Eresieciai

As early as the first century BCE, the shallow waters of the Argent Gulf and Breizhoned Gulf were noted as an excellent source of pearl oysters. In order to work these pearl beds, the Remans imported slaves from abroad. The descendants of these slaves remained in their established villages over the centuries, developing their own unique micro-culture within developing Liotainian society, which remains even to this day.

## Historical

According to studies conducted in 1816, most of the original pearl-divers brought in the first and second centuries by the Remans probably were enslaved on the western coast of what is modern Celtica and Drakenstaat, although many were ethnic Erisians. Reman records from this period list the establishment of a total of seventy-three villages, each with a population of one hundred slaves and their overseers. The dominant Liotainian majority called the pearl-divers ***Eresieciai***, probably building off the belief that they descended from relocated Erisians.

In the 900s, as the ancient Reman culture slowly yielded to the development of Liotainian culture, the Eresieciai were officially liberated when slavery was banned by Titas Saulius. Nevertheless many of them remained in their villages conducting what was for them now an established way of life.

## Modern Culture

Even by the time of the 19th century, the Eresieciai culture on the northern coast remained almost unstudied even by Liotainian scholars, until Jolanta Bagdonis spent forty years studying the villages. Bagdonis first became interested in the Eresieciai in 1832, and spent four years living in an Eresieciai village prior to publishing her first major anthropological work in 1837.

### Culture and Language

#### Language

Even up to present day, the Eresieciai have their own highly-distinct patois of Liotainian, with scholars in the 1800s eventually identifying a total of twenty-six minor dialects. These dialects, however, are swiftly disappearing; only four had more than a hundred native speakers, and by 1905, seven of the twenty-six are believed to be functionally extinct.

#### Architecture

Most Eresieciai live in villages established very close to the shoreline, sometimes with houses built on stilts in the shallow waters, or even in floating villages. Bagdonis's studies showed that four out of ten Eresieciai lived in floating houses anchored in sheltered waters, while another five out of ten lived in stilt-houses located on tidal flats or in shallow waters.

#### Clothing

Due to their constant exposure to water, most Eresieciai adopt a minimalist attitude toward clothing. Men usually wear a long shirt or tunic that reaches to the mid-thigh; trousers or a kilt-like wrap, adopted from Breizhoned fashion, may be worn during the cooler winter months. Women wear a garment called the *apvalkalas*, a tube-like garment woven out of cotton or other light fabrics, usually covering the upper body to mid-thigh. Both men and women, however, work extensively in the water, usually wearing only a leather belt or neck-strap for a diving knife.

### Aquaculture

The Eresieciai developed a culture focused heavily on aquaculture. While they are well-known as pearl-divers, the Eresieciai also harvest most of their food from the littoral areas they inhabit.

One of the dietary staples of the Eresieciai is *dumbliai*, an edible seaweed that grows in shallow salt-water up to a depth of ten meters, or a minimum depth of half a meter. Due to the warmth of the shallow coastal seas around Liotain, *dumbliai* grows year-round with relatively little issues. Eresieciai encourage the growth of *dumbliai* in underwater farms, where it can grow and eventually be harvested. Many coastal farmers have developed a system similar to rice cultivation, where 'paddies' are constructed in shallow waters. *Dumbliai* then grows in knee- or waist-deep water on stakes and ropes, where it can eventually be harvested by workers.

Other types of edible seaweed and algae are cultivated on a smaller scale than the predominant *dumbliai*.

As well as its use in food, *dumbliai* can be woven into ropes and nets, which are used in conjunction with floats to make corrals for various fish, with the adaptable *tilapia* being the most common. Eresieciai have attempted to ranch other salt-water fish with much lower levels of success.

### Threatened Status

As of 1905, Eresieciai culture is threatened by a number of factors. The Kingdom of Liotain's emphasis on education standards has sharply reduced the number of native speakers of the smallest regional dialects. Since the early 1800s, young Eresieciai men also have to complete a year of mandatory military service (conscription), where they are exposed to the much larger and more dominant Liotainian culture. As of 1900, a study by the University of Neris determined that over sixty percent of Eresieciai young men did not return home after their military service, instead moving to large cities in order to get more high-paying jobs. This has led to a "husband shortage" in the small villages, which in turn has reduced the population.

#### Ethnic Composition

The Erisian government claims that the Eresieciai are a pure remnant of ethnic Erisian culture. However, studies both by Erisian and Liotainian scholars during the 1800s indicate that, while the Eresieciai may have an ethnic Erisian heritage, it has been heavily diluted through nearly two millennia of intermarriage with both Liotine and Breizhoned ethnic groups.