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Water in Irenian Culture

Added 2022-03-05 01:00:41 +0000 UTC

In the Upper Continents, vast shallow seas exist with the constant rain. Irenian culture is nearly entirely based around water, with nearly all their small villages building up alongside the coasts. From a young age, their lives are entwined with the sea. They are taught by their mothers to swim even before they can fly and naturally move incredibly fast in the water. They tolerate the cold waters well and can spend hours swimming about with little issue.

The seas host a diverse amount of fish that have adapted well to the cold environment. Naturally, their food supply is nearly entirely based around fish, with some light farming. All men in the villages become fishermen, leaving women to manage farms and households. Fishing is almost ritualistic, with songs often sung to calm the seas. Fishermen have different roles in which they specialize in, with some swimming down to scare fish to the surface and others being spotters to notice large schools of fish nearby. Nets and spears are used, with fish hauled into large awkward boats to bring back to the shore.

Water is considered sacred in their religion that dominates their society. They worship three ancient water gods with dazzling blue eyes. Irenians consider themselves 'impure' in their society and thus regard water as cleansing. They are expected to bathe themselves up to three times a day and attend ceremonies that often take place in the water with elaborate routines and offerings. In the winter, the seas in especially cold years will freeze over, leading to famine. Though somewhat uncommon now, sacrifice is sometimes done to quell their god's anger in hope they'll melt the seas.

Been a while since I did one of these and I felt like explaining a little about water in their culture.

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