The Zarth

The general idea is nailed down, details are flexible.

The Zarth are the gender mirror to The Fayrie (See: Fay-Zarth Relations for how they interact), the masculine aspect of the intelligent population. They live mostly underground, have a hierarchical authority structure, thrive on struggle and conflict, and craft massive mechanical structures.

Physiology

Morphology

• Some of the Zarth can be large eel-like or snake-like creatures. Their females would be like mermaids, with shorter tails. This allows good gender distinction, and exclusion of the females from wrestling (the main zarth form of competition)
• Some of the Zarth can be dwarven (perhaps with four arms?)
• Some of the Zarth should be diggers, creatures that can bore or tunnel through the earth naturally. Badgerlike, or gopher like.

Death

When the Zarth die they turn to stone. This leaves a statue of the dead Zarth (called a death husk). Renowned Zarth are displayed for long after their death, though the instability of Zarthaanc makes this difficult. Less important zarth are placed carefully on the ascending folds of adamant, and carried to their rest across the Horizon.

Stone rot affects death husks, turning them to grainy dust in the matter of a few weeks. Important death husk will often be kept surrounded by flames to destroy the rot. For this reason Zarth mausoleums are often filled with flame wreathed statues.

Senses

Because the Zarth live underground, eyes aren't very important to them. It seems that they would have some sort of echolocation sense, so, great hearing. Probably sonar as well, to sense through solid rock. Both would be thwarted by the Turmroil, which makes it even more terrifying, in addition to the danger of being crushed. They likely also have a great sense of smell and taste for rocks and ores.

What do they eat?

Have we just invented some sort of machine race that runs on mechanical power? Coupled with the idea of building their own children, this begins to make a lot of sense.

Zarth Culture

The Zarth are organized in regiments and live by authority and obedience. A Zarth's level of authority (counted in steps from The Victor) determines most of his social standing. Dominance is decided by contests of skill and strength.

Although shielded from the weather, the Zarth are exposed to the freezing air from the depths, constant cave-ins, and violent native creatures. Their houses are therefore designed mostly for mobility, strength, and insulation.

It is not unusual for Zarth communites to be organized across species lines. Although morphologically different the mer-men and dwarven archetypes share numerous social and philosophical ideals. They get along splendidly.--Hugh 01:00, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm thinking of a Hindu and Buddhist flavor for the Zarth. If they are automotons, this flavor synchs with the Overwatch Omnics. If they think of the surface as "down" then their idea of the the Great Tree syncs with Ashvattha, as being upside-down.

Advancement

A Zarth always has a job to do. The specific job relates to the regiment he is in. A Zarth will place himself under the command of someone he admires in order to learn his job better. When a Zarth has subordinates, he is called a Leader. Every Leader chooses how many subordinates he will allow, usually this is about 12. Most Leaders have a full rank of subordinates, since open positions invite those from further down the structure to advance without competition. Allowing more subordinates shows status, and makes it easier to win competitions, but it also increases the teaching burden on the leader, and may cause him to lose his edge and be defeated.

Competition

Every regiment has a standard competition, or type of competition. The challenger gets to decide the type of challenge, but the defender may choose the regiment standard competition instead. The subordinates of both competitors and the defender's peers judge the competition, giving scores. The highest score wins. Because of loyalties and close outcomes, judging may convert to a brawl, in which case victory is awarded by submission.

If a Zarth is good at his job, he will probably be able to win competitions. The winner takes the looser's place, and the looser becomes his subordinate. When a leader wins or looses a competition, all of his subordinates remain under him. Because of subordinate limitations, this usually sparks off a series of competitions, as the looser finds his level in the new structure possibly ousting one of the winner's old subordinates.

Technology

The zarth live deep in the earth, close to the flow of adamant and the origin of the air, both of which they employ for power. They have access to many ores, stones, and gems found no where else in TwinWorld. Their mobile creations run off of super high strength spring batteries or Energines, wound by stone flow, wind power, gravitational torsion, or other means.

Mating Practices

The info here is in a state of flux, everything can be changed!

Once a year, the zarth have a mating competition, essentially a huge brawl. The winners get to stay with the females, everyone else has to go back to work.

are the difforent kinds of zarth all compatible with eachother....in which case you would get some crazy mixtures :)--Zack 20:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I like the idea of Zarth having females. Their culture has a whole demonstrates masculine traits rather than their species being entirely male. However if we do go with endogenous reproduction here's an idea: Zarth must carve a symbol from a special rock and then embue it with their own life force through a sacred type of mechamagic. The stone grows into another zarth. Once it is fully mature the "father" dies. Zarth may embue several stones simultaneously in order to multiply. This number is limited to two, or for great zarth, three. Higher numbers often lead to a premature death and and underdeveloped offspring. --Hugh 00:47, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Why does it have to be the same? We could have the dwarven dudes make their offspring, and the snake dudes can have mermaids that they fight over. Oswald 23:39, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

The Venerable Dignified Colloquium on Reality

NOTE: I am considering changing the VDCR to a Toruhl orginization instead of a Zarth one. Ziggy 23:20, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Luke and I came up with the idea of a group of Fay who get together and try to figure out magic. In Faierie, magic doesn't make sense so they just come up with a whole lot of useless theories. Probably end up poking fun at intelectuals.

A quote from the Colloquium, "Our theory states that there are four fundamental axioms of magic. We have thus far assigned names to three of them."

It might be good if they were near to Adamant, and thus never changed their minds about anything. Perhaps they are even stationary, a cluster of boulders in a passageway somewhere, discussing the nature of magic.

Because they never change their minds their theories become increasingly convoluted and absurd although always self consistent. --Hugh 01:01, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

See also: Category:Zarth