Jagseum Boat Culture

The Jagseum Boat Culture was an ancient civilisation in the Jagseum Islands. Since the Great Gap the civilisation's settlements have all been lost and the islands have become taboo for the mainlanders, but their culture remains in some places.
== Culture ==
The Jagseumers worshipped two deities - a god of land, Chiang-Rai, and a goddess of water, Fueng-Li. Their names translate to 'Mountainous Dirty One' and 'Cavernous Moist One' respectively, and as one may guess they were considered husband and wife and revered as fertility gods.
The Jagseumer gods were worshipped in many ways across the islands, but one common custom was a boat-sacrifice. An animal or small child would be tied onto a raft and sent north into the ocean, where it would be swept away by the strong east-west current and never seen again. Other customs, mostly conducted on the luxurious beaches of the islands, included tying sacrifices to stakes in the surf and waiting for the tide to rise, or creating complex patterns of ruts in the sand and filling these with the sacrifices' blood.
The Jagseumers were also great shipwrights - they built longboats up to fifty metres long and traded with many other cultures across Turquoise Bay.
== Namesake ==
The Jagseum Boat Culture takes its name from an ancient myth - at the inception of the Culture there was another tribe, known only as the Kuree, or Dark Ones. They were jealous of the islands and sent many warriors to slaughter the Jagseum Boat Culture and take their islands. 
The Jagseumers heard of this great fleet being assembled and sailed out themselves to do battle. They met in the middle of the Hagusa Inland Sea and, after a great battle, the Kuree were defeated and driven away. Afterwards, the mainlanders grew to know the islanders as the Boat Men due to their prowess on the sea, and over the years this formalised, eventually becoming the clinical Jagseum Boat Culture that we know today.
== Legacy ==
While the people of the Boat Culture are long gone, the culture lives on in the mainland settlements of Wongeup, Ikwang and Jonglyo. Most of the more savage customs have been outlawed by the government of Huon Sa since the Great Gap, but some of the tamer ones remain. The villagers of Wongeup, for instance, still draw complex patterns in the sand, though they fill these with concentrated dyes instead, which infuse through the sand throughout several days, eventually fading but not before giving the beach a fantastic range of colour.
The Boat Culture also left behind a proud seafaring tradition. Many of the sons of Ikwang, Wongeup and Jonglyo go south to seek their fortunes as sailors in Huon Gug, and those that remain still trade with the Vadyans and Yerlenese across Turquoise Bay.
Category:Countries