Seliki/Reflection
< Seliki
History
Timeline
- Before Thralldom: hundreds of years ago
- End of thralldom and founding of house: Great great grandparents
Seliki Family Tree
Tiga...?
:
:
Kai...?
:
......:...................................
: : :
: : :
..Maru Hyar....Oona Malia...?
: nee Seliki : nee ? :
: .............:................ :
: : : :
: Leilani...? Scythia.......Orrin...Diane(d) Maleah.......?
: : nee Redreef: : nee Paoletti :
: .....:..... : ....:.... :
: : : : : : :
: siblings Kalani : Peri Kaldur(m)...Fianna Morgan(d)
: Sereia nee Seliki : Crovane(m)
: :
: Calanthe
: Crovane
`'..Eshra Rivenshari
:
...:...........
: : : :
Hyar Aegis ? ?
Rivenshari
In Arx
NPCs
- Sereia - child of Orrin and Scythia. born [11/15/19] (3/2/1012)
- Miriam - Head of Kitchen
- Greta - nursemaid for Sereia
- Eina - Once Peri's champion, after the mysterious slaughter of the house guards she took on the duties of overseeing the house's safety.
Culture
- Take a lot of inspiration from Ireland.
- Also perhaps Scotland, Faeroes, Shetland
- Take inspiration from cultures where many people have mixed. This is due to Pearlspire being a place of ex-thralls.
- Or maybe Austronesian?
Art
elements from shells, glass, sand, rocks, reeds, woven baskets, pearls, cliffs, sealife, ?
Food
Seliki greens, a type of farmed seaweed, see https://play.arxgame.org/comms/boards/10889/view/1259188
Salmon (there's a good run in Breckendale, see action 3284)
lobster, clams, white fish, possibly shrimp
salt fish, dried fish, fish jerky, fish stock
...
It's a coastal region with a range of temperatures... it would have some cold weather but our water is also described as warmer than one would expect. To me, that gives of thematic range to come up with all kinds of things, not just cold weather craggy kind of things.
Cold weather coast kind of things.... There will be some berries that grow in subarctic regions, like what you see in Newfoundland maybe.
Also, we absolutely must have spicy Peri Peri dishes.
For more ideas, we could come up with almost anything. Because we are a land of former thralls who may have been from all over.
serving of meat in outdoors, buried in pit. steamed spice crab
goose (but Miriam refuses to go near the life goose and Orrin has to take care of the goose execution)
a chicken soup like Tinolang Manok. Chicken Soup with bok choy , cabbage, sliced pieces of ginger (heavy on the ginger), garlic and onions in chicken broth. Replacements as appropriate and seasonal. Bok choy with equiv of chard, cabbage, long stem broccoli, spring greens?
penne alla Granato (baked). i.e. penne alla Siciliano (there's that boot near Granato).
Drinks
In order of appearance
clear rum and Deepwood cider (the clear rum has a name now, I think. Gold Crest Rum, a clear aged rum made in barrels formed only of found driftwood)
Whiskey (We keep Redrain nightgold around the cause because of Maru)
Diving Goat Milk (ok, this never actually showed up)
The Arvani equivalent of Jeppson's Malört. Maybe called Rocky Coast, a fortified mineral spirit.
Deserts
Milk confections. There are many variations depending on ingredients and degree of formality.
In order to describe variations of the confection, reference descriptions of tablet from Scotland, Krowki from Poland, cajeta from Mexico, barfi from India.
There are some beautiful presentations of various barfi which will be good for special and formal occasions. Photos of kaju barfi or kaju katli can be used for ideas on fancy styles. they are cut into diamond shapes and tiled. Fancy versions have edible foil on top. they can be sprinkled with crushed nuts.
Cajeta can be made into a consistency that is good for a topping. It can be sitting around in jars.
Clothing
brainstorming possibilities. look at historical and modern day dress in coastal cultures.
hot weather: review clothing customs in SE Asian cultures?
colder weather: review clothing customs in places that are rocky and cold? mantle, earasaid
swimming: loincloth, bikini [1], shorts and vests.
clothes would take into account needs like freedom of movement, being able to stash stuff like pearls or cool shit, not scraping one's self while climbing a cliff to dive off of, etc.
we'd be mixed in with different cultures now with varying attitudes about clothing... I imagine we'd take some of that into account or not, depending on how conscientious any one person is
Seliki Sigil
Three golden ocean waves against a grey background.
here are some Seliki Sigil / Mangata mashups. Mangata's sigil is a wave with a cloud. Seliki's is three golden waves n a grey background.
,'-.
(_,__)
_.~"(_.~"(_.~"(_
._
.-(` )
:( ))
_ `( _ ) ))_
)`'-.,_)`'-.,_)`'-.,
.-.
,-( _)-.
.-(_ (_ )-.
(__ _)
_ `-( _ )-_
)`'-.,_)`'-.,_)`'-.,_
_
(` ).
( ).
( '`.
( . )
(..__.:'-'
._ ._ ._
_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._
Traditions
Festival of Waves, sometime in the summer. shift the dates around for some interesting reason like a lunar calendar?
Language refs
Useful words and refs for things that coastal people might experience and for adding color to poses
- lighthouses
- shipwrecks
- treating illnesses and injuries that would happen that are unique to people along the coast of the Pearlspire
- differences in how Thrax (for a convenient target due to Seliki bias) would treat divers than in how Seliki would. (see history of how slaves were used in North and South America as well as other places)
Knots of ancient origin category
Names
Languages to plunder for thematic sounding Pearlspire names?? Icelandic, Old Norse, Faroese, Scottish, Irish, Shetlandic, Austronesian
Thematic name scheme
- sea sounding/nature sounding/sailing/wind
- Pacific Islander names
Diving
notes on history, technique, technologies, conditions and health of divers. also, notes on what people dove for.
- sponge diving
- food diving
- Cliff divers (La Quebrada Cliff Divers)
- ''They perform daily shows for the public, which involve diving 30 meters(100 ft) or 41 meters(135 ft) from the cliffs of La Quebrada into the sea below. The depth of water in the "Gulch" can vary from 4.8 meters(16 ft) to 5.8 meters(19 ft) depending on the waves. The width of the channel varies from 12.8 meters(42 ft) to 14.6 meters(48 ft). Timing is crucial for the divers. During the night, they often hold torches while diving.
- Pearl diving
- depths: some pearl oysters could be found on shoals at a depth of 5–7 feet (1.325–2 meters) from the surface, but more often divers had to go 40 feet (12 meters) or even up to 125 feet (40 meters) deep to find enough pearl oysters, In order to find enough pearl oysters, free-divers were often forced to descend to depths of over 100 feet on a single breath
- dangers: hostile creatures, waves, eye damage, and drowning, often as a result of shallow water blackout on resurfacing.
- Moken children decrease their pupil size and change the shape of their lens (accommodation) similar to seals or dolphins.
- One study of Moken children diving techniques showed a possible biological adaptation and not just a technique. Moken children
- She did notice, however, that the European kids would experience red eyes, irritated by the salt in the water, whereas the Moken children appeared to have no such problem. “So perhaps there is some adaptation there that allows them to dive down 30 times without any irritation,” she says.
Diving Technology and Techniques
- techniques, technology: greased their bodies to conserve heat, put greased cotton in their ears, wore a tortoise-shell clip to close their nostrils, gripped a large object like a rock to descend without the wasteful effort of swimming down, and had a wide-mouthed basket or net to hold the oysters., Like the Venezuelan divers, the Panamanian divers also faced the danger of shark attacks, although they usually carried knives to defend themselves.
- Goggles: The Inuit and Yupik people carved Inuit snow goggles from caribou antler, wood, and shell to help prevent snow blindness. The goggles were curved to fit the user's face and had a large groove cut in the back to allow for the nose. A long thin slit was cut through the goggles to allow in a small amount of light, diminishing subsequent ultraviolet rays. The goggles were held to the head by a cord made of caribou sinew., They will not be usable more than a few feet underwater, because the water pressure will press them tightly against the face. (Below this limit, a diving mask must be used, which allows the user to equalize pressure by exhaling air through the nose.)
- Ama practiced a breathing technique in which the divers would release air in a long whistle once they resurfaced from a dive.
- Search youtube for a view called Freediving With Japan’s Pearl Divers
- Moken children accommodation technique of decreasing pupil size and shape of lense similar to seals or dolphins.Moken children
Combat Diving
- Divers were also used in warfare. Defenses against sea vessels were often created, such as underwater barricades, and hence divers were often used to scout out the seabed when ships were approaching an enemy harbor. If barricades were found, it was divers who were used to disassemble them, if possible.[7] During the Peloponnesian War, divers were used to get past enemy blockades to relay messages as well as supplies to allies or troops that were cut off,[8] and in 332 BC, during the Siege of Tyre, the city used divers to cut the anchor cables of Alexander's attacking ships.[citation needed]
Magic
"Magic"
In a fantasy setting people would probably use magic for things like extending time under water, defense against sharks (hiding, making friends, not tasting good), finding good oyster beds, not over harvesting, doing something sort of like cultivating (but not too much??? because that would be too sophisticated??? or maybe that's why Seliki is so awesome at pearls?)
(but naturally we have forgotten origins of many customs and don't yet have all the magic coastal peoples once had or could have)
Slavery
(info from wikipedia section on Colonial Latin America)
- The divers who either had a small catch or rebelled were beaten with whips and tied in shackles. The working day lasted from dawn till dusk and being underwater, along with bruises, could affect the health of some divers. Furthermore, it is well known that the coastal waters were often infested with sharks, so shark attacks were quite frequent as well.
- On Cubagua, another Venezuelan island, the Spaniards used natives as slave labor in their initial attempts to establish a thriving pearl market in this area. Indians, especially those from Lucayo in the Bahamas, were taken as slaves to Cubagua since their diving skills and swimming capabilities were known to be superb. (we might get pirates trying to take our people? but also, there could be history of pirates/houses kidnapping shavrani? so, more ingredients for hooks, backstories, rants at Thrax householders...)
- Similar to slaves on Margarita Island, all pearl diving slaves were chained at night to prevent escape; in addition, deaths not only resulted from shark attacks, but also from hemorrhaging caused by rapid surfacing from the water and intestinal issues induced by constant reentry into cold water.
- if the divers did not meet their daily quota, they would either use their reserve pearls to fulfill the quota for the next day or write that amount of pearls into a debt account. (a way to keep people stuck in debt thralldom)
Terrain, Plants, Animals
- Algae. red, green, brown
- Bladder wrack (iodine source IRL), Rockweed
- Seawrack, wrack
- Edible seaweed
- Kelp
Landscapes
- Coastal biogeomorphology (how living things affect coastal physical qualities)
- Sea cave
- Borrow heavily from Ireland where there are cliffs?
Misc
- Aquatic ASCII Art by Joan Stark (downloads a midi file when loaded :( )
- Nature ascii art (see also fish, dividers, patterns, etc.)
- https://asciiart.website/index.php
