Larean

Larea islands by Naelin

The two small islands on the westernmost side of the Haan Archipelago, collectivelly known as Larea, are home to one of the least discussed but no less fascinating cultures in the societarian populations, the Lareans.
Cornered past Dhalmain and Red Crest, the Lareans had to put time and effort to maintain their local environment and customs once trade opened with them.
Today the small islands are not rich or very advanced, but the people live proud lives full appreciation for their land and their achievements.

Demography

The Larean are the only known ethnicity in the archipelago to be conformed almost entirely of segmented societarians.
This has increased the perception of the Larean as a "weird" or "different" people by the inhabitants of other islands, especially as all their neighbouring populations are mostly conformed by very populous feathery and furry people.

Diplomacy

The people of Larea are reclusive and non-confrontational, however, they enforce many rules for any outsiders in their aim to prevent any further damage to their ecosystem, which soured some of their trading relationships before the discovery of the purple jelly.
This attitude, however, made them very popular with the Dhalmanite followers of Flejnathry, the Law of Matter from the Autonomist religion.

Genders and Social Roles

With a demography of almost all segmented societarians, Lareans may have phenotypes with unusual and sometimes complex categories of sexes, so much like the Stunveldti their gender roles are less tied to their bodies than in other cultures.
They recognise the structure of four genders that most cultures in the archipelago follow: Women, men, neutrals and shifting, with the last one being significantly less common than the others.

Farming Intimacy

The Larea Islands were figuratively "put on the map" when the vine known as mark of the teen (then simply "purple berry vine") started to be manufactured into a reliable body lubricant known as "purple jelly" that quickly turned into a staple household item across the Haan Archipelago.
The plant only grows well in the Larea islands, which provided a huge business opportunity to the Lareans.
A huge portion of the population turned to farming this vine quite rapidly, and is still sustaining itself largely thanks to its production.

The Preservation of Nature

Around the century of 2300 E.Alz the people of Larea started trading with those of the other islands. Through time, the ships carrying merchants and goods would infest the island with khoms and escaped lyraiks, both of which wrecked the local population of native, rare creatures that had no predators prior to this introduction, and therefore laid defenseless against the new competitors.
This became exacerbated around the 2550 E.Alz, where some Dhalmanite and Merthiornite tried to settle in the island, carrying with them trelis, idradeltas and alzufhars that compited with the local herbivores.
After centuries of loss of biodiversity and iconic species such as the lilac mjellic, the Larean decided to step up to the issue, and retaliated hard against the invasive species.
Starting with extermination campaigns and much to the dismay of tourists and merchants, the Larean managed to cull a big portion of the feral lyraiks from the island, and bring down the numbers of the khoms in the towns.
The required conditions to keep livestock species such as trelis became extensively regulated to prevent escapees, and merchants reaching the island are barred for bringing lyraiks or other pets with them.
The people of the small town of Point Tamerlac take their conservation efforts to the extreme, and as such managed to become a dreamlike village within an almost undisturbed white forest, vibrant with life.

Recognised Genders

Woman
Man
Neutral
Shifting

Related Locations

• Larea