The Bog Person Confederation: Cultural Profile

This is the cultural profile for the Bog People, the inhabitants of the Bog Lands of Squee and the Damp Plains. I had a random burst of creativity a few months ago and have been working on this off and on since then.

Introduction: The Bog Lands of Squee and the Damp Plains are inhabited by a species of 8-foot tall tall, bipedal salamanders known as the Bog People. Despite what outsiders might view as a crude society with a low level of technology, the bog people have a complex and thriving culture and government which oversees the homeland of the bog people. This matriarchal society is generally peaceful, but invaders tend to meet their ends more than anything else. Bog people seem content to stay in their ancestral homelands, and they seem to want others to do the same.

A typical bog person, holding a trident carved from the thigh bone of a massive bog creature

Magic and Technology: The technology of the bog people is limited by the materials available to them in Squee, but they are masters of the materials they have. Metalworking is entirely unknown to the bog people, and even if it wasn’t, the geography of their homeland makes mining nearly impossible. Regardless, the bog people make due just fine with stone, bone, and reeds. Bog people farm whatever arable land they have available to them, but there is precious little in Squee, so most bog people must hunt and gather for their meals. Hunting and gathering is done with well-crafted and refined tools, even if those tools are made of things readily taken off the ground. Throwing spears and their associated throwers are ubiquitous, as well as stone axes and flint knives. Bog people are also prodigious weavers, having a nearly endless supply of weaving materials in the bogs. Despite this apparent reliance on hunting and gathering, most bog people live in permanent settlements made up of many stilt houses. Stilt houses and permanent residences are necessary due to the frequent flooding of Squee and the somewhat permanent nature of bog person nursery pools, often placed in the centers of settlements. 

Arcane magic is mostly unknown to the bog people, so the main thing that tends to puzzle outsiders is how these permanent villages of wooden stilt houses are made. There are very few, if any, large trees in Squee, so the bog people rely on magic, performed by the matriarch of each village, to grow shrubs into the appropriate shapes to make the houses in a matter of hours. This magic is performed as a religious ritual in reverence to the spirits of the bogs which the bog people must stay in balance with. They maintain this balance by using sustainable hunting and gathering practices and by adapting their communities to fit into the landscape instead of trying to be separate. As long as a village is able to maintain balance with its environment, the matriarch will be able to perform the rituals which channel the power of the bog spirits into creating houses, among other things the community might need. Sometimes, this magic is even used to raise new hills to put nursery pools on, or expand natural ones that are safe from flooding. In times of danger, it is common for the matriarch to raise defenses around her village, and these can take many forms depending on the village and matriarch in question. The most important rule for bog person magic is, however, that it cannot be used to attack, only defend and support the community, making warfare between bog person communities relatively rare, as sieges have an abysmal success rate.

One of the Queen Mothers, eating a meal and holding an ancient scepter said to have the skull of an ancient invader on top

Society: The bog people maintain a matriarchal society where only females who have laid eggs in the nursery pools at least once may participate. For bog people who meet the criteria, their society is essentially a representative democracy. Individual settlements are usually populated by members of a single family, the mothers of which form a council that governs day-to-day life and discusses local policy. The oldest member of this council of mothers is the Matriarch of the settlement, who is responsible for representing the needs of her settlement at her family’s council of matriarchs. The council of matriarchs is where every matriarch of a family meets to discuss issues that affect the entire family and they decide how each village must act to bring about a solution. This council of matriarchs is led by the oldest matriarch of the family, referred to as the queen mother. There are hundreds of families, some of which only control a single village, and each one sends their queen mother to be part of the queen mothers’ council, the body which governs the entire confederacy. Every member of this council is considered to be an equal and has an equal vote when proceedings call for it.

Bog person children never get to know who their biological parents are because all eggs are laid in the communal nursery pond and raised from tadpoles together. Likewise, bog people tend to live communally, with adults freely choosing who to share a stilt house with and regularly changing houses to get to see other members of the family. Reproduction happens once a year when everyone of the proper age leaves home to go meet up with the population of another family’s settlement and have a fertility festival. This is done to avoid the inbreeding that would happen otherwise, and families make sure to meet with a different family every year.

Due to their importance in governing settlements, females of the bog people tend to stay closer to their homes in case they are needed, while it is often the responsibility of the males to range farther and gather food while they hunt. This social order is perpetuated by those in power and many bog people never question it. There are, however, members of bog person society who are unhappy with the division of labor based on biological sex. These people are frequently pariahs in their families, although their attitudes are tolerated to a certain extent.

Around 2,000 years ago, if the oral histories of the bog people are correct, a powerful military invader took over Squee and the Damp Plains, subjugating the bog people. These invaders ruled for 500 years before they were overthrown and removed from the bog peoples' lands. Oral histories attribute this successful revolution to the development of their current relationship with the bog spirits, giving them access to a power they did not have before the invasion. Little is known of who exactly invaded, but all accounts agree that they were a group of snake people, obsessed with secrecy. Because of this secretive tendency, very little information about their one-time rulers ever made it to the bog people. Despite this, the Snake Monarchs of Squee left behind many stone monuments and buildings, all made of imported stone. Many of the monarchs left wondrous treasures and dangerous magic behind when they were overthrown. This has been left to fester for 1,500 years, and many problems for the bog people of today are caused by the things left behind in these ruins.

Other than the physical impacts, the Snake Monarchs have also left a cultural distaste for expansionism and conquest in the bog peoples' mouths. While they are welcoming to outsiders, they will not hesitate to remove anyone who seems to want trouble. The defensive capabilities of the bog people are vast, and no one has been able to conquer them since their revolution.

A freshly hatched bog person will take about a year to grow legs

Religion: The bog people do not have any kind of organized religion or universal spiritual practice. Each settlement and village must find its own way to reach a balance with the local bog spirits and gain access to the magic which lets them grow and defend their communities. Rituals and prayers are not particularly common, as keeping to a certain way of life seems to be the most consistent way to please and work with the bog spirits. The rituals used to perform magic may seem like worship, but they are really just a way to get the attention of the spirits and tell them what to do.

A young bog person who has not yet learned how to walk on two legs

Towns: Individual towns are built and maintained by the matriarchs who are able to channel the powers of the bog spirits. When a new town is founded, the prospective matriarch must first commune with the local bog spirits to understand what she and her family must do to perform constructive magic. Once this is done, the first thing that is built is a large hill with a nursery pool on top, and then wooden stilt houses are grown outwards. Larger, more elaborate houses and meeting places are placed closer to the nursery pool, and the matriarch usually lives on the hill, right next to the pool itself. The process takes about a week, and produces enough housing for all members of the family who intend to live in the new settlement. The maximum size and population of each settlement is usually decided by the bog spirits as part of their covenant with the matriarch of each settlement. Areas that have more food and resources have bog spirits that allow more bog people, although this is not universal. Because a single family usually inhabits a single town, inhabitants tend to work for the greater good of their settlement and family, and there is a generally friendly atmosphere in the stilt villages.