The Pygmy Kingdom

PYGMY KINGDOM

Leader: Chorum Akua The story of Akua is not well-known, as he lives in extreme isolation, but it is filled with startling visions and strange rituals conducted deep in the jungle basin. Summary: The Chorum recently moved his palace to BaBadu, a remote village deep in the massive jungle of Pygmy Kingdom. No one outside of his nation has received an answer as to why, more likely being met with outright hostility if they press the matter. The village is at the base of a mountain path that leads to Mountain Temple. Akua's primary Witch Doctor planned to use Ætta as a virgin sacrifice in a ritual to appease a Black Dragon that has built a hoard in an ancient ruin beneath the temple. The dragon has been slain by the Monster Hunters...
 * Motivation (abstract want): More clarity from the visions he receives.
 * Goal (concrete want): To protect his people from the influence of any outsiders.
 * Conflict (obstacles): A large division amongst the people of the kingdom, one side favoring the acceptance of outsider's ways and one strictly forbidding it.

The Pygmy Kingdom is composed of bands which are relatively small in size, ranging from 15 to 60 people.

 The forest that the Pygmies inhabit is a tropical rainforest. In this area, there is a high amount of rainfall annually, ranging from 50 to 70 inches. The rainforest is massive, and constitutes nearly the entire Kingdom. The dry season is relatively short, ranging from one to two months in duration. The forest is a moist, humid region strewn with rivers and lakes. Several ecological problems exist that affect the Pygmies. Disease is prevalent in the forests and can spread quickly, not only killing humans, but plants, and animals, the major source of food, as well. One disease, carried by meme flies, is sleeping sickness, which limits the use of large mammals.

 Sleeping sickness  is a parasitic disease of people and animals, caused by protozoa. Symptoms begin with fever, headaches, and joint pains. As the parasites enter through both the blood and lymph systems, lymph nodes often swell up to tremendous sizes. The tell-tale swollen lymph nodes along the back of the neck, may appear. If untreated, the disease slowly overcomes the defenses of the infected person, and symptoms spread to include anemia, endocrine, cardiac, and kidney diseases and disorders. The disease then enters a neurological phase when the parasite passes through the blood-brain barrier. The symptoms of the second phase give the disease its name; besides confusion and reduced coordination, the sleep cycle is disturbed with bouts of fatigue punctuated with manic periods progressing to daytime slumber and night-time insomnia. Without treatment, the disease is invariably fatal, with progressive mental deterioration leading to coma and death. Damage caused in the neurological phase is generally considered irreversible.

The Pygmies live in villages that are categorized as bands. Each hut houses a family unit. At the start of the dry season, they leave the village to enter the forest and set up a series of camps. This way the Pygmies are able to utilize more land area for maximum foraging. These villages are solitary and separated from other groups of people. Their houses are small, rectangular, and very temporary. Unlike many modern architects, they do not use blueprints, but instead trace the outline of the house into the ground. The walls of the structures are strong sticks that are placed in the ground and at the top of the sticks, a vine is tied around them to keep them together. Large leaves are also used in the construction of the huts.

 The Pygmies are primarily hunter-gatherers, foraging for food in the forest. They have a vast knowledge about the forest and the foods it yields. They collect an assortment of food, including crabs, shellfish, ants, larvae, snails, pigs, antelopes, monkeys, fishes, honey, wild yams, berries, fruits, roots, leaves, and kolah nuts. While hunting, they have been known to specifically target the giant forest hog. The meat obtained from the giant forest hog (as is the meat from rats) is often considered  kweri , a bad animal which may cause illness to those who eat it, but is often valuable as a trade good between the Pygmies and the Esquimaux.

 Other food sources yielded by the forest are non-  kweri  animals for meat consumption, root plants, palm trees, and bananas and in some seasons, wild honey. Yams, legumes, beans, peanuts, hibiscus, and gourds are consumed. The Pygmies use large nets, traps, and bows and arrows to hunt game. Women and children sometimes help out by trying to drive the animals into the nets. Both sexes gather and forage. Each band has its own hunting ground, although boundaries are hard to maintain.

The Pygmy villagers produce many items that the hunter gatherers trade some of their products for. They often obtain iron goods, pots, wooden goods, and basketry, in exchange for meat, animal hides, and other forest foods. Meat is a particularly frequently traded item. They can also trade to obtain agricultural products from the villages. In market exchanges, prices are usually arbitrary, and people usually try to bargain for prices or trade one good for another.

Men and women basically have equal power. Issues are discussed and decisions are made by consensus at fire camps; men and women engage in the conversations equivalently. If there is a disagreement, misdemeanor, or offense, then the offender may be banished, beaten or scorned.

 Everything in the Pygmy life is centered on the volcano. They consider the volcano to be their great protector and provider and believe that it is a sacred place. They sometimes call the volcano “mother” or “father.” An important ritual that impacts the Pygmy's life is referred to as  molimo . After events such as death of an important person in the tribe,  molimo  is noisily celebrated to wake the volcano, in the belief that if bad things are happening to its children, it must be asleep. As for many Pygmy rituals, the time it takes to complete a molimo is not rigidly set; instead, it is determined by the mood of the group. Food is collected from each hut to feed the molimo, and in the evening the ritual is accompanied by the men dancing and singing around the fire. Women and children must remain in their huts with the doors closed.

"Molimo" is also the name of a trumpet the men play during the ritual. Traditionally, it is made of wood or sometimes bamboo, but outsiders also report the use of metal drainpipes. The sound produced by a molimo is considered more important than the material it is made out of. When not in use, the trumpet is stored in the trees of the forest. During a celebration, the trumpet is retrieved by the youth of the village and carried back to the fire.

BaBILA – Pygmy capital

Built on and around a massive ruined city in the shadow of the volcano, this city is teeming with life, including animals. From the forest elephants that the Pygmies use for goods transportation, to nearly domesticated giant boars that they ride bareback, the streets are alive with the sounds of activity. Perched atop the city in the only portion of the facility that the Pygmies have managed to enter, lays the Chorum's “Palace”. The Palace consists of four small rooms off a central work area, which has been stripped from floor to ceiling to create jewelry for the royal family. The Chorum lives within, along with his four wives and a dozen of his children (the daughters). The seven sons each live with a warrior of the tribe, where they will remain until their test of manhood at age fourteen.

The city sprawls for miles from its center, getting progressively wilder as it approaches the slope of the volcano. The southern edge of the village sits along the ocean, where a minor trade port has developed. Trade with the Esquimaux has brought exotic meats and bones, of which the Pygmies covet skulls highly; the Chorum's most valued prize being a large polar bear skull that he has fashioned into an evil-looking helm.