Journey to the Grassland and Sea Book II

The Sahaynaivium were a people who lived in the Eastern Seas; this sea was near the great continent where the Senetha, Homvia, Honazal, Veazith, Kapdalki, Soval, Umharka and others lived. The people of the islands considered the people of the continent primitive, somewhat backward and very primitive. That is the reason why the Sahaynaivium authorties wanted to send specialists to teach the people of the continent, but this turned into something quite different. They started taking children from villages, towns and small cities back to the islands to be raised in Sahaynaivium culture so that they could take back what they had learned; back to their people on the continent. Ethnically the Sahaynaivium’s were similar to the people of the continent. The island people came from the continent or the continental people came from the islands. No one knew where the Sahaynaivium people came from. There are so many records that were hidden, lost or misplaced. When Tenashar met up with the aeronauts from Sahaynaivium, he found that their intention was to explore, another agenda was to bring the civilizing culture to the continent and other hidden things that Tenashar never learned. This seemed similar to the missionaries that were sent from Europe to Christianize people, believing this was a way to civilize them, but these people like the Senetha had their own culture that was just as valid. These people lost parts of their culture. The Sahaynaivium’s didn’t believe in any kind of god, they believed that their inner being had to reach a certain level of perfection to remain in a certain spiritual state. To them reality; was like water, each individual had their own concept of reality, this meant that life and death were two sides of the same coin, there was no perception without the other, this is similar to Yin and Yang; they also believed that destruction and creation were one, but this never meant that the Sahaynaivium’s would destroy things; they cherished all things as one, there was no spiritual dualism. To a Sahaynaivium all material things go back to there original form as energy that flows like water. That is why the oceans surround the islands. Remember, this wasn’t a static or dogmatic belief, each individual belief varied from person to person and there were no temples, the temple was the individual themselves, yes, some people would have a place dedicated to what they believed in, what they thought was important; the appearance and construction of the alter was a very personal thing. Life was supposed to be lived as it was with no deity intervening in their lives. So these so-called missionary efforts were a technological and cultural one. There was nothing spiritual about this. They wanted to take back this culture to their own lands. Architects, engineers and designers had visited Sahaynaivium from the continent for centuries, so they naturally assumed that the people of the continent wanted their culture. This wasn’t true. The learned people of the continent were interested only in certain aspects of Sahaynaivium culture. They had no intention of supplanting their culture with another. Some of the visitors were also Senetha but this was forgotten centuries ago. Some of the island factions were intent on conquest of the continent. Other factions were against this and only wanted to bring culture to the continent, still other factions wanted none of this. They believed in leaving everyone alone. This last faction was mainly made up of the vast majority. The citizenry didn’t think anything about the continent. They felt nothing was more important than their immediate surroundings. What was of more immediate concern was the instability of the oceans that began to make fishing and transportation difficult. The Sahaynaivium’s loved to sail. Flying wasn’t something they were fond of, but this seemed a contradiction. There were many developments of aircraft or what the Sahaynaivium’s called flying ships. There were ships the size of a small city that traveled the oceans of the world. The people were more concerned about the oceans than sending cultural missionaries. Some islands had been almost destroyed by the Orbs, centuries before, but in the present time, the Orbs returned and it was worse. The Sahaynaivium’s became more inward at this time because of the troubles the islands were experiencing and many were beginning to believe that Sahaynaivium culture was not for export. That was why the Sahaynaivium people and continental people wanted the missionary effort stopped.

In some ways the Sahaynaivium’s were similar to Cashmakil, but their cities never matched the size of the legendary city of the past. Sahaynaivium cities were spacious with extremely wide streets and parkland between structures, private homes had small gardens on the top of the house, inside the house and outside. There were some gardeners that would lead into another plane of existence with exotic plants pleasing the owner. This was the owners way of escaping the mundane world. Towering structures existed which were almost as tall as those of the ancient cities. But some Sahaynaivium’s weren’t impressed with the size of buildings; they believed that size didn’t bring value. What was more important was craftsmanship, practicality, beauty and soul of the thing that created. The people didn’t consider themselves rich, poor or middle class, this didn’t matter, people just did their work. Making things was more important; craftsmanship and skill were considered the highest thing. There were wealthy people but few people wished to emulate the rich. Class didn’t seem to exist. The common people believed that going about their business had more importance with using their hands to make things.

They considered themselves human beings or individuals first, then people of the earth, then Sahaynaiviums.