Oldpelt District

The Oldpelt District is a district out of time. Traditional selkie architecture, with its coral-packed flooring and weaving-wrapped pillars, is used here far more exclusively than throughout the rest of Halamahi - which wears its foreign influences on its sleeves. The Oldpelts have broad avenues and urban gardens, fewer stories on their buildings and more domesicated livestock in the public commons.   This is the traditionalist district in the city of Halamahi. It was once the robust capital of the politically-organized Oldpelts of Motosui: ancient families that have lived on this island for millennia. The Oldpelts are no longer politically organized, though, and many who once lived here are now in other parts of the island or have left to abandon their status entirely. The old traditions and traditional atmosphere remain, though. Many here are still Oldpelts, especially in the district's core, but even the newcomers keep up many of their traditions and aesthetics. They keep their homes in the old style and wear ancient fashions with shell jewelry.   There is a nostalgic tourist value to this ancient aesthetic. People visit to try and connect with their Selkie Culture or to buy goods or medicines carrying ancestral blessings. The crafts here include many ancient styles of craft that are said to bring good luck on the open ocean. Medicines and foods are also sold here that are said to carry "the secret power of ancestral wisdom" - and certainly, they are old remedies and foods farmed in very old ways. Taro porridge is eaten here even as many other selkies have turned to rice, yams, or wheat porridges abroad; visitors aren't used to the taste, but the alienness of it makes it feel special.   The Oldpelt District is inhabited by craftspeople of many types: weavers, carpenters, herbalists, doctors, leatherworkers, smiths, tinkerers, and even alchemists. While a core of Oldpelt artisans keep to the ancient ways of making things, plenty of artisans here use techniques from around the world to make all styles of things.   While the Oldpelt District makes quite a lot of goods for tourist and visitor consumption, the district has a pronounced snootiness and exclusivity to it. Outsiders are tolerated as long as they spend money, but are not well liked if they leave the designated tourist spaces. People from other districts of Halamahi are fine, but some fresh-docked sea nomad who thinks that they are entitled to act like a native just because they passed the Test of the Depths? They are the butts of jokes and the target of exclusion.   While the core Oldpelt communities are better off economically, there are a number of poor districts here that mix craftspeople and common laborers. These poorer districts often keep the traditional aesthetics and community spirit, but are less tourist-oriented.   The Kamahep criminal syndicate is oddly well-entrenched in this district thanks to years of recruiting disenfranchised youth here to better act as locally-oriented smugglers.   There are a few interesting places in the Oldpelt District:

• The House of Memories is the old town hall of the district that once served as the political headquarters for the major Oldpelt organization. The old local government and Oldpelt governments have collapsed, but the space has become a district meeting hall and museum co-opted by the Hanahai. Old artifacts of selkie culture and Hamekun are kept here for visiting tourists, and locals meet to discuss district issues in the old meeting hall. Major holidays often use the space as well.