Basodi

The Basodi (pronounced bəˈsoʊdiː) are one of the major thedes of Ym, native to the subcontinent of Basodiland at the center of the world's eastern edge but now, like the other thedes, dispersed throughout Ym. The Basodi are noted for their skills with crafts and clockwork, and Basodi manufacture is a byword for quality. Their thedy powers, when they have them, are often connected to this proclivity; Basodi often have powers related to fabrication or fine mechanisms.

Description

Basodi average about 163 centimeters in height, with little size difference between the sexes. Their builds tend toward the extremes; Basodi are usually slender or fat, but rarely in between. They have sallow skin, ranging from pale to yellow-brown, which often shows subtle patterning, with spots or thin lines that are slightly darker than the rest of their skin. Their hair is straight and dark brown or black; they have very little body hair, although they can grow facial hair, which some Basodi shave and others style into elaborate beards and mustaches.

Basodi tend toward round faces, small ears, and broad, flat noses. Their eyes may be brown but are often brightly colored, either green, blue, or even violet, and usually have a positive palpebral slant.

Culture

While many people believe the Basodi have an innate knack for fine craftsmanship, in fact their skills are much more cultural than congenital. The Basodi have developed their manufacturing techniques over years of practice and refinement, and have a long tradition of families passing their skills to the next generation. Not all Basodi may prove capable of the fine craftsmanship that the thede is known for, but those who are not simply go into other fields—and may call upon other family members or hired tutors to try to teach their own children the skills they themselves were unable to master. Basodi place a high value on care, contrivancy, and painstaking artificery.

Although the Basodi create all manner of handiwork, what they are the best known for is the intricate clockwork devices some Basodi produce, a facility unknown to any other people of Ym, except for a very few individuals of other thedes who have somehow managed to convince a Basodi to teach them the skill.

Despite the stereotype, this is not to say, of course, that all Basodi work as craftsmen and artisans. In Basodi or majority-Basodi communities, it would clearly be impossible for every community member to pursue these trades; some people need to fill other roles, such as growing or hunting for food; administering the government; gathering raw materials through mining, woodcutting, and similar pursuits; and so on. While it's very common for Basodi otherwise employed to pursue some handicraft as a hobby, and may even make a little supplementary income by occasionally selling some of their works, only the most skilled and renowned craftmasters can make a living selling their products to other Basodi.

Where the Basodi are a relatively small minority, it is easier and more common for them to make their craft a career. Given the not undeserved high reputation of Basodi work, even a Basodi who is a mediocre manufacturer compared to their thedemates can still command enough from nonBasodi to make a living wage. Even here, though, not all Basodi work in such trades; from lack of aptitude in these crafts or from simple lack of interest, many Basodi still do choose other vocations.

Naturally, any given Basodi is not proficient in every cunning. Most individuals specialize in one or two different crafts, usually family trades that have been passed down by their ancestors. One might specialize in clockwork; another in woodcarving; another in engraving; another in lapidary. There are some individuals called allwrights who attain proficiency in many trades, and who may combine their skills in unusual ways, but such multifacultive masters are very rare, and highly respected.

Powers

Thedy powers among the Basodi often relate to creation and craftsmanship. Some Basodi can create matter ex nihilo—the exact type of matter varies, although clay, stone, wood, and assorted metals are most common. Some can magically shape matter into desired forms, a given individual usually limited in the types of matter they can affect, and in the speed and detail in which they can shape them, though these latter factors can often be improved with practice. Some empowered Basodi can repair broken objects and mechanisms, and some are capable of fine manipulation through telekinesis.

Rarer Basodi thedy powers include emeation through certain materials—often, though not always, applying only to the person's hands—; the ability to move matter telekinetically on a larger scale; and a faculty for combining different materials into new amalgams.

Religion

The Basodi have perhaps the largest pantheon of any people of Ym, although many of the pantheon's gods are very specialized or very minor. Relationships between the gods of the Basodi pantheon are byzantine, and the tales of the gods are full of bets and bargains, of changing allegiances, and of debts and deals.

The Basodi claim that in principle all their gods are equal, but there are a handful of gods who are better known, more widely worshipped, and probably more powerful than the others, and who play a part in more of their myths and stories. Among the most prevalent of the Basodi gods are Ago, god of wonder; Beb, goddess of the elements; Durad, god of medicine; En, goddess of light; Heheli, goddess of knowledge; Iken, goddess of crocodiles; Ke'i, god of water; Mur, epicene god of the wild; Nuur, god of civilization and society; Raga, goddess of cleverness; Re, goddess of magic; and Ua, god of the stars.

Subthedes

Like all Ym's major thedes, the Basodi encompass a number of subthedes. The Gu tend to be somewhat darker than other Basodi, and have proportionately larger hands and feet; they often have thedy abilities of animation, able to gift inanimate objects with a semblance of life or indeed in some cases with true life and sentience. The Opo, small and compact for Basodi, and with more contrasting and more notable skin markings than most, have contrasting powers, turning living things into inanimate materials—either transmuting them but leaving them their agency and motility, or ylifying them into statues. The Ubuna, even darker than the Gu and with more body hair than most Basodi, often have powers that relate objects to information—planting and detecting messages within objects, and magically learning facts about an object's history by merely handling it. The Sena often have abilities that aid with the empowerment of objects; if Basodi in general are known for the fine crafts they produce, then the Sena are known for their telesmata. The abilities of some Sena allow them to work in conjunction with those with different thedy powers to empower telesmata with effects they could not produce on their own, and Sena charmsmiths may enlist the aid of other Basodi or associates of other thedes entirely to do just that.