Tuurluosm

The Tuurluosm are a semisedentary Nebyetic people of mixed Homo spargere and Giant ancestry who live in the Tuujjonsson territory of Malomanan.

=Name= The name Tuurluosm is an anglicization of the Old Tuura endonym Tuurlluośm [tʰuːrˈlːuo̯ʂm.], the plural of tuurluo which is from the Proto-Sumric *təw-na-lā meaning roughly "person who thrives in the north", from *təw- "north", *na- "person" and *lā- "to thrive"). From the same Proto-Sumric word comes Old Sumrë townal and Hajec toonalaa.

=Origin= The Tuurluosm descend mostly from Proto-Sumric speakers but they diverged as a group in the 16th century AN when a number of Proto-Sumric speaking men were put under a spell by The Weavers compelling them to mate with a band of small female giants that had wandered far to the south. While giants are a completely different form of life to Gaiazoa life, they have a life giving quality that includes being able to impregnate or be impregnated by any other living being. The resulting hybrids of this union were the very first of the Tuurluosm who resembled their human fathers by far but they had inherited traits from their mothers which distinguish them anatomically from other Homo spargere. Such traits were an increased height ranging from 6'5 to 7ft tall (in comparison to their fathers who ranged from 6~6'4ft tall), thicker and darker hair and stouter builds with higher muscle mass. A less visible but important trait was the presence of a tight skin covering the arteries and veins. In the giants this served to maintain a high pressure to pump blood throughout their large bodies but in the much smaller Tuurluosm it had the effect of insulating blood from the cold and this skin could be constricted at will so individuals could overcome numbness in limbs by forcibly pumping blood. It is because of this trait that their Old Sumrë speaking neighbors nicknamed them lorgӑndarpatmu ("they who are not numb"). Some individuals even grew a small horn on the tip of their nose although this was not common. This generation of hybrids would go on to marry other hybrids and non-hybrids also, with the southernmost populations by the coast having a higher percentage of non-hybrid ancestry and northernmost and tundra crossing populations having a higher percentage of hybrid ancestry. The various traits inherited from the giants allows them to survive much harsher conditions which is what allows them to live so far north where typical Homo spargere could not otherwise survive.

=Religion= The Tuurluosm are followers of Tuuric Shamanism which is shamanistic and polytheistic. It is closely related to the nearby | Skawechism belief held by the Sumnė and many analogies can be seen between them. The Tuurluosm however are more devout than the Sumnė and there are many cults which give reverence to individual gods. They have shamans like the Sumnė do yet they lack the multiple distinct classes of Shamans, with there being only one form of shamanism in Tuuric Shamanism.

=Language= The Tuurluosm speak Tuuric languages which have a common descent from Old Tuura which was spoken in the 20th to 33rd centuries AN. Old Tuura itself is a Synraspian language along with Old Sumrë and Hajec.

(ícje méar eidjótns te híar)

=Early Society= When the early populations of hybrids formed into their own distinct people there was already three distinct populations that were distinguished by the habitat they lived in. They were the Steppe Tuurluosm, the Tundra Tuurluosm and the Taiga Tuurluosm. Although these populations were distinct they regularly interacted with each other and shared the same language, Old Tuura.

The Steppe Tuurluosm lived on the west coast of Tuujjonsson on The Omiengiwwogś Steppe where they spent the winter living in permanent villages along the coast where they hunted whales, seals and fish. During the summer they traveled further inland to gather berries and herbs and to hunt bison and deer.

The Taiga Tuurluosm lived on the east coast of Tuujjonsson in the Õõrδuo Forest where they spent the winter living in permanent villages along the coast where they hunted whales, seals and fish. During the summer they traveled further inland in the taiga forest to gathers berries and herbs and to hunt caribou, hares and wildfowl.

The Tundra Tuurluosm lived inland in the The Byjenuehto Tundra where they spent the winter living in permanent villages in many of the Tundra Oasises which are supernatural sites created by The Weavers where a very temperate and warm microclimate exists year round. Here they gathered berries and herbs and during the summer they traveled along the tundra hunting mammoths. They also act as merchants and messengers between the Steppe Tuurluosm and the Taiga Tuurlsuom, trading items from both regions as they cross the tundra. The main mode of transport is via sleighs pulled by wooly rhinos, allowing them to carry much more materials than a typical dog sleigh although at the cost of being slower. Each winter the same family would always travel back to the same tundra oasis. Each oasis could support around 100 people during winter when the local plants experience a massive increase of fruit production and growth which allow for such a large number of people to survive in a small area, although the growth falls back after winter which forces people to leave for hunting. A family's right to stay at an oasis is determined by descent through the father and with wives moving to their husband's oasis. When the winter population at a tundra oasis exceeds 100 some people are forced to leave and either find another oasis or join the Taiga Tuurluosm or Steppe Tuurluosm. Conflicts can arise over who gets to stay. Since there are 43 tundra oasises and only 100 people can stay at each, the population of the Tundra Tuurluosm was capped at 430.



=Interactions with the Sumnė= Since neither the Tuurluosm nor the Sumnė were cohesive and organised groups the interactions between them would vary locally. The southern most populations often traded with Sumnė as they passed by, while some groups had sour relations with them while others, mostly the Tundra Tuurluosm, never laid eyes on a Sumna.

Trade contact often saw Tuurluosm trading furs and meat of animals that live too far north for the Sumnė to hunt while the Sumnė traded herbs and other carbohydrates that were unavailable in Tuujjonsson. These interactions were small and infrequent but most trade was thanks to the Sumric Mining Industry which saw vastly superior stone weapons being created at large mines in Mӑgalsjo. The Tuurluosm had no mines and could not for the frozen land did not allow for much digging. The Sumnė traded knives, arrowheads, spearheads and obsidian swords in return for meat and pelt, in particular whale meat, pelts of wooly rhinos and mammoth ivory. This had the effect of Tuurluosm hunting solely for the purpose of trading the catch for well crafted tools. These would then be used or traded with other Tuurluosm people. The Tundra Tuurluosm would accept these traded tools as payment for ferrying goods or people across the tundra since they had no direct contact with the Sumnė themselves.

Invasion of the Voro Peninsula
The Voro Peninsula (known in Old Tuura as Angoddaź "scar surface" in reference to the many lakes that dot the land) was part of Tuujjonsson and was inhabited by Taiga Tuurluosm up until the 25th century. The large number of lakes supported a great abundance of wildlife which was exploited by the Taiga Tuurluosm who regarded it as a prime location for fishing and trapping. This value was also noticed by Sumnė nomads who would often try to venture to the peninsula where they were usually driven away by the Tuurluosm residents. In the year 2486AN a large confederation of Sumnė nomad groups banded together to drive away the Taiga Tuurluosm from the peninsula so that they could exploit the resources for themselves. With a total of several hundred warriors the Sumnė made easy work displacing or killing the small groups of Tuurluosm who numbered at around 25 individuals on average. Working their way south to north the Sumnė were successful in taking the peninsula and incorporating it into their own nomadic territory Mӑgalsjo. For some time afterwards bands of Taiga Tuurluosm would enter the area to hunt, often coming into conflict with the Sumnė there. The permanent villages once inhabited by the ousted Taiga Tuurluosm were either left to deteriorate into ruins or were inhabited by the Sumnė invaders as homes for the sick and old who were unfit to travel, becoming iswaagvars. These Sumric invaders would go on to become the Naumes people.



When the Sumnė invaded the peninsula they didn't manage to displace everyone. A small group of Taiga Tuurluosm were so attached to the peninsula and so enraged at the invasion that they decided to hide out on a small island rather than flee completely. During this time they would travel to the mainland by boat to harass the Sumnė incomers, raiding their camps for food and occasionally killing the men. When going on these raids they would dress in all white furs with a great hood which covered the face like a mask which had the canines of a sabre tooth tiger attached giving them a predatory appearance. Over time their white furs became stained with the blood of their enemies, these stains were not washed off with the intent of intimidating future enemies. Their raids persisted for much of their lives and they managed to pierce deep into the minds of their invaders where they became horrific and towering fanged demons with white and red fur who appeared from the sea to destroy camps and devour people only to return to the sea to a mysterious home. As the raiders attacked they would often shout olowoji! ("run!") to their victims. Since the Old Sumrë speaking victims couldn't speak Old Tuura they misinterpreted this as the monster's call after which they named it the Owoloje. Even long after these events the people living in the Voro peninsula still tell stories of the frightening Owoloje.

The more humane origins of the monster can be found on ancient artifacts on that small island where the remaining Taiga Tuurluosm of that invasion lived. The tiny irrelevant island so obscure that it has no name still hosts the ruins and skeletons of those raiders. The ruins have protected the tools and bones of the raiders from three thousand years of wind and snow. On some of the tools there are inscribed little messages which tell the names of these "monsters":


 * emuoss Ajuonnian Ahkkiaddolrowo ("I am Ajuonnian of Ahkkiaddolro" - Ajuonnian is a personal name meaning "hungry fool" + Ahkkiaddolro was a Tuurluosm village name meaning "horned thistle")
 * suo aźmdi donnohkdy Uomiennos muogo ("this jacket was made by Uomiennos" - Uomiennos is a personal name meaning "greeter")