Basic Trope: A whole culture revolves around sailing and the ocean.
- Straight: The Motua are a collection of villages whose economy is based on regular fishing pulls, pearling and the occasional piracy. They live exclusively on the coast and their children start learning to swim, fish and sail as soon as they are able.
- Exaggerated:
- The Motua consider standing on the ground to be unlucky. Their god is the ocean itself, and those born in her embrace are considered to be protected from evil.
- The Motua actually don't live on land at all. They live on floating villages out at sea near coral reefs, as that way they're closer to the bigger fish and higher-quality pearls.
- Downplayed:
- The Motua have a bustling maritime industry and are master shipbuilders, but they also have sizable agriculture and mining sectors.
- Motua children are taught how to swim, fish, and surf but are generally expected to live most of their lives on land.
- Justified: Their homeland is an archipelago far from any large landmass, with barely anything to sustain themselves. In order to survive, they had to turn to the sea both to gather fish for food, and to settle more of their people on the other islands.
- Inverted: The Te Urunga are desert nomads that live far inland and have never seen the ocean in their life. To them, the ocean is nothing but a sensationalized tall tale spouted by merchants and madmen.
- Subverted: Alice has heard all the stories of the Motua, but when she's carried off on one of their ships she finds their civilian life isn't very ocean-centric at all.
- Double Subverted: But when the harvests aren't good the Motua are quick to trade their hoes for oars and go raiding.
- Parodied: The Motua embody every Polynesian stereotype imaginable, with some Pirate Tropes and Horny Vikings thrown in for good measure.
- Zig-Zagged: The Motua are renowned as master sailors, whalers, and surfers but after the arrival of industrial civilization, they have settled down and abandoned sailing. A young Motua seeks to revive the cultural traditions and has experience at sea, but having served in a foreign navy he has little knowledge of how to actually navigate. Thus he seeks out an old woman said to be a master at sailing and fishing, only to find she "upgraded" to a motorboat.
- Averted: None of the islanders have any major expertise in shipbuilding, and focus more on land-based sectors other than the occasional fish harvest.
- Enforced:
- What's a Medieval European Fantasy without Polynesian-inspired island dwellers or viking-inspired raiders?
- The creator lived in a port city, so Write What You Know.
- Lampshaded: "Wow, you guys love boats, huh?"
- Invoked: After successfully reeling in a whale, the Motua double down on their maritime industry to find other such bounties from the ocean.
- Exploited: The Empire primarily recruits sailors from the Motua.
- Defied: "I don't want to be a fisherman, I'm going into pro-wrestling instead!"
- Discussed: "Not all of us are sailors or fisherman, but living on a tiny island, we'd eventually be doing something related to the ocean."
- Conversed: "The simpler the boat, the greater the sailing tradition, apparently."
- Implied: Establishing shots of the Motua village always have the ocean and/or a boat in sight.
- Played For Laughs: Whenever a Motua is on land, they're drunkenly swaying back and forth because they've been walking on boats since they could stand.
- Played For Drama: A young Motua is forced out onto the ocean, and needs to employ all of their skills and cultural knowledge to survive and find land again.
- Deconstructed:
- After an especially poor fish harvest, the Motua's entire economy completely collapses and its people starve.
- The island the Motua inhabit runs out of materials to repair their boats and houses, and they're trapped on the island like the Rapa Nui.
- The Motua are conquered by land-based powers who have the economy, population and resources to build large, technologically advanced navies, regardless of individual skill.
- Modern technology and imported goods frees up many Motua from having to rely on the ocean so heavily, and they largely abandon their sailing traditions.
- Reconstructed:
- The Motua are able to trade (or raid) for food from elsewhere, and supplement seafood with chickens, coconuts, and yams.
- Sailing between small islands for centuries made the Motua acutely aware of their impact on the environment, and move to new islands when their populations reach carrying capacity.
- The Motua are able to sail circles around their would-be colonizers, and The Empire eventually decides a chain of isolated, resource-poor islands aren't worth the expense and gives up. A few imperial sailors even join the Motua to have a simpler, more peaceful life.
- A cultural revival sparks new interest in traditional shipbuilding and sailing techniques, and many modern Motua are back out on the water.
Full sail back to Born Under the Sail.
