Fantasy Beneath the Blue Moon Lore

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Notes: According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans, anatomically modern humans began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 125,000 years ago and began to replace earlier pre-existent Homo species such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus. Source: Middle Paleolithic - Wikipedia

Nutrition:​

Although gathering and hunting comprised most of the food supply during the Middle Paleolithic, people began to supplement their diet with seafood and began smoking and drying meat to preserve and store it. For instance the Middle Stone Age inhabitants of the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 6-foot (1.8 m) long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago, and Neandertals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa.

However it is also possible that Middle Paleolithic cannibalism occurred for religious reasons which would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic. Nonetheless it remains possible that Middle Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of excarnation or predation by carnivores such as saber-toothed cats, lions and hyenas.

Technology:​

Around 200,000 BP Middle Paleolithic Stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique, that was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques. allace and Shea split the core artifacts into two different types: formal cores and expedient cores. Formal cores are designed to extract the maximum amount from the raw material while expedient cores are based more upon functional need. This method increased efficiency by permitting the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes. This method allowed Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly to create stone-tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons. The use of fire became widespread for the first time in human prehistory during the Middle Paleolithic and humans began to cook their food c. 250,000 years ago.

The first stone tools were used to meet people's three basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. These were difficult times; there were no stores to buy food, and people had to cooperate in small groups to make clothing and shelter. To hunt for food, early humans formed spears, first by sharpening the ends of sticks, but later by attaching a sharp stone spear-tip to wood using animal sinew. A tool made up of more than one material is called a composite tool.
Flaking was one of the first uses of technology. Technologies are tools and also skills that make our lives easier. Flaking is an example of a Stone Age technology skill. Flaking involves using a hammer stone to form sharp edges on an object stone by striking it on its sides. By flaking early humans could sharpen spear and arrow tips to hunt prey.

Climate & Society:​

The earth's climate was very different. The world was a much colder place to live on than our modern world. Wild herds of animals roamed the land in search of food, which was scarce at that time. In order for Stone Age people to survive, they had to move with these herds of animals.

Old Stone Age people were always on the move. A person who moves from place to place is called a nomad. Because of their nomadic lifestyle, Old Stone Age people built temporary homes, rather than permanent homes. People travelled in small groups, we think these groups could have been extended family groups. Old Stone Age people had two ways of obtaining food, by hunting and gathering. Gathering is finding wild berries and other plants to eat. We sometimes call these people hunter-gatherers.

There were not many humans at this time, and they were spread out, rather than living close together. Experts think there were no more than one million humans living during any time of the Paleolithic Era. That might sound like a lot of people, but today there are about seven billion people, 7,000 times more people than in the Paleolithic Era. Archaeological evidence points to humans beginning in the continent of Africa, and later migrating to other continents.

Tools:​

Middle Stone Age toolkits points, which could be hafted on to shafts to make spears; stone awls, which could have been used to perforate hides; and scrapers that were useful in preparing hide, wood, and other materials.

Scrapers were used for cleaning animal skins in the process of making leather. Burins were used for carving or engraving wood and bone, like a chisel. Blades were used as knives and microliths were tiny flints that were glued/fixed to wooden shafts to make arrows or spears for hunting.

 

[scorpiodragon]

Predators

Cave Lion:

Smilodon

Golden Eagle

Cave Hyena

Short Faced Bear

Dire Wolf

Gray Wolf

Cave Bear

Brown Bear

American Lion

Amphicyonidae (Bear Dog)​

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Prey

Irish Elk

Mastodon

Saiga Antilope

Ptarmigan

Wooly Mammoth

Columbian Mammoth

Gomphotherium

Megatherium

Wooly Rino

Auroch

Giant Beaver

Steppe Bison

Musk Ox

Mountain Sheep

Entelodont (Giant Hog of Florida)

Rabbit

Squirrel

Dasypus bellus​

 

[scorpiodragon]

The fallen may rest here as recorded by the shaman.

• Name
• Gender
• Age at Death
• Species
• Pups
• Rank(s)
• Cause of Death
• Lifespan (if known)

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[scorpiodragon]

This is a history of the pack alphas, as recorded by the Shaman. Information has the name of the alpha, their gender, wolf species and the dates they reigned as well as their birthdate and deathdate (if known), family left behind and pups sired or birthed. It also gives some notes on important events in their reign.

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[scorpiodragon]

Here is a detailed history of the pack from its conception. Important events are also discussed along with the alpha reigning at the time. This is recorded by the Shaman through the ages.

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Year 0:

 

[scorpiodragon]

The passage of time is divided into 'seasons' with 'moons' underneath and a short description of each. There is also an explanation underneath 'seasons' of what the season as a whole foretells for the pack.

Winter counts as one year for the pack.

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Rimewane

• Green Moon (spring)-March, when the snows are melting despite the cold days still lingering and packs begin bonding again after the long winter. The ice crust on rivers and streams begins to thaw though freezes again in the night, water trickles, the frozen earth softens, earthworms stir, and begin to shed their casts above ground.
• Egg Moon (spring)-April, birds are laying their eggs and spring rains come to water the earth with fish swimming upstream to lay their eggs. Leaves are beginning to bud within the trees and the cold earth is now covered in grass. Pups start leaving the den and exploring under the watchful eyes of the caretakers.
• Flowering Moon (spring)-May, the grounds are covered in a vast array of flowers after the first initial flowers of early spring.

Heatcrest

• Hot Moon (summer)-June, when pups have lived long enough and can get their names as well as getting a firm place in the pack, beginning to emerge from outside the den and meet the pack. Temperatures are beginning to rise and the prey is plentiful as are the herbs.
• Storm Moon (summer)-July, a time of frequent rain, winds and thunderstorms. Pups are forming their own hierarchy, preparing for the ranks they'll take as adults, and taken on their first hunt. Bucks are growing their antlers and preparing for the rut season ahead. Days are longer now with nights being short.
• Sun Moon (summer)-August, the hottest time of year, when packs have more nocturnal habits to avoid the sun's glare.

Sunfade

• Rainy Moon (autumn)-September, heavy and/or frequent rains as well as wind giving way to storms drop both leaves and the change in temperature, signaling a change in the seasons.
• Spirit Moon (autumn)-October, heavy winds blow across the land, creating problems for pups as they are now entrusted with helping packs hunt and a time when packs have to begin storing food. Much fishing and trapping of animals is done in this time to keep the packs sustained for the winter season and long bitter nights ahead. Bears are going into hibernation now after fattening up during the spring and bucks have begun the rutting season. Animals are fattening up in preparation for the long winter ahead.
• Bone Moon (autumn)-November, frost begins coating the ground and the herds are beginning their migrations through the lands with the daylight diminishing. Packs may break up in this time if too large and form smaller packs.

Dimsun

• Ice Moon (winter)-December, when the first snows arrive and packs add diurnal activities to their behavior as the long winter nights dominate the land. Nights are coming cold and days shorter. The packs huddle together in their dens as pups play and elderly omegas tell stories.
• Nomadic Moon (winter)-January, the time when packs roam widely over their territories, patrolling and tracking the wandering herds, a time of deep snows. There's a frigid cold and food is scarce.
• Hunger Moon (winter)-February, a time when the nights are freezing, frequent and heavy snowfalls and food is scarce. Hunting is difficult or nigh impossible. Bear cubs are being born in this moon.

 

[scorpiodragon]

As recorded by the Shaman and discussed between the founding members, these are the traditions and customs that have persisted and vanished into the wind.

Present Customs and Traditions:
WIP​

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Former Customs and Traditions:
WIP​

 

[scorpiodragon]

Generations: As the name suggests, this will list what generation your wolf will belong to. The first generation will be called 'founders'. Founders are those who began the pack and the first cursed members of the race. Second generation wolves are wolves that have at least one founder for a parent. Third generation wolves would have at least one second as a parent, and so on. The success of a pack is measured by how many successful generations have lived through it, with each one contributing their own unique skills and knowledge to each new generation.

Contributions: This would list what the individual wolf has done to benefit the pack as a whole. It could be things such as an innovative hunting technique, successfully raising cubs, expanding the territory, being victorious in a conflict, and so on; regardless of what it is, it has to have been a thing that the individual personally did to improve the pack as a whole.


Bloodline: As the name suggests, this will list a wolf’s bloodline. However, it’ll be more than simply telling which individuals are related to each other if the wolf is a founder. A founding wolf can pass on a series of physical characteristics that will often be present in its offspring. The characteristics will be size/build, eye color, and pelt phase. If you have a pup that is born to one or two founding wolves, you don’t necessarily have to have characteristics that echo the founders, but it would be interesting to have an idea of the common characteristics of a particular bloodline.


Events: Marking something important in a wolf’s life. This will include being involved in/surviving a plot, challenges and/or ranks won/lost, significant scarring/pelt changes, wolves pair-bonded to, and offspring born to the individual.


The template will look like this:
[Wolf's Name]
Generation
Winter of (indicating the first year the wolf was born into the pack or came into it as an adult)
Born to (name of sire & dam) with (names of littermates)
Contributions
Events
[Winter of] (indicating wolf's second year)

So on and so forth until the wolf's last year of life.

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