Merientei
Merientei were a people displaced by the changing world around them. Descendants of the Allorï, they left the shores of northern Tenwä in hopes of finding a new home somewhere beyond the deep blue sea.
The place they found the people named Ullonwï, after the mist-veiled coastline which many of them at first thought a dream. There they landed, the first three ships to make the fourteen day journey from the frozen and dying northern lands.
Later on, as more ships arrived and reconnected with the people of Isänie, a certain unity and camaraderie united them as one people, even as the distance between them grew. Most of the individuals lacked the sort of connection which might have made them one tribe back in their homeland, but here they were all Merientei—Those Who Left.
Culture
Average technological level
Merientei were the first of the northern people to turn to agriculture and the third ones to eventually become sedentary, with permanent settlements popping wherever water flowed. They knew of iron, but had no knowledge of how to work it. Whatever metals they brought from across the sea were the only ones they had, and soon enough had to find alternatives.
Art & Architecture
The old Allorï, and the Eltiri before them, constructed round tents into a circle, creating a campsite called a sëraï. The Merientei were originally neither fully nomadic nor sedentary, and developed their own rudimentary settlements where forest met the salty open air above the northern seas. These were tents dug into the ground, and eventually replaced by fully wooden buildings as both food and the materials required were all plentiful in the region.
Later Architecture
The round shapes of Merientei architecture remained even as they moved on from impermanent tents and half-dug huts. It was only after they came across other cultures that this began to shift, and even then change came slowly and only within some regions. Particularly in the western regions buildings remained round in shape, even as the materials turned to stone, brick and sturdy wood.
In the east, where Merientei came into contact with cultures of the mountains and beyond, did their buildings become more square and rectangular. This was among many ways the cultures between the western and eastern Merientei slowly began to drift apart.
Foods & Cuisine
Merientei were fishermen by nature, and filled the rest of their needs by hunting and gathering. Once settled and familiar with their environment, they also began farming the land with seeds of grain, including merönie which they brought over from the northern lands.
Their food was simple and filling, no matter the contents—the Merientei had neither need nor time for fancy tricks in cooking. But they did enjoy adding herbs, roots and other bits for flavor and texture just to bring some change into what they ate every once in a while.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Much of the magic known to the Merientei was lost over time—the earth and its folk seemed in all ways very different from what they had grown used to, and whatever no longer worked was not taught onward to new generations.
Few things could be made to work again, however. Rituals of planting and harvest were among the yearly rituals, along with festivals of midsummer and midwinter, when something within the currents across time and space allowed for stronger magic to be performed.
Marks
Each Merienti could create a symbol of their own—something to carve into trees and now houses as well. It was partly a way to express their individuality, and partly a declaration: "I was here.". Usual motifs included birds and other fauna, but sometimes various plants and particularly flowers as well.
Funerary and Memorial customs
Merientei found clearings among the woods, where they would bury their dead around a single, central tree. Into the bark of the tree was carved the mark of the deceased, so that should they come around as something less corporeal, they would see the mark and know of their fate. The individual graves were otherwise not marked, only the clearing as a whole could be recognized as such by the central tree.
Those Who Left
Connected Conflicts
Ullonwï Upset
Table of Contents
Names and Naming
Merientei took two names during their lifetimes, along with any nicknames they may receive over their lifetime.
The first name a merienti ever received was given by their parents with the aid of a salawën, a sage dedicated to balance and knowledge.
Alkasana was a name of hope, wish, or a promise. It was thought that a newborn's soul, or self, could be that of an ancestor settling into a new body, and it was the responsibility of the salawën to find out if this was the case in order to choose the proper name.
When a merienti became an adult—after proving themselves an independent individual capable of surviving without a guardian—only then could they take for themselves a second name.
This name was chosen only by the person themselves, based on any of their traits, experiences or achievements. From the day one decided on their ihesana, it became the name others would refer to them.
Only among the closest friends and family could the old alkasana be spoken, as that one was believed to have potential otherworldly influence over the individual, and being allowed to use it was considered a sign of extreme trust.
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