Water ethnicity

Water ethnicity transcends race and species. Most mortals and many beasts that live in areas saturated with the elemental energy of air develop at least some physical or spiritual fiery traits. A mortal or beast with lots of inherent essence of the elemental energy of water can pass these traits to his or her offspring even if the child is born well away from any location exposed to the elemental energy of water.

The "essence of water" is more figurative than literal because every living thing needs water to live whether or not they manifest the metaphysical traits of the water ethnicity. Even fiery people have to drink water to live. Also, very watery Scaterran still have lungs, not gills and thus they can drown. Among watery humans, they still have to teach their children how to swim, they aren’t born with this knowledge (though they do learn it pretty quickly).

Where Can They Be Found?

Water elemental energy is most prevalent anywhere near large sources of water. Almost everyone living near the sea develop pronounced watery traits. It should surprise no one that most who make their living off of the sea have pronounced watery traits. Because a lot of coastal areas are near the equator, watery treats are often mixed with fiery traits, but even in warm areas, sea folk that spend large portions of their lives away from land usually have strongly dominant water traits often completely eclipsing the other elements.

by Me with Hero Forge

Lakes and rivers have their impact on the creatures living near them too, as do subterranean water sources. Elemental fonts are often in or near subterranean water sources so underground water sources have a disproportionately strong essence of the primal force of water. Despite being in the middle of a mountain range, the Borderlander humans have codominant earthy and watery traits because of the ample subterranean water sources in the region. Most farmers living near large lakes and mighty rivers have dominant earthy traits with very strong secondary watery traits.

Any who live and work in cold lakes and seas are likely to develop a mix of airy and watery traits. Any who live and work near warmer bodies of water (a far more common occurrence) are likely to develop a mix of watery and fiery traits.

Merfolk and other Scaraquan people are so inundated with watery essence that they don’t even speak of a watery essence or water ethnicity, they simply call it “normal”. All Scaraquans have pronounced watery traits. Some have exclusively watery traits, some have minor secondary traits, and some have co-dominant secondary traits, but they all have a pronounced watery essence.

Basic Physical Traits

female Poseidonous satyr by Zeta Gardner

Humans and demihumans with strong watery traits tend to have blue tinted or blue green skin tones of varying shades. Hair tends to be black or dark green, growing wavy and soft. Watery people take pride in their beautiful hair and both men and women tend to keep their hair fairly long. Watery satyrs, predominantly the Poseidonus satyrs, are somewhat distinct from other satyrs in that they have spiraling horns.
A slim majority of watery people usually have green eyes. The rest commonly have Blue, brown, or grey eyes. Watery people tend to have smaller and pointier noses than other mortals.

Watery people are said to have aesthetically pleasing body types when with women having sensual hour glass figures and men having solid athletic builds...at least when they are young. The ravages of time can be rough. While watery people are slow to get wrinkles are rarely suffer much hair loss, but their bodies are said to sag and droop very fast as they get older. Sometimes older watery people are derogatorily called “puddled people” as their body mass tends to flow downward.

Psychology And Stereotypes

Mortals have free will and their personalities are shaped by life experiences as much as their birth traits, but there nevertheless tendencies and stereotypes associated with watery people. Watery people are said to empathetic and intellectually curious. Some say watery people are dishonest or at least overly polite, often withholding their true thoughts and feelings if there is the slightest chance the truth would offend.

Watery people are often said to be touched by Mera, Greymoria, and to a lesser extant Korus. Mortals born under their Zodiac signs are likely to manifest slightly more physical and mental attributes of watery people than their parent cultures.

Mixed Race Watery People

A majority of the time, "mixed element" mortals meet in the middle. Mixed race watery people tend to cast a bluish or greenish tint on the base hair and skin colors of the other elements they are mixed with. Eye colors of mixed fiery people tend to skew towards blue are grey which are colors shared by many elemental ethnicities.

There are many islands near the equator and these regions tend to have a lot of humans who have co-dominant or nearly co-dominant fire and water traits. This ethnic cross is sometimes nicknamed “steamy.” Both watery and fiery people are said to be ruled by their emotions and impulses and fairly or unfairly, steamy people have a reputation for promiscuity.

by Me with Hero Forge

About one-in-four instances, the reddish coloration of fiery people and the bluish coloration of watery people results in mortals with purple skin and/purple hair. Many outsiders consider purple people, especially women to be exotically beautiful, but in regions where purple people are relatively common, they are not treated that differently from every other fiery/watery person. Steamy people are very common along the islands near Scarterra’s equator.

A plurality, if not an outright majority of Scarterrans live by farming and the most fertile farmland is often in inland areas with lots of fresh water. In these places, the locals often manifest strong earthy and watery traits. Sometimes earthy/watery people are derogatorily nicknamed “mud people”, though they are more politely called "River People"; River people are strong and hardy but outsiders say they are a bit ugly and dumpy looking compared to other Scarterrans. Every major continent has at least some land that has abundant freshwater so mud people can be found in many places and few dare to call them “mud people” in areas where they make up the majority population. On rare occasions, muddy heritage results in fairly dark green skin.

by Me with Hero Forge

by Me with Hero Forge

Enapay the Laguza by Eron12 with Hero Forge

People with lots of watery and airy traits pop up in cold coastal areas such as the Laguza humans in West Colassia and some small pockets of ice fishermen in southern Umera and Penarchia.

Who Are They?

Humans populations tend to cluster near water either for irrigation, transportation of transportation goods, industry, and fishing so it is not uncommon to find humans with strong watery traits but exclusively watery humans are fairly rare. Most watery humans would qualify as “mud people” or “steamy people.”

by Me with Hero Forge

Elves are pretty watery in general. wood elves are the exception, manifesting watery traits as tertiary traits if at all, but both grey elves and dark elves live primarily on or near the coast. Most grey elves and dark elves have some mix of watery, fiery, and earthy traits. sea elves of course are the most watery elves of all, if not the most watery of all Scarterran mortals living on a couple small temperate islands and most adults spending more time on ships than on land. sea elves barely ever manifest even minor non-watery traits.

Apart from Mondarian dwarves, dwarves rarely manifest even minor watery traits.

Most gnomes grow to resemble the non-gnomes in the nations they are attached to but their ties as spiritual children of the goddess Mera skew them towards watery traits even when they are relatively far from major bodies of water. Gnomes hailing from coastal regions often develop very pronounced watery traits.

Vusnitt version 2 by Me using Hero Forge

Few orcs manifest watery traits, but those that do are very distinct from their fellows manifesting vibrant green skin.

Watery Beasts

by Me with Midjourney

Watery beasts tend to have bluish or greenish tints to their fur, feathers, and/or skin relative to other representatives of their breeds. They are usually natural swimmers, even if the type of beast isn't known for an afinity for water, such common domesticated cats.
Watery beasts tend to be intelligent and curious, which can be both good and bad with many domesticated animals. Watery mammals produce a lot of milk meaning watery dairy cows and goats are prized. Among food livestock like pigs, watery sows are valued for being able to raise lots of healthy young though in the case of pigs, they are often cross bred with earthy pigs to increase their size.
Watery domesticated animals have a disadvantage when taken out of high moisture environments. In an arid environments, watery animals unsurprisingly require more drinking water to stay alive and healthy. Because of this, watery horses and pack animals are not popular. Also watery animals spook and/or wander off easier than earthy and fiery animals.

Parent ethnicities

• elemental ethnicity in mortals

Related Locations

• Scarterra