Yehani

The Yehani are a learned and enterprising people whose island homeland in the middle of the Adelantean Sea was destroyed several hundred years ago by the eruption of Mount Elemnis. They can now be found spread across the known world, generally settling in urban areas. The largest concentrations of Yehani are found in coastal cities, which they favor not only on account of the opportunities for trade and generally more tolerant cosmopolitan attitudes, but also because their love for the sea has not waned even in the centuries since the loss of their island home. However, a great many Yehani can be found living inland as well, particularly in large towns and cities along major trading routes.

The Yehani were the first worshipers of the One God, whose favored people they believe themselves to be. They are known for performing animal sacrifices to the One God -- a bloody reputation that is often much exaggerated to include human sacrifice as well -- and are generally distrusted by other peoples. They receive more toleration and acceptance in the Sirdabi Caliphate than elsewhere, but they still often dwell within specific enclaves separate from their neighbors. They often perform jobs that are forbidden to other peoples due to religious restrictions, but are also famed for their physicians and scholars.

Appearance

Like the Tessouare peoples to whom they may have some distant relation, Yehani generally have aquiline features, brown or black hair, and a middle range of skin tones. However, due to their extensive travel and contact with other peoples over at least a millennium, some groups particularly in central Ruvera and Altaruleska may have fairer hair and skin such that they only stand out slightly from their indigenous neighbors. Wherever they are found Yehani are distinctive for having eyes in all the varied colors of the sea, including pale pink.

Language

The native tongue of the Yehani is Yash, but from living and trading widely among other peoples they often speak a variety of other languages as well.

Culture

The Yehani have always been a seafaring people, and their great love for the ocean colors their attitudes and beliefs. As long as they have existed as a people, the Yehani have made their homes on the islands scattered throughout the heart of the Adelantean, as well as living in towns and villages along much of the coast. They have always been among the most best mariners in Avaria, as skilled at building ships as piloting them, and they possess a deep knowledge of the sea that comes from generations of collective experience.

Beginning as humble fishermen, the Yehani developed into savvy and adventurous traders whose mercantile pursuits spanned the length and breadth of the Adelantean. Nevertheless their beloved homeland remained the archipelago nation of Yashalen, a collection of islands large and small clustered near the center of the Adelantean. When the holy mountain Elemnis erupted catastrophically, plunging the world into three years of darkness and Yashalen beneath the waves forever, the Yehani were left without a home and became a people of exiles. Distrusted and often despised by other peoples, both for their insular ways and on account of the blame frequently assigned to them for bringing on the Great Dark, the Yehani have nevertheless adapted with alacrity to their changed circumstances and can be found scattered throughout much of the known world.

All Yehani, young and old, carry with them wherever they go a vial of sea water collected from the Adelantean. Called the memlevi and usually worn suspended from a chain or thong to rest over the heart, it serves as a cherished connection to their lost homeland and their past, as well as to the One God whom the Yehani still associate most closely with the sea.