FAQ + Rules

This website is a showcase of an original world concept of mine (Rainboopz) centering around Asian people and culture. The world concept follows the story of Umiko and Yasuki as they save their kingdoms and self-identity from crumbling.

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Its publication is more of a personal venture than anything! Now, if I ever create art for "The Sea King's Mermaid" and people are curious about its world- I finally have a spot to send my audience to! Neat!

I wanted to create a high-fantasy world around the continent of Asia, since it was the culture that I grew up with being Vietnamese-American!

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Being in America and in the Western Centric world, I only had European high-fantasy to view for my creative outlets, and I wondered what the other side of the world was like. When I did see portrayals of Asia, they were stereotypical or only focused on East Asia. When I saw "Avatar the Last Airbender" and its inspirations from Asian culture, I was absolutely thrilled! However, I wished they were more specific about which cultures were shown.*

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With that said, around 2016-18, I decided to give my take on my favorite concept: the Four Sea Emperors. Much of Vietnamese culture is derived from being colonized by China, therefore I was familiar with the story and grew up with Vietnamese-translated media of that theme. Initially, I had wanted to keep this world to the major cultures that were influenced by China- Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia- but then the more characters I threw in, the more I wanted to see more of... everyone else!

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Therefore I decided to make The Sea King's Mermaid inclusive to the entire continent of Asia, and everyone's culture is a part of it!

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Of course, this is not to say that my world concept is "better" than any other Asian world concept, as this concept has its imperfections. Even so, putting this concept together has been incredibly rewarding and a fantastic learning experience.

I love the cultures, languages, and stories told in the continent of Asia so much. Hours I would spend just pouring over a group's history and customs because it's so interesting- I want to learn more about other Asians! Therefore, I hope by sharing my fantasy world it'll be one way to show my appreciation for our shared identity and for any other fellow Asian to get whisked away in their own culture.

The story is set in historical/old world Asia when dynasties were prevelant.

In order to narrow the scope of the story to something manageable, influences from 11th-15th century dynasties will be taken. However, that is not a set rule.

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For example, the formal Thai costume, ชุดไทยพระราชนิยม, was not created until the 20th century, but since it's such a staple piece of identity it will still show up in the world.

No. I did not want one single culture to be the monopoly for the entire world, therefore while the story acknowledges that the 4 Sea Emperors were originally Chinese deities (out of respect for the original story), all cultures get a chance to become emperors.

In this fantasy world, there will be no influences from Western/European colonialism. Unfortunately, the consequences of that are the omission of certain cultural symbols/styles brought about through Western colonialism, but it's necessary to keep the high-fantasy world Asian.

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This is of course speaking with a grain of salt, as in the real world there is no clean way to dissect certain influences away from each other! This is just a personal preference to keep consistency within the world, and I trust other Asians to have a say in their own culture on what is of their own creation or from Western colonialism.

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However, certain colonialism/influences from within Asia are kept within the continent (for example, China influenced the language of Vietnam through Chữ Nôm, so I cannot take that away).

Everyone just happens to have their own language and culture in TSKM :)

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I'd like to think of this rule as "it is how it is" so don't think too much about it.

They are included!

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There are many North Asian groups in Russia, such as the Republic of Sakha and various indigenous groups. The Middle East is also still part of Asia as that region should not be considered Caucasian, (hence its lesser-known title of Western Asia). This region is also important for Muslim Asians.

However, I will remind again that heavily Caucasian groups (Slavs and Europeans for example) will not be included in this fantasy world.

There are religions, but there is no religious monopoly. This is a fantasy world, therefore there is no mention of a "main religion" nor will that be explicitly named.

On the topic of the existence of real-world religions and how they fit into this world- "it is how it is". I trust other Asians to incorporate what they see fit!

Separating all aspects of culture from religion proves to be a huge disservice to those who consider those areas a major part of identity. For example, as a consequence of using the 4 Sea Emperors as the inspiration for this fantasy world, a majority of folklore/magic will be based on Chinese and Buddhist beliefs.

Religious influence cannot be fully stripped from this world. There are major religions, folk, or indigenous religions that influence each Asian people's history. In my world I do not want there to be monopolies on culture, because I know how frustrating being omitted is. Therefore, to respect these cultures, the lore is set up as so:

Any emperor who comes into rule with a different set of beliefs will not have those jeopardized. Only religions originating in Asia are included.

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For example, many Asian cultures, such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Malaysia, have Islam as a major religion. The only aspect of culture that TSKM relies on is to have that culture have a serpent/dragon to be a sea emperor. There are such creatures in the Islamic world, therefore being Muslim does not eliminate a culture from having an emperor rule over a sea and it is equally as accepted in the world.

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To be short, I don't want to put much say in something I personally have no voice in, so I will also use the "it is how it is" rule for this too so everyone's religions are untouched.

My major rule of thumb will be as follows: this is an Asian fantasy, so look at the current continent of Asia only

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No one Asian will be excluded, and I am not open to debate that.

Creation stories get to be a bit tricky since this fantasy world has one singular creation story, but otherwise there's no issue with including any folktale.

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The people in it are just merfish/dwellings now! :D

Yes please do!

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I will be adamant that I will only accept input from other Asians, as this is our culture.

If I have made a mistake from any influences (which I'm sure I will no matter how much I research), please let me know on any of my socials! I'll be more than happy to look it over, in fact I'll be thankful since I get to communicate with real people on these things!

It just... happened to be a design choice... as a consequence for drawing merfish first without noses... :')

Follow us on our socials! You can find that on the About page.

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The easiest to find art will be on my Main Tumblr or Sketch Tumblr, where I tag #the sea kings mermaid.

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Also... definitely keep an eye out for something on my Youtube ;)