Tethysian

"Tethysians, mostly consisted of people from New Saint Morgen and Acionna Valley. Known for their pale complexion and range of different hair colors, these people are well known for their fishing industry, as well as being the number one exporter of fresh water. They are furthest from The Great War's Ground Zero, so their land is green and humid."
---The Almanac of Humanity, penned by an Azalean travel agency

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

A feature that is incredibly unique to Tethysia, its ethnic zone does not have any defined language groups. As Tethysians embody a large amount of Solaris' indigenous population, the languages they speak amongst one another are unique, even if they often share loan words with one another.

Everyone in Tethysia, however, knows the Universal Human Tongue, to better communicate with Humans of other cultures. Their dialects, however, are distinct: for example, the more northern Tethysian communities emphasize nasal sounds more than their southwestern Tethysian siblings, who have a gular sound similar to that of Titaneans.

Culture and cultural heritage

Tethysian culture is all about honoring the planet and keeping it relatively intact and free of marks from Human experimentation. Their philosophies focus on full sustainability with a limited carbon footprint, and building a community that appreciates the gifts that the Nature Guardian has given to everyone.

Tethysian family units are known to be interconnected: though similar, they are unlike the family values of Hebean culture, however. Whereas Hebean values want to weave together different tapestries, Tethysian values want to lightly embroider the world tapestry with their values. It is why many Tethysian people are found to have interracial couplings, and travel to and from Tethysia to visit family every so often.

Although many communities share these values, Tethysians are not monolithic, and all have a vastly different perception of the world, through their art, language, food, and customs. What is outlined above (and below) are but a few elements that a vast majority of Tethysian subcultures share.

Art & Architecture

Tethysians are well known for their fairly minimalistic designs, where a large amount of their textiles are pelts and wool untampered with by design. This is due to the fact that natural pelts stay together as a whole, and any additional tampering with it may ruin the structural integrity of the item. Rather, embroidery is done on woven fabrics, the intricacy of which varies with the community.

To help retain the structural integrity of natural pelts, Tethysians opt to paint them with natural pigments. Painted designs usually depict animals sacred to each individual community, and sometimes (but not always) features other elements of these creatures, such as feathers, claws, or teeth collected as the animal ages.

Despite the path of industrialization for some communities, Tethysian architecture still focuses on natural materials for its buildings, including their water plants and hydroelectric dams. It's this gentle approach to innovation that has allowed the Humans of Tethysia to cohabitate with the wildlife there for centuries.

Encompassed species