Island Elves - Sea Elves

Meresti

Island elves, also known as sea elves, or Meresti are the collection of eleven tribes that populate the distant south west island, also called the Paradise Islands, far in the Ocean Sea. They originate from ancient mixing of true elf and human lineage. Being master seamen and shipwrights, they have settled the remote island of the Ocean Sea and become the most isolated of the lesser elves.

Description

Meresti are shorter and stockier than most elves, with black hair, and brown tanned skin. Men are well muscled from frequent paddling of canoes. Women will keep their hair long, draping past the back and men well wear theirs to their shoulders. Both men and women often have intricate tattoos, crafted from master artists, adorning their arms, bodies, and faces.

Clothing

Meresti clothing is fashioned from the native materials of the Paradise Islands, mainly beaten tree bark, and emphasizes utility and freedom of movement. Loincloths, capes, skirts, and headdresses are worn and adorned by painting and by attaching feathers, shells, pearls, and animal teeth. However, with increasing contact with sailing vessels from the main land, many Meresti are trading for adopting elements of Moon elf dress.

Masters of the Sea

Meresti are master navigators, seafarers, and shipwrights. Meresti construct double hulled canoes with triangular sails and single hulled outrigger canoes powered by multiple sets of oar-men. These vessels are used to make
Navigation relies heavily on constant observation and a deep knowledge of the sea. A navigator has to be constantly aware of his surroundings. Navigators have to memorize where they have sailed from in order to know where they are. The sun, the moons, and the stars are the main guide for navigators. When the sky is obscured by clouds, a navigator uses the winds and swells to guide them. Through constant observation, navigators detect changes in the speed of their canoes, their heading, and the time of day or night. Meresti navigators employ a wide range of techniques including the use of the stars, the movement of ocean currents and wave patterns, the air and sea interference patterns caused by islands and atolls, the flight of birds, the winds and the weather.
As contact between the Paradise Islands and the mainland has increased, Meresti navigators have been highly sought after on moon elf sailing vessels. The intricate tattoos of Meresti navigators and warriors have been a more and more common site on the decks of moon elf trading vessels and in the seaside pubs of port towns.

Origins & History

Like all lesser elves, the sea elves, descend from the true elves. At some point in the distant mythical past, a true elf ancestor founded each of the tribal lineages of the Meresti. These progenitors are commemorated in each tribes' oral histories and have taken on legendary status. However, these oral histories omit all mortal ancestors. It is taboo to talk about these gaps in family lineage and mention one's non-elf ancestors. However, most outsiders assume that like all other lesser elves these non-elf ancestors were human. But, some scholars claim that they have uncovered evidence that the sea elves are not the result of Celesti and human pairings, but the result of Celesti pairing with mermen, who live in fabulous kingdoms below the waves.
Whatever the case, the Meresti have used their superior navigation and seamanship to spread across the Paradise Islands. And as they spread west from isle to isle, the more distant and isolated each tribe became from each other and from the main land. This continued until most Meresti had lost contact with their Moon elf brethren on the main land and some tribes had lost contact with all other tribes. And during the global cataclysms of the first century, many of the extensive trade routes that the Meresti had developed collapsed. Most Meresti were forced into isolation on their homeland. However, with the end of The Age of Sorrows on the mainland and the resumption and expansion of sea trade and exploration by mainland Moon elves and by Meresti, contact is being reestablished being tribes and with the mainland.

Villages & Hamlets

Sea elves settle in a variety of hamlets and villages. Hamlets, comprising a few households or an extended family or two, are common on the larger volcanic islands. The population usually spreads up the sides of the deep and narrow valleys in clusters of perhaps four to five houses, often with gardens and fruit trees in the immediate vicinity.
On other islands, the communities will construct fortified villages. These communities, usually consists of 30 or more houses connected by a network of paths, are built along the coast.
Houses are built on oval mounds that are faced with rough stone slabs. The typical house is large and open—oval in floor plan, with a thatched roof supported by stout wooden pillars. Meresti hang rolled mats along the eaves, unrolling them as necessary to protect the inhabitants from sun, rain, or the night air. Houses are arranged in orderly fashion within the villages, which in turn are surrounded by a fortification wall of stone or by wooden palisades.

Kinship and Social Hierarchy

Kin groups are the basis for Meresti hierarchies. In general, sea elves trace their ancestry through the male line, back to their mythical past and the founding true-elf ancestor. Families are ranked in relation to that ancestor, his or her greatness in the oral histories of the tribe, and whether that founding ancestor was male or female. All sea elves are expected to know and be able to recite their ancestry back to this founder. Humans or any other non-elf ancestors are omitted from the histories. However, adoption is very common and is used as a way to link families and form alliances.
Meresti societies are hierarchical with social classes that are clearly defined in terms of rights, duties, behaviour, and lifestyle. In many Meresti societies, the chief is the person of highest status, but is regarded by his people as “first among equals.” The chief does not have dictatorial powers, nor does he dress in a manner much different than the rest of the tribe. But, he is the repository of the sacred power of the tribe’s mana (spiritual energy) and a symbol of its ties with the past.

Sea and Garden

The sea provides most of the bounty in the Meresti diet. Fishing is done with spear, line, or net. Meresti have a sublime understanding of the patterns of wind, wave, and fin that allow for great fishing and seafaring. Some, called fish-singers, can even use the power of their mana to summon schools to their canoe. Fish-singers hold a special place in the life of the village and are not allowed to wage war as no village is willing to risk their death. In some tribes, even touching a fish-singer is a grievous taboo.
Although sea elves are mariners above all, they are also devoted gardens and arborists. Using their subtle magicks they call on the spirits of fruit trees and streams to shape themselves into well irrigated fruit grooves. As such Meresti gardens are not hacked out from the forest by hatchets, but grow seamlessly out of the natural forests of the isles.

Technology

Meresti technology relies upon five substances: wood, stone, vegetable fibre, shell, and bone. Canoes, houses, utensils, weapons, religious sculptures, and tools are fashioned from wood with stone or shell axes; stone knives; files made of coral, and drills of bone, stone, or shell. Basalt stone is the hardest material available to sea elves and is used to produce axes. But, with increasing contact with moon elf traders from the main land, tribes have been making use of refined metal tools and weapons.

Magic & Religion

The Meresti make no distinctions between arcane and divine magic. Magic flourishes in Meresti society; led by priests (clerics) and shamans (island druids and warlocks of island fey) everyone engages in rituals to ensure success in love, war, planting, or fishing or to bring misfortune to enemies. Sea elves practice a variant of The Way of The Spirits, in which all things, living and nonliving, are endowed with sacred supernatural power known as mana. And as Wayists on the mainland call on kami (nature spirits) for aid, the priests and shamans of the islands call on the power of mana.
However, sea elves believe in a complex series of taboos or forbidden actions, that can anger mana or dispel their power. As a result, sea elves are always cognizant of their actions and these concerns permeate all aspects of life. For example, Meresti chiefs have great mana—so great, in fact, that in some societies, if a commoner touches the chief’s shadow, only that person’s death could compensate for the injury to the chief’s mana. These taboos vary from island to island and tribe to tribe, making contact between tribes an elaborate exercise in diplomacy and protocol, lest one tribe offend another’s mana and spark conflict. In general, those with the greatest mana and with the greatest number of taboos surrounding them are chiefs, women (due to their ability to bear children), and true-elves.
Mana and taboo are not the only forces that sea elves have to be wary of, however. The world is peopled with spirits of all types, malevolent, benevolent, and mischievous. In addition, a host of gods of varying degrees of importance exist. These range from the great Old Gods to local gods of lagoon, mountain, and grove. All of these are worshipped in their own way; with sacrifices, chants and recitations, and feasting.
As Meresti have no written language, wizards are unknown in their society.

Art & Architecture

Each Meresti village has developed its own particular area of artistic specialty. Some erect monumental stone sculptures, some craft exquisite wooden carvings, others weave highly decorated bark cloth and fine mats, and others make feathered cloaks that according to legend, gift the wearer with flight.
Architecture is highly developed among sea elves, and bear witness to their considerable architectural skill. Their stone temples display striking proportions and design; clever use of stones of different colours, shapes, and textures; and the evidence of sound combination of practical engineering and artistic design.

Relations with Other Races:

Meresti are some of the most isolated people in the known world. As a result they have not had extensive contact with other races or subraces of elves. Their most extensive contact has been with the sailors of moon elf trading vessels. These have established some trading relationships with these vessels, but these contacts have not been without conflict or violence. The race that the sea elves hold in the highest esteem are the true elves, who they regard as legendary heroes and the founders of their family lines.

Your elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of of your true elf ancestry.
Ability Score Increase: Dex +2, Con +1
Size: 5 to over 6 feet tall. Size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, shades of gray.
Keen Senses:  You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Trance:  Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually menatl exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Languages: You can speak Meresti.
Weapon Proficiencies: Spear, clubs, & nets.
Child of the Sea: Swimming speed of 30, and all checks with respect to swimming, diving, and holding breath rolled at advantage.
Master of the Sea: Proficiency in navigation and knowledge of the sea.
Favored Classes: Barbarian, Cleric (Tribal Priest), Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Warlock (Fey pact, Tribal Shaman)
Rare Classes: Artificer, Paladin, Wizard
Life Span: 200-300 years
Homeland: Paradise Islands
__

Parent ethnicities

• Lesser Elves

Related Locations

• Paradise Islands