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Podlings
apopiapoiopidiappididiapipob
"master gardeners who live in bulging plants"
Simple peasants who live hidden in the depths of the forest, these people tend all the things that grow. Their thoughts are only of food, laughter, and song which they accompany with their instruments of simple harmony.
Whimsical, willing Pod Villagers, whose faces are as flexible as pastry dough.
The Podlings tell the story that the Great Conjunction is the three sun brothers having a big quarrel over the daughter of the moon. She drowns herself, they separate, and when they come together again they have a big battle, or a big friendship. No one can tell for sure.
Being so deeply rooted in the life of nature, their notion of time was largely founded upon the cycle of the seasons, and barely did they comprehend the concepts of a changing world or a hungering spirit.
The Nebrie is an amphibious creature the Pod People domesticated for collecting milk. They are a grazing grub like animal. When a Nebrie dies, its skin is used to make drums, and the patches of fur around its face and ears are fashioned into clothes for the little Podlings.
Kira was adopted by the Podlings and raised by Ydra.
Crystal Bats are the only creatures they will kill. Except the Skeksis and their Garthim, of course. But they have no chance against them. They bring the bats down by using a double-weighted thong. They've had to learn it for their own protection. Otherwise they'd be in slavery by now. In many other Pod villages, all the people have been taken.
When invited into the doorway of the largest house of a village you are solemnly welcomed over the threshold. You are then given leaf, twig, root, and fruit to hold. You are then required to drop each one to the ground, where the pattern they make with each other on falling is examined for auguries. One step over the threshold, you are again bidden to pause while you chew a swallow a seed they give you, and drink from their loving cup.
Every night the Pod People prepare a feast. In the single room of the largest house kettles of soup are steam as cook stir them, and a long table is laid with platters of cheese and vegetables, katyaken-egg flans, gourd mush, dyillorkin seeds, river roots and berries, loaves of bellow-bread, and bowls of juice and milk. The Pod People continually sing as they prepare their feast. The simple, natural foods were in abundant supply, and song was not subject to drought. A small band will strike up a merry tune on reed pipes and gourd drums.
The Pod People have never heard of the urRu
Podlings begin dancing by energetically bouncing about on their own. Then they link hands in groups of four or five and leap around in circles. Gradually the circles are linked to each other, and eventually all the dancers are holding hands in one great, bounding ring. When the music reaches a climax, the ring breaks at one point and the line of dancers coil themselves inward to form a tightening spiral. At the finish they are all packed close against each other, jigging up and down so enthusiastically that the old house shakes.
Podlings use a moss found on the ground of the forest to help heal wounds.
The Pod People have no need for writing or reading.
They have reached an advanced stage of symbiosis with the Pod plant, but have also cultivated many other fruits and vegetables. They have domesticated the Nebrie grub, their totem animal, from whose milk they make cheese and whose actions give them auguries. They have also domesticated the Fizzgig, an active quadruped that they occasionally use for keeping watch on plant tendrils. Their music, to judge by instruments, is based on ideas of harmony quite close to humans.
"Pod People" is a convenient rendering of apopiapoiopidiappididiapipob, the name they use among themselves, signifying roughly "master gardeners who live in bulging plants."
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