Atoli, or Atori, or Estoli, or Estori, or those Zebras with boats (Patreon)

But first, some news!  We're working on the first trailer for Faultlines.  Everything will be in game assets.  Hopefully you'll get a good feel for what we're trying to do.  I've also been working on the Noir fantasy story and HL:25.  If you haven't have a peek at Noir, a link is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BEAy5pAlrmi3b1sIgXTYicbQm0QPfsDgdwFpvQmnHAo/edit?usp=sharing

And now the sea zebras.

As the zebra people were walking for weeks around the continent, some zebra had this radical idea: what if instead of walking everywhere you got on a bunch of logs, raise a mast with a sheet attached, and let the wind push them along.  And so they got some logs, made a raft, and sailed next to the coast to reach their next destination.  And then a sea monster of one sort or another reared it's head, smashed their raft, and only a few lucky survivors swam to shore.  At which point one of the said, "Hey, that was working pretty well.  Let's try again!"

Like the Logos, the 'Toh' (an ancient zebra word for salt water) were zebras who decided life at sea was preferable to the great migration.  Part of this was because the lack of competition with other zebras allowed an easy life on tropical islands.  Others liked the comparative safety to be found in mobility, and the opportunity to raid and or flee from their enemies.  While two land bridges and ocean currents defied their dreams of sailing around the continent, it did allow for a distinct branch of the zebras to thrive.

Prior to the first Empire, the Toh lived rather uniformly.  Trees would be dug out or burned out, fitted with outriggers and sails, and would take to the sea.  The Toh lived on coasts, often eating kelp and other seaweeds, as well as shellfish.  Many of the shells were traded for goods from the remaining tribes in the great migration.  Unlike the Propoli, a Toh settlement relocated every year to where food was plentiful, making reliable trade difficult.  Though Propoli attempted to make coastal villages, storms, coastal erosion, and sea monsters thwarted their attempts to make the Toh settle down in more convenient locations.

The Toh, however, lead to the discovery of an eerie basin on a neighboring continent.  They brought word back to the zebra, and Starkatteri investigated, intrigued by the location.  Within two generations, the Starkatteri worked with the Toh to bring over slaves and cultists to raise the power from the earth.  While the Toh were eventually enslaved by the Starkatteri, they were a part of the chain of events that lead to the Starkatteri's rise and fall.  When the first Empire was established, the Tohi were the tribe's official name.

So why the four variations?  While traditionally there are twelve and one tribes, any scholar looking at these sea going zebra note four distinct cultures within them, and gave them names to distinguish them from each other.  Thus the Toh got the prefix Ah or Est for 'west' and 'east'.  The suffix of Li was given to northern tribes and Ri to southern tribes, 'Cold' and 'Warm' respectively.  Thus the four sub tribes of Atoli, Atori, Estoli, and Estori were established.  All four are used interchangibly, with the Tohi being an archaic reference (like referring to a modern person today as a saxon or pict.)

The Atoli were the most prominent and interconnected of the four.  They maintained ports of trade, sailing across the sea to sell to Yaks, the proto Crystal Empire, and the Early Equestrians.  The Atoli were the first to adopt timbered longboats, and made early contact with the Mighty Helm.  The two groups were frenimies, aiding and competing with the primitive earthpony sailors.  The Atoli took culture from both mainlands and synthesized it with their own sub-ruler and a shamanistic tradition, as well as honoring strength, integrity, and hard work.

The Atori, in contrast, had little need for advancement.  The volcanic islands of the south west were comfortable and provided plenty of food.  The Atori continued to use their duggout canoes and outriggers, moving along from island to island with a variety of navigational tricks.  Atori were known to be fierce fighters in combat, with stallions and mares holding a wide variety of conflicts to determine social place, such as head warrior, head weaver, head fisher, and head shaman.  The Atori were also infamous for loving fermented coconut wine.

The Estoli were perhaps the most distant zebra tribe, living on island chains far to the east.  In fact the islands the zebras called Estolina were islands the ponies called Neighpon.  The two species shared the island chain, living amicably.  Estoli and Neighponese intermarried and a curious genetic quirk allowed viable offspring.  Many Estoli have vividly colored manes, and many Neighponese occasionaly have the wavy marks of the zebra.  While technically under the rule of the Empire, the Estoli have never paid an imperial tax, hold their own laws and traditions over that of the empire, and many don't even consider themselves zebra!

The Estori, on the other hand, inhabit islands much closer to the continent, and are far drier and harsher than their Atori cousins.  The Estori took up piracy and raiding, using the multitude of rocks, shoals, and coves to create hundreds of little settlements that fought each other as often as raided and pillaged.  The Estori took up a tradition of eating meat, and even cannibalism wasn't taboo.  Estori witch doctors concocted terrible, elaborate curses.  The Estori practiced slavery on any that they got their hooves on.

When Nightmare Moon blocked the sun, only the Atoli regarded it as significant.  Some Atori offered sacrifices to volcano spirits, while the Estori thought it was just a curious celestial event and wouldn't learn of Nightmare Moon for almost a decade!  As a result, while the other tribes roiled in turmoil and reorganization of the Empire, the Atoli and others resumed life as they had always known it: sailing the seas and partaking of its bounty and paying it's tolls.

For much of the second Empire, the various groups of the tribe acted as intermediaries of all lands, seeking or extracting trade and eventually returning it to the various ports on the coasts.  While the tribe rarely strayed far from the shore, their ships ventured to the farthest reaches of the world, and in centuries to come, explorers would venture out only to find an old zebra settlement long abandoned in 'undiscovered' lands.

For the tribe, however, the greatest impediment was shipbuilding.  While suitable for duggouts, the tropical trees proved ill suited towards larger vessels.  Thus the Atoli were intertwined with the Empire, using it for a steady supply of shipbuilding materials.  Shipyards in the Zanzebra straits churned out vessels to convey goods and fish the Icebound sea, while Estoli and Estori produced their own designs.  Any idea for a superior design was incorporated, resulting in some of the finest vessels.

The transition to steel hulls marked a departure for much of the tribe.  Mythology claimed that life in the trees gave life to the soul of the ship, but no such connection existed with iron plates and rivets, yet the advantage of steel hulls was unquestioned.  The Atoli embraced these new ships, many produced with Propoli metal, while the others maintained more traditional wooden ships.

It should be pointed out that at the time of the late second Empire the Equestrian sea tradition was laughably poor.  Indeed, whole ships could be lost in mild swells and few ponies had maintained the naval traditions of the Mighty Helm.  However, newer steel hulled, equestrian ships were begining to nip away at Atoli tradition.  Indeed, no matter how well designed, zebras lacked pony magic in sailing.  This prompted a reactionary wave through the Atoli, who rejected the economic deals the Propoli were doing with Equestria directly, cutting out the Atoli.  In a fury, they petitioned other tribe, managing to get the Orah and Achu to back their candidate for Caesar.  When the Roamani candidate accepted the vote of the Starkatteri, rather than rejecting it and forcing a revote, the Atoli were incensed.  (It should be noted the Atori and Estori were barely involved at all and the Estoli were unaware there was even a vote on the far side of the world!)

A number of Atoli came up with a plot to embarass the new Caesar: they would take a pony tourist vessel hostage and force the Caesar to ask the Atoli for aid.  They carried out the plan, but the Caesar instead marshalled an army to reclaim the vessel.  Princess Celestia, worried of her people getting hurt, sent in the Wonderbolts.  In the confusion, a wonderbolt was slain, and several Atoli were injured.  Rather than hold their own responsible, the Atoli condemned Celestia's 'invasion' of Imperial waters.  The dodge worked at the cost of sending ripples of animosity through the Empire.  Eventually, trade was suspended, and a coal shipment siezed, beginning the war.

At the outset of the war, the Atoli were thrilled that their competition was now fighting the Romani, but their pleasure soon turned to grumbling at the many economic difficulties they suffered.  Some Atoli turned to raiding Equestrian ports, and by the time Princess Luna assumed command of the war, the Atoli were already on war footing.  Unlike Equestria, which focused on their command of the skies, the Atoli exploited their generations of naval traditions to hit and run from coastal targets.  The Equestrian navy tended towards large, defensive ships and relied on Raptors for offensive strikes.

As the war dragged on, the Atoli suffered, while the other three branches looked on with grave worry they'd be next.  Atori and Estori occasionally served on naval vessels, but they were usually far from the conflict.  More and more Atoli feared attacks on ports, and moved into the islands in the middle of the Zanzebra straits.  Surely here they'd be safe!

The day of doom saw the deaths of a third of all Atoli.  Celestia one targeted the islands, and vaporized them down to the waterline.  Other megaspells destroyed ports and shipyards.  While the Neighponese and Estoli had been all but neutral during the war, balefire bombs and megaspells raked the beautiful islands.  The Estori smuggly got through the conflict all but unscathed... and starved as food dwindled to nothing.  Even the Atori, who possessed the greatest survival skills and strongest shamans, found themselves helpless in the turmoil as the spirits of the volcanoes exploded in outrage, as if some great indecency had been done to Eqqus itself.

Over two hundred years, the Atoli have barely recovered.  They trade with a handful of ports across the icy northern sea.  Most of their ships are grouped together in North Port around the Sea Dragon.  The peace of the Neighpon islands is now a struggle between dozens of warlords.  The Atori islands are wild, spirit plauged places where primal villages offer sacrifices to wrathful volcano spirits.  The Estori became the Blue Legion, merging with the remains of the imperial navy and raiding and pillaging the southern coast.  However, the majority of their vessels are old and obsolete.  They are considered largely a joke by the other legions.