Yuet

The Yuet people were particularly known for their weapons and boats, with unparalleled blacksmithing and shipbuilding skills that have entered near-mythology status since their decline and assimilation into the Ingan Empire long ago. The quality of their metalworks means that they are coveted today, and although they mostly serve ceremonial purposes due to their perceived value, most of them are comparable to modern crafts in condition and calibre. For example, the legendary greatsword wielded by the ancient Yuet king, Gin Tiger-slayer, is a prize possession in the treasury of the Ingan Empire. Most of the highest-calibre metalworkers and blacksmiths of the southern Ingan Empire today can trace the skills of their trade back to the days of the Yuet.
Alongside their weapons and boats, naturally the Yuet people produced many legendary blacksmiths, warriors, seafarers, and naval traders. The Yuet state was remarkable for fielding an impressive navy that colonized many of the Seafarer Islands, where their influence remains strong in the style of ship-building and in the seafaring way of life.
Generations ago, the Yuet state was absorbed into the Ingan Empire, and their culture gradually assimilated until their people were considered themselves one people with the northerners. Parts of the Yuet culture remain, but are considered a regional quirk of the Ingan, rather than from a completely separate culture.

Naming Traditions

Unisex names

The Yuet do not have the concept of a personal name. Most people, especially children, are referred to by their family name and their birth order, e.g. the second daughter of the Jai family. Some people, if they have a distinctive profession or trait, may be referred to by that as well, such as the old blind man of the Lo family. Since Yuet communities of the ancient times were small, this did not pose an issue. When different villages communicated or traded, people could be further disambiguated by referring to their village as well. Thus, translated, a Yuet name for official record purposes might look like Mount-Tusa-Village Jai Second-Daughter.
Historical figures who may need to be recorded and distinguished between generations are usually given a posthumous name. For example, the ancient Yuet kings of the Gin family were referred to by their birth order as princes, and then later as simply King while reigning, but were posthumously given names that summarized or highlighted parts of their reign, such as King Gin Peace-builder.

Family names

Family names are monosyllabic. Many Yuet surnames persist in the southern Ingan Empire through assimilated descendants of the Yuet.

Other names

Remarkably, the Yuet gave names to items in the two categories core to their culture: their weapons, and their boats. Similar to their names for people, these names were more like epithets than personal names. While the length of the name varied and could reach up to sixteen syllables, the number of syllables was most commonly a multiple of four, or, second most commonly, seven syllables long.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Nearly all adults have tattoos, usually in geometric shapes and simple designs, with a differentiation between facial and body tattoos. For women, facial tattoos are across the cheekbones and body tattoos on the arms; for men, tattoos are facial tattoos are across the jawline, and body tattoos on the lower legs. Tattoos on the collarbone and upper back are common for both sexes. Although the facial tattoos never caught on with other cultures, today it is unusual but not rare in the southern Ingan Empire to see Yuet-style tattoos on women's arms or men's calves.
These tattoos were not personal choices. The tattoos were seen are pre-determined by the divine, in the same way the physical characteristics one is born with are pre-determined. One of the village shamans, who also served as the tattooists, would perform a ritual to discover the pattern they should draw. It was, however, a personal choice regarding when people got their tattoos, how many times they got tattoos, and how many tattoos they got at one time. Usually, they marked significant life events, with most Yuet people getting body tattoos as part of their coming-of-age ceremony.

Foods & Cuisine

Yuet cuisine centers around hearty, nutritious soups and fresh seafood.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Ideally, Yuet people are buried whole in a casket on land. To die at sea was a tragedy that to the Yuet meant your soul would be lost at sea – to remedy this, if possible, a family member or loved one would embark on the same journey at sea the lost soul was meant to take and complete the journey for them, guiding them back to shore. There have been tragic but ironic instances of a succession of family members dying in the same exact journey in an attempt to lead the souls before them to land.
Although the latter practice is no longer in fashion, whole burials remain important as the best way to preserve the wholeness of the soul into the afterlife. Thus, in the south, death by beheading is seen as a more severe punishment than death by hanging.

Common Myths and Legends

The Yuet revere two primary gods, the twin gender-less divinities of fire and water. The former has their domain on land and in metalworks, while the latter has their domain at sea and in seafaring. Together, the two enable life, with fire to heat and dry and water to cool and wet.

"I dream of the sea, I taste salt on the wind. I dream of the hearth, I hear children laugh. But mostly, I dream of you."

Yuet Poem on Homesickness