<p>Highly advanced, wise, and insular serpent-people who rarely stray from their metropolitan area that surrounds the garden in the earth's interior. <br></p>
<br>
<h2>language </h2>
<p>Serpents have a high and a low language. Its cultural neighbors speak the early Semitic, proto-Sanskrit, and proto-indigenous-Brazilian languages of the giants and the sing-song syllabic fairy language. The written languages are used in scrolls and codices made from parchments and vellums of skin. <br><p>
<br>
<h2>concepts </h2>
<h3>misc nouns </h3>
<ul>
    <li>wise </li>
    <li>unwise </li>
    <li>immortal - describes the superior species that are impervious to death, disease, or poverty </li>
    <li>mortal - describes the short-lived species that cannot appreciate the history that led to their life nor the long-term impact of their actions. They do not truly die but seem to linger as ghosts before eventual reincarnation. This, they also never grasp, but a serpent can clearly see their core retained through waves and gradual changes. </li>
    <li>storm - the power to control life </li>
    <li>moon -  </li>
    <li>perfume - the floral and fruit accords that permeate every interior and exterior within the serpent city and central garden </li>
    <li>mist - lifts from the ground, supports lush, seasonless vegetation year-round </li>
    <li>river </li>
    <li>garden </li>
    <li>river split - place where water feature splits into two or more </li>
    <li>river mouth </li>
    <li>orb </li>
    <li>wave, generation - serpents live in stability, while the world and other species around them die, are reborn, and change. They passively observe the ins and outs of the waves of life outside the city. (They are aware of tidal phases of the ocean through legend. Some have observed it first-hand. They vastly prefer their cushy city life to going out among humans, though.) </li>
    <li>god-killing - literally "eclipse of the sun". Gods cannot die, but they do act beyond comprehension. There is some great plan unfolding in the death of the earth-god. </li>
    <li>ghost - the giants linger between waves </li>
    <li>Sun - a gentle star-god within the center of the earth. Provides a mild climate yearround.</li>
    <li>Earth - the intersection of the spiritual and material realms. Serpents can pass between them with ease. </li>
    <li>dust, gruel, inedible food - dust is fed to prisoners </li>
    <li>tree - provider of all spiritual things </li>
    <li>bdellium - common somewhere </li>
    <li>onyx - common somewhere </li>
    <li>light - wisdom, knowledge </li>
    <li>dark - folly </li>
    <li>serpent amulet of light - serpents wear an amulet that illuminates the area around them in daylight. It's not a practical item but a beauty-enhancing item that makes the wearer appear more wise. </li>
    <li>codex </li>
    <li>scroll </li>
    <li>name - they were each given names at creation which are personal and not shared. They use false names socially, usually given by others based on appearance, interests, or interesting stories. </li>
    <li>beauty - valued for its ability to influence and bewitch; serpents do not look for sexual partners or evaluate others based on appearance, though they sometimes mingle with other species for ulterior motives. </li>
</ul>
<h3>animal</h3>
<p>All fauna and flora, living and extinct, endures within the central garden in the earth's interior. They have an important, enduring purpose to serve as illustrative symbols, and there will never be a generation without at least one surviving member of each as long as the earth exists. Some wander out around the serpent city, the rest of the interior, the crust, and rarely even emerge on the surface. These are the original forms of life without any adaptations, so proto polar bears and proto desert rats live happily together in the same temperate central garden biome. <br></p>
<ul>
    <li>animal -  </li>
    <li>bat -  </li>
    <li>bear -  </li>
    <li>cat - literally "snake-killer" </li>
    <li>dimetrodon -  </li>
    <li>dog, outsider - proto-root of canine, Canaan, Kenite </li>
    <li>fish -  </li>
    <li>lion -  </li>
    <li>snake - sacred animal </li>
    <li>spider -  </li>
    <li>styracosaurus -  </li>
</ul>
<h3>color</h3>
<p>Serpents have eyes but are entirely blind to visual light. Objects and the environment is illuminated through wisdom, and they can see the inner qualities more clearly than the facades and the spiritual actors equally well as the fleshly actors. <br></p>
<br>
<h3>figures/species</h3>
<ul>
    <li>earth-god - he has several names, literally "dead god," "shifting god," "earth god," "renewal god," and "storm-bringer;" he is an underdog god who gained or stole respect over all others to become the ruler of the entire earth; he controls the storm; he has been dead for a long time </li>
    <li>divine hero - </li>
    <li>high-god -  he has several names, literally "vast waters god," "deep god," "destroyer god," "storm-rider;" the god beyond the vast waters; he will launch the final storm, best the earth-god in battle, and destroy the earth </li>
    <li>serpent-king - </li>
    <li>serpents - (species) literally "two-tongues;" charismatic but deceptive immortal serpent-people who live in the opulent city in the hollow earth that surrounds the central garden </li>
    <li>spider goddess - virgin goddess</li>
</ul>
<h3>jobs (RPG classes)</h3>
People are born job-less but arguably with a propensity towards a particular job. They can train towards mastery of a job, but giant jobs are so complex and slow to learn that it is exceptionally rare to have more than one or to change jobs. They usually deviate dramatically from their parents, learning through apprenticeships and self-learning. It's more likely for a giant to travel to a foreign land in pursuit of a trade than it is for a giant to study his father's trade under his father. <br>
<br>
<ul>
    <li>he holds the flow of rivers - conceptually, everything that moves, progresses, or changes is considered to be flowing. The world itself is a bubble adrift in vast waters. Those with the job have the  </li>
    <li> - looks the same as white- to humans but differently hued to giants </li>
</ul>
<h3>locations</h3>
<ul>
    <li>central garden - the interior of the hollow earth; houses the lost garden, the serpent city, and  </li>
    <li>crust - </li>
    <li>firmament, sea, vast waters - the outer watery shell of the world; giants only know shallow and gentle mists and brooks, but the world is a bubble in a vast outer world of water </li>
    <li>hall of monuments - </li>
    <li>interior - </li>
    <li>serpent city - </li>
    <li>surface </li>
</ul>
<h3>minerals/rocks</h3>
<ul>
    <li>asbestos - fibrous mineral, spun into yarn and woven into cloth. Blessfrey's giants are usually referring to chrysotile (white asbestos), but they sometimes trade for other types (brown, blue, etc) with distant giantic cultures </li>
    <li>gold - common mineral, appreciated for its lustrous beauty and ability to be extruded into yarns </li>  
    <li>crystal -  </li>
    <li>gemstone -  </li>
    <li>stone, building material - large </li>
</ul>
<h3>verbs</h3>
<ul>
    <li>shine - to emit light, to share wisdom </li>
</ul>
</p>
<br>
<h3>foreign, unencountered concepts: </h3>
<ul>
    <li>birthdays - as far as they are concerned, they have always existed. Births of other species are unremarkable. </li>
    <li>sex </li>
    <li>work - serpents live in bliss and leisure forever. Other species' toil appears like ants building hills and dogs scouting their borders. It's quaint, but they don't think much of it beyond possible spiritual and symbolic meaning. </li>
</ul></p>

