Emberkin

The emberkin are a subspecies and ethnicity of the flamekin, living at the base of the emberpeaks, rather than with the rest of their kin in the calderas.

Culture

Art & Architecture

Art

Emberkin enjoy active forms of art and self expression. One of their favourite types of performace art is flow art, involving flowing and active movement of an object. This object is usually flowing or flaming in some way, but can take on a variety of forms, such as flaming poi, juggling still-glowing embers, or dancing with fire.
This is often accompanied by music. Emberkin enjoy music with an electronic sound, and a more upbeat pace. They will often gather together to play music and collectively perform flow arts, which are often accompanied by flaming decorations and sometimes even decorative flowing lava.

Architecture

Emberkin prefer to make their homes in carved-out recesses of the mountains they live near. They will build ledges that jut out above the entrances to their homes to protect their entrances and walkways from any lava flow. Emberkin villages are connected through a series of pathways heading between each of the recessed buildings, meaning that walking from one end of a village to another requires passing by every other building in the village. The only exception to this are villages built in the valleys between volcanoes, though this is rarer.

Foods & Cuisine

Like the flamekin, emberkin cuisine consists of a lot of different metals in their diets. This is required for their health - these minerals give them nutrients that they could not otherwise obtain. However, due to their lower body temperatures, they are not able to melt this metal in their digestive system, making for a dangerous combination. As such, emberkin cuisine incorporates metals, but does so in an already-melted or crushed-up way, allowing the emberkin to safely consume the nutrients that they require. They also can obtain other nutrients from the plants and animals living in the areas in which they reside, alowing for a more balanced and visitor-friendly diet.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Emberkin value darker skin and hair, along with lighter and brighter eyes. They wear more cloth than the flamekin, as they will not set it on fire by accident. They prefer loose clothing, often wrapping long pieces of cloth around themselves and draping it. Many emberkin wear scarves over their heads, often patterened with geometric designs, and typically in warmer colours such as oranges and reds.

Gender Ideals

Similarly to the flamekin, emberkin do not have a concept of gender, in part due to their lack of biological sex. However, unlike the flamekin, the emberkin have a closer connection to the rest of Etharai, and are familiar with the concept of gender. In an attempt to make other species feel comfortable in their communities, emberkin will sometimes choose a gender from other cultures to apply to themselves. This is especially common among emberkin that travel out to other biomes, either for vacation purposes or permanenetly.

Matilda Placeholder by notahumanhand

Encompassed species

• Flamekin

Related Locations

• Emberpeaks

Subspecies: Biological Differences

Along with their cultural differences the emberkin hold with the flamekin, they have evolved slightly differently from their volcano-dwelling kin.
The emberkin have lower body temperatures, allowing them to live in a wider variety of climates than the rest of the flamekin. They have lost their flaming hair, instead having thick, coily black hair, and their skin does not glow, though they do retain the scales of the rest of their species.