Realizing that

1. There’s canonically a noble title in Delmer called boyar

2. In our world boyar is a term for Russian nobility (although tbf Griffin says he thinks it’s German when he chooses it)

3. Oksana is a Ukrainian name that’s also used in Russia

So that throws yet another wrench into my Kodeira nationality headcanon(s)

I catch up on taz ethersea (and I'm loving these setup episodes, as a dm this is inspiring so many ideas and I think I want to do this with my players before running a new campaign) and I go into the tags to see the general vibe and I'm disappointed how negative the response is.

Part of it is that we get to see the establishment and worldbuilding that's going to be played on in the campaign which is usually a lot of behind the scenes work that the dm does and it's nice to see all of them get a hand in it.

And people are disliking that???

Disliking the story that sets the tone for the game??

I understand wanting to jump straight into 5e, but the world is so important to the game.

ALSO another complication in what i think devo's mom's nationality/ethnicity was, I like the headcanon he picked up his accent from her, but if she's einarr, we know all the brinarr save zoox were einarr too, and none of them have his accent + he says he's the only one he knows who talks like that. And I just detailed why einarr is mostly one culture compared to the other nations. So maybe she's from a fairly small culture within one of the other nations and not many if any of them ended up in founders wake? but kodeira also doesn't have that accent, so that throws a wrench into my whole scheme w them being from the same area

BTW I’ve been thinking a lot about Hermine outfits and I think shoreside!Hermine dresses more lowkey than a proper boyar but definitely still looks super noble, her clothes are still very elaborate, just with some modifications to be a bit more practical. (she’s the Rebellious Noble, after all) She has a pretty flashy sense of style and that never really changes but as she gets older she starts to take less and less inspiration from her noble background (i mean her old clothes probably get damaged and or stop fitting at some point so that’s part of it).

Also I’m taking some inspo from actual Russian boyars (or at least what google images says are boyars, I’m not too concerned about being 100% historically accurate lol)

I think the climate in Delmer is probably warmer, so a lot less layers, and the culture is very practical, so even the nobles’ clothes would probably lean more practical, but something vaguely similar to these

the einarr plateau was the most isolated region of the world, so there was only ever the one wave of largescale migration during/after the wars. So it was hardly homogeneous but it was the least genetically/ethnically/culturally diverse nation of the four. But during the first migration, people came from all over (there’s a lot more than four cultures within the four nations, especially since there were more nations before Hominine took over the world) and brought all sorts of cultural traditions with them, which mixed with the native einarr culture, so there’s a lot of rlly interesting stuff that happened there (*handwaves over stuff he doesn’t have specifics for*)

Where’s that one post about gaining fat as a sign of healing.

Anyway in Founder’s Wake the main food is filler fish, which are very calorie dense and fairly nutritious, although not enough to sustain anyone alone. A filler fish based diet causes weight gain, so most of the population is at least a little fat.

No one has to worry about not getting any food; filler fish rations are given out to everyone, they have more than enough. Other food is something you can buy, and some of it’s affordable, but all the very best food is in short supply. You can almost identify the elite of the city by the way so many of them are so thin, because they can afford not to eat as much filler fish as everyone else. One of the groups who definitely can afford it is the parish.

Devo didn’t really eat filler fish at all, growing up. (He mentions the fishsticks as one of his favorite things about the city in episode one. He’d literally never had them before. It’s a staple of everyone else’s diet, but they’re new and exciting to him.) Consequently, compared to most people in the city, he was thin as a stick when he first left the parish. He didn’t like that one bit; It was one of the many things that marked him as different: his accent, his clothes, his magic, and even his body.

I don’t remember who, but I know I’ve seen someone talk about how he transitioned from practical parish clothing to Nermal’s Pile, how it sorta symbolizes him becoming his own person. Once he started eating the same diet as everyone else, I think that weight gain would be another huge step in becoming his own person. He isn’t visibly different from everyone around him anymore. He doesn’t have the figure people associate with the parish. He’s starting to recognize Devotion in his reflection less and less, and Devo more and more.

It’s like he’s a totally different person from before. The Hand of Devotion was skinny, female, quiet. Devo la Main is chubby, male, loud and angry, has big ass fins on his face. It’s just another way he’s able to reject his past and assert his place as his own person.

I’m thinking about the kids who were born in Founder’s Wake. They would have never known natural, unfiltered sunlight, and they would have grown up eating mainly filler fish. That’s got to have a physical affect on them, no?

I think for the first few kids born underwater, before they really had stuff down, rickets would have been a big problem. A large part of that generation has lasting affects from before they figured out how to use artificial sun lamps and how to grow plants high in vitamin D. Kids born nowadays don’t usually have to worry about that as much, but rickets does still occur a lot among the poorer parts of the city, who don’t have as much access to vitamin D rich plants or artificial sunlight.

I also like the idea of the kids born underwater having a sort of greenish-blueish tint to their skin. It ranges from very slight to almost straight up blue, depending on all sorts of factors (melanin, (darker skin generally means less blue) exposure to artificial sunlight, exposure to the Ethersea, pure chance, etc). A lot of people think it has to do with the Ethersea itself, like the ocean sort of leaving a mark on the kids born within it. Since the Ethersea does give off some natural light, it’s not improbable. Anecdotally, those with bluer skin are said to be more attuned to magic, but that’s never been proven, since magic is so rare anyway.

I think the diet would also have an effect on everyone, including the people born on land, but I’m not 100% sure in what way. I’ll come back to that.

Edit: I almost forgot! Emotionally, a lack of vitamin D causes depression. That, combined with the literal apocalypse, means that there’s probably a real epidemic of depression in Founders Wake.

Headcanon that gender for the Brinearr is very weird cuz their genders are like a mix of the gender of their past lives. Like a LOT of them are non-binary or bigender but it’s also common to be mostly a guy but with a bit of girl in you. Like you can quantify EXACTLY how much of each gender you have “I’m three quarters female but one fourth of me was a guy so im still a little male” it’s almost unheard of for a Brinearr to be 100% binary. And for those who had genderqueer past lives it’s even weirder.

And since Zoox wasn’t ever an Einarr and doesn’t have any past lives he’s agender. When he was born he was asked his pronouns and he was very confused so he just copied the last guy and that’s why he’s a he/him

do we know which nation Amber is from originally? is that ever mentioned or implied at all?