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

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Dominion Era Tolvaar
Faeren
Wolfkin
Racial Insignia of the Tolvaar
Land of Origin
Continent of Origin	Termalttë
Homeland	Vaar-Akôr Region
Capital	Disparate peoples/kingdoms with no single capital
Racial Lore
Language	Tolvaari
Characteristics	Tolvaar (Characteristics)
Culture	Tolvaar (Culture)
History	Dominion Era
Government	Tolvaar (Government)
Military	Tolvaar (Military)
Stats	Tolvaar (Stats)
Racial Relations
Allies	None
Enemies	Elledynnë
Neutrals	None

The wolfkin of Di'Termalttë, the Tolvaar are one of the younger races to grace the continent with their presence. Known in Tretalleri as Di'Fareni, the Tolvaar of the Dominion Era thrive in relative prosperity despite of and perhaps because of the general confinement of their territories to the Exiled Realm, which lies in between the realms of the Tretalleri Dominion and the Elledyn'ni Silvered Realm. It is worth noting, however, that though their ancient heritage places the homeland of their culture and their civilization in the Vaar-Akôri region, the good relations that they establish with the Dominion has allowed them to live peacefully by the borders of the Exiled Realm with Dominion lands, and even in a number of small enclaves officially sanctioned by the Ivory Throne.

Religion

It may well be an exercise in futility to attempt to paint the Tolvaari clans of the Dominion Era in broad strokes when it comes to the matter of religion as writings, both Tolvaari and not, indicate that during this time period, Tolvaari religious views varied wildly from one clan to the next. However, it is useful to loosely categorize Tolvaari belief systems into three groupings: secular, Dominean, and animist. It is important to note that these belief systems play an integral role in Tolvaari culture and therefore, it is difficult to discuss Tolvaari culture at any length without referring to any of these three groupings. This article shall focus largely on the commonalities between these three groupings, but each one is distinct enough from the others that they warrant articles of their own which can be found here:

• Animist Tolvaar
• Dominean Tolvaar
• Secular Tolvaar

To temporarily satisfy the curiosity of the reader, and in the interest of brevity, we shall touch upon the distinctions between these three groups briefly.

The Animist Tolvaar reside primarily in the southern reaches of the Exiled Realm. They are concentrated around the white cliffs of Vaar-Akôr, which the Tolvaari Clans consider to be their ancestral lands. The Animist Tolvaar, notably, adhere more closely than the other two groupings to the old ways of the Tolvaari Clans. That is, they believe in the innate sacredness of all things, they reject the concept of gods, and they consider themselves one with the land as the druids once did.

The Dominean Tolvaar are, unlike their brethren, naturally more warlike. They reside primarily in the region in and around the Exiled Realm's border with the Dominion as well as in numerous enclaves in Dominion lands. It is unknown whether their warlike nature is the result of the influence of Dominion ideology, as a competing theory posits that it is instead their innate tendency to war that draws them to the Dominion. Regardless, their close proximity to the Dominion has certainly influenced their religious beliefs and the Dominean Tolvaar worship The Nine of the Tretalleri faith. Where the animist Tolvaar reject the concept of deities, the Dominean Tolvaar embrace them.

The Secular Tolvaar residing primarily in the northern reaches of the exiled realm where much of the trade between the Dominion and the Exiled Realm passes, the Secular Tolvaar are different from their brethren in that they reject any notion of the supernatural that is not accompanied by empirical proof. Easily the most technologically advanced of the Tolvaari clans, the Secular Tolvaar are also the most likely to live in proper cities. There is little to speak of with regard to religion and faith for the Secular Tolvaar for they refuse to acknowledge that which is asserted without evidence, but they are notable for their philosophy that the purpose of life is to uncover truths both personal and cosmic, which certainly places them favorably in the eyes of the Grand Rookery.

The Lady Veýs

Although the Tolvaar of the Dominion Era are a largely disparate people, with large differences in culture and beliefs between any two regions in the entirety of their territory, they still share a collective cultural mythos. The most prominent of these, and perhaps the one that has had the most influence on the modern day, is that of the legend of the Lady Veýs. Though it is the secular Tolvaar who comprise the majority of the modern-day Tolvaari population, the Lady Veýs remains an important cultural figure to the Tolvaar. There are, no doubt, skeptics with regard to the veracity of the stories of the Lady Veýs, but nevertheless, one would be as hard-pressed to find a Tolvaari doubter of the Lady Veýs in the modern day as in the Dominion Era.

It is difficult to pinpoint the origins of the stories of the Lady Veýs for the accounts that survive today, while many, largely disagree on many of the finer points, owing primarily to the fact that the writers of these accounts came from many different clans and the disparate nature of the Dominion Era Tolvaar all but ensures that these writers had different perspectives. Nevertheless, there are a few threads of commonality between these stories which provide some insight to the mythological history of the Tolvaari peoples.

Very little survives with regard to the state of the Tolvaar before the arrival of the Lady Veýs onto the scene, and what does survive is second-hand, recorded centuries after the fact once oral tradition gave way to written tradition. However, these accounts of the 'before-time' that do survive agree that before the Lady Veýs, the Tolvaar were in a 'dark' age. Of the surviving accounts, twenty seven in all, there are two primary groups. The 'Kesvarkaya,' and the 'Keskariya' accounts. The Kesvarkaya accounts begin with the phrase Keskevarka, which translated, approximately means 'we were lost,' while the Keskarniya accounts begin with the phrase Kesvekari, which approximately means we were angry. These imply that before the arrival of the Lady Veýs, the Tolvaar were mired in conflict and had lost their way.

Another commonality between the legends of the Lady Veýs that survive us to the modern day, is the idea that the Lady Veýs is a redemptive figure in Tolvaari lore. Once again, the details change dramatically from one clan to the next, but nevertheless, the general sentiment remains the same: the Lady Veýs helped the Tolvaari peoples rise from their dark ages as a peaceful, if not united, whole. This is most commonly reflected in the motif of the 'Three Redemptions' which are generally portrayed in the following order: Redemption from Savagery, Redemption from the Loss of Purpose, and Redemption from the Crisis of Identity.

For the secular Tolvaar and the Dominean Tolvaar, these Three Redemptions are simple. In fact, these two groups agree almost point for point on the matter, leading many theorists to believe that the secular Tolvaar and Dominean Tolvaar both arose from a shared ancestor group that split off from the animist Tolvaar in the past. Regardless, to the secular Tolvaar and the Dominean Tolvaar, the Redemption from Savagery is the introduction of the way of peace by the Lady Veýs, the Redemption from the Loss of Purpose arises from the Lady Veýs' designation of the Tolvaar as the stewards of the land, and the Redemption from the Crisis of Identity comes from the memory of the true nature of the ancient ancestors of the Tolvaar.

The interpretation of the Three Redemptions is shrouded in mysticism from the perspective of the animist Tolvaar and as a result, is very difficult to penetrate and explain briefly. It is discussed in depth in the article written about the animist Tolvaar. Generally speaking, however, the animist ideas of the Three Redemptions align somewhat with the secular and Dominean Tolvaari clans.

Values

Paid for with blood, sweat, and tears, the ideal of peace is one of the most dearly held in Tolvaar culture, even among the more warlike Dominean Tolvaari clans. Its importance to the Tolvaar hearkens back to the pre-Veýsian era of the Tolvaari tradition, where the Tolvaari clans warred against one another. Although the surviving texts disagree about the finer points of this age of conflict, there is a shared sentiment that the period was almost cataclysmic. During this time, the literature alleges, many of the Tolvaar believed that the end of their race was nigh and that as their conflict raged and the lands within which they could freely roam shrank, they would tear themselves apart, leaving nothing but a memory of bloodshed imprinted into the earth itself.