Vhuket
The Vhuket, sometimes called 'night-dwellers', are a race of nocturnal, human-like people, that originated from The Axtel Strait. Their nocturnality stems from an intense allergy to a flower that can only bloom in sunlight, a flower they call 'Khuo Kettnye Kygt', or 'flower which brings death'. This flower's pollen can't exist out of direct sunlight, nor does it survive in waterlogged soil.
Due to the intense allergy to this flower, the Vhuket built their foundations in rivers, caves, and oceansides, as the mix of the water and the night was best to keep the allergen at bay. All Vhuket share dark, purple-ish skin, and pointed ears. Riverside Vhuket have a variety of hair colours deriving from their local flora, whereas oceanside Vhuket often have white or blonde hair from generations of salt exposure.
As time has gone on, many Vhuket have cross-bred with other similar races, like humans or ikars, which has weeded out the allergy to mild/moderate hay fever in most cases. The consequence of this is that finding a full-blood Vhuket is next to impossible unless visiting the original dwindling settlements in the Axtel Strait.
Before the Vhuket began to outsource to other cultures, they worshipped the moon, Vazin, and believed she controlled the water and the night. She is often depicted as a humanoid silhouette with a crescent or ring crown. These crescent and ring motifs come up often in their traditional clothing, although most Vhuket opt for more modern clothing as the traditional clothing was modelled for living in knee-deep water.
Kokette is the largest settlement in the Axtel Strait, a city of vhuket that refuse assimilation with all other cultures and states. Kokette is anti-trade by all standards, relying entirely on self-sufficiency in order to prevent relations with other nations. While southern settlements in the strait happily trade with ikars and axtel'knocians, Kokette refuses to allow their culture to wane or fade into a larger one, as it has with so many other settlements. The only thing standing between Kokette and the looming "persuasions" of Elessoren is the Sovereign City of Mythtold, a state in Feloren that rejects the kingdom of Selstraes and thwarts every attempt of invasion while also acting as a barricade to the less defended Axtel Strait.
Ikars and Vhuket
The vhuket have a special relationship with meteorite, a material that they believe to be actual parts of the moon. As such, it is common to make jewellery using it. They source this material from ikars, who travel north from the omeotic highlands in Cori'knoc to trade with the vhuket of the southern Axtel Strait. This is an ancient tradition, trading with envoys of ikars in return for sacred moon chunks for gold and silver, similarly precious metals. While Kokette is, as per usual, unwilling to trade with them, there is a strong cultural connection between ikars and the vhuket in South Isles. They call ikars moon'steps, or 'valyn' in their tongue.
Language of the Night Dwellers
The Vhuket language is consonant-heavy, relies on y-type vowels, and is written in tight vertical bunches with no spaces between letters. The language used to be written on reeds though is now written on ribbons most of the time (it's very convenient for sending via messenger bird). The Vhuket language has been eerily preserved between generations and most Vhuket are still fluent in it or at least speak it at home.