Quick facts
Government - Confederation
Ethnicity - Selkie
The Felkani are a militant seafolk that occupy the waters around the southern continent.
Felkani government is structured on three levels. The pod is the basic unit, and groups of pods form gangs, which are the second unit. A clan is typically 3-6 gangs and is the unit that is represented by the confederation. Once a year, on the summer solstice, every clan represented under one of the two confederations meets and discusses matters of hunting, territory, and the like. Once every five years, a group of representatives from the two confederations meet and share information.
Each gang is ruled by a warrior-chief, and it is from these chiefs that a patriarch is chosen to lead the clan. Individual pods form and split from family groups, with more traditional pods headed by a matriarch or patriarch, and pods that split off from them headed by a visionary or oldest sibling.
The Felkani live in pods of around 15 to 20 members, usually family groups. Among the seafolk, they are most observant of rigid partnerships, though they would still be considered loose by landfolk standards. When two selkies become life partners, the male moves in to his partner's pod and becomes part of that family. Both partners still have informal relationships, and often are partners for the sake of raising children. Any children from outside relationships are raised by the mother of the child and her life partner.
Felkani selkies are given short birth names, often named after natural encounters or descriptors (E.G. Blackie, Frost, or Dappled). They are renamed when they reach adulthood by proving themselves worthy of an act that gives them a new name, either winning in combat or some other form of bravery. These names are descriptors of a skill or aspect that granted them the new name. (E.G. Swift-striker, Deep-swimmer, Ice-breaker).
The dead are sent to what the Felkani call the "Deep Dreamland", an afterlife in the darkest, deepest part of the ocean, which is believed to be a mirror of the night sky.
Felkani art is heavily structured around diamonds and triangles, and is most often abstracted. They rarely make art for the sake of making art, rather decorating existing useful objects, such as clothing and weapons. Tattoos are common, especially on the wrists and forearms, in the same patterns.
They are known for dressing sparsely despite the cold, being adapted by nature to the frigid waters of the south. They distinguish each other from other pods by the tail wraps that they wear which bear charms of bone strung on to them.
The Felkani also make rafts with which to carry supplies and injured members of the pod on their constant migrations. These rafts are made of hide stretched across a bone frame, supported by floats made from animal organs. The raft has a rope and harness attached for ease of pulling.
Felkani spend most of the day in motion, following the circumpolar currents westward or circling around eastward once they reach the edge of their domain. They forage in the shallower southern waters and hunt in the deeper northern ones. In the summer, they follow the receding ice southwards, and in the winter, they follow the food availability northwards.
They are entirely carnivorous, eating fish, whale, and seal meat. They use the whole of a hunted creature in various ways. Bones become tools, hides become clothing and rafts, and blubber is considered a delicacy, and often given to small children as treats. When there is a hunt, especially of larger prey in the summer months, the food is prepared quickly and at the surface, and the pod is expected to eat all of it, out of fear of luring dangerous predators. After a large meal, the pod moves on.
Traveling songs are common in Felkani days, especially in long journeys between islands where they can rest. These are used to keep the pod together, and often feature call and response songs/chants. They are embellished with polyrhythm in the response, and singers improvise extended verses. Each pod has their own versions of similar themes, and it is one thing that new members of the pod take time adjusting to. These songs are often recollections of histories and battles, such as the one translated below "Island Safe-No-More", of the destruction of coastlines during the wars of wrath and one island in particular that is seen as cursed.
When the stars were the sea and the sea was the sky
(There was an island we call safe no more)
When the ocean burned and the tide was high
(We swim away, it is not our home)
We once had an island with a greener shore
(It was the island we call safe no more)
But we swam away, and we swim ever more
(We swim away, it is not our home)
The waves were calm and friendly
(chorus)
Until the sea turned deadly
(chorus)
The island fell down into the sea
(chorus)
Killing the children who in its care did sleep
(chorus)
an-kata-katana-ketete-toa
(An-kata-katana-koa)
(here, the lead singer improvises rhythms that become increasingly complex, and it is a game to see who can follow them)