The Emikun
"Imber wept for the world, and out of that sorrow were born Her children - the seafarers, the great hunters, they who do not fear the depths."
Of the races of ikayal that still walk the world, it is possible that the emikun are the oldest - fitting, as they are children of the ancient sea. They are creatures of both land and water, belonging fully to neither; their legends and histories are as numerous as the waves on the ocean's surface. The emikun were once the most isolated of their brethren; after the loss of their ancestral lands, it would appear their elders have realised that they too are part of mortal affairs - and that solitude has become dangerous.
For the sea is no friend to mortals, and its secrets are beginning to stir.
The Shore-Dwellers
"Reckless? No, I wouldn't say that. They're creatures of the sea, and the sea just... leaves a mark."
Much knowledge was lost in the upheaval of the sky, enough so that it is no longer clear where the emikun originated from. According to them, they are children of the Clever Hoarfrost Wolf - a prospect which has sometimes been called blasphemous. It is more likely that, similar to other ikayal races, their distant ancestors encountered a tangled ley line locus - perhaps over the ocean - which altered their physiology.
The emikun are marked out most notably by their aquatic characteristics, which are practically impossible to ignore. The face, arms and legs usually have scales instead of skin, ranging across any of the possible colours that may be found in fish, and which are somewhat tougher than regular skin - though not as much as their fellow ikayal, the ulfar.
Webbed feet and hands are also common, which help contribute to their acrobatic movement underwater; in rarer cases, emikun may also be born with tails, also covered in scales. They tend to have larger and flatter eyes, which usually lie between brown and yellow.
Regardless of their origins, the emikun were the Archipelago's first inhabitants - and since most of the other races of that era have since died out, it is a testament to their resilience that the emikun still thrive today. Some claim that their survival is only due to a lack of competition, as few if any other aquatic ikayal races have been documented. This is a less than compelling argument when one considers the beasts that hunt the deeps.
Dredging the Depths
"In my opinion, the fact that so few ikayal fear the open ocean is because of the emikun's work - their reassuring familiarity with the sea, and their unmatched ability to kill the things that emerge from it."
"Reckless" may not be quite the correct term to describe this race of ikayal; "fearless" is perhaps a better term. The various magical anomalies across Wyral that result from tangled ley lines, unwise experiments and ancient castings are difficult enough on land; within the oceans, where the flow of wyr is not fully understood, danger is even more of a constant presence.
If only the emikun cared about that.
These seafaring societies value strength and courage above all else - regardless of how it is seen to the outside world. They wear functional clothing, are rarely seen without some kind of weapon, and regard scars as symbols of honour.
Emikun settlements are almost always situated on coastlines, often near river deltas. They sprawl not only across the land but into the oceans, as well: mapping out the tides and currents, the inhabitants can make way for some buildings. These out-of-bounds structures are made of stone and seem related to birthing - a process that the emikun never speak of with outsiders. Aside from the more secretive functions of the underwater section, it also provides the emikun with safe havens to flee to in storms, or the knowledge with which to guide ships.
On land, it is difficult to see order to the way emikun settlements are built, but it is another aspect of life in service to their environment. Houses invariably start well back from the harbour, both to be protected from storm and beast, and to avoid the stench of the docks. The harbours themselves are almost entire villages on their own, the habitual hauntings of the most adventurous of the emikun.
When compared to the settlements of other ikayal, the emikun's wooden buildings and expansive docks can easily seem out of place. Then again, no other races so straddle two worlds.
Rising Tides
"The waters are dangerous beyond even our ability. Our lands have been taken. If it is our destiny to wither and die, then so be it - but we shall raise one final storm before that time."
The emikun's ancestral home is the Archipelago - that chain of islands created in the wake of catastrophe. They lived primarily in isolation for decades, until the world had recovered from the fall of the stars. This was the point when they entered the records of other races: tales of a monster-slaying, seafaring people, as changeable and unpredictable as the sea they loved. Unlike other ikayal, however, the emikun still chose to remain largely separate from other races - and what border could be more effective than the ocean?
But there was only so long that such isolation could last. After the horrors of the Endwar and the destruction of Khiloa Woln, it could only have been so long until people sought their fortune elsewhere.
Initially, the human migrants were on friendly terms with the emikun; they worked in concert to establish civilisations, and to fend off the hostile wyverns who had made several islands impassable. But as tensions between humans and ikayal grew, the situation in the Archipelago became increasingly unstable - and then devolved into a brutal struggle for territory.
Any number of causes could be pointed to in regard to the ensuing 'war': the humans' dream of following in Arkan's footsteps; the emikun's resistance to the idea of unmelting ice; the wyverns' animosity after years of fierce fighting. In any case, the 'war' resulted in both emikun and wyverns being pushed to the very fringes of the Archipelago, and sent fearful - or hateful - whispers throughout the world. The water-dwellers, bitter over their wounds and the loss of their homelands, vowed not to rest until they had visited storm and ice tenfold upon their enemies.
And so they watch. And wait.
"I was always told that if I wanted to be one of them, I had to help them reclaim what they lost. Now I only fear that this tide will reclaim us all..."
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