culture

Archived: Common Culture of Orcs

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:12:51 +0000

Archived: Common Culture of Orcs

The culture revolves around two main pillars: combat and honour. As a result, a great deal of conflicts are resolved through means of ritual combat. These sessions of ritual combat have very strict rules and regulations, which are very rigid. To break these rules would mean great dishonour, a shame no Orc would want to live with. Contrary to popular Midgardian and Asgardian belief, these combats are rarely to the death. Most Orcs even frown upon such permanent resolvement of disputes, as killing the other would mean one less honourable Orc who can fight dishonourable Asgardians. Most of the times, there are other penalties involved when losing a fight or better rewards for the winner. The penalties are comparable to the stakes involved - to ask anything more would be very dishonourable and might even mean the winner is declared the loser. Ritualized honour combat is a privilege only granted to Orcs of honour.

Honour

Honour takes centre stage in Orc society. Many cultures in Heimr have some sort of 'honour code', but these usually take a more simplistic and natural form. While orcs have degrees of honour and shame to work with. In Orc culture honour is socially enforced and in a much greater extend governed by tradition and ritual.

Some examples of honourable behaviour are:

Participating in ritual combat (winning will net you more honour, but losing is still considered honourable)
Victory on the battlefield
Taking honourable people captives instead of killing them (Asgardians are never seen as honourable)
Escaping dishonourable capture

Some examples of dishonourable behaviour are:

Breaking promises
Lying including defamation (telling lies about others shameful or dishonourable behaviour)
Running away when captured by an honourable person

Some examples of shameful behaviour are:

Backstabbing allies
Breaking the rules of hospitality
Mistreating honourable prisoners
Cheating in ritual combat
Attacking without a formal declaration of war

These things are never considered dishonourable or shameful:

Poison use
Ambushing
Bows
Attacking forces with superior numbers
Attacking in the back
In general, anything that can be used during warfare to gain a strategic or tactical advantage is not considered dishonourable or shameful.

The honour of an Orc is judged by the society around them. Offences can quickly dishonour or shame an orc but dishonour can quickly be redeemed by acts of honour while shameful behaviour is never forgotten (but may be forgiven) and eventually could become a long list. Once an Orc has reached a certain amount of shameful deeds (that are not countered by honourable deeds) they will be treated as outcasts, and in many cases even as outlaws. Orcs that are seen as outcasts tend to move around much, in an attempt to find a place that will take them in. Because of this, Orcs seeking a new home are often treated with even great distrust.

Orc societies organise themselves around houses. The house itself is considered to have honour. All deed of members of a house reflect on the honour of that house. Dishonourable acts of members of a house can be redeemed somewhat by making a public apology for the act. This however does not work on shameful acts. Dishonourable or shameful acts can be redeemed completely however by publicly evicting the acting orc from the house altogether. Power in Orc societies is mostly focused on houses. Positions and titles that are granted to individuals are considered to be part of that house, and will be granted to a different house members if the barer of the title passes on or gives up the title.

A lot of problems occur between Orcs and other races because their sense of honour is misunderstood. A common problem is that orcs will go to great lengths to avoid being taken prisoner by people that don't know the how to treat prisoners honourably. When fighting amongst themselves, Orcs resolve this by capturing enemies without imprisoning them. Captives are treated as guests and are not expected to run away. Orcs are much more likely to put down their sword and be take as hostage if their captor can ensure that they will not be mistreated.

Cultural appearance

Because of their constant physical training and exercise, they tend to be muscular, both the males and females.

Orcs have two large tusks protruding from their lower jaw, which they use for anything, from eating to fighting to sex.

Customs and Cultural Habits

Things people do because the culture teaches them to do it, also includes the ages of consent, legal maturity, etc.

Politics

Main Article:

Superstitions

Non-religious things people believe because the culture teaches them to believe it.

Art, Literature and Music

What does the culture finds aesthetically pleasing or exiting.

Cuisine

Usually builds on the area the culture settled in and the biological needs of the race.

Architecture

How does the culture build its buildings.

History

How did the culture come to be.

Names

Naming conventions and example names, including how things like family names and heritage are dealt with.

Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 17-01-2014 00:12

Archived: Common Culture of Trolls

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:35:15 +0000

Archived: Common Culture of Trolls

Troll culture is low if at all existing in the eyes of the other races. This is, however a misconception. Trolls have a very rich and diverse tribe culture. No tribe culture is the same however. This is why many other races see them as a race without a culture. Troll culture does have some consistency to it however. Their whole race flows around ancestor worship. In Troll society, where you come from is important first and what you do second. Trolls aren't very efficient compare to other races, but everything somehow always works out for the best. Trolls are therefore generally carefree. Trolls have little love for the secrets of the world, they see what works and what doesn't work by doing it, but forget about it in a year or so and never teach these valuable lessons to their peers. "They will learn eventually.. or not, which means it isn't important." seems to be their motto.

Ancestor token

Most adult trolls carry something with them that belonged to one of their ancestors. This token must pass on to a different troll if they die, preferably with some knowledge about the ancestor and some knowledge about the troll that carried it (who will now become an ancestor!).

Diet

Trolls are Omnivorous , like most of the intelligent races of Heimr. But they do tend to eat more meat than other races, as they hardly gather, but hunt all they like. Trolls usually eat their meals raw or roasted on a simple campfire.

Language

The native language, is still commonly heard amongst troll tribes. There are even quite a few trolls that see this language as their primary language. The lesser known and more sophisticated counterpart of Trallvoj is called Begvoj is is often employed by the trolls of higher standing.

Art, music and literature

Warpaint, song, rituals and a large collection of art (mainly ritual masks and little idol dolls) are an essential part of Troll culture. They tell each other story's around the campfire, but most trolls only know half the story's because trolls walk in and out of the story halfway, all the time. This results in a form of "game" where the story needs to be told by several storytellers, all trying collectively to finish the story. Trolls rarely write, if at all.

Customs and Cultural Habits

Things people do because the culture teaches them to do it, also includes the ages of consent, legal maturity, etc.

Politics

How does the culture handle issues of power and who has power of whom.

Superstitions

Non-religious things people believe because the culture teaches them to believe it.

Art, Literature and Music

What does the culture finds aesthetically pleasing or exiting.

Cuisine

Usually builds on the area the culture settled in and the biological needs of the race.

Architecture

How does the culture build its buildings.

History

How did the culture come to be.

Names

Naming conventions and example names, including how things like family names and heritage are dealt with.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 14-05-2013 20:35

Archived: Common Culture of Ogres

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:28:41 +0000

Archived: Common Culture of Ogres

The ogre culture is centered on warfare; the societal ranks of both males and females are decided by their ability to kill. Ogres are a tribal race, and each tribe is under the authority of a war chief. These tribes often fight each other as well as Asgardian settlements or cities. Ogres are known to fight both alone and in groups.

Because their culture is based on fighting, they do not focus much on comfort. Their villages and towns are often under kept and unclean. Their lifespan totally depends on their skills in warfare; this gets harder for an older ogre. That's why old ogres fight themselves to the death. This is another reason why Asgardians look down on them. Two ranks in Ogre society are the rank of Granz (noble) and Ganiriet (female leader). Individuals who have these titles are treated with great respect. But how you gain these ranks varies from tribe to tribe.

When an ogre child is born and as he grows it will be tested. Its tribe will test it as it will test all children. The tests difficulty and method differs in each tribe. If a child fails these tests he is often killed or left to die. Some of the smaller tribes are small simply because they have cruel and difficult tests. After the tests are completed there is most often a ritual to celebrate the new full member of the tribe. These rituals can also be the final tests, in the tribes that worship the good side of Wana the food of the children is often infected with disease. When they get sick and die Wana disapproves when they survive Wana approves the ogre as full members.

One of the more simpler and most common tests is to let children fight each other in one giant melee. When about half of the children lie dead or dying the shamans ring a bell and the survives are welcomed in the tribe.

Appearance

Why exactly Ogres have this veriaty between tusks, hair and horns is unknown, it is rumoured the chaotic nature of the Ogre Goddess caused this, although more educated priests dispute this claim. Especially priests of tend to dispute the claim of a chaotic nature of Wana, stating that Sin is the only true deity of chaos.

Their hair is often greasy and unkempt, which causes it to be darker in appearance then it actually is.

The clothing of Ogres is simple, often nothing more than is needed to keep them warm and protected from the environment. Their clothing consists mostly of animal hides and coarse cotton or linen fabrics, with belts, pouches and other utilities made from animal hide, leather and other animal parts. When going to war, they will sometimes don armour, especially those Ogres who have had more contact with races such as the . Strangely, those Ogres who own armour take great care for this armour, possibly due to the relative cost of Ogre-sized armour.

Lifestyle

Most Ogres live a nomadic lifestyle, travelling around in small groups. Their main source of food comes from large herds of grazing animals. Depending on where they live Ogres will follow herds of buffalo, elephants, or elk. As these large herd migrate across the Heimr Ogres will follow them through the seasons. Picking off animals as they need and leaving large stone statues as they go. In places where there are no large herds to follow, Ogres will keep their own herds, usually consisting of sheep or goats. Ogres are not known for any agricultural activities. Although they probably know how to do it, the amount of long term planning involved doesn't come easy to most Ogres.

Private And Family Life

Outsiders know very little about the day to day life of Ogres. They are commonly perceived as simple minded blood thirsty brutes. Even tough this is a fair observation, there is more to their life then these simple brutish acts. Ogres are very private creatures, any kind of emotions or feelings are hardly ever shown to other ogres. They're life is one of constantly keeping up an appearance of strength, but they feel pain, sorrow and sadness just like any other race. An ogre will often have a few close companions with who he or she is not engaged in a strugle for strength. These companions often are close relatives such as parents or siblings. This tight bond is also the closest thing Ogres have to a marriage. Although if such a bond does exist between unrelated ogres, it rarely results in a monogamous relationship. The idea of monogamy is something rather foreign concept to ogres. Most young ogres don't know who their actual father is, due to the large number of partners a typical female ogre has.

Age And Disease

Few enslaved Ogres will live to the age of 40. Because they are constantly challenged to fight for their lives, once their strength fades with age an Ogre will eventually be unable to stand up to the younger generation. The age of an Ogre at death is by many considered the final test of strength. An Ogre's ability to remain strong while facing the decease of old age.

By many Ogres, old age is considered a disease send to them from Wana as a test of their strength. It is commonly believed that a strong body will remain strong against any disease. While the weak will fail and die the test of Wana. These trials of strength are often purposefully undertaken. It is common practice among the shamans to seek out diseases to show their strength to Wana. Ultimately though, Wana's disease of old age will defeat any Ogre.

The Great Brawls

Main Article:

Every Solstice, the Ogres hold large feasts known as the Great Brawls. These are massive rituals, featuring lots of screaming and fighting. The Ogres fight from sunrise to sunset, with the tribe with most Ogres standing at sundown declared the winner. This tribe will then become the ruling tribe until the next sunset.

Religion

Ogres worship as a form of , if ogres go to organized war, switching from their hunting, bashing and random acts of killing the bypasser elf to a more semi-formal mob, they frequently but temporarily switch to worship of Ratish as a form. This also happens when they have to make a difficult life choice and they have time to think on this choice, although this is very rare for ogres.

Cannibalism

Most Ogres are cannibalistic. They will eat the flesh from other strong Ogres. Hoping that the strength of the ones they eat may be added to their own strength. Because of this the flesh of the weak is rarely sought after, except when there is little other food available.

It is common practice for Ogres to eat their parents or siblings after their death. Ogres tell the story of how at the beginning, Wana herself was eaten by her children, and that this chain of cannibalism has gone down the generations in an unbroken chain. Eating a parent does not only symbolize taking on the parent's strength, but every ancestor including that of the great goddess herself.

In same rare cases Ogres have even been known to part with an arm while still alive, so a child can draw strength from it's consumption.

Art, music and literature

Ogres like sculpting. The simple art of hitting rocks, with other rocks to create rough outlines of identifiable shapes, such as their goddess Wana, ratmen, leaders and their enemies (these rocks don't stay this shape for long) is something that simply appeals to an ogre. Most of these sculptures are larger then 3 meters, and one or two have been found that where more than thirty meters in height. The larger once tend to be constructed of several large rocks or hacked from sides of mountains. The important and well done statues are usually decorated with blood during special seasons and other parts of the year. Most tribes of ogres have a variation of a form of ritual that strengthens their bodies with harsh treatment, like hitting each other with rocks, burning sticks or running each other trough bushes and small tress. Screaming and chanting are next to a form of training the lungs, also a form of communication, stress release and mating ritual. During ogre mating season, sometimes a large tribe picks up the screaming and chanting at such a rate and rhythm, taking turns, that there is never a silent moment for several days, scaring away most wildlife in the region. Like most Utgardians the Ogres also enjoy large quantities of food, sleep, sex and other untamed carnal pleasures.

Magic

Ogres don't use primordial magic. The Ogres have an ingrained hatred for primordial magic, like all Utgardian races. The stories of the weak ogres that have not yet escaped the clutches of Asgardian magic and still rot under the rule of the enemy frequently and variably travel from mouth to ear. Biologically speaking some members of the Ogre race could learn magic. If these individuals would practice certain force of mind pushes long and hard enough the spark might develop, but this training is rather alien to the ogre mindset and nobody takes the initiative to teach them how to do this. Primordial magic is outlawed in most of Utgard anyway, and if magical talent was discovered by a child, it would surely be killed by its tribe. Divine magic is practiced, although rare in comparison with other races, by the shamans and priests of Wana.

Customs and Cultural Habits

Things people do because the culture teaches them to do it, also includes the ages of consent, legal maturity, etc.

Politics

How does the culture handle issues of power and who has power of whom.

Superstitions

Non-religious things people believe because the culture teaches them to believe it.

Architecture

How does the culture build its buildings.

Names

Naming conventions and example names, including how things like family names and heritage are dealt with.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 14-05-2013 20:28

Template:Culture

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:02:28 +0000

Template:Culture

To use this template, copy it and remove everything in italics.

Statistics

OC Name: Unique name of the culture.
IC Name: If applicable, how do members of the culture call the culture?
Age: Age of the culture
Demography: The primary race associated with this culture
Size: How many members does the culture have
Area: Where do the members of this culture live
Religions: What religion(s) are/is common in this culture
Languages: What language(s) are/is common in this culture
Symbol: If applicable

Cultural Dimensions

*See for more information. We use normalised values between 1 to 5 to describe these properties.//

Power Distance Index:
Individualism versus Collectivism:
Masculinity versus Femininity:
Uncertainty Avoidance Index:
Long-term versus Short-term Orientation:
Indulgence versus Restraint:

Customs and Cultural Habits

Things people do because the culture teaches them to do it, also includes the ages of consent, legal maturity, etc.

Politics

How does the culture handle issues of power and who has power of whom.

Superstitions

Non-religious things people believe because the culture teaches them to believe it.

Art, Literature and Music

What does the culture finds aesthetically pleasing or exiting.

Cuisine

Usually builds on the area the culture settled in and the biological needs of the race.

Architecture

How does the culture build its buildings.

History

How did the culture come to be.

Names

Naming conventions and example names, including how things like family names and heritage are dealt with.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 14-05-2013 20:02

Orc Houses

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:47:33 +0000

Orc Houses

Orc houses are communities of Orc families.

Current Great Houses

These houses are currently considered the "Great Houses" and hold dominion over most of the Orc-held lands.

House Galrash - Current , holds the First Seat in the Council of the Utgard Alliance.
House Arkol - Previous Prime House
House Vorzag
House Kotash
House Urthoru
House Martuc
House Dralug
House Bergazu
House Gorazal

Other Orc Houses

These houses are not counted among the "Great Houses", but have played more or less important roles in other stories.

House Naktoh - Allied with House Martuc . Has a reputation for being "impure" since it has a fairly large power base in Midgard.
House Haltogh - Medium house allied with House Vorzag. Handles some trade between and .
House of Ror - Small house allied with House Galrash. Primarily doing supply runs to .
House Gulto - Allied with house Dralug. Supports house Dralug in with mercenary troops for a really cheap price. Known for it's disciplined mercenary group "Grotha's Axes".

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 14-05-2013 19:47

Orc Politics

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:10:08 +0000

Orc Politics

politics is a slightly chaotic mess built up around the race's concepts of individuality and honour. It can be roughly broken down into three levels: in-house politics, alliance politics and great house politics.

In-house politics

When the Orcs were a young race just set loose upon the world, Ratish taught those who would listen about warfare. Among the things he taught was the observation that no group of creatures can survive without the leadership of a single creature. Although later disproven when the Orcs made contact with the , a lot of the social structure of the Orcs was built up around this idea.

One result of this is that each has a single leader - at least in name. While there have been houses attempting to follow different doctrine, these attempts usually fail due to a combination of internal struggle and external pressure. The leader of a house has power over this house, in so far as he is obeyed, which is not necessarily a given and differs between houses.

How the leader of a house is chosen and succeeded also differs between houses. For some houses it is hereditary and the only way to get rid of a bad leader is to kill him, at which point the next in line takes his place. Others have a number of families that each train a candidate and the leader becomes the winner of some kind of challenge between these candidates. Some have no real process and any member of the house can challenge the current leader for control at any moment.

Alliances Between Houses

When the amount of Orcs in the world started to grow it quickly became apparent that there were power differences between several of the houses. This resulted in less powerful houses forging alliances between each other to combat the more powerful houses.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 14-05-2013 19:10

Orc Culture

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:01:42 +0000

Orc Culture

Statistics

OC Name: Generic Orc Culture
IC Name: N/A
Age: 6000 years
Demography:
Size: 1 Million
Area: , ,
Religions: ,
Languages: ,
Symbol: N/A

Cultural Dimensions

Power Distance Index: 3
Individualism versus Collectivism: 2
Masculinity versus Femininity: 3
Uncertainty Avoidance Index: 2
Long-term versus Short-term Orientation: 4
Indulgence versus Restraint: 2

Customs and Cultural Habits

Things people do because the culture teaches them to do it, also includes the ages of consent, legal maturity, etc.

Politics

Main Article:

Superstitions

Non-religious things people believe because the culture teaches them to believe it.

Art, Literature and Music

What does the culture finds aesthetically pleasing or exiting.

Cuisine

Usually builds on the area the culture settled in and the biological needs of the race.

Architecture

How does the culture build its buildings.

History

How did the culture come to be.

Names

Naming conventions and example names, including how things like family names and heritage are dealt with.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 14-05-2013 18:01

Tellurian Culture

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:12:23 +0000

Tellurian Culture

Like the other , culture is best described as the most common elements within several separate groups. For Tellurians, these groups are the population of the three big cities of Southern Heimr: , and . While there are a few other locations that boast a reasonably large Tellurian population, for example , these minority groups tend to be more conservative rather than more progressive. This results in these groups having a culture far closer to that of the three great cities rather than an amalgamation of the cultures of the city they live in.

Customs and Cultural Habits

Tellurian culture centres around a single concept, that of the community as most important entity within the life of a Tellurian.

Politics

How does the culture handle issues of power and who has power of whom.

Superstitions

Non-religious things people believe because the culture teaches them to believe it.

Art, Literature and Music

What does the culture finds aesthetically pleasing or exiting.

Cuisine

Usually builds on the area the culture settled in and the biological needs of the race.

Architecture

How does the culture build its buildings.

History

How did the culture come to be.

Names

Naming conventions and example names, including how things like family names and heritage are dealt with.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12-03-2012 20:12