The Islanders

The Islanders are the primary race of Men whom live on the Zuba Archipelago. Originally from Southron stock, the ancestors of the Islanders arrived seven hundred years before the Dunlanders began to arrive. The Islanders live as their ancestors did, maintaining the ancient traditions and lifestyle.

## Physical Character

**Build**: Shorter and stockier than most other Men. They seem to take a great deal of pride in their appearance, seeing it as a distinction between other Men.

**Coloring**: Uniformly dark. Islander skin is dark. They have light brown to black eyes. Hair colors range from dark brown to black.

**Endurance**: Average for Men. An Islander can walk with a fully loaded pack for 10 miles before they need to stop and rest.

**Height**: Men average 5'8" tall and weigh 200 pounds. Females are considerably shorter and more slender, averaging at 5' 4" and 118 pounds.

**Lifespan**: superlative for Men. They tend to live well into their nineties. They are considered mature at 12.

**Resistance**: Strong. Their lifestyle of living in the sun, intensive daily exercise, and their diet of fresh fruit, vegetables, and seafood has given them a great deal of resistance to disease; they almost never fall ill. Poisons and drugs affect them normally.

**Special Abilities**: Culturally they are masters of body surfing, surfing, and making use of small sailboats. All Islanders know how to surf, body surf, and sail small but fast sailboats with no penalties.

## Culture

**Lifestyle**: While the early Islanders were superb navigators, history suggests that the ancestors of the current generation of Islanders left the rugged and harsh mountains of the Kinship of Cumar due to overcrowding. Island mythology doesn't speak of exploration for conquest, but instead of great heroes and demi-gods discovering new lands and making life easier for those that traveled with them. These stories have rooted Islander culture so deeply that at this point change would be impossible.

Daily life consists of early morning gatherings, called *moai*. The men are blessed to ensure safety during the hard labor day and the women are blessed with wisdom and fertility. The adults then leave to attend to daily tasks while the children remain and are educated until noon. For men, daily life consists of checking traps on both land and sea, constructing small watercraft, collecting foods from gardens and what they happen to find in the jungle. For women daily life consists of tending to household chores, making and repairing clothes and making bread. When the children return from school, the mother will impart to them oral tales from the Islanders' rich body of myth and folklore.

**Clothing and Decoration:** Both men and women wear the standard *sarong*, a brightly colored linen skirt to below the knee and with a slit on one side. Females typically also wear the *tapa*, a tube top which is also brightly colored. Men and women both are fond of wearing earrings and adorning themselves in jewelry made from pearl, lapis lazuli, or turquoise. Men and women of nobility also wear elaborate feather headdresses to mark their status in the society.

Tattooing is a common practice for men, women are never tattooed. These beautiful and often very elaborate body modifications are used for a variety of reasons such as which clan the Islander belongs to, important events in the man's life, his power and status in the community, and prayers of safety and protection. Women are not tattooed for the simple reason that Islander men greatly appreciate a woman's natural beauty and tattooing would mar that.

**Fears and Inabilities**: None.

Marriage Pattern: Polymous. The line is traced through the female. Although for the most part women are seen as second-clas s citizens and expected to do no more than raise the children, clean the house, and prepare the meals--not to mention be pure eye candy for the men--they are accorded great respect when it comes to marriage. The wife is the one whom chooses her husbands, and Island culture allows for a woman to have up to three husbands at once.

The woman's power over marriage is a source of terror for most men as well. If for whatever reason the woman turns a husband out of her house, he's done. Any status he may have had is gone, any positive reputation he may have had vaporizes. He becomes a third class citizen. Because a woman has the sole unquestionable right to release a husband for any reason, husbands are very careful to take care of their wife, tend to their needs and desires, and seeing after their welfare.

**Religion**: The Islanders are a deeply spiritual people whom see the world through the lens of religion and superstition. They worship The One exclusively. They respect the Ulvatar but see them only as servant of The One and not gods in their own right. The Islander religion, Animism, encompasses the belief that The One infused everything in creation with spirits. Theses spirits, the *kupua* are olori that control objects and are associated with the Callings.

Prayer is an essential part of daily life. Islanders pray when building a house, deploying a canoe, and providing medical services for example; any endeavor is started with prayer to The One for success. The Islanders also believe strongly in *kalau*, demi-gods. In this lore, olori and sometimes even Ulari manifest handsome or beautiful shapes in order to mate with a mortal. The child that's born has divine blood, and said to have various powers including superhuman strength, command over nature or the sea, etc. Islander mythology is overflowing with tales of the demi-gods and their acts of heroism.

**Other Skills and Talents:** Zuba Archipelago Islanders are at home on the water and are phenomenally skilled navigators. They cannot lose their way when navigating a course for a water craft with any means.