Daily Life¶
"Despite the danger and hardship, the residents of Spillwater are tough and proud, determined to make a living in a world that offers them little comfort or security." — a description of Proturas
The sources describe ordinary life in pieces: a six-day working week from the Kalari Calendar, the streets of two districts of Proturas, the houses of a dozen peoples, and their customs of marriage, kinship and schooling. What a farmer or a shopkeeper does from morning to night is not written anywhere. Food has its own page, Food & Drink; burial is on Death & Burial.
The working week¶
The week of the Kalari Calendar is six days. Monday is "first day of the work week, work resumes"; Tuesday to Thursday are work days; on Friday "a few people take this day off (some shopowners close up shop early for Godsday)"; and on Godsday, also called Kalarsday or Creatorsday, "most people don't work" (S388). The year turns with the weather: in winter "normally people stay indoors and don't move around much", and travel only becomes easy again in Marches. The months and seasons are on the Calendar.
Town life in Proturas¶
Spillwater, the south-western district-county of the city, is "known for its poverty and squalor. The narrow, winding streets are lined with dilapidated wooden buildings and rough clay brick structures, most of which are packed tightly together" (S103). Its people are working class: "dock workers, warehouse laborers, butchers, millers, and potters", haulers, quarrymen in the mud and stone pits, weavers, smiths making horseshoes, locks, nails and hinges, and tailors and leatherworkers making basic clothing. "The sounds of clanging hammers mixed with the cries of street vendors and the smell of meat is overpowering, almost suffocating." It is "a hub of activity, but also a hotbed of crime and disease", with many low-end taverns and brothels and a city watch good at protecting the warehouses "to a point".
The Stairs, formally Southstep, are "generally considered to be a middle class district and home to many artisans" (S104). The best crafters of the city live there, close to the main gate but inside the walls, and the district is a "bedroom city": "many people make their home in Southstep but work in Spillwater or Southlake", because its housing is cheap for a place within the walls. Its streets hold apothecaries, scribes, smiths, tailors, herbalists, leatherworkers, a curio shop, an exotic-animal dealer and a diviner, two garrisons, two magistrates, a prison, a church of the Divine, a temple, two guild halls and the Bramley Academy.
Homes and building¶
| People | Homes |
|---|---|
| Boreal Elves | "Homes are built in burrows under the roots of trees and natural caves"; some tribes are semi-nomadic (S100). |
| Aesean | Rough-cut stone and wood. Detailed work is "pointless" except on a few story-telling panels in temples, shrines and tombs. "For Aeseans, bigger is better. Status is determined by size, not necessarily quality." (S372) |
| Naher | Stone for fortifications and retaining walls, wood for "buildings, living spaces and halls". On the move, "a town of domed tents" of leather and poles, often behind a stockade, with some permanent fort to retreat to (S372). Only the clan owns land; a person may own a building on it. |
| Korun | No towns. Each family lives "in its own dwelling on its own lands", of dry-stacked rock, wood and hay, and "animals such as horses, pigs, cows and sheep are often kept inside the same house" (S372). |
| Danari | Whatever is to hand, but for important work "materials that support detail and refinement. Marble, Stone, Granite, Polished Wood" (S372). |
| Wood Elves | The Etholi-Sylvim build "a mixture of tree platforms and earth works"; their large cities are "sparsely organized", with only a small dense core of important buildings (S372). |
| Gnomes | Terraced hillsides joined by paths, arches and bridges, kept "as natural as possible, with trees and lots of vegetation" (S372). |
| Dwarves | Mountain Dwarves carve "vast halls into the mountains, while farming and ranching in the mountain meadows"; Hill Dwarves live above ground in settlements "built into the sides of hills and mountains and open to the air" (S372). |
Family and marriage¶
Elves receive their names in stages, and the stages mark their lives. A child has a first name and the mother's family name; the given name is "granted after adolescence, after their rite of passage. Age 35-70"; and a dynastic name is taken only after "coming of age and ascension into society", when the young elf may pledge to a house. "Marriages across houses can often force a change in this name" (S023). The names themselves are on Names.
Among the dwarves of Dru'Bazan, "though clan rule is generally patriarchal, bloodlines are based on the mother's line." A wife does not leave her clan; "the male lives with the clan of his wife, becoming a member of that clan." Older dwarves therefore rarely marry outside their clan, since they would lose their standing in it, "though arranged marriages across clans of young dwarves are common" (S372).
The Naher household "is equal, gov is not": Eorls and Aethlings are men, but "clan membership is matriarchal", and in war "both men and women fight". Every Naher child is bound to a foal at the age of three, chooses only one horse in a lifetime, and is buried with it (S524). Among the Korun "the family unit ... is critical"; the patriarch and the chief are the only authorities, but women are thought "more in tune with the gods and elements", their advice is taken seriously, and they go to battle "as shield maidens, healers or warriors" (S372). Aesean clans count the first two tiers of the clan as "brothers, sisters ... and cousins" (S372).
In the Sancturi Imperium "traditional alliances are forged through marriage and business partnerships", and "primogeniture is the law of the land (first born son inherits, daughters inherit in order after all the sons)" (S132). The higher clergy give all of it up: members of the Divine Grace "must disavow all familial ties, which includes spouses, children, political parties and house affiliations", and many ambitious lower priests do not marry for that reason (S321).
The Silek have no families in this sense. They are asexual, born into a strain "by a bloodmother created by Belos", identical to the rest of the strain and known to one another only "through tattoos and jewelry" (S025). They reach adulthood at eight to ten.
Education and literacy¶
The Boreal Elves record their history in "a variant of Elvish" in a tribal record kept by their shamans, "responsible for curating and caring for all sorts of information"; other schooling is "survival skills, hunting, combat, and understanding the natural world" (S100). Proturas has the Bramley Academy in the Stairs, and two scribes' shops beside it (S104). In the Imperium the Sages of the Codex keep the libraries and "seek out and destroy forbidden or sacrilegious published materials", and a company of Sages travels with an army "to sift through any written materials and burn those which are heretical or profane" (S321). The Korun "are overwhelmingly illiterate" (S372). Languages and scripts are on Languages.
Arts¶
Boreal Elves wear "tattoos and scarification" that tell "the story of an individual's achievements, status, and clan affiliation", and keep their history in "traditional music, dance, and storytelling" (S100). The Curci "are well known for their music, and Curcian bards are welcomed across the continent" (S372). The Naher braid their horses' hair and dress some in jewellery, and "collect trophies of creature types to display their prowess" (S524).
Festivals and observances¶
Little is recorded. The observances the sources do mention are:
- Godsday, the weekly day of rest (S388).
- Marches, the second month of the Thaws, named for "the practice of war often resuming in this month" (S388).
- The Great Election of the Imperium, "a one month period every 2 years" in which the high offices are chosen with vote tokens (S323).
- Victory sacrifices. On the Sancturi frontier "ritual sacrifice of the captured leaders is the traditional victory ceremony", and defeated citizen leaders "are often ritually sacrificed as part of these victory celebrations" (S132, S323).
- The Vigils. Commoners of Sancturi settlements "are encouraged to come and pray at the Vigils", around which "there are usually 5 small altars ... where commoners can make their own blood sacrifices to empower the Vigil", the altar of the settlement's patron god larger than the rest (S146).
The Old Aesean word list includes gales, "festival, festivities", but no Aesean festival is described (S372).
Gap
No source names a holiday, feast day or seasonal festival, or describes a wedding, a coming-of-age ceremony outside the elves, clothing beyond the clergy's robes, games, or any day in the life of a commoner. The Curci are "well known for their music" and nothing more is said of it.