The largest vessel in the fleet of the Mutya is the balangay. It is a tiered craft with outriggers on both sides and this makes the Balangay unsinkable. But like all things Tawalesi, everything is detachable and made of light material. There are other vessels in the Queens fleet. There are vintas and proas.TheTawalesi are most famous for their wind and wave technology whereby they created a lightweight air filled board they called "hulma".

  The Tawalesi were experts at lashing bamboo poles and reeds together. When a skilled Talawesi is lashing boards, weaving a basket or a sail, fibers fly like a tornado.

  The Tawalesi are not a land based people. They claim the "Steps of Bathala to be their ancestral home.the "Steps of Bathala" is an island chain stretching a thousand kilometers from its main island Lingayen towards the equator.Lingayen is the only truly habitable island with a reliable source of fresh water, a forest with a variety of trees. The other islands do have coconut trees and giant bamboos and the reed that the Queens designers use to form the "hulma" , but no deciduous trees grow on these rocks.

  No one works in official capacity. Except for the Queen on Lingayen Island is the stone temple of Bathala the Balay na Bato where the Queen resides and where she keeps "office".The Balay was built by Bathala himself for his beloved.Otherwise, the Tawalesi live on palutangs / floating handmade islands.These palutangs were built using the reed plant and the giant bamboos found on the Lingayen strait.Ancient Tawalesi wove these reeds together according to their needs. Woven together these reeds formed large floating platforms. Over the millennia on the water, the Tawalesi had learned to waterproof their palutangs, and create the hulma which is for the tawalesi, a way to heaven. The Tawalesi are religious people and surfing was not just great fun, but the only real devotion in life. Yes we must eat and grub for food but the Tawalesi do it to surf.

  Most palutangs were large and had enough soil for gardening and had small livestock on board. Palutangs have accommodations to park their outriggers, grow rice and maintain livestock on board. Others were small and owned by single inhabitants. The Tawalesi, keep their palutangs, their balangay, their outriggered vessels in tip-top condition. One never knows when the Malaking Alon will come. It's best to be ready.

  It's takes hardwork to be a sea faring man. Every Tawalesi is up to it.

  The ancient Tawalesi used the Lingayen reed to build houses as well. The palutangs float slowly and silently, clustering around Lingayen Island as ocean eddies keep the palutangs circling the main island. With little effort though, the palutangs break away from the circling eddies and float from island to island, from atoll to atoll in a yearly, nomadic, migratory route of the island chain to its endpoint, and then return back to the main island.It all depends on the tides. And the Tawalesi are experts at tides.

  No Tawalesi has any real military training. The Queen's Security Guards trained to guard her received part of their training in Sunda. They are not experts at the conduction of war. They are trained to defend the Queen and keep her out of harms way.

  The BathaLikha are masters of the Kanluran Sea. They know, by instinct, which of the four divine winds blow, they know at which temperature the character of the water will change.. They had ingrained in their DNA, a map of the Kanluran sea with the thousand little islands of the "Steps of Bathala". They had an instinctive understanding of the ocean floor. They are expert navigators and can navigate in open sea at night using the stars as guide.And they were the inventors of the wind and surf technology known only to the Tawalesi, using material indigenous to the rocks they called home. They created flat air filled lightweight boards they molded from fibers of reeds coconuts and bamboos that they could form into and shape they referred to as "hulma".On these boards they could ride the waves.When they learned to make sails, they used the wind to carry them to distant shores . The hulma ( lightweight air filled boards) were unsinkable.

  They engineered small vessels they called proas that had outriggers like the balangay with a crab sail that allowed them to sail into the wind. The outrigger and the crab claw sail and the hulma made the Tawalesi the masters of the sea. Because of their wandering all over the Kanluran Sea people referred to them as sea gypsies.

  "Forget the beautiful silks...ask for the worms!" insisted Tanda.

  "Grain we can haggle from the Medang. ", put in Dalisay

  "We can eat seaweed, whatever grows on the palutang", asserts Sikat.

  "But worms....cocoons....We need those". , insists Alonto.

  They all agreed.

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  No Tawalesi want to be part of any Empire. The Tawalesi do not aspire for wealth. Tawalesi just want to surf. The Tawalesi say that surfing atunes you to the rhythm of the earth and allows you to experience a god state. And after you experience that, you want nothing else. Surfing is a spiritual experience. All Tawalesi have but one obsession: to ride the Malaking Alon. The big one that will circumnavigate the entire world. When Tawalesi aren't surfing, they are finding ways to make surfing better.

  Queen Udayan is compromised into these vassal agreements with Khan in order to acquire grain, silk, lard and wax. And for these products she bartered pearls, salt, rope of hemp and surf boards complete with surfing lessons by a master.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "They are the fastest on the sea, father.", said Zhenjin. "Just as we are the fastest on land. That must account for something. Had we not had our incredible speed of our horses, we would not have conquered all of Asia".

  "But I don't intend to conquer the sea. But the regions on the sea. The Tawalesi are nothing more than a small band of gypsies" replies Khublai.

  "Father, you haven't seen them on the waves....We say we ride like the wind. They say they ride the wind! They call themselves the masters of the wind and waves". Zhenjin enthuses. And that outrigger....that is an unsinkable vessel.

  "They are small. You can't load a cavalry inside." Khublai's repartee.

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  The Tawalesi invented surfing. Tawalesi, although clannish for survival, know that surfing is a solo endeavor. The Tawalesi are very individualistic people. They live to surf.

  The Tawalesi are known for their wind and wave technology. The Tawalesi wind and wave technology evolved when the Tawalesi learned to process this humble Lingayen reed into hard, sturdy, erosion-resistant, lightweight, air-filled boards they called the hulma. On these boards ancient Tawalesi learned to ride the tide. Later, when they learned that certain fibers dipped in gels through the production of microbial cellulose by komagataeibacter xylinus from a mix of coconut milk and acetic acid could make the hulma waterproof. This same gelatinous slurry could be used to stretch water-resistant lightweight translucent sails made of silk the Tawalesi desired. Thus the Queens designers requested her to import silkworms from Xina.

  Many royal houses enchanted by the sail and surf technology of the Tawalesi requisitioned surfboards from the Tawalesi Queen. The Tawalesi became famous for their small speedy sea crafts that used the wind and tides. The outrigger, the crab claw sail which permits one to sail into the wind are Austronesian inventions. But surfing is a Tawalesi invention.

  And the Queen and her team ran a bustling trade. All royals from the little kingdoms facing the Malaking Dagat, the moneyed ones, wanted to ride the tide. It was the latest craze. Everybody's gone surfing.

  When the designers guild see it fit, the designers would exhibit the latest trends in small sea vessels. It was a well attended affair by many young royals, tourists, an occasional scholar. One Moroccan named Ibn Batute was traveled through Tawalesi on his way to the Yuan court and he had amazing stories to tell.

  So there's quite a lot of sea traffic around the steps of Bathala. There are slow heavy residential palutangs with plants and livestock on board and pesky surfers who ride the wind at maximum speed. Proas with single outriggers, catamarans with double sails loaded with passengers or goods on their way to trade with the bigger mainland dynasties. And the Queen has her special fleet of proas, vintas, catamarans and balangay for extended travel.

  The Tawalesi always praise Bathala for all things : The reeds of Lingayen, the giant bamboos the coconut tree and the hemp plant, most of all they thank him for the winds and the tides and all the secrets they bring. At the "Steps of Bathala" all sea vessels must be kept in tip top shape. And the Queen has a team that inspects and makes sure all vessels are in good condition. No one wants to be queen because it means you can't surf all the time. Although the Queen gets ample of time to surf.Aside from maintaining one's set of vessels ( palutangs, vintas, catamarans, hulmas or proas ) Tawalesi work on their surfing skills. Surfing is their form of prayer.

  The other important female in this matriarchal set up is the Diwata. It is Bathala who will send the Malaking Alon that encircles the world. It is the Diwata that will be the first to know. Bathala will send his dolphins to the Diwata with a message. It is when he will give the BathaLikha a joyride around the world. You wont be you anymore after you circumnavigate the world on the Malaking Alon. You will be a bodditsatva. But of course you'll still be a surfer.

  Now when Bathala will send the Malaking Alon? No one knows. So the BathaLikha have been waiting a long time, watching from their palutangs, the sea waves, the sky. They are looking for a sign. They are waiting for their Diwata. Bathala told the Tawalesi that the dolphins and the whales will appoint the Diwata.

  Years rolled by and there was no Diwata. The BathaLikha tattooed her unto themselves in an effort to remember her. To wait for her.

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  On the Queens balangay are her trusted handmaidens. Her body doubles, Adarna and Sinag her wise crone and nutritionist Udrialen and her secretary Awit. The Queens balangay is named after its nacre finish "Puti". The sails of the balangay of the trade minister are colored red. On board are the Trade Minister Ginang Alda and master spy Silahis who is an expert at impersonation. His/Her true identity is unknown. Urduja's sails on her balangay are dyed blue green. She Liwanag and Tala and her crone Uddiawan are aboard. Her ship is named "Luntian".

  Behind them is the balangay of the Queen's Guard and the balangay's sails are black. Lawin, Kidlat, Matalas and Bakal are her 4 captains.

  And skating above the water ahead of them were the little proas built on fine blades traveling with the speed of the wind above the water were the Queen's scouts. These are Tanda’s latest designs. The Tawalesi are famous for speed over the water.

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  There are only two real islands in the Steps of Bathala: Lingayen and Lanao. Both Islands have several springs and support a variety of deciduous trees. Otherwise the steps are made of a chain of atolls, many of which are submerged at high tide. Great fishing grounds. And these two bigger islands are often used to anchor several palutangs so that other palutangs can latch onto each other. These two islands are so big it takes days go walk around them. Sometimes the entire island is surrounded by palutangs and parked outriggers. When the catch is particularly plenty the Tawalesi have their "Sinugbah". It is their fireside tradition. Several campfires are lit and the Tawalesi will feast and cook for three nights and days. There's singing dancing and whooping around the campfires at night. Political meetings throughout the day. There is talk of a Reunited Austronesian Empire that existed before Bathala created the Kalaliman. Before the Tawalesi were banished. There is talk of the Brotherhood of Equals.

  Under Lingayen island are the caves of the Queen which serve as her store room and treasure horde. Here her vast collection of sea pearls, corals, gemstones, sharkes teeth and narwhal bone are kept. The Tawalesi have retrieved sunken treasures of all kinds as they are expert divers. This they offer to their Queen. They never keep anything for themselves except that which is essential to surfing. These treasures retrieved from the sea the Queen barters with. She is a wealthy, respected woman. But not feared as the Tawalesi have no army.