CULTURE PSYCHOLOGY AND GOVERNMENT
With their lives spent in the trees except on rare occasions, and with the dangers present on the ground during the flood and dry seasons, the Zevclp prefer living high above the surface of their worlds, even viewing it as the underworld.
Of course, the times when they have to venture down to the surface, such as pools for their young or food, lead to the idea that both life and death intertwine together, both the same and that living can come from the dead.
Those who have to drop to the ground to perform vital actions for Zevclp civilization are called death-treaders or underworld life cleansers, for they move through the underworld, processing its energies for the living within the middle world. Both names or terms also refer to the ancestors of the mountain Zevclp of Couzouhmm.
Their arboreal lifestyle has driven them to care for and protect trees or anything that stands high above the ground, to where trees or forests are viewed as the middle kingdom between the underworld and Vioshecht.
Their views of life and death and trees have led to them burying their dead under plants instead of tombstones, believing that flora would increase their chances of meeting Judge Bethhaln, followed by merging graveyards and breeding pools to give the dead's energy to their young or cause reincarnation.
Their association with the ground and the dead has prompted them to wear gloves on their upper and lower hands for fear of the dead taking their life energy. In fact, according to Zevclp law, every glove-wear company must have a priest perform a ritual that makes the accessory resistant to the underworld.
The Zevclp rely on other senses beyond sight for communicating or expressing emotion, with conversations having layers to them or special meanings undetectable to most other species. To compensate, either individual Zevclp would act bluntly, or other species would use equipment to interact with them through these methods.
The males of the species use their display flaps to speak a codded language to each other during hunting or work, sometimes even to talk privately without their wives knowing. Similarly, females use their flaps to express secret words, though not nearly on the same level due to size differences.
While valuing all of these senses, they value light, specifically UV, the highest, as that end of the spectrum has given them the gift of sight in both day and night and associate it with the god Visayr. Everything from UV lamps, clothing, toys, and festivities.
The Zevclp would often wear paint across their bodies using dye from numerous sources, some undetectable due to only appearing via UV light. Some of these tattoos mainly represent country of origin/allegiance and family heraldry, while a few showcase a personal feat or trait belonging to an individual.
The sources of these pigments and dyes make them valuable to preserve and cultivate, with wealthy and noble families holding massive farms designed only for a particular plant used for their family crest.
Though used for personalization, culture, and fashion, Zevclp-based criminal organizations have used symbols visible only to UV light to contact each other and notify hideouts.
The Zevclp have a festival/view of the world called the dertri, where they see it through the three senses of smell, sound, and sight as a multi-layered portrait, with each sense representing an aspect of the world.
Smell represents the material world, its hidden details, properties, and connection or destination between life and death.
Sound represents the mind, its thoughts and ideas, and how it expresses itself.
UV light represents the soul and the divine, how the fingers or tools of the gods shaped and touched everything with their energies.
The festivities consist of three stages relating to the senses called the Liuoctam, Waquiyed, and Nortiuc.
Liuoctam involves smell. Putting on anything that produces an incredible sense for the nose, no matter how grotesque the scent or its origins.
Waquiyed involves sound. Individuals will create songs, perform plays, discuss intellectual pursuits, and engage in creative works.
Nortiuc involves light. Individuals will perform rituals and actions with UV light, plasmoid suns, and electrical forces considered acts of god.
Their fashion reflects their beliefs and admiration for these senses, with miniature hoses or patches releasing various scents or creating sounds unhearable to most species.
Their ability to have opposable thumbs on both limbs has caused them to design devices or techniques around this biological aspect.
One example is the book of omni-tree fury by Zervanium, which discusses and illustrates how a Zevclp can fight or kill with both pairs of hands or from a tree.
With deuterium present in their water, the Zevclp have developed and utilized nuclear fusion far longer than other species, acting as the driving force for industrialization akin to coal and steam power for Humans.
The Zevclp have also developed advanced magnetics and light-based technology to help counteract Miir’s field, such as using lasers to transmit information or sound instead of radio, protecting electronics from jamming, and superconductors.
The Zevclp religion consists of multiple deities and entities, with a rich lore of their interactions with each other.
There is Edirec, the god of electricity.
There is Xetej, the god of the planet Xetej, and life.
There is Miir, the god of the moon Miir.
There is Bebertreg, the god of trees and judge of the diseased.
There is Swaurparren, the god of the underworld.
There is Deuravoldur, the god of strength, durability, and water.
There is Fiuquqk, the god of volcanos, heat, and industry.
There is Geldet, the god of the sun.
There is Visayr, the god of light.
In their mythology, Edirec created everything with beams of azure white, with this power coursing through his creation to allow similar feats, such as birthing other worlds.
While capable of creating life on itself, Xetej was unable to make it in the world born from her, leading to the request of Geldet and Edirec to provide their energy to give life to her still-birth child. They accepted and brought forth her kid Miir into the world.
However, Xetej became overbearing towards Miir, using her gifts to keep him locked away to where he could not grow or create life himself. In response, Geldet sent one of his sons, Visayr,
to grant the gift of UV light, allowing Miir to make life of its own.
During this, Xetej began having a duel or struggle with the two gods, and later Miir, causing a cascade of life and death back and forth until creating a bridge between the two in the form of trees and, later, the Zevclp.
Vioshecht refers more to a state of being than an afterlife, where dead Zevclp of good character and excellent talent become capable of demi-god-like power and traversing the universe. Although not viewed in a negative context, the underworld merely holds those who have died while living a typical existence.
Below the underworld is Krekgainash, a barren landscape with no trees and with individuals crushed against the ground, unable to move as demons torture or feast on their flesh. Such a place is reserved for the most immoral and despicable amongst the Zevclp.
Overseeing them is Bebertreg, the god of trees and judge of the dead. She decides where they go by sending bugs to consume the essence of their bodies, identifying their moral character and what they have done before declaring their new afterlife. In some cases, Bebertreg will reincarnate a dead soul from the underworld into a new body to give them multiple chances to become a better individual.
In some funeral gatherings, individuals who knew the deceased would make a facsimile using meat, written notes, and trinkets and have insects consume the food caricature before eating the bugs. Those participating in the event believe that eating the insects that consumed the imitation would allow the deceased's essence to live on or affect their outcome within the afterlife.
