Umi Elves

The god Sedna and Fusundu were the gods of sea and storms. Sedna, the wife, watched how people used the sea for fishing and sailing. She Was enthralled by how mortals would navigate the waves, and gain life from the fish that lived there. Fusundo, the husband, didn't like how the people of the land stole what was theres, and thought they could claim dominion over what was there by right of Aqui. The two fought tirelessly over these different values, and when Fusundu maliciously destroyed a fishing vessel, Sedna grew angry and ran away. She took with her a net taken the ship and watched the shores of a nearby city. There she saw the Midori Elf sailors. They were of fey origin, and so beautiful, it caught Sedna's breath. Wanting them for herself, she took the net and began to steal away the sailors of the land. She kissed each one on the neck, giving them gills to breathe with, and told them the sea was their new home. They wanted to leave for many years but were unable, and slowly their skin grew gray, their fingers grew slightly webbed and longer, and they found that they adapted well to water. The Midori elves that witnessed the theft, ran and abandoned the port cities, leaving these new sea elves of Sedna's making to their own devices. These became known as Selkies, Sea elves, or Umi Elves.
Ability score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age: Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
Size: Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Trance: Elves do not sleep. Instead they meditate deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is "trance". While meditating, you dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep.
Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill. Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Sea Elf Training: You have proficiency with the spear, trident, light crossbow, and net.
Child of the Sea: You have a swimming speed of 30 feet, and you can breathe air and water.
Friend of the Sea: Using gestures and sounds, you can communicate simple ideas with any beast that has an innate swimming speed.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Primordial (Aquan).

Naming Traditions

Family names

Most Selkie Elves consider their entire "Pod" or tribe their family. Therefore a selkie elf family name is typically the name of the elder they were born under. Though few ever give out such names, it's a way of identifying when one was born, and to what "pod" they belong.

Other names

Most Selkie elves have a "child name" which is the name they are given by their parents. It is usually a simple or short name that is used until their first coming of age rite. During this rite, they typically are given a title or personalized nickname based on their characteristics. These are elvish names, but often mean things like "wild spear, sunbraid, fast net, or moonlit waters." When a child does their second coming of age ceremony, they often chose a new name for themselves. The child name is often dropped, but might still be used by immediate family as a term of affection or informality. It would be rude for others to use such a name.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Selkies are typically conservative of expressing values, emotions, and feelings. They tend to be expressive of love openly, but little else. Elves reach physical maturity at the same rate as humans, but they haven't reached "adulthood" in the elvan sense until they've stopped dreaming of their past. Since their birth, Elves do not dream, but instead enter "dream like" trances. During this time, they often have vague dreams of past lives, past emotional connections, and visions of the feywild. This continues until they begin to make their own connections and relationships. When they have done enough in their life that they are no longer dream of their past, or past relationships (usually around 100 years of age), they are considered mature enough in this lifetime, and adults in the eyes of elves. These dreams are usually considered extremely private, and not spoken about, as they often share images and ideas of history with old loved ones and enemies. Some will actively seek out close relations with past family relations. New Selkie souls tend to have more visions of future events or events they will experience before they become an adult. This isn't often realized until later for these elves.

Common Etiquette rules

It is considered extremly rude to touch another's hair, almost as a personal attack, unless in an intimate setting. To cut someone else's hair is ultimate humiliation on the person who's hare is cut and total disrespect. Additionally, respect among elders is extremly important for their experience and wisdom. Many elves even use honorifics to denote elders, teachers, peers, etc.

Common Dress code

selkie elves have adapted to aquatic life, using seaweed based plant fibers. Within the air tight bubbles surrounding their villages, they typically wear flowing fabrics of bright colors and adornments. They live in comfortable climates so these flowing fabrics are typically, accents of sashes, wraps, skirts, or open seeves, as selkies tend to show a lot of skin in order to display stripped markings and remain comfortable. Swimwear is often little more than a loincloth and a chest wrap for women. Armor is often scaled out of corel plating, or fish leathers. Selkies do not wear shoes and would struggle adapting to a life on land with footwear.

Art & Architecture

When the selkies were taken into the sea, they found they struggled maintaining certain traditions and culture without land or air, but Sedna refused to let them leave. Instead, they used magic to craft large bubble like villages in which to place their settlements. Selkie's often live in these large bubbles, with corel or stone architecture or reinforced bone structures. They have elaborate gardens of sea plants, and keep the bubbles well lit via arcane torches and dancing lights. Even the selkies favor organic architecture with coral decorations, garden architecture, and beautiful functionality.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Selkie elves have had to adjust vastly to an environment that does not have the same food resources. They tend to favor fatty foods, blubbors, and oils of sea life mixed in with sea plants. They have a vast knowledge of sea based plants and vegetables which make up a majority of their diet. They have also cultivated various unique plants such as sea grapes (a seaweed with grape like orbs). Selkie's food is very salty and savory, unlike all other elves. They struggle adapting to traditional elvish foods and many elvish visitors would find Selkie food inedible. Selkies are able to preserve food through canning and pickling. Additionally, selkies don't cook their food, and typically eat any fish or shellfish raw.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

When a child is born, people will often have a tribe wide celebration where all come together to meet the child. Each individual will gift a toy to the child, carved from from bone most commonly, or by gifting their parents anything they might need from blankets, fabrics, or child food jars. The child is then formally named and cared for by the whole community, staying mostly with the parents. Marriage is not a formal idea among the elves, therefore two people will come together to raise a child, and remain positive and supportive even if they no longer remain together as partners. Part of the celebration typically involves the parents wading into a pool with their child, and holding them underwater until the child learn how to use their gills. Despite selkie's being aquatic since before the burning time, this is still a scary moment for any parent, and a symbol of trust to Sedna that they continue to follow her.

Coming of Age Rites

Elves have 2 coming of age rites, even among the selkies. When they reach "physical maturity," usually with the first menstruation of the girls, or the reaching of age 17 for boys, they are then are officially welcomes into the communities of either society. A girl maybe invited to no longer stay with the younger children, and join the women's circle to focus more on crafts, discussions of medicine and child rearing, or the tribes political discussions. To show that she is an adult and can be married, she is allowed to wear her hair loose when in the village, instead of in tight braids or buns. Men will be invited to go on a hunting party, scavenging party, or even a trading mission with the other males. After the successful hunt or trip, the men often gather to drink. They often encourage the new man to drink heavily, usually until they pass out, and return them home. This is often seen as a disgusting act by many women, but is a deep sense of tradition among selkies.
The second Coming of Age is when they reach "mental maturity" which they often claim themselves, by choosing to leave on walk about. After they have gone a month without a trance involving their past lives, and only dream of their current life, they can declare their independence and begin their walk about. In this time, they do not return home or to their tribe for 1 year. When they return, they tell of all the news they have learned on their time apart. Those that do not return are considered "lost." If they return and confess that they chose not to return, this is often considered dishonor, for leaving their family worried. Their hair might be braided and cut. This tradition has remained a stable among almost all elves.

Funerary and Memorial customs

When an elf dies, they are the most susceptible to undeath than any other race due to their connection to the fey, and the Othersphere. Even the selkies attempt to protect against this. As a culture that rarely uses fire for anything, cremation is extremly rare. Instead, selkies will often lay their dead out in for sea life. The men will take a body out into the sea, and leave tethered to the sea floor via a net, allowing animals to come and eat the body. They return after 1 week to collect the net. The net is a special ceremonial type that is weighted and reinforced with elven hair rope. Its has wide spaces between the weaves to allow animals to access the body, but prevents it from floating off, and being lost. When someone dies, their head is often shaved, not as a sign of disrespect, but in order to respect their memory. Loved ones keep lockets of hair, or it is used to make special threads for bracelets, tapestries, or nets. Some wealthy families might have entire tapestries made out of varied hair colors of ancestors.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Hair is very important to most elves, and it is a characteristic they maintain even underwater. Hair is often kept tightly braided and even netted to prevent it from tangling as they swim, but in the city bubbles underwater, where they don't swim, Selkie's will let their hair down freely, and have created some of the most impressive hair potions to maintain its quality. They typically have very fine, illustrious hair that can grow to incredible lengths, though it tends to grow slowly and is very strong. Hair is often used as a way to see age and gage respect for an individual as well as a way of showing disrespect or humiliation. Unlike their surface relatives, selkie elves tend to be more varied in appearance with unique skin stripings or patterns, faintly marking their grayish to blue skin. These patterns are common beauty marks among selkies. As metal tends to fair poorly in these environments, most jewelry is made of bone or coral and is a common source of expression via piercings, or displays of wealth.

Gender Ideals

Selkie's stem from the more gendered Midori Elf cultures and have maintained a gendered culture. Additionally, due to frequent interactions with other sea fearing races, they have changed greatly from the elves of the surface. Selkie's often have women in cultures at home, tending to domestic duties of a pod together. They share skills, help each other, and become fiercely protective of each others kin. Males are expected to join hunting parties and act as protectors of the pods, and are often not permitted to the interior secrets of the women. As the women raise the children, and protect the home, they maintain leadership roles as a society. They make tribal decisions together, own land, and determine laws. Males however, maintain a level of authority in small home circles, as providers of food, and protectors. They are expected to decide what is bet for the family, but a wife may go to the other women of the tribe at any point if she feels he is not doing his job well.

Courtship Ideals

When a man wishes to wed a woman, he must seek the council of her mother, aunts, grandmothers, and any older sisters. If these women deem him worthy of marrying the woman he seeks, he may then present her with a pearl to request marriage. If she accepts the pearl, they are considered wed, and this item is often kept on an item of jewelry like a necklace or hairpin. Selkie elves are the only with a pretty clear idea of marriage and monogamy. Though they may be "married" or considered partners to each other after this event, it is not considered final at any point until the woman is with child. She may return the pearl at any point before that, and it is not seen negatively at all. If she has the man's children though, she may return the pearl, but will most likely never received another one from another male until their child has reached 100 years of age. Men can give any woman a pearl, even after receiving one back, but women might be less likely, wondering why a woman would turn him away. Men can request a pearl back, but this is considered one of the worst types of insults to a woman. Men will often not try and remarry a woman who had a pearl quested back, if they have had children, and men who request a pearl back will often be rejected by many other families if such an insult is known about.

Relationship Ideals

In a relationship, the woman tends to focus on domestic duties such as crafting, caring for children, cooking, cleaning, etc. Men are expected to provide for the family via food, resources, gifts, supplies, and clear judgement. A man holds an authoritative place over a household as long as his duties are for the better protection of the home. Homosexuality is more of a taboo among selkies, especially among men. Women might be more likely to be close with the women in their circle, or even engage in relationships, but typically this is only accepted when they no longer have husbands. Men, however, are typically disapproved of when gay, as this is seen as something more common among merfolk. As a fairly conservative culture in terms of emotional expression, men who find they are gay often live a life without marriage, hiding their sexuality from others.