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Skaer

The Skaer, sometimes called the Skaegish, are an ancient people, an insular society descended from the original mariner migrants who left Hkar and settled the Green Sea before The Downfall. They, unlike any other inhabitants of the Green Sea, retain the worship of the ancient mariner ocean goddess, Kaikkea.

Community

The Skaer are a communal society. All Skaer (excepting exiles and ex-pats) are a member of an oskunja, (pronounced oss-kun-ya) roughly “work group”, which is a mixed professional and familial unit that tends to manage a farm, or crew a boat, or manage a fishery together. These are primarily familial groups but people can and do move between them either by marriage (it is taboo to marry within your oskunja) or just by preference or happenstance. Oskunja are typically between 30-100 people.

Groups of oskunja together form districts: usually these contain between 4 and 10 oskunja, but the size varies. Each district is run democratically by a council of taja (tie-ya), roughly “speakers”, each of which represent their oskunja, and together allocate work and resources across the district. Each district also has a hakeasa (hay-kee-sa), roughly “speaker to the god.” The hakeasa is always a priest, a Laivan, but not all priests are hakeasa.

The hakeasa is not part of any oskunja and is almost universally a divine magic user, which is more common in Skaer than elsewhere. This person mediates disputes and guides the district and ultimately has the power to exile and excommunicate anyone who is troublesome. Additionally the hakeasa is responsible  for the ritual laws and respect of Kaikkea which is encoded in a large series of taboos. Breaking taboos is punishable by fines, work tasks, exile, or death depending on the severity of the taboo.

The tight knit communities of the Skaer tend to a certain degree of conformity. As an escape value, most young Skaer take a year or several to wander, during which they travel: sometimes simply among the Skaer islands, but often where they travel. Some do not return: these expats, unlike those exiled and excommunicated for breaking serious taboos, are still considered part of the Skaer communion, and it is not unusual for the children of expats to return to Skaerhem.

The Skaer tend not to build large cities – in part because with the extensive volcanic activity on the Skaer islands, it is not unusual for towns to be destroyed by slow moving lava flows. The largest and oldest cities with a Skaer heritage are actually on the mainland, generally in Vostok (including Tollen). Most Skaer live in small villages, and while settlement density tends to be higher in places with good harbors or abundant geothermal heat, true market towns don’t exist in the Skaer culture.

History

The Skaer have a long history, tracing their ancestry to the original mariners that left Hkar before The Downfall and settled in the Green Sea. Bullet points:

  • Original Skaer were eastern mariners fleeing a religious schism and trying to find a quiet place to live in peace
  • After The Downfall, the expansionist strand of their religion became dominant, and the Skaer established a maritime empire stretching from the Skaer islands to the Western Gulf and much of Cymea.
  • The empire fell away before the Drankorian expansion, and the Skaer retreated to the islands and the near shores of Vostok and western Ursk
  • After the fall of Drankor, the Skaer expand again, but now Cymea is a strong competitor, and the Skaer end up raiding in the Western Gulf instead of fully establishing an empire. This is a foundational period of Sembaran history, and legends of Skaer raiders become embedded in the Sembaran psyche.
  • After the Great War, the Skaer do not turn to expansion again, and it is the Tollender navy that claims the power vacuum as Cymea declines.