Without metals or other such valuable materials, the standard technology of Arumo is organic in nature. The creatures of Arumo are peculiarly malleable, and can be shaped in life, these changes carrying over to subsequent generations. Over the years, Arumu crafters have created thousands of unique organisms, and continue to breed many more.

All creatures are born capable of immediate reproduction, although they must be returned to the flesh of the ground before their reproductive systems can be triggered. If the creature is to be used by humans, it is usually carefully sculpted and crafted to the best form possible, since its offspring will retain that form.

Common Tools and Items:

Almost all common tools and items are not only organic, but also alive. Materials feel like muscle, flesh, or (most often for tools) hard bone or ivory. Since tools grow brittle and useless once the living component dies, they must be cared for and fed regularly so that they remain strong.

Clothing is living, too, the creature’s vital components often contained in a bony clasp. Clothing varies in quality from simple wool-like garment to the silkiest cloaks and robes.

Objects can be fed through a small mouth, although many also benefit from photosynthesis. Animal waste and compost serves as useful food, and is usually stored in small pouches that are placed in the creature’s mouth to be slowly consumed, providing the creature with enough nutrients to survive.

Weapons and Warfare:

Many different types of weapons exist, grown and cultivated from different sources and carefully shaped by talented artisans.

A melee weapon continues to grow throughout its life. Most newborn weapons begin as tool-sized, and not very useful for combat. After about six months, they grow into small weapons such as knives and hatchets. A few more years sees them become medium-sized weapons, like broad swords and battle-axes. After ten to fifteen years, the weapon has become extremely large: a great sword or halberd.

The most common melee weapon is the talon sword. The blade is gracefully curving and extremely sharp, with a bony guard to protect the hand and a tacky handle for a sure grip.

Spine weapons are frequently seen in the hands of poorer soldiers, since talons are expensive. These have a single thrusting point, and are often made into long spears to keep enemies at bay. Mouthed weapons are also common on spears. These grisly weapons have a single protruding fang and a mouth full of sharp teeth. They take little skill to use and are terrifying when used in formation.

Soft, lashing weapons often secrete strong poisons to make up for their lack of a cutting edge. These weapons require great skill to use without personal danger, and many elevate lash duels to an art form.

Entangling weapons such as nets are used to capture opponents, or to limit their mobility and leave an opponent helpless. While nets suffer from the problem of being frequently wounded in battle, they also have the novel ability to eat whatever is trapped inside of them, allowing a soldier to trap an opponent in a net and then move on to other targets.

For protection, soldiers wear armor made of light, flexible hide or strong but bulky chitin. Shields of similar materials also exist. Weapons and armor become useless after the creature dies, so a warrior’s equipment requires frequent care and feeding. Most weapons are content to feed on the blood and flesh of fallen enemies, and many grow to crave the taste.

Thrown weapons are the most common ranged weapons: knives and spears offer significant threats to anyone getting within range. Recently more self-powered projectile weapons have appeared, including spine guns, venom sprayers of various sorts, web shooters, and spore cannons.

Spine guns are creatures that use powerful muscles to propel large, sharp spines at high speeds. They suffer from inaccuracy and flaky performance, but they possess excellent range and are very easy to use. Most spine guns are one-shot affairs, and require reloading after each shot. Reloading consists of taking a new spine, coating it with juices, prying open the spine gun’s orifice, carefully aligning the new spine, and then convincing the gun to swallow and load it—a process that can take anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes. Most spine guns are loaded beforehand, either manually or by waiting for the gun to grow a new spine, which takes about a day if the creature is fed well. When combat begins, they can be readied with a quick tug (opening the creature’s orifice), and fired with a squeeze.

Fluid guns are desired to spray different liquids, most commonly acid or venom. They consist of a nozzle orifice that can be aimed reasonably well and a storage sack that contains the fluid. By squeezing the sack, the weapon sprays its contents at anything in front of it. Fluid guns are bulky and inaccurate, and have a short range, but they are inexpensive and easy to use. They are also capable of controlled sprays, giving the user either one full-blast shot or several less damaging attacks.

Web shooters are unwieldy weapons that contain strands of sticky webbing. When deployed, the weapon’s spinnerets launch webs at the target, with only a small strand capable of completely immobilizing a target.

Spore cannons are standard siege weapons, although they can be shrunk down to portable size. A spore cannons looks like an enormous, upturned spine gun. It is loaded with bundles of spores. These spores latch on to anything that they touch and begin to grow, producing horrible infections. A person exposed to a spore cloud is likely to die in seconds as the spores race into his lungs and prevent breathing. Even if he escapes the cloud alive, failure to receive treatment within a few hours means that he will die as the spores plant themselves and take root. Buildings struck by spores are in a similar predicament, and are even more difficult to treat. Launching spore bundles at a city will weaken its walls, often so much so that they can be broken through and penetrated with conventional weapons or siege-grade spine guns.

Poisons are common, and often coated on weapons. However, most Arumui are partially resistant to poison, and are often given preventatives and antidotes before entering combat. Custom toxic gases are also very common, typically fired from large spore guns into enemy troop formations to slow them down or kill them. Spore guns are the standard weapons of sieges, used to launch terrible plagues and toxic gases into cities, leaving the city’s walls too sick and weakened to withstand a concentrated artillery barrage.

Transport:

Most people are content to walk, although those with enough money can afford various types of mounts for transport. Kreli are the most common mounts, medium-sized, with four legs and fur. Galomai are fast, two-legged creatures covered in shimmering scales that are used to move quickly in tough terrain. The largest mountains used as vorti, which are enormous hexapedal creatures covered in a thick carapace.

Sea transport uses paktui, which are usually creatures with hollow shells capable of holding passengers and cargo and swimming with powerful fins and flippers. Narsai—swimmers capable of moving beneath the waves—are rare and not completely tamed, but they do exist, and are often used in warfare.

Flying creatures of various sizes are available for the those who can afford them. Ranging in size from being able to hold only one or two people to being able to support dozens, flyers such as jarriali and lorridi use powerful wings to remain aloft. Floating creatures called ondoi are slow and large, but they rarely tire—an ondo uses an internal warm gas sac to remain afloat, and pushes itself along with fans or gusts of wind.

All creatures require extensive training to make them useful, and especially to harden them to warfare. It often takes months or years to train even a creature that has been made very malleable.

Architecture:

Even buildings are alive, constructed of various hard and soft components and capable of metabolizing through photosynthesis and the consumption of their inhabitants’ waste products. Over the years, buildings grow; architects dedicate their lives to sculpting buildings into beautiful new shapes. The houses of the rich are dynamic, their softer internal membranes capable of extruding new furniture upon demand.

Security:

The most common form of security is the fluid lock. This creature looks like a small depression near a door or other opening. To cause the door to open, the correct operator spits into the aperture, or wets his finger and puts it in. If the fluid is identified as belonging to the proper user, the door slides open. Fluid locks can be keyed to several people, and those who aren’t set for the door can be added by mixing the new user’s fluids with the old user’s fluids along with a special formula, and pouring it into the lock. More secure locks are permanent, and do not allow this.

Those trained in these matters can get around a door lock by creating a mixture that is similar enough to the proper user’s to fool the lock. This takes training, several vials of potions, and several minutes of time, but it can be done. The better the lock is, the more difficult it is to fool in this fashion.

Medicine:

In a world of organic wonders, medicine is suitably advanced. Injuries can be healed quickly with menders, which are small creatures that bite down on a wound and secrete fluids that promote regeneration. After a few days of rapid healing, the mender falls off, not even leaving a scar. A healer usually has several sizes of menders on hand.

Even crippling wounds can be healed. A ruined limb can be rebuilt by special regenerators. These creatures look like fat slugs, and are attached to the missing limb, where they slowly rebuild it over a course of a few months.

Drugs can be used for many different purposes. Healing salves are made to heal and ward off diseases, so that those who can afford the treatments are nearly immune to most common diseases. Poultices and elixirs can be given to cause immunity to pain, to anaesthetize, or to slow a person’s metabolic rate so an injured person can survive until surgery.