Morenzal

Morenzal is the local name of The Quarantined Plane. Mortals living in the other planes do not know this name or that there is a society of people living here. For more info on Morenzi societal castes, click here.

Note there is a strong sexual component to their culture, in particular their religion, so if that squicks you out, don’t read this one. There’s also some sexist stuff in their culture. While they aren’t Ophidians, some Ophidian culture leaked through before their portals were permanently closed.

The Quarantined Plane was cut off from its neighboring planes soon after Lucognidus apotheosized. As you can see from the map, it connects to Cosmo via air portal and to the Makai via solid portal. Those connecting portals were fairly common until Lucognidus ordered them closed off. He convinced Windesoar why it would be a good idea to shut off all air portals, and he helped Machenerate close off all solid portals. Liqua didn’t need convincing to shut off the water portals leading outside the dominion, as she realized on her own that they needed to be closed (that included portals on the Quarantined Plane leading to an unknown dominion, and the Terra-Aloutia water portals.) Not all portals were closed, and I’ll discuss some important exceptions as I go, but generally all the portals that could permit mortal people from traveling to and from the Quarantined Plane were closed.

The Quarantined Plane’s true name is Morenzal and is populated by a species of people called the Morenzi. They look like humans with very pale, white skin and silver hair. They are all Mind elementals, so their population is roughly 90% female, 9% male and 1% intersex, agender, and others. Because they are all Mind elementals, they worship Lucognidus. They are unaware the other Gods even exist, but the other Gods are pretty chill about Lulu having this small society of people all to himself. Thus, Morenzi Spiritism is strictly monotheistic. Many Morenzi are confused, and a few have even been enraged, after they die and wake up in Spiritua to learn that there are nine other Gods.

Morenzal is a desert planet. It orbits close to its sun and everything but the poles are inhospitable for (most) life. (If you’re curious, yes, Dune was the inspiration for this). Even at the poles, the temperature is usually between 100-130 degrees F. Their society exists entirely at the north pole. The south pole is habitable, but only has wild animals there now. The sand and rock parts occupying most of the surface are home to dangerous desert animals such as house-sized scorpions, zmey, giant antlions, snakes, lizards, etc. The bottom of the food chain are insects larger than their Terran counterparts. The plants that manage to grow in the desert are hardy and thrive by storing water. There’s a variety of cacti, yucca, and succulents.

They actually have plenty of water, but it’s underground in reservoirs and they come from tiny portals in Blue Home, Cosmo. Remember I said not all portals were closed off? Part of that was because Lucognidus realized that doing so would cut off the planet’s entire water supply. The water that comes through those portals was part of Deep Sea’s body, but detaches from his consciousness when it passes through the portal. Any water that leaves Morenzal rejoins Deep Sea at the exit portal. The Morenzi have cultivated their land to divert water where it’s needed and they now have plenty of surface water for farmlands, too.

The Morenzi are also a species of people. Biologically, they are very close to humans, so they’re one of my more ‘boring’ species. I mean, they have the usual traits of someone from the Pentagonal Dominion: they have gastrobacter in their bodies, and a bacterial chamber, so they don’t urinate or defecate. They are blessed at birth, giving them immunity to intense heat. Being Mind elementals, their biological sexual traits are manipulated by DNA elemental binding (essentially DNA methylation, but with an elementrons instead of methyl). But otherwise, they look like humans with white skin and silver hair.

Morenzi all live in or close to their city (also called Morenzal) and the only thing of note outside the city are the farmlands, only in use while the sun is up (living at the north pole, they experience months of no sunlight followed by months of daylight.) Morenzal City is shaped like an octagram with the Temple of God in the center and the eight districts on each point.

So it’s really hot in Morenzal all the time and they don’t grow many plants that can be made into suitable clothes. As such, Morenzi… just go near-nude. The only material they have to make clothes from is a gossamer fabric harvested from desert spider webs. They do have plenty of minerals and make a lot of jewelry. The average Morenzi is ‘dressed’ in jewelry with cloth only over their private parts, if that.

The Morenzi are also very religious. Their entire culture is built around the worship of Lucognidus. At the center of their city is a temple to him. They do not depict him in art due to a belief that it’s a sin for an imperfect mortal to attempt to depict the perfect image of God. The temple is full of his symbols, though, including engravings of glowlight lotuses which don’t exist on Morenzal, and which the people are unsure about the existence of. To them, lotuses are mythical.

They have a system kinda like a caste system, but I hesitate to call it that because you’re not born into it and you’re not restricted to one caste forever. The names come from parts of a cactus: Seed, Thorn, Areoles, Flower, Water, Root, Skin, and Stem.

Boys automatically get put into the Seed Class and only biological men can be in Seed Class (the ‘seed’ referring to sperm). When boys reach puberty, they are put in a secluded area of Morenzal. They may not leave without Sentinel supervision. They may go naked or near-nude while inside their district, but must cover every inch of their skin when they go amongst women. Because of how rare cloth is, men are discouraged from doing anything that would get their garments dirty or torn. Their Sentinel can have the man physically punished once he’s back in his district if he behaved inappropriately or got his clothes damaged. There is a belief that if men were allowed to go nude throughout the city, it would inspire such lust in women that they’d never get anything done. Seed Class men live to breed. When a woman wants to have a child, she will visit the Seed District (also called the Men’s District), where she’ll be escorted to find a suitable mate. There are festivals throughout the year dedicated to sex, including one where the men take on the ‘mantle of God’ and dress up like Lucognidus. Women come and pretend to worship them, kneeling at their feet, reciting prayers, and giving them oral sex if it’s desired. For the women, the next phase of the festival includes an act of penance (usually flogging) in the Temple of God for the sin of idolatry, even though it was all pretend (it’s all fun for them anyway. If a woman doesn’t want to get flogged, she simply won’t participate in the festival).

The Morenzi don’t keep time the way other people do since the sun is up or down for months at a time. They do have 24-hour ‘days’ for the sake of scheduling their lives, but it’s not dictated by the sun. In a 24-hour cycle, Morenzi sleep twice for about four hours. Women perform worship to Lucognidus four times a day. Two of the rituals must be performed nude or near-nude. All must be made while kneeling and kowtowing toward the Temple of God. Men perform the same four rituals, though they must be inside their district for the nude rituals. They also perform two extra worship services daily, one with an emphasis on meditation and mental clarity, and the other with an emphasis on channeling the ‘masculine energies of God’ which they believes makes them better at fucking. This act of worship often ends with the man either having sex or masturbating.

The Morenzi are ruled by a woman called the Minau Mirza. She is Lucognidus’s daughter, and when one dies, he produces another one. His consort will lay the next Minau Mirza’s egg on the Peacock Throne. There is never any doubt as to the Minau Mirza’s identity from the moment she hatches because she always has black skin and black hair, a trait not seen anywhere else on Morenzal. When a Minau Mirza comes of age, she may have any man she wants, but she cannot have children. Responsible Minau Mirzas will destroy their own reproductive organs, or at least their eggs. In the past, the Fourth Minau Mirza insisted on having a child, but when her people rose up in protest, she killed many of them. In the end, Lucognidus sent his Demigoddess of Vengeance to kill her. The baby was allowed to hatch, but that child, a boy, was immediately castrated and sent to live his whole life in the Men’s District.

The primary ‘purpose’ of the Morenzi, according to their doctrine, is to be the guardians of the rest of the dominion if anything evil ever comes from the unknown dominion beyond their water portals. See, even though Lucognidus and Liqua closed off all water portals to Morenzal, they only have power over their side of the dominion. A significantly powerful godlike entity on the other side can still open a portal and force their way in. By having a society of people there, Lucognidus hopes they can at best serve to defend the dominion until he can mount a resistance. Or, at worst, they can serve as sufficient bait and stall the enemy until he is ready. Thorn and Areole Class women train to become Sentinels, protectors and guardians of Morenzi culture. Sentinels are the only Morenzi women who often go out in public fully armed and armored. For their worship rituals where they must get naked, they have an entire process dedicated to removing their armor, asking for blessings for each piece, and laying it to the side in a perfect arrangement. Sentinels are fierce, stubborn, and know how to kill a person in hundred different ways. They also travel into the desert during the night months to hunt wild animals or to collect their byproducts e.g. spider silk used to make cloth. Sentinels are well aware that their purpose is to die in the service of their God and many will go into the desert alone when they get older, hoping to die a ‘noble death.’