Sama-Sama Laut
The Tau Dilaut people, also known as the Sea Nomads, do not build permanent settlements. They live aboard their ships and in stilt-house villages that they relocate from place to place, following the bounty of the sea. A village may remain for a year or two along a stretch of coastline, only to vanish overnight - relocated a mile, or a hundred miles, down the shore. Yet it is still the same village: the same buildings, the same people, even the same layout, as much as the terrain allows. Only the location has changed - and to the Tau Dilaut, that is the least important thing of all.
Some people think this means they do not build great cities - which is not quite true.
They build one city, over and over again.
The Sea-Gathering
Sama-Sama Laut is the city of the Tau Dilaut. Its name means "The Sea-Gathering," and it is built whenever the Tau Dilaut decide they want it.
This decision is not made by decree, but by a kind of consensus. When two Tau Dilaut ships meet, they trade news and gossip - and they always ask where the other is headed. Sometimes, one will answer, "I'm going to Sama-Sama Laut, wherever it might be." If the other ship would also like to go to the Sea-Gathering, they reply, "Let us go there together," and continue on as a pair.
At the next village, they announce that they are going to Sama-Sama Laut - and perhaps the villagers promise to see them there. Over time - and faster than one might imagine - the Sea-Gathering takes shape. Eventually, someone looks around at how many Tau Dilaut have gathered nearby and declares:
"We have arrived! Welcome to Sama-Sama Laut!"
A City on the Sea
Once the first Tau Dilaut arrive at Sama-Sama Laut, word spreads quickly. Boats and villages vanish from the surrounding region as all the Tau Dilaut who can travel make their way to the Sea-Gathering.
Each iteration of the town gains a nickname to distinguish it from those that came before - Sama-Sama Laut sa Talinghaga, the Sea-Gathering of the Riddle, or Sama-Sama Laut ni Buntala, the Sea-Gathering under the Starfall. These nicknames are often given as the city is being built, but they are not considered final until the current iteration has ended - especially if momentous events occurred during its time.
In the oral histories of the Tau Dilaut, the incarnations of Sama-Sama Laut serve as milestones. All events are remembered by when they happened in relation to a Sea-Gathering.
The More Things Change...
Regardless of where a particular incarnation of Sama-Sama Laut is formed, the layout of the town remains as constant as possible. Each village becomes a neighborhood of the Sea-Gathering, and they know who their neighbors will be. Gaps are left for those who have not yet arrived, so that every family and community can nestle into their place in Sama-Sama Laut. Within just a few days, the town comes to life - but those who have been there before can find their way as easily as a native of any landbound town in the Great Ring.
At the heart of Sama-Sama Laut lies the temple of the Laut - though it may not seem a temple to those unfamiliar with the ways of the Tau Dilaut. It is a stretch of open water, with a flower-covered shrine floating at its center. On one side, the temple is open to the sea - the gateway through which the Laut may come and commune with the people. On the other, it is embraced by the boats of the Tau Dilaut, lashed together and anchored to form a great arc that marks the temple's edge.
Several rituals are performed within the temple of the Laut while it persists. To own one of the ships that forms the temple arc is a mark of great honor and prestige among the Tau Dilaut. A new ship is only added when another is lost, and competition for any open position is often fierce.
Friends and Families
The arrival at Sama-Sama Laut is a time to reunite with old friends - and to create new families. Matchmakers, both professional and amateur, make their rounds, visiting every boat and household. Weddings are celebrated almost daily throughout the Sea-Gathering, accompanied by music, dancing, and feasts shared between villages.
Children are carried from home to home to be marveled over by distant relations - sometimes as a first introduction, sometimes simply to show how much they've grown. Once their visits are done, the children are freed to run through Sama-Sama Laut, and more than one lifelong friendship began at the Sea-Gathering.
Memorial services are also held. Small boats bearing the ashes of the departed are set adrift upon the water in a final farewell, guided by candles and prayers, until the sea receives them.
The Business of the Sea
The Sea-Gathering is also the time when the Tau Dilaut discuss matters of importance to them all. News is shared and debated from across the region - the state of the fish, the omens of the sea and sky, rumors of war, and the movements of great powers.
When decisions must be made, the leaders of each village and boat come together in council. These sessions often extend late into the night, lit by lanterns and filled with the sound of urgent voices and quiet wisdom.
When they depart Sama-Sama Laut, each vessel will chart its own course - but the decisions made here usually ensure that their paths align, or at least run close. And in time, they will meet again - probably in Sama-Sama Laut.
Leaving Sama-Sama Laut
No gathering lasts forever. After a week, a month, or a season, the Tau Dilaut begin to move on once more.
There is no formal ceremony for leaving Sama-Sama Laut. One boat may decide to follow the fish to a particular region; a village may choose to harvest sugarcane along a distant stretch of shore. They make their farewells, and they go. Each parting is softened by the knowledge that they will all meet again - in Sama-Sama Laut, in a year or two.
Newlyweds are often the first to depart, slipping away in small boats to find a private cove for a month of solitude and celebration. But once the departures begin, the city dissolves quickly. The stilt-houses vanish from the shores, and the boats become dots on the horizon. Yet each departure carries a promise, spoken or unspoken:
"I will see you again, in Sama-Sama Laut."
The Empty Places
The town of Sama-Sama Laut is rebuilt from memory each time - and it has memory in its bones. When a family or a village is lost to tragedy, an empty space is left for them in Sama-Sama Laut. All who see it know who should be there, and will ask after them.
If their fate is unknown, the Tau Dilaut will seek it out. If it is no mystery, their story will be shared, and the missing will be mourned.
Occasionally, an empty place will be filled again - a long-lost boat returns, miraculously, and all rejoice. But sometimes, the tragedy demands that the Tau Dilaut seek restitution or vengeance. Though the retribution of the Sea Nomads is rare, it can be terrible.
When the Mekongga came to Lahat a century and a half ago, they left many gaps in the fabric of Sama-Sama Laut. For a decade afterward, their nets brought no fish, and their ships vanished at sea without a trace. Only when the new King of Lahat came to Sama-Sama Laut with gifts and apologies did they relent - but they did not forgive, or forget.
The Living Ships
More than any other people, the Tau Dilaut cherish and seek out the Wavewood Trees that float upon The Middlesea. They believe these living tree-ships are the reincarnations of lost vessels.
According to Tau Dilaut tradition, any ship that sails for more than a few decades gains a soul - and when that ship is lost, its spirit will quicken one of the drifting Wavewood seeds. From that seed grows a vessel unlike any other: alive, aware, and waiting to be sailed once more.
Many among the Tau Dilaut sail upon these living ships, easily recognized by their green sails and hulls that flex and creak like growing wood. And there is no place where more of them are gathered than at Sama-Sama Laut.
You can read more about the Wavewood Trees here:
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This article was originally written for Spooktober 2024. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
This article was originally written for Spooktober 2023. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
I adore this concept for the settlement that keeps being rebuilt. I love the idea, the symbolism, the connection between seafarers combined with the ever shifting nature both of its 'geography' when it forms and of where it forms. Very much feels as if one with the ocean and her whims itself. I didn't know how appropriate such an idea felt until I read this article, however being of a seaside culture originally myself (I'm a Newfoundlander by birth and though I've lived on the mainland most of me life, the sea, whenever I do visit home, is what feels the most like home. Its what feels the most odd being away from. I swear it isn't just cultural, its something in the blood when you are born that close to it.) This concept sings to that deep seed of a seafarer, as something that simply feels like a truth. Its just an extension of the natural 'bond' unspoken that exists between mariners. I like this a lot, well written :) Certainly tucking this away in the collection.
Wow - thank you so much for your comment - it has made my day!