The Secret World of Breezies

by Obsi

Breezie Religion and Culture

Even as I briefly brushed over the breezie society, you surely noticed that I was unable to avoid mentioning their religion. This is more correct than you would imagine, as their religion permeates every layer of their culture. It is the lense through which we can understand their mindset. For a start, I will share with you their creation myth as it was told to me by a Frindrö

A long time ago, there were only the Jiön, the gods. These beings were perfection in its definition. With a wave of a hoof, they could create worlds and with the bob of a feeler, they could end them. The gods were satisfied, being what they were, and amused themselves with the invention of new worlds, but never staying for long until boredom took place.

It was one fateful day, when Frinjiön, the god of wind, was the last to depart from a world. He took a last look at their creation, when he noticed something peculiar.

You see, we Breezies were part of this world, but we weren’t intelligent. We had no strength, no flight, not even brains, not even clans. Back then we were worms. And while we existed, there was no place in the world for us. You see, we were fodder. Our purpose was merely to feed the other species while they grew, to be used up. Yet, one of us would not accept its fate. Blind, deaf, this one chose to flee from the mice which it was supposed to fall prey to, channeling all power to slither away.

And Frinjiön, the perfect being, the god… he saw the struggle of this pitiful being, this weakest being of all creation… and he felt something no good should ever feel. He felt inspired. This was the moment Frinjiön realized: Perfection is nothing but willing Stagnation. The worm he saw dared to deny its fate, to carve a place in the world for itself. It had grown over its own boundaries and become something more.

And that was something even the gods had never managed.

Frinjiön then swore, he would guide these beings, which he called the Breezies. He would help them as they needed, let them grow. Become more. Something greater. And one day, when the Breezies would become great enough to rival the gods, he would welcome them in the pantheon. For they may show even the gods a way to become something greater.

This myth speaks to the mindset of the breezies and is, to my knowledge, utterly unique. What I mean by that is that, if you take our religion, we worship Celestia and Luna, often seeing them as beings infinitely above us. Beings that you can meet, become friends with, but never become their equals. At least that is what these cults say, I will describe my criticism of this (as a recent ascendant) in a separate book.

Back to the point, if you possess knowledge of other religions, you will know that most of them portray the gods as something to appease, or in the worst cases, to fear. All of them see their gods as something infinitely greater than themselves and the attempt to become just like them is seen as heresy. Yet, the breezie alternative tells them to strive for just that. And not only that, but to surpass their own gods someday.

In a more practical sense, the core of their religion relies in self-improvement. Breezies believe that in strengthening themselves, they strengthen their entire species. Either by inspiration, teaching or by genetically passing some of their strength along. It is to note here that Breezies are not aware of genetics, they simply believe that the child of a strong breezie will inadvertently be a bit stronger than if the parent was weak. Further to note is that the ways to improve oneself are multi-facetted and becoming better at just about anything counts. Acquiring knowledge, inventions, training of strength, stamina, producing art or merely striving to be a good person, all of that contributes to the advance of their species.

As such, breezies are highly idealistic and often put the collective needs above their own. Arguments seldomly end in fights and Breezies do not have a word for war. The common strive to ascension unites them all on some basic level. Even their organization appears to work on a system of trust, rather than control. I could not believe my ears when I heard that no-one would watch the clans food supplies and that every breezie was simply trusted to take their own share and no more. But this system, unthinkable for us, works out for them without a problem.

The Frindrö of a clan represents their religion. Note that I said represent and not enforce. As far as I could tell, all clans I, or the breezies I asked, ever heard of, shared the same exact system of belief, making any quarrel over religious ideas unnecessary. The Frindrö leads rituals, decides disputes, takes the overall function of a teacher and channels divine power.

Yes, during my visit, I have been witness of several miracles performed by the Frindrö, but none of my studies have shown any involvement of magic. It might be something completely different instead, lending at least some merit that their god could actually be real. But I will not speculate on that further and come back to the things I witnessed for certain. For one, a Frindrös, prayers seem to have an effect on food. Specifically, preventing their spoilage. A Frindrö called Sherry Göurrse gifted me a slice of a strawberry shortly after we met. This was over nine months ago, and the slice that has since then lain in the open, only protected from insects by spells, is still perfectly fresh. Another feat I have witnessed is a sort of reinforcement spell, which made a simple stick of straw durable enough to withstand our greatest attempts to break it. In my own body I can snap it with ease, but on their size, it seemed unbreakable.

I’ve heard tales of an age-old prophet, who was able to channel a splinter of Frinjiön himself, conjuring mighty storms at will. This prophet, as the myth goes, once forced the bees to agree to a pact of non-agression. I have found no evidence to the truth of this mythos, but the capabilities of the Frindrö are numerous and we have absolutely no understanding of it yet, so the possibilities could be endless and nothing can be ruled out yet.

There is one last function of the Frindrö, and in my opinion, one of the most important. When one gains an opinion in opposition with the status quo, it is quite appealing to gather support first and speak as a group, rather than on your own. However, it is much harder to reason with a group, in which members often believe in variations of the same idea, and in many cases, for different reasons. Additionally, group mentality can lead to the perception that you are in the right, simply because you are surrounded by others believing in the same thing. All of these reasons make it close to impossible to form a consensus that appeals to all, once such a group has formed. Instead, breezies are encouraged to discuss such ideas with the Frindrö, before anyone else. This sounds like a terrible idea, the agent of a religion with the power to shoot down any opposing ideas at the source, but from my experience with several Frindrö, they seem quite open to new insights and were even willing to discuss the validity of their religion with me. (A risky move, but I had to try to judge their openness) However, we reached no conclusion and our discussion ended with him saying that both of us don’t understand the others position enough for a definitive answer.

What I did discover however, is the stu- the aspect of their culture I understand the least! Breezies dont value their history!

Okay, I need to explain this better. In my discussions with the Frindrö, I noticed that I kept hearing different versions of the same stories and I assumed it was because they dont have writing, but the answer is so much worse! Apparently, breezies see no difference between history and myths, choosing to change the details of both in order to teach facts and morals, but these teachings are based on stories, not facts, you can’t base arguments on something other than facts!

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As much as I would like to continue to argue with that ridiculous idea, Fluttershy convinced me to simply move on.

Breezies have no system of currency, instead resorting to exchange deals. An important aspect here is that everything within a clan belongs to the clan first and the “owner” second. While individual breezies often get to claim something for their own, it can be used by everyone within the clan without punishment, although it is considered as rude. Since everything technically belongs to the clan, trade only happens between clans. But before I get to that, I need to talk with the only other kind of trade they have, with us.

You may ask yourself, what can a tiny stick age species produces that we would want to trade for? The adorable, but also sad answer is… nothing.

The trade is a joke.

You see, breezies receive tiny instruments from us. The demand is high, as music is a big part of their culture and a pastime activity during the boring winter season. They come to a place at the outskirts of the badland desert. For us, it is a tourist attraction, in which the richer tourists purchase tiny instruments to then trade against shiny rocks, berries and pieces of mouse pelt. I hope that you, reader, will keep this secret. The breezies would be hurt in their pride if they ever found out the only trade they have with us only exists because they are adorable.

Between clans, they trade for food, materials, information and stories. It is usually an exciting occurrence where old friends meet, children meet their parents again and lifebonds are made. Marriage with a member of another clan is far from a rarity and as such, the clans of an area usually have very tight bonds. In many cases they are literally family. This generally means that clans get along very well, that help is often given freely and that the clans seldomly try to take advantage on one another. Family is the most important bond a breezie can have.

However, their family unit is different than ours. For one, the entire clan is seen as an extended family. But even in the smaller family unit, they act differently. The parents role is less important than in Equestria. For us, they act as caretakers, providers and teachers. In a breezie clan, however, it is usually the oldest siblings task to look after their siblings. In a cross-clan marriage, it is even custom that the parents stay in the fathers clan until the oldest sibling reaches an age of merely five years, at which that child is expected to look after its siblings. The parents will at that point leave their children behind and join the mothers clan.

This treatment is seen by us as cruel, but in breezie culture, the role of parent and sibling is essentially flipped. Parents only act as teachers and adult contact person, functions the clan can easily take over as the parents leave.

I do think this treatment is cruel on the child who is suddenly tasked with so much responsibility. The breezies I spoke to think it is okay, saying “one becomes responsible when one has to, not before.” I disagree to that, and I do believe this is an example where, cultural differences or not, we have to convince them that this has to change.