Okay, because SOMEONE was asking a BILLION questions (*coughArkycough*) I'm updating this with a rather bony outline of my main plotline, which is currently without a title. I've been calling it SumSaintSigma in my mind, although technically the last character is a lunate sigma and the first is the familiar summation notation symbol. It does "mean" something, in my mind, but I'm not going to tell you because I DON'T TRUST YOU PEOPLE TO KEEP YOU MITTS OFFA MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTEE.

Story is set in relatively few locations, the main one being a small, heavy industrial city set into a mountainside. Every male in the town works in the factories beginning at age 15, although really they work much earlier than that, they just don't get paid. Women are greatly outnumbered, and are not allowed to work in the factories. Food is bland and scarce due to the god-awful soil and growing conditions, and the city's government is intwined with its religion and controls basically everything but at the same time nothing. Society has to be highly regimented in order to function under such strenuous conditions.

Lowlands are much different. People from the Plains could be considered to be perpetually lazy and somewhat apathetic, since they have a fairly easy living and are almost entirely self-sustained. Their soil is fertile and their growing season substantial. Some few young men (and on even rarer occasions, women) who tire of the slow pace head up to the mountain town in search of some cash and a trill or two. Typically they don't return, ending up trapped in the town by debt or contract. Thus contact between the two populations is virtually none other than rumors in the local papers, and the segregated populations began to be phenotypically different.

Characters:

Anai Felile DouBleskh (ahn-eye fel-lil du-bless-kh):
Sex: Female
Age: 20

Anai is the main character of the story, which will be told either from her perspective or from third person omniscient following her. She works with the government of a town at the foot of the mountain called Chierey, in which she has lived for the past 8 years. As a child, she spent five months in the countryside under the care of Enoue Kanuar because her parents were dealing with business of their own. Now, she needs to travel to the mountain city on business for the government, and she'll be staying with Enoue's children and their guardian, all of whom she barely remembers.

Vinyati Emilia Hurste (vin-ya-tee em-eel-yah hur-st)
Sex: Female
Age: 24

Vinyati is a fiery, loud but intelligent woman, the eldest of Enoue's children. She tends to be blunt and gruff, but also thoroughly friendly and loyal. She and Anai share a stubborn, self-righteous streak, which would be a problem if their views weren't the same. Thankfully they coincide, and become fast friends. Vin runs a metals shop on the understory of part of the house, and probably makes the most money out of everyone in the household. She basically sustains them and holds the band together, despite the general population's avoidance of her store because of her ignorance of gender roles. She has no manners and no social graces unless the situation absolutely calls for it, and previous to finding a steady job she was frequently caught up in bar fights. She earned a bit of a reputation for being vicious when provoked. Most women have troubles living in the city, with its overpopulation of young single men, however, Vin is so incredibly bitchy that nobody's willing to bother her despite her nice face.

Shastayan Anderou Hurste (shah-sta-yan ahn-der-oh hur-st)
Sex: Male
Age: 22

Typically called Shasta for short, Shastayan is an incredibly benign young man who will occasionally have slips of wittiness or deadpan sarcasm in conversation. It is next to impossible to make him angry, and he usually goes about with an unchanging look of distant happiness plastered across his face. He has been declared clinically violently insane, although this is a questionable verdict. His behavior would lead people to believe he is entirely harmless, and he's never to anyone's knowledge been proven otherwise. He is also incredibly intelligent, though because he is less physical than Vin he spends more time on intellectual pursuits. As most men do, he began work in a factory at 15, though not long after he was caught in a machine accident which mauled his left arm, side, eye and ear. This is fairly common in the factories, so no one was surprised and he was shooed out to find work elsewhere. There is virtually no work "elsewhere" for someone with one good arm to do, so he does odd jobs about the city.

Atuono Gensei Merlou (ah-tu-oh-noh gen-say mer-low)
Sex: Male
Age: Upper 50's.

Atuo is Vin and Shasta's guardian since the death of their mother, Enoue. He's been a pretty good parent to them, although he's made his fair share of mistakes and carries his own set of burdens. He's currently dying of consumption (CANCERS) and is all around an angry, grouchy person until you gain his trust. He shows affection by insulting people. He's incredibly prideful, and worked in the factories for 35 of his 50 some years, and thus cannot accept that he's no longer able to support his adopted children, making him all the more angry.

Perhaps I'll add the other characters later. @_@;;