#added some new notes about her real name being Ciavera

[celestianvices]

Fullmetalia: Main

[tag: fullmetalia: main]

Name: Ciavera/Húlí  (Eastern Islands) Age: Roughly 2500 Height: 5’6 Weight: 135lbs Hair: Long, straight, and inky black Eyes: Jade green Skin: Light

Background: Very little is known about this land or the Lady associated with it, and she seems to prefer this. She keeps herself secret from most everyone, save for the nation of Xing.

Because she is surrounded by water, there are a few speculations that can be made, such as her main diet consisting of seafood. She also seems to have a peculiar fondness for foxes, and fairy tales involving foxes of the magical variety. There is rumored to be an entire island dedicated to them within her borders.

Huli isn’t exclusively interested in her own foxes however. She seems to want to collect some from every corner of the world.

Other than these however, almost all of her lore is centered around water, from sea dwelling dragons to imps that live in rivers (and eat both children and cucumbers). Tales of water ladies and snow maidens abound as well.

Huli has known Xing for most of her life. He discovered her when she was very young, and since then she has rarely strayed from his side. Her attachment to him was strong from the beginning, and has only become more so as time went on. To say that she loves him would almost be an understatement. At the very least, it barely scratches the surface. She’s shares much of her lore with him, and seems to come up with new things at random even now. They have a shared love of harmless mischief as well, and it’s unclear how much of that she learned from him, or vice versa.

Spending so much time together, it should be no surprise that their cultures (what is known of Huli’s that is) and their languages are very similar.

While her “true” name as the personification of the nation is Ciavera, no one seems to call her as such. Instead referring to her as Huli. The woman seems to prefer this and never corrects the mistake.

Skills: While not widely known, Huli’s skills in martial arts and swordplay are nothing to be scoffed at. While she has learned much of her abilities from Xing, she has put her own touch to many of them, and with swordplay in particular she has come a long way in developing her own style of combat.

She is creative and inventive as well, although her mysterious nature means that very few people have seen what she can do in this area.

Nation: Huli, aka The Eastern Island Nations (The plural being a misnomer as the Isles are in fact one nation collectively), The Isles

Language: Hulinese (similar in sound and structure to Japanese, also has a bit of a Hawaiian flavor to it)

Currency: Zenny (unabashedly plucked this from Breath of Fire xD)

 Exports:

Cocoa beans, cocoa powder, chocolate

Pearls

Sugar

Fish (dried, smoked, or otherwise preserved)

Pineapples

Imports (from Xing):

Rice

Silk

Gunpowder

Precious Metals (mainly gold, silver, and iron)

Common Hobbies/Occupations:

Swimming

Fishing

Metalworking (particularly the art of sword making)

Surfing

Sailing

Agriculture

Pearl diving

Recreational diving

Luau

Clothing: The Hulinese people in general wear clothing that is simple and made for a life in and near water. Comfortable fitting pants, and light jackets for men, often without undershirts, and simple sarong style wraps that can be worn as either skirts or dresses, and equally simple tops for the women who work out on the water. In the same vein, there are lengths of cloth that can be used as either sashes or simple tops (usually for women). Inland the clothing becomes a bit more concealing, consisting of yukata and other, similar styles of clothing, with the elegant and more ornate kimonos reserved for those living in the royal palace and other upper class areas.

While early on the soldiers used to wear attire similar to that of the Samurai, they have since moved toward clothing designed more for stealth and with speed and ease of movement in mind. (It should be noted however, that in battle Huli herself will often still dress in the older style of clothing, or more often in a kimono, with her katana and wakazashi ever at her side.)

Terrain: The landscape of Huli is quite diverse despite being a collection of islands. Most of the lands near the ocean are green and humid, with tropical rain-forests dotting the land, however there are also a few mountain ranges scattered over the Islands, as well as steep sea cliffs, long stretches of beach, and beautiful hilly regions which are covered in flowers for most of the year.

The land is spread out into a mainland with several smaller island both to the north and south. Huli’s home is located on a small northern island, near the isle of cats, and is easily distinguished from most of the surrounding islands not only by the fact that her home is the only piece of housing there, but by the distinct black sand beaches located there.

Climate: Mostly tropical and humid, snow is not unheard of but it is incredibly rare in the lower regions of the mainland and it’s surrounding islands. It’s much more common the farther up into the mountains you go, and the highest peaks spend most of the year in ice and frost. There are also a few small areas on the mainland and a few larger islands where the temperature is more temperate and mild, and these tend to be the places where the flowering hills are located.

Civilization: The Capitol City is the most developed area of the mainland, and has the largest concentration of people living in Huli. It’s called Kitsu, and like many things relating to Huli as a person, It’s name was inspired by a fox. There are a few larger towns scattered across the isles, but mostly the land is taken up by a combination of small villages, farms, and wilderness.

The capitol is landlocked, keeping it away from the ocean and [relatively] safe from all but the most brutal of ocean storms and hurricanes. The next largest town is the port of Oinari, which is located on the straight between Huli and the larger continent. It is here that trade ships from Xing bring in goods and news from the rest of the world.

Government: Being raised by Xing and influenced heavily by his culture, Huli’s government has developed into one which is lead by and Emperor/Empress, who is usually (but not always) chosen by rite of succession. The Empress/Emperor is assisted in governing the land by a counsel of advisers, usually older than him/herself.

Before she met Xing, when the land and the woman were both very young and new, there was no unity in the nation. Rather, there were a myriad of tiny regions, each controlled by a lord who employed his or her own soldiers to protect and enforce and on occasion, to fight against other Lords warriors in order to settle disputes. It was a bit of a mess, and reflected the unruly and easily distracted mind of a child with no parents to guide them.

When Xing found her, he was cutting a path across the land, exploring and conquering wherever he went and eventually crossing the small straight of water between her lands and the main continent. With such disorganization he could have easily taken her land and absorbed her fledgling nation into his own, but instead he decided to take her and raise her, to protect her rather than conquer her. Perhaps it was that he could see a small reflection of his own family in her strange and jumbled regions, though the truth of it is unclear.

Before his arrival, she did not even have a name for the land or herself. It was Xing’s observation of the little child’s fox mask and mischievous nature that prompted him to call her Huli, the Xingese word meaning ‘fox’. With this first, crucial step, her land slowly moved toward unification, as trades and alliances began to absorb other regions into one another, until eventually her nation was completely unified under the rule of he first Hulinese Empress. While it was Xing who gave her land it's name, it was the first empress who named the girl. Becoming a mentor figure to her in those first early years. Originally spelled Xiavera; meaning Bright and Splendid, the name has changed over time to it's current form.

The Emperor/Empress is allowed and even required to choose their own spouse before the time of their ascension to the throne. If they do not choose one before that time, a lottery is held of all the eligible men or women in the nation and the name that is pulled is to be their emperor/empress. Often times those seeking to climb the political ladder will bring their son or daughter to meet the young heir, having their children spend time with them in hopes that a bond will form and their child will be chosen.

Until recently, the nation of Huli had no formal military, instead employing a royal guard arranged in much the same way that the regions of the past had their warriors. This likely would have changed much earlier, during the first attack on her lands, which left Huli herself gravely injured and caused the beginning of their seclusion, if it had not been for the fact that support from Xing’s military allowed them to succeed without taking such measures.

During the time of their seclusion, the warriors of Huli continued in the state they had been up to that point as far as organization, but thanks to encouragement from Xing, her peoples focus shifted a bit from simple martial arts, to a focus on stealth, silence, speed, and agility. They also benefited from Huli herself learning the ways of the sword and developing her own style, which she passed on to her people over the years.

During the time of seclusion, as Huli and Xing’s relationship began to shift from the child/guardian dynamic they’d had since he took her in, Huli’s people became divided for a time between those who were happy to be receiving the protection of the larger nation, and those who believed they were too dependent on Xing, and who felt that they should distance themselves from the larger nation a bit and begin trade with other lands again. These disputes reached a boiling point resulting in the only civil war Huli has ever known, and the woman suffered greatly from the conflict within her borders.

In this, as with so many other aspects of her life, Xing proved to be a great help in settling the conflict before more blood was shed. By this time, he had been learning diplomacy and conflict resolution from his western neighbor Xerxes, and thanks to her influence he was able to relay such methods to Huli, and her land was able to return to peace because of this.

Huli was only indirectly affected by the fall of Xerxes, and the woman more than the nation, simply because she was the one who was there to comfort Xing as her [by that time] husband grieved over the loss of his friend. She did however benefit indirectly from his friendship with the Western Sage, learning Alkehestry from Xing and passing the skill on to her people as she had the art of the sword.

It wasn’t until more than 400 years after that event that the nation of Huli saw conflict inside it’s borders once again. With this most recent event, Huli finally organized it’s forces into a proper military, while keeping in tact the training she had perfected over the course of her more than 2000 year lifetime.