Taimu

"The Taimu are an ethnoreligious minority in Dodonan territory, suppressed in recent generations for their traditional faith. Taimu place heavy focus on family and community, and pray to an immense operatic bureaucracy of honored ancestors, mythic heroes, and small gods, who command everything from thunderstorms to electronic mail. They are recognizable humans of mixed East African-East Asian heritage, and their naming is a combination of Kalenjin and Chinese; their aesthetics are hand-mended and brightly painted, and their pride is those they love and protect." -- Remi Garreau, *Supply Drop: Aureate*

## Who's a Taimu?

The classic image of a Taimu is of a wildtype human with dark skin and hair and epicanthic folds, although ethnic Taimu can vary throughout the spectrum of East African and East Asian features. Orthoprax Taimu are averse to genetic modification, and sometimes cybernetics, tattoos, and piercings, depending on how much the local community feels a need to differentiate itself. Transgender individuals in largely Taimu communities, such as Geto Tin, rarely pursue hormonal or surgical modification, preferring to rely solely on their community for that affirmation.

The children of a Taimu and a non-Taimu are Taimu unless they declare themselves otherwise, which means that there are Taimu individuals and established Taimu communities who don't have ethnic Taimu or wildtype human features. There's no universal stance on conversion -- generally, you're Taimu if the people around you say you are (Lan Keino-Beryl, for example, is definitely Taimu), which can be expressed as radical inclusivity or exclusionary no-true-Scotsman rhetoric.

The question of "atheist" Taimu is ambiguous -- the Taimu faith is primarily concerned with orthopraxy (what you do) rather than orthodoxy (why you do it). Most Taimu would accept a Satellist or Chorist Taimu as Taimu as long as they practice the same rituals and observe the same festivals, as they would a Taimu who doesn't believe the gods exist but also doesn't believe that matters; apostate or lapsed Taimu, such as Nandi Tin prior to Gilded Sands 08 — Messidor or the "adaptive" and "progressive" members of the Dodonan government who disavow "superstitious" Taimu practices, are usually non-Taimu to other Taimu until they return to the fold.

## Culture and Aesthetics

Taimu names draw on Kalenjin and Chinese names; personal names are given before surnames except in the case of mythic heroes, although one might give a living person's surname before their personal name as a sign of great esteem.

Traditional clothing consists of brightly-colored robes or dresses; Taimu women have been seen wearing loose headscarves topped with metal jewelry, Taimu men have been seen wearing tall black-and-white hats similar to a gat, and Taimu of all genders paint white designs on their faces and wear headbands and neckpieces.

Taimu food has been the most thoroughly explored in play and discussion so far; touchstones include:

* Millet is the primary grain, excellent for a dry planet like Aureate, either in noodles or as just a porridgey lump
* Mealworm protein is usually added to the millet
* Vegetables are eaten chopped up and blended into relishes
* Fold combo relish in a lump of millet? That's a Taimu dumpling
* Meat is typically cooked as hotpot, brought to the table raw and dipped in boiling water
* Dark salads are common, such as kale, amaranth, and water spinach (this last being a special treat on Aureate)
* Fried mopane worms and marinated wasps are common snacks
* The most common use for milk is kefir
* Flavorings are typically sweet or spicy
* Desserts are either "roll your millet porridge lump in sugar and dip in oil, bam that's a donut" or "fruity milky pudding"
* Durable/travel Taimu food consists of dried millet and soup cans; add a little water to your millet to make a porridge lump to float in a meat and veggie soup as you heat it
* Instant Taimu millet noodles have a similar cultural role to instant ramen on modern-day Earth
* Dodonan influences include meatier dumplings, cheese, tangy flavorings, and baklava

The Taimu aversion to genetic engineering only applies to humans; while most Taimu livestock are only modified through selective breeding, genetically modified plants fill Taimu farms, orchards, and gardens; some historians speculate that the Taimu association with the Dodonan Tribunal originally stemmed from a shared appreciation for botany. The plant Taimu refer to as "millet" includes several cultivars designed for yield, nutritional value, resistance to disease and climatic extremes, and promiscuity (to avoid monoculture); the aromatic korosyot shrub, important as a religious offering and prayer-tree, is frequently modified to produce large amounts of easily shaped wood to create sacred objects.

## Practices and Beliefs

The cornerstone of Taimu orthopraxy is an avoidance of "living alone"; overzealous attempts at self-sufficiency are seen as practically and spiritually dangerous, giving rise to individualism. Taimu orthopraxy thus centers around ritual as a way of maintaining community.

* Offerings are used to secure favors from the gods, heroes, and ancestors. Rituals involve lighting candles and aromatics before an image of the power in question; milk is also offered if available. Incense is the best aromatic for ancestors and korosyot the best aromatic for gods; bay is an acceptable substitute for either and easier to explain the presence of when the Iris comes knocking.
* The Taimu practice acupuncture, herbalism, and other kinds of folk medicine; while attempting to get well without modern sanitation, autosurgeons, correctives, and the like is a quick road to living alone, Taimu folk healers attempt to provide a mental and spiritual environment conducive to healing, without which the infirmity would be exacerbated.
* icons
* opera
* festivals, festival food
* sacred hilltops
* altars/trees at the southeast of the house
* what an elder does vs what a priest does, how you pay and support priests
* crossroads
* Taimu marriages are four-person by default, resembling Ursula K. Le Guin's sedoretu; while the moieties remain strict, gender is more flexible than in a Ki'O sedoretu, with the quartet determining which marriage is which.
* Nandi Tin has affectionately referred to Kladi Demos as "Phobos", demonstrating a familiarity with the Sol system rare in the Pearlescent Expanse.

Taimu theology is characterized by belief in a celestial bureaucracy that employs myriad meteorological gods; most non-meteorological gods have family ties to the meteorological ones, and these family ties characterize the main divisions among them. The gods are present in every aspect of the world -- Second-Nephew Fadhili enables every act of kindness, the god of manufacturing is present in every factory, and so on. Existence comes about from gods doing their jobs, good or bad; the priest's role is divining the best course of action. The concept of "small gods" exists; the distinction has not been made clear on-screen, but small gods are referred to with familial titles rather than noble ones and have a more social relationship with humans.

The Taimu believe that the celestial bureaucracy applies to all humanity; what differentiates the Taimu from others is their relationship to mythic heroes, who worked with (or against) the gods.

Gods known so far:

* Uncle Run Tracert (pronounced *trace route*), small god of the digital palimpsest, of finding lost things in the internet
* An unnamed judge of the dead Nandi sketched on a Post-It note
* The King of Heaven, who ultimately commands the weather and manages the celestial bureaucracy; the distant ancestor of all humans
* Second-Nephew Fadhili, small god of compassion and kindness
* The Queen of Blizzards, goddess of winter storms and the duality of vision/blindness
* Elder Sibling Chen, small god of journeys

Heroes known so far:

* Yu Chede, the Water Queen, who fought the weather to end floods and droughts alike
* Kerit Wukong, a bestial and devious antihero, whose comic-book exploits have thrilled and chilled young Taimu for centuries
* Duchess Ball-Lightning, a mortal who became a goddess in order to organize the ordinarily pacifist Taimu to fight for their lives; also a sex goddess for whatever reason. Has appeared on packets of "Authentic Taimu Noodles -- Electrifyingly Delicious!" throughout the show.

## On Aureate

There are urban Taimu communities in Dodonan cities like Kleidos (where the Tin family is from originally) and farming communities throughout the Plains of Artopoios, but the Taimu on Aureate are concentrated in the Valley of Whispers along the southern Maengse, which they refer to as the Valley of Lights due to the fluorite deposits in the valley walls. The main Taimu community in the Valley of Lights is Qaibo, seen in Gilded Sands 05 — Lunar Conjunction.

## Trivia

* The Taimu were not mentioned in the original Microscope game, instead created by Nausicaä for zir Gilded Sands character's background.
* Yu Chede was inspired by Cheptalel and Yu the Great; Kerit Wukong was inspired by Sun Wukong and the kerit monster (also known as the Nandi bear); Duchess Ball-Lightning was inspired by Zarstsa, a god mentioned in Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Man Of The People", Ilet ne-mie, and Jiutan Xuannü