Is there a nature-studier in this village?

No, they're pretty rare and tend to like forests and jungles.

Fair enough. Will there be any diplomatic complications if Amentans want to go talk to lots more Dwellin on different parts of the planet?

They won't mind Amentans going other places. A warlord might try something stupid against them though.

They will probably just leave if that happens. Do they know where the warlords tend to hang out?

Orange swamps and purple forests and black jungles especially. They're very dangerous, those areas, and that seems to promote warlording.

They can point out a few other known warlord-y places on the map, and one mountain biome that apparently has a - literally scheduled - annual war.

...why does it have a literally scheduled annual war.

So that the participants can win glory and fame?

...Glory and fame makes it much more likely Dwellin become fertile.

Oh, interesting. Directly or just because wars have casualties and lower population density?

They're pretty sure that famous and important people have more kids even in dense areas, though they don't really know how or why.

And they don't have a guess how the fertility inhibition works at all?

Well, it's probably Nature making sure they don't turn the whole world into cities, now that they think about it.

Do they have any understanding of how Nature got so opinionated?

The gods made it that way, and also made the Dwellin, once upon a time.

They'd like to hear those stories too.

Once, the world was a barren rock that the sun shone pointlessly on. It had seas but no fish. It had plains but no grass. The five gods Firnu, Dela, Kanku, Elbon, and Hessen saw this and thought to create something new. Firnu smote and sculpted the earth with mighty hammers and exhaled the sky, turning it blue. Dela took the barren soil and sea and bled into it, filling the world with nutrition. Kanku was mother to all the tens of thousands and more kinds of plants and animals and insects, and loved watching them live. Elbon saw that the world was full of life and that it was good, but worried that it would destroy itself, and so worked with the other gods to give nature itself a sense of right and wrong. And finally, Hessen knew that without someone to enjoy the new world and its challenges, all their work would be for nothing, and thus created the Dwellin. Each of the gods also gave something else to the Dwellin. Firnu's strength, Dela's wisdom, Kanku's fertility, Hessen's cleverness, and Elbon created the Well of Souls.

Other places have different versions of the legend, though.

Hmm. And what are all those gods up to nowadays?

Most people agree they probably left to look for more new worlds a long time ago.

And never came back?

No. Some people say they're still watching and sometimes nudge things if you think at them.

Maybe they will do science experiments about that, what kinds of nudges?

Oh, that would be interesting actually. About the weather and trying for children and skill in learning and luck in combat.

Those are subtle enough to require pretty big experiments but they can do those.

(The kids have thoroughly gotten bored and are playing some sort of team-based tag now)

How would those experiments work? Would it involve a lot of writing? Knowing the answer was gotten with writing is... Probably fine, if they don't have to do it themselves.

They would write some things down but the Dwellin don't have to do any of it.