MIRELOPS

Physical

Average adult size: Tiny (3-4ft)

Average body type/s: Any size; more fat, less muscle

Limb length: Medium

Tail: Long (60-100cm), narrow (1-2cm in width). Great agility, faster than most and prehensile. However, it has very little strength and can't support anything more than light clothing. Very pointed tip.

Ears: Very narrow and very long, come to a sharp point. Fully mobile and prehensile, can twitch and turn at will. 

Eyesight: Limited to mediocre - some mirelops are very poor-sighted and can see between 5-500m away from them, while others have mediocre sight and can see up to 1km.

Smell: Good

Taste: Mediocre

Touch: Limited

Skin type:  Very moist/amphibious at times, very dry/rough and scratchy at others. When mirelops are primarily living in the water, their skin remains porous and very moist, but the longer they spend out of water the rougher and drier their skin becomes. Regardless, it's very tough.

Teeth:  Sharp with some blunt edges

Respiratory system: Lungs/skin (amphibious). They can breathe underwater, depending on the amount of energy being used, for up to 8 hours without coming up for air.

Body temp:  On the cooler side, a little clammy to touch

Body hair:  Sparse and thin

Keratin: Claws

Agility: Outstanding, extremely swift and dextrous

Endurance: Some endurance; work to rest ratio is 1: 2. 

Strength:  Mediocre, can carry heavy objects for short distances

Constitution: Strong, easily shrug off most sickness

Lifespan: Short, 50-80 years

Diet:  Mostly carnivore (75% meat 25% plant)

Sleep: Moderate, 6-9 hours a night

Reproductive system: Internal fertilization, external development (monotreme, bird)

Reproductive ability: Can produce children with a few other races (sealops, aqualops)

Additional features:  Have a second pair of eyelids that are clear and act as a film to prevent their eyes from drying out above water if they're away from it for too long. Their skin also often has striking green undertones.

Social

Average parentage/upbringing: Dual parents

Average child rate: 2-3 children

Average familial bond: Mediocre, friendly but with boundaries

Average pathway of new adults:   Travel alone sometimes but always return to family/community. Once a child is of age (20 years old in mirelop culture), they will go on a pilgrimage between 1-5 years long where they visit as many lop communities as they need to in order to experience every other kind of lop, then they return home to make the decision as to whether they will go out and join the rest of the world or remain in their own community.

Average generational tradition:  Family remains mostly together with some absences, be it long-term or short-term.

Closeness of extended family:  Friendly, extended family lives separate but see each other often

Family power dynamic: One matriarch has the most power. The mother does the majority of the raising and protecting of her children, while the father typically just supports her and is considered to be far less important in the raising process.

Family values and traditions:  Community and culture, politics, getting involved in community and worldwide initiatives; travel and individuality, nomadic lifestyle, personal discovery and development; art and personality, social ability, performance and charisma

Community values and traditions: Travel and individuality, nomadic lifestyle, personal discovery and development; art and personality, social ability, performance and charisma; trade and gathering, preparing trade items, selling and haggling

Average community population: Small, 50-100

Average community closeness: Mediocre, people talk and know each other but aren't close

Family variation within community:  Moderate variation, a lot of people have the same family structure but a fair amount don't

Community response to travelers:  Somewhat welcoming, tourism is reasonable and people might make small talk, trade is frequent. There are a lot of travelers that come to mirelop communities that are usually led back by adventuring mirelop pilgrims, but generally communities are geared almost entirely to mirelops and so other types of lop can have some difficulty getting used to it. Aqualops and sealops tend to have the easiest time in mirelop communities.

Home permanence: Mobile, different places every few years

Community relations:  Very involved, community meetings are very regular and populous and celebrations are frequent

World relations:  Moderately involved, attends major meetings and some minor meetings, most celebrations

Naming conventions:  Single name, vowel-heavy, temporary. Changes with the mirelop's life stages. From birth through childhood (age 0-13), teens to adulthood (13-20), then beyond that, they will have three names in their life. The first name is the name the parents choose, and reflects how the parents feel about their chlid. The second name is the name the mirelop chooses themself, and reflects their personal identity and hopes for their adulthood. The third name is something they gain through their pilgrimage, and typically is a mixture of a name they've chosen themself and the name/s that strangers and new friends have given to them. There is no typical sound conventions for these names other than being fairly vowel heavy and dual syllable. EXAMPLES: Aria, Morrow, Lyle, Gala, Eret, Zanya.

Reproduction:  Mostly pleasure, some business; sex is for fun but some people actively try for children, neither is abnormal

Drugs/alcohol:  Little usage, problematic. While in mirelop communities drugs/alcohol are not popular and rarely used due to their effects on inhibitors that mess with one's conduct and agility, when a mirelop makes their pilgrimage to substance-heavy communities they can have great difficulty understanding how to regulate it correctly, and some can bring substances (and the abuse of such) back into their communities.

Religious groups:  No cultural religion, everyone does their own thing

Religious importance in culture:  A little importance, not a primary part of the culture. Religion has very little importance and is more a talking topic than anything else. As many mirelops that go out and come back with a religion, the same amount come back with cynicism for all of them.

Religious practice in community:  Strictly individual, entirely personal practice

Environment

Main habitat: Swamp, wetland

Secondary habitats:  Tropical rainforest, deciduous and coniferous forest, temperate grassland, river/lake, ocean/shore. Most environments that would allow for wetlands will have some mirelop communities therein.

General:   Mirelops live in small communities of quite worldly people, all of which have very unique interests and skills that they've picked up - though those usually reflect the lop communities in their surrounding areas. 

Fauna: Otters, crocodiles, turtles, eels,piranhas, frogs, rats, beavers

Flora:  Cottonwood, birch and willow trees; duckweed, cattails, cyprus and tamarack trees

Daily Life

Favourite food styles:  Salty, spicy, sour, umami

Favourite meal types: Carbs, proteins and roots as a base, typically prepared as a liquid (soup/stew) or smoked. Large amounts of meat and most of their meals end up falling into the stew, soup, and curry categories.

Food sensitivity:  Reasonably strong constitution, can eat some things that most other lops can't

Housing:  Wood cottages, small to medium and densely packed. Mirelop houses are designed with byzantine architecture in mind; that is, a lot of great arches, domes roofs, huge arched windows and gentle slopes with curved rooms and high ceilings. They use a lot of hard treated wood and are extremely decorative in their dwellings, tending to display things they've traded or collected on their pilgrimages.

Agriculture: Equal architecture and trade. There's a very good balance in mirelop communities of agriculture and trade, and they have a lot of visitors as well as sending their pilgrims out with plenty of supplies and mirelop-specific crops, creations etc.

Main trades: Plants and roots; flowers and seeds; meat and animal-based food items; plant-based food items; fabric and dyes; insects and bugs; animals and pet items; musical instruments and manuscripts; cooking utensils and tools; charmed and cursed items

Clothing tendency:  Some rules, specific areas must be covered

Clothing styles: Skintight and practical/environmental. Tighter clothing that is breathable and moves WITH the body, usually made out of loomed and knitted waterbird feathers and down, as well as dried and treated plants. Has to be quite thin to allow for mirelops to breathe through their skin underwater. Generally very plain in styling but they often use fabrics and dyes to colour their clothing to make it stand out more. Tends to cover the torso and down to the knees. Outerwear is only necessary above ground and typically is made of thicker animal skins lined with soft, dry feathers inside.

Accessories:  Constant and practical/environmental. Almost always carrying various protective or helpful charms on them, such as charms to allow for longer underwater breathing, extra luck, more accuracy in movement, etc. These charms must be recharged every month or so in order to hold their magical effects.

Popular arts:  Vocal arts (singing, poetry); instrumental arts; magic. As mirelops return to their communities with knowledge of magic used by other communities and peoples, they teach their communities integrated styles of magic that are unique to each and every community. This makes them hugely popular for magical performance and specific charms, though some charms are so deeply specific that there will only be a single small community that can provide such a service, and lops from outside communities will travel years to access that knowledge or even just the performance of it.

Favoured leisure activities:  Field and match based water sports; concerts, street musicians, instrumentalists; musicals, plays, theatre; baking, cooking; travel, sharing culture, adventure; social events, parties; spoken word, storytelling; divination and prediction; magic and charms; hunting and competing catches

Curation: Magic items