Tools of Kith and Kin

 I realized theres a major possibility that players of Kith and Kin wont know exactly whats available to them, tool and technology wise.

Now I could go over every lithic industry that would be available to them, with a note on who would use it. That was my original idea for this post! But there's a lot of those (which I knew, but it took me reviewing them again to realize just how many there are).

I could do it anyways, people sort of know what they're getting into when they agree to have me run a game, but even my energy runs thin going through all the various ways people made use of the world.

So instead im going to go over a handful of very very generalized categories of tools, and who would make use of them, organized by rough level of complexity.

Note that there is actually an inverse of expectations in some cases here. Someone from a settled agrarian society who is not a "toolmaker" will likely start out only understanding the basics of some lower-paleolithic tools. The tools one understands do not strictly correlate to the intellect one is capable of, but more reflect how specifically one understands they can alter their environment.

Rough time frame with regards to the real world is also given in parenthesis.

Images are all pulled from Wikipedia. Note that pretty much all the information here can also be found (in greater detail) on Wikipedia, but not everyone wants to scroll through three dozen pages of scientific jargon to figure out what sorts of tools they can make. To be quite honest, I'll mostly just let Player Characters make whatever tools they have the time and resources to make, but I might use this as a rough guide to determine what their fellows use/what techniques they might use for descriptive purposes.

 

The stick is probably being used to gauge the depth of the water.

Pre-Lithic (>3.3 MYA)

Natural objects, with minimal to no alteration. Sticks broken at an angle, splintered bone, or very basically fragmented rock (or simply rock that remains unaltered). The logic here is around immediate convenience, and the basic understanding that objects have properties that can be useful. Sharp things stab or cut. Rough things scrape. Heavy things break other things, and so on. 

These tools are some of the most basic tools available to anyone, and are only depended on by the painfully archaic and isolated, extremely sheltered, impatient or rushed, those animals that are intelligent enough to make use of altered objects, but lack the physical or cognitive capacity to alter these further and children.

Top Left: Oldowan chopper. Top Right: Acheulean Hand-Axe. The hut has been proposed to be middle paleolithic, but thats the latest possible time, and not everyone agrees with it.

Lower-Paleolithic (3.3 MYA-300k YBP)

The introduction of "flakes" and "cores", the former being the pieces chipped away from the later, which is the central mass of a stone. Time is taken to chip away from a rock to create a shape, and care is taken to make use of the shape. Additionally, flakes and cores are made use of when possible, though most seem to derive from convenience. Basic hammers, choppers, chisels, scrapers and awls appear here. Purely wooden spears would be utilized at this time, sharpened with scrapers or chisels.

Later tools include the handaxes, which lacked handles at this stage and would be held on the opposite side of the chopping edge. The construction of tools would include the use of bone, wood and other objects to alter in ways more specific to the purpose.

The lack of adhesive in this era would preclude the use of handled-tools. The hammers were essentially stones altered to make the striking end more useful to a specific purpose, the axes were sharp stones and so on. Wood was still used, due to its ease of alteration, but was not used in the same tool as stone, unless one contributed to the manufacture of the other.

The very basic control of fire is an element of this category of technologies. Basic hidework and tanning arises near the very end of this, and more advanced leatherworking arises in the next category.

These tools are largely used by isolated and archaic wildfolk, settled people who are unfamiliar with the construction of tools beyond the basics and others with an understanding that tools can be made over time.

 

Speculative reconstruction of Neanderthal Jewelry.

Middle-Paleolithic (300k-50k YBP)

More advanced still, preparation methods are developed. In the real world, this is when "behavioral modernity" starts to arise, art and spirituality, concerns beyond mere survival. In Kith and Kin, however, such things precede these industries.

The prepared core technique is a defining technology of the flake-built tools of this class. The stone is shaped into a form that serves to facilitate an easier extraction of a shaped flake, that then only requires minor touch-ups to render extremely effective. This technique is the bread and butter of this time. There are numerous techniques, but I have included a GIF of one technique to illustrate a somewhat hard to describe method.

Levallois Core Preparation, demonstrated. Thanks Wikipedia.

 Cores are still utilized in the expected way, generally for heavier duty tools, though the more advanced methods of flake production mean that more effective core-tools can likely be used.

Adhesives are discovered here. Such flakes and cores could then be affixed to a shaped shaft of wood, producing the most dangerous wildly used weapon of the entire world of Kith and Kin, the Spear. Handled axes and hammers are possible.

Fishing becomes a thing, thanks to spears and some nets. Long distance trade happens. The earliest seafaring also happens, likely hollowed logs carved into very basic boats, though later refinements are certain to happen.

Extensive use of clothing, likely by the Neanderthals/Broadfolk due to the colder climates they dwelled in, arises around this time.

[Sidebar] Researchers actually determined this by tracing the mutation rate of the human louse and comparing it to related organisms to determine when it would have speciated. Since it requires clothing to transfer between people, its rough range of speciation can give a rough area for when clothing was starting to become a Major Thing. This ends up around 170,000 years ago being when humans were definitively wearing clothes by, though earlier dates are almost certainly when it was first introduced. Given the climates and habitats then, the theory is that neanderthals actually invented clothing, and we merely adopted this technology once it became necessary. [End sidebar]

Control of fire becomes a widespread element of technology at this time, though very basic use of fire precedes this. This is likely to be the technology that grants anyone who vaguely understands it an advantage.

Every forager society in Kith and Kin uses this, except for the settled folk. In kith and kin it is largely mixed with upper-paleolithic technologies in a rather even way. The use of either depends on convenience, knowledge and what would work best at the time.

Top Left: "Lion Man" figure. Top Right: Flint knives. Bottom Middle: A flint core used to extract multiple knife blades.

Upper-Paleolithic (50k-12k YBP)

A greater understanding of the properties of natural materials allows for the use of flint and similar stones to produce fine blades, rather than the typical flakes. Previous advances are made use of liberally. Sharp points lead to the use of darts, harpoons, fishooks, eyed needles and indirectly to the existence of rope, rather than simple fiber cords.

Multiple fine blades might be extracted from a core. Adhesives improve in quality.

Even stone-carved oil lamps appear, the oil drawn from the flesh of hunted animals.

The first evidence of earthen ovens arises here, really just fire pits, but realistically cooking has been a thing for a long long time at this point.

The very oldest permanent settlements arise. Not farming communities, still foragers, just living in a single location for much longer.

Additionally this time carries the earliest signs of Australian Aboriginal culture in the real world. However the earliest theoretical evidence dips back into the middle paleolithic.

The dogpact is honored. This applies to the previous too, but here is when it was first enforced. Domestication is thus "A thing" for at least a single species.

Effectively any stone technology is theoretically available at this point, limited only by contextual need and available time and resources.

Figurative and symbolic art begins to arise in earnest in the real world, though these things have been around for quite some time in Kith and Kin.

Gold dust and fragments have been found in some sites, but this is difficult to assign any actual context to. It is possible it was utilized in some decorative capacity. As a softer metal, it would be less likely to survive weathering.

Once again, just about every forager culture knows this in kith and kin.

 

 

Mesolithic temporary settlement.

The Shigir Idol

Mesolithic (20k/15k-10k/5k YBP*)

Smaller fine tools begin to appear more than heavier flake tools of the prior eras. Large settlements begin to appear and more advanced weaving leads to the use of baskets and tighter-threaded clothing. The use of ceramics also appear at this time.

 

This is an interstitial period, and as such describes less overall change, and more lifestyle differences. Settled forager cultures, the earliest proto-pastoralists.

This is rare but present in some cultures. Weaving has spread far, but ceramics are more difficult to spread due to resources available. This is partially responsible for, and partially because of, the staggered timeline of Kith and Kin.

*Depending on the area irl.

Reconstructed Neolithic farmstead: Ireland

'Ain-Ghazal statues, oldest statues of this level of detail.

Reconstructed neolithic housing, Aşıklı Höyük

Neolithic (12k-4k YBP)

Large settlements thousands or even tens of thousands strong, many of which with social organizations that may or may not be hierarchical. Agricultural emergence leads to the necessity of tools to aid it. Wool and Linen may be available at this time, and definitely are in Kith and Kin, implied by some remnants that may be early spindle whorls and loom weights

Stone tools are mostly polished or ground down, rather than flaked.

Mud brick homes are constructed. Architecture was already a thing in mild amounts, but it becomes more important here.

Finer points and blades are possible with these methods, though in some cases the used material may still render it inferior to some paleolithic tools.

Food storage is a thing, but is imperfect. Sanitation differs. Social roles differ. Specialization becomes more viable. Everything changes for these people. Pottery arises. Proto-writing begins to emerge.

Bellows of some kind may develop and make the creation of copper tools possible. Mostly worked raw copper, hammered into the needed shape. Cast copper is the domain of an extremely small number of very small cultures at the moment.

The neolithic of kith and kin has begun and shattered in earnest several times. New settlements are often built on the foundations of old, or in some cases have some persistent cultural context that remains relevant.

These are available to the settled folk, and those in their immediate proximity, who have need to emulate some of the technologies with regards to clothing and lithic production. Though it is possible some other forager cultures could independantly arrive at some of the finer sewing methods, lithic production methods and so on. The staggered timeline makes all of this possible.

Weirdness

Of course, the timeline of Kith and Kin is far more "staggered". Technologies have been discovered, lost and rediscovered a few times over, and other species have had some cognitive capacities possibly exaggerated, though I would argue that in the real world other human species may have been more intelligent than we give them credit for generally speaking.

Magic means some things are possible that aren't irl (unless I have been hilariously misled about the nature of irl magical practices). Despite this magic is not going to be "industrialized" or a "technology" the way most other tools are in Kith and Kin. Magic in kith and kin isn't a science. Its this weird shit. A toolbox of rules and associations that can be exploited. Sure thats arguably the definition of a technology, but it requires a different mode of thought to properly understand.

And spirits of course. Spirits. The world is lousy with spirits. Its quite literally made of the damn things.

So whats available will be a little strange and not quite match up with the above. Thats fine. These already serve as extremely rough categories irl and dont reflect the more detailed understanding of material culture differences across space and time. This is just a rough guide.