Kheim

Fish, more fish, and one roasted haunch of something that looked like a colossal leg of venison. The evening feast was, for the Kheim, likely a grand spectacle, but Alistair had to note how much of the food being served were grains and sundries from the Skyhawk's stores. One of the Kheim, a younger girl named Rhahir, sat down next to him and was happily devouring a filleted flounder.
"Is something wrong, Etoilean? Eat!" The girl motioned to the table. "There's no need for modesty."
Alistair gave the girl a smile. "I would hate to eat before everyone's had a chance at the feast." With half of the Kheim in the Fleet expected to take part, the wizard noted that there wasn't quite enough food to go around. "Merely enjoying a pleasant night on the calm seas."
At that moment, the ships of the Fleet began to creak against their linkages - a quake had likely occurred, and the wave that had just passed was on its way to strike the Quaking Isle. Rhahir gave a short bark of laughter. "There are no calm seas. Not for us, not here." She shoved a heel of bread and a cut of venison into Alistair's hands. "Eat! For you may drown on the morrow."
Alistair bit into the venison, which was slow roasted to complete perfection, spiced with Saumann with a delicious burn. "Are you sure there is enough to eat for everyone here?"
Rhahir narrowed her eyes at him. "We honor our guests and visitors here, wizard. And we are not as poor and feeble as you Etoileans would think. If there isn't enough fish at the table, we will fish more. If we run out of hilvha meat, Darrus will sail to the island tomorrow and get more. We have lived here for long enough that we can afford a few feasts." She reached for a cup of Patino firewhisky and drained it without a flinch. "So do not worry on our account. Should the earthquakes strike your own lands, perhaps you will be coming to us for refuge on the seas?"

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The Kheim speak a language of the same name, a language distantly related to that of the Korr and other far-flung islander groups. The relatively small number of Kheim, however, has resulted in heavy linguistic drift towards Etoilean, with the Kheim borrowing loanwords and shifting towards a trader's pidgin.

Culture and cultural heritage

The Kheim are, as far as the Cartographers of the Principality of Etoile are concerned, the only culture in the world that isn't based on land. The Kheim instead have lashed together a large array of floating sailboats, outrigger canoes, and floating pontoons to create a small floating village, one they name the Fleet (a word borrowed from Etoilean, as they had no specific word for the arrangement other than 'Home'). This has resulted in a unique way of life that is under active and regular study by anthropologists from The Academy of Etoile, a life of constant resource struggle and high risk trips to the main island, but with a collective spirit not entirely unlike that of Etoilean progress.
Their dangerous lives in hostile waters have created a cultural value set that, to Etoileans, would be vaguely nihilistic in its carefree manner towards death. The Kheim themselves, however, see their individual existence as a temporary one on the border between two worlds (the sea and the sky). Individuals may die, but as long as the Fleet stays afloat, the Kheim as a whole will survive.

Shared customary codes and values

As a people living in relatively precarious circumstance in their anchored Fleet, the core shared tenet is simple - roughly translated, 'don't sink the ship'. This generalizes to the Kheim being a strongly collectivist culture, with all Kheim even from a young age pitching in on the day to day tasks needed to maintain and build upon their ships. Young Kheim men will happily take on tasks that many Etoileans would consider suicidal (landing on The Quaking Isle and hunting and gathering) in order to keep the Fleet well supplied.

Common Etiquette rules

As befits their seagoing nature, the Kheim place a deep emphasis on balance, in the literal sense. For example, when sitting down for a meal, members of a family will take turns sitting on opposite ends of a table, in order to more evenly distribute weight. Crowds are actively discouraged, and should a number of Kheim be required to congregate, a similar weight of people will move to balance the weight on the platform, in an unspoken but universally understood set of rules. 
In addition, the Kheim share their day-to-day mundane resources communally, out of practical politeness. Water jugs, cookware, ship patch supplies, et cetera, are all freely shared without question, as it's assumed that any Kheim that needs something needs it immediately and for good purpose, and will return it in good condition.

Common Dress code

The hot climate and difficulty of retrieving large amounts of plant fiber or threads from the Quaking Isle meant that the Kheim traditional wear is, to Etoilean eyes, bare to the point of indecency, with typically only leather or grass elements covering the nethers. In the modern trade era, the Kheim have taken to wearing comparatively inexpensive Etoilean light summer clothing and have ceased gathering grasses and plants from the island.

Art & Architecture

The Kheim take great pride in their shipbuilding, and all of the ships and pontoons in the Fleet are masterworks, especially given the provenance of their building materials. The regular earthquakes and wavestrikes in the area litter the sea with driftwood, which is painstakingly fitted together and sealed with tar that bubbles from undersea rifts. Each outrigger is thus a completely unique artifact, an object that Kheim shipwrights can spend multiple years building and ornamenting before it is pronounced fit for the seas.
The Fleet itself, being composed of over a hundred of these ships, some of which are over a century old, is thus a riot of uniquely painted motifs and carved figureheads, all carefully maintained and repaired by the Kheim to keep their small community afloat in the waves. Colorfully dyed streamers and pendants fly from the masts of the larger sailboats, while the smaller outriggers feature imagery of fish and birds on their hulls.

Common Myths and Legends

The most important myth of the Kheim is that of the great titan, named Axos, an always-hungry giant who sleeps underneath the sea. Every day he wakes up and roars, causing the regular daily major earthquake, and his roar shakes a Greatwurm from its tunnels and into his cavern, that he eats as a daily meal. After eating the wurm, he falls asleep, and his snores cause the minor earthquakes in the area, until he wakes again for his next meal.