Known lore bits on Sui-No-Sato? + more questions

[Botandoro]

Hello! I'm currently trying to make a new character who will be a male Raen. I'm aware characters can have any job and it make sense or live anywhere, but I'm looking to try to stick to what would be expected of canon as much as I can.

The base idea is for this character to be a priest of sorts? I'm not sure what would equate to that in Eorzea. Obviously I'm pushing aside anything that has to do with the Black Shroud considering as far as I'm aware we have not seen Au ra there, or Thanalan, or anywhere other than Othard really. I have a preference for something closer to the sea, which is why I'm currently interested in the Ruby Sea and it's surroundings. As for the First, I'm almost positive I wouldn't find anything that matches this sort of thing.

I've read a bunch of things about Sui-No-Sato, but I was wondering if anyone knew more? They're a secluded people, but what deities do the Raen there pray to? Kami, or the Dawn Father? Do they have such beliefs at all, or is it really all about the princess?
I've read in the Shisui of the Violet Tides's wiki page about the Shisui Temple, which was a welcome surprise considering that priest concept I had. However do we know anything about these ceremonies? And by association, what *is* Sui-No-Sato's culture? I heard accounts saying they don't fight, is that true? If they don't what do they do instead? What would be an appropriate playable job for a Raen coming from there, and I mean, one that he would have learned from a young age, supposedly. Would white mage make sense? I heard of the geomancer thing (very little though), is there an equivalent to, I don't know water for the people in Sui-No-Sato? I also like the idea of dancer, but do Raen on this side of the world actually learn and know of this job?

Accesorily, I have not played Dawntrail yet, but I welcome lore bits if someone has ideas that would match what I'm looking for, or anything like that.

I'm really trying to gather as much information as I can, anything would be appreciated!

[Cleretic]

The Raen of the Ruby Sea, to the best of any reckoning we have, would be praying to the kami. The Dusk Mother/Dawn Father are a Xaela of the Steppe thing, and if anything the Raen of the Ruby Sea might trace from the mainland or Hingashi. From that and everything you've found you're pretty much free to write whatever you want; this isn't a heavily detailed part of the story, and when it comes to roleplaying, people are mostly happy to let you fill in any blanks. The one thing I'd correct you on is that they aren't really pacifist; people come at us with katanas in Shisui, so that feels obvious, but it's more that they don't need to fight than that they won't. When you're at the bottom of the sea, who's coming at you, really?

As for a job, yes, White Mage would work, but you wouldn't be playing exactly a White Mage because they're local to a different part of the world; Samurai's also perfectly functional, given we fought a couple dozen of them in Shisui, and they're not far away form Ninjas either on a geographical level. The fact Shisui contains weapons for every job that existed as of Stormblood actually makes all those jobs at least theoretically plausible; in the Encyclopedia Eorzea the only model given a description is the Red Mage one, though, so there's not much further info.

I feel like it might help you to give a bit of a 'recommended reading list', of content that talks about stuff in the right general area; far better than reading some wiki (which probably isn't an especially good one if it's the one I suspect) is being able to read the primary texts. So I'd recommend these, presented alongside what expansion it is so you know generally where you're looking:
-Kurenai's custom delivery questline (Stormblood)
-Kojin society quest (Stormblood)
-Swallow's Compass dungeon (Stormblood)
-Endwalker ranged physical role questline
-Mount Rokkon variant dungeon (Endwalker)

None of those necessarily answer your questions per se, but they're where all this stuff comes from, so reading up on the whole surrounding story might give you more ideas.

[Botandoro]

Thank you so much! I will be checking these out.

[Kakurady]

Other than the Warrior of Light, White mages are limited to the Padjals, or if you were somehow able to find some soul stones from Amdapor that hasn't been hidden by the elementals.

In the end of Endwalker's ranged physical role questline　

Gosetsu takes up shugendo, which could be similar to conjury; however, real-life practitioners of shugendo are called yamabushi, or mountain hermits.

So this might not work well if your character is part of Sui-no-Sato's close-knit community.

In addition to the parts of life that has been described about Sui-no-Sato itself, your character might also pick up skills, originating from surrounding cultures - the Ruby Sea, Hingashi, or Doma, or one from the real-world practices that inspired them - either through the Kojin, or preserved in Sui-no-Sato after they have closed off from the outside world. One example would be onmyodo.

[Cleretic]

Other than the Warrior of Light, White mages are limited to the Padjals, or if you were somehow able to find some soul stones from Amdapor that hasn't been hidden by the elementals.

This is true, however pretty much any time a healer turns up in a part of the world that doesn't have its own healer job, they basically just produce a local-brand conjurer. So you can't be an actual white mage unless you're specifically a Padjali or the WoL, but there's plenty of precedent to just go 'yeah I'm a healer from this part of the world', play a white mage, and have everyone just accept it.

Roleplayers, in my experience, are not the type to pull out an 'um actually according to The Lore' on this sort of thing. (Or most things, actually.)

[Iscah]

Obviously I'm pushing aside anything that has to do with the Black Shroud considering as far as I'm aware we have not seen Au ra there, or Thanalan, or anywhere other than Othard really.

Raen actually are shown to live in several nations so far.

They're one of the major races in Thavnair (a location mentioned many times throughout the story and finally visited in Endwalker) and also some amount of population in western Ilsabard around Werlyt and Terncliff, visited in the level 80 trials questline.

They generally seem to adopt whatever the local culture and naming conventions are.

[Botandoro]

Other than the Warrior of Light, White mages are limited to the Padjals, or if you were somehow able to find some soul stones from Amdapor that hasn't been hidden by the elementals.

In the end of Endwalker's ranged physical role questline　

Gosetsu takes up shugendo, which could be similar to conjury; however, real-life practitioners of shugendo are called yamabushi, or mountain hermits.

So this might not work well if your character is part of Sui-no-Sato's close-knit community.

In addition to the parts of life that has been described about Sui-no-Sato itself, your character might also pick up skills, originating from surrounding cultures - the Ruby Sea, Hingashi, or Doma, or one from the real-world practices that inspired them - either through the Kojin, or preserved in Sui-no-Sato after they have closed off from the outside world. One example would be onmyodo.

I'd never heard of this Shudengo thing, that's really interesting, I will be looking into it more. I guess it makes sense that people don't get nitpickey with lore bits, but I still prefer to try to let things be accurate and explainable, haha
Onmyodo is one I'll save for another time, but that's also a fascinating concept!

[Botandoro]

Raen actually are shown to live in several nations so far.

They're one of the major races in Thavnair (a location mentioned many times throughout the story and finally visited in Endwalker) and also some amount of population in western Ilsabard around Werlyt and Terncliff, visited in the level 80 trials questline.

They generally seem to adopt whatever the local culture and naming conventions are.

Definitely will be looking into Thavnair as i entirely forgot about it, to be honest. If anyone has links to read up on its lore, I'd appreciate it! Been doing a lot of the side quests in the area today, but still feels like I'm missing a lot.

[Cleretic]

Definitely will be looking into Thavnair as i entirely forgot about it, to be honest. If anyone has links to read up on its lore, I'd appreciate it! Been doing a lot of the side quests in the area today, but still feels like I'm missing a lot.

Honestly, if you're unsure about a region that's actually in-game but have no specific questions, I recommend doing every single quest. Like, top-to-bottom, whole thing. You never know which corner of it all will spark some inspiration. The Encyclopedia Eorzea 3's got plenty on it too, but very little of it is stuff you can't glean elsewhere.

You seem to be orbiting around the concept of putting the character somewhere adjacent to the region's religion, and that one could be genuinely really interesting with Thavnair. Because their faith and mythology actually is a pretty center-stage part of their story, but also doesn't seem to be a particularly big part of their lives. Yeah, they believe in the Mrga and Manusya, we hear a few teachings, there's religious sites about the place and there's some minor mentions of monks and pilgrimages in places like the fishing log, and it's definitely still a present-day part of their lives from the events in the MSQ, but we never meet anyone who's serious about it, a genuine person of the faith. That gives you a lot of potential canvas space to paint in, and maybe that absence is itself something you could find some story hooks in; just as an example, maybe a monk who's facing a crisis of faith after the Magus Sisters and Asura situations, or in entirely the other direction, someone who thinks that after everything that just happened to Thavnair, maybe the religion they've been neglecting has some useful things to teach them in this new and weird era they've found themselves in.

EDIT: Honestly, if you're serious about making a religious character, your best angle might be to study the real-world religion(s) that inspired the fictional one. Thavnair's religion is Fantasy Hinduism, so any gaps about the faith itself should rightly be filled in by Hinduism, as that's what the writers would do. You make a character of the Halonic Church in Ishgard, you're borrowing from Catholicism. Far Eastern kami worship is largely borrowing from modern Shintoism; Gridania's put a western fae coat of paint on more historic and traditionalist Shintoism.

[AngryMothNoises]

The best way to describe the Sui-No-Sato is Shinto with Onmyodo elements as well. The way of Kami. And when you do, you need to throw you any western view point you have of religion (like how Kami doesn't actually mean God). The entire area of the Ruby Sea, Sui No Sato ESPECIALLY is based on the folktale of Urashima Tarō. The Sui no Sato are specifically, in this case based on Ryujin's servants to his dragon palace. (As you see the Rean as body guards in Shisui of the Violet Tides.) Also Shinto = Shrine, Buddism = Temple. And interesting thing to note as Shisui has a temple in its dungeon. But I am unsure if the localization team changed it to temple because people mix this up all the time.

The inspiration of Onmyoji is also here as well. Trying to find historical information on actual Onmyodo is hard if you don't know Japanese because its extremely fantastical in anime, games and other media. But Onmyoji played critical parts in the Hein royal court. And we can see that inspiration in how the Rean might interact with the dragon palace along with their dress. The dress in Suikan (or was it Kariginu? I don't remember) This is clothing from the Hein era and heavily associated with Onmyoji as back then Onmyoji were most prevalent combated to other time periods. Actual teachings of Onmyoji in the modern sense are pretty much impossible to learn and very secretive. So That is very fitting for the Sui no Sato.

I think once you learn about Shinto and Onmyodo and combine it with the Lore of the game's region and you will have a solid bases on how Sui No Sato works and making your character.

Someone already mentioned White Mage and Samurai for jobs, but Astro will also work. As Kugane has 'onmyoji that uses geomancy' and that just Astro really.

These are analogous, and not actually saying White Mages in Kugane are Priests. But these classes work for the lore related occupation of your character.
Shinto Priest = I would use White mage
Onmoyji = Astro/Geomancy

Its late for me while I write this so any question I can try to answer.