Isles of Veyhn

The Isles of Veyhn are home to a peaceful people, they have pale eyes of blue or silver, with blindness being common to their kind. They wear their hair long, both men and women, it is straight and pale, ranging from blond to grey to silver or white. Their skin tone varies greatly, but their eyes and hair are always the same, a great many have monolids, and even more with one monolid and one double eyelid. They are known for the great number of mermaids and selkies and sirens around, with even the natives having melodic and near-hypnotic voices and being expert swimmers able to hold their breath, and having webbed hands and feet, those that go abroad cut those slits, and there was a time when it was seen as fashionable to cut the web slits of infants so that their hands and feet will blend in with other people's. Some braid their hair intricately for sailing, while those that stick to swimming close to home prefer to let it free. Their feet are longer, and some are born with webbed armpits to better swim. They can see well in low-lighting, and largely subsist on seaweed, shellfish, fish, and fruits. They have good relations with the Camlings. They fight with nets, spears, and tridents, ride dolphins and kelpies, and have sea monsters to protect their shores. The waters are bright and tropical and warm, and its people were the first to develop submarines and they have unique longships with many tall sails. They are a beautiful people, with wide bodies, swim gear that makes them more fish-like, glassy eyes, and wide high cheekbones. They love silver and collecting shiny gems and other objects of fascination like unique shells. They have often been the victim of monsoons and tsunamis so their buildings are made to be temporary, thus they can appear more primitive than they are. All the islands are inhabited by small tribes, while the main island has a more cosmopolitan and permanent city made for foreigners to visit. As they lack for nothing, and are not well suited to other climes, they are not often seen abroad, but those that are are seen as mysterious, simple, and exotic. They dress themselves in quick-drying sea-silks that are often sheer and shimmering, and drape themselves in pearls of every shade, having long shirts made of them. They are often barefoot, having developed callouses at a young age against the scorching sands. The peasants wear their hair in intricately braided buns decorated with pearls, as they are so plentiful even the poorest have them, while the nobles wear their hair long and shinning by brushing it many times and applying a seaweed serum to it. Salt is an important part of their cuisine and beauty care. They walk only on their toes and never shout, using shell whistles to communicate over distances, and use a sign language to communicate underwater. They need less oxygen and thus their blood is green from the lower levels, and takes much longer to turn red due to the low iron content, this means they have less blood, so blood loss is especially deadly, so some clothing are like exoskeletons from shells/bone/coral.
== History ==
== Culture ==
=== Clothing ===
Long shift dresses of shimmering sheer cloth made of sea silk in pastel colors of blues and greens and oranges and pinks and whites, to resemble the seas, sands, and sunsets. Covering the front and shoulders is a long shirt of strung pearls of every color. Usually barefoot, but sometimes wearing plain sandals. Hair in intricate braided buns with pearls for the commoners, and down for nobles, all hair is long and the people look androgynous excepts that some men have beards and stubble, and elders have long intricately braided and decorated beards.
====Armor====
Made from whale bones, shark leather, shells and white dead coral. Carved or dyed with blue ink to resemble currents and waves and bubbles.
====Weapons====
Spears, bolas, nets, tridents, and throwing knives. Weapons are usually made out of whale bone, sea silk, shark leather, and obsidian. For example, a net would be made of sea silk or fibers from palm trees, a spear would have a bone shaft, leather bindings, and an obsidian tip.
=== Family ===
Populations of each island are usually extended families, and intermarry with other islands. Interrelationships between merfolk and humans are discouraged but not uncommon, though they are unable to have natural offspring, they keep the orphan population to a minimum, and so there is a small subset of humans born and raised in underwater cities.
=== Cuisine ===
Meals consist mostly of fish and shellfish, steamed, grilled, or broiled, with coconut oil and water being used prolifically for cooking, also cashews and macadamia nuts, sometimes made into milks as well, sea salt is a must, and a great many tropical fruits. Fruit, fish, and a few nuts are the mainstay of the diet, with taro being grown on Hath, while most of the fruits are harvested on Juna, and fishing takes place in the Floodlands for salt water fish, and Tir for freshwater fish. Ras is the greatest importer of food, as that is where most people live.
=== Death ===
In death they are tied to a rock and sent down into an underwater graveyard to be with the sea until they dissolve to join it completely, they are wrapped naked (as they need to bring nothing, the sea will provide, and to prove that all are "equal" in death) in seaweed, if poor, and in sea silk of any color if not, with their hair coming out from the top of their head, chained to heavy stone harvested from the sea, the rich and royal are tied to the rock on their ankles by strung pearls, the poor by rough palm tree twine. There are songs that rend the soul sung nonstop for three days by family and loved ones. There are no plaques for the dead, as they are not to be disturbed in their silent sleep.
== Religion ==
=== Gods ===
=== Holidays ===
== Politics ==
== Military ==
== Arts ==
== Biology ==
Their naturally straight hair is made wavy by the salt air. They have large lungs and good lung capacity, and can hold their breath about 30 minutes, though it varies by person. Their eyes are slightly larger and their pupils can enlarge greatly, and they have tabetum lucidum, so they can see well in low-light conditions, but not nearly as well as merpeople who live deeper and spend more time underwater, as they native Veyhnians spend their time in shallower waters and on land.
Small pupils (2 mm). Fine-boned, low bone density (buoyant) . Lean muscles, broad shoulders, height ranges from 5'11-6'5''. Some shave their hair into a mohawk braid. Hairless except for their head and pubic hair, thick straight painted lines instead of eyebrows, some put small white feathers into their eyes to be eyelashes. Small breasts, flaps of skin that can cover nostrils. Wide-spread long toes and fingers that are webbed. Only four toes and fingers. Long limbs. File teeth to be small and sharp. Second eyelid. Skin tone of pearlescent white or grey blue. Pale blue eyes with little distinction between iris and sclera. White sclera eyes, or cloudy blue-grey glaucoma eyes. Their bodies use salt as fuel, less than sugar, though their diet is high in fruit, and they often spit up salt when they consume too much. Flesh texture like that of a jellyfish and sometimes colorless. Nails that resemble the material of pearls. Eye fluid and tears often crystalize and harden, which is painful and causes issues with vision, but are valued for alchemy and on the black market. Cold-blooded.
== Geography ==
==Locations==
*Rās (The only place foreigners really frequent, mostly Camlings, some Kannens.)
**Vīre (Made of white dead coral, once pink and living, whale bones, and limestone for temples and palaces deemed important enough to last)
**Enrid Bay (Enrid was the first King, who came out from the water their to begin the life of Veyhnians on land)
**Poet's Peninsula/Poetry Peninsula (Idyllic where poets and artists frequent and mingle with the mermaids and such)
**Bay of Pearls (Where the mermaids trade pearls for items they need, many pearls are found here and is the main source of income)
*Hath
**Mount Anger (Active volcano)
**Blackrock (Constantly covered by lava and rebuilt with obsidian and lava rock, grows every year as more land is made)
*Tír
**Sister Lakes (Made by meteor crashes, the waters are said to be healing and to confer strange powers of the water or transformation to those it deems worthy)
**Starfall (City built from meteor rocks)
*Juna
**Forest of the Rains (Rainforest)
**Sur-a-Sur (Only city built in wood)
*Floodlands (Underwater for half the year, so the cities are tethered to the ground and made to float)
**Dáma (Dah-ma) (The shape is that of Bangkulu Island)
**Son (S-oh-n)
**Mün (Moon)
*Ley Ocean (Legends say all fey came from across those waters, and that their home realm can be accessed by it)
*Sea of Songs (Where the Sirens lie in wait)
*Underwater tunnels and cities (There are many underground buildings that have pockets of air, brought through many small tunnels that reach the surface, these chimneys can be seen from the surface, tall enough to withstand any waves, while bags that carry a chemical mixture that constantly mixes to release oxygen can be worn temporarily)
The merfolk are deaf, as sound is dampened in the deep, but feel the vibrations of their songs. The Veyhnians on land are usually blind by the age of 30 or 35 due to being very susceptible to cataracts, and their light eyes being easily damaged by the sun, and despite this, glasses of thin obsidian to protect the eyes remain difficult to make, due to the delicacy and skill required, and thus expensive to purchase, so they have only ever been in and out of fashion among the rich and noble, and so the cities are very blind-friendly. Poor children, needing to support their families, are often employed as translators to traders, between the land traders and the merfolk traders, having learned the sign language of the merfolk, the nobles however, are expected to be educated in language and diplomacy, and thus have painstakingly learned to speak the song-language and sign-language of the merfolk, though the vibrations of the songs cannot be heard by the merfolk unless they have water to travel through, they can still sing above water, and the difficult and imprecise language can be understood.
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