Apasajiva

Souls of Water

The Apasajiva, or Apas, are one of five ethnicities among the Prani of Maya. Like all Prani, they are Jiva, and like all Prani they follow the four-tier caste system that divides their society.
Apas mainly live in Apasksetra, though some reside in Indriya-mandal, the capital city of Maya.
Apasksetra borders every country in Maya -- Visesaksetra, Vayuksetra, Agniksetra, and Dyausdesa -- because is boundaries stretch over a lot of water. It's half-ocean, half-wetlands, and its ocean borders bump up against the borders of all the other countries.

History

The history of the Apas is no less bloody than the history of any other elemental on Maya. For millennia the five factions warred against each other, until finally coming to a lasting peace almost two centuries ago.
Once the peace was brokered, the Apas became very secretive and withdrawn. They rarely left their ocean homes, keeping to themselves and only marrying within their ethnicity. Only members of the lowest caste would go abroad, often times to search for similarly ranked Prani who might be a suitable mate.
This continued for just over a century, at which point the plague hit. No one knows when it hit the Apas, but when it left them it had reduced their female population to one-tenth its prior size, according to some numbers given, and the male population had been halved. The truth will never be known for the Apas have not become any more forthcoming about themselves in the past decades.
When the Arranged Mating Protocols went into place, Apas were the most resistant to it and avoided joining it the longest.
Eventually, after seeing the havoc that was wrought without any sort of protocol in place for marriage and childbearing, they acceded in order to protect not just civility but their very existence.

Powers

It's worth noting the Prani do not consider these things "powers" but just part of being Jiva. Any Terrans who encounter the Prani, however, class all these abilities as being special, magical powers, so it is the term we will use.
Apasajiva, being connected to the element of water, have water-based abilities and appearance. It's all very dependent on what caste a particular Apas is; however water has some specific associations on Maya.
Water Associations

• blood, lymph, other fluids of the body
• taste and speech
• removing of obstacles
• anything to do with oceans, rivers, rain, or any water-dwelling creatures

Pudgala

The lowest caste and currently the most populous among all groups of Prani. Pudgala have the fewest powers of the Prani and the Apagala are no different.
Some Apagala abilities include:

• weather prognostication (more rarely -- ability to alter the weather)
• water-breathing, though most do not live within the water full-time
• minor ability to influence blood clotting in another person
• minor healing capacity regarding fluid-based issues
• increased time before suffering from dehydration
• hypertasting on a molecular level

What abilities an Apagala will have is dependent on various factors that have not yet been isolated by Prani scientists, though genetics are thought to play a role.
Adharma
Adharma is the next caste level up, and the second most populous among the Apas. Adhapas have more abilities than Apagala and a stronger connection to the water element.
Some Adhapas abilities include:

• conversion to a liquid state and, relatedly, fast-travel using the water cycle
• language mastery
• weather control

As well, most Adhapas have a wide range of Apagala abilities -- sometimes all of them.
Most, if not all, Adhapas are able to live full-time within the water; however, not all of them make their homes within the oceans, rivers, or lakes of Apasksetra. Instead a good amount make their homes on land, among the Apagala, or even in Indriya-mandal with all the other Prani of Maya.
Suddha-dharma
There are very few Sudhapas left after the plague. The few that remain are very isolationist, not coming out of the ocean in which they make their home, or leaving the towers they guard with their lives.
Powers that can be rightly assigned to the Sudhapas are as follows:

• shapeshifting, though to what extent is unknown
• some form of telepathy, though again the details are unknown
• distance viewing (it's speculated that only those in the towers can use this, and only because of the towers themselves)

Other powers -- major manipulation of blood and other fluids, control of others' speech, and many others -- may be the realm of Sudhapas, or they may be fantasy.
Akasakala
It's thought that the Kasakapas are extinct now. According to legend, they had godlike powers defying imagination. What actual powers existed for them, however, is not known with any certainty.
Other Abilities
Some abilities are shared by all elementals of certain castes. For more on these and the caste system as a whole, please see Castes .

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Yashodevi, Mukta, Vidya, Sarala

Masculine names

Sashi, Inderpal, Madhu, Kishore

Unisex names

Many Apas names are easily used for one sex or the other, often with a tweak in spelling.

Family names

Mishra, Apati, Patipas, Dhuriya, Indra, Minakshi, Nagendra, Pankaja

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Those considered the most beautiful among the Apas are those who show the characteristics of their mother element: water.
Grace and fluidity of movement are of the highest import when classing the beauty of an Apas. Those Apas who are considered the most beautiful move like the water itself, flowing and sinuous.
Patience is also very important, characterized by an Apas' ability to be still. Fidgeting and impatience are considered ugly.
While all Apas have physical characteristics that show their elemental affinity, there are some looks that are considered more beautiful than others. Those with darker blue skin and black hair are considered the most beautiful. Red eyes are also considered the most beautiful, but are vanishingly rare.
If of a higher caste, the non-human attributes considered most attractive are scales, tails, and fins.
Finally, mental attributes considered the most attractive are intelligence and an inquisitive mind. Apas are historically scholarly types and this is reflected in their beauty ideals.

Gender Ideals

The plague unbalanced so much life on Maya, but especially how the genders relate. The loss of most Prani women on the planet created an imbalance in favour of female supremacy.
To the Apas, the ideal woman exists. She doesn't have to be beautiful or even particularly smart -- she just has to exist and participate in the Arranged Mating Protocols, and men will fall over themselves to please her. Apas women are very free in what they want to do with their lives, so long as they consent to participate in the AMPs three times.
Apas men are held to a much higher standard. They are required to be well-read, well-spoken, and constantly trying to better themselves through education. They must be hard workers, ambitious, and career-minded while also being family-focused.
Like all men on Maya who wish to participate in the Arranged Mating Protocols, Apas men must receive high scores in Ramavasatha.

Courtship Ideals

Apas courtship is traditionally very long and includes methods that fit within their water affinity.
Traditional methods of courting for the Apas:

• writing of poetry
• scholarly pursuits (invitation to a lecture of interest, etc)
• lots of conversation
• gifts that showcase the patience of the giver

However, the advent of the Arranged Mating Protocols has changed how courtship happens among all the different groups of Maya. For Apas, their long courtship now technically starts after the start of an arranged pairing (marriage). For more information, see the Nivesana article.

Article Table of Contents

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Encompassed species

• Prani