Genasi

Of all the sentient species in the world of Amathar, the only one with the largest diaspora population -- by some estimates up to 90% of the Genasi in Amathar live in multi-generational diasporic communities, with many never having stepped foot on their ancestral homeland. Genasi originally hail from the Three Sisters (also known as the Islands of Iskariyya), and to the Genasi as Jazd-i-Nast, which means "Islands of Creation" referencing these islands as the birthplace of their species, and their culture and identity as a people.

Amathar is home to a great variety of Genasi sub-types: the main elementals of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, as well as several others including Storm, Ice, Smoke, and Gem (of which themselves have a great variety). Each have unique cultural, etc traits of their own, each with different relationships to their homeland, and often forming their own communities amongst themselves both in the remaining communities in their homeland, but more importantly amongst diaspora. Because so much of the population of Amathari Genasi are diasporic, it is not uncommon for "mixed marriages" between different Genasi subgroups incredibly common. This has a dual effect of on the one hand, making the majorty of Genasi diasporic culture more "uniform" and common to all Genasi, regardless of what type, but equally of creating a much more diverse and syncretic Genasi culture, picking bits from every Genasi group. Likewise, depending on where a Genasi has settled, there may be a smaller or larger community of local Genasi, causing a phenomenon of not only mixed families of diffrent types of Genasi, but also Genasi marrying non-Genasi partners, most often of the dominant ethnic group/species in the region of Amathar which they have decided to call their home.

The reasons why the Genasi people left their homeland are many, complex, and hotly debated by scholars as many Genasi themselves can no longer remember the exact reasons, and as the original exodus was so long ago it has long ago been mythologised numerous times. Some say they were cursed by their gods for some long-forgotten offense, doomed and condemned to forever wander the world, never to settle in their ancient and holy homeland again. Some say because they are elemental creatures biologically linked to the fey realm, they were blessed -- or cursed, depending on who you ask -- with an inherent, supernatural, magical desire to travel and wander, to find all the wild and forgotten places of Amathar, and settle and claim them, connecting them to the Fey realm, just a little bit. The Genasi elders in the communities which do still remain on their home isles tell conflicting tales; some say that the diasporic Genasi are the descendants of a population which was sent away, long ago, in time of great calamity in hopes of preserving at least some of the people; others tell story of internal strife within the Genasi people and a faction -- arguably the larger one -- left for the shores of the mainland, and according to the people who tell the story this way, abandoning their people in their hour of need. There are, of course, more mundane explanations as well, such as the many wars of conquest and successive imperial colonisation projects on the islands by Ashmum, Lakash, and Laźdak. Another similar, more "scientific" explanation is that the Three Sisters, being islands, could only sustain so much population, so feeling the pressures of nature and geography, vast swathes of their population left for better opportunities elsewhere.

These days, most Genasi are diasporic in settlement, and as such exist within two worlds at all times, perfectly capable of communicating and functioning within both: first and foremost, general Genasi culture which is common to most, if not all, Genasi groups. Second, the diasporic culture they exist within -- following naming convenions, language, customs, etc of both cultures at the same time with ease. For example, most Genasi will have a name in their own language which they use amongst themselves and within other Genasi communities, and a name in the common language/culture/paradigms of the diasporic community in which they live. For example, a Storm Genasi living in Hawlila, the City of Starlight, would typically have a Genasi name following her own people's conventions, and also a Common name following the conventions and culture of the people of Hawlila, with whom she was raised and interacts with on a daily basis.