Exalted: Cultures of the Wreckers Coast

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For NPCs from this region see Marrull Vaar NPCs, Wreckers' Coast NPCs, NPCs of the Cinder Isles

* - Canon, + - Semi-Canon, ^ - Campaign Specific

Tengese*
Tribes and cultures that spread down the coast from An Teng after the Great Contagion, eventually settling inbetween the Cinder Isles and Anaathalay.

Distinguishing Features: Tan to dark olive skin, dark almond eyes, loose garb & bare or sandaled feet (due to heat/moisture), SW Tengese cultures based around villages in swamp & jungle.

Notable Tengese: Bellar, the Golden Finger, Iron Soul, Stone Wolf and Scented Breeze clans

Real-World Equivalents: South China, Southeast Asia

Zhao*
People from Zhaojun, the tightly-packed nation of major and minor Satrapies loyal to the realm (at least ostensibly) further Northeast up the coast from Marrull Vaar.

Distinguishing Features: Pale to tan skin, black hair, dark monolid eyes, strict upper and lower classes based on family lines, more closely tied to the Realm than neighbours.

Notable Zhao: Steel-like-Silk, City Swimmer, the Zhao Chijun clan

Real-World Equivalents: North China, Korea

Anaatha^
The people of Anaathalay, more closely related to the people of the Great Desert than the Tengese, though the Yensei bare some commonalities. Formerly a slave-trading civilization that dealt with the cities of Dajaz and Gem, and the desert tribes to the East, while facing some tensions with the Beastmen tribes to the Southeast of their empire.

Distinguishing Features: Reddish-Bronze to dark brown skin, dark brown hair and chestnut eyes, cultural divisions due to generations of (and sudden abolition of) slavery.

Notable Anaatha: Jagganath, Saddam

Real-World Equivalents: India, Mughals, Persia

Baruun^ & Mygdon+
The Baruun form the largest ethnic group in the Northeastern Cinder Isles, forming the bulk of the population in Baruntulga, Iliona and Heciana, and with sizeable populations in coastal towns on the mainland like Marrull Vaar. Closely related are the Mygdons, who dwelled on the Western Coast of the Grey Eye Peninsula until the Wyld drove them westward. While both peoples are skilled seamen who have a passion for fine food, wine and culture, the Baruun are more inclined towards trading and farming while the Mygdons have historically been ruthless pirates and mercenaries.

Distinguishing Features: Dark blue curly hair, tan & olive skin, light togas & robes with sandals, more focus on town & village life than national identity, strong personal identity based on glory and physical prowess (Mygdon)

Notable Baruun: Ren the Shepherd, Cold Harbour (captain of the Marrull Vaar guard), most of the senate of the Bay

Notable Mygdons: King Brasidus of Castio, Prince Basra, Padua (merchant in Ostia)

Real-World Equivalents: Ancient Greek, Mediterranean & Iberian cultures, Australia

Pelith+
Riders of caribou-like horses, the Pelith horselord clans were natives of the open plains of the Northern Grey-Eye Peninsula and related to the natives of the northern Cinder Isles like Kanilah and Jheroth. They lived in mobile yurts of hide and cloth pulled by oxen, but have now taken to the sea as part of the Bronze Tide. Yensei do not have gender the same way other cultures do - one is either a child, an adult or an elder, and a parent if one has children - and their adulthood rites involve hunting a Giant Porcupine for its quills to make a headdress, after which they have their teeth filed and their childhood tattoos completed into adult ones.

Distinguishing Features: Dark tan skin, shaved and braided hair, tattoos piercings and filed teeth dependant on age, padded cloth tunics, nonbinary gender

Notable Pelith: Spear of Starmetal, the Birdman of Jheroth

Real-World Equivalents: Scythia, Great Plains Tribes

Issyk+
The tribes that live deep within the Peninsula, closest to the Grey Eye, and almost never seen beyond their realm until the events of the Bronze Tide. Out of a culture-wide fear of the Raksha stealing ones face (and thus identity) the Issyk wear large masks that cover their faces when outside their territory and when dealing with outsiders, and their large patterned collars are uniquely patterned as a form of personal identification, as this is considered too complex for the Raksha to mimic exactly.

Distinguishing Features: Very dark skin, dark togas and patterned collars, hushed voices, large ceremonial masks, medicine men

Notable Issyk: Luko'o Mwabe, Epule Mwabe

Real-World Equivalents: Pacific Island Cultures, Maasai

Yensei+
A far Northwestern branch of the Anaatha & other peoples of the desert, the Yensei have invested their considerable trading wealth from bartering along the coast into their well-trained military, but are now forced to abandon much of that wealth as they flee the Wyld.

Distinguishing Features: Reddish-Bronze to dark brown skin, dark brown hair and chestnut eyes, loose billowing robes & metal armour, Jannisary soldiers

Real-World Equivalents: Bactria, Arabia

Notable Yensei: Prince Prasad bin Senona, Devita, Mohan Rao, Farzaneh (friend of Reeds)

Swamp Nomads^
Tengese tribesmen who migrate across the swamplands of the Southwest using the giant Swamp Strider beasts they care for as they would a fellow clansman.

Distinguishing Features: Nomadic Lifestyle, family clan structure, Swamp Strider husbandry

Notable Swamp Nomads: Reeds Whisper to Him, Knowledge of the Bitter Herb, Whose Leaves Soon Shall Wilt, Winding Roots Run Deep

Western Islanders*
Natives of the Western Archipelago and the Caul, Islanders are by necessity seafaring cultures, and many have settled amongst the nations their ships have been in contact with.

Distinguishing Features: Skin either golden bronze or greyish pale, colourful hair, practical all-weather garb, cultures unique to specific islands, taboos around female sailors, Tya Notable Western Islanders: Hephastia Sonor, Crystal Breaks the Waves

Tya*
Many Islander cultures have taboos around women sailing, out of fear that the jealous Storm Mothers (minor deities and demonesses of the sea) will wreck boats with human women on board. To circumvent this, some Islander women ritually become men, both legally and socially, adopt elaborate facial tattoos and become celibate, in order to live lives at sea.

Notable Tya: Tidebreaker, Saltbreeze

Djala*
Some Djala are known to live amongst the swamps of the Wreckers Coast, though they are highly secretive and wary of outsiders. A clan are known to live near Twelve Pillar Village.

Notable Djala: Serene Seeker

The Sea People+
People born in the towns and cities on the coast sometimes have certain markings that seem to only occur every few generations, sometimes unexpectedly. These markings can include the skin from under the chin down to the navel being paler than the rest, particularly dark eyes and raised ridges on the throat and along the limbs. No one seems to know the origins of these markings, but while rare they seem most common amongst the Mygdons, Pelith and Islanders.

Notable Sea People: Khungwa

Other Cultures
Other cultures that have featured in the campaign have included the Delzahni from the far east (Meng and Mei Fang), the Hyena-people of the Diamond Road south of the Lap (Horizon's Teeth), the now-destroyed mountain kingdom of Nahar (Last Prince of the Tomb) and people from even further afield (Tokumei no Sensei).