Pride

The tribe holds their warriors at high regards and are proud of their fighting capabilities. infighting is solved through a tradition of duels with few rules. Each side fights using any force at their disposal and seeks to achieve victory by any means necessary.

Duelling is absurdly informal, they initiate a duel by delivering the first blow. No methods are considered underhanded, people have been honoured after killing an opponent, while they are fast sleep. Once someone lands a blow with killing intent, the duel has started and will first end once one of the parties lose their life. Some monkeys, who have initiated a duel and later settled their differences. They may never throw another fist, but are still considered in a duel until either of them dies. Some go down in the tribe's history as great duelists, who befriended their opponent for years with the sole intent of killing them while their guard was down.

It is considered an offensive to meddle with a duel as a third party, if you are caught acting with the sole intention of aiding either party, it is likely you will find yourself dueled regularly.

Food

The monkeys eat the leaves of the forest and it serves as sufficient nutrition for their daily activities. They may throw a feast consisting of meats from dangerous beasts they have slain, as they hold the belief they will inherit the strength of their consumed opponent. This belief is not backed up by the status panel: I have so far not recieved any traits or rewards for consuming meat.

They are drinking a lightly alcoholic brew and have many variations of it made from the plantlife they find in the forest. Their small bodies means they get drunk on very small amounts of alcohol, while the men like drinking the brew as is, the women are allowed to dilute the brew. I prefer the softer taste of the diluted brew and feel lucky being a woman both inside and outside.

Their feasts are very social events, they laugh, reminisce and discuss lightheartedly. You would think these feasts would be a great opportunity to gather information, but after several tries, I have stopped attempting to gather information during these festivities. The drunken monkeys are playful and loves to lie and decieve during the feast, just for the fun of it. I have scrapped any information I gathered during feasts, as the sources were completely unreliable.

The drunk also reflect heavily our human society with them losing any sense of respecting personal boundaries. Being harassed by men, who doesn't take no for an answer is as unpleasant as ever. Lucky for me, their culture encourages the men to act like white knights and when they are not harassing me, they will fight off the guys who are. Many fights have broken out this way and it is not uncommon for them to result in death.

It may be deadly feasts, but the frivolous nature of both men and women also breeds plenty of new life during these events.

Music

I have yet to experience any rythmical expression and my conclusion so far is they have a complete lack of such expression. At times I have sung to myself, but recieved no comments, not even a glare. I don't feel they are exerting any energy into ignoring it. I believe they are comepletly oblivious to song and instruments and are unable to comprehend or exert any meaning out of it.

They do express themselves through dance! This indicates they have a sense of rythm, yet they don't make any connections with audible expression. This is probably all useless information, but I can't help myself! I am fascinated by this. They often break into rythmical motion when relaxed around a bonfire. The fire is often an integral part of the dance, as they use their hands to caress and play with the fire in tactful motions from full arm swings to incredibly subtle gestures with their fingers. I want to ask them about this, but worry it could break my cover.

Village

In the middle of the forest, the tribe has build a large village. Their housing is organically integrated into the wild flora and utilizes tree's hollowed out trunks and natural caves. They often cover the floors of the interior with large green leaves. I have surprisingly not observed any decay in the leaf flooring and never seen it changed.

They have a large meeting hall set up in a cave at the village's centrum. It's kept lit up throughout the day by its caretakers. The hall is used for celebrations and to keep everyone in the tribe informed. Villagers often gather in- and outside the hall to hail their warriors, as they get their orders and leave the village to fulfill their duties.

Graveyard and Death

They don't have a designated graveyard and funerals are not done through burning or burying the deceased. Instead they handknit a strong and colourful rope with symbolic colours chosen by family and friends based on what they know about the events leading to the death of the deceased. The rope and the remains are then brought up into the trees and they hang them on a strong branch. The branch is chosen based on the handlers opinion of the deceased, higher elevation is considered more honoured. If hung on a weak branch, that breaks off, it is considered a bad omen for the handlers and the deceased is to remain untouched whereever it may end up.

Territory

The tribesmen keep to the forest and only powerful warriors are occasionally ordered to scout the outside perimeters. Villagers nurture the flora and hold a strong belief, that the forest protects them from a terrors of the outside world. They see the expanding forest as an expression of their own growth and actively fertilizes the edges of the forest through organized operations.

The forest has little variation in its vegetation and is incredibly hard to navigate, even for the tribe. It's a natural labyrinth and protects the village and its outposts by obscuring their location. It is unclear how many monkeys inhabit the forest, because of this.

A high profile monkey called Gavin is the main navigator of the tribe and is often tasked to teach and guide tribesmen, who bring goods between the village and the many outposts. Carriers like these are often only able to learn one route and any carrier, who knows two or more, are treasured by the people.

Hierarchy

The strong are the ruling class and can be challenged to a duel for their position. However! There is one exception. They have a leader with total and unchallengeable rule over the tribe: Shirley the elder. She is an aging female monkey with extraordinary abilities, but I doubt she could defend herself in combat. She wears a frail veil made out of sewn together leaves with many layers removed leaving only a thin transparent tissue and it's veins to cover her face. I have yet to discover the veil's powers.

Shirley has a say in all of the tribe's military operations and her followers heed her commands without question. She utilizes any means necessary to achieve victory and doesn't hesitate with using underhanded means and sacrifical tactics to defeat her opponents. We once fought a dangerous beast, who threatened the tribe, as it was on collision course with the village. Shirley ordered a squad to lead it into a trap, which would also take their lives. The squad fullfilled their duties, with no hesitation and not a single deserter.

The successor for Shirley is chosen by her and is chosen among an organized group of apprentices, who are named according to their rank. Prio, the monkey, which I now identify as, was and still is first in line to the throne. I fear for the day where I may have to take over. I am not ready, I have no understanding of governing. Shirley is aware of my situation and has shown a lot of care and kindness. She has been helpful in getting the tribe to accept my brother, despite him being a gorilla.

Duty

Members of the tribe can at any time be called into the village hall and be given a duty to be carried out for the greater benefit of the tribe. Shirley, the village elder, handles proceedings and will often entrust one or more of the tribe's precious artifacts. People residing inside the village are welcome to attend the ceremony inside and outside the hall and cheers, as the tribesmen leave to carry out their duties.

If a member is found to deliberately avoid attending the ceremony when called upon or not carrying out their duties after they are given. Others, often family and close friends will be given the duty to bring them in and they will be thrown into an arena and only let out once no more tribesmembers wish to duel them. No one throughout the tribe's history has survived defecting and being thrown into the arena.

Dressing

The common tribe member wears little to nothing. Only few and usually highly regarded members of the tribe wear clothes and it is often only one or two pieces of clothing, that make up their entire attire. Objects in this world can be infused with magical abilities and I strongly suspect the monkeys only wear clothes for the purpose of using their inherit abilities. After my brother brought down a threat for the tribe, he was gifted with a loincloth. The loincloth gave him the ability to spend his mana and strengthen his legs to give him extraordinary leaping abilities. He is now able to jump between trees at ease and can keep up with the monkeys, even without having wings.

Handling of Powerful Artifacts

Objects infused with magical abilites are stored in a secure location and only handled with the approval of the elder. When entrusting them to members of the tribe, they traditionally hold a ceremony in the village's hall. Shirley has so far always been the one to handle the ceremony and officially granting the powerful tool, while elaborately informing the people of the duty to be carried out.

I should make a list of all known artifacts and their properties, as I discover them.

Relationship

The monkeys are polygamorous in nature and restraining your partner from seeing others is frowned upon. They deem jealousy as clingy and a weakness. If anyone is stupid enough to claim ownership over another monkey, they can be expected to be frequently challenged to duels executed within the tribe's traditions.