Siren Rolls

Hunting the Siren Roll.
~ Kostaca proverb for "being fooled"

Siren or Lorely Rolls are palatable pieces of pickled fish flesh that are wrapped around various pieces of seafood, which are frequently served within the various costal settlements and Siren Holds of the Kostaca-Strain.
While fish and seafood-based dishes have been the fundamental keystone of the Kostaca's diet since the very inception of their species, no dish has ever managed to reach the same degree of popularity and cultural significance as these simple and seemingly unspectacular rolls of pickled fish flesh.
Given that most outsiders have at best a rudimentary understanding of the Kostaca's culture and customs -if they are even aware of the species existence-, many find it hard to understand as to why the Kostaca speak so highly of such a seemingly banal dish.
If one takes the Kostaca's underdeveloped sense of taste into consideration Siren Roll's indisputable popularity becomes even more mysterious, as it seems rather bizarre for the Kostaca to show such a degree of reverence for a dish, whose aroma they can't even properly taste.

Of Hunters and Rolls

The greatest trick the White Siren ever pulled, was hoaxing her hunters into believing that she was a piece of fish.
~ "Spotty Seal", Siren

If one wishes to understand the reasons for the Siren Rolls' popularity, one has to familiarize oneself with the legend of the White Siren, which was a mythical member of the Kostaca Strain that fought back against the merciless Ikona Hunters, that sought to exterminate her species, for the sole crime of "offending" the Ikona's sense of beauty.
Wearing nothing but the white fur of her mother seal and armed only with a coral spear and her signature whale tendon garrote, Lorely routinely managed to confuse and evade the highly advanced shamanic sensors of the Ikona's hunting vessels, which allowed her to turn the tables on her pursuers and sent several of them to a well-deserved grave.
While the continued victories of the White Sirens were certainly aided by the arrogant nature of her would-be hunters, a large part of her success was unquestionable due to her ingenuity and creative usage of the few tools she had at her disposal.
One such tool was a still-living coast worm wrapped in a piece of pickled fish flesh, which Lorely allegedly used to create a signal decoy for her own shamanic signature.
By binding this proto-"Siren Roll" to the tail of a passing fish, she was then able to trick her pursues into chasing after her signature double, which allowed her to either ambush her hunters from an unexpected direction or quietly withdraw from a dangerous situation.
While even these "Siren Roll Doubles" lastly weren't enough to save the White Siren from meeting her final fate atop the steep cliffs of the river Rh'yn, the tales of her effective employment of these delicious doppelgängers managed to survive within the Kostaca's oral tradition.
Nowadays the story of "Lorely and her Rolls" is among the most popular and frequently retold stories of the Kostaca, as it clearly shows that the Ikonas for all their seemingly invincible might and ageless wisdom were just as deceivable as anyone else.

Manufacturing process

While there are as many recipes as there are Siren Holds, the general method of preparing a Siren Roll consists of taking a stripe of fish flesh that has been pickled in a pot of fermented kelp broth and wrapping it around one of several different possible fillings, such as coast worms, soft coral branches or alga gelee.
In order to keep the rolls together, they are either skewered with a piece of driftwood or rope up using a fish tendons or a piece of kelp cord.

Keep Siren Rolling

Item type

Consumable, Food / Drink

Rarity

While Siren Rolls can be found in the kitchens of practically every single Siren Hold, most "Deaflanders" have never even heard of them, given that the Kostaca are very skeptical of outsiders and therefore rarely trade with them.

Siren Roll Variants

Sea Air Rolls

A common variation of the Siren Roll, which replaces the stripe of pickled fish with a piece of salted seagull flesh.
While the filling usually remains the same as with regular Siren Rolls, some Holds also replace it with a scrambled seagull egg.

Root 'n' Roll

A popular Siren Roll variation frequently served in tropical Siren Holds, the Root 'n' Roll is made by wrapping the body of a marine snail around a slice of cherry mangrove root.

Lorelys' Curl

Said to be based on Lorelys original Siren Roll recipe, Lorelys' Curls are made by wrapping the pickled flesh of a "Huntsfool Fish" around a still-living coast worm, before tying the entire roll together with a stalk of Siren Hair Grass.
To further accentuate their connection to the old tales, they are traditionally served by being tied to the tail of a Blue Herring.

Silence in the Archives

While the Ikona's own archives don't contain any records of a crude "Fish Roll decoy" ever being able to fool the Ikona's sensory equipment, the absence of such records doesn't necessarily rule out the effective operation of such a decoy.
As the Ikona's prideful nature would have very likely prevented them from even thinking about recording such a humiliating incident within their archives.
Furthermore, even in the improbable case that such a record ever existed, it is quite unlikely that it would have survived the Fall of the Ikona Empire during the Second Spring.