[University] Professor Rochlas (mod)

[Hadrian]

Hadrian nodded his acceptance of the exercise, then dropped his gaze for a good minute to think before he began.

"The harbor is disgusting. The only sea life that sticks around are the scavengers and things that feed on human offal. We had a red tide last summer, and I imagine no self-respecting Akvatari would want to swim in a harmful algal bloom... And inhospitable anyway with the ships dropping anchor and all, not looking down to see if anyone's swimming there.

"They respect their history here," he continued, shifting into a first-person Akvatari persona. "They have buildings that predate the existence of our species, at least so far as we know. Wherever we existed in our dream-state before the Valterrian...

"But they're so all bunched together here. It's difficult to find space alone unless one stays at home. More people live here than comprise our entire race, and the exigencies of trade and education require more interaction than is common among our kind..."

[Liminal]

The professor smiled and gave a slight nod. "That's a good beginning, and fairly accurate too. Let me show you how I'd go about continuing."

He too adopted the same persona that Hadrian had so lately used. "They appreciate the arts, more so than any people outside of our own city and, perhaps, Mura. One of our people can easily find success in that field here.

"Although the harbor is, as mentioned before, useless, the people make little use of the mountainous land to the west of the city. There are streams and small lakes in the Zatoskas that are relatively unspoiled, and one can find fish there to eat. A good thing too, given that there are more people here than the land can really feed, and they're constantly running out of things to eat. A strange concept to us, but they lack the ability to simply catch whatever they need.

"And, something that perhaps says as much about them as anything else is their choice in national heroes. In most places outside of Abura, it seems that the local legends are warriors, conquerors, or deities. Here, the city's most renowned historical figure is an explorer and author, and even its secondary heroes are scholars and navigators. It's a sensibility closer to our own than in many other places."

He stepped back out of the role that he had been playing. "This is a point worth noting, actually, Hadrian. As I mentioned before, the Akvatari generally consider the Zeltivans to be friends, and part of the reason is that their sensibilities are much closer to ours than almost anyone else's. They value art, learning, and the gaining of knowledge here, in a way that few other human societies do. Few other societies at all, actually -- only the Konti of Mura have the same sort of ideals.

"It also points out that Akvatari society is loosely organized, far more loosely than that of any other group of people in Mizahar, save for Sunberth. We dislike the imposition of one person's will on another, and we dislike physical conflict intensely -- indeed, our entire national defense plan, if one wanted to dignify it by calling it such, is based on the fact that there's nothing on Akvatar that anyone else would want."

He chuckled to himself, and then paused to allow Hadrian to respond if he wished.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian chuckled too, his brows remaining knit up in intense thought, making of his young face an almost comical display of concentration. It was one thing to postulate based on what one has read about a people, but another to do so under the scrutiny of a scholar of that people, and this was a more exacting examination of what he had learned in his anthropology classes than any of the other professors in that department had demanded of him.

The exigencies of this conversation were such that as soon as Rochlas had pointed something out to him, he felt that it was obvious and tried to absorb it to better answer the next question, but inevitably he was being led to new heights or lower depths and a greater degree of complexity and subtlety. This, of course, was exciting, but also humbling. Humbling was not something he was accustomed to this late in his career.

"I still wonder at the food shortages. I've lived here going on four years and I just don't understand... If they imported enough foodstuffs to store through the stormy seasons and the winters, it wouldn't be a problem. And they don't utilize the forests and streams and mountains as much as they could, which is good in that they don't depopulate the prey species there, but I just think they should be able to successfully prepare for the famine times. They catch enough fish that they could salt and store. They could build greenhouses to grow fruits and vegetables even during the winter, and these buildings could be reinforced with magic to protect them from the more violent storms if urban planning and architecture couldn't manage it..."

He sighed. "Here again, I'm still thinking of myself as an outsider even though it's been home for so long..."

So long. Almost four years was a long time to someone of his age. In Syliras he had been a boy; in Zeltiva he was a young man. Childhood wasn't so far away, but it was a different life, to be sure.

"And no restaurants... If there was a larger demand for food, the macroeconomy would find a way to meet that demand with the supplies of other cities. That might raise prices, but again... granaries could store foodstuffs, and larders in homes and inns and nonexistent restaurants."

He scratched his head. "I suppose they are just set in their ways. Even brilliant scholars can get locked into a certain way of thinking, and most politicians don't like to think innovatively... They would rather consolidate their power. Still..."

He blinked. "I'm sorry. The Akvatari. I suppose it does follow that they, you, are a race that values self-determination. The melancholy of your art--at least, by human standards--seems most often presented as a personal melancholy rather than a racial melancholy. I suppose that also denotes a certain level of self-awareness that is less common in other races. Or at least a potential for it...

"I suppose self-determination is also why the Akvatari don't exactly export culture the way a human cultural center might. They're like the Eypharians in that, though for different reasons. The Eypharians have their highly stylized art forms, but they don't exist outside of Ahnatep.

"Hm."

[Liminal]

Rochlas shrugged again. "Part of the problem, I think, is the difficulty of importing food. Since the Valterrian, few cities grow enough food to be able to export it, since agriculture requires being spread out and stable, two things that are hard when the proverbial knife is always at your throat. Certainly there's nowhere on the east coast that does, and that's where the relatively short trade routes are. And even if there was some other place inland willing to send food, can you imagine sending caravans on a regular basis over the Zatoskas? After I got here, I actually took a couple days and flew up to the pass. It was hard work even for me, and I can't figure it would be easy to get anything with wheels through there."

His head tilted to the left a bit. "But as for the other...that's a good observation. A large portion of the issue, I think, is that although there's a mood, if you will, often associated with Akvatari art, there isn't a style really. Individual artists can be and are highly influential, but that's as far as it goes -- and so even though Akvatari art is everywhere, at least in the eastern regions, it doesn't have the effect of a regional cultural center."

The Akvatari nodded to himself. "Actually, that's a good place to break for the day. When you come back next, I'd like you to have some other ideas regarding what influence a strongly individualistic streak would have in Akvatari society. What other areas might it impact? I'll elaborate, of course, but I want you to do some thinking about it."

[Hadrian]

Hadrian had several ideas how to combat the common famines of Zeltiva, but he remained a student and so he kept his mouth shut, smiled, and nodded. Someday he would be able to make things better, he told himself frequently. Now was the time to acquire the skills to make things happen. The happenings would occur in the future.

"Of course, Professor. It was an edifying discussion. I really do like running headfirst into the realization that I don't really know anything at all."

He grinned, the self-deprecation true enough. Then, out of politeness, he waited to see if Rochlas had anything else to add or if he was summarily dismissed.

[Liminal]

No, there was nothing else that the Akvatari had to add, and Hadrian was free to be about his business.

*****

At the next appointed class time, Rochlas was waiting for him. The ambience of the room was exactly the same as it had been before.

"Welcome, Hadrian. So, have you given any thought to the question that I asked you at the end of last class?"

[Hadrian]

"Hello, Professor Rochlas," he said, settling in again for another round of feeling stupid, but making a valiant attempt to prove otherwise. "I have," he said in answer to the question, and he gathered his thoughts from the previous days off to respond.

"I have been thinking on what we discussed previously, reading more on the subject, and also connecting things to previous experiences and discussions with others. I'm afraid it's taken a bit of a metaphysical or theological turn... I hope you'll forgive me."

He grinned, a little to hide nervousness and a little because he had not yet sussed this professor out. Some professors took to him immediately, recognizing a bright and voracious mind or a kindred spirit, but Rochlas was an Akvatari and they were so individualistic that Hadrian wondered what any relationship with one of their species looked like.

"I had this friend. Well, I suppose I still have him, though he hasn't been in Zeltiva for some time now... An ethaefal, so I suppose he should know from whence he speaks on topics regarding the gods... Anyway, when he was still dancing attendance upon Syna, he could see how everything was interconnected. That is, we're all one big ecology of djed. We're differentiated into individuals, but we're all still bound together.

"Anyway, in Akvatari culture, connections seem to be fleeting and not particularly deep. Or, perhaps that is not true. They may be deep, but they are not lasting. Mating is rarely for life. Children leave home before reaching sexual maturity, which is uncommon among sentient races. No gods have claimed them as a people... They have no recorded history before the Valterrian... Perhaps their individuality as well as their melancholy stem from a sense of being cut off from this interconnectedness.

"But to answer your actual question, I think that would impact everything in Akvatari culture. Religion -- well, how likely is a person to be devoted to a god who shows no care for them? Family? Love? Nothing quite fits for them... Are they like humans? Are they like birds? Are they like fish? I shouldn't wonder that might be confusing.

"And not only are they individualistic, but they are so self-sufficient. They can survive on fish and kelp that they catch or harvest themselves. Proceeds from works of art would just be so much gravy... They don't need food. They don't need... much of anything, really. Or not in the long term. Perhaps that is why their government, such as it is, can be so peripheral. Humans need governing because of competing needs. Akvatari needs are so negligible in comparison that their government is similarly negligible..."

[Liminal]

Rochlas was indeed difficult to read. He seemed interested, but it was hard to attribute more than that to him with any certainty.

He listened quietly, without so much as breathing, until Hadrian was entirely finished. Akvatari, able as they were to dive for hours on a single breath, were more than competent in the art of holding one's breath, and apparently Rochlas did it sometimes when he was concentrating.

"An incisive critique, and I appreciate your using information learned from other sources," the Akvatari said. "The lack of a past, the lack of an identity, weighs heavily upon us. And yes...we need little government as we have few competing needs, little commercial enterprise, and no proclivity towards crime. Few things that happen in other cities apply to us."

One wing twitched. "I'm not sure I agree with you regarding relationships, or at least not entirely. Rather, there's a sense that all relationships are a choice. One doesn't choose one's parents, nor one's siblings, nor one's children for that matter. What Akvatari remain close to their first-degree relatives do so on the basis of a chosen friendship, not an arbitrary tie of blood. But friends -- true friends are safe."

Something that might have been a wistful look crossed his eyes. "Ironically, that's perhaps one reason why romantic relationships often don't last. People change and grow, and a relationship that might have been exactly what someone needed at twenty might not be what they needed at all at thirty. Humans and other similar races often stay together anyway for family, political, or economic reasons. However, family, politics, and economics aren't concepts that matter so much to the Akvatari, and so we don't try to force a relationship that has lived its life. You'll find plenty of ex-lovers in an Akvatari society -- but you'll find precious few who parted on anything but the best of terms, and many who are still great friends."

He looked at Hadrian again. "Now, I imagine you have questions I haven't covered. What would you like to ask?"

[Hadrian]

Hadrian nodded several times during Rochlas' riposte, glad that he was at least correct on most accounts, and where he wasn't, it was merely a wrinkle of meaning about which he hadn't been precise enough. To be sure, he found that the more they spoke, the more affinity he felt toward the Akvatari; not so much the melancholy, for he found his joys in life and rarely had time for sadness, but in the way he related to people, growing beyond the need for certain relationships.

Of course, scholars didn't often insert personal details into their inquiries and conversations, so he kept his own details out, but still...

"I don't think the focus on the utility of relationships is a purely Akvatari trait, though I can see that it is one that by and large they share. With many humans, such a trait would seem cold-hearted, but mostly be the more 'warm-hearted' humans. Or warm-blooded. Whether it is sentiment that makes humans attach more of a long-term bond to instinctual relationships or not... or the expectation of a long-term bond... Well, Cheva blesses unions, not necessarily love, and so if Akvatari are less likely than other races to make permanent unions, it would seem to follow that Cheva, at least, is less likely to pay them much attention.

"What are the Akvatari views of religion?" he asked finally. He had read books, of course, but that was not the same as asking an Akvatari.

[Liminal]

Rochlas thought about the question for several seconds before answering. "Varied, I suppose, as those of most races are. But there are two general schools of thought."

"One is that special respect is due to any deity willing to accept the veneration of one of us and return his or her own blessings. To be taken in, accepted by a deity is to connect us in some way with the greater circle of things. The worship of some such gods and goddesses is more pronounced among us, as you might imagine. Eyris, for the knowledge all of us seek; Laviku and Zulrav, for the sea and sky that we inhabit; Rhaus for our songs; and Kelwyn, for the lost causes that form the warp and weft of our lives. Many others are worshiped by some, though there are also some that you will almost never see an Akvatari follow. Krysus, Myri, Nikali, Rhysol, Vayt -- I don't believe I've ever met an Akvatari who followed any of those."

"The other direction many Akvatari go is a sort of disillusionment. If no god claims them, why should they claim any god? Such of us simply try to see if we can get back to Lhex without incurring anyone's wrath; perhaps then, our souls will find incarnations that the heavens can love."

He closed his eyes, almost as if he were falling asleep. Then, without warning, he opened them, awaiting Hadrian's reply.