Sejs
First Post
A strong oral tradition. Storytellers as historians.
Literacy is a very specialized artform that is very rare ("You know how to draw.. words?"), and being written about is considdered a great honor.
Barter as the primary form of trade rather than using coinage.
A strong divine magic tradition and a conversely weak arcane magic tradition (other than bards). A "small gods" tradition - there are spirits all around for all sorts of things. Ancestor worship and totemistry. Lots of superstitions regarding such as a result. As a general perception, divine spellcasting is seen as dealing with spirits, gods, and ancestors - which are a natural (if supernatural, natch) aspect of the world, and thus good. Arcane spellcasting is seen as dealing with demons, devils, and tentacular evil from outside the circle of firelight that jealously wants in; it is throughly unnatural, corrupting (evil's persuasive, after all), and inherrantly dangerous at best, bad at worst. To wit, a sorcerer is a shifty trickster who will as soon steal your soul as look at you, but a shaman is an okay guy who is in touch with the land and the spirit of your dead grandfather.
Strongly merit based: We don't care who you are, if you can do the job, you're cool. Born a woman? If you can keep up with the other warriors, you're every bit a warrior as they are no matter what you've got under your kilt. Born the son of a chieftan/king? Better hope you payed attention to how to be a good ruler as you were growing up, because if you're a crappy king somebody with a battleaxe is going to come along and rectify you right quick.
Skill-based passtimes: Wrestling, polarbear swims, races, ball games, axe or stone tossing, almost any olympic type sport, really. Games of pure chance arn't highly regarded on the whole, and cheating is heavily looked down upon.
Role-based dichotomy. From an outside perspective, the culture is a warrior/hunter one where the folks that go out and kill things get all the glory. In reality there're two faces to the coin: those that maintain the culture - keep a strong home, keep everyone fed and clothed, birth many sturdy children, etc are just as valued. The warriors may bluster and drink and go out and kill orcs, but once they're home if they're acting like louts they can expect a good crack upside the head and best straighten up their act unless they want another, or worse. Essentially: both groups are assertive in their own individual arena, and everyone's happy with that.
Crafts. The producers being many and the consumers being few.
Food: Lots of meats, lots of root-type vegitables, lots of booze. Little in the way of salad. Think German/Russian food.
Violence isn't shunned or feared, it's accepted as a reality. You could get into a brawl with a guy over an insult one minute and thirty minutes later be drinking with him laughing about it with no hard feelings on either side.
Weaponry is big and effective. Subtlety is cast aside. Morning stars, axes, maces, hammers, big swords, spears, polearms, etc. Rapiers are unheard of, and a dagger is a tool, not a weapon. 'Finesse' might as well be synonymous with 'play-fighting'. Shields come in three sizes: Big, Bigger, and Frickin' Huge. Bucklers? Pfeh. Armor, on the other hand, tends toward the medium-light end of the spectrum. Fullplate would be seen as clumsy and restrictive. Too heavy and hard to move in to be worthwhile.
Lots of festivals, particularly ones that revolve around natural events: solstices, eclipses, planting and harvesting, seasonal changes, etc. Parties are big and everyone is invited.
Literacy is a very specialized artform that is very rare ("You know how to draw.. words?"), and being written about is considdered a great honor.
Barter as the primary form of trade rather than using coinage.
A strong divine magic tradition and a conversely weak arcane magic tradition (other than bards). A "small gods" tradition - there are spirits all around for all sorts of things. Ancestor worship and totemistry. Lots of superstitions regarding such as a result. As a general perception, divine spellcasting is seen as dealing with spirits, gods, and ancestors - which are a natural (if supernatural, natch) aspect of the world, and thus good. Arcane spellcasting is seen as dealing with demons, devils, and tentacular evil from outside the circle of firelight that jealously wants in; it is throughly unnatural, corrupting (evil's persuasive, after all), and inherrantly dangerous at best, bad at worst. To wit, a sorcerer is a shifty trickster who will as soon steal your soul as look at you, but a shaman is an okay guy who is in touch with the land and the spirit of your dead grandfather.
Strongly merit based: We don't care who you are, if you can do the job, you're cool. Born a woman? If you can keep up with the other warriors, you're every bit a warrior as they are no matter what you've got under your kilt. Born the son of a chieftan/king? Better hope you payed attention to how to be a good ruler as you were growing up, because if you're a crappy king somebody with a battleaxe is going to come along and rectify you right quick.
Skill-based passtimes: Wrestling, polarbear swims, races, ball games, axe or stone tossing, almost any olympic type sport, really. Games of pure chance arn't highly regarded on the whole, and cheating is heavily looked down upon.
Role-based dichotomy. From an outside perspective, the culture is a warrior/hunter one where the folks that go out and kill things get all the glory. In reality there're two faces to the coin: those that maintain the culture - keep a strong home, keep everyone fed and clothed, birth many sturdy children, etc are just as valued. The warriors may bluster and drink and go out and kill orcs, but once they're home if they're acting like louts they can expect a good crack upside the head and best straighten up their act unless they want another, or worse. Essentially: both groups are assertive in their own individual arena, and everyone's happy with that.
Crafts. The producers being many and the consumers being few.
Food: Lots of meats, lots of root-type vegitables, lots of booze. Little in the way of salad. Think German/Russian food.
Violence isn't shunned or feared, it's accepted as a reality. You could get into a brawl with a guy over an insult one minute and thirty minutes later be drinking with him laughing about it with no hard feelings on either side.
Weaponry is big and effective. Subtlety is cast aside. Morning stars, axes, maces, hammers, big swords, spears, polearms, etc. Rapiers are unheard of, and a dagger is a tool, not a weapon. 'Finesse' might as well be synonymous with 'play-fighting'. Shields come in three sizes: Big, Bigger, and Frickin' Huge. Bucklers? Pfeh. Armor, on the other hand, tends toward the medium-light end of the spectrum. Fullplate would be seen as clumsy and restrictive. Too heavy and hard to move in to be worthwhile.
Lots of festivals, particularly ones that revolve around natural events: solstices, eclipses, planting and harvesting, seasonal changes, etc. Parties are big and everyone is invited.
