The Varu (pronounced VAH-roo) are a Fanakaran people who reside on houseboats amongst the Protectors, an archipelago in the northwestern Wounds. There they keep to nomadic lifestyles, supporting themselves by fishing and trading with others.
Demographics
Humans and gnomes account for most of the Varu, alongside smaller populations of other ancestries.
Culture
Varu faith centers around animistic practices. They hold that the world of the spirits is constantly in tension between those of the water and those of the sky, who engage in ritual warfare with each other to control of the physical realm, most visibly during typhoons and other such storms. The Varu see themselves as neutral in this conflict and seek to supplicate both sides, balancing their regular offerings to ensure neither the sky nor sea are given undue support.
The houseboats of the Varu are catamarans, constructed of two hulls upon which a platform is built. These houses are usually enclosed with roofs and walls of wood and thatch, but it is not uncommon for one or more side to remain open instead. Their ships, each large enough to house a single family, are easily recognizable at a distance by their prows, which rise above the waves in a spiral. On these vessels the Varu live almost their entire lives at sea, only returning to shore to trade with others, convene the summits between their kings, repair their ships, and build new ones when new families are started.
Though the Varu are broadly supportive of the Shieldbound, the militant organization that fights the demons that now seasonally infest the Old Twins, they rarely join it; mutual trade with the Shieldbound assists in the organization acquiring the weapons, equipment, and material they need nonetheless.
Government
Formally the Varu are governed by ten hereditary monarchs, to whom each family swears fealty. In reality, however, these autocrats hold little sway in day to day life, as the vast distances over which the Varu live, and their proclivity towards constant movement, means that any enforcement of royal orders is effectively impossible. Instead the words of the monarchs are only truly heeded when in close proximity to them, a situation similar to that of the elves of Phersu to the east, and at all other times the Vanu arrange themselves along informal lines of support.