Capi People

The wood remembers we are nothing more than wind in the trees.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Nekita

Masculine names

Phillippe

Family names

Trafalgar

Culture

Shared customary codes and values

"The wood remembers we are but wind in the trees"

• This saying speaks of the Capi code that the trees they make their ships and houses out of will remember the families who once occupied them, and in such, those who people forget are never actually lost.
• It is a solemn reminder of mortality, with a hopeful note that the people are eternally by one's side.

"Nothing is lost, just moved by the undertow"

• This saying is an acceptable response to the above. Reinforcing the fact that even if a ship is sunk and lost, the wood survives, and the people on board will be remembered. Regardless of where the ship goes.

Common Etiquette rules

• The Capi people are known almost as isolationists. They prefer to keep within their own kin, and are politely cold to most others upon first meeting.
• They tend to be firmly against offering the Quelas (see coming of age rites) for Outsiders to study. Likewise, they will resist offering any spiritwood related items to any not of Capi blood, with the exception of offering during a marriage ceremony.

Common Dress code

Capi people tend to wear colourful silks. This is to assist in finding each other after a tidal wave unexpectedly reaches a shoreline village.
The contrary to the usual dress code of the Capi, are those In Mourning, who wear very little, and adorn themselves with the bones of their kin or loved ones to keep them close for something they call the "Untethering" that can be accomplished at sea.

Art & Architecture

The Capi peoples are mostly known for their shipsmithing, yet land structures tend to be shanties. Offering mostly a roof and short walls for their homes. These shanties are meant to be taken down easily and moved quickly in the event of a tidal wave crashing into their shores. Their wooden tools, however, are generally sought after to be exquisite.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

• During marriage, the Capi people will exchange the seeds of the spiritwood they have carried for at least twelve "rotations" which is twelve full cycles of the greater moon, Kets.
• Rarely, a Capi will offer a seed of the spiritwood to an Outsider. This is known as the "Growth" and it is offering the Outsider, which will likely be a life debt or a very close friend, the Capi's family name. It is a promise to always remember the person, and is the highest honour the Capi have for any non-Capi peoples.

Coming of Age Rites

A Capi coming of age is to make a bladder skin container to hold their Spiritwood leaves. Being a mostly naval culture, they are always to have some spiritwood leaves on them, regardless how far they are from home. This bladder is called the Quelas, it doesn't matter what species it is taken from, or if the practitioner is the one who killed the animal. As long as they get the bladder skin and sew it themselves so they can fit a handful of spiritwood leaves and seeds on them. The Quelas is held usually strapped to the Capi on the upper thigh, with the sealed opening pointing upwards, the sewing of the seal is how the children earn their right to be an adult.

Funerary and Memorial customs

[capi people will have a connection to the wood (eg, kubo and the two strings). Wood have memory. Memory has a soul. If soul is not hindered by ground, the essence of that soul. The wood facilitates the connection. Capi custom is to plant a tree over every grave’ The roots of the trees allow the souls of capi to traverse into the undercurrent of the world. The ocean is more connected to the undercurrent. Keeping a bone from the buried body strengthens the connection to the soul residing in the undercurrent. The ‘In Mourning’ capi use the oceans to reconnect with the souls of their dead] (Wood will have a memory of the Capi souls. The “taps” which are the runes that Seacharmers keep on themselves, essentially is a key to bring the memories (vivid hallucinations) back while being on the Memory wood (wraithwood, spiritwood, phantomwood, shadewood?). If there is no other wood tainting the memory, for example if they are over the mariana’s trench of this world, then it’s actually opening a doorway for the soul to return for a small amount of time, in real time. So you can catch up with the dead you carry. But if you “Anchor” into the “taps” then the power of that soul is used, as the memory and emotion of that person does everything they can to help you, and is turned into oblivion. Her mother she will never remember in this story, because she Anchored into her.) This was a thought from a dude I met in the worldanvil discord as I was trying to make sense of my thoughts. Yospeck “For many then if you have lost someone then even the happy memories can be soured through tragedy and people just want to forget them, so they take those memories and give them freely when they are needed, you can always tell someone who has seen true tragedy and is looking to offload the burden of memory, the old mariners say that they look to be "Quelas alsa maris", but in the modern common-tongue it means "lost at sea" In a world like yours which is constantly wrecked by tsunamis, death must be pretty common; sometimes it is easier releasing the memories of those you have lost instead of holding onto them”
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The burial rites of a Capi has always been to hold a spiritwood seed in both hands upon burial. The seed is usually surrounded by dirt in an orb atop the chest of the body. The body is lowered into a six foot deep hole by spiritwood vines, the vines are then cut, and left in the hole with the Capi body. Eventually it is believed that the tree that will grow from the body will maintain the family name of the dead.
If the Capibbian homeland is not available, the next option is to place a bone of the deceased into a spiritwood leaf, with a handful of dirt over it, and gently place the leaf into a body of water, reverently placing the body of the Capi into the water beside the leaf to sink. This is believed to be an acceptable last rites of a Capibbian, because it is expected the undertow will move the body to a proper resting place, while still offering a tribute to the spiritwood trees to remember the family name.

Common Taboos

A serious Taboo in the Capi culture is an "outsider" (anyone outside of Capibbian blood) mentioning the holy rites of the Capi peoples. If an outsider offers funeral rites, for example, it is seen as disrespectful to the Capi body. If an outsider declares the mantra, it is seen as a grave insult, belittling the ideas of the trees having memory, and therefore damning thousands of family names to the abyss.
A Capi In Mourning is not to go below deck of a ship. To do this is only excused if it is a matter of keeping the ship afloat. Other Capi people are not restricted to this code, but if one is In Mourning, going below deck is said to bring immediate destruction to not only the Mourner, but the entire crew.

Common Myths and Legends

(Myth: Loek, with a chunk taken out, is angry and constantly looking to make (his/her)itself whole. ) (The essense gods offer regularly a tribute for the hole, an offer of peace, and she refuses?)
the ship like an indifferent riptide pulling a sailor under)like the cold burning of lungs starved of air right under the ship, but only briefly.

Related Locations

• Capibbean Archipeligo