Thread by @Kiraofthewind1

KIRA'S SUPER WORLDBUILDING TOPIC, for 9/25/21

Feel free to ask questions or chime in with your own #worldbuilding if it reminds you of something here.

MORENZI CASTES

#amwritingfantasy #amwriting #SFFWritersCommunity

I talked about Morenzal a few weeks ago and had to glaze over their caste system because it was too long for that topic. I wanted to do this in full, though! The Morenzi have some sexual practices and rituals, so this topic may be triggering to some and features #nsfw discussion.

As a reminder, Morenzal is an isolated society on the Quarantined Plane. The Morenzi are humanoid, silver-haired, light-skinned people. They are all Mind elementals and worship Lucognidus with utmost fervor. They perform worship ceremonies a minimum of four times per day, though

they also have two four-hour sleep cycles rather than a full eight. One of their religious beliefs is they believe they were quarantined to serve as bulwark against any evil forces that might invade from the unknown dominion which connect to the Pentagonal Dominion via the water

portals in Morenzal. Their planet is a desert with few resources, but there are some underwater reservoirs and good farmland outside the city. However, they also only live at the north pole where it’s sunlight for half the year and nighttime for half the year.

Being Mind elementals, 90% of them are born biologically female, so there are certain societal expectations for men. Morenzal is extremely hot, but all people have the Gods’ blessings, so they cannot be hurt by the sun. As such, Morenzi go near-nude and do not fear sunburn.

Most Morenzi (of all sexes/genders) wear nothing more than a thong and veil to keep sand out of sensitive areas, and jewelry for beauty. They are ruled by a woman called the Minau Mirza, who is always one of Lucognidus’s daughters.

They call their social structures classes or castes, though the only caste one is born into is Seed. The castes are named after parts of a cactus, which the Morenzi see as the ultimate symbol of life thriving in the desert.

Seed: Men. All boys are automatically Seeds. They live in their own district of Morenzal and are not allowed to leave without an escort and sufficient body covering. Because of the 9:1 ratio of women to men, there is an expectation for all men to impregnate at least 10 women.

After he has impregnated ten women, or if he’s produced two sons, the man is freely allowed to choose a different caste if he wants, though he must be emasculated (having both his penis and testicles removed). If a man is not interested in having sex, he can speak to his Sentinel

about changing castes, though it’s rare they allow it, unless there has been a population boom or other men have been able to successfully impregnate many women. If a man wishes to travel/visit outside the Men’s District, he must dress in such a way that his entire body is

covered, head to toe, and he must be accompanied by a Sentinel. The Morenzi believe that the sight of a man’s skin is enough to incite such lust in women that they cease working for the good of the Lord, and they will fantasize only about fucking. Their guardian Sentinel has

power over them and can order her men back to their district and punish them for misbehavior. Because of the scarcity of cloth, men must not damage or dirty their clothes too much. Doing so results in punishment when they return to the Men’s District. The Sentinel women don’t

have the same degree of power as Ophidians, however, and if enough men complain about their Sentinel, they can have her replaced. When in the comfort and security of their own district, the Seed men typically go naked. There are places in the Men’s District where women come to

have sex. Certain castes have other rules they follow, though, such as the Skins who believe it’s sinful for them to see the man they are fucking. Seed-class men perform two extra worship rituals daily, including a ritual of ‘masculinity’ to ask God to impart some of his

masculine energy into them. This ritual often ends in the man having sex or masturbating.

Thorn: These are your badass women. They train to become Sentinels whose purpose is purely to fight, hunt, kill, and protect. They go on missions into the desert to kill wild animals for

meat and other products, such as gathering spidersilk, scorpion carapaces, zmey eggs, or oil for lamps. They wear full-body armor made from the scales and carapaces of the animals they slay and wield an array of bladed and blunt weapons. Of the four worship rituals, two are

intended to be performed naked, and the Thorns have ritualized them to include a specific way they remove their armor, ask for each piece to be blessed for protection, and set it aside. Since those two prayers are performed before bed, they do not usually put their armor back on.

Areole: They also train to become Sentinels, though with an emphasis on supporting the Thorns. While they do fight. their primary purpose when on missions is blacksmithing, maintenance of supplies, logistics, and setting up camps. Thorns and Areoles both supervise men in their

district, or when traveling to other districts. They perform the same armor-removing ritual as the Thorns when they pray.

Flower: Artists, clothiers, jewelers, glassmakers, potters, lamp-makers, and weavers. The Flowers mostly makes crafts, but with an emphasis on beauty.

They create what little clothes Morenzi wear—their spidersilk thongs, veils, and jeweled gold and silver ornaments. Although spidersilk is difficult to come by (and they have no other means of making cloth), they create dyes from the various colorful flowers grown on cacti.

They create dyes for hair, tattoos, and paint. Flower-caste women (and the occasional, but rare, Flower-caste man) often have a cactus-flower tattoo on their body and dye their own hair.

Water: responsible for regulating all water usage in the city and outlying farms. They dig irrigation canals, bottle water, and prepare collection bowls when rain is scheduled. They are also responsible for raising girls in communal schools (boys are automatically sent to the

Men’s District, where they are raised/educated by adult men). As teachers, they organize field trips and help girls decide which caste they want to join when they’re older.

Root: Farmers. Most live on the outskirts of the city during day-season and farm. During night-season,

many come to live in Morenzal City and help out with other tasks, usually helping the Flowers, Waters, and Stems. Many try to become pregnant during this season and make frequent visits to the Men’s District. The men have taken to calling night-season “Rooting season” because of

that and ‘Rooting’ is their slang term for fucking. Due to farming practices on Morenzi, they associate underground reservoirs and irrigation with fertility rather than rain, thus they have internalized the idea that the ‘liquid’ that makes plants

grow comes from underground. During sex, Root women will typically insist on being on top.

Skin: They believe their only purpose is to worship Lucognidus. They tattoo their bodies in visually pleasing ways with vines, flowers, or script. They are ‘priestesses’ and perform

religious functions and police others on matters of morality. They engage in flagellation, spanking, and other light BDSM practices. The most hardcore of Skins have even heavier rituals involving drawing blood and scarification to accompany their tattoos.

They are the Minau Mirza’s servants and attend to her every whim and desire. Skins are not required to have sex or babies, but if they do, they believe it’s immoral to look at the man fucking them. This comes from an event in the past where a group of Skins all wanted to have the

same beautiful man and had fought over him. But since there are 9 women for every 1 man in Morenzal, the Minau Mirza decided it wasn’t right for everyone to go after the same man. She said it was sinful that they should fight over anyone, but especially a man, and especially the

Skins who should be focusing their attention and love on Lucognidus instead. They now believe it is sinful to judge a man for his looks, even subconsciously, so Skins will do everything they can to avoid seeing them (except on the day of the Phoenix Festival where they dress

men up like Lucognidus). Now, when Skins want to have sex, they will go in a group to the Men’s District and visit one of the brothel houses. The tradition is for the group of Skin-women to lean over a partition, then have a drape come down across their waists. While they can see

each other, the men are blocked from their view. The Seed-men can speak to them, and they have a ritual they perform where they introduce themselves, they proclaim their love and adoration to God, and they promise to stop anything they’re doing if the Skin-woman requests it.

Although it might look suspiciously rape-ish at first glance, it’s entirely consensual, and both the Seed and Skin end up happy and satisfied by the end of it.

Stem: Distributors, teamsters, lamplighters. They move goods throughout the city and keep public lamps lit during

night-season. Not really ‘merchants’ because they do not use money. Goods are distributed to all citizens by the Stems, who also engage in logistics to figure out what everybody needs.

END