"Everyone on Ceres swims. Not just in the water — in numbers, in trust, in the tides of history. We are never dry. We are never alone."

— Fau Kala, Technocrat of Ceres

Children of the Ocean

Ceresians are the human population of the ocean world Ceres, a people born of the Pacific Rim and Pacific Islands transplanted during the Solar Commonwealth Era. Chosen originally for their expertise with the sea, kelp cultivation, and intertidal ecosystems, these colonists found themselves paired with Uplifted orcas and Tankbrain octopuses in a new experiment of symbiosis. The centuries that followed forged them into a distinct ethnicity: comfortable with risk, calm under pressure, and effortlessly aquatic. Every Ceresian swims — to be unable is to be marked as alien. Their reputation for magnanimity, humor, and easygoing slang often obscures a deeper analytical streak. They joke in a crisis, not because they don’t feel the weight, but because it keeps them steady when the stakes are oceans deep.

Naming Traditions

Ceresian names descend from their Pacific heritage, often Polynesian, Filipino, Japanese, or Southeast Asian in origin. Surnames frequently derive from geography, water, or ancestry, though some families adopt names tied to the finance culture of Unionhouse Veylan. It’s not unusual to find names like Makai (“towards the sea”) alongside Veylan-linked hybrids.

• Feminine names: Leilani, Kahea, Suki, Marisol, Hana, Tiare, Kaila, Yumi, Alamea, Lani.
• Masculine names: Makoa, Hiro, Keoni, Takeshi, Mateo, Rangi, Paulo, Kenji, Niko, Ikaika.
• Unisex names: Kai, Noa, Manu, Kanoa, Akira, Soli, Makani, Tui, Sora, Awa.

Family names may shift fluidly, with some children taking a matrilineal line, others a patronym, and others adopting a new surname based on a meaningful event.

Culture and Traditions

Birth & Baptismal Rites
When a child is born, families gather at the ocean’s edge. The newborn is briefly dipped in the sea to symbolize their place in the eternal tide, then carried back to shore where relatives sing old island songs mixed with new chants referencing vaults, currents, and prosperity. In some communities, children are tagged with a luminous wrist-band — a symbolic “ledger entry” marking their life as a future contributor to the balance of trust.

Coming of Age Rites
At sixteen, a Ceresian youth participates in the Moana Trial. They dive from one of the floating vault islets into the deep, swimming as far as they can with only a knife and a light. The goal isn’t to fight anything, but to bring back something from the ocean floor — a shell, a fishbone, or a fragment of wreckage. It marks them as adults who can provide for themselves, even in the deep.

Funerary and Memorial Customs
Ceresians reject the idea of permanence in death. Most are surrendered to the ocean, weighted and dropped into the sea, where the tides take them. Families gather for a Night of Lanterns, lighting floating lamps or bioluminescent drones that drift across the waves. Their eulogies emphasize celebration over mourning: “the tide comes, the tide goes, and all things return.” In some cases, the departed’s name is also entered in the “Family Ledger,” an ongoing digital record stored in the Unionhouse archives.

Shared Customs and Values

• Magnanimity & Humor: A Ceresian will often crack jokes in tense moments, diffusing fear with laughter. Outsiders may mistake this for flippancy, but it is ritual — humor is ballast against panic.
• Fluid Community: They don’t obsess over hierarchy. A Ceresian crew or company organizes around capability, and leadership flows like a current.
• The Ledger of Trust: Unionhouse Veylan’s influence left cultural scars; to a Ceresian, trust is wealth. To betray it is the highest taboo.

Dress and Appearance

Ceresians typically have dark hair, dark eyes, copper-tanned skin, and swimmer’s builds. Centuries of mingling with Unionhouse Veylan administrators has slimmed their builds slightly and brought out subtle variations, but their heritage is obvious.

Day-to-day clothing is practical: lightweight wetsuit-jumpsuits, board shorts, skirts, or loose tropical shirts, often with Unionhouse Veylan insignia somewhere on the person. For more formal occasions, they wear garments that blend Pacific traditional styles with finance-culture austerity — dark jackets with wave motifs, gowns embroidered with kelp patterns, or jewelry made of polished chit graphite.

Food & Cuisine

Ceresian food is heavy on fish, kelp, seaweed, and urchin roe, often dried or smoked for convenience. Spiced algae stews remain a staple, flavored with imported seasonings like turmeric, chili, or soy. Offworld imports are a beloved luxury, with ramen and sashimi considered delicacies. Tankbrains contributed to cuisine with their experiments, producing strange hybrid “fusion foods” — often brilliant, sometimes inedible.

Romance and Relationships

Courtship tends to be playful and communal. Couples flirt in water games or night-dances along the shore, and a proposal often involves a gift crafted from the sea — a carved coral ring, or a necklace woven from kelp fibers. Families are closely involved in marriages, but rarely domineering; they expect to approve, but not dictate.

Ceresian marriages are sealed with a Ledger of Two, a symbolic digital account into which the couple “invests” their vows. Divorce is framed not as betrayal but as liquidation — sad, but not shameful.

Common Taboos

• Betraying Trust: Lies in finance or personal loyalty are unforgivable.
• Despoiling the Ocean: Wasting food, damaging reefs, or polluting waters is seen as sacrilege.
• Cowardice in Water: To refuse to swim, dive, or face the tide is seen as a rejection of what it means to be Ceresian.

Ideals

• Beauty Ideals: Strong shoulders, lean muscles, and smooth swimmer’s builds are prized. Tattoos of waves, sharks, or spirals are common markers of identity. Always and forever a healthy glowing tan.
• Courtship Ideals: Playful dares, water sports, and dancing are the most common forms of showing interest.
• Relationship Ideals: A couple is strongest when they keep each other calm “when the tide is high.”