About

This lore page is written as an in-universe ethnography authored by a Sharlayan Archon who's spent much of his career in anthropological research visiting the Aerslaent archipelago to interview and observe the Issiq.While I've created the Keepers of the Sea as family background and history for my OC Nish'a Tibariah, and taken creative liberties to more fully characterize a complex, ever-changing culture of people, I've adhered to FFXIV canon lore wherever possible. I've also drawn inspirations from a wide range of Arctic and North Atlantic cultures, primarily in the realm of hunting/agricultural practices and clothing designs adapted to harsh freezing environments.The spiritual beliefs and practices of the Issiq are primarily based on Gnosticism (a type of early Christianity that emphasizes salvation from the malevolent material realm through personally experienced mystical union with the divine), extrapolating further from the Gnostic references characterizing the primal Sophia the Goddess.

History of the Issiq

Ilsabard

As most scholars are aware, the ancestors of the Miqo’te people were natives of the Meracydian continent and enslaved in service of the Allagan Empire. After the fall of the Allagans and the advent of the Fifth Umbral Calamity, they underwent a great migration north to Ilsabard across the frozen seas. Most Miqo’te clans eventually crossed the land bridge to Aldenard, where what we know as the Seekers of the Sun settled across the land in patriarchal tribes, and the Keepers of the Moon settled the Black Shroud in matriarchal tribes.These tribes settled all across Othard and Ilsabard as well, and we know some common ancestor is shared with the Hhetsarro people of Xak Tural. The ancestors of contemporary Issiq chose the snowy majesty of the Magna Glacies mountain range as their territory, which now serves as the border between Garlemald and other nations such as Nhalmasque and Landis.For hundreds of years, the Issiq adapted to this harsh environment, unchallenged for territory except by the climate itself. Little is known in Sharlayan of the clans’ histories in the Magna Glacies, as many oral tradition lines were broken in their second migration, and those that remain are fiercely guarded from outsiders by the lorekeepers of each clan.One of the few openly shared historical records involves the Issiq assisting the Garleans’ ancestors in the mountain crossing after being driven out of Corvos, after which they enjoyed many decades of allyship and mutual trade with the newly arrived Garlean people. However, the indisputable common knowledge is that some sixty-odd years ago, the Garlean Republic’s first campaigns of conquest drove the Issiq clans from the Magna Glacies, and most of the survivors fled west to the Ilsabardian coast.

Aerslaent

It was there they met a fleet of Aerslaenti Sea Wolf raiders, and with little option but to negotiate safe passage from the encroaching Garleans, the Issiq were taken to the Aerslaent archipelago in the Northern Empty, homeland of our Sharlayan nation’s founder. In contrast to Nyunkrepf’s enlightenment, the despotic ruler and remote harsh environment of the isles has long produced and encouraged a brutal sort of practicality and competition for resources among his countrymen.Some margin of fortune prevented the majority of Issiq from enslavement, but they were not to escape indentured servitude. The males in particular were often pressed into service aboard raider ships, with other Miqo’te indentured to practitioners of local trades – shipbuilders, loggers, miners, fishers, blacksmiths, and the like. Such bonds still persist for some families, but despite the harsh beginning to their new settlements, the Aerslaenti Issiq have, in this scholar’s opinion, adapted remarkably well.One will rarely hear an Issiq complain about the nature of these indentured bonds, although they’re all certainly quite aware of the imbalance in power and social status between their people and much of the other Aerslaenti population. In fact, most clans are paradoxically grateful for the variety of crafts and practical skills they acquired during their bonds.Without learning how to harvest from the ocean and lands, to paddle or sail, or to construct appropriate shelters, they say, few would have survived even the first winter in their new home, the small, harsh northerly island they named Nova Ojtaq – “new mountain”. As for why the island’s name is a blend of both the Garlean and the Issiq tongues, the answer has always been the same – balance between the languages their original home is accustomed to hearing.

Appearance & Traits

Much as the Keepers of the Moon in the Black Shroud, Issiq clans are strictly matriarchal. Their round pupils and fang-like upper teeth suggest a close genetic relationship to the Shroud Keepers, and in fact the Aerslaenti Issiq are fond of calling themselves ‘Keepers of the Sea’. Regardless of clan, the Issiq tend towards hair and fur colors of white, grey, and black, as well as a relatively common trait of leopard-like spots on well-furred tails.They tend to show little emotive range other than what’s communicated through movement of ears and tail, though not as a rule. The Issiq are also perhaps the most dizzyingly adept and swift rock climbers of any people I’ve encountered.

Lifestyle & Culture

The Issiq population is concentrated on one of the northernmost isles, where all but a few fortunate souls who managed to secure wealth, mostly through raiding or particularly prosperous shipbuilding ventures, live a subsistence lifestyle. Shacks of peat and reclaimed ship lumber are the most common homes found along the northern coast and within the mountainous forested interior of the isle.The old growth forest was almost entirely clear-cut long before the Issiq arrived. There are admirable successional stands of trees propagating in no small part because of the efforts of the Issiq themselves to reforest the isle. They consider it their honorbound duty to restore their adopted homeland’s natural resources, and to mitigate the impact that they believe they’ve caused by settling there.The ocean’s bounty supports the Issiq, with one of the most prominent clans among them, the Tibariah, being skilled and knowledgeable shellfish farmers. Seal hunting, net fishing, crab and lobster trapping, and collecting or cultivating edible kelp are all staples of their lifestyle.On summer solstice, all clans undertake a yearly migration by sea kayak to an unpopulated isle just across a small channel to the south for a celebratory hunt. With some frequency, clans will also join to hunt a moose, bear, or caribou for supplemental food and materials. Over time, a few have even acquired an unusual breed of kelp-grazing karakul, and cultivate some resilient staple grain crops and root vegetables.The yearly solstice festival on the more southerly isle is undoubtedly the hub around which all Aerslaenti Issiq life rotates. This is a time of communal gathering, fishing, and hunting, but above all it serves as an opportunity to facilitate partnerships between males & females of different clans, engage in trade otherwise difficult to conduct overland, formation of new clans, performing of spiritual rituals, and together reaffirming the varied traditions which make them uniquely Issiq.As mentioned earlier, the similarities Aerslaenti Keepers share with those of the Shroud also include a strictly matriarchal clan structure, and the same naming convention for males, where each son is named for his mother and birth order. Clans are typically composed of two or three extended family groups, with numerous offshoots frequently forming from the larger and more prominent clans.Males’ involvement in shore life is frequently limited if only because so many are bound to service aboard raider or trade ships, but those who primarily farm, hunt, or have a land-bound trade tend to be engaged, attentive fathers. While there is no expectation of monogamy, coupling to produce children is still considered a profound and binding commitment.

Spirituality & Beliefs

On the subject of metaphysical beliefs, relatively little is known. However, despite the refusal of the Issiq to share much more than the most generic information about their religious practices, most significantly the core concept of ‘balance’, it is undeniable that they are a deeply spiritual people attuned closely to the seasons, natural environment, and aether concentrations. The Issiq do openly value qualities such as symmetry, impartiality, stoicism, aesthetics, cooperation, innovative tradition, and resourcefulness.The Faculty of Aetherology first joined these research trips after the remarkable discovery of an unusual elemental magic practice, and since have inferred various theories on the origins of Issiq occultism. Currently, a prevailing theory is that many of the more esoteric elements of their society can be traced back almost directly to their Meracydian ancestors. For more information on this, reference restricted literature in Studium Libraries Lower Archive B-6.

Miscellaneous

When asked directly by researchers from the Faculty of Anthropology for their thoughts on moving to the objectively more prosperous and favorable climes of the Mainland, nearly all Issiq individuals replied they’d never consider it. Trading their goods beyond their own community, including the friendly, if somewhat tense, relationship they have with the Sea Wolf locals on the southern coast of the isle would demand steep tariffs and deeper fealty to the local government, they claim.Furthermore, their evolving traditions are deeply important to tie the clans together when the loss of their ancestral Ilsabardian homeland is still relatively fresh.Despite this community ethos, the upsets of the Calamity have touched even these remote isles. Many Issiq youths have indeed chosen to move to the Mainland, or even as far as Limsa Lominsa.Notably, and to disclose any potential conflicts of interest in the subject, the Tibariah matriarch Nish’s eldest son, one Nish’a Tibariah, chose to accompany members of the Faculty of Aetherology back to Sharlayan after one research trip was concluded some ten or so years ago. Though he enrolled at the Studium under my recommendation at the young age of sixteen, and showed exceptional academic promise, the young man has since left behind his studies and taken up employment in Labyrinthos.Though formally sponsored and housed at first by a colleague in Aetherology, Nish’a is an ongoing participant in the Issiq research project. Once a year he gives an extended interview and allows the observation of his work at Labyrinthos’ environmental and animal husbandry facilities.