Loss

Loss is a civilization visited by The Miasma Eremite, and is central to the story of the game. The Underweather Vanity is the name of the Work that the Eremite wrote for this place. Loss may have been named by the Eremite as a reference to Mour Mour Mour.

Information
The people of Loss ("Lossians") are aquaphobic. They do not use names among each other, much to the Eremite's frustration. The people of Loss are less friendly amongst themselves than one might expect of a civilization: when together, they stay a good distance away from each other, and most don't like being touched. Lossians wear purple smocks as clothing, dyed from beetroot. They live in houses shaped like standard huts with pyramidal roofs, all connected to a larger, "main hearth-pyramid" in the center of town. These houses tend to be very small and don't appear to hold much more use than as a place for a single person to sleep.

Their primary food source is the beetroot plant which grows around the village. They use kilns in the shape of nippleless women to serve their food. Two stand facing each other in at least nine locations for a total of eighteen kilns. What comes out is a shiny mixture, something with the consistency of stringy fat, and tasting of meat. It is implied they serve two different types of this mixture in each of the kilns. It is digusting, and the worst meal the Eremite had eaten since visiting Loftenroost. The Eremite questions how the concoction can taste of meat if he only sees them eat Beetroot; they may have used Scatterbird. They use beetroot to make wine, but it is weak and hardly fermented.

Around the time of Loss's end, an "execution venn" was introduced, which the eremite stepped into. He was not executed. Loss met its end due to a virus most likely caused by the Eremite's miscounted breaths he took on a certain day. Friend was likely the only survivor, and the Eremite took her with him on his journey thereafter.

In The River Upstairs, there is an apparent tally of new moons which indicates that the Eremite could have been in Loss for at least ten years, and much after London's bubonic plague.

Religion
The people of Loss are noted as having no present religious practices, but the Eremite believes they once had gods, and now relegate them to the same place they take toilet. They excrete inside urns that may have contained effigies of their previous gods: a tentacle, an oval-shaped rock, a serene face. The Eremite took to naming them in English, as the Lossians have no system of naming or classification. He imagines they shat on their gods as a means of divine rejection.

History
"Friend talked vaguely about the older times of Loss, when food was abundant and livestock trufflehunted amongst the woodland boles. We may conclude from her statements that there was a true culture, then, one now dimly remembered."

Setting
Loss is a mostly barren place, but with far-off access to water and wood. There are mountains that the people sometimes traverse for the practicing of religious rite.

In the Catafalque Yard, (which is also known as: Light's House, The Farm, The Yard) there is a sculpture described as the size of Egyptian sculptures with the expert sculpting quality of Michaelangelo.

Citizens
Listed by perceived relevance. Only denominated citizens will be documented.

Mr Lights - Father to Friend, tends to the dead.

Friend - daughter of Mr Lights, see accompanying article.

Lantern -  A white-haired woman who became pregnant, but lost the child, left with an empty cavern of a stomach.

Maervilles - Lantern's reputed father, named because of his constant fascination of the land around him.

Urquous - Neighbor to Friend. Was nearly battered to death by hailstones when he was only six.

Wicker - A man whose body was scorched badly. He is perpetually naked, with skin charred black. Participated in some musical ritual post-incident.

The Mayor & His Son - the arbitrarily-elected mayor, and his overweight son.

Amerigo - An old woman who died.

Beetroots Rotting - Farmer.