Neakhora Phili / Pracya Jata

This ethnicity inhabits the region reffered to in The Fox Empire as "Southern Kingdoms". Known among the Central Sea shores for the traders, scholars and thte temples, this nation influenced the culture of hte other people, despite never forming unifying empire.

Many years ago, the region was inhabited by the people calling themselves Pracya Jata after the fact they inhabited the eastern shore of the Central Sea. The people were mostly living in half-sendetary tribes with a few impressive cities being the centre of city stattes, enforcing their influence over nearby rural tribes from time to time.
One day to the shores a new people arrived. They were speaking a separate language and their customs were much different. they settled in the coastal area, mostly during the time when the local tribes were present deeper into the land. They were calling themsleves Neakhora Phili - "people of the new land".
New terms were started being used, however. The newcomers became known among Pracya Jata as "People of the Sea" while Neakhora Phili begun calling them "People of the Land". Despite neither forming one cohesive staet, ethnic tensions arose and the conflicts emerged.
Eventually, after long years of he power struggle, botth cultures started influencing each ohter more and more. There was clearly more populace of the more mixed culttural hieritage. After some time, "People of the Sea" and "People of the Land" terms became less used as directly ethnicity references, but to inform if someone was predominantly speaking one of two languages.
Culture still evolved further. Most merchants were originating from the sea shores, so Sea language was the native tongue for them. After certain time, merchant commmuntiy as a whole in the region adapted the sea language as the dominant. Meanwhile, tradition of the local cities and it's temples thatt predatetd sea people made language of the Land the most prominent in the administration and religion through the whole region. In both cases, mother language of he specific communities didn't matter. All of them switched to using Sea language among the merchants and Land language for the administration and religion. After those developments, languages became mostly unrelatted to ethnicity in real way. Pracya Jata and Neakhora Phili became a name for the combined ethnicity in the Land language and the Sea langauge, respectivelly.
Among the scholars, there wasn't much more unification concerning the language. Most of them initially were speaking the Landdd language due to them originating from the ancient cities and being he priests. When the need for widening horizons arrived they turned to the merchants to seek stories, objects and various other research materials in the other cultures living nearby Bentral Sea. At the beggining, merchantt reports were translated from Sea language to Land language, however there started showing up some merchants who used knowledge and connection to become scholars tthemselves. Naturally, this new wave favored Sea language and the riftt showed up. The struggle was eventually won by the merchants and Sea language became universal language among the scholars of the Neakhora Phili/Pracya Jata.
Nowadays, the ethnicity is singular, despite the history and having presence of the two common languages. Neither two original cultures have any closely related to them left in the time of the Jade Era.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

There exists two common languages among those people:

1. Sea language, used among merchant guilds and the scholars
2. Land language, used in the administration andd for religious purposes

Both languages are the original lanugages of two ethnicities that merged together. They are seemingly unrelated, however some scholars are suspecting they might originate from the single language many years before. This thesis lead too interpretation that the modern Neakhora Phili/Pracya Jata culture is just reconnecting of the ancient culture that split apart. Besides the two, the region is filled by the continuums of the dialetcs. They are originating from the Sea and Land languages, but it is hard to distinguish when one dialect beings and the other ends. It is made harder by the fact that some of them are essentially creole dialects. Even the two dialect families are not as distinct nowadays.

Shared customary codes and values

The society of those people tends to be historically extraoridinarly pluralistic, accepting of different languages and customs. It shouldn't be mistaken for the multicutlural utopia, as their approach may seem that way only by comparing it to the other cultures of this world.
Among Neakhora Phili/Pracya Jata there is clearly present a shared value of the loyalty for the local community first and foremost. In the rural areas, this tend to mean the loyalty to the local villages or tribes is more important than the loyalty to the ruler of the area (unless such community is independent, of course). In the cities, this approach led for the work being oraganised in guilds with the guild taking the role of the tribe for the families that are member of them. Overall priority of communitties for an individual can be summed as this:

1. Family
2. Village/tribe/estate of the nobility/guild/academy/temple that the family is subservient of (this tier is not relevant among the noble families)
3. Regional rulers/the city leadership
4. The leadership of the state as a whole (is leadership above city/region exists)

Supporting community on th elower priority when it goes againstt the interests of the community of the higher priority is generally considered a unhonorable at best, openly trecherous at worst and is univerally throwned upon, even among those who are "supported". Naturally, that lead to the Southern Kingdoms being a collection of relatively decentralised states.

Common Etiquette rules

On greetings both parties need to bow slight with the hands put together. Bow must be deeper if meeting people are not part of the same community. People belonging to the same community in non-casual talk are allowed to refer to each other by the family name only or by order "family name-personal name". People belonging to different communities are referring to each other by title or "title, than family name", never personal name. All misconduits of the above rules are considered an offence towards the offender's community. Depending on specific context consequences might vary from simple shunning in mild cases to the expulsion from  community in extreme cases.

Common Dress code

Among urbanised population:
No matter the gender, all people are covering chests when being in public (with the exception of priests and slaves). Not covering it is usually considered a sign of the poverty. Belly can be exposedd freely, however.
Generally speaking, the people of Neakhora Phili/Pracya Jata considered to be lower classes waer tunics, regardless of gender. Clothing of higher classes usually depending on the specific role:
Merchants (and other wealthy members of the guilds, scolarship included) generally wear chitons for both men and women. On top of it, the women wear peplos, while men wear chlamys.
Nobility and administrators generally wear uttariya on top and paridhana tied with a belt in lower parts of the body, regardless of gender.
Priests of both genders wear the outfit breaking the established norms, consisitng of the single piece of cloth, sleeveless and covering only one of the breast and entriety of the lower part of the torso.
On official occasions, arms and legs should be covered by clothing, up to wrists and ankles. Naturally, priests wiould be exluded from this custom.
Footwear consists mostly of sandals. There is no social stigma against being barefoot in any situation, so the shoes are the most spread among the communities that find it the most practical like merchants and other members of the guild. Nobility, which more often lives in palaces, has less usage of it. Naturally, less wealthy people are wearing sandals less often. Priests and slaves are excusively barefoot.
Both men and women cut the hair to be about shoulder lenght, men tend to wear brimmed hats, women wear veils. Priests don't wear headdress, and they generally cut part of their heads bald.
Among rural population:
There is much more variables in clothing depending on the specific region. Generally it could be summed up as various combination of the clothes described above. Rural priests are not considered separate social group so they generally wear the same as higher classes (and they usually are part of the higher clesses). Unlike in the city, footwear in the rural areas is a sign of the social status, so generally speaking if someone is wealthy enough to own shoes, they wear them.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Property customs: No concept of a privately or publiclly owned property exists. Any property (no matter if it is land, or a movable object) can belong either to a specific family (not to individual family member, but to family as a whole) or to wider defined social group (like a guild, tribe or a temple). People being outside of the family or community owning property cannot use it, unless the mentioned fmaily or community agrees through it's leader or a comeetee (specifics depends on families or communities).

Customs relating to marriage and family structures:
Among those people, there exists divide on three groups when it comes to the subject:

1. Temple priests - marriage and any sexual contact forbidden. Upon becoming priest of the temple, regardless of speicific god the temple serves, one must cut the formal ties with the family (and family's property) and becomes a subject of the temple rules. Priests are not considered members of any families.
2. Guild members (scholars included) - marriage mostly monogamous, family is ultimately patriarchal, in which women always becomes a member of her husband family. It is worth to note, however, that generally speaking a man might become a base of a separate family on his own if he is married and he received a permit from the guild (he and his wife are cut off from the family property in this case and are usually gifted some wealth form the guild as a mean to start on their own). Marriage requires agreement of the heads of families of both groom and the bride, or a permit from the guild (it is much easier to get it if one of the heads of families agrees). Naturally, all children are considered part of the family of parents, unless cases described above happen. Person cannot enter the guild if they are already married or with children. Unmarried and childless men outside the guild can try enter the guild, if the guild agrees (note: it might be hard to get an agreement if the guild is not seeking conflict with the previous family of such man) - in this case the man becames a base of a family unit on his own, under the guild rules. Woman can enter the guild by marrying man who is already member of a one of the guild families. Already existing family can also enter the guild, if the guild agrees (note again: it might be harder to get an agreement if the guild is not seeking conflict with the family's previous community). Th guild does not allow for fully individual members, each one of them must me a member of the guild family. Weddings are usually teking place on the common guild property and involve heads of the families of a groom and bride publically declaring marriage in front of a guild leadership or the guild leadership decrlaring such by themselves. Weddings are usually acompannied by the party. Generally speaking, family of a groom is also presenting a gift or an agreement with a family of a bride.
3. The rest social groups - simmilarily to the guild families, families are predominantely patriarchal and mostly monogamous. However, due to the fact the people there are living outside more regulated communities like a temple or the guild, the rules are much less defined and varied depending on the specific region. Cases of man joining a family of his waife is not common, but can happen from time to time. Among the nobility or wealthy tribal families polygamy is not uncommon. 

Alternative names:

• Nijiuugojin (Double-Tonguers, Double-Tongue people), Southern Barbarians - by Kitsune Folk
• Nehoranie - by Północni
• Neakhoran - by @Bethu
• Jatani - by [PLACEHOLDER]

Related Organizations

• Southern Region

Common appearence:

Skin tones: from the relatively light olive, to the moderately brown
Average male heights: 152-168 cm Average female heights: 135-155 cm
Hair: slightly curly, mostly dark, very rarely blonde, quite often red
Eyes: no monolids, can display wide diversity of colors
Face: round shape, low cheek bones, long and straight noses