“Of an oven of food long in preparation, but satisfying.”
-Samoan Proverb, loosely translated: It is a long time coming, but it will be satisfying.
The Reckoning
The Kopa Loei saw the distant fires of the Reckoning and knew that a choice was at hand. They had been cast down by the Technocracy long before, and had spent the 20th century quietly rebuilding their numbers and rekindling the Mana of the few sacred places they had left. The emissaries of the Kha’vadi came to them from across the ocean, with a message of unity. Some of the Kahunas listened. Perhaps the craft as a whole would have joined the Kha’vadi, if the Disparate Alliance if the Wu Lung hadn’t offered them an alternative.
Current Status
The Kopa Loei agenda hasn’t changed much since the Pogrom. Being largely island people, the Technocracy never quite found its footing, but none the less create obstacles. Still, there are battles to be fought concerning the health of native peoples and the sovereignty of these small nations that continue to occupy the Kopa Loei. Being isolated in the middle of the ocean poses challenges when it comes to climate change, and the Craft has been searching for ways to preserve their native lands from the rising waters.
Kopa Loei of Los Angeles
There are roughly 55,000 peoples of Polynesian descent living in greater Los Angeles County. Roughly 9,000 of them live within the city of Los Angeles itself. Given the sheer size of the city of L.A. and its chaotic nature, it’s easy for a population that size to get lost in the chaos, and all too often they do. However, given its relative proximity to the islands, L.A. is perhaps the most likely place where Hawaii’ans and Pacific Islanders get their first foot on the mainland.
The Kopa Loei of Los Angeles are not a numerous Craft compared to some, but they consider their task of tending to the people and the relics of their culture that have been brought to the California coast to be important. Further, the history of the Islanders and the West Coast runs further back than most white people realize; Polynesians had been sailing along the West Coast, trading with the Native peoples, and even intermarrying with them for centuries before the first Europeans arrived. This land, too, is sacred. Its courses must be charted, and its Mana must be tended. And so, the Kopa Loei came.
The Kopa Loei of Los Angeles region tend to be found on the coast, making the rounds from San Clemente up to Santa Barbara and back. Something about the ocean exerts a persistent call to members of the Craft. But just as there is no Little Polynesia in L.A., no one place where they live, the Kopa Loei also go where wind and need take them. While the Craft practices traditional mysticism, they’re not ignorant of their peoples’ growing cultural visibility, especially in entertainment, where some of the most visible, highest-paid movie stars in the world are outspoken Islanders, and it is a goal of the Kopa Loei to increase this prominence while avoiding exploitative depictions of their culture.
The current ranking Kahunas in Los Angeles are Lene Anoa’i and the Reverend Momi Ipo. Anoa’i is a Samoan former professional wrestler, a four hundred pound mountain of a man who currently works as a representative agent who finds work for Islanders in entertainment but also in sports and the arts. His goal is to ensure a constant and positive cultural presence, maintaining its visibility while also fighting to prevent its debasement.
Reverend Ipo is half-Hawai’ian, half-Japanese, and she practices both the traditional ways of the Kopa Loei and the Konkokyo religion, honoring both of her heritages at once. She is the ranking Ail’i in Los Angeles and a master of the Prime Sphere, currently developing a long term study of the interaction between Los Angeles and the flow of Mana through the Pacific Ocean. She operates out of the ʻIke Maka, an abandoned lighthouse in the Channel Islands.
While Anoa’i and Reverend Ipo are not enemies, they often disagree on important points of order. Anoa’i believes the reverent has the spiritual best interests of her people at heart, but doesn’t do enough to promote their social and cultural well-being. Reverend Ipo believes that Anoa’i courts the risk of sensationalizing and debasing Polynesian culture through his ceaseless promotion of it. This ongoing disagreement has created friction in the Craft in L.A. in the past.