Character creation

## Name

In our world people often choose names of natural entities - Rain, Raindrop, Flame, Hazelnut, Woodroad. Others prefer names of things created by humans: Scalpel, Forceps. In the recent decades names related to mills are becoming more popular.

Very often people take a new name when they come of age, or when they reach an important point in their life. You can write several names, or just one.

## Gender

Gender has no effect on skills, abilities and knowledge of your character. There is no occupational segregation by sex.

## Birth

After the old city sank, humans were no longer woven at mills. Instead, today they are grown from embryos in special incubators that in the care of physicians. Those embryos are still woven at mills, however.

After the disaster 70 years ago women have for unknown reasons once again become capable of bearing children (the same way they probably did before the invention of the mills). However, today most choose not to do it.

The different types of birth have no effect on skills, abilities and knowledge of your character, nor does it affect people's perception of them.

#### Incubatorium birth

Most children in the Cellar are born out of embryos that are woven on mills and brought to term in special incubators. These embryos are cared for and observed by brothers and sisters of the Incubatorium wing. The faces of these people are the first human faces that a child sees when they are born. Over time there are more and more faces that look with care and attention upon the child, and this is the way things are done in the Incubatorium. Here, the human being is taught something, that is very important for the Cellar: there is no ordeal that hey will be forced to face alone. And birth is an ordeal, even in the controlled and safe environment of the Incubatorium; and it's an ordeal that humans didn't have to go through before the Collapse. Even though nobody remembers their own birth, many people view the fact that they've had to go through as a testament to their own resilience compared to people of the past, as well as proof that they can always rely on their sisters and brothers of the Cellar.

#### Natural birth

Sometimes women decide to carry the baby to term themselves. In these cases delivery is done by doctors and nurses that live throughout the Cellar. The decision to carry a child is most often taken by women in crews. The crew then helps the mother both before and after the birth (although most of the work related to looking after the child is still done in the Incubatorium). There is no "us" and "them" in the Cellar - everyone is "us" and everyone is ready to help. But a mother always holds a special place in the heart of a child.

The foundry is the only place where differences in the type of birth can change people's perception of a person. It is always preferable for a founder, especially a master, to be "naturally-born".

## Appearance

For centuries humans have been given birth by mills, and in that time the human body has become much more varied in terms of height, skin color, hair color, and other traits related to appearance.

## Wing

Wings are the foundation of economy and politics in the Cellar. Please read the "Wing" page and decide, which wing (or wings) your character will work in.

## Activity

Work in wings is usually seasonal, and, as a rule, it doesn't take up the entirety of a person's time. Each wing has some hardcore members who are engaged only in this wing's work and nothing else. They often stay in that wing all year long, they work more, and their voices carry more weight at meetings. And it is they who most often become palms. Unlike those hardcore members, most people come to work when it's that wing's time of the year, During other periods they are engaged in other wings, write, paint, or just wander the Cellar.

The most important decisions in the Cellar have always been taken communally, at meetings, with long and heated discussions. Because of this, skills of rational persuasion have always been in very high regard here.

Some people in the Cellar are fascinated by the caretakers and their disappearance.

## Circle

The Cellar's present is shaped by wings; its future, however, is shaped by societies called circles. Please read the page about circles and decide, if your character is a member of any circle.

## Dwelling

The Collapse took the homes of Leda's inhabitants; and so they had to make the territory of the Cellar their new home. During the first year of Cellar's existence there was a time, when the entire population had no roof over their heads. This experience of shared homelessness has changed the relation of Cellar's inhabitants to the space they inhabit. It is considered to be a vital necessity that wherever you are in the Cellar, there should always be a place nearby where you can spend the night, eat and wash yourself.

During the first year after the collapse bricklayers only built longhouses in order to provide a roof over the head for everyone as quickly as possible. Then the rebuilding of the old houses began, and new dwellings were constructed both inside Ring (this is what the inhabitants of the Cellar call the remains of the old city) and outside it. People use very different spaces as bases for their houses - for instance, abandoned mines or caves can be turned into very cozy dwellings.

The fuel that is most commonly used in the Cellar are "smoldering stones". They can be combined into large chunks or split into smaller bars. The temperature of the stone depends on its size - the larger, the hotter. If the bar is small enough it can be used to add heat to one's clothing or a sleeping bag. Many use this heated clothing to spend a large part of the year outside, living as vagabonds and returning to their homes (or a longhouse in Ring) during the cold season, the season of work in their wing, or simply whenever it suits them.