Decade Bands

Only a small handful of metalworking craftmasters are allowed to make Decade Bands, due to their need for refined and honed skills.
  The first band is made on a child’s tenth birthday. The design is decided by the child’s parents, and sets the theme for all future bands. Each ring is made to order and must have a certain continuous theme with the previous decades, to prevent youngsters trying to sneak additional metal rings onto their arms to pass for older than they truly are.
  The bands are made to snap closed around the wrist, then refuse to be unlatched. To remove them, they must be cut off, though circumstances that require it are rare, and often just a result of the initial bands being too small for a grown individual. In these cases, they are resized and put back in place.

To the people of the Midnight Expanse, age is an accomplishment worth noting. Illness, drought, and heat stroke are near constant threats, and demon hordes of the darkness make reaching old age even more difficult. Even the desperation or superstitions of others may result in a loss of your own life.
  Therefore, every decade band is a show that a person survived for a decade more. There are certain events that can only be experienced if you have a number of bands, such as marriage being reserved for those who are above three decades in age, craftsmen must have two, or it is uncommon to see any high priest with less than five bands on their arm.
  Bands also play a role in mourning and funeral rites, as they are removed from the deceased, bound together with a separate ring, and given to the next of kin. They may also be displayed in public or private memorials.