Iywahar

* RITR Level 2, REDU Level 1, RGOV Level 1, RMOB Level 1, RINV Level 1 (11/15/21)
* RMOB Level 2 (11/22/21)
* RITR Level 3, enlightened by Rothelneh (12/8/21)

### Cities

#### Nablo (11/3/21)

Capitol city, population 370
Significant architecture: Watchtower (Nablawo), religious pools (meubwa)

#### Uwavoo (12/8/21)

Significant architecture: trading post (unmawe)

### Canonical

* The first diplomatic relationship is established between the Iywaharii and Rothelnians when fisherman Oonda Oovway gives heart-tamer:stones in exchange for local crickets and gooseberries. (11/3/21)
* A new age of exploration arises on land. Two Iywaharii scavengers find an abandoned exploration cart filled with documents describing national tech such as government and schools, providing the nation with base level tech (11/15/21)
* With the salvaged cart, expansionist architects are able to reverse engineer and reconstruct a version of Iywahar carts with mobile pools for saturation away from the muddy soil. (11/22/21)
* Increased diplomatic relations with Rothelneh lead to opportunities for trade rules and a new city, Uwavoo, closer to Rothelneh. This city is the home for more open-minded individuals who embrace new culture while traditionalists choose to remain in the capitol (12/8/21)

# Biology

Iywaharii are sometimes labeled “fish people” for their water-based culture and appearance. A better misnomer for their race would be “amphibian people” though that would also be incorrect. Iywaharii breathe through their skin which must be kept moist at all times. They evolved from saltwater amphibians whose fossils have not been found to this day. Every Iywaharii possesses bioluminescent spots that shine periodically throughout the year, though voluntary shining is also possible. This periodic shining also occurs when local jellyfish appear by ocean shores to mate, which have misled the Iywaharii to believe that they are their ancestors.

Iywaharii are bipedal, slippery creatures that are usually obsidian black with colorful spots, though certain individuals can be all red or all blue. Some families see these colors are pure-bred markings and refuse to intermarry. Some are trying to move on from this cultural casting and see tribes with intermingling colors as more forward-thinking. Through some inexplicable science, Iywaharii resemble humans except for their slimy skin, slightly larger and more spread eyes, massive tongues, and lack of body hair. To maintain skin saturation, damp hooded clothing is worn at all times, though civilization underwater is not used to wearing anything. Most stand at about 5’5”, though they can grow to be as large as 7 feet. Beyond 6 feet tall, though, most choose to move on all fours. Iywaharii limbs still possess the joints of their amphibian ancestors and allow multiple modes of travel, even through water.

# Historical Moments

## Land-Migration

Several decades ago the innovative faction of Iywagavo from the origin city, Iywaeml, felt that settling on the surface would lead to new enlightenment and resources not found underwater. Arising to the Northeastern Wetlands of the eastern continent, the Iywaharii settlers expected to maintain contact with their ocean dwellers through a messenger relay system. Every week, messengers would travel nearly a whole day out to the shallow yet secluded sea-capital of the Iywaharii (Iywaharii cannot survive more than 300 feet deep). After several months out of the water, messengers stopped coming. Nablo, the Iywaharii land capital, started sending messengers, but after 3 never returned it was assumed that a predator wiped out the old Iywaharii world. Now with the majority of resources on land, the Iywaharii continue to fight for survival on foot.

## The Land-Fracture

### Origin

On Nov 29, 2021 of the Earth Calendar, three Iywaharii river candidates (Onmoo Fiylay, Pládviil Murand, and a third who sought to remain anonymous) sought out enlightenment amid the rapid exapnsion the tribes underwent on land. Upon hearing of an offer extended to nations of the northwest by the nation to the north, Rothelneh, the three candidates accepted the offer while the rest of Iywahar remained silent either out of anticipation or disdain. Rothelneh had suggested a formation of the Federation of the Riverlands where leaders of region would meet to discuss internal and external crises, infrastructural, legislative and executive decisions. This would also guarantee Iywahar confederate structuralization, mutual defense, assisted development, freedom of movement, freedom of trade, and unity under a lingua franca.

Not every individual agreed with the decision to join the Federation of the Riverlands. An inner faction of expansionists felt the time spent would be wasted moderating diplomacy when there was already so much momentum gathering territory. Varo Aloyara's time was spent mitigating territory disputes and thus left the three river candidates to handle the Iywaharii relationship with the Federation of the Riverlands. Another faction of bowl candidates remained tied to the shore and the traditions of the water, skeptical of how well the Iywaharii would fit in with land-dwellers. It was here among the three ideologies that the Land-Fracture is considered to have originated.

# Religion

## Most common religion: Owúliiava

The sea is where all things begin and where all things end. The Iywaharii believe the universe to be an intersection of multidimensional fluids that take on different properties when overlaid. The ocean is the purest form of this fluid. When Iywaharii die or simply feel that their life lacks change, they return to the water in hopes that the ocean will act as a door to a new reality.

Creation: Before there was a god, god was within god, and from the god came itself for itself. God was always, but then God killed God so that God could come forth from God. Iywaharii compare this celestial event to a maelstrom, a water whirlpool that begins to consume itself and will not stop until there is none of it left to consume. Reality exists as such, a whirlpool that was stagnant at first, but upon stirring could not stop and is now in a ceaseless cycle. During that cycle, rogue currents created sentience, though its existence is one of constant change due to the Maelstrom of reality. That sentience stirred the fluid in such a way so as to create a more controlled reality, one where individuals and identities stay tied to their physical bodies from birth until death. Everchanging, this sentience can exist in the sea or the sky or in individuals because of the Maelstrom. The Sentience has a direct influence on the nature of the Iywaharii world, but cannot intervene with consciousness, as that fluid flows between the Maelstrom waves and moves completely independently of its fluid.

Though a thorough religion, it is not morally forced on Iywaharii. It exists more as an explanation of how things came to be and what tools are available to the Iywaharii. “Resurfacing pools” are constructed in every civilization for those who wish for a change in life. Clever aqueducts are built to connect civilization to the ocean for burial purposes.

Before land settlements, buoys with ornately decorated guide ropes were deployed to make navigating to the surface and back easier. Iywaharii bodies float, so the dead were often released at these points too.

The afterlife is chance for your consciousness to leave the Maelstrom. If you decide you are ready to leave the multiverse, you may do so. If you’d prefer to remain in the multiverse for another chance at physical consciousness, you may remain within the Maelstrom.

# Moral values and principles

A pool of water with no bowl is destructive, but a bowl with no water is purposeless. Rules are valued but frequently revised so that redundant restriction doesn’t stifle the natural flow of water and society. At this point in time, Iywahari believe people can either be bowls or rivers. Hone your craft as a rule-enforcer or an opportunity spreader and you will do well. To do neither is fruitless and to do both is self-destructive. Sometimes doing both is revered as sacred, imitating the principle of the Maelstrom reality. To hone that is to embody the Sentience. Few succeed and are left standing.

Identity is another important virtue. If you are struggling with who you think you are, you can visit a body of water to “renew your life” by dunking yourself and rising out of it. Special ceremonies are held by dunking newly weds, graduates, etc.

Violence is not encouraged. Anything that you contribute to the universe will be sucked in by the Maelstrom and spat back at you. It will return with unpredictable timing and force. A dangerous act must be committed with confidence and the expectation to receive retribution.

As of late, the land-base Iywaharii have lost contact with their ocean-based homeland. The belief is that predators got to the original settlement on the seabed. With all their resources stored ashore, the Iywaharii are determined to return to their home once more to investigate this strange disappearance.

Haavwa Varii served her nation by marching on land for the first time. Nell Woev was the first messenger to visit land and sea. Iia Loroo fought the Sky Ray in ancient times and brought back its corpse to defend her tribe for dozens of weeks in ancient legends.

# Traditions

Thought to have arisen from jellyfish ancestors, the Iywaharii celebrate the month-long event where the local jellyfish of the region float closer to shore to reproduce. At this time, patches on the Iywaharii glow different shades. Many use this as a form of fortune telling, whether it be for marriages or careers.

Celebrations:

Marriage

Apprenticeship

* Hunt
* Construction
* Rule

Death

The Sentience (First thunderstorm of the year)

Mating (May 1)

Loroo Festival (Oct 1)
The submersion ritual is meant to cleanse your body of a stale identity and bring it into a new reality with new possibilities. Basins have been constructed around residences and decorated to make submersion readily available.
Seafood is most common, though colonists are practicing dishes with rice and vegetables.
Iywaharii are fascinated with noise. Used to the dampening effects of water, everything on land sounds so much more detailed and overwhelming at times. They’re known for collecting items that produce interesting sounds when tapped, rubbed, or squished, referred to as “heart-tamer:sounds.”

After the surface migration, object naming became a free-for-all. Traditionalists stuck to previously established naming conventions while independent and charismatic explorers put together words that sounded cool without any regard to the cultural significance behind the sounds. It's thought that this was the first movement of absurdism among the Iywaharii, and art form that helped them cope with the unpredictable and seemingly absurd world they'd just been introduced to.

# Art

Expression through art and song is popular. Some instruments make use of a resonating bowl that can be filled with water to alter the pitch of the music. Paintings are done on houses and pathways with the slight color discrepancies between wet and dry mud and different soil types. Bridges and dams are common throughout the marshes that never drain, though so many projects are started and never finished that many lead to nowhere. Houses exist on mild flotation devices made of wood. A solid clay foundation is fitted over with a wooden box like a sock which then rises with the tide when the wetland floods.

# Government

Leader: Varo Aloyara

Description: Among the several tribes that have encountered each other and unified, Varo Aloyara arose as a “bowl” and a “river,” a leader whose control does not limit innovation and whose open mindedness does not undermine his justice. He’s credited for being the first to hunt a shark on land, something that took ingenuity and commitment to an attack plan. His notability floated him to the top of his tribe and then to the top of the few unified tribes. He shares leadership responsibilities with the other tribe leaders (food gathering, construction, settling disputes). Most prove their leadership through either their superior control or creativity, but Aloyara possesses both.

# Prejudice

Foreigners are very clearly different from Iywaharii. The biology of the Iwaharii is more adapted to suit the ocean, and foreigners are very clearly more land-based. Because the ocean is thought to be both the origin and the end, the Iwaharii are divided between the beliefs that they are further along in an evolutionary path to the “end” or behind in the evolutionary path from the “origin.” Largely the tribe’s belief is dependent upon their interactions with foreigners. A nation that introduces itself with new tech leads the locals to believe they are further behind. A nation that introduces itself with brutality and pillaging leads locals to believe they are superior.