Managpanunot

Insinsi who embody logic.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Insinsi

• Alignment: Nommic

• Energy: Agpayso

• Lifespan: 1,000 years

• Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Tropical rainforests

Origins

Descended of shemir who traveled to northeastern Dabusen and sought to store all factual information via psionic power.

Description

Shemir appear to be anthropomorphic beings with high foreheads and a variety of color skin hues (greyish blue, greyish green, or brownish purple). They have fingers that are proportionately longer than one might expect from the size of their hands. They have hair on the fringes of their heads but not on top.

Procreation

Managpanunots reproduce sexually with one another. They sometimes reproduce with other insinsi, where the species of the offspring follows that of the birthing parent. Reproduction with any other species requires supernatural intervention.

Powers

Managpanunots have muted their emotions to the point that they generate almost no emotional resonance and are hard to detect via empathy.

Psionics

Managpanunots have psionic powers relating only to data collection and storage:

• Mind-reading: scanning the conscious thoughts or subconscious thoughts of another.

• Scanning: scanning an area for any conscious minds without reading them.

• Transference: transferring information (data, memories, or skills) from one mind to another.

• Copying: copying the data, memories, or skills of another to oneself.

Weaknesses

If they are subjected to supernaturally inflicted emotions, it will overwhelm them.

Nations

There are five nations of managpanunots, all within the islands of northeastern Dabusen:

• Dumteng: the original nation in southwestern Vada’dar, descended of a shemir colony.

• Moikyas: a nation in northern Vada’dar who fled the original colony many Ages ago.

• Selanjutnya: a nation living in Tunvoh.

• Sumali: a nation integrated into the wider Vada’daro culture.

Culture

The Dumtengs arrived in the region long ago and formed a community devoted to gathering information locally. This quickly expanded into all forms of investigation and study, creating a school to preserve their quest for all information, and developing psionic powers to help them expand their minds to store the data. Their first attempts at developing storage were disastrous, and they nearly died of disease until the locals helped them recover.

Over the ages, they developed a culture that mixed local customs with their own purpose. At the core of their culture is the collection of information. They use every method they possibly can to gather information, ranging from scientific and esoteric experimentation to journalistic investigation to research and collaboration. They have schools, which are the heart of their communities, built on low elevated platforms, often with thatch ceilings.

Among the Dumtengs, everything they do is to improve their collective metaphysical and mental capacity. They have many practices they believe help with this. For example, when one of them dies, their skull is preserved and used as part of the base of a building, for it is believed this allows the knowledge of the dead to join the knowledge of the living. They eschew drink or inebriants of any kind. They have special dances taken from the local culture, dinaklisan and agdamdamili, which they engage in because they believe they improve their capacity for knowledge. The former they associate with rivers, the latter with pots. They also wear headwraps called bangal.

Fish and pork (mostly fish) are common parts of their diets; fishers and pig-farmers are important parts of their communities. They often use fermentation and salting to keep food preserved, for all managpanunots in the community prefer to be seeking information rather than doing other labor, no matter how important to the survival of the community. Their food is designed to be easily prepared, long-lasting, and full of nutrients.

They keep massive libraries of what is mostly non-fiction information, but they style with which they record it includes a great deal of religious framing. They write of the rivers that are memories and knowledge; they write of which soul information comes from or is stored in. They write about the souls of objects. But in the midst of this framing, unbelievable amounts of information is kept. All of their art is like this - spiritual and full of data. Songs, paintings, drawings, and ceramics are common.

National Cultures

The other three managpanunot cultures differ:

• Moikyas: The Moikyas people are heavily assimilated into the local, colonized culture, buying into a heavily feudal-colonial system and following a syncretic religion that combines Karayan ti Lagip with belief in a more patriarchal, controlling system.

• Selanjutnya: an isolated nation among the Tunvohese who are focused on a specific form of knowledge - esoteric knowledge.

• Sumali: a nation among the Vada’daro who are oppressed but assimilated, stereotyped as scholarly and nosy.

Esoterica

Managpanunots are beings of agypayso, the psionic power of knowledge and the retention of information, and they are its most devoted users. They wield other nommic powers, but not emotional powers. They are capable of using any other power.

Religion

The Dumtengs worship Karayan ti Lagip, the River of Memory, a Divine being who represents the flow of memory through all living things, the potential for everything to connect their memories. They believe that all things have souls, and that these souls (often multiple souls) are connected to all the souls of all life and all things. They believe that water, especially rivers, are the embodiment of the memories of the world, and that the interconnectedness of the world’s waters represents the interconnectedness of the memories of all things. They are guided in their worship by aglanglangoy, gurus who teach them how to connect their souls and minds.

Gender

Among most managpanunot cultures, gender is a subject of exploration, experimentation, and investigation, and all are welcome to express their genders as they please so long as they are seen to be seeking understanding.

Economy

They exist within the local economy, which is usually feudal or early capitalist.

Military

Military science is part of their studies, and so they have those within the community who focus on combat, tactics, and so on. Some of them even know how to apply that knowledge.

Language

The Dumteng language is Ilocano. Moikyas is Cebuano. Selanjutnya is Malay. Sumali is Filipino.

Occupations

Every role in the Dumteng community is focused on a different kind of knowledge-gathering:

• Aglanglangoy: guru

• Archivist

• Dancer

• Fisher

• Librarian

• Pig-farmer

Outside View

Managpanunots are viewed as reclusive weirdos and keepers of secrets who should be scorned.

Notables

• Ti Panunotna, Managpanunot Manifest, Aeonian

Estimated Populations

• Dumteng: 1 million

• Moikyas: 500,000

• Selanjutnya: 500,000

• Sumali: 500,000

• Other: 500,000

Sample Stats

PRO 7
ATH 7
STR 7
AWA 17
WIL 11
PRS 7
STH 8