Breezies are split into small clans, numbering somewhere between four and twelve dozen individuals. While oftentimes not full nomadic, breezies have a lax relationship to a place and often see no issue with changing their home to a more beneficial location, should an opportunity arise. Breezies can inhabit very different places, more to that in a later chapter about clans.
Breezies have no access to magic and so their technology would be largely material-based. If they had any. It was a surprise to me as well, but breezies live, for our standards, quite primitive lives, their tools mostly consisting of straw, remains of animals they find dead, such as chitin and bone, and wood. Never have we discovered them even using stone, which is why Fluttershy voted to call their era “the Stick Age”. They don’t even have fire and my question about flintstone merely confused them. However, they employ different strategies to make up for their lack of technology. Their diet mostly consists of berries and mushrooms, from which they carve out pieces with their chitinous tools. They do not grow their own food and only one clan kept livestock in the form of aphids, from which they milk honeydew. However, most live in a gatherer society. Sometimes, Breezies can form hunting bands. This is a huge event that usually only partakes once per year and encompasses multiple clans around the area. The event is of both practical and spiritual importance, as one mouse is often enough to feed a whole clan and a successful hunt often marks an easy winter. On top of that, hunting trophies are a mark of pride amongst the breezies and a worthy challenge to prove their own strength and devotion to their gods. If the prey has been brought down, the clans usually celebrate in a large joint festivity, strengthening their bonds and often establishing new contacts and trade.
The act of hunting a mouse is a risky and dangerous undertaking, however. The first challenge is to lure the animal out of its burrow. For this undertaking, one brave breezie would be chosen during a sacred ceremony in which its wings are removed and the body is cleaned, so the breezie won’t emit any smell. Once the preparations are finished, the breezie will sneak into a burrow, in order to obtain the essence of a female in heat. This breezie will then need to escape and act as the lure infront of a males burrow to act as lure. When the animal comes out, the breezies will swarm it, poking it from all sides with sharpened sticks. They too will have their wings removed as they are unwieldy and easily grabbed by the mouse. The finishing blow would then be delivered as the mouse is herded into a position in which a team of breezies will drop an apple directly onto the animal. Should that not work, the leading breezie will usually call for retreat, acknowledging that the hunt has failed.
As you surely noticed, this strategy is full of risk and only one out of four hunts are usually met with success. Oftentimes, a breezie is hurt as well, especially the lure, which has on more than one occasion be crushed by the mouse. Still, despite the risks, the breezies see the hunt as a test and every year, there are new volunteers, willing to take the risks.
Water is not a problem to the breezies, as their size allows them to cut into leafs and drink the secreting fluid. They try to avoid this, however, as they fear to anger the plants and so they try to bring water from the nearest river or gather dew instead.
Missing fire, breezies cannot easily leave their homes during winter, which they insulate by dragging a big pile of leafs onto it, a task which can take the entire clan several weeks, but preserves the heat during the cold season. As they cannot leave their home anyway and their large wings are uncomfortably cramped in such tight spaces, they adapted to shed their wings once snow falls, regrowing them once the melting begins.
The time buried is usually spent in games, ceremonies and prayer. We will take a closer look when we get to the chapter about their religion.
A clan is led by an elder, although the elder usually only acts as the wisest or most knowledgeable breezie or in some cases, one who they believe to be touched by the gods. They do not have anything we would call authority other than that the other clan members respect their opinions. There is no punishment to disobey the elder. In fact, no breezie truly holds authority and ranks are respected, but other than that do not carry any power in them. A breezie follows their leader because they trust that it is in their, or their clans, best interest to do, but at the same time, the elder cannot facilitate any power born of force.
Advising the elder is the Frindrö. The best translation would be “touched by the winds.” For our intents, it essentially means priest. The Frindrö conducts ceremonies, teaches young breezies, settles disputes if a third party is needed and spits wisdom everywhere he goes. This last part is a quote from our best contact, the breezie gatherer Seabreeze. As breezies believe that the Frindrö possesses divine judgement, he determines the successor for both his and the elders position.
Not every issue can be resolved by ceremony and discussion however. Sometimes breezie clans have a dispute that has no peaceful resolution. However, breezies simply cannot fight wars as we ponys know them. Breezies have busy lives and a sudden loss of helping hooves could quickly become unsustainable for either clan. For that reason, every clan has a champion standing in for their clan, who will settle every dispute in a one-on-one wrestling match. The matches themselves are non-lethal, but far from harmless nontheless. The results of these fights are seen as sacred and the final option of the losing clan is to beg for a compromise. This last option is a sacred right and is thus not directed at the elder, but the Frindö instead.
Lastly, there are gatherers, whose goal is to gather food and material. Lastly, we reach craftsbreezies, who then... well, craft things from these materials. I have personally observed the use of wood, mushroom hyphen, chitin, mouse-fur and straw.