Carribards

Example Female Names: Chidi Bosede of the Charlock; Legrand Granger of The North Castle; Aude Guérin of The Alton; Aishatu Soucy of Peric; Thérèse Planque of The Black Sail

Example Male Names: Jean-Paul Bellamy of The Bullfinch; Temitope Leclercq of Northhampton; André Nicéphore of The Alton; Émeric Lane of Hide-Tide Harbor, Fernand Clair of The Roaring Rascal

Carribards hold a very unique naming convention amongst humans. Their names when written formally are 'Given Name Family name of Location or Ship'. But usually, the Carribards will simply go by 'Given Name of Location or Ship'. The second name can and does change when unique conditions arise; Such as the building of a new ship.

The Carribard Confederacy is a loose grouping of many island states a way off the coast of the Armusian States. They have been a trading partner of the Armusians since before they grouped together and vassalized themselves to the Brother Church, and as such the faith is fairly common among the Carribard. This similarity wasn’t strong enough for them to consider vassalization however, as the Carribard have an extremely strong individualist attitude, which has driven them to colonize their own islands far and wide, and also leads them to be very common in the human colonies on Anoma. The islands of the Carribard confederacy are very fertile, and they widely grow a spice akin to a form of caffeinated cocoa. Often there are simply many more people than can work the available spice fields, causing many to take up fishing and sailing early on in their society’s development. This rapidly grew into a strong naval trading tradition. Once the Gravicans began their societal ascent, hired privateering picked up massively to support this tradition, to the point where one in four Carribard young adults worked aboard privateering vessels.   As such, Carribard vessels are the most advanced in terms of shipbuilding, and every new sail rigging in the past hundred years has come from Carribard privateers searching for an edge on their quarry. It is this dominance in the water that has prevented them from being destroyed on more than one occasion in the past hundred years, as their privateering trade began to dry up. When this happened, a large portion of Carribard society was watching their livelihoods disappear, and, instead of going quietly to this fate, they, in large part, turned to piracy. While the Carribard government maintained an official stance of anti-piratical activities, they also did not make any effort to stop pirates or stop their goods from flowing through the islands. Though things are somewhat tense between them and the other mainland human empires, relations are significantly worse between them and every other race, who they are known to terrorize the shipping of mercilessly. In return for their government’s hands-off approach to their activities, on multiple occasions fleets of Carribard pirates have met up to defend the islands from fleets of enemies attempting to end their little nation. They have even been known to attack invading fleets of other species as well to protect the Armusians and Gravicans, if the reward is good. Because of this, Carribard are known throughout the expanse of the world for their far-flung fleets and naval expertise, and they are some of the most common people on Anoma due to their wide-ranging nature.   Almost all Carribards speak Carrib and Common.

Religion

Those Carribards of the Brother Church almost exclusively worship Anomalous , as he is generally thought to have powers over those men who sail the chaotic, turbulent seas, and the Carribards strongly desire anything which might help them on the water. Beyond this, there are several cults to Dirgodog, the ancient, malevolent dragon-serpent of sea monsters. It is said that sometimes the most wealthy and successful of Carribard pirates will make blood and gold sacrifice to Dirgodog for improved knowledge of ship design, or, alternatively, that many of them sacrificed greatly in order to get ships of marvelous design, which then made them highly successful. Either way, those ships who worship Dirgodog tend to be the most interested in taking slaves, as sacrifice to their dark deity.  

Family

Of the humans, Carribards see their family as the least important. Generally speaking, they will have a lot of children, and raise them to want to get out of the house and join ships, or start their own families early. Though they are still raised in a family unit like all humans, their culture strongly incentivizes travelling and living aboard ships, and so many carribards will leave the home as young as 14 to join a ship to work on, unless they're one of the first few kids born, who generally will help around the house or farm. Because of this, many Carribards identify more closely with their crew or community more closely than with their own family.  

Food

Bland food is disdained by the Carribard people. Because of all the spices, tropical fruits, tropical nuts, and other such exotic flavor packed foods the Carribard diet could be considered 'explosive' to a non-Carribard. These people intake drinks like rum and coffee, eat foods like Mangoes, spiced vegetables, and flame-broiled meat. The dessert of choice to the Carribards is a pie made from eight spices, eight fruits, and eight types of grains.

Carribards live in an extremely hot climate, and thus tend to wear light, airy clothing, usually made of colorful cloth which they gather on their journeys. Many Carribards like to gather interesting or bright bolts of fabric to make themselves clothing from the ports they visit, and will wear a bolt of this special cloth as a sash, or occasionally stitch their whole outfits from the colorful cloths.  

Accessories

Most Carribards carry a saber with them at all times, as soon as they've gotten enough money to purchase one, and the most common martial art is the Sabre Vegtre, which almost all Carribards learn at least some of. Beyond this, Carribards are fans of rings of almost all sorts, as long as they aren't easy to snatch in combat, and most will attempt to gather a plethora of jewelry. They value this jewelry for it's color and lustre rather than what many might consider the quality of the cuts in the stones, which sets them apart from their Armusian cousins.

To a Carribard, there is no art like that of making a beautiful ship, which slices through the waves like a snake cuts across the dunes of a desert. Except, perhaps, a good Spice Brew, and dinner to go with it, but even this is but a pale second to their elegant, swift ship designs. Finally, the Carribards have a group of martial arts, and most ships will have one or more master of one of these martial arts to teach to the other people aboard the ship. Frequently they will practice in land side tournaments for these arts to test who's practices are best.

The Carribards have no major setllements on Anoma. Perhaps you can change this.   In the old world, the most famous port, aside from perhaps Armus, is Ribbari, the Jewel of the Carribards. It is said that anything can be found being traded in this city, and it has never been conquered by a foreign empire through the efforts of the privateers and pirates who call it home. Indeed, it has become a neutral ground in the Old World, where any two nations might meet to do negotiations on even ground.