tushanshu_ooc | EVENT | LANDFALL | ZESHORA

LANDFALL - ZESHORA

Greetings, chelonauts! This month we're going to have the first unexplored continental landfall for the new plot. This event takes place on the continent of Zeshora, home to the seafaring people Erol'a.

Tu Vishan has drifted upon ocean currents to the continent of Zeshora, and the tides have deposited him in a natural harbour near the southwestern edge, between the cities of Atoce and Uessaire. The current generations of kedan can offer little in the way of description regarding the continent, which is actually a series of islands due to a major cataclysm that sank the majority of the landmass. The kedan can't recall precisely when Tu Vishan was last in these waters, although they vaguely recall it being during the last batch of Foreigners, which would place that landfall around three hundred years ago.

In fact, the thing about Zeshora that the kedan seem to most frequently know is a bawdy drinking song, which goes into fairly creative detail about a seamaid's curvatures. Ironically, it's sung from a female singer's perspective, and male kedan will get a little flustered if they're the ones singing it.

Zeshora's people are natively called the Erol'a, are rumored to be very hospitable, and the kedan seem eager to engage them. It's known to be a remarkably prosperous civilization, despite the sinking of a large portion of its cities centuries ago. This is attributed to the Erol'a's skillful attention to minute details, and they are Konryu's foremost masters of jewelry craftsmanship, especially with a type of deepsea glass. (Quite a few soon-to-be engaged kedan have unsubtly hinted that a deepsea glass ring would be very much appreciated.)

Erol'a - Deepsea Farmers: As a race, the Erol'a are a creative, dedicated, artistic species. They're very pleasant, and they welcome their visitors, and Foreigners can expect to receive invitations to dine with Erol'a families, just because! As being rather central in Konryu, they're quite familiar with many of the other species inhabiting this world, including the Bresilykians (whom they find accidentally hilarious, due to their fur -- they are literally incapable of not laughing, when spotting one of the emissaries) and the Chihuleans, both of whom are on good terms with the Erol'a. They also may mention the Arybar, whom the Foreigners met in Valishaera, and will reveal that there are two major races inhabiting Ioa Elanag, which is their most frequent trading partner.

They're physically built similarly to humans, with all major limbs being the same. They have a range of skintones in cool colours, everything from blues to greens to purples, with darker colours highlighting the pebbled texture of their scales, ridges and bone structure, which tends to be sharp looking. Erol'a are completely hairless, with thin webbing between each digit on both their hands and feet. Starting at the crown of their heads, most Erol'a have thin membranes in a myriad of colours that resemble fish's fan tails, and stream out behind them as they swim but lay flat down their backs when out of the water; it's rather beautiful to watch them underwater! And they do spend a lot of time swimming, able to breathe through two sets of fully functional gills: one set on the side of the neck, and a secondary set just below their ribcages. Despite this, very few Erol'a can survive a full submerged lifestyle, as they expend oxygen at a higher rate than can be extracted from water breathing, and so have adapted to the half-sunken Zeshoran lands with great alacrity. Even still, Erol'a can survive easily for weeks or months without coming to the surface if need be.

Their clothing is generally thin, with the near-tropical waters not requiring layers for warmth. The Erol'a favour a net-like lace that is woven of a particularly strong seaweed braid, and it can be a delicate as silk or as strong as rope, depending on the person's preference. It's also resistant to fire due to its long-lasting inherent moisture -- it almost never dries out and becomes brittle, even when not submerged for weeks on end. Shawls, wraps, and halter-style tanks are common articles to be worn. These are often decorated with inbah, which are small pearls (nearly worthless in Zeshora, the equivalent of costume jewelry) but which the kedan take great interest in due to their self-replicating property. Other decorations are polished shells, and on the more wealthy Erol'a, charms made of lorell'an. In fact, they have a pretty casual relationship with clothing, in that it's entirely ornamental or functional, not there for modesty. They wear clothes until it becomes inconvenient to wear clothes, at which point they have no hesitation in stripping everything off to do whatever their task is, then putting everything back on.

In regards to wealth, however, there isn't a huge spread across most of the population, at least not in the two cities Tu Vishan had landfalled near. There are some Erol'a who are a bit better off than their fellows, but that's mostly due to their management of money and bargaining acumen. With the exception of the lorell'an craftsmen, as they are paid slightly higher due to the skill necessary to work the precious material, most Erol'a all fall within the same wealth bracket. Erol'a use a particular vein of deepsea glass for their currency, which comes in polished rounds of two colours, called memhari. The blue rounds are denominations of 5 and the green, of 10, and thankfully for all the visitors, the prices seem fairly in line with Keeliai standards. A meal is one blue round, an outfit might be one or two green rounds, etc. Due to the extremely high salt content in the air and water of Zeshora, the Erol'a will not accept the metal coin juulan in payment for anything, not even in exchange for memhari (as it'll corrode and become useless, and no one else in Konryu seems to take juulan!) but they will be very generous in taking any items in barter. In fact, they may even willingly (and with a knowing wink) pay two or three times what an item is worth, just so their guests have some funds to work with. For obvious reasons, they are not highly interested in anything technology related -- unless it can be proven to work in, around and under the water, in which case, someone can pretty well name their own price and expect to be treated like a celebrity.
The Age Caste: The biggest difference that both the Foreigners and kedan will note about the Erol'a society is that there is an age caste in effect for the entirety of Zeshora, and it's quite different from what one might expect. In Zeshora, those who are under 18 years of age are considered first-class citizens, and those who have turned 19 and are older are considered second-class citizens. This has been an established way of life for many, many generations, and the Erol'a don't find it strange, nor do they perceive it to be particularly unfair, because this is so ingrained in their culture.

The level of civil rights between those who are under 18 (colloquially called Crests) and those who are older than 18 (who are referred to, fairly slangishly, as Kelps) is markedly different. Kelps are not allowed to own property, and any they did own growing up is transferred to their younger siblings if they have any, and failing that, is seized and redistributed to whatever Crest has the least amount of property at that time. Kelps cannot vote, are barred from certain social activities, and are not allowed to use certain types of transportation like the Height or the lilypad paths. While they're not the servants or slaves, or anything of that level (they cannot be owned, they're still people!), they can be ordered around by Crests, and refusing to obey those commands (depending on the context) can carry legal and social repercussions.

Visitors to Zeshora, both the kedan and the Foreigners, are expected to both respect and adhere to this caste while in Zeshoran waters. While the Erol'a respect that not all societies function this way, they consider it a matter of respect that should be afforded them, as they would follow any rules in Keeliai! This means that Foreigners older than 18 should expect to receive less deference while in the company of any Erol'a. They may be asked to do menial tasks -- errands, really -- and be frowned upon if they refuse. They'll also be barred from certain areas like the Height, unless they receive special permission from an Erol'a Crest, or are in the company of a Foreigner who is Crest-aged.

Conversely, Foreigners (and kedan) who are younger than 18 can expect to receive the very best hospitality the Erol'a can offer! They will experience older Erol'a catering to their wishes, better comforts and opportunities, and can either dispense or retract special permissions for their older Foreigner brethren. They can order an Erol'a shopkeeper to give a certain price to someone over 18, or command the shopkeeper to refuse them service entirely! Crests have all the power in the city, although it's far more prominent in Atoce than it is in Uessaire.

Misrepresenting one's age is a capital offense in Zeshora, and something that they will be wary of, simply because they know that the kedan are shapeshifters. While some Foreigners obviously do not look their age, those who are right at the tipping point may be asked to take a simple test, of putting a piece of sea glass in their mouth. For some reason, the glass turns opaque white if the person is over the age of 18. However these tests are random, not mandatory, although if someone is challenged to take one and refuses, guilt is presumed, and the offender is marked with a type of squid ink that takes weeks to wash off. Those who are caught lying about their age and are thus marked will not be evicted from the city, but will find it suddenly rather inhospitable from Erol'a of all ages... not to mention the possibility of damaging relations with the Erol'a going forward.

This will likely lead some to wonder... is the risk worth the reward?

EDIT: For those who have characters that are physically different from their actual ages, it is at player discretion how the age test reacts to them.
Turtle Hatchlings' Messages: Approximately four months ago, the remaining turtle hatchlings made landfall at Zeshora themselves. This event was newsworthy enough that the Erol'a still talk about it - Asti was believed to be the only surviving turtle, after all. The younger turtles claimed to be able to sense their adoptive parents in exactly the same way as the relevant Foreigners can sense their adoptive turtles, and according to the Erol'a, the pod is leaving messages everywhere they make landfall in case the Foreigners arrive there later. The message is that they're alive and well, they're excited to reunite with their parents, and they can't wait to meet the new Foreigners - but they need to finish what they're doing first. Whatever this mysterious task is, they didn't tell the Erol'a. All they did was ask whether the Erol'a found anything unusual in their recent fishing trips, particularly any objects brought up from the sea floor. The Erol'a told them no, but promised to keep an eye out for when -- and if -- the turtles eventually return.

On another note, the Erol'a will laugh if they hear a Foreigner referring to the turtles as 'hatchlings'. They're not babies anymore; when the Erol'a met them, they were the size of large whales, barely able to fit upon Zeshora's beaches, let alone within their cities.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good to know, thanks :)

Don't need an answer ASAP but if you can get back to me regarding question 8 at some point it would be great!

Oh I missed one.

8. It'd have to be brought up to a large group, I don't think this landfall is going to have time for that. But offered on a small scale (like individual families), they'd probably go for it.

Edited 2015-06-17 16:25 (UTC)

Got'cha! o/

EVENT | LANDFALL | ZESHORA | JUNE 17-JULY 8

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