adapted by Tooey and Emma
I. Land and Climate
We know from the books that the Yamani Islands are extremely mountainous, and it's quite possible that a few of the islands in themselves are mountains, much like Hawaii, but not so Hawaiian. Drawing from the idea that the Islands are based on feudal Japan, we can reasonably assume that it's hot and humid in the summer, and very snowy during the winter. It's possible that the country has a rainy season lasting for about forty days around the months of June and July. It may also have a typhoon season between August and October. One very well-known feature of the Islands is the cherry trees, and their blossoms.
II. Fauna
Drawing again from our knowledge of the animals native to Japan, the Yamani Islands likely have an abundance of small animals (moles, shrews, otters, foxes) and not so many of the larger animals prevalent on the continent such as deer and bears. One large animal they would have is the wolf, as well as wales and porpoises in the waters. In terms of livestock and labor animals, they have pigs, oxen, and cattle.
III. Food
The Yamani people are actually some of the healthiest in the world, being that their diet consists of a lot of stuff that's loads better for you than the red meat favored in Tortall and its neighbors. Fish, seafood, and vegetables, including seaweed, are staples, and there's always rice. Lots of rice, even at breakfast. People eat and cook with chopsticks--they eat the solid parts of soup with chopsticks and then drink the broth from the bowl. Many things are eaten raw, including fish and eggs (yes, eggs). Of course, their alcohol of choice is rice wine, which can be served either hot or cold. They also drink green tea, which is prepared by mixing a powder with a cup of hot water.
The People
I. Appearance
The Yamani are on a whole a beautiful people, at least from an "exotic" perspective. Relatively shorter than many other peoples, there's also less genetic variation than even the Scanrans. All Yamanis naturally have straight black hair, though the exact shade and thickness can vary. Yamani men can either shave their heads or grow their hair long(ish) and wear it in a topknot; in fact, to lose the topknot (have it cut off in some way) is a humiliating experience. Of course children don't do that. Women can wear their hair up or down, but "up" is usually a fairly complicated style. The eyes are almond-shaped and varying shades of brown, though usually dark. Every once in awhile--an extreme while--watery blue-gray eyes will appear, but they're very rare. No green, though black is a possibility. Shades of skin vary from almost porcelain white to fairly dark.
II. Clothing
Yamani people wear a variety of clothes for various purposes, just like any other country. The difference is in how their clothes have developed and the way they're worn.
Most people know about kimono, but most people don't know that both men and women wear them. A woman's is, of course, more showy and beautiful, while a man's is more toned-down and meant to be respectable-looking. Women's kimono consist of at least two layers (the underrobe[s] and kimono itself), and both/all will have lovely patterns on them most of the time. The more ostentatious and complicated the pattern, the more formal or impressive it's meant to be. Kimono are held together by a very long, stiff, wide band of fabric called an obi that wraps around the waist and ties in the back in various patterns, and at times you literally need someone to tie it for you.
They also wear yukata, a kind of light robe that can be used as a bathrobe, sleeping wear, around the house. More ornate ones can be worn at festivals. A gi with hakama is also favored, mostly by men or those who practice martial arts. A gi is a loose wrap-around shirt/jacket and hakama are the wide almost skirt-like pants worn with it. Women rarely wear this except to practice weapons training, but for the priestesses, a white gi with red hakama is the standard outfit.
For their feet, Yamanis have tabi, white split-toed socks with the split between the second and middle toes. They wear either geta, wooden sandals that give you an inch or so more height, or zori, flip-flops made of straw, as shoes. Of course, many people simply go barefoot, especially children or the poorer class.
III. Religion
The Yamani people worship the same major set of gods and goddesses as most of the rest of the world, including Mithros and the Great Mother Goddess (a list of which can be found here), but like Carthak they add a few of their own.
Yama is their patron goddess, with a similar job to Carthak's Graveyard Hag. She created the Islands and watches over them as her special domain, taking a good amount of interest in the way the country is progressing. She is also the goddess of childbirth and, appropriately, rice.
Being that they're an island nation and so much of Yamani life depends on the sea, it isn't surprising that the Wave-Walker is also very important to them. A sea goddess in general, she is also the goddess of mercy who can banish storms and keep ships safe (northwestern Tortall also refers to the Goddess by this name, especially near the coast). Another minor god mentioned by Keladry is Sakuyo, a benevolent god of jokes and pranks.
The Islands' form of religion is less "systematic" than most of the Eastern countries. While Tortall and its neighbors are more likely to have large shrines or temples to one god or many various gods, the Yamani are more likely to also have personal shrines in their homes to the deities of their choice. While they still have cloisters for religious devotees and temples, religion for them is more private except for the yearly celebrations (such as the week of Midwinter). White and red are important religious colors to them; all the priestesses wear clothes in these colors, and many objects in ceremonies are white, red, or both.
IV. Language
The language is Yamani and it bears similarities to Japanese. Most people would not learn much common, though this could differ for the nobility.
V. Warfare and Fighting
The Yamani are the ones who coined the term "martial art," and for them fighting is as much an art as painting - and when done right, can look just as beautiful. Yamani warriors fight for an inner stillness, as Kel demonstrates time and time again, because they believe they can only truly be ready to attack and defend if they are calm and open. (And actually, that method is proven to make people screw up a lot less.) The warriors-in-training put themselves through a grueling training, worse than even training as a knight, to be able to take anything that comes their way--things like sitting in running water all day with a broken bone and not being able to move without making a sound, and running up and down mountains.
Both boys and girls (nobles, of course) are trained to fight, though a boy's martial education will continue well beyond a girl's in most cases. The Islands have a problem with raiders and pirates from Scanra and Jindazhen, and they learned long ago that women will die as well as men. It is said that everything a lady carries is both beautiful and deadly, from a heavy fan whose support ribs are razor-sharp to hair ornaments that can be used as stilletos if needed, that saying is generally true. All women learn to use the naginata, or glaive, and are also trained in some hand-to-hand, possibly a form of judo, so they are able to face threats as well as the men. The boys will have much more work to do in the long run. The blade of choice is the katana, a relatively thin, slightly curved sword that's made to slice instead of crush as western blades are; the aim is to kill quickly with one blow. They also developed and are masters of various weaponless martial arts, which the Shang seemed to have adopted, perfected, and spread to other countries. There is also archery, though of a much different form than Tortall's, and various different throwing weapons that are very effective at wounding their target.
The System
I. Settlement
Their homes are very different from the normal Tortallan home. Almost always without fail on one level, the house will be one big room with "walls" made of rice paper. Floors are wooden in richer homes and usually covered with special mats made of straw with cloth sewn around the edges, or simply dirt in the poor ones. Doors slide open, and people kneel to open and close them. There are no chairs - they kneel, even at the meal table. No one thinks anything of it, it's as natural to them as sitting in chairs is to everyone else. Windows are usually covered with rice paper as well, so you can't actually see out of them. There's a shallow pit in the middle of the floor somewhere with a hook suspended over it where all the cooking is done. Most homes that aren't huts have a balcony/veranda spreading around them, which the roof extends over. They take off their shoes before they come in so you don't track mud or anything inside, and a woman's shoes are left pointing toe-out. There are no standing beds; instead they use futons, roll-up mattress-pallet-beds that they can store during the day to get more floor room.
II. Ruling and Economics
The Yamani Islands are an imperialistic country that has a very different culture from Tortall. They have an emperor instead of a king, and place high value on keeping calm and an even higher value on honor. They also value peace, both internal and external, and feel that emotional outbursts hinder or completely disrupt that peace. To that extent, they will exclude or ostracize anyone who breaks that peace until they change their ways. There's also an instinctive dislike of foreigners because of the isolation of the Islands.
The Yamani are very dependent on the sea. They have a comparatively excellent system of in-country shipping because they have water all around and can transport things by boat much more easily than sending them over land. It is not far to the coast from any point in the country. Many Yamani make their living off the sea, whether just by fishing enough to keep themselves and their family fed or by fishing fleets that send part of their catch inland. Strangely enough though, until recently they have never really ventured over the sea, to Tortall and the others, being content to remain with their way of life on their islands. Trade was not unknown and the world knew they were there, of course. There just wasn't much coming and going.
III. Classes
There is, as in pretty much every middle-age society, a very wide gap in class. The difference between the Islands and, say, Tortall is that while people may not like their rulers, they don't disrespect them. There are rarely revolts or uprisings. The lower class are still bound to a sort of feudalism, or bound to the land they're born on. Not quite as extreme as European feudalism ever was, but the nobles have a lot of money, and very few of them put it back into their areas. Instead they spend it on things like clothes, weapons, moon-viewing parties (no, I'm not joking), and other expensive refinements.
IV. Relationship to Tortall
The Yamani Islands are currently allied to Tortall through the marriage of Prince Roald to Princess Shinkokami. This does not necessarily mean that Yamani people would be commonly seen in Tortall nor that they would be treated with respect by the general populace, though for the nobility it would be an honour to host a Yamani guest. Trade links would be strong, though of course dependent on the state of the seas between the two nations.