Alex's Shroomville

Cities

In Shroomville, all of the buildings are made out of fungal growth. The large skyscrapers are chunks of mold that have been cut off of trees and rocks. Smaller buildings, such as houses, are hollow mushrooms that have little rooms in them. Most other buildings are a mix – they are mushrooms that have mold added on to them to make more room, while retaining the sweet smell of the mushroom. Most houses are two stories tall (one story is about a centimeter), and skyscrapers are up to six stories high. There is a downtown area, where lots of homeless shrooms live, in the dark alleys between big business buildings. The business buildings are mostly factories, where poor shrooms make cheap clothes and other items that are sold in stores that are scattered around Shroomville.

Government

For the most part, Shroomville’s government is the same as the United States. It is democratic, with all of the branches as in out government. The main person is the president (who was last recorded as George W. Funguston, from 1028 BC. until 1027 BC.). The term for president is about five months, but you can keep being elected for up to three terms. Along with the main government, Shroomville has individual, smaller branches that govern neighborhoods. These branches are called the SPC, or the Shroomville Police Corp. The SPC is an autocratic corporation designed to control the neighborhoods. They can arrest people and decide what people are allowed to do in their specific area, but the main government can overrule anything that the SPC does. You are not elected into the SPC, you are placed there if the main branch decides that you are good for the job. Once you are accepted, you are placed in a camp, and you live there for the rest of your life.

Religion

In Shroomville, there is no specific religion. They do not have a set religion, but there is one main religion. The most common religion is Precipitoligism. Since they thrive mostly on fungus, they worship the rain. Precipitologism is monotheistic, so they only worship one God. One of the Gods that they worship is called Rainula, the God of rain. They believe that He is the one who created rain, which, in turn created all types of fungus. Every Sunday, they go to church, which is a large building made out of what they call “Abolith”, or giant mushroom. This is considered to be a sacred mushroom, which was placed there under a huge shady tree (the only place in Shroomville that the sun never shines on) by Rainula, as a place of worship. Every Sunday, they go there for half an hour in the morning to do a rain dance and sing to Rainula, in hopes that He will give them lots of rain in the coming week. Their rain dance consists of lots of jumping and chanting; they start out in a big circle, and dance around the Abolith chanting loudly and swing their arms in different styles. Another God that they believe in is called Solunar, the God of the sun. They think of Him as Rainula’s evil brother. Solunar is considered evil, but not as evil as the Devil that we think of. Heaven for them is a place called Aguaria, which is a big, moist field of fungus, where it is always dark and has a great body of water that stretches on forever. Hell, for them, is more of a type of punishment than a place. They believe that, if you worship Solunar instead of Rainula, then you are sent to your choice of worship, the sun. If you are sent to Solunar, then you gain immortality, but you burn in the center of the sun for all of eternity.

Job Specialization

If you are not in the government or SPC, you have a choice of several other jobs. One job, the most common, is hunter and gatherer. If you are a hunter, you are sent out in groups of eight to find dead animals or edible plants. There are lots of giant mammals, called mice, which live in the forest. These mice are about three centimeters high while standing on their hind legs. These beasts are savage, shroom-eating, monsters. They like to eat shrooms, and several other animals. It takes about six strong shrooms to bring down one mouse. The shrooms, about seven millimeters high, are easily killed by these gigantic mice. The shrooms have large swords that can pierce the skin of a mouse. While six shrooms distract the mouse, the other two go in for the kill. Since mice are extremely territorial, the shrooms never encounter a group of more than two mice. Some other shrooms are cooks. These shrooms work in a large building, and they all cook the food together. There are not many other jobs that shrooms have, but one of them is making weaponry. These are the shrooms that gather rock and wood to make swords, bows and arrows, and several other devices that are used to hunt. The last common job is house making. These shrooms are the ones that carve out mushrooms to make houses or build buildings out of fungus. This is the most well paid job, because not many shrooms want to spend so much time and effort in their job. One job, which is very rare and almost impossible to get, is Head of the Church of Rainula. This person is like the priest of the church. He is the only person who is taught how to write because he is the person who makes written wishes to Rainula. And finally, the last specific job in Shroomville is protector. Protectors are shrooms who are trained to fight in any combat situation, so they can protect Shroomville. They are recruited judged by size and strength. There are some other jobs that people have in downtown Shroomville, but they are not organized or recognized by the government.

Social Classes

In Shroomville, there are several different social classes, depending on your job and wealth. The top social class is the Head of the Church of Rainula. This person is the most well respected person in all of Shroomville, because he is the closest to Rainula. It is said that in his dreams he is answered and directed by Rainula. He is not paid, but is supported completely by the rest of the community. He lives in the attic of the Abolith, and is fed for free by the cooks of Shroomville. Since he is respected so much, he gets anything he wants, any time he wants. He has a bell that he can ring to summon one of his servants to get him something. With this power, he can do almost anything, but it was written by the second Head of the Church that this power is not to be abused. It is said that the first Head of Church ignored Rainula’s specific order that he may not abuse the power, and was thus struck down by Rainula, who led him into a clearing deep in the forest and made a deal with Solunar that he could have his soul in return for killing him. Ever since then, nobody dared to abuse the power. The second level of social class is working for the government. These shrooms are not very important, but they control Shroomville and are trained to enforce laws if need be. The next social class is SPC member. They are not very well known because they live in the camp, but they are specially identified by their outfit, so if they are seen in public, they are regarded with great respect. The next level is protector. They are the ones who keep Shroomville safe and peaceful, so people generally do not question their intentions. The next level is considered the general public, which is the hunters, gatherers, and weapon makers. They are the most common, and are respected much like the middle class people in out society. After that are the business owners, who are generally disliked because they employ people at almost no pay, and they do not give anything back to the community. It does not get much lower, but next come the factory employees, who are mostly poor people who are in desperate need of a job. Then, the lowest of the low, is the poor homeless shrooms. They are considered nobody by the general public or higher, and live in dark alleys in downtown Shroomville. They survive off of whatever bugs they can find, and the trash that they can find.

Art and Architecture

In Shroomville, a big part of the culture is in the architecture. There are not very many artists, but there are some people who make money off of wooden sculptures depicting Rainula, as a hobby aside from their job. There is a lot more importance in architecture than art though. Since buildings are all different types of fungal growth, it is a very important part of the society to design buildings and houses. There are lots of factors that influence architecture, like the type of mushroom or fungus that will work best and location of buildings. The best fungus is young, green, fresh mold. This is very easy to obtain, and it can be used in walls better than older fungus because it is thinner, and does not need to be trimmed as much. Location of buildings is also very important because if there is not enough moisture year round, the walls will dry up and the building will crumble apart. Although mushrooms generally need to be carved out like pumpkins, some can be used in other ways. Architects can map out areas and measure the mushrooms, so sometimes they can take the mushrooms apart and put them together in different ways, or add them on to other mushrooms to make buildings.

Public Works

To benefit the public, the government organizes projects that are designed by architects, and carried out by protectors, and other volunteers. Such projects include building public buildings, like training and exercise places, and discussion group meeting places. There are several public discussion groups, which are focused, mainly, on neighborhood advancement and protection. These groups are funded and organized by the SPC, so the general public can have their voices heard and possibly have their ideas put into action. They commonly theorize ways to keep mice, and other large animals out of the places that shrooms live. They design protective walls, which are built around Shroomville that have guard posts and barricaded doors that can only be opened from the inside. Another common public project is designing roads and transportation. They clear paths that you can follow on foot, or if you are rich, you can buy carts that attach to a pulley system on the sides of the paths that are faster and more convenient than walking. Other public projects include building cafeterias in each neighborhood, where the general public go to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and if they cannot sleep, there is a night shift that serves meals and smaller snacks at one o’clock every morning. Shroomville is a very well-kept society, so volunteers to help public works projects are not abused, and are fed and taken care of while they work, thus taking away the amount of deaths and inhumane labor completely.

Writing

There is a written language in Shroomville, but the only person who can write it is the Head of the Church of Rainula. Several other people that have extremely high positions in government can read Shroomish to an extent, but they do not have the knowledge or materials to write it. The only thing writing is used for in Shroomville is to connect the Head of the Church more directly with Rainula. He can write messages that he wants Rainula to see, like questions or comments about almost anything. He can also ask Rainula questions or ask Him for help that other shrooms want to know, and then Rainula will come to the shroom that asked the question in a dream. This is the only way to communicate with Rainula, so that makes the Head of Church’s job even more important. When the Head of Church is closing in on his death, Rainula will come to him in a dream approximately eleven months before his death, so he will know when to start teaching the next Head of Church how to write. Since writing is such an important skill for the Head of Church, it is very important that the new one learns how to write. The ability to write is the most important ability in all of Shroomville, and only the Head of Church is allowed to write, if anybody else even tries to write, they will be sacrificed to Solunar. Writing is done on slivers of tree bark and the blood of sacrificial animals, which are usually the mice that are hunted and taken back as food. The only way Rainula can read and answer anything is written is if the dead animal is sacrificed in a holy ceremony by the Head of Church. Otherwise, the tree bark will supposedly burn up will not be readable by anyone.