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The Briacite are a race of marsupial canine humanoids similar to the Slithu, but different enough to make any offspring between the two races a sterile "mule" known as a Briathu. The most apparent differences are these. The Briacite are much shorter on average than the Slithu (adults stand about 4') and have much less difference in height between the sexes. The Briacite snout is not so long relative to the head as that of the Slithu. Briacite males have a vestigial pouch (cf. the non-functioning nipples of male Earth mammals) which has disappeared in Slithu males. Both races have five fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot.
They can and will live in many different terrains, some live in swamps, mountains, or forests, while others live in deserts, grasslands, or caverns.
Some Briacite have the ability to cast spells relating to nature, especially the plant kingdom, but there are no subspecies notable for unusual spellcasting ability. Some are acomplished Psionicists, and some clans are known for their tremendous martial arts fighting skills (see individual Caligo descriptions).
This world and all others are fruits on the branches of a Tree. About this Tree's mighty trunk grows a vine, the leaves of which are the gods.
The Tree made the vine to grow; why, we know not. The vine speaks to the Tree, and the Tree to the vine. What do they speak of? Who can say?
When the world is ripe it shall fall from the tree, complete and perfect; whether for the eating of some One greater than the gods, or to be the seed of a new Tree, none can tell.
For this reason no common tree is cut down, whether for fuel or lumber, without the ceremonies given it in honor of the great Tree. There are separate ceremonies for each reason that may be given for cutting down a tree. Here are some of them:
For a tree to be used as fuel:
Good Tree whose fruits are the worlds, let us use your little sister's wood sparingly and not wastefully. Let us not be ungrateful for the warmth its burning gives us, nor be ungenerous to travellers who need the warmth of a fire.
For a tree to be used as lumber for building:
Good Tree whose fruits are the worlds, let the house which is built of your little sister's wood be a pleasant home. Let no vile deed be ever done there. [Several variants for shop, barn, temple, and other kinds of buildings.]
The Festival of Leaves
At the end of that time of year when many trees shed their old leaves prior to growing new ones, the Briacite hold the Festival of Leaves. For three days they rake leaves together in great piles higher than two Briacite. On the morning of the fourth day, the ceremony for dead leaves is said over each pile, and then children run and jump in the piles, buried and out of sight for a few moments under them; then jump out and run to another pile. By the end of the day the leaves are scattered again. Sometimes Leaf-pile spirits join distant leaf-piles, so that a child will jump into one pile, be lost to sight, and scramble out of another pile some distance away. Occasionally a child will dive into a pile and disappear, never to be seen again, and it is thought by some that they have gone to another Caligo beyond the sundering mists.
Their neighbours of other races sometimes join in the festival.
To torture a man for his knowledge is like cutting down a tree to find its age.
The hypocritical lumberjack digs away the earth around the roots of a tree; when it falls, he cries: "I did not touch it!" So it is with he who slanders his neighbor.
Like a woman who hides in her tree all of the time is one who never travels from his village.
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