Itothani

Itothani
Religious motif associated with followers of the Cascade amongst the Itothani
Capital	None
Ruler	Many
Government	No formal government; matriarchs and elders
Demonym	Itothani
Adjective	Itothani
Languages	Hikunza; Sea-Speak; other regional languages
Religions	The Cascade; animism

The Itothani (pronounced eye-toe-THAH-nee) are the reef-dwelling locathah of the Wounds. While generally friendly and welcoming of outsiders to their communities, they are fiercely protective of their vibrant reefs and are willing to take drastic action to protect them should the need arise. They are a diverse group of peoples with varying traditions, spread across the many coral reefs of the Wounds.

Geography

The largest populations of the Itothani are in the Vese-Te-Mona Reef near the Protectors, the Itzazoa Reef near the Angry Kings, and the Vivid Reef near the Chain. They value all coral reefs, however, no matter their size, and smaller communities can be found in reefs far and wide across the Na-Gaesa Ocean.

Historically the Itothani also lived in the Wonder of the Seas, now known as the Corpse, a reef south of the Old Twins. After its destruction in the early waves of the demonic invasions of the Old Twins, the survivors from this reef fled throughout the Wounds and have culturally diverged from the Itothani, becoming the Bakari locathah.

Demographics

The Itothani are entirely locathah. Still, some individuals of other ancestries can be found living in their reef-villages as well, usually aquatic elves or less commonly merfolk.

Culture

Religion

Most Itothani are followers of the Cascade. Strictly speaking, on its own the Cascade is more of a philosophy than a true religion - it is the reefs themselves that are the object of worship. Each is treated as, if not quite a deity, then something close, a benevolent living god itself composed of both the flesh-forms and spirit-forms of all that live within and around it. Every reef, whether that be the major ones such as the Itzazoa, Vivid, or Vese-Te-Mona, or the great many smaller ones that can be found throughout the Wounds, is worshiped slightly differently, with varying areas of concern, tenets, and domains, depending on local conditions and the populations that live around them. The religions of all reef-gods have a number of shared edicts and anathema, however, centering primarily around the need to protect the reefs and heal the injured whenever possible.

Some Itothani hold other faiths in addition to, or instead of, the Cascade, but this is not common. The Sunken Star has a few adherents, as does the Beating Heart.

Society

The Itothani have little if any in the way of formal leadership or governance. When they need guidance they seek the input of their family's elders or matriarchs, or those of their village if separated from their family. Laws, informal as they may be, are enforced through social shunning or even exile in extreme cases. With the high degree of social cohesion and interdependence of Itothani settlements this can make one's life significantly harder if not outright impossible, as there will be none willing to share food, work together, provide healing, and so on. That wronging one Itothani will lead to their entire family and community shunning the perpetrator only exacerbates this. Itothani communities are generally very high trust, willing to help any and all, but betraying the trust is a sure way to find oneself cast out permanently.

The friendly and welcoming demeanor of the Itothani, whether to others of their kin or to outsiders, can obscure the lengths they will go to defend their reefs. Any who threaten them will quickly find themselves the target of Itothani war-shoals, groups of well-trained militants who use their knowledge of the terrain of their reefs to their advantage. Still, while many Itothani prepare for such a need, they are generally a very peaceful people, and will always turn first to diplomacy if they believe their reefs or themselves to be at risk.

Languages

Nearly all Itothani speak Hikunza, the language of the locathah of the Wounds. While their dialects are generally mutually intelligible, they do have a significant degree of variation. Communities in the same reef can easily communicate with each other but they sometimes encounter difficulty in speaking Hikunza with locathah living in far-away reefs. It is also not atypical for the Itothani to know Sea-Speak.

Art

Itothani artistic works make heavy use of coral as a living medium. Polyps are nurtured into living statuary, sometimes representing people or animals but more commonly abstract designs that play with the natural shapes of the corals. Some locathah wear living coral as ornaments. This shaping of coral can have practical applications as well, such as in the form of coralflesh prosthetics.

As with many other culture of the Wounds, the Itothani do not commonly write, but neither do they pass knowledge through oral stories. Instead they encode their histories, legends, moral lessons, entertainment, and more in the form of dances, which are elaborately choreographed and practiced. Demonstrations of these dances often involve many individuals at once, all moving in careful synchrony.

Architecture and urbanization

As with most aspects of their life, Itothani homes and settlements are intended to work with their landscape and not sit apart from it. They construct their residences into and within their reefs, often shaping them painstakingly over decades. The end result of this is an extremely organic feel to their communities, following the contours of the reefs across the seafloor. As a side effect, these settlements can be well camouflaged to those who do not already know of their locations, at least to passing travelers on the surface of the ocean.

Most Itothani communities are small villages, but there are larger cities, even if they are often unrecognizable as such to outsiders. Rather than building more densely, they sprawl across the reefs, little more than a long sequence of connected villages that have grown into something much larger. With a very diffuse population, there is no clear distinction between urban and wild in the cities, the locathah living right next to fish, eels, and other creatures native to the reefs.

Food and agriculture

Itothani cuisine is effectively entirely based around seafood. Seaweed, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, crabs, and shrimp are core parts of their diet, but fish accounts for most of it. Not all types of fish are consumed by the Itothani, however. Most families and communities hold one or more species of fish to be of particular significance and representing of their own relationship with their reefs, and therefore sacred and protected, but the exact animals that are given this status vary widely. Tropical fish that are only found in symbiosis with local corals are most typical.

The Itothani value freshness in their food, preferring to eat it as it is gathered or harvested, or at least very soon after, without allowing it to sit any longer than is necessary. Almost all dishes are eaten with raw ingredients, though often combined and prepared in inventive ways.

Travel

Though the Itothani are not bound to their reef-cities, it is unusual for them to leave for long. They may frequently travel within them and even outside for a time, but these trips out into the ocean or into the surface world are rarely of extended durations. The Itothani see their communities and their places within them as too important to neglect, for one, but also the open ocean is widely considered to be too dangerous of a place to stay. When they do travel, they often take with them dolphin or eel mounts, or less commonly mantas, but these are more typically associated with the Angareza.

Trade

While Itothani communities enthusiastically engage in trade, both with surface dwellers and with their nomadic Angareza kin, they never exchange away parts of their reefs. Their corals either remain in their reefs or else carried with the locathah themselves, not given to any outsider except as a sign of the greatest respect. The Itothani frequently trade items made of shell, chitin, and so on, and in return greatly value surface foodstuffs and goods made of worked metal.