Taalites
Kaitlat daam tääf hit kumeilihaun, jök la lääf utlai moep mino. My heart beats to the rhythm of tides I can no longer hear.Generations ago, they were the people of the sea. Their villages were spread across Veiama's central coast, and they made their livelihoods as fishermen and sailors n the Kingdom of Kaleina. When The Forest spread, they held onto their coastal settlements as long as they could. Eventually, even the beaches were overrun, and they had no choice but to flee inland. The Taalish people that lived around the bay moved upriver and settled on the islands of Lake Olla, where they reformed the Kingdom of Kaleina.
Music
Taalish music is dominated by strings, especially fiddles, with an almost omnipresent undercurrent of drums. Music that doesn't have a strong drum component is generally dance music, where it is assumed the audience will be clapping and stomping along to replace the drum. This style of music is particularly attuned to fire magic. Taalish dances almost always include a bonfire, and the fire is frequently pulled out to flow in rings alongside the dancers. The second most popular instrument after the fiddle is the bagpipe, which is nicknamed the Stormqueller. In their seafaring days, no crew was complete without a bagpiper to calm the skies and urge in favourable winds. The sound of a distant bagpipe was often the first hint that an awaited ship was coming home to harbour, and as such the instrument has strong associations with both the sea and coming home.Appearance
Taalites tend to be taller than other Veiamic peoples, and have more diversity in colouring thanks to generations of seafaring and bringing home spouses from distant lands.Hair
Red hair is considered a classic Taalish feature. It's thought that red hair was brought to their culture by the sailors who traded and intermarried with far-off lands, bringing home wives, children, or both. Facial hair is associated with lower-classes and seen as uncouth or dirty. Men are expected to be clean-shaven in polite society, and to wear their hair shorter than their earlobes. Young women generally wear their hair long, often with flowers or strips of coloured fabric braided into them. After marriage, a woman ties her hair up.Clothing
A classic trait of a working Taalish man's cloak is for it to be coated in pine tar to make it waterproof. This was essential in the days of seafaring to deal with sprays of cold mist, and the style is still used by fishermen on the lake. Taalish women's dresses are usually a solid piece of fabric below the waist, and then held together with crisscrossing string or ribbon from the waist to the bust, revealing the white shift below. The lacing can be anything from simple string through holes in the fabric to silk ribbon woven around gold fastenings depending on the woman's wealth.Culture
Major language groups and dialects
They speak the Taalish dialect of Veiamic. There is some debate on whether it is a distinct language or just a dialect, but it is mutually intelligible with other Veiamic languages. Taalites are usually better at understanding other Veiamic people than the reverse due to the large number of loan words they picked up from their increased contact with the outside world.
Shared customary codes and values
It is said that every Taalite, deep inside, has a connection to the sea. The cynics claim this "ocean lust" is a product of the modern age, now that they have been cut off from the coasts and their cultural roots, but the romantics assert that even in the days of old, every Taalite was drawn to the sea. The ocean is the source of all life and the most powerful force in the world. It brings both great fortune and destruction, and must always be respected. Even though the majority of modern Taalites have never seen the sea, it features prominently in works of art.
Perhaps linked to their seafaring past, Taalish culture greatly values freedom and independence. They are more individualistic than other Veiamic groups and celebrate unique individuals. Though society is stratified based on wealth, it is possible to rise to high classes through personal achievement, and desiring to better oneself is seen as admirable.
Demonym
As an adjective: Taalish. "She was a Taalish woman."As a noun: Taalite. "A Taalite walked into a bar."
Parent ethnicities
Related Organizations
Related Myths
Languages spoken