Oq-Atulin (ɔkʔɑtulin)

While they are all of Oq-Atul, there is a false impression that the Oq-Atulins are the same people with the same beliefs. While they are all related and there is certainly overlap in many of their beliefs and religious practices, the term "Oq-Atulin" is a category of several different ethnicities that are of the archipelago. While they are all different ethnicities with distinct looks, certain physical traits are common among all of them: all of them have long, shaggy, coarse hair, the lightest being an umber looking brown in color, tan colored skin, long legs, and arms, smooth facial features, and massive eyes, with an interesting color spectrum, unique to them, ranging from a common amber to golden yellow. Because of this, visual disorders are common among them, with one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, though still below the majority of the population.

Myths and Legends

As the islands they inhabit are isolated and very rarely if ever, traveled to willingly, it makes sense for the Oq-Atulins to be so poorly understood by the outside world. Even if one did wish to go to the islands, the shores are surrounded almost, if not entirely, by jagged rocks, which make landing practically a death sentence with the almost constant fog surrounding the islands. Since interactions with foreigners are rare as a result, it is natural that fanciful tales would be spun about them based on a few stories from returning sailors.
Most of these fantasies detail of how the islands are cursed to be trapped in time, preventing them from using more advanced technologies, or how the gods were angered by the island's animals and cursed them to walk in human bodies without human minds, or vis versa of men given the mental capacities of animals. Almost none of these stories are true, or if they're heavily exaggerated versions of actual encounters: Oq-Atulins are no less human than these foreign powers. That has not stopped adventurers in the past, however, from returning with falsified tales of epic battles with the beast men or even instigating violence out of fear.
It should be noted, however, that the Oq-Atulins are no less guilty of telling fanciful stories about the foreigners, although admittedly theirs are more appealing depictions by comparison. This is largely due to the passage of time and the game of telephone, as so often is the case with myths about groups of people. Virtually all the Oq-Atulins believe, regardless of specific groups, that the fog that surrounds the islands, almost constantly, to be a wall between passage to other worlds, which when comparing the outside world to the archipelago. As such, many they believe the foreigners, of the past and present, to be powerful spirit-like beings, most often said to be related to snakes as they can "shed their impenetrable skin," obviously referring to their armor. However, as fantastic a depiction, it may seem, depending on the story being told, they are seen as either good or evil.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Religious Belief and Practices

Oq-Atulin ethnicities have a wide variety of faiths and beliefs spread all throughout the archipelago, each one with its own intricacies and superstitions. With that being said, there are many commonalities that all of them share and develop on in their own ways to give that religion or folklore their own identity, and it is these commonalities that define most aspects of life on Oq-Atul.
To start with, virtually all Oq-Atulin belief systems involve high degrees of animism, with natural spirits being arguably just as important as the gods, of which there are many. These spirits are ubiquitous and all around at all times, in every tree, rock, animal -from the greatest whale to the tinniest fly- and human being. 
Of the gods, there is usually a prime creator who is either asleep or blinded and the other two high gods are his eyes, who watch over the world in the creator's absence. These gods have many names but they all fall along similar lines and have similar meanings, and every incarnation is generally a similar character with similar personalities. These gods' names (for the sake of simplicity) are best translated as "Mother Sun" and "Father Moon" and can be seen in the sky as the celestial bodies for which they are named. Mother Sun is warm and kind, creating the plants and fire so man can stay warm and sheltered. Father moon is vigilant and brave, giving man animals and weapons so they can have full bellies.

Average technological level

While not "animals in human bodies" as the stories say, the Oq-Atulin ethnicities are some of the least technologically advanced peoples in the world. This is not due to intelligence, as some records claim, but rather due to isolation and lack of resources. Because the islands are so far from anything resembling civilization and they have no desire to trade with them, the Oq-Atulins cannot learn or even understand their technologies such as blacksmithing, believing outsiders to be powerful spirits in physical forms rather than normal men. In addition, the island lacks the resources to encourage them to adopt even basic metal working techniques: even copper, employed in metalworking before the invention of bronze, is rare on the archipelago, with only a few deposits to even be found.
As a consequence, the Oq-Atulin peoples are forced to use solely stone and bone tools, making use of the abundant flint deposits. Most people are nomadic hunter-gatherers, as the islands are mostly dense forests or swamplands and the plant life depends on these environments to grow, making agriculture barely viable. In addition, many of the animals are either very jumpy, aggressive, or do not fit some other requirement for domestication. Even if the islands could support agriculture or pastoralism, the people lack the resources required for technology that would allow them to remove mass swaths of the forests, so they are stuck in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Horticulturalism exists, but it is not on the scale to be consider true agriculture.
Given the limited at best contact with outside cultures and lack of any since, the bow and arrow has not reached Oq-Atul in a manner that is significant enough to latch on. Instead, the common projectile weapon of choice is the spear thrower, a tool meant to act as a lever to provide greater velocity to a thrown dart that is typically fletched. The size of the spears used can vary depending on the game in question: smaller game typically is hunted with spears that range 3-4 feet in length 8-9 millimeters in diameter, while larger game darts can be as long as 11 feet in length and thick as 16-18 millimeters in diameter.

Common Etiquette rules

As it is with many cultures, it is rude in Oq-Atulin conversation to look someone in the eyes.

Common Dress code

While overall it varies between more specific ethnic groups, virtually all the Oq-Atulin peoples dress lightly in the warmer months and heavy in the colder periods. The winter clothes are very similar, in some cases exactly the same, amongst the various ethnic groups, consisting of a thick coat, breeches, mittens, and boots, all made of the hides of densely furred or woolen animals. The summer clothing is much more varied, although it still doesn't get much heavier than a simple tunic and loincloth, with many lacking the tunic entirely except for special occasions. Fabrics used for clothing range from animal hides to fibers from the Kliola , a plant whose fibers are similar to those of flax and can even produce fabric similar to silk, although it's a rare skill usually passed down through certain bloodlines.

Art & Architecture

Oq-Atulins do not have much in the way of what would traditionally be called "architecture," as they lack the knowledge of masonry. In small tribes, shelters are generally portable, able to be taken apart and carried off, and composed of little more than wooden poles and animal hides. Tribes with more permanent settlements generally use wood to construct their homes.
That in mind, there are groups of people who have independently become sedentary due the resources being bountiful enough for them not need to travel around. These settlements have different construction methods depending on the whether they are living in the temperate rainforests or estruine swamps and tend to be much larger than the small nomadic groups, often consisting of upwards of 200 families or even more.
While on the surface simple, there is a certain complexity to Oq-Atulin art. The most common forms of art include weaving, most often in the form of baskets and sewing, and carving, particularly on bone and horn. All the different woven objects by the various ethnicities are all, to varying degrees amongst each of them, simple in their construction but with highly complex and stylized patterns. Carvers are highly prized for their skills to create images, be it an etching of an animal in a spear or a figurine of a bird made of bone.
Common architectural structures among the Oq-Atulins are what's called "seeing trees": these are large wooden poles standing erect and covered in etched and painted eyes. These are used as landmarks for travelers to note when they are traveling: in particular, they are often used as boundary markers for the territory of powerful tribes, with each tribes having their own distinct style to not them. It is not uncommon to see such poles from different tribes next to each other, to represent which tribes these are the border of.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Ocular Worship

As stated earlier, the Oq-Atulin ethnicities have one of the highest rates visual disorders in the world. That in mind, it makes sense that the eye is so important in their spirituality and religion. Eyes appear everywhere in Oq-Atulin iconography, and it is seen by them as the most sacred part of the body.
According to Oq-Atulin beliefs, a person's eyes are reflections of their souls and act as one's anchor to the physical world. Thus, those who are blind are thought of as disconnected from the physical world and thus have an easier time communicating with the spiritual/supernatural world. As such, blindness is often associated with the religious sect of society, thus they often become figures that could be called "priests", "seers", or "shaman." It is not uncommon for such "holy people" to have their eyes removed and sacrificed to the gods/spirits to strengthen their connection to the supernatural.

Related Locations

• Oq-Atul