this is a repost of a tumblr ask posted on the 14th of august 2024

anonymous asked over on tumblr:

What jewelry do kyhuines and maanuls have?

and what jewelry do humans have? many various ones that are influenced by the environment, history in terms of current fashion, current movements, beliefs and etc... same goes for them! but aside from the boring answer:

pre-alp traverse traditional jewlery by maanuls might share a common theme of being centered around the sea despite the various cultures, because maanuls lifestyle and everything they need revolve around the sea. People live near it, people live in structures at shores or in the sea, people may be part of sea-fearing ethnic groups who spend their lives out there on boats. some seafearing communities are more stationary than others but the life on a boat remains. Pre-alp traverse and first contact with kyhuines, maanuls lives depended on the oceans only. and it reflects in their art forms and folklore a lot. which include jewelry, from literal depictions of an animal from the shore to just more vague imagery, or usage of shells, the ocean can be found through many pieces of jewelry across the globe.

earrings are very common among maanuls, the triangle skin hoods over their ears can be pierced. Although that defeats their purpose of blocking water once flattened against their temples, not that it was efficient at its job to begin with either way, so it's not a big loss of functionality in the end. Much like human lobes they have to be careful with the weight of their earrings. Because they can always risk having it slowly rip because of gravity. I guess for them it might take longer. Since gravity is lower its not pulling on it as hard as it is on earth. And the pierced ear hole sits on top of a cartilage ridge.

piercings? yes, maanuls are half made out of skin, and piercings are plausible on many parts of the body. Such as the face, but piercings on the face are restricted to certain areas, and all of them are temporary. They're surface piercings and they'll come out rather fast because facial muscles are constricted a lot in maanuls for facial expressions to communicate. just like how a bridge piercing in humans don't last long because we move our eyebrows constantly.
The "nose" isn't an area they can pierce, the skin there is rather tight against the structure, its hard to pull any for a surface type. Piercing through it is quite horrible and will in almost every case end up in a bloody injury. Sometimes leading to an infection too. Its literally a cartilage hell with so many blood vessels hanging around. also, this is a sensory organ they use for facial interaction with one another, so they rather have it "untouched". And the nose is never pierced successfully. Then the person with it will be seen as a masochistic. A "nose" piercing for them wouldn't look like a hoop passing through it, but more so probably a curved bar inside the structure, with each side of the nose protruding with a little piece of jewelry.

traditional kyhuine jewelry dating before the alp traverse and first contact with maanuls, does not have an overarching theme like maanuls does. Their lives do not revolve around one big thing, as kyhuines as a whole can live in incredibly diverse biomes from each other, think of the biome variety found in SWANA. if you know you know then. However, things such a jewelry based on bugs (domesticated species or not) can be a common recurring thing because of how bugs are a big part of their diet + they have many domesticated species. Some domesticated themselves because kyhuines let them in their homes for various reasons.

pierced ears in kyhuines? its impossible to find. why? because kyhuines do not have external ears. what they have on their head is just some sort of "plumicorn", identical to what prairie chickens have. just growing at a different angle. The plumicorns in kyhuines are raised up for the neutral expression all the time. If you plucked a kyhuine their heads would be smooth, and you'd find the ear holes near the eyes. If you find old art on my blog with kyhuines having earrings that's just me being indicative of what I wanted. But yeah, in conclusion, no earrings for kyhuines can be found.
piercings in kyhuines are rare because they're covered in feathers everywhere apart from the pelvis, gular sack, around eyes and snout end, and keel. and only the facial skin can be piercable, mainly piercing under the eyes by pulling the extra saggy skin if there's enough. they last longer than they do with maanuls, because kyhuine facial muscles are stiffer. they emote emotions via opening their mouths, tahofah fans, sounds, inflating gular sack, and piloting/ flattening their plumicorns. not a lot of contracting facial muscle is involved in it. I'd say they're much more common in plateau/mountain flank groups, where the dulls have wattles under their eyes. Its just extra skin that can receive piercings or minimal dot tattoos. one of the few ethnicities to be able to do tattooing because of this extra skin bit

example of a haut-plateau / moutain flank dull ("dull" being an afab individual) kyhuine. sketch from some months ago i never finished but you see the idea ->

i do not think they could pierce their gular sack safely, perhaps if the jewelry in the pierced hole is flexible? after all pierced holes will close back. But i don't know about this one yet.
necklaces usually are lose enough that they hang under the gular sac area, just to be safe and not break it if they inflate it for whatever reason. although necklaces that are several decorative hard pieces on a stretchable threat where it can widen in case the person inflates their sac is also a thing. but the first option is the most popular and spread out. Plus, several ethnic groups will consider it indecent to have a gular sack exposed, leading to covering it with tight necklaces, or much more commonly just tissue. as its more convenient and can be a part of a larger piece of cloth.

in mierthri kyhuines, jewelry is considered as clothing for them. average conception of clothes as in like sewed tissue together is a no for them. as it might weigh them down and restrict movement during gliding. if they wear clothes its super minimal and most of them just do not wear anything for convenience, and when they do its 1 piece where they just have to slide their head in, the sides are cut so they dont restrict any arm movement. And even then, these clothes are mainly used for events only and not as a day-to-day thing. although exceptions can be seen in kaar'kchir immigrant mierthri communities. Not because they're forced to, but because of cultural exchange and cultures evolving and merging together.
the jewlery in mierthri kyhuines is either at their necks as a necklace or ankles as a ring or band. ribbons are used too, even if they're cloth are still a decorative items that for mierthri kyhuines count as a full piece of clothing. ribbons are attached to the ankle of the end of their tail. when they fly around gliding, the ribbon, or necklace, ankle jewlery are mainly used for quick identification in the community. for example, spotting a paramedic.

after the traverse of the Alps and first contact between the two cousin species, many cultures merge through immigration and create new ones, many communities become of mixed species, and people bring their cultures where they go. which will include the jewelry! and it will evolve, its adapted into new etnic groups or modified to be more in the taste of the people living here, new fashion movements get created and so on with variants like this.

i could think of more to yap about, but i think that's all for this one. thank you for asking!