stingrays

Scaraquan stingrays are pretty similar to real world stingrays in most physiological ways, but they are symbolically treated very differently.   The mighty Oshamni Empire was not always a might ocean spanning empire, they used to be a relatively small shallow water kingdom and their founding homeland had many stingrays opting for them to make it their national symbol, which they kept as their symbol as Oshamnus expanded.     The Oshamni talk about a stingray's grace and elegance, it's mighty bite and it's potent poison and draw favorable comparisons to their nation's power.   Originally, the Oshamnus was little more than a small Merfolk city-state, they were more likely to talk about stingrays as consumate survivors, cunning, intelligent, and with sharp senses to boot.   The original Oshamnus was almost entirely made up of merfolk but the current Oshamni Empire encompasses large numbers of every major Scaraquan race.   Some have tried to draw metaphors between the "Imperial Stingray" and the various Scaraquan subjects' (and enemies') relations to the the Empire. It is noted that many stingrays primarily eat hard shelled crustraceans and many view the Empire's treatment of astalakians as exploitative but as a whole the astalakians are generally staunch and loyal supporters of the Oshamni Empire, more so than the others, or so the crab people like to claim.   Stingrays and sharks are similar in many respects and both are believed to be the creation the goddess Bellusk. Many karakhai, especially the Samearu (shark priests and priestesses) claim that stingrays were Bellusk's first creations, but were somewhat unsatisfactory to the great goddess so she created sharks which were much more to her liking. Some karakhai outside the Empire say the Imperial Stingray is a good metaphor for the Oshamni Empire's weak attempt to mimic the strength of true sharks whereas karakahai that are part of the Empire are more likely to speak highly of the stingrays' abilities and their spiritual kinship to sharks.