Paradise Islands of the Architects
Casual Overview:
Land
/ag/ is a small subtropical island settled on the northern coast of the fetish sea, /ag/ is subject to semi-frequent bursts of volcanic activity however these are seen as a divine gift and a sign of the island’s great fortune as the eruptions fertilize the soil of the islands with minerals released from the aquatic volcanoes. This along with the tropical climate has led /ag/’s land to become a garden of flourishing plant life, dense with greenery and plants that grew rapidly and spread with fervor across the soil of the small island. This natural state of overgrowth is controlled by a combination of architect agricultural knowledge and an overwhelming cultural gluttony formed over centuries. The Architect Islands have enjoyed a symbiosis with their environment for many years, a sudden increase in floral growth is contained by a larger consumption of flora by the fauna of the islands in an ongoing cycle of abundance, consumption, and equilibrium. This idea of a natural relationship between the environment and abundance is generally accepted as one of the core ideas of architecture as a belief system and while the population has one of the highest fat contents in the world, some traditional architect records and modern day traditions do advise some modicum of exercise in the form of yoga.
In the center of the island sits an inactive volcano known as Mount Gargant, this volcano is surrounded by valuable ore pockets and chuubanite mining operations which mines along the mountain’s side for potent /ag/ chuubanite ores. Mount Gargant serves a crucial purpose within the island’s ecosystem and economy, underground caverns filled with sparkling carbonated water are used in order to create luxury beverages that fizz and bubble with caloric glory and the rare minerals that the dormant volcano holds within its magma chambers are used in order to create new hyper-potent fertilizers to be used domestically and sold to foreign nations. Mount Gargant itself is covered in a vast wreath of plant life and flourishing growth and many architects revere the mountain as a holy place. Upon the mountain, farmers plant tea bushes for the careful cultivation of highly valued tea, in addition many herbal remedies and medicines are grown upon Mount Gargant and the export of these resources makes up a considerable amount of the nation’s income from foreign trade.
Living
The cultivation sector of the paradise islands has shrunk considerably in recent times due to the expansion of deforestation operations and factory production practices. Many of the housing residences in /ag/ are located near the beach coasts of the island, protected from flooding by a series of large vertical and curved seawalls that are placed strategically along the shores in order to prevent devastating flood damage. Despite these sea walls, floods and large tropical storms are still among the most detrimental factors affecting the paradise islands and housing is seasonally rebuffed in order to better withstand the power of tropical storm winds. These housing villas sit with a luxurious view of the sea and are constructed in a communal fashion reminiscent of the pre-industrial villages of the /ag/ tribes. Many of these island villas are used as tourist attractions for passing crews or pleasure ships, inviting them for an island getaway filled with delicious food and a generous seaside view.
/ag/ is governed by a congress of architects divided into individual voting parties of interest relating to the islands specific needs, some of these parties will fall in and out of ruling power however certain parties remain prevalent in each voting cycle. As of the current day, the most recurring of these parties according to centuries of records are: the Party of Domestic Seeding, the Party of Cultural Enrichment, the Party of National Evolution, and the Party of Traditional Heritage. Each voting party has a head representative that speaks on behalf of that party's interest in a grand congregation of architects with a circle of the eldest architects on the island gathered to mediate between parties and to decide on decisions and votes that are ultimately split. Party representative’s are generally among the most charismatic of /ag/ or the wealthiest however certain families that hold significant cultural importance tend to find themselves among either the Party of Traditional Heritage or the Party of Cultural Enrichment.
Religion of Architecture
Basic Architecture
Basic Architecture is the general foundation of architectural belief held by the people of the Paradise Lands and preached outside of it to be spread throughout other cultures, this general form of architecture sees fat as a divine sign of wealth and prosperity and that the more capable any man or society is at feeding its women, the greater the blessings that will meet that nation. Architecture is a cycle of exponential abundance where for every ounce of energy put into the land, it rewards with an excess of food in a continous cycle of perpetual growth. It is a common sentiment that architecture can affect chuubas as well and that the divine goddesses would be happiest and more fulfilled in a larger body.
In this form of architecture it is greatly taboo for a man to become fat, or at the very least, fatter than his wife. This taboo is less pronounced among fathers as they are considered to have fulfilled their obligations as an architect by bringing more into the world by having children and impregnating a wife. Woman are considered closest to divinity when they become pregnant with a child and much care and ceremony is put into the birthing process as a result. Generally, architects seek to fill out the three B's taught to them by the Book of Brosnan: Belly, Buttocks, Breasts. Women that achieve sufficient size in all three are met with much praise among architect society and the husbands of these women are treated to a fine array of architect delicacies.
True Architecture
True Architecture is the secret truth underlying all architectural beliefs, that the body is subject to the desires of man a true architect can manipulate the form of their spouse with the barest of hints. True architects recognize that abundance and excess are part of a balancing scale as are all human desires and that each man must define their ideal shape for themselves, these tenants are hidden within the Book of Brosnan for only the keenest and most clever of architects to find. True architects do not make themselves or their beliefs known however they tend to have great wealth and prosperity despite the secrecy of their beliefs. The majority of true architects still prefer the rotund shape which is a sign of traditional divinity however there are those with wildly different body typed and interpretations, some of which can often insight conflict even among the enlightened few. One popular belief is that there is a single bodily form that is the perfect equilibrium of man's desires, a form not too big but not too small, perfectly erotic while simultaneously being perfectly maternal, this form is only mere legend however these architects seek to discover it wherever they might, for the journey of an architect is never truly over
The Prophet Brosnan
Chuubanite
Culture
Native Foods
Traditions
The Subtle Art of Courting
The Blessed Art of Sumo
Native Wildlife
Brosnian Death Bear/ Ursine Architect
Wildlife of the Architect Paradise Island writ by Architect Scribe, Hammond.
Brosnian Death Bear/ Ursine Architect
No greater predator ever did walk the sandy shores of the Architect Island and even to this day, some scholars argue as to whether the great bearded beasts were named after Pierce Brosnan or the Primeval Architect named after the great beasts. No matter the origin, these bears serve as a natural example of architect beliefs manifest in powerful glory.
brosnian death bear
Male Brosnian Death Bears have bodies packed densely with muscle, so much so that they have been recorded pulling trees more than twice their size out of the ground by their roots. These ursine architects spend much of their life gathering food and building materials so that they can begin construction on burrows for their future mate, the size of this burrow will be the primary factor by which a female selects their mate as a large burrow indicates just how much the female can be expected to grow and by inference how much the male is capable of providing, both in terms of food quantity but in offspring as well. Female Brosnian Death Bears are said to be gargantuan in size at around 9 feet tall, they have been described as “the great furred land whale” due to the extensive growth they undergo after taking a mate and mothering children, though females tend to pack extra fat well before they reach maturity.
The Brosnian Death Bear’s mating season occurs in two annual phases, a selection phase once during the spring and a competitive phase once during the fall. During the spring, male architect bears will begin to construct their burrows and build up large spaces for their mate to grow into. There is immense competition for natural landmarks which could serve as burrows such as caverns so that less work will be used in the actual construction and fortification of there burrows and more can be devoted to the sabotage of rival males. A male whose burrow has been sabotaged has almost no possibility of finding a mate; the sign of a destroyed burrow suggests that while a mate could provide food and shelter, they’d be unable to protect the female or her young. All those men that arise from the spring with intact burrows must then maintain and protect that burrow until the fall season, it is during this time that future fathers-in-law begin to scout possible mates to their daughters. If they find the burrow to be up to their standards then some fathers might go so far as to aid in the defense of the fiancé’s burrow or make an attack towards a rival’s burrow. During this time, those that failed during the spring season will sometimes offer to guard and maintain the burrows of eligible males. Biologists hypothesize that they do this in order to mingle their scent with that of a successful alpha male in order to make themselves more favorable to females during next spring’s selection.
The fall mating season is typically the most aggressive period of the Brosnian Death Bear’s life and where the Brosnian Death Bear gets its ominous name from. Once the harvest time begins, eligible bachelors will leave their burrows and begin to forage and hunt in order to create a massive stockpile of food for both the female and the male to eat before hibernation. Their burrows will be defended by beta males in exchange for a portion of food During this period, the bears utilize their powerful noses to hunt down prey and forage the largest fruits available no matter the location or how dangerous this may be, leading to many accounts of the architect bears roaming into villages and carrying away large pots of food and even larger women. Traditionally, offering a jar of honey to the bear will cause it to leave the village satisfied without any thievery or ransacking, this has caused honey to take on a sort of cultural meaning among architects, for instance, presenting a love interest with a jar of honey is seen as a direct confession of your romantic intent and is a favorite among youths. At the same time, presenting a good friend with a jar of honey with three honey dippers is meant to be seen as an assurance, “Your family will not starve in your absence, for my food is theirs.”
Once each burrow has been filled with food for storage, female bears will arrive in a burrow and begin a massive feast with the male which is usually followed by vigorous mating before the two go into hibernation. A burrow with a hibernating female bear will no longer need protection from the male as the immense size and unending hunger of the female bear creates a titanic monster of gluttony and rage, in fact, the rest of the male’s life will be spent satisfying his wife’s hunger so that she remains in her burrow to protect their cubs instead of roaming out and abandoning them to find her own food. Most female bears will simply remain in their burrows for the rest of their life, acting as beds for their husband and children when the sun goes down, raising their young until puberty, and ushering their sons off to hunt with their father when he comes of age. Meanwhile, the daughters are usually considered rivals once they grow older and are cast out. Those males that could not gain mates will often neglect to hibernate, instead choosing to begin construction on another burrow in order to best younger generations the next spring. It should be noted that due to the tropical climate, hibernation as a method to conserve energy in the cold of winter is not needed, instead the architect bears seem to use the energy they stockpiled during the winter in order to sustain the hunger of their cubs in the womb. Males will always awake 2 to 3 weeks before the female so that they can immediately begin hunting to satiate her hunger upon waking; the following mating seasons will be wholly irrelevant to these males with them maintaining a routine of hunting and foraging for his family and training his younger offspring to forage for themselves when out of their homes.
These bears were thought to have originated from the southern continent during a possible ice age who migrated to the land mass that would become the paradise island of /ag/. When the world began to grow warmer, the bears maintained their great size due to the abundance of resources found on /ag/, instead adapting new methods of utilizing their fat as opposed to reducing it. It was said that the Primeval Architect, Pierce Brosnan, was the first man to ever tame a Death Bear, legends tell of a beast known by the name of Goldeneye whom the ancient architect took as a pet after wrestling it into submission. Brosnan and Goldeneye were said to not only be pet and master but best friends as well, with both helping the other in their times of need. Goldeneye provided the village with trees in order to craft the homes of the native population while Brosnan and his men defended Goldeneye’s burrow from other male rivals.
Another historical figure who was famed for his interaction with the ursine architects was that of the Untamed, Biscuit Oliva (who happened to be named after his mother’s favored food as was architect tradition at the time). Oliva was said to have the strength of twelve men and could eat enough for twenty, this came to the distaste of other architects who saw this as a display of gluttony. One day, a man called out to Oliva that should he continue eating as much as he did, he would become as fat as, “a maiden in her autumn dress” and he’d be carried off into the night by a Death Bear. This insult refers to a practice during the harvest where young women would wear shorter and tighter clothing in order to emphasize the size of their stomachs and the curves of their bodies to other village men. Enraged by the slight, Oliva challenged every man in the village to slam their fists against his flesh and mocked them saying that should they find a sand grain of fat among the beach of muscle that was his body, that he’d fast for twenty days and nights and offer up half his meals to their families. Six men shattered their arms in an attempt to knock Oliva down, which subsequently resulted in Oliva’s next great feat, doing the work of six men for nearly eight weeks. Oliva’s greatest feat was his victory over a rouge female death bear, having fought the raging monster bare fisted for nearly two days before he managed to shatter its jaw and strangle it with its own tongue. From the body, Oliva crafted a thick leather chest piece, a gauntlet made from the claws, and massive cape fit to be worn by a giant. Oliva and his descendants are known as the Bear Handed for their tendency to fight and hunt without the use of conventional melee weapons and the artifacts left behind by him have been preserved to the modern day.
Post industrialization, many efforts have been made by the native architects to create conservation zones for the native animal life of the architect islands. The large amount of food necessary for the Death Bear has caused increasing difficulty and many architects have decided to introduce the Death Bear to other environments in order to help repopulate their numbers. A good number of these architects neglect to inform the nations of this plot to repopulate the Death Bear in their lands, leading to more than one humble village being ransacked by the bears for food during the fall. Despite the seeming risk, the Death Bear is highly valued in many nations for its impeccable sense of smell, which can be used to find plant life affected by underground chuubanite cores. Death Bears also make terrifying war beasts and many nations that have adopted and accepted architects into their society are granted the right to keep one as a sign of status and power.