Common Culture In Adel: Customs

Greetings: In Adel, the most common greeting is “Namaste” and/or a bow of the head and joining together of the palms of both hands, with the fingers up. The person being greeted can bow in kind, but if he or she wants to show displeasure, then he or she will not bow in turn, and that displeasure will be quickly noted. This gesture is an expression of the shared blessings of the spirits between two religious folk – so since everyone is religious, everyone does it.

Age: Children are believed to come of age when allowed to wield arms and do battle in the military: before the age of 14 or 15 years, recruits to the army are used as trumpeteers, and are considered “children.” Children are typically considered to be under the supervision of a parent or guardian until they are 17 or even 20, however. Regardless, at 14 or 15 they are considered mature enough for romance and war. “Old Age” is typically 55 or older, when most Adelians “retire.”

Nationality: Most Adelians are very proud to be from their Nation. They worship their National Spirit, a creature that resides in the Nation’s capital and has some useful functions (in Andaliel, for example, the National Spirit has the election results before anyone else does, as she hears all votes cast no matter how far). They respect and admire their leaders, even if they disagree with them – but particularly for members of the Elite, they aren’t above trying to scheme against them. Most Adelians are accepting of foreigners and will deign to joke about each other’s governments, but any real offenses may end in a brawl between them.

Ethnicity: Adelians have a variety of ethnic variations, most of which they don’t keep too much track of. During the Intolerable War, nationality was most important – whether you aligned with one of the burgeoning rebel nations breaking from the Aptoan Empire was more important to everyone than the length of the nose, the fullness of lips, the slant of the eyes, the size of the ears, or the colors of skin and hair. After the war, Nationality is the key identifier. Due to the grand mingling of the many rural populations, it has become difficult to track true ethnicity for most Adelians. Adel is a sea of pigments and features of all sorts, with each and every one of them being a minority among the whole.

Etiquette: Most Adelians function under a veneer of modesty, humility and politeness. They will greet even people they dislike, though as mentioned above the greeting is not always friendly. They will offer courtesy and respect in conversation even to strangers and will try to hide it if they are outraged by first appearances. They can also operate under the illusion of these things when they wish to mock or insult subtly. Personalities vary – many Adelians will easily call someone a moron to their face.

Hygiene: Adelians are required to wash their face, hands, ears, tails and hair at least three times a day where possible. On the road, they must at least once a day wash where possible, being preferential to the hands and face. Adelians make their own soap from various materials, either as liquid or oily soap or as bars of fatty soap. For the Dromedae, hygiene is even more important, and they tend to wear tight bodygloves under their clothes when they won’t have ready access to soap and water.

Hair: Hair length and style says something about the person, to an Adelian. Most Adelians have somewhat long hair, at least to shoulder length, usually in a ponytail or bob, or left down if curled or wavy. Waist or back-length hair tends to be considered more assertive and sensual, while shoulder-length more modest, humble and traditional. Men who have long hair tend to wear ponytails, while shoulder-length hair is left to hang or cut in bob, or sometimes pleated. Cropped hair is uncommon.

Religion: Everyone in Adel is religious – to not be religious is to be insane. Refusal to acknowledge the strange and visible spirit creatures that roam the land is the greatest taboo. Most people worship numerous spirits related to their concerns, with small prayers and offerings. A soldier might praise the spirits of steel so that when he or she fires his or her shotstaff the weapon will be true and dutiful, and will not turn on him or her (e.g. jam or misfire). A farmer may make a necklace or other craft out of the first seeds given by his or her crop, in honor of the spirits of flora and land. A lover may recite a romance of the spirits before making a confession to his or her beloved, so that he or she might be accepted and loved back.

Literacy: Everyone in Adel is literate. From a young age, children are taught to read and write through the use of religious and folk stories, so that they can appreciate for themselves the various literary and theological traditions of their world. It is often the job of the village spirit to teach children, while in towns and cities there are formal schooling groups for children, where they can be taken to the nearby temple to be taught. There is a widespread culture of stories and reading. People often casually reference heroes, legends, stories and hymns that they recall in order to punctuate their statements.

Sex (Act): Adelians are much less ashamed of nudity and sex than other cultures. They have no concept of fornication as a sinful or shameful idea. They have no problem with people engaging sexually out of “marriage.” They are still fairly modest, and while they won’t mind taking baths with other people or otherwise exposing themselves where necessary, they’ll wear clothes in most places. Adelians are mostly monogamous. Poly-amory, except in Emderuer, is still a strange concept to them. Adelians have rudimentary contraceptives, mostly in the form of a somewhat bitter potion drank by the male. These are widely available and fairly cheap to make – in fact pretty much every inn room comes with one or two in the drawers.

Marriage: Rural villagers in Adel don’t have any real idea of contractual marriage. They own no land or goods that they require an heir or ironclad familial contract to pass on. In Adel, villagers “marry” in the sense that they get together and have a ceremony whereby they make vows before the spirits, but it’s strictly ritual at that level, and sex before marriage is very common. Among the elite, contractual marriage is more common. The issue of inheritance is very important to them, as they have something to give to prospective children and spouses, and they want nobody but those people to have legal claim to it. Marriages of convenience or commercial advancement are very common. Two families might marry off their heirs in order to consolidate their wealth in one place and thereby increase both their fortunes.  While same sex marriages among the lower class are not uncommon and are accepted, reproductive marriage is often forced on the wealthy regardless of their preference.

Sexuality: For most Adelians (that is to say, rural villagers and townspeople) homosexuality isn’t uncommon or held in contempt, and bisexuality can be said to be the norm. Though the need to have children is understood, not everyone wants or cares to have children, particularly if they come from already large families (and reproductive village families produce 4-5 children on average). The rural Adelians, under the teachings of Arcline, goddess of community, believe society above all must exist in a harmonic state, living and allowing life. As such, gender and biological sex are not much concern.

Among the elite, however, the issue of matrimonial succession of wealth comes into play. Many elite can have a loveless economic marriage and other hidden relationships and the other party might tolerate it (and probably partakes in the same). But such situations are generally not something openly acceptable and the elite are often self-policing. What the elite tend to have in power and wealth, they will certainly lose the freedom to love that the peasant culture has.

Death: A person’s body is only considered important within the first few days after death. At that time, the essence from the body, no longer anchored to it by the gift of life, is rejoining the natural flow. It is customary to keep the body for one or two days in bed and pray and mourn during that time. Once that time is past, though, the body is just an object. The aura is the last vestige of life that a body had – once it has left, the body is not important. The graveyard is a place where a monument can be erected around a body to remember the person. The grave is the important piece, not what is in it. Keeping a graveyard is also a risk of trouble, since graveyards attract mischievous or dangerous spirits, but believed to be worth the risk.