Kanaka Helu
- The group are nomadic, having all left their old societies for specific reasons that lead them to start travelling. They travel around a vast nation, around which many people groups are based. Most of their members come from five cultural groups, which are linked to five regions around the ocean. These are definitely not the only groups, but they're the largest. Within the ocean there are large numbers of small islands, and long island chains and so on. Most of the ocean is featureless, and the vast majority of the time you spend travelling you will not be seeing any land at all. Travelling around it accurately needs an enormous level of skill in navigation. Many of the islands are not claimed by these cultural groups at all. and are entirely unaffiliated.
Each of the main regions' ex-citizens are equally valued, and every skill is greatly appreciated by the rest of the group, either for ways it can be used practically, or for entertainment, as long as its owner does not grow arrogant concerning it. Most of the regions are extremely racially diverse, with the only exceptions being the wood nation, where the vast majority of people are pale skinned, and the earth nation, where a tiny minority of people are pale skinned. While the statures and builds vary, living on the sea requires a high level of physical fitness, so people are always physically fit, even if their range covers into larger girthed people.
The group land frequently on various islands, although they're very capable of surviving purely on the sea if they want to. Because of their nomadic lifestyles, they don't practice much traditional farming themselves, instead relying on low-maintenance crops, on gathering food from islands, on very small crops they can take with them, or on trading to gain vegetables and fruits to eat. The only exception to this is in seaweed. They largely eat purely seafood and easily dried food while on the ocean, and are enormously innovative with ways to survive in harsh environments. Because they move to so many places, they are masterful at quickly building new shelters for themselves, and often leave strange abandoned villages with open houses for other villages to find later.
Giving birth at sea, or recovering from illness at sea, is not the easiest thing, and so often pregnant people and the wounded and the old will stay for a few years at a time with other villages until they're fully recovered, or their children are big enough to manage safely on the boats, or they feel they can wait no longer to be back on the open sea. If no villages are populated in the right area when someone becomes clearly pregnant, they will occasionally settle on an island for a few years themselves.
Because they travel around so much, they are often used as messengers and traders by other societies. They can transport anything that can be taken on a boat to any other village reliably and market this to get free food. They don't really use money, so will only trade for it very rarely when they can directly see the trades they can make with it, and they also have very poor bartering skills. They will happily trade animals or seeds if they think it will be too hard to look after them on the sea for them to be worth keeping.
Each cultural group brings its own religious norms and practices, meaning that they have an extremely wide pantheon between them. Other cultural aspects may be shared between the groups by individuals who like specific ideas, leading to their own distinct cultural flavour as a group.
They have very little military force between them, of course, which means they rely on quick wits to survive any conflicts they manage to get into.
Arts are generally very appreciated, with music and singing being a great way to maintain high cheer while out on the ocean, even during storms, and not resulting in huge amounts of stuff to transport. Dancing is, however, not so good an idea, and is rare on the boats... which of course means that there are huge dances whenever they land after a long journey.
Each society traces kinship in different ways, but one of the few things held by all members of the group is that children can be useful while also having fun, so most children will spend some of each day helping one of their parents. This time adds up to be roughly equal to a year trying out their parents' career, so they start trying other careers a year later.
There are no people who are purely farmers. Everyone who "works" as a farmer is also either a gatherer or a hunter. Likewise most hunters and gatherers are also able to do one of the other food gathering techniques. Everyone learns how to fish, as it's unavoidably a useful skill while on the sea. While there's no one to defend from or nowhere to scout out, warriors take boats out into the water and work as fishers instead.
I'm fine with you rolling other rare races than my examples too, if they're rare. Just like. ask me first if they're new? I'm kinda trying to represent each culture which is round the Pacific before I start replicating!
- The earth nations can be found to the west. They have the most varied type of environment compared to other areas. It's not particularly built up, due to the enormous land area, meaning that most of it is still forest. There's a lot of very intricate architecture due to the very traditional lifestyles and being settled there for many generations. There are only a few islands and they're mostly pretty large and rocky.
Earth nations tend to greatly value hard work, honesty and openness. They're seen as the most trustworthy groups. They have the greatest abilities to work alongside and tame animals, and their diligence makes them the best farmers. They also tend to be best at using the stars to navigate.
They love art and visual creativity, and tend to use this to express their emotions rather than in speech and so on. This means they often have intricately designed clothing or jewelry and so on. They rarely separate out their casual and their formal clothes at all, meaning they always dress to be very practical despite hte intricate appearances. They practice scarification, alongside the fire nations. This can take the form of tattoos for them, as well. People will almost all get some sort of scarification for their initiation rites into adulthood, though many will also get additional ones just because they appreciate the appearance of them.
While tsunamis are common in the territory, people have long since worked out where the risky areas are and have stopped living there.
Humans
- Being the only fully natural creatures in the group, they have the closest links with the natural world. This gives them the greatest instincts for how to handle animals, and many have animal-themed abilities. Those who don't have animal abilities have earthy powers instead, with healing being more common than actual geokinesis.
- Pasatsat are linked to bodies which have been improperly buried... or so it's thought. It's not their fault they have ghost-like powers.
Metal
- The Metal nations are the most heavily populated, being the only one where many people really live in cities. They actually have industry and some places have skyscrapers! There's not very much land space at all, but it's very resource rich, and between their access to precious materials and their skills in metal-work they have become the richest region. They can be found in a very small area to the South West of the great ocean, surrounded by other areas.
Metal peoples tend to be the best with metal work, such as creating weapons, or creating tools, or creating intricate metal work such as jewelry. Many people here believe in a system similar to the Chinese Zodiac.
They have the best funded and biggest military of any of the nations.
Knocker
Knockers love mining even more than the other metal races. They' can turn themselves invisible, and all either can control metal and earth, or can predict incoming disaster. They rarely work alone.
Example Rare Race: Sarkany
- Sarkanys have a slightly draconic appearance. Their abilities are themed along physical enhancements and weather or storm control, with more physical enhancements meaning less weather-themed abilities.
Water
- The water lands are at the northern end of the great ocean. They often freeze over entirely in the winter, and are broken up into many islands and so on. The land itself often features huge amounts of mountains, of tundra, of fjords, and of taigas, with even some cold deserts. Their inland areas are largely formed from glaciers and old glacial valleys.
Most people dress in animal skins to keep warm, meaning that they're abundant throughout. Because they have little access to dyes, they normally wear very dark and dull coloured clothes. Fishing is the main form of food gathering, meaning everyone grows highly skilled in fishing and in maintaining their boats and fishing materials.
The water lands seem to be far less populated than other areas, until you consider that many of the water races live on the sea floor. In fact, the vast majority of the population does. Only a very few; those who do occasionally need air, and those with a curiosity about the outside; will ever be found by other races, meaning water races are the most mysterious to outsiders.
Lots of random islands are occupied by water people. They tend to choose places with swamps, large bays, mangroves, or cliff areas.
Selkie
- Selkies are shape-shifters, who use the skins of animals to transform. They always have a seal form, thanks to being born in seal form. They always have abilities to survive better in the water than most races, and to outlast cold better, no matter what form.
- Mermaids have their own society separate from everyone else beneath the sea. Not all mermaids have fish tails, but most do, and they always have aquatic lower halves. Mermaids can survive in any water, and can breathe amphibiously. Mermaids can often either have auditory themed abilities or control water.
Wood
- The wood nations are to the east of the great ocean. They are made of temperate forests, with fewer outlying islands than other nations. They also have the most islands that other nations assume are theirs but have no real occupants. Everywhere around the great ocean has at least some mountains, and those of the wood nations are aligned neatly in long lines and are extremely tall. To the south, the wood types fade into being more typical of rainforests.
The wood nations also have a connection with air, and are often thought of as air by other groups. Earthquakes are fairly common here. They are thought of as being the most peaceful by other groups.
They enjoy either very floaty or very colourful clothes, with silk being their favourite material to build clothes from.
Wood nation peoples tend to be the best at identifying edible foods, identifying useful herbal plants, and identifying how the wind is travelling. They also tend to be the most academic, though they never share knowledge they think will lead to people being harmed, they tend to be very pessimistic about this, meaning that they're seen as keeping the information for themselves and being selfish.
Patupaiarehe (the patupai)
- The Patupai are always white, and are the only race where this is true. Patupai - normally - live deep within the forest, where they practice woodland magic to control the trees, and develop tree-themed abilities.
- Tennin are like fairies. They're smaller than most races. Tennin can all fly, and most can perform weak magic.
Fire
- The fire nations are a mixture of volcanoes and hot desert areas, with occasional pampas, prairies, and non-volcanic mountains. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are both common. They have the fewest settlers from other groups here, for reasons that become clear from their environment. Even within the fire nations, there are the highest proportions of nomads.
All fire races are resistant to the effects of extreme high temperatures. They are the most religious of the regions. They can be found to the South East of the great ocean.
Because their lands are the hottest, they tend to wear the least of any group in their homes... and by far the most outside their homes. They enjoy clothes with features of bright warm colours and geometric patterns. Scarification is a common ritual here, like among the earth nations, but is more likely to represent significant adult achievements.
The fire races are the best at cooking, by far, and are good at refining metals (not so good at working with them). They also tend to be the happiest to take nightwatches. They are the most serious and superstitious. Many people here believe in a system similar to the Mayan Zodiac.
Cherufe
- Cherufe are deeply religious and practice animal sacrifice, setting dead creatures on fire to appease their gods. They use volcanic rocks to perform magic. Those with weaker affinities for magic tend to have greater affinities for controlling fire, or magma, or lava. They are often extremely misunderstood for their religious practices.
- Jinn are rare among rare. They are potentially almost omnipotent. Jinn are obligated to grant the wishes of those who explicitly wish for things in front of them, whether or not they meant to. However, they cannot grant their own wishes, or the wishes of other Jinn, and they hate being seen as granters of free stuff, so all but the very most naive will look for any loopholes they can before granting wishes, and will normally settle on the worst outcome for the asker, to help discourage more people asking. Jinn can be forced to fit inside containers by someone wishing for this to happen, and the wily nature of Jinns mean that this has been the fate of a very large number of them over the years, causing the population to dwindle.
Dark Crystal is located deep under the ground. Most pass them over without even noticing that they're even there, and that's how the residents of this Village prefer it. It is found in the middle of the Black Crystal Caves, somewhat like being in the heart of a labyrinth. This also helps keep them from any potential predators, since the caves weave and wind and tend to confuse most that enter that are not familiar with them.
that live here have to have good eyes for seeing int he dark, and aren't too fond of the sunlight. Some that can be found in Black Crystal are: Dwarf, Goblin, Vampire, certain types of animalkin and shifters (bats, lizards, etc.), and occasionally certain elementals. Others can join, of course, but it's unlikely since most can't commit themselves to living underground.
I'd like to request a Goblin for my founder! 
