The Hayao

The Hayao of Eastrun are to the seas, what the Daizu are to the steppes. As raiders and pirates, they make their way by exacting tribute and spoils from the merchants who travel to and from Eastrun.

The Hayao were people of the steppes once, too. In that day they lived on Dry Land behind walls of rock and refused to bend the knee to Eastrun’s greatest conqueror -- Jen Shu. In retaliation for their intransigence, their city was torn down and their people were slaughtered. Some of their escaping elders were pursued Eastward to the sea and many of them were slain along the way. Scant hundreds arrived at the shore, and overwhelmed the fishing village they found there, fleeing in boats big and small. 

The Daizu have no memory of this event for they do not keep records. Even of Jen Shu they know almost nothing, having no reason to recall warlords of the past. But the sages of the Imperial Manwin say it is written that Jen Shu cursed the Hayao people because they were the only people he could not conquer. For they fled the land in fishing vessels and threw themselves to the mercy of the waves, rather than face the fury of his horsemen. 

According to the priests of the Hayao, once their people were set free from Dry Land they sought the protection of a cruel and capricious sea goddess. Rather than destroy them outright, she bade them swear that they would be the instruments of her vengeance upon all the people of the Four Lands who ply the waves. The Hayao would enjoy her mercy and her everlasting protection, so long as they never returned to Dry Land from whence they came. 

Whether it is because of this vow to the sea goddess; or whether it is because of the curse of Jen Shu, the Hayao have never returned from the Seas. To this day, their people neither trust the Dry Land nor the Dust Men who live upon it.

Some say that the Hayao are ever in motion, sailing here and there according to patterns that only they know. Others claim that they live above a sunken atoll or perhaps a coral reef, and have built houses upon it from the planks of ships they have pirated. One thing is certain, no one can claim to have seen the inhabitations of the Hayao for they have a strict law that all who gaze upon their women must be slain.