Ali'ikai

Ali'ikai is a small region in southeast Samadurai, featuring a peninsula attached to the mainland surrounded by four smaller islands further out into the open ocean. It is home to the race of Ali'kians, humans that are unique to this particular area, but they have been unknown to the rest of the world until rather recently.

## Geography

Ali'ikai is right at sea level, in a warm and very humid climate, thus able to host primarily tropical life. However, for some reason only humans are he only animals to live on the land, as every other sort of wildlife exists in the surrounding ocean. The main peninsula is essentially the capital of the region, being host to a center temple and a market and residential area that seem to resemble a basic form of a city, though is still relatively small compared to the likes of other Samadurian cities such as Sihrasul. The city has no walls, and in a ring right outside further towards land is filled with fields for agriculture, specifically growing staples such as rice and taro root. Smaller fields grow other various fruits and vegetables. Further out in a second ring is a large forest where no humans or animals live, however it is inhabited by spirits that keep the area alive. Then in the final ring past that, is a field of nearly impassable fog that prevents the human natives from leaving very easily, as well as prevents most outside foreigners from entering.

The following four islands that surround the peninsula are rather small, but still have variation in sizes, and are resident to one or two towns each. They and the peninsula have ports that trade goods such as clothing, foods, treasures, and other such things between each other. There may also be smaller islands between the routs of these ports too small to see on a map, but just large enough to host maybe one or two buildings that serve as stops for these traders and the people living on these miniature islands provide food for the traders stopped there.

However, currently almost the entire region is submerged in water, and already has growths of coral forming with aquatic life inhabiting the place, humans do not live there anymore, but just outside of the region.

## The Ali'kian Race

### Physiology

Ali'kians are most easily identified by their odd combination of eye, skin and hair color. They are homogenous, all of them marked by dark skin, white hair that could be either straight or wavy, and eyes of a warm color such as red, pink, orange, or gold. The only Ali'kians known to have blue eyes were priests or priestesses. There are no known full-blood Ali'kians with other variations of eye color.

Ali'kians are vulnerable to outside diseases that didn't exist in their homeland, thus had never built an immunity to anything from the outside world. This puts them at an extreme disadvantage and are seen as weaker than the other races of human, which is even more troublesome considering that their population is presumably around 150 people or so. Most Ali'kians are also lactose-intolerant and have issues consuming red meat, as they are the only land-dwelling life in their home, so they haven't domesticated any form of livestock and live solely on fruits and vegetables. As a result, a good number of them tend to be a bit short and thin, but they are still varied in body types, mostly due to genetics.

### Religion

Before Ali'kians had lived in Ali'ikai, and thus before their people even had a name, they had worshipped the sun and the moon. They believed that they were essentially the grandparents of mankind. According to their mythology, the sun had created a being of their own, a goddess named Day, while the moon had created a god named Night. Day and Night could only meet during the dawn and dusk, but nevertheless had still fallen in love with each other. Eventually, the two of them had a child of their own, a being made of both light and dark: a human, the very first one of its kind, who could traverse the realms of both day and night. Currently, while the Ali'kians no longer worship Day and Night as much as they used to, the legends have greatly influenced the idea of gender roles within the society, going so far as to be the origin of a tradition of married couples tattooing their backs with a sun and a moon according to their respective genders.

Currently, all known Ali'kians worship the god of water, Leviathan. This was never part of their culture until the ancient Ali'kians had been pushed out of their previous inhabited land, also known as ancient Gualai, and were forced to sail out to sea into unknown territory. When all hope for survival seemed lost, it was said that Leviathan emerged from the bottom of the ocean, and used his power over the tides to guide the boats to shore at the Ali'kian peninsula and it's four islands. Then, to sever the ties from the people and the rest of the world so that they wouldn't be victimized by the other races again, Leviathan used his magic to create a field of fog on the outskirts of the peninsula to isolate it from the mainland. Then finally, he had sent down a peaceful, cleansing rain that had touched the people, and had removed all the dark colors from their hair to become a pure white.

The Ali'kians greatly thanked Leviathan for his benevolence, and they only asked what they could do for him in return. So, the god had thought for a moment, and told the Ali'kians that he would grant only one child among all of them with magic akin to his own by giving them a special soul. The child shall be marked with blue eyes, and shall act as a substitute for Leviathan's presence among the people by playing the role of a priest or priestess. However, when Leviathan believes it is the right time, the priest or priestess must be sacrificed to him, and their soul will be reincarnated into another child, while Leviathan claims their heart and body. So far in all of Ali'kian history, this promise of a sacrifice had failed only twice.

### Government

The Ali'kian government runs on a system that is both an oligarchy and a theocracy. The theocracy half is run by the designated priest or priestess, who acts as both a legislature and a jurisdiction. Their role is to communicate directly with Leviathan, and hear his decisions on what laws should apply to their society and what punishments should be dealt to those who break those laws. However, their law runs on a mindset of innocent until proven guilty, so there must be direct evidence, eyewitness accounts, or a confession to confirm that the person accused had indeed broken a law.

The oligarchy half of Ali'ikai's government are run by the four shamans who watch over the four islands and the one head shaman who watches over the main peninsula. They live in this position until the day they die, and normally, they take an apprentice and train them to take their place for when that time comes. The shamans are responsible for executing and enforcing the laws that the priest or priestess heard from Leviathan, and they are responsible for dealing out the punishment to those who break the laws. If a shaman breaks a law or ignores a law placed by Leviathan, they will be punished and removed from their position by the other shamans, given that there is direct proof they are guilty.