Fantasy World Cultures Questions Thread

There’s no primary culture in this world, whatever that might be. The existing cultures insofar as they are connected to one another do so by means of shared language group and/or geographical proximity. The main instance of the nation’s culture transcending these relations is the Old Kingdom which managed to spread its influence over most of the northern nations (of varied languages and spanning a great expanse of land) and the League whose culture dominates the south-western shores of the Middle Sea, as well as parts of the eastern shore. In case of the Old Kingdom the main unifying aspect used to be a single crown while for the League it’s the combination of a political union and strong trade relations as well as a free flow of people.

Question: describe a symbolical significance and meaning of a creature of your choice for one or more cultures of your choice. Are there any commonly known stories that use this symbolism?

The people of Temera believe that Dolphins are friendly elemental spirits and the children of Yana, the great god of storm and sea. As such they are sacred and causing harm to a Dolphin is punishable by exile, even death.

This belief largely comes about because of how Dolphins will try to warn sailors about coming storms, lead them to waters plentiful in fish, rescue them when they are washed overboard and are generally very friendly creatures.

As for stories well every sailor has some story to recount but popular legends involve how Dolphins helped the fair Olett when the sea hag kidnapped her lover or how the Dolphins helped Ranu win the hand of Leuka and then to escape across the sea when her tyrannical father in a fit of rage had Ranu imprisoned in his dungeon.

Question: Does your world have an origin myth?

Yup. There were four creatures, a gryphon, a sea dragon, a unicorn and a phoenix. The gryphon made the skies, the sea dragon made the waters, and the unicorn made the lands. They ruled the land peacefully, but the phoenix, the element of chaos, rebelled and burnt the world with his fires. He was finally defeated and as a punishment was given to the human race as a slave. They later retired, handing the stewardship of the land to three human families, who became the three most powerful noble families in the country.

Question: What are some stereotypes of different groups in your world, and why do they exist?

Coming from a matriarchal culture men from the island of Tamera have a great respect for women and usually defer to them in most matters especially any older female relatives. Because of this they are often seen by people of neighbouring nations as weak willed/henpecked and referred to as being mamma’s boys.

Valeros is a peaceful agrarian society with its capital being a busy coastal city so they have the standard country bumpkin/snobbish city dwellers stereotypes being thrown around. Their army is nicknamed the bumpkin army by neighbouring kingdoms because even though it has evolved over the centuries to become an elite unit of professional soldiers originally it was formed by farmers and peasants gathering together to defend their lands from invasion by the empire of Karnex and still draws most of their recruits from the countryside. Since the empire disbanded they no longer have to worry about invasion but maintain their bumpkin army anyhow.

Anyone from the former empire of Karnex is seen as weird possibly crazy and bad luck to be around. Its generally believed that they brought their downfall upon themselves because anyone who allows a crazy slave who believe sherself to be the goddess of death incarnate to become empress is either plain stupid or looking for trouble.

The Dreth hill clans have a reputation for being savages who attack peaceful caravans unprovoked and maim their women so that no other man would want them. In reality the Dreth are quite a nice folk with strict rules and traditions who happen to live next to a heavily travelled caravan route yet traders never bother to stop by because the Dreth have no money. So they occasioanlly raid the caravans and then send half to the port city of Esthp as tribute since the Lord chancellor of Esthp is their ruler and the merchandise was headed there anyhow. When the merchants complain to the Lord Chancellor he merely sympathises with them but does nothing because even though the Dreth are his subjects they have better numbers and experience at warfare than the spoiled snobbish merchants and noblefolk that reside in his city. He also returns any tributes sent him to the appropriate merchants because it never hurts to be on the good side of the local merchants. Also the Dreth don’t really maim their women but they do have a superstition that evil spirits will try to steal pretty girls and replace them with changelings so girls (once they are old enough to be running around unsupervised by parental figures) are given a small shallow scar on each cheek so that spirits will believe them to be disfigured and leave them alone. But amongst the Dreth scars are not something to be ashamed of so the women wear their scars with pride and the men just think they are beautiful. A man who takes an unscarred woman (foreign woman) as his wife is seen as foolish because even if the woman isn’t taken by evil spirits she most likely will refuse to scar her daughters seeing it as barbaric and therefore the daughters will be taken.

Question: What are the courtship rituals of your world? How are marriages performed and if divorce is possible what is involved in that.

edited 20th Jun '12 5:30:55 AM by Merlanthe

In Udareth, people are allowed to marry whoever they choose- including homosexual marriages -but noble-commoner marriages are frowned upon by both halves of society, a little less so on the nobles' side due to rising concerns of inbreeding. As a result, commoner concubines have become fairly common in upper strata next to the noble's main spouse. Udar society is heavily based upon contracts and the consent of all parties, so arranged marriages are, at the very least, frowned upon by the nobility-ruled government if not outright illegal.

Divorce is something that the nobility regard as a saddening end. At the first signs of animosity or trouble, feuding couples are strongly encouraged to try to sort things out, get counseling, or otherwise do whatever they can to reinstate trust and respect for the sake of having a stable family unit for their children. If divorce still occurs, children are split among the parents by gender by default if they do not or cannot choose who they want to live with if custody disputes occur. But if abuse or anything illegal is involved, especially with their children, couples usually end up divorcing and are badgered into doing so if they haven't already. The divorce itself involves the breaking of the couple's contract, which can be a stressful, tearful process all on its own, and then ritual cleansing.

Let's talk about your culture's death rites. You know, funerals and burials and the like. What do their rituals symbolize, and what do they say about their culture's views on death? Do they mummify the body for the afterlife, or do they let wild animals feed on it to release the soul from the flesh? Are there gravestones, mausoleums, effigies, and mass graves for paupers, or do they cremate and bury at sea? Are there rites to protect against necromancers, or to put the soul at peace?

edited 1st Jul '12 12:06:17 AM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

My cultures main tendency is to bury their dead, and burn a wooden version of an item from their trade on top of the grave (e.g. a hammer for a smith, sword for a warrior etc.). this is so the three gods can recognise what they were in life, and valuate their actions accordingly. it is customary for someone to carve the wooden object themselves, so there is never any doubt as to what should be burned. The act of the burning is how they put the soul at peace, as after that their only worry is the decision of the three gods. once it is burned, there is no return. richer people can afford larger burnings, and some will have small mausoleums built around their graves. Everyone gets a tombstone, no matter how small. if they did not have enough money on them at the time of death and have no family to pay for them, the nearest church of Haer, the third god, god of endings, will pay for a small one.

Question: What is the principal means of transport for your culture? Is it cars, horses, trains, planes, ships, magic space whales?

edited 4th Jul '12 8:47:33 AM by james123182

In my world, there's no "principal" means of transport, though around the Methean sea (Basically Fantasy counterpart to the mediterranean, but extends further eastward into more arab-influenced lands), where most of civilisation is, various sea vessels are used to transport goods between the various kingdoms, city states and empires. Travel by horse and cart is also used on land by peasants and merchants who can't afford expensive sea travel. (I'm sorry if I'm being a bit ambiguous with cultures here, I haven't got around to naming them or deciding the little details yet, so bear with me)

Question: How does magic "work" in your world? Does it come from Gods, an ever-present magic field, or something else entirely? And how does this factor in to the way that it is used, and how society treats magic?

edited 8th Jul '12 8:41:45 PM by Jackal5565

You actually bother to read this?

Magic is, directly or indirectly, a gift from the Gods.

For some, it is a direct blessing. An integral part of them, who's use requires no more effort than moving a limb. Of course, this type of magic tends to resonate with a certain aspect of the God gave the blessing.

Fire, Shadow, Ice, Curses.. Always a single thing, rarely more.

For others, Magic is something to be learned. Those who were never blessed with great mystic power are forced to gain it through effort and force of will. Such as the Draemar Sorcerers, who must utterly understand any spell they cast. Those who learn magic can use it in ways that those born with it never could.

Draemar Sorcery is the one I've developed the most, so..

It's a very.. conscious art. When a Sorcerer casts a spell, they are defining every possible variable and factor that could possibly effect it, detailing in exacting terms what they want the magic to do. In order to do something, they must have complete comprehension of how to do it. If they don't understand, they can't do it.

Because of this, most Draemar Spells are very long and complex. For the longest time, this limited what exactly Sorcerers could do. There's only so much time one can spend casting a spell before the needs of the body interfered. However, with various developments in compressing the incantations of spells and allowing spell-castings to be suspended, this limitation was greatly reduced.

What this means for the world still remains to be seen.

How has the terrain and climate affected the development of your cultures?

The country of Manastra is hilly with many iron mines but poor farming. The inclined terrain leads to heavy run off that washes away soil. Travel in and out of the country is restricted to half a dozen passes, most of which are impassible during poor weather. It's usually wet and near freezing for nearly half the year and just plain wet for the rest.

The theocracy that had major influence over much of the continent has had little sway over Manastra as much of their attempts to win over the people have been met with failure. Clerics have cured diseases only for the sick to come down with the same illnesses due to the cold and soggy climate. Aqueducts have collapsed when the soil they were built on has eroded. Temples have flooded when built in the lowlands and the highlands have been either too inaccessible to be of any use or too valuable for the owners to sell. The temples themselves weren't profitable to pay the rent and attempts to seize the highland real estate has led to outright revolt.

Several wizard eventually devised a system of terraces that counteracted the run off and pioneered the cultivation of citric fruits and powerful spices that counteracted the disease. This led to the wide acceptance of secular magic in Manastra and the use of animated skeletons as cheap labor. In response, the Church condemned Manastra and declared a crusade to "reclaim" it. The eventual conflict would be known as the Necromancer Rebellion and would result in the dissolution of Manastra and the downfall of the Church.

How does your world react to the age of enlightenment?

edited 9th Jul '12 11:03:56 AM by Belisaurius

It's difficult to say whether they've actually had an age of enlightenment yet. I guess you could say that they're in the middle of one, though, in which case, they react with a great big bloody peasants' rebellion.

What languages and dialects are common in your world, and who speaks which ones? Is there more than one official language?

Languages are mostly divided by the origin of races. The most common language, sometimes simply called "Common" is language of the Nephilim, a race of half-angels, half-devils. Because of their origin, their language is directly descended from Divine/Supernal, but is heavily inflected because a mortal can't really speak divine words properly.

Then the most common languages are called Firstborn, Newborn and Fauna, as those are three origins of most of the races.

Firstborn is language of near-humans (humans, elves, dwarves, etc.), and is modelled after real world Greek. It's called that because the near-humans are the "firstborn races", the group created by the gods in the first order.

The Newborn language is language of orcs, goblinoids and giants and is modelled after various real world Turkic and Mongolian languages. Those races were created by the old gods as a mockery of the older races and to fight them.

Finally, Fauna is a mash-up inhumanly sounding language of the animalistic races. Lots of chirps, howls and roars. Usually translated into Common (read: player's/reader's language) for our covenience, giving "furries'" names kinda Amerindian vibe, e.g. "Sitting Bull" or "Fading Sun" (which was originally accidental on my part).

Question: How, if at all, does magic interact with technology in your world, and how it influences the cultures of the world? Are they high on tech and fear magic? Do they practice magic but distrust technology because it requires more material dedication? Etc.

edited 9th Jul '12 2:07:16 PM by Kalontas

This is something of a theme, actually. On one hand, you've got the secular faction that actively develops technology and uses magic to fabricate parts and materials. For example, cement is almost non-existent because nobody has the surplus of volcanic ash needed as a binder. However, there are several spells that can turn wet sand and mud into solid sandstone.

The theocrats, however, see technology as redundant and obsolete compared to magic and genuinely believe that magic can be used for everything. They think a cure disease spell is always the answer.

What kind of art does your world have?

edited 10th Jul '12 9:26:58 AM by Belisaurius

The island of Tamera dominate the glass industry and this has directly influenced the art produced by their society. Stained glass windows depicting events from history or popular stories are quite common. So are elegant and colourful glass figurines and vases. The ability to sketch and draw are held in high regard and displaying ones collection of sketches during social gatherings is seen as an acceptable way to impress and entertain ones guests. But most don’t bother to learn painting skill as it is seen as a time consuming indulgence/vanity. After all why would anyone need paintings to hang on the wall when there are lots of nice stained glass windows to look at?

In Valendros windows are just windows but tapestries depicting events from history or popular stories are a common form of decorative art and provide a good occupation for women of leisure. Recently it has become popular to commission professional painters to decorate an entire wall with a mural of the landscape or some ancient battle whilst the other walls are left bare. This gives guests something to discuss and if it becomes a boring overly discussed matter or the home owner decides they don’t like it anymore then the professional painters can once again be hired to paint over it with a new scene.

In Esthp stone/marble carvings depicting horses, people of fame and importance and mythological creatures are popular as are fans made from the plumage of colourful birds which are hung upon walls and large vases of colored glass that contain branches of sweet smelling flowers.

Question: What are the standards of beauty in your world/nation? What is considered attractive physically and psycologically in a man or woman? How do they compare to the standards of beauty of neighbouring nations/other races if there are any?

edited 11th Jul '12 1:03:42 PM by Merlanthe

Standards of beauty vary from region to region and race to race but one constant is hair. Long, well kept hair is either a sign of wealth or vigilance. Exactly how it's worn is another matter. In terms of body types, it varies quite a lot but there are trends. Your typical Orc male is very much an ass man. Most dwarven women prefer a man with a well groomed and braided beard. Elves generally focus on the breasts because it's the most reliable way to tell the genders apart. Oddly enough, the majority of human civilizations find shapely legs most attractive. However, actually showing these legs are considered scandalous. Other races regard this as one more reason humans are insane. Still, these are only sterotypes. Frankly, you can ask a room of 5 men what their ideal women is and get 7 results.

How does religion affect your setting?

The Uelane ostensibly worship their Physical God Ruler and the Eldritch Abomination he draws his power from. Both are very real. According to myth, there were other gods, until the aforementioned Eldritch Abomination ate them. But since nobody in their right mind would pray to such a being — it is bargained with at most — most of the actual religion is animistic. As Uelane society grew, the religion changed only subtly — there are spirits of markets and libraries as much as there are spirits of forests and oases. The existence of said spirits is unverified, but it's generally accepted that the Uelane offer them various little offerings in exchange for favor and good fortune.

The Suelite religion/cult/criminal syndicate is the only other religion on Uel. As a religion worshiping a supposedly devoured god, it is utterly illegal, and even if it wasn't, its acolytes association with smuggling and assassination would have made it so. (Also prostitution, though that's legal and often used as a cover business for the rest.) But in the semi-legal Uelane equivalent of pulp novels, they are romanticized in the manner mobsters were in 1920s America: dangerous but fascinating criminals. The rumors of human sacrifice add to the mystique — in truth, most Suelite cells only practice symbolic, non-lethal sacrifice with willing actors and retractable prop knives. But a few prefer kidnapped government officials.

The Mauros used to have a pantheon. Until the Uelane's Eldritch Abomination ate them. (Or more verifiably, drove the priests to madness.) That — combined with the plague brought over by Mauros soldiers after their painfully failed attempt to invade Uel — brutalized the Mauros' empire, leaving it a shell of its former self. The still-recovering Mauros now ostensibly worship an entity of unverified existence said to be the Hive Mind of all the enlightened dead. Said entity is even more unforgiving then the old pantheon, with strictly defined gender roles, little tolerance for sexual "deviancy", and a penchant for throwing failed souls into eternal miserable void. Thanks to Earthborn influence, however, the Temple is losing its grip on Mauros society, a decaying relic struggling to maintain relevancy in the face of rapid social change. Even still, the entity is worshiped... now reinterpreted by the new guard as a being granting reincarnation to the unenlightened and caring only that its followers live a noble life. On the off-chance the entity exists, it seems to have no comment either way.

The Kykzavi didn't bother waiting for the Eldritch Abomination to eat their gods. According to myth, the warrior-king who unified the islands secured his conquest by deceiving and entrapping the gods, and hurling them into the many volcanoes of Zavi... alongside their rebellious priests. Most Zavi regard this myth as a metaphor for the abandonment of absurd superstitions such as gods and spirits, and are now strongly atheistic. That said, they're not stupid, and with a few exceptions, accept they share a world with an Eldritch Abomination. One they'd very much love to hurl into a volcano along with their old idols.

How does your society go about punishing and/or rehabilitating criminals?

edited 16th Jul '12 5:35:31 PM by KillerClowns

In the Legion War/Netherworld/Zaran il Legio-setting (damn, the thing needs an actual name), it depends on the Legion and the Overlord ruling it, but generally punishments are harsh. Typically criminals are eighter jailed or executed, depending on the severity of their crimes (what exactly is worth execution depends on the Overlord making the laws). For minor crimes, you might get locked up for a week, while more major ones usually involve some form of "community service", usually working in the mines or serving in a penal demi-legion. Some Legions have differing customs, such as allowing criminals sentenced to death fight for their freedom against other criminals in gladiatorial games, or ignoring the "community service" part and instead raising executed criminals as undead and using them for labour.

Q: How does the goverment of your culture work? Are they ruled by a king, a council, an elected official etc.? If there is a supreme ruler (king, emperor, etc.) are they a figurehead or do they take an active part in the goverment?

My current WIP features two cultures: the white Sliabhans and the black Isihlambans. Both have hunter-gatherer economies but the Sliabhans are nomadic whereas the Isihlambans live in permanent villages alongside the Umfula River.

The Sliabhan bands have more or less democratic governments in which popular vote elects the chiefs. No chiefs inherit their status but must earn respect from their band-mates, usually by showing exceptional intelligence, valor, or charisma. Chiefs are traditionally men.

On the other hand, the Isihlamban chiefdoms have hereditary monarchs who may either be male or female; the monarchs' eldest children inherit their thrones. These kings and queens wield both political and spiritual authority and claim descent from the sun god, but in practice they have a council of elders advising them.

Question: What are the apex or top predators of your world's ecosystems?

My DeviantArt Domain My Tumblr

Apart from Men, the main predators of the Four Kingdoms are Lych-Wolves. They hunt in large packs that generally tick to heavily forested areas unless the winter has been particularly bad. Periodically forces of three or four hundred men have to go into the forest to try and lessen their numbers.

In the Southlands the main predators are jackals, and they tend to sneak through windows and steal then eat children. For this reason most properties have walls around them. the poorer you are, the lower the wall you are permitted.

Question: Does your culture revere animals in any way? If so, which, and if not, why? (An example of animal revering is Egyptians with cats.)

Quite a few civilizations revere dragons before most of them died of plague, but that was more common sense than anything else. After the plagues only a few dozen societies still respect dragons as intelligent beings rather than powerful beasts. These cults and societies intentionally keep dragon roosts.

Many cultures respect dogs, some consider that the spirit of canines is a guardian of humanity. As such stray dogs are rare as any number of families would gladly adopt one. Wardogs have fallen out of use for some time but many cultures still raise them as guardians.

Owls have the same sort of mystique ravens do as supposed messengers of the dead. Once word got out that they eat rats, most farmers considered them good luck.

People have a love-hate relationship with crows. Circling crows is a sure sign of bloodshed, sometimes before even a drop of blood is spilled, or plague. This is a blessing for travelers. However, being so closely associated with death crows have a reputation for being the grim reaper.

How do the civilizations in your world wage war?

That depends on the era. In the current age (where most of my stories are taking place) war is fought in the usual fantasy way, with swords, arrows, etc. There's very little magic, making wizards almost nonexistent. That said, in the earlier ages, when the god(s) was/were (haven't entirely decided deities yet) involved in the world, there would be magical wars on both sides, and occasionally the deities themselves would battle for their people.

Does magic exist in your world and if so, how is it used?

(I'd suggest something different, or at least more specific. There's been a lot of magic-related questions. Unless you explicitly mean it as a second chance for those who didn't get to answer the first time.)

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"

Yeah, I was gonna say... most people here are writing fantasy. But...

Aetherionian magic, according to the official scientific definition, constitutes the harnessing of energy through either one's soul or a specialized catalyst, such as a runic inscription or a specific material capable of holding onto energy. Energy is either light or dark-based with secondary elements that were derived from those two as the universe solidified, such as fire, lightning, water, cold/ice, earth, etc. Souls are made out of varying proportions of these energies and one's spiritual light/dark lean generally determines what sorts of magic they can harness. Once this energy is harnessed, it can be applied to pretty much anything from watering crops to setting fire to enemies in war. Most of the time, people use it in small amounts for household chores, other artisan duties, or simple amusement.

And while we're on the subject...

What's the cost of your world's magic? How has this hindered magical development? How have people tried to work around it, or have already worked around it?

edited 17th Jul '12 1:48:32 PM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Most magic uses up your "Mana" which in my system is one of the four major resources a character has (those being Health, Stamina, Mana and Sanity). It's THE major blockade used to stop casters from over-extering themselves.

While due to specifics of my system every caster can attempt even some really massive and spectacular spells, and rarely even succeed, mostly they won't want to do that, because draining your Mana to 0 or below is deadly. Draining any of the resources to 0 or below is deadly - 0 Health kills you, 0 Stamina makes you comatose, 0 Sanity makes you gibberingly mad, while 0 Mana makes you fade out of existence.

See, magic makes up the fundamental rules that allow that world to even exist. If you completely drain all the magic in you, you drain the very thing that keeps the elements bound in your form, matter and space. At low mana you start to phase out, and finally at 0 you just disappear. So you don't want to cast a massive teleport as a level 1 wizard because even if you succeed, you will probably instantly phase out.

The end result? While nearly everyone has some magical potential, mostly it's innocent cantrips usable in everyday life. The biggest magical empire can field out flying fortresses, but only after slowly constructing and enchanting them over the course of weeks by a cadre of exependable low-level "industrial" wizards and sorcerers.

Question: Do gods exist in your world? If they do, do they need prayers badly? If they don't, what stops them from being total a-holes?

edited 17th Jul '12 2:02:45 PM by Kalontas

Gods exist in my world and all belong to the same pantheon though which gods are worshipped or what name they are called by varies from place to place.

They dont need prayer but they do like having followers. Their prevented form being total a-holes by the fact that though they do have an influence on the world they aren’t overly concerned with human affairs and pretty much leave people to their own devices.

There have been a couple of occasions where they will more directly involve themselves in human affairs but those are usually restricted to holy wars, a crisis of succession amongst their priesthood, incursion of hostile beings form another dimension, etcetera and it is usually the deities of things specifically human like war, vengeance, knowledge/law, prophecy, music and dance, healing, etcetera that choose to interfere whilst the deities of sea and storm, fire, sky, seasons stand back and shake their heads at the folly of their siblings.

Question: Who are the gods of your world? What role do they play within their pantheon/world in general ie do they control the sky, fire, magic etcetera and if applicable what are their personalities and how does this affect their relationship with one another/their followers?

@Gacek-duly noted. Thanks. I'm somewhat new to this forum (not that that's an excuse, but oh well).