Stillness

The society of the Stillness is broken up into many "comms", "use-castes", races and species. angered can unintentionally kill living things in their "torus", or area of influence, by stealing the heat from their bodies to use as energy to manipulate the ground. When this occurs, a visible circle of frost appears around them and living things can be flash-frozen solid. They are widely hated and feared, and many are murdered by small-town mobs when their powers are discovered in childhood. If they are not killed by their family or community, they are given to a Guardian, to be trained at a location called the Fulcrum inside the city of Yumenes. Fulcrum-trained orogenes are marked by their black uniforms and are tolerated slightly better than untrained orogenes, in that they are not murdered quite as often. They wear rings on their fingers to denote rank, ten-ring being the highest. The slur "rogga" is used against orogenes, who likewise call non-orogenes "the stills". training or, alternatively, execution. They are the order that watches the Fulcrum. zone. Considered backwater. Most Midlatters are multiracial. assigned to keep a comm's numbers stable. They produce children themselves or authorize comm members with desirable traits to have children. Unauthorized children produced during a Season are not granted a share of the comm's stores and may therefore starve.
 * Orogenes: People with the ability to control energy, particularly that of the ground (directly) and temperature (indirectly). They can cause and prevent earthquakes, and when
 * Guardians: Warriors, hunters, and assassins tasked with controlling orogenes through pain and
 * Geomests: Academics who study "geomestry", which seems to be a discipline unique to the Stillness, combining the study of geology with chemistry and other physical sciences.
 * Commless: People without the protection of a settlement or "comm", either by choice or because of being kicked out of a comm.
 * Stone Eaters: Moving sculpture-like beings.
 * Sanzed Equatorial Affiliation: The ruling Empire. The nation is informally known as Old Sanze.
 * Equatorials: People who live in the more stable and wealthy equatorial-region cities such as Yumenes and Dibars.
 * Midlatters: People of either the north (Nomidlats) or south (Somidlats) areas adjacent to the equator
 * Use-castes:
 * Strongbacks: A laborer caste. Excess Strongbacks are thrown out of comms during Seasons.
 * Resistants: A caste of people thought to be resistant to sickness or famine. They care for the sick, clean latrines, and perform other health and hygiene-related tasks.
 * Breeders: The caste
 * Innovators: An inventor/intellectual caste. Engineers, doctors, and other problem-solvers.
 * Leadership: A caste of people trained to run the comm or other important organizations. Can be pushed into leadership against their will, if the comm has sufficient need.