Dev Level 5

Regions with this level of advancement are defined by hunting, fishing and otherwise foraging for food. Philosophy, religion and thought, as well as cultural organization, would be based upon mysticism and the family clan. Clothing would be dependent upon skinning and trapping. Luxuries would consist only of that which could be found.

These regions consist of boreal forests (cold, northerly), tundra (arctic), steppe (temperate), and desert (tropical to temperate). These provide some distinctions, particularly as relates to migration and the availability of fish.

Encounters

See Clans.

Lifestyle

Food. Even if agriculture was understood, the regions occupied by tech 5 cultures tend to be too cold, too wet or too arid for farming. Inhabitants depend on a diet of seeds, nuts, fruits, roots, game and fish which are available in certain places and at certain times. The inhabitants are therefore on the move always to be at the place at the time when food is available. Therefore, they cannot store food; they may be able to preserve a little, so long as this can be carried. Food may also be left in frozen caches in the far north or buried in the earth where the climate is extraordinarily dry, to be left for a season or two before it can be found by the clan when it returns to the area again. Most food, however, is dependent on daily activity. As such, abundance is usually wasted and scarcity is common. Food is therefore an excellent way of gaining the trust of tech 5 inhabitants.

On rare occasions, small skirmishes may be fought with other clans over available food in hard years. Usually, however, isolation and territorial respect prevents most such fights when food is abundant.

Settlements. These occur because of food that's available, such as large groves of fruit and nuts, oases, rivers where the salmon run or lakes and bays where fishing is always plentiful. Most such settlements will number only a few hundred inhabitants, as the landscape cannot support a larger population year round. A river ford or a mountain pass, affecting the routes that migrating clans must use, may also result in a continuous gathering of people - though the actual residents will steadily change from month to month.

Dwellings will be temporary even in permanent settlements, though they may be improved with additional layers or fortified by ditches, brambles or sharp stones laid out as a field to impede walking. Surrounding trees will be cleared for firewood. No effort will be taken to alter the land around these settlements. There will be no guards or patrols (the people are not this organized), but foragers will probably see potential threats long before they come within reach of the settlement.

Migration. Without domesticated animals, all travel will be on foot. Even in the desert, the only animals that a clan possesses will be found beasts, sometimes acquired as gifts and always used for carrying heavy burdens, never for riding. Desert clans will move from oasis to oasis and always into cooler high country in summer. In the north, clans will move seasonally as well, north with the summer and south with the winter. Some clans may possess a few dogs or cats, but these will be mostly wild and self-motivated. Animal training does not exist.

Religion. The only comprehension the inhabitants have will be mysticism - and this in turn will manifest as shamanism.

See Development Levels