Dominion Era/Tolvaar (Culture)

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 to the south of the Exiled Realm, the good relations that the Tolvaar establish with the Dominion allows 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

Even at the onset of the Dominion Era, the religious views of the Tolvaari clans varied to such a degree from one region of their territory to the next that it was an exercise in futility to attempt to paint them in broad strokes. However, this is where we begin to see the seeds of the three primary religious groups that come to dominate the Tolvaari population later on in the Dominion Era. Loosely categorized, the Tolvaari clans fall into one of three grousp: the Animist, the Dominean, and the Secular.

Religion plays an integral role in the history of the Tolvaari peoples and the way that their culture evolves and develops over time. It is therefore necessary to understand the interplay between the three religious groups and their respective populations in order to properly understand the way that the Tolvaar shaped their history. It is nigh-impossible to discuss Tolvaari culture, in general, at length without referring to the three groups.

Animist Tolvaar

The animist Tolvaari clans reside primarily in the southern reaches of the Exiled Realm where they are largely isolated from the two encroaching empires of the Dominion and the Silvered Realm. Concentrated primarily around white cliffs of the Vaar-Akôri region, the ancestral lands of the Tolvaar, they are considered far more in tune with their ancient heritage than the other groupings.

Of particular note is the tendency of the animist Tolvaari clans to adhere more closely to the old ways of the Tolvaari clans than the others. One of the most prominent manifestations of this adherence to the old ways are the Imalakya, contests of strength both physical and spiritual held on the third full moon of every second year.

The defining characteristic of the animist Tolvaar is their belief in the innate sacredness of all things. That is, the animist Tolvaar believe that divinity resides within each creature, be it plant or animal, all forms of earth, water, and air, and even in the heavenly bodies that shed light through the day and through the night. Furthermore, the animist Tolvaar reject the concept of gods, believing that to ascribe divinity to a single entity is to deny the innate sacredness that is possessed by all things. They consider the concept of gods a license to exploit and abuse the world around them.

Dominean Tolvaar

The Dominean Tolvaari clans live in and around the region that forms the border between the Exiled Realm and the Dominion of the Tretâllë. Dominean Tolvaar also comprise the vast majority of the population of Tolvaar who reside in the Tolvaari enclaves within Dominion lands.

They are, by nature, more warlike than their brethren, though not in the sense that they often fall into conflict with one another. Though more willing by far to engage in violence than the other Tolvaari clans, the Dominean Tolvaar do not do so without discretion for they believe that the only wars worth fighting are the ones that are fought out of necessity.

Belief in the The Nine of the Tretalleri faith is what marks the line between the Dominean Tolvaar and the others. Though some, particularly the clans that reside deeper into the Dominion and which, toward the end of the Dominion Era, have sworn fealty to the Ivory Throne, are adherents to tha canonical faith, the vast majority have adopted the Nine as deities of their own and treat them in a manner quite different from that prescribed by the Grand Rookery.

Secular Tolvaar

At the onset of the Dominion Era, many of the Tolvaar in the Exiled Realm, particularly in the central and northern regions were still animist, however as the years marched on, what had been a minority slowly began to grow. The Secular Tolvaar now comprise the vast majority of the Tolvaari population, and though there isn't much to be said about their religious beliefs, they are easily one of the most interesting of the three groups.

Of note among the secular Tolvaar is the notion that morality is not something that can be defined or codified in a book. For many of the secular Tolvaar, though there are common-sense rules such as 'murder is bad,' and 'stealing is bad,' the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined solely by the circumstances wherein they occurred. Furthermore, the secular Tolvaar believe that morality does not depend on some respect for innate sacredness or fear of divine intervention, but rather that morality arises from mutual accountability between persons and other persons, the environment, and the larger culture that surrounds them.

The secular Tolvaar are defined by their outright rejection of gods, but unlike the animist Tolvaar, they also reject the notion of innate divinity or any sort of supernatural claim that is not itself accompanied by a preponderance of evidence. Furthermore, the secular Tolvaar believe that the purpose of life is not to, make one's inner divinity blossom, nor have a good death, but rather to pursue truths both personal and cosmic which is compelling for many, including a significant number of individuals in the Grand Rookery.

The Lady Veýs

Though at the time a largely disparate people, the Tolvaar of the Dominion Era nevertheless shared a number of legends. There is no more prominent figure, perhaps, in this collective cultural mythos, than that of the Lady Veýs who appears in surviving texts as anything from a spiritual guide to a saviour.

However large a portion of the modern Tolvaari population the secular Tolvaar might now comprise, the Lady Veýs remains an important cultural figure to them. There are, no doubt, skeptics who regard the Lady Veýs with suspicion, but they are a tiny minority. One would be almost 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 exact origins of the stories of the Lady Veýs as one of the few things the surviving accounts agree upon is that she seemed to come from out of the aether, with no fanfare or celebration. Nevertheless, and this is another point that the fragmentary texts from the earliest period of recorded Tolvaari history agree upon, the Lady Veýs came at a time when the ancient Tolvaari needed intervention the most.

Little survives from the early days of the Dominion Era Tolvaar, but even fewer are the texts that detail the circumstances of the Tolvaar before the arrival of the Lady Veýs. Most, if not all of these sources, are second-hand, recorded centuries after the fact once oral traditions gave way to written traditions. These accounts do, however, agree that before the Lady Veýs arrived, the Tolvaar were facing a crisis.

Of the surviving accounts, twenty-seven in all, there are two primary groupings. The "Kesvarkaya" and the "Keskarniya" texts. These two groups are named after their common opening phrases, "Keskevarka," which means 'we were lost,' and "Kesvekari," which means 'we were angry,' respectively. The story changes from one account to another, but the most striking difference occurs between these two groupings. The "Kesvarkaya" texts imply that the Tolvaar had lost their way, while the "Keskarniya" texts bemoan the constant, seemingly-endless conflict that plagued the Tora, or clans, in Tolvaari.

The Lady Redeemer

In many respects, the Lady Veýs is the foundational precedent for the "deus ex machina" often found in Tolvaari literature. That is, in saving the Tolvaar from their 'dark age,' the Lady Veýs, coming out of nowhere, with no warning or fanfare, solved an insurmountable problem that the Tolvaar would have not otherwise overcome. The comparison is a valid one, touched upon many times by Tolvaari scholars over the years, though hardly the kind of material suited for this work.

Nevertheless, it is from this salvific action that the Lady Veýs takes the first of many mantles that the Tolvaar give her in their collective mythos: that of the Redeemer.

The Three Redemptions

The aspect of the Redeemer manifests primarily in the form of what the Tolvaar know as the "Three Redemptions" which the Lady Veýs guide the Tolvaari peoples toward.

Redemption of the Savages — Surviving literature alleges that during the 'dark age,' the Tolvaari peoples were little more than beasts reacting to the world around them instinctively, often lashing out with violence at the smallest provocation. In leading the Tolvaar to their first Redemption, the Lady Veýs taught them the way of peace, and helped them to rebuild the bridges that they had burned between themselves.

Redemption of the Lost — Although peace lead to many years of prosperity and happiness for the Tolvaari clans, the early Tolvaar, without war, anger, and hatred to lead their hearts, began to feel lost. Some took up arms again and threatened to topple the tenuous peace, but the Lady Veýs came again and taught the Tolvaar the ways of the land and how to care for it. Knowing that the Tolvaar had lost sight of their purpose, the Lady Veýs charged them with their ancient duty to act as the stewards of the land.

Redemption of the Nameless — Living now with peace and a new purpose as the guardians of the earth itself, the Tolvaar were happy for a time. They dwelt together, clans that had once been enemies, tied together by a common duty. But their heavy past followed them no matter where they went, and many succumbed to despair, unable to bear the guilt of their ancestors. The Tolvaar feared that deep down they were all feral beasts, each waiting for a moment to snap and tear the peace they had fought so hard for to shreds. Here, the Lady Veýs helped the Tolvaar to embrace their past instead of fear it and find some solace in the fact that despite knowing nothing but violence, they were strong enough to be able to come to peace.