So, before I start thinking of something else, I might as well throw out some Ilba/Perdix possibilities and see what flies with the established mythos. I am a leaf on the wind, watch me ramble. I'll start out with "premise nonsense", then "Perdix and Ilba nonsense", and then "larger scope nonsense", so skip at will by running "find" on those exact phrases.

Nil will be gradually going to everybody he can find and asking them some or all of these questions. Everybody he approaches is explicitly made free to answer as much or as little as they care to. They are also assured that he will not keep a record of who has given which specific answers - "Ishta won't hear about this", etc. He does not appear to be carrying any record-keeping material with him, so the tone is entirely conversational.

Sea and Sun, the Great Dragon, the Moons, the Wolf and the Monkey, lots of incestuous God children.

So I think we could use a richer and deeper mythology for the Gaetani, both for dealing with the Monsters and the Monkeys, and with the local priests. Also, it is always good to have stories for characters to tell their own versions of.

A longish survey of Monkey social structure and magical properties. This is what Sonata will hear if Ilba gets her brother's bones from Calvus.

If anything seems terribly incompatible or awry, jump right in. There's nothing in here on the Monkey God himself, just sociology.

The shadows are a relatively weak form of monster native to Gaetan. They appear as shadows, but are capable of motion independent of their source. Generally, they are only capable of frightening and confusing, but at their greatest strength, they are capable suffocating and killing the old, the weak, and the particularly susceptible.

The Wide Valley of Gaetan, home to the covenants of Nimus Animae and Manu Tenere, showing the location of the Capital, Cliffside, and Riverbend. Also showing the nearest loyalist Gaetani city on the F

Gaetani taverns are generally located in the center of the village. They are not Inns, but they serve as the nearest equivalent. If you arrive in a Gaetai village and you don't have friends to stay with already, you go to the tavern keeper, and he will make introductions for you with someone in town who can spare a room for you. While taverns do serve as the focal point for drinking and gambling, and black market trade almost always runs through their back rooms, the taverns are also the center of town, providing free fish stew to the indigent, or to anyone who needs a quick meal....

Life blood of Gaetan, the salmon are the great gift of the Sea (mother of three of the Celestial Gods) to humanity. They boil through the narrow straits of the Inner Channels, and practically throw themselves into the nets of the waiting villagers. The Fall and Spring runs are celebrated in huge festivals and parties, as everyone goes out to camp on the streams and catch and smoke salmon. The Fisher priesthood determines the proper starting time for the harvest (after allowing a certain period of time for the first salmon to travel unmolested to the upper stream beds), oversees the festivals, and makes augaries from the catch.

There are three major varieties of salmon that run in Gaetan...

Known in Gætani as:

• Ninak Tobhi’; Tobhi’pa’: the White Moon; White Moon priests
• Ninak Homma; Hommato’pa’: the Red Moon; Red Moon priests
• Ninak Hattak; Hattako’pa’: the Green Moon; Green Moon priests
• Hashaatabookoli’: the South Star, the Pole Star

The White Moon priests are responsible for the administration of the state.....

The lover priesthood is the most powerful village priesthood that is predominantly female. There is a male adjunct to the lover priesthood, the hunter priesthood (which is actually not primarily concerned with hunting), but it is much smaller and less powerful. Hunter priests are almost always also priests within the other priesthoods as well.

The Lovers have responsibility for contraception (mostly herbal, but quite effective), birth, sexual initiation (Hunters serve this purpose for Androphiles), marriage, prostitution (again, Hunters serve this purpose for Androphiles), treatment of illness, handling of corpses, and determining the timing of berry gathering. They are skilled in several forms of magic, including healing and divination, although their spells have nowhere near the overt power of Choleic Mages, or of the millers. Individual lover priests tend to specialize within the broad range of Lover activities, but they are also expected to be competent at the full range of responsibilities....

After the slaughter of the Miller Priests at the end of the war, the Prince created an order of officials loyal to himself, and outside the usual priestly order. These officials fill the non-magical roles of the Millers, milling grain, maintaining machinery, and producing fine glasswork. Many of the Prince's Millers were drawn from the lay brothers of the old Miller Priesthood, while others are Tympanians. Since the foundation of the University of Manu Tenere, candidates to the Prince's Millers are required to study Tympanian arts and religion at the University for several years....

The village priesthoods of Gaetan provide the backbone and organizing principle of the common Gaetani society. Almost everyone in a Gaetani village belongs to at least one priesthood, and the priesthoods oversee almost every aspect of village life. The priesthoods function as professional societies, as government, and as economic drivers. The creation and distribution of almost all necessities are overseen by the priesthoods, and the brewer priesthood oversees the distribution of everything else through its control of gambling, drinking, and a health black market trade in goods the other priesthoods frown upon....

The Judge is the incestuous child of the White Moon and his sister, the Pole Star.

The Judge sits in waiting for the end of the World, when he will judge the souls of the dead, feeding those with whom he is dissatisfied to the Great Dragon.

Priests of the Judge are a rare and dangerous breed. Their priesthood exists outside the structures of either the Celestial Priests, the priests of the evil gods, or the priests of the village gods. They travel throughout the land, seeking out wrong doers and unbelievers to smite down. Their gaze strikes terror and shame into the hearts of any Gaetani who has not utterly renounced their faith in the Gaetani gods, and they are able to quickly turn a village against its unbelievers, evil god worshipers and common sinners.....

The Great Dragon, parthenogenic daughter of the Earth, created many children in imitation of the Celestial children of the Sun and the Sea. Most of these were merely monsters, some of which still haunt the Gaetani countryside. However, four of the Great Dragon's children were powerful enough to be considered gods....

The coast region of Gaetan consists of the lands lying between the coastal hills and the ocean. The small valleys and low headlands of this region support numerous small and isolated communities. A lack of land based trade routes and poor ocean-going vessels prevent reliable or speedy communication between these communities and the central regions of Gaetan.....

Gaetan lies to the south of Tympania, beyond the marshes of Orsinia. Geographically, it is divided into several regions....