Cultural Values
Stories
When they have passed from the world, people are stories we carry forwards with us. They continue to exist in words, and their spirits come alive every time we retell one of their tales. Stories and the wisdom that can be found within them are the legacy of the dead. They are also the goal of the living, to experience life, to have good stories to tell, to build a reputation, to lend weight to your name, to pursue dreams.
Stories are treated with equal parts humour and reverence, every town has its own tome of tales, every hall its poet, and those that keep the stories of the past or write and tell the deeds of the present, hold sacred places in society. It is seen as abhorrent to take away someone else’s chance to live their story. So whilst at the extreme, people may be tricked into being unwilling but well treated guests, capture and imprisonment is just not done.
Character flaws are as much a part of a person’s story as anything else. They are in fact, usually something that drives the story forwards and makes it more exciting. The Valdrae are open minded about character flaws, and usually treat them with a sense of humour, though will also not miss the opportunity to take advantage of them where appropriate and needed. People who make themselves the villain though, should be aware that they are often setting themselves up for a different ending to the heroes of the story – actions have consequences, and it is a rare villain that wins in the end.
Ambitions
Personal ambition is important, and people are encouraged to follow theirs, without too much focus on repercussions. This is your story, the only one you have. What do you want your tale to be? You might be an alchemist looking for a way to turn mud into gold, or desire to be the fairest in the land, or even just bake enough fresh fluffy bread to bring a smile to everyone in the village each day.
Whatever it is, this is your one and only chance, so you’ve got to take it, to strive for what you want. Do your best to make your name and your story memorable, and told for ages to come.
Cooperation, community, and bonds
Whilst everyone is expected to follow their ambitions, personal responsibility is also seen as important. Your first responsibility is to be able to keep yourself safe and fed, and your second is to ensure those you care about are also able to do so. Beyond that, you only owe people your word. But people also only owe you their word, and being naive enough to expect more than exactly that is a failure to take personal responsibility. Expecting fairness for the sake of fairness alone is foolish. You should expect outsiders to try to take advantage of you, this is just the way the world works, and not to be taken personally.
Because of their perspectives on personal responsibilities and ambitions, people will gladly work together to achieve goals. Cooperation is fairly common where it is practical, but alliances are respected for the end goal, rather than the person or their ideals. Enemies will not think twice about working together, even though they will do so with caution, because achieving their goals are more important than their rivalry or differing outlooks, which confuses other nations. Despite this culture of cooperation, people won’t generally help others where there is significant cost to themselves and nothing to gain.
Many communities will also solidify their bonds by making oaths to the community for the good of all within them. Which makes small villages stronger against the dangers of the wilderness, but also less friendly to outsiders.
Oaths and keeping your word
You can trust people’s word, but only their word, its considered rude to expect anything more than that, and any other risk you take on is your own. Your guide may promise to lead you safely to the heart of the forest, but he didn’t say anything about once you’re there, or your way back.
Breaking your word is seen as worse than taking advantage of someone else’s naivety. Trust is a nervous beast. And with ambitions and stories being so important, there must be a sense of civility in the world, a decency that you can depend upon in others.
Being able to trust someone’s word means you can trust their name, trust their story. So upholding your word is very important for your own reputation. You are expected to stand by what you have said, and if that cannot be relied upon to the letter, well then, why should anyone believe your story at all?
This isn’t to say you have to be entirely forthright all of the time. Omitting the truth, stretching it, dancing a merry jig around it, or letting people mislead themselves is all within the expected. After all, it is a person’s own responsibility not to allow themselves to be misled.
Outright lies, however, are looked down upon as base and loathsome at best.
Formal oaths are even more important. Anyone making a formal oath is entering into a very serious contract, and to break an oath is to face serious repercussions. These are usually part of the contract itself, so that people are aware of the risks of breaking that contract before entering into it. Sometimes the foolish will enter into a contract where the consequences of breaking it are not fully described.
Contracts like this may be verbal, written, or even magical. To be seen to break a contract is reprehensible in society, as it sheds doubt on your word, your name and your story. To break a minor oath could mean that no one wants to interact with you anymore, can they trust that your coin is real? Are you safe to invite to walk with the party? Can they reliably employ you?
Breaking a magically enforced contract usually lands you with a curse. To break a serious, greater written contract, or to try and escape the negative effects of having broken a contract, could mean as much as to be hunted down and erased from all story, to have never existed. You are not killed and do not die, you are unmade and exiled. Your name is extinguished from all story, and no one will ever speak it again. Oath-breaker is never a term to be used lightly. Oath breakers are marked.
Someone who has had their name revoked by Lorekeeps may in theory, through great deeds, earn a new one, but it is almost unheard of for this to happen, as the kind of broken contract that leads to an un-naming and exile, usually have bigger consequences for others than can be compensated for by positive actions.
Customs
Aside the many ceremonies and celebrations, there are a few customs that all within the nation keep:
Self reliance
Everyone learns how to defend themselves as part of their upbringing, usually with the tools of their trade or those of their parents, and more general weaponry if they can afford. Outside isn’t a death trap but you still have to be careful, know the stories of what is out there and how to keep yourself safe. The Valdrae are hardy, and if a village gains a mundane problem such as the attentions of a hungry carnivorous beast, they will be more than ready to take care of it themselves.
Hospitality
One of the most well worn customs is hospitality, which when granted by a host makes their guest their responsibility and under their protection, but it also makes the guest who accepts it responsible to the host.
A host must ensure that their guests’ basic needs are met as well as they are able to, and offer any assistance they can to the guest. A guest must similarly ensure that they do nothing to offend the host or other guests and offer any assistance they are able. Hospitality can be offered or sought by anyone, regardless of their station, and is seen as good manners, but is not always granted.
A host offering hospitality will usually do so verbally, and signify this informal contract by offering their guest food and drink, which if accepted, brings the guest under their care until the time when the guest leaves or the host asks them to, and they are gone from their sight. Anyone breaking these customs should expect trouble, and not to be so readily offered hospitality by others.
Gift giving and Favours
The practice of gift-giving is also a custom important to the Valdrae. A gift is given, a gift is received, and for the sake of relations and so there is no ill feeling, that balance must be maintained. This is also good common sense when you live close to rich pockets of Fable Sphere magic, as the contracts made by beings from that sphere are never so formal as human ones, and you do not want to end up owing them anything you have unwittingly agreed to through accepting something from them.
To offer a favour is to make a loose oath to help with an unnamed thing to the best of your ability at a later date. The scale of the help is expected to reflect the instance in which the favour was offered. For example, if someone were to lend you their cart, the favour they call for in return would be a similarly small assistance. If someone were to defend you from bandits at personal risk to themselves and save your life, you would be expected to go well out of your way in a similar fashion when that favour is called in.
The person who is owed the favour may not exact its full value, and the person who is paying it may negotiate the parameters of what is being asked for in return, but the favour must always be repaid once offered, one way or another. If a favour is genuinely meant to be one-sided, it is common practice to offer a performatively small request in return – a gift of a moment of time to share a conversation in the future, a telling of a favourite joke, or a share of a meal in a year and a day.
These are meant to be gestures of fellowship, but there are stories where these have spun out quite differently; a common tale is one where a soldier offers the first thing they see at home to a person who saved their life on the road. Upon their return they find a child they did not know their spouse had brought into the home as their own and must then find a way to break the terms of the agreement that neither side meant to make.
Revelry
When the situation calls for it, or allows it, or an excuse can be found for it, the Valdrae will indulge in revelry. The night is dark and long, war is on the border, and who knows what tomorrow holds, so today is for enjoying life and celebrating.
They will never wear themselves out to a point where they are unable to take responsibility for themselves, but they will always take the chance to find a way to lighten their hearts in these hard times.
Death and dying
The Valdrae see death as changing a person into several different parts, their body which returns to all that it came from, their essence which moves onto the next place, and their stories which are kept by the community. Monuments to the dead take the form of carved pillars of stone, or more recently wood, topped with a glowing light. Stories are etched onto the surface, decorated with talismans and items from the daily life of the departed, and hung with ribbon written messages from those left behind.
Standing in testament to the deeds of the dead these pillars are often as unique in appearance as the person they represent, though all follow the tradition of never being carved with any representation of any part of a creature, whether human or animal, though the exact reasons for this are lost. At a funeral it is customary to offer as many stories as you can about that person. If any stories, ambitions or quests are unfinished, the gathering will be asked if anyone would want to take up that unfinished story as part of their own and carry the tale forwards in their honour, and finish their quests on behalf of the deceased.
Whilst primarily verbal, stories at a death rite don’t have to be spoken, they can be written or illustrated for those who don’t like to speak, or talismans that come from their lives. For those that wish for a story to be told verbally, but do not want to speak, they can pass this to a Lorekeep or Bard who will read for the gathering.
The stories themselves don’t have to be heroic but should be good natured, friendly roasting is ok, but insults are not. The telling of deeds includes what is impressive, not what is moral. If the dead brewed a potion that turned the whole village into zombies that’s fine to speak on, if they did it on purpose you can name him the scourge of the village, if they did it by comical accident that’s also fine and you can describe the humour, but don’t say it was done out of stupidity… as that’s an insult and the telling of it in that way dishonors the dead.
Any stories that the dead have on them, including letters for other people, will be given or red out as is appropriate. Some like to record and keep old happy memories on them just in case, and sometimes secrets or important information, but this is also a liability in case the wrong person ends up with your corpse. After the storytelling, comes a more informal wake, which is treated as a celebration of both the dead and the still living. In times when wakes are not possible, there might be smaller private observances later.
In smaller villages, it is common for the Lorekeep to take and preserve the stories of the dead in a community tome or other media. Some villages have wood carvings of the notable dead, and their deeds carved into the walls of the village hall.
You don’t get the same funeral if you are of the Grimward. You don’t have a name to celebrate. You are given rites by priests, but it is unlikely that anyone will tell your story.
‘Here lies the nameless dead, unknown and unsung, may the gods take their substance to its rest.’
Those exiled who make their way into the Grimward and die amongst them in the wilds have their own rites and rituals which they generally take care of privately. You cannot tell stories without a name.
Talismans
Talismans are magical items used to ward off danger and catch luck. These come in a wide range of forms befitting whatever problems they are addressing. They can be found in all aspects of Valdraethan life, from warding the boundaries of a property to ensuring nothing comes in the night to spoil the goats milk, but the most frequently seen are the small portable kind on the Valdrae themselves.
Below are some examples of personal talisman that are common across Valdraeth. You are encouraged to create your own based on your character or group, and make up a backstory about the local problem they are used against.
Find your way home again:
A stone taken from the hearth of the home may be worn on a cord with a little decoration, so that those that travel far may find their way back again to the warmth of their fire and kin. These are often given to children at their naming rite, and are popular with travellers and adventurers.
Hexgleen for Witches sight:
A piece of antler or wood found with a natural hole in it and then worked by a Witch, can be used to espy certain hidden things when peered through.
To drive out impurities:
A cloth patterned with the names of the gods can be placed over an object to help cleanse it. Healers may place these on wounds to prevent souring, but they can be used for various other applications.
Distract the curious:
Some creatures in the wilds are no more menacing than naughty children on their own, but can be quite a problem in a group. A pouch of colourful beans or shiny objects can distract such a rabble long enough for you to get away.
Food
Whatever can be safely gathered or hunted and eaten, is. As long as its not a person, it doesn’t matter if its pretty, or cute, or fluffy, or ugly, food is food. Land bugs are just as good as sea bugs, lizard eggs as good as chicken eggs. That’s not to say there aren’t farms with seasonal, staple crops, but they are not as heavily relied upon as they may be in other nations. If extra food can be preserved it is.
Things are dried, jarred, jammed, pickled, syruped, and fermented. More parts of plants are eaten, rather than just the most popular bits. If you have to go to the trouble of getting it, you are going to use everything. Flowers are also eaten regularly. Fruits are often used to sweeten dishes as honey is expensive. Whilst Valdraeth has a wealth of herbs, it is not as blessed with spices, so other sweet vegetables are sometimes used to flavour desserts, like you would use real world carrot, beetroot, pandan, pumpkin, or taro for cakes.
National Festivals
The Ribbon Festival
In the warm and green parts of the year there is a tradition for people to write hopes, dreams, confessions, blessings for others, and prayers onto colourful ribbons or scraps of cloth, and hang them on tree branches with the hopes that their wishes will be taken away to those who can grant them. There is some ambiguity in this tradition on how these strips of cloth reach the branches.
In some places the community may leave the rags and ribbons at the post of an official, usually a Lorekeep or other upstanding member of community, sworn to secrecy, who will then take them to a dedicated tree, so that each may be tied with proper ceremony whilst allowing people to go about their day. This tends to be the method of choice in cities for practicalities sake, where there are uncountable ribbons to be tied and it is a great reduction in risk to have just one clear headed person climbing up and tying them.
In some other places you may find a person in a costume of leaves and branches come to visit your house or business, and the ribbons are tied by the people themselves directly to the costume. These costumed figures sometimes give small gifts to children or play minor harmless tricks. In some small out of the way villages, it’s rumoured not to be a costume at all, but a tree-like creature that comes from the woods. Aside from the ribbons themselves, people often offer a small token of thanks, usually a small coin, reagent, or other item of minor value that people have to spare.
This festival then takes on a secondary role in discretely trying to resolve minor problems within the community. The officials you see, are sworn to secrecy, but are not barred from reading the ribbons. And officials are also expected to discreetly distribute the wealth of the offerings as needed. Within the city, this means alms are laid beneath the tree for people who need them to take. It is a great scorn upon a name to take without need. In smaller towns and villages this means that people may discreetly ask for or pledge aid through the ribbons, without having to suffer embarrassment or unwanted praise. Traditionally they are seen as in essence asking the gods who may or may not answer through the official or by other means, or pledging a donation/service to the gods.
Where the need is worthy and possible to be met, the official will arrange things discreetly, never giving the name of who wrote the ribbon or whether it was a request or a blessing. When it is necessary to discuss this with a third party, it is simply referred to as ‘a wish of the tree’. Lighter hearted ribbons may have things like confessions of longing on them, and if two people are lucky enough to long for each other, the official can signal the reciprocation or arrange that they meet, without the risk of having to approach each other and potentially be rejected.
Realm Festival
Harvestide
A straight up celebration and feast, the fun part of the darker half of the year, when the community has gathered in crops and stores for the winter months and the hard work is done. The celebration revolves around sharing surplus food, music, fire, and great storytelling. Harvest is a noisy time when it is appropriate to boast about your adventures, give toasts to others, play games and music and sing no matter how bad you are at it. It is a merry celebration that offers to a few of the gods.
Fables magic is in ready influence at this time, and it is not unheard of to see a member of their kind enjoying the celebrations. Once upon a time it was common for Courtiers or even Monarchs to don costumes and take part incognito.
These days there is emphasis on allied participation with the other Crownlands nations – traders will make their way to the Wonder and Avereaux to take part in market festivals, collecting delicacies to bring home. Travellers are welcomed, provided they understand the customs around gifts and abide by the rules of Valdrae hospitality, and many border villages and towns host large celebrations with Wonderfolk and Averlaise as the guests of honour – provided they can pay their way by bringing stories from their homelands, and perhaps some choice ingredients for the pot.