Culture: The Koharani Garoha
The Koharani Garoha are an island-dwelling species of Gundam based on the Maoris of New Zealand. They live on the beach of an equatorial island on Solardia Rama. Koharani refers to all of the island's inhabitants, while any word after refers to a specific tribe. There are two other tribes on the island, the Koharani Rongo and the Koharani Rauamoko, but the other two are farther inland and harder to contact.
Mythology:
Their legends tell of the Sky Chieftain, overseer of the Earth Mother and Water Father, bringing the Koharani from the heavens in a great flying whale. They sprouted from the Earth Mother when fed by the blood of the Water Father. When he saw his children begin to go hungry, the Water Father shed tears from his eyes, which brought forth the shiny, silver fish which makes up much of the tribe's diet.
Culture:
Tribal politics: Much like the tribal cultures of Earth, the Koharani tribe is made up of several families watched over by a chieftain. The chieftain passes his position on to his firstborn son in the best of conditions; if something happens to the firstborn son, the second son takes his role, and so on. If there are no sons, the position goes to his brother. If there are no available males, his daughter takes on the role of chieftainess until she marries. While a few Gundamesses have held the position for life, many succumbed to the want for companionship and willingly gave up their role. If a cheiftainess dies without an heir, a staged battle is held to decide the new Chieftain (more on that later).
Families: Family structure is patriarchal by default. The father is regarded as leader of the household, but he is mostly a figurehead. The mother is in charge of most of the family's decisions and work distribution, with the paternal grandparents under her and the father under them. Children are talked to and treated as adults from a very young age, which results in Gundamlings that speak sooner and act more responsible than the average youth.
Society: The Koharani Garoha put untold amounts of emphasis on ritual and tradition. Children are taught the “scripts” for inter-tribal greetings, weddings, trades, first-timing meetings, funerals, coming-of-age ceremonies, partings, declarations of war, etc. from the time they begin to mimic their parents. While most of the important rituals are spoken, there are several important gestures as well. One of the most common, and usually the first an outsider ever experiences, is the act of approaching a person, taking his face in one's hands, and touching foreheads while maintaining eye contact. The Koharani Garoha equivalent of a handshake, the gesture is tweaked among tribe members. While you simply touch foreheads with strangers, you also touch mouth plates with one close to you and kiss someone you revere (usually the Chieftain and/or spouses).
Because tribal interchanges are so rehearsed and formalized, the Koharani have NO idea what to do when true outsiders visit the island.
Children are made into adults at 15. They go through an elaborate, week-long ceremony that concludes with a recitation of the coming-of-age oath (the hardest to remember, as it can go on for hours) and the tattooing of the youth with the mark of the tribe, the Manu Moko. The Manu Moko are black, elaborate swirling patterns that mimic the waves of the ocean and the paths of the sand in the wind. Men are tattooed over their entire face, including the black field around their eyes (the dye used to tattoo their shell turns the black of the field gray); down their neck and into their pectorals, avoiding the soul stone; down their uppers arms to their elbows; and down their spine. Women are tattooed on the faceplate just under the eyes, on the black eye field, down the neck, onto the breasts, down the upper arms to about 3 inches above the elbow, and down the spine.
The climax of the ceremony is the cutting of the child's hair, which is woven into a necklace and tied around the former child's neck. The cutting of the hair symbolizes the “rebirth” of the new Gundam, who is now short-haired as he was when he came out of his mother's womb (it also serves the purpose of telling other Gundams how old he is without asking).
Death: The Gundam's hair will grow uncut until he or she dies, at which time the family will cut the hair again and weave it into a string to tie together the deceased' wrists and ankles, returning them to their “seed” state for their return into the Earth Mother. The dead are kept above ground for 2 days, leaving the family time to grieve, and are buried as far away from water as the tribe is allowed to go.
War: Being Gundams, there is a heavy influence of war and battle within the culture. However, as they have been isolated from other Gundams for so long, the concept of fighting another Gundam to the death, or even to moderate injury, has become a figment of legend. Gundams “fight” in a highly choreographed, largely impractical dance that is taught to men and women at about 25 years old. Men are taught the defensive style, women the offensive (meaning the women “lead” and the men “follow”). Weapons are family heirlooms, prized and mostly-ornamental antiques that would break under stress.
Language: While never officially recorded, the Koharani Goroha tribal alphabet is much smaller than the American alphabet by assumption. There is a bit of an anomaly that has never been truly explained; when a Koharani Goroha speaker is trying to be pleasant, the words seem to have longer strings of vowel sounds. When the speaker is angry, trying to be gruff, or giving an order, the speech contains much more consonants.
Racial traits: The Koharani had adjusted to a much warmer, more peaceful environment than other Gundam breeds; as a result, they have lost most of their natural armor. The Koharani Goroha dress themselves only in a beaded Gundanium skirt, males and females alike. The Chieftain has a helmet/crown to wear on special occasions, but usually forgoes wearing it outside of ceremonies. As a result, many Koharani Goroha look the same to the untrained eye. Like zebras, Gundams can be told apart by the patterns of their Manu Moko. Koharani shells are naturally golden brown, with slightly varying shades. Eyes are usually green in yellow; hair is usually silvery gray, like cast iron. Koharani Goroha Gundams can run on sand as fast as Captain can roll on concrete and seem to be somewhat more bouyant than the average Gundam.
WHEW... (pant pant pant) Hope I got everything! And now the character!
Kinaki:
Kinaki is 17. He is engaged to be married, and it actively looking forward to his wedding ceremony. He's slight of build, almost scrawny, but just as strong as any other Gundam his age.
Skills: Kinaki is the tribe fisherman. His tool of the trade is a long Gundanium chain with a sharp hook on the end. To fish, he whips the chain out like a bullwhip and literally plucks the fish out of the water. His mother brags that he's never missed a fish, a boast that Kinaki had earned through years of single-handedly providing his entire tribe with all the fish they need since he was 12. When not using his hook-and-chain, he wears it around his shoulders.
He also has some gymnastic ability, as he will sometimes jump out onto the narrow rocks offshore in order to get access to better fish. He can easily balance on a surface the size of Shute's fist, but only if he's swinging his chain to steady him. Otherwise, he'd drop.
Personality: Kinaki has the heart of a teacher. He loves to teach and is insanely patient, although sometimes he treats those around him like they're stupid. Still relatively young, Kinaki is eager for approval from a strong authority figure (in the form of the chief, his mother and father, and recently Captain). He has a tendency to freeze in place when scared or confused as opposed to the more useful “fight or flight” reaction. When bored, he'll sharpen his hook by driving the tip repeatedly into the sand; this tends to annoy those nearby, as he can get into trances and do it for hours without realizing it.