The Fanakara (pronounced fah-nah-KAH-rah) are, collectively, the many disparate tribes and peoples of the Wounds. Though sometimes referred to as a coherent group, the Fanakara are anything but. In reality these largely human tribes and chiefdoms possess an endless array of traditions and can be found across far-apart islands within the Wounds, unified only by their seafaring cultures and a broadly similar set of oral histories and legends.
Geography
The Fanakara can be found across the breadth of the Wounds, in places as far apart as the Wisps in the west and the Chain in the east. Most archipelagoes in the Na-Gaesa Ocean are home to at least one Fanakara people, save for the Grievous Islands, controlled by the dwarven realm of Harv Taruhm, the seasonally demon-infested Old Twins, and the almost completely uninhabited Soul's End Islands. The majority of Fanakara reside on the Chain, the Wisps, and the Angry Kings. Many are nomadic, however, and frequently relocate between islands and even archipelagoes.
History
No group within the Fanakara agree as to their origin. Some claim they have always lived on the islands of the Wounds, while others hold they were placed there under the guidance of one or more divine entities. Regardless of their beginnings, the Fanakara have a millennia long history within the Wounds. Specific Fanakara peoples have their own individual stories and histories about their pasts, often full of great legends of seafarers who fearlessly crossed the waves into unknown parts of the world.
The empire of Rashareka grew out of the Fanakara peoples of the Old Twins before quickly expanding to encompass much of the Wounds. Upon the collapse of the empire in the early tenth millennium, many of the former residents of Rashareka returned to considering themselves Fanakara, if they had ever stopped to begin with.
Demographics
Most Fanakaran peoples are human, but they are also joined by many half-elves as well as some dwarves, elves, especially Zabarshu elves, tengu, and others. Some Keleta-Ru gnomes consider themselves Fanakaran as well - the distinction between Fanakara and Keleta-Ru is vague with often overlapping definitions.
Culture
Fanakaran peoples
There are innumerable Fanakaran peoples and tribes, each with their own practices and beliefs. While many aspects of these are shared, in particular their strong traditions of seafaring and oral stories, none are universal or without variation. Any given group may consider themselves Fanakara, yet they all have a more specific identity that is more central to who they are.
For example, the Hekudaki are a collection of tribes who maintain nomadic lives between seasonal camps in the islands of the Wisps. They place great emphasis on the importance of speech and language, with their leaders, the rhetor-kings, selected based on their abilities to use words to rally their people to their cause. The Gara-Minu, inhabitants of the Chain, are almost entirely egalitarian, their communities ever-shifting as they wander between the islands. In contrast, the fortified mountainside villages of the Sehi-To in the Angry Kings are ruled by hereditary absolute monarchs. Others, such as the Varu, house boat-dwelling nomadic fishers and traders of the Protectors, and the Wave Striders, druids with deep connections to coral reefs, almost never set foot on land at all.
Religion
The religion of the Fanakara is eclectic. Many are devoted to the Beating Heart, a deified form of the planet Kishar that created the islands, the Wounds in its skin, upon which they live. Others worship the Ta-Lasau-Kori trees, or one or more of the wide array of nature spirits that pervade their islands and the sea. Reverence for past ancestors and great figures is commonplace as well. None of these are necessarily exclusive, and any one individual or tribe may worship multiple deities, and certainly multiple spirits, simultaneously.
Authoritative religious leaders are uncommon amongst the Fanakara. Individuals in these roles tend to be seen far more as spiritual advisors or interpreters who can provide hints at divine meaning, rather than as arbiters of what is holy.
Even those amongst the Fanakara who do not worship the Beating Heart still consider active volcanoes to be spiritual places, and generally avoid them unless for ceremonial or ritual occasions.
Society
Different groups within the Fanakara have very distinct lifestyles, ranging from nomadic seafarers, to those who live in seasonal camps on single islands, to completely sedentary communities within well-protected villages. Some are hunter-gatherers, some are pastoralists, and others are farmers, though most commonly a mix of the three. While the term tribe is often used to refer to Fanakaran peoples, it is important to note this carries the meaning of a shared culture, not necessarily that of a shared heritage.
In the societies of most, but not all, Fanakaran peoples, social status is overwhelmingly defined by deeds, rather than by origins, wealth, or circumstances of birth. Heroic achievements confer social and political capital, and those who are willing to accomplish dangerous feats often find themselves elevated into leaders upon their return. One great deed is not enough to earn admiration and esteem in perpetuity, however, as eventually even with diligent maintenance of their tales they will be surpassed or become mundane, and therefore those who wish to hold onto their status must continually push themselves. But it is not uncommon either for such figures to intentionally allow their legends to fade, becoming content and complacent to have had their moment of fame and strength.
Fanakaran tribes are generally quite open and accepting of outsiders, though care must be taken at times, as this is not universally the case. Their regular travels far and wide across the Na-Gaesa mean they have a long history of contact with, and understanding of, other groups, and while they may be wary of those with whom they are unfamiliar, they are rarely hostile to those who travel into the lands in which they reside. The notion of having sole control of territory, whether island or sea, is not an ingrained idea in most Fanakaran cultures, though those who excessively harvest the resources upon which they rely or who trample their farms, communities, or sacred sites will quickly find themselves attracting ire.
Traditions
The Fanakara prefer to share knowledge through oral methods rather than through written works. Most peoples have long traditions of passing oral histories and legends across generations, and it is not atypical for a story to be preserved for centuries if not millennia through this method. While some of these are remembered as entertainment, to be told around campfires or to pass the time out at sea on a long voyage, others have very practical purposes. There are the stories of past heroes and villains, from which can be learned lessons of how to act, as well as histories of the tribe or community so all know their origins and past, but there are also the narratives that serve as oral maps. These navigational aids are a method of encoding directions, routes, and geography into oral stories. To those untrained in how to interpret them, oral maps can appear little different than any other tale, as their information is provided in the form of parables, legends of past heroes and their deeds, or other common mediums. Those familiar with how they are recounted, however, know that oral maps provide easy to remember directions for reliable routes between the many islands and archipelagoes of the Wounds.
Fanakara myth-keepers and narrators guard their stories under multiple layers of safeguards to ensure those who are spiritually dangerous or outside the desired audience cannot access them. This most typically takes the form of repeating circular motifs that are designed to trap the uninitiated, a near-complete absence of names to avoid invoking anyone or granting them power, burying details in multiple layers of metaphors, and so forth. For similar reasons, as a rule the Fanakara eschew writing - though they certainly possess it, it is thought to be inherently risky, as physically recording words grants strength to its subjects, and one can never know when they might be writing about a Si-Namuhu or other dangerous creature. If it becomes absolutely necessary to write, the Fanakara employ a form of symbols that loop and spiral, for similar reasons as why their oral stories often circle back into themselves.
Seafaring and travel
Though not all regularly engage in maritime travel, by and large the Fanakara have a strong culture of seafaring. Skilled Fanakaran navigators, of which there are many, are experts in reading the stars, clouds, waves, and passing animals in order to determine their location and heading, and it is often said that as long as a Fanakaran seafarer is able to see, or hear, or smell, then they cannot truly be lost. Nearly all their voyages are undertaken on small outrigger canoes or catamarans, usually but not always with sails, that each can only carry a small number of individuals. To survive such trips, they bring relatively minimal provisions, relying heavily on food they find or catch along the way. Most Fanakaran navigators hop between islands whenever possible, rather than travel in the fastest route across the Na-Gaesa, though the distances between these can still be very large.
Other forms of travel used by the Fanakara include kite ships, variations on their canoes that eschew sails in favor of large kites, and Ha-Kolawa, large pterosaurs who are only a truly attainable means of transportation for the most powerful and influential.
Some Fanakara practice a coming of age ritual where each young adult is tasked with building their own canoe and sailing, alone, to isolated ritual islands where natural or ancestral spirits reside. Amongst Fanakara with more strictly defined social hierarchies, this is a tradition usually reserved for those of high status.
Languages
While the Fanakara have many of their own languages, Sea-Speak is widely used as well as a shared tongue. It is not unusual to find Fanakara fluent in other languages of the Wounds as well, particularly Hikunza, Taruhmite Dwarven, and Zabarshan Elven.
Arts
As with many peoples of the Wounds, tattooing is a common practice amongst the Fanakara. While this can take many forms, one of the most distinctive are the facial tattoos worn by many tribes of the Chain. These thin concentric circles begin around one eye, usually the left, with one added for each year of life. This practice is done with non-permanent substances on children, then with permanent tattooing once they become adults.
Fanakaran artisans are masters of working with wood, bone, stone, and shell. The majority of items they produce, artistic and practical alike, are made of these materials, along with cloth and rope woven from plants that grow on the Wounds. Metalworking is far less common, not for lack of knowledge or material, but simply as it is not necessarily worth the time, effort, and expense when other substances could work well instead. Most Fanakara prefer items that can be easily repaired over those that may hold up the longest after initial creation.
Architecture, urbanization, and migration
The architecture and settlement patterns of the Fanakara are quite different across the many peoples of the Wounds. Many do not set up permanent dwellings, preferring instead to live nomadic or semi-nomadic lives, either migrating between seasonal camps or eschewing any sort of long-term home entirely. For these peoples, thatched shelters made of palm leaves over wooden frames are typical, protective against the elements while still remaining easy to set up.
Those who construct long-term dwellings make heavy use of the same material, thatching and wood, but generally build larger dwellings, often specialized towards specific purposes. Any given family, band, or community may have one or more buildings for food preparation, storage, worship, and sleeping, but these roles are rarely shared between structures. Walls are generally thatched, but are equally often left open, especially in the case of cooking houses that might otherwise fill up with smoke. Dwellings for ceremonial or habitation purposes frequently have raised floors. Fanakara who reside in the mountains are more likely to incorporate stone into their houses, usually as a lower layer of walls and as a base for floors, and to construct walls around their communities.
Settlements close to coasts are commonly arranged in semicircles facing the sea - when possible, many Fanakaran peoples choose to settle on eastern shores, so that the centers of their communities are lit by the rising sun. In contrast, mountainside villages are usually arranged in concentric circles of dwellings, typically with the most prestigious individuals residing in the inner rings.
Food and cuisine
The food of the Fanakara takes many forms, depending on location, lifestyle, and customs. Many of the staples, however, are shared, even between those who hunt and forage their food and those who grow it. Taro, coconut, seaweed, and a wide variety of fruits, such as breadfruit, bananas, and papayas, are commonly eaten, as is rice by some peoples, often prepared as sticky rice balls. The sea is an important source of food to most, where fish, crabs, clams, turtles, octopus, and more can be found. Those who dwell further inland often make more use of pigs and birds, though these are not unique to them, as those who live along the coasts often hunt or tend such animals as well. Some Fanakara prefer to catch their seafood wild, while other engage in elaborate forms of aquaculture, creating fish ponds in which they can be protected, fed, and and easily caught.
Most Fanakara prepare and eat their meals communally. Earthen ovens, fire pits, and cooking houses are shared within a community, where multiple individuals labor to prepare the food for their village, band, or neighbors, where it is then shared to all, regardless of whether or not they had a direct hand in acquiring or cooking the meal. Amongst Fanakaran tribes who engage in significant amounts of hunting, in roughly half those who return with food expect, and are given, a greater portion, while in the other half hunters and foragers eat less of their own harvests than do other individuals of the community.
Magic
Sound mages are common amongst the Fanakara, able to stop, create, and manipulate sound towards their own aims. This is often done for defensive or offensive reasons, but not purely, as it also serves important utilitarian purposes. Communication between islands, for example, is often aided by sound mages who are able to cast their voices miles away.
Names
Fanakaran names most commonly take the form of a family name first, then a given name, then any honorifics the individual in question may have earned, transcribed in the form Family-Given-Honorifics, though written names are uncommon.
Burial practices
Nearly all Fanakara practice either cremation or sea burial, except for those who worship the Ta-Lasau-Kori trees, who instead inter the deceased in shallow graves around their sacred trees' roots.
Government
The means by which the Fanakara govern themselves varies widely. Egalitarian, or roughly egalitarian, forms are commonplace, but so too are leaders with near-absolute authority. Most typical, however, is something in the middle, where leaders are given wide latitude but can be easily replaced should they turn tyrannical or if they lead their people to danger.
Some tribes, like the Hekudaki, are in reality confederations of multiple tribes loosely united under shared leadership.