Genre: Fantasy
GENERAL INFORMATION AND HISTORY
This simple magic system exists on an alternative version of our Earth. This version has the same continents we have now, but it’s much warmer. Most of the planet is covered in lush jungles. Even the north and south poles are always above freezing temperatures.
Humans inhabit many areas of that world. None of them have risen above Stone Age technology. They’re mostly hunter-gatherers living in tribes and small villages. They might have somewhat complicated languages, but most of them don’t have what we would consider a writing system.
Physically, they’re just like humans in our world, except for their hair. They only have scalp hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. They have no other hair on their bodies or faces. Their hair grows quickly, and it’s magical.
THE MAGICAL HAIR: GENERAL INFORMATION
All humans on the planet have magical hair of the same kind and of similar magical strength. Babies are bald until they reach approximately 12 months of age, then their hair grows at a rate of one foot per year. It stops growing at age 50. They don’t shed hair unless they’re ill or dying. All humans have the same straight, thin hair texture. All humans have magical hair. All magical hair contains the same kind of magic, though different societies or individuals use it differently.
The origin of the magic isn’t explained in the story. The humans in the story don’t really know where the magic comes from, but many religions, myths, and legends were created in an attempt to solve the mystery.
THE MAGICAL HAIR: THE MAGIC
As long as the hair is rooted to the scalp of a living human, that human can manipulate it. Manipulation can take many forms, including:
-Making it move like a tentacle or snake.
-Hardening it like a stone
-Sharpening it like a spear
-Giving it a cutting edge like knife
-Giving it a serrated edge like a sawblade
-Using it like an axe
-Creating elaborate rope-like traps with it
-Binding prey or enemies with it
-Using it to collect fruit from trees or to carry heavy things
-Using it for defense
-Using it as a weapon
The hair, being magical, can lift much more weight than a human can and can exert much more force than a human can.
Somehow, the human can control its hair with their mind. At first, they’re clumsy with it, but as the human practices, they become more skillful. Eventually, they can move the hair with the same level of grace and precision as a professional piano player uses their fingers. Some can even manipulate each strand of hair at the same time, although this doesn’t serve much purpose and is usually just a way to show off.
WHAT THE HUMANS LOOK LIKE
Different people from different places have different skin and hair color combinations.
In sub-Saharan Africa, most people are very dark-skinned, and their hair is silver, white, pale gray, pale yellow, or pale brown.
In Asia, their skin is usually light, but their hair is always dark shades of brown, purple, pink, blue, or black.
In other areas, the people might have milk-white skin with hair in various shades of red.
All humans have the same thin, straight hair texture.
Aside from the hair, their bodies and minds function just like ours.
HAIR-RELATED CULTURES, TRADITIONS, AND LIFESTYLES
The hair is seen as very attractive. If someone loses their hair, regardless of how they lost it (illness, accident, someone cutting it off), most societies see that person as hideous or pitiful, etc.
Most societies have similarities regarding childhood, adulthood, and the importance of hair.
Until their hair is long enough to be wrapped around the body as clothing and the child can do so him or herself, children wear clothing made of whatever their family can make it out of. This is usually leaves or vines, though in a few societies, parents will cut off a portion of their own hair and fashion their children’s clothing out of it.
As soon as a child can manipulate its hair to wrap its body in a clothing-like way, they shed their childish garments and begin the journey to adulthood.
Adults in that world don’t wear clothing. They wrap their hair around their bodies. They take great pride in their hair and the ability to manipulate it skillfully. In most societies, it’s shameful for an adult to wear anything but their own hair and a few pieces of jewelry or small accessories.
While most societies think their normal hair texture is attractive enough, some purposefully manipulate their hair to be curly or wavy. Others braid their hair or make dreadlocks with it. It can also be decorated or styled to display status (royalty, for example) or to identify someone as belonging to a specific tribe.
SURVIVAL, HUNTING, AND WAR
Magical hair is the key to a human’s survival in that jungle-covered world. There are a lot of predators there that eat humans. In addition, many of the tribes are warrior tribes. They frequently fight other tribes for territory, resources, and power. To protect against those threats, people use their hair for defense and offense.
They also use their hair to protect their children. Children are extremely vulnerable in that hostile world, so every culture takes great care to protect their children from predators and enemy tribes.
Their hair is also used in hunting prey and foraging for other kinds of food.
It’s also used in various ceremonies and other culturally significant activities.
All adults, and children that have enough hair and the ability to properly manipulate it, don’t wear clothing. Instead, they wrap their hair around their bodies. Many cultures wrap the hair in specific patterns. This is a way for an individual to signal that they’re part of a certain tribe. The wrapping pattern might also have religious, ceremonial, or societal significance. Hair might also be used to enhance a person’s attractiveness when trying to gain a spouse.
Because their magical hair is so important to their survival, it’s also important in each culture’s sense of identity. Individuals also take great pride in their hair and their ability to manipulate it and maintain it.
Losing one’s hair causes great shame in most cultures in that world. Therefore, the gravest punishment — considered to be even worse than death — is having one’s hair cut down to the scalp. This is done as punishment for the worst crimes or betrayals. Sometimes a conquering tribe will do this to the leader of the conquered tribe as a show of power. Without hair, the person is completely vulnerable. They must wear clothing, like a child does, and must depend on others for protection and food. If they’re ostracized or driven out of the village in that state, they’ll most likely die.
To cut the hair, the person must be subdued (if they’re resisting), then other people make their own hair hard and sharp like stone knives and cut the hair off at the scalp. This usually isn’t done gently, and often, pieces of scalp are also cut off in the process. The hair is then piled up and the person is forced to watch it burn to ashes.
Some cultures are even more savage than that and are known to skip directly to the burning. They set fire to the victim’s hair while it’s still wrapped around their body, then taunt them while they burn to death.