Terran Mingle

The Terran Mingle was an early salticid stem culture that consisted of multiple species in a loose community spreading across most of the Terran supercontinent. It is the source of the Proto-Terran Religion and the progenitor of multiple societies including the Portian Empire, the Kingdom of Hyllus, and Vast Mopsus, which spread variants of its values and ideology across the eastern hemisphere.

Origin
Before the Mingle, most Terran salticid species lived in separate-species communities with their own relatively simplistic belief systems and loosely organized societies. Many were nomadic, hunting in one plot of forest and moving on when the largest prey seemed to be gone. Multi-species settlements eventually occurred for several reasons, chief among them the fact that monitoring prey populations in a larger network led to less overhunting and in turn less starvation.

The Mingle formally built up around the Lower Mopsus Wetland and eventually grew to encompass most of the continent, especially the central span of neoconiferous forest. Salticids did spread south and west, though most attempts to permanently settle these areas were thwarted by mountains and deserts.

Values
Some of the values and concepts common between most cultures stemming from the Terran Mingle are:
 * Gender roles with multiple divisions between females and one homogenous male group;
 * Lower status for males if not outright societal exclusion;
 * Foundational religion based upon characters and lessons from the Proto-Terran Religion, such as:
 * The First Spider, who disappeared and is associated with forbidden knowledge;
 * The Highest World or Highest Forest where the gods live;
 * Sun or Sky, Moon, Ground, and the Great Flower;
 * Moon's fall from grace explaining the burden of a secondary or tertiary female gender;
 * In cultures with more than three genders, a character (or characters) called Stars (or the Stars) is born from the Great Flower and her adventures explain her roles;
 * The Great Flower being a source of ills or evils in the world due to Moon's actions;
 * Moon's corruption and a fight with Sun or Sky, and her retreat to the highest world;
 * Animals being considered lower than salticids and classified as prey due to an original sin;
 * "Moisture" or "water" as a life force or inner essence of being which can be drained or corrupted;