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Chapter 3: RACES & REALMS
from each other once again, something outsiders find
inexplicable.
There is a certain amount of residue, including waste
and garbage, left behind wherever a penmai village
has passed. Seed husks, discarded materials, and even
sewage all create a rich trail on the forest floor, one that
attracts swarms of happy insects, worms, and other
“cleanup” creatures. Ground-bound seekers can track
and find moving villages fairly easily from their leavings. Weather changes always spur greater urgency, as
more than a few Penmai leaders adhere to the “three
winds” philosophy: a village should never occupy the
same place in the canopy for longer than the passage of
three storms, no matter how severe or how long in between.
The ever-present danger of fire is part of what drives
their desire for an entire village to be mobile; even in
the worst outbreaks, half a village can disassemble and
be removed to a safe location. Rarely is a Penmai community totally devastated by fire. Of course, certain
functions and industries have a practical need for fire,
but they utilize it only in enclosed sconces using elaborate precautions and supervision. They take flames very
seriously and most Penmai retreat from fire and dislike
being around it. Magical fire they find notably disturbing. Any non-Penmai seen using fire irresponsibly is
automatically outcast from any penman village. In these
drier times, lightning storms are especially troubling to
them, and they keep their khonha lookouts’ eyes peeled
for traces of smoke trickling up from the ground.
The Rhallor
The most striking feature of any penmai community,
arboreal or otherwise, is its rhallor: the many beautifully decorated balloons tethered to sway in the breezes
above. A single village might have several dozen such
balloons of all sizes hanging overhead, many with ropes
and vines among them. Most balloons are wreathed
with briary rings or hung with wicker baskets or both.
In their earliest days, the Penmai deployed their balloons primarily to keep a lookout over the forest canopy
and perhaps out onto the plains or other terrain beyond,
as early warning gave them ample time to defend themselves or flee. Now balloons serve as places of business or
residence, as status symbols for those of political rank,
or to help train nok warriors who fly with the sanids.
Arrayed as they are above the village, the many rhallor
make a magnificent display, always active with sanidborne riders and Penmai swinging between them on
ropes and vines. To some observing them for the first
time, half the village appears held aloft above the forest
canopy or rocky highlands by balloons.
“The Peaceful”
Humans who enjoy Penmai association and contact
maintain migrating, ground-level communities beneath their tree-top villages. Called the aerosto or “the
peaceful,” these people come from every possible
background or age group: equatorial slavers, displaced
southern refugees, travelers, merchants. All those are
drawn to a quiet, harmonious lifestyle unlike any other
across Khitus.
Newcomers are welcomed into aerosto communities
provided they foreswear the use of magic and weapons
other than spears and blow guns during times of defense. They keep most of their settlement in easy-tomove structures or wagon-borne, moving at least one
or two buildings a day like their arboreal-living friends
above. Aerostos push forward just ahead of the leading edge of the penman village overhead—and just far
enough to keep away from the rain of refuse.
Penmai and aerosto interact freely, trading and mingling, exchanging services and information as if no
racial barriers stood between them. Aerosto send no
diplomats to other human states, though; they maintain a clean break with their kin elsewhere on Khitus.
Aerosta scholars are renowned for their depth of
knowledge and feeling.
A single rhallor is fashioned from a patchwork of animal hides and thick leaves sewn tightly together to make
a good seal. The gas inside is simply the breath of the
rhasallon fungus that the Penmai cultivate in various
places around the village, capturing the lighter-thanair gas in rhallor-like bags. The largest balloons are almost 40 feet in diameter and can lift as many as half a
dozen Penmai or their equivalent weight; smaller ones
might carry just one. Wicker baskets are light and easily
attached, as are platforms and hanging places made of
dried brush where Penmai can easily hang on or perch.
Multiple rhallor can be roped together to carry heavier
loads or larger baskets. Though a well-constructed rhallor’s seal is tight, it is not perfect, and the gas inside
must be replenished frequently or it loses buoyancy and
sinks toward the ground; most can hold a lifting quantity of gas for three or four days. One pierced by an arrow or dart collapses quickly.
Rhallor are not intended for free flight; cut loose
from the others above a village one will simply rise to
its natural ceiling, which may be a mile or more above
the ground, and ride the prevailing winds until it finally
loses buoyancy and sinks to the ground. Penmai may cut
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