Post by Head Moderator on Jan 31, 2012 22:50:39 GMT -5
Customs, Rituals, Trade Goods, Drugs
Various Customs: Drinking, Wedding, Battle, Hunt
• In every kingdom, it is the general custom of the tender to offer a bit of the wine or ale from a newly opened cask to the floor as an offering to the gods.
• Ale is usually imbibed on a daily basis by the commoners, even the children drink a bit of watered down ale every day. In some rural areas, the water system is not as good as it could be so ale is much safer than pure water.
• In many of the kingdoms, even in noble or royal weddings, the hands are tied together in some way as part of the ceremony. Some cultures use vines, some rope, some colored string. In Sarkotos, it is common to see the bride and groom tied together for the entire celebration.
• In Doxenia and Madder and in communities in other kingdoms upon one's 'first hunt' a bit of the blood of the animal (or creature in some evil areas) is added to one's wine or ale and consumed. Some may even include the rubbing of the blood upon the skin after a first hunt.
• In the gypsy culture of the lands, a gypsy may be seen peering into a glass of wine or mead to view their future, before drinking. This is the only way a diviner is sanctioned to tell their own fortunes, without going to someone else.
• In some thieves organizations, the "test" to enter the organization is to grab a glass of alcohol before an axe chops one's hand off. If you can't do this, you aren't worthy to be a thief!
• In many of the kingdoms, the nobility have adopted tea ceremonies into their lives. Some are done on special occasions, and in many places "high tea" is served on a daily basis, a ritual in itself. These are all done different ways but the basic parts of them include:
- Brewing the Tea
- Filling the cup
- Thankfulness for the cup
- Drinking of the Tea
- Cleaning of the Utensils
• There is a simple ritual for pouring someone a cup of tea, that shows remorse or sorrow, or even regret for an action that was made.
ALZORC
• In Alzorc, one must secure the "Queen's Blessing" for any noble or royal wedding. She must approve the match. This is also done by wealthy merchants and mage families as well. Commoners are exempt from the requirement, but it is offered once a month to the common folk during the "Commoner's Court" when all who wish may come before the Queen and her Court.
RUMERIA & KULLYR
• In Rumeria, it is an honor to be offered alcohol in a horn, usually the horn is bejeweled and decorated with silver and gold. Wedding feasts incorporate the horn as the bride offers a sip of whatever alcohol the family can afford from a horn. Of course, royal and noble horns are far more jeweled than a common horn. The bride offers a sip to each person in order of their nobility status.
• In Rumeria, it is a common custom for the groom to "steal" the bride before the ceremony, riding up on his horse and grabbing the woman. In some rural communities that is all one needs to do to initiate a wedding, steal the woman you want, gallop to the cleric and tie the knot. In other communities, it is merely ritual and the townspeople run after the bride and groom to attend the wedding.
• Before a hunt or battle, a cleric offers wine or ale to the four directions, spilling a small bit towards each direction. This is also practiced by some hunters in Doxenia before a big hunt.
SARKOTOS
• Sarkotos has a similar custom though a fanciful blown glass container is used, often decorated with "claws" on the sides of glass, where the bride offers wine to the groom, and vice versa during a wedding ceremony. In some royal weddings, noble ladies carry many of these around to offer a sip to all the guests.
• In Sarkotos, weddings often include military processions, or at the very least the walking beneath drawn swords if one is wealthy enough to afford such, or one's family is involved in the military or knighthood.
DOXENIA
• Doxenia is much less refined and a typical warrior's homecoming includes decorated clay jars of alcohol passed around to the returning soldiers and whoever else happens to have it handed to them!
MADDER
• In Madder, it is customary for a group going into battle to toast a portrait of the Bishop-King.
• In Madder, in some unscrupulous families, it is common to 'sell' one's daughters to men for marriage. This is seen as arranged marriage, but it is based solely on the price they are able to get for their daughter. Some commoners have many daughters so that they may earn more money for their 'bride price'. If a man is wealthy enough to support more than one wife, there are no rules in Madder that limit how many wives you may have. It is rather rare in urban areas, but common in rural areas where more wives mean more children and more children mean more workers.
• In Madder's past, people were made to marry naked so that any visible disabilities could be noted, in which case if they could not be cured then the wedding was forbidden to take place. Now that the country has moved on from those days, only the very poor, to save money, and the greatest nobles and royalty, for which oddly the old law still applies, have their wedding stark naked.
BRYONY
• In Bryony, there is a custom in a gathering of bards to pass around a silver cup of ale or mead, and each who take the cup and sip then regale the party with a boast, song, story or toast.
• The graduation ceremonies in the mage college sometimes involves the drinking of a fiery glass of alcohol without taking any harm.
• In recent decades, a powerful love potion is given to both the bride and groom at the altar, with the result that if they were not deeply in love with each other before, they are now. Unless an antidote is given within 24 hours, the effect of the potion will last for the entire lives of those who take it. Since this was made a tradition, divorces, wife beating and marital rape has dropped to near zero, as have the number of adulterous affairs.
KYNGFELD
• Rather then have no way out of being married, or a divorce that can reflect badly on one or both partners, weddings only have legal force for a year. If things break down, each side takes out only what they put in. The *first wedding* is normally a big event, renewels if they happen are normally a quiet private event at a registry office. Although if couples have remained together for a great many years and have enough money to spend, they might make one of these events into a second big event to celebrate so many years of staying together and in love.
ZYON
• It is a tradition that weddings are held in the silver moonlight within graveyards, so that the dead ancestors of the family can see and bless the married couple. Sometimes undead have attacked a wedding party, so all wedding parties include at least one (or more, depending on one's wealth) Mourners from the Threnody Guild.
KIR'VIIR
• Weddings are not complete without often lengthy odes about the lovely couple and how their love for each other started and grew. The odes themselves vary wildly in their length, their quality and who reads them.
THANES DESERT
• In some tribes of the Thanes, one must marry by the age of 25, due to a bitter war followed by disease that killed a large amount of the tribe's population. A refusal to marry can result in fines against the family, expulsion from the tribe or even in the death penalty, although the latter punishment is rarely handed out for that offense and is cancelled if the person can find someone to marry him or her before the punishment.
Common Dances
Allemande: Courtly baroque dance in which the arms are interlaced.
Canary: A lively courtly dance popular in Sarkotos.
Burial Customs
In most of the lands, the three most common forms of burial are as such:
1. Burial in the ground or in crypts, or necropolises. There are numerous cemeteries and graveyards (called kirks) scattered throughout the lands, major cities may have more than one and some small hamlets may share one with other hamlets around it. A few have a necropolis for their noble to royal classes.
a. The low to middle class would more than likely bury their relative in a simple wooden coffin, with no embalming
b. Higher class, merchants and nobility may opt for more ornate crypts and coffins decorated in various ways. Embalming may be done, or they may choose to not have it done.
c. Royalty in Rumeria embalm their kings and queens through the use of clay. It is spread over the dead body, and painted while still wet to resemble the deceased person. Sometimes even the fine clothing of the deceased is placed on their clay coated body, then laid to rest in magnificent family crypts closely guarded against necromancers and thieves.
2. Burial at sea. Those who die at sea are given to the sea, and many who die on land who have ties to the sea are also taken out into the ocean and given to the sea as well. The sea is very important to most of the world, so it stands to reason that this would be a common burial practice.
3. Cremation. The threat of the undead is very real in many areas, and the fear that a loved one may arise again causes them to cremate the remains. Depending on the wealth of the family these cremains may be placed in simple jars, to ornate urns.
Here are some common burial customs:
1. Wakes.
2. The Giving of Grave Goods.
3. Hair Jewelry.
4. Trapping the Dead.
5. Processions.
6. Professional Mourners.
In some parts of the world there are more unique burial customs:
Madder
In some areas of Madder, primarily the swamplands, the deceased are sometimes provided as food to a flesh-eating entity by certain cults.
Bryony
In the past decade it has become vogue to have one's body crystallized upon death. In this, the corpse is reduced by magic to its basic minerals and forms a crystal gemstone which is then made into jewelry or displayed in some way. Public figures such as high ranking mages or nobles have had their crystals put on display in the public buildings.
When an embalmed body is being taken to the tombs, it is customary for a levitation spell to be placed upon the body and professional mourners to accompany the procession to the place of burial as the body moves through the area.
Anoi'pua Islands
1. Cremation by having the body thrown into a volcano.
2. The natives of a few of the islands bury their dead twice. First, they are buried in the ground. Then in time, the bones are dug up and carved into spoons or other utensils. Eventually, these utensils are placed in caves facing the sea.
3. There are a few tribes that are cannibals and eat their dead. Most only eat a small symbolic portion, though it is not unheard of for the entire corpse to be eaten.
Ancient Burial Customs
1. Ancient cultures of Rumeria entombed their dead in carved tombs of ice, where the dead are preserved in the walls, each posed peacefully with hands crosses over the chest. The priests would often converse with the spirits of these dead while in the tomb. Only one Hall of the Entombed has been found so far.
2. Ancient cultures in various parts of the world, especially the area now called Sarkotos and Bryony incorporated funeral sacrifice into their burial customs.
a. Upon the death of a high-status person, others were often slain to accompany them into the afterlife. These were usually slaves, or spouses.
b. In some areas, the widow of the deceased would kill themselves in their husband's funeral pyre.
c. Some only would sacrifice livestock, mounts and other creatures.
3. Certain ancient cultures of the world would feed their dead to powerful gods or creatures, or even to beasts cultivated just for the purpose of disposing of the dead such as pits of snakes or crocodiles.
DRUG USAGE
In every world, especially one with a criminal element, there are drugs of some sort. Here are some of the more popular drugs.
Absinthe: A green colored highly hallucinogenic alcohol. Made from wormwood, Absinthe can send imbibers spiraling down into madness.
Caffar: Caffar is made of the small caffar nut that is ground into a powder and brewed into a dark, sweet-smelling beverage, traditionally with a goat's milk base. Like coffee or black tea, caffar can be used to delay sleep, but it has the side effect of making the ingester's mind sharper; psionicists' skills are greatly enhanced and even non-psions are more sensitive to nuances in the environment and in others' manners, sometimes even to the point of detecting "auras" around certain objects.
Cannabis: Smoking dried cannabis provides relaxation and a slight state of euphoria for around 3 hours before it fades. Some use it for divination purposes, or other religious ceremony.
Dead Butterfly: A powerful concoction to be sure, brewed by satyrs, this muddy, chartreuse ale, packs a wallop. Along with the usual hops, barley, and water, the satyrs imbue and steep wild roots and herbs into the mix, such as Wormwood and Angelika Root, and even add crushed butterfly dust of the species, speckled mad-jester. The combined effects of these wild ingredients, imbues the ale with hallucinogenic properties. Dead Butterfly is favored by starving artists, bohemians, and explorers of worlds beyond the doors of perception.
Opium: A derivative of the poppy, opium dens not only attract lower class denizens but high class as well, including many bards and thinkers.
Wildweed: This plant grows only in the desert and is often used in tribal ceremony. It produces hallucinations.
[/font]