Vulshik

All Vulshik, even the independently minded Dolish, are fiercely loyal and proud of their tribes and clans. This nationalistic zeal is rooted in their love for the myths and fables of their ancient origins, and of the oral and written histories that define their more recent past. Many of their stories overlap across tribes and clans, forming a shared cultural heritage that the Vulshik value highly. They look down upon foreigners as even lesser than their most bitter rivals. Nothing and no one is better than one of the Vulshik.    The Vulshik value the nature around them, setting up votives and offerings for the various spirits which preside over the environments in which they live their lives. Ancestor cults are kept among families and clans, respecting the dead as they join the storied past. The ruins of the Old Kingdom are revered by all, with many ritualized visits to sites observed across the territories throughout Sunspell and Waterspell.    The hierarchy of Kvars is observed throughout Vulshik culture, with the Kvars at the top, their Sarhinda and intermingling with other landed elites beneath them, and the common folk tending to all manner of things beneath the nobles. The three-tiered structure is replicated in classes among the common folk as well, with shamans holding more respect than artisans, who in turn are more respected than the working class. Even with individual families, the structure is followed; a father, the mother, and the children.

Bronze age

It is common to bow to those in higher social positions both when engaging and disengaging socially.    Among the common folk, it is expected that the higher classes (shamans and artisans) to offer hospitality to one another when it is asked. This does not extend to the working class.

The common folk wear whatever they can make themselves; often plain wools and hides, though finer fabrics are often available closer to urban settlements and other places of exchange. Artisans often carry to tools of their trade to mark themselves apart from their lessers.   Shaman often wear Aspects, or symbols, of the spirits that they have expertise with.    Nobility wear dyed tunics over pants, with long, embroidered robes cinched at the hips with thick leather belts. Bangles, necklaces, and all jeweled ornamentation of clothes and hair distinguish the varying degrees of wealth from among them.    Gold can only be worn by Kvars, and their jewelry is often made of it to set themselves apart.

The dead must be buried with a layer of stone beneath and above the bodies so that their corpses cannot rise again.   Preferably, they are to be buried alongside the others in their clan, with a prayer to the ancestors to welcome the newly dead into the afterlife. Fires are burned the whole night after the burial, with stories of the newly dead being told alongside the stories of their ancestors.

It is taboo for commoners to intermarry with nobility. This extends to formerly common Sarhinda marrying into a noble house. The nobility of the clan is seen as diminished, and their social standing can be threatened as a result.

Dausk and the Dragon

Dausk of Vul