Arcanic

The Arcanic People are native to the Arcane Seas and consists of both the Uzhi (Slime) and the Treton (Merpeople) clades.

General Information

• Primary Faith: Arcanic
• Language: Arcanic / Pinnacelian Silnarian
• Locations: Arcane Seas & Pinnacelia
• Minority: Silnaria
• Clades: Treton, Uzhi
• Inheritance Law: Gender Equal Primogeniture.
• Slavery: Slavery is a strange concept to the Arcanic people- who find it a bit hard to control slaves that can you see, swim away in the Arcane Seas. However, it is a concept that the Pinnacelian have taken on for expediency, as pirate captives can be sold for a hefty sum.
• Name / Naming Language: Pinnacelian: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/irish-names.php https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/celtic-names.php (Remove O, Mac etc. - same as Silnarian)
  • Arcanic: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/hittite-names.php

Cultural Traits

• Joyous Celebration: Arcanic are known for their raucous celebrations and parties.
• Curious: Arcanic are highly encouraged to explore and try out new things, which makes them quite innovative and willing to adopt new ideas - one that is necessary for survival in this brave new world.
• Individualist: Arcanic culture is rather individualist and it is seen as fine to pursue your own interest above that of community - to an extent.
• Libertine: Do what you want cuz a mermaid(man/slime) is free.

History

The Arcanic people were native to the Arcane Seas, and throughout their history, have referred to themselves as the Leyudian people. They share the same language that others call Arcanic. The Arcanic people shares the same spoken mutually intelligible language with little variations in dialects or vocabulary, leading many to believe that there’s magical effects that has kept their language cohesive across thousands of miles and over a thousand years - within the Arcane Seas at least, as the only extant group of Arcanic people outside of the Arcane Seas has mostly forgotten their original language.

The Arcanic people were traditionally divided into two branches - the nomads (Tarwanusa) and the settlers (Halinari).

The Tarwanusa are the far less numerous branch of the Arcanic people. While both the Uzhi and the Tretons can live in the sea, it doesn’t mean it is ideal - as the seas provide no fire and barely any workable materials to produce tools with. They lives a simple hunter-gatherer lifestyle, occasionally going on land to acquire materials needed for tools while hunting for fishes for sustenance, wandering from one fishing ground to another, never permanently settling anywhere - but the nomads also like to lay claim to islets and islands which they use as resting stop. The necessity of a nomadic life had led them to develop a primitive form of aquatic magic, which is chiefly used for one and only one spell - a stream of deadly compressed water shot out from the hand toward a prey underwater. The spell is nearly useless on land, but is extremely deadly underwater - the equivalent of shooting a modern day speargun every six seconds and is taught to nearly everyone in a tribe as it is necessary for their lifestyle.

The Halinari adopted agriculture and settled the various islands of the Arcane Seas - which grew to support a much bigger amount of them than the seas ever could directly. Fishing boats with fishing nets enabled the Halinari to catch much more fish than simply swimming in the sea would give them - at much less effort, and soon the Halinari would dominate the Arcane Seas with the Tarwanusa being treated as an outcast caste. Their more complex society allowed them to support a complex social hierarchy and allowed them to master magic.

However, the Halinari were eventually met with colonizers from outside the Arcane Seas - who see the islands as premier real estate just like they do. Many of them were killed or simply replaced over time or died to unfamiliar diseases from outside - the colonizers unwilling to lend aid to their competition, and others were driven into the seas where they promptly starved to death or were occasionally adopted by the Tarwanusa who they looked upon. Other Halinari intermarried with the colonizers (Who were all Ekremi) and adopted their culture. Only one nation has managed to keep their original culture alive and establish their own state.

Cuisine

Arcanic cuisine was relatively simple when they first settled the Arcane Seas. After hundreds of years of foreign influence and technological transfer, it has become much more complicated. Arcanic cuisine mainly feature rice, sweet potatoes and potatoes as its main food. Vermicelli and rice noodles are commonly served. Soy beans are commonly grown.  Palm oil is the primary source of vegetable oil in the Arcanic diet, and animal fats are seldomly used.

Arcanic cultures mainly have chicken, pigs and fishes as their main source of protein and beef is nearly unheard of as a typical part of a diet - cows and water buffaloes being mainly reserved for labor by the Halinari. As one could expect, fishes are extremely common in their diet. Arcanic cuisine are heavy on usage of spices and tends to be considered spicy. Arcanic cuisine tends to varies based on which colonizer countries they were close to - taking on the traits of their colonizer.

Subcultures

Tarwanusa

The Tarwanusa are a nomadic people who live in the Arcane Seas. It is estimated that they used to number merely 100,000, but the invention of - and the spread of the water spear-hunting spell called Arunazalta led to them becoming much more efficient at hunting fishes and sustaining themselves, and it is said nowadays there’s over a million Tarwanusa. For obvious reasons, an accurate population count of the Tarwanusa is impossible.

Tarwanusa generally wear simple clothing - or none at all, and is one of the only cultures in this world known to have nearly a 100% magical education rate - although almost all of them only know one spell.

Halinari

The Halinari are the most numerous and settled group of the Arcanic people. They are known to adopt the cultures of their nearby, more advanced colonizers and co-opt it as their own.

Pinnacelian

The Pinnacelian originated after the Pinnacelian Incident in which the Pinnacelian Archipelago was created in the middle of the Prime Realm. They were formed by a mixed group of curious Halinari and Tarwanusa people who migrated to new landmass - escaping the colonizers invading their realm. They intermixed with the brave Silnarians who settled the newly formed archipelago and after centuries of trade, adopted their language and lost their original language.