WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0071 0071
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Chapter 3: RACES & REALMS
the balloons loose from their village to make a desperate
escape, but otherwise they are simply part of the community, places to congregate and socialize in the cool
breezes high above the ground. Since Penmai naturally
gravitate toward the highest points, the highest rhallor carry the greatest social significance. Civil servants
speak from the highest rhallor platforms to deliver their
proclamations and edicts. As Khitan winds grow more
fierce with the climate changes, the rhallor attached to
a penmai village become more and more precarious at
times, though not restrictively so—at least not yet.
Belongings & the Community
Penmai view material possessions differently than do
other sentient creatures. Since their communities are in
a perpetual state of slow migration, the responsibility to
keep an entire village’s assets moving is spread across
all its inhabitants. All Penmai are involved, and particular personal responsibilities change often. One penma
might transport the various nurseries one journey, then
handle food stores on the next, followed by balloon retethering after that. Their constantly shifting way of life
fosters a far more communal notion of property ownership. Outside of one’s personal belongings, everything
that belongs to the village is to be shared.
This does not mean that there are no greedy penmai—
there certainly are—or that penmai value all labor to be
of equal importance to the community. They just find it
strange when visitors do not readily partake of a meal or
occupy the most convenient housing to sleep through
the night. When among non-Penmai, they must learn to
respect individual property ownership more thoroughly; they take food belonging to others without a second
thought or make themselves quite at home wherever
they please. Others unused to their behavior accuse them
of being beggars or even thieves, and heated disagreements are not uncommon; more than one penmai has
been chased out of a human establishment for an infraction it does not even realize has occurred. For the most
part, however, the differences are merely an oddity of
crossing cultures, easily overcome by reasonable associates–a rare commodity in the open wastelands!
Favors & Debts
Penmai care less than most humans about material
possessions, coins, or gemstones. What the penmai value most is personal indebtedness. “A favor done is a favor owed” is the simplest expression of this and among
the sayings most commonly attributed by humans
to the Penmai. Their own code of favors and services
rendered can grow extremely detailed and complex.
Though schooled in these codes from a very young age,
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