The Tellisk Adventure Company
File: "Amaians as Clients" v1.63
A female Amaian sniper.
"The Amaian fixation on - some would say obsession with - the waters of their homeworld of Delphi are well-known to the seasoned adventure agent. The young begin their life with it, and the elderly seek to end their lives in it. Such is its importance among their cultural rituals that all Amaian starships carry with them a stash of Delphin ocean water in order that newborns may be immediately baptized in it.
And of course, at the end of their lives, the elderly or lethally ill are expected to "go back to the waters" in a ritual called the Last Inundation, in which they find a deep body of water and swim far enough down that they can't return to the surface before running out of air.
There's a healthy industry, in fact, in one-way tours that take off-world Amaians back to Delphi then by ancient sailing ship out to waters above the deepest point in their world's oceans. There, with great ceremony, those seeking to end their lives undergo the Last Inundation, where, they say, the waters are the most profound.
When dealing with Amaian clients, it's advised that one keep this cultural preoccupation in mind, and steer them to locales with oceans or other substantial bodies of water. Although some among them profess fascination with forests, mountains, or deserts, we have found over the last twelve years of running off-world adventure tours that even the hardiest Amaian quickly becomes a very difficult client in those environments."
| Homeworld system | Norpisa |
| Homeworld | Delphi |
| Capital city | Atilan |
| Avg. Lifespan | 110 years. |
| Diet | Seafood and plants only. Nothing grown or raised on land. They tend to enjoy things like prawns, seaweed and fish dishes, though of course they ~can~ eat other things, this is just the traditional and most healthy diet for them. |
| Temperament | Haughty and contentious to outsiders. Fiercely loyal to their race. |
| Strong likes/dislikes | They love being in or around water, and they hate deserts. They are a vain race that prizes beauty quite highly as well. Their cities are always near major bodies of water, and only the poorest Amaians don't live within sight of water. |
| Family structure | Family dynasties are the key element of Amaian social structure, and may be ruled by either males or females. |
| How do they treat the elderly? | See the Last Inundation, above. The elderly are respected in Amaian society, however, and the ritual is considered the honorable way to die, for it removes a burden on society gracefully. |
| How communal are they? | Fairly communal. Decisions tend to be made with the good of the Amaian culture and race in mind more than the good of the individual. |
| Social mobility | Very little unless they're in the military. Who you are within what family dynasty determines most of what's available to you, while the military is ruthlessly equal opportunity. If you perform, you rise in the ranks. |
| Entertainment | They're big fans of a form of play they call 'trishows' - a particular kind of entertainment that is performed with three-sided masks on the actors. The dialogue and action is carefully coordinated so that the play itself tells three different stories in the same setting, depending on what angle you're viewing it from, as different angles will reveal three different characters on each actor. They like to try to follow all three stories simultaneously, so when this is watched they'll typically choose to view all angles at the same time. |
| Governmental structure | Dynastic Cabal. The most powerful of the family dynasties form a cabal that rules most aspects of Amaian society, except the military, which rules itself, though is deployed by the Cabal. |
| Important Dynastic Cabal members | Maukoios Kafo (m), Rakitia Ardoos (f), Verita Orotia (f), Omayos Stazos (m) |
| Absolutism vs. Anarchy | Heavily absolutist. Order and discipline are highly valued on Delphi, and are enforced strictly by law. |
| How long ago did they achieve spaceflight? | ~39,000 years ago. |
| Historical allies/enemies? | Delphi had once had another sentient race – the Evux – who were landdwellers. The Amaians and Evux fought bitterly over domination of the planet, and eventually it was the mighty navies of the Amaians that allowed them to exterminate the Evux, before either one reached out to the stars. |
| Major sources of wealth | The Amaians today have some of the most respected shipyards in the known galaxy, at Tetryon Yards. |
| Do they have a religion? | They have a racial God called K'si, but they don't actively worship it. They respect it, because to them it represents the ocean deeps - the source of the life-giving waters, but also a source of death. They view K'si as a dangerous and unpredictable being who may bless them with one breath and curse them with the next. As such, they seek to placate it with offers of the blood of sea creatures, but they do not worship it. In modern times, they don't really believe in it, but they do still have rituals and sayings around it, and give lip service to the idea of it. |
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