> A set of notes for ourselves, showing a palette important within the design of South Ciahmol Expanse, showing the ratios they are considered at, a few gamut masks showing the shape of the color as well as their lightness levels, a few different outfit sketches, particular shapes & patterns to keep in mind for the shape design surrounding the area, & a little sketch with someone thinking the phrase “South Ciahmol,” & the title of the piece lining the bottom.

> There’s a set of two written notes, reading, “Functionally, try to use [at least] one of these colors when designing. & if not, keep in mind the color relation! Where cuth may shine, ptal dulls, & where ptal shines, cuth dulls. But there is usually some overlap!”

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The last bit is true in South Ciahmol Expanse, & a few other regions with a historic perceptual divide between “ptal” & “cuth,” typically one that still existed just before the post-mortem age. This divide could have been stemming from conflict, perceived aesthetic, cultural, or ideal differences, what have you; even if the differences did not exist. The regurgitation of these ideas at the start of the post-mortem age, where there were so many people learning about the world after thousands of years of being dead lead to some locations hyperbolizing & celebrating these varieties.

“Cuth” & “ptal” are merely descriptors of types of matter at a base level, but are burdened with the idea of personhood, which is itself inscribed with local cultures often without regard to cultures outside what one lives in. What it means to be “cuth or ptal” is close to how an earthling might conceptualize what it means to be “human,” but also what it means to be “animal.” The dichotomy presented with these frames are being human (instead of beast, inhuman, social, robot, a myriad of things depending on the context employed), or being animal (as opposed to a tool of labor, plant, machine, again a number of different things). The dichotomy within places like South Ciahmol Expanse is most always presented as what it means to be cuth as opposed to ptal, & what it means to be ptal as opposed to cuth. One can be a [ptal/cuth]-person, a [ptal/cuth]-animal, a [ptal/cuth]-plant, a [ptal/cuth]-mineral, a [ptal/cuth]-fungus, whatever; it is still categorized as either ptal or cuth. While lessened in the current age, many ptal in particular found more kinship with stone & water made of ptal-mat, than with other people who happened to be made of cuth matter.

All that to say, there was heavy mythologization of what it meant to be cuth & what it meant to be ptal, exoticism & mystique. As more people were introduced to the world from this framework, & as it was telephone-gamed throughout the region, there grew really interesting subcultures. As people could become whatever they chose with the modern understanding of bodies, some sought to become or live in these mythologies, with several different interpretations of what that would be. Some as a sense of trying to reach for a perceived ideal way of living, or because they wanted to explore the mystified thing, or because that’s what the people around them are doing & they don’t feel a strong reason not to, or it’s just not something they had done before. There’s countless reasons behind why people join these subcultures, & it’s worth (for me) keeping in mind why a person might be influenced by the particular subcultures affecting them, & think about what their relationship to these things might be. As fluid & unstable as the lens of “ptal” & “cuth” are outside base matter, these ideas & perceptions can still be very present in peoples’ lives.