm/ ɢᴇʜ-hurm)

Known History

Beginnings

Natives of the Underworld, the gehurm are a people seen as both familiar and innately mysterious to many of the surface denizens of Veltrona. The gehurm are known for their proud and resolute natures, occupying a liminal space between a society of individuals and a collective of many bodies. While not a proper hive mind, as seen with the bieneren, nor wholly independent as many others are, the gehurm's unusual nature nonetheless contributes to the majesty of their unique queendoms in the dark, unseen corners of the world.   It is unfortunately difficult to speak for the true history of the gehurm, as their species originates in the Underworld proper. The exodus that would see them come to the surface of Veltrona happened at a time of great hardship and peril for their people. In many ways, their ancient civilizations across the Underworld were collapsing as both foreign powers and natural threats tore them apart. What has survived for modern scholars to study are largely incomplete records, folktales and stories passed through oral tradition, and whatever knowledge other Underworld species have to offer; e.g, lindwurm and zoaen.   What can be said with reasonable certainty is that the gehurm were a large and powerful force within the Underworld, but were also politically isolationist. They jealously guarded their claimed domains from outside intrusion, at the same time veltronaforming them into their own ideal habitats. Because of this, and because they rarely (if ever) allowed the passage or admittance of outsiders into their lands, gehurm territories were functionally massive roadblocks between the various Underworld civilizations. This created a consistent friction that worsened over time as other Underworld civilizations developed and grew, and eventually the gehurm’s neighbors saw them as impediments to their own expansionist goals. As the gehurm saw even others of their own kind as rivals just as much as outsiders of other species, their civilizations were lonesome bastions that were whittled away with no allies to call upon for reinforcement.   The hardships brought on by this slow attrition over the centuries led to dramatic changes in gehurm world view and policy. The different gehurm nidus(es)—a nest, city-state, hive, and similar—diverged and began to consider diplomacy as an option, opening up selective trade routes for their neighbors. Others instead doubled down on old philosophies, becoming radicalized from self-imposed sieges to instead take to waging pre-emptive or retaliatory wars and genocides against their neighbours, becoming highly xenophobic of anything that wasn't them. However, it soon became a conspicuous time where a great and unexpected change occurred across the entire Underworld.   Scholars believe this time period to coincide with the planet-thundering explosion of the World Gate. While the surface was devastated by said explosion and the resulting fallout of the Great Darkness, it isn't well known how much it impacted the Underworld. It's clear there was an impact, as veltronic deformation and veltronquakes from the explosion caused significant damage at such depths that even the zoaen themselves migrated to the surface. The gehurm, while recalling the same time, were less concerned by the veltron damage than what followed immediately after.   A here-to-unknown species simply referred to by the gehurm as the Great Enemy emerged from some place even deeper in the planet, beneath the Underworld as the denizens there conceived of it. These 'super predators'—described as bipedal monstrosities that devoured mana directly from their victims—eclipsed the gehurm in all ways and rampaged through their niduses with impunity, consuming anything that wasn’t inert stone.   Some of these niduses, realizing that they had no hope of defeating this new foe, chose to flee rather than fight. Of these fleeing refugees, some discovered strange and bizarre rifts in space-time—'wurmholes' as they were called—that took them to 'an alien and strange world', later discovered to be various points on Veltrona’s surface. Though ill-understood as to how and why they formed, the gehurm refugees fled through these wurmholes and destroyed them afterward, preventing their fearful enemy from following.    

Strangers in a Strange Home

While the ultimate fate of the gehurm who remained in the Underworld is unknown, the refugees who fled through the wurmholes to the surface became the ancestors of the gehurm known to monsterkind today. Having arrived in the midst of the Great Darkness, the gehurm beheld a bizarre world: mass weather systems, strange lifeforms of never-before-seen physiological make, wall-less landscapes shifting and churning, the unbearable discomfort of the vast, dust-shrouded sky, and so on. It is rather difficult to discern, even in the modern day, what the gehurm beheld as being actually strange or just ordinary parts of Veltrona's surface they'd never seen before. Either way, they suffered severe cultural shock and were terribly frightened of where they'd arrived.   Though always present in their population, if generally untested due to the ultimately enclosed nature of the Underground, the vastness of Veltrona’s Overworld traumatically triggered the gehurm's innate kenophobia, or fear of open spaces and voids. They dug themselves back into the veltron quickly, burrowing into the soft soil and loose rock to carve out the spaces needed for remaking their niduses. Unfortunately for the gehurm, the shallow stone and soils of Veltrona's surface were very ecologically and geologically different compared to the Underground proper, and did not suit their traditional architecture and agriculture very well. They could not tunnel to equitable food sources, and restarting their own farms proved even more challenging. Whether they wished to or not, the gehurm were forced to venture out onto the surface and scrounge up whatever they could.   It is these groups of gehurm hunter-gatherers that most other civilizations encountered, albeit under unfortunate circumstances. Mistaken for some manner of alien monstrosities brought upon by the strange times of the Great Darkness, most of Veltrona's civilizations violently reacted to the gehurm's presence. The fact that no common language existed between them only further complicated matters. If the gehurm were recognized as people at all, then as malicious invaders from which unspeakable horrors awaited. This would become the norm throughout the Great Darkness, but the gehurm found some allies: namely, the familiar lindwurms and zoaen who recognized the gehurm.   Although historical 'enemies' of a kind, the gehurm were desperate for aid, and so even their most stubborn niduses beseeched these familiar peoples for aid. The zoaen, at least, were in a similar situation and struggling to establish themselves, and were either unwilling or fundamentally unable to offer much material assistance. The lindwurms, however, having greater security thanks to their ties with their cousins on the surface (dragonkind), were more than fine with helping the gehurm. As they had with the zoaen, the lindwurms' knowledge of the surface and understanding of the gehurm allowed for the creation of effective translation, and thus language. While still very much strangers, the gehurm could at least begin talking to their 'new neighbors', though it took time for even basic diplomacy to be established in those societies who initially viewed the gehurm as invaders.    

Us and Them

As the skies cleared and the Great Darkness came to an end, the gehurm were faced with an altogether newer challenge. As a species from the Underworld that’d never known the Overworld prior, and being totally blind, they had no concept of what the 'sun' was. When it finally reappeared in the skies, the gehurm were alarmed by the sudden increase in heat as well as the overbearing sensation of a predator watching them. By necessity, the gehurm ended up taking on nocturnal habits, as nighttime offered a cool reprieve and safety from the alien sun. Even with this experience, they couldn't understand how surface dwellers withstood being in the presence of sunlight, or why they venerated it so much.   This, unfortunately, only further alienated them from most other species, who were principally diurnal. They did, however, meet and establish contact with other 'dark dwellers', such as the vampyr and fungal lauraume. Long-used to ostracization because of their own natures, they were more willing than other species to establish common grounds with the gehurm, and so beget new relations of a kind focused primarily on trade. What truly surprised the gehurm, however, was meeting the bieneren themselves.   As a gestalt intelligence, the bieneren superorganism bore similarities to the gehurm, albeit as a 'true hive mind'. While the gehurm had clearer concepts of individuality, their group-oriented social nature was nonetheless reflected in their own unique biology. The bieneren, from the gehurm's perspective, were the only species in the Overworld even remotely close to understanding their way of life properly. The problem then became that the gehurm struggled to understand the bieneren hive mind separately from their own experiences, as the gehurm did not have any such characteristic themselves. Still, the bieneren's general friendliness made exchange and trade easy to do for the gehurm fortunate enough to cross paths with their hives, and this goodwill between the two species would become an important cornerstone for the surface-dwelling gehurm as a whole.   With these unusual but mostly reliable allies helping to acclimate and support the gehurm on the surface, a number of gehurm niduses were able to safely establish themselves in less 'populated' regions of the world. Anthropologists usually place the bulk of the gehurm as having emerged in southeastern Immensio along the Divine Mountain range of Mount Skyreach. Others emerged in eastern Temu, northern Fauverngarz, and incidental populations elsewhere. Within a century, however, only those of Immensio, Fauverngarz, and Temu seem to have survived. The others are believed to have died out from war, famine, or disease; notably, those in Nerzin were most likely slaughtered by cultivators. Those exact reasons are contested by local accounts and the accounts of the purported cultivators or their sects which are alleged to be involved in the incident.    

Spires of We Endless

Naturally gifted with creativity, the gehurm 'see' reality as a fungible medium, and themselves as the weavers who change its tapestry. Compounding this, since the beginning of their species’ existence the gehurm worldview has been firmly rooted in the understanding of spatial, inhabitable pockets and solid stone. Thus, if the gehurm wanted more living space, it had to be mined out and engineered in a way to become habitable and not collapse upon itself. A task they took to well, with each Underworld nidus being described by surviving surface descendents as pinnacles of artwork. Their proficiency in shaping the veltron to their whims embedded in their ancestors the idea that the gehurm were very much the mistresses of their world, and their descendents who came to Veltrona's surface only discovered that they decidedly were not.   For as much as their world view collapsed, the new possibilities before them proved even more exciting.   The vastness of not only Veltrona, but the Dark Ocean above her, offered a boundless frontier even their most stone-bound dreams never dared to imagine. Gehurm constructs could be made unimpeded through the air (if collapsing due to a lack of structural support once implied by being tethered to rock walls), niduses would have larger (and more elaborately filled-in) spaces, they could dedicate more areas to art, recreation, and worship without worrying about sacrificing space needed to support the daily concerns of life, and so on. Countless centuries of hyper-optimizing to life in the Underworld had been upended, and the gehurm had to learn how to live with these world-changing differences.   It would come to be a great challenge unto itself, especially as the gehurm no longer had the natural ecosystems they depended upon. While sustenance as an issue had been solved as a matter of necessity, their new diets still consisted of strange foods that they had to adapt into cultural cuisine. That and their new surface locales remained quite alien in terms of their biochemical properties as well.   Pheromonal signaling is incredibly important to gehurm biological health, both from their environment and from one another. In simpler terms, the vast majority of the gehurm are born as nyups, or females who are sexually mature yet infertile. Among these nyups, certain members—through a combination of social and physiological factors—will metamorphize into reproductive-capable females or males. Among these, females become the large and powerful matriarchs, while males largely suffice as smaller mating spouses. Other biomorph forms, such as warriors or feelers, arise from these pheromonal processes as well.   The exact circumstances that lead to the emergence of these distinct forms of gehurm is not an exact science, even to them. Nonetheless, their natural ecosystems played an important role in regulating this process, and suddenly being deprived of the familiar flora and fauna their ancestors had relied upon for millennia wrought havoc on the surface gehurm. Sometimes too many females emerged, too many males, none at all, etc, and this would happen regularly enough it greatly destabilized their concept of a balanced and healthy civilization.   For many generations, the surface-dwelling gehurm struggled to figure out some way of restoring, or at least finding, balance among their different populations, less their numbers collapse entirely. This underlying chaos would become the impetus for many gehurm families to diversify and spread out, either to find answers or to avoid civil war.    

The Shifting Dark

Seeing themselves in a fundamentally vulnerable position and lacking the military might to defend against Overworld threats, especially against powerful species like dragonkind or great civilizations such as the Aerthen Imperial Federation, most gehurm niduses settled on the idea that 'beneath their notice' as an effective first line of defense; albeit an unsustainable one   While the bieneren became a vital gateway to gehurm trading needs, they obviously couldn't solely relied upon forever. The likes of the vampyr, zoaen, and other allies forged through trade made for good alternatives, and so became stepping stones to the gehurm's continual growth towards becoming an independent power in their own right. Great and sprawling underground networks grew as the gehurm labored to stabilize these vital connections, becoming altogether important strategic assets in their own right.   What would become a great challenge for the niduses, however, was establishing regular contact with the diurnal civilizations of the world. Be it the territorial muurun, the communal nebusah, conniving harpies, or otherwise, such affairs were both perilous and stressful for decades and centuries at a time. Yet, the gehurm found most success with nomadic peoples, such as the urni and helunae, who were far more willing to deal with the relatively unknown gehurm. Through them, deeper connections to the broader, sedentary cultures these nomads traded with became possible. It soon begat a careful balancing act of overt diplomacy and subtle interactions, for the gehurm matriarchs feared becoming embroiled in the affairs of Overworld civilizations—especially their wars.   While the success or failure of these endeavors became history, the gehurm were never without one collective fear: their Great Enemy deep below in the Underworld.   Once gehurm scholars accepted the idea that the Overworld and Underworld were, in fact, part of the same singular planet, the next immediate conclusion became that their Great Enemy would inevitably one day tunnel up into them again. Even those who had adapted to the Overworld proper as their 'new' home could not deny their fears of the Great Enemy, the trauma deeply ingrained in every surviving gehurm culture. Thus, while the gehurm garnered friendly relations where they could, many matriarchs planned and conspired on a much longer time scale.   One day, the Great Enemy would come, and the gehurm would not lose a second time—no matter what. Time and fortune permitting, it would be the gehurm who would strike back.      

Biology

Anatomy and Physiology

A sexually dimorphic species of humanoids, there is some debate if the gehurm themselves have two or three sexes because of their physical differences: nyups (infertile females), numks (reproductive females), and males. The vast majority of the gehurm species is comprised of nyups, followed by females, and then the incredibly rare males. However, even within these ’three sexes’, dramatic physical differences can and do regularly exist due to biomorph growth and molting behaviors.   The overall structure of the gehurm body is that of a chitinous humanoid with an eyeless head that boasts a large structural crest, a torso with two arms that end in four digit hands, a long and dexterous tail, and two legs that end in four-toed quasi-plantigrade feet. The gehurm are uniquely composed of both a endo- and exoskeletal schema, similar to the rachtoh. Their endoskeleton, however, is relatively smaller and denser in its structure, with much of the expected functionality instead being taken up by a larger proportion of protective, flexible fleshy mass and the more armour-like chitinous exoskeleton. The exact balance of these three factors, endoskeleton, exoskeleton, and flesh, varies greatly among the gehurm bioforms and is considered the primary means of distinguishing between them.   Gehurm ‘flesh’, as it is understood, is expandable and self-lubricating (a mucus-like substance, giving it a glossy appearance), and boasts naturally bioluminescent patterns. Bearing great similarities to sea slugs, gehurm flesh serves both as musculature, sensory suite, and as a means of social communication through its pheromones and bioluminescent displays.   This flesh, while largely encased in a protective chitinous exoskeleton, emerges outward from their body in special 'vents' that coincide with additional, armor-like layers of chitin. For instance, the crest of the head has vents in between the crests/ridges to which interior flesh can be seen, and even extend out of. The hands and feet, being entirely armored and sealed in, cannot extrude flesh, but the forearms and calves often have locations that do. The torso, particularly the shoulders and upper back, are common vent locations as well.   Some shermadi scholars have likened the gehurm to being similar to sea anemones, as both have hardy 'shells' from which their 'squishy feelers' can extend out of or retract into. Draconic scholars have noted that gehurm 'flesh vents' and chitin formation coincide closely with the scale-growth pattern of scale-bearing species, implying an underlying commonality. This is most evident on gehurm arms and legs, where armor-like chitin layers and flesh vents correspond with the exterior facing sides of the limbs, which prevents impedance to the range of motion to joints. From another view, gehurm chitin armor is very 'plate-like', reminiscent of platemail rather than the scalemail usually seen among dragons.   Additional chitin is most prevalent on their limbs, back, tail, and head, while the chitin present on the torso’s front is uniquely thin enough that their flesh is much more visible. In the cases of females, this chitin becomes absent and so exposes the flesh directly, removing impediments to their reproductive functions. Nyups maintain a thin chitinous covering in most forms, and males generally have a thicker, more durable chitin over their torso. The continual presence of breasts in all gehurm forms is a curious anatomical feature, and while females adapt theirs for offspring purposes, nyups and males also maintain theirs albeit perhaps more as fat repositories than anything.   The gehurm head is one of their most defining features, and what initially led some to think they possessed lindwurm blood in some measure. They do not have a nose nor external ears, and their mouth takes up nearly half of their 'facial' region. Their teeth are large and metallic, typically of a colour similar to steel, and are shaped for flat crushing rather than sharp tearing. Thick chitin armor surrounds their jawline, covers over where the eyes would be on a human, and continues growing up and over/around the skull itself, creating a protective 'dome' over the front of the skull proper, similar to lindwurms. Special nostril vents exist inside the mouth cavity, while an internal cranial structure suffices as their version of 'ears', using other means of detecting vibrations in the air.   This anatomy ultimately means, like the lindwurms, the gehurm can burrow through dirt and rock without fearing for their breathing being interrupted, or for debris to be trapped/forced into orifices and causing damage to vital organs. Nyups, notably, have the smallest and most numerous crests on their head, while females grow large, pronounced and crown-like crests that can reach multiple feet in height. Males, meanwhile, develop small but functional horns/ridges. Regardless of sex, the structure of the gehurm head does not (or minimally) interfere(s) in burrowing or tunneling behaviors.   Gehurm hands and feet have thick, unretractable claws ideal for cracking stone and digging dirt.   The gehurm tongue is a long organ capable of extending up to a few feet out of the mouth, and is quite muscular and flexible, sufficing for reaching difficult-to-access places when searching for food common to the Underground (e.g, fungal recesses, hard-shelled creatures, flowers, etc). There are evenly spaced, multi-inch feeler tendrils that emerge off the sides of the tongue and provide great sensory information when exploring unseen crevices. In some cases, gehurm warriors will weaponize their tongues with either direct modification or magical spells to give it piercing, sharp, or bludgeoning capabilities, make it an ideal surprise attack method.   The gehurm ‘tail’ is incredibly long—starting at twice their body length for the shortest among them—and constitutes a powerful limb in its own right. Ribbed and ridged with a thick layer of scales, it is as much a weapon as a tool, and its tip can be either spear, club, or hammer-like. Females, however, will grow a larger-in-diameter tail, as it will also develop in order to serve as an ovipositor organ. The tail, aside from the head, is often the area where the most flesh may emerge, allowing it to act as a powerful sensory organ in the tight and closed quarters underground living can engender. It's theorized this may also help them when swimming through the riverways and reservoirs of the underground, though the gehurm naturally fear water as they're not buoyant.   Although gehurm possess the same genital structure as other monsterkind influenced by the Great Convergence, gehurm females have a much more complex reproductive method: they can discriminate between viviparous pregnancies or oviposition. Gehurm matriarchs see pregnancy as a means of investing in particular offspring, especially those of desirable genetic lineage, and so viviparous gehurm have much greater investment in them via gestation and conventional birth. The other gehurm are those instead encapsulated into thicker eggs and laid out via the tail ovipositor, and will develop independently on their own over time.   Gehurm legs are plantigrade by nature, but their feet have a greater range of motion and dexterity, as well as longer, finger-like toes that have stone-rending claws. Two dew claws are pointedly found on the upper portion of the foot near the ankle, and are serviceably useful for either grip or digging. While not developed to the extent of being a proper foot-hand, as in the case of wyverns, the gehurm foot is ideal for underground living in a compromise between digging, movement, and gripping, if not particularly amazing at any single aspect.    

Appearance

Smooth, glossy, naturally sublime; the gehurm capture the humanoid form in a perfect molding of alien sensibility and human sentimentality. The gehurm are striking figures to behold and exhibit an aura of majestic darkness that sets them apart from almost everything else encountered on Veltrona. When combined with their regality and domineering attitudes, it is less surprising that most civilizations consider the gehurm 'dragons of the Underworld'; a sentiment that confuses lindwurms whenever they hear it.   As a whole, gehurm chitin has great color variability, while their flesh acts on a completely different axis. The most common coloration for gehurm chitin is a glossy black, with their flesh being a deep, plasma-like blue. Hybridization, however, has introduced combinations such as red chitin and orange-white flesh. Hotter/warmer areas of flesh have brighter bioluminescence, while cooler/colder areas taper off into tighter and more defined patterns.   As the gehurm themselves are naturally blind and instead rely on their senses of smell, touch, hearing, and a form of gravitational sensing (sometimes equated to geotropism), they have no concept of color. Their specific bioluminescent displays, therefore, are theorized to be either an unintended consequence of other chemical reactions, mana regulation, or a threat display against other creatures in the Underworld who do see. It's unclear, even to the gehurm, how this works, and they’ve only relatively recently (through the eyes of other species) begun exploring it with new (if proverbial) eyes.. They’re able to discern between individuals who display greater or lesser bioluminescence through other senses, leading to speculation that bioluminescence is simply a side effect of other biological processes.   Gehurm chitin and flesh are quite smooth, with the chitin being glass-like and the flesh similar to resin, hard wax, or soft horn. When coupled with their high humidity, high temperature environments, they frequently appear to glisten or shimmer in the presence of light, or appear 'oily'. Some particularly derogatory phrases usually revolve around describing them as 'greasy worms / snakes'.   The gehurm do not have hair or fur of any kind in the single-bloods of their species, but hybrids may exhibit such traits. In the cases they do, hair will usually grow from the flesh that emerges from vents, especially on the scalp, and take on a fungal-like rooty or fluffiness that is often groomed into glossy plaits or twists. The coloration is similarly affected by their lineage, and can be completely independent of their scale or skin color.    

Natural Abilities

Environmental Resilience — Gehurm anatomy is stunningly resilient against a variety of environmental conditions, be it extreme temperature ranges (both high and low), corrosive acids, and low oxygen concentrations. While this does impart a degree of physical durability as well, gehurm are more middle-of-the-pack in such a regard among monsterkind as a whole.   Increased Density — Gehurm are simply far more physically dense as a species, and notably do not have any buoyancy in water. This has led to an aversion of deep water sources, as they fear drowning in them.   Kenophobia — Gehurm are naturally afraid of large, open spaces and voids, and will avoid them if possible. While this fear can be confronted, it is challenging for them to do so.   Nimble – Gehurm are physically dexterous and maneuverable, allowing them to move through tight physical spaces other species might get stuck inside of.   Gravity Senses — Being naturally blind, the gehurm navigate existence through gravitational sensing akin to geotropism that is found in plants, allowing them to perceive existence in a fundamentally unique way. Although there are attempts by other species to attempt to understand it,\, none of these fully capture the breadth of information available to the gehurm. One curious effect of this is that something like the Heavenly Palace—suspended in the air via Velandra, Sovereign of the Heavens' magic—is 'visually scrambled' due to high gravitational disturbance. Gloomweepers also trigger a similar phenomenom to gehurm senses   Pheromonal Morphology — The gehurm are sensitive to the pheromonal signals of not only their family and mother-matriarch, but to their ecosystem around them. This can result in their physical form growing in new directions to best adapt to the demands of both, such as more physically powerful and durable 'warriors' emerging in response to perceived threats or dangers. It is a curious balancing act, but is not generally a quick process, and mostly occurs during childhood to adolescence. In rare cases, an adult gehurm may morph (such as a nyup becoming a fertile female) to meet extraordinary demands. The exact term is 'biomorph', which is distinguished from the bieneren 'bioform', the latter of which is an engineered organism.    

Diet

While fundamentally omnivorous, the gehurm prefer a diet that is largely plant and fungal matter, with small or incidental additions of animal-based proteins. Consuming a wide range of Underworld flora, the gehurm's migration to the surface wreaked havoc on their diets, food culture, and general nutritional wellbeing for centuries. The first few generations of gehurm born after their forced displacement notably suffering from malnutritional deficiencies and deformities in many cases.   Finding equivalent—or at least, edible—food sources that fulfilled their needs beyond sustenance was a great challenge and took generations of study and crossbreeding of crops to overcome. While some pieces of their Underworld ecosystem did come with them, most notably their staple crop of self-tessellating tanna (a plant-based meat analogue), and the undulating slug which they have farmed for centuries as livestock, many specimens have also died out over time, leaving what remained as prized and precious delicacies that are carefully guarded. Trade with lindwurms became fundamentally important as such people could journey back to the Underworld and retrieve seed, spore, and livestock from their homeland and bring them to the surface for the gehurm to start farms with.   In general, the surface gehurm have engineered over generations a hybrid ecosystem within their surface niduses, joining Underworld and Overworld ecologies together. The net result is a curious blend of flora such as mushrooms, fruiting bushes and trees, vegetables, tubers, and nuts in not only both distinctive forms, but newer, hybridized ones. Scintillating worms, papery flowers, inverse roots, spiralshrooms, rumbler beets, and so on, are among the gehurm's relatively unique creations. For as much as they may have lost in their migration, innovation has more than filled in the gap thereof.   Animal ranching would become a much more complex issue. The gehurm generally prefer invertebrates, such as beetles, ants, bees, crickets, and the such, for their protein purposes. Whether eaten directly or processed into various forms of cuisine, these invertebrates, when farmed, also act as waste and debris decomposers in their enclosures, and so occupy a vital niche within the ecosystem of a nidus similar to those occupied by pigs in human settlements. Large vertebrates, such as cattle or sheep, are relatively 'recent' additions to their diet, ranched primarily for their products (such as dairy or wool) more than their meat. The gehurm particularly like milks and cheeses, as great symbolism is attached to gehurm matriarchs and the sacrosanctity of their milk (which itself is reserved for viviparous offspring), that is somewhat extended to animal products of a similar nature. In some cultures this made the consumption of the meat of milk-bearing animals taboo.   Gehurm cuisine can be charmingly described as both incredibly wet and with a gritty or crunchy texture, and is a combination most other species have trouble finding palatable. It is superficially similar to fried and greasy food, but often coated and cooked with fluids that are more similar to mucus than oil. It's unclear how much of this is their ancestral methods versus modern adaptations for surface living, as even the gehurm find certain combinations (e.g, deep-fried slugs) as utterly unpleasant. They do, however, import a lot of culinary techniques from surrounding civilizations and reverse engineer them for their own purposes—jiuweihu are a favorite for their usually wide culinary libraries. In that much, at least, the gehurm continue to prove how boundless the culinary world (and its myriad horrors) can be.    

Life Cycle

Infancy & Childhood

Gehurm are generally born or hatched with a very minimal, flexible exoskeleton and plenty of flesh, making them somewhat humanoid and blob-like. They are sometimes likened to the idea of 'slug puppies' by human observers lucky enough to witness them, and thus are generally considered by humans to be extremely cute, if slimy. Because of their great fragility at such a stage, however, gehurm infants are kept in very specialized care areas until they pack on additional flesh and their carapaces are given time to harden.   Gehurm infancy is a very polarizing event that is almost always predetermined by their respective matriarch. Viviparous offspring are usually treasured and valued above ovipositional ones, especially as they’re sired by partners the matriarch especially values. That said, gehurm matriarchs do not generally treat any of their offspring badly, and even the most 'disfavored' ones still receive substantial support in the form of being raised by their adult sisters or aunts. The thick and tangible bonds of gehurm society are truly great and can be difficult for outside species to understand fully.   Viviparous offspring will be attended to directly by their mother and her attendants, and are perhaps best analogous to gehurm 'royalty'. They'll receive individualized care, attention, and will be raised alongside other ‘high value’ offspring. Depending on their mother's ultimate plans for such children, they will eventually be introduced to the wider family a year or two after birth. At such a stage, trusted and/or higher socially standing gehurm will begin associating and caring for the viviparous offspring themselves, which is meant to be a mark of honour. They are generally the ones the child will grow up to work with later, such as one intended for forge and smithing work being raised by actual smiths.   Ovipositional offspring, by contrast, will be raised communally by the wider family alongside any of her siblings who hatch from the same ‘batch’. While the mother will oversee them to varying extents, the sheer quantity of possible offspring and her own pressing needs or plans means she'll rarely have time for personal care. Instead, elder siblings will take on caretaker roles to care, guide, and play with such offspring. As they grow and develop, they'll be exposed to a wide variety of environments and different parts of the family, allowing them to develop personalized desires if no one is actively corralling them down specific paths.   Ultimately, a gehurm's time as a child is full of enrichment, constant attention, and all sorts of busy work as they grow and develop. For many, it is a period in which their fondest memories and deep familial bonds are forged.    

Adolescence

Gehurm growth is somewhat different from most other sapient species. Nutrition is an important aspect for any child in any species, as more available nutrition begets a stronger, healthier adult body. Gehurm physiology pushes this idea even further by storing excessive amounts of nutrition and internalized energy during childhood. This engenders a somewhat gluttonous behavior, but is also a literal means of investment in a child’s future growth and potential. As a result, a gehurm children reach adolescence through one of two means: the passage of time triggers them to, or they achieve critical nutritional mass and begin immediately. Controlling this process is somewhat tricky, as gehurm matriarchs may not want a child to begin adolescence too quickly and miss out on opportunities only a child can be afforded, particularly in terms of psycho-social development.   It is at this point a generally rapid metamorphosis begins where the outermost layers of the body reconfigure and harden, creating the distinctive exoskeleton of the gehurm proper. Once this initial layer has established itself, gehurm children are officially adolescents, and will continue to grow and molt into their eventual adult form. Depending on the exact morphology they gravitate toward, this process can take quite a long time, especially if it is a morph that is physically massive. Most forms will typically average a ten year growth cycle, though certain ones such as royal guard-esque warrior types may take up to twenty or thirty years.   Throughout this stage of growth, gehurm cognitive development leaps forward dramatically. Education, thusly, is quite important, and the family will provide everything needed for the adolescent's future role and general interests. It does vary between families, as stricter or more purpose-oriented ones generally discourage focusing on matters outside of one's intended role. Others, being particularly supportive and/or expansive, prioritize nurturing interests to foster especially capable individuals who might support the broader family that much better. The growth and development of one's family is a hotly contentious one among matriarchs, and so not an easily broached subject.    

Adulthood

Gehurm maturation is marked by their final exoskeleton molt. Depending on their exact growth route, they'll be anywhere from two to several decades old, are generally well-versed in their family's social dynamics, economic situation, and are proficiently capable individuals. They'll become fully immersed in their given/acquired role within the family, and so shoulder the bulk of responsibility that role entails. From thereon, a gehurm's fate becomes a tug-o-war between themself and their family in their colony-like enclosure of a society.   While the gehurm may be mistakenly called 'hive-like' in both social and ecological mannerisms, they cannot be fully identified as independent individuals the same way humans are, either. A gehurm's mind and body is their own, but they are shaped just as much by their family and environment as they are by the circumstances of their life and their own personal desires. The social and very literal physical bonds of these forces are the very makeup of the gehurm, and for as familiar as they can be to most species, they're also very unique in some aspects.   Nyups, for example, will more than likely spend their entire lives as infertile females, though possess a functional sex drive and its associated uses. Fertile females, as matriarchs, will grow into a position of great power and respect among her children, but she must always balance reproductive needs and family-wide planning to keep the ship afloat. Males, rare as they are, end up prized for their one singular function of being bartered/traded by the matriarchs to other niduses, and often see their lives in gilded cages that they must make their own—one way or another.   There are numerous positive and negative aspects to the rigor that the gehurm live by, and something that is defined as much by itself as in relation to each other.    

Old Age & Death

The total lifespan of a gehurm is actually quite varied, even if they are ultimately a mortal species. Immature gehurm may live up to a couple decades before their first molt, yet as soon as the molting process begins, a biological invigoration ends up adding many decades more to their life span. Fully mature gehurm after their final molts, especially of particularly powerful forms, possess even longer lifespans, with most commonly living up to one-to-three centuries.   Matriarchs are unique in that while their lifespans start off the same as other adult forms (albeit naturally longer-lived even then), the sheer amount of resource investment into them from the rest of their families naturally results in better life expectancy outcomes. Most commonly, things like life-extending medicines and magics are usually brought to her first, and these can extend her lifespan up to many, many more decades and centuries. Some of the most prolific and powerful matriarchs have a lifespan measured in millennia.   As such, tracking a gehurm's age can be complicated, especially as their ideas of time were disconnected from a relationship to a day-night cycle. They did, however, independently arrive at measuring time in a form similar to the moons cycles. The Underworld gehurm did not conceptualize of celestial objects, but the macro-effects of their presence were particularly clear to them, if utterly inexplicable in nature. By extrapolating gehurm 'gravitational rhythms', a surprisingly accurate time scale forms, and so the gehurm arrived at the mostly-same temporal frame of reference as the Overworld. Those on the surface proper would simply also adopt a day-night calendar, especially as it homogenized time referencing with Overworld civilizations.   In general, gehurm live in their physical primes for the majority of their lifespan, and only in the final 1/5th begin to experience physical decline. The onset of this decline is often sharp and pronounced, and usually brings an end to most of a gehurm's physical labors quite quickly. As their body begins breaking down, issues like dehydration of their normally mucus-excreting flesh, chitin cracking, muscle failure, and metabolic collapse begin manifesting. As the gehurm are often so very preoccupied with their jobs/roles within their family/lifestyle, it can be quite traumatic to experience the reality they no longer can fulfill a role they may have literally been born to. Most families will shuffle around declining gehurm into adjacent and less stressful, but ostensibly useful, roles to alleviate this.   Declining gehurm are also pushed, or motivated to, record their life's experiences and begin to disseminate their wisdom to the family (particularly newer generations). In doing so, they can leave one final, longer-lasting contribution to elevate their family that much higher. Where that is not enough, training new generations and/or their direct replacement/disciple suffices as a way of keeping their job functional and providing. It is only when a gehurm's body deteriorates to the extent they can no longer perform that much do they begin relaxing, idling, and otherwise 'waiting until the end' comes. A fact that often reflects in many gehurm cultures that conceive of leisure as an activity for the elderly or the matriarch rather than an essential part of everyday life.   Final death usually ensues as a result of metabolic cascade failure, though some in more strict cultures may choose ritual suicide when they are still physically capable so as to not burden the family with taking care of them. Either way, gehurm funerary rites usually observe that, for those with direct and personal connections to the deceased, may take a piece of their body as a memento. Whatever is not taken is then consigned to the grave farms, which decompose and recycle dead or refuse organic matter into nutrient fertilizer or particular types of crops. In this way, a gehurm can give to their family one last time and forever be a part of them.    

Anaxials, Hybrids, and Variants

Anaxials

One of the rarest anaxials to exist on Veltrona, the minuscule number of gehurm males means there is astronomically few opportunities for interspecies reproduction with human females. Fewer still, as gehurm males are generally sequestered and kept under strict control by a given matriarch, making the idea of a gehurm anaxial more myth than fact. When combined with the anatomical variation inherent to anaxials, what few recorded instances there are of gehurm anaxials often confuse them for other anaxials (particularly the bieneren).   Those that do exist are almost always as a result of political marriages or bonding opportunities in which a matriarch leases out a male to a neighboring civilization. These astonishingly rare offspring offer a true glimpse of a gehurm anaxial: generally colored after their sire, a gehurm anaxial's plastic-like flesh is adorned by large, protective plates of chitin in a manner reminiscent of scale growth. Their hair, if any is present, takes on bioluminescent characteristics. They are equally likely to be born blind, be born without eyes, or to be born with humanoid eyes taking after the mother’s coloration. A tail, if any is present, is usually vestigial in nature rather than functional.   In most respects taking after their sire more than their dame, they do not follow the same pheromonal reliance as gehurm proper do, and generally do not molt—instead growing overtime as humans would. Whether or not they adapt different traits based on environmental pressures is unclear, as there are so few to study in the first place, let alone in depth. Female gehurm anaxials are naturally fertile, and so may occupy the same role as a matriarch in a family, which can result in dramatic conflict if not handled properly. Male anaxials, however, are liable to get stolen by their paternal grandmother matriarch if they're not careful, and used as a political tool as their father was.    

Hybrids

There is some speculation the gehurm themselves are a very hybridized species. Matriarchs, who ever seek desirable breeding partners at the least (if not spouses), are consistently interested in the males of other species, despite ancestral predilections towards general xenophobia. It is thought that these matriarchs valued lindwurms the most of all in the Underworld, leading to frequent cross-species matches in order to bring new blood into their family line. While unclear if this is the actual case, the anatomical similarities between the two is quite striking, and it aligns with cultural history that looks down particularly favorably upon lindwurms. A favor that has grown to extend to the rest of dragonkind in turn as the gehurm settled the Overworld proper.   In general, gehurm hybrids exhibit distinct color and chitin differences from single-blood gehurm. To the gehurm, the chitin is the most distinctive aspect as it may grow in new or unique ways they otherwise do not typically have within their family, such as distinct patterns of crests or textures of bumps or spikes being present. In rarer cases, new anatomical features, such as dragon horns or helunae candlelit antlers, may appear, further distinguishing them. The rarest hybrids of all see functional anatomical alterations, such as the growth of wings or lessening density that makes them buoyant, allowing them to do what their single-blooded gehurm relatives cannot.   Wings, in particular, leads to opportunities the gehurm haven't traditionally considered necessary due to their underground living. While no gehurm is eager to fly, those with wings usually confront their innate kenophobia enough to take on the task. In doing so, gehurm niduses gain unique aerial assets that make them potential contenders for the likes of harpies to worry about. Even the bravest gehurm will eventually want to crawl underground after a certain point, so the winged hybrids do not regularly fly in the air unless they have to, instead using their appendages to glide.    

Variants

There are no variants in the traditional sense among the gehurm species. Draconic scholars do debate if the different morphological forms of the gehurm might qualify, perhaps more so than the bieneren's engineered bioforms. Still, as the gehurm exist in a strange space that conventional definitions do not properly cover, it is not readily agreed upon how they should be classified exactly. The different gehurm biomorphs are lumped underneath the identity of 'variant' as a result.   The standard morph children grow up into is known as the nyup, and is generally of an average size around (6ft / 182cm) in height and corresponding weight.   Male morph is usually somewhat smaller, around (5ft / 152cm), and is considered among the smallest adult morphs in the species.   Worker morphs vary by exact profession, with more physically demanding jobs resulting in larger physiques—even more so than nyups proper.   Warrior morphs are the third largest overall, towering around (7ft / 213cm), and feature incredible musculature, armor-like chitin, and naturally weaponized claws and bladed tails. They may constitute a form of very rudimentary matriarch due to shared physiological traits, but are nowhere near becoming one proper.   The 'royal' or 'high ranking' morphs, also sometimes called the pre-matriarch morph, are specific gehurm that were morphing toward the matriarch form, but were inhibited for one reason or another, and are the second largest morphs overall. This particular morph is quite variable between families, and some preclude them entirely or push such morphs out of the family to become new matriarchs proper. Other gehurm morphs can exist in the same social hemisphere as the royal morph, making it a tricky and nebulous space to properly define.   The matriarch, or female, morph is the largest among the gehurm, reaching (9ft / 274cm) or higher in stature, and possesses a fantastically powerful body in both physical and mental capacities.      

Sociology

Cultural Universals

Hive Families

The fundamental basis of any gehurm society always revolves around their family. Sometimes called a ‘hive family’ when foreign scholars attempt to classify it in order to emphasize the scale of the lineage being represented.   Each family is centered around a ruling matriarch, who is often the direct mother of nearly all members in said family. In most cases, the matriarch herself normally separates from her birth family, forming her own branch family in the process. Then, somewhat like an onion, different layers surround the matriarch, with each of her daughters occupying a differing combination of familial role, seniority, and social clout within each ‘layer’ of the family structure. Those closer to the matriarch ostensibly have her ear on any topic, and are thus higher on the social ladder of the family, or at least command more influence. Those farther away, or with less direct contact with their mother, have less authority outside their immediate job or role. Unique positions exist for 'special circumstances': sons are always kept under close supervision by the matriarch, the matriarch’s spouses or concubines are given varying degrees of esteem, protection, and authority, foreign dignitaries/allies/guests are treated well but kept out of family business, etc.   No gehurm is without a family, and those that are are usually the results of exile or the tragic destruction of said family. For a species that is incredibly co-dependent, gehurm do not survive very well on their own in a physical or mental capacity. There are some forms that can, such as immature matriarchs branching out to spawn a new family, but they're exceptional by nature and thus unusual in the first place. Even they, however, are worn down by the encroaching psychosis of being alone for prolonged periods of time. To the gehurm, exile or being forsakened are fates much worse than death.    

Familial Piety

Family relationships are everything to the gehurm, not only for social purposes, but a biological one as well. This means age and seniority are one of the biggest indicators of one's social standing, especially as younger gehurm must pay respects to their seniors. In return, senior sisters will oversee their siblings, and those taken 'beneath their crown' will eventually adapt from her pheromones, potentially taking on the physical characteristics of their sisters for themselves.   As an example, a gehurm senior in a mining/farming role (the concept itself being one and the same to the gehurm) will generally be physically fit and potentially larger in order to do her job. Junior gehurm assigned/joining her in such a role will, themselves, receive the benefit of her wisdom and pheromones, and so have an easier time morphing a similar physique. In this sense, the gehurm are not limited by the traits inherited at birth like most other species. They have the opportunity to grow newer traits toward a specialized purpose, becoming much greater in that role. The exact mechanism isn’t entirely known, but the gehurm have learned methods of manipulating it as much through conventional medicines as newer technologies and magical arts.   Because of the severity and importance of pheromone-driven growth among the gehurm, it is stiffly regulated. It can play havoc in the development of a family and their nidus as a whole, so there are social rituals which guide this process. Bathing grew into the primary method that married many conventions together, be it physical and spiritual cleansing as much as pheromone production and dispersal. Some anthropologists ascribe bathing as a religious act among the gehurm as much as cleanliness, imparting much greater importance to it as a whole than most other cultures might themselves.  

Xeno Aversion

While not inherently xenophobic, the gehurm are a species that are so specialized and uniquely complex in their biology and sociology that other species are a very awkward fit into their equations. This is further complicated by the gehurm generally having a different moral and ethical basis due to their family-centric dynamics, to the point other species would consider them unhealthily enmeshed by their own standards. To the gehurm, since their literal physical development and health is so intertwined and regulated by the care and biochemical triggers of their nidus, their family is literally the most important thing in the world, and all others are a firm second. This translates into ideas like blatant favoritism, self-sacrificial readiness, and endurance of abhorrent conditions 'for the family's good', that other cultures are often appalled by.   The end result of these different measures and their friction has led the gehurm to generally have an aversion to 'close contact' with other cultures. Some families have learned to tackle this issue and produced somewhat successful adjustments, such as the Kayemnsu Tribe of Immensio. A principally muurun tribe, several gehurm families in their territory struck an accord of convenience that, over the generations, saw the two come together that much better. These gehurm notably have much fewer numbers than a typical family would, but the quality of care for each individual gehurm is truly quite high, and reflected in their astounding personal capabilities.    

Lingual Characteristics

Given their unique gravitational senses and their ancestral home underground, the gehurm developed very specific methods of communication. Making use of sound, gravity, and their very bodies, the gehurm constructed a complex idea of language that suited a number of different roles. Through gravity, they could perceive one another even through multiple meters of solid, unyielding rock. Through sound, the gehurm could echo screeches, chirps, and other sharp noises through winding tunnels, complex architecture, and other noises to reach a specific person's attention.   Verbal speech, as done by most other cultures, took a back seat in their development as a result. In many cases being somewhat supplanted by gravity sensing or screeching, it came to serve as a vehicle for intimacy or incredibly dense/specific types of conversation. It wouldn't be until contact with foreign species became more of a regular occurrence that the gehurm started developing verbalized speech more. This, however, would be for the purpose of communicating with foreigners, and so suited for that specific purpose. Gehurm niduses would adopt all sorts of words, concepts, and other aspects of foreign language to suit for this, but rarely integrate such things into their own languages.   Some biologists consider the gehurm mouth itself as not entirely suited for human-like speech, hence their often sharp, jagged, and somewhat cumbersome pronunciation mannerisms. In fact, the gehurm generally prefer sign language as a substitute for verbal speech, particularly as it lets them communicate through gravity at the same time. It is something that exploded in popularity for the Overworld dwelling gehurm, who found the myriad types of languages far too challenging to verbalize properly. The backwards proliferation of sign language into common parlance eventually saw changes to gehurm norms, becoming a new educational standard and henceforth normalized among the gehurm.    

Arts and Beauty

Complex Arts

A subject of great interest and nigh-impenetrable fog, gehurm arts rank among the most unique—and inscrutable—on Veltrona. They're broadly sorted into two categories: gravity-based and conventional. Of the two, gravity-based obviously interact and play with the gehurm's own gravitational senses, something virtually few other species (sapient or not) on Veltrona are known to have and are therefore relatively opaque to non-gehurm audiences.   One example is a finely cut but otherwise featureless slab of rock: to eyes, vibrational sense, touch or feeling, and any other conceivable senses, it is just a slab of rock. To the gehurm, especially the artist who made it, the unique formulation in making that rock might 'twist' and 'change' gravity, affecting the tapestry of existence itself. Through that subtle gravitational friction, the gehurm perceive information, and hence art itself in their very unique way. When applied at larger or macro-scale concepts, entire structures of varying complexities can be made that tantalize the gehurm's senses through inconceivable ways to everyone else. Notably, however, these larger structures may introduce distortions to the senses of other species, offering a unique crossover potential in the exploration of art.   Thus, with an acknowledgement to the inscrutable realm of gehurm gravitational art, their conventional arts are far more understandable.   Veltron-derived materials form the basis of gehurm artistic ventures, particularly in the realms of architecture and sculpture. With so much of it regularly needing to be consumed in some form, the gehurm developed countless ways to integrate excess stone into functional and/or artistic forms. While many species might find the extreme level of detail in gehurm architecture as wasteful, from their perspective it is as much boundless expression as it is efficient utilization of excess stone. For many gehurm, it is also a way of leaving their individual mark in the home of their family; a piece of themself that may long outlive them. It is because of this romantic idea that the gehurm abhor the destruction of such stonework, and it is essentially sacrilegious to them. As such, mosaics and other stone inlay works are extremely common in any nidus.   Music is the other dominant form of artistic expression to the gehurm, encapsulating both personal skill and familial harmony together. Whether in rhythmic chirping, lyrical humming, simple but piercing vocalizations, clapping the chitin of the hands or tail, or more specialized instruments, the gehurm use every part of the body to explore sound and its myriad possibilities. One of their most common forms of recreation, the gehurm make music wherever they are doing something—until someone needs quiet to work on something, anyway. Percussive instruments are among their most preferred, as they embody strength and power of presence, followed by wind and sinew-string instruments.    

Unparalleled Beauty

The obvious question many arrive to where the gehurm are concerned is: how do they perceive each other, let alone clothing or items on their persons? The answer to which is a curious mixture of approaches, with the most prominent being: gravitational presence, floral scenting, and physical contact. While the gehurm have no concept of how ‘something looks through eyeballs’ as a say, a human would, they can still cognate the form and material into their own approximation of ‘appearance’. This means a single gehurm and their ‘appearance’ actually constitutes a variety of understandings to each other, modulated by the senses perceiving them. A gehurm’s gravitational presence is one layer of detail, while being able to physically touch and perceive them is another. Interacting with these different layers of perception are a complex component to gehurm social mechanics, as something like a matriarch’s clothing may only be politely perceived through gravity, but never touch.   Beauty standards are rather nuanced among the various gehurm. For most, who will live and die as nyups, beauty is not something for romantic or sexual attraction, but instead a declaration of their own individuality and merits. By adorning themselves in specific clothing and styles, they cement themself as the representative of an idea or role within the family, and perhaps earn prestige or admiration as a result thereof. Entire factions within a family may even dress in certain ways to identify themselves, then add on personalized touches afterward—something which can be a marker of allegiance in families with particularly competitive factions. Once the complexities of protective wear, war attires, and other specialized jobs are added in, a single gehurm family can have a civilization's worth of depth and detail to them.   This is only further complicated by environmental considerations, such as other gehurm families living within the same nidus and/or neighboring civilizations. When it comes to entire families having to identify themselves first and foremost, they will fight fiercely over certain aesthetic concepts to solidify that identity. From an outside, holistic perspective, gehurm fashion is a mixture of 'team identification' and 'individual tastes/merits', not unlike sports teams in a sense. If one caters to these sensibilities, they can make good business in selling clothing to the gehurm as a whole.   For the matriarchs, men, and 'high ranking' gehurm within a family, clothing is used to help distinguish their social position all the more. In such cases, they are so personalized in the first place they stand out from general trends among the rest of the family, and others in the family may be specifically forbidden from wearing the same clothes, certain materials, or certain accessories. Matriarchs in particular will favor clothing that fits a specific demeanor they wish to portray, to which then the rest of the family takes cue from and may adjust their styles around. It's difficult to say where romantic or sexual appeal comes in here, especially as most matriarchs will simply cater to their partner(s) tastes if she cares to do so in the first place. More often, potential partners will dress themselves up instead to try and catch her proverbial eye.    

Magic and Technology

As a nebusian engineer once said, "The gehurm have arrived at the same conclusions through entirely different ways.", which defines them quite well. Whether entirely because of their unique relationship with gravity, or the simple reality that life in the Underworld imposed different challenges to overcome, gehurm scientific and magical thought down paths of inquiry and innovation that are as much familiar and as alien to most Overworld species.   For example, gehurm veltron magics are superbly sophisticated not because they’ve studied and mistressed every type of veltron out there, but rather, have attained a true understanding of ‘structure’ itself. In other words, gehurm veltron magics rearrange veltronic structures regardless of their properties, reaching a transcendent level of capability scarcely even imagined by Overworld civilizations. In doing so, they can seamlessly manipulate the veltron to suit their needs in any shape or form it can be utilized for.   Unfortunately, Overworlder veltron mages are no closer to understanding these marvelous breakthroughs themselves in any way that has practical application in their own practices. While simply knowing it is possible is boon enough, gehurm magics fundamentally rely on gehurm perspective, including their incredibly unique relationship with gravity. Without that same perspective, everyone else has to, essentially, reinvent the wheel by tracing the gehurm’s steps as best they can.   This theme would repeat itself again and again as the gehurm proved that there were entirely new and valid approaches to age old problems. Learned minds of all kinds certainly tried to mimic gehurmic techniques, and continue to try, but the barrier of fundamental perspective and perception is not easily overcome. Thus, while gehurm magical arts are largely unique to them, their technologies are much more understandable and accessible to other species ... usually.   Water or steam-driven drills, for instance, are tried and proven forms of technology, most famously developed in the Overworld by dragons too dignified to mine, but the gehurm's are notably quite efficient and produce minimal waste rock. The so-called inversion pump, however, relies on forms of Liquid Magic to compel fluids to simply float through pipes, requiring no pumping force at all to do so. No one has any idea how that works, but copying the magic formula can produce similar results.   Another, perhaps far more infamous, example would be the gehurm think-cube, a device that stores input into a form of persistent memory. Directly comparable to the draconic torzei, the gehurm think-cube is used as a form of information storage, but notably has the capacity to process inputs and produce output. In other words, it can 'think' on certain types of problems and produce answers, which is a capability draconic torzei do not have—much to the annoyance of sokral. The principle problem for everyone else is that the think-cube provides its answers through gravitational flux, making it literally impossible to understand for anyone that isn't gehurm. While gehurm scholars are generally open about offering their services in helping other species utilize their think-cubes, there are also gehurm charlatans whose favourite scam is using an ordinary cube-shaped rock and simply making up whatever answer they think their victim wants to hear.    

Religion and Philosophy

Faith and Divinity

The gehurm themselves almost universally practice a form of ancestor worship, and usually venerate prior matriarchs of the family, both living and dead. Common gehurm belief ascribed that as the family continued their toil in the mortal/living realm, their deceased ancestors expanded the family’s prosperity in the realms of the dead. In this way the gehurm are soothed by the thought of always being with their family in one form or another, itself an easy source of existential dread otherwise.   Some families, or entire niduses, have also created more complex pantheons of their ancestors, especially those of great merit or notoriety. Later on, contact with foreign civilizations gradually broached the idea of how other denizens of the Underworld (and eventually Overworld) conceived of goddesses and spirits. Although initially regarded as an 'other', the allure of a gehurm goddess or kin in spirit form took on popularity all the same. 'Who' became that goddess, however, rapidly devolved into infighting, and eventually resolved itself in the emergence of countless 'matriarch goddesses' instead. These gehurm goddesses are equated with some of the oldest matriarchs to ever exist in historical record, and are often claimed as one family’s or another’s ancestor.   In the nearest form of religious schism the gehurm can conceive of, particularly large and powerful niduses established their own religious worship of their preferred matriarch goddess. In much rarer cases, they might respect a foreign goddess on a more transactional basis, since few seemingly meshed with the gehurm's natural ways. One noteworthy example is the zoaen goddess, conceptualized as ‘the Watcher in the Dark’, but named Fentu by the gehurm. A mysterious goddess even to the zoaen, Fentu notably oversees the unknown passages and realms throughout the Underworld, acting as both scout and ferrywoman to those who pay proper tribute. The gehurm found her very useful in the rare times they needed to expand beyond existing niduses, and so secured a comfortable role in their repertoire of deities.    

Downfall and Ascent

The later emergence of the Great Enemy, and the gehurm's subsequent flight to the Overworld, threw everything into chaos.   For what can be said of the refugees, the abandonment of their ancient homes left a palpable scar in their psyche, for it meant losing much of their history and prestige as well. It also starkly put into contrast the plights of the living, and how powerless their ancestors or supposed goddesses seemed in helping them. Some, however, argued that it was those same goddesses who helped the fleeing gehurm to escape in the first place, for any mother would rather her children live on than die meaninglessly. The matriarchs themselves only concurred with this latter view, neatly averting what might've been a religious war among the refugees otherwise.   The gehurm worldview, however, had still been completely shattered.   Once seeing themselves as mistresses of the 'endless stone', the revelation of the Overworld's existence challenged, if not threw out, everything the gehurm thought they knew. When compounded by what they saw as their humiliating defeat against the Great Enemy, they were left confused, uncertain, and resentful in equal measures. Worse, they were strangers in a far stranger world, and they were not alone at all.   In the Underworld, it'd been an imperative to transform regions of 'dead stone' into livable spaces for their species' comfort and survival. On the surface, vast and diverse ecosystems covered huge swathes of the planet, and the oceans themselves were even richer in life. For the gehurm to expand as they used to would mean that they must irreparably destroy these ecosystems, especially as most were not wholly compatible with the gehurm themselves. Compounding this ethical dilemma were the myriad other sapient species of the Overworld which the gehurm had no experience in dealing with, and loomed large as potential threats. Navigating these new frontiers became some of the greatest philosophical challenges the gehurm had ever encountered.   Essentially strangers in a world removed from what they knew, the gehurm never doubted their drive to survive, only the path to secure it. More militant and xenophobic niduses focused on their traditional approach of ‘gehurm first, ignore everyone else’. Others, however, debated how to make a place of their own without necessarily causing excessive or irreparable damage. Some took to their own studies and efforts, while some took to consulting the wizened lindwurms who knew of Overworld ways. Most, however, doubted isolation would last very long, if at all—the Overworld would discover them in time, or so they feared.   The three-pronged axis of later gehurm philosophical views essentially boiled down to: strength of arms, security of home, and protection of bonds. Outsider cultures would classify these three families as a spectrum of xenophobia, varying between imperialist isolation to overbearing protectionism. Later generations of gehurm, increasingly divorced from the trauma of their great exodus, would come to regard the Overworld as a home of a kind. Though it bore many difficulties still and lacked the luster their oldest stories and records describe, their work nonetheless continues to make their niduses the best they can.    

Science and Spirituality

Need for Science

Life in the Underworld poses very real problems to any organism seeking a living there. Though it is a tremendously vast realm unto itself, the reality was one of population density crises (either too low or too high to sustain itself), cave-ins, breathable atmosphere limitations, space allocation for living versus the labor necessary to sustain life, and so on. These are always present and pressing down upon everything living there, and any civilization trying to develop at scale would slam face first into these issues. The gehurm would be no different.   Learning quickly the limits of their ancestral homes, the gehurm were forced to either expand aggressively or be confined physically and socially by the limits of available territory. While expansion into new caverns worked as a strategy, it also had its limits of viability and sustainability. The gehurm were forced into either constant migration or stretching their society dangerously thin to maintain itself.   Thus, there was great impetus to find a third option: fully excavate and transform the solid rock around them into a livable space. Sadly, doing so was a crash-course in learning best practices for proper architecture and exploratory mining, lest they cave-in, fill with toxic gases, or flood completely. To the gehurm, though, these were much more solvable problems than those posed by endless migration, and many niduses independently came to the same conclusions to deepen their territories. One famous argument in ancient times was over who invented the ‘pressurized door’, as it became a pivotal concept in atmospheric management. So many niduses ended up fighting over the prestige of owning the idea it became an idiom, ‘as smart as opening a door’; in other words, something so obvious it’d be stupid to claim it.   Such an approach would become a defining norm for them, as the gehurm saw many problems as inherently solvable, even if their science or understanding hadn't caught up to doing so. Perhaps somewhat materialistic by nature, the gehurm grew to see existence as something that could be defined or captured by understanding the physical world around them and how all other things related to it. That which they didn't know, such as spiritual beings or otherworldly entities, were simply quandaries they hadn't the time to fully study yet. Whether or not they would be able to was, of course, another question entirely.    

The Spiritual Unknown

In this respect, the gehurm worldview encapsulates their family and nidus(es) into their own conceptual bubble, then places everything else 'outside'. Since they often do not feel any connection to these outside elements, gehurm spirituality is entirely centered on matters relating to their family, such as tending to their souls and/or offering guidance/aid. It would be only after their arrival to the Overworld would this historical norm start to crack and change. With their fundamental views of so much already thrown out the proverbial window, the gehurm were finally in a mindspace to begin reconsidering many things, including their once-certain concepts of the great unknown.   It can be hard to speak absolutely about gehurm spiritual practices nonetheless, especially as each family (even within the same nidus) can be very different from each other. The concept of social convention and spiritual activity are often so overlaid atop one another they’re effectively the same idea to the gehurm. Particularly when viewed from the lens of belief that their dead family is as present as the living, things like acts of respect or veneration serve dual purposes. Incense burning, for example, not only livens up stale airs, but it casts out uncertainties, bringing both sides of the family into closer harmony together. Another family may view incense burning as a way of reinforcing each side of the family into their proper place, and the act of burning itself is a form of structural authority.   What can be said is that, ultimately, the gehurm’s materialistic views of the universe and their narrow, specific concerns over their family create a perspective not really found elsewhere on Veltrona. Of particular note, the gehurm generally have very rare manifestations of undead. The undead among them that tend to crop up are usually victims of infighting or great feuds within the family, with the runner up being when another family is wiped out by a hostile one. As the gehurm often believe their family members continue to 'live and work' in death, the undead are seen as a sign of a great problem having occurred in order to ‘keep them stuck’ in the world of the living with the ‘wrong’ half of the family. Resolving that problem falls to the living, and the gehurm place great importance on restoring their perceived harmony.      

Psychology

Rest and Sleep

Resting can be a tricky proposition to the gehurm due to how much sensory information they receive. As gravity itself provides information, they're constantly aware of their surroundings in some form or another. It can be likened to difficulties those with hypersensory problems experience, but there are distinct (and often ritualized) ways the gehurm handle the issue.   As a whole, most gehurm sleep together in pairs or small groups, usually within alcove-beds lined with moss, fungus, or fabrics. These alcoves are then nested within larger residential areas optimized toward sleeping and rest in particular. Higher ranking gehurm, or those in charge of certain tasks, may have their own living quarters for things like personal possessions or work-related materials. The matriarch herself usually sleeps with her partner(s) and/or personal maids, and always has the largest/grandest living quarters within the family. Gehurm scholars believe their species developed such sleeping habits as the ambient noise of another's body helped regulate their own bodies in a mutual feedback loop, and has simply carried on through the generations as a norm for them.   Eventually, through the careful construction of gravity-disturbing structures, gehurm architects found a way to create bubbles of pleasant and consistent ‘white noise’. Although it still entailed getting used to the white noise, these methods became some of the earliest forms of architecture in their species. When combined with sleeping puff gardens, or other forms of narcotics, the gehurm had achieved the closest form to ideal sleeping quarters they could conceive of.   The usage of narcotics became an early alternative solution, varying between the growth of medicinally powerful plants to applied medications. The sleeping puff is a particular fungus that has been with the gehurm for so long the two have essentially co-evolved together. Renowned for its mildly sedative properties, higher ranking gehurm would create entire gardens to support sleeping puffs, then nest around them. The sleeping puffs, in turn, would release their spores every 12-to-24 hours, which would induce sleepiness as much as cling to these gehurm proper. With that aid, gehurm have achieved deep and restful sleeps since the dawn of their species.   In fact, the traditional gehurm unit of time measurement before coming to the Overworld corresponded to sleeping puff spore releases, with '12 hours' being '1 puff'.    

Consciousness and Thought

It has been historically difficult to quantify the exact nature of gehurm consciousness. While most measurements put them in the realm of 'human-like', their innate senses and perception of existence are very different from the vast majority of species. The gehurm brain is well-adapted to three-dimensional information parsing, for example, a feature mainly found in aerial or aquatic species. This means that, combined with their gravity senses, the gehurm have a 360-degree awareness of everything around them at all times, stretching for dozens and dozens of meters (if not farther). They're fully capable of utilizing this information and moving within it, experiencing no difficulties when upright, upside down, sideways, or otherwise.   There is also distinctive evidence that certain gehurm biomorphs have different neurological makeups. Warrior-type gehurm, for example, are predisposed toward aggression, heightened sensory perception, adrenal responses, and so on. Laborer-type gehurm are typically well-adapted against boredom and tedium, as well as heightened physical recovery, letting them perform arduous work for longer and with less problems. Matriarchs themselves are particularly curious, having far greater neural mass and complexity reminiscent of biological supercomputers—albeit nowhere near close to the capabilities of the bieneren's umta bioforms. This capability is believed to be how matriarchs can manage and track potentially hundreds or thousands of gehurm within their immediate family.   Thus, while it is easy to say all gehurm are fully sapient and cognizant beings, there is a physical distinction even among their species between themselves.    

Motivation and Emotion

The greatest strength of the gehurm is their bond with their family, and the powerful driving force that results from it. Gehurm scholars believe that this bond is so great it's even stronger than the natural compulsions for eating or personal survival, which is where many species draw their 'first motivations' from. The veracity of that aside, it's undeniable that many gehurm are driven to action when the needs of their family arise. This self-fulfilling driving force becomes truly apparent when one gehurm needs something, another moves to fulfill that need, and then that gehurm needs something, and another movies to fulfill that need, and ... etc.   Thusly, from their perspective, the gehurm are quite an emotionally driven species. It is those outside of their family that have trouble observing this, given that gehurm mannerisms rely on senses most other species don’t even possess. It has led to a popular, if somewhat incorrect, assumption of them being cold, callous, and otherwise uncaring beings. That, coupled with their insular focus, means maligned superstitions about the gehurm persist for a long time, further complicating interspecies relations.   The reality is that the gehurm possess a high degree of emotional sensitivity and social awareness. Those lucky enough to observe gehurm familial dynamics often describe the members as almost being capable of reading each other’s minds. In reality, this isn’t an actual psychic connection, but proof of how important social cohesion of the familial unit is to the gehurm psyche. Gehurm will utilize pheromonal cues and ritualistic grooming-based touch to anticipate each other’s needs according to the role they play in the family unit. Conversely, this delicate dance relies on everyone performing the role they’ve been given, and gehurm who deviate from their role or who ‘fail’ to perform their duties are often swiftly punished, directly or indirectly.    

Sexuality and Love

All gehurm experience sexual maturity of a kind, and so obtain some concept of sexual attraction and identity. There is a great divergence in the depth of this development depending on what kind of society an individual is a part of, however. Gehurm niduses that see little-to-no contact with outsiders have a very slow rate of genetic generations, with reproductive pairs of matriarchs and their male concubines lasting for decades at a time. Nyups, conversely, will not generally develop complex sexual characteristics or understanding, as there is little impetus to do so and furthermore little opportunity to find an actual partner. It is only when the reproductive members are no longer viable, such as a matriarch dying or no longer favoring her current partners, that a state of flux occurs within the family and new potential matches can then be made.   To avoid incestual problems, gehurm families will reach out to other unrelated niduses for a formal exchange of male concubines, or may even seek potential partners from other species. Among the gehurm, potential spouses will be married or loaned out to a new matriarch, with potential concubines being both those who are raised as males or nyups who undergo certain rituals in order to morph into a male. If things go well, the matriarch and her new partner will continue business as usual, while simultaneously forging a meaningful relationship with the male's family of origin. It is in this way that (new) gehurm niduses form: multiple different families coalesced together for breeding purposes, and eventually more complex civilizations built upon those foundations.   Technically speaking, males are not strictly necessary for a complete reproductive cycle. A nyup can morph into a matriarch and asexually reproduce more nyups, continuing the gehurm species. However, males (of foreign families or species) introduce much greater genetic variety within the gehurm ecosystem, and historically have saved their species from extinction due to things like the Tyufhensak (Flesh Withering Disease).   As a result, while asexual reproduction is the natural / spiritual duty of a matriarch to expand her family / lineage, it is not seen as a flawless method. Partnered reproduction, while having political and social angles all around it, is also seen as a somewhat dignified practice of a discerning matriarch weaving new strength and vitality into her bloodline, and her partner(s) are venerated in proportion to their contribution.   Gehurm families in much closer contact with foreign species will see a much higher occurrence of sexual behavior. This, for the most part, is entertained among the nyups as a form of fun, social bonding, and similar lenses due to their inherent infertility. However, in such cases where a nyup is regularly able to maintain a partnership, the increased sexual activity will make it much easier for them to begin morphing toward the matriarch form, and so potentially spawning many more branching families.   Managing this is quite a challenge, as too many matriarchs can lead to social anarchy among gehurm niduses as established hierarchies are thrown out the window. Varying strategies have arisen to handle this, as sometimes many matriarchs can let a family or nidus expand rapidly in size when the time is proper. Stricter moral and social codes, particularly those of chastity, usually arise from the reigning matriarch as much as the nyups. After all, a nyup unprepared for the morphing into a matriarch may find the needed separation from her birth family as far more traumatic than one prepared for it.   The concept of gehurm sexuality and love, as a result, is quite varied but also incredibly situational. Interspecies romance, in particular, can be quite turbulent as any particular gehurm building such affection means the rest of their family can become quite interested in it as well. Staking one's claim and asserting individual rights can result in broader conflict with how certain families are run, leading to problems. On the other hand, even if a particular pairing is respected on its own, it means that gehurm's family will see the new partner as one of their own, and so become greatly concerned over them.   Similar to the bieneren, a person doesn't simply fall in love or build a relationship with a single gehurm—their entire family/hive is along for the ride, too.      

Society

Social Mannerisms

Lots of skinship

The gehurm are close-knit as a people, living and working in close contact with each other—sometimes quite literally. Their nature as an underground species, combined with their general kenophobia, means they vastly prefer tighter and closer spaces to live within. When there is only so much space, physical contact is inevitable, and whereas other species may maintain similar concepts of personal space, such notions are unknown to the gehurm. Whether in simple acknowledgements of brushing past one another, clapping hands, bashing heads, casual grooming, feeding one another, etc, the gehurm have a physical way of expressing nearly every social idea imaginable. This is also one of the main ways secondary effects are transferred, such as pheromones or sleeping puff spores, between members of the same family.   For the gehurm, empty spaces are something to be filled in, whether it be with beautiful textures and smells of artwork, the sound of chatter or music, or each other, but filled in all the same.    

Prominent Competitiveness

To the gehurm, emotions both positive and negative are a sign of receiving attention, and thus esteem, by one's peers. To be ignored is one of the worst insults to suffer, as it denies a gehurm not only the ability to have their deep social needs met, but also denies them their presence within the socio-spiritual organism of their family unit. For a people often worried about leaving a lasting impact in their family, any denigration to such efforts ranks among their highest offenses, or the gravest of punishments.   Thus, to often avoid such harsh lingering feelings that could inspire retribution at best and civil war at worst, gehurm channel their emotions through elaborate social games, rituals, and all sorts of sports and competitions. These arrangements change from year-to-year, and are usually made in conjunction with the projected needs of the family. A mining competition for a new living space, for example, in one year, and then the next may be an artistic one to develop that space. In this way the gehurm also gamify their labors, seeking to reach nebulous heights of recognition as the best performing workers. Gehurm history keeping most likely began from families keeping track of their top winning workers, establishing prestige and legacy in the process.   The cultural competitiveness of the gehurm can come as quite the shock to foreigners unprepared for it. While some may see the constant challenges as hostile, to the gehurm, it is simply expected social behaviour.    

Gender

To the gehurm, existence itself is 'feminine', or in their vernacular, numk. This world view is much closer to a unisexual species than a binary one, particularly as males were seen almost exclusively in a complementary or even accessory reproductive role. As the vast majority of the species at any given moment are nyups—infertile females—it can be of little surprise they've arrived at such a conclusion, either. It is a view sometimes lumped in with the rachtoh and bieneren themselves, albeit the rachtoh are cosexual, and the bieneren have long mistressed genetic engineering for reproduction.   Reproductive females—aka matriarchs, or numks—are the pinnacle of gehurm society and exercise massive authority over their family. As any other numks are essentially matriarchs waiting to make their own offspring, they branch off into new families, establishing themselves as the leading figure there. How a matriarch orders her family hierarchy in turn affects what kind of gehurm sit at higher positions of power within that family. Males are typically relegated to a special, subservient position to the matriarch, and are important in the same way any prized treasure is—guarded and deployed at her will, but lacking any power of its own.   There has, however, been a slow and gradual change of the role of men within gehurm societies over millennia. Being sapient and prone to all those problems, gehurm men long for fulfillment beyond just being the local stud, and so pursued various interests. Learned and intellectual jobs would be what they were 'most allowed' to do, as such interests were usually non-threatening to their lives or well-being. As such, gehurm men often became scholars or artists of a kind, and devoted themselves to the intellectual needs of their family, as well as providing artistic entertainments such as music, poetry readings, etc. This in turn garnered more support from the matriarchs, who devoted more nyups to developing such works, and so expanded the family's capabilities that much more.   Eventually, men grew into prominent and useful roles that mandated special creches to help engender more nyups into men beyond a solely reproductive purpose. Men could be raised, taught and educated, contribute to the family's growth, and have much more to offer in marriage agreements with other families. Though their position as a 'prized asset' never really changed, the modern gehurm man is one with great responsibilities and work, and so living that much more of a fulfilling life within the family.   It's unclear how much the men of other species—entirely separate from the gehurm ecosystem as a whole—influenced their views of the male gender. Historical evidence suggests that gehurm matriarchs who acquired such men as partners went to great strides in order to accommodate them within the family. Gehurm scholars suppose that these interspecies relationships may have paved the way, or at least greatly aided, gehurm men developing into their unique role as they did.    

Kinship and Ethnicities

Due to the totality of 'family' within the gehurm species, each family itself is essentially both the largest and smallest type of kin group. Broader gehurm ethnic identities are mostly created when a number of families come together for common cause, which results in the creation of their various niduses. From that point of view, a nidus itself would envelop an entire ethnic group, and different niduses would constitute as different ethnicities. Less like the cities of other species— which house many differently aligned groups—, and more like disparate families coming together under the banner of a single interconnected unit.   While a scholarly view might argue enough niduses exhibiting mostly similar behavior, histories, and cultural ideas would qualify as a singular ethnicity, the gehurm do not view themselves that way. In short, the gehurm identify themselves by their family first, then the nidus their family is a part of, then in relation to everyone else.   Overall, a gehurm family consists of a matriarch, her partners / spouses, and then all her offspring. The life cycle of a family usually revolves around each matriarchal generation, and when a matriarch ages out or otherwise dies, a time of flux begins in the family as a new matriarch is selected to lead. The exact specifics are further muddied by some families preferring natural competition, while others create dynastic legacies. As matriarchs are effectively the supreme authority of a family, having multiple matriarchs in close quarters together can dramatically interfere in the family’s power structure. Inherited succession, did, however, win out as a norm, as it made the transition of power from one generation to the next much more stable for the family as a whole. Regardless of the methods, a promising nyup will usually morph into becoming the next matriarch at some point.   From there, the new matriarch will begin the cycle again, and most will usually keep the prior matriarch's offspring as part of one contiguous family unit. Siblings from the prior matriarch's generation are usually referred to with the grand or elder prefix, such as grand sister. It becomes the duty of these grand sisters to raise, educate, and integrate the new matriarch's offspring into the family's cultural ways. Males, occupying a unique position, are generally kept on from matriarchal generation-to-generation, but as the gehurm are matrilocal, older males are likely to be married out so new ones can replace them.   In situations of a family with a perfectly fine matriarch suddenly gaining more matriarchs, a division will usually occur. The specifics vary as anywhere from immediate exile to coordinate splintering, but the end result is the establishment of two or more new families. As multi-family cooperatives overpowered single family ones in ancient history, it tends to be more the norm among the gehurm than not. These cooperatives are powerful entities as many, many families with direct blood ties (if not descendants outright) to one another. The early form of gehurm niduses arose from these closely related families, but the constant issue of incest put significant pressure on them to diversify. Hence, most niduses will actually 'trade' entire families with one another as part of political alliances or other agreements.    

Governments and Politics

In a broad sense, gehurm families operate in a manner similar to dictatorial monarchies—a ruling 'queen' (the matriarch) acts as the central authority, but the rest of the family divides up responsibilities based on a hierarchy established by her. While matriarchs may dictate the overall direction of the family, she cannot possibly exist in all places for direct control, so responsibility is delegated to senior or capably proven offspring instead. These subordinate leaders/representatives then handle the actual governing of the family and the operations they're entrusted to oversee. Outsiders of the family, however, usually deal solely with the matriarch or her direct representative, and it is considered invasive to circumvent her gatekeeping of familial political connections.   Larger families usually split further between autocratic or democratic models depending on several factors (cohesion, environmental pressures, ambient hostility of neighbors, culture, historical precedents, etc). Democracies typically win out for pragmatic purposes, especially when most niduses operate on a democratic model in the first place. Matriarchs, rather than fight for supremacy among multiple different families, instead defer to a quasi-representative form of democratic decision making. If one's political position is not convincing in itself, then matriarchs or their representatives will do simple voting to determine if a given matter passes or fails. Niduses may also simply involve the general families more in the process, giving everyone a voice in an ongoing issue or concern.   From certain points of view, the gehurm concept of government is fairly stable and doesn't generally concern itself with more than its immediate needs. Those within the family, be they workers, laborers, scholars, and otherwise, drive political interests that the rest of the family may or may not engage with. Many of the traditional drivers of political thought in other civilizations are greatly minimized, if not present, within the gehurm, as harmony within the family is so important to them. Political factions usually result from those tied to specific jobs, and more uncommonly toward actual ideological groups.   It’s profoundly rare for a gehurm family to face periods of upheaval. To the gehurm, the ruling queen is often literally their direct mother, and for the matriarch, they are her children. But, where people are concerned, anything can be possible. In the case of an incapable matriarch, the severity of her incompetency impacts the extent of her authority within the family. Growing pains are nothing new to the gehurm, but when incompetent or malicious decisions result in loss of ancestral land, familial members, or severe hardship upon everyone, then the matriarch’s authority becomes unseated. In most cases, more experienced family members will take responsibility to shore up the matriarch’s weaknesses (until she either learns or delegates it entirely). In the most extreme circumstances, a matriarch may be deposed and exiled, but at such a point a family is on the verge of dying out anyway.    

Trade and Economics

Gehurm economics borrow from various disciplines, but gravitates around socialism, communism, and systems of gifting or bartering within the family. If a gehurm need something, requests can be made to those responsible for that something, and it will usually arrive as production processes get around to doing it. Food, medical care, and other necessities are provided equally in most families, though the most mana and nutrient rich foods are reserved for the matriarch and those immediately surrounding her, as well as high ranking gehurm. Given that more complex gehurm biomorphs have greater nutritional requirements, this is viewed as a natural outcome to them, rather than a classist exploitation other civilizations might misunderstand it as.   Eventually, as the gehurm solidified the boundaries of their niduses and developed their infrastructure, they experienced prosperous safety, and more space and time existed for individualistic pursuits. The division of labor became particularly contentious, especially between those with more constantly demanding jobs (i.e, waste management) and those with 'seasonal' ones (i.e, planting or gathering the harvest). Various forms of accommodations would eventually be made, but as time is the one thing the gehurm cannot make, its management is a contentious matter. Families with greater capabilities usually resort to scheduling that balances 'must do' work and an individual's free time, while stricter ones may not have free time at all (or even actively discourage it).   Trade and exchange with other civilizations is where matters often become more volatile. As the gehurm value each other so highly, but often do not share that esteem with foreigners, they're much stricter in how they do business with those outside the family / nidus. In such cases, the gehurm will embrace the usage of material goods or even coinage as stores of value, imposing fierce taxes and great regulatory control on foreign merchants seeking to do business. In this way, they control their internal 'markets' and minimize foreign exploitation, ensuring they always benefit as much as possible.   This isolationist behavior is rather typical of their species, but their unique nature and exotic wares make them highly desirable. So, merchants will often make attempts to establish trade relations with the gehurm, which in turn gives them strong negotiation leverage. The gehurm themselves will rarely reach out to other civilizations, usually to acquire goods they themselves cannot make, or items of artistic / cultural interest. Larger and more prosperous niduses typically engage in trade much more regularly, especially as gehurm families developed a taste for foreign artwork, music, and culture as a whole.    

Interspecies Relations

As a whole, the gehurm can be thought of as not being on great terms, but not terrible ones either, with most of Veltrona's peoples. Their reclusive inclinations and out-of-the-way habitation means there aren't many who come into direct contact, let alone conflict, with them in the first place, allowing the fear and mystery the gehurm inspired during their debut during the Great Darkness to malinger throughout history.   Other Underworld species, namely the zoaen and lindwurms, have had both more consistent and longer-lasting contact with the gehurm from long before the Great Darkness, and so their opinions of the Gehurm are far more nuanced as a result. Of the two, the zoaen tend to view the gehurm as competition, as they have historically fought over prime territory within the Underworld in eras past. Lindwurms are generally much friendlier, especially as they usually mesh quite well with gehurm sentiments.   The modern gehurm of the Overworld exist more in myth and legend than discernible fact for most civilizations. Only their immediate neighbors and desirable partners are made aware of their existence in the first place. As long as someone is not unlucky enough to dig down into their nidus directly, the vast majority of people simply never know that gehurm live beneath them. It is a peaceful affair by their standards, though one that is gradually changing as immortal species, such as the baarham or dragonkind, have made more and more noise about the gehurm's existence.   It is the likes of the vampyr, urni, and mussuba are the species who are most likely to stumble upon—or are found by—the gehurm. Other nocturnal or crepuscular species, such as the helunae and tokyau, may also establish some relations. Diurnal species usually do not, as the gehurm actively avoid sunlight in specific, never mind their kenophobia with surface living.      

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Notable Civilizations

     

Notable Characters

       

Design Notes