Difference between revisions of "Dominion Era/Tretallë (Culture)"

Revision as of 03:02, 15 February 2016

Dominion Era Tretallë
Bone Elves
Istfet, The Strangers, Invaders, Deathriders
Imperial Standard of the Tretalleri Dominion
Land of Origin
Continent of Origin	Termalttë
Homeland	Teýrivellë
Capital	Ifatallë Cselvë
Racial Lore
Language	Tretalleri
Characteristics	Tretallë (Characteristics)
Culture	Tretallë (Culture)
History	Dominion Era
Government	Tretallë (Government)
Military	Tretallë (Military)
Stats	Tretallë (Stats)
Racial Relations
Allies	None
Enemies	Elledynnë
Neutrals	None

Known in IktOrryk as the Istfet, and in Dominean as the Bone Elves, the Tretallë are the sister-race of the High Elves. Both these elfin races hail from the eastern continent, known as IldSond to the races of Man, and the Termalttë to the Tretallë. The true ancestral home of the Tretallë, at least, by the accounts of the High Elfin faith, is at the foot of the Shrouded Peaks. However, going by the history of the Tretallë, their oldest recorded home is Di'Ifatallë Cselvë, the Ivory City, home to the Ivory Throne at the heart of the illustrious Forest of Bones.

Tradition

Collectively, the Tretallë are neither as festive, light-hearted, nor superficial as their High-Elfin brethren. Though they have often been described as a grim people possessed of a morbid sense of humour and fascination with the macabre. The stereotype has been a long-standing one, and almost in vindication of the stereotype, the Tretallë can't care less about it. In fact, the Tretallë are normal. They are, admittedly, less prone to humour and more vulnerable to bouts of seriousness, but they are much like everyone else.

The Tretallë, however, do celebrate every so often, mostly in reverence to the Ivory Throne and their people's history of conquests and feats of war.

The Tretallë are devoted most to the one whom they call the Stranger, much to the chagrin of their Elfin cousins. Because of their fascination with the avatar of Death itself, sacred to their people are the heralds of its coming: bones and blood. To the Tretallë, ivory is the most sacred resource, and many of them are willing to pay fortunes for ivory of the highest quality. In fact, they call ivory 'Ifatallë' which means pristine bone in Tretalleri.

The Feast for Victory

This is one of the most important celebrations in Tretalleri society. It is a day dedicated to the celebration of the Pale Imperator, His throne, and His Dominion.

The feast for victory is a festival lasting a week that begins on the day of a Pale Imperator's coronation, and every nine years hence. This is one of the few truly festive occasions in Tretalleri culture, where both men and women and everything in between are expected to partake in joviality and debauchery. Each day of this week is, in fact, a day of religious obligation, and all men under the Dominion are required to supplicate the Gods, particularly the the Rider and the Stranger, for another nine years of victory and conquest for the Dominion.

As the sun sets upon the Dominion and the stars begin to shimmer in the skies, the food is brought out for the nightly banquets. All are invited, rich or poor, young or old, to partake of the bounty of the Dominion and the lands under its heel. On the first night, however, the banquet is filled with dishes from the motherland, which are hardy and less-than-succulent, in order to remind all of the Imperator's subjects of the Dominions humble beginnings. All of the other days are filled with food from many different lands, and the worth of a banquet is decided by how many people grow sick of having had too much to eat.

Jomaltallë

In proper Tretalleri grammar: D'Jommë Di'Tâllë. It is known as the Day of Bones in Dominean, but this translation loses the nuance of Tretalleri. The literal translation of D'Jommë Di'Tâllë is The Day Belonging to the Bones, a name that more properly describes the festival's dedication to the deceased relatives of the Tretallë. The Jomdtallë is an annual day of obligation prominent among the members of the Blood, who have the resources to perform the day's duties. It is a day of solemnity for everyone, but the religious obligation is mandated only to the Tretallë. However, it has been an increasing fashion in some of the older colonies of the Dominion that any race under the Dominion's sovereign purview would participate in the day's observations.

When any member of a family dies, the matriarch of the family brings the body forth to one of the Priests for two reasons: anthropomancy, and a simple calculation. Based upon centuries of experience and well-kept records, the Priests have devised a way to determine how fast rot takes a body. Upon determining this value, the Priests bequeath a number of years to the matriarch. After this number of years has passed, the body of the dead will have decayed enough that only the bones remain, and even those are fragile enough to shatter and in some cases, crush.

It is on the Day of Bones when the interred bones are dug up and cleaned and prepared to either be ground into a fine dust for infusion and reinforcement of wooden weapons or luxury furniture. Alternatively, bones that are not brittle enough to be crushed are broken into shards for integrating into the family Bone Tree.

Jomalkorvë

In proper Tretalleri grammar: D'Jommë Korvë. This day is perhaps the bloodiest 'celebration' in Tretalleri culture. It is a sometimes downright-fanatical day of devotion to the Stranger that occurs every three years while a Pale Imperator sits on the Ivory Throne, or every six when one does not. On this day, known in Dominean as the Day of Ravens, the rookeries set free their ravens for the day. There is no risk of losing ravens as they have been trained to return on sundown the same day. During the intervening hours between dawn and dusk, men and women alike are required to leave out scraps of meat, seeds, or any sort of food for the ravens.

Occasionally, especially in more fanatical domains of the Dominion, where the local populace has taken on the Averrë Nenn, blood is spilt on this day. This bloodletting is done through a series of duels, mostly between young men and women, called Vellakorvë, The Flight of the Ravens, where blood may be spilt, but lives may not be taken.

In religious centres of the Dominion, where the population is largely Tretalleri, darker rituals take place in the temples of the Nine. Most outlying towns and agricultural hamlets partake in ritual animal sacrifice and haruspicy, the act of foretelling future events using the entrails and viscera of dead animals. In larger cities, where there are decent populations of the Gallarë, and the death of one is not too big a burden, one of the mages is brought forth in a ritual sacrifice with much fanfare and pomp.

Gruesome as the Rite of Sanguine Benediction might be to the outsider, it is in fact a great honour to the Gallarë to be chosen for this task. When the sacrifice is done, and the blood of the magus purified of its iron, anthropomancy is performed to determine the fate of the city until the next Day of Ravens. After this, the body of the sacrificed is put to good use. The purified blood, painstakingly stripped of iron and collected drop for drop, is used by the Priests to create elixirs of strength, courage and fortitude, given to any who are willing to pay a hefty price for the upkeep of the temples of the Nine.

If the city where the Rite of Sanguine Benediction is performed has a High Rookery, the corpse is taken there to be picked clean by the Pale Ravens, large birds with ivory-white plumage and beady eyes filled with intelligence infinitely greater than the common raven. After they are fed, the Pale Ravens sleep until their next meal or until their services are needed. These ravens are a special breed meant for quick, long-distance flight, and are reared from birth to feed only on Tretalleri flesh.

When the feeding is done and only the bones remain, they are painstakingly dried, cleaned, fractured, polished, and carved. When the preparation is done, the bones are hung from the twisted and gnarled branches of the city's Grey Tree situated at the heart of the city's greatest temple courtyard. This ritual is a grander, more elaborate, and more beautiful version of what is done on the Day of Bones.

Finally, it is important to note that Blood Magic runs rampant in the streets on this day. Legend has it that the more Days of Ravens a Tretallë has witnessed in his/her life, the darker the stripes on his/her face will be, a sign of the Stranger's blessings of wisdom. It is also worth noticing that historically, it is after sundown on the Day of Ravens that the most successful military campaigns of the Dominion have been carried out.

The Arcane Taboo

For being a race of warmongers and conquerors bent on dominance over much of the known world, the Tretallë are surprisingly opposed to anything arcane. There is no specific document about why there exists a taboo against magic in Tretallë society, but nonetheless it exists. Scholars from other races, many of them under the umbrella of the Dominion, posit that this disdain for magic stems from the Tretallë's loathing of their High Elfin cousins.

To this end, much of Tretallë society is dedicated to finding ways to do things without having to resort to the arcane, not that many of the Tretallë are born with the spark to wield magic to begin with. Particularly powerful Tretallë magi are, counter-intuitively, taken to the Shrouded Peaks, and trained to use their abilities. At least what's left of them. They are trained, solely, in the art of delving for magic in individuals, and manipulating metals, Elledtrillë in particular.

These individuals are called the Trigallarë. The word translates, roughly, in Dominean to "Bound by Metal-Blood." In Tretalleri society, these individuals are considered slaves. They are, however, the slaves with the most rights. They have many freedoms, and are not bound to remain in sight of their masters at all times. They are bound, merely, to serve the Ivory Throne for life.

While the blood of most Tretallë is blue, The Trigallarë have red blood. Iron, Triohrë in the Tretalleri dialect, is forced to run in their veins, through the only kind of magic that the Tretallë practise regularly because it does not require a spark for the arcane: blood magic. In addition, the Trigallarë are marked with iron tattoos all over their bodies, with the only sizable gap, where magic could escape, being around their wrists. This gap is vital for the Binding of other Tretalleri magic-users.

The Binding

Because the hatred of the arcane is so indoctrinated in Tretallë, individuals who realize that they are capable, or begin to manifest magical abilities, generally volunteer themselves in order to avoid bringing shame to their Blood. In fact, in many ways, this is considered the noble and "right" thing to do. This recognition, however, might as well be post-mortem, as once the Binding is performed, the individual is no longer a freeman and is dead by all rights to his/her family and the records.

There are two forms of Binding rituals: the first is for the magi who do not have the potential nor innate talent to become Trigallarrë. These magi are made slaves called the Galtë. The Bound. When a magus enters the custody of the state, either voluntarily or through capture, a Trigallarrë clasps Elledtrillë manacles and a collar made of the same metal to the soon-to-be slave. At the same time, the Trigallarë fastens an Elledtrillë band around his/her wrist.

In a long and painful process, both for the Trigallarrë and the soon-to-be-Galtë, the Trigallarrë channels the magus' well of arcane potential through the Elledtrillë. This process also siphons much of the Galtë's power and traps it in the Elledtrillë collar and manacles, with the band around the Trigallarë's wrist functioning as a control mechanism that allows its wearer to either completely burn out the Galtë's magic, or restrict and direct the Galtë's magic.

The Binding is different for the Trigallarrë, and it is one of the most well-kept secrets in the world. The temple at the heart of the Shrouded Peaks is accessible only to the highest members of the Bound Circle, the not-so-secret society that stands at the heart of the anti-arcane culture of the Dominion. In the centre of this temple is an artifact that is used to change the very chemistry and biology of the soon-to-be Trigallarrë. This artifact is called the Stranger's Embrace.

The process with which blue blood is replaced with iron-filled red is unclear, not even to the Bound Circle itself. Needless to say, the ritual is lengthy and painful. Most candidates pass out long before the blood magic working gets completely underway. When the process is complete, the candidate Trigallarrë is allowed a day's rest before the tattooing begins. Using tattoo ink with iron filings and iron oxide, a magic-inhibiting lattice is permanently drawn into the individual's skin. This process completes the Binding and after a period of rest, the Trigallarrë is educated in his/her new role in Tretallë society and trained in the requisite skills before being returned to the capital.

Filial, Romantic, and Sexual Dynamics

The dynamics of family relationships are rather complicated in Tretalleri society, where it is less about what family you belong to, but rather what line of descent. Most females of the race tend to pair off together in same-sex relationships, and as a result, most families end up having a trifecta of parents—two of whom are often female, and one male. The reverse, however, is not unheard of. Lines of descent are traced through the mothers of children as the males do not always end up with descendants, and, particularly those who end up in a triple-parenthood, some end up having children with multiple females, which only serves to muddle family trees.

When it comes to sexuality, the Tretallë adopt a live-and-let-live philosophy. Their principal deity is the Stranger, the god of Death, that does not discriminate between men and women, rich and poor, young and old. They see no reason to care whom a person sleeps with if their god would not care either. Being a militaristic society, as well, lends to this outlook. To the Tretallë, it does not matter the achings of one's loins on the battlefield all that matters is life and death.

As mentioned above, lines of descent are what matter to the Tretalleri social scheme. The matrilineality of Tretalleri families plays a particular role in determining who belongs to the Azure Blood, as well as in determining the right of succession to the Ivory Throne. Members of the Blood, in fact, may only take on spouses of the same rank or lower rank than them, the latter on the condition that the higher ranked member of the Blood be the initiator of the union. This is the primary reason why the Throne is vacant for long periods of time as the requirements for the right to even attempt to accede to the throne are immensely stringent when it comes to purity of blood.

Romance

When it comes to finding mates, be they life-mates or temporary bed-mates, the Tretalle have customary social codes to display their status. Hair and accessories are worn in very particular ways in order to attract or otherwise ward off individuals. Hair that is not tied up but is left to hang unimpeded is generally taken as an indication of being single, apathetic toward romance, and lacking the desire to partake in the mating dance.

Those who do not wear a Kartallë—literally heart-bone—a bangle of either one or ivory inlaid with gold, mithril, or silver, are not looking for commitment of any sort. Those who wear these accessories are either only looking for bed-mates, indicated by wearing only one, or looking for committed relationships, indicated by two. The arm on which the bangles are worn is indicative of the gender that the Tretallë is seeking. Right is for a male, left is for a female.

A female who is committed but not married wears her hair in a single braid hung over the shoulder. Once again, the side is significant in telling which gender the individual is committed to. If she is in a polyamorous relationship, the braid is worn down the back, with gold and silver bands added, one each for male and female partners respectively. Males, on the other hand, do not wear the full length of their hair in a braid. They braid only a short length to either side or the back in the case of polyamorous relationships. Married individuals wear feather charms on their braids, the number equal to the number of married spouses, each with a bead of silver or gold to denote gender.

The Family Unit

The Tretalleri family unit is one of the stranger ones among the different cultures of the world of Sekhar. There is a tendency in Tretalleri society toward a family unit consisting of three or four parents and anywhere between one and three children. It is not uncommon for these numbers to vary outside of the norm, but in general, this is the case. As they are naturally polyamorous, Tretalleri individuals have no qualms about having multiple partners, and often, this is in fact for the best as there is a general imbalance between the libidinous tendencies of the sexes in Tretalleri society.

Males in Tretalleri society have a tendency to have one male and one female partner. Females are more likely to have multiple female partners and one male partner. This is a suitable situation as males have no interest in sexual relationships for most of the year, and females are, in general, always interested.

Children tend to be reared in communal groups, as there tend to be a number of them at any one time in the waralmâlttë of a community despite the children of any one set of characters being as much as ten years apart in age, and five on average. These créches are vital to the rearing of Tretalleri children because they encourage the association of children not only with other individuals of their same age group but with other adults as well. This promotes the development of social skills, which, if the families were mostly insular, would not be developing as quickly since the children tend to be many years apart.

Because women have a tendency to be the breadwinners of the family—mostly because in any one family there are more women than men—fathers are expected to be in charge of the early education of children prior to official schooling, and women are expected to provide the necessary funds for that education. Once a child begins their formal education, though, all the parents start to take equal roles in reinforcing the things that are taught in school.

In Tretalleri marriages, there is typically a principal couple, usually the pair that has the eldest child in any particular family. This does not mean that this particular couple receives preferential treatment over the others, but strictly for matters of law and government and church records, the principal couple is the one most prominent in writing. The First Spouse, who is the male in a male-female principal couple, takes on the House name of the Principal Spouse, who is typically the female of a heterosexual principal couple. Homosexual principal couples decide, with other partners, whom the title of head of the household would go to, and they become the Principal Spouse while their other partner becomes the First Spouse.

Further partners in Tretalleri marriages are noted as Brother- and Sister-Spouses to the First Spouse. It is worth noting that Sister-Spouses are not expected to take on the House name of the Principal Spouse, while the Brother-Spouses are traditionally expected to but do not, as a matter of law, have to. Arrangements for residency are entirely up to the discretion of the married spouses, but as would later become clear, the home of the Principal Spouse tends to become the home of the other Spouses as well. This is due to Family and House bone trees, which will be discussed further down.

Clans, Houses, and Families

Tretalleri society is divided along relatively clean lines known as Clans. Although, in the face of the law, Clans are little more than a formal grouping of common descent. The idea of Clans hails from the early, formative years of the Dominion, when the Kingship of the Bone Trees was beginning to consolidate Tretalleri authority and sovereignty. At the time, tribes and city-states often traced their descent from one particular historical woman, and the idea of Clans is a direct descendant of that form of mentality.

Clans include, as members, all descendants of individuals that are partnered with the Matriarch. This happens even retroactively, and children with past partners, as well as past partners, are considered a part of a Clan unless they express that they do not wish to be. Furthermore, children of partners of the Matriarch with women other than the Matriarch that are not themselves partnered with the Matriarch are considered members of a Clan subject to the same conditions as past partners and children. As a result, Clans are a confusing tangle of relationships and have very little pull in the judicial system, as Tretalleri law considers a person's Clan-name to be largely irrelevant in many cases. Furthermore, there is significant legal precedent that allows women to simply branch off and establish their own Clans if they wish to.

Houses are similar to Clans in that they can be established at any point by women who decide to branch off from their present House. The first Houses of the Dominion were established in Y.D. 1872 by the female Imperator Loryn a'Devytorë, making her House, House Devytorë, and the House of her sister, House Zo-Hanyll two of the oldest houses.

According to laws established then by the Imperator Loryn, and amendments since then, where Clans span the breadth of all the children of the Matriarch and her partners, a House only considers the direct descendants of the marriage that established it as part of the House. Only children shared among the Matriarch, her First Spouse, and any Brother-and-Sister-Spouses form the basis of the House. Further generations are governed by a simple rule. Members of the House that become Principal Spouses are considered a part of their original House. First Spouses and Brother-and-Sister-Spouses are considered a part of the House of the Principal Spouse for legality, although in matters of succession, they are considered a part of both their original House and the House of their Principal Spouse.

Families are subsets of Houses, which can be considered as extended Families. By law, however, Families begin at the Principal Spouse and his/her partners, and end at any children that they may share. A single, childless person is considered to be a part of a single Family, the Birthing Family, or the family of their parents. However, once a person becomes married, they are considered a part of two families: their Birthing Family and their Birthed Family, which includes their partners and any children that might be had at a later date. Family names typically remain unwritten in most records, but official census and government records do require these.

In contrast with the a' prefix associated with House names, Family names use the prefix ri' followed by the name of the Principal Spouse.

Lignetallë

One of the most theologically and historically heavy aspects of Tretalleri family life, Di'Lignetâllë, formally known as De'Tallë Lîgnë, is also perhaps one of the most important. Bone trees are present at the heart of each Waralmalttë, except in the homes of poorer families. The eight homes surrounding the courtyard are typically occupied by members of the same House, who all share duties to the bone tree. For Houses that are more dispersed, the remains of the dead are typically interred to familial bone trees as well as House bone trees that are planted in the residence of the House matriarch. Furthermore, families that either do not possess a bone tree or have no affiliation to a House, can instead honour their dead through communal bone trees that are planted at the hearts of communities, of which there are multiple in large, densely populated areas like cities.

Bone tree saplings are pricey, both for the fact that there are few cultivators in the Dominion, and because these cultivators are sustained primarily by the sales of these saplings. Lignetâllë figure not only in Tretalleri family life, but also in other things, such as marking the tombs of the unnamed fallen, or in memorial of battles that resulted in the loss of life. For this reason, poor families tend to not have familial bone trees, unless given saplings out of charity by more affluent members of the community. However, this lends well to community life as these families inter their dead in the communal bone trees, fostering a sense of togetherness especially in small villages that really can't afford more than the one communal bone tree at the centre of town.

These Bone Trees are a cultivar of the Lignebargë, a tall, ivory-white tree with drooping branches and silvery-grey foliage that is one of the very few organisms capable of surviving in D'Irressë Di'Lertanys, the Desolation, that surrounds the Shrouded Peaks. The Bone Trees are, at first glance, indistinguishable from their distant cousins. However, once they are examined closer, it is clear that there are some notable differences between the two species. Bone Trees, for one, have light blue sap as opposed to the almost pure white sap of the Lignebargë. Furthermore, horizontal incisions into bone trees are likely to reveal shards of bone buried in the tree, hence the name. Even toward the end of the Dominion Era, inquest into whether the sap of the Lignebargë possessed the same medicinal qualities as the sap of the Lignetallë remained inconclusive.

On the Day of Bones, families with bone trees, after preparing and shattering the bones of the deceased, cut incisions into the bark of the bone trees and place shards of bone in those incisions. Typically, one shard is enough. The rest are saved and preserved in order to create mementos of those that have passed, or they are taken to the House bone trees and interred there, as well. However, prominent family figures, particularly ones that have done much good for the family, are given two or three shards in the bone trees. The process is much the same for communal bone trees, and often the community comes together to decide which individuals are deserving of having more than one sliver of bone placed in the bone tree.

After the incisions are made, they begin to bleed Neýrsë, the light blue sap of the tree which the family (if it is a familial tree) or a group designated by the community (if it is communal, instead), reverently gather the sap into glass jars greased with animal fat. Bark cut away from the tree to make incisions is also stored in covered baskets and allowed to air-dry for two days. A large portion of the total amount of sap collected is given to the community apothecary, typically, where it is made into many different medicinal products such as tonics, elixirs, potions, and salves, particularly Nynasë, a very effective booster for the Tretalleri immune system that historically, is attributed with preventing the uncontrollable spread of disease.

Whatever remains of the sap after the law-mandated portions are given to the apothecaries, and the Dominion government for the purposes of contingency, is distributed evenly among all the families in the community. The day after the distribution, families tend to celebrate the memory of the deceased by telling stories and eating a sort of candied version of the bone tree bark that is boiled in a mixture of water, sap, and honey, before being baked until crisp. Afterwards, the sap is boiled to rid it of excess water, pressed into blocks or irregular chunks with cheesecloth and left out in the sun to dry out further. Sap prepared in this way tends to take on a sweet flavour and keeps for a very long time, sometimes until the next Day of Bones. Periodically, slices of sap may be used to flavour soups as a remedy for passing illness, and at times, as a sweetening for stews. Leftover bark is dried in much the same way and dried, taken out and boiled at a later day to provide a subtle earthy flavour to soups.

Nynasë

Considered the Tretalleri panacea and used for everything from toothaches to headaches to bleeding amputated stumps, Nynasë has amazing medicinal properties that make its reputation well-earned. However, for all its effectiveness, Nynasë cannot protect against all diseases. One disease in particular remained a constant, terrifying shadow that loomed over the makers of Nynasë. Called Di'Wirenë or the Withering, its method of transmission remained undiscovered until well into the Conquest Era. Di'Wirenë plagued low-lying towns, cities, and villages that inevitably developed pools of stagnant water after the rainy season. For all its near-miraculous ability to remedy many other diseases, the best that Nynasë could do was ease the symptoms of the disease.

Upon recommendation from his Prince of Ravens Darran a'Zoreni, AC Natheran a'Vatagan, in 8401 Y.D., decreed that a portion of the sap collected from the bone trees must be given to apothecaries as well as imperial physicians so that there can be a stock of Nynasë prepared in the case that a disease spreads across the Dominion. Another reasoning for this was the educated guess of Dominion Scholars of the time that there were other resistant diseases other than Di'Wirenë, and that there must constantly be a supply of sap so that research can be made into making Nynasë more effective.

Sure enough, toward the 12th millennium of the Dominion Era's existence, as more and more sophisticated information networks were laid out by the Grand Rookery, reports of diseases that seemed to be resistant to Nynasë began to pile up. Diseases that had escaped the eye of the highest institutions of learning came into the light of day, and it became increasingly clear that Nynasë would not be enough to serve the Dominion. Although some of these diseases found remedies in the frenzy of research that followed their discovery, Di'Wirenë is one of the few that remained unknown.