Taino
The Taino are human tribes that have settled the larger equatorial islands of the Western Ocean. They are a gentle and generous people that have learned to adapt over the last century to attacks from other cannibalistic aboriginals as well as to trade and occasional aggression with the Western Kingdoms.
They live in a matrilineal (but not matriarchal) society, separated into villages that maintain a distance of the women and children from the fathers. Practicing a form of polygamy that allows women more autonomy and control of their own destinies.
Men tend toward wearing loin clothes but when they are interacting with people from the Western Kingdoms they dress more in western style. Women tend to wear something that looks like an apron, but to satisfy the more modest styles of the Western Kingdoms they will wear an apron like dress that extends fully around and looks more like a crop top sun dress. Body decoration of both sexes include painting, ear and nose rings, and necklaces made of gold.
Religion consists of a wide range of spirits called Zima, represented or embodied with totems. Most magic is largely primal magic, with some arcane knowledge that they have started to bring back from the Western Kingdoms.
Taino people trade timber, rum, sugar, and casava for iron products, tools, and education throughout the Western Kingdoms. They are rapidly starting to discover themselves as a people and their role in the larger world.
The Taino find the cannibals of the swamp coast and smaller islands to be disgusting and have frequent conflicts and skirmishes with them. Taino legends are filled with stories of the horrors and domination of the K'Thonim, as well as the origin the ruins in their midst which they largely avoid.
They live in a matrilineal (but not matriarchal) society, separated into villages that maintain a distance of the women and children from the fathers. Practicing a form of polygamy that allows women more autonomy and control of their own destinies.
Men tend toward wearing loin clothes but when they are interacting with people from the Western Kingdoms they dress more in western style. Women tend to wear something that looks like an apron, but to satisfy the more modest styles of the Western Kingdoms they will wear an apron like dress that extends fully around and looks more like a crop top sun dress. Body decoration of both sexes include painting, ear and nose rings, and necklaces made of gold.
Religion consists of a wide range of spirits called Zima, represented or embodied with totems. Most magic is largely primal magic, with some arcane knowledge that they have started to bring back from the Western Kingdoms.
Taino people trade timber, rum, sugar, and casava for iron products, tools, and education throughout the Western Kingdoms. They are rapidly starting to discover themselves as a people and their role in the larger world.
The Taino find the cannibals of the swamp coast and smaller islands to be disgusting and have frequent conflicts and skirmishes with them. Taino legends are filled with stories of the horrors and domination of the K'Thonim, as well as the origin the ruins in their midst which they largely avoid.
Playing a Taino in an Atlantica campaign
While players may be tempted to think of the Taino as a barbarian ethnicity, do not be deceived. There are Taino that have been trained in Howth University and traveled throughout the Western Kingdoms, returning to their people to share the knowledge which is recieved with open arms. The Taino are available for any class. They also make excellent educated "barbarians" with all of the perks associated with that class. In character creation the Taino can have almost any background you could find for a culture rapidly adapting to its trading partners and new status in the trade routes of the Western Ocean.Sketch of Taino man and woman
Related Organizations
Authors note: I have done my best here to resurrect a culture that was largely wiped out in Our World by 1550CE. They have given us words like Hurricane and Key (Cay), leaving their mark on our language. There are many who still trace their lineage to the Taino, and I have tried my best to honor them here in this article, while gloving them into this fantasy world.
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