The Colony of Bones

The Colony of Bones are known as expert hunters and their oddly reckless- but kind, personalities. Cats within the Colony of Bones are taught from a young age that death comes to everyone, even themselves, as a result of how much prey they hunt. Unfortunately, these teachings have only taught cats that death is irrelevant, causing rash decisions and daredevil behaviour to be extremely common. Despite their food stores, they have a high rate of unnecessary deaths within their colony.

They are seen as extremely spoiled as their food stores trump those from the other colonies, but most acknowledge their willingness to share their stored foods and respect them deeply. Their access to birch trees also makes their colony the center of unique food recipes, as the colony is able to harvest flour from its bark to make crude bread. They are the only colony with regular access to flour, and while other colonies often will trade for it, they are the only ones who have proper recipes using it.

Because of their comfort around death, they believe any death that happens is the will of the gods. Cats can fight to prevent it, but the gods are the only ones that can save them. As such, the Colony of Bones has no healers and actively looked down on other colonies, seeing it as 'unholy'. In the very distant past the Colony of Bones was even known to try and 'purge' healers from the other colonies several times in a series of crusades, although, during their later days, this was a shameful point in their history.

Values / Taboos

The Colony of Bones valued skillful hunters and those who were devout. Stealth was a valued skill (especially in the sparse forests), as well as being able to hunt in teams. Crafters were valued as well, if only for their abilities to make prey traps. The devout, however, especially oracles, were the most valued within the colony. The Colony of Bones were very religious and was known to use the birch trees in their territory to make paper, write religious texts or myths and store them. Cats who were particularly religious were tasked with the creation and writing of these scrolls, a gruelling task at best and exhausting at worst.

Opposite of these values, those who reject the religion or vocally criticized it were ostracized from the colony, and the punishment was scroll writing for days on end. Cats who couldn't hunt weren't looked down on as there were other ways to contribute to the colony, but cats who were skilled at fighting or were overly aggressive were treated with caution. Many within the colony are ashamed of their crusades and fear that violent or rash behaviour will ruin the goodwill they've bought back from their crimes.

Traditions / Religion

The Colony of Bones expressed their religion through scrolls and prayer, and various rituals. While their religion mostly centers around the Squirrel, other gods (primarily the Lynx and Bear) were given their own rituals as well and were respected within the colony. The Colony of Bones believes that the Squirrel is the origin of their writing system, having written their own scroll that details how each creature in the world will die. In private the colony also believes the other gods to be on this list, with the undertone that the Squirrel will be the last to die and will long outlive the others.

Rituals to the Squirrel heavily use bones, blood, pelts and the scrolls the colony has created. These rituals are scheduled on the same day each year, on a consistent schedule depending on how long a ritual's effects last. Most protection rituals last the full year, while some only a ruling. They have the most rituals of any colony. All rituals are led by the oracle, or when an oracle is not around, the commander.

Tools / Trade

While not particularly skilled at crafting like the Colony of Fireflies or Storm, their surplus of food makes them the primary trader of prey byproducts. This makes access to expertly crafted tools easy, especially with selling other exports like meat or birch products. They trade most often with the Colony of Storm for their tools, but thanks to their frequent trades with the Colony of Fireflies, some cats like to buy clothes and wear them (much to the confusion of the other colonies, the Colony of Fireflies included).

Sometimes the colony will attempt to sell their scrolls to the other colonies, but as the writing system is unique to the Colony of Bones, it's rare they ever actually sell. Some colonies buy the paper and learn the writing to pass on knowledge (this is most common for oracles to do), with the Colony of Mist being the main buyer due to them having their own writing system.

Foods

Thanks to the colonies' abundant supply of meat and animal byproducts, the Colony of Bones has plenty of recipes, many of which have become mainstream in other colonies. They are also the colony most likely to experiment with new recipes, especially during spring and summer when they have a lot of food to spare. They are most known for their use of birch flour to make bread, although, in reality, the majority of their recipes are soups or stews.

Filled Birch Bread - Flat bread stuffed with meats and eggs and closed. The meat inside stays warm for a while, meaning it can be made in one large batch and handed out over the course of the day to be eaten. Some like soaking it in gravy and eating the bread, while others just slice the bread open and eat, discarding the bread later. It is a common survival ration as well.

Bird Drop Soup - A simplistic soup that uses the entire carcass of a bird in the recipe. The broth is made from the bones while the meats are added afterwards to cook. Eggs are cracked and dropped in near the end, cooked until solid and served.

Marrow Spread - A very hard food to make, saved for special occasions. Marrow is scooped out of cooked bones before being mixed together with smashed vegetables and seasoning, until smooth. The mixture is put into a bag and kept cold (either in the river or in the snow). When done, the spread is put onto meat, bread, or rarely into soups.

Egg Sauce - A sauce made from egg yolks. While the other colonies enjoy this, its creation is attributed to the Colony of Bones. Not commonly eaten with meat or soups in the Colony of Bones, instead used as a bread dip. Some enjoy dipping eggs into the sauce, but it's a messy meal done this way.