Dominion Era/Tretallë (Culture)

This page discusses a part of the lore of the Dominion Era Tretallë. If you are interested in seeing the Tabletop RPG stats associated with this race, visit: Tretallë (Stats).

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 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.

Jomdtallë

In proper Tretalleri grammar: D'Jommë Tallë. Known as the Day of Bones in Dominean, 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.

Jomdkorvë

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 Averë Nenn, blood is spilt on this day. This bloodletting is done through a series of duels, mostly between young men and women, called Velladkorvë, 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

Typical family units in Tretalleri society are made up of the three parents, and anywhere between one and three children. There are cases where there are more, but those cases are uncommon. Due to the nature of the libido of males, these children are often twenty years apart in age. In order to foster the ability of the children to socialise, every family in a particular neighbourhood is committed to what can be likened to a créche where all the children can socialise with others of the same age group.

Mothers wear a pouch of bone shards around their necks, with the number of shards in the pouch corresponding to the number of mothered children. This stems from an obsolete custom of the Faith of the Nine, where the last segment of the smallest finger on the left hand of an infant is removed and the bone is worn by the mother around her neck. With the rise of the Dominion, the tradition faded quickly when it was discovered that those who refrained from following the tradition were better at swordfighting and using lances. As a result, bone shards have been used as a substitute.

Fathers are typically in charge of the education of their children prior to official schooling. Traditionally, fathers have not worn any indication of the number of children that they have sired. Recently, however, with the addition of new peoples to the Dominion, it has become popular for men to wear pins in their hair, one for each child that they have managed to rear.

In Tretalleri marriages, there is typically a principal couple. This does not mean that the government or the church view a particular set of partners in more favourable light. This arrangement is agreed upon for ease of keeping records. The First Spouse takes on the mother-name of the Principal Spouse, who is typically the female of the two if a female is even involved, while further partners are considered Brother- or Sister-Spouses to the First Spouse. It is worth noting that females outside of the principal couple generally do not take the mother-name of the principal spouse while males traditionally do, but are not required to.

Arrangements for residency are entirely up to the discretion of the married spouses. If there are no children shared between them, individuals typically remain in their own homes. Typically, however, for couples or groups living some distance away from each other, or with children, the individuals involved in the marriage move in together for ease of access to each other and the children.

Lignetallë

Perhaps one of the least understood aspects of Tretalleri family life, the Bone Tree is also perhaps one of the most important. The family Bone Tree is present in every ancestral home save for those belonging to poorer families. A single clan typically only has a single Bone Tree residing in the same place as the clan Matriarch. Clan lines, however, are drawn rather arbitrarily. Any individual woman could decide to start her own clan, and upon declaration of this wish, any of her descendants will henceforth belong to her clan, regardless of matrimonial connections.

These Bone Trees are a special variant of the Lignebargë, a tall, ivory-white tree with drooping branches and silvery-grey foliage that is the only organism capable of surviving in the Desolation that surrounds the Shrouded Peaks. The Bone Trees are virtually, genetically identical with their cousins save for the fact that there are shards of bone, from each family member belonging to the clan, embedded in the tree.

On the Day of Bones, clans with bone trees, after preparing and shattering the bones(typically the thigh-bone) of those that have passed, cut incisions into the soft bark of the tree and place the shards of bone in them. For the next two days, the incisions bleed the light blue sap of the tree which the family collects reverently.

After the two days, any additional sap is collected and this sap can be sold by the family to those who do not have a Bone Tree. The sap is used for a lot of medicinal purposes, potions, and even delicacies. In fact, after the first day, the bark from the incisions on the Bone Tree is prepared and served with some of its caramelised sap and honey. For storage, the sap is typically boiled to rid it of excess water and pressed into either blocks or small irregular chunks. Bark is typically dried and stored in glass jars for soups. The sap is particularly precious because it is used in the manufacture of the Tretalleri panacea, a decidedly effective medicine that has prevented plagues from devastating the Dominion.

Poorer families or more rural villages where people do not have their own ancestral homes instead share a communal Bone Tree grove. These groves are typically run by communities with elected officials charged with making incisions to collect bark and sap. An individual of authority then takes the spoils and divides them equally to all the families participating.

Both for private Bone Trees and communal groves, the Throne mandates that a portion of the sap is turned over to priests for preservation, preparation, and storage as a contingency plan if ever a sickness take root in the realms of the Dominion.